Good afternoon, everyone. I call the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors to order for our 02/18/2026, 3PM meeting here in Lane Ordered Auditorium. We do have all members, here. That includes supervisor Duncan of the Jack Jewett District. We have supervisor, Lapisto Kirtley of the Ravenna District, supervisor Missal of the Samuel Miller District, supervisor Malek of the Whitehall District, supervisor Pruitt of the Scottsville District, and myself, supervisor Galloway of the Rio District. A quorum is present for the meeting, and we have with us our county attorney,
mister Andy Herrick, our county executive, mister Jeff Richardson, our county clerk, Claudette Borgerson, and our senior deputy clerk, mister Travis Morris, is manning the cameras behind the scenes. We are appreciative to have with us our Elmer County Police Department officers, officer Hunter Harmon and Lieutenant Dana Reeves. Thank you both for being here today. And if everybody would now please rise as you are able for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America, and to the republic for which it stands,
one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Alright. And if everyone would please join in a brief moment of silence. Thank you, everyone. Board, we do have an agenda before us. Are there any changes or edits to the agenda? Alright. Seeing none, is there a motion to adopt the final agenda? So Second. Alright. The motion has been made and seconded. Without objection, if the clerk would please call the roll. Mister Galloway? Yes. Miss Lakisha Kirtley? Aye. Miss Mallett? Yes. Mister Missal? Yes.
Mister Pruitt? Aye. Miss Duncan? Yes. Alright. Very good. Thank you, board. We will now, have brief announcements by board members. Supervisor Duncan, you're up first today. Just the, walkout at Almirall High School. On Friday, I went down and saw part of it, and so it was just cool to see that many kids exercising their rights. But what I really appreciated were all the adults that kind of made it possible and made it safe for them. So obviously, you know, the ACPD did a really great job of stopping traffic, but also there were a lot of community adults that kind of walked alongside them.
And so I really appreciate kind of the community supporting them in doing that. Thank you. Supervisor Malek? Good afternoon. I'm just so glad to see the ground because it has been a really long three weeks without any ground showing. And, walking with a steeple in each hand is not a great way to be short. But maybe my age showing because I'm done with this. I'm ready for spring. The daffodils are coming up, so that's a good thing. But there are many sidewalks still covered. And coming to town, there are still kids walking down a high school in the road.
And so I will keep raising this in hopes that we will make some serious progress on this issue because it is incredibly important. Right at Greenbrier Hydraulic Lamps Road Intersection, there's a huge pile of snow where the kids are supposed to cross in the car. And so as someone in the car, I'm terrified that some kid is gonna slide under my wheels trying to walk on the side of a snowy hill. Just so everybody's doing pretty well, moving to the other lane, giving them space. But, I hope we will make some serious progress on this Thursday. I don't think my life is Yeah.
Yeah. Sounds Malick. Supervisor Malick's mic is sounding I think your mic might be Diane. Oh, okay. I mean, anyways, the news was yesterday, the seventeenth, was the third of four Scholar Studio advisory committee meetings for ACPS. And this was to bring together work and community based learning students as well as industry representatives and, teachers. It was at, the workspace at Center 1, which I've never been in that part of it before. It was spectacular to see the groups of students presenting their,
studio projects in the middle of their action. They're not done yet by any means, but they're they're learning how to cover all the bases and to present things. And it's challenging to present things to a stranger to I don't know if you thought that. Even for So I was very proud of what I learned and saw, that even the architecture school, urban planners, home builders, and finance bankers all at the table. I was listening to hear what the kids were up to. So Cool. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt. Yes. A few quick matters.
First, I want to, highlight and celebrate some advocacy that was going on in the town of Scottsville, over the last week, specifically some general assembly focused advocacy on, community pharmacies. As some of y'all may or may not know, Scottsville lost its last pharmacy, fairly recently, and currently, Scottsville residents have to travel all the way into the Charlottesville Metro Area to be able to fill prescriptions. This is especially impactful because Charlottesville is a major, focal point not just for Southern Albemarle but also for, folks who might live in Northern Buckingham and parts of Fluvanna who also rely on
this as a normal place to get their prescriptions filled. Several folks, including former counselor Eddie Payne, have, engaged in some advocacy directly targeting the general assembly to try and elevate a specific bill that has, failed in committee, unfortunately, to try and get grants supporting, new pharmacy starts. But while that has failed, there are other bills moving forward, on PBM reform that are going to make it significantly easier for, these smaller pharmacies and less easily, financially viable communities, that are going to make it easier for them to succeed, with new PBM reform.
So I wanted to just highlight and celebrate some of that advocacy that's been going on Scottsville and the issue it kind of points to. I would also I always like to share, what's going on with elections, in the near future. And this is a season where I know a lot of people have a lot of questions about what's going on with elections in the near future. So, I would remind the public that the next election is going to be or the next opportunity to vote on something is going to be on the April 21. There will be early voting prior to that, but that is going to be on a single ballot measure on,
whether or not we will allow a temporary pause to how we do, districting and redistricting in Virginia. None of the other constitutional measures will be on the ballot at that time. They will be on the general election in November. There's three other ballot measures. You will not see those. It will only be the redistricting reform in April 21. Then after that, the next soonest election will be the primary, but it's not gonna be in June. It's going to be in August. It is going to be in August regardless of whether the redistricting referendum succeeds or fails. That is to provide the candidates with a certain level of certainty.
And as a reminder, we have two different universes of candidates that we might be looking at. The most likely people you're going to be voting on, though, include Tom Perriello, Beth Macy, John McGuire, and possibly Ben Klein. Who knows? Who knows? They're all, available for folks who want to learn more about these candidates. I've been actually impressed by our current congressman doing more events here locally to the Charlottesville community, which is something we have seen less in the past, with our representatives. But there was a recent event at 1st Street. I missed it, but a lot of other people came out,
and I hope you will continue to come and join us. There's also an interview, an hour long interview on Jerry Miller's show that if anyone wants to hear what our congressman believes in, there's an hour of it. And that's all I have. Very good. Thank you. I think it's your mic, Woody. Oh, yeah. You've got two. Okay. This is okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. That's alright. No problem. Alright. Supervisor Lapisto Kirtley? Okay. Mine is my mic working? Yes. Okay. Otherwise, I'd have to use my principal voice. Anyway, just to let everyone know,
supervisor Galloway and myself attended, on February 5, the spelling bee, for Albemarle County for elementary and middle school students. It was, wonderful. I we both really enjoyed it. And to watch the little kids up there and doing such a great job, I I do it every year, and I just I just love it. It's really nice. Also, the Fire Rescue Foundation is up and running, and, we're working they they are working. The board is working on funding projects. The board for the Fire Rescue Foundation is working on prod projects that will assist
the career staff of the of fire department. The other one, on 02/10 on the tenth, I did a tour of Stony Point Elementary School, and that was really I've been there a number of times before, of course, but they really wanted us to come and see what needs to be done as far as renovations and such at Stony Point Elementary. And on the eleventh, I was asked to, along with mayor Juan Diego Wade, to welcome the Chesapeake Gateways Network along with the National Parks Association that was held at the dairy market.
So that was really nice to see so many people interested in our waterways and our national parks. That was a great event. That's all I have right now. Oh, no. No. I'm sorry. Excuse me. Back up. On the ninth, I went in. I spent the entire day, in Richmond lobbying for one of the bills, HB eight twenty one that is of interest to the county. The and met all the members of the subcommittee and then some. And then on the next day,
I actually spoke before the subcommittee. But, alas, it did not make it out of the subcommittee, but there is another bill regarding photo speed cameras, and that was for photo speed cameras in historic districts. There is another one by delegate Seibold that we hope that that will go through because we keep hoping to get photo speed cameras. What does this do? This helps law enforcement because some of the roads, there is no room to pull over, speeders or people who break the law,
and that puts our officers in danger. And this is a way to use modern technology to make sure that people slow down, follow the rules, and don't speed. And I know all about that. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Missal? Thank you, chair. I know nothing about that, just to be clear. One of the side benefits is and I wasn't sure whether to share this now or during committee reports, but I'll go with now. Obviously, one of the side benefits is being a part of some pretty amazing organizations, and I'm thankful to be a part of Java. And I had a couple of quick announcements to share there.
First of all, March is senior National Senior Nutrition Month, and the theme is Serving Up Solutions. And just as a reminder for those who don't know, Java does provide free meals to adults who are 60 and over. Java's community centers offer free membership for adults 60 and over and provide socialization and engagement. They also offer hot, nutritious meal to each member. Recipes are approved by a registered dietitian. And, eligibility requirements do apply to some of the programs that I'm going to mention. The other one is for 60 adults who are homebound.
Java's Home Delivered Meals Program works with its vendor's mom meal mom's meals to have healthy prepared meals mailed directly to participants' stores. And then also one other, March 3 is National Caregiver Day, and Java offers two caregiver support groups open to the public monthly. So I just wanted to pass on that information. And obviously, more information can be gained from Java's Web site, which is jabacares.org. Thank you. Thank you. I just will echo the, it was my pleasure to join with Supervisor Lupisto Kirtley,
the spelling contest that the school division had. I will say that I feel like we got set up. Our official judges list had a word in it that had a typo in it. So as they said it, supervisor Lapisto Kirtley and I hold up our red card. The retired principal holds up the green card, and we said, no. It's it's wrong compared to the list that we were comparing the word to. Well, there was a typo on that list, so we look like a couple idiots sitting there misspelling the words while the students spelled it correctly in the official pieces over there.
So I asked if it was a setup. They said it wasn't, but nonetheless, it was, it was enjoyable to watch and to see the students go through, although it is heartbreaking when they miss a word. But, it was a I hadn't done it for a few years, so I was happy to do that. I too want to echo Supervisor Duncan. We had students both from Albemarle High School and Monticello High School, exercise their First Amendment rights, specific to the issues of ICE and what's been going on at the national level. I was very proud of our students that they were exercising their First Amendment rights in such a,
a way in which many in our community do. While they did that, I'm very, appreciative of our Albemarle County Police Department. You know, they often have to react to what happens in a community regardless of what that act is. And their primary focus is to protect and serve. And I was very appreciative that they were out there doing the job to keep citizens safe, regardless if they were the students, if they were those out watching, or if they were just folks driving by, who did not know what was going on. That's what they show up to do every single day is to protect and serve.
And I know that I speak on behalf of the whole board to say that we really appreciate, the fact that they are there to keep our citizens safe, and we know that our citizens can count on them to show up to keep them safe, especially in the way that Albemarle holds our community policing and the values that what that means from a community value standpoint, in mind. So thank you, to all those at the Albemarle County Police Department and for the leadership that, was in the command center that day. All right. Board, we do not have any proclamations and recognitions this afternoon. We will move to number seven, public comment on matters previously considered or currently pending before the board other than scheduled
for public hearings. Any sign ups? No sign ups this afternoon? Very good. We will move to number eight, the consent agenda. Are there any items that need to be pulled from the consent agenda? Alright. If not, is there a motion to, adopt the consent agenda? So moved. Alright. Second. Second, the first is first and second has been made. Without objection, if the clerk will please call the roll. Mister Galloway? Yes. Miss Capisto Kirtley? Aye. Miss Mallett? Yes. Mister Missal? Aye. Mister Pruitt? Aye. Miss Duncan? Yes. Alright. Very good.
Thank you, board. We will move to item number nine. This is our presentation this afternoon, the three notched trail master plan project update. Our deputy director of planning, Kevin McDermott, will do the introduction. I know he has guests with him today. I'll leave the introductions to you, Mr. McDermott. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, Chair Galloway, Board. Let me pull up my presentation here. Thank you for having us. Really excited to be here today to provide an update on our efforts with the 3 Notch Trail shared use path master plan.
As you mentioned we're joined by a few members of our consultant team today. We have Chris DeWitt who is the consultant project manager from VHB. We have Amanda Ponce from EPR and we have Henry Cohen from Tool Design. And they'll all be stepping up at different points of this presentation to give a little bit of information to you. I'm gonna kick it off. This is the agenda, what we're gonna be going over today. A little bit of the project background and project scope, our community input,
the efforts and some of what we've heard so far, the evalu evaluation criteria that we are using to evaluate the different route options and then look at some of the route options or where we are with the route options, and then talk a little bit about next steps. Before they get up here, I just wanted to provide a little bit of history. I know not all of you were around, back in 2022 when we first started really talking about this among the board. So just, for the background, there has been a long held, local and, statewide interest in this project.
It has been included in both state and county plans, including the previous comprehensive plan, the, Crozet master plan and AC 44. And then in, 2021, when we were having some discussions about options for how we could maybe get this thing kicked off, a planning thing a planning process started, there was a petition that was put forward by a local community advocates group that got over 4,000 signatures, to it for us to advance this project. Following that, as we kept talking about ways we can move this forward,
we decided to, take a shot in the dark really at trying to trying to get a, federal raise grant, which is a very competitive grant, and worked for a while on that. Of course, the board supported that. And, a little bit surprising to us all, we were, selected for that, over $2,000,000 from, the federal RAISE program. So, really great, great announcement for the county there. Since the 2022, we worked through the long arduous process of all the federal agreements. We did a competitive procurement process which brought us this consultant team.
And, as we go through this presentation today and talk about community input, I think what you will see is we continue to see that strong countywide support for the trail. And with that, I'm gonna introduce Chris DeWitt to come up and talk a little bit about the project scope. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Everybody hear me okay? Yes. Thank you for Can help the volume in general if I could that help? Need to up the volume a little? Alright. Maybe I can just lean mechanically, but also you. Okay. I can just lean in. That's that's easy. Thanks for giving us a little bit of time today. We really appreciate this opportunity.
Again, my name is Chris DeWitt, and I am with the consulting firm VHB. We're the lead consultant on this master plan project, along with our partners EPR and Tool Design, all of whom will be speaking today. Let me see if oh, I actually advanced the slide. Amazing. I'm gonna talk a little bit about the project scope, let you know what we're doing, what what we've done, where we are in the process, and where we are moving forward. And then Amanda with EPR is going to talk a little bit about community engagement and Henry with tool design is going to talk about our process for identifying and
evaluating route options. So just really quickly, and this is one of the things that we've emphasized to the community in our in our meetings and our outreach is what are we talking about when we say a shared use path? And we kinda use this term interchangeably with trail, multi use trail, multi use path, But the official term is a shared use path. And it's a facility intended for non motorized uses. Walkers, joggers, cyclists, rollerbladers. Physically separated from vehicles. So, you know, we may be within a road right away corridor,
but ideally the shared use path would be physically separated from the roadway. Usually, these facilities are at least 10 feet wide. We like them to be wider when they can, especially popular shared use paths need to be a little bit wider. And they're usually paved surfaces, not always, but usually. You can see a couple of examples of this type of facility in the images here. And really shared use paths provide great community benefits. They're transportation connections. They're active outdoor recreation, health, community well-being. They're also great for tourism and economic development.
Just a couple of case study examples. You probably are all familiar with the Virginia Capital Trail that runs from Richmond to Williamsburg. That's a shared use path, 50 miles or so. And in 2019, there was an economic study of that facility that suggested it generates about $9,000,000 in direct economic impact on an annual basis and supports about 99 jobs. A similar trail, a little bit smaller, a 25 mile trail, so more the scale of the three notch trail, is the Swamp Rabbit Trail in Greenville,
South Carolina. That has also been shown to generate significant economic and tourism benefit on the order of about $7,000,000 per year in direct economic input and supporting about 90 full time jobs. So the benefits from these things in addition to community well-being, health, and transportation, the economic and tourism benefits are significant. We're in a master plan process. We're not yet to the point of looking at acquiring property or doing construction. We're trying to map a preferred route to connect Charlottesville to the Blue Ridge Tunnel.
That's really the the process we're in. And we've identified some potential routes. We've presented those to the public. Amanda will talk about some of the feedback that we've gotten. But once we identify that preferred route, part of our charge is also to look at how the facility might be phased from an implementation perspective. It's going to be virtually impossible to build all 25 miles in one fell swoop. So we want to talk to the community about a) the preferred route, but b) what is most important? What should we do first? Part of that will be explaining likely construction costs and what steps would be necessary
to make the trail a reality. And then once we get there, part of our scope is doing some preliminary design work on those priority sections so that the county can then go and seek additional funding to get into final design and construction of those priority segments of the trail. This is our overall process. We started in 2025 with data collection, reaching out to the community. We held an open house, early in the process and have had some pop up events that Amanda will talk a little bit more about. But we're really in this second stage here where we're evaluating and evaluating route options.
Again, we know point a, Charlottesville, point b, the Blue Ridge Tunnel, generally through the Crozet area. What is the most viable route to get there? And that that's where we are right now, trying to make that determination. And again, once we've worked with the community to make that determination, we'll get into that preliminary design, functional design of the priority sections that will allow the county to seek additional funding and move toward implementation. This is just a highlight of our project area, again, connecting Charlottesville to the Blue Ridge Tunnel, generally through the Crozet area.
But this is this is the study area that we've been looking at as we start to evaluate route options. And with that, I will ask Amanda to talk a little bit about community input. Thank you. Alright. Thanks so much. As Chris said, community engagement really has been central to this whole master planning effort so far. And this slide just shows the range of ways that people have been, learning about and contributing to the project throughout, the process so far. You can see we've had really strong in person participation with over five thirty people attending three, in person open houses public meetings.
For those who are unable to join in person, we had all of those materials available online with a corresponding survey that people could respond to. That yielded more than a thousand responses and over 4,000 comments directly that have informed our the development of our route options. To reach property owners, we mailed over eight thirty, postcards and partnered with 21 organizations to broaden awareness. We also held 13 outreach events, like a pop up event, where we would meet people in the community just to encourage participation, again, raise awareness.
Digital engagement has also been very robust. Over 700 e mail subscribers and more than 11,000, visits to the project website. And altogether, this level of engagement really reflects that substantial community interest and has provided the foundation for the route options that, Henry is going to describe. And he'll get into more of the details about each of the events and the different, feedback that we've gotten. Thanks, Amanda. Thanks for the opportunity to share with you all, Henry with tool design. I I grew up in Alamo County and went to Western, so this is a really exciting project to personally, be able to work on as well.
The route options is always people's biggest question of where is this trail actually gonna go. And I think what's really important is that first open house that we held in May, we came with blank maps. We said, we don't have anything predisposed that we're gonna say. We wanna show you all the corridor and hear from you all. What are those important destinations that it's important this trail connects? What are the places we wanna avoid? What are maybe the existing trails and corridors and bike routes that people know that we can kind of capitalize and use those as well? So we showed up to that initial meeting with blank maps,
and that initial survey that we had last spring was also totally wide open, really asking people what are what's most important to you when we think about building out this trail? What are your values in your community? Where are the places that you already love to visit and recreate and are trying to get to? So it really started with an with an open ended question to the public. We also worked with a technical advisory committee and came with them in the summer with blank maps as well. These are folks in our county staff and also just folks in the community that have incredible local knowledge of this area. And we're able to really help.
You can see all of our marked up maps of, you know, identifying places that had come through in earlier studies, key destinations that we wanted to reach, and really just getting so much information on all the potential places this trail could go. We really wanted to start by making sure we didn't miss any potential route that the trail, should be considered. Some of the key themes from that initial open ended process, are listed here. And, of course, like we mentioned, even though a a shared use path will be separated from vehicle traffic, that's still something that comes up time and time again is that perception of of
safety and comfort. People don't wanna be along a super busy road and feel like, they can't safely and comfortably move through the trail. Obviously, access to destinations, both recreational destinations and also everyday trips that people could use to maybe not have to be in their car so much. People are really excited about just the overall lifestyle changes that this can bring. And people in Albemarle County love having active lifestyles, and there's so many family friendly options that could come from a trail like this. This trail is gonna go through a lot of the most scenic areas in our county and our state, and people are excited about that,
but also really wanted to make sure that wherever the trail goes that it's not, disrupting really sensitive environmental areas and instead is able to enhance and provide access to people being able to enjoy those areas that are already in our county. Chris already talked about the economic and community development, benefits of the trail that we've heard again and again people are excited about in in the survey and open houses. I think the most important bullet on this slide is the implementation urgency. People said, I want to see this thing get built. You know, if we have to maybe sacrifice on on one other thing or one other thing,
you know, will this be in my lifetime? Can can we see this get built? Will I be able to, you know, ride this and get to the Blue Ridge Tunnel? People also were were very clear with us in all of those meetings and surveys about, you know, the challenges that we're going to face. Looking at the steep slopes, getting up to the Afton Tunnel is definitely going to be a challenge. Obviously, dealing with property owners and property access, making sure we have the easements that we need. Even if it's not directly along 250 for the whole way, it's going to have to cross major roads at some point. And so making sure that the trail is also taking into consideration, what needs to be done to get people safely across those crossings or safely through
an area when they are along a road. So this is kind of what we like to call, like, our spaghetti map where we started. We brought that blank map to the public, and we said, let's just get any and every line on there. There's no bad ideas. We want those lines. Draw them on the map. Let's just make sure we're not missing anything. We also were able to then, from those lines, go out last summer, and really just explore on the ground. Things can look great on a map, but sometimes they look very different when you're out there in person. So these are some photos from us over the last summer. You can see all of those little dots are different data points and pictures that we took along the way,
to really make sure we could ground truth all of those lines and start to see if there were really real viable options in the lines that we had drawn on the map. From that process, we really had to start narrowing down those options. The the spaghetti map was great of a million options, but we ultimately are gonna move towards having three route options that we would present to the public, and so we needed to move down to three. Of these bullets, I'll highlight just a few I think the three main things that really defined our process of refining those lines. Number one was looking at terrain. Some of the lines that we drew were great, but if they were directly up the side of the mountain,
that's just not gonna be feasible for the three notch trail. Looking at ownership and right of way was also really important. We're trying to use existing right of ways and existing trail corridors and easements as much as possible, and so there were some lines that we said, this is just not going to be feasible or we know we can elevate another one that's really going to utilize existing publicly owned land as well. And also the final one I'm going to just mention is the trip potential. We wanted to make sure that this was through areas that the most people could use them. And so lines that were totally missing Crozet or totally missing the most population and
commercial areas that we have, we tried to move towards ones that would really be able to be used by the most people. And so all of that and the initial analysis that we had, the initial community input and the site visits helped us go from having this initial spaghetti map down to taking three route options throughout the corridor. Because it's such a big corridor, there's it's not quite as simple as just having totally three totally independent lines to get you from a to b. And so what we've done for our way of kind of working through this is divided it up into different zones to be able to say in each of these zones,
we can kind of consider different route options, and it's just helped to be a lot more digestible to the public rather than saying each, you know, of these 20 mile options have to be evaluated. So this is a map of what those zones looked like back in the fall, and we had six zones across the corridor spanning from Affton to Charlottesville, and we had about two to four route options in each of those zones, to be considered by the public. And so in December, we we took these maps out to the public, at a public meeting in, Western Albemarle. And this is just a picture of kind of what the the stations looked like.
We presented a map of each of those zones as well with key opportunities and challenges of those lines, and wanted to hear from the public. It's important to note the public was not voting on which line we should go with. We wanted to hear what are the challenges and opportunities that you see on these lines. We listed out some of them, but what are what stands out to you? What are the things that you say, hey, I love that it goes by here, but I'm really concerned about this crossing. Or this doesn't seem feasible to me at all. Or, oh, I love that we get to hit this destination or it goes by this school. It was really I'll skip ahead to some photos that we have.
Like Amanda mentioned, the postcards that went out, there were so many landowners at this, event, many of whom had not been to public meetings about the trail before or not been to bicycle and pedestrian advisory meetings, were not in that world, but said, hey. I'm I hear that this trail might be going by my property. I'm interested. I'm concerned. We had over 220 attendees at that, open house standing room only in the Western cafeteria. And we had so many great conversations with people who were really excited about the trail and also people who had really genuine concerns and said, hey,
I have questions. I see a line that's coming very close to my house. What does that mean? What are these route options? And so really great to be able to discuss all of those and explain that we were still in the process of reviewing three route options and that we wanted to hear their feedback. If they had concerns, that's why we were there, was to listen to those concerns. From those three route options, it's great to get to that point. There's a lot of work that got us there, but we ultimately need to get to one preferred route. And And so our next step has to been really to bring in a set of more kind of data driven evaluation criteria to really evaluate those three options and
ultimately produce a preferred route. I think of the evaluation criteria as our rationale for why we would do one trail route over the other. People are gonna ask you all. They're gonna ask us as consultants. They're gonna ask the staff, hey. Why did you pick this line and not another one? Alright. Saw a map with a bunch of lines. Why are we moving forward with this one? And so we wanna have a really clear answer of how the community values influence what route we move forward. And so based on all of our the feedback that we've gotten, you can see some of the things that people ranked in the survey of, you know, I want a route that's the most safe in your cars or the most scenic
or let's minimize environmental impacts as much as possible. You can see from this graphic, we can map all of those things and start to say, all right, this route does great for these things, but it also has some challenges. This route might score really highly for connecting to schools, but it has to cross a major roadway. And so that's the process that we're in now is adding in all of that data, to be able to quantitatively score these route options. And so these are the, criteria that we're moving forward with based on the input from our technical committee and the public and staff. So we're evaluating the routes based on connectivity, what are the destinations they connect to Population centers.
Accessibility. Wanna make sure that it's flat and accessible to the public. Are there opportunities for trailheads? The constructability goes into all of the costs and the challenges that could come from, having to acquire land to bridges and, all of those things that are added cost to the project. The user experience, the views that people will see, the places that people have said that they definitely want to be able to enjoy. Safety when cars looking at dangerous intersections and and avoiding those. And also the community support. All of that input that we've gotten from the survey, if people say, hey, this doesn't work for our community,
that's a huge part of our evaluation criteria as well. And so that's really where we're at right now, in the process of evaluating these three route options based on the criteria. And I will let Chris share sort of our next steps going forward. Just to wrap up with some next steps, and again emphasizing where we are in the process. We've got a great deal of community input following that December meeting and the online engagement. We've got a great deal of input to consider and factor into this route evaluation process. We want to apply those evaluation criteria that Henry mentioned,
do some scoring and and weighting of the different options in each different zone. Concurrent with that, we're looking at potential environmental impacts that might affect the preferred route. And really, that's the process. Using community input, focusing on landowner concerns, applying these evaluation criteria, looking at potential environmental impacts to get to this one preferred route option. We're talking to the county right now about the best way to coordinate with potentially impacted property owners as we move into that next phase and look for that preferred
route. And then after we've got that preferred route identified, we wanna come back to the community and talk about priorities. What's most important? What should come first from an implementation perspective? We can then focus some preliminary design on those sections and, tee the county up to pursue additional funding for final design and construction of those priority segments. The image that you see here is just a rendering, of what a shared use path, as I described early in my presentation, might look like along Jarman's Gap Road.
And with that, we're happy to answer any questions. I think Kevin's gonna come back up, and we'll help him answer. Alright. Thank you very much. Kevin, did you have any nothing else to add. Happy to take any questions or comments you have. Yeah. Questions or comments? Supervisor Duncan? I have no questions. Supervisor Malek? Thank you very much. Whoops. This is the one. Here we go. Alright. So I guess I see in passing that environmental concerns are on your list, but not on slide 27. You know, so I'm sorry to say I'm going to continue to say that throughout this process
because in the survey information, there were boardwalks put in critical locations, and that really alarmed a whole lot of people. It may have been sort of an image to show what but that does not compute when people see their precious area where very few rare birds nest and somehow the accessibility of people who don't know or care about nature is going to be higher prioritization than those animals who live there. So I hope that you will take that for the spirit in which it's intended.
I've written it all down, but I don't see any of it reflected in here. So, I'm just gonna mention it again. The, SUP non motorized, what how does an e bike work when it's a motorized vehicle? Are there they have a special dispensation to be allowed to use these things? I thought that was the whole basis for the whole thing. Ebikes are a non motorized vehicle for the purposes of this. Okay. E e e bikes would would be permitted here. Now when you get to a motorbike or, you know, something that has an a gas powered engine, or or a fast battery powered engine,
that could be a different story. But your typical e bikes would be welcome on this facility. Okay. I'm just checking on the technicalities there. Let me go down my list here. So when the most recent mass meeting happened, there were a lot of outreach from people to me, which I shared with staff. But when will those meetings that were promised weeks ago start to happen with people who were said, well, we'll get right back to you, and there's been crickets on that. So I guess now I you mentioned that the county is now gonna be in
charge of that as opposed to the team. So how does how do we anticipate that? It will be a team effort. Thank you, supervisor Malek. So what what we're doing right now is we're taking that feedback that we heard to get to that one, preferred route. When we're, we don't wanna start going to, meet with landowners. And I think I think we had a total of 800 and something potential, different property owners that might be impacted by any of those three routes. So, to focus our our energy appropriately,
I think we're looking at let's figure out what, is the more feasible route before we start doing, direct outreach to property owners. But that will be a team effort, and we'll work with, other members in our throughout Albemarle County, I'm sure, to, coordinate that. I know it's gonna be a sensitive topic, and we intend to approach it as that. Right. Well, I just will provide a little background. What I'm hearing from people is maybe sometime in the next ten years, I might wanna sell my property, and yet anybody doing due diligence is going to see a fat magic marker right
through the middle of my 200 acres. And that's gonna put the kibosh on that ability to do anything. So there is impact even though you don't intend it. It's real and it's felt already. When someone says to you, we are not providing an easement over this property, this is an active farming operation and it's not possible, I would hope that you would understand that and not keep developing your trail and then postpone getting back to them until later. I mean, there are some people who are very affirmative about their opinion about this. And so I just want to share that so that,
you don't waste a lot of time going back to places where you've already been notified is a no go. Thank you. I appreciate that. I very much value the project. I think it's gonna be fabulous. But these are the hiccups that happen when things are going on for twenty years. And I think they all happened in the Capitol Trail too. And so we just have to try to learn from the things that happened in other places and not fall in the same traps. But my alarm bells go off when I see, oh, well, we're gonna sacrifice something to get something done fast. That sacrifice cannot be the environmental protection.
That's just my line in the sand. So thank you very much. Alright. Supervisor Pruitt. Is there a hope or expectation that, many or even most easements might be donated? I I I think there's always a hope that we would be able to get, easements donated. Is that hope grounded in experience from similar trails in the Commonwealth or across the country? Short answer is yes. We typically see that, as we start to work with property owners and and talk about specific easement needs and impacts.
Often they're supportive of the trail. They're willing to to donate that easement. Not always. Sometimes that's a factor in cost is acquiring that that right of way and that easement. But we do, a couple of good examples. We recently did, the Friendly City Trail in Harrisonburg, Virginia, which was a similar combination of available right of way, city owned property and some easements on private property. Those were donated easements. And as part of that easement negotiation, the city of Harrisonburg made some, I'm gonna say, ancillary improvements to those properties.
So it's it's all part of a negotiation and a discussion with the owners, but it is not unusual for easements to be dedicated to be donated for this type of facility. Are there sources I'm thinking many successful projects are either moving along preexisting easements, rail trails, or, I'm actually thinking the the, oh, the W 0 N D Trail, is entirely in a Dominion, easement. Right? It's right there along the I I don't know if that actually is the same easement, but I just know practically it it's right along a bunch of scarecrows.
Right? Got it. Are there similar options to bundle preexisting easement opportunities that I'm not thinking of that we're potentially availing ourselves? Again, the short answer is yes. And and those those easements and rights of way and public and semi public corridors have factored into the route options development that Henry mentioned. So we we've tried to locate and prioritize those as best we can. In some places, they don't exist, and and we're showing some potential impacts to private property. But where we can identify a corridor,
where that seems to be a preferred corridor, if within that route option there are rights of way, easements, utility corridors, we would look to utilize those. What the bigger question that all of these other questions are are leaning toward is, at this stage, do we yet? And if not, when might we expect a an estimate on the total dollar amount of property control? Not yet. Once we get to a preferred route, we're gonna start taking a closer look at how much right away,
how much easements are available and factor that into our cost. There's a lot of cost estimating that's gonna have to go on. Construction, structures, environmental permitting, and acquisition of property and easements would be part of that. So we do not have an estimate of that yet. I am personally very excited about this project. Right? I'm a long distance athlete. I'd previously lived on the Swamp Rabbit Trail and the WOD Trail in in different parts of my life. And I'm also so deeply concerned because I can think of several
extraneous factors that make this an uncommonly expensive place to do it. We've talked previously about how, as a population, Albemarle County residents are unusually resistant to easements. We have valuable land, we have educated people, and we have pugnacious people. So I could see the land acquisition being more expensive than we might expect or bargain for. We also have, I think I would might imagine, fewer preexisting easements to rely on just because of the nature of this area.
The the topo is bad. All of these things making it very expensive, which is just a stressful thing. With that, are there organizational strategies that, are typical for this that we might I can also think we would be better at raising money for this than other communities. Can you talk a little bit about how other, as someone who's deployed a lot of these trails, how communities do this? I know there's often a fundraising element, public fundraising, but I also know, like, Swamp Rabbit Trail is sponsored. I don't know how that happened, but I'd love UVA to sponsor a trail for me.
Yeah. It's a great that's a great question. And it again, it is not unusual for once a trail alignment gets established, once some public funding becomes available and momentum builds, we see things like friends of trail groups or corporate sponsors helping fund things. In my experience, the largest funding source for this type of project is federal funds. Friends groups, sponsorships, partner organizations can help immensely and can make an otherwise unrealistic project realistic. But you're right.
This is gonna be an expensive facility that is gonna require likely several sources of funding. Did that answer your question? Yes. Thank you. Thank you. I had one other, which is are we already pulling in, members of economic development on this thinking. Because something that immediately occurs to me is if we're talking about, like, induced revenue, I'm like, okay. Well, I don't think people are gonna wanna hop off at Mile 10 and go to Dooners. Right? They're gonna wanna hop off and go to a bicycle shop or a bar or
a pupuseria, all of which exist at the rest rest and stop on the w o n d. We can't build those right now in Ivy. We would need some kind of overlay. I mean, you could not build a new structure for for those businesses. It it is not legal right now. At your it's rural area. You can't build it. It's a village. It's existing, so it's commercial, anyway. Point being, have, have there been conversations with the, economic development team about what actually getting Saudi induced benefits from this is going to look like and require? We have had some discussions with our,
economic development department here at Albemarle County. We also, on our stakeholder committee, do have a, member of the the Regional Economic Development Partnership and is part of that group. So, yes, we recognize that and we've been talking a lot about the economic development potential of the project. As we move into, you know, really looking at implementation, I think we'll probably bring them in even more so. Great. That's all I have. Sorry for all the questions. Supervisor Lupisto Kirtley. I will say it has not come for the EDA board yet.
So but I'm sure it probably will. I just have a few questions. You had mentioned that there are over 800 property owners that could be affected through by this. Correct? Well, that was, based on all three options. Three options. Yes. They'll be reduced as we move into the single alignment. Correct. So whichever route you choose, there's going to be some, landowners that are affected. Is that correct? Or is there a route where no one would be affected? I I think that that's absolutely correct. And, you know, getting back to, supervisor Pruitt's comment about easements,
there there is no continuous easement that we would be able to follow that gets us all the way from Charlottesville to the tunnel. I would say that there there's really no way the project gets built without having to have some sort of an impact on some on private property. Our our goal is to minimize that impact as much as possible and to continue to work to partner with those landowners as opposed to, you know, having to, have some sort of adversarial,
transaction there. Would we have the ability for eminent domain? We have not discussed that. I don't think that's something that we wanna think about at this time because we are not No. I know we're not thinking about it. I'm just asking whether or not the ability is there. I'm not saying we would choose it. That's an available option if the board chooses to exercise it and meets all the other requirements. Okay. Thank you. So we cannot construct this without getting homeowners land owners, you know, some of them at least, permission or I'm gonna donate. Okay. I the the question was answered regarding motorized bikes,
so that includes scooters. So we're talking about the gas powered engine, then it's not allowed. That's typically what where they see the cutoff is that if something's gas powered, we would not want that on this trail. And but electric, scooters and bikes typically are allowed. Yes. And last question. Would this, once it's completed or before it's completed, would it be part of our parks and rec department? That that is also gonna be up in the air. I think that depends on the alignment that's ultimately, selected there.
We do show a lot of our alignments as passing through existing county parks. And when that happens, I think it would be the case that we would. But, of course, in some we have a lot of shared use paths around the county that are also maintained by VDOT if they're within VDOT right away and they meet the VDOT requirements. So, there's a lot of different options as well as, the potential to have, organ an organization that sponsors or helps to, work to maintain those. So, we're we're still looking at all those opportunities, and it may end up being a mix of them.
Okay. So the ones that are not in VDOT the VDOT purview, they could they would be could be a part of our parks and rec department. I'm asking for a specific reason. Absolutely. Yes. And and we are working with the parks and rec department on Thank you. Looking at these alignments. Thank you. Supervisor Missal? Great. Thank you. Hey, Kevin. Good to see you. A couple of questions. First of all, your presentation everybody's presentation is really helpful. Thank you. Answered a lot of my questions. I too am really excited about this project. I think it's a great project. Has it's backing up maybe at 30,000
feet. Has and forgive me if I don't know this answer. Has there been as you're thinking about this trail, have you looked at the countywide offerings that are available today, in terms of trails and thought about the diversity of our overall larger, broader master plan trail system to determine, for example, time line of rolling this out or Phasing, etcetera. And did that ever did that play into any of your evaluation criteria? Well, as I did say, we when we're looking at those initial trail options, a lot of them, we did look at existing county parks and how we could utilize those for them.
For this trail? For this trail. I'm sorry. Beyond this trail. Not sure. Do you know? Something? I'm not exactly sure I understand the question, but I'll I'll try. Sure. I can refine it. Sure. Sure. Easy. So Walnut Creek, lots of trails. Right? Biscuit Run, etcetera, etcetera. There are lots of other opportunities for trails, Rivanna River Trail, Rivanna Trail, etcetera. Just thinking about that as a big picture, right, all those trails plug in plug into the master planned Albemarle County trail offering system. And I was just curious if you thought about how each one of those has
its own level of diversity and uniqueness. Are there strategies you might employ here to make sure that as a whole, master plan, park system, trail system, we're being as comprehensive as possible? That's a great question. Again, short answer is yes. We're we're looking at those existing facilities, not just parks, but other trails, both public, semi public, neighborhood owned, to see how they might connect, how the three Notch Trail might form a major spine off of which other trails could develop and connect. I think your question will really come into play as we start to talk to
the community about prioritization and implementation. And looking at those areas where if we build a small section of three Notched, it has a major impact because it's expanding an existing trail or an existing facility. Yeah. Leveraging, that. I think now I think I'm also understanding your question a little bit more. And, I think what you're talking about is that, you know, we have plans to build lots of different kinds of trails that are accessible to different kinds of users throughout the county. What we see mostly within our parks,
are a lot of, natural surface trails Yeah. That are meant for hiking. And I think you're asking, well, is this offering another option? Something that's maybe a little more family friendly, something where you could take a a child out to learn how to ride a bike or something like that. So, yeah, that is, I think, a a consideration because I think we are maybe offering something with this trail that is not offered within Albemarle County a lot. We do have a lot of nice shared use paths within the city that I think people use, but this does have another opportunity.
Yes. Great. Yeah. That and experiences. So not just the trail, you know, material and accessibility, but also what's the experience like along the trail. Mhmm. You provided some great, it's still up, draft evaluation criteria. And I'm wondering as you think about these, are they weighted? Yeah. Please. Yes. They the answer is they can be. I think I'll say a few things. I think they can be weighted, and you can get very technical on the scoring of saying, you know, everything's gonna get five and a half points, and we'll weight it by 20%. And this line got 99.3
points in this line. And I think Yeah. That can be very helpful. It can also kind of create a false sense of accuracy that we're somehow spitting out a magical number and then say, oh, we found the alignment. We we scored everything perfectly. Yeah. So how we've approached it here is to kind of think of the waiting as scenarios. And so maybe looking at that list and saying, what if all we cared about was implementation and cost? That's we weighted those things super highly. What trail alignments might rise to the top? And we could look at those places. And then we could take it the other way and say,
what if we just looked at the places that had the highest user experience and were the most beautiful and had the most scenic qualities? And let's weight those factors really highly and see what places rise to the top. I don't see this project spinning, like, running the numbers and saying, this is, you know, this line scored the highest, therefore, that's the preferred alignment. Sure. I would like it to be that the ultimate preferred alignment can kind of use this as our word bank to explain why that is. Mhmm. And I think that weighting may even look slightly different in different areas. You know, you like,
we talked about the economic development side. There are areas of the county that are going to continue to grow, where maybe some of these things weigh differently than other areas of the county that there is more of an intent to keep that more rural. And maybe some of those criteria actually weigh differently. So I think it's gonna be a mix. I don't we haven't, like, gone through to say we're gonna run it exactly this way, and that's the the score that it gets. Our intention is for those scores to be a tool that we use. And ultimately, it's it's one p one tool that we have to explain the final alignment,
but not the only tool. That's really helpful. Okay. Great. Thank you. Talked a little bit about time line. I just want to echo Supervisor Malek's comments regarding environmental impacts and, you know, not only from the standpoint of being sensitive to them, but also looking at appropriate ways to leverage them for the benefit of the experience of the trail, so thinking that on both sides. I'll kind of narrow this down. So 10 foot width, shared path, I'm just curious. I mean, that seems like it's the common standard. Are you all envisioning areas of the trail that will be narrower? Or is this just a blanket 10 foot width?
And is it intended for all uses? Or combining two questions, will you have, specific portions of the trail that are assigned to, for example, only mountain bikers or only walkers or so on? I would say to the second point of that question, I think that our goal, because we're making a single trail Yeah. Is to really make that accessible to all users. There is we did talk about there may be offshoots, or connections to other trail systems that provide other uses or other users for, for,
say, mountain biking, that kind of thing. But, so that that's an option, but the purpose of this is really for all users. And then, I'm sorry. The first part of your question here. Just you kind of answered. It was really are there sections of the trail that are different? Oh, yeah. And regarding the 10 foot width, I was just gonna say that is the standard. Now, if we're in places where, we're we're in a very rural area where we don't expect it to get as much use as the others and we're constrained by, environmental features, that kind of thing,
then there there's always that opportunity that maybe we squeeze the trail down a little bit. Or if we're in a very busy area, we want to widen it a little bit because we know we're going to have a lot of different users out there. So, the 10 foot width is really just the that's the guiding standard. Great. Thank you. And then last question maybe it's not a question, it's just a recommendation. I'm sure you'll do this. There are organizations like Cambic, Charles Soule Mountain Bikers, etcetera, etcetera, that can help with maintenance. And you know, we've built trails before, and and what the most the most difficult thing is to continue the maintenance.
So thinking about how we do that, being proactive as we think through that, we don't just put a great trail out there and then be like, well, we can't afford to maintain it. Right? But looking for ways to partner with other organizations that might benefit that. Thank you. Thank you. Chris, Amanda Hendry, thank you for the presentation and for being here with us today. We are at time. Kevin, as always, thank you. If you board, if you have think of other questions, I've certainly Kevin wouldn't mind receiving an email or two for follow-up real quick. One super fast. So I look forward to more. My survey went,
you know, ABC up and down all around this section plus this section. But you mentioned no continuous easement. Can you take two seconds to talk about the possibilities, even though Governor Northam gave away our rail easement before he left office? There is some available space in some sections of the railway, easement. Can you take one second to talk about that? Sure. I'll I'll I'll take a second. Our project team has had a a meeting with, the the Buckingham branch railroad, to talk about that a little bit.
Essentially, I think it was 20 feet. Was it am I right? 20 feet within the from the rail. They won't allow any 50. 30? The third so within 30 feet of an active rail, they essentially told us they don't wanna see any any uses. If they own additional right of way outside that 30 feet, they're willing to work with us. So, we know that, like I said, we can't follow the rail, the rail right of way the entire way, but there may be opportunities to work with them to have it within part portions
of their right of way as long as we have that distance. Great. Thank you. Mhmm. Sorry. Thank you all. Alright. Thank you again. Thanks, Katie. Alright. Board, we'll move to item number 10, the introduction to the bond issuance process. And we have, Andy Bowman with us today. I see Jacob joining as well. Good afternoon, gentlemen. Good afternoon, and thank you to the chair for the introduction. Just one moment while I pull up the presentation. For today's item, this is not an action item. It is only a presentation for information. And, what will be happening, a month from now is that the board of supervisors will be requested to take
action to authorize the issuance of bonds. Now this is an item that the county does about every two years. The last time it was done was in the 2023. So that means there are, three elected officials who have not undertaken this process, and there are also three elected officials who it's been a while since we've done this process. Bonds are a complex topic. Today is not going to be about a lot of charts and graphs and financing plans. It's really gonna orient to the board to what the process looks like from what has been happening over past years to lead to this point and where are we
going in the future. So I'm gonna spend a little time to, talk about why does the county issue bonds, how are those used, What is the role of the board and the economic development authority? I'll also talk about credit ratings and our financial management policies and how the board work throughout the year, ties all of this together, as well as our next steps. So bonds are a revenue source to fund capital projects, and they are a best practice in how they are implementing capital projects. Very sound financial tool. I'm sorry, Andy. They lost their monitor over here. It might be the connector in the back to the back.
Sometimes they come loose. It's a day for it. The gremlins everywhere today. Yeah. Yeah. It was. I've been working since. We we don't wanna miss anything you have to say. That's right. We can just look behind us. Alright. So the use of bonds as a revenue tool to fund the CIP is a best practice and a just a sound financial tool. Really, there's a lot of benefits, but the two big ones is if you could imagine for a moment an alternate universe where bonds don't exist and projects are being funded only by cash. That would be a very challenging financial situation to manage as the Board would have
to develop budget to manage cash flows on a much more kind of up and down situation as projects like parks or schools, other facilities were funded. And so bonds allowed to smooth those costs out over time and assist with financial planning by issuing debt at a very reasonable policy managed level. The second big impact is, I've said before that capital projects are generational investments with generational impacts. On one hand, those impacts are the benefits of the communities, the community receives from those. The other side is the impact of what it costs to repay the cost of
that project. So as an example, next year, the county will open, two new schools, that will be paid for and used by, you know, students, families, the community today. And also as we go into the future, future residents will use and benefit from that. And so it's spreading that across really an entire generation rather than just the people who happen to be paying taxes right now. So, the CIP is the, funded primarily by bonds. 72% of the revenues in the adopted CIP, that the board approved last year, is funded. And I would be very clear that the county does not borrow for ongoing operations.
That is established, one, as a best practice, and two, it is very clearly stated in the board's adopted financial management policies. So it's really, schools, parks, courts, you know, fire apparatus, that sort of thing where borrowing is happening. As I mentioned before, bond issuances are generally planned every other year, and, staff is always on the lookout to refinance existing debt or refunding is the proper technical term when eligible. A good rule of thumb is that tends to be, about ten years old, and it needs to be based on the interest rate. So there is an opportunity we are watching right now, to undertake that in spring,
but the details of that will come back to the board on, March 18. So moving a little bit to why the county issued bonds, I wanna speak to, just now, what is that process from start to finish? So really this process to issue bonds began many years ago as the board of supervisors was appropriating, past capital projects and, planning to fund those through bonds. All the way on the far right, there's actually a kind of another process that takes years, and that is the debt service payments. Twenty years is a good rule of thumb for most of our debt. And once that's issued, the payment, the reimbursement,
all of the compliance and monitoring is something that is taking place on an annual basis. In between is where I'm gonna spend my time today because in this very long years at the start, years at the end, we have a few months process where a lot of activity will be happening. So right now, we're here in this time frame of about two to three months where staff is working with our bond counsel. We are working with Davenport and Company, our financial advisers, really to put together a financing plan and package with the goal to get the best possible interest rate for the, the debt that the county would be issuing later this spring. All of that information will,
come to the board on March 18, for their approval, and I'll talk about more of that in a second. The EDA will also take action. Very quickly after that is authorized, we'll be meeting with credit rated agencies to go through a credit agency review. And by, the time we get shortly after that, those bonds will be sold and closed on. And so this entire process will be wrapping up in early May. I do wanna take a moment to thank over my left shoulder is, Daniel Green and Lindsey Huff. They are the two person team who manages the county's investments in debt management. So their work is happening all throughout this time, and, much of their ideas are gonna be seen in the work that comes forth in
the coming months. So thank you all for being here. So so let's take a look at the role of the board of supervisors. Again, this, action in March 18 really is just another step in the process. Prior years, the board has been approving five year CIPs, reviewing them manually, and anticipating the future projects would be, funded by bonds. Every year, the board is annually appropriating capital projects. And at the same time, they are appropriating a res I'm sorry. They are approving a resolution with the intent to borrow for those capital projects in the future. So the action the eighteenth on the eighteenth the board will take is the actual,
resolution to issue those bonds in a draft form of all the financial documents. They're draft because they really can't be finalized until the credit agency review is done, but they will, you know, get large, sense and form of those on the eighteenth. A really important clarification I want to make is the last point on this slide is, very soon, really starting next week when the County Executive presents the recommended budget, we'll be talking about capital projects from fiscal year twenty twenty seven through fiscal year thirty one. That is a separate process from this bond issuance. This bond issuance is about funding projects that are currently appropriated and all underway.
So we've anticipated this bond issuance in the upcoming CIP, but, it doesn't, it doesn't really take or add flexibility to what the, other policy decisions the board will make in the upcoming budget process. So the same week that the board will be approving this, the Economic Development Authority will be taking action as well. The Economic Development Authority is taking action because they are the conduit through which the, board of supervisors is issuing those bonds. This is a best practice. It's cost effective and widely used for Virginia counties. And we on March 17 for the EDA, we'll go into a little more detail with them,
but that's just highlighting they are a key part of the process as well. So I wanna spend a little more time about credit rating agencies. The the way this works is after the board authorizes, we will have a team of county staff with our financial advisers who will meet with the three national credit rating agencies. And our job will be to essentially defend the county's creditworthiness and continue to reattain that triple triple a bond rating agency. After a couple weeks from that I'm sorry, rating. After a couple weeks from that, we'll get our ratings. But a common question I've received in the past is what are bond rating agencies looking at when they are reviewing the county's financials?
I'll say sometimes when I prepare for these meetings, the answer feels like everything to me, but, this is a really good chart that can be much more accurate than that. And this is really the key drivers to a rating. This is a slide courtesy of our financial advisors, Davenport, where I'm gonna do not gonna go through all of these bullets on the slide, but let's start up at the top left and walk through what they are looking at. And when I do this, I really wanna highlight how the board's work in financial policy and financial management all throughout the year connects to all four pieces of this puzzle. First is they're looking at the economic tax base. And so they will look at what is the mix of our tax base,
what are economic development projects that are out there, what are the local and regional growth patterns that are taking in place. And so as the board has, received the cost per services study, as the Board has received an economic outlook report and considered that last fall, those are all data points and information that are shaping into that economic base. Next, in the upper right, there's the financial performance and flexibility. So, this is really looking at, as the board received the county's clean audit in December, they received a quarterly financial report today on the agenda. The board spent time doing,
five year planning and considering the multiyear impacts of things this fall. All of those things are tying in and they'll go back through five or so years of financials to understand what are the trends, why are there variances, what are costs or changing in services. That really continues to management in the bottom right to look at how that is performing and trending. And also, one of the big ones in the bottom right is the adherence to the long range financial planning and policies. It's one thing to have the policies. It's another thing to adhere and continually update them. And so that'll be, one of the focuses. And that's also something the board of supervisors did last fall as well with the
update of those policies, in 2025, updating what was last updated in 2022. Finally, in the bottom left is the debt itself, and that information will really be part of, March 18. We're able to look at the, a lot a lot of the more technical details of how it's structured, but I do wanna highlight that in the very bottom left, there are two key ratios in the board's financial management policies about how does the county's annual debt service payment compare to its total operating revenues. So the lower that is, the more flexibility the board has. And also, what is the total outstanding debt compared to the overall tax base.
Again, another sign of flexibility. And I I did not include those charts today because they're gonna be updated. They will be within the policies when the county executive presents his budget on Wednesday, the twenty fifth. So a slide I've, shared before, but wanna share again of just to talk a little bit about a triple triple a modern rating and what is the value of that. Historically, the county had its first two ratings attained in 2003, and the third was attained in 2013. Now when a rating is earned, it's not a forever statement. Every time the county issues bonds, we go through these reviews. So about every other year,
we're continuing to, you know, get that rating. Of the 3,000 plus counties in The United States, only 54 have a AAA rating across the three major agencies, and 13 of those are in Virginia. There are a lot of benefits to having a AAA bond rating, and probably the biggest one is future flexibility to the board of supervisors. You can think of, the debt service payment annually as the mortgage or the rent. And so the lower that is, the more of your income you have to do everything else that you would like to have in your life if the county was an individual. Second, really big impact is because the county has a triple triple a rating,
it will be able to get the best possible rates lowest to the market. One of the reasons for that is, there will be a lot of bidders who will be interested in the county's bonds. When the county issued bonds last two and a half years ago, I believe there were nine bids received. And so you could imagine if you were an individual doing a home renovation project, noncontractor show up to your front door with a sealed bid for what they can do, you're probably gonna be in a pretty good situation. But also that best possible rates, that translates to lower debt service payments, to get, again, get that future flexibility. And also, if there was ever an emergency or when the county did need to engage in
short term unexpected borrowing, that AAA rating helps ensure market access and borrowing when needed. So to wrap up my comments, the next steps will be at March 17. Our team will be, with the EDA, to request action, for their part of the bond issuance. We will be back on March 18, where mister Sumner and Davenport and Company will present for the Board of Supervisors action on to authorize the bonds. Late March, there will be rating agency reviews, followed by mid April sale of bonds, and by early May, we'll be closing. So this just really wraps up an introduction of the bond press process.
We'll be back next month, but I'll be happy to really, we'll be back next week for the budget, but we'll be back next month for the bonds. I'll be happy to answer any questions the board has. Alright. Supervisor Duncan. Thank you, Eddie. So you said the bonds are for projects that have previously been approved. Do you know, like, is there a typical amount or, like, a typical length after a project is approved before, like, the bond is issued? Yeah. There's, there's some rules. Really, one of the, the art is you don't wanna borrow too early or borrow too late in the reimbursement timeline. And I'm I'm blanking on the exact timeline of when that is,
but we're typically borrowing within a couple years of a project being completed. And then I assume there's, like, a max amount of debt that we can have, that we can't just, like, borrow as much as we want and pay for as many things as we want. That's correct. There is, the threshold that the county is closest to is about 10% of debt service on its total operating revenues. So if the county were to exceed that, it would still be able to issue bonds. However, they would be rated at a lower rating. So the interest cost would be higher And the more debt you have, the less you have to do everything else in the budget that the board may
desire to do. So I guess what I'm hearing is that it's, like, wise to plan your CIP projects far in advance and, like, leave enough space to borrow for them when you are able to? Yeah. Really multi year planning is key. That was one of the themes, you know, prior to, the current board being fully seated of really looking out in those years, really with five year plan. What are those decisions we can make today to create greater flexibility for the future? Alright. Thank you. Got us. Supervisor Malek? Thank you again for the presentation. I don't have any questions right now.
Supervisor Pruett. Would I be correct in assuming that the, rates and offerings that are available to us as municipality well, locality, looking at municipal bonds are kind of comparable and follow similar trends to what consumer credit markets would look like. Speak to that one. Yes, sir. Good afternoon. Jacob Sumner, Chief Financial Officer. I think it would be similar. We're because the type of debt we are issuing is tax exempt debt, it's usually at a lower rate, than what you'd see in more of the other capital markets that are taxable.
So I think you'd see a similar pattern, particularly over time, but typically at a lower rate. Thank you. That's all I have. Supervisor Lapisto Kirtley? Thank you for the presentation. No question. Supervisor Missal? Thanks. I'm trying to avoid finance 101 questions, so bear with me. First of all, I know the AAA bond rating is a huge deal, and it not only takes a great deal of diligence and accountability on your part, but a lot of work. So it's also super helpful to the community. So that's that's great, and and congratulations on continuing that.
Second thing is you mentioned something about, bonds need to be ten years old and then maybe refinanced. Did did I get that right? Yeah. A rule of thumb in refinancing is something typically needs to be at least issued ten years ago. Now there can be differences on a particular bond. That's a good rule of thumb. So any debt that was issued in the last, you know, you know, ten years or less probably would not be eligible for refinancing yet. Got it. Okay. And how often do you look at refinancing debt? Is it annually? Yes. That's a regular exercise our financial advisers undertake. And so they're monitoring the outstanding debt we have and comparing that to the current
interest rate environment. So when there's certain parameters that are met that is advantageous for us to do a refunding or refinancing, then they'll present that to the county for us to entertain. Got it. Okay. So it's kind of revolving in a sense. And then the last question is, you mentioned one of the key drivers to the rating, I believe, was economic development. And I'm curious if what affects AstraZeneca has on our ability to borrow, and have you all thought about that in relation to ensuring that infrastructure is ready
when that effort is undertaken? Yes. So one of the things that the Regent Agency is going to look at is not only the historical, financial picture, our revenues and expenditures, but they're looking at our planning and our planning efforts. And so we'll walk them through five year financial plans. And, back in November when we walked through those five year plans, we talked about the short term, the first two years of that five year plan and also the latter part of that five year plan. So I would anticipate those conversations to be in the room when we talk about
our rating agency conversations with the agencies. But they're also gonna be looking at, you know, how are we planning? You know? What are we doing, prudent financial planning? Are we taking all of our plans with a strategic plan, the economic development strategic plan, the comp plan, how all those plans come into play? And are we, planning well for the future? So I think that's a yes, it sounds like. So, I'm just curious if we're thinking about oh, let me ask a real simple way. Is it does the fact that AstraZeneca is coming increase our ability to borrow to support that project?
So I I think in the in the long term, that project will increase increase the county's revenues. And so as total revenues increase, that allows more headroom in your debt that you can take on. That makes sense. Yes. And I would add, that the property for Avana Futures was part of the previous issuance involved 2023. So we spent a lot of time with the rating agencies walking through the strategy, the rationale. Yeah. Your deputy county executive Henry spent a really long time working through that, to give the rating issues his comfort. This time this spring, we'll talk about what has changed in the last two and a half years,
which has quite been a lot. And so that will lead into what we feel will be a very favorable story. That's perfect. Thank you. That's all. Thanks, Jim. And anything like that that happens, it's not that we can achieve a higher credit rating. We're there. Mhmm. So the movement it's about retention, not furtherance or further further performance. Also, I think it's I think it's useful or will be useful when we go through the budget. When we talk about that AAA bond rating, is it lost on anyone, what that actually means? So it was a big deal.
Just past fall, Greene County got their first top tier bond rating. They got a AA, and they had not had that before. And that allows them to now do borrowing that's going to save money for their taxpayers. But it may be useful here and there to do comparisons that say, well, here's what this actually means in dollars. A triple AAA bond rating or what you get interest rate wise for us is this. If we were at a lower rating, then here is what that interest would be. And then we can equate that to dollars that shows how much we're saving by
having a triple AAA bond rating. So anytime we have the chance to bring that alive, I think would be a that we should take that opportunity. We could, we can bring that into the work sessions and the budget to the idea of, you know, I'll say this back to make sure I have it right, you know, dollars 1,000,000 of debt service can buy a certain number of projects at a AAAA rating. That $1,000,000 will not go as far to buy as many projects if it's at a higher interest rate due to a lower credit rating. And I think we generally understand that. But to put that into, like, a dollar amount, I mean, you know, an eighth basis point or a quarter basis point on millions of dollars on the
scale is significant. Yes. I would if there's, if you could, I think sometimes, you know, when we hear the word bond or bond issuance, and we have in the community talk of a high school in a big capital project and things coming forward with big CIP requests, and in our history we've had a bond referendum, and we hear that bond referendum is a tool, can you give us if today is not the time, it could be could be during budget time, We don't want what you're talking about today, while it's parallel or connected,
it's not the same as saying a bond referendum and just have to distinguish between the two. Yeah. So the, shortest way to explain that is, if a general obligation referendum was approved, the county could really rely on maybe about 25 basis points better on a debt service issuance. The reason is the market will view that debt backed by the full faith and credit of the voters, and so that is viewed more favorably than, I'll call the traditional bonds that the county is issuing that time. So from a financial planning perspective,
that's how that would work. And of course, the board would need to weigh what are the right projects to put in there. There's a whole art to that because if there's a project that was mandated, that may not be the best candidate to put on a bond referendum project because if it's turned down, that would have major implications. So really the math on the finance side from a perspective is about 0.25 basis points. But there's, of course, other considerations the board would need to undertake in that. Great. Thank you. That those are the comments and questions I had. So appreciate the information. Are there any additionals that have come up?
Alright. Very good. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you. Alright. Board, we are at our closed meeting. Is there a meet motion to go into closed meeting? I move that the Board of Supervisors convene a closed meeting pursuant to section 2.2-three 711 of the Code of Virginia under subsection six to discuss and consider the investment of public funds related to possible agreements with AstraZeneca LP and the Virginia Department of Transportation where bargaining is involved and where, if made public initially, would adversely affect the financial interests of the county.
Under subsection eight, to consult with legal counsel regarding specific legal matters, including possible agreements with AstraZeneca LP and the Virginia Department of public contracts with AstraZeneca LP involving the expenditure of public funds, where discussion in an open session would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the county and the board. Second. Alright. The motion has been made and properly seconded. Without objection, if the clerk will call the roll. Mister Galloway? Yes. Miss Lupista Kirtley? Aye. Miss Malik? Yes. Mister Missal? Aye.
Mister Pruitt? Aye. Miss Duncan? Yes. All right, Board. I'm gonna call us back to order. We are coming out of closed session. Is there a motion to certify close the closed meeting? I move that the board of supervisors certify by a recorded vote that to the best of each supervisor's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from the open meeting requirements of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and identified in the motion authorizing the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered in the closed meeting. Second? Alright.
The motion has been made and seconded. Without objection, if the clerk would please call the roll. Mister Galloway? Yes. Miss Lakisha Kirtley? Aye. Miss Malek? Yes. Mister Missal? Aye. Mister Pruitt? Aye. Miss miss Duncan? Yes. Alright. And there are not any there are no motions coming out of closed meeting. We will move to from the County Executive number 13. Any items here? No, sir. Not this evening. Thank you. Alright. Then we will move to item number 14, public comment. Matters previously considered or currently pending before the board other than scheduled for public hearings,
our vice chair will read the rules. We do have, I think, three sign ups today. Okay. Great. Good evening, everyone. During the time set aside for public comment on matters previously considered or currently pending before the Board other than scheduled public hearings, individuals may address the Board of Supervisors concerning matters previously considered by the Board or matters that are pending before the Board other than items listed on the agenda for public hearing. 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. Up to 10 persons may speak during matters from the public session.
Timekeeping is conducted through a timer and a 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 requests that speakers adhere to the following guidelines. When addressing the Board, state your name and if you live in Albemarle County or 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 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. Do not speak from your seat or out of turn. All comments are live streamed, recorded, and published on the Albemarle County website. And just as a reminder, please be sure to introduce yourself and speak into the microphone when you come up. We have three signed up tonight. Alicia Lenahan. Good evening. My name is Alicia Lenahan. I live in the Scottsville District. When we demand better of our elected officials and demand that our laws reflect our values, we expect to see better outcomes. The resolution passed by the Charlottesville City Council and the proposed legislation working its way
through the general assembly are helping Virginia to catch up with other states. County residents are still waiting for a response from this board. The community is still waiting to learn whether and how law enforcement will respond when ICE is battering down a front door without a judicial warrant. We are still waiting to learn whether and how law enforcement will respond when residents are brutalized while exercising their constitutional rights. The resolution and other legislation are reactive. Policies, planning, and practices must reflect the changing landscape.
ICE agents should be unmasked, in uniform, and in many instances, carrying judicial warrants. However, we now know they are showing up in jeans and hoodies. They are driving innocuous vehicles, some without license plates. At least one has posed as someone stranded on the side of the road luring people in. Others have posed as helpers. If law enforcement is committed to keeping all of us safe, it will have to be vigilant, proactive, and strictly adhere to principles of de escalation. They will have to be resolute in upholding the law, especially when the lawbreakers hold themselves out as federal agents.
Now the specter of ICE agents at polling places looms large. In April, Virginia will hold a special election addressing a proposed constitutional amendment that will allow the general assembly to temporarily adopt new congressional districts to restore fairness in the upcoming elections. What better opportunity for a dress rehearsal so ICE agents can ensure that the right people are voting? This is not normal. You cannot wait for the storm to pass. A tornado touched down in Springfield, Massachusetts and cut a path of destruction over 20 miles long.
Our friend Chris heard it coming. He pushed his wife and son down the basement stairs and threw the dog down after them, then he followed and threw his body on top of everyone. When the noise had stopped, their house was gone. Other than heed the warning and take cover, there was nothing else Chris could have done. Not true for this body. You know what's happening. You have time to plan. You have resources. The county executive oversees law enforcement. The board holds the purse strings. Together, you have the authority and responsibility to ensure that the actions of local government reflect
our values. You can protect this house. The outcomes will tell the story. Thank you. Thank you. Susan McCulley. I'm Susan McCully. I'm a resident of the Samuel Mill Miller District, and I'm here again to urge you to make clear a clear statement and establish policies regarding how the county will respond when federal immigration agents arrive. As you know, the city has passed a resolution regarding recent immigration enforcement actions and a letter to the Virginia congressional delegation and statewide leaders.
Their words are welcome and, frankly, long overdue. We now look to you to take a stand on what the county's rules of engagement will be when federal agents come here. As the county commonwealth's attorney, Jim Hingeley, pointed out in a meeting last week, whether or not a particular action is lawful, unidentified agents performing immigration enforcement terrorizes the community and endangers both residents and law enforcement. In a recent interview, Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey said, quote, you're not going to avoid this kind of engagement by not speaking up.
I've heard both elected officials and CEOs say, we don't want to attract any attention. Well, here's the thing. We should all be paying attention to what's going on right now. We should all be speaking out, end quote. Mayor Frey knows from experience that not saying something just kicks the can down the road and subjects other places to this kind of unconstitutional action, and he knows the importance of separation ordinances and other policies that instill community trust, ensuring that everybody is comfortable calling 911 in an emergency without fear of being deported
based on their documentation status. That's not even a moral issue. It's just good policy. So we do ask you again. What will the county do to keep all residents safe? What will the county police do if a resident's rights are being violated? If a federal agent commits a crime, who will investigate? Who will preserve evidence? The time to speak up is now. The time to set policy is now. The time to establish what police and other officials will do is now. We want to work together effectively to prepare for ICE activity that we know we
can anticipate. We see other jurisdictions doing this, and we wanna know if you will work with us to build dialogue and prepare action plans. Lacking information, residents don't know what to do, how to prepare, or who to trust, and that leaves all of us less safe. Thank you. And last on our list is Rebecca Brown. Hi. Good evening. Members of the board, my name is Rebecca Brown, and I live in the Rio District. I live with a genetic health condition and disabilities that make my day to day
capacity quite variable, which has led to substantive personal loss. And as you begin to search for a new director of community development, I wanna highlight the vital housing assistance infrastructure we already have in place. I'm grateful for it. Albemarle has housing tools, and we have an opportunity to hire a leader who will further advance how those tools function and have true preventative infrastructure. Currently, even when residents like me do everything right,
following every rule and tracking every update, we can still fall through the cracks created by administrative design. I'm asking for four specific low cost refinements to the next, to maximize the impact of our current programs. The first one is wait list predictability. To ensure those with disabilities or unstable health aren't excluded by surprise openings, we need predictable, publicly announced schedules for housing voucher wait with wait lists. The second one is an anti purge safeguard to protect the work already done to
qualify residents. We need a mandatory thirty day cure period and clear reinstatement pathways before someone is dropped for a missed notice. It's really hard to notice a notice. Wording. If you just had surgery. Massive surgery. I've had 16. Public facing clear accessibility information. We need to make it easier for disabled residents to find the accessible units that already exist in our publicly funded developments rather than forcing them into an exhausting scavenger
hunt. And lastly, ACERP transparency. The Albemarle County Emergency Relief Program is a powerful tool, yet service providers report that awards are often made below the maximum even when funds are available and eviction risk remains. We can make it more effective by providing clear written guidelines for award amounts, ensuring that whenever funds are available, we fully resolve eviction risks rather than just delaying it when people are vulnerable. I'm not asking for new funding tonight. I'm asking for administrative clarity. Albemarle County has built the infrastructure. The next step is ensuring that it is used to its full preventative potential so
that access to help does not depend on total collapse and homelessness, especially for vulnerable populations. Thank you. Thank you. It concludes our list, chair. All right. We will now close public, public meeting period and move to the next item on our agenda, which is our first of the public hearings this evening. Number 15, public hearing for Walnut Creek Park Appalachian Power Utility Easement. Good evening. Good evening, Chair Galloway, members of the Board. Just bear with me one minute. I'll get this going. Thank you for having me here tonight.
So I wanted to start with a little background on this request. Appalachian Power requests an underground utility easement on a portion of Walnut Creek Park that already has a cell tower. We just need the easement so we can bring power from one spot to another spot. And, that lease was approved 08/09/2024. The cell tower, was completed, want to let you know remind you the location of the, cell tower is near the maintenance shop at Walnut Creek Park, and the easement is going to run along the road,
up towards the cashier booth and over to the cell tower. And I'll show you a picture of that. I'm not sure if that picture is too little. It's going to run from inside the park up the road and then over behind the shop. And then you can see there's a cell tower picture of the current cell tower, taken about three weeks ago during the snowstorm. And just want to let you know, the budget impact is a one time revenue of $1,500 And that fee, was determined by county staff on previous utility easements.
And just wanted to remind the Board that the cell tower, bringing you know, that'll help neighboring folks plus safety in the park, which is really a big concern. We have 15 miles of mountain biking trails there. And when an accident happens, it takes a long time for a person to get help because of the lack of cell coverage at Walnut Creek Park. And we have a recommendation for you that the board adopt the resolution approving the conveyance of the utility easement. And I'll open it up for questions. All right.
Thank you. Supervisor Duncan? No questions. Supervisor Malek? Yes. The only question was we did the special permit for this last year, perhaps, and Correct. The power was left off. I mean, I I'm just surprised because I would assume that all of that would have been part of the the application. Right. We we learn we learn that we should have done that all at one time, and we did not. So we're gonna make improvements for the future. Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt? Nothing else. Thank you. Supervisor Lupisto Kirtley? No questions. Thank you, Amy. Supervisor Missal?
No questions. Thank you. Alright. I do not have any questions, so we will open the public hearing. Do we have anyone signed up for this one this evening? Alright. That we do not have, are there any further questions for miss Smith or staff? Alright. We will close the public hearing. The matter is back before the board, for the resolution. This would be adopting attachment d, approving conveyance of the utility easement. Right. You want it? And this is Sure. I'm happy to. I'd like to is there a language to refer to? Oh, it's in here. It it would just be that to adopt the,
resolution attached to the staff report as attachment d. Okay. I move that, we adopt the resolution attachment d as shown in the staff report approving conveyance of the utility easement. Second. Alright. The motion has been made and seconded. Without objection, if the clerk will please call the roll. Mister Galloway? Yes. Miss Lipizzo Thirtley? Aye. Miss Malek? Yes. Mister Missal? Yes. Mister Pruitt? Aye. Miss Duncan? Yes. Alright. Very good. The motion carries. Board will move to item number 16, utility easements across county owned parcel,
09102 E 0. Mister Struthers is going to walk us through this one. Good evening. Good evening. Hi. Good evening. Terry Galloway, fellow supervisors. And, mister Struthers, you might have to on the left side of the podium, you can actually raise that sucker up. There you go. That's a that's official language right there. Raise that sucker up. It it is up. Bill Strother, deputy director of Facilities and Environmental Services. Tonight, we're here for the public hearing to discuss utility easements across the county owned Parcel 912 E. A little background on this.
This parcel is actually, the Fire Station 11, which is directly in front of a parcel that the county schools are building a new upper elementary school. Just for reference for the parcel locations, on the map, you can see the parcel on the left is where the fire station is located along Mill Creek and Founders Place. Parcel 9111 is where the new elementary school is being constructed. And these, utility easements will directly support the construction and and operations of that school. Again, there's another slide, showing the representation of where the new school is being built and to the Monticello,
fire station. There are gonna be, two utility easements as part of this to help support the school. One of them is gonna be a permanent Dominion Power easement that will provide permanent power to the school. And the second will be a telecommunications easement through Bright Speed that's actually separated to two portions. One portion will be an easement, another portion will be a licensed used area. And I'll get into some more information on why we separated that out and the benefits that Wilhelton County will have for that. These will these will be nonexclusive easements, so that in the future,
if there's a change in the provider, that we can we can make modifications to that. The other benefit to the licensed used area is it will not restrict the county's ability to expand the fire station renovations and do any additional work. We would have to you you move this utility with our own Bright Speed connection to to be able to do those renovations. This would give us the leeway to be able to do that without an easement in place. And it is actually an existing three inches conduit that we are basically providing for them to use that was put in when the facility was constructed,
which is helping save costs on the school construction, to not have to route it all the way down Founders Place to, Mill Creek. This is a representation of where the Dominion power easement will go. It will enter on to Parcel 912 E, which is where the fire station is. From the backside, it will come through to where the existing, power transformer is and then run along the back driveway, exiting onto Founders Place. The Bright Speed or telecommunications easement will come onto the county property around around the same location. It will connect with that three inch conduit right around where that
Power transformer station is and generator location is. And at that point, it will connect to the three inch conduit and run, directly to Mill Creek where the main interconnection is. This is a, showing where the temporary construction easement that the board approved in November 2024. This was put in place for then in preparation for these future easements to support the school. Again, the these requests, support the future operations of the elementary school. We've engaged with county stakeholders. We we see no issues with issuing these easements for the utility. And we are working with county school project management staff to ensure that there are
no, interruptions to County Fire Services at eleven. They will work with us if they need to block off the back driveway, but fire engines will still be able to operate as normal, and we will make sure that we don't have any impacts to that. There will also be no budget impacts for this, easement to the County. And with that, staff recommends that the Board adopt the attached resolution, Attachment E, approving the easements and license use area, and authorize the county executive to execute deeds and any necessary or related documents to convey these interests. And thank you for your time. And if you have any questions, feel free to add. I do have the,
project manager for county schools here if there are any questions about the the school project. Great. Thank you. Supervisor Duncan? No questions. Supervisor Malek? No questions. And thank you for the nonexclusive because that allows somebody else to come in and use a conduit in twenty years. So that's terrific. Thank you very much. Supervisor Pruitt? I have nothing. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Lapisto Kirtle? No questions. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Missal? No questions. Thanks. Alright. I do not have any questions. We will open the public hearing. No sign ups for this one. Any additional questions for mister Struthers? Alright.
We will close the public hearing. The matter is back before the board. And if we could put the motion back up on the screen. Oh, sorry. And a motion. I would like to move that the board adapt, adopt, rather, the resolution, attached to statute report as attachment e. Second. Alright. The motion has been made and properly seconded. Without objection, if the clerk will please call the roll. Mister Galloway? Yes. Miss Lakisto Kirtley? Aye. Miss Malik? Yes. Mister Missal? Aye. Mister Pruitt? Aye. Miss Duncan? Yes. Great. Thank you, board. Thank you, mister Struthers. Alright.
We're gonna move to oh, you're staying put, aren't you? I just looked down. So I take back my well, no. I'll still thank you for that. Okay. Alright. Item number 17, HEAR lease, Yancey Community Center. Yes. Good evening. Again, Bill Strautler, Deputy Director Fez. The public hearing for this is for, oh, hi. Sorry. I loaded the wrong slide. My apologies. The public hearing for this is to consider a leased space to the HEAR organization at the Yancey Community Center. As the Board is aware, in March 2018, the Board of Supervisors adopted a use framework allowing public,
entities and community partners, to and nonprofits to occupy space within the community center. Currently, there are several nonprofit agencies, Java, the Department of Health, Food Pantry, and and, Parks and Rec Community Center and other recreational activities in the location. HHEAR stands for Health Equity Access in Rural Regions. Their mission is to work toward healthier and happier lives in rural communities, to create resilient, sustainable foundations for rural health equity through collaboration, education, resource, and accessibility. They are a five zero one(three) non profit established in 2018,
governed by a six member Board, and 10 community liaisons. They provide services within a 10 to 15 mile radius of Scottsville. Some of the activities they have, they do community engagement. They host small group education sessions and outreach programs to promote health and wellness. They partner with local agencies and organizations to strengthen health systems and deliver integrated services. And they also work with resources providing information and support to connect residents to health services in their area. Some of their current partnerships are with the Blue Ridge Health District, Doctor.
Java, Central Virginia Health Systems, UVA Health Systems, Sentara, Well Aware, which is another agency within the Yancey Community Center, and many other community organizations. We actually had available space, at the community center, utilizing one of the classroom trailers that has been vacant. We did some remodeling and painting and preparation, and we also upgraded all the lighting for LED, for the anticipation of this. For this for this partner agency, there would be no, charge for leasing of the space. The request, again, is in line with the, the board adoption of the 2018 use framework for the NCD Community Center,
and staff recommends that the Board adopt the resolution, resolution authorizing the County Executive to sign a proposed lease agreement. I'll answer any questions, and Ms. Peggy Scott, ahead of here is with me tonight in case you have any other additional questions about the program. Thank you, and good evening. Supervisor Duncan? This is super exciting, and, we heard in the fall from the health district kind of about, like a big report and sort of some of the struggles of people in the rural areas. And so, you know, this is meeting a lot of those needs, and I think this speaks to, like,
you know, why we need these sort of public community centers in the rural areas. My only question is the website listed is not working and it's, like, very spammy, and I was able to, like, read the history of it on the UVA website, but I was just curious if there's a planned website because this is really cool information. I'm going to let Peggy answer that. Answer that. Thank you. I'm Peggy Scott, the president of HEAR, Health Equity and Access in Rural Regions. And the website is here now. So the website has changed. Okay.
The now is now, right now, with all the needs we have and resource, lack thereof. The Map to Health project that you were speaking about that was completed shares with us all the issues and lack of resources in the rural communities. And we work within the Southern Albemarle Region, but also Northern Buckingham, Eastern Savannah, Western Nelson, and Southern Albemarle. So that here now .org is where you want to look. Okay. That's great. Thank you. Mhmm. Alright. Supervisor Malek? No questions. Thank you very much for all you're doing. Supervisor Pruett?
I have no questions. Thank you. Supervisor Lupisto Kirtley? No questions. Thank you. Alright. Supervisor Missal? No questions. Just absolutely essential and critical, services that you provide. And if there's anything I can do, let me know. My only question was the so the mobile unit, was that all that's available, or was that the direct request was for the mobile The the the classroom trailer Yeah. Nancy. It it Van Gogh is one of the only spaces available. Yeah. You know, they're all most of the other spaces are being used for programs. It also allowed for a lot of space and for what their needs were for
for material storage, educational, for for, you know, meeting just minor meeting space, workspace, and that mean and that was that type of thing. And can I just share that that space In the microphone, please? I'm sorry. Sorry. That space belonged to Monticello Area Community Action at some point, and it has a lot of historical, value for the community, has a lot of trust built for these children that were educated in that space. So we really wanted the historical aspect as well as being part of the community. So Right. So it wasn't just driven by what was available? It was it the time, it was driven by what was available,
but then we talked to the community, and we thought that space was of enough value that we would go to Bill and ask for it. That's great. Yeah. Thank you. Alright. We will open the public hearing. Any speakers for this one? Alright. Any additional questions? So we will close the public hearing, and the motion is to attach or to adopt the resolution as attachment c in the staff report. I'll move that we adopt the res attach resolution attachment c in the staff report. Second. Alright. The motion has been made and seconded. Without objection, if the clerk will call the roll.
Mister Galloway? Yes. Miss Lupita Circurley? Aye. Miss Malik? Yes. Mister Missal? Aye. Mister Pruitt? Aye. Miss Duncan? Yes. Very good. Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations. We look forward to hearing more about the program as it gets gets rolling. Thank you. Board, the next item, number 18, public hearing for conveyance of utility easements on Colonnade Drive, SUB 2025215. And miss Ragsdale is joining us for this one. Thank you and good evening. Rebecca Ragsdale, with Community Development, and I am waiting for my presentation to load.
This is also a public hearing that's required by state code, for some utility easements that are proposed within a right of way already dedicated to public use. A little bit of background. This, these easements are, within Colony Drive, and they are associated with the Skyline Ridge Apartments. That's a development on some existing r 15 zone property, at the end of Colony Drive, kind of behind you Heights, and that was approved, in 2025 and is under construction. So that site
is well, back is at the end. As I mentioned, it's highlighted on the screen, and Colonnade Drive is off of Ivy Road, just west of the city of Charlottesville. Colonnade Drive, has sections of it that go back to the late nineteen sixties that were indicated that they were dedicated to public use on flats, but there are gaps in that section along Colony Drive. So the subject, area at the end of of Colony Drive is one of those sections that is, within public right of way or dedicated to public use,
but the road itself is still privately maintained and is not in the state system. So for that reason, we do need to go through this process to have the public hearing to allow the utility easements. They are generally in the areas shown, in yellow on the screen at at the very end of Colony Drive as it will, serve the new apartment complex. The access will be off of that, and it's from sort of adjacent to the last parking lot there in the U Heights neighborhood. These easements are, will allow extension of utilities that are already in Colony Drive,
and they won't impact the ability of the roadway to function, and they are utilities that are typically located in roadways. The plat was included in your packet, if we need to reference that, but we did not find any issues, with the proposal. It is consistent with the site plan that was approved. But like I said, given the status of Colony Drive, this public hearing is necessary. So be happy to answer any questions. Alright. Supervisor Duncan? No questions. Supervisor, why does that look different to me than my order? Supervisor Malek? Thank you.
Does this cure any other gaps for the future? Or I don't don't know if there are any, but, I mean, it seems so bizarre in the history. So hopefully, it does help you out going forward. Well, it addresses, the gap in utilities for Skyline Ridge Apartments, but, not anything else related to Colony Drive. Okay. Thank you. Alright. Supervisor Pruitt? I have no further questions. Supervisor Lupista Kirtley? No questions. Thank you. Supervisor Missal? No questions. Thanks. Alright. I do not have any questions. We will open the public hearing. We have no one signed up.
Are there any further questions from the board? Yes, sir. Alright. We will close the public hearing, and the matter is back before us for a motion. I move that we adopt the attached resolution to authorize conveyance of the easements. Second. Attachment b. Right? Yes. Attachment b. Second. Second again. As attachment b was the clarification. Alright. It has been motion has been made and seconded. Without objection, if the clerk will please call the roll. Mister Galloway? Yes. Miss Lupita Kirtley? Aye. Miss Malek? Yes. Mister Missal? Aye. Mister Pruitt? Aye.
Miss Duncan? Yes. Alright. Motion carries. Thank you, miss Ragsdale. Board, what I I'd like to ask if there is no objection to the board at this time to go back into closed session, and then we can come back and do the from the board matters after the closed session, if that is all right with everyone. Sure. So if we could please have the motion to go back into closed session. I move that the Board of Supervisors convene a closed meeting pursuant to section 2.2-three 711 of the Code of Virginia. Under subsection six, to discuss and consider the investment of public funds related to possible agreements with AstraZeneca
LP and the Virginia Department of Transportation, where bargaining is involved and where, if made public initially, would adversely affect the financial interests of the county. Under subsection eight, to consult with legal counsel regarding specific legal matters, including possible agreements with AstraZeneca Elkie and the Virginia Department of Transportation requiring the provision of legal advice by such counsel and under subsection section 29 to discuss the negotiation of public contracts with AstraZeneca LP involving the expenditure of public funds, where discussion in an open session would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiating strategy
of the county and the board. Second. Alright. The motion has been made and seconded. Without objection, if the clerk will please call the roll. Mister Galloway? Yes. Miss Lupisto Kirtley? Aye. Miss Malik? Yes. Mister Missal? Aye. Mister Pruitt? Aye. Miss Duncan? Yes. Very good. We will re Alright. Board, we are going to come back to order. And if we could have a motion to certify the closed meeting, please. I move that the Board of Supervisors certify by a recorded vote that to the best of each supervisor's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from the open meeting requirements of the Virginia Freedom
of Information Act and identified in the motion authorizing the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered in the closed meeting. Second. Alright. The motion has been made and seconded without objection. If the clerk will please call the roll. Mister Galloway? Yes. Miss Lakisto Kirtley? Aye. Miss Malek? Yes. Mister Missal? Aye. Mister Pruitt? Aye. Miss Duncan? Yes. Very good. The motion certifying, is approved, and I'm gonna invite miss am I inviting Mr. Richardson to start or Ms. Kilroy? Mr. Richardson, I'm going to hand it over to you. Yes, sir, Mr.
Chair. We've got a, resolution for your consideration this evening, and I'm going to ask Ms. Kilroy, our economic development director, to come up and to give the board, an overview and our public an overview and an update on the AstraZeneca project. Good evening, board. Thank you for, your time this evening and for, adding this after your public hearings. I'm gonna just bring up slides for one second. Emily, you're very quiet. Which I am so rarely accused of. Can is is this yeah. This is much better. Okay. Alright. They both work. They both work. Alright.
So, this evening, staff is bringing forward, an AstraZeneca resolution, that really is to bring us to sort of the next phase of the AstraZeneca project in Almorrill County. And I'll give a couple of background slides to help, guide this conversation. But bottom line up front, the resolution before the board this evening would authorize the county executive to sign agreements related to AstraZeneca incentives and the Boulders Road extension within defined parameters. And the intent for this is to really allow the county to remain responsive to critical deadlines and schedules as we continue to work through, a really exciting,
project with an aggressive timeline attached to it. And we're working sort of in harmony across, delivering a road, delivering some critical infrastructure, as well as ensuring that AstraZeneca can open their facility, according to their development plan. Just backing up for a second, AstraZeneca is, what what will be the first tenant of the Ravenna Futures Project property, which is the property that the board of supervisors purchased only two years ago, which feels incredible. So December 2023 is when we announced we've closed on the real estate transaction at
Rivanna Futures. And, and this is an aerial image of the property, that that sort of tries to highlight some of the key features. So you all know that we actually had about one acre of property prior to 2023. When we per in 2017, we purchased, what had what folks call the Palm Readers House on Route 29 at Austin Drive. And that was a strategic purchase back then because of, because it was at Austin Drive. The county's comprehensive plan and places 29 master plan for decades have had in envisioned
that Boulder's Road, would it be extended back down to Route 29 at Austin Drive. And so when that property became available, the county understood that that was a a really, great opportunity to invest in that properties to which would enable the Austin Drive, Boulders Road extension to occur. So total of 463 acres there that the county owns. A 172 acres of it was zoned to light industrial and office, in early twenty twenty four. And then the remaining 231 acres of the property, are in the rural area, and so we're envisioned to remain as natural buffers for the overall campus,
directly adjacent to Ravenna Station. There's also, some ponds on the back half that we think will provide some good recreational amenities. One of the things that we talked to the board about, as we were sort of finish finishing the real estate transaction and looking at what the next several years of work would be, was really a focus on funding. Owning property is one transformative investment that the county made into our economic future. But but going it alone was gonna be really challenging. And so our goal was to bring in some other dollars to help advance site
readiness work out there, which is extending utilities, extending that roadway, and and making some, conceptual engineering investments that would help us understand really how to best move forward with developing the property. And so since, you know, really, again, thinking about 2024 as as the starting point of this project, we've now been able to secure $31,000,000 in state funding and $12,000,000 from AstraZeneca, in support of the extension of Boulders Road. And there's just been a a a lot of groundswell of support at the state for, for trying to see the vision of this project move forward,
which positioned us really well, when AstraZeneca found Virginia to to actually find that home here in El Memorial, and we're really proud of that work. So talking just a bit about AstraZeneca, and you all are very familiar with this project. But, here's a conceptual rendering of what the facility will look like once it's constructed. There are, a number of environmental features sort of embedded in this this concept drawing. There's laminated timber, which replaces steel, as a structural element, that's much more carbon friendly than, than steel. There's a focus on daylighting, which helps,
which helps on a number of fronts from an environmental standpoint. Some of the things that you can't see here that are part of the plans as we work with AstraZeneca on, on their, front end engineering analysis, are a focus on roof mounted solar panels, to help with their offset some of their energy needs, as well as some ground mounted arrays as well. Just the commitment that they've shown through the design process to sort of living the sustainability values that they shared in the prospecting phase has been really heartening. So here is what the concept plan for Rivanna Futures looks like today. This is different than it looked a a year ago.
You may remember that we had Land Bay 25, Land Bay 30, and Land Bay 50 identified in the shaded areas, and the road followed more of a sort of circular linear path, through the property. And that was, again, a concept plan that we developed not knowing what would happen, but knowing that you have to have a plan so that you can think through the infrastructure investments that we were, seeking to do through the site readiness process. And we said at that time, we'll have to be flexible about how this this actually plays out, and and this is sort of a an update as to where we are now. So the road has gotten about a thousand linear feet shorter.
Land Bay 50 is now Land Bay 82, and, and that will be, fully AstraZeneca's, over the course of the next probably year, as we work through, some site readiness work and then the real estate conveyance. Here's the slide that you all have seen before, AstraZeneca by the numbers. I won't read all of these, but we're we're very excited about, the opportunity to bring 600 direct meet jobs to to Albemarle as part of this project. This is not sometimes economic development announcements will include the indirect jobs and the induced jobs. We wanted to stay focused on the direct jobs because those are the ones that
we know we can count on. But we do know that there will be other jobs that are created as a result of this facility. And the minimum salary at a $125,000 a year, for a facility that will be predominantly manufacturing jobs. And so these are really high paid manufacturing jobs that we're excited to bring here, and we're working closely with workforce education partners to ensure that our local students will be successful candidates for those jobs. A lot of, opportunities are really unlocked with AstraZeneca being here. Principally, there's wonderful research partnership opportunities with the University of Virginia.
Piedmont Virginia Community College has been doing a lot of work, behind the scenes to, ready and and sort of level up their biotechnology programming and life sciences programming to ensure that we have the qualified labor that that AstraZeneca and Acton Scientific and others will need to be successful. There's great commercial partnership opportunities with local biotech companies, that are here today and that will be here tomorrow because of the work of the Commonwealth Bio Accelerator at North Fork Discovery Park, and the Manning Institute at Fontaine Research Park to come. There's, some infrastructure build out that will happen at Rivanna Futures now to serve AstraZeneca's needs
that will have benefits for, Ravenna Station employees, and the future operations of Ravenna Station and the federal government presence there, as well as some, upgrades, system wide upgrades that will really positively benefit the whole 29 North Corridor. And we're excited to see those come to fruition because of AstraZeneca. There's also attraction opportunities for similar companies, so other biomanufacturing facilities as well as supply chain partners. A company like this will have unique supply chain needs, and there'll be, a a lot of reasons to to look at Albemarle, particularly when you think about Eli Lilly and their location in Goochland and the expansion
of Merck, to the West. Some folks have asked is you know, was AstraZeneca really aligned well with what Refraina Futures was was seeking to achieve back when the county purchased the property several years ago? And and we think, yes, it was a conversation that we had very intentionally and very intentionally with the board of supervisors, when we were still, working through the prospecting phase. AstraZeneca is a private sector anchor for an innovation campus that we have said we wanted to grow here. There's some strategic partnership opportunities with Ravenna Station. A strong and growing segment of their national security work,
is in the bio life sciences space, and there's some interesting partnership opportunities there. We also think having a a such a strong anchor will help drive other demand for the rest of the property that's out there. Our concept plan, again, was designed to be adaptable, and we'll continue to adapt our plan as as other, tenants, come forward, for the property. And most importantly, the Virginia business ready sites grant that we received over the summer, is gonna put the infrastructure literally lay the groundwork by putting the infrastructure in the ground to support really the full build out of the campus,
which is really exciting. I talked about infrastructure. The road will the the Boulders Road extension that's long been envisioned, will be able to come to fruition on a a pretty rapid timeline, through the transportation upper partnership opportunity funding that we got from VDOT, just a couple of months ago. There's also some energy upgrades that will happen as a result of AstraZeneca being there, that will provide benefit again, to, to AstraZeneca, to Ramana Station, and and others in the region, and also some water sewer, expand service enhancements that will happen as a result of that. Part of the, prospecting phase,
with a with a company like this, and with a prospect like this is is looking at what are the tax revenue benefits to the county and and using that as a starting point for conversation around incentives that the county could offer, in order to ensure that we're successful in in landing, such an exciting opportunity. You may remember that there are actually two projects as part of the AstraZeneca announcement. The original one was called Project Zodiac. And then, several days before the announcement, there was a second, project that was announced, Project Gemini. And that's the two facilities in one campus that we talked about earlier.
At full build out, you can see the revenue numbers on the slide here. The total twenty five year revenue from the combined Zodiac and Gemini projects is, approximately $709,000,000, based on the investment parameters that that have been provided to staff. And, and that was, again, looking at those revenue numbers, that was really the basis on which we were able to come up with an incentive offer, which, would be a part of the resolution before you this evening, which would authorize the county executive to sign agreements related to AstraZeneca incentives and the
Boulder's Road extension within the defined parameters of up to, $95,570,000 in financial incentives over a twenty five year period. And, again, the intent of that resolution is to allow the county to remain responsive to critical deadlines and schedules. That's the presentation that we have, but we're happy to answer any questions. Alright. Supervisor Duncan? The the, revenue that we're getting is over twenty five years, but they are going to continue to pay property tax after that. So is this,
like, sort of a the expected baseline minimum of what we should expect? Yeah. So, so the, finance and budget team, when they're doing the revenue analysis, they're looking at all the different revenue sources that would be applicable to, a to to the business once it's operating. And so for for this business, it's a combination of the real property tax, which is based on the land value, and the improvements value, the machinery and tools, which is based on the equipment that they're operating, and then the business personal property tax. The and and it's based on they they do all those valuations based on the
information that's provided to us of, you know, this is how much money is going into the building. This is how much money is going into the equipment. And then we can sort of model that over the the twenty five year period. Any any, any investments that the company would make to enhance their facility, during the course of that twenty five years is not included in the investment parameters that we're working within. And so, so anything additional that would be done at the facility would would bring in additional revenues that would not be subject to this agreement. And then, of course, the expectation is that the facility would continue to operate beyond the twenty five years.
And so there would be, revenues generated off the project beyond the period of the incentives, as well as, you know, at the end of the twenty five years, the incentive goes away. And so the full value of the tax revenues coming off the property would stay in the general fund at that point. That's all I have. Supervisor Malek? No questions, but the math certainly works as people when the first purchase came in and people complained to me, and I said, well, if we're making almost $700,000,000
every year, the 58,000,000 to purchase the land seems like good math. And they went, oh, yes. Well, this is chapter two of the same math, and I really appreciate all the work you've done. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt? I have no questions. Thank you. Supervisor Lupista, currently? No questions. Thank you. Supervisor Missal? Couple of quick questions. Just if you could go back to the slide that has Gemini and Zodiac on it. Just to clarify here, where it says at full build out year five and year four, that's not cumulative. Right? So year five is both Gemini and Zodiac will be complete.
So, so these the year four and the year five, project project Gemini is expected to while it was announced second, it is expected to open first. Got it. And so its full build out year is year four. Yep. And Zodiac is year five. So, and so really truly read down on those. Yeah. So Zodiac is only looking at the revenues coming off Zodiac. Gemini is looking at the revenues coming off Gemini. And then when you add it together, that's when you get that $7.00 $9,000,000 number. Great. And I know it's hard to believe that sometimes projects take longer than you expect.
If it's it's build out is in year five instead of year four and year six instead of year four, obviously, the incentives would move as well. Right? Yeah. Because they track with, Yes. They would move. Great. Thank you. And that is all I had. Thank you. And I just want to make the comment that, to Supervisor Malek's point, that this one project justifies the land purchase. But we haven't used up all the acreage that we purchased for the economic development strategy, so it will be even further when other projects start to fall into place,
not to mention what happens off-site, because this will likely have other dominoes falling from it. Correct. And just to just to go back to slide seven, which is the graphic of the property, what we we actually learned a lot through working with AstraZeneca through their process on, that that informed our thinking and rethinking of what the potential future opportunities there were. So, at the start of the summer, the white shaded areas were labeled Land Bay 25, Land Bay 50, and Land Bay what's currently Land Bay 55 was Land Bay 30. But sort of through the work that we did over the summer,
we came to understand there's probably more developable acreage in the numbers are acreage. There's probably more developable acreage in what we've been calling Land Bay 30 than 30 acres. And so, so we we've expanded that now to 55, and and we'll be working sort of concurrently over the next twelve months to to sort of better conceptually plan for what that could look like. But the good news is, is to your point, there's more there's there's a lot more opportunity to come. More to come, not just for the site, for the whole area and region,
frankly. Mhmm. Alright. Thank you, Emily. And, the Vice Chair has a resolution, a motion for the resolution. Happy to read that. I move to, I move, to approve a resolution authorizing both, number one, development grant agreements and or performance agreements with the Economic Development Authority of Albemarle County, Virginia and or AstraZeneca LP, and number two, a directed funds agreement with the Virginia Department of Transportation. Second. Alright. The motion has been made and seconded. Is there any further discussion? Alright. If the clerk could please call the roll.
Mister Galloway? Yes. Miss Lupisto Kirtley? Aye. Miss Malik? Yes. Mister Missal? Aye. Mister Pruitt? Aye. Ms. Duncan? Yes. Very good. Thank you to the team and to the County Executive and everyone. Thank you. And I know there'll be more to come on this as it progresses. All right, board, that brings us to item number 19 from the board, committee reports of matters not listed on the agenda. We'll go through our order as normal. I will handle the letter item that we have when it circulates to my turn. Okay.
Alright. Supervisor Duncan? I have nothing. Supervisor Malek? Two meetings to report. The CCAC last Wednesday discussed topics for the year and also focused discussion on the high priority goal of the Crozet master plan, which was adopted in October 2021, to inventory the existing NOAs or naturally occurring affordable housing in the Crozet growth area. There was a lot of discussion about how to get this going, and perhaps this work would also benefit all the matched cereal districts, not just Crozet.
So, they will be working on this more, and there'll be more to come, from them about that. And we'll be providing some information to policy makers as is their charge. The second was the SWAC meeting presentation last Thursday by Chuck Riegel, a recycling program consultant working around the world who happens to live in Stony Point and was an early member of the SWAC committee. He spoke particularly about the bottle bill recycling programs around the country and, the different ways that things were doing to reduce the, waste stream and also to benefit industry using aluminum,
and steel because the cost of those raw materials are astronomical. And, energy savings alone are are huge and as well as protection of natural resources. So there's an another discussion about waste hauler operations, and they're hoping to get some input from HOAs around the county. And they reached out to CACs to see about trying to gather some information about how their residents feel about their waste haulers and if they're mind having six different companies going through the neighborhood every single week or whether having one would be better. So lots of information gathering going on.
Thank you. Very good. Supervisor Privett? I don't actually think I have any meetings since last meeting to report. Supervisor Lupisto, currently? Yes. Also at the SWAC meeting, they did decide to or forward to the board, changing the charter. Instead of having two supervisors on the SWAC board, it would just be one supervisor. And I think that's gonna come before us. My understanding is that staff is preparing that to to bring that to the board around the April 1 meeting. April 1 meeting. Right. Right. And I agree with supervisor Malek.
There is a lot of interest in looking at countywide or at least in the urban area, I guess, recycling and how can we do that. I think that there'll be another letter or two coming from the SWAC saying, how can we do this? And so wanted to put that forward. EDA, there was a virtual meeting with Steve Pedego, and that continues the, what we've been doing for economic development, going forward. It was kind of a tie up thing. And also yesterday, we had our EDA tour we have of the Biohub Research Park.
Very interesting to see what is going on there. And just to let everyone know, they are now moving to the building across the way, which will give them about double the space because they need that. They they've already outgrown that, and they'll have medium size and smaller size, availability for different size lab spaces. And then our 29, meeting, it was regarding North Pointe. There will be a rezoning coming before us, I think, in April, also April.
And there was a lot of discussion from the residents there because, they will be asking for a rezoning, in an area so they can add reduce the commercial space because they have a large amount of commercial space. They want to reduce that, not eliminate it, but reduce it and then add additional, apartments and and homes. And that's it. Supervisor Missal? No reports and go ahead. I'm sorry. May I go back? Well, if you don't, it's gonna be awkward, so we better. Okay. The EDA, we also gave,
25,000 for one year and 25,000 for a second year for food and beverage, business accelerator. So that it's a planning grant for, more food and and, like I said, as a business accelerator for food and beverage. Very good. Supervisor Messel? Thank you. No reports. My, 5th And Avon Street CAC was canceled, and so was the Albemarle Broadband Authority. That was canceled as well. So the for my committee reports quickly, the chamber the Charlottesville Chamber of Commerce Public Policy Committee met.
I bring that up because that committee is who hosts the state of community, which got delayed or rescheduled because of the snow event, and that will be this Friday, seven 07:30, eight. I think 07:30 is coffee. 08:00 starts the official program. But that's where Mr. Richardson and Mr. Saunders from the city will give their, their report. And I believe Harrison Lombard? Hamilton Lombard. Harrison Lombard. From the Weldon Cooper School over at the University of Virginia. He usually anchors that with some really good demographic, demographic information on our community and broader area.
So looking forward to that event. The I just want to call out that on March 25, which is the last Wednesday, the quarterly meeting of the, Regional Housing Partnership will be doing will be meeting for their quarterly meeting. At that meeting, there will be a presentation by Doctor. Benjamin Preece of the National Housing Crisis Task Force. This task force was spearheaded by the mayors of Cleveland and Atlanta. There's a lot of city and metro areas involved with it. I had the opportunity to hear, Doctor. Preece speak last year at the NACO legislative session,
which is what led to having him come down, and we'll hear from their effort. I think they'd like to get out more, get some counties and regional bodies involved as opposed to just large metro areas. But, bright guy, looking forward to hearing what he has to say. He will be presenting virtual because he's overseas, so you don't have to be in person to attend. It is something you could log in if you wanted to pay attention or, you know, follow along. That being said, Anne and I will both be going to, as our, we are both on NACO committees, we will be going this weekend to the NACO legislative session in D.
C. For the annual legislative conference, and I'm sure we'll be reporting back on that when we return. While we are there, I'd like to, read a letter that we would like the Board to take a motion on and authorize the chair to sign, and then for both Supervisor Malek and or myself to deliver these, to our, federal representatives. We do have some meetings scheduled with them. That's part of what this conference is about, is to be with your federal representatives. And we have those on the docket, so we're looking forward to hand delivering this letter,
to them. The letter is involving, the ICE topic, and we've obviously been hearing from the community. We just had our students, do their take their actions on the topic, and we think it's an appropriate time since we'll be there and meeting with them in person to, to hand deliver the letter. So if it's alright with the board, I'd like to read the letter, and then we will, entertain a motion. The letter is addressed to all three of our federal, representatives, Senator Warner, Senator Kaine, and Representative Maguire. And dear Senator Warner, Senator Kaine, Representative McGuire, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors is committed to the safety of all members of
our community. That commitment includes acting within the rule of law and the authority granted to local government. Across the country, localities are increasingly being pulled into federal matters and in many communities, frustration with national policies is being directed toward local officials and police officers. The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors operates under a set of defined roles and limits. To that end, we do not seek to obstruct lawful federal authority. However, local elected officials have a responsibility to express our views on matters that could impact
the lives of our constituents. We encourage our federal and state representatives to advance legislation to ensure law enforcement and immigration initiatives are constitutionally implemented. Furthermore, we support legislation that would prohibit officers from obscuring their faces during immigration's enforcement and require a clear display of agency name, officer name, and unique identifier. These provisions are aligned with our own local police department's policies to safeguard the public civil liberties. Our policies require the Chief of Police's authorization for use of face coverings,
mandate the use of body worn cameras during law enforcement duties, and permit only the amount of force reasonably necessary to accomplish their law enforcement duty. Our officers are trained in de escalation strategies to diffuse situations before they escalate. Notably, these policies are publicly available for full transparency. This board believes that immigration enforcement actions that exceed or evade legal limits erode public confidence, destabilize communities, and undermine the legitimacy of law enforcement and governmental authority at all levels.
We will work to ensure our actions and authority are constitutional, and we respectfully request that you do the same at the federal level to ensure all community members are treated professionally while interacting with officers of the law, and that would be signed by myself as the chair on behalf of the board. Second and emotional. Oh, in the form of a motion. I didn't realize I've done that in the form of a motion. It's second. So so that was the motion to authorize the chair to deliver that message. And it has been seconded. Are there any further discussion before we take the vote if I would invite supervisors to make comments as they wish?
Any supervisor Duncan, I'll just go through our list. Glad that, we're doing this. Supervisor Malek? Great support from the community. I'm very glad for the report. Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt? I think I've made my feelings on this pretty abundant and frequent, and I'm, pleased to see further action from this board. Supervisor Lupisto Kirtle? No. I I am also very happy to see us doing something like this for our community. Supervisor Missal? Grateful for the public input and fully support this, and I'm grateful that it is moving forward. Alright. And if the clerk would please call the roll.
Mister Galloway? Yes. Miss LeGisto Kirtley? Aye. Miss Malik? Yes. Mister Missal? Aye. Mister Pruitt? Aye. Miss Duncan? Yes. Very good. Thank you, board. We're out before eight. Oh, this is the second time we're going there. Go ahead quickly. I've got, like, three pieces of paper, so I forgot one. Just wanted to let everyone know, because I think you all might be interested. Cho Airport is looking at a Boston to Charlottesville, and that that event will take place at Research Park on February 27 from eleven
to 12:30. You have to, I think, register in advance, but, I mean, I'm gonna be attending, to support Cho to Boston. Next, there is a tourism for all conference from eight to three at the Hillsdale Conference Center on February 24. And that's it. Thank you. Mister Kent Executive, any anything additional for me to say? No, sir. Thank you. Alright. Board, thank you. And if there is no objection, then we will adjourn to 02/25/2026 at noon in Room 241 for the County Executive's
budget funding, presentation.