Good afternoon. I'm pleased to call to order this Alvaro County Board of Supervisors meeting, November 5 at one p. M. In Lane Auditorium. I'd like to note, Dyess, we have Supervisor Anne Malek of Whitehall District, Supervisor Ned Galloway of the Rio District, Supervisor Diane McKeel of the Jack Jewett District, Supervisor Billatisto Curley of the Ravenna District and Supervisor Mike Pruitt of the Scottsville District, myself, Jim Andrews representing the Samuel Miller District, the quorum is present. And we are also joined by our County Executive, Mr. Jeff Richardson County Attorney, Mr. Andy Herrick and our Clerk,
Ms. Claudette Borgerson. Also, let me please welcome and introduce, Albemarle County police officers present, sergeant Jason, Freshnet and master police officer Dana oh, no. Not Dana. Still my not sure. It's Dana's. Not sure. Anyway, we thank you both for your service today and every day, on behalf of, the constituents of Albemarle County for safety and security. If all present could now stand as you are able and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America,
Thank you. And if you'll please join us for a moment of silence. Board, our first business course is to adopt the final agenda. I have not heard of any suggested changes. Is there a motion to approve the final agenda? So moved. Second. We have a motion from Supervisor McKeel, second from Supervisor Malek. Without objection, the clerk will call the roll. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Lakisto Kirtley? Aye. Ms. Malek? Yes. Thank you. Board, of course, first would be brief announcements, and we'll go through the order for today's meeting,
starting with Supervisor McKeel? Sure. Thank you, Jim. The first item that I just want to mention is that on October 18, Greg and I attended the No Kings protest, which was at Stonefield, which I will remind everyone is in the Jack Jewett Magisterial District. But, what I wanna say about it is just to thank our community. There were mill just thousands of people at that protest, and the, community was peaceful and even joyous. And it was just lovely to see folks come together in in a peaceful protest.
But most especially, I just want to thank Alamar County Police Department and Alamar County Fire and Rescue for the presence that they had, which made everyone they were very calm, made everyone feel very safe, and there were a couple of health incidences that they were able to respond to very quickly, the rescue, department. So just thank you for all of the work from our Almora County officers, safety officers. Thank you very much. The second thing that I wanted to mention was that, we are on a high alert today for fire.
Everyone, I think, as you came into the building realized how blustery it is outside. And I'm gonna take this opportunity because I see Trevor sitting there. So, Trevor, could you come up and just address we received a really informative e mail from you about the situation and what Albemarle County, Fire and Rescue were doing to address the concern. So I'd like you to just speak to it for a minute. Thank you, Supervisor McKeil, members of the Board. Trevor Henry, Deputy County Executive. I communicated to the board early this morning just, work that Fire Rescue had done overnight to make sure that we are fully staffed,
including we have holdovers in case there's any, response needed today. National Weather Service has issued a red flag warning. What that means is a condition, and it runs from eleven this morning till this evening around six p. M. That means the weather conditions are such that low humidity and strong winds could cause fires that would advance rapidly. So we have, all our stations staffed, fully staffed. We have holdovers. And we've asked our volunteer partners if they could also staff up just in the event that there are issues out there.
So we're pushing this out through public our public engagement process as well, but just wanted to let the board know we anticipated this and have staffed up accordingly. Thank you. And I think you did notify the individuals that had burn permits. Yes, ma'am. That's a great catch. There were there's only actually one burn permit that was active. We reached out to that. It's a commercial burn, reached out yesterday. Note, they will not be doing any burning today nor will there be any additional permits issued. Great. Thank you. You can explain what staff is doing so much better than I can.
Thank you. So I appreciate sharing that information. And that's all I had, Jim. Thank you. Supervisor Malek. Thank you very much. This really is truly Anne Malek despite the voice. Sorry about that. I'm very grateful for the red flag day being already mentioned, and I heard it a little bit on the radio coming in. So it is trickling out, but there's so many people who might not know unless they hear it, in the media that they're actually using. So I think all the effort that's been made is gonna be helpful and hopefully will save resources and lives potentially this afternoon.
My news is that last Wednesday, I attended the Rural Center of Virginia's conference within Hanover, and, there was quite a few excellent presentations. And the notes and materials I will share with board and staff, But Jason Alcudev, Juan Pablo Segura from the Virginia Economic Development Department talked about how to protect rural lands and the rural businesses which live there and to spread some of the benefits of our economic growth to long established rural businesses and also new ones
who might come. But people mentioned about how important it is that, the environmental protection that many counties have actually is a benefit, and telling the story of the culture that your county has is a way to make sure that companies who work there and or want to come there actually see their the culture of the receiving community as a fit and to see how they will fit in. The, rural urban interface is also while it's a problem,
it's also an asset because in the urban areas, you have lots of customers, and in the rural area, you have lots of producing land. So the that can be made to be a benefit, but we all have to work diligently and carefully to facilitate those kinds of exchanges. And back in 2010, the program to get farm to table or farmers directly to consumers was very much a regional effort, and we're living in the benefits of many of those things now. I talked about economic development and how the wide variety of different county levels.
Some have zero staff. I thought about the fact that until about 2013, Admiral County's philosophy was University of Virginia will take care of all of our economic development, and we don't have to. And it was through the efforts organizing of the board, actually, from 2010 to 2014, that began to put more of a focus on that. One of the, leaders' comment that stayed with me forever was a good job or a better job is a wonderful way to solve the housing affordability problem.
So it's one of the many assets that we have, and it certainly helped me to figure out how I fit in. They talked about the AFID program, the agricultural investments that our county also has used. So I was very proud to be thinking that Albemarle has been using these resources and these state programs to great benefit for our local citizens, Adam. Hope that we will continue. And I'm zooming down here. The last program was about tax credit, historic preservation tax credits and how many communities have used them to tremendous benefit to
restore or repurpose old buildings. There's a river block in Danville, and the owner was there with his designer and also a funding advisor person talking about the assets that they have created in eight properties all along one street and the tremendous return to the citizens and the community from that. So anyway, that's my report. Thank you very much. Thank you. Supervisor Galloway. Yes. Thank you. I'd like to just, I mean, we had an election yesterday. I would like to, first say thank you to the voters of the Rio District for allowing me the
opportunity to serve a third term, which I'm looking forward to coming at the start of the year. I also want to thank, there there was a competitive race for school board in the Rio District. Leslie Pryor, who was appointed this past, past few months ago at the start of the year, and Jim Dylenbeck were the candidates. So I thank both of them for running, for school board and stepping up to run, as we all know, has its, challenges. So I appreciate that they did so, and congratulate mister Dylenbeck on a successful, candidacy as he was voted in to represent RIO, come this next,
start of the next year. I had a chance to visit and go inside and see the operations at three of the five in the RIO District. As always, we have got one hell of a volunteer team that run elections in this county. They know what they're doing. They know the rules. They're pleasant. So it looked everything was going smoothly. They all had the data. They understood how early voting impacted it. So it was just really nice to see, and visit with those folks and see kind of behind the scenes what was happening in those three particular precincts, but thank them for volunteer efforts to make sure we had safe and successful elections.
The other part that I'd like to note is that we have two political parties often set up at all of our precincts around the county. And with all the ones I visited yesterday, as has been the case in the past, you've got Republicans and Democrats there, all being cordial and respectful and having lovely dialogue with one another. I sometimes wish our federal and state politicians would come down and see what that means and what that looks like. Because, you know, a gust of wind would come, and it didn't matter whose sample ballots went flying over the parking lot. Everybody scurried from their tent to help to help pick them up. So you all understand what it takes to be out there.
So I'm grateful to the citizens who volunteered being out there advocating for their political opinions, but doing so in a way that was both courteous and respectful of the voters that are coming through, but to one another, and not allowing any sort of partisan divide. They were out there volunteering and doing it in a in a lovely way. I suspect that is the case around the whole county because I've heard that and have even seen it years ago when I had to run countywide. That was what I witnessed as well. So just very appreciative to all those involved and who put the time out there. It was a lovely day. And, you know, the results, I'm sure some people are happy with the results,
some people aren't. But at the end of the day, that's how it works. But the process to get there was, was well done in Albemarle, and I'm very grateful for that. So thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Lapis de Kermit. Well, and piggybacking on that, we also have, newly elected two new supervisors, although we are going to be very sad to see Diana and Jim leave. We wanna congratulate, Sally Duncan and Fred Missal on their win. So they'll be yes. So thank you. And, this morning, I was at the topping out ceremony at Center 2 at Albemarle High School.
That's going to enable us to have about 400 students there all day. So that's, really it's going to be a beautiful building. So I was out there, like I said this morning, and it was a really nice event for the topping out. And lastly, I know I'm gonna step on Mike's toes, but we have Veterans Day coming up, November 11. And at 11:00, we will have a ceremony here in the County Office Building, and you you all are invited. This is something very special where all veterans get honored.
And, this is something dear near and dear to all of our hearts. And so we encourage you to come. That's all. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt. Thank you. You know, everyone has to have a little bit of a ball, a hand on the ball with, Election Day congratulations. So I would, additionally like to extend a congratulations to Molly Engvine, who won a seat on Scottsville Town Council in, in a surprise election, Right? And in doing so, unseated Eddie Payne. And so I'd really like to extend my my thanks to counselor Payne for his his years of of selfless service to the town of Scottsville,
and I look forward to working with the new counselor. I'd also like to recognize councilor Gridsco in the audience. Thank you for joining us today. Additionally, as as we've already heard, commissioner Fred Missal has won a seat and is now supervisor elect Fred Missal. That means we need a new Scottsville planning commissioner, And I am already thinking about it, and if anyone knows anyone who would be interested in this, I would love to chat with people because this is probably the most consequential appointment that any supervisor gets to make, and I get the privilege of making one twice, because of the incredible success of, Fred Missall. Now I should also bear a mention,
we haven't really talked about the top of the ticket. I do think it matters because it's something we talk about in this, on this board very frequently. Right? Governor Youngkin has been an ally of this county at times on economic development issues. He has he has helped us significantly, and we've worked well with him. There are other ways in which, Governor Youngkin has has provided roadblocks for really important county priorities. He has vetoed, funding initiatives that were specifically earmarked for our county, and he has blocked things that we've identified as some of our highest priority pieces of legislation. I am really optimistic for what,
the new administration might spell for some of our specific high priority issues. And I hope that we have, a continued and even stronger working relationship with the new administration because I I think there's a lot of new movement that we can make. Getting off the election, I should mention the, Scottsville School and Hickory Hope in Southwood, both in the Scottsville District. Right? These both, they are complicated to get seats in, to be a resident of because you have to apply for a government lottery that is administered locally, and those wait lists aren't normally open.
They are about to open. So on the November 7 until the November 14, the wait list for the Scottsville School and for Hickory Hope in the Scottsville District will be open. If you are a low income qualifying resident, I would encourage people to apply. This is really one of the best deals you can get. It is, really reliable low income housing and two of the best communities that we have, in in all of Albemarle County. And feel free to reach out to anyone in the county about how that if if you wanna reach out to me, I will put you in contact with the right people, please. Additionally,
I should mention that there are some significant consequences that face our community with the federal shutdown. The most immediate that I know people are concerned about is SNAP. There are 3,000 people in the county, roughly, who rely on SNAP. The state is stepping in to provide, stopgap funding, but it is going to be on a different basis than normal. This is a state administered program, not local, and they are going to be doing it in one week at a time increments. So please be aware, members of the community, that that is how your SNAP benefits are going to be being rolled out presently,
but there should be a relative noninterruption of services. You just might have to buy your groceries on a weekly basis rather than monthly basis. Additionally, people who are on vouchers, if you receive a housing choice voucher either in a project based context such as the Scottsville School or if you're in some other private market based place where you're using a section eight housing choice voucher, the government is not going to be paying their portion of it anymore. You still have to continue to pay your portion, but the government will not pay their portion. This is also very important because your landlord is not allowed to evict you for
the government not paying their portion. And so I would encourage anyone who is facing issues with their landlord, during the government funding freeze to make sure you both notify your your voucher, administrator here in the county and also reach out to legal aid. Legal Aid Justice Center in Central Virginia, Central Virginia Legal Aid will both be able to help people who are facing, illegal evictions for the government's nonpayment of their portion. And finally, I should just mention, there was a there was an incident at UVA, over the last few days.
I'm blanking on it. I wanna say it was on Sunday. It no. I'm thinking the the, the active shooter incident. Right? There was not an actual active shooter, but there was a warning of it, and it was something that I realized I felt so much closer than I have in the past. Right? I I was actually, you know, a UVA student during one of the last really significant incident, but it didn't touch me in a personal way. But this time, there was a threat at Shannon Library. I have a person who works for me who is a current UVA student, and I reached out to her immediately, and I learned that she was at Shannon Library. She had to be evacuated.
She had to sprint across the lawn, under guard of police officers to get to a new shelter in in place location. She She was cool as a cucumber about it, took it in stride, but I don't know. I'm not a father. But it it hit me in a in a very different way than these incidents have in the past, and it reminded me just what a chilling situation this is. You you know, yet another false report of the type I had hoped to figure out how we can legislate solutions to combat here in the Commonwealth. And and just such a
it it brings home the kind of personal impacts that parents in this community feel every single day, I know, when we have these kinds of incidents in our schools. And it, to me, really highlighted the importance of figuring out what the hell we're doing well. That's all I have. Thank you. And all I will add is tonight, also appreciate how well the elections were run yesterday and observed locally. Went off without a minor hitches, but nothing that couldn't be readily overcome, and, you know, and with professionalism and grace by everybody.
I'm very appreciative of the candidates, and congratulate Fred Mitchell, who will be taking my place on the board. And I will promise to try to make that transition as smooth as possible for the benefit of all. So thank you. Jim, I do want to add something to Erin. I want to add something, but are you through? I didn't want to interrupt you. I thought you maybe you were through. Mike made a really good point that I want to stress to folks, that are here and then anyone that might be listening. The magisterial districts that have new supervisors coming on will be advertising new position positions,
and needing some folks to step up to the plate to apply for those positions. Planning commission is one, but there are other, commissions as well, boards and commissions, the service authority. So if you're interested in serving, especially in the, Samuel Miller and the, Jack Jewett, I think, Ryan, you are in good shape as far as you're going to handle your own. But those that are turning over, many of those, boards and commissions will be advertised. So if people are interested, they should take a look at the county website and see what's open and available
and consider, applying, to serve your community. Thank you, Mike, for mentioning it. I appreciate it. May I add one thing? Sure. At the election yesterday, I was surprised to hear both at Early Sale Precinct and for union that quite a few in the dozens of long time frequent voter individuals, long time residents had been purged, and they were able to work this out. It was, sort of that oh my god. Sort of initial shock was surprising, but the staff in both places was able to smooth this over with the provisional
ballot and go through all that stuff again. But it does remind me that all of us need to, before the election, go and check and make sure that we have not been erased in some way. So I was very surprised to hear that. But thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Board, next up is proclamations and recognitions, and I believe that Supervisor Pruitt will read proclamation of his motion. Thank you, Chair. Whereas throughout our nation's history, The United States Of America has called on its citizens in uniform to serve and protect our national security and whereas,
at home and abroad, generations of American patriots have defended the freedom and American values of equality, democracy, and justice for all. And whereas 11/11/2025, marks the eighty seventh anniversary of Veterans Day being recognized as a national holiday, On this day and every day, we remember the millions of patriots who have served and sacrificed for the betterment of our nation. And whereas, many veterans continue to serve their country in public schools and government serve and government as public officials, teachers,
police officer, fire and rescue, and other professions providing service to all community members, and whereas, with a profound debt of gratitude, we especially recognize the local veterans in Albemarle County for their continued service. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that we, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, do hereby recognize November 11 as Veterans Day and celebrate all who have served our country around the world and continue to serve as veterans in Albemarle County signed this day, the the 11/05/2025. Second. We have a motion from Supervisor McKeel.
Second from Supervisor McKeel. Without objection, I'll take a call to roll. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Lupisto Kirtley? Aye. Ms. Malek? Yes. Thank you. And I believe Mr. Henry is going to introduce Trevor Henry, our Deputy County Connector, to introduce, recipient, Mr. Connie Mowery. Hello. Chair Andrews, members of the Board, thank you for the proclamation in this honor. Supervisor Proust, thank you for your service. Thank you for all of the support that you provide to county staff and especially veterans that work in the staff,
but also veterans in our community. With me is, Captain retired Captain, Constantine Kai Mowery. I'd like to introduce Kai, as a fellow veteran. He was commissioned through officer candidate school in February 1995, completed nuclear power school in March 1996. He reported to the USS John C. Stennis, CVN-seventy four, as reactor's control division officer. Stennis is a Nimitz class carrier or as Submariners call it, a very big target.
He earned his, he earned his propulsion, watch officer and surface warfare designations while at the Stennis. He left active duty in, 2000. Captain Mowery transitioned to the Naval Reserve where he served in a variety of operational and leadership roles. His assignment included mobilization to the Joint Task Force Guantanamo and Air Support Group Kuwait as well as key billets with U. S. Fleet Forces Command, Second Fleet, Sixth Fleet, Carrier Strike Group four, concluded his career serving as a commanding officer of the Reserve Board of Inspection and
Survey Unit. Captain Mowery retired in 2022 after twenty eight years of distinguished service, and he joined us shortly thereafter. It's been an honor to work with Kai and see his leadership and just great experience have a positive impact in public works and for our community. And So with that, I'll introduce Kai. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome, Captain Mueller. Thank you for being here. I promise, it's short. Good afternoon, Chair Andrews, Vice Chair McKeogh, members of the Board and fellow citizens.
It is an honor to accept this proclamation on behalf of the proud veterans of Albemarle County. As you know, my name is Kai Maury, and I currently serve as the Deputy Chief of Operations for Facilities and Environmental Services. I retired after twenty eight years of service as a captain in the United States Navy. I know firsthand the deep sense of duty, sacrifice, and pride that comes with serving our nation. This proclamation is more than just words on paper. It is a meaningful recognition of the generations of men and women who have defended our freedoms, both at home and abroad.
Reminds us that Veterans Day is not just a date on the calendar, but a moment to reflect on the values of equality, democracy and justice that so many have fought to protect. I accept this on behalf of all local veterans, those who continue to serve our community as teachers, first responders, public servants and neighbors. We are proud to call Albemarle County home, and we are grateful for your continued support and recognition. Thank you for honoring our service and for standing with us, not just on Veterans Day, but every day. Thank you very much. If you will remain for a moment,
I'm sure Supervisor will want to express their appreciation for veterans and a form of different comments. Supervisor McKeel? Sure. Thank you for being here today, for working for the county and for your service. I'm always amazed, in my life in Albemarle County, how many veterans we have in Albemarle County. There are a huge number, whether it's at the University of Virginia or Albemarle County or the city, and certainly veterans that have just retired to our area.
And they really are so beneficial and just make a really important contribution to our community. I will remind folks, and I think Bea mentioned it, that on Tuesday, we have a veterans, ceremony and recognition on in this building, in the auditorium. It starts at eleven And I also am aware that there are other veterans' celebrations around the county. I think there's one at the center, and they there are some others located in different places. But it's really important for people to show up and say their thanks to our
veterans. So thank you, and we appreciate you being here today. Thank you. Supervisor Malo? Thank you. And echoing, what was already said, but also thank you to FES for the green lights at night on the front of the building because it does help to remind our residents and to watch out and may help their neighbors who are veterans or friends who are they are veterans to make new connections with the VA and sign up for the benefits that they are there. Thank you very much. Yes. Thank you for for being here. What was the the nuclear science piece again?
What was that? The school? It's a stable nuclear power school. It's where they send all the trainees that are gonna operate the Navy's nuclear reactors. So it's just there was a comedian sometime that was, like, equated that, nuclear science or brain surgery. Now you make the clip. It's like, well, it's not brain surgery. So I'm always I always find it thrilling to find somebody where you're like, well, it's not nuclear science. Well, this guy, it can be. He can do it. So I'm sorry that that just popped into my head. I appreciate your remarks. I have the utmost respect for everyone who has served, especially with family members, who are veterans,
and and what that means. So, really appreciate your remarks today, and and and thank you again for your service. Supervisor Lupita Kirk. Once again, I also we all do appreciate your service, not only for the county, but also, with the military. I did hear you described by a four letter word, and I'm going to say it, and I would like you to explain it to everybody. Nuke. It's actually pretty simple. It's pretty much the, the Navy's I won't say it's a comical way, but of referring to those who have completed the nuclear power program and actually made it to the fleet. They're referred to as a nuke because you spend all your time down in the
reactor spaces. Yeah. You spend all your time down in the reactor base? That's when When you're when you're on board ship Yeah. And you're operating your reactor, you spend a lot of time. We call it the reactor space. You you don't actually sit next to the reactor. You don't want to do that. But you sit outside of it behind all the shielding and and operate the reactor. That's why I was asking because I was hoping you weren't sitting next to the reactor. So yeah. But you're not glowing, so that's good. That's good. But really want to say thank you, from for all your service and, being from a military family,
as I think a lot of us are, that really means a lot. Your service group means a lot. Thank you. Yep. Supermise Crotty. So two quick slightly comical notes. I wanna first note for the audience because I'm not sure that they are aware because you're facing us and not them. But, captain Mowery has come, and he's really stunting on us right now. He he has his humongous rack on. I can spot two legions of merit from here. It's actually miniature. It is a miniature. It is a huge miniature rack of ribbons. Several more rows than I I,
could ever hope for. And and second, you know, we talked about the nuke as a noun. As I'm sure you can attest, transitioning out of the service, one of the biggest things you have to learn is is getting rid of all the, like, idiosyncratic language that you use in the navy. Right? The slang and stuff. And one that I still can't get out and I use all the time is nuke as a verb, because the reputation of the nuclear force is that they're giant nerds and not just any kind of giant nerd.
They're very persnickety nerds. Right? They're very detail oriented nerds. So nuke as a verb means to be far, far, far, far, far too concerned with inconsequential details, as in you're really nuking it out, supervisor Pruitt. No one actually cares about that setback. So I would just share that with my my peers and with the audience. That is, an additional part of the reputation for their, for their corner of the veterans community. And finally, you know, I would always be remiss if I didn't, say a slightly bummer note on on Veterans Day.
I've done it before, and I'll do it again. Sorry to sorry to bum everyone out. Right? Over the last year, I'm sure my my peers are are pretty familiar. I've I've had the opportunity to think more deeply about federal policy. And something that comes up a lot and that I've had to grapple with is that there's a lot of voices there's a lot of voices lobbying for the military. And there's not nearly as many voices lobbying for the warfighter. Right? The individual, the person. And that also goes through is there's not many voices, that matter at least, that have power, who are lobbying for the individual,
the veteran. We see this in realized policy, across this country. We see this in a significant, I think, drawdown over the last year in in critical federal services for veterans. We've seen this in in the real gutting of the VA over the last year and the loss of thousands of staff, the inability to fill new veterans hospitals that we bought here. And it we see it in our active service. Right? We see it in the in the kind of optempos and the kind of stretching of the manpower that we have, for for our military, amidst the simultaneous gold plating of the of the contracts for the for the actual
goods they use every day. I think that is a crying shame and something that we should do something about. And I I'm proud to represent a community that I do think is concerned with the actual individual, with the actual veteran, with the actual warfighter, and, where we also are a community that can attract such incredible talent. Right? I'm so proud that we have someone who is working for us, who has such a thick rack. Right? That speaks to the quality of, an organization that we have here. Thank you so much for for all you do for us every day.
Thank you. Now in my household, to nuke is to put it in the microwave. But I was a physics professor for many years, and I know the difference. And will say that one of my best students was from the Nuclear Power School and appreciated his intelligence and fortitude and all veterans. But I think this proclamation highlights the fact that so many veterans come back and serve. And I think that that service to community is a highlight of coming back from service to the country and the character of people who go into military service.
So thank you. And with that, Supervisor Proulx, I believe, has the proclamation. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Board, this brings us to public comment on matters previously considered or currently pending before the Board other than scheduled public hearings. And I believe Vice Chair McKeel will read the rules and introduce the speakers. We have the list coming up. Thank you. Alright. We have five speakers today and no one online,
so I will call the, names in just a minute. First, I need to read the rules. And since we have no one online, let me read these instead. During the time set up for public comment on matters previously considered or currently pending before the board, individuals may address the Board of Supervisors. Individuals are allowed one opportunity of up to three minutes to speak at each board meeting. A sign up sheet is managed by the clerk's office. Timekeeping is conducted through a timer and light system at the podium. The green light will go on when you begin speaking, which begins your allotted time.
The yellow light indicates you have one minute to finish speaking. The red light indicates your time has expired, and you will be asked to end your comments. In order to give all speakers equal treatment and courtesy, the board request that speakers adhere to the following guidelines. When addressing the board, state your name and if you live in Albemarle County, your magisterial district. Address comments directly to the board as a whole. Any written statements or other supporting material may be given to the clerk. If representing a group or organization, you may ask others present to raise their hands in recognition. Speakers may not share any unused time with another speaker.
Back and forth debate is not permitted, and do not speak from your seat or out of turn. All comments are live streamed, recorded, and published on the Alamar County website. And with that, our first speaker today is Dan Gritzko. Please feel free to adjust the mic so that you're Is that okay there? That's good. Mhmm. Mhmm. Supervisors, when the tornado hit the cheese factory and the reporters went there, can you guess what their report was what the report was? The reporter said debris was
everywhere. You can be thankful that as a bad dad joke teller, that'll be my only joke. What I have to share with you, though, is much more important. There's a really amazing moment in history that we can remember. Very soon, in fact, imminently, there'll be a new statue in The United States Capitol honoring Barbara Johns. This young woman who did this courageous act, she gave an incredible speech on 04/23/1951. In fact, our governor elect Mhmm.
Last night this is what she said about it as she was recounting Virginia history. She said, where Washington and Jefferson established a government by and for the people, it was also where Barbara Johns, a 16 year old girl from Farmville, led a walkout of students that would be part of Brown versus Board of Education. Barbara Johns never gave up, and she showed us that no matter what age, you can be part of the change and the progress here in Virginia and across the nation. Supervisors in my job,
I work in the tour industry, and I've had the honor of doing a lot of presentations about Virginia history. And I start out with what I call Virginia Smack Talk, which basically is four of the first five presidents were from Virginia. Sorry, California, you only had two. Or Oregon, you only have none. But Later on, I talk about the bad things about Virginia history, that we were where slavery started, where we were the colony that had the most enslaved people, and
also that we were where the capital of the Confederacy was. That said, one of the beautiful things that's happening now with this new statue is we have a new story to tell. And our honor as a county is to step into this time to embrace this moment so that we can encourage students to learn about it. The last year, if you've heard me talk, I did not know this story until 2025. And I've had a number of opportunities to go to Farmville, take students there, take my own family there. And I'd encourage all of you,
you may be like me, maybe you've never heard of Barbara Johns, maybe you didn't know the story, or maybe you weren't aware of the statue. But I would suggest, as we as a county think of ways I'm also gonna talk to the school board, talk about it also, and I'm honored just to have a moment to it's not my story. It's her story. What a cool story. Y'all have a great day. Alright. Thank you very much. Thank you. Our next speaker is Sarah Bleach. We are speakers two and three. Okay. Well, you that's good. Just introduce yourselves as you get ready to speak.
That's great. Okay. If you could reach them to the microphone. Adjust the mic so everybody can hear you. My name is Deb Leach Calder. I'm from the Breyer District. I've asked my, Sarah Leach to speak for me today. My name is Sarah Leach, Whitehall, and I'm speaking for Thea. I moved to Branchlands from Earleysville in 2021 specifically to improve my independence. When MicroCat launched in 2023, it was a meaningful improvement. I used it to get to and from work to buy groceries, attend appointments, and stay engaged in community life.
MicroCat played a crucial role in supporting my independence. However, since changes to the MicroCat fleet, I have encountered major accessibility barriers. I have a mobility impairment and use a cane. I do not use a wheelchair, but I also cannot step up into a high profile vehicle. The earlier MicroCat wheelchair vans had a ramp and included a third seat that allowed me to walk in safely. The newer vans do not have that seating configuration, and because of their height, I cannot enter the vehicle from the side either. These vans are described as wheelchair accessible,
but accessibility is not a one size fits all. In this case, the newer vans are not accessible for riders with mobility impairments who walk with a cane, the exact category recognized in MicroCAD's own accessibility request form. This is not just a vehicle design issue. It's a system reliability issue. If the system is described as accessible but riders with documented mobility impairments cannot board, then the system is not meeting the accessibility standards it claims to provide.
In April, an advocate from the Independent Resource Center, who also has a mobility impairment, evaluated a van with MicroCat staff and confirmed the issue. During that meeting, staff acknowledged that lower Yeah. Low profile vans do exist in the fleet, and they are significantly easier for people like me to use. Later, IRC was told that an option to request low profile vans could be addressed to added to the app, but months have passed with no progress. IRC followed up in September and received no response.
As of today, there is no option in the app to request a low profile vehicle. There is no reliable process through dispatch, nor is dispatch aware of this option. And there is no guarantee that a rider with a documented mobility need will be assigned a vehicle they can actually board. This means I cannot rely on MicroCat, and when transportation is unreliable, independence is lost. Therefore, I'm asking for two commitments, a clear and reliable way, either in the app or through dispatch, for riders with mobility impairments to request a low profile van.
Thank you. Thank you. Please, comments can be provided to the clerk so that we have them in case we can finish. Thank you. Thank you. Sarah, the clerk is right behind, right over there. Okay. Thank you. Our next speaker got by email. It's fine. Yeah. Our next speaker is Susan McCauley. Good afternoon. I'm Susan McCauley, and I'm a resident at the Samuel Miller District. Since April, you have been reminded that stripping constitutional rights from our immigrant and refugee neighbors threatens all of our rights. Since April, you've been reminded that far from targeting violent criminals,
the administration will sweep up anyone it wants to, including American citizens. Since April, the community has raised alarms about data collection and surveillance. The federal government has access to to personal information for all Medicaid recipients. ICE has a data sharing agreement with the IRS. Links between Palantir and the federal government are well documented. The administration is actively seeking voter rolls from every state. Most recently, it sanctioned the use of Pegasus, software developed by an Israel, Israeli owned company that secretly infiltrates cell phones.
With the acquisition of signal licenses, ICE intends to further expand its social media surveillance capabilities and has plans to develop around the clock social media monitoring team to identify leads for immigration enforcers. The partnership between FLOC and Ring cameras is yet another insidious example of surveillance and data collection. Recently, DHS issued a procurement for bounty hunters with the intent of arming them with this arsenal of surveillance data.
In July, we asked you to pass or at least consider a resolution that requires ICE agents to be unmasked, identify themselves, present warrants, and drive marked vehicles. Given all that is happening, our request seems quaint by comparison. Yesterday, voters around the common affordability, health and well-being, rule of law, and the constitution. Yesterday, people spoke, and the message could not be clearer. We vote for principled leaders who will stand up for us, for all of us. Today, we are asking you to take courage from your constituents.
Today, we are asking you to take a principled stand. Today, we are asking you again to pass a resolution to unmask ICE. Today, we are asking you again to say that here in this community, we believe in the rights of everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker is Stuart Overby. You might want to yes, there you go. Just your mic. Thank you. Hi, everyone. I'm Stuart Overby with Don't Spread On Me, and I live in the Samuel Miller District. I'm here to talk about the need for a biosolids ordinance in the county,
spreading of sewage sludge as fertilizer on farms and forests in Albemarle. So apparently around October 1, some sewage sludge was spread on Fleetwood Farm in the Rivanna District right next to the Northpointe housing development. And I received a message about it on October 23 through our website and I just want to share it with you. This person says, hello. I recently had the farmer next to me spread the bio solids on his land near my house. I called DEQ because it was spread uphill and my well is about 150 feet down below.
They assured me it would be fine. The smell alone is horrible. I had to turn off our HVAC unit for a week because I could smell it in the house. It's been over three weeks now since it was dumped and I can smell it still when it's damp outside. I can't even warm my vehicle up in the mornings because it will suck the smell up into the truck. I have noticed birds are attracted to it, and I don't think it's good for the wildlife to be near it. This time of year when you can open the windows and let fresh air in, I can't due to the smell. I did speak to a gentleman with DEQ that was extremely nice,
and he told me the farmer can't dump for three years now. So that was the only thing that made me feel better is that I have a break from it for three years. So this is a typical experience for someone living near an area that's been spread. And the thing to keep in mind is that smell is not just a nuisance. It's quite toxic. People often report that they get sick, their children get sick, even their pets get sick. PFAS and God knows what other toxins happen to be in that load, will easily migrate into the air just as they migrate through soil, into the groundwater, and into nearby streams when it rains.
And this person, along with many others, is right there forced to live in this toxic cloud. We're having an event to talk about this. And we've got this wonderful researcher, Brian Barker from UVA, who's going to do a presentation and a Q and A at, November 20 from six to seven at Grace Church Red Hill. And I brought you all personalized invitations, so for the County Attorney's Office too. His research, he has his own lab there and they focus on manmade problems, looking for solutions with nature based approaches.
It's really fascinating stuff. You all should come. He's going to update us on his current research, which is funded by the EPA. And he's looking at remediation up in Maine at known PFAS contaminated soils up there. Look forward to you all being there. It's open to the public. Everyone else should come. Thank you. Thank you. That's all. All the speakers. Lord, this brings us to item eight, the consent or consent agenda. I have not heard any items to be pulled, minutes or otherwise. I'm looking for a motion to approve the consent agenda.
That moved. Second. Motion from Supervisor Lupita Curtlee, second from Supervisor McKeel. Without objection, if the court calls the law. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Lupita Curtlee? Aye. Ms. Mallett? Yes. Thank you. Our first action item is Miller School Extension Private Central Seward System and Central Water Supply, presented by Mr. Frank Poehler, County Engineer. Welcome. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair Andrews, Vice Chair McKeel, and members of the board. My name is Frank Pohl.
I'm the county engineer, and I'm here to present to you a request from the Miller School of Albemarle for, extending or expanding their central sewage and central water supply systems. This picture is from their website, by the way. The location of the Miller School is, over in the Samuel Miller District, and it's a rural area zone property parcel. There is no water or sewer service. It's outside the jurisdictional area, And it is within the Upper Neacham River, which is a water supply protection area. To the north is,
Crozet. There's Dickwood Dickwood Road, which comes in from the right on your screen. And the school excuse me. The road named after the school, Miller School Road, comes in from the North and continues to to the south. Just some general information about the school. It, opened in 1878 and has two twenty five students. I counted 21 addressable or structures with addresses on them. The sewer permit was first issued in 'seventy seven and the water permit was first
issued in 1970. Our ordinance had some sections of it, that were first adopted from what I can tell in '19, '76. Prior approvals for this, school include a special use permit. These are more recent approvals, by the way. I didn't go back and dig through and try to find all approvals, but the most recent, I think, approval that, affects this particular request is an SP that was approved in '23, to allow the school to continue and to expand. It included four buildings and up to 500 students.
A special exceptions that was related to that special use permit was approved, to disturb critical slopes and initial site plan, which is administrative approval, was recently approved. A brief description of the systems. The existing sewer system is a conventional system. It experiences some inflow to rainwater. So it it's overwhelming the system that's there. And the capacity of the drain fields, considering its age, has diminished. They are proposing with this request to to investigate the system to find leaks and
repair leaks is to minimize, not to eliminate. I think they're allowing up to 10,000 gallons per day to enter the system and to account for that. But they're also proposing new primary drain fields. They're showing some reserve drain fields. They're not installing those right now though. And a new secondary multi step biological treatment system. There are 10 existing connections and the request is to add four connections for a total of 14 for the sewage system. For the water supply, there are three wells.
There were four. I think one of them is no longer producing. But the total capacity is 22,480 gallons per day. Currently, they're using about 10,000 average, 10,000 to 11,000 gallons per day average and a peak demand of around 16,000. So they do have capacity to absorb the or connect the additional four structures without increasing the capacity of the water. There are two storage tanks, a disinfection system and a distribution system. The distribution system,
they are extending and installing new water lines, for even some of the existing buildings to get it up to or just to to, make it more modern and hopefully last longer. So and they are adding some fire protection, hydrants as well. And, there are 18 existing water connections, and they proposed to add four for 22. So that tells you that not all structures have a are connected to the sewer, but they do have water supply. Some additional ones. Here's the definition of a central system. Just to recap or visit this,
three or more connections is usually is our definition for a central system. And we, count that as being structures or buildings served. This one really fits under 102 as, and I underlined the extend the central system because the existing there's already an existing system there, and they're extending it. So the request is really to extend and expand that system. And as required under the ordinance, a hearing on the proposal is required. Here's a, plan campus plan. North is to the left. It's turned sideways to fit on the page.
And, you see the stream buffer on the top there is in green. The flood plain is kind of in the middle of that green blob. It's more of a darker green, I guess. Existing sewers in pink and, proposed sewer, is hard to see, but it's there's only a couple of where the text points to propose where text says proposed sewer, there's a line coming out there. And there are two lines coming out between the yellow buildings there. That's the additional sewer lines that they're adding.
Existing water line is the cyan that's kind of in the top right. You see that in top right there? And it goes through the existing buildings and then the proposed water line. You can see they're putting in a lot of proposed water line. That's the blue. Down to the bottom right of the picture, I didn't include this but it's in your packet, is where the water tank is located. I forgot to mention that critical slopes is in the hatch, the gray hatched area. Existing buildings are all of those gray, box looking hatches and the proposed structures are the yellow hatched
areas, which shows the four structures. They do not plan to construct all four structures immediately. They're gonna phase it. Phase one will include a dormitory. Phase two will include two dormitories and the gymnasium, which is to the left. The three structures in the middle are the dormitories. This is, showing where the new drain field will be located. On the left there is the pumping station. It's a primary screening screening and sedimentation and flow equalization system. This will pump up and over to this system. There is a stream buffer here I didn't show,
but I will go back here to show you where that's located. That is located in the top. That pink square is is the the same as this green square down here in the bottom left. And that will pump over through to the field that's, along Dick Woods Road currently. The grade flows down from the right down to the left. There are proposed reserve drain fields, within these drain fields that are shown. Frank, do you have a pointer? I'm sorry to interrupt you, but Don't know. And I don't want you to go back over all this. I was just wondering.
I thought maybe a pointer might help some of us I think we used to know. To follow it a little bit better. I just figured that out. Thank you. Yeah. Sure. Thanks. So, yeah. So Dick Woods Road over here. This is the these are the drain new drain field areas. And this will be a new two inch, high density polyethylene pipe that will be used to pump up to this location. And there will be a dosing system that doses the, drain fields. So the factors favorable and unfavorable, they have existing capacity for the water to serve the additional buildings is a favorable
factor. It's already, approved at twenty two thousand and, I think it was eight forty or four eighty gallons per day. Installation of new water lines for fire suppression and fire hydrants that are not necessarily required for the new buildings. They're doing them those for also some existing buildings. The existing sewer system would be prepared and upgraded, with new drain fields and a secondary treatment system. There currently isn't a, the secondary treatment system out there right now. VDH would, continue to regulate the operation of the systems. The one unfavorable is that,
it would be privately owned and maintained. But it will be one owner, which is a good thing, I think, My opinion. So we know who's responsible for it. And then I did, include some conditions for approval. You've seen some of these before, all of them, I think. We've modified number five to require them to, document compliance not at the request of the county, but on a yearly basis. And we will set up in our new system a way to keep track of that. But if you'd like, I go through these real quickly.
It must have to be it has to be constructed in accordance with the design plans. In the future, I may change this to a general accord so that it's, I need to talk to our county attorney about potential revisions or changes. But, for right now, it says an accord. There is, as you'll see in the appendix, a pretty well laid out, set of plans from their engineer. So they're pretty far along in the design. So I don't see any issues with that for this project. Number two, they would have to submit those plans with their final site plan and prior to final site plan approval. And then,
number three, prior to the c o. It must demonstrate that the system upgrades and expansion were construction in accord with the plans and specs, and then that the Miller School must assume full responsibility of the operation and Thank Thank you. We'll go through the order, starting with supervisor McKeown. Thank you, Frank. Would you go back to the previous slide? Appreciate the good, presentation, and I really appreciate your addition of the proposed conditions of approval. Help me with number five. So I'm interested in that because that sounds like, to me, that is a better place for us to be in than we've been in the
past, where we can follow with our new system? Am I misreading this a little bit? But just help me with that a little bit. Number five has just been a carryover since I began Okay. Approving these or reviewing and presenting these system, requests. So those have been in since, again, as I said from previous, county engineer, presentations and conditions for other systems, and we've carried that over. The the difference is is that we used to say at the request Yes. Of the county engineer Yes. To to provide those documents.
And there were comments about making that automatic as opposed to being a request that triggers the requirement. And what I liked, I thought I heard you say, was that our new system allows for that to happen. Yeah. The one way to do it is put it in your Outlook a year out. Right? Right. I mean, you change you do that every year. But the new system allows us to set up an inspection that is, you can put the end date as blank, and it will go indefinitely, every year. That's wonderful news. And that was what I was getting to because when staff changes and not everybody is aware to put a reminder in their Outlook calendar,
things fall between the cracks. So our system now will accommodate this, which is really great to hear. Yeah. And we use the it's not necessarily an inspection, but it's a reminder. Yeah. So that's great. And then we use yeah. Yeah. So that's an improvement. I really appreciate that. I just wanted to make sure I was thinking about this through the right lens. Thank you very much. That's all I had. Supervisor Malek. Thank you. No questions at this time. Supervisor Galway. Yes. Thank you, Frank. No questions. No questions. I appreciate your presentation. I don't believe I have any questions. Thank you. I will just double check on a couple of things.
You mentioned, Slide nine, that the word accord, that you were going to suggest that it have a modifier to you said something general accord or something, and I didn't know what you were referring to or something. I don't wanna nuke this to death, but Uh-oh. Here we go. Come on, the V word. It's just a wording, nuance that I have as as someone who has to enforce a condition that I might propose to the, county attorney in the future. But for now, I think that the accord is is is fine because of the level of detail
that we have. These kind of tie folks into the applicant into what they've submitted. Right. And I'm just concerned if there's tweaks in the future, how we would be able to accommodate that without coming back to the board Okay. If it's a technical thing versus something that's more substantial. I'd be interested when that's ready for prime time. But if it's not ready today, then we'll proceed. I think that the language that the board has before it right now is legally sufficient. Thank you. My only other just clarification is that back in Slide three, you talked about the number of the capacity of the system,
but what's being added. And I guess I do look at this or actually, I guess it's the next slide there. There are two number three's on the slide. There are two slide threes, that's a problem. That the actual additions are now three dormitories and a gymnasium. I assume that when the capacity of the system is looked at, it's not based on buildings, but based on usage in buildings, because I certainly would expect a lot of showers in all four of those uses. So Correct. Yeah. It's based on the number of students and,
if they're permanently there, you know, the resident or not. So they they look at all of that. Okay. And it's not just the structures, but our ordinance is focused on the connections, number of connections, which is the number of buildings, not number of students. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. I don't have any other questions. If there aren't further questions as this is in the Samuel Miller District, I would, move to adopt the attached resolution attachment b, approving the upgrades in extension of the central sewer system and central water supplies subject
to conditions therein. Second. And if I may add one thing before we vote? Sure. To me, accord is really important here because it does give them notice that this is what we expect. And don't come in and say, oh, we're off by 10 feet, later. So we've had significant trouble over the last eighteen years with significant accord, which is too much wiggle wiggle Okay. For a lot of things. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. So we I've made a motion. Supervisor Malek seconded. Without objection, clerk, call the roll. Ms. McKeel?
Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Malick? Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Ward, this brings us to SE 2020 Five-thirty 3, which is Ravenna Futures Building Height and special exception twenty twenty five-thirty four Ravenna Futures Stepback. And this will be presented by Mr. Bill Fritz, Development Process Manager. Welcome, Mr. Fritz. Thank you. Sorry about that. A little trouble getting it started. Bill Fritz with the community development office or department. Excuse me. This is a two special exceptions for Ravenna Futures.
One special exception is for building height, and that is to allow structures of up to a 140 feet, and the other is for a step back, special exception to reduce it from 15 feet to zero feet. And I'm gonna go through and and give you some more details about what that is in just a second. So the ordinance, allows for a special exception to, height and step back. The ordinance does not include any specific criteria for either of these exceptions. The first exception is this phrase here,
which was just recently added to the ordinance. Previously, you couldn't get any the only way to get a increase in the height was either to by a variance or through a rezoning process. Both of both are difficult. So this was a recent amendment to the ordinance. The minimum step back requirements have always been eligible for a special exception. The ordinance includes this does it does not include specific criteria for the review of either of these exceptions. The ordinance simply states the board is not required to make specific findings in support
of its decision, but the board may impose reasonable conditions to address any possible impacts of the special exception. I would like to point out that we typically don't do presentations on special exceptions. You see them as consent agenda items. Part of the reason we're bringing it forward to you is because this is a first impression of the height special exception, so we thought we would bring it to you, because it's the the first time you're seeing that. So let's talk about the step back. The ordinance requires a 15 foot step back when a building exceeds 40 feet or
three stories. The step back is only on the front of the building. The ordinance does include a figure showing how the step back is implemented, which is very helpful, I think. The requirement of step back can make, building construction difficult because you need to either have a bearing wall located to support that that, everything above the third story, which may compromise the usability of the lower floors, or you can use alternative construction techniques, but these can be, extremely costly. This slide shows the potential location of a proposed building and road extension.
This information was taken from a site plan recently submitted for grading and utility work in the area. That plan is actually included as attachment a three, and I believe it's sheet nine that shows the the detail. The building location and size are approximate only at this time. Site plan showing the details of the building is required in order for a building permit to be issued. This outline shows the boundary between the rural area zoning and urban zoning. The urban zoning is a mix of zoning types. This just shows the boundary between the urban and rural area zoning.
As you can see the proposed building is located at the edge of the urban zoning in this case, which in this case is light industry. However, these properties have split zoning. I've highlighted the portions of the property owned by Albemarle County that are zoned RA rural areas. As you can see the building is set back considerably considerably from the property line. The step back exemption is only in the area adjacent to the extended road, not anywhere else. The increased building height is mitigated by the fact the proposed building is approximately a
third of a mile from Route 29 and approximately 600 feet from buildings on the adjacent rural property. Some existing trees are located on county property and there's approximately 100 feet available on county property for the planting of screening trees. Plantings will be reviewed as part of the site plan for any buildings proposed. Given the distance from adjacent development and the designation of this area for intensive development, staff is able to recommend approval of the two special exceptions. I've included this slide just to put some of the other information in in perspective.
This slide shows the various zonings in the area. I mentioned before that it's a mix. The light blue is light industry zoning. White is the rural areas. This particular map was taken from the application for the special exceptions. You may notice that the original request includes parcels, Parcel 33 Dash 14. That's this parcel here. I just highlighted for you. That parcel has been removed from the request. It is not covered by either of the, proposed resolutions. And with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.
Thank you. Move us for our order. Supervisor McKeown? Bill, thank you. I don't think I have any questions right now. Thank you. Appreciate it. Supervisor McKeown? Thank you. I did not anticipate when the height changes for the SE were were proposed that we would go doubling. So I'm a bit that was my original shock when I read the staff report for this. The distances, is there any kind of formula that will be able to be used so that when the next person comes along and wants this, which is highly likely, it seems to me, that we will be able to say,
yes, but this one was granted because it had 600 feet of setback or something like that. Otherwise, I think we're basically doing away with all of our existing rules here. The ordinance has as I said, the ordinance has no specific regulations, and no guidance as to how to review these kinds of special exceptions. So that's why we're bringing it here to try to get an idea of what the board is looking for when they're considering a special exception so that we can factor that into our decision making process or our recommendations in the future. I guess picking,
and I'm not picking on the one on Hydraulic Road, but that is a very effective use of a six story building. But if that were 12 stories right there, that would be overpowering. So I just I hope that others will think about how we can do a better job on fleshing out this process, in order for this to be done fairly. And we're not making it up for one person and not doing something for another, which I know our county attorney will be very unhappy if we start doing things like that. So that is my concern. The step back would also trouble me if it were on the back of the
building, but since it's not, it protects those neighbors on the other side. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Galloway? Yeah. Because the special exceptions, I mean, each thing is considered for the special exception. I'm sorry. I couldn't I didn't hear that. But if we grant one special exception for one area, what what am I missing on the connection to other places that ask for a special exception? So, the special exception for step backs, for example, does not have any review criteria. However, the board has reviewed multiple special exceptions for step backs, and we have a formula now for reviewing that.
We we have a concept for what we're reviewing. We've been providing that to you. So if this had only been a step back, special exception, we would have put that on the consent agenda because we have guidance from prior, applications. We don't have that for the set for the, height special exception. Okay. I think I understand that. I'm just saying that if we grant one special exception in one place, doesn't mean we have to grant it in another place. The location of each place, you take that into consideration. Yes. Correct. And the step backs and the height, sometimes, like, I know we've granted the step back waivers in other places because it's more for
residential because it allows for more units to be built. Yep. And it calls for it in the RIO 29 Small Area Plan, where I believe we've said no. We've got rid of the step back notion, if I'm remembering right, or maybe that's coming. But in any case Yeah. I believe our consideration of, like, a Rio 29 step back would be different than a hydraulic road step back or Yes. 29 North step back. Yes. Absolutely. And I would trust that, okay, I understood a criteria so staff has something to work with regarding the height, but it would be still be the same thing. Right. To consider I certainly consider height at Rio 29 differently than I do at at
Hillsdale or Greenbrier at 29, because you take into account where it's sitting and what the project is. So alright. I don't think I have any other questions. Thank you. Supervisor Lupista Coquelin. I the only question I have in in reading the report is, the first page on attachment a, says under character of the property and area, the first paragraph, the last sentence or the second and last sentence, a stream with floodplain runs parallel to Route 29. Is there any way you can show me where that is?
Because I couldn't figure it out. Sure. If you look at this particular if you look at this particular slide Do you have a pointer, maybe? I believe that. If you do. Let's see. I got one here. I do not. I can get one. Or not. Go by color. See if I can get it really doesn't want to cooperate today. Here we go. So, in this map here, you can see this highlighted area here. This purplish area is both stream buffer and flood plain. It's one color. It picks up both. I got it. So it's right along Route 29,
parallel to Route 29. And that was just something I was wondering about. Otherwise, I don't have any questions. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Fitt. Yes. So I realized that the the kind of novel issue here is the high special exception, but you also forgive me because I have not had as much of an opportunity to nuke, the the step back requirements because as we've talked, right, they they previously have been appearing in consent agenda since I've been here. So I hope you'll forgive me. Most of my questions are on the step back. Help me out here. Is does the setback requirement, is that applying to all buildings regardless of use based on the area designation,
or does it shift by use? It's different zoning districts have this requirement, and the idea is that you're stepping back the upper floors to prevent a canyon effect. Right. And in this particular case, generally, what is looked at in in the special exception request is what sort of, activity do we expect at the street level and and how would people, pedestrians be impacted by that. In this particular case, we're expecting very limited, if any,
pedestrian activity because there's really nothing to attract pedestrians. This is this is a manufacturing district. This is employment generator. So we didn't see the step back as being a concern. Is beyond aesthetic, is there a, like, key consideration that we implement setbacks step backs for? Is there, like, a wind shear consideration? Is there some kind of No. It's purely aesthetic? Yes. And it is some I'm intrigued. Right? So because my peer, supervisor Lipstick Kirkley, right, frequently talks about,
well, we just need to be building higher. And I will sometimes reply to her, we're not stopping them from building higher. It's just a factor of economics that prevents people from building higher. Yep. Except here, where where we're influencing the fact of economics on preventing people from building higher. Okay. Noted. That's all I have. Okay. Thank you. Yes. Which goes to my point, we can build higher. Yeah. Yeah. And maybe we should revisit this when we're doing a zoning refresh. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Verizon. So in the spirit that we're looking at this as a first time for the
height and need to understand what criteria would be involved. I want to just explore a few questions. I'm very supportive of this, but I just don't want to understand. So there's industrial, there's light industrial. Would that make a difference in terms of how this is reviewed, for the expectations for that area? It did, and we included some of that consideration in our analysis without having any guidance. We thought that one of the mitigating factors we thought to allow height is the county stated intent that this before pretty intense developments and developments of a certain type.
And if a user then comes along and says, okay. I'm an industry that you're trying to attract, but the nature of my industry requires me to to have this height height in order to do my business. We would take that in consideration versus if it were an industrial district that were adjacent to residential. I'm gonna pick on an area, say Broadway, for example, where you had residential, nearby, may not be appropriate, not designated for the same type of things. We may not be able to support that,
particular, this this this same map if this same application were there, I don't know that we'd be able to support it. Now we we do occasionally review heights, in the context of towers, for example. And in those cases, we have, like, balloon tests and other things that tell us what this height would look like from different perspectives. And that's something that I think might be considered in this case or renderings of some sort. And I would point out that, the board has also granted height allowed height, exceptions, during rezonings to plan developments.
For example, the hotel at Stonefield is a 120 or a 130 feet tall, and that was done through the rezoning process. So the county has a history of increasing height. They've just never we've just not done it through the special exception process. We've done it through a resounding process. And I don't recall what, evidence of what the height would look like being presented in that case, so I don't know. There there was some discussion there about the the that particular building. There was some discussion,
whether or not fire suppression could be provided, and it was determined that, yes, it could. But that property also has, some some topographic variations there where it's a 120 feet tall from one side, but it's only 30 or 40 feet tall from the other side, which is adjacent to the residential development. So it doesn't really look like it got a special acceptor got an increase in height from the adjacent residential development. So we kind of looked at that one as be giving us some guidance. And last minor point was in the material summary,
I saw reference to utility, infrastructure heights, but I didn't see the actual numbers. I just saw that there there are towers nearby or there there's there's power lines nearby. The, you can just see on here on this this particular map, there's a high voltage power line that runs along the northern part of of the property owned by the county through it. It actually defines the the boundary between industrial zoning and and rural zoning, in the areas that I've highlighted here. Okay. Reference, do you know what the height of those typically?
I don't recall what they are, to tell you the truth. And boy, I don't want to guess. Sorry. Okay. That's fine. Just as examples of things that I'd be interested in future reviews on things like this. So, Supervisor Praveen. Thank you, Chair. You actually caused me to think of kind of an additional thought I had because you were asking about, right, where is staff finding the criterion that they're looking for in making their own determination on recommendations, right? And there was the comparison of, Robanna Futures with Broadway. And because it's fresh on the mind,
right, I'm, thinking, well, I think Ravenna Futures and Broadway are actually, identically designated in the comprehensive plan. They're both employment centers. I suppose you have the Broadway small area plan to to look to. But, yeah, I I I guess my concern here is always that we're relying on on heavily kind of qualitative, standards for staff, which which does it shifts that recommendation out of the sphere of public accountability. It shifts that, recommendation further away from people who are democratically accountable. And and there is some concern for that. And it also makes me wonder if we made a mistake in how we're defining
our our types of nodes in in our activity centers. And we should have been more thoughtfully designing those over the specific and, like, quantitative things that we are going to be deciding based on them. Right? Anyway, that's that's my thought that made me think of. And I'd be interested to know if you all have any thoughts oh, sorry. I'd be interested to know if you have any thoughts about what Mike Mike's comment. I noticed you were kind of your head was moving, and I was interested. No. I thought it was a I thought it was a good good comment, and I was thinking through all the different things that are in the comprehensive plan.
I I'm trying to remember the exact language for the the Broadway area and in this area. I I know they are both designated as employment areas. They are both, designated as industrial. I do believe that the Rivanna Futures area has some additional language about promoting it for defense industry, pharmaceutical, and other specific types of activity that the Broadway and other industrial areas don't have the same designation. So that could be a distinction between the two the two areas.
Alright. I saw you nodding your hand as well. You wanna add anything? Parts of the boat, deputy director of community development. To me, supervisor Pruitt's ask is similar to how we handled homestays. We need to get a few of these under our belt, develop the criteria, and then we're able to parse that out as we go. And so from Willen Mills to this site, it's so specific to, supervisor Galloway's point is that we're really going to look at it heavily on where it's located, what's next to it. So although the designation and the comp plan is part of that,
it may not be the deciding factor. So, if we use woolen mills, we might approve something or we might recommend something at maybe a 20 foot plus, but maybe not double the height. So, it's really going to be specific. These work kind of more like special permits. How special is it to fit into that area? Is it too special? Or is it special where you need some guidance? Thank you. I appreciate you all addressing that. Thank you. If there are further questions, there are two motions that need to be made. This is in the Ravana District. Okay. And I have I have motions for you available.
Okay. I move to adopt the resolution of approval, including included as attachment A, which this would be part of the SE 20 '25 what? A four. A four. I'm sorry. Thank you for that correction. 33, Rivanna Futures, Building Height. Second. We have a motion from supervisor Lupista Gertley, second from supervisor McKeel without objection. If the court could call the roll. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Ms. Lupista Gertley? Aye. Ms. Malek? Yes. Thank you. And, the second.
The next one, recommend a motion for SC twenty twenty five zero zero zero three four of our Vandafuture setback. I move to adopt the resolution of approval included as attachment a five. Second. Motion from supervisor Lupista Kirtley, second from supervisor McKeal. Without objection for call. Miss McKeal? Yes. Mister Pruitt? Aye. Mister Andrews? Yes. Mister Galloway? Yes. Miss Lupista Kirtley? Aye. Miss Malik? Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Board, this brings us through first presentation. Let's see.
Pretty close to sign here. Transportation Planning quarterly report, Albera Carina Plun, Planner one, Transportation. Yes. It's not. Oh, got it. Okay. Yes. Good afternoon. I'm Tanya Swartzneuber, planning manager for the community development department. I'm here with Albert Cuernaplan to review a few highlights from the transportation quarterly report. The complete details of all the work Transportation Planning team is doing is provided in your packet. I'd like to start with VDOT funding opportunities. There's a revenue sharing funding, which we apply for in odd years.
And SmartScale, we apply for in even years. We're entering that period where we're considering the projects that we will apply for. Pre application materials are due 04/01/2026, and final materials are due August 1. The Commonwealth Transportation Board will consider all applications and release a recommended funding scenario in January and will adopt the final six year improvement plan in June 2027. So you can see this is a process that takes several years to get through.
Staff has been discussing with VDOT those projects that are eligible and would like to go over those projects. We'll continue to work with VDOT and the MPO to develop a recommendation for the bird's approval at a future meeting. This is a list of projects that are eligible. Both the MPO and the county are eligible to submit oh, each are eligible to submit up to four applications. This slide lists the projects for consideration, and I'll identify those the MPO may apply for and then the counties with more
detail in the following slides. And I'll just note that the numbers and letters are animated on this slide, so you can very quickly pick out where these projects are. I won't read through these, but you can see as we go through the animations where the projects are located. So the numbered projects are those the MPO is eligible to apply for, and the lettered projects are those that the county is eligible for to apply for. So we'll go through the individual projects the county is eligible for.
The first one, One of the projects that the county is eligible to submit comes from the pipeline study of Barracks Road. This project would add a dedicated right turn lane circled in red on the slide. In addition to the right turn lane, Barracks Road would also have a median built so that there are no more left turn movements from vehicles. Lastly, a sidewalk or shared use path is included in the project to go from the bypass bridge up to Surrey Road. Another potential submittal is a roundabout at Noble Trail And 250 in front of Western
Albemarle High School. This project has been submitted two previous times in 2022 and 2024. Scoring well, but not quite well enough to be funded, staff believes that this is a good project and another good candidate for smart scale application submittal. Roughly a year ago, we presented to you the results of the old Ivy pipeline study. There are two roundabout projects from the Ivy Road corridor pipeline study that the county is considering. The first one is the proposed roundabout at Ivy Road,
Old Garth Road, and Canterbury Road, as shown on the slide. This roundabout would improve the operations at this critical intersection, helping to alleviate backups for drivers coming off of the 29 Bypass to get to Ivy Road. The study also recommended a roundabout west of the previous one at the entrance to Boar's Head. This could be in addition to dual right turns from Old Garth Road onto Ivy Road with left turn movements for drivers happening at this roundabout.
Drivers would have to go slightly out of their way to turn left, similar to what is happening now on a hydraulic road with a roundabout in front of Whole Foods. We are still evaluating in collaboration with VDOT whether we would apply for one of these roundabouts over the other or if we apply for both as a single project. And with that, I'll turn it over to Alvaro Krinoplun. Good afternoon, board. Alvaro Krinoplun, planner and community development. I wanna talk about, some other VDOT studies. So right now, we have two STAR studies being conducted by VDOT.
One is from The US Twenty Nine Corridor up to Hydraulic Road, and one is a study of the Emmett Hydraulic 250 Barracks interchange bow tie system. That's what's pictured here on the slide. The purpose of the 29 corridor study is to address safety concerns for both drivers and bicyclists slash pedestrians, identify good crossing locations for US 29, and to improve the operations of the corridor for side streets. The MS3 study is looking at improving operations of the interchange, providing more and better pedestrian access in this area.
Staff has provided initial comments to consultants. Further meetings are planned for November. And then project recommendations from this study are not intended to be ready for a smart scale application for next year. Other efforts we have been doing, the notice to proceed for 3 Notch Trail was issued in February. There have been multiple meetings with the technical committee, the stakeholder groups, and the public. Staffing consultants have conducted site visits to the potential alignment sites. The pre potential alignments will be released to the public in December. The board decided to move forward or next thing,
the board decided to move forward with a permanent closure and discontinuance of Free Bridge Lane on August 15. A petition was signed by Jeff Richardson and was sent to the Charlottesville presidency. Staff is working with VDOT and Albemarle County Parks and Rec on determining the exact limits of the discontinuance. Staff will return later this winter with a formal resolution to discontinue Freebridge Lane. And lastly, lastly, the secondary six year plan was adopted last spring with the board making some changes to the rural rustic process. Now when residents request a road be paved, staff will provide the list of people that need to give feedback,
but the responsibility of collecting signatures is on the resident. After signatures are provided, VDOT will then review the road for oral rustic after. Sutherland Road, Burton Road, Burton Lane, Starlight Road, and Blair Park Road were approved for paving. Bleak House Road and Pea Ridge Road didn't receive more than one third votes opposing paving, and Sharon Road and Foster's Branch Road did not receive enough votes either way. There are multiple roads right now that are going through the signature process. Staff will return, to the board in April to present the draft secondary six year plan.
And lastly, county staff continues to receive calls and emails from the public about transportation issues from around the county. Most notably, staff has been working on finding funding for a speed study for Park Ridge Road in Crozet. VDOT studies show that there has been excessive speeding on this road segment, and per the VDOT traffic calming guidelines, the localities responsible for managing a traffic calming study that will provide engineering solutions. And staff continues to receive concerns from residents about the speed of Penn Park Road and the lack of pedestrian and bike facilities on the road from Rya Road to
Penn Park. Staff will continue to monitor concerns and evaluate potential for bike and facilities along the road. Thank you, and any questions? Thank you. We'll go through our order. Supervisor McKeown. Sure. Thanks to both of you. Would you go back to the very first slide that you all talked about? I'm talking about Barracks Road. Oh, Barracks Road. Yeah. There you go. So just one more time go through this for me, please. Sure. This area is critical. We have crashes in this section, and you know that Yes.
Weekly. And I'm not talking fender benders. I'm talking real crashes where cars are upside down. And I saw just two week before last. So, anyway, would you go through this really for more? I can. Sure. So here, just to orient you, this is Barracks Road running through the middle of this slide. And oh, thank you. Yeah. You have a pointer probably somewhere. There it is. So there we go. This is a Barracks Road. Yeah. We're all learning. Barracks Road and then of course,
U. S. 29 and, the interchange there. So what this would project is proposing is to add a dedicated right turn lane, onto the entrance ramp as well as, eliminate the median down the road or I'm sorry, install a median down the road. So correct continuously. So it would prevent those left turns onto roads like Bennington. And we did previously study the possibility of a roundabout at Commonwealth,
right, and determined that it was an expensive solution, and so we thought we would start here. Not at Commonwealth. Georgetown. I was going to say Commonwealth is not the right place. Georgetown. I'm sorry. Georgetown. Okay. So you decided against that. It was an expensive product. For now. For now. It's not been off it's not taken completely off the table. As far as I know, it's not been Just for now. Okay. Correct. Kevin's nodding his head. That's my memory as well. Okay. So this is really great. So this is an outcome of the pipeline project that was proposed,
and it was so expensive that we're we're by taking bites out of it now and trying to do segments at a time is my would be my takeaway. Yes, ma'am. Right. And I will say that the that this continuous median is critical because one of the dangers on Barracks Road right now are all the U turns that are happening. And people that live along Barracks Road on the side of Canterbury Hills can't even safely pull out of their driveways because people are u turning and coming down and causing conflict. That's a great word.
So that continuous barrier along Barracks is really critical. And I will add, just for people in the know, is that the neighborhoods here have agreed to this. This is what they want, especially the people that live right in this section, on Barracks Road. So I am thrilled to see that this is being proposed. So, tell me the status of this. I'm sorry to be repeating things, but just in my head because I have people asking me about this all the time, and I just want to make sure I'm clear. Sure. So we're working with VIDOT to refine this project and get a concept plan from
them as well as an initial cost estimate so we can apply for funding through Smart Scale. Right. And I knew that once it was denied, that whole project, that taking it in different place, it was going to take a while. So we're talking realistically before we have any action on this, what, four years, six years? Roughly four to five years. I hope not, but four to five years. Okay. All right. Thank you for going back to that. I really appreciate it. My pleasure. Thank you. Supervisor Mallick? Thank you. Staying in the same neighborhood,
just so I'm clear, the sidewalk would be added on the South Side of Barracks, all the way between the Surrey and the bypass because there's one now. We are looking at a sidewalk or preferably a shared use path. We believe there is some room to have an entire shared use path, so it would be bike and ped. That would be our preference. Yeah. Part of the original study was they were gonna shift by taking away the median and stuff. They'd be able to shift it north and make some room that way. Okay. There's still only gonna be one car turning at one lane turning south onto the
bypass at Barracks, right? Right. When I first must have misunderstood that there was going to be a double lane there, and I thought pedestrians would never be able to get safely across that. Even though there's a crosswalk there, there's almost never a chance when somebody can get across. So that, at least, is a little bit more possible. Thank you. That is the only question. The Boar's Head roundabout is at the Birdwood entrance, not the Boar's Head Inn, because it shows right opposite White Gables. So I just wanted to clarify that I'm looking at the right map.
That is a bird. I'm gonna jump to, site. Yeah. Thank you. Kevin McDermott, deputy director of planning. I just wanted to clarify. It is confusing because the Road Boar's Head is actually not at Boar's Head, the the hotel. So The slide's seven. The the the roundabout is gonna be at the Road Boar's Head, which is at the entrance of Birdwood, I believe. So Which is curious because when that was improved by special permit, when they were it applied to renovate the mansion, it was described very carefully that this was only for the golf team to be
using. And now it has become the major road entrance into everything else down there. So this seems to make this permanent, that all of a sudden, all the traffic has now shifted onto the residences down near the sports club who were told originally that that was never gonna happen. So I just wanted to remind you of that. And, their their traffic impacts are severe. Anyway, thanks. Thank you. Mr. Galloway? Well, I think you all I don't have to repeat myself in terms of how you
all know I feel about funding. But when we received our last smart scale update from VDOT at MPO a few weeks ago, they said the next round of smart scale would be even more competitive than the last round, and we didn't get Anything that we didn't have anything but a curse word to say there. So we're you you you know, the I appreciate your optimism when you tell supervisor McKeel four to six years, but it's not four to six years. You've got four or five projects that we'll submit, four or five projects that the MPO will submit, and we're being told by VDOT that it's going to be a more competitive process
during the compared to the last round where we only received a small package on pan tops. Right. So we didn't get any of our big projects done. Then they turn around. They reengineer. They put it down to these smaller Band Aid approaches, which is what these all That's what that is. And then it k. I brought it up at the MPO meeting to go, well, you're basically having us do this as a way to then say, well, now we don't wanna do that. We want the bigger project again. Which is happening. It's almost a purposeful delayed process to put a big project in to see if it'll get done. It won't get done.
You've also submitted the small projects, so now you can't get other applications in. You go your next round. You try to do the small projects. Well, they're not really great projects because they're they're smaller and piecemeal to what the real fix is going to be. Then you have to go another round to maybe finally get a project that could potentially actually get fixed. So, I mean, it's a I mean, been a fan of smart scale, so in concept, but the way it's been working the last two rounds, it's not necessarily even the projects. It's it's back to the funding issue. You know, it dawned on me. I've made my you know,
I've complained that in the state, 30,000,000,000 in projects got submitted, and then 8,000,000,000 got approved with an additional billion in localities having to do matches. But then what occurred to me over the last few weeks at the CMPO meeting think about this for a second. How many projects are on our transportation priorities list from 24 or 23? Isn't it, like, a 100? I think it's, over a 150, I believe. And if you had to ballpark it, what, 50 of them would probably be smart scale level type projects? That sounds about right. Okay. So now take all the localities because we're limited
What we could submit to the state. This got me hot in the last few weeks even more because I kept saying that the $30,000,000,000 request as if that was everybody's transportation projects. That was just what they were allowed to submit for. So it's even a bigger multiplier of what's needed in the state beyond maintenance for for improving transportation projects. So, I mean, really, I don't have questions about the projects or a lot of feedback, even the order. I'll be happy to get one freaking funded, whether it's ours or an NPO submitted one. Anne and I have been asked to give opinions at the NPO and will be
on the December 17. So we have to start making decisions what the NPO will submit. So if some it's a virtual meeting, so if some of you want to listen in or, you know, have be part of that, so you can hear it. That day, we've requested a complete explanation from VDOT on how transportation is funded in this state for everything. So we're going to get I don't know what it's going to look like yet or not, but we've asked for that, and VDOT said they're going to bring it to us and have a presentation on it. So everybody at the NPO and for those, we can understand how the dollars flow down from the General Assembly into VDOT and
then ultimately to the to the locality. So that's just an FYI. I am on the Barracks Road project because there was an iteration we saw, and it must have been an outdated design, or maybe it was I think it was a vdot slide when they gave the update a few weeks ago. But they had a crosswalk going across where where the two the on and off ramps are. Well, that's what I was talking about, is the crosswalk Yeah. Between the the last Not gonna be the cross. Oh, across across the barracks. Cross the barracks. Not across the entrance. That's And that would be What is that all now?
People up to be target. I mean, we'd be sitting down That's crazy world. Ridiculous. So, I mean, I'm I'm glad I don't see it in this iteration, but this is the iteration then because we would be submitting this as a county project, not the MPO. There there is a second project that, the MPO is looking at, which would be, the the, rate northbound ramp, exit ramp here. And I'm just I'm just trying to clarify that there were, dual lefts there Yeah. In a crosswalk, of course. Yep. And right now, these are all still preliminary concepts.
So I wanna emphasize that. I'm glad there's not a crosswalk in our crossbarics. We we will continue to discuss that. I would obviously defer to to to but, I mean, that's ridiculous. Yeah. We know that we can only fit pedestrian facilities under this bridge on one side of the of the, Barracks Road. So one way or the other, we have to make sure that all pedestrians can get to the side that has it. We're still trying to determine where any crosswalks would go, but that that's probably what you saw. And I just wanna emphasize,
these are concepts we're still working with, beat out with, and we'll bring the concern of a crosswalk at Barracks to them. Right. So some of the MPO projects will be the 5th Street again, some different variation of the DDI at the 5th at 5th 5th Street in '64. Mhmm. And then another new treatment and this is my point from earlier on Exit 118. We did these smaller approaches. Well, if they would have done the project the right way, what, thirty years ago Oh, yeah. We wouldn't have the issues now. Then we had another chance to do it right in a in a different project. We didn't do that because it couldn't get funded,
so we did a smaller piece. And now we gotta fix the smaller piece again. So we're in this continual cycle of doing these Band Aid fixes, and it's costing us millions of dollars to do fixes that effectively don't fix anything that have to be fixed yet again. I mean, it's it's kinda ridiculous, and I'm hoping that, I'll have an opportunity to say that maybe a little more succinctly with our state legislators when we meet with them on in December. And will you let us know when that virtual meeting is gonna be? I'd love to talk about that. Seventeenth at 4PM, I believe. December 17. Wednesday, that's when the MPO because it's December, of course.
Everything pushes forward. Four. But it's December 17, 4PM. And somebody will send us a link. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That'd be great. And it'll be on the the BBC's, website, but, we'll make sure that we send the the We we can send an invite to that. That would be great. To the BDC. Kevin, thank you. I'd like to join that as well. There's a couple of other things that would be and and this is not I wasn't expecting this today. I'm not expecting it by the end of the year. But we we as a board and and I had asked Kevin this related to the MPO, and I appreciate the response you gave back, about our own transportation priorities list.
Sometimes these projects come up at MPO, and Anne and I are don't really have the feedback or the input of all all the folks. We got staff, of course, of what they're working on. We all trust that that they're focused on the right things. But we really haven't contended with that transportation priorities list for a couple of years. And we have to because when when you're at the MPO trying to decide with how the state dictates what can be submitted and who can submit it, it's hard without that input Yeah. To to re we're working on old priorities or old opinions of of our fellow
board members. So I think we have to get at that. Now I know you're looking maybe at a different process. There's so many I mean, I don't know how to wrestle with it. It's up to 150 now, for God's sake. But between the public's interest, between the needs of that, between maybe advocacy or things that we want to talk to the general assembly about, we have to get our own head wrapped around you know, I've got opinions. I don't know if other people would agree, but there's certain projects that, you know, of course, I'd advocate that I'd want higher on the list or lower on the list. But at the end of the day, knowing everybody else's priorities helps us when certain projects pop up at at,
at MPO. Because that 5th Street Intersection DDI, frankly, I think is the number one project we'd like to see done in terms of significance. But, I mean, all of the ones that the MPO are gonna submit are important. All of the ones we're going to submit are probably not as important at others, but we're we're playing the game. We might be able to get these through. So then we're kind of putting off some other higher significant or some more significant, projects. The only other comments I wanna throw out there, I I'd because I don't think it's for smart scale or for anything immediate, but the now that we've acquired the right of way or the easement behind Home
Depot for the the possible Hillsdale realignment Okay. I'd love for us to start thinking about getting ready for that. There's still a small chunk that we have to acquire to have the full realignment done. But, eventually, that realignment would likely be a smart scale project. But it would be nice to get a couple of the other pieces in to start thinking about that. That's the type of conversation that happens with the transportation priorities list conversation. Mhmm. Yeah. Thanks. And I'll just mention that we, the study on 29 North that Alberic mentioned that VDOT is doing,
we have actually asked them to consider how that Hillsdale extension could fit into those alternatives. So we are starting that discussion now with them, and hope to, you know, start moving that project forward. Because, obviously, then that gets rid of how bad of a problem the Old Brook, Northfield, and Hillsdale intersections are in the two lights because that that that that project could maybe even solve some of that, particular issue. Yeah. The, in the meantime, if there are smaller light or programming things, like, I've like, there's not really a lot of RIO road stuff in here,
but if there's ways to get at it with light configuration or analysis, obviously, I'd be supportive of trying to work that in, because I know with the funding constraints that these other projects are taking priority over that that that, Old Brook North, Northfield intersection. But we're still having I mean, we have so many intersections that have got bad accidents there, and they're continuing there until we and if there's anything we could do to kinda help with it, I wanna advocate for that. In the, the Penn Park Road, there was something on here about a speed study. This was a question I asked Carrie the last time she was in front of
us. I mean, she's not sent the update yet, but I've been asking her and vDOT for this. I don't need a speed study. If you follow the rules of the signs right now, there's only about 30 yards that allow you to do the 35. So they just need to change the speed limit. Now I've made that opinion known to vDOT, but is this on us that we have to do something with this? I I've been waiting for them to come back and and and tell me what they have discovered. I mean, it's their signs with the curve and, you know, the with the school entrance and everything like that. You really can't legally do 35,
but for a very small section of that street. So it just from a I don't need a speed study to tell me that it's kinda ridiculous that it's 35 just based on the signage that's there. You you won't get any disagreement from us and that supervisor. And we are pushing vdot. It they are difficult to get to agree to, lowering speed limits, but, you know, we can take this your feelings to them, make sure that they are aware. They know my I mean, like I said, this was one that I asked Carrie just a month ago to to give me an update on. So we haven't got that update yet,
so I can follow-up with her on it. But I just wanted to make sure you all weren't that this somehow didn't fall back on you all to have to deal with because this is a VINET issue. Correct. Yes. Nobody here disagreed with that. And I made the point that the sidewalk now on Penn Park Road with Rio Point, coming on in 300 plus units, there could be a hell of a lot more people walking down where we have already put some infrastructure in place to get to Penn Park, they're gonna have infrastructure along Rio East, and then they're not gonna be able to walk into the park because, well, there's no sidewalks,
and then there'll be a lot of people driving really fast. Appreciate you saying this because it is it is what we're looking at. We we feel exactly the same as you do, and we'll continue to try and push these projects. When would be reasonable? I I don't know. I don't know if it'd be next year. And I don't expect that you all know or have the answer, but that transportation priorities list conversation, when might that be something that we would be that might make its way in front of the board? I've mited you to death on that. I I think that we are we are working with our, county executive's office and,
Jody Filardo are and trying to work out a a process for moving forward with that. Essentially, we we felt we needed to get through AC 44 before we could jump into doing that Agreed. Because it would it would give us feedback to to include in the, into the prioritization. So, we I think we've got something on the schedule actually for next week for internal discussions and see, we'll get back to you with some sort of schedule after that. Because the OECD forty four is wrapped up. You'd also mentioned this multimodal study, and I don't know the timing on that. Is that something that's been completed, or we're gonna wait?
That that is something that we're looking at, and and those two items may be tied together, the multimodal study and the prioritization process. So we're those are things that we have to discuss internally, but we will get give that information to you. Well, maybe after y'all discuss it, looking to Anne as well, like, I'd love to be able to get have some discussion before the smart scale applications, but it's sounding like that's probably not gonna be the case. So when you all kind of figure that out, if you could maybe just drop a note to the board so we knew when to expect it? Because I think it's something that everybody needs to weigh in on,
especially to inform how you MPO's got to submit some applications. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor, looking to improve. Oh, okay. So the MPO eligible projects, the county eligible projects, if I understand, supervisor Galloway correctly, our chances of getting all of them are Slimmed. Slimmed in okay. Zero. Okay. That's right. I like honesty. Our chances of getting one out of eight? Maybe. All I I would say one we've we've gotten one project every smart scale round at least. So,
we we have since since except for the very first round of smart scale. So, I think we can, I would assume that we can get one out of this, just based on history? Okay. And is that usually based on money? Absolutely. This is a, it it's about how much money goes into the the state the the state budget for smart scale. Right. How much money all the projects that are out there in the state cost and how much money hours cost versus the benefits of them. So knowing that that could be very problematic,
this is I can hopefully safely say that these are probably based on the price tag. My I guess what I'm asking is, as a board, should is it and I'm asking, I think, supervisor Galloway and and supervisor McKeel, is it better that we focus on one or two? I mean, none of these are in my district, but that's okay because, you know, these are all good projects. But would it be more helpful if we called it down to a couple? Would that give us a better chance or not?
I'll I'll try and answer it. It may if you have two projects that are competing against each other and they both end up with a very similar score. It one of our projects may knock another one out but we are also competing against all the other projects in Culpeper and all the other projects in the state. So, without us knowing for sure how well each one of these is gonna score because we don't have access to the full scoring method or how other projects might score. We tend to think that it is good to keep a a fairly good number
in there to increase our chances. Okay. So, but we're working with VDOT, and they do help us try and determine if something is worthwhile in in any sense to to move forward with. So we do look at that, but it's it is, there's a lot of factors that have to be considered and it it I think it is beneficial for us to at least have, you know, a a good number of projects to choose from. Hoping to get one. So it sounds like a real crapshoot. Okay. Woah. That's that's not very that that's depressing.
Well, piggybacking on what, supervisor Galloway said, if if we can do nothing else, either at the county level, I know I've been advocating for two fifty and twenty red light cameras. I've been, you know, squawking in the squawk box for that. I mean, maybe there are little things that we can do at different intersections that may help. That would be one that that I would like to see that's certainly not a smart scale. Yeah. But recall that we do have a smart scale project that would go into construction in the next year to,
completely rebuild that intersection. Right. Right. So there Right. It's coming up next year, and it was moved up. So I'm happy about that. But, would that be a county thing if we get a red light camera installed there? I I I support red light cameras. Yes. Okay. I think I it's always a good idea. I don't know. I think that's something we need to work with our legislature on still as But but I thought they were approved. Are they? I thought they were approved because we had one at RIO and Hydraulic, but, I mean, I thought those were approved. The one at Route 20 was the second approved site that we've never implemented during
the same time that the RIO, 291 was approved. We'll we'll follow-up and And if you can follow-up and try to get that more information. That I would appreciate. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So on page, one of the transportation planning quarterly report, at the bottom, item four, I just I don't know how this looks. Implement a through cut at US 250 Peter Jefferson Parkway Intersection. I didn't I mean, without a A a through a through cut prevents vehicles from going all the way across the
intersection. So you will no longer be able to go from Peter Jefferson Parkway across to the Glenorchy. Glenorchy. Yes. Or or opposite. And the reason that they're doing that is that, they they did traffic counts. They determined that Right. Very few vehicles do that movement, and you can make that move movement by other means. And by removing it, we can add additional signal time back to the more prevalent movement. So that's what the through cut is. I know Glen Orkey. I support that. I think that's that's fine.
So but from Peter Jefferson Parkway, you will be able to turn right or left. Correct. Okay. Got it. Okay. That answers that question. And I'm I'm just putting a bug in your ear for maybe the future, you know, like ten, twenty years down the road, to look to look at Gordonsville Road, a, a roundabout there. It's a spot market to help. Yep. It's we we have it on our list. We're aware of the Okay. Of the desire, and that will be something that would be considered in any prioritization that we, that we do. Got it.
Those are all my questions. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Prove. I'm I'm not sure I have any questions per se just to reflect that, before, you know, supervisor Galloway's very thorough comments that I would like to broadly support, I was I was thinking something similar. Right? Because I was looking, oh, we've kicked off a pipeline study at one of my most complained about parts of my district. Right? 5th Street Intersection over there by, by the new Wawa, which has only exacerbated what was already a problematic intersection, a fairly new intersection. It's going to be studying solutions for future smart scale projects for that smart scale
project to then fail for then us to, I suppose, probably implement some kind of minor stopgap in a place where we're already actually doing a VDOT level construction project that's just not going to address these issues. And it's it is exhausting thinking the amount of resources that are being thrown at a project without any of them going to fix the project. And I don't have a I don't have a normative solution that I'm throwing out, but, only to express that it's it's frustrating. Right? And this is something that I think rests primarily with the with the state level
and how they they implement these. But we've talked previously on this board about, during our comprehensive planning process, how, hey, it would be nice if we could reduce significantly on certain certain projects that planning level, if we could, start to have more just off the shelf implementable, schemes, to really cut that out and and actually deploy solutions without a a two year engagement and planning process. And it would certainly be exciting to see that level of agility in, in state level transportation planning.
And I guess we're not going to get there anytime soon, but, we live in hope. That's all I got. Thank you. I don't have any additional comments. I do, look forward to discussing this with the delegates and Senator at our meeting on legislative priorities. I'll make a quick comment on the materials. I know that they say November 2025, but there are a couple of references to a public hearing scheduled for 2025, and I don't know whether that happened or didn't happen because it wasn't updated on pages seven and eight. So at some point, it can be nice to know what We'll look into that.
Is that just on it's in your report. It has those dates? Yes. Okay. We'll we'll check that. Okay. Thank you. Supervisor Malouf? Thank you. Can I Question about you mentioned about Park Ridge Road? And I may have misheard you, and that's fine on me. I heard you say a speed study, but we've done numerous speed studies here. I was thinking about this street when, Jody's retirement announcement came out because I think the very first week she was on the job here, which is now six and a half years ago, there was a meeting in during COVID at the end of this road,
and there were hundreds of residents all standing as far apart as possible to try to come to this to find a solution for this. So what I took away from reading this thing was we're looking for money to do this study, and we are way beyond that. I mean, we've almost had a child killed. We've had a cat killed. We've had people totally disregarding everything about this road. And, so if there's a contingency pot that can pay the consultant to do the design for the traffic calming, that's that's right. But I will be very upset if we're looking for funding to do another speed
study when the last one qualified. I'll address two those two things. So we have identified funding to do a, to look at the actual solution for traffic calming on this road. We'll be working with a consultant just this week to get that scope finalized and move forward with the with the project. It will include a speed study per VDOT's request. And I didn't have it written down, but, what about the adoption of Eastern Avenue into the state system? That has been also lurking for four and a half years.
And I keep asking about that and never get an answer, so I assume that means there's nothing to be reported. Otherwise I think there is something to report there. I'll let Michael Barnes step up. Because the police can't do enforcement because it's not in the state system, and yet everybody's been saying next month, next month, next month. So Michael Barnes, director of planning. We need a fourth person stand up here, I guess, for you all. Yeah. I know that Frank Pohl is working with them. Apparently, they're paving the the Frank Pohl's the county engineer that's been working with the developer who still owns Eastern Avenue.
They're actually apparently doing paving coming up, if not this week, the next couple weeks. And that's probably one of the final steps they need to do to go through the punch list to bring that road into the state system. So this was the repair that they did the wrong elevation three or four years ago, and they did some half ass, pardon me, repair and didn't make a make and fix it right then. So they're now finally gonna fix it. That's what it sounds like to me. Okay. Well, thank you for that. I appreciate that. I won't go jump off a bridge on that one. And just, in reflection on what Ned was saying earlier,
brought me back to the situation for the hydraulic road grade separated interchange. The state was ready today 100% of the hydraulic road grade separated interchange. Our jurisdictional neighbor threw a roadblock in there, and instead of fighting to the death over it, we walked away. So, I mean, the company was ready to mobilize down the road. Phil Chiquette said over and over and over again, we are ready to move down there. Can you please do in this a meeting with people in their kitchens trying to get them to agree to do this? And they wouldn't.
So I guess my encouragement is we need to fight harder for things because it's never gonna get any easier than it is right then. Thank you. Mhmm. Mister Rosie Gollick? There, I'm not sure who to address this to, but it popped up at the MPO meeting. They're concerned about folks traveling into you know, after you pass the river, traveling south down 29, that there's the issue once you pass Wood Brook of cars in the right two lanes. Oh, crap. I gotta get over to the left two lanes to be able to go under the inter the interchange. And then the other direction coming off of Rial Road where you enter onto 29
North, there's people that then try to cross over to get to the Kroger. Uh-huh. I don't have any comments about the north one. I know that that's a battle, but people could just drive west over the interchange and take Bergmar to Kroger. It's what I do. Mhmm. It it it works. Mhmm. Like, the interchange works great for the railroad crossing. But driving in, I drove it the other day coming back from a meeting, and there's no signage until you pass Hilton Heights Road that suggests that you have to be in the left two lanes as you're traveling south, and the sign that is there is in the median.
So if you're in the two lanes that it would actually be helpful to see that sign, you can't see the sign. Then the sign that's on the right side of the road isn't there until you pass Woodbark Drive, and it's too damn late at that point. Before vDOT starts thinking about wild corrections of how to fix this problem, perhaps we could try some signage, probably before you even get to the river as you're traveling north, starts to tell people, get in these you know, start getting in your lane. And if you have from the river to Wood Brook Drive to start doing that,
it could probably be easily fixed without a lot of money and effort. I mean, I I I we probably don't like over 29 signs, but we have them in places. But that's gonna be a heck of a lot cheaper solution to do than if they started trying to do lanes. I don't know what they were thinking, but I I mean, it's just sniffs of a project that may not be necessary. If they really just do better signage that tells people coming into town like, the people that need to get to BW 3 or, like, to do a u-turn in Cartersbrook, they know coming down past,
Hollymeade that they gotta be over in those left lanes before they cross the river. They just know that. Well, all the people traveling into town that wanna go to UVA and JPJ and all that, well, they don't know that they have to do that. And they don't find out until they pass Woodbrook, and it's way too late. It's too late. So I would love for us to maybe brainstorm that because I think we can fix it with proper signage. And and then, like, Chuck, they were head I mean, they're I mean, I think they're starting to sniff at some sort of big project. Well, it's just to have something to do. It was infuriating me. So if you all could just put that on your radar,
because I think that that at least should be attempted before we start thinking of other major dollars to try to have to fix that problem. We're meeting with the the consultants for the STARS study in that area and VDOT next week, so we'd be happy to take that suggestion to them. And that was on my list also because going north, the signage needs to be at, Seminole Seminole Interchange because then you've got three or four stoplights to get over. I know people use it as a drag strip, and they fly up the right lane and then cut people off on purpose. But the notice we had think of 29 solutions when that construction project was going
on. We had wonderfully informative Oh, man. Where the businesses were, get in this lane for this exit, blah, blah, blah. Why can't we do that? And this whole issue would go away. So thank you for reminding me about that. Well, we had a leader with that the VDOT with Philip Schuchat that was willing to say, we're taking this project away from the city, and we're going to do it so we get it done. We had a a leader that was willing to do things, and there were other examples not that similar. But I'm just saying to get things done. And,
that's been lacking at the v dot level to some degree. I just, yeah, I just have a couple of things to say, and I'm gonna say them because I I have probably, what, six weeks left to say. But the state has underfunded transportation and education now for decades. Yep. And that's what we're seeing right now. And unless the state makes a commitment to fund education and transportation at the level it needs to be funded. We're going to be talking about this in the for the next ten years.
It's true. We have a new administration now, and I think many of us are hoping that some changes will come about. But people cannot expect to have low taxes and have all of the transportation projects and all the schools and education that they want. It doesn't work that way. At some points, people somebody has to pay for it. I'm just saying. And and I will move on too. One of the issues that we have in this community is we have the city and the county, and we've gotta start working better together in the urban area at least around transportation.
The the gridlock that we're seeing in the urban areas now is outrageous. And if we could work together better, for example, the city has promised us ten years ago that they would synchronize their stoplights to match ours. Has that happened yet? One of the reasons why we have the gridlock is because of the lack of signals and stoplights not talking to each other. That is ridiculous. It's Wackadoodle. So if the city and the county can can agree to work together and that's not staff's problem, that's the leadership in the two communities working together.
We it was predicted twenty years ago that if we didn't the city and the county didn't do something about their their intersections where we meet, we would be gridlocked in 2024. Yep. Well, let's look around at where we are right now. My voice is going up because I'm very frustrated. We are causing some of this ourselves, not just Albemarle, but we need to figure this out as a community and work together on it. And that means sometimes somebody's gonna have to pay for something. Having said that, we also need to get people out of cars
and onto transit. Now I don't believe that that's fair, and it would be fair to us to expect that transit's gonna take care of all of our problems. But in the urban area, it would take care of some of our gridlock, and we don't have a robust transit system. We have a transit authority, and I'm already hearing concerns about, oh, well, we can't raise taxes to pay for that. We can't do this. I wouldn't want the tax the money to come from this or that. At some point, we're going to have to figure out how to pay for a robust transit system if we wanna get people out of cars because not everybody can ride a bicycle.
I'm appreciative of bicycles, but most people can are able to ride a transit system in the urban areas. So we need to be providing that for folks. I am really on my high horse here. And I guess I will stop to just say that, we really need to be advocating at the state level, but our constituents need to understand that their taxes actually are pretty low if in fact we're going to do what they want us to do, which is to to,
create better, stronger infrastructure. We can't do it with the money we have, and we can reprioritize for decades and do one project a year. Smart Scale is what, Kevin, every two years? So we're talking about one project being approved every two years. Now you talk about wackadoodle. That ain't gonna work, folks. So with that, I'm gonna lower my temperature, and thank you for the for listening to me. Some water. Moving further. Thank you very much. Thank you, guys. And we will take a fifteen minute recess.
And you know I wasn't fussing. No. We're I'm sorry. I started too soon. It's it's okay. Okay. Good. Alright. Thank you, Kevin McDermott. I'm deputy director of planning, and I'm here today to give, the board an update on the Microcat program. The the purpose of this is really, if you'll recall, in October 2023, we started this, two year demonstration grant. So, the two year demonstration grant would have just come to an end. And so what I'm doing here is trying to give you all a recap of, how those two years went so that we can start to think about what the
future may hold. So, with that, I will jump in with a, to start with a, background. Here we go. So this all began back in 2022 with the Albemarle County Transit Expansion Study. It was not focused on, on micro transit. It was really just looking at how we could bring improved transit services to a number of areas around the county, including the 29 North area, Pan Tops, and some areas south of town. The result of that study though was, recommendation to look at micro transit for the Pantos area and 29 North as two
separate zones. You can see what those zones they were looking at are up on those maps. At that time, they estimated a total between the two of, the micro transit could probably generate about a 100 total rides a day. That's what was in the study. In 2023, we've made a, successful grant application for a demonstration grant from DRBT. The total amount of that was for $1,940,000 and that was a two year grant period. Keep pushing the wrong button. So in 2023, we did do a competitive procurement process and that resulted in hiring the company via
as a turnkey operator for the micro transit. The micro the service launched in on 10/30/2023. So like I said, we're exactly two years from that. The service hours were from are from 06:30AM till 9PM, Monday through Saturday. This is free transit, and it includes eight hybrid minivans that are in operation. I will also point out this is the current, service area that you see in the map there. It has expanded, quite a bit from what was initially proposed in the,
in the transit expansion study and includes all that area where, it says Berkeley there. That was not previously in it. So we extended it south and also, on Raya Road East. You can see that area was added to it. And, the other, improvement was that with the service starting, we allowed people to travel from one zone to the other, which was not in the original one. So they were they were gonna be relegated to one zone or the other, then we were able to combine those into, into, one zone all as one.
A little bit about the service performance. So we've been working with Via. We think that it does provide a really high quality service with high engagement and retention. You can see we've got, ninety two percent five star ride ratings. I know that we did hear from a a resident earlier today that had some issues. I think we're gonna be able to address that. We've already reached out to, to our representatives at Via and are looking into it. They're very responsive, so I think we'll be able to, deal with that. And you can see that we the high rider engagement, this is people that keep coming back.
The average rider is ten ten rides per rider per month. 79% of those return for a second for another ride later on and, less than point 3% complaints per ride. Some of the things and and I do wanna give, credit to our VIA representatives. A lot of these slides are from that. I know, some of these may be things that some people have seen, but I don't think everyone on the board has seen before. Every week when we meet with them, they give us some of the quotes that they've gotten either from their regular rider surveys or from their,
from the, app comments. And so you can see some of those there and some of the, the, supportive notes that people leave about this, about how they're using this for their work, the the valuable service it provides. You know, volunteering for their community gives them an opportunity to do that, despite the fact that they may be a senior citizen and don't drive anymore. So those are some of the benefits that this is offering. The service performance, this came out of one of their, rider surveys. 71% of the people that, use the service don't have a car.
It's a it's a limited, number of, respondents to this, but, they do these are the numbers they have. I think it was, like, a 100 people responding to their survey, and this is what they got. Seventy three percent earned less than 50 k per month, and forty percent reported having a disability. And you see some additional great comments there from some of the users. So the service data. As of the two year period, we have 120,060 rides that have been completed. As I mentioned, when we first started this, we thought we could get a 100 a day. This works out to be closer to about a 190 rides a day on average
over that period. So it's really impressive. And when you're looking at these two graphs here, what this shows is, how the increase in the service is or increase in this ridership is gone. We crossed the 100,000, mile mark back in July, and, it took us fifteen months to get to 50,000 rides, but then in only another seven months to get up to a 100,000. So the the interest really generated, and you see that in the chart below that. The green lines show the number of completed rides.
So what you're seeing there is you can see the number of completed rides go up and up, and then they kinda get to this point, in late twenty twenty four where they sort of plane off and, are kind of running running steady. The gray lines you see there, if you can't read the, the the legend, the gray are, seats unavailable for the so those are people that are reaching out to request Crest rides but are not able to get them because the the, vehicles are all being used and it would wait to it would take too long for them to get to it. So, I'll talk a little bit more about that here in a minute.
Some of the, top origins and destinations, you can see them on this map. Walmart is the is our, our con contractor has told us is really the most popular, destination in every market they work in. That is seems to be by far the the highest. You see a lot of people coming from Molside Forest Courts Apartments. You can see going down the list. So people are going from their homes into these, to get to grocery shopping or jobs, anything like that. That's how this is being used. I just wanted to highlight this because I think this really tells a story as
we think about the future of transit. This is with those points removed from the map, what you're seeing here are the direct lines of the call of the completed rides. So someone calls from a place and gets a ride to another place, and that's what you see. And I think it's important for us to recognize that where these rides are all going, it's going up and down 29. And I think that really speaks to what we should be looking at when it comes to, fixed route service. So these people are really trying to get right up and down that 29 corridor.
It seems to be very obvious. And the the, the the highest density right here is around the, Stonefield area right in the southern just north of the city. So it really sorts when we first started this, I think we talked a little bit about how this could show us places where maybe fixed route would be feasible. Well, this this map kinda starts to get to that. There are some limitations on the service. I just wanna make sure that you all understand that. So the, the budget that we have allows for three eighty driver hours per week.
This top chart shows the blue line at 380 and the the blue lines going up and down, the darker blue lines, that's how many hours those drivers are working every week. So it fluctuates, but the average for our contract allows them to work a, average of three hundred and eighty hours per week. And this kinda gets back to what I pointed out earlier with the, unfulfilled rides or or when we cannot meet demand. We really topped out at the amount of demand back in,
early twenty twenty five, late twenty twenty four, and that's why you sort started to see that playing off and started to see these higher levels of unmet demand. That's because we just don't have enough, drivers on the road that we're allowed to fund by a budget, and that's how you end up by with, unmet demand. We sort of started, we we stopped advertising for this service because realistically, we couldn't fit any more people on this. We were doing what we could with what we had. So there really wasn't any any necessity to to continue advertising the service.
It's doing great on its own, but that's just one of the limitations we have. We do work with them to address that. What you're seeing here is, just some samples of time of day. So similar to the last chart, the green is the, or the completed rides and the gray shows you, the unmet demand. That happens at all times during the service day. So, the peaks are here in the, in the early afternoon. And then what, working with VIA, what they try and do is they try and match their driver's driver hours to
the, to the peak demand. So this white blue line here shows you, where the the out driver's hourly are going, and then, you can see that this is by time as well starting at six in the morning and going up to, eight in the evening. The blue lines are the requests that come in. So you can see the high number of requests are coming in around the, two to four range or two to five range and that's when we have the most drivers out there. So at this point, we're really maximizing what we can do with the amount of drivers we have on
the road. Looking into the future, I just wanna make sure that you are aware. The the grant did end with the, if the well, some of the the money may have been expended, but the two year grant period ended at the October. We have worked to extend that contract through to the '26. There is still one additional contract extension available with Via if, if that's something we're interested in the future. And some of the things we're looking at once again to kind of get at the idea of,
maximizing the amount of rides we can provide with the number of drivers we have or with within our budget is that we're working with, Garland right now on incorporating the the GTFS feed, which is the real time, trans fixed route transit, routes. So what we're doing with that is we can use VIA's app to include the re the transit lines and when they're gonna be at different bus stops, and we can start offering peep to give rides to people that will connect them
to the transit directly. So they'll be able to see how they can put their whole ride together that would include something like a, a ride on Microcat to get to a bus stop and then be able to transfer to the bus more seamlessly than they can right now. So that's what the GTFS speed is. What we really wanna see with that is that gives us the ability to alter the service so that instead of being this premier service, which is really what we're providing, door to door service for free, this could be something that we can move into more of a first mile, last mile opportunity.
So that what it's really doing is just giving people to connect to fixed route service, and that reduces the the load on our, on our micro cap budget by doing that. So some of the things that we're gonna continue to look for, of course, they did even say, Via does have the ability to push people to, transit routes. So they can say within the app, they can say, we're not gonna give you a ride all the way your to your destination. We will give you a ride to the bus stop because you're gonna be able to get there faster that way. So that is some one of the options we're gonna be looking at.
I think we're gonna be able to incorporate that right at the beginning of the New Year. And then, of course, there will be a discussion on the future of the service up in the upcoming budget discussions. We didn't wanna get into that today. I think that's something that has to be thought about in the in the complete picture of what you guys are looking at. But, just wanted to make sure that you had this context going into that. With that, that's the end of my presentation. I do have have, Ryan Davidson and Garland here. If you have questions about this, the three of us have been working together with this team to really keep this, keep this program on track.
So we're all here and available to answer any questions. Thank you. And we'll go through our order, starting with the supervisor in the queue. Yes. Thank you, Kevin, and I appreciate the information. So the takeaway for me right now is that we're providing, of course, this service for free between now and the end of the year, 'twenty six. The Board will be discussing how MicroCap might move forward or how it informs our transit system going forward. Yeah. Right.
Yeah. That's the intent here. Just give me some of the information as you enter it. And I remember that you said to us very early that we would be able to see, at the end of the day, where people where people lived and where the need was, that Microcap would inform a lot of our work for fixed route, which is what I think I'm seeing here. So help me understand the one question that I do have. Help me understand a little bit, and I don't I know we don't wanna get into the monies, and that's fine today. I don't have a problem with that. But I know the usage at Albemarle High School is really big from the Albemarle
High School students. And I'm always interested in schools and students and what's going on with our schools and trying to figure that out. Matter of fact, Ned and I met, I don't know Ned, back last late or last winter or early spring with students from Malamar High School who were very concerned about transit. Right? So I'm just trying to figure out the what my takeaway from that meeting was that the students were using Microcat, at least some of them in that meeting, and it was just a few kids, so it was not exactly a good sampling.
But to MicroCat, they were using to go to jobs after school when they needed to get somewhere and they didn't have access to a bus line. My sense is that they're also using it in the mornings, and I don't know that. And, Carlin, can you just come up and help me a little bit with because I think it really is important. I just like to understand the school use a little bit better, if you can help us with that. And I will say, as you all are standing there, Loaves and Fishes are they are just delighted. This service for Loaves and Fishes has been a game changer.
But go ahead, Garland. Garland Williams, director of Charlottesville Area Transit. I kind of want to make sure that everybody understands that when we first looked at how the original outline, it did not include the high school. Right. So when we expanded that, we gave it an opportunity for students to take advantage of the rise in getting them to the high school. We didn't know how well that was gonna be received. It turns out to be really well received, and they're using it as a a means to get to school early in the morning. There are ways that we potentially could look at modifying the route itself if you
wanted to do that, but, it's more on the lines of, you can actually geocode out the high school if you wanted to at a particular time in the morning, and then allow it in the afternoon. So there are all kinds of things that we can do if you consider that to be a an issue where we we want to kind of modify the amount of services that are going to that so we can use it for the, you know, more of a general population. But those are more of the policy concerns that we would have to work through with this board and your, and your senior staff.
And I guess my question overall is, are the students using MicroCat in the morning to go to school before school? Are they going really early and they're trying to get to something before the buses run the school buses run? So what I'm just trying to sort it out. One of the great things about working with Via is they have these great software opera, options that we can dig into. And so because I've heard this, and this has been a concern that we've talked about a lot because as you saw on that or I I think it was on that list that the, the school is one of the top origin destinations in the county.
So I went and looked into this, and I can separate out by time of day, by everything, by time by day of week when people are doing this. What I did notice was that if I were to, just pull out the hour before school starts and the hour after school hour before school starts and hour after school starts, there's very few rides going in at that time out of the whole makeup of the rides that are going in there. So what you are seeing is that there are people coming in at off hours
or leaving at off hours, not when school starts. There's a lot of there's a lot of fit ways we could look at this. And I was I would say I was only looking at this the first month of of school this year. But, what I did see was that I I I don't think that there's a significant number of students that are that could ride a yellow bus and are choosing to ride this. It looks like what you're seeing is a lot of people that are using it for things like slightly off hours. So maybe they get to school late or can leave school early.
It could be a lot of employees out there as well. But, from digging into it, and I'm happy to share this with share some of the information that I pulled out of there because I did see numbers. I don't think that the that that using it to replace a yellow bus is a significant issue. That's really helpful on knowing how it's being used and why. Right? And I will say just Garland, did you wanna add anything else here? I think Kevin's right, but I think, anecdotally, you would probably look at it as and I think he hit on this. Because of the timing, you can actually pull down and see geocodes.
They probably use it sometimes when they miss the bus, to get to school. So I don't know if we wanna necessarily do away with that because we want the kids to get to school. Yeah. But I I would say, we looked at that time frame too, and I didn't see a significant rush before. But we do see more I do see more numbers after school, which is what you talked about. And I think maybe that is because of activities after school, and they're trying to get home, or maybe they're going to jobs, or maybe they have activities after school, and they need a way to get home after those activities. But those are all things that,
you know, on a policy level, we just need to discuss. That's really helpful because I've been trying to figure out the Almar High School piece because it has been such a big portion of the usage. Great. And I just have to say, because, again, I'm a short timer, and I'm gonna take advantage of every minute that I have at some of these last meetings. But the Lamb's Lane campus, which I have always called my LLC, the Lamb's Lane campus traffic right now, for those people that don't drive over there and never go over there, it is appalling.
The schools right now are not are having to schedule meetings around the traffic. The principals can't do certain things at certain times because the traffic is so bad that they can't get people in or out of the meetings. That's not acceptable. And the people that live down Lamb's Road can't leave their houses now between 07:30 in the morning and 09:15 in the morning because of the bus traffic and the traffic from the people dropping their kids off.
So we I mean, it is a nightmare over there. We have got to figure it out, and that gets to, I don't know, working with school buses. Working with transit. I don't know what, but I do know, Garland, that when you go down Georgetown Road, the bus makes a right onto hydraulic, but it doesn't make a left onto hydraulic. And so we have a transit desert along hydraulic and look at all the apartment buildings that Ned and I have along there, and they don't have any access to transit.
I'm taking this opportunity to just remind people of some of this. It is worth going out there at 08:30 or 08:45. Ned experiences it a lot at the traffic. Now I know that we have a some traffic, proposal that we are gonna be improving some of the but that's not going to help with the 200 school buses that are accessing that campus every so often. I'm not gonna say daily, but certainly a lot. And the lines that are being created by that use because there's one entrance in
and one entrance out right now. I don't know if, Kevin, you can speak to that or if I'm just up here rambling out of frustration, but it is a nightmare over there in the mornings. I'll just remind the board that we did, work with schools on, that evaluation to look at their master plan proposals for the loop road. Those are still things that we're considering for some, future, transportation funding, opportunities to look at how that loop road, which could reduce it removes the single point in and single point out question from
this. So, it's something that we're going to continue to evaluate. The project we have right now is, focused. Yeah. It's on hydraulic. It does make some intersection improvements, but it is also focused on some bike ped improvements out there. So And that's needed as well. And I'm saying this because I'm not gonna be around, but that master plan that includes that loop road has to be implemented. And I just don't want it to be a book on a shelf because it's only going to get worse out there as time goes by. Anyway, with that, I don't have any more questions.
I appreciate it. Thank you. I'm really gratified at the success of the ridership, and I look forward to learning more details about how it could successfully take people to transit because I think that was how we got started to begin with. It wasn't necessarily funded to be a free ride for anybody anywhere they wanna go. But I'm glad it's raised the awareness of everybody that it's available. So I look forward to your next round of reports on what you've learned and how you can master it. And I guess gone are the days where the students would ride the bus Yep.
Period. And not be because now that we have fully staffed bus drivers, it seems like we need to get kids back on the bus. And I know that during the recession, there was no legal authority to require, parents to either pay or to sign up one way or the other. But now I think somehow that's evolved to it. If they don't register to use the bus, then they can't get on the bus halfway through the year. But somehow, there has to be a better way to be able to plan because it's not a good use of resources or staff or anything else to be able to be
having buses with only half of seats filled when, there are plenty of kids getting a ride to school with mom along the way. But this is exciting stuff, and hopefully, someday, more of them will be taking the real transit bus in the urban area to school. That'd be good. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Galloway. Yeah. I'm I mean, I'm not shocked by the success and the numbers and the positive feedback. I hear it every month because I've got several CAC members who use it, And they used it from the get go. And they're also excited in thinking to the future of when it connects them to
a a working, functioning fixed rep. So it's already based on how it's being used with its current limitations. I mean, you know, the geographic boundaries we put on it, you can already tell that they're like, Yeah, we could see how this could work with a fixed route. It's just gone are the days of people going from the mall to the downtown or the downtown to the mall. So we had a Michael and those folks spent a lot of time with the CAC there a month ago, and we were talking about well, what the heck was the topic? I'm not even I'm sorry. I went up on it. But we were talking about the Rio 29 area.
We were talking about what was it? Form based code. Oh, that's right. Form based code. But it also started to talk about how 29 from Stonefield out I mean, you could really say all the way out to Target is really kind of becoming like a main street. And all the people that live off of 29, MicroCalc, if you had a a bus route that was fixed that just went from Stonefield to Target, similar to you all downtown to 5th Street, because I know that going to Wegmans is your pop is a popular route, and and not thinking necessarily that it has to go into downtown. And then you have to think of commuter routes differently than the daily use type
stuff. So I'm excited about the when it when we get to the point to think about how the fixed routes could work. Because it it it I always knew it could inform it, but if you had a 29 route, and then you had a figure eight route with Burke Mar and hydraulic, it could really kind of be exciting. And the figure eight and the the fixed route are what the students at the high school were talking about. Because high school's very different than your middle school and your elementary school. I think we all know that. Based on there's just other things kids are involved with at the high school level
that if you're bus you have to take the bus home at the end of the school day. Well, most kids aren't done at the end of the school day. Most kids have got things that they're going to do at least part of the school year. So they need to stay till 05:00 or 06:00. So how else are they going to get home if they don't have a car or they're not getting picked up? I frankly do not care who's using MicroCat. If it's being used and it's successful, that was the point. And that means that we got six people in a car versus one person per car. And that was part of this piece. So I don't care if they're students or senior citizens or anybody in between.
Right? It it it's just about making people be able to move around without having to drive themselves. And I think it gives a freedom, and an independence. And it's fascinating how to think about how it gives independence to a 15 year old versus giving independence to somebody. Like one of your comments that said, I don't I can't drive a car anymore, and this gives me a freedom to be able to exist and and move around. It's a similar problem, can't drive my own car, and then different ways to move around the system. So I'm I'm thrilled about that and thrilled about that success.
I know this is going to cost us something, but, you know, I've become fond of sealing supervisor Pruitt's point when he talks about housing sometimes where he says, look. This is a fixable problem. Who's gonna pay for it? So transit because we you know, the city and the county do talk a good game about wanting to get rid of cars off the road, and we wanna have functional systems and all that. We we talk a hell of a game about it. But when it comes time to put our money where our mouth is, we gotta have to step up. And I know that gar you know, I see Garland kinda, you know, smiling at that. But, I mean, you know, it can't be thirty minute stops along 29.
It's gotta be fifteen minute stops. Because otherwise, if you take the MicroCat, which is working well, and then they go to a fixed route that's not, then, well, they're gonna stay on MicroCat and wanna go does curve to curve. So I get all that. The other thing that I'll add in here that'll be interesting to see when we can start maybe expanding the geographic areas is a lot of the economic development data is showing that our area is not just the people come into the center of town to work and then go home at night. You have people coming into the center of town to work, but you have people from the center of town going out of town to work.
So your morning commute is both both ways in the morning and both ways in the evening. So, you know, like, the Acton Express works great around the hospital piece, but we're gonna start having people from Culpeper, I'm sure we already do, that commute in and thinking about, well, wow. If they could commute in and do a commuter route to Target and then had a fixed route that could get them or MicroCap moving them around in the appointment centers between Pan Tops and all of that, it really could help with some of the congestion of it. But, man, this is not going to be cheap, is it, Garl? But, I mean, I hope that CARTA and all of the different people working on the university system,
the school system buses, I mean, I've sat here and theorized. How much is a school bus these days? Like, $300 or something? I forgot what the number is. Electric or delta you have. So and if I remember, the diesel ones were still, like, $1.80 or 200. Well, these Toyota Siennas, they probably cost $40.50? $60. $60 now? I guess because they're outfitted with the with the the the ADA stuff. But if I could get 6 so 60 is a 120. So you could maybe get three or four Toyota Siennas outfitted for ADA, could replace one school bus, and it's probably more effective and is attuned to people's day modern living these days
than a fixed route school bus is going. So it could be a way to get rid of school buses, and that's a big expense in our CIP. So, I mean, I'm just, you know, I'm out there. At the end of the day, I can tell you that, one of the you know, it's nice because we you know, when you hear residents come up, that it's just not been my experience prior to MicroCat to have regular were you just gaffling the bug? We have a bug over here. Like, holy crap. I'm about to say something good, and he's gabbling me now. I got it. She got it. I just got it. Is it that wasp that's been fired around us? To get it.
Sorry. But prior to Microcat I did just I mean, you get nice compliments here and there. We certainly get our issues that get brought to us by our constituents. But this is the thing that I consistently and regularly hear excitement, gratitude, from constituents about being used in my RIO 29 area. And with the onset of the both the VISTA 29 coming online, with the old red roof in, and the residents that we're going to be assisting there to move to permanent housing,
and their need to be able to move around to the different parts of Rio, with the city's purchase of where they've purchased an area that is going to help with permanent supportive housing for homeless stuff just down the road, because I know Microcat doesn't serve that area yet, but there's going to need to be functional transit to help support all of that, or we're just going to invite new issues in a different place. And if we can give people viable ways to move around and go to Walmart to work, to go to mall Walmart to shop, etcetera, then that's going to help the bigger issues that I know sometimes can can, concern folks.
I did have one question. The food line that you mentioned, was it Hillsdale, Pan Tops, both? It, the Pan Tops one didn't show up as a high, is a high usage one. The one on Hillsdale, Hillsdale and Branchlands, I think it is. That that one did Yeah. But also the one up in the northern in Hollymeade. Sure. Those were both showed up as high. I don't know which one it was that was listed as one of the top destinations, but they both are pretty heavily used. I mean, the the you know, I know that you you you'd mentioned mall side in there, but I'd also think about folks along Commonwealth as it as places,
even the students back there, happy probably to walk. But if it's a rainy day or a cold day or exceptionally hot day, then maybe they jump on MicroCat to be able to take it as well. But I I see so many people walking from Food Lion back across Rio Road with bags. And I I there's just we're so far away, I know, from ever having a fixed route that makes that a functional piece where the walk has to happen, and MicroCat's the solution. And, I know they're grateful for that. Thank you, guys. Supervisor Lapisz took care of. My understanding is that we don't have,
a long 29 of fifteen minute buses coming every fifteen minutes, is it every half hour? Is it more than that? Currently, CAT doesn't have any service that functions, beyond Walmart, o '29. But there are plans. We've been looking at a number of, potential enhancements, and we're talking through those. Those will be part of the budget, discussions, I assume, in the future. So we'll be able to report back as to, you know, where we intend to go. Okay. So you'll be coming back to us with a report saying what you're proposing along
'29 for a fixed bus route and then also if you're including any other additional microcat buses. Trucks. On my side of the house, we were going to be talking about the fixed route, and I will have him I will be having discussions with, with Kevin and the team about, your microcat? Because I think you're hearing that microcat is very popular. So let's see what we can do. Thank you so much. That's all. Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt? Those previous comments kind of lead in pretty well to what I was thinking. And I must confess, I feel like this snuck up on me.
And I'm wondering if anyone else feels like this. But I might have assumed that as we're getting toward the end of our pilot period of MicroCap that we would be, you know, at the point we I have talked several times. I know other members of the board have talked about, oh, what are the ways that we can shape this program for the future, right, as we start to have to think more seriously about cost? What are the cost containment measures or the ways that it can be structured to be more sympathetic and integrated into fixed route systems? What are the ways that we might do means testing?
Or what are the ways that we might do even a fair system or a a way of containing what types of rides? All these things. Right? And I might have expected a decision point or, like, a selection of alternatives before we would end the pilot period. And I'm realizing I'm not sure there's going to be a strong element of path dependence because we are already in the process of getting ready to budget for the future, right? Like mister Richardson, your team is if they're not already, in the weeds looking at the,
2027 budget. Right? Like, we we are months out and don't have time for a decision point before then and now. I I see that you've stood. So please go ahead. Ryan Davidson, deputy chief of budget. I just wanted to clarify one thing with the the the, grant program. The grant program was set up as a two year demonstration grant with one year being fully funded with a a county match portion and then the second year being full being a full county obligation. Fortunately, we were able to go out for an RFP that had a lower cost than what the initial, assumption was in the grant and plus based on the timing and,
conversations with DRPT, we were able to stretch that grant to kind of two years, almost two years worth of grant funding. And then the current budget in FY 2026 that we have in our current budget is set up to be that fir that final year of that this is 100% on the county's dollar. So we haven't technically fully gotten out of the demonstration grant period that you're talking about. So all these things you're talking about could be part of that larger transit discussion when we look at it as a holistic nature as we get into the budget conversations. One of the things we did do was,
do a a minor extension of the contract through the end of excuse me. Through the end of calendar year. Excuse me, through the end of, fiscal year 2026 so that when we're having these conversations and we're talking about these things that would have budget implications, the contract lines up with, the timing of those budget conversations. So we're not having to have off cycle budget conversations related to microcat and then another conversation about cat and jaunt during the budget cycle. So we've tried to align all those things so that we can have those those holistic conversations during the budget, period, budget development period.
Okay. Well, yes, my concern was just I did not want to be in a position where we've kind of already the budget is a big exquisite document, and it comes with itself a lot of assumptions. Frankly, the assumption of how many things are going to change significantly. I don't think that's unfair to say. And I didn't want to be considering how we're going to structure a $1,000,000 a year program in a way where we can't actually move a single Jenga block without toppling the thing or we have to do zero based budgeting with how we're moving it around. So that was why I was assuming there might be an iterated phase,
but I appreciate your point. Thank you. And for me, you know, I sit on the RTP, I sit on Carta, I sit on the TJPDC, and I sit here. I get a lot of presentations about Microcat. I've I've asked many questions. Carlin knows how, what some of my specific concerns are, and and so I don't wanna get into that. I I do just wanna say, you know, I think reflecting back to supervisor Galloway at the point that he made, I think it will be we can talk in abstraction all day long. There's going to be a rubber hits the road when we actually have to start making policy decisions on this. And And I don't say that as someone who is opposed to Microcat.
I say that as someone who wants the the highest number of deliverables as far as, vehicle rides to places people need to go and whatever the right mix that gets there. I will say something that I've been consistently pleased and surprised with as we started to get the data is that, you know, I mentioned means testing. We're not means testing, but the results almost feel like we are. The the number of people who are using this service who, you know, to speak in in broad generalizations, quote, truly need it is actually a significant percentage. Right? It's a significant percentage of the elderly.
It's a significant percentage of people without means. It's significant to include students who are people without means. And so I've I've been impressed and surprised and pleased by that. I would also just, this is something that's tickling in the back of my brain. Right? When I when when I think of big picture, transit, projects in the future and as we're thinking about Carta, it my my secret kind of Pollyanna hope has always been, you know, I think one of the things that we can partner best with on the university side is is around transit. My secret Pollyanna hope is always a transit system that looks like Blacksburg,
where we have a unified transit system and the the state pays for it through the university. That that is such an optimistic thing, but it's it's something I want to lean into. I've been a little nervous with the change in leadership and how that might shape those futures. But, I am curious if you have been in conversations with university leadership about whether or not there's kind of comparable or sympathetic programs to Microcat. Right? Like, I'm thinking a lot of universities have the, are you a woman who, is afraid of interactions on public transit,
and it's late at night? Here's how to get home. Are you drunk and outside of our traditional transit catchment areas, and you need around home services that are free of charge? The university, as my understanding, has reached out to Via, but they actually have a, I think they call it a safe ride program that uses similar style vehicles at night. But, because they sit on the RTP and they sit on they they come to the Carter meetings, they're aware of the success of the MicroCap product. And we are having conversations because a lot of the students wanna take advantage of
the MicroCap product. They can't do it right now because it does not go to the university, or go to grounds. I'm I'm lucky. So we're we're trying to work through that, but I think the real push is that the students, going back to you earlier, if we can get as many people as we can onto the fixed route, then we're not, having this in stock mode, we've got a a bubble that, you know, we we knew that was picking up demand. There's further picking up demand. The the more we expand this the your micro cap product, the more people are gonna be interested in using it.
That's not a bad thing. It's just an expensive thing. So my goal has always been to make sure that we have the most robust public transportation system fixed route that we can. And as soon as we can get that accomplished, I think we can potentially pull back on some of the the ancillary products that we have or even shift them to areas that don't have, any transit services today. But that's more of a a policy decision, and it's gonna take some time to work through that. I'm not sure where you're in a position to have that conversation right now,
but it's something that we probably need to start. Thank you. This is, congratulations on the success of this. I feel like this question must have been answered, and I missed it, or it was in other presentations. But it seems the obvious one. You've got seats unavailable on the charts. Well, supervisor Galloway says, yeah, I'd love it. Everybody's riding. I don't care who's riding. I'd like to know that they're riding, but their seats are unavailable. How do you decide who what happens to those people? How do they end up being unavailable? There I think there's a limit to how long they will, schedule a ride out in time.
So if if they, if all their vehicles are busy on rides and they don't have anybody that they could double that up with and they can't get to that person within, I think it's, like, twenty five or thirty minutes, somewhere around there. They say, it's thirty minutes. Okay. So thirty minutes, they say, we can't give you a ride. You're gonna have to call back later or find another way. So sometimes they may wait, and they may wait ten minutes, fifteen minutes, and try again. But, that that's what that's seen unavailable means. But that's still basically a queue. And if you didn't get in the queue soon enough,
you're out of luck because it's not a prioritized by need in any way. Correct. Okay. Just want to make sure I understand that because I think, obviously, we have a situation where there's demand that exceeds supply, and there's no current method that prioritizes who gets the rides other than who got the call first and happens to fit in the schedule. And that's something that I hope can be addressed to make the system more sensible. Any other additional comments? I do. I just want to remind folks,
in my world, and I was the chair of the Virginia Transit Association for and on that board for years, there is not a transit system that really pays for itself. We have to remember that. And I'm talking about across the country. They do not pay for themselves, but there are other reasons why you provide transit for your community because it reaps benefits in many other ways, and I won't go through that. But I would also say that think about what a perfect world it would be if we could have built a a pedestrian bridge that went from Stonefield
to the other side of 29, from the county to the city, and had, actually, a transit stop provided on the other side of that bridge. We're building a petty bridge, and there's no transit stop provided on the city side of that bridge. That is a loss. Now maybe we go back and figure it out, but when we're building something like that and planning for it, we ought to be thinking about the because it's a lot easier to go for it to at the beginning than to be adding it later. And that that, transit stop would be and could be very,
very beneficial for the people that are trying to move across that that highway. The other thing I would remind people about is we have five transit systems in this community. To get to Mike's point, five transit systems, and I count them as, Jaunt, CAT, UTS, and then we have two school systems. And the school system buses in the urban ring are passing each other and following each other down the road. Surely, we can do better than this, folks. And I've been talking about that for twelve years. And we used to have meetings with the city about how to get that
that urban school bus situation straightened out because they're passing each other in the neighborhoods. And I guess those comments will just have to, hopefully, you all will start thinking about in the future, taking some of those comments to heart and thinking about how we can end up in this community with, as Mike says, one transit system like other communities have. And I'm even including the school systems in that because there are communities that do that. Thank you. Thank you. And I'm also going to add, just because the question, you know,
issue comes up about subsidies. And I agree that this has to be subsidized. But at the same time, I haven't seen from the get go really a discussion of cost per mile and alternatives. I know that VIA is doing a great job. But ultimately, that's got to be part of the equation as to see what we're paying and what the alternatives would be to subsidize other methods. So thank you. This brings us to from the County Executive. Is there anything to report today? Mr. Chair, I do not have a formal presentation.
I will have that at the November 19 meeting. I did want to bring two things to the attention of the Board and the Board is super responsive with your e mail invites, but both of these have quick turnaround. One is in your inbox from Ms. Kilroy earlier today, a invitation to attend an IMSA conference that will be at Boar's Head and that will be on the morning of of November 18. And that is tied to our partnership with the University of Virginia, our Department of Defense intelligence community,
and, the National Security Institute that is at UVA. There will be a nice reception and gathering on the morning of the eighteenth, and I would ask for the board to pay attention to that. And then also Ms. Kilroy sent earlier today an email and it is a chamber event that will be on the evening of the nineteenth. And ordinarily, there would be a standing conflict with the board because that is your board meeting. But ironically, we just have a short evening, on the nineteenth, and that's where miss Kilroy is just asking for the board's attention.
And I believe she's got a really quick turnaround on that. It may be Friday of this week. So I'd just like for the board, if you I just don't want you to miss an opportunity if it's something that works with your schedule. I believe it's a business awards ceremony through the chamber that evening on the nineteenth. Ms. Kilroy also said she'll be very good in the future about trying to work with the chamber as they try to do, I'm sure, with city standing board meetings and the county's board meetings. And I know they have a lot to consider. That was front of mine this afternoon,
Mr. Chair. I also, had an opportunity last week to go with Bart Savoda, our assistant, director of community development, to my national conference at Tampa, ICMA, first time it's ever been held in Tampa. I know they've had NACo in Tampa. I found it to be an excellent host city site, 5,000 city county managers from across The United States, Canada and Europe with the council manager form of government. Mr. Svoboda and I divided up the itinerary, and we both had nice continuing education.
I would like to publicly thank Trevor Henry and Ann Wall for doing such a wonderful job in my absence last week. They worked really hard. And, of course, we try to take opportunities for continuing education, and Bart had a wonderful time. It was great being down there and learning from practitioners and also really good speakers from across the nation. I'd also like, board several board members mentioned in your opening remarks the work, that you've seen, with our police department and the work going across going on.
Ms. McKill mentioned October 18. Our police and fire did a really good job on October 18. And I'll also point out that that day was also, a university football game. So there was a lot going on in the community. Mr. Henry, I know, was tied in really hard that Saturday to both work with police, fire, coordination with the city, coordination with the university, and, you know, knock on wood, everything went really well. And then finally, I I also wanna thank all of the supporting departments, who worked really hard to make sure that our elections went well yesterday.
I'm really proud of the supporting departments, that went in. Our information technology department, which they get overlooked sometimes, certainly our public safety departments. Mr. Henry, again, was involved with police and standing up a plan and monitoring to make sure that we had safe and secure sites. But across all the departments, they they they know we need to do whatever we need to do cross departmentally to help our election folks and make sure that our community and our our citizens come in and get a good experience.
And then I think one of the board members mentioned our volunteers, that they're amazing. And so that's it, Mr. Chair. I just had a couple of things for the board that I thought was timely. Thank you. Thank you. Board, we'll go to the from the board, committee reports and matters not listed on the agenda. But of course, I can also include comment on the report we just heard. Thank you. So supervisor McKeown? No, I think I've said a lot today. Okay. Supervisor Malek? I'm all set. Thank you. Supervisor Galloway? I'll just say thank you to, I know, the staff that worked on the all CAC meeting. I found the information presented there helpful,
and I think the CAC members did as well. So just, kudos to them that, pulling that together. So thank you. Nothing. Thank you. I'm going to jump in here just because of the follow-up on that is that I noticed in this week's news that there's a Ravenna Future's brief newsletter, and I'd like to highlight that. And I'm not sure what the link is directly, except that there's a long one. I'm not sure if there's a short way to get there. But it's something that I think people would be love to subscribe to it. So this periodic I don't know how periodic, but I still was excited to see it.
And then of course, there was also news about additional funding for and activities surrounding pharmaceutical manufacturing education institute. And any information on that would be greatly appreciated as well. So thank you. And with that, we need to go into closed meeting. And Supervisor Burke, may I? Yes. I would like to move that the Board of Supervisors convene a closed meeting pursuant to Section two point two zero two(three thousand seven hundred and eleven) of the code of Virginia first under subsection one to discuss and consider appointments to various boards and
commissions, including without limitation the fifth and AVON Community Advisory Committee, the Pantops Community Advisory Committee, the Places twenty nine North Community Advisory Committee, and the Places twenty nine Rio Community Advisory Committee, second under subsection eight, to consult with legal counsel regarding specific legal matters, including the June 2025 cybersecurity incident requiring the provision of legal advice by such counsel and, third, under subsection 19, to discuss plans to protect public safety as it relates to specific cybersecurity threats or vulnerabilities, including the June 2025 cybersecurity incident and briefings by staff members,
legal counsel, law enforcement, or emergency service officials concerning actions taken to respond to such matters. Second. We have a motion from Supervisor Pruitt, a second from Supervisor Malek. Without objection, if the clerk will call the roll. Miss McKeel? Yes. Mister Pruitt? Aye. Mister Andrews? Yes. Mister Galloway? Yes. Miss LaPistair Kirtley? Aye. Miss Malek? Yes. Thank you. Welcome back. Supervisor Frust, can you bring us on a closed meeting? Yes. I'd like to move the Board of Supervisors certified by a recorded vote that to the best of your supervisor's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from the open meeting requirements of the Virginia Bureau
of Information Act and identified in the motion authorized in closed meeting where heard, discussed, or considered in the closed meeting. Second. We have a motion from supervisor Pruett, second from supervisor Malek without the action of the party to call. Miss Malek? Yes. Mister Pruett? Aye. Mister Andrews? Yes. Mister Galloway? Yes. Miss Lopisa Kirtley? Aye. Miss Malek? Yes. Great. And now we have a motion coming out for this session by mister Humphrey. Alright. I move that the board appoint Did you say did you say no? I beg your pardon? I thought I heard you say no when No.
I said yes, and then I said, did I vote twice? And maybe I don't know. I I don't think my name was called. I don't think I've Oh. Miss McKeown? Yes. I'm sorry. I'm so used to the And I thought maybe we were confused, but anyway alright. I move that we appoint to the Pentops Community Advisory Committee, Reginald Woods, and to the Places twenty nine, RIO Community Advisory Committee, Michael Geyser. Second. We have motion from Supervisor McKeil, second from Supervisor Malek. Without objection, the court will call the vote. Ms. McKeil? Yes. Mister Pruitt? Aye. Mister Andrews?
Yes. Mister Galloway? Yes. Miss Lakisha Kirtley? Aye. Miss Malick? Yes. And turning to my right and left, unless there's something further, we will we are adjourned to 11/19/2025, one p. M. Here in Lane, Ontario.