All right. Recording in progress. Good afternoon. I am pleased to call to order this, meeting of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, the September 3 at one p. M. Lane Auditorium in the McIntyre Hospital Building. Noted today, we have Supervisor Ann Mallick of the Whitehall District, Supervisor Ned Galloway of the Rio District, Supervisor Diane McKeel of Jack Jewett District, Supervisor Bill Aposto, currently of the Ravenna District, Supervisor Mike Pruett of the Scotts Ville District and myself, Jim Andrews, representing the Samuel Miller District quorum as President. We are also joined by our County Executive, Mr. Jeff Richardson and our County Attorney,
Mr. Andy Herrick, our Clerk, Ms. Claudette Borgerson. Also, let me please welcome, our Mount County Police Officers present. Officers Joanne Woodson and Caden Painter, thank you for your service today and every day and of your colleagues for our safety and security throughout the County. If all present could now stand as you are able and join us in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. And I now ask if you'll join us in a moment of silence. Well, Board, as usual, our first action is to adopt our final agenda. I've heard no suggestion of any changes to the agenda today, so I'm looking for a motion to adopt the final agenda. Salute. Second. We have a motion from Supervisor McKeel, second from Supervisor Malek. Without objection for court, call the roll. Ms. Lakisto or Gertley? Aye. Ms. Malek? Yes. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes.
Mr. Galloway? Yes. Thank you. And, board, we'll turn to brief announcements by board members. Our speaking order today begins with supervisor Lapisto Pertway. Yes. Thank you very much. This is coming from me directly, the Styrofoam lady. I'm hoping to bring back at our October 2 meeting, I think it's October 2 meeting, a, support for what the state has already passed regarding Styrofoam uses by vendors. This took place 07/01/2025, and it's going for those who have 20 or more restaurants.
And then it's going to take place again July, first, twenty twenty six for all restaurants. But what I would like to do is, the SWAC committee will be looking at a letter to send to the board, and, I'd like to present that letter on the consent calendar, or I'm going to present that letter on the consent calendar as soon as the SWAC passes that, letter. Other than that, everything, the CAC meeting went well. A lot of questions on data centers. Frankly, that was the big topic. So, which is okay. And a lot more understanding of data centers and how they're going to be used,
different sizes, what we're going to how that helps the economy. So a lot of people had a lot more information, which frankly was very helpful. And I think that's what our role is, is to educate everybody, and not make rushed judgments on anything. And that's it for right now. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Malek. Thank you very much. A couple of quick things. I assume that others will talk about the elections and the solid waste stuff, so I'm not gonna go there. But I will say,
we've had a really long time without any rain. And I think I personally forgot that it was not raining because we'd had so much rain previously. But the Earth is really, really dry out there. So, everyone, please be super careful about any kind of combustibles and fire. And our trees are already starting to suffer. And so this is the way of our world nowadays, but it is something we need to be really paying attention to. On a more fun note, Wednesday, September 24 from 09:30 to 03:30 will be, I think, the tenth, River Basin Rhineanna River Basin Conference.
And speakers will include from, state level water supply planning topics, DEQ perspectives, planning at the local level with RWSA, local drought and flood records with Dave Hirschman, and then more information about data centers and RCA, Urbana Conservation Alliance updates. So it should be a great day, and it will be at the center. And there will be food breakfast available and lunch available. So hopefully, people will register at revannariverbasin.org, and look forward to seeing you there. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor McKeown? I don't have anything today.
Thank you. Supervisor Proybe. Thank you. I want to, begin by thanking, our police and first responders. There was an incident, on Scottsville Road, just North Carter's Bridge, earlier this week, involving, an active pursuit and closure of a of a main arterial road in this county, that did end with the, apprehension of a, a very young man who had done, some crimes, or is accused of doing some crimes. So thank you for that work. I also want to put on everyone's radar. First, the Loop DeVille, the annual,
celebration of the, Rivanna Trail, is coming up. So that is at the end of this month. It is going to be on the September 27. There are events all day starting with, quite early for the folks who actually want to run or hike the trail because it takes a while. But there's also going to be, you know, a block party. It's it's a great event that gets thrown every year. You can go to their website to learn more, and you'll probably see posters around town. Additionally, it is Charlottesville Pride Week, because we get a whole week. And we're a college town, so we do it in September despite everyone else doing it earlier in the year.
And that is going to, be punctuated, of course, with the Charlottesville pride event at Ting Pavilion, starting at noon thirty on the September 6, this Saturday. And, additionally, of course, every year is election year in Virginia. We have three, districts that are having local elections. That's the Jack Jewett District, the Sam Miller District, and the Rio District. But, of course, there are statewide elections that are contested on every single person's ballot, and early voting is about to start. So early voting runs from the nineteenth through the November 1.
Early voting can be done in person, of course, at the Albemarle County offices on Fifth Street. And, you also, of course, can do mail in voting through during that time. And the actual election day will be on Tuesday, November 4. Again, so we are going to have contested races for governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general, and both of Albemarle County's local delegates will also be on the ballot, albeit uncontested. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Collins. I had the pleasure of attending the grand opening of Home Depot this past week,
which, I have to say I've been sharing with folks that this has been this is the most energized grand opening that I've ever attended. The employees were hopping. They did some employee appreciation type of things as part of the presentations. I was joined there by Supervisor Lupisto Kirtley. Senator Deeds, Delegate Carlson, and Congressman Maguire were all in attendance, and were able to share some words. But as I remarked to the Home Depot team, I said that if the store is as half as successful as the energy they had that day,
it will be the most successful Home Depot in the Home Depot in the country. It was just a phenomenal welcome. It was also nice to, visit with some constituents that that day, to hear about some concerns, folks that I haven't seen. And and they I appreciated their patience because, one, I couldn't remember the last time. But, it was it was good to hear that. It was also just good to see folks that were in the community and not just attached to the Home Depot employees, to to come out that evening, and they were open for a couple of hours. Of course, there was plenty of county staff there. I also just want to remark that,
I mentioned to my CAC last week, and they agreed that, for all of the board meetings that I spent railing about weeds and our medians, the medians, I just want to comment at the end of the summer when we have had rain more than we've had over the past summer, not not recently, of course, that things are looking pretty good. Issue under the grade separated interchange that I know is being addressed, but it's not because of the BDNs. It's because they're coming, you know, out of places that we weren't expecting them to come out of. But, that's good. You know, we just have to address it. But overall, the roads and everything are looking really good,
and I just, want to take the chance to remark on that, to try to make up for all the times I complained about it prior. Thank you. Thank you. And before I get to the solid waste announcements, I just as far as events go, I participated for the I don't know how many years in a row as a volunteer at the Charlottesville women's four miler, which is at the Foxfield Racetrack. About 1,700 runners came out for the in person portion. And that race, since its inception, has raised $4,200,000 Wow. That's great.
For, I believe, women's breast cancer recently. It's impressive. It's very impressive. And the numbers are impressive. And the number of volunteers out there was incredible. We were parking a car every three seconds as they came in from two directions. It was an exciting day. And of course, I always want to remind people about fall cleanup. The September 13 is the electronic waste day. It's full, but there is a wait list. And if you have signed up and don't think you'll make it, please tell them so that they can pull somebody off the wait list.
After that, the September are household waste days at the Ivey Solid Waste and Recycling Center. The twenty seventh is furniture, the October 4 is appliances and the October 11 is tires. So this is your chance to get rid of that stuff, without paying the fee. Is there anything else? Yes. Really quickly. I just want to turn back to Ned. I am so sorry that I missed the Home Depot event. I had a conflict, and I just couldn't make it. Having said that, I was fascinated because it was not a ribbon cutting.
It was a board cutting. And when I saw the invitation, I said, what do they mean a board cutting? I was thinking about us as the board. But can you tell me just a little bit about how that worked? I just think it's great fun. Yeah. It's a two by 12. Right? And they they had it with, you know, different things marked up on it, and then they sawed that sucker right in half. Did you cut your saw us? No. We are you kidding? They wouldn't let us around there. That was what I were told. Right. It would've been fun to have gone if my kids did the song, I'm I'm happy I'm happy to say. But I did wanna mention, I forgot you bringing that up reminded me.
I don't know if y'all recall, but when we approved the permit that they needed because they have the garden center outside and some other things Yeah. That Home Depot had created this fencing and this screening for the fencing Mhmm. Specifically for Albemarle. So if you're out there at the garden center, take a look at the fence because that is a Jody just made a comment, so I hope I'm still this is still right about it. But the Home Depot folks have said they're going to start using that as their standard everywhere. I said, well, they should call it the album art. Yes, that's good. In terms of the design.
That's great. Well, I've been out there twice since they opened, just don't say. But it is a great it's a great business for the community, so it's all good. Yes. Thank you. Board, this brings us to proclamations and recognitions. We have one today with proclamation recognizing September as National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, and this will be read as a motion by Supervisor Mehl. Thank you very much. I move adoption of the proclamation recognizing September as National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. Whereas every year, nearly twenty six thousand people in The United States die from firearm suicides,
an average of seven zero four people in Virginia died by firearm suicides, and twenty four are wounded by gun suicide attempts. And during the last two decades, youth suicide has reached its highest rate in more than twenty years. Firearms account for more than half of all suicide deaths nationwide. And whereas Albemarle County joins in observing National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month by raising awareness to foster a culture of understanding and empathy and encourage community members to become better educated on the signs of suicide risk factors,
elevate local suicide prevention resources, and destigmatize conversations around mental health. And whereas the nine eight eight suicide and crisis lifeline plays a helpful role in suicide prevention and mental health support by offering immediate confidential assistance 247 to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress, And whereas Albemarle County has played an important role in suicide prevention with the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office, hiring a new prosecutor for emergency substantial risk orders, University of Virginia law students,
working with state lawmakers on legislation to protect at risk school children, and Albemarle County Public Schools launching the HELPME app and Lightspeed Alert. And whereas there are many local organizations, including Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, Students Demand Action, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Region ten, and the National Alliance on Mental Illness, dedicated to saving lives and bringing hope through research, education, policies, advocacy, and resources for those who have lost someone to suicide, who struggle with suicidal ideation,
or who have otherwise been affected by suicide. And now, therefore, be it proclaimed that we, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, do hereby recognize suicide as a public health problem and designate 09/25/2025 as National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. Signed this September 2025, Jim Andrews, chair. Second. We have a motion from supervisor Malek, second from supervisor McKeel. Without objection, the court will call the roll. Miss Lupista Kirtley? Aye. Miss Malek? Yes. Miss McKeel? Yes. Mister Pruett? Aye.
Mister Andrews? Yes. Mister Galloway? Yes. Thank you. And I believe mister Mike Fox from Virginia, WAM's Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, Virginia chapter. Welcome. Thank you, mister chairman and supervisor Malek and, all of you for your support. Suicides are never inevitable inevitable and are entirely preventable, but means matters. Removing access to firearms is one of the most effective ways to intervene. The majority of gun deaths each year are suicides, and guns are the leading method of suicide in The US. The problem is especially acute with our rural and veterans communities and now with young
people with the fastest growing gun suicide rate. So what can be done? Storing firearms locked, unloaded, and separate from ammunition is one of the key principles of responsible gun ownership. People in crisis can hand off the keys or let helpers change the combinations on their safes and lock boxes. They can put more time and space between themselves and any household firearms by voluntarily storing weapons outside the home. They can take advantage of Virginia's do not sell law, with which people at risk for suicide can voluntarily block themselves from purchasing firearms. And lastly, Virginia's red flag law allows law enforcement to intervene by petitioning a court for an
order to temporarily prevent someone in a crisis from accessing guns. Suicidal crises are often very brief, and ensuring that someone experiencing a crisis does not have easy access to lethal means can prevent a moment of despair from becoming an irreversible tragedy. Thank you. I'm sure the board will have comments. Sorry, I'm the supervisor. Thank you very much for coming. And, it's really I'm glad we can support you with this proclamation. I and I wish the laws would change, and, frankly, in Virginia and all over the nation that we could do more to lock up, firearms or not have them available,
as much. So thank you for what you did. I think you phrased everything extremely well. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Supervisor, Malek. Thank you so much for helping us to stay current with all these recent efforts and all the community and collaborative community that you all have developed around here. I was especially, interested in your comments talking about veterans and how that transition from active duty to civilian life has put a real strain on the VA system as well as individuals. And, fortunately, we do have Living Free Together and many other organizations in our region who try
to help intervene as well, but this is important. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor McKeel. Welcome back. It's not been long since you were here before around guns and safety for guns. I think there are not very many people, probably even in this room, that haven't been affected in some way by a suicide, either by a family member or, a friend. I know I've lost three people that were close to me or their family was close to me.
Two of those suicides by guard. So it really is an important issue. And the only other thing I would add is I would have put hearts on this list as well because our hearts team, I think, our local hearts team that works with with social services and goes out to answer calls from from mental breakdowns and mental illness calls, I think they're helping a lot in our community too. So we have to think about next year putting the hearts team on on this list. Make a note. Make a note. But thank you very much for coming.
This is a really important issue. Thank you, ma'am. Yeah. Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt? Thank you for your continued advocacy on this important issue. I think that's actually all I have today. Thanks. Thank you, sir. I appreciate those that are in the professional support roles, but the point about all the encouraging the community to become better educated on defined signs, you just never know what people are going to go through. And in a culture where we are fast becoming our own dopamine addicts to watching people experience negative things Yeah. To be able to reach out and say,
hey. Are you okay? And then to be able to follow-up. Because if you're in that situation, you've lost hope, right? And it's contingent on the rest of us to be able to see it and do something about it. So I appreciate your efforts in that regard. Thank you. Thank you, sir. And I'll echo the comments of my colleagues in appreciation and especially their comment regarding, in fact, that it's become on all of us to be aware of this issue and when people are in need and what we can do to help them. So thank you. Thank you, sir. Supervisor Malek has the proclamation.
Thank you. Board, next up is public comment on matters previously considered or currently pending before the Board other than scheduled public hearings. And Vice Chairman Kiel will read the rules and introduce the speakers. I will. Just let me get myself adjusted here a minute. We have, one, two, three, four, five speakers, all in person and no one online. And so I will read the request for the way that this will proceed. 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. Individuals are allowed one opportunity of up to three minutes to speak at each Board meeting. A sign up sheet is managed by the Clerk's Office. Timekeeping is conducted through a timer and light system at the podium. The green light will go on when you begin speaking, which starts your your allotted time. The yellow light indicates you have one minute to finish speaking and 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, your Magisterial District. Address comments directly to the Board as a whole. Any written statements or other supporting material may be given to the clerk. If representing a group or organization, you may ask others present to raise their hands in recognition. Speakers may not share any unused time with another speaker. Back and forth debate is not permitted. And please do not speak from your seat or out of turn. All comments are live streamed, recorded, and published on the Almore County website. And our first speaker for today is Mark Huer,
and maybe I'm mispronouncing your last name. Perfect. Great. Thank you. Alright. Welcome. And and do adjust the mic so that we can hear you clearly. Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you for this opportunity. You have with you have my expanded written comments. First, I'd like to publicly thank former supervisor my former supervisor, b Lipizzo, currently. Last year, you not only instantly replied to my email regarding my Barbersville property, tax questions, but also called me the same day welcoming me to your beautiful county.
That's public service at its best. Next, kudos for the action on suicide prevention. Suicides in America are at epidemic levels primarily due to our inability of our human brains to process the massive amount of information available in our new technology and social media area. Too much information without enough love, empathy, and compassion is poison, toxic for the brain.
Males represent seventy seven point nine percent of all suicides. Our tough manly ego prevents us from reaching out when we need help. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for youth between ages 10 and 19 with males as a high risk. Finally, I would like to enlist your support for the inclusion in the upcoming Virginia budget next year on capital expenditures, the expansion of healthy aging opportunities in the Commonwealth,
including funding to eliminate our $5,800,000,000 debt for our award winning center at Belvidere, one of the five best senior citizen centers in North America. An important factor in retiring for, retiring from Columbus higher was a report by Kiplinger recommending your beautiful community, home to Thomas Jefferson, as the best place to retire in The United States. The report highlighted the center at Belvedere's healthy aging,
social and intellectual travel travel, physical and spiritual act, activities. According to The US surgeon general in an '81 page report, widespread loneliness and social isolation proposes the health risk as deadly as smoking 15 cigarettes daily, costing health care industries billions of dollars declaring that a public health epidemic. All of us, half of of of us old folk, have indicated, we've experienced loneliness and social isolation.
And investment in Virginia to prevent health care will result. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Appreciate it. You can provide the comments that you couldn't read to this court if you need to. If you need to, you can provide comments to the court if we're unable to read it. Thank you. Our next speaker is Maria Koss. And do bring the microphone down so that we can hear you clearly. There you go. Thanks. Great. Maria Koss, Jack Tuitt. I wanted to talk about the cars on the road with loud stereos. I find it very distracting and jarring.
Last week, I was on Ryo Road, and I was next to a car, and we were stopped. And the stereo was really loud, and I made motions like, can you turn it down? And he reached for the dial, and I thought, oh, he's gonna turn it up. And he turned it up. And I wrote down his license tag number, and I called the police. And there is nothing that the police can do about it because it's against the first amendment, freedom of speech. And same thing as on the light at, common valve and hydraulic.
Sometimes there's three or four cars lined up at the light, and they're all playing music really loudly. Oh, I have two minutes. Also jarring is adjusting mufflers, engines, and racing. I've seen racing on Commonwealth Drive. Thank you. That's it. Thank you very much. Next speaker is Neil Williamson. You have to take it up. Good afternoon. My name is Neil Williamson. I serve as president of the Free Enterprise Forum, a public policy organization focused on the local governments of Central Virginia. Albemarle County has had a number of economic development wins in the last few months,
including your strategic plan, Home Depot, Affton Scientific, and and more. Adding to these wins, the potential job creation in Rivanna Futures, the long term outlook for jobs and demand for housing seems high. Now you have another potential economic development win that because it's not finalized, you are unable to discuss, let alone consider as you examine your development area capacity analysis. On July 22, Virginia governor Youngkin announced both Eli Lilly and AstraZeneca would be establishing significant operations in
the Commonwealth. Virginia is dedicating $10,000,000 to each of these organizations to support this expansion. While not officially announced, several media outlets have suggested Lilly will be in Henrico County and AstraZeneca has plans to locate in Albemarle. I'm curious if this would qualify as a so called black swan event. A black swan event is explained it was popularized by economist Nassim Nicholas Tlaib. He said thought a lot of these things in the context of the financial markets
in the early twenty first century and then expanded his scope to include historical, scientific, and other events. To leave argues while human beings are good at turning environmental stimuli into meaning information, they tend to be narrow minded in their beliefs about the world. Being dogmatic about beliefs makes humans blind to concepts that fall outside of accepted use. Today, you are not allowed to speak of AstraZeneca. It's kinda like Voldemort, the word that cannot be said. I just hope that as you review the 2025 update of a somewhat flawed 2022
analysis of your development areas, you will ask what impact the AstraZeneca or any other black swan in the next twenty years will have on the simple trend demand line that you're utilizing. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. Thank you. Stuart Overby? Hello. Welcome. And you do need to adjust the mic. I will. I am. Thank you. Okay. I got my papers up here. Okay. Hi. I'm Stuart Overby with Don't Spread On Me. We're a group of citizens working on the issue of sewage sludge being spread on
local farms as fertilizer. I live in the Samuel Miller District of Albemarle County. So two quick things today. First, I wasn't here for the last work session on legislative priorities, but I watched the video and I'm here to express our support and encouragement to you all to adopt both documents under consideration, the legislative program as well as the legislative positions. Please don't consider the legislative positions document as optional. I understand that during General Assembly, our state reps are running from one thing to another with little time to listen to anyone about anything,
so I agree with your assessment that putting the county's priorities as bullet points on a card that can fit in a pocket is a good idea, But and also doing that without having a more in-depth document available to explain those bullet points is a bad idea because, one, there may be an occasion when a legislator or one of their staff asks for information about your position on an issue, in which case you better have that information available for Mr. Blunt or anyone else to distribute. And, two, there are items in the legislative positions document that are not explicitly mentioned in the
program document, for example, biosolids. We're really excited and grateful that you and for example, biosolids. We're really excited and grateful that you included that paragraph in there about biosolids. And we definitely want to make sure that our state reps have a chance to see that. It's especially important now because our reps are becoming more and more aware of what a problem this is and some are willing to take action. And three, thinking about the future, that positions document represents a bit of institutional knowledge that will be important to preserve as the composition of the board and staff inevitably changes over time.
You'll need to have a more complete record than what the legislative program document provides on its own for future staff and supervisors to be able to reference when the time comes for them to craft their annual legislative priorities. And second, a while back, I sent you all an email invitation to write me if you're interested in seeing a draft biosolids ordinance that we created for the county to use as a starting point. I'm sorry to say no one has responded and I'm excluding Supervisor Mallett because I gave her a copy already. So I'm crying uncle and distributing hard copies of it to you today with a cover letter
explaining some of the thinking behind it. I hope you'll read it, at least thumb through it. Reach out to me with questions. There's an email address at the bottom of the letter. Thank you. Thank you, Stuart. Thank you. And who gets this honor? You can give it to the clerk. Yeah. Thank you. And our last speaker today is Renee. Is it is this Schleinger? I'm I know I'm not pronouncing your name right, but you can come up and help me. Oh, and you have a friend with you. That's great. Shidecker. So I did blow it. I'm sorry. Renee Shidecker. Shidecker. Okay. Yeah. I'm just gonna read this.
I have never been before anybody before. I'm not sure how this process works, but I'm just kind of in a little emergency situation at the moment because I'll read this to you. I am one of the people of Abla Marie counter v County VA. I stand here today to inform and give notice of harm. The county has installed a new pole on the easement of my property, and the power company tells me it's a five g cell tower. They also said the safe zone is a 150 to 250 feet from the base
of the pole. My home is 125 feet from the base of the pole. This creates an emergency for myself, family, and others depending on my services as we must move immediately if five g gets installed on my property, which could be any day. I need to know who is installing the tower and a description of the planned units. I don't know where to go. I need to ask for advice of getting maybe they can move the tower elsewhere,
or, if they're earning revenue off of this tower, I won't consent to that and will file something that's called a user. So I'm asking also the board to exercise due diligence and spend some time reviewing some materials that I can provide a few now and via email this week, to help understand why more and more people are having difficulty living close to these frequencies,
and the reason some of us are moving away from them. Thank you. Thank you. So where's the clerk? The clerk is right over here. She's coming to you. Thank you. And that's all we have today. Board, this brings us to item eight, our consent agenda. I have not heard of any request to pull anything from the consent agenda, so I'm looking for a motion to approve the consent agenda as written. So moved. Second. Motion from Supervisor McKeel, second from Supervisor Malek. Without objection, if the clerk will call the roll. Ms. Lakisto Kirtley?
Aye. Ms. Malek? Yes. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Thank you. Thank you for being very fit to get back there as well. Board, our next item is Board to Board quarterly report from the Albemarle County School Board. Kate Acuff is here. Welcome, doctor Aiko. Wow. Lots of people coming in now. Good. Okay. Good as well. A I'm impressed, Kate, with how many people you brought with you. This is the backup band. This is the backup band, and I'm not sure I know how to work.
Just press okay. I've got it. Good afternoon, chair Andrews, vice chair McKeel, members of the board, and county staff. I'm Kate Acuff, chair of the Albemarle County School Board, and with me is doctor Rebecca Berlin, vice chair of the school board. Doctor Haas is our superintendent. He is here along with much of the cabinet. One of two of our colleagues, Judy Lee I can't hear you. I'm sorry. Two of our colleagues, Judy Lee and, Leslie Pryor are here also. Should we not be able to answer your questions,
we've got a team with us that can do so. This is what we're gonna cover today. I think that's pretty self evident. Secondly, we nod to we whenever we do a presentation, we give a nod to our strategic plan, which guides the work that we do on the school board and the school division. And I'll just read, our mission, which I think is very important. Working together as a team, we will end the predictive value of race, class, gender, and special capacities for our children's success through high quality teaching and learning for all.
We seek to build relationships with families and communities to ensure that every student succeeds. We will know every student. You may know that we started school, a week early this year. We changed the calendar shifted the calendar to align better with neighboring counties in Charlottesville. And although there were a few grumbles about a shortened summer break, it's gone relatively smoothly. And just to remind you of how exciting the first day of school is and why we on the school board do what we do, the division does the work it does,
and why your support for public education is so important. We have a very brief film, if I can get it to work. Good morning. Hi. Good morning. Welcome to the new school year. We are so excited to have you here. Today is Wednesday, August Today is the first day of school. We're so excited to welcome all of our students. There was a little bit of nervousness going on, but for the most part, everybody was really joyful and excited to be here. It was just really great to see some of the faces of the students we haven't seen since June, and welcome them back.
And, students are just really excited to start a new year, ready to learn, and miss Morris and I are just really happy to welcome them to the school year here at Ivy. We are really proud to be the Bluebirds. And we know it's gonna be a great year. Good morning. I hope that everyone has a great first day. Yay. Welcome back. So excited about the first day of school. We're welcoming our Jaguars back. Everyone adjusted with their lockers and their schedules. It's a big day for middle school. So I hope everyone else is having a great day as well, and let's have a good year. First day of school is awesome. It's amazing. It's like Super Bowl for educators and teachers,
and we are just so pumped to be here. Hey. Good morning, everyone. We're here at the number one middle school in the nation, Journey Nation. We're excited to be here. Our students are excited. We're excited for the 2526 school year, and we're gonna have a awesome school year. Journey nation. I love the comment that the first day of school is like the Super Bowl for educators. I'm gonna now spend some time just overviewing, giving you an overview of some of the security and safety and security initiatives that we are undergoing this we are putting into place this year.
First is personal device free education. We had already, as a school division, limited cell phone use in elementary schools. We were piloting putting, devices away for middle schools. And we had a rule, a policy that high school students were not to use them during class, but that was, problematically enforced, let's just say. And it really depended teacher by teacher. And with governor the governor's executive order in the fall, executive order 33, they required everyone to have a cell phone restricted policy,
as of January, which, of course, we did. But we, we did implement a bell to bell policy for k through 12. Bell to bell policies mean no cell phones. Leave it at home. We had some pushback from some high school students wanting to at least have access during breaks or during lunch, but we said no. That this is, from the time you get to school until the time you leave. My understanding is we have a committee of staff and community members and even students to monitor how well that's going.
But so far, we're only three weeks in, but so far the principals report that it's going very well. Second item is our new visitor management system. We already if you've been in a school in the past several years, you know that you always had to buzz into the main office, sign in, and maybe get a name tag. We've dramatically improved that system. And we have, starting this fall, a visitor management system called Visitor Safe as part of our efforts to keep our students and staff
safe. This updated check-in system offers greater convenience, improves security for all guests, including parents, contractors, and volunteers. What it does is let you know who's coming in the building. By scanning an ID, visitors will be their information is screened against the sex offender registry and other custom databases, including custody orders and banned visitor status. It also keeps the data so you know if they've tried to enter other schools or what the situation is going forward. And if it,
a visitor is flagged as a security risk, we can intervene at that moment and not let them in our building. Third is our new weapons screening, technology. It's not metal detectors. It's more broad than that. We piloted these, weapons detector systems, at our high schools in in their athletic events, in varsity football, basketball, girls and boys basketball. And really, they were, remarkably trouble free. People seem to navigate them very well. And the good news is that we did not detect any weapons. I think they have a significant deterrent effect.
I think people they were they were navigated very well because they're already pretty common. To go to JPJ Arena for an event, you already go to more Busch Gardens, I'm told. So that has gone very well. I think they're going live this week after some training. But that is another level of security for our kids and and staff. We've also reintroduced SROs and expanded the program. We had SROs, as you may recall, four or five years ago. We pushed the pause button after there was a lot of national media about,
some bad actors, frankly. We did not, at Albemarle Schools, have any reported problems. So we re and we also have other security staff, which we can talk about during the q and a. But we piloted reintroducing our s an SRO at Albemarle High School last year, had few problems, and now we have them at all three traditional high schools. If you look at the photograph, you can see there's I said we had three SROs, but there's four people.
I will explain this mystery. Officer Lilly on the left is, on my left. Yeah. On the left is, at at Western Albemarle, officer Joyner's at Monticello. I'll skip the next one. Officer Kaye Farkowinski. I think I've come close to pronouncing his name. He's at, Albemarle High School. Officer Prophet is a floater. She is not one of our SROs, but she is SRO trained. She's with the special operations unit at ACPD. And when there's a call at another one of our schools where an officer might
be needed, she can be dispatched to that. I suppose she also provides cover or backup for the other SROs. What we did when we reintroduced SROs is we revisited the MOU to be very clear about candidate selection, training, and the scope of authority or scope of duties within the schools. And we have modeled it on best practices and we're we're two weeks into this expansion. But we had no reported challenges or impacts last year.
Two other things I'll briefly mention at BEARON safety, but I think it was partnership with the county and VDOT, we, instituted speed zone cameras along hydraulic, along, Lansdowne campus last year. I I know miss McKeel and I heard a report from VDOT. Given that these cameras are only on two hours maybe in the morning, two hours at night during the school year, only on weekdays, they generated almost half a million dollars worth of tickets, at a $100 a ticket.
Unfortunately, the school division doesn't get that funding, but that's another story. But what the most important thing was, that it did result in a 40% 40 to I thought it was interesting. A 40 to 45% reduction in speeding. And speeding was defined as 10 miles over the 25 mile an hour speed limit. So it did it did reduce it. If you were going north, it didn't reduce it as much as if you were going south. But, it's still a significant improvement in safety for our kids walking to school along those routes. It is now gonna expand it,
to the Western Albemarle campuses along, whatever the Rockfish Gap Road. Sorry. And that will that has already started. After a month's sort of introduction to the community, it will go live on the fifteenth. One more item with respect to the the Lamb's Lane, speed monitors. The highest speed that was recorded was 68 miles an hour during the school day when the lights were flashing. I think that's remarkable. Additionally, I know that one of my colleagues on the board of supervisors had a call
from a constituent complaining he had been he had been ticketed multiple times and therefore was complaining about the cameras. I think he was advised to slow down, which is very excellent device advice. And finally, the stop arm cameras. We've had the ability to have stop arm cameras for a long time, but only until only recently have we had the authority to issue tickets. Well, someone has the authority to issue tickets. And these are, been installed on four of our buses in sort of the high traffic areas.
And those tickets also will start next week, and, they will be $250 per. We did a study several years ago, at Baltimore County Schools, and they did a sample and estimated that there were at least 6,000 incidents of cars passing, stopped school buses in Albemarle County, which is extraordinary. So I hope this is helpful. And now I'll turn it over to my colleague, doctor Berlade. Welcome. Thank you so much for this opportunity. I'm gonna just take a couple of moments to update you on our new buildings,
that are under construction currently. So we have Mountain View, Upper Elementary School, and ACE Academy at Lance Lane, which was formerly called, Center two. So I'll start with Mountain View Upper Elementary School. So both of these schools are planning to open for the fall twenty six, twenty seven school year. And just a note, if you haven't already received, an invite, we'll make sure you that you have one. We are doing a topping out ceremony tomorrow on Thursday beginning at 11AM, and that is when they place the final beam on the outdoor construction.
So we'd love to share that celebration with you. And if you don't have that, we will make sure that you have that in your inbox, before the end of the day. I believe we're doing lunch and we will also be doing a site visit at the time. Just a little note, if you come, make sure you wear close closed shoes because we are at a construction site. So just a couple notes about Mountain View. So as a reminder, this is at the Founders Place plot of land, and it is in direct proximity to Mountain View Lower School. And that is a school that has been seeing significant overcrowding.
And so the decision was made instead of creating two elementary schools near each other, Mountain View, lower school will be pre k to two. And then when it opens, Mountain View upper will be three to five. In addition to this land, ACPS purchased two plots of land, actually, a plot of land and a house, that will allow a walking path to be constructed between the two schools. So that will allow children, families, teachers who maybe have administrators who maybe have a student at one school, as well as the second school to be able to walk.
Right now, there is not a way to drive between the two schools without going on an exterior road, but we wanted to make sure that it would be, students would be able to walk down the path. So that will be part of the the plan and will open. I believe you guys can correct me, when the school opens. The size of the school is about, 60,000 square feet. Apologies. It's it's 72, thousand square feet feet. It will hose, hose up to 500 students, and it when it opens, it will, be at least, LEED silver. It's tracking to be LEED silver,
but could be additional. The estimated construction cost right now is 47,000,000. So there's a few construction sites. It's it is an active construction site. If you are going down that road, it's very exciting, to see the the progress that's been made. And then the second, is on Landslade Campus. It is ACE Academy. And just a reminder, that's Alberware Career Explained Exploration. Previously, we we've been using the designation Center 1 and Center 2, but all the schools want a very, specific identity. And so, the determination was made so to use the ACE,
and this will be, at Lamb's Lane campus. This will house, 400 students a day. And because of alternating AB schedules, that would mean up to 800 students would move through this this every week. It is, again, for, grades nine to 12. Will be open to all students at the high school level in the community. And it will feature six of our 12 scholars studios when it opens. And again, it too is tracking to be LEED Silver. And the last piece about this is that it will also be housing our data center, our ACPS data center.
As that is something that we have been looking at a home for over the years. So a few pictures of that. If you are have been driving down hydraulic, you will see this, moving forward, and we are making great progress. The last thing I wanted to share is, as you know, we have student representatives on our school board. These are nonvoting, members. They sit on the dais with us, and they participate in our our meetings. And we have five amazing, representatives this year. We just did a a, an overview of of school board policy for them. So from Elberbaum,
hi, we have Amy Wing. From Monticello, we have Maximilian Colfer. From Western, we have Claire Curry. Community Lab, we have Leighton Cox. And then we do have an alternate, from Elmore High. That's Maxwell Keys. And they will all be Coordinating, sitting on the dias throughout this throughout the year, and they have been an excellent addition, to our discussion. They are not able to vote, but they do participate in our discussions, and it is a way to get student voice. So they're all part of student senate, and actively involved in their community. So part of their job is to get voice from their fellow students and to
bring that to us, and to participate in those discussions. And then last, these are my amazing colleagues. As, member Pruitt mentioned, we do have voting, and our Rio, our Samuel Miller and our Jack Jewett district, are up, for voting, this November. So thank you so much, and, I will open it up to questions. And, Ms. Acuff and I have brought our school cabinet colleagues to help us with any questions that we may that you may have. Thank you, and welcome to all. It's great to see all the people here.
So we'll go through our orders, starting with Supervisor Lupista quickly. Thank you very much to both of you for a wonderful presentation. It's good to know all the things that you are doing, everything you're accomplishing. And I also thank everyone that you brought with you because I think that entire team there, is representative of what can happen with our schools and how well they're run. I don't really have any questions questions, but I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much,
and thank you for your support. I appreciate it. Always. Supervisor Malek. Alright. Hello, neighbor. So thank you for this information. It's really very helpful to to me and hopefully others to, have these presentations for us. So a couple of things I wrote down as you were speaking. What is the training, and are they armed for your non SRO security people? I'll give it a shot. We have, two levels. We have, school safety coaches. They're really, might be a social worker or something like that. They're really focused on mentoring the kids,
working with teachers to teach them conflict, teach the students conflict resolution and recognizing their emotions. They can, interact with our mental health teams if there's an issue that, you know, can have an intervention before it gets to be worse. The school safety officers, have more of a focus on enforcing school policies, like you really aren't supposed to be vaping in the bathrooms or you really need to. That's what they do. They we have vaping vaping detectors in the bathrooms. Or, you know, you can't actually be talking on your phone during school hours.
But they also interact with, if we have emergencies at the school, they interact with first responders. And then as you know, the SROs are sworn police officers, and they are focused on, letting, informing staff and students what the law is, intervening when there's signs of criminal activity, dealing broadly with security of the building, and such. All of them are have perhaps slightly different, but they all have training in child and adolescent behavior, in conflict resolution, cultural sensitivity, and now also in special education
and needs of special education kids. Great. That's really helpful. And just sharing the kudos on the success of the first year of the speed cameras. I know lots of people who have gotten tickets, and they're, ashamed by it, but have also learned their lesson because there's nothing like changing behavior with a steep expense. So I'm really grateful. I remember the early discussions on having to go back to the legislature a second time to get the permission to use the ticketing for the arms. And, so hopefully, that will be equally successful right away.
I mean, I remember the a thousand cars a day on Georgetown passing the arm. I'm going, that seems hardly possible. But, of course, it was, and it's terrifying to be putting kids at risk that way. So I thank you, and I think, and off the top of your head, the scholar studio topics, are they I know one of them is environment or agriculture or combined, but I don't know if that's out at Western. I can do six of us six of them, and I can do the rest. So, actually, at ACE Academy, there will be, Venture, which is, entrepreneurship, business, and innovation, Solve, which is science,
technology, engineering, and math, Thrive, which is education and human development, Blueprint, which is architecture, urban design, building, and construction, impact, which is global leadership, law, social justice, and then SAVR, which is hospitality, eateries, and recreation. And so when the committee worked with, students, teachers, the community, business leaders about what makes sense to be at, ACE Academy, Lamb's Lane, those are the ones that will be there. And then there are six additional that are, within the other schools, and I may ask my colleagues to can you add a couple?
Apologies that I can't name all of them as well. I mean, we have Pulse, which is going to still be located at Mount at Monticello, and that is health and medical sciences. What else do we have? We have TERRA, which is out at Western, which is environmental studies. Okay. We've got this is a pretty show. We've got eight of them. I'll just go through them all over again because I don't remember exactly which ones you all shared. Could you introduce yourself just for the little Absolutely. I'm doctor Hayes, the assistant superintendent of instruction. K. So we have Blueprint Studio,
Encore, Impact, Savor, Solve, Terra. I guess I should have told you what they represent. Sorry. So blueprint is around design, and construction. Encore is music, theater, the arts. Impact is around social justice, civil discourse, and leadership. Savor is culinary, lodging, travel, hospitality. Solve is, like, STEM, science, math, technology, and engineering. Terra is forestry management, ecology, and plant studies. We have Vivid, which is photography and digital design, Venture, commercial arts, hospitality, consumer science,
Thrive, which is education and, human development PULSE, biological sciences, medical biomedical terminology and technology and medicine Nexus is geospatial technology, robotics and computer science and link is cybersecurity, entertainment, media and video game design. Wow. That's exhausting. Just another just another word about this. These were all taken from the state's 17 different career pathways. We selected after after as Doctor. Berlin said, after conversations with the community, with parents,
with businesses, what jobs might be most readily available in this area, and we have selected and rebranded, 12 of the career pathways. It'll take it'll take a while to get used to the names, but they're supposed to suggest what's underneath, but that's where we are. Great. Well, thank you very much. I know the kids at Western are very excited about the ag teacher out there. Yeah. And we we will we can send you the sheet, and a link so you can have those as well, the cheat sheet that we are all using until we get them in brain into our brain as well. Thank you. Of course.
Supervisor McKibben. My turn. Just a quick question to go back to, the cell phones. We you all brought in a pouch at the last board to board I mean, last year. So that's what you all are using now for the cell phones. I'm just curious. I don't No. Maybe not. I think I think we tried that, but once we decided to go bell to bell cell phone free, kids I don't I actually don't know how we monitor it yet. Lock them up somewhere. Who wants to take that one? Yeah.
But when they're they're not supposed to have them, and if they have them in their backpacks, they have to be turned off. I just remembered seeing a pouch, and I was wondering if you were using those. Yeah. Yes. So some, Walton Middle School piloted the pouch, last year, and currently there are different options for schools to monitor. Of course, the teachers have conversations with students to put them away in their backpacks. If students have lockers, they can put them in their lockers. And really just constant monitoring, just making sure that all teachers, our counselors, our administrators are sending the same message.
Messaging is going home to parents as well and families, to let them know that this is what will happen. And then as students, violate that that policy, then either the phone is, you know, maybe the first time put away, then it can be confiscated, and picked up, after school by an adult, or depending on the situation, it could be given back to the student. That's great. So you're making the students responsible for obeying the rules? Absolutely. Yes, ma'am. Kind of what you do in your house. Okay. Thank you very much. I will say that I just wanna piggyback on the speed cameras because what I
have noticed, obviously, the Lanswing Campus and Hydraulic Road is in my hood, so I'm out there all the time. And it really is wonderful how those speed cameras, two hours in the morning, two hours in the evening, have changed the driving culture in that area. Certainly, there are still some speeders. You know, it goes without saying. But what I notice is a reduction in speeding through that area any time during the day, which is really wonderful. And I hope that that happens out at Western Albemarle as well. Changing the culture is really what we were after,
not money. Trying to make the that area safe for children and for adults as well. So thank you for that. And I have two other items that I wanted to just mention. Could we have, just for our knowledge and for the public as well, a quick update on your foundation for education? I think I see Daphne. I don't know if Daphne wants to take that cake, but I know you have a foundation now for education. Right. And you have hired an a director, and I just wanted to let folks know.
Right. Three years ago, we established launched the Albemarle Foundation for Education. Doctor. Berlin and I are the board members school board members who are on the also on the Foundation Board. That board is designed to provide for more systems changes in schools that are not easily incorporated into the operating budget. We recently hired a new executive director, Atalia Sergi. She's been there for two weeks, so it's pretty pretty quick. The most recent project that we did is we took over the,
Mount Zion the back to school backpack bash, that was held at Ting Auditorium and handed out. And here, doctor Kaiser can probably be a little more specific. I know we handed out, something like 1,400 backpack. We packed. I mean, physically packed in a very hot warehouse. 14 to 1,700. Wow. 1,700 backpacks, about 1,400 of which were distributed on the day of the of the event. And the others are distributed at various schools because we all we get a lot of late commerce into the schools.
And I'm not sure if they've all been distributed yet, but it really is a signal of the level of need. But the the foundation itself, you'll be hearing more from us. Okay. Thank you very much. And getting back to, and I'm gonna get used to saying it, the ACE Academy. I'm just now starting to feel comfortable with the changes with the elementary schools and the school names, but so I'll try real hard with this one, ACE Academy. Can you talk to me a little bit for the public to understand what your all's work is at that academy with,
say, the Chamber and the community and what, the community job needs are. In other words, I hear folks saying, well, I certainly hope that they're looking at what jobs we need in this community so that our kids don't have to leave the community to find a job. So just like a quick one zero one on that. Yeah. And and this is an ongoing conversation. Right? So in the uptick to the planning for ACE Academy at Landslade and these 12 self scholars student studios, that is part of it, is working with the business leaders one on one,
as well as at the we do quarterly, and correct me if I'm wrong, business breakfasts this, where we bring in business leaders from around the county, and people from the, the the cabinet and others, from the school system to listen to hear about what their needs are, as well as talking to students and parents. I mean, I part of my personal belief is that we have to raise those student and parent voices as well to see what are those positions that they want. And so as the as the ACE Academy, at Lamb's Lane was being designed, it was being it is designed. So, for example,
it will have a culinary home so that that, studio will have a place to to train students as well. And that would be a will be a continuing conversation with businesses as as our demographics and our needs change. Because I think that's the important thing for us to remember is what when we do this, it's one point in time. But as we think about that changing demographic, that changing, agriculture, you know, what are some things that are continuing to grow that we need to stay on top of? And so I think it's important to remember that this is what we designed then,
but it will or we will we designed it in a way that other things could come in as needed, because I think it's important. You know, we often think about it's just teachers returning, but no, it's it's custodians. It's it's business leaders. It's medical leaders. And so what are those things that we are creating within ACE Academy, but also what are the things that we are having we have within, our, career and technical program, which we're still a part of and have the majority of the students there, as well as what is happening at Western, at, Monticello and at AHS.
Because some of those studios will remain, within those local, school districts. Those those local high schools. And, obviously, you're all operating within the framework that's provided by the state. Exactly. Exactly. Because the state always gives criteria and and performance. Exactly. And then with the the the new criteria, that we will talk about kind of at a later, briefing, that's always changing. And they're putting a much higher influence in that as well as what are we doing to train our students in future careers that are not necessarily going to college. Yeah. With a focus. That's great.
And just one more quick question. I'm a little Yes. Oh, yeah. Sure. I was just gonna add a couple things. With most of you probably remember our academy model, the MESA or, you know, the Environmental Studies Academy. What we're trying to do with these career pathways or these scholars studios is to touch all of our students. I mean, at best, having those three academies became very elitist, and maybe we had 400 students out of our 4,000 high school students that were able to participate. The scholars academies,
do two things that I'm particularly, supportive of. A, it broadens the avenues for students to pursue And it has a lot of on and off ramps. You can do the pulse, you know, scholar studio, and you don't have to have have the goal of becoming a physician. There are off ramps and other jobs you can do. With respect to connecting with the community, we're also working within each of these studios, to connect, speakers from the community, job shadowing, having, interactions about the job possibilities while you're going through that pathway.
So that brings up just a comment that we really need the community to step up to the plate to help with those entrepreneurships and speaking to students about career pathways. Yeah. So that's great. And I guess that's all I had with just a kudos for the SRO piece. I think that's great. And, that's a good good move back into the schools. So with that, I think I'm through. Thanks. Supervisor Pruetz? Thank you. Just a few very brief things. First, I really loved hearing a little bit more in-depth, during this Q and A component, about the Scholars Studios,
and something that really stood out to me and excited me was how many of them seem to focus on elements of the arts, which is something I feel like Yeah. As a country, we're stepping back from. I caught I think at least three of them, touch on, because you had one for the performing arts. You had one that was about construction and design. There was one other, photography. Right? There might even be more, but those are the three I caught. Arts is very important to me. You know, I talk about the trades a lot because it affects our work more, but I went to a residential boarding magnet school,
in high school, and that very because I wanted to be a novelist when I was a kid. That very much completely, you know, set my path, in my personal life. It is the the real turning point that was, I think, able to enable my success in life. So I I think that's deeply important. And I do want to just, on that note, ask a question, which is, it doesn't sound like any of them actually focus on creative writing in their portfolio. Is that right, or is that contained in encore? Doctor Hayes, why don't you just say Donna Knighton, I know I know you have the state framework. I'm just now curious.
I'm curious. Yeah. So, there are multiple opportunities for students to engage in creative writing. Excuse me. Whether it's in a high school classic journalism, theater arts, it could be through the studios, the pathways. So we try not to limit it to one particular, area, but that is something that's embedded in our curriculum in different courses. Got it. Thank you. Mhmm. The other thing I was curious about so there's two changes that y'all briefed on that, one of which I see as very exciting and positive. The other I see as maybe necessary,
but kind of grim. Right? And that's the the bell to bell policies on cell phones. I I think that's an, pretty unmitigated positive, for mental health for the culture in the schools. And, the other is, of course, the weapons detection system. I see how it might be necessitated, but it's it's bleak. Right? It's a bleak thing. And both of those the thing I was curious about was kind of to delve into the technical implementation of it. We already talked about how, apparently, we're not using the Yonder pouches anymore. Fun fact, we have to use Yonder pouches in courthouses now, which is wild,
I think. But, so I gather that it's kind of an ad hoc kind of just disciplinary enforcement seems like the direction it's going. Is that unfair rather than, like, come in, get your Yonder pouch, and then Right. Come out and they magnet you out? Good job. I have Rosalind Schmidt, chief operating officer. So the Yonder Pouch was a pilot at at Bolton, one of our smaller schools. And so the point of that was to see how how manageable that was. And one of the feedback was it was just one more thing to ensure compliance
of. You know, kids were not putting their phone they're keeping the phone away, but not in the in the pouch. So, realistically, it was not a necessary tool. We've had success with the other strategies that, doctor Hayes mentioned that the the pouch wasn't necessary Got it. To enforce it. Got it. I think that makes sense. It seems like one other kind of just thing to manage, technology to manage, personnel involved to manage, which which brings me into the parallel question with the weapons detection systems. That seems like it could introduce some similar challenges as far as operations.
I could for one, I would assume it it seems like it assumes that students are all arriving at the same time, which I imagine is not accurate and not true. The student I might be most worried about would be the student who rolls in at 10:30, when I wouldn't imagine this is operating or manned. And then the other thing is just what does that what does that throughput look like? What does the manning look like? I I I just don't understand it. Is the SRO doing it? So I first want to echo your first sentiment. It was this is unfortunate that, we need this. Today was the first day.
Monticello went live today with it, so we are learning all the logistics of it. Beginning of the day, the the majority of the students do arrive on time, so we have multiple stations, set up. Then there will be a single station at the front door the rest of the day for any late arriving students, any visitors that arrive. All of our doors remain locked during the day, so the front entrance is only our only point of access during the day. So that's how we're managing that piece of it. Is this, front desk staff who's operating them? Yep.
So, both during arrival and then during the day, it's staffed by our school, security officers, which are our school based security positions, and some additional staff members. The SRO is not involved in that until there is a, weapon identified. Got it. Thank you. Yep. Sorry to ask any prior or difficult questions. I just find that these things touch the culture of the community as a whole a lot more than almost anything else we do. Right? Like, the presence of Yonder pouches, a silly thing, becomes something that people who don't even have kids in the school schools know about
and talk about. It's, like, deeply ingrained in our culture. I tell people sometimes the very first day I ever went door knocking, as a politician, every single person I knocked the door of was talking about school buses, regardless of whether or not they had children in our school systems. So it is helpful for me to make sure I have as much context on these things as possible. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Galloway. Oh, I just wanted to add one more thing, Mr. Pruitt. One of the biggest advocates when I first came on the school board for keeping the arts in the schools was Mr. Galloway, who has a background in the arts. I could ask a lot of questions about your writing curriculum.
So I just want to follow-up on the metal detection. So I dropped because I noticed today at 09:00 the lines that were still out Monticello High School. So, obviously, it was the fir I went, oh, something's different today. And I really am you all take when students miss instructional time very seriously. As a parent who's had a few students miss some instructional time, I know what they have to make up at the end of the school year. So in this regard, I can't imagine they all got into that building by 09:10. What what's the expectation to have everybody in the building by? I'll turn it over to Michelle. Yeah. Yes. Today was our first day.
We did anticipate it going a little slower as everybody learns routines and what to take out of their backpack and this and that. So it is our goal that this is not going to impact instructional times, and we will tweak the logistics to make that, to ensure that happens. But you did witness the very first day of it, which was today. Well, we'll see. Right? We'll see how it goes. I want to commend, Principal Barfield at Albemarle High School. It's my understanding that the business across the across, hydraulic from the high school have had enough of people getting dropped off and picked up in their parking lots and have taken put their own security people out there
to keep that from happening, which means even more people have to cycle through the front parking lot because they can't do that little trick anymore. He was actually out there directing traffic himself yesterday, But his, his security, coaches is that the right name? They do a great job, and they seem to not be rattled and get to, I mean, I don't know. I wouldn't have the patience to be able to do that that job directing traffic and and all of that stuff. But, I said this last year, and I think it's the same this year. And I know there's bigger constraints or obstacles with the parking situation and everything. You just have more people cycling through,
and principal Barfield, of all the principals I've seen try to deal with that, has done the best job of it. Yeah, absolutely. And I if we could pass that along to him as well as I mean, I think it shows what all the jobs that our teachers, our principals, our counselors, our safety coaches do. Right? Like, they have their job, but they all are going over and beyond for to make sure our kids are safe. Kids get in for instructional time. So I mean, a huge a huge thank you, especially during these first three weeks of school, which are so so busy for everyone.
So we'll pass it along. I haven't met principal Barfield. It's my hope this year to be able to tour Albemarle. I know back in '24, we were told to go through miss Bolton to set up school tours. Is that still the appropriate contact to set up school tours through the central office? Yeah. Then I tried to set up a school tour. And y'all I'll I'll We can Yes. We will. Send that back. We will when we get back to you with the, the schedule for tomorrow, the studios, and that. And and I know all of the school board members would love I know would also love to do those in conjunction with you as well.
So we'll make sure it's as easy as possible, but also we'll also try to, when possible, pair and do it together. Miss Malik and I did, one in, at Western last year, and it's it's very helpful to bounce ideas off of each other as well. So we'd love to do that. Great. Thank you. There was a land use application we did with the apartment building that's going next to Agner. It's probably not started yet. Part of that application or process, the person doing the building had, opted to allow that building of a staircase up the back of his building to connect to Agner. And the school division at the time,
we were told, didn't want that. And then the school that would reroute the students around to have to interface with cars if they had to walk or go way up around to loop to the back. I made it a point that evening, and the supervisors agreed to keep that provision or condition in there that the and the property owner is certainly willing to build that staircase. So I just I'm hoping for some follow-up on that. I don't think that's something that will necessarily hit the school board again, but if we could find out if that could happen. Because, really, if they have to walk on Burkemoor and Down, you're putting them to have to cross the traffic of the cars coming in,
which I didn't think. And then otherwise, they have to walk all the way up to Woodburn through that new piece, because this is the smaller. Mhmm. There's a dentist office, and they're reconstructing building up over there. I think it would be a way to get conflict away from pedestrians and cars for both staff and students, especially if they're living in either place. So just hoping for a little follow-up on that one. And if the decision whichever whatever the decision is, just so I can follow-up on it. Absolutely. And then the only other thing I think would probably come up on, I don't even know what that word is. Just because it I know you all are going through collective bargaining,
piece. Is there it's a campaign year, so I'm getting questions about school stuff that I don't know the answer to. Do you all have a sense? Is that something that you think will come to agreement this year, or, like, what? I just haven't been paying attention to it, so I don't know what the timing is of of that agreement. The school board is getting a briefing on it next Thursday, so I will have is Dan Redding. Good afternoon. I'm Dan Redding. I'm the chief HR officer for the school division. We are in negotiations with our union, the Albemarle Education Association. Our goal is to come to tentative agreement,
over the next couple of months. Employees would have to ratify that agreement, and the board would have to approve the agreement. But the goal would be, about two months. Yeah. So this school year. I mean, it's not gonna be much longer. Awesome. Thank you. And the only thing I'll put out there real quick is that don't need it right away, but I know as we get to our joint meeting in the fall, when we start doing our outlook and get into budget, the last, I'm looking at, Rosalind, the last, trailer report that you had provided, that's actually been shared with and discussed amongst our planning commission recently. But if there is any changes,
because that was December '24, of how they're being used in the current school year, because I know sometimes things can shift, It'd be great to have the most up to date usage of that if y'all were willing to share that, in the next thirty days or something. Thank you so much. This was great. Thank you. And I love seeing the video the first day. And with with my final child going through and he's a teenager, they just get a little different with their energy. Yeah. But I know when I used to be in the classroom that, boy, did I enjoy the start of school year. So it was thank you for sharing. Absolutely. And thank you so much for the time, and please let us know any questions that you have as we go through the
school year. And I also want to thank you for being here. I don't have any questions. I appreciate all you're doing for focusing on safety and on learning opportunities throughout the schools. I appreciate the connection of walking path between the mountain views as an example of where you're obviously focused on the safety of getting from one place to another there. Again, thank you all for being here. Appreciate staff and Board members that are present. So do you have any additional questions? Yes. Just quickly, and I know we're running short on time. But a really good example,
Ned, of what you're talking about is at Stonefield, where they connected the apartment complexes with a staircase going up the hill to the strip mall that's up on, Commonwealth. That's a great example of what that staircase and it has been wonderful for the community to be able to connect back and forth and not have to go all the way out and around. Just saying that that's a great example of what that staircase could do. And I do, have a quick question about and it's gone out of my head. You know, that's what happens when you get old. I was so focused on the staircase.
It's okay. We'll just let it go. If I think about it, I'll send an email. Please send that. Please send it. Yeah. Sorry. Oh, my gosh. Any questions, just send them through. It's probably good for timing anyway. Yes. I was just wondering regarding you went through all the different specialties that you're offering, with the acronyms and such. Is there anything for farming four h? Because I understand there was a four h in I think it's been just yeah. Yeah. Yes. The farm area. The farm bureau and everything. The Terra Academy. Okay. Is it the Terra Academy? On agriculture. I'm sorry.
Terra Scholars Studios. We're all learn relearning our language. Terra Scholars Studio. Okay. And that would address the because you I was listening for animals, and I didn't hear Oh, yes. Animals and their Tara would is would be Earth as well as as Okay. Okay. And, just wanted to know, I that if you regarding cell phones and then you have to take them away from students, my experience, if you tell them I'm taking it away, I'm giving it to the principal, and you can have your parents come and pick it up. Mhmm. That will that eliminates, they they don't want that to happen.
Yes. But thank you very much. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. And I'm sorry, but I just thought about my question because you star stalled long enough. Ned talks about this a lot in different venues. And I just mentioned it in that one of the number one complaints that we hear from businesses is the lack of soft skills. Children don't know how to get to to work on time. Issues like that. And I know that's just another level of what teachers have to do. But I hope as we go through some of these some of the years with
schooling, that we can think about those soft skills that are really important as kids grow into adulthood and have to show up for work and and other soft skills as well. Ned talks about it. We were meeting with the Chamber not too long ago, and Ned was talking about the soft skills, and that how critically important they are because businesses are happy to train you to do the job they need you to do, but you have to be willing to work and to show up on time and do all those things that are critical for employment. Absolutely.
And and I had was had the the ability to participate in some of the conversations at our community breakfasts with business owners, and that was one of the things they discussed as we were doing some of the the the work around the Scholars to studios, including writing skills. And those are instead of having a Scholars Studio about just those soft skill things, those are entwined into everything. And because, as we spoke about, in in some of them in on all of them, there are internships, there are projects that those those are, requirements. Right?
So if they're doing the internship, part of that internship is learning about those time skills. And then just in general, you know, Mr. Galloway spoke about being on time and instructional time, part of just what we do and the the, stricter enforcement of being on time for school, being on time in your class, staying for the are also teaching those foundational skills. And, I know we've all talked to we have heard constituents talk to us about how those were a little lax as we, came out of the pandemic. And those are things that we are working on. And what we have been doing,
as a as a school community has improved, both our chartiness as well as our attendance, which is a is very important for school. If kids are at school, they can learn. And so making sure they are aware of that, we are working on that, will also lead into those skills. Well, I don't want to leave parents out of this because parents are their children's first teachers and making sure that the parents understand that role modeling is a good thing. Yes. All right. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you all for being here, and the Board will move on.
Our next item is a guest from Shenandoah National Park giving us an update, John Mahoney, Chief of Commercial Services. Welcome, Mr. Mahoney. There we go. Hello, everybody. How are you? Thank you for having, having me here on behalf of the park today. My name is John Mahoney. I represent the commercial services program for the park, but not only that, I deal with lands, utilities. I work out of the superintendent's office and handle just about all external affairs as a, you know, a park that stretches a 110 miles and 300 linear, miles of boundary. We tend to have to do a lot of community engagement,
which is interesting because over the summer, the administration issued secretarial order three four three four, strengthening coordination with gateway communities, which is kinda funny because I came out the same time that our leadership turned over in the park, and we're all kinda getting up to speed, and trying to figure out how we were gonna divide and conquer and meet with the eight neighboring counties that surround the park. That said, representing the neighbor to the west, Shenandoah National Park, just as a just a brief background, although most of you, you know, we see it as the mountains to the west of here. You know, 198,000 some odd acres, four roughly 14,000
of those acres fall within Albemarle County. Just for just since just brief statistical purposes, Rockfish Gap, which is the closest entrance station to here, accounts for about a 175,000 entrances into the park each year. And the South district of the park, which we define as from Route 33 South to Rockfish Gap, accounts for roughly 284 boundary access entries. Keep in mind that's most of this county, about half of Augusta, although I it's tough to equate Augusta into that because we've had a lot of
battery disputes over there. Most of those boundary accesses are blocked right now. About half of Green and about a quarter of, Rockingham County. Of all of those of all of that, I mean, last year 2024 visitation, we were, we had about 1,700,000 people come through the park last season. That's a little bit of a downward trend, from our peak bubble during COVID, which was around two million annually. Accounted for a total of, once it was all accounted for, roughly $11,000,000 annually comes back into our rec fee revenue. When I mentioned also just when I mentioned the, Rockfish Gap,
the dynamic, the one it's, you know, about a 100 and, 175,000 entries for the entire year, you know, as part of what we're looking to do is implement changes and kinda move the flow of people a little better, especially as we're looking at work with gateway communities because, again, we, you know, we're a big part of the local economy in that context. Keep in mind that Front Royal, about a 100 miles to the north, the month of October alone during our peak busy season, we put that we're aware of 112,000 people, 112,000 cars rather through that insurance registration.
Anyone that's been through front row in the month of October, I'm sorry. That's cute. My counterpart, our chief ranger, Eric Yount, is meeting with them tomorrow regarding what we can do to kinda help the flow of traffic up there and make life a little easier for the people that live in that community. Regarding tourism, you know, the the the last time the National Park Service did an economic impact study, we account Shenandoah National Park alone accounts for a $104,000,000 spent on local gateway communities adjacent to the park, supports 1,240 local jobs with a cumulative benefit back to the local area of a $145,000,000.
On the topic of tourism, we are one week, one week out from final submission for, our concession prospectus about a year ago. Many of you may have noticed that with some local news. It got recalled. We were three weeks out from announcing, but due to just turnover, of course, and a lot of additional legal compliance reviews, it got pulled back. We had to do a re advertisement, went out, late May. But we, all bids are due next Friday. We're paneling it shortly thereafter, and we hope to announce. That contract is for all lodging, food and beverage, all four campgrounds in the park,
which was a huge thing for us. Gas station, Lewis Mountain cabins, three fast casual restaurants, Big Meadows Lodge, Skyland, you name it, the full gamut is in there. That contract is valued at, oh, close to $530,000,000 gross revenue over fifteen years, with a minimum franchise fee back to the National Park Service of 14% annually. That contract is also going to cure $10,000,000 in deferred maintenance in required capital improvements. Has, where is the impact in Albemarle County on that? Well, I mentioned the campgrounds. Currently, the campgrounds, we have four of them,
Loft Mountain, Big Meadows, Lewis Mountain, Matthews Arm are all managed under Federal Lands, Recreation, Enhancement Act. You don't collect any tax on that. Once that gets privatized, as it pertains to Loft Mountain, specifically for Albemarle, those campgrounds will be privatized by the concessioner. Those do fall within the boundaries of this county, and there will be an opportunity for taxable revenue there, Under the lodging taxes for your own statistics, we do roughly 25,000 stays, stay nights in that campground. Projected revenue annually, we sit about 600,000
in revenue just out of that campground alone. And I'd be more than happy, you know, if you wanna send me emails offline, you know, the group, of course, we can provide more information as the statistics on how that goes, so forth. You know, that said, how can we support each other? You know, as as you know, specifically as it pertains to this county? You know? I see one of the uniformed officers in the back. We're we're all aware of the Sugar Hollow, they use is they use issues. You know, it's a city of Charlottesville Island in the middle of the county adjacent to the park. We're a federal enclave,
with exclusive jurisdiction. County can't go into the park. We can't go out and enforce on county land. It's a weird dynamic. I'm not from here. I'm from New York, which is a home rule state. It was very unique for me to understand all of this. It was actually also really weird for me to understand that we actually didn't really have formal relations with any of our neighboring counties. I mean, the last park I was at for thirteen years, Fire Island National Seasurettes, the only way we got things done was working with local government. You know, we were also, as I mentioned, Rockfish Gap. We are working through a comprehensive federal highway study to ease the flow of traffic.
Not only is Front Royal, an absolute disaster to get through during peak October, 02/11 coming out of Sperryville is no bargain. 33, it's not bad. It's not great. You know, we're working creatively to see how we can shift the flow of traffic south to better spread the demand. I mean, everybody wants to be in the Central District, Big Meadows, Skyland, where all of our commercialization is. But, you know, we have hundreds of miles of hiking trails throughout the entire park. South District, seldom development, and we recognize that. We're working with the Shenandoah National Park Trust,
who is actually their, their base station is right here in town. They're working with donors to get an accessible trail constructed in the Loft Mountain area, and we're working to improve, create improvements there just to, again, make more visitor attraction. Regarding lands issues, you know, we are, we're working proactively to stay ahead to block, any blocked access issues. Supervisor Malik Malik, it's my understanding, I think you may have met with folks from our staff maybe about a year ago, regarding something western part of the county. We're trying to stay ahead of these issues before they become, major issues.
You know, we have some trails where we have files that stick in the solicitor's office with post its, you know, because of turnover. What happened? Where do we go on that? And that's just the pitfall of being a condemnation park. I mean, you know, we we recognize that, you know, there was there was infrastructure here before the National Park Service came along. There were roads that, you know, there were there were lives that were there. You know, the park came in. It became parkland, and then all these trails and cul de sacs became roads to nowhere. Lands changed over times. There were handshakes, deals for hiking, and then somebody purchased the property and says you're not allowed in. You know, our goal is to stay ahead of that.
You know, we will do all of our due diligence to make sure that we're not trespassing on someone's private property rights. But if there is a right of access and there is a right public access for someone to get in, we'll also do what we have to do to make sure that that public access is preserved. As it also pertains to just business in the county, you know, we're working with the city of Waynesboro, the Blue Ridge Tunnel, which has been a huge tourist boom the first few years it opened. I I think people have realized, like, cool. I just walked through a tunnel under a mountain. Now how do I get back to my car? I gotta walk through that tunnel again. This you know, it's like,
okay. Now what? Waynesboro realized that, and they're actually working to create a connector trail, which goes up along 250 through the park. Down the county side, uses the AT as a bit of a spur back into Nelson County, where it connects to the trail. City of Waynesboro is working on that. I don't know through your contacts if you're aware of that, but, again, just something to keep on your radar. And lastly, as you, someone mentioned at the start of this that data centers have sort of been a, a local, point of contention and power and everything else. You know, we are you know, just for the just for awareness,
transparency, we've been in contact and coordination with both Dominion Transmission and FirstEnergy. Going back to that whole name of condemnation, utility companies have easement rights across the park. FirstEnergy, is rebuilding the two eleven transmission line. That's just because it's a 100 year old infrastructure. Dominion reached out to my office about two months ago regarding the Jarmons Gap line, and that is also, on the path forward for them to rebuild. Mhmm. National Park Service, we are supportive of this, independent of what goes on outside the park boundaries. You know,
the reality is we see these fires happening in California. You know, it's 100 year old infrastructure with overgrown trees right up against the power line corridor. Any opportunity that we can have resilience in the park, we are all for it. I mean, we had the Madison run fire the Quaker Run fire last year. We had another, you know, the day in March when two years ago, and everything was burning on the other side of the mountain. You know, being cognizant of that, making sure the power lines are redundant and that we can improve that, you know, we're doing what we have to do. But regarding those two lines, often, you know, we make headlines for,
you know, positions and so forth. I mean, they're on deeded land. If we legally try to do anything with it, National Park Service would be guilty of a land take, which puts us in a very precarious position. So, we're working with these organizations to protect their land rights while also simultaneously protecting the resource. I didn't have a fancy PowerPoint. I'm used to, you know, the the the resources are backdrop, you know, it's so I don't roll that way. Any questions? Thank you. We'll we'll go through our order for questions. Supervisor, please do. Thank you very much for that wonderful update.
Wow. I wouldn't mind hearing it four times a year, your updates in what you're doing because that was that was very informative. And, I'm glad to see there's a lot going on. I do worry that if you don't have enough personnel, that's a concern. But I don't know if that's true where you're managing everything. Walking a fine line here with, public statements and such. Okay. So we're currently under a hiring freeze, which has been extended. We are allowed to, recruit emergency life safety positions. So our chief ranger is currently advertised on the street.
Through Operation Opportunity, they are we are allowed to advertise, lateral reassignments within the agency. So we do have a couple positions out. We've made a selection for deputy superintendent. It does need approval from the secretary's office because she's coming from another agency. We also did made a selection for an administrative officer who handles budget and HR for the park coming out of DC. So we do have, we have movement coming in to support, new positions. You know, it's a challenge to get org charts approved right now. Also, we're looking to just optimize and see what we can do that's most efficient for the park operation. Well, I like that.
I think that's very good. And I commend you, for keeping everything going. And, I think you all are being very successful. So congratulations Thank you. On that in these times. Alright. Supervisor Mallow. Thank you very much for being here and giving us the update in addition to what we get at the Blue Ridge Committee now and then. That's on my calendar next week. You mentioned Sugar Hollow. And I just wanted to we've had really good collaboration in the past with rangers working with our ACPD and fire and rescue when we've had people have to be
carried out, etcetera. And during COVID was a spectacular seven hour rescue that really made everybody very aware of what our issues were up there. So I I want you to be optimistic about that so that you you know you can count on us. One of my dreams is that someday we would have a a kiosk and a weekend ranger similar to what they have at White Oak Canyon at Sugar Hollow because I think that would be a welcome and also once we get all the other changes made and and sort of provide a, a bit of official welcome to to the travelers who come and go up the
North Fork. And regarding, Old Brown's Gap, the, 637, which was the meeting at the neighborhood we were talking about, the the, formerly VDOT section, which is now seriously eroded away, and there's really no way to get equipment in. So managing I mean, it's going to be dicey for foot traffic, but I think that's the best we can do right now Yeah. Unless we can find another way around. But having the there is also great interest among the community members to have a historic marker to show to talk about at the entrance of of 810,
to show people who want to hike. This is public access. And, it looks a lot like a private farm driveway right now, but we need to be able to inform people who would like to walk up and over the mountain to Goshen that, this is their right to do. So there's a group of people working on that, and we'll get you more involved when we can. I appreciate that. And I think we it would be beneficial probably to include the Shenandoah National Park Trust, as they're allowed to do a lot of things off property that, you know, it's it's a challenge for us to work through. So Oh. Working with the trust is, Okay. You know, they're they're our third party philanthropic arm.
Mhmm. The last thing, you mentioned FirstEnergy. They're not a eminent domain owner. I mean, Dominion is the owner of the eminent domain. So this is a private venture capital something or other. And what are they doing? FirstEnergy is on 211. That's between Page County and Rappahannock County. But all the also working you mentioned they were also working on the Dooms To Cunningham line at Jarmons Gap? That's Dominion. That's two different organizations. Yeah. Alright. I just wanna make sure that because that low cadmarian on Germans Gap when you're up there hiking, it makes the your hair stand on straight. It's really I don't want any amateurs up there doing anything.
No. And Big Meadows, the line coming out of, Madison on that is also Rappahannock Electric is Okay. Rebuilding that. I mean, everybody's cognizant. Nobody wants to be the utility company responsible for burning Shenandoah National Park to the ground, I've learned. Or many communities all around. Yes. We appreciate their help. Thank you very much. Thank you. Supervisor McKeel? Yes. To piggyback on that, I had multiple notes about fire. So the concern about fires in the forest, what's the condition of your trees? Can you give us a little because when I drive aft and I see what
looks like swaths of There has been a significant, tree mortality that's been occurring, between the hemlock luedelgia, between the spongy moth defoliation, between, there was oh, there there were two other true blights. I'm not a botanist or biologist, but he stretches his imagination. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The emerald ash borer. There's been there's been a lot there's been a pretty significant true die off. Generally speaking, you know, it's we're not in a high fire danger right now. You know, it's been wet. You know, it's what's we do see around here when we do have fire. It's what occurred last year, especially a a medicine rather two years ago where it tends to creep,
but doesn't crown. But still that doesn't make it any easier or make it any calmer. We're looking at revegetative efforts in some of our developed areas, but, you know, it's it's a lot of its natural processes occurring. But we have noticed that there has been a pretty significant vegetation die off. Yeah. Well, I've noticed that just behind my house. Yes. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. The urban rain. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I would say that it is very dry in Albemarle County, certainly in portions of Albemarle County. Very dry. Yes. Even though we've had a lot of humid high humidity and moisture in the air, we've not had any really good rainfall.
No. So and that kind of leads me to my second question about, campfires, cigarette butts. We see a our fire department responding constantly to fires started along the edge of the road with cigarette butts. Really concerning, and some of them have gotten out of control. Just a question about what are you all doing around because it is dry, and we often have dry periods. What do you all do about with regards to campfires and even people smoking along the trails? I'm just curious. So when it comes to backcountry use for camping,
of those 200 somewhat thousand backcountry entrances and folks that are using the AT, getting backcountry permits, there is a burn ban, three hundred sixty five days a year. There are no open fires permitted in the backcountry. For the front country, if fire conditions get to the point where we are in a high fire danger, we issue a burn ban park wide. We we instruct our concessioners, you're On a lot of South Firewood, rangers are actively patrolling through the campgrounds, making sure that folks are not burning and issuing tickets accordingly. What we also do, if if it really gets extreme, we call the power we call the utility companies and tell them just,
you know, kill the meters for the neck. Thank you. Yeah. We just haven't shut it down. Excellent. Big Meadows, Loft, it doesn't matter. I mean, they're all they're all on my speed dial. There are some weeks I talk to them more than I talk to my own family. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's great to know. I have been yeah. And and at least in one area, and I don't have to go into details, where the it was so dry that the pond was dry. Yep. Had no water in it. And they did at one at one point, we did lose power, and that may be what happened. I don't know. But that's interesting. Two years ago, when there was day in March, when there were all those fires all over the area,
there was not a single fire that originated in the park because of that deliberate action where we made the call ahead of time and said, these buildings are empty. Why are we powering empty buildings in the March? Right. Kill it, and we'll see what it looks like afterwards. And there was some pretty significant damage. Most of our buildings were offline for two or three weeks after that date because of all the power line damage. So we're pretty proactive on that. Right. And we are because we are always concerned in this community about fires up there because we have houses that just run right up. Right. Right up to the park boundary. Yes. So I really appreciate your comments about the power lines.
Aging infrastructure, whether it's old water infrastructure or old power line infrastructure, needs to be upgraded. Yes. So that's great to know that some of that work is going to happen. This sounds wackadoodle, but it's been a long time since we've had anyone from, you know, your your department to come in and chat with us. I remember the last time the ranger was talking to us about a huge concern, and he scared all of us to death about wild boars. So that expression that you just gave me explains it all.
Not a problem anymore. You got tear. Bear. Okay. I never heard of. Anne probably remembers that discussion. Way down in that Western yeah. But the the but the message was that they were on their way, and they were coming to us. Not that I'm aware of. Thank you very much. Not that I'm aware of. Life That's something that's hard to say. Not that I'm aware of. Well, you would have thought they were gonna be here within the year. Right? And so thank you very much. Like I said, wackadoodle question, but following up from the last presentation we had. And I think that is all oh, let me just ask you a quick question.
If you had your druthers, what is the one thing that you would like to see happen? What changed or what new? I'm just if you had your druthers and you could name one thing. With the with the park? Yeah. You know, it's it's probably fresh off because as I was walking in here, we actually had our check-in with Federal Highway. And just with all the crowding as we're going into October, I mean, I would love it if we could figure out a better way to control access to to better control egress and ingress coming off of 211 And 33. Okay. Fortunately, these are not problems for this group to figure out.
But, again, we're working with Vidot. We're working, I mean, with with Federal Highway to figure out how we can better get people into the park. You know, Front Royal has its issues getting in, coming in off of, two eleven from Sperryville. It's not uncommon. It packs up three miles down the mountain, in October. Well, three miles is a setup for a lot of problems too. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Okay. Thank you very much. And I do appreciate your outreach to us and coming to chat with us. That's great. Yes. And we're gonna make this a point, to to to be visiting at least once every few weeks. And part of the guidance from the secretarial order,
try saying that fast, is, you know, is as we're, you know, considering big changes to present those changes, you know, beforehand, so nobody's caught off guard and so forth. So Thank you. Consider me your point of contact. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Perez. Thank you for the presentation. The one thing that kind of left out to me that, my peers have not asked about yet, so I I will, You mentioned about the, the privatization of some of the, some of the short term stay opportunities that are available inside the park, and how that is going to make them potential revenue sources for those counties,
including ours, which is very cool. We have in Albemarle County an uncommonly high transient occupancy tax, which we are generally comfortable with because we have, amenities that are only available here. So there's not much option, and we move in lockstep with Charlottesville. We do not move lockstep with Rockingham County or Augusta County or wherever the other, three campgrounds are. And I'm curious if that is something that you know has come up. Right? Like, the one, short term stay that is in Albemarle County will necessarily be much more expensive,
and if that is something that y'all have, grappled with, as you're looking to privatize these. When you say expensive, do you mean, at least We have a higher tax rate on fancy occupancy by a by a not insignificant margin. Okay. Like a 30%, 33 higher than one in Augusta, higher than Rockingham. I I don't That's the tax, not the Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's a couple bucks. Sure. Point being, it it it is a it is a difference. I don't know if that matters to people. I'm not sure I understand the question. So, in terms of, our counties where our, overnight facilities are, most of them are Page County.
Page County does roughly $1.2.1300000.0 in lodging tax annually from Delaware North. That's comprised of 190 hotel rooms at Skyland and another 130 hotel rooms at Big Meadows. The Big Meadows Campground is 100% located within Page County. So Page County will be the benefactor of that. I don't know what the lodging tax rate is for Page. The Matthews Arm Campground, which is about 10 miles north on 211, is also in Page County. So they'll also be the benefactor of it. The other campground,
Lewis Mountain, is within Greene County. And they're seeing roughly $30,000 $40,000 a year coming in and lodging tax from the seven Lewis Mountain Cabins. Regarding any of the finances associated with it, so we did a comprehensive financial analysis through a third party, CHM Government Services prepared all of our prospectus documents. And I mean, they went through every aspect of accounting, that Delaware North had, and they went back ten years into our records and did significant market comps of other campgrounds in the area.
So, when they determine that the reason they locked in on the max price that any of those campgrounds could support would be $50 a night as is, within the next three years, assuming if improvements happen. And we do recognize that there's going to be some and other improvements that a concessioner is gonna wanna bring in, and, we do have that accounted for in our modeling. Great. Yeah. Thanks. Thank you. Supervisor Galloway. 10% in Trane, Page County. If the Google machines work. Oh, really? It's not going to slow down. And it looks like they just raised it from five to ten two years ago
or a year ago. I guess that. Thank you for the report. Lots of good information. I don't have any further questions. Thank you. Thank you again for the report, for this idea of building relationships. And I appreciate you being here. I do think that annually would be great. I am curious whether the park would do something like this maybe with the visitors bureau, board or something like that, because the tie in to Tourist Street turns out. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. If this group could facilitate that conversation and, you know, the Blue Ridge Committee. I'll be happy to do that for you. Oh, yeah. Definitely.
If you can leave your information, phone number, anything, I'll get in touch with you and let you know how you can do it. Excellent. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Great. Board, in light of the time and what we have left, I think we should do a recess and come back in fifteen minutes and proceed to our next item. Okay. Welcome back. Our next item is the discussion, the presentation on AC44 '20 25 built out analysis, done by JT Newbury, Senior Planner II. Welcome. Thank you, Chair Andrews and members of the Board.
My name is J. T. Newberry. I'm a senior planner in the Department of Community Development. I'm joined this afternoon, by Deputy County Executive Anne Wall, as well as, who's sitting by my side. And then in the audience, I have a legion of, colleagues from the Department of Community Development to help me answer questions that may come up as a result of today's presentation. And, also with us is our consultant on the project from Line and Grade, Jeremy Goldstein. So as the Board is aware, we are currently in Phase four of the AC44 process.
And attachment A to today's materials was actually published early on in the AC44 comp plan update. That's the 2022 land use build out analysis. And, that document, proved to be very integral to how the AC44 process has moved forward through phases two and three. And as the process has gone on, the board has asked for updated information about what's happening in our development areas. And so today's presentation is aimed at providing
updated information about what's happening in our development areas. It will cover the timeframe from when the twenty twenty two land use build out analysis ended. So we'll be looking at development information from 01/01/2022, through the 2025. Well, there's no action or, that needs to be taken today. So we're really looking to receive your feedback and questions on the analysis. But we'll be returning again in, January 2026 to look at,
other information that the Board has requested, such as a draft scorecard. There will also be an updated capacity analysis that uses more of a market based lens to look at this information. And we'll also have the opportunity to respond to any questions or feedback that you've given us today. Why is this information important? This information is essential to implementing the goals of AC44 as well as several of the Board's strategic plan goals. And the way we've been thinking about it internally is that both the 2022 analysis
and the 2025 analysis are really snapshots in time that kind of give us a sense of where we are currently, and they help orient us to how far are we from where we want to go in the future. And so in that way, it kind of reveals to us what are the questions that we should be asking, what are the strategies that we should be pursuing if we want to reach those goals. And so there's strong connections to those goals related to housing and economic development. This information will also be helpful moving forward as the board considers current development proposals
like rezonings and special use permits. As a reminder, this information only looks at development within our designated growth area and our five master plan development areas. And so, the graphic on the screen was included in Attachment B, but it outlines the different neighborhoods and communities that are included in each of our various master plans. I thought it would be helpful to just look a little bit at some brief history of this analysis. There have been different versions of this over time.
So over the past fifteen years or so, there have been two staff led analyses. The first one in the 2015 comp plan and the next one was the 2019 growth management report. Those were both similar, but not quite exactly the same. And then as I said, attachment A is the 2022 report that was developed by Kim Lee Horn. And we've replicated that methodology and approach for the 2025 analysis so that for the first time, we can actually look at these numbers over time and try to have an apples
to apples comparison of what we're seeing that's happening. And so, before we look at the results, I think it would be helpful to go through some of the terms and exact methodology. One of the terms is developable or redevelopable. On Page five of Attachment A, you'll see the beginning discussion of the criteria that's used for different land use types for parcels that are considered developable and redevelopable. A common factor is often that the land value is greater than the improvement value, but there are some specifics depending on the land use types.
And those would be residential, office, industrial, commercial and hotel. Another term we're going to talk a lot about is theoretical maximum build out. And that's really looking at what is the maximum amount of development that's called for in the comp plan. And so these results are based on the 2015 comp plan. Just to give one example, if we were to look at one acre of developable land that was designated urban density residential, the comp plan calls for a density range between six and thirty four units an
acre. And so we would be looking at that as having 34 dwelling units per acre. And so at its highest level, there's the 2022 report is over 70 pages of information and analysis. But at its broadest level, it's adding the development pipeline. Those are projects that are either approved but not yet built or currently under review. And it's adding it to that calculation of that theoretical maximum build out. And that gives us our total capacity. Development pipeline, you've probably seen the construction happening, would be at Old Ivy Residences.
That's a good example of a project that's currently under construction, approved, but not yet built. That would be captured in this analysis by the development pipeline. There's a little bit of a sophisticated calculation that's involved with the theoretical maximum build out calculation. So first, those developable parcels are identified. Then there are some assumptions that are applied to those parcels that remove area for things like steep slopes or floodplain. It provides area for roads or other infrastructure as well as required open space.
That gives you a developable acreage for that particular parcel. And then the analysis includes, a set of assumptions of how densely, that would develop. So, the graphic on the screen here shows a few of the different land use types. And as one example, that top line, that neighborhood density residential low, includes only residential uses. So we would look at the recommended density for that land use and apply 100% of the developability to residential uses. If it was more of a mixed use category,
there would be a portion of that developability that would go to office uses and commercial uses as well as residential. We can go through a specific example if you'd like, but this is just kind of broadly, theoretically, how it works. So let's look at some of the residential findings. For both residential and nonresidential, I'll quickly go through the 'twenty two information because it's been a little more than three years since we've reviewed that. We'll pause briefly on the 'twenty five, and then there'll be a comparison slide where you can see it all together.
So the '22 analysis looked at determined that the total theoretical maximum build out would result in just over 24,000 residential dwelling units. And so the different columns on the screen, the development pipeline are those first two. And then the middle, the third column is that theoretical maximum. And the final number circled in red is the total. In 2025, we see that that's a decrease to just over 21,600
units. And here's the slide that compares the two. And again, for the first time, we have a chance to compare some apples to apples numbers. And we can see some of one portion of the development pipeline has gone up, the number of projects that are approved, the number of units that are approved but not yet built. Those that are under review have decreased. And then the overall the theoretical maximum build out has also decreased. As you probably saw in Attachment B, one significant portion of the explanation of this decrease in capacity is going to come from
those units that have been built over the past three years. And there's been some healthy construction activity that's taken place. In total, there have been nearly 3,000 units that have been built. And the 2022 analysis says that, to meet the projected demand over twenty years, we need to be building about six seventy five units a year. And over the course of this time frame, our average has been well over 700 units. So we are currently developing at a pace that would
provide that would meet the projected future demand based on those findings. So let's look at nonresidential really quickly. In 2022, these are the totals for those nonresidential categories. In 2025, we have these updated figures. And then finally, here's how the two reports compare on nonresidential findings. And now I'd like to talk a little bit about some overall findings. The 2022 analysis calculated that there was about 6.9% of the development areas remaining for future development.
This updated analysis finds that there's just over 6%, about six point one percent and fourteen forty six acres. Just over half of that is vacant. So, eight thirteen of that fourteen forty six acres are vacant. And, we'll talk a little bit more about later about some of the implications of our remaining development capacity. Another figure that has been talked about quite frequently, throughout the course of AC44 is, the degree to which we're approving projects towards
the maximum recommended by the comprehensive plan. And so, the language shown on the screen here comes directly from Page 46 of Attachment A, and it just gives you the full context of that 58% figure, where, it ends by saying that over from 2016 to 2021, the actual approval of residential rezonings was 58% of the theoretical maximum build out. As you saw in Attachment B, the '25 analysis found a very similar figure that overall,
for all of the residential, rezonings and one special use permit that provided for more residential units, that we're now at 56% of that theoretical maximum build out. That said, I think it's important for the board to consider the full distribution of all of these approvals. And, in particular, I want to draw attention to one of the approvals that I think the board will remember, and that's related to North Fork. So in that first column, on the screen, you can see there's fourteen oh three dwelling units that were approved at less than
50% of their theoretical maximum density. But nearly all of that figure is dedicated to the residential that was approved at North Fork that approved up to 1,400 residential units on 172 acres on neighborhood model district zoning. And so, the way this analysis would look at residential within that very large park, over five fifty acres are within North Fork, there was a little portion in the 2015 comp plan that was dedicated to residential
units. And it was called for at a density of 34 units an acre. And so, the the area that was approved for residential units within North Fork, recognized that the park contemplated some residential, but it really skews this figure in a way that doesn't feel like it is accurately capturing the vast majority of the work that the board has approved between 2022 and the '5. So if we remove just that one project,
for example, that 56% goes to 70%. And so, I think for me personally, having looked, at this data closely, that feels like it's more of a representative figure of what the board has been approving. And you can see, you know, the distribution of those other projects, the vast majority of units fall within that 50% to 79 range, but you have many that even go above that 100% figure. So as we think about these numbers, I think it's really important that we recognize we're talking about theoretical
maximum capacity and that it's very difficult for projects to do that consistently throughout the development area. The 2022 analysis includes a number of constraining factors that are still very relevant and applicable to, the remaining capacity that we have today. Things like the cost of land, the mismatch between existing zoning and our comp plan, are just two examples. So as I mentioned, the analysis is really revealing for us where do we need to be looking if we want to be closer to reaching our comp plan goals.
And that's some items that we've identified so far are related to redevelopment activity. Approximately half of that remaining capacity are parcels that have structures on them already. And so how can we support folks that are going to be redeveloping their property in a way that more closely aligns with the comprehensive plan? That's especially true within the activity center areas. We want to think about how can we make sure that we're being strategic and investing in public infrastructure in a way that's going to leverage private investment
as efficiently as possible. We want to evaluate opportunities to align our land uses, in a way that can spur development activity. And we also have, you know, strong recommendations from the recently AC44 process that are aiming to improve review processes. So, one big takeaway that I want to make sure isn't lost in today's presentation is that, I mentioned the history of this analysis. With the help of our consultant, we're moving away from these sort of static PDF reports that we'll be capturing one
snapshot in time every few years. We we now have an editable Excel based digital tool where we can run different modeling scenarios. We can use this to evaluate current development proposals. It can be especially helpful not only for community development, but other departments, such as schools. We have other agencies that are constantly, interested in updated information about our development areas, so things like ACSA and others. And so we're we're really excited that this is now moving from kind of a
static, method to one that's more dynamic. So at the at the next meeting, scheduled for January 26, we'll be bringing forward, using this digital tool, integrating more of a market based approach to try to figure out, more in a more detailed way, how our current capacity can serve our comp plan goals. We'll bring a draft scorecard, which is something I know the board has been talking a lot about. And then we can also respond to questions and feedback today. So, I'll end there and invite questions and feedback. Thank you very much.
And we'll go through our order. Supervisor, Piso currently. Thank you very much for a very, informative presentation. Just a few questions. You spoke about, we were only approving 58% of, you know, buildable units and everything. But you said now it's gone down to 56%. And could what is the reason for that? Do you know? Or could it be our new housing policy? I we have not reviewed the numbers in a way to think about all of the reasons why. We've we've really just been doing the calculus behind what what it is actually yielding.
And so that number comes from looking at all of for all of the projects that were approved over the timeframe, what are the total number of units that were approved and what are the total theoretical, units that could be built. And so, it's about it's close to 5,600 units that have been approved. And theoretically, it would be close to 10,000, actually just over 10,000. And so that's how we get to that 56% figure. So when we have our January meeting, would you be able to maybe provide a I mean,
we should be going in the opposite direction. Correct? Yes. And and that I I wanted to, in in showing the distribution of of all the different approved projects, I was really hoping that the board could focus on, you know, the if we remove just one project from that, the North Fork, project, you get much closer you get to 70%. And so that would be, moving in the direction that is beneficial to the company. Okay. So I and I understood that. That we've removed North Fork is closer to 70%.
And the reason what is the reason and I did I'm sorry. I didn't catch why. If we remove North Fork, I mean, what's happening at North Fork? Or Yeah. The the reason North Fork is is treated differently is that, you know, the vast majority of that 550 plus acre park is designated in our comp plan for office R and D, flex light industrial. The comp plan has no recommended density for that designation. Got it. And so, although there is that small portion of the park that would call for 34 units
an acre, it doesn't quite feel fair to apply that, but it is consistent in how we applied it to all the other projects. And so, you know, just being strict calculus, we get to 56%, but kind of taking a step back, 70% is is much. So the 56% is actually skewed by North Fork. That's right. Okay. Good. That answers that. And I do like the fact that, you said there were we've been building 675 units, a year. What that's what we should be building,
their theoretical, you know, calculations. But, we're building over 700 a year in a in reality. Correct? Yes. That would be the average, between That would be the average. Okay. January 22 through the '25. Okay. And getting back to my first question as to why the discrepancy, I noticed and you mentioned page 53 that, the, let's see, middle of the paragraph. Furthermore, having a long term vision that is not realistic or achievable creates uncertainty, which can make it Yes. So this section of the report was really looking at, the Yes. So this section of the report was really looking at,
you know, what are some of the constraining factors that limit projects from reaching their full potential. And so it appropriately acknowledges that maximum theoretical build out is, is very difficult to achieve. And so it's recommending something that is more in line with what is actually the prevailing development pattern. And so that's why in January 26, we'll have the chance to come back with, you know, a more updated approach and methodology.
We really wanted for the first time to to get some sense of what was happening over time in an apples to apples way. But we'll come back in '26 with, I think, something that appropriately responds to that section of the report. Perfect. And if you could go to page, slide 16. Yeah. Would you go back? Okay. I tried to write my question down before you switch slides because some of them were a little quick. No. I I I understand all that. The page 23, slide 23,
because I read that before now. Could you could you go over this for me for my edification? You have six thirty three acres that are developable and 56 that are developable acreage that are vacant. Yes. So the pie chart is meant to represent of the remaining developable acres, how much of it is vacant and how much of it has, an improvement value of at least a thousand dollars. So that is that when you were mentioning you're talking about before that there may
be a house on there? There there yeah. That it you know, much of, many projects that come forward are are completely that have come forward in the past have been for greenfield sites that have not required any kind of redevelopment work at all. And, one of the intentions behind this slide was to say, moving forward, there's less and less of that greenfield property that's out there. And so, thinking about projects that could benefit from redevelopment strategies are going to be especially helpful
moving forward, throughout the lifespan of AC44, because it's, you know, just over half of our land is just completely vacant. But 44% or six thirty three acres of that 1,446, contains some type of structure. Contain some kind of what? Some type of structure. Okay. But, I mean, if if a developer if there's a house on it and you have a few 100 acres and they're just gonna demolish the house. Right? I mean, how I'm trying to understand how that's pertinent Yeah.
Unless it's a historic building. Well, the availability of those large tracts that you're describing is less and less. And so we're often talking about very small acres or areas where, there would need to be an assemblage of small lots to get a critical mass that you could bring forward a development project on. And so the purpose behind the slide is to just indicate that, more and more, we're going to be seeing projects where existing improvements have to be raised in order to to make way for for new
development. Okay. When you last question. When you okay. I understand vacant, developable acreage. That's nothing's on it. Okay? And the person may or may not sell. Correct? The owner. Okay. Yep. Developable acreage. Once again, they may is it developable if it's not being sold? So someone lives on the acreage and they don't wanna sell it. Is that being considered developable? So the the analysis, just to use the residential land use type, it would require that the land value be more than the improvement value,
and then it would have a minimum acreage of two acres in order to be considered developable under this analysis. But you bring up an excellent point that that, yeah, that in in the real world, there there could be property owners that don't want to develop to the comp plan. And so So how do you because I know a lot of people that have, you know, they have land acres, and they're not selling. And so that's why I was wondering why we unless we know that land is either vacant or for sale,
how is that developable? I don't I don't mean to put you in any kind of a No. That's a it's a great point. And that's the kind of feedback we want to hear that we could integrate into to future analysis. But, I think this was the the approach that Kimley Horn used in '22, which we were trying to replicate here, you know, was really trying to take a high level approach, and it didn't consider individual property owners. But you're correct. That's a significant constraining factor. Okay. Thank you. No other questions. Thank you. Supervisor Malek.
Thank you. This is really helpful, the homework as well as today. Excuse me. But I do have I'm gonna start at the bottom. When we looked at this a few months or last year ago, I'm not remembering properly, there was a lot of discussion about outdated shopping malls and giant parking lots and things, which were excluded totally from being considered in the 2022. And I understand your point about keeping the methodology fairly similar so you can trend. But that seems like a really important thing to figure out,
how to involve that in some way. Otherwise, we're just ignoring a pretty substantial area. So I'll just leave that thought with you. Is there a map about of the areas which were excluded from consideration? Or do we just sort of make that up out of places we know from our anecdotes? So that's a question that I guess you can answer before I go on. Michael shaking his head. Yes. So the analysis does because it's an Excel tool, it can be put into, our GIS software, and a map can be created.
Okay. So that's a possibility. Okay. Good old Excel. Even I can understand Excel. That's great. So now I'm gonna go back to my beginning here. I think many people over many years, like twenty, have heard me asking for where in the world did the 34 units per acre magic number come from? And no one has ever supplied any answer. So I'm just putting that out there because I feel rather crabby that we're continuing to beat ourselves over something that has no discussable basis. So I'll just leave that there too.
It's not your fault. It's way before, maybe Michael and Barbara here, but not in their current roles, but long, long, long time ago. No. He was definitely not involved in that way, I guess. So that's okay. Slide 16. I think you already answered my question because it sounded like the, the reason the numbers are falling is because some of those are hitting the market, and therefore, they're not in the pipeline anymore. They're out in the world, which is great. Developable, to me, should be the physical ability, not whether somebody owns it or puts it on the market or anything else. We could go insane trying to figure out the other option.
So I just think if it the constraints are really important. And you did mention in your presentation that you were gonna be excluding, when you get to that detailed level, the steep slopes, etcetera, etcetera. And so eventually, we will get to more accurate numbers. But I really we have to have something that can be fairly understandable by by me and others as well. The theoretical max. The it's harder than it looks, I think, to get the max when applicants don't see it in their business model to do
that. And many times over many hearings, plan of commissioners have said, why don't you go to six or seven stories? You're right here on 29, and this would be so much better. We have a bus, etcetera. And the response has been, well, no. We're not applying for that. So that's another situation where I don't want the county putting itself in the the, you know, whipping post for something like that, which is not our choice unless we start to deny all these things that are four stories and say, no. You have to do this. And I don't know what the answer would be for that either. But the county is not generally the originator of these.
The county is the applicant receive application receiver and then sees how things match the rules. So as long as that is the process, then, I guess the guidelines have to be made more strict or something if we're going to try to force this higher density in places where there are not physical constraints, due to steep slopes, floodplains, etcetera, etcetera. Let's see. But I think the private investment role is really important that we not forget that. And And I think the market will help us with that.
Way back in the sixties, people said, oh, don't worry about making rules for the environmental protection because the market will take care of it. Well, it took fifty years, but we're slowly we're slowly getting there. So it, but I think that in this situation, the market will, because our market here is so different from other counties around us. There are a lot of Keynesian economic things that don't work here because we have an unlimited supply of people who graduated from the University of Virginia and wanna come back here when their pockets are full of cash, and they will continually buy anything that is comes on the market regardless.
That's just an insatiable insatiable demand. Okay. I did that one. So anyway, I'm going to stop there. Thank you very much. Thank you. Supervisor McKeown? I think it may have stopped, but I was going to ask you if we could have a temporary ordinance against blowers so that we can hear what was being said in this room. Oh, my goodness. And this gets back to my concern about all these blowers that we have all going all over the county. I listen to this all day long in my backyard. I'm just saying. I'm sorry. Blowers. We couldn't even eyes.
Lamp blowers. And I'm just using the opportunity to say that there are some communities that deal with some of this, and and it would be nice. But having but I won't be on the board. Quiet zone. Sorry, folks. And it's not any of your old's fault. It's just that that burrowing was going on in the background, and it was irritating. So I have a, I have a couple of questions, just general questions. And I know we're talking about, attachment a. So even so, obviously, there's a lot in attachment a that you didn't have in this slide. So I just have a couple of questions.
We recently worked with our economic development authority to pass a strategic plan. And a big part of that strategic plan I'm getting back to this because I think you alluded to it a little bit but part of that strategic plan was jobs, jobs in this community. So how does that strategic plan impact what we're seeing here? Well, I think that we need to be integrating the recommendations of the strategic plan, considering that in concert.
It is that strategic plan is a part of AC44. Right. And so it informs, how we'll be bringing back the future capacity analysis as well as the scorecard. There are some good recommendations in that strategic plan that will directly influence the future iterations of the capacity analysis. And so what I'm hearing you say, I think, is I was really pleased to hear you say in January, update for the approaches, right? So maybe in January, that will be part of the what you all are looking at for the update.
Is that correct? Yes. Yes. So that's good. I'm all for that. That's great. When you're talking about, some of this undeveloped or some of the what do we call it? Not the I'm just trying to get at strip malls and all the vacant properties we have. I mean, we have malls that have huge amounts of storefronts that are empty. Huge amounts of parking spaces that are just sitting there. Right? So I'm trying to get at, will we be seeing eventually recommendations on how I know they're private property.
I get that in the struggle. But and that leads me and I kind of sound like I'm rambling here, but they're all connected in my brain. Where are we on form based code? Has that worked? Works in Crozet. It works in Crozet. Okay. But has form based code really been successful? And I would like to have just an could I have just a two minute quick on how we feel like that's been helping us? Maybe maybe it worked with, Home Depot. Yeah. Michael Barnes, director of family. I'm I'm doing wackadoodle stuff here today, ma'am.
No. No. I I think it's an interesting thing because I think what you're really getting towards is the larger question of, you know, these activity centers, a lot of them which correspond to some of these malls. Yeah. How do we sort of set the incentives to make those things help redevelop? And one of them is to do the form based code. Right. So at least you make it more buy right to give us the form we're looking for. You put in what the market will support in those buildings. But give us the form and give us some places that do create some community gathering, you know, a street or two that has those types of facilities that provide
for the sense of public space and then plenty of room for residential development and economic job growth, that type of a thing. So what I would say is this. We not one of our team, led by Margaret Malachesky and headed up by Mariah Gleeson, are working really hard on the rewriting the form based code. I think some some of the major elements we understood from it was the previous code sort of like focused in the Rio area at that intersection of 29 and Rio Road. A little spoiler on their,
presentation, but I think one of the feedback we heard from a lot of people is that's probably not a really great space to have sort of that gathering, that community space because of all the traffic. So we're looking a little bit at the at that plan as it plays out in that area. But more importantly, as far as the form based code, we're really trying to create something that is going to be development friendly in the regards of the easy use, but yet builds the form that we look for in our community. And they're actually almost wrapped up with a draft that they'll be circulating,
with CADRE and other folks in our community. We hope to be in front of you, towards the end of the year with a form based code. Maybe before I'm off the board. Hopefully. Because I know I spent a lot of my portion of my life on that form based code a few years back. And I was just interested. So what you're saying to me is that we're going to be getting a sort of a follow-up and maybe tweaking that to see if we can make it more workable, relevant for us. Yeah. I think one of the the feedback that I heard from some of the developers who have used it was that there was it it had some elements that were very difficult to use and implement Right.
And didn't and didn't work in some of the real world situations. So that's part of what we're trying to respond to, and makes it a little more streamlined and straightforward. But again, I think back to the bigger picture of as we talk about where is our development potential in our community or redevelopment potential in our community. Obviously, that's one area that several of you will have talked on. That's very helpful because I've been thinking for several years now, form based code, where are we? And to be honest with you, I was kinda joking when I said Home Depot, but that was the area that we were focusing on, which is why I mentioned it.
That's right. Yes. Okay. Thank you very much. And Anne mentions Crozet. And I noticed in here, we know that the old development in Crozet was approved for 2,200 units, but now it's expected to deliver 1,200. Yeah. I think that's important for the people of Crozeta here. I'm just saying. But that is development. Those are units and and homes that people are not getting. There's a difference there. I'm just saying that we were anticipating, but it's been reduced by that much. Help me out a little bit with this.
Well, I mean, I think that's part of what JT has sort of touched on, the theoretical maximum. But he was talking about the other end of the county. Well, I mean, where where it's independent of where we are in the county. I think one of the biggest things to take away from this analysis is this is a at a macro scale. It's not so much developed on each individual parcel. It's tough to apply it at that level. And this theoretical maximum and what we are doing as a percentage of the development, is going to be some context sensitive to some parcels will have lots of flood plain, other ones will have lots of steep slopes,
other ones may be perfectly flat and you can put a lot of density there. Some are closer to transit lines and so can accept more density than others. So it is highly variable where we're at. I just would say Old Trail, there's been a lot of factors over the time that have influenced why it's built for us. What we've been willing to approve out there, too, is a factor. But that's another story, yes. Yes. And we're, of course I think the other thing is I think you may be hinting at is in time, there's different boards that have different approaches towards development that's happening in that time period.
So, it's a reflection of that as well. Yes. Well, and certainly, we hear from Crozet all the time that they're taking the brunt of everything. Well, I'm just saying that 29 North I mean, there are other areas that have been taking a lot of our development as well. So and this one shows a reduction. Just saying. I have another question, and I'm in Wakadu world right now. Okay. I'm way up here, so I'm asking about form based code. What I'm seeing and it just made JT, I'm sorry if I'm taking us down a rabbit hole. But are we finding that the neighborhood model is really working?
And that I'm going way off the golf course here. Right? But what I'm noticing is the developers are coming back and saying, we can't get commercial spaces to go into this these areas, so we're going to build more units. That's not a bad thing. I'm just saying that when we're using the neighborhood model and we're expecting commercial and there is no commercial help me out a little bit with this. Again, just a couple of like you did with the foreign based phone. Help me with this. Well, I've worked here from 02/2003,
and actually, I my first month here, I think that they would model what had been, like, a month old at the time. So I remember it being implemented. And I think a lot of the reason it was implemented, partly was the mixture of uses and trying to get the commercial uses in. And certainly, I've heard comments before about trying to mix them within buildings and that being difficult. But I think it's important to also remember that neighborhood model was trying to get at some neighborhoods that had been built several years before that, that didn't have sidewalks, that didn't have a lot of the things with connectivity. And those 12 principles,
they're not all related to the commercial development. And, of course, it couldn't foresee at that time the changes we've seen now in Amazon and what's happening in our commercial market. So there are lots of different changes. I think that there's a need for us to be sensitive to the time period we're in and adapt. And I think that's part of what we're doing at AC44. We took the neighborhood model and sort of we worked that into a whole series of design standards, trying to help guide the kind of form and function that we want from new development. Trying to get that mixture of uses in a building is tough.
Hopefully, we can, with form based code, also try and find ways to find some flexibility in how that is implemented as well. And I really appreciate that. And I can see sort of the changes through AC44 with the neighborhood model. I was kind of out in la la land with form based code, but you helped me with that a little bit. Dusting, both of those. And it goes back to my premise about a lot of things that we do in this county. We continue to do the same thing for forty years and expect a different outcome. And we always have to be going back and looking at what we're doing and
saying, do we need to do justice? Do we need to change? What do we need to do? Well, I'm going to, give a plug to one of the last slides in his presentation, which is really about, you know, what this tool, I think, does is helps us ask what are the right questions to be asking. Yes. And part of that is what do we need to be doing as a community to help spur that redevelopment, whether that's through regulatory changes or things to do or investments that we make from the board, from the CIP or other services that we make in these things.
Obviously, the more of an urban area you have, the more urban services that it requires, it's just a factor of having more people living within a higher density. It requires more services and infrastructure. And that's part of what we can do to help lay that groundwork to make this analysis. Hit that theoretical maximum that he's in or get closer to it in areas that we really want to see, especially the activity centers. And I appreciate all that, and that's excellent. Thank you. So some of this I may be seeing coming to us while I'm still on
the board, but more to come in the next year is what yeah. Yes, ma'am. And and, I can assure you that we're working. I I want my staff to do this as quickly as they possibly can too. I mean, time is limited and precious. Well, and I would also say that to the developers, time is money. And one of the most important things we can do is try and make sure that the proposals go through in a timely manner Yes, ma'am. And are not two years in getting through. But I think we're working on that too. Yes. We are.
But I just had to add that because time is money. Well, I I would I would just conclude by saying, you know, everything we're talking about, a whole bunch of puzzle pieces. Right. And how do we push those things into place, And how do we create the conditions that we need to meet that vision? And I'm what I'm excited about is that we are very much concentrated on what those tools are to get us to that goal, both as a department and in a large part, the questions that are being asked in this of this build out analysis. Great. Thank you very much. And I'm going to stop with that. Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt.
I I think I know the answer to this, but are there any efforts in the build out analysis either currently or moving forward, to try and disaggregate owner occupied from non owner occupied properties? It seems very relevant when we're thinking about focusing a lot of our build out strategy around redevelopment. Redevelopment is a dramatically different thing for an owner occupied property and a non owner occupied property. There was not any contemplation of that in the '22 or 2025. I think I could look to our consultant maybe just to ask if that's a factor that
is intended for our future capacity analysis? I'm Jeremy Goldstein. I'm with Mining Grade. I think the answer is that's something we absolutely could do. Part of the intent of moving to this tool based method was to apply a range of assumptions and scenarios that can help us explore the implications of change. And there's no reason why as long as there's adequate data on which parcels are owner occupied and which are you know, the owner is elsewhere, then then we're in a position to start doing that analysis for sure.
Got it. That might actually be all I have on this. Sorry. Okay. Thank you. Ready to get to closed session, what can I say? Yes. Unfortunately, Supervisor Galloway had to leave. Just a couple of quick things. Back to Slide 16 for a moment. Just want to make the point now, this shows 2025, obviously, quite a bit lower from 2022, 2,489 units, I think, is what it was. But if I understood it correctly, your next show that there were 2,900 units during this time, if you add these together,
that were built and issued COs. And they're not included in this anymore because they're no longer in the pipeline. They're done. And so we built those. So when you look back at 'sixteen, the numbers actually the difference between those is less than the difference of number of units that were actually built during that time. We built more than the difference available. And I also had previously asked you this question. We haven't included in any of this analysis, I think, made it clear, it's all based on the current comp plan. Nothing in there reflects any changes in what would be recommended in any parcel under
AC44. I'm really curious about the fact that we went over 100% on quite a few parcels. Is that may I ask, is that possibly because I'm trying to think where why it would happen. Since a parcel can be designated mixed use and some of it is expected to be commercial or retail office, As that gets shifted and people decide to build residences instead, we end up going over on our residential, but at the same time we lost something. And I wondered if one of the things that I don't think was in this,
but I hope maybe for January, is an understanding of how things have changed in the other areas since the 2022 report. So we don't really have we know, you know, what a little bit about build out since in residential, but we don't know as much about build out and how it's impacted the other areas. I'm gonna I'm gonna, I don't think I have any additional questions. I have some just comments that I do think that whether it's for sale or not, we have to find a better measure, if we're trying to decide if something's developable.
I don't think it's dependent upon who's owning it or who's living in it. It's more some other factors that have to come into play. But I do appreciate those last slides where you've looked at factors that can go into a tool, and I think that's the right direction to go. So I really appreciate the work. And I will stop there. Are there additional? Yes. QUESTION. Quick question that, Supervisor Mikhail brought up a good point regarding, developments. And we wanted more. We wanted housing or whatever they were gonna put in commercial and retail and everything,
and I'm thinking, specifically Brookhill. I think what they were going to build in the center, they were gonna have an ice rink and all kinds of things there. That didn't happen. So is that what's happening throughout the county because you can't people aren't coming to us for commercial or resi or retail. And so, therefore, the developers are saying, well, we've got empty land. Can we build more residential? And is that perhaps why we're getting more than we thought we would? Well, the the reason that there are some projects that go above a 100%,
those are projects that have neighborhood model district zoning or planned residential, development zoning, where the developer gets to effectively make their own code of development and their own zoning ordinance where they can dictate the density. And so if it's on a site that the market can support a greater density than what the comp plan has called for, I think they're building at that rate, and it's reflected in these columns above 100%. Specifically, with respect
to Brookhill or other similarly situated developments, I don't know if I might look to others here who might have some comments that they would want to provide. Good afternoon, Board. Jody Filardo, Community Development Director. You've had a couple projects that came through to the Board that one recently comes to mind where you had a dentist office that was zoned commercial, which has zero residential units in it, And you all allowed for that thing to come forward with taking down the commercial
building, building the dentist office on the lower floor and putting residential above. So when we are running this calculation, the original comp plan density for residential units is zero. And so some of that is and so then when you get eight units, you're eight units to the good over the top of what would have been 100% of the comp plan density because the comp plan density was zero. So that's some of how you wind up on the other side of that scale.
That's also some of what happened with, North Fork because the land that was rezoned when North Fork came forward for those 1,400 residential units had a density of dwelling units of zero because it was office flex. And so we wound up with 1,400 units, which were developed in excess of the original comp plan density. So that's some of why we have to go through and refine some of what
we're going to be bringing to you in January because the complexity of how all these numbers interrelate seems like it should be so simple, but it is not so simple. So we want to make sure that we reflect the work that the board has done in an accurate way. To Supervisor Malick's point, you know, we don't want to say to the board, you've come in at 56% when you'd head in at 58%. Well, that's not really the whole story because you've approved residential in places where there had been no plan for residential before.
And and that should be credited, if you will, to the to the Board's foresight in helping move forward, housing opportunities in the Moore County. So and I think I'm hoping I'm not speaking for just myself, but I I think this board you used the word adapt, and it seems like we've adapted to the circumstances even though the regulations say, a, we've adapted and allowed b because of circumstances, whatever is going on globally, statewide,
federally, whatever, which frankly, I like. I mean, I've it's kinda like we're meeting, our needs of the time. And if something even five, ten years ago, if that's too ancient, then we need to, adapt. So but I think, the other question was regarding, like, Brookhill. Do you have more areas coming through that we're going to have commercial and retail that are asking for more residential? I do not know. Brookhill is the one that I know is before you soon. That's right. Tonight. Yeah.
So we're we there's nothing standing in our way from bringing any of those to you, I guess, is the best way to answer that. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Thank you. Supervisor Mallet? Thank you very much. Just I've one of the things that we talked about when the RIO 29 full base code was being developed was what I had in my mind during that discussion was the deck park in Jamaica Plain over the Mass Pike. You would not think that it was a place that would be great, but it is. And, yes, the cars are underneath there,
but you don't even know that they're there. So we have solutions once we get once the greenfields stop luring people out to easy builds, then we will get a lot more energy and a lot more focus on the things that we need to do to succeed on this. I just will provide a little update on the old trail because I lived through that in 2009 in the recession. The applicant said we will never be able to achieve the 2,000 units that the board decided in 2004 in the space of a three hour public
hearing when it was moved from 800 units in the application to 2,200 without any more discussion. So they wanted to put that behind them. But also, in order to achieve that 2,000, every build, every lot in Old Trail would have had to be five story apartments like the Summit, which is the only place in Old Trail that's 19 units per acre. Everything else is less. So the owners requested for a reduction in that because they said we will never be able to finish this. It will not happen.
There's just not a market for what we originally or some previous people wanted. So I just wanted to provide that background because a lot of things happened in 02/1011, that have caused changes in the way things were approached. And I will stop there. Thank you. Thank you. Stonefield should have had a second level, too, and yet that went away, too. I agree. During that, though. Yes. I was just pointing out what was in the report. That's all. Thank you. Is there anything else you need from us, Mr. Chairman? No. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Board,
that brings us to our closed meeting portion. Supervisor Proulx has a motion. Yes. I would like to move that the Board of Supervisors convene a closed meeting pursuant to Section 2.2 TEC 3,711 of the code of Virginia first, under subsection one, to discuss and consider appointments to various boards and commissions, including, without limitation, the Fifth and Avon Community Advisory Committee, the Community Policy and Management Team, the Crozet Community Advisory Committee, the Jaunt Board, the Natural Heritage Committee, the Pantox Community Advisory Committee, the Piedmont Virginia Community College Board,
the Places twenty nine Parents Hydraulic Community Advisory Committee, the Places twenty nine North Community Advisory Committee, the Places twenty nine RIO Community Advisory Committee, the Region ten Community Services Board and the Route two fifty West Task Force. Second, under subsection six, to discuss and consider the investment of public funds related to a performance agreement with Bonamuse Incorporated, where the bargaining is involved and where, if made public initially, would adversely affect the financial interest of the county. Third, under subsection eight, to consult with legal counsel regarding the specific legal matters,
including a performance agreement with with Bonhamos Incorporated, requiring a provision of legal advice by such counsel. And fourth, under subsection 29, to discuss the negotiation or renegotiation of a public contract with Ponomos Incorporated 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? We have a motion from Supervisor Pruitt, second from Supervisor Malek, without objection, for the color of the color of color. Ms. Lapisto Kirtley? Aye. Ms. Malek? Yes. Ms. McKeel? Yes.
Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Thank you. Good evening. We are about to come out of closed session first before we do any other business. Yes, I would like to move that the Board of Supervisors record delay my last. 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 identify the motion authorizing that closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered in the closed meeting. Second. We have a motion from Supervisor Pruitt, second from Supervisor Malek. Without objection, the clerk will call the roll.
Miss Lupista Coeurley? Aye. Miss Malek? Yes. Miss McKeel? Yes. Mister Pruitt? Aye. Mister Andrews? Yes. Mister Galloway? Abstain. Okay. And I believe we have a motion coming out of closed meeting. We do. I'm going to, move, that we appoint reappoint to our boards and commissions, and this is as a motion, to the Fifth and Avon Community Advisory Committee, Kareen De Cardenas, Evan Macbeth, Roger Shickendance, to the Crozet Community Advisory Committee, Ewaher no. I'm sorry. Ewaher. To the joint board, Nicholas
Popapalski. Almost got it. Natural Heritage Committee, Christine Putnam, Megan Sebaski, Joseph Rames, and Sabrina Fuller. And to the Places twenty nine community advisory committee, Christopher Rembold, Dennis or Denny King, Rosemary Miller, Places twenty nine community advisory committee, John Rayer. To the Places twenty nine community advisory committee, Martin Meth, Nicole Scrow, Todd Cohn, and Tom Paletti. And to the, Region ten Community Services Board,
Joanne, I think she goes by Jojo Robertson. And that's it. Thank you. We have a motion from Supervisor McKeel, second from Supervisor Malek. Without objection, I'll call the roll. Ms. McKeel? Hi. Ms. Malek? Yes. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Yes. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Great. Thank you. Next item would be from the County Executive. Is there anything to report this evening? No, sir, not this evening. Thank you. Thank you. The next item is public comment on matters previously considered or currently pending before the
Board other than scheduled for public hearings. And Vice Chairman Kiel will read the rules and the speakers. I will do that. Let me just grab the rules. And we have three people signed up in person tonight and no one online. So with that, the rules. During the time set aside for public comment on matters previously considered or currently pending before the board, Individuals may address the Board of Supervisors, concerning 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. Timekeeping is conducted through a timer and light system at the podium. The green light will go on when you begin speaking, which begins your allotted time. The yellow light indicates you have one minute to finish speaking. The red light indicates your time has expired, and you will be asked to end your comments. In order to give all speakers equal treatment and courtesy, the board requests that speakers adhere to the following guidelines. When addressing the board, state your name and if you live in Ardmore County, your magisterial district.
Address comments directly to the Board as a whole. Any written statements or other supporting material may be given to the clerk. If representing a group or organization, you may ask others present to raise their hands In recognition, speakers may not share any unused time with another speaker. Back and forth debate is not permitted. Do not speak from your seat or out of turn. And all comments are live streamed, recorded, and published on the Al Mar County website. And with that, our first speaker tonight is Alicia Linehan. Good evening. My name is Alicia Lenahan,
and I live in the Scottsville District. I've been speaking at these meetings since April when ICE made its first appearance in our community. Since then, we've raised concerns about surveillance and data collection. We've raised concerns about ICE's access to information about all Medicaid recipients. On July 16, the board received a resolution that will provide a level of protection for our immigrant and refugee neighbors, and indeed, for the entire community, by requiring that ICE agents be unmasked, display badges, present authorizing documents, and use marked vehicles. Two excuses have been used to explain lack of support.
First, unwillingness to draw attention to Greater Charlottesville and our immigrant and refugee neighbors putting them at risk. When I asked members of the Latinx community for input, this was one response. Quote, the resolution is very well written and intentional. Thank you for moving this forward. What would be the next steps for this process? End quote. It's also worth noting that on September 20, we'll all be welcomed at the Sabrosso Festival to enjoy music, food, and a celebration of Latinx culture. Clearly, our neighbors aren't lacking in courage. Second, I've heard that the resolution will run afoul of Dylan's rule,
which limits local control. However, Virginia code 18.2 dash four two two prohibits the wearing of masks in certain places. It is a class six felony. Dylan's rule does not prevent the police department from enforcing the law. Nearly 1,500 people have now signed the petition in support of the resolution, a number that will continue to grow. Tonight, I'm joined by members of the clergy. The board of supervisors has been unwilling to bring it up for discussion. If this board supports the policies of the administration, then say so.
We will change and adjust our expectations and strategies accordingly. Or perhaps calculated indifference allows you to disregard the real harm being inflicted on our immigrant and refugee neighbors, writing them off as collateral damage. Or perhaps you're keeping an eye on the bottom line. Homeland Security and ICE are flush with cash and just announced a new program that will pay law enforcement agencies that help carry out its anti immigrant agenda. At best, you are bystanders, remaining passive and silent in the face of escalating persecution. The current propaganda and discriminatory laws are creating a climate of indifference that will make
later, more horrific actions seem less shocking. Normalizing hatred is a powerful tool. The word complicit comes from the Latin word complicare, which means to twist together or fold together. This root highlights the idea of being intricately connected or folded in with the wrongful acts of the individuals and the acts they perform. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Bellamy Brown is our next speaker. Bellamy Brown? Not here? Alright. I'll move on to Tim. Tim Tolson. I believe Tim Josh Tolson.
Yes. Okay. Good evening. I'm Tim Tolson, and I'm from the Whitehall District. I'm also a longtime member of the Crozet Community Association and currently its president. The CCA has been an active organization of Crozet Neighbors for over forty years, since 1985. It along with others post the Crozet Independence Day celebration. I thank you for approving in May year special use permit at the King Family Vineyards. The event was successful both financially and practically. You have heard at the August 6 meeting the four resolutions our community has crafted,
stands behind and brings to your attention. Ms. Malek read those resolutions into the record at the August 6 meeting. Thank you, Mrs. Malek. I am here today because we have not gotten a reply, an agreement from Mr. Richardson, about the CCA's request. With Ms. Malek's help, he did reply to our questions on August 15 with answers that dodged our concerns and did not address our resolutions. We replied to his statements on August 19, and he has not responded. Ms. Malek suggested I come to this meeting to address the Board with our concerns. As I've said in my e mail to you sent this afternoon,
we asked Mr. Richardson for several things. We asked that as members of the Board of Supervisors, you have the authority and legal requirement to require Mr. Richardson to: one, in the AC44 draft document, we ask for several paragraphs to make clear that the County Of Albemarle is following the Commonwealth of Virginia code about future residential and commercial growth. We ask that Mr. Frank Pohl's relationship with the Montclair developer be treated consistently by taking the following actions: A, remove Frank Pohl's authority to administer or approve any past,
current or future permits related to Montclair, especially WPO-twenty 20 Five-thirty and engage in a legal party legal consultant to review Albemarle County's Water Protection Ordinance and and ensure that it's been and been and will be accurately interpreted and legally enforced in Montclair and around the county and enforce the Water Protection Ordinance by immediately documenting the violation of the WPO by Montclair and issuing the Land Rover a notice to comply. Compliance means at least returning the stream and the surrounding land to its prior condition
to include reestablishing 100 foot buffers around it as required by the county's February 2023 administrative hearing on the matter. Unlike Mr. Richards' response, we are not dodging the issues. We have done our homework and responded to Mr. Richards' statements with well researched and where appropriate, examples of county compliance with other requests. Please make mister Richardson respond to our questions and make the necessary changes we request. Thank you for your attention. Thank you. And I don't think Bellamy Brown came in, so I'll call him one more time. Bellamy Brown?
Not here. No, sir. That's it. Thank you. Board, next, we will have three public hearings this evening. The first is fiscal year twenty twenty six budget mention budget amendments and appropriations followed by Ryan Davidson, Chief, Office of Management and Budget. Welcome. Good evening. Ryan Davidson, deputy chief of budget. Tonight, I have a couple of slides to provide you with a brief overview of the contents of this amendment and after which time, I will turn it over to the chair and the board for any questions that and to hold the public hearing on the FY twenty six budget amendments and appropriations.
So the code of Virginia requires a public hearing before amending the budget when the total amount of funding exceeds 1% of the currently adopted budget. That's the case with what we have brought for you today. Overall, the total budget amendment is about 12,500,000.0 and of that, approximately 2,100,000.0 was appropriated previously at the July and August Board of Supervisors meetings, and 10,400,000.0 is under consideration for tonight. As I mentioned before, overall, we're looking at $12,500,000 and it's broadly made up of the items listed here above. For additional details,
Attachment A included with tonight's agenda and included with the July 16 and the August 6 agendas has greater details on these appropriations. But generally, we were looking at $10,200,000 in capital improvement fund appropriations, mainly related to a state grant for the Ravenna Future Site Development Project, dollars 2,100,000.0 in special revenue funds, again, mainly related to grants and opioid abatement funds and then a slightly and then a small $245,000 oh, there's a typo on the slide. Dollars 245,000,
in general fund, appropriations really related to donations and a transit, study match. To wrap up the presentation, staff is recommending for the board to approve the resolution in attachment B after holding the public hearing. And now I will turn this over to the board chair and the board for any questions and to hold the public hearing. Thank you. And we'll go through our order with questions. Supervisor Lippe still appears, ma'am. No questions. Thank you. Supervisor Malek? None for me. Thanks, Ryan. Supervisor McKean? No questions. Thank you. Supervisor Pruett? No questions.
Supervisor Calloway? I am good. And I am good as well. I will note that we are into our public hearings. We have finished our public comment for this evening. So thank you. The except for the public hearings, of course. And so for this, I will open the public hearing on this matter. Are there any people signed up? Okay. Then I will close the public hearing on this matter, and the matter is back before the board. Are there any additional comments, questions? Then we're looking for a motion in the form of attachment B, I believe. So moved. Second.
We have a motion from Supervisor Malek, second from Supervisor McKeel. Without objection, the court could call the roll. Ms. Lapisto Kirtley? Aye. Ms. Malek? Yes. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Was that a yea? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Moving on to our next public hearing is on acquisition of a portion of 2224 Commonwealth Drive. This is being led by Michael Stumbaugh, Deputy Chief of Transportation Projects. Welcome. Good evening. Thanks for being here for this public hearing on the proposed acquisitions of portions of
2224 Dominion Drive. I am Michael Stumbaugh. I am senior project manager, transportation projects for facilities and environmental services. So today, we'll be going over a overview of the project, the parcel, the right of way negotiations, and recommended process, and suggested motion. I should also mention that I have with me Joanne Daniel of Timmins Group. She's right of way manager and a great help as we navigate these particular right away issues. So the project,
it is UPC 113183, Commonwealth Drive, Dominion Drive. It is a revenue sharing project with VDOT. The project is going to provide approximately 2,500 feet of sidewalk on Commonwealth Drive and Dominion Drive, as well as concrete pads for bus shelters. The project embraces strategic plan goal three, enhancing multimodal connectivity. So 2224 is pictured above, and to help you out with a star, it's near Seminole Place,
and it is an apartment complex. But 2224 is the one that's closest to the work that's going to be done. Now you can see, if you use your imagination, that this is that corner. The red is a permanent take of 31 square feet. The purple stripe, and it looks purple to me. I'm not sure what color it actually is. But, it's 300 I'm sorry. 541 square feet of permanent utility easement, which is a CSA. And here's what it looks like in standing across the street,
and that will someday be a bus pad sidewalk. So highlights of the negotiation. In October 2024, the offer was made to the landowner based on valuations from Timmins Group, $3,705. The counteroffer from the landowner was 11,500 to review it, to have their legal team review it. It wasn't the total. It it went sort of back and forth, and the note from the property owner legal fees were,
quote, not an exact amount, same issue in February 2025. The latest county offer based on the best we could provide in terms of avoiding, court, administrative settlements was $8,705, and they did not think that that was the right offer. They said their cheapest option would be to go eminent domain condemnation, and that's when we issued the impasse letter. And just to let you know, did talk with the special projects coordinator for,
VDOT, and they indicated that legal fees in general are not recoverable, and not something that they can bill us for. So I did want to also tell you about a potential agreement that recently on the August 27, they have indicated that they are interested in that second offer the latest offer, $8,705. And but I did want to let you know that the board of supervisors can still adopt the resolution authorizing condemnation, which I'm asking for today. But if an agreement is reached, the condemnation process could be ended.
So approving it doesn't mean that that is off the table. And, the recommended process is board adopts proposed resolution attachment c. The county of Balmoral would then file certificate of take through mister Herrick's office, and the the easement would, the cost would go back to $3,705, which is the original amount. And at that point, when it does get recorded and the certificate to take is executed, then the county would have immediate clear title and could proceed with the project.
Albemarle County Circuit Court then would ultimately determine the value of the parcel, including cost of cure and and any other, relevant factors, and and then they would determine the proper receipt payment. I should also indicate that this project is undergoing final VDOT review. Yay. And, the estimated project bid posting is November 2025. So we're we're really looking forward to that. I know it's been a long time. And so my suggested motion or the suggested motion, I move that the board adopt the proposed resolution attached to the staff report as
attachment c. This resolution authorizes the acquisition by condemnation of portions of this parcel, which is 2224 Commonwealth Drive, for the purposes of constructing roadway roadway connectivity improvements. And I will leave it there and, open for comments. Great. We'll go through our order for questions. First, Supervisor Lupista Kirtley. Thank you. And no questions. Thank you. Supervisor Malek. No questions for me. Thank you, Mike. Supervisor McKeel? I don't have any questions. I'm happy to make a comment later,
but, I don't have any questions right now. Okay. Supervisor Pruitt? Nothing. Thank you. Supervisor Galloway? So you said it. I think I heard it, but I don't know if I understood it. You want us to pass the resolution, but you can go back and do the offer? Yes, sir. That's exactly right. The process goes on. And in fact, until it actually goes to trial with the circuit court, you can do anything. Yes, sir. An agreement can be made as long as it's justifiable. Gotcha. Thank you. But this is actually looking like it might come to fruition. Understood. Thank you. Thank you.
And I don't think I have any questions as I again I may have comments. Then I'll open the public hearing. Is anyone signed up to speak? No. We have no one signed up to speak. So we will again close this public hearing and the matter is back before the Board and we'll go through our order for any concerns, comments, questions. Supervisor Lopisa Vergley? No concerns. Thank you. Supervisor Malek? No concerns. Looking forward to that. Best up. Supervisor McHugh? Just a couple of comments because I really am appreciative that perhaps we're coming to the end of this project.
Certainly, Ned and I have been dealing with this for the Rio District and the Jack Jewett District, this sidewalk project and bus stop project, for years. So I am thrilled to get to this point. And it'll really be an improvement for that community to get this project done. So, I'm certainly in favor of, I like your idea of passing this so that we don't somehow or another end up in another debate going back and forth. So thank you for that. Thank you. Supervisor Pruitt? I have nothing. Thank you. Supervisor Gottlieb? No.
I'm I'm good. And, my only concern is I hate to see us go through this and then reopen negotiations. At some point, I think we end the negotiations and we say, fine, we're taking it for the $3,705 But I understand practicalities and trust your judgment. This one's on your side. It is. It's on it's in the Jewett district. I drove around the other day looking for the building because they're not marked really well from the road, you know, but I found it. So, yes. So with that, I think we're looking for a motion.
Sure. I move that we adopt the proposed resolution attachment C to authorize acquisition of portions of Parcel 01W0030001600 on Commonwealth Drive by imminent domain. Second. We have a motion from Supervisor McKeel, second from Supervisor Malek. Without objection, if the clerk will call the roll. Ms. Lakisto Kirtley? Aye. Ms. Malek? Yes. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Aye. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Board, this brings us to ZMA twenty twenty four-eight Brookhill Amendment project,
and this is being led by Rebecca Ragsdale, Planning Manager. Welcome. Good evening. Thanks for that introduction. I'm Rebecca Ragsdale, as you said, Planning Manager, who will be taking you through a brief presentation on this rezoning for Brookhill. Giving you a little bit of history and context first. Brookhill is an already approved neighborhood model development. It was originally approved in 2016, and overall, the acreage that it encompasses is about two seventy seven acres. It is located generally at the corner of US 29 and,
Polo Grounds Road and extends over as far as, being adjacent to Montgomery Ridge and to the south of the Forest Lakes and Hollymeade area. Here's another overview of the site. It is a proposal to amend the code of development as it's applicable to a few internal parcels, which we typically refer to as the town center. This is another map to give you some context that shows in the dark green, the neighborhood model district. This is the zoning map. And then adjacent is some lower density residential in the light green,
the rural area in the white, and then another planned development district, PUD, with Forest Lakes and Hollymeade. So there's no change to the underlying zoning, which is consistent when it was originally adopted in 2016 with the Places '29 master plan. This is '29 again and then Polo Grounds Road. The development includes that neighborhood center with higher density uses concentrated in the center and then neighborhood density and green space throughout the development.
The proposal, more specifically is, as I mentioned, for the internal blocks, which are block one with the hatching primarily and then perhaps portions of three and two internal to the site. The request is to add 300 additional units with an amendment to their code of development. That is their only amendment. There are no changes proposed to the application plan or the other provisions of the code of development. We think that it's been working well in terms of implementation and how the development has been building out.
With the additional 300 units, they will meet all of the code of development requirements and ordinance requirements for any required amenities and parking requirements. There are also some proffer changes, which I will go over with you, this evening. This is just an overview slide of the minimal change to the code of development. It really allows them overall to increase, from fifteen fifty units up to eighteen fifty units, which is still within and,
actually below overall the recommended comp plan density. Although in those blocks that you see up here, one and two, three and four, those are the higher density blocks where the density would be located. The proffers, they have extensive proffers that were originally approved in 2016. Proffers that are not changing are their commitments to trails, parks and civic spaces, historic resources. The cash proper excuse me, the cash proffer provisions are not changing. With the schools proffers,
there's one adjustment to make sure that it's clear that the potential elementary school site that's offered could be used in the interim for community open space and amenities that the developer or HOA would maintain. Transportation. There is an adjustment to, the ultimate trigger for the Ashwood Boulevard connection, going from the five hundredth unit, not including multifamily, to the six hundred and fiftieth unit for that connection. And that was reviewed by our transportation team with no concerns.
There are some there is one change to the affordable housing proffers, which has generated some discussion. The existing proffers have been in effect under our prior policy, and we're consistent with that prior policy when the rezoning was approved in 2016. And that includes 15%. And then that would result in or has resulted in two thirty three affordable units, potentially based on their current totals. And those provisions allow for for sale or for rent units affordable to 80%
area median income. The affordability periods are specified as ten years for rental units and then for the first sale only for for sale units. The proposed revision is, as you saw, to carve out the requirement that the new units the 300 new units, which are subject to the new housing Albemarle policy, would be affordable. So that would result in 60 additional affordable units. Since this is a
existing rezoning, the applicant, has not proffered to make any other changes, that would bring it completely in line with housing Albemarle. That would include provisions for rent units to be affordable to households at 60% AMI, and then also addressing the period of affordability, which is, in our current policy. But they have not, made any of those adjustments to their proffers. Doctor. Sibyce Petha is here this evening if you need any, if you need any assistance or answers to affordable housing questions that I cannot,
provide. We did note the positive aspects of the project include the consistency with the Places '29 master plan and that it would provide the additional affordable units. However, it's not completely in line with housing Albemarle, as we noted, with regard to AMI and the minimum affordability period. The planning commission recommended approval. This was heard by the commission on July 8, and, staff is also recommending approval. And I will pause for any questions, and we have, motion slides when you're ready for that.
Thank you. We'll go through our orders. Supervisor Lapisto Kirtley. Yes. Thank you for the presentation. And, what was the reasoning of not going up to the 60% AMI for at least for rentals perhaps? So that's an explanation I think best answered by the applicant. They have noted that they, would prefer to, keep the the terms of the proffers consistent with what that's already in place, with those provisions. But I'll let them elaborate further. And I understand that the area that is carved out for the school, that that could be used by,
you said, the HOA for could be turned into a recreation area with amenities, but it would be provided by the HOA, the amenities. Yes. If that's, used for that in the interim before it's a school site. Okay. What about grading it and putting in grass or anything? Would that be HOA, or would that be the developer? Well, any improvements that are done for, an interim green space use would be those that are, you know, whatever the developer proposed. There are no limits on that. I would have to look at the terms of the proffer to see what they
are responsible for, in terms of having it pad ready if schools were if we were to request it for schools use. But they may not be able to do they may not be required to do that with that interim. Okay. Maybe the developer can answer that. Okay. Thank you. No other questions. Thank you. Supervisor Malorie? Not right now. Thank you. Supervisor McKeown? I have some questions about the proffers, but I think it's probably best for the applicant, so I'll hold off. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Proulx.
Yes. So I will be honest. This one snuck up on me. I thought we were going to have another, noncompliant housing policy applicant come before us before this one. So, I did not know that this was gonna make it before attain on fifth, which is interesting, which kind of to that point, was there a community meeting for this? Yes. Okay. Yeah. It was before the c, pan places 29 North CEC. This was one of the ones I had to miss, and I told you at the last second. On that one. Oh, right. Yeah. Sorry. Sorry. Yep. I mean, not that you couldn't attend. Got it. Was there, any discussion with the county about the,
the tax incentives, the developer incentive package? We did not, go into that review with that discussion. I don't believe they're looking to take advantage of that. Okay. But, Stacy, Doctor. Pethea may may want to chime in if she has anything additional. That's the answer, Pat. I'm just speaking to you. That's all I got. Supervisor Galloway. The, Rebecca, we're having a little bit of a hard time hearing you, so if you'll move over and speak into the light. You're very soft spoken. I'm fine. We would appreciate your Thank you. The trigger for the change for the connection,
just adding the half of the new units? Like, what's the rationale behind that? I think that, you know, there's been a lot of development happening around that corner, and I think it was, the the applicant did not give a detailed explanation for why they were requesting it, but we, were okay with that adjustment in the trigger. I think it allows them a little, more time for some things to fall into place at that corner. You've seen easement after easement come through and, various development activity happening. So I think it just allows them a little more time to work some of those details out. And the, I'm I'm realizing that I was not around for this original Yeah.
Application. The I noticed in the proffer list that the 50 acre parcel for the public high school, it stated in the proffer or other institutional use is proffered. Mhmm. So that wasn't or other institutional use wasn't done for the elementary site as well? Correct. The language is a little bit different for the elementary school site. And so it doesn't just sit there misused. That's why this proffer's there. So I guess I have a question. How does this is an interesting one to me, like, amending like, we're not we're not allowed to talk proffers or requested of people. That that's correct.
These are the proffers are obviously voluntarily offered by the developer, and, so it's up to the board to determine whether or not they, address the impacts of the proposed development. But they are the developer's proffers, and they're offered voluntarily. But in this case, it's really just on the amended for the 300 units when you think of the impact. Well, that's that's the biggest amendment. Miss Ragdale has outlined some other amendments. But but for the most part, these the the proffers that were presented this most recent time are basically the original proffers with certain with certain additional provisions. I was just I was curious because it's like,
we can't ask them to amend or do any changes. They have to bring that forward. That's correct. All right. I'm good. Thank you. I'm just going to follow-up on the question about additional 150 units that have to be built before the connection is made. Has there been any kind of reports of what it's like getting out of Polo Grounds Road because of this development so far and when that connection to Ashwood, I guess, is not Ashwood, I'm sorry, but to Archer or no, it is Ashwood, using Archer,
is made, is that what kind of traffic concerns might that alleviate, recognizing that there's currently really only one way to get to 29, but there will be a connection to Ashwood eventually, is my understanding, right? Yes. Okay. But that's being delayed now? Yes. They have proposed to, do that after 5,154 more, residential units, which doesn't include the multifamily. There haven't they did not do a full TIA for the 300. They have provided transportation analysis, that the existing transportation improvements,
were adequate for the additional 300 units. There wasn't any concerns in particular about that intersection that caused us to object or raise any new impacts for the applicant to address with proffers? Are we or how close are they to well, I guess I can ask them or we can answer this during the discussion as to how close they are to the current threshold. Yes. I anticipated you asking me that, and then I realized I didn't have the unit type breakdown. So it is excluding the multifamily units,
so I don't have that number off the top of my head. Okay. Well, I'll ask the applicant to see how that goes. With that, I will open the public hearing. We have no one signed up to speak, but we have an applicant here, and we'll have a discussion. Alright. So let me find the right to Come on. Yeah. Come on up. I'm just gonna read it here. Okay? So this is for a public hearing with an applicant only speaking. Applicants are limited to a ten minute presentation of their proposal and are allowed a five minute rebuttal at the close of the public hearing. Timekeeping is conducted through a timer and light system at the podium.
The green light will go on when you begin speaking, which begins your allotted time. The yellow light indicates you have one minute to finish speaking. The red light indicates your time has expired, and you will be asked to enter comments. All comments are live streamed, recorded and published on the Alamar County website. And that gave you time to get your presentation. You're welcome. Perfect. Thank you so much. Good evening, board members. My name is Ashley Davies with Riverbend Development. Tonight, I'm joined by Alan Taylor and Scott Collins. Thank you for your consideration of our request to add 300 units to the Brookhill development.
This is a property that was previously rezoned and strategically located in your development area. This proposal aligns with Albemarle County's comprehensive plan goals by significantly increasing housing availability at a variety of price points in a strategic location while conserving important environmental resources, increasing availability of public parks, amenities and trails. It's hard to believe that it's been almost nine years since we were here before the Board, for this initial rezoning. A lot has happened in that time,
but, the overall rezoning, is 277 acres. I'm sorry for interrupting. We don't have it on our screen. Oh, well, that's no good. And I noticed Jody. And I noticed Jody's coming up. Thank you. I thought I just Alright. Let's pause the clock. We were listening, and I wasn't looking. Sorry. I'm sorry. That's good. There we go. She's coming. She's coming. Got the map up on my laptop. I don't know. It's working. I crashed. Getting all kinds of attention here. There we go. Okay. Well, this will at least get it. Us to weird. It's not normally
There we go. Go get an x through it. A little help from your friends. Thank you so much. Alright. I was just gonna keep on, so thanks for stopping me. If it's not up there, we're not seeing it. What's that? Yeah. If it's not up there. Very good point. Okay. All right. Now we are ready. So, yes, so the original rezoning was two seventy seven acres. Tonight, we're talking about one tenth of that area, 27 acres in the town center. And I think, you know, most importantly, back then, construction prices were a lot less and density was a four letter word.
So, our comp plan density for this site, the maximum is over 2,300 units. And at that time, we were only asking for fifteen fifty. So the big deal tonight is just getting more units where they should be. But the original rezoning had a very extensive and generous proper package of $30,000,000 of in kind and transportation improvements. And the 50 acre high school site has already been given to the county. We'll talk more about the elementary school site tonight,
but we also have over we have $500,000 in donations to transit once transit comes up into that area. We have about a third of the site already constructed. And I think, you know, people's favorite part about the initial rezoning were the salamander habitat and those tunnels to, make sure that they could safely breed in their vernal pools. So here are some of the main reasons why, this proposal deserves your support. This is smart growth in the right location, that already has the existing infrastructure and amenities in place close to employment centers,
retail, schools, and the future transit route I just mentioned. In your comprehensive plan that's about to be adopted, only 7% of the land in the development areas is developable. So it's really important that we take a look at these sites where we can add more existing units and get more units in the right place. And then previous rezonings have only provided 58% of the recommended units contemplated in the comprehensive plan, and this being one of those that was on the lower end. We are proposing a new seven acre public park,
that we would install and maintain as a new neighborhood amenity that's also open to the public and, at which time in the future, when the county is ready to have that site as a school use, we would have that pad ready, for the county. We are gonna be providing affordable housing, with this proposal. And instead of the 15%, that the initial rezoning contemplated, we have upped that to 20% of the new proposed units or 60 units in total. I will note that Brookhill already provides over 300 affordable units,
So even more than we had previously proffered, we're providing that. And then yes, we just think this is an efficient use of previously zoned land. So it's such a moderate increase in density, and we need to put that in places where it's already zoned and the infrastructure is in place, as I mentioned. So just to give you the overview of Brookhill, if you haven't been up there recently, this is our overall development plan. And you can see that the unique nature of this site, it's a really thoughtfully designed community.
And, the main piece are these green fingers that permeate the site. Those are the stream corridors that lead down into the Ritiana River. And it creates a really special environment, and that was a key component of our initial design. So you see the development pods in between those green fingers. And so because of that, we were able to preserve over 75 acres of the stream corridors and, create a lovely trail system along the streams that will also have little workout stations,
and it's just a really nice feature of the site. Those are open to the public. So this gives you a better overview of not only those stream corridors that we preserved, but also, the overall amenity spaces that are throughout the development. So we have over four miles of linear trails, 11 acres of amenity spaces, plus the 75 acres of greenway and forested areas. This slide shows where we're focused tonight. So the 27 acres that are part of the heart of the community,
the town center, where we're requesting 300 additional units. Those units would go in, in the areas above the retail and commercial on the first floor. So instead of what may have been office spaces in the past, that market is pretty soft now. So the idea is that it would be a mixed use heart of the community, with those units going above. So they wouldn't impact the Greenway whatsoever. Our commercial uses are retained. And then you can also see that Green dot is the larger green dot,
that's the location of the school site. So you can see how that is really close into the town center area. That that was probably the biggest component of our community meeting, people just really wanting a larger amenity space where they could host, you know, birthday parties or, you know, kick the soccer ball with their child. So this is something that the developer would fully pay for and maintain but open it to the public, and it would be available.
So I think that's a real highlight. We do have the full code of development and existing proffers that went along with the initial rezoning. So, we weren't looking to make any major changes to that because they're all quite extensive, and they are, as Rebecca said, working quite well. So we did make a few minor changes to the proffers to account for increasing the affordability, making sure we could provide the park space, but also, the Ashwood connector.
And we can certainly get into a more detailed discussion about that shortly. I did just want to give you also a quick overview of where we are in the development process. In the past nine years, we've already completed a senior living facility on-site. We've constructed seven sixty two residential units, and you can see the breakdown of that below. And then, like I said, three zero one of those are existing affordable units on-site. So here's the senior living complex that's already complete.
Here are the Archer apartments. So these are our Phase I apartment buildings in place. And lots of new neighborhoods, so some of them are completed. You can see some of the amenity spaces and the units. Areas are currently under construction, and then we have other spots that are under review now. And this these are renderings of our town center. So you can see those retail components, commercial components on the First Floor, and those upper three stories would be, the additional 300 units that we're talking about tonight.
So I do have a few moments. I will, go ahead and talk about the Ashwood connector. So, with that, we are actively pursuing the connection. And, we've actually cleared trees. And, basically, in doing the research, we've just found that there are there's been a little bit more back and forth with DEQ. There are, wetlands and other, you know, areas that we want to protect. So we've been taking the extra time to make sure that we don't want to impact any additional wetlands. We want it to be in exactly the right spot.
So that's why we need a little bit of additional time to get that connection in place. But that that, we're actively working with DEQ on that now, and we hope to actually be under construction on that connection, next spring. But we just it's like kind of down to the wire. So we just want to make sure that that's all done correctly. But, you know, I think to close things out, I'll just say, you know, you know this, but Charlottesville is now the second most expensive, housing market in Virginia. And, you know, demand is really outpacing supply.
We really want to be a partner to the county in providing housing where we need it and also finding affordable housing solutions alongside you. And we think this is a really environmentally responsive site and the right place to add units while we can. So thank you for your support, and definitely looking forward to questions and comments. Thank you. Thank you very much for a wonderful presentation. I love okay. I did want to I did have a couple of questions.
The signalization of Polo Grounds Road Railroad Overpass, I understand that if that is you've vetted that through VDOT and or if that is accepted by VDOT, then you will put in a signal at each end? Yes. I believe the proper says if requested, we that that is something that we would install. Okay. Good. Good. Thank you. And then, on your it says, that you have three civic spaces. Does that include the seven acres for the elementary school? That would be an addition. Yeah. And that would be an addition.
Yes. And for the space for the elementary school, that would be graded. And would it be, like seed, grass? Yes. So we would grade it and make it pad ready. We would extend all utilities to the site so it would be development ready for an elementary school site. But in the meantime, we could provide, some fields and sport courts and, you know, maybe a gazebo, just some various neighborhood amenities that could be utilized in the time being. Great. Thank you. And, oh, quick question.
I know that the special use permit on 11/09/2016 allowed for infill in the Flood Hazard Overlay District for a road crossing. Do you know the amount of land that needed to be infilled approximately? I do not know that, but Scott may have a better idea. I'm not I'm not sure about that. Okay. Well, then maybe you can just send it to me. Sure. If you send it to me, I'll share it with the rest of the board. Be happy to. Okay. Those are all the questions I have now. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Malek?
Thank you very much. My question was answered, which was a time rather than a number of units, the time until the Archer work would begin. And you've already answered that, so thank you. Thank you. Supervisor McKeown. I do. I have a question, and then I want to just chat about the elementary school site. But when I made a note that the town center late twenty twenty five, but you did you just say that that was going to be pushed out? Maybe I misunderstood. I was talking about the road connection Oh, the road connection. Taking a little more time. Just that alone. Correct. Correct. But the town center, we have site plans currently under review,
and so we're hoping to get that started very soon. Right. So the proffers, I remember very clearly when this, came to us, what, nine years ago? Nine years. Right. Because I remember that the the chair of the school board and I talked about the proffer that's across the road, and that language very clearly said county schools or county government. I mean, there's a broad there's broad language about how we share out, and that's great. And there are some plans or prospective plans for that piece of property. I was talking to the chair of the school board yesterday,
and, so I'm going to ask some questions that she's asked, well, because this is one of the last chances, right? And that elementary school proffer, What and I'm not asking about any changes. What I'm saying is, what is your definition of elementary school? Because the school division, or at least the chair of the school board, is concerned that the word elementary school is limiting. If they decided they're not going to put an elementary school here right now, they have already said that seven acres is too small for an elementary school. That's why they're going to up 29 North for their elementary their next elementary school.
But they would like to use that for a school use of some sort, possibly. So the definition of the term that says elementary school is con is concerning. Would an elementary school that term as our profers mean that they couldn't put a pre k school there. So all they're saying is is and I'm I wrote down what she said to me. Can the language not limit the use to elementary school so that they would have more flexibility? And that's my question. Are you all wedded to the language of elementary school?
I certainly am not. I think at the time, we were just, going by the best guidance that we could Nine years ago. Nine years ago. And I yes, I wasn't I mean, I was aware that they are looking at another site for the elementary school. Yes. And they want this site, obviously, but they're interested in they're looking at all their options, and they have other needs for different types of schools is all I'm saying. And so Kate simply said to me, could we make sure that what your definition and what the attorney's definition of an elementary school is,
would that allow them flexibility on any type of school that they wanted to put there? It'd still be a school. Sure. But it might be a pre k. It might be I don't know. You could just pull it out of the sky, but they're they're really trying to figure out how to make capacity work, if that makes sense. I'm looking at Yes. We don't have an issue with that, but I don't know if there's the ability to, make that type of edit at this point or if we Well, I mean, the applicant has the ability to edit and then re sign proffers at any point in the process, but then the board would need to get signed edited proffers if the applicant is
willing to make that change. So I guess is the word elementary school, does that mean only That does include pre k. Does and so in this I'm and I'm making sure that we're all on so elementary school could be pre k through seven or eight or yeah. Yeah. I just want I'm just bringing this up because they're concerning it. Yes. We we wouldn't exclude that, but, yeah, it depends on what your definition is. So Yeah. I'm looking at Andy, and I'm looking at feel wonderful. And I don't wanna stop this.
I'm just trying to figure out how to make it work so that the schools can have maximum use of that piece of property, which is only seven acres. You can't put an elementary school on seven acres. You have to have playgrounds. You have to have I'm just saying it's a small and so there's a possibility they could use it for another type of school, right, that might not require as much property, and they just want that flexibility. So I don't know where we go with this. Andy? Well, I would point out that the existing proffers specify that at the option of the county and in lieu of construction of a school,
okay, so a school, not an elementary school, a public park may be established by the county on the elementary school. So a school would work. So but but but and even if the school division weren't interested in a school, again, an alternate use that's clearly authorized here is a public park. So Well, they don't want a park. They want a school. But they want flexibility, and they're worried they're concerned about the word elementary. I mean, that's And it's elementary. Isn't it? And I'm not sure what to do with this other than it's about come on up, Allen. And I'm sorry.
I'm not trying to throw a ringer into your No. It it totally makes sense. And, I mean, we always thought an elementary school would be a really nice thing to have in the neighborhood, and we're I was kind of bummed out when it seemed like it wasn't gonna happen. Yeah. I mean, can we just make it easy and add some language into that proffer in this meeting? And we just say, like, elementary school or a mutually agreed use? Or school. Or or Or something like that. Just sort of Yeah. Has the door to one. Yeah. That would be great. If we could If the applicant wishes to submit, a amended proffer, it need to be signed before the board could consider it.
So Can we do that tonight? Well, if the applicant has the proffers ready, we could we could Can we just change that language? A laptop and a pen. I just don't have a printer. Yes. I mean, I don't want to stall everything. But I really do think it's important for the schools to have that flexibility. So what would the language be? And I'll type something up. I don't know. I was told, they just wanted flexibility on the use of so I don't think child care will work because, I mean Well, you said mutually agreed upon. Maybe a mutually agreed upon. That would be with the schools. Yeah. Yeah. What if it just said any school related use?
School I'm happy with any of those. I just was trying to get flexibility for the school system. It also seems like us picking the language might be getting a little too close to that red line. Well, if the board would like me to to print this print the proffer and supply it to the applicant and have the applicant make any changes the applicant wish to make, I'd be happy to do that. And at the end of the day, if the school division decided they wanted an elementary school there, we're not changing any language that would stop that. Right. I'm just saying. Yeah. But they did want more flexibility. They were concerned about the word elementary.
Yeah. But pre k does include It does. But elementary school. Definitely. It sounds like I mean, we may not have a problem at the at the end of the day, but we we're happy to make edits of that. So what's the easiest solution? Not trying to I mean, would it be acceptable if they just took the current proffer, did strikethroughs of the word elementary that says school site and leave restaurant Yeah. And just let it go at that? Initial and so. If that's what the applicant wishes to do, I think that would satisfy what Is that okay? Supervisor. The way that it's reading, it would just say school site then,
and you would get rid of use of the word elementary altogether. That seems to be the fastest, easiest thing to do. Yeah. Just trying to make it as flexible as possible in the school system. Yeah. That's that's great. Can we do that, Andy? So I I can, like I said, go upstairs to my office and print out, these properties if the if the board wishes to do that. If that would be okay with everybody. Sure. Yeah. That's great. So, I'm sorry if I've caused an issue, but we don't wanna stop the the project, but we just were trying to give flexibility to schools. Time. Exactly. That's what we thought. Alright. Thank you. That's all I have.
Supervisor Pruitt. Yes. I don't want us to get all the way through question and answer without, like, grappling with the fact that this is the first project that has come to us under the new housing requirements. Well, it's the second, because the mobile home HARP would have been under it. It's the first that's noncompliant. Right? Your your proposal is, noncompliant in two, three different ways. I understand the affordability. I I don't think I need you to tell me that that is going to be financially unfeasible. I don't understand the the length period. What is the struggle that y'all are facing there?
With the length of time? Yep. I think that in general, we're try we're already managing 300 units, so it would be helpful to be able to have all of them under the same program. So getting that, you know, it's a big deal, that we've already provided that much and just all the all that goes into maintaining that and making all the auditing and making sure each year. So it's just helpful if we can get it all under the same program with the site being half built out already.
The new units, I gather from kind of the concept drawings that you're expecting those to be entirely for rent. Is that accurate, or are you going to be not committal to that? That is most likely where the affordable units will be going. So I I gather you have not explored the, the the tax abatement program that we offer, the incentive. Can you tell me a little bit more about that? I have looked at the tax abatement program, and I think that I mean, I haven't talked to staff about that specifically. But in in reviewing it,
I think it's a little bit, I guess I'm curious about it because the very first page of it says that, the tax abatement is really, you know, the goal of it is for projects that are 100% affordable. And so that, to me, is a red flag. We're not a 100% affordable. And, you know, I would love to hear more because it what would be helpful, I guess, from the developer's perspective is if we're providing affordable housing, if we're bringing that to the table, how do we get the guarantee that the tax abatement is available?
Right now, it's a program that you apply for that you may or may not get from the county. And it sounds like we're already noncompliant if we're, you know, up against projects that are 100% affordable. Do you, did you get far enough to estimate out the the value to the project of the of the program if you had been approved for it? I have not run those numbers. No. I I would be, I think, much more comfortable, with this before me, if I had a sense that there had been,
like, comparative pro form a, that was trying to deliver the highest value on housing, as in the highest value on the affordable dollar. Right. I am not getting that impression. Right? I I know of at least one other project, and I've I've sat down with them and talked to them about their their pro formas under actually trying to be fully compliant being fully compliant with developer incentive, where they think they can split the uprights. And and I'm still not entirely sure I'm supportive of that project. And this does not seem to have done a comparable level of work. So I think that's all I have as far as questions.
Supervisor Callaway. Where did my page go? You answered the connection question. The proffered land questions kind of handled in a different way. In a different way. So I won't even bring up my idea, or will be. I thought I have a third thing, but I'm not remembering it. Alright. I'm good right now. I'm going to follow-up on supervisor Pruett's question. I'm trying to understand the value of the proffer. And at 80% AMI, we've pretty high AMI in this county. Have you done a study to compare what you are charging for the market rate
units compared to the 80% of AMI units? And what's that differential? Sorry. And we may need Alan to answer that one. Give him a second. Another question. And in the meantime, I can come back to that. I'm just looking at a map, and I was driving out there today, and I was like looking at Salamander Street and I see that's gone now. So that's intended to be taken away. There are existing structures and streets and things that are on the property on the map, but don't appear on the plan. So I'm thinking, well, that's interesting because Salamander Street
isn't there anymore. We're all in the tunnels. The tunnels are there. Is that what it is? Those are the tunnels. I'm pretty, so I'm not crazy here. There's one under. No. I mean, right here is Salamander Street. I don't see it. I was there today and saw Salamander Street, and I was like, okay, but that's not on this. Yet it looks like it runs right through the seven acre site. Just an old road. Is it an old road or something? It's got that dame salamander in it. So I'm looking at I'm looking at an actual in there. Yeah. He comes in.
He's gonna help you out. Not at all. Salaman we're talking about where Salamander Street is located? Sorry. Yeah. Yeah. Andy about the proper stuff. This is Salamander Street. This is this road right here. It was we built this when we were trying to, like, relocate the ice park to Brook Hill. The ice park. Yeah. And so we ended up building that road. And Yeah. After we got done building it, they told me that they didn't have any money to pay for it. I guess I guess what I'm seeing from the aerial images is is now destroyed.
And because it it actually runs parallel to Archer, comes back into Polo Ground Road Polo Ground Road. Oh, I think you're And then there's there's there's other structures up there. That's the that's the old driveway to mister and missus Haw's house Okay. That may or may not even be there anymore. Well, it's still on the still on the the satellite images. And so I'm looking at it and saying, okay, where did that go? That was a temporary driveway because that house was still there. But when we were doing So I wasn't wrong.
And that's going right into the seven acre, I think it's adjacent to the Adjacent to it. Yes. A little bit to the west is the seven acres of that. Okay. But that's that's not a needed driveway anymore because we just when we were building all of this stuff, we had to get rid of their driveway. And so The house is going and everything as well. They've recently moved out of the house. And so it will be developed at some point in time. Okay. That's what I thought at this point. Okay. So I'm going to go back to my other question, which is if I can try again. Is 300 units at or the 60 units at 80% AMI.
With the high AMI that we have here, I was trying to assess whether how close that is to market already and what is the differential that you see between what you would call a market rate unit of the same type and an affordable unit at 88% AMI? I think the for rent units are relatively close to market. It's below market, but they're close. The for sale units are way below market at 80% AMI. Okay. But should you just indicate,
I think, that you're primarily looking to meet the affordability through rental units? That's yes, we're going through a site plan right now to do the second phase of multifamily, which would probably handle a lot of the affordability requirement. Okay. So I'll be honest, I'm just still trying to get a handle on for a rental unit at 80% AMI. What is the difference between that and the market rate? It's the market rates are I mean, it depends on the number of bedrooms. It depends on the age of the community. Well well, the 8% AMIs, I think, are geared towards the number of bedrooms and things like that.
We'll take it into account. Right. I mean, we've we've given reports to Stacy over the years on how many affordable units that we have in Brookhill that qualify. And I believe in the apartments, it's between 80 to 90% at 80%. And if and those would be at rents that we're thinking that are relatively market based. Okay. Maybe I'm not hearing very well. So you're saying that basically they have 80% AMI rates are market rates?
I think 80% AMI are close to market rates, but market rate rents are higher than that. Okay. But it's I mean, it's there may be I mean, I don't know the numbers off the top of my head, but Marguerite rents are higher than 80%, but not markedly higher, maybe 10%, 15%, 20% higher. Is this something Stacy, you have any Can you show the airline? I mean, there's a difference between trying to compare to other units as opposed to your units, which is what I'm actually looking at.
In our email yesterday was a chart that she sent to everybody. I know. I'm trying to get at that with these units, so I understand it. Oh, she pulled her glasses down. She's gotten serious. Stacy Petha, director of housing. And I am, one moment. I'm going to look up some numbers for you. Okay. Just have to find it in the email. Take your time. I will say, just as a comment, that I'm fascinated with the idea of these units are being above retail commercial units. That's something we haven't seen a lot other than the dentist. Yeah. Well, we were supposed to have them at Stonefield.
Stonefield. We were supposed to. Right. And we were supposed to have them at, Riverside Village. Riverside Village. And they have them all over the place in Europe. Yeah. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. It's it's definitely a But it is cool. I mean, I think it is. I would love to do that. I don't want to take up too much of your time, and so I am struggling to find the exact email. But I did, do some comparisons. 80% AMI, if you're looking at a household of three, which would probably rent a two bedroom unit, if it's a, you know, two parent family and a child, the maximum rent and utilities they could pay would be about $2,264
a month in rent. And looking at some of the most recent units to come online, such as the Arrowwood and Northpointe, and Ryo Pointe, I believe, those rents were right in line with that. So they're about $2,200 maybe a little less for a two bedroom unit. So they were pretty close to 80% AMI. Okay. Thank you. Anything further on this? Okay. Are there any additional questions? You have five minutes for rebuttal. Doesn't say she's rebuttal. Any additional comments? Five minutes? Not at this time. Not at this time.
Okay. Thank you. Then I will, if that's everything in terms of questions, I would suggest that before the Is that a break? Yes. Because once the board closes the public hearing, there are different rules about the submission, we'd have to hold another public hearing. So let's make sure we've got the revised Take a break and Yes, sir. Make sure we have a proper proffer. Yes, please. Thank you. Proper, proper. All right. And it's still only seven Thank you for your patience. The public hearing is still open. The matter is still before the board and for the County Attorney's suggestion that there
is an email to the board that gives a slightly revised ordinance referring to the new proffer which has been signed, which defines elementary school as simply school without necessarily specifying that it has to be elementary. We won't close the public hearing until we've had some discussion of this though, because we do not want to have to go back. If there's any additional changes, we can still make them at this point. So I will, I think at this point go through the order again to see if there are any additional questions,
comments, and also comments, as well. So, sense of how you feel about this at this point. Supervisor, Pfister, certainly. Okay. Well, I'm reading this and I think the wording that was changed was, Brookhill never The revised ordinance simply refers to the new prophet. New proffer. Okay. That's only I don't have any questions. Any any concerns, though? I mean, this I don't have any concerns regarding this project. Supervisor Malek. I'm all set. Thank you very much. Thank you. Supervisor, McHugh. I'm fine. Thank you. Okay. Supervisor Freud? I thought someone would say something.
The change to the proffer, in this new email, I don't see any issue with it. That being said, I'm I don't think it's appropriate to support the project. This is the first one that has come to us that is noncompliant with our new housing goals, which we spent an extraordinary amount of time deliberating over. And now the very first moment we are called to test it. I mean, frankly, we barely freaking engaged with it, if I'm being quite blunt. It is it is noncompliant on a on a proposal that we put a lot of energy into,
that we've talked about how it might be affecting our, you know, our overall development pipeline. I think if we are going to approve this, then it would make it it would immediately signal that all that effort is a complete dead letter. It would then, I think, call into serious question, frankly, other other rules that we have. And I recognize potential, like, members of this board might think that that's potentially hypocritical because I sometimes do point out that, you know, we're in a legislative capacity. We have the ability to exercise discretion. But I I think it's kind of extraordinary that on literally the first time the
question is called, not only do we fold, but we fold barely with any grappling with the problem. So I don't think it's appropriate to, to approve this. I also don't think I I made this clear in the comments, and I mean no disrespect. I I don't think that the due diligence has been done, by the applicant grappling with this question, or at least it is not I do not see the diligence done. So I would just submit that to the board. Thank you. Supervisor Cowen. I mean, I appreciate the points. I guess I didn't think of it that way.
I mean, we had how many applications come before us that if they had their little toe in the door before or after the incentive package was done, that we just grandfathered it in under the old Yeah. Old policy. And this is at least delivering the extra 5% in units. So, I just didn't walk in the door tonight thinking of it from that angle. I understand that angle, I guess, but I wasn't thinking of this as a new application in quite the same way. I think the beauty of the developer incentives, however, and I share the concern, and I'm not remembering the other project, as to the rigor,
under which both sides are bringing them up and discussing them for a particular project. The flexibility that we baked into the developer incentives was really just about trying to get the needle moved a little bit. I don't think us approving it I guess since it's a proffer, it is kind of locked in. Would it be prohibited? I've had this conversation with other developers as well that projects are already done and approved on. But if this is approved and, I don't know, a conversation did happen around developer incentives, and maybe it moved the needle somewhere to take it further than what currently exists,
I would think that would be a lot. The proffer set a floor, not a ceiling. So if if if at some point the applicant decides that they wish to offer more or at a different AMI standard, that's the applicant's prerogative. But it but it cannot be required under the proffer as currently submitted. Correct. Okay. So it's in it's like my opinion that even other projects that we've done that aren't exactly built all the way up yet, that if you're like, well, alright. If they did 20% of the units at at at the old 80% number, and they could move that with the help of incentive down to 60.
I think we're gonna finally get a new application that I would consider a new application is gonna come to us, and we're gonna have to wrestle with that, which will probably make us look at our whole policy a little bit differently. So I appreciate the point. I just I I approached the application from a different angle than you do, but saying that the doors are open. And I would guess I'd tailor that or telegraph that to both the applicant and the staff that if there was a way that we could take this a little bit further, whether it's for the homeownership or the rentals, then I mean, the developer incentives are really only targeted at rentals anyway.
So, I would certainly say have at it, and I'd be thrilled if it could be there. But I'm not going to stand in the way of approving this application. Thank you. I share a lot of supervisor Pruitt's concerns, and I think I just expressed them in the sense of recognizing that 80% AMI is so close to market as to be not particularly meaningful, whether it's 15% or 20%. It's not clear to me that we've seen evidence that there's any difference between that and a market rate. But that said, I recognize that in this particular case,
but for the decision in the original application to limit the number to $15.5 instead of going for the larger number, this is a fairly extensive proffer statement that was submitted at that time and includes a lot of very beneficial things. So I believe I will be supportive, but with a great deal of frustration that the $15.20 doesn't mean anything if it's not really helping people to afford things that they would otherwise not be able to afford at market.
And that's a different discussion around Yes. Yes. Well, I'm No, we're not. No, we're not. If any other comments or concerns? Just one, and that is I think if we have rules that say in order to qualify, you have to be a 100% affordable, then that's what we should say and not say, oh, we're gonna change the rules and let somebody have it for partial. So I don't think it's fair to criticize somebody for not using an incentive that states that they didn't qualify. That's all I was trying to report on. So, yes,
it's close. I don't think 60% would be more. It's a it's a topic. It's a thing that is considered, but it was I wanna like, a number of factors that are considered as being preferential. The other product I know that or product project that I know that's in the development pipeline, that I've talked with the developer on, is a a new project, and they are exploring using developer incentives, and they are certainly not a 100% affordable. They have other compelling factors. They also are struggling struggling to make it work, but I don't know. They are,
in a way that I've not seen today, grappling with that problem. Appreciate it. Yeah. Thank you. At this point, I will I'm just going to say I don't agree because I have worked with this developer, and they are grappling with this situation. And I find them very responsive. Is it exactly what I would want? No. I'd like a lower prices for everybody. But, market value, that's just the world we live in. And it could go way up. It could go there could be a recession. It could go recession. It could go way down. We don't know that. I do just want to clarify my point. When I said I would expect to know that the developer can give me the
quantified value of the developer incentive that they saw in it, would be able to quantify, at different levels of affordability. What is the what is the gap on their pro form a? What's their capital gap between offering, 8060%? No. I don't know that that math has been done. I don't know that those hypothetical pro form a exists, which I don't see as grappling with the problem. I don't think I've ever seen that provided. Yeah. I I haven't seen that. Never seen that provided. I'm not saying I expected to provide it. I expect them to know, though, and I didn't hear that. And I do know developers often know that.
It's not I'm not going to stop. With that word, I will close the public hearing, which we have not yet done. We have now closed the public hearing. And the banner is back before the Board, and I think we are probably ready for a motion. Yes. And it's your motion, Senator. My motion. Because it's your district. Yes. It is my district. Yes. Thank you. I approve ZMA twenty twenty four-eight, to adopt the ordinance attached to the staff report as attached. No, we have to do the No, we have to do No. We have to do Yeah. Withdraw that and I withdraw that. Because we've amended it. We've amended it. Okay. So I'm looking at the oh,
okay. I approve, I move that we approve ordinance number 25 dash a. Is that a zero? No. So are you moving to adopt the ordinance to approve ZMA twenty twenty four five? Is that your motion? Yes. Second. We have a motion from Supervisor Lupita Kirkley. His second from Supervisor McKeel. Without objection, if the court will call the roll. Ms. Lupita Kirkley? Aye. Ms. Malek? Yes. Ms. McKeel? Yes. Mr. Pruitt? Nay. Mr. Andrews? Yes. Mr. Galloway? Yes. Thank you. Thank you. And we will move on.
So the last item here from the Board, committee reports and matters not listed on the agenda will go through our orders. Supervisor Lupisto Kirtle? I have nothing at this time. Supervisor Malek? A couple of quick reports from the VACO meeting in the summit in a couple weeks ago. I did forward today an email that you can read at your leisure if you're interested on the report out from the environmental environment, energy and land use committee, a real free for all because a lot of those topics are in tension with each other. So it's not exactly a peaceful meeting.
Afterwards, Rob Ferrell, who spoke at the Ag Committee meeting, he's the director of the Department of Forestry, mentioned his offer to the county to develop an MOU to assist the county in supervising land clearing monitoring because we have a black hole that often happens when a landowner says, oh, we're using timbering for this property, and they clear cut it, but they use no stormwater and say they're following forestry rules. But when the foresters get out there and see that all the stumps have been removed, then all of a sudden all of this damage has been done to the property.
And erosion is happening everywhere, and there's this big gap. So I hope that the, cooperation with DOF will enable fewer of these runaround behaviors as we've recently had for Union with all the rain in July has caused real flooding downstream from one of these properties, all over people's backyards, etcetera. So, I hope that there'll be some this is well received by county staff, and we'll be able to do a more thorough job going forward without these, sort of gaps of authority. On the SNAP issues from the state,
the report from Katie Boyle, Virginia is one of 10 states who administer SNAP, involving 10 or 12 to $13,000,000 in local administrative funding through the federal program. Virginia is second only to California in the impact to administration, and impacts to benefits are much, much higher. H h r h r one is the biggest bill ever to pass in The US, but it may take ten years for the rules to actually be issued on how to carry it out. So this is the uncertainty level, and the cruelty and disaster that's coming to people who really need these benefits is
mind exploding. Virginia is in the federal focus because we have an 11% error rate in SNAP. That doesn't mean that we paid too much. It means it could be lower and lower and above. If you're more than 6% in total, then you're in trouble. So to retain independence, this is what's happening. You may have seen in Cardinal News the the big push about the outdated technology that the state has been using, which makes keeping up with the SNAP paperwork almost impossible technology wise.
And so there are all these errors that happen with the hand forms and the delays, and millions of dollars are gonna be required to sort of play catch up on that. So I'm just very, very worried about that. Lastly, the General Assembly is asking for localities to share ideas of where the cost shifts will be significant to our budgets as we see these federal things evolve, where the General Assembly can exist, can assist. My response is always, well, if the state would pay their bills, we'd all be a lot better off because you don't have a surplus if you're not paying your bills to the localities. So anyway,
lots more to do there, and I hope that, staff will consider all of those other cost shifts as they prepare for our upcoming legislative meetings. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor McKeown? Yes. I just want to say thank you, Anne. And it is definitely true that that high percentage of 11 would probably not be at eleven if the General Assembly had maintained our infrastructure. When it comes to systems and IT and other, it's just like water and everything else that in this county, and I don't want to belabor it because I know we're getting it's getting late.
I do want to just point out, though, that I felt bad. I know all of us did because, well, West Bellamy was not here. We were so efficient. Bellamy Brown. I'm sorry. Bellamy Brown. Excuse me. Confused the name of someone else I know. He was late getting here because we were efficient, and his what he was bringing us to share with us was the Bennett's Village update, the CIP final grant report thanking us for the $65,000, from from our nonprofit capital improvement process. And he says and you can read it because we have an email regarding He
sent it out. He sent it out. But I just wanted to make a point publicly, for the record that, he he provided the written report for us, and the very last portion said we're incredibly grateful for Albemarle County's commitment to creating this inclusive play space in our community, and we look forward to collaboration and partnership in the future as we continue making our community a more inclusive space for all to play. And I think that was great. It was really sweet of him to to to reach out to us like this. And we're thrilled about the playground. I I can't wait to see it. Exactly.
John Tree up in Arlington is incredible. To see kids in wheelchairs zooming all over the place doing all these wonderful things, it's really fabulous. And that's all I had to. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Perrett. I would just, flag on a similar note. I don't know if y'all caught it, but in our capital appropriation, there was a 40 ks grant that was a us appropriating a donation that we had received from the, shuttered, Scottsville Volunteer Rescue Squad. So as as part of, you know, the changes in how emergency services are operated down there, that nonprofit was,
you know, dwindling down its its fund. And they reached out to me, to reach out to, you know, county leadership about how they could spend that in a way that is serving Southern Albemarle. And the very specific request they had for how the money gets spent was be for, more accessible playground equipment in Doria Park, which is what that is hopefully going to be going toward. That's correct. So yet another, you know, accessible, play space is being brought to Elmore County. Yes. That was good. Thank you. Well, what's going forward to being invited to that Roger Calloway.
Just to note that I will be attending, senator Warner's hosting this keys to housing affordability this coming Monday down in Richmond. So I will be in attendance and happy to report back what transpires there. Thanks, Joe. Thank you. And I have no any additional reports. So with that, I will call this meeting adjourned to September '52 P. M. In Room 241. That is a special meeting for the AC44 work session. Good evening.