--------- Um, I call the Charlottesville City Council June 16th, 2025 meeting to order. Um, Madame Clerk, will you call the role? Council Asher here. Council P here. Vice Mayor Pson here. Councelor
Smith here. Mayor Wade here. Um um is there a motion to approve or amend the agenda? Move for approval. Second. Second. Okay. All in any discussion? All in favor, please say
yes. Should we vote on the internet? No, you can just I can't get at that. Yeah, we we're going to do voice. Okay. Give us a She's ready. No. Yeah. Um all in favor, please say yes. Yes. All oppose, please say no. Okay. Um this the meeting
this um our meeting will be divided into three sections. The first one will be a session to discuss um um and heal presentations that do not require a council vote followed by a close session and then um the council will have his
regular business meeting at 6:30. And today we will get um an update on the um um neighborhood development services and the zoning implementation update and 2026 work plan. Miss Brown.
Thank you. This work for me to present from over here. Yes. Okay. Great. All right. Okay. Well, thank you very much. My name is Kelly Brown. I am the director of neighborhood development services and I'm here today to present
to you an update on uh the development code implementation um since it was adopted in 2023 and um gone into effect in 2024. Um, in doing so, I'm also going to present um
on our fiscal year 2026 work plan, which is essentially um how we um kind of view the implementation of the develop our work to implement the development code. I'm here with several members of the NDS team who will be available to answer
questions uh after I present material. Um uh Mr. Alfelli will also be presenting today as part of the presentation uh the second half. So I'll start with an overview of our work plan and then Mr. Rafelli will dive into more specifics on some uh work that we are
doing targeting the development code itself in terms of some amendments that we're bringing forward. Um so as I just mentioned I'm here to present on the uh the work plan and the implementation of the development code. I'm going to start by just providing a little bit of background uh contextual
information on the organization of neighborhood development services as a department. um some accomplishments over the past year. Uh key considerations in how we prioritize our work plan, uh recognizing that while there um is always much to to do um we can't do it
all all at the same time. And so um how we prioritize those work plans um given uh special criteria. Um and then again, we'll do a focus on development code amendments that we are in the process of uh working with planning commission to
bring forward. Um so uh neighborhood development services is dedicated to creating a sustainable and vibrant community. Um we are made up of eight program areas. Um zoning, building inspections, development services, property maintenance um really fall within our
code compliance um area focus. And then we also have several divisions that focus on um uh planning services uh long range planning uh transportation planning. Uh we also have support services that provide for a lot of our GIS functionality um and our intake of
development applications. And together uh we all work to promote responsible development, foster community engagement, and work toward a community where Charlottesville residents can thrive. We are a uh department of 31 staff. I also wanted to mention
um so in terms of accomplishments from the past year um they are too many to list uh exhaustively but a couple that I just wanted to highlight uh include the uh creation of a regional transit authority in Carta. Uh the um efforts to
um bring forward the move safely blue ridge regional plan and a pilot pro uh pilot project for that. Uh we've installed a pump track at McIntyre Park. Uh our transportation plan team has also identified over 60 urgent transportation improvements to address critical safety
needs throughout the city and pilot a number of different approaches to making our street safer for all users. Um we have brought forward standards uh updates to our cafe standards for the downtown mall and the corner. Uh we've installed markers at Court Square and
Carver Inn. Uh we are bringing forward um many development review improvements which uh Mr. Alfelli will have an opportunity to speak to you about as well as our first batch of development code amendments that are responsive to issues that we've identified in this
first year uh with the new development code. Uh we have conducted a complete overhaul of the NDS web page to make information more accessible um and user friendly for members of the public that need our services. And we have also
created a task force um of sorts. We refer to it as a restabilizing property team to um help property owners that are struggling the greatest with the maintenance of their properties. Um we've also uh been very busy with our
staff development uh recruiting for a um a long range planning manager, a long-range senior planner. Uh they're both part of our team now. We have a new permit technician. We are still uh recruiting for a student housing property maintenance inspector. Uh but we have a transit planner on board as
well. And we've also been moving continuing to focus on staff development and training with a number of certifications for our um our building inspection and property maintenance team. Um another highlight that I just wanted to make sure I had an opportunity to
mention today is the work of our building inspection team. Um, this team works tirelessly um, day in and day out to process building permits um, and conduct inspections. Um, I've been able to collect some information in terms of
the number of inspections um, and permits that have been issued and reviewed over the past two years and as well what has happened over the course of the first quarter of this year. And as you can see, those numbers are really on track to be uh, even even um, more significant than they have been in past
years. Um on the right uh is a new development map featured on our web page that gives you a sense of the development activity in the city where projects have been um approved and where they're still under development. In blue and those yellow dots are where we have
projects under construction really speaking to the volume of work that our building inspection team is processing. um we are looking at opportunities to increase the capacity of that group through a temporary um plan reviewer. Um
that's something that's under review by staff right now. So in terms of uh looking ahead to the to fiscal year 2026 and our key considerations, um this is a slide that I've shared before, but I think it's really helpful to um to to continue to
ground us in, you know, how we make decisions about what to prioritize. Um first and foremost we focus on um our non-discretionary core mission services. So our code compliance work to make sure that um our our building uh our
construction activity, our property maintenance that we're uh meeting the highest levels of uh requirements for life and safety. Um we also are uh prioritizing new efforts um that also are in support of health and safety and then also the implementation of the new
development code before we add new initiatives. Uh we consistently apply an equity lens to the work we do and the selection of it. So asking ourselves who would benefit from this work uh who might be burdened who is missing uh who who is left out of the conversation how
do we know what sort of data are we using to inform our decision-m and then again how does that inform the work we do and how we do that work. Uh we seek to align our work plan commit commitments with our staff capacity. Um recognizing that we are a very capable
team, but we are uh a team again of 31 staff. Um and so we need to make sure that we focus on work that we can reasonably accomplish, but also try to grow our capacity through professional development and training. And then we also identify work that aligns with um
city council strategic plans uh excuse me, strategic plan priorities. Uh so I'm now going to go through um essentially a list of our priorities for the g the um upcoming year and then I will highlight a few of them um that may be of specific interest. Uh so within
the um strategic plan category of organizational excellence. Uh as I mentioned we're going to continue to focus on managing the city's review of all property development and property maintenance with applicable local and state regulatory compliance. Um to that
end, we are continuing to work toward um improvements in our electronic plan review system, our city works system to make it easier for members of the public to uh review development um uh development activity and also uh internally to be as coordinated as we
can be in our review and processing of those applications. Um we're focused still on recruitment. We have two open positions. um a zoning inspector which um will focus on um short-term rentals and um reviewing uh for appropriate tree
removal permits um and um protection of trees that have been designated for protection and development. Um we are focused on training and professional development. And then we are also focused again on um making some improvements to our development review
process implementing a 21-day review process for byite development applications. Um in the strategic plan area of housing uh we have a number of initiatives that are underway. Um we will be kicking off our 10th and page and Rose Hill visioning plans um this year and I will
speak a little bit more about that um uh later on. Um we are uh focusing as well on how we can continue to train and educate the broader community about the development code um and opportunities to take advantage of the new regulations
for additional housing. Um that is partially being uh addressed through the updates to our web page but we are also looking forward to creating additional educational materials that will make that information more accessible. uh we are monitoring the development code and evaluating where amendments are
needed to uh continue to eliminate barriers and again that's information that Mr. Elli will bring forward with a little bit more detail later on. And we are um creating a team internal team that um can really develop customized
plans to address that that small number of the most neglected or deteriorated properties in the city and return them as stabilized housing opportunities. Um we have a number of other priorities that fall into different strategic outcome areas. Um, so we are um kicking
off a study of our short-term rental regulations and also beefing up our enforcement of um the the requirements for having a short-term rental in the city. And I'll share more information about that. Uh we are scoping in a
review of um our envir environmental regulations and policies to see where we can um achieve balance um between our goals for environ uh our environmental goals, our sustainability goals and our housing goals and the comprehensive plan. Uh we are going to develop a scope
of work this year um to study our design guidelines um identifying key policy issues and identifying where amendments might be needed to the design guidelines and the development code um to uh again balance uh comprehensive plan goals for
housing and historic resources. Um, also in the realm of historic and cultural resources, we're going to conduct a um, uh, a review of all the accomplishments over the past um, 7 to eight years. Um, where there um, where
we have uh, made success in um, uh, recognizing uh, key historic and cultural resources um, where there are new opportunities and then potentially prioritize future efforts. And then we are also going to conduct our um state required five-year comp plan review. A
lot of the work that we do this year will likely feed into that review, identify where um where we may want to uh amend our our comprehensive plan um over the next five years um based on um things that we've learned and new
priorities that have emerged since it was last adopted in 2021. Okay. Okay. So, one thing I'm not talking about today is all of the work in our transportation planning team. Um, they uh Mr. Chambers was with you on J uh June 2nd to provide a very
comprehensive overview of that work. Uh, he's with us here today if you have any questions. Certainly available to answer those questions. Um, but with that, I'm going to dive now into some of the um initiatives that are underway that um have been of particular interest to members of the community. Um our
environmental policy review and ordinance revisions is um something that we've been focusing on uh primarily just getting a handle on existing conditions. So what are the the um the real issues that we uh face? What are the key problems that we need to solve? Uh we're
looking at um you know how we balance the community vision for healthy air, water and ecosystems as well as high quality and accessible open space and natural areas and a preserved and enhanced tree canopy with our goals for housing as well. Uh, one of the things
that we have um realized is an emerging issue is um you know is there a a better way to manage storm water that can meet our um our environmental and our sustainability goals and also allow for
the additional housing that's envisioned in the comprehensive plan and provided for in the development code. Um, so over the course of this summer, we're going to develop a work plan um that again really identifies um where where there's some opportunities to make some changes,
where is some additional study needed if we were to um revise any of our city regulations for on-site storm water management. Um what would be the potential impacts? um what would be mitigation strategies that might be needed to address um a different uh
quantity or quality of storm water um flowing off of any given site. Um where are there opportunities for investment in the system as a whole? Uh so we are um doing a lot of work with our internal partners in utilities in public works uh
in our sustainability office. Um and then we are also going to through the course of this effort identify where are there other um natural resources that need some additional study um and focus um to again balance those goals uh
within the comprehensive plan for housing and natural resources critical slopes, streams, green buildings and flood planes. I think could I ask a question? Yeah, you go ahead. Um you might have already answered this but will that process include um it sounds
like it will include the climate team as well as um the public works team. Yes, I mentioned the office of sustainability and the um the climate action team is within the office of sustainability and they will be they have been partners with us in developing kind of the scope
of this effort and will be our partners as well as we develop recommendations. Yeah. And I know You know, I know it's engaging in a study to look at where to go and, you know, you're not necessarily laying out the direction at this point. That's right. Um, but some of the things just
make me a little nervous in the sense of if environmental are environmental regulations really the primary thing that's stopping new market rate supply. I would suspect not. And if we go too far, I worry one, we've already been in
a situation where our flood plane regulations have gotten the city in trouble for not being just strong enough at the level of requiring a special use permit. FEMA flood plane maps are not connected to the reality of climate change anymore. Um, I don't know. I I
just worry if we get the balance wrong, we're really going to be regretting decisions we made in 20 years if a tropical storm makes a direct impact, you know, straight through central Virginia. I know you're not saying what path we should go, but I'm just
I hope we don't undervalue the fact that we can put this off for 10 years until that direct impact storm hits or um then we're really going to be regretting decisions we made. Yeah. And I think part of this effort is actually to identify where um our environmental
policies or regulations need to be strengthened as well um given our new opportunities or or given you know our changing our changing environment. Yeah. And I know several years ago at this point um when public works did an analysis of our flood plane regulations,
we had a score of zero based on um federal guidelines for um the strength of municipal um environmental regulations as it comes to flood planes and uh mitigating flood risk. Thank you. Yeah,
excuse me. Um, so when I heard about this issue, there was some maybe conflict's not the right word between storm water and the housing. I think Mr. Freeze brought it up a number of months ago. Could you help me just understand
in very macro terms like what the issues might be? It's just that we're doing more development and that means there'll be more impervious area. Is that is that it? Or we're going to be impacting critical slopes more or Yeah. So when it when it comes um specifically to the
issue of storm water um so there are requirements by the state to manage uh a certain amount of storm water on site um um when you are exceeding a certain area of disturbance and the city um actually
has requirements that are stricter than what the state requires and that's fine. That's something that the state says is okay. Um but the question is um given that we are actually now allowing for more development on any given site um
than we had previously is that lower threshold uh creating a challenge for people to meet their on-site storm water requirements. Can you build the detention facilities and the housing that you want to build on the smaller I see lots in the city? So to like prevent
the problem of someone's trying to build like a duplex in their backyard and now suddenly that's enough units that requires a retention pond which is not something that people are used to having in their backyards. That's a good example. Yes. Of the sort of concern that would arise and it's also like the
cost of having to create those plans in the first place. Um and also just fitting that facility and also yeah the the housing that you want to build. So, we'll be looking to see if we were to change that requirement for on-site storm water management if we were to
create some more flexibility. Uh, again, in being very mindful of the need to um still maintain um the highest environmental water quality and quantity standards, you know, how do we mitigate those impacts? Are are there are there
investments needed in the CI system as a whole uh that to help address those concerns? Um, you know, there's also questions about just the the the the intensity of storms to begin with. Um, which which may, you know, speak to the
need for, uh, investment that we haven't, you know, hadn't previously been thinking about. Um, so we'll be looking at all of those factors and trying to come up with a recommendation for, you know, where there might be an opportunity for some refinements to policies and regulations
moving forward. Great. Thank you. Oh, it's me. So, I'll just keep going. Uh 10th page in Rose Hill visioning processes is the uh next area that I wanted to dive into with a little bit more detail. So, we are very excited to be um launching these studies in
partnership with those neighborhoods. Um we are in the initial process really right now of kind of organizing ourselves. Um uh establishing those relationships with community members um preparing materials on um what are the
existing conditions in these neighborhoods that can help community members um provide to us you know what they envision as the future for their communities and excuse me for their neighborhoods. Um so we are looking um to initiate this process formally um in
the second half of this year um and we'll be bringing forward recommendations um in the winter through spring of next year. And um and one of the key features of this planning process is that we're really looking at a very short term time
horizon. Um different from some other small area plans that might have like a 20 or a 30-year horizon. And we're really trying to identify what are those initial um wins um that can make a difference for people that for the residents of these communities. Um and that's what we'll be focusing on in the
implementation period. Yeah. Um before you move on for the engagement um plan for Tenth and Page, if you could send send that to me. What I found particularly in tenth and page is that when I walk over there, it's like half
dozen people I can that sits on the porch that want attend any meetings or that I can you can find out what's going going on. So I just want to make sure we have a robust and inclusive engagement process. So at some point if you could
send it to me maybe you have at at some point that in the Yes. Yes. Absolutely. we would be happy to send you more information on our process and our engagement strategies. Um but we are definitely focused on you know how we um center this in equity and relationship
building trauma-informed process to make sure that um as um Miss Kinlotan likes to say um and she she'll she's happy to come up here and answer more questions if you want to dive into some more detail but um moving at the speed of trust with the community um to make sure
that everyone is you know can feel ownership of the plan at the end of the day. Is this connected to the notion on the um the development code the the flum we had those areas that were called the sensitive
can't remember the overlay. Yes. So the sensitive areas um overlay one of those areas is within the 10th and page neighborhood. So it is that RNA zoning which has um really limits the development okay reinvestment potential
in those neighborhoods um it doesn't allow for the same number of units um as in other neighborhoods that that is actually um something where we want feedback from the community um but we are not recommending that through this process we would make any changes to that zoning that we would look at that
as more of a count uh excuse me citywide effort uh as as those um overlays exist in several parts of the city. Got it. Thank you. Okay. So, I also wanted to provide some information on uh our short-term rental
study. Um so, just as an overview, um we are really looking to address um short-term rentals through a three-pronged approach focused on uh both outreach um amendments to the ordinance and also enforcement of both existing and potential new regulations.
Um, so in terms of outreach, uh, we are in the process of collecting input through an online engagement opportunity where we're capturing opinions from both, um, short-term rental operators and residents on, you know, what are the benefits of short-term rentals and what
are potentially some challenges or areas where, um, a different approach might better meet the needs of the community as a whole. And is that study on the NDS website? Yes, you can uh find a link to the survey on the NDS web page. Um we're
actually um ending that survey opportunity June 30th, so people still have um two weeks um to weigh in if they would like. Um we've also sent out a postcard um to all of the short-term rental operators that we had on file,
giving them an opportunity to weigh in also as a reminder that they need to renew their applications. Um we have provided information on our web page about a new streamlined digital application process. Um video instructions uh for how to create that
new application and FAQs about the home regulations. So really creating every opportunity for um residents and operators to understand what the expectations are for um owning a and managing a short-term rental in the city.
Um, and then in terms of amendments to the actual ordinance itself, um, the ordinance is is 10 years old. Um, an estimated 400 of these short-term rentals in this city. So, there's really been, um, you know, a lot has happened since the ordinance was initially
adopted 10 years ago. And, uh, we're asking ourselves the question about whether the existing code is feasible or or would some changes be beneficial. We're using information from the survey as one data point to inform uh what sort of amendments we might want to recommend and we've also been doing a lot of
research from other localities best practices um to inform those recommendations as well. So we will be um um bringing forward our findings and our recommendations um later this year. We are hoping to bring forward recommendations for
amendments to the ordinance um by the end of the year. Um, but just in terms of some more information on enforcement, um, we sent out that postcard. Um, we've also sent some warning letters to non-owner occupied properties that we're
aware of to make it clear that they have a limited amount of time before we're going to follow up again. Um, and really make sure that they are accountable to the um, the regulations in our development code. Um, and we're uh just
trying to stay focused on enforcement as much as we can to make sure again that the rentals um meet the needs of the community. Remind me the rules are a person has to be there six months out of the year or something. Yes. Yes,
that's correct. Um so I mentioned the timeline that um we are going to be um collecting input and um conducting focus groups, public engagement into the fall uh with recommendations coming forward toward
the end of the year um in anticipating that an ordinance could become a new revisions to the ordinance could become effective in spring of 2026. And so finally, I just wanted to highlight our restabilizing property team effort. Um so as um as you may be
aware, there are um a limited number of properties in this city which really have complex circumstances that require attention be beyond a standard um zoning violation letter or property maintenance um code um violation. Um and what we
have found is that bringing a number of internal stakeholders to the table um to help troubleshoot what sort of resources property owners may need to meet the expectations, meet the requirements of the code um can be very helpful to to
realize compliance. So we've been partnering with groups including anchor, social services, human services, police, fire, the city attorney's office, region 10, and also the city manager's office to support these property owners. And again, the overall goal is really to pro
make sure that property owners have access to all the community resources possible to reach compliance in these properties. But if the thing they need is money to remediate an issue on the property, I assume there's really nothing. Yeah, we have not identified any
additional funding at this time to support those needs beyond the existing programs that that um that are available. Is there any you know limiting principle in terms of obviously there there are situations where it's kind
you know there's not just code violations but enormous impacts on surrounding neighbors public health and safety. There could be a situation where there's not an impact on neighbors or public health and safety, but there's a code violation in the building and there's not money to remediate it. Um
maybe they're kind of living on the margins. Um if a neighbor reports that, is that included in this? Is there a limiting principle of what applies, what doesn't? Um, so we we conduct regular um uh tours
around the city to identify where there are problems that need to be addressed, but we also do rely on um input from adjacent property owners and others to to kind of make us aware of issues and then we evaluate, you know, the severity of the the compliance issue and determine kind of how to respond on a
case- by case basis. And I will say sorry on the question of resources available I mean we do have a limited amount of money available to help with remediation um but as we as we um as we go further down this road we may
find that there is a a a need you know for for additional funds to help support some of the remediation efforts. Um, you know, we we look to recoup those costs where we can, but there's, you know, typically would be required some sort of
initial, you know, outlay of funds to address the issues. Yeah. And I'm sure you all have thought about it. You know, I just think of a situation where, let's say there's a property where there's code violations. The people in it may be living kind of on the margins. It's not creating an
issue of public health and safety to others. Um but remediating those code violations at a minimum could be tens of thousands of dollars. I assume that's just not going to Yeah. Our our focus has been on areas where there's a significant concern about public health,
safety of the residents um safety of and public health for adjacent uh residents. Thank you. Sure. Can you actually give a couple more any some examples of what these complex properties might be like? Sure.
Um it doesn't have to be specific that exists, but like what kind of thing would ponder the capital? One of the um issues that we've actually been learning a lot more about recently is the problem of hoarding. Um so it it is it is a mental health concern you know where um
residents will um engage in hoarding to an extent that they're basically um no longer able to live in the dwelling and the materials are um collecting and and you know gathering in the yard itself and so it
can become a haven for rodents and you know biohazards. Um and that is actually something that we have seen in a couple of circumstances in the city. There's also um some properties where the structure itself is just deteriorated um
to the point that it's really no longer a habitable dwelling. Um you wouldn't be protected from the elements. Um there could be concerns about you know fire hazards within the property itself. So those are some of the things that we're seeing. So like this the
the um steps that we could take to like mitigate that is that like on the way to potential condemnation. Um you know typically what we are finding is that um uh beyond just our
requiring compliance with the code through letters um if we um submit complaints to the court system that helps achieve compliance. It's not something we had um been in the practice of until recently. As you know, we have a lot more support in the city attorney's office and they have been
helping us navigate the court system in a way that can really provide attention and focus uh for property owners um to make the changes that are necessary. And it also allows for other resources from the city to become more engaged um to provide um you know those mental health
or community resources that those property owners might not otherwise be willing or able to take advantage of. Okay. Thanks. And then one more question which is um if someone had a neighbor they were concerned about for whatever reason is the best way to get in touch a
myville app report or some other way. I would actually recommend contacting our property maintenance code team directly. Um they have a lot of familiarity with the circumstances on the ground. They might already be familiar with that situation having heard about it from someone else or are actively involved in
working with the the property owner um to achieve compliance. Okay, great. Thank you. Okay. Uh so the last area I wanted to focus on is our review of uh the developing a scope of work for review of our architectural design guidelines. So
just by way of background and we have Jeff Warner here uh to weigh in if I say things wrong because this is definitely not my area of expertise but we have a number of historic conservation districts and uh individually um protected properties and uh architectural design control districts
throughout the city. Um and we also have um properties located within our entrance corridors as you know and um all of these properties um require review uh uh by the board of architectural review. Um some
interesting information by the numbers. Um the total amount of property that's located within one of these districts is about um a little over,200 acres or 22% of the city. that number is actually a little bit lower. Is that right? Yeah, we're we're still kind of honing in and
refining our use of the the GIS to to collect this information. Um and in terms of just stat level of activity for the board of architectural review and the ERB um you can see here that um you know it is a very busy um review board
um with over again 1,200 approvals and um 63 denials over the past 20 years or so um and no denials for um applications coming to the uh entrance review board, entrance quarter review
When I when I read that, I just thought that was a striking, you know, piece of data and that the process may sometimes make it so it, you know, a project's first path of lease resistance path doesn't occur and maybe they have to design around keeping historic
preservation, but overwhelmingly it's not blocking development. um it may slow it down and require some adjustments, but um I just wouldn't have guessed the numbers were that weighted in terms of ultimately getting to approval, which I thought was interesting. Yeah, thank you. Um and so yeah, could
you go back? It's pretty good. So with all that context um however there is still um a need to take a look at the um the design guidelines um for these districts. um they have not been
looked at in a while and in that intervening time we have adopted a new development code and there certainly are questions about whether there are conflicts or um you know consistency between the design guidelines and the development code and it is appropriate
to um see where um amendments might be needed to both the design guidelines and the development code to better balance our goals. Um it's also required by code that um there is a comprehensive review and update to the design guidelines at least once every five years. So we are
going to take our time over the course of this year and really undertake a very thoughtful process not to review the design guidelines but figure out what are the key questions we want to be asking in in reviewing those design guidelines and um we will be
coming back. Yes. Sorry. Would that be done by staff? Maybe you said that staff will be developing the scope of work for that effort. Um we will also be putting together a comprehensive um engagement plan for collecting input from different
stakeholders in throughout the city on that scope of work. But was your question about whether or not we were using a consultant? Right. So eventually I do anticipate that we will we will um but to come up with the questions and kind of what you Yeah.
Yes. Yeah. I anticipated it will be a significant effort. There will be a significant level of effort in doing this right and so we will bring on a consultant to support that work. Okay. So with that I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Alfali and he is going to
give us give you all an update on our review of the development code and where we are identifying an initial batch of potential amendments. Good evening, mayor, city council. Matt Alfley, uh development planning manager
with NDS, and I'll be going over the uh proposed development review updates and closing out our department's FY26 work plan. As you can see on the slide, uh staff has been very busy over this past year,
uh with our development community. We've had 90 pre-application meetings in just over a year um ba with using the new development code. But as you can also see out of those 90 pre-application meetings, we've only had 20 projects
move forward. And of those 20 projects that have moved forward, we've only had uh can actually update this to four projects that have received approval. I'll also note that when you see that 90 pre-application there, that's formal pre-application meetings. You probably
can double that number for just conversations, working with staff on questions, things that don't even get to the pre-application level. And just for my own ignorance, that formal pre-application meeting, is that
triggering any timelines or is that really just a developer indicating, you know, we're pretty serious about getting to an application? Uh, the pre-application is usually you're you're I'm sorry, I'm messing up and not going the direction I want to go. Um, by the
time you get to the pre-application, you're meeting with not only NDS staff, engineering, fire, utility. So you're you have a concept, a narrative, so you're fairly serious about at least wanting to move to the next stage or hearing what your major roadblocks might be before you move to the next stage. So
it's it's, you know, I wouldn't say I'd say it's you're at least 15 20% down the road before you have that pre-application meeting. So, we're dealing with, you know, a lot of stuff that's in that 5 to 10%. Then dealing
with the, you know, 15 to 20 that's had the preapp and then that 20 that's probably over 50 to 60% there. Uh, so forth. I apologize. I don't know why. Oh, I am pushing the wrong I was treating it like
a TV remote. Sorry about that. jump to add to all the spoilers. And this might be part of what's all next in the presentation, but are we going to go over the 70 that didn't make
it to submittal? Not necessarily. We don't not like line by line just like are there general trends that were like the I mean we're picking up on general trends but a lot of times when after a pre-application meeting if they don't submit we don't necessarily know why they don't submit
they're not necessarily coming back we there's not really a follow I mean our door is always open we we're always facilitating if there was an issue if you need to talk to utilities I mean we we have a general idea and we can definitely talk about what we're seeing and hearing repeatedly u but it's not
like a specific I didn't submit this because X but yeah we don't send out like a hey we didn't hear from you are what are the fill out survey or whatever uh no we've not undertaken anything like that so far thanks um this slide uh provides a snapshot of
some key developments currently under review when you look at the lefth hand column you see that most units unit counts fall within the 6 to 12 range While 2030 Barracks Road appears to offer 24 units, this actually is a result of dividing the existing lot into
two zoning lots um where each would have 12 units. This means we are seeing some missing middle housing emerge um from these projects. However, as shown in the right hand column, significant challenges arise during the review process. Obstacles such as closing a
public street, navigating discretionary approvals to modify development standards, and addressing utility service upgrades are providing key hurdles to moving these projects forward and eventually into construction. This slide prevents the number of
approved accessory dwelling units in the city as of May of this year. While the term accessory dwelling is still commonly used, it no longer appears in the development code. Instead, all residential units on a zoning lot or sublot are treated equally with no
designation as accessory or primary to the residential structure. This shift in terminology reflects a broader approach to residential development, ensuring that every unit is considered part of the overall housing framework rather than a secondary addition. So that was
one of the big changes between our old code and our current code is we don't no longer have even though a lot of people talk about accessory dwell dwellings that's not a term that appears in our development code. We are a unit based now. So it is just number of units on a
lot and not a main structure and a accessory dwelling structure. Under the old code the accessory dwell dwelling requirements had a certain size had to be less than uh the size of the uh existing structure. So you're kind of constrained by that. Under our current
code, you can have um depending on the zoning districts, the units all can be the same size. So there's not something that's primary or secondary to that primary structure. So am I interpreting that correctly that those 19 units there would not include any short-term rentals
or could it? It it could. Uh it's not broken down like that. It's just somebody was building what we would used to consider accessory dwelling, but we really just consider adding a unit to the property. Now, as we transition from the uh from the
overview of our current development landscape to our vision for the future, uh our primary focus is on updating and amending the development review process manual and key sections of the development code. This effort is designed to streamline
uh the creation of residential units aligning with the core goals of our comprehensive plan. To achieve this, we are exploring strategies to shorten review times, enhance the efficiency and value of the development plan, and establish clear expectations from both
city staff and the development community. This initiative is well underway and we are synchronizing these implementations with the adoption of development code amendments scheduled for later this fall or early winter. I'm sorry. So, have you met with Cadre?
We've met with Cadre. Yes. Uh two times so far since uh in the last Okay. And that was a good conversation. Yes, it was good conversation. Good feedback. We've had uh additional feedback where we're missing uh reaching out to a um
smaller set of our developers that are more in that missing middle range. But I'll kind of I'll speak to that here in a little bit for the people watching might not know. Can you explain what Cadre is? They are a coalition of our developers in the city that uh they get
together periodically. Um they uh can't remember the history of it but there yeah there are local developers and and builders. They're open to all developers and builders. They tend to be some of our larger developers in the city that we work with all the time. Um
but that's kind of their organization. So large scale like how big are their projects generally? Um there in the meetings I've I've been at, you've had both what I would consider mediumcale um NOLA builds all the way up to our Southern Development um type builders
which build some of your larger 200 units. Okay. Thank you. The next few slides were presented to the planning commission work session on May 27th. Uh this particular slide provides a broad overview of our development code highlighting its
origins and the reasons behind our propo proposed revisions. Our current code adopted on December 18th, 2023 was designed to support a formbbased zoning approach aimed at increasing density and aligning with the goals of the 2021 comprehensive plan. More than just a
regulatory framework, this code serves as a guide uh guiding tool to shape the neighborhoods uh in a structured way but allow for uh changes along the way. However, however, over time, staff has identified several areas needing
refinement, ranging from minor grammatical errors uh to more substantive changes necessary to efficiently advance the city's objectives. Um to manage these revisions, we've structured the process into uh the
following three tiers. Tier one focuses on minor corrections, small edits and adjustments to ensure that and to and changes to ensure the code stays compliant with state regulations. Tier 2 addresses
um overlooked details from the original drafting, offering needed clarification and refinements. And finally, tier three involves more significant policy changes that require thorough analysis and meaningful community engagement. These adjustments go beyond simple refinements
um and are aimed at shaping the broader impact of the development codes and regulation. Importantly, these revisions are not a one-time effort. Tier ones and tier twos will be updated annually to maintain and um
maintain a current code that reflects best practices and supports sustainable community community growth. This is an ongoing and living documents um and will help ensure that our development framework is always up to date.
And sorry, quick question about that. Um uh in the next steps you say advancing a public hearing for adoption this fall. Does that mean every time we have to fix a typo it has to be a public hearing? Yes. Okay.
We should do a whole bunch of them all. That is why we're trying to batch them together. Anytime we're It is a an ordinance. It's a zoning text amendment. And so we're it does have to be that. All right. Next, we have the tier one
amendments are essentially uh refinements that keep our development code clear, precise, and up to date. This tier focuses on uh correcting copying copy editing issues, filling in missing text, and making small but impactful adjustments to ensure the code
accurately reflects its intended meaning. A key component of tier one is integrating legislative updates based on recent actions passed by the V Virginia General Assembly. These changes help maintain compliance with our current regulations while ensuring the code remains both reliable and and
functional. The scope of these amendments are narrow, created on technical corrections and minor refinements. They improve clarity and consistency without altering the policy direction of the code. Next, these proposed one amendments will
be will be presented at an upcoming public hearing. Looking ahead, we see this process as on as an ongoing effort where we collect these and again move them forward yearly. And here are some examples of just these small type of grammatical edits in this
slide. Um, as kind of with the the grammatical changes, we have the legislative changes and two of the biggest changes that came out this year had to do with shortening our review times. Um, our review times,
especially for accepting plans, will be shortened from 10 days to 5 days. And then the amount of time we have staff has to review subdivisions, final site plans, and development plans has been shortened. And then the second large
change that came out of the state is a majority of the administrative functions from planning commission are being shifted to staff. This includes approving subdivisions um development plans and final site plans. So that will now be done by staff
and not by planning commission. Planning Commission still will be making recommendations on things like special exception permits and special use permits, but actually approving the development plan now falls on staff. Can you quickly talk about what are the
um and this might not be for this part of the presentation, but what does planning commission have left to do? So I mean they they have their comprehensive um uh comprehensive plan goals. They're an important body in that. But there are
the body when someone does a special use permit, a reszoning or a special exception, they review that material to provide a recommendation to this body. So uh anytime a special exception or special use comes forward, you this body gets a recommendation from planning commission. So that'll be one of their
main their main focuses. Okay, cool. Thanks. And they also they also hear when we bring the amendments forward, anything that requires a public hearing, they will hold a public hearing too on those and make suggested changes so that when you get the final amendments, it
comes with planning commission's recommendation. Okay. Excellent. Thank you. Oh, and public facility review. So, uh comp went to stay in line with the comprehensive plan. if something needs a U
facilities review, they're the ones that do do that for the comprehensive plan level. All right. Thank you. Moving on to the tier 2 amendments. Um, now we move on to the tier two amendments aimed at refining the development code by addressing and
addressing gaps and ambiguities and improve clar clarity and usability. This tier focuses on adjustments that enhance and uh the code ensuring that uh everyone using it is uh can see it in the same light. One example of this
change is the fee schedule uh where minor amendments will help refine the development process including adding an application and fee for sublots. So currently we don't have an application or fee for sublots. They're handled through a boundary line adjustment. Um
so that's one example. Tier two covers a broad range of modifications, additions, and removals to ensure regulatory the regulations support planning objectives while while ma maintaining consistency.
Staff will gather additional feedback from the planning commission in August with select amendments moving to a public hearing in the fall. Like tier one, this will be an ongoing process that we plan on bringing forward yearly. Here
we have a few examples of the proposed amendments and draft language aimed at addressing key issues within the development code. First, the current code prohibits attached dwellings units in the R district. While staff has worked with applicants on a sublotbased
workaround, this approach is costly and ineffic in inefficient hindering efforts to expand housing options in the city. The issue is discussed at the planning commission work session on May 27th and further updates will be provided for their August work session. So this code
amendment is coming from the fact that because we have a unit base where it's not about type of housing. Um our code does not speak to single family um duplex triplex quadplex. We think about
those things when we're thinking about the built environment, but the code speaks to units. And due to that, the code has a side setback of four feet on zoning lots, which is preventing someone from building a duplex on a zoning lot. So, and it also has made a lot of our
city non-conforming. The workaround has been to do zone to do sublotss on a zoning lot where you have one zoning lot, you create two sublotss on it so that the the middle line the middle property line doesn't have the 4ft setback. You have a zero foot setback.
So you can do that but that is it's a bad workaround. It takes away your density because two zoning lots cannot do that. So staff has worked on an alternate form approach to this type. uh ran that by planning commission at the work session. They've asked for some
refinement. We're working on refining that and we'll present that to them at the August work session. And so a lot of technical detail detail there. Help me break it down to understand it maybe in more layman's terms. So if a developer bought two lots, they would not be able
to build structures that are connected on those two different lots except for that workound. Correct. If you bought two zoning lots or if you had two zoning lots in the city and you lived in a duplex that shared a common wall, you would not be able to build that under the current code because those side lot
lines have a 4ft separation. So that's a total you need to be 8 feet away from your other building. And the workaround is that does not apply to sublot uh lot lines. So that's been the workaround. But we were trying to get that a better solution. So you could build a duplex
type what we call single family attached u type structure. Next we are introducing a pathway for residents and developers to make small improvements to their lot without resorting to expensive additions to the front yard uh solely to meet build 2
requirements. This amendment facilitates the inclusion of sheds and outuildings while preserving the code's intent for a more urban landscape. So this comes out of the fact that the the code right now you have to meet the build two requirement which our urban fabric we're
wanting the buildings to be closer to the street. Um and you have a certain percentage of that build two you have to meet before you can build a new building on your site or a new structure. So, where this is causing an issue is uh if
you wanted to build a shed or a small little workshop in your backyard, if you don't already meet the build two requirements in the front, you have to do that first before you can build that new structure. So, we are uh working on ways so someone doesn't have to do that
whole addition to the front yard so that they can build something in their backyard. Finally, a proposed um update aims to codify an existing policy uh existing policy related to one and two unit construction.
Um under the current code, all new constructions and additions require require a development plan and a final site plan adding significant time and resources before the building permit can be reviewed and issued. The existing policy has allowed the building review
process to substitute for the development review process, but tracking has become challenging and hard to keep up with. Staff is recommending uh exempting one and two unit projects from development review, allowing them
proceed to proceed directly to building permit review while ensuring full compliance with the zoning regulations. So zoning compliance review can happen at different stages in the review process. The development review process is the process a lot of people are
familiar with your final site plan, a development plan, but it can also happen at building permit. And under our old code, this happened where one and two unit one and two unit developments were exempt from going to site plan could submit straight for building permit, but
they're still reviewed for zoning compliance. It does not give them a pass on zoning compliance. It's just that's done at building permit. Our new code has a lot more vertical elements than our old code. Our old code was really just about setbacks and height. And so you could do that check at zoning. Our
new code has a lot of vertical elements. Um but those vertical elements are are shown on your elevations you would submit for building permit. So the policy we we've kept the policy from our old code, but we treat those building permits as your final site plan. That's just been very hard to track, keep up
with. So, we're suggesting exempting one and two units. If you're pres uh if you're going proposing a single family or a duplex, you can go straight to building permit, but you're still going to get zoning review. You it's that's not a you're not
getting a round zoning review. It just happens at that stage. Next, we turn to the uh tier three amendments which focus on comprehensive policy changes and address development issues that go beyond simple language tweaks. Unlike the technical fix in tier
1 or the minor refinements in tier 2, tier 3 amendments are fundamental to the city's policy direction and offer and often require long-term planning strategies. Any of these updates aim to to establish or or redefine key policy
directions and will require analysis due to the much more analysis in community engagement due to the broad impact and complex and complexity. Given their significant given their significance community engagement is essential outreach efforts will be designed to
gather feedback and ensure proposed changes align with the public's priorities. Because of these complexities and the resource demands, tier three amendments will be integrated into future NDS work plans. This phase dedicated approach allows for detailed
research, stakeholder input, and an extended review period ensuring thoughtful and well-vetted implementation. So the the key thing I will give here is tier think of tier one as no thought, tier two as some thought to make the change and tier three is deep thought.
Does that include um or sorry, I'll let you go to the next page. This slide highlights three key policy issues that could lead to tier three amendments, focusing on fundamental changes that require thorough analysis and broad community input. The first
issue involves clarifying acceptable heights and building links for town houses and other infill pro type projects in the residential districts. Proposed amendments would refine standards including defining what a building is, height uh requirements and feet and stories, bonus heights for
additional units and build tow with regulations. The second focuses on refining goals for the RNA district, ensuring a clear distinction from other residential districts. This review will weigh the benefits and challenges of RNA requirements leading to potential policy
adjustments. And finally, further study is needed to explore opportunities for neighborhood services uh in re neighborhood services at a retail level within residential areas. This includes zoning amendments and policy changes that balance it balances
accessibility of those needs with the community's requirements. Each of these policy discussions will shape long-term planning and require careful consideration to ensure they align with the city's broader development goals.
And then this slide outlines several uh specific examples um that we've run across kind of uh athletic fields um clarifying how a building and structure
uh should be oriented. And this also kind of covers and I want to kind of go back because one of these that is is always a sticking point in these conversations is when I talk about what a building is because that seems like something very
straightforward when we're talking well yeah we know what a building is. This this gets a little confusing when again we're unit based and the example I'll give is currently in our code we talk about when you get a bonus for
height and it talks about when a a building has multiple units in it you get a bonus for height. Sounds very straightforward but it's actually very confusing when you start to throw property lines in because when a property line bisects a building that building becomes two buildings. it's no
longer one building. And so from your built environment standpoint, it may look the same, but from a code compliance standpoint, it's very different. Um, and so that's when we we were talking about this policy when we look into what do we want buildings to
look like. Uh, that's what that is getting into. The um the questions I was going to ask about what's included was kind of touched on this, but I want to highlight them. um which is the the mixeduse commercial and in the code there is a
form that says when allowed you can do this but then there's nowhere else in the form that allows it. So, um I appreciate that that's on this list. And then also the this might have been kind of what you were talking about just now where the heights the height and story
limit um is a little wonky. Like a single family gets to be two and a half stories, but a duplex can be three. And that means a lot of the um like I have a a someone I know who used to live on Huntley Avenue in Prior Springs, which has a lot of three-story single family
homes. So now those are all out of compliance even though they're house-sized and single family. They are dense on on smaller lots but still single family. And so like that suddenly wouldn't be allowed. And I know that's the kind of development we would want to encourage. Correct. And this gets down to the policy issue of it's it's wanting
to make sure we hit the both parts of the two-part question. What is house size? And how do we make sure our code is actually capturing it? because we have an idea of house size, but then the code again something that you would look at the to on the street.
It could be two different things just based on where the property line is. that duplex example, if it's a uh two units on one property, it gets more height. But if there is a shared if there's a property line running down the middle of it, it is treated as two
buildings, even though it would look just the same as the one next to it where it's the two units on one lot. And I also think that kind of steering away from the phrase house-sized is also probably good since, you know, we all live in the houses or apartments where we live, but also the Builtmore in
Asheville is a house and, you know, that there's a big gulf in that range. And so kind of making sure that we all are thinking the same thing about the different typologies that we're we're talking about, I think, is is a a good way to kind of start shifting the
language there. Very good. Uh so what I have here uh for you is our updated timeline and this reflects the next step in key milestones following our uh May 27th work session with planning commission. As you can see a new work session with planning commission was added in August to focus
on tier 2 amendments. The structure will be similar to what the final staff report and amendments that'll move forward in October at the October public public hearing will be. Commission will will review each amendment existing language, proposed revision, and staff's
analysis, allowing them to make edits and recommendations before finalizing the amendments and moving them forward to city council. Um, what's also listed on here is a listening session at planning commission for July. Uh the date should be
finalized here probably in the next week or so. Uh but this will be an opportunity for the development community to come in and hopefully uh we're going to frame it in a way so that they can point out concerns they're having with the development code. But we'd also would like to hear where the
development code has been helpful. I think that would be also beneficial. So that'll be in July. then followed by the work session in August and then the initiation of the zoning text amendment and fee schedule update and the public hearing in October
and then the those recommendations will be in your hands in November December. Um and then before before you change slides, can I have a question about the July meeting? How are we reaching out to
builders and developers? So, we have a good list serve we're going to be sending out. Uh, we staff works a lot with these developers and builders. We're going to be making sure that they're aware of this. And this is a good um a good point to we we know we've
we've engaged with some of our larger developers. We're trying to do better about engaging with our smaller developers. But I do want to highlight this is one of the when when we talk about these distinction between tier one, tier two, and tier three. And the tier three being the broader community
engagement that includes our development community too. That's just not our residents. So when we're talking about when we might need to hear more from the community, that includes that that body too. Where we've kind of put the line between tier one, tier tier one and two
and tier three is is really does it need more community engagement than a public hearing? And if it really needs more communication, more engagement than a public hearing with planning commission and city council, it really needs to be a three a tier three item so that we can do that public engagement um with all
stakeholders. Great. Thanks. And then with that, I'll turn the last slide over back to Could I ask one question, please? At one point, I'm trying to think where I heard this, but there was some
points that were made around um remember we had the the consultant to help us do a change um rate of change that that word rate of change. In other words, how quickly this would actually be adopted and start producing housing. And it seems like we talked at some
point recently about even tax abatement for additional units and so on. Is that something that you guys are also looking at or where is that further down the road? Unless Mr. Freeze wanted to jump in. Um, so there was a a study completed before
the development code was adopted that uh projected a rate of change um about 2% per year of um eligible lots for this sort of that could take advantage of this sort of development opportunity would do so would take advantage of the opportunity and move forward. So very
small percentage of um city parcels would would start to would start to see reinvestment. Um I would say we're not even meeting that projection at this moment in time considering you know we're looking at three approvals over
the past year. Um so we are you know starting to ask ourselves like what are the barriers that we need to be addressing to to better meet our goals. Um and all the things that we're bringing forward tonight. Um well not all of them but many of them are really working toward that. You know what what what are the changes to environmental
regulations that might be um you know needed to help to help facilitate our housing production. Um you know where are there other conflicts that we we need to address. Um we are um also looking at um financial tools for
housing production. Tax abatement is something that um we are studying as part of um actually a broader market study to understand what is the feasibility of housing production given all the other factors you know that you might think of um the the cost of um
materials interest rates um and you know how how could tax abatement help to to to fill that gap um is it is and and we'll be looking for some feedback from you as we bring forward that recommendations. That is actually also an opportunity I to mention something
that um I hadn't mentioned previously which is that neighborhood development services will be bringing on um the housing team from um the office of community solutions that uh is going to be closing and we are looking forward to having the housing program manager and the housing compliance officer as part
of neighborhood development services. um they will be continuing the work that um they have previously been doing and I'm uh just I think our whole team is really looking forward to working with them uh toward meeting the goals of the the affordable housing plan and the
comprehensive plan in that area. Got it. Thank you. Oh yes, thank you. So that does that brings us to our last slide. um items that had previously been identified um but are not prioritized for this year. Um so these uh continue to be very
important items but um again given those key uh work plan considerations um for prioritization that I mentioned earlier these are not being brought forward for this year. We will uh look to incorporate them in future years. Um that is the implementation of the Star
Hill plan um a downtown mall study. So really looking at questions of height and form. Um however in evaluating um design guidelines um the architectural design guidelines that that might present an opportunity to address some
of those questions. Um the alley study is something that we are not prioritizing this year and we have also um identified the noise ordinance review and update as something that had appeared previously. Um this is something that will most likely be tackled through more of an interdep departmental study. Um um so just didn't
want to lose sight of those those items that had been brought forward previously. And yes, with that um oh so we actually have uh a few more slides. Sorry. Um but wanted to make sure we had an opportunity to just give an update on our um from our conversations with
planning commission. So we did present this material at planning commission last Tuesday and um got a lot of really good feedback. I think Mr. draw has gone through a lot of that feedback just in talking about our path forward uh for um continued review and uh refinement of
the development code amendments. Um and in terms of like broader feedback on our work plan as a whole, there was general support for the prioritization of of what they characterize as a very robust work plan. Um they did have some
feedback on items that haven't been prioritized. Is there a way to be creative in uh using interns or maybe even AI to conduct the research that's needed for the alley study? Um to really be mindful of previous deliberations on critical slope waiverss if we're going
to be taking another look at critical slopes. Um um really emphasizing how good it will be when we have some pre-approved accessory dwelling plans that we can share with the community. um really focusing on uh clear and
objective amendments for short-term rentals regulations so that if there are cases that come to the board of zoning appeals, it is easy to be able to um provide a ruling um that reinforces what we are looking for in our regulations.
Um and then as we embark on a new um chapter in our small area planning work to just clarify expectations for how we select areas, how we prioritize areas um and you know what qualifies for a longer term small area plan versus a shorter
term visioning or strategic plan. So those were some areas of broad feedback. Um also got some feedback on how we can be mindful of combining and coordinating initiatives to avoid planning fatigue. I mean I'm feeling a little fatigue just having shared all of this work with you and I know that it will be just
something we have to just constantly monitor you know that if we are doing engagement um we are really not overlapping if there are um requests for feedback on major citywide initiatives and just to be strategic in how we're getting phasing and sequencing requests
for feedback. Um there was a question about you know increased fees that we've received this year uh for some of our major um projects that are under review. Um and um you know ho how that factors into
opportunities to uh increase um our resources our staff resources for plan review. And as I mentioned uh at the beginning of the presentation, we are evaluating internally potential to use some surplus funds or request surplus funds for a temporary position to support application review. So that
brings us to the end. Thank you very much. Happy to take any questions or comments you might have. Yeah, I think we were asking some as we were going along, but I'll start with you, Lloyd. Did you have any followup? the the question was asked earlier and uh
maybe a little judgmental to say ducked a bit uh but I'm curious about what out of the 90 applications 90 pre-applications 20 actual applications three actual approvals
were there consistent patterns or any interesting patterns at all in the things that of the 20 that were submitted and the 17 of those that were denied or simply not approved maybe is a better way to put it.
So those um they were a lot of the things that come up uh in the denials and we're waiting they're going through the process. Some of them are working through addressing those deficiencies. A lot of the deficiencies weren't on necessarily the
zoning side, but they were on things like the utility side uh where an applicant um didn't have physically the room to do individual they wanted to do sublots. So they wanted to make four or five sublots which each lot then would
have to have its own lateral for sanitary and water and there physically wasn't enough room. So they were re-evaluating with this project move forward without doing a sublot doing all the lots on one lot then where you could run one lateral to that to those that
structure. Just briefly on that point I think we heard last time about a concern about whether that ordinance needed to get changed so that you don't have to have one lateral for every unit being being built. Is there discussion about
that kind of a change that might need to be made? Uh yes, I mean there's discussion. I know uh utilities is aware of it and how they can better foster and and promote the goals of the comprehensive plan. So I know it's something they're they'll be looking at. Okay. And I'm sorry I interrupted you.
No, but that that was physical the physical restraints been one issue we're running into. Um, as Director Brown spoke earlier, you know, you you you look at the highest number you can do on this on this lot. So, you maybe come in with a concept plan for six units, but
you're only a 6,000 foot lot and you don't and you're not you don't have room to put your detention facility. And so, because it's a common plan of development, you're developing all six lots at once. You're required to do this uh retention uh facility for your storm water. And there physically just isn't
room for it. So, that's been what we've come up uh run up against. Another has been access for fire suppression where a lot of a lot our lots are narrow and so when you're putting more units, you're putting them in the back. And so, fire has, you know, they have their
regulations about how far the furthest point of that structure can be from pulling the hose. So, that's been another uh area that we're seeing some uh some hurdles that they're running in that applicants are running into.
Are are there some uh proposed changes that you all are thinking about or is it one of these things where everything is is sort of a one-off problem and it's hard to synthesize it all into something? No, I mean, we're thinking about it. are gathering this information
and and then trying to think the best way to deal with it. I can say that the the tier one and tier 2 amendments that that I've been speaking to are ones we definitely feel we we can make a changes to. And then these other things where
we've been gathering information and finding these issues, we're like, okay, this this is going to need more brain brain power from from the city, from our residents, um from our development community. How can we address these? Sure. And I'll just add too that I think what
we're learning is that there isn't a silver bullet. You know, there isn't one policy change or one amendment to the development code that will all of a sudden see those numbers skyrocket. Um I was just at a conference this this past week, Congress for New Urbanism, and you
know, something I heard from um you know, consultants that rewrite development codes around the country was that if you're going to rewrite your development code, you and and we I mean, we indicated this when we before we brought it forward, you know, you you need to expect that you're going to be bringing forward multiple rounds of revisions over time to to to fine-tune
it to to what the the needs are of the the local context. Um there's also other factors, you know, that are influencing um housing production in general. Um this what we're learning is that um while one and two units are uh perfectly
appropriate for uh conventional financing, um once you get into three plus units, you're moving into um not only the commercial building code, which uh requires sprinklers and you have to think about your stair wells differently. So it it adds cost. Um but
you're also needing commercial lending. And so this is this is a brand new type of construction that um you know it just hasn't been allowed for the past 40 or 50 years. So I think the market is still learning how to respond to these new
opportunities as well. Okay. Thank you. Okay. So we got about five minutes. We have a robust close session. So you have Yeah. I just wanted to say thank you for all the work all of you. As I look on the list of things that's been have been accomplished
um and the goals that um you have for the future and I reflect back to when I first came on council three and a half years ago. It's remarkable the amount of work that you all have gotten done. Yeah, agreed. Agreed. Is awesome. Thank you. Well, thank you. I appreciate those comments. I'm really fortunate to be
part of this excellent team and I'm sure they would all stand up and tell you lots more things about the work they're doing if we had time. Um, we have a few more minutes. Um, Michael, yeah, I'll I'll save the questions just in interest of time, but um, I'll say, you know, I'll just echo other comments in terms
of the amount of work that's going on. um you know, trying to update the new zoning code itself is huge. And obviously you outlined a lot of big initiatives, short-term rentals, small area plans, uh uh um historic preservation, it's a whole lot. Um I'll
just say I'm very interested to see, you know, kind of a big picture market analysis. Um to echo what councelor Kingston said, you know, I know the old one, even when it took out including any inclusionary zoning, found a very slow rate of change just given market conditions and that was with lower
interest rates, lower land values, lower construction costs. Um so I'm just kind of I think that will make a big impact on what trade-offs make sense and which ones don't. you know, if getting rid of all environmental regulations is really, you know, 1% of, you know, slowing down
new development versus broader market conditions, is that a smart trade-off? Um, and I also, you know, you raised the question, which I've also been thinking a lot about, is at what point do we reach the limit of zoning inducing new supply versus needing to
figure out how do we get involved on the financing side? and to what extent is financing a barrier for spurring new supply? And I'm not saying there's not more tweaks for us to make, but I'm wondering if some of the biggest things we need to look at is either locally or statewide um getting alternative
financing mechanisms, which I don't know the answer to, but the paying development bank. N um yeah, thank you. I just have a couple of quick follow-ups to what um Lloyd was saying. um or what he was
saying reminded me of a couple things. Um for you mentioned and we were talking earlier about uh storm water management and how this code is all unit based but units are not necessarily square footage and storm water is a square footage
problem. So is changing that part of the plan too. So storm water is regulated by the state actually by square footage and also number of units. Um, so the the state has a minimum um square footage requirement for managing storm
water. It's 10,000 square feet. Um, and it it also can only apply to two plus units. So storm water regulations uh do not apply to single detached development. A 10,000 ft like bird's eye
view. Yes. Like I And what I mean by that is like a 10,000 foot Oh, sorry. 10,000 square foot of disturbed area. Okay. Yes. Thank you. That's what I mean. Yes. Not not GFA. Yeah. But so like if there was um four units that took up the same
square footage as two units, you just had another one on top. Like that doesn't disturb any more square footage. Yes. Yes. Um Yes. Bu uh building height can certainly like having having flexible building height uh can certainly support building
up rather than out. Yeah. And but that that would change our storm water management plan because now there's four units, not two, but there's no additional square footage. I think I might have lost you. Can you kind of reframe that? Restate the question. So, um, when a storm water
management plan has to be activated by a certain number of units, if those units were added vertically instead of horizontally, there's no additional square footage that has been disturbed. So why would a taller building with more units need a water management plan that
a shorter building with the same square footage need the same footprint? Yes. Yeah. Thank you. So I think it from a storm water perspective it all goes back to how much area is being disturbed regardless
number of units. Right. The only caveat to that is that we can't regulate storm water for um prop properties that only have one unit on them. Sure, that's fine. But I'm more concerned about like the duplexes, the quadlexes that people are trying to
build that count as four units, but might not be any greater footprint than a duplex or a single family home. There would be no difference in the requirements for storm water based on the number of units. Okay. Right. Yes, that's correct. It's okay. That's what I
was hoping for. Okay. And then um for the utility connections for the sublotss, um how do how do we resolve that? Like if we all collectively think like, hey, it'd be great if they didn't each have to have a separate pipe. What is the the utility department gets involved in changing their regulations
and how does that conversation go? Well, I think it's a question that's happening. It's a question that's being posed internally right now. and you know utilities is a is a partner to us in the development review process. Um so I don't really have any more specifics at this time um on how that conversation
might happen but I like Matt Mr. Alfali said it's definitely something that they're aware of and you know they have raised their concerns about um um about requiring the individual connections why that's important. um you know, if the water if there's an if
there's um if there's a problem with one unit, you want to be able to just shut off that lateral rather than having it affect all the rest of the units. You know, it's a kind of a a liability question, I think, for the city. But, um I think it's really, you know, important for them to be a part of that conversation moving forward. Okay. As
long as that conversation's happening, that's great. Thank you. And I just had one um question and that is you you mentioned that you are waiting to you need to hire I think u university housing. Yes. What's um is it been
advertised have what's it's been advertised for many months. We had a candidate that we thought was going to come join us um and it it fell through unfortunately. Um, challenges with the position are that you are required to have a minimum of three years of
construction experience. Um, and it's really kind of an entry-level salary. Um, and so we're just continuing to recruit. Uh, would love it if anyone could help us spread the word about the opportunity, but we do um, you know,
post it through um through the through the different channels that we're familiar with and just hoping to get some good candidates. Thank you and your staff for all the work that you've done in this presentation. It was a great update, very informative and um thank
you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Um can you read us into close session, please? Thanks. Pursuant to section 2.2-3712 of the Virginia code, I move that the city council close this open meeting convene in a closed session as
authorized by the Virginia Freedom of Information Act as follows. one pursuant to Virginia code section 2.2-3711A1 for discussion and consideration of the appointment performance and salary of a specific named appointee of the public
body specifically to consider to conduct the city manager's annual performance evaluation and two under Virginia code section 2.2-3711A1 for discussion and consideration of prospective candidates to be appointed to the following boards and/or
committees. one, Shaw Redevelopment and Housing Authority, and two, the Retirement Commission. Second. Um, all in favor say yes. All oppose say no. Great. Be back at 6:30, maybe a little bit later. We have a lot to do. So,
thank you. [Music] Part: 2
We apologize for being late. Our close session went a little bit long. We're doing some good still doing good government business. So, we're going to call ourselves out of close session. I move that this council certify by a
recorded vote that to the best of each council member's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from the open meeting requirements of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and identified in the motion convening the close session were heard, discussed, or considered in the closed session.
Second. Second. Okay. Um, is everyone up to vote um electronically? I am not. Okay. So, will um all in favor please say yes. Yes. Yes. All oppose, please say no. Okay. So,
um we will now have a Oh, we will read um the appointments for the retirement committee
and for the SPCA board. Yes. Um we've appointed Ben Cullup. He's been, this is for the retirement commission. He's been reassigned to the community member city resident position
for a term beginning July 1st, 2025. And we've appointed Mr. Chris Cullinan, our city director of finance, to be our representative to the SPCA board. I think that that needs to be a motion from you. I move that we uh appoint Ben
Cull up to the retirement commission um and Chris Cullen into the SPCA board. I'll second. All in favor, please say yes. All oppose, please say no. Okay, it passes. 5-0.
Um we will now have a moment of silence. Thank you all very much. The next item, um, do we have any announcements that we have? Okay, hang on. I got to pull it up. So, if someone else has another one, they can go first. Was there a tennis thing you
wanted to talk about? No, we're going to do that in the fall. Oh, but we we recognize it. Yeah, we would like to acknowledge that the Charlottesville boy boys varsity tennis team won state championship and we plan to have them here in the um September or as soon as
we can when the school starts to officially recognize them, but they have won um I think two years in a row. Yeah. So there it's amazing um team that they have there. So um and then mine, thank you for your patience. Is this uh
Never mind. It already happened. Okay. Pardon me. Okay. So, now we're at the first opportunity for community matters. We have opportunities for 16 people to speak. We have um had eight to um
already sign up to speak um um for these slots and you have three minutes if you give your name and your address or where you live. Um the first one is um Bill Edwood. Good evening. You and I only come once a decade these
days. Um, I wanted to talk a little bit about the 50th anniversary of the mall coming up and more specifically, um, 30 years ago this month, as a result of a a mall that wasn't working for 15 years,
uh there was a a bit of a a storm centered on the fact that city council had uh created a special tax district to pay for someone to come in and tell us how to make the mall work. And as a result of that, there was a large collection of people called the
downtown Cherrett, which I think is mentioned there. And they did a hell of a job as volunteers. At that time, we did we we allowed the stakeholders to be involved, a little bit of process, but we enlisted users. So, we actually
brought in the county people as well as the city people and began to analyze what we thought could happen better in the city. One of the more drastic things amazing today to look back is uh Water
Street and Marcus True were one way. So really you're driving around the mall. If you missed your spot, you can go continue driving around the mall. It changed that to two ways. Also, there was a much stronger sense of children activity safety. Um there was a sense of
the longer away, the longer you the farther away, the longer you stay. a lot of really strong practical solutions done and looking forward I think it would be a great idea uh given that ended up being a public private partnership that was successful
for 10 years and the mall as the mall got itself on foot omni big now the mall has changed uh and we need to react to that change and users can do that best so we would suggest that you consider
uh another type uh with volunteers coming from the city and county which always show up always give their ideas and do a good job of followup. So that's I'm here with my daughter Kate who was 10 years old when we did the last one and I think she's
still emotionally involved. See thanks. Thank you. The next um speaker is Katherine Edwood. Good evening, council members. Um my name is Kate Atwood and uh in these parts better known as Bill's daughter.
Um but I actually uh grew up in Charlottesville and have just returned after 25 years of being away. Um, I've come back with a deep love for this city and um, also an experience of helping
other cities grow with intention through change. And upon coming back to Charlottesville, I just was really able to reconnect to the downtown mall and really the heartbeat of the city as um
the great opportunity that awaits this town and um and its residents um for change that is inevitable. Uh when I was in Atlanta, I led an initiative called Choose ATL, which was a nationally recognized initiative economic
development that allowed the city to reimagine its identity for the next generation. And um through that work, I come back here really with this reverence to see the same thing happen. Um, I think Charlottesville, like many
communities across our nation, is at a a turning point, and I always see that as a great opportunity uh to pull from wisdom from the past, to reenter the community's voices and what the lived experience is today and what we can
re-imagine for tomorrow, much like my father did 30 years ago with the Cherret. So, I'm just here to um offer my support uh my expertise uh as we drive this wonderful city forward um and
also just to commend you all uh for showing up and for doing the work that you do to lead this great city. So, thank you so much. Um, and I would love to see Charlottesville reach its great potential that I've known ever since I was a little girl, running up and down
the downtown mall, going to I was the first grade to go to um middle school at at Walker and then Buford um and then graduated from the University of Virginia. So, thank you for your steadfast leadership and um if I can be
of any support um let me know. Thank you so much. Thank you so much and welcome back. Thank you. Um the next speaker is Harl Foley. Madame Clerk, our um send a message to Remy. Okay, I'll
turn on this when it says let me know when it says three minutes. Takes a second. Three minutes. Okay. Right. Um, hello, Mayor Wade, Vice Mayor Penn,
and city council members. My name is Cheryl Pololey. I live in Charlottesville, and I'm a member of the people's coalition. I'm here today uh with a simple question. Why is the city council voting to approve participating in a bond sale
for a jail expansion when we don't even know what the scope scope is or how much it really costs? Right now, the jail authority is asking the asking the city to commit money, a lot of it without showing the city or
the public a full scope of work. And from what we do know, the law's bid on the table doesn't even fit within the $49 million budget. So why are we rushing forward? If a fifth grader had heard this, they
would say, "Wait, you paying for something you don't even know fully the price of and you not even sure what's going what you're going to get." That's what a fifth grader would say. That's exactly how this is filled. Charlottville
should not be writing a blank check for a project that lacks transparency, accountability, especially when there are so many other urgent needs in our community. housing, mental health care, school, and real safety solutions.
Please do not approve participating in a bond sale for a jail expansion until you have a full scope, a real budget, and the public has a chance to weigh in on the reverse reverse the revised scope.
Thank you so much. Thank you very much, sir. The next speaker is um Cherry Henley. I'm sorry. I'll take my time to Miss Ruby here. Okay. Good evening. Good evening. Um good
evening members of city council. My name is Ruby Cherion and I'm an attorney at Legal Aid Justice Center and a member of the people's coalition. I'm here today to speak about the proposed jail expansion funding. Um, as to others today will note, we cannot ignore how decisions made at the
federal level directly impact us here at the local level. The so-called big beautiful bill has passed the US House and is now headed to the Senate. As my colleague Majesta Dorier wrote in the Richmond Times Dispatch, this proposed bill is an outright attack on people in
poverty. It includes devastating cuts to essential programs like Medicaid and SNAP. It would require the Virginia Department of Social Services, DSS, to process Medicaid expansion renewals every six months, bogging down an already strain system. It would impose
impose work requirements for Medicaid and freeze SNAP benefits while grocery prices continue to increase. But what does that mean for us here in Charlottesville? It means that many Virginiaians, roughly 25% of whom will rely on Medicaid and SNAP, can lose
access to critical support. You'll hear from Rosia Parker that region 10 alone stands to lose 3.2 million in Medicaid funding. Naturally, when federal and state supports disappear, people will look to their local governments to help them meet their basic needs like food,
housing, and healthcare. When the federal funding is slashed, state budgets and local budgets inevitably feel the strain. At a time when our resources will be stretched even thinner, we must prioritize the services our community truly needs, not a jail
expansion. Thank you for your time. Thank you very much. Um, next speaker is Kate. Hello. Thank you for this opportunity to speak. My name is Kate Freley. I live in Charlottesville and I'm part of the People's Coalition. You will be voting
tonight to approve or not to approve the funding resolution for the Armar Charlottesville Regional Jail renovation and expansion project. The pro project was estimated to cost $49 million. With interest, it would
cost $73 million. You were scheduled to vote on this on June 2nd, but at the last minute, the agenda item got pulled. The stated reason for postponing the vote was because all the bids came in
over the $29 million funding plan, and it was stated that ACRJ needed time to redesign the project. Nothing has changed. The jail hasn't figured out what to cut. Now, the project parameters will be decided by the ACRJ board
at their July meeting. You are being asked to approve the funding plan without knowing what it'll pay for. We have some hints, though. Superintendent Kumer explained at the ACRJ board meeting last week that the demolition, new construction, and new square feet,
including the 14 new quote mental health unquote specialurpose segregation cells, will be prioritized. That means the renovation plans will be postponed. This is a bad plan. The
project started some 5 years ago as a renovation project. Now it's demolition, construction, and expansion. You need to know what you're paying for. Whatever renovation work they cut, it will still
have to be done and paid for by taxpayers in the future. If you vote yes tonight, you are agreeing to pay for postponed renovation costs in the future. Vote no tonight. Thank you very much.
Um, the next speaker is Miss Parker. Good evening, city council. I am Rosia Parker and I'm a member of Peter's Coalition. I'm coming to you on behalf of the people for the people. Mental health is not simply the absence of mental illness. Psychological
well-being is very important to this community as we watch this cycle continue with mistreatment of mental health individuals. Due to this big, beautiful bill, if passed, region 10 community services estimates it will lose around $3.2
million for Medicaid funding, which will leave so many people in crisis, such as our unhoused black and brown citizens, will be more affected. As a mental health advocate as well as having mental illness myself, I look at this proposed mental health unit as being solitary
confinement. No one can get well in a sale such as this. The environment is not healthy. Mental health is not chosen. It is an illness that affects many. With this big, beautiful bill and Trump's administration awaiting the decision, I
have a question for you. Will the city of Charlottesville have empathy, compassion, and humanity to fill in the gap of the big beautiful bill reduction or build a big beautiful jail in its place? Thank you. The next speaker is Javier
Roles. Hope I've been um All right. Esteemed members of the Charlottville City Council, my name is Javier Raales. I serve as the new executive director of Simbaras Without Barriers, a nonprofit organization that
has worked for over a decade to empower, educate, and advocate for the immigrant community of the Charlottesville area. I'm speaking to you today about our deep concerns regarding the current trial and proposed continuence of flock safety cameras in our city. We understand that the intent of this camera is to enhance
public safety, but their use raises serious issues about privacy of our fellow residents, the community me and community members, civil liberties of all our neighbors, and we are convinced uh we are concerned of the potential disproportionate harm that that may
cause the immigrant community in our area. Our immigrant neighbors, many of who are from mixed status, families, undocumented members, live under a heightened surveillance with a persistent fear of interaction with the law enforcement. The automated
collection of license plate data through frog safety can pose a serious safety threat. Um despite claims that this technology will be used for local testing, the reality is is that our community needs an insurance that policy
would be in space to not have this information shared with Virginia law enforcement. Um, a major potential here is that the already discussed policy around Virginia law enforcement using this information
could permit city data to be used through 287G agencies for collaboration with ICE on immigration law enforcement functions. The immigrant community has experienced in the last day decade multiple instances in which government
entities and private companies have at first assured that our public data is being collected on sensitive communities will not be used to target those same vulnerable communities. The last six months have shown that through various headlines that these means of collecting
data have been weaponized to harm the immigrant community despite previous assurances that this information is safe to share. We urge the city council to halt use of flock safety cameras in the Charlottville area. I urge you to stand
with the Charlottesville immigrant community and reject these tools that threaten our rights, our safety, and our dignity. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you very much, Mr. Hicks. Good evening. Good evening, mayor, vice
mayor, and and city council members. My name is Earl Hicks and and I am a Charlesville resident with the people's coalition. I am here because I am concerned about
the direction we're headed with the possibility of federal funding cuts. I worry that we've been asked to cut critical services
like mental health care, Medicare, and food stamps and housing. That would be like Robin Peter to pay Paul. People in our community are facing real
crisis. Mental health support is already stretched to its limits. If we shift even more resources away from care and into incarceration,
we are not solving problems. We are making them worse. Please don't sacrifice what we need most to fund what we don't. Thank you. Thank you very much. So we have an
opportunity that was the last of the um eight speakers that pre um registered. We have opportunity for eight more who would like to speak. Alicia. Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity. My name, excuse me, is
Alicia Lenahan and I live in the county. On Saturday, the better angels of our community were on full display. Even as news of the political shootings in Minnesota broke, Senator Warner was here. We asked hard questions and didn't agree with all his answers. There was
respectful discourse and it was peaceful. Even as this administration rewrites history and seeks to re-elevate Robert Lee and others like him, the Jefferson School campus overflowed commemorating Junth, a day that recognizes the end of
slavery by celebrating, educating, and agitating peacefully. Even though the governor activated the National Guard in an attempt to intimidate us and stifle free speech, thousands gathered at Stonefield, uniting in the great nonviolent
tradition of those who came before us. As Reverend William Barber said in Philadelphia, "We have learned through this nation's and I would add this community's painful struggles. Struggles that have taught us we either go forward together or go backwards divided." Our
demonstration of moral strength in it is in opposition to actions that threaten this country, this community, and each of us. The backlash has begun. The administration is loudly doubling down on the largest mass deportation
operation in history. Our immigrant and refugee neighbors deserve sanctuary and need safety. Take courage. Stand against demonization and racism. The budget bill is being debated by the
Senate. Call a press conference. Explain how many children and families will go hungry right here. Explain how many people will lose health care right here. Take courage. Stand against the cruelty of this legislation.
The administration is still gathering and consolidating your personal data, my personal data, our personal data, so it can exert power and control. Take courage. Stand for our right to privacy. Say no to paragrin and flock. Every
elected official, every law enforcement agency, and every resident of Charlottesville must counter the narrative of violence, greed, and corruption coming from the administration and its supporters. These aren't political positions. They are moral positions. Focus on an agenda that
lifts us all to a higher ground. We must join hands across the lines that have been drawn to divide us and stand together. We are the strength of America and we will not stand down. Thank you. Who else would like to speak?
I'll get you next. Thank you. My name is Reverend Karen Man. I'm pastor of Sojourners United Church of Christ. Thanks for allowing me the opportunity to speak to you all again. First, I wanted to say thank you for the responses you've already provided to community member inquiries
regarding immigration. I was pleased to hear that CPD offer officers have been advised to request identification and the purpose of actions taken by federal agents in our community. I'm also pleased to hear that uh confirmation that the city does not participate in
ICE enforcement or have a 287g agreement. We need to be doing all that we can as a community to safeguard all of our neighbors regardless of their immigration status. Like Alicia, I'm concerned that given President Trump's escalation of rhetoric around immigration and the deployment of both
National Guard and Marines in Los Angeles, that we may soon see increased ICE activity in our community or our surrounding communities. As we know, the Trump administration is going after everyone they can, including hardworking longtime residents of our communities. People are being disappeared without due
process, leaving behind families and communities and leaving them reeling in loss and trauma. President Trump's post last night indicates an even heavier emphasis on mass deportations that will terrorize these communities. While he stated that he's specifically targeting
cities much larger than ours, there's no reason to believe that he won't also come after communities like ours and we need to be prepared now as a community. Not having a 287g agreement and not participating in ICE enforcement is a great first step, but things like flock
and paragrin are extremely concerning. As others have noted tonight and in previous meetings, these surveillance and data collection systems are being used by federal immigration authorities to identify and track immigrants and other persons of color and racial profiling and targeting that they enable
are a grave concern to our community. I'm also concerned along with others here about the plans to expand the jail. My church's justice and advocacy ministry supports the position of the people's coalition. The folks here have spoken eloquently and passionately against the jail and expansion and in
favor of real solutions to address the limits of access to mental health health care in our community and the renovation needs of the jail without adding more segregation cells. I also worry about the potential for an expanded jail to be used and/or commandeered by federal
agents in holding detained immigrants. So, I join the people's coalition in asking you to vote no on funding the jail expansion. And I encourage you, as Javier said, to halt the city's use of flock and paragrin. We're not living in normal times anymore. We need to do more
as a community more to protect and safeguard and care for all of our neighbors. Thank you. The gentleman in the red shirt. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Good evening. What I'm here to speak about is
not as large with the community as everybody else is. That's speaking. I'm here more to speak for the members or the uh the residents who live at Kindle Apartments. My name is Richard Bard. I've been living there for about 11 months and we've I came here a couple months ago to indicate uh some issues
that we're having within the building. I can finally say that after 4 months, we're down to our third garage door. Uh it's taken four months to get the first two fixed, so we're now there. But we've had uh cars vandalized. Uh we've had uh issues with people coming into the
building, sleeping on couches. We had one man who lived in our one of the restrooms in our lobby for 5 days and it wasn't until one of our housekeepers found him in the morning. We have people dragging trash through our carpeting in our building. We're already on our second carpeting phase of the entire
building. We have an exercise room that's been vandalized. We haven't been able to use it for over two months. And when you speak to the community people in the management office, we ask, "Why aren't you able to find these people?" They give us every answer. But on Tuesday when we had our community meeting, we found out the real answer is
that the video cameras in our building are not used to prevent crimes or mischief. They're not to identify anybody that does anything. They're quote in case of an emergency. They don't they don't have funds set aside for anybody to review any actions. If I go to them and say on Tuesday at 5:00
this happened, nobody goes and looks at it. Nobody monitors them. Even though our security group, we have a security team and I don't like the fact that they're wearing guns in our buildings, but they actually have have said that they would use the cameras and we've not been allowed to. We have a couple of
young men who have all winter their windows haven't closed. So this weekend they were asking for people to give them towels because of all the rain coming in their windows. All winter they had snow, freezing rain, and the cold. Nobody seems to fix it. Another gentleman came in on Tuesday almost in tears. He and
his wife um for the last six months haven't had heat or AC for themselves or their 18-month old baby. Um he didn't he was going to come with me tonight and he didn't. So I'm hoping that means that his was fixed. Um so again, we're supposed to be the model for the Garrett Square community and if we're they're
just getting ready to double the size. If they can't manage our little townhouse community and our apartment Kindlewood, how are they going to double in size and be able to maintain that? And um I've reached out to people in Richmond and everybody said, "Well, they've got the the garage door fixed, so now they're moving forward." So the
other thing is I would like everybody listening here and the board members to look at uh the the Department of Energy section 504 is about to be repealed. I believe it's July 15th, which now indicates that no more uh will a building that with federal funding has
to be accessible with PE for people with disabilities. So, I I encourage anybody to go on that site and to talk to them about it and try to figure out why is it that buildings cannot don't have to be accessible for people with disabilities. We can have a $45 million pompus parade,
but we can't build a a wheelchair ramp. I don't understand. I also would like to pass it. Can I pass this to anybody that um I'd like to join one of the boards for for um Mr. Chief Kra. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Thank you,
sir. Okay. So much um appreciate that. We we definitely will continue to have staff to to look into that to the matters over there. Um we have opportunity for um what five more speakers. I forgot where we were. Five more. Don.
Good evening everyone. Good evening. Um I too come to rise and support the people's coalition and uh speaking against the the jail expansion or our funding of the jail expansion.
Um some 250 years ago this country fought a war against the British for freedom. Around 160 years ago we fought an internal war again for freedom. Now, recently we've had some monuments removed that uh were not expressive of
freedom. And even UVA put up a memorial to enslaved laborers, folks who were captured and held hostage against their will. But now we're still battling and discussing the enslavement of people
because imprisonment equals slavery. I mean, we just saw the wouldbe fury in DC throw $45 million away unnecessarily and senselessly, but now the city is apparently trying to one up him by throwing away $49 million
senselessly and unnecessarily. Um, now two of you face elections tomorrow. Those people who haven't voted are watching to see what you do. Those who have voted are waiting to hear what you say.
I ask and I urge you to do what's morally right and expedient. Those funds would be much better served going towards seeking mental health assistance, a viable cure for homelessness in the city, or dare I say be seed money
towards reparations. Please don't further the opportunities to bar freedom. Put the monies where it would be better utilized. Thank you. Thank you very much. Who else would like to speak? Chris.
All right. Good evening, councilors, staff. Chris Meyer, 124 Oklahoma Court. Speaking in on myself as a citizen resident. Uh want to welcome the new city attorney. Uh we haven't had one for a long time. Uh and happy to see one in place. Uh little concerned that we
missed the filing on the zoning case and and I'm hoping uh that that will be taken care of. I know there's a lot of people who want to build more housing in this community, myself being one of them. And not having certainty that the zoning uh code and update is in place is
very disconcerning. Uh so I hope there's measures being taken place to basically solve that andor if that's not going to be resolved or found in in our favor that uh you figure it out and pass it correctly quickly. Uh I want to make some comments also about uh
Charlottesville Gas. Uh you all are the board to Charlottesville Gas. Uh I'm basically a shareholder as one of the residents. really just uh concerned about some of the answers or lack of answers they gave at the last public hearing about the rate increase. Uh,
councelor Snook, I think you had a lot of good questions about how many people are joining or new accounts are there in addition to uh I think in response to how much they charge for a new gas hookup of $340,
which I think a lot of us know is not the real cost um that they've had 23 new hookups after that has passed. So if the whole idea of charging for a gas hookup is that we don't have more gas hookups, uh I don't think that price is really
working in addition to it. I think we all know that's not the real cost. Uh moving on to the carbon credits that we keep on buying each year. I think we're up to probably 1.3 1.4 four million over the last five or six years that we spent
to British Petroleum and other places rather than spend that money here locally. 1.3 $1.4 million, right? Over the last five or six years, $280,000 a year or something like that. And again, over that same period of time, we only spent $280,000 weatherizing and doing energy
efficiency work on low-income homes here. Uh I am concerned that I think as Mr. P you mentioned we're not decarbonizing. We're actually putting more carbon and locking in more accounts that only going to cost us more in the future. So, uh I
do hope you pull the item off the agenda, the consent agenda, excuse me, and maybe have us a little more discussion on it. You know, I think we had these same conversations over the last couple years, and I don't think we're seeing change. I My concern is is that we're going to sit here another year and not see a lot of
change. Uh, I don't know if that's the utility that doesn't want to change. I don't know if it's I think all you want to see change, but I don't think we're unfortunately seeing a lot of progress in the direction we want to go. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. My name is Steve Herrick. I live in Al Mar County and I want to speak to the immigration issue in ICE locally. What should we do if suddenly surrounded or see others surrounded by people in
ordinary clothing who without showing legal authorization attempt to force us into a nondescript vehicle? For many years, I worked for an international human rights organization. I supported freedom worldwide, including
those that of those in countries like the Soviet Union and China. Their arrests were often like the scenario just described and now have now recently occurred in Charlottesville. Self-defense training typically advises
never to allow a random stranger to coers you into a vehicle. In recent months, in multiple states have been arrested for impersonating ICE. During arrest, ICE officers often
misrepresent who they are, what what legal authorization they have, or where they're taking the arrestee. Charlottesville is facing ICE conduct inconsistent with due process.
This undermines public confidence in an inclination to be helpful to local law enforcement. I realize that city authorities do not control federal or state law enforcement. However, as local
officials, you likely have more far more influence than the rest of us. When ICE acts in ways that contravene due process, local authorities can formally protest
as some jurisdictions already have. Please use the city's prosecutotorial discretion to decline to prosecute those who nonviolently challenge ICE officers when they fail to
provide bonafide evidence of their specific authorization to arrestes before detaining them. Please also decline federal and state requests for city cooperation or use of
city detention facilities unless the targeted person has been convicted of a violent crime and has an unfulfilled sentence. We live in the land of Jefferson and
Madison. We need to ensure we act like it. Thank you. Thank you. We have opportunity for two more speakers. Who Good evening, city council. My name is Lena Seville. I live in the Belmont neighborhood of Charlottesville, and I'm
here to support the people's coalition against the regional jail renovation funds. I um I think that approving the money without a final scope or price uh is irresponsible and and it takes
away all negotiating power. I mean, if there's anything that you do or don't want to see in this, you don't have an opinion once you've once you approve those funds. So, I would say you absolutely should not approve it until after you know what you're approving.
Um, next I'm I'm really concerned about these mental health beds. Um, I think they are woefully inadequate. They uh they are um they're seclusion beds until until medication
stabilizes the person, but that assumes that medication works. and it doesn't for every mental health issue, which means that people could be held in basically solitary confinement, which we know is really bad for mental health. So, this can exacerbate problems
and make them significantly worse. Um, we've seen um with with the current administration, we've seen a rise. I'm I'm sort of jumping around, but uh with the current administration, we've seen
both a defunding of mental health uh and programs for the poor and and we're also seeing a rise in prices of raw materials because of tariffs. So, we have no idea how expensive this this is going to be, but we do know that we do need money for
people low income and who have mental health issues. So, I'm asking you, please do not vote for this or participate in any way for something that could lead to the criminalizing of poverty and people with mental health. Thank you. One more opportunity for one
more person to speak. Hi. Uh, my name is Cybo Flynn. I'm a resident living in Carlton. Um, I've been hearing the People's Coalition speaking a lot um about all of this and I just want to kind of add my voice. I work in climate justice on the local
level. um listening to all of their testimony, listening to their input, their expertise, their their awareness, their their relationship with um the expan the jail expansion uh can't help to be struck by some of the connections when I think about the city's finances and how it's prioritizing different
financial decisions. funding a jail expansion without understanding the scope of the final cost, not leading with renovations that actually would benefit people who may, you know, want for whom we want more humane uh conditions. Um consider considering
surveillance technologies that handshake with a racist anti-immigrant federal agenda. continuing the slow squeeze on especially poor renters by uh who are forced to use gas by continually increasing gas rates without first identifying how it's going to affect
them. Um all of these things as was just said they continue to criminalize poverty. This is something we need to be actively working against on our local level. We know that for a fact. I know all of you know that. All of us in this room here know that. How are we actually addressing this first? How are we considering the residents needs, the
people's needs? I don't want to be funding something that is criminalizing poverty and accommodating this agenda when that's not the values that any of us want to be leading with. So that's all I want to say. Thank you. Thank you.
Um that was the last speaker for this time. There'll be another opportunity at the end. We are now um at the consent agenda. Consent agenda number two, a resolution to
appropriate $266,387 in FY24 Meadow Creek Golf Course Surplus Funds. Second reading. Three, ordinance to amend and reordain city code chapter 31, utilities to establish new utility
rates and service fees for city gas, water, and sanitary sewer. Second reading. Number four, resolution to allocate housing operations and support or hops FY26 grant funding for affordable housing and homelessness
support programs in the amount of $460,574. And this should be one of two readings. Number five, resolution authorizing hospital to home to operate as a non-emergency medical transport agency in Charlottesville.
Is there a motion to adopt the consent? Um I actually have a quick question about one of them on um for number three which is the utility rate. Um the carbon credits that's not part of this section, right? That's not something we're voting on today where
the carbon credits go towards that's that's an operational practice. That would be a different a different discussion. Okay. I just wanted to make sure that wasn't part of today. Thank you. Yeah. And I think when we got the update, we all had We we all agreed, right? That's why I wanted to make sure we weren't that keeping going with what
we we didn't want to continue doing that. Yeah. And I on a totally different issue on item five, I'm just at a high level, I'm curious. I know a lot of communities have had private ambulance services be very predatory in terms of the um
pricing. like what is the what's the benefit of allowing you know a private ambulance operator to um operate in the community uh to benefit the Charlottesville this is a private entity that wants to do business in the city of Charlottesville
and by um office of office of EMS regulations the governing body has the authority to allow them or disallow them and they just they want to function within the city. They would just be doing patient
transports from the hospital to people's homes or Dallas's patients and things of that nature. They won't be part of the public safety. Yeah. And I'm and I'm aware that they won't be part of like a 911 call or anything like that. Um and I guess I don't know. I'm in a tough spot
because I don't really know much about it or the industry. I just know there's a lot of issues even in that non 911 response of people getting hit with a massive bill that insurance won't cover and being like surprised with it through these private services. Um, and I'm just
unclear whether we're kind of if there's a clear public safety benefit to this or if we're just introducing a new risk that people get hit with a huge bill coming home from the hospital that they didn't realize this isn't covered by insurance and is a private for-profit company. But it's I say it's a private
entity. It's a private business and they contract with whoever they're going to do the service for. So how would it how would it work? Now if someone like needed a ride home from the hospital, they would contract Well, we have UVA and Martha Jefferson in our
jurisdiction. So they would contract with UVA and Martha Jefferson and they would have the terms and conditions on taking the patients back and forth charging insurance and maybe a bill. I don't know their financial makeup
because it's like it's a private entity. It has nothing to do with SH. So right now there's already some private entity that is contracting with several private entities doing this would just be another one in the roster of companies. And does the patient leaving get like a menu of people to choose from or is it
just whoever's up next? That's a situation between the organization and the company contracts on that service. So we don't any other Thank you. I I don't have any additional questions. Appreciate it. Any
other questions? If not, can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda? a move for approval of the consent agenda. Second. Second. All in favor, please say yes. All oppose, please say no. Great.
So, we're now at the city manager um report. And this is um allowing that one to to pass on on one reading. Correct. Um the one that's supposed to have two.
Well, um Oh, number four. Recommended just adding that wording that you are allowing that to pass with just one reading for number four. For number five. Which one? Number four. Number five. Number five. That you're okay with with that?
Yes. Yeah. Good evening, Mayor, Council, members of the public. Uh there is a scheduled presentation uh for uh Mr. newer in the office of human rights, but I've asked uh Chief Cotchas to come and give an update on a couple of matters uh public
safety oriented specifically. Good evening, Mayor, members of council, city manager. Um I'm just going to give a quick few few quick updates. Uh I want to start by uh speaking about the demonstrations this weekend and um just
giving major kudos to the organizations that put that on. I think they counted somewhere around 6,000 folks that showed up. I was in the command center and I think it's a model on how how these things really do go and I couldn't be more proud of the community for stepping
up and and and showing how to do this the right way. So, uh thank you especially to uh Indivisible uh Charlottesville who uh who put this on and worked with us to make sure it was a peaceful event. So, uh I want to thank them for that. Um, another event we have
coming up this Friday, uh, if you remember about a year and a half ago, this body passed an ordinance allowing us to do a gun buyback. And, uh, it was a priority set back then. Um, state law requires that there be an ordinance that enables us to do this gun buyback. We
put a lot into this. And uh the first one is going to be this Friday uh between 1000 p.m. and I'm sorry 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. um at uh uh Mount Zion uh first uh African Baptist Church here in the city. And um it we're we're
looking forward to a successful event. It's going to be a gun safety um and gun buyback event. So, uh, Moms Demand Action is going to be there working with us, handing out literature on safe gun ownership, responsible gun ownership, and then, um, you can be, if you bring
bring your firearms, unwanted firearms. Uh, we will take them, no questions asked, no ID, and we will give you, uh, gift cards depending on what it is for them. So, um, that's this Friday. So, so come on out. Yes. If somebody is working during those hours but would still like to participate in the program, what is
the best way for them to get in touch and follow through with that? They can they can reach out to me directly and or um if they're working during those hours and they have like a firearm that they want to get destroyed or whatever, right? Because they work 9 to5 and can't make a 10 to two event. They could give
the firearms to someone else. And um again, there's no questions asked. So somebody could show up, they could put four or five firearms in their trunk and open it. We'll take them, give them the gift cards based on what kind of firearms they uh they have and uh and we'll destroy them. So
Okay. Thank you. Yep. Absolutely. Um and then another thing is the um the speed cameras. So we did our first week trial of that for uh over about 10 days and over that time we just gave out warnings but in uh in that short period of time
there were 181 warnings issued and so in the fall those will be real tickets. Um it we're we're kind of using it to see what kind of capacity it takes for us as a police department because state law requires a police officer to look at every one of those tickets before they
go out. And so we're working through that now. But um that that that's a lot. So yes, if that was a real ticket, how much would the charge for it be? I believe it's $100. All right. Thank you. Yes. Just trying to calculate some revenue. Yeah. Well, the general
assembly this past year passed legislation beginning July 2026. Any revenue come that comes from that has to go to the literary fund in Richmond. Okay. So, um, and then finally, I wanted to just talk briefly about the, uh, shootings that we've seen on the mall
over the last week. We've had two shootings um, in a matter of seven days on the downtown mall. Um, our investigations preliminarily indicate basically you have a lot of individuals carrying firearms in establishments,
drinking alcohol. Um some look like they may be overcrowded and when they empty out around 1:40 1:30 a.m. um emotions run high and if you have firearms and uh we've seen what's happened. So a few
things we are doing. We are deploying more resources onto the mall so you will see them in the evenings especially on Friday Saturday nights when those establishments let out. Um and then uh we are working with our partners with alcohol beverage and control uh to um
you know kind of figure out and work with those businesses. Are there things security measures they may be able to take to help them with? You know, I don't know those answers right now. We're still really looking into that, but working with business owners to make sure they're successful and that we can uh that have a safe environment for
everyone to go out. And so we'll continue doing that. And I plan on meeting with those business owners hopefully here in the next two weeks to discuss those things as well to let them know what we're doing and some recommendations that they may be able to take so we can work together on uh making sure folks can go out and have a
safe safe time. So with that, if there's any questions, I just wanted to note that um maybe about 10 years ago um on the corner there was an incident and at the Harris terra there was an incident with ABC officers getting a little too aggressive about their work. And so I
just want to kind of put the notice out that we remember that and we want to make sure that they're being careful and fair. Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you. You know, Flock and Paragrin. What's that? Flock and Paragrin. The two programs.
Yeah. Okay. So, uh, Paragrin. Um, we are pausing Paragrin. We're not going to be using it at this point. Um, we we had a grant that was accepted by this body. Um but after hearing some things and some concerns u we're going to hold off on on using paragrin and so as a result of
that there are some things like I said we cannot do I've instructed center for policing equity today that we won't be able to finish that work uh at this point um and then just a few other things but you know maybe down the road we can do it and u and have other ways
of doing those things then uh we'll continue to we'll look for those um solutions. So uh flock. So right now what we have done and we are the only jurisdiction in the state uh we have shut off access to our flock system to
everyone. What does that mean? It means uh in the past our initial policy was that anyone outside the Commonwealth of Virginia and federal agencies would not have access to our system. They didn't. They have it never have. But states within Virginia still did. And was that
I'm sorry. Counties and cities. Yes. I'm sorry. Um, so the question around jurisdictions that have signed on to the 287G program and those who don't may not know what that is, that is a federal program that allows local jurisdictions
to do immigration enforcement. There are 13 of them in Virginia. Uh, some of them are are near here. And so because of that and the possibility that they could be doing enforcement with flock if they have access to it, we have also shut off
to all uh all local jurisdictions within the Commonwealth of Virginia. Now what does that mean? We don't have access to the state system. So if we're tracking a missing kid, a car, anything like that, we do not have um access to the state
system to track that person or to track that car or locate that missing person. But we still can use it locally. And um the the shootings this past week um Flock has been a key part in identifying those individuals involved in it in both
of those and we continue to use it for for those cases just locally, but we are not sharing it with any other jurisdiction. Any questions? Thank you. Yeah, I just want to say thank you for tailoring your response. you know, there's still a lot
of people concerned about it. We've spoken tonight, which I appreciate and respect, but when people bring concerns to this body and to the city manager and to you, um, y'all listen to it and try to tailor as appropriate. And not
everyone will agree that this is perfect, but I think, you know, you're making thoughtful uh adjustments in the wake of the environment we're in while still trying to keep a focus on solving these crimes.
And we'll continue to do that. We need we we will continue to listen to this community and the concerns this governing body has and our community has and tailor our policy and practices what we do. So, and if it gets to a point where I where I don't feel like uh I can
protect um the concerns of those in this community around this stuff, we won't use it anymore. Appreciate that. Yeah. Any other questions or comments? Thank you for the update. Thank you. Just the comment one briefly on the the question of the paragrin system. A month ago, I
sat up here and was frankly agonizing over how I I wanted to come down on it. And I thought about it a lot more. And at that point, I guess it was three to two with not a lot of enthusiasm on the
three in favor uh and two against. And I thought about it a lot more and I started reflecting in particular on two things. One was the way things were going nationally. Uh and the second was the re the realization that
one of our tasks has to be to exercise our imaginations at least as well as the other side is exercising their imaginations and exercising their exercising our imagination. I had concluded that
despite my earlier expression of some support, I was opposed, which I sort of tips the balance, I suppose. And I I appreciate the fact that you and and and Mr. Sanders basically recognized where everything was headed with all of that and and and made the change that you
did. So, thank you, sir. Thank you, Chief. Thank you. Thank you, Todd. Well, good evening, uh, Mayor Wade, Vice Mayor Kingston, City Council, City Manager. Uh, good evening. What's up? Good evening. Matt, good evening. Sorry
about that. Good New Year. Uh, my name is Todd Nemire. I'm the director of the human rights commission for the city of Charlottesville and uh here tonight uh to present our 2024 annual report summary. Um you've received the full report in your agenda packet. This is just a brief summary of what's in that
report. We're also here with Jason Melendez who's vice chair of human rights commission and he'll be here to answer any specific questions you may have around the commission's work in 2024. Um I'll be brief. Uh this is just the general thing I'm going to go over this evening. We'll do a quick overview of
the commission uh and the office and what they do. Uh we'll highlight the work that we did in 2024, offer some observations and opportunities that emerge from that work, and we'll take a look at the human rights commission's work plan for this year. Um as you know, the human rights
division is part of the city manager's office. Uh it's enabled by the human rights ordinance. Um and that forms the two bodies uh that make up the human rights division, which is the human rights commission and the office of human rights. U as you're familiar with the the commission, it's a nine member body that's appointed by council to
address systemic issues, conduct community outreach, and ultimately advise council on uh uh issues related to human and civil rights. Office is currently staffed by four uh full-time employees. We address individual complaints of discrimination filed into the Charlottesville human rights
ordinance. We also conduct human uh community outreach in conjunction with a commission and sometimes individually uh as an office. Um then we provide administrative support to the commission. Just another snapshot of how our organizational structure works. Uh
again, under the city manager's office, uh and specifically under the deputy city manager for social equity, there's four staff currently working in the office. I highlight this slide because this is basically the guide to the work that we do. Um section 2-433 of the ordinance is
basically the six major areas in which the commission and office engage in work around human rights. Uh the report that's in your agenda packet is organized around these six items as well as the summary tonight. The first one being individual
assistance uh is the primary responsibility of the office of human rights to receive uh individual complaints of discrimination filed under the human rights ordinance. gives you a brief snapshot of how many people uh uh we were serving in the past year. Um I think some of the most important things
I can point out to you on this is that uh the work had in in terms of jurisdictional complaints nearly doubled which means more investigative work also more alternative dispute resolution work. Um what I'm examining now with that is how do we how do we structure
our office going forward in in in the anticipation of increased workloads um and personnel requirements. So, um, that's both an intake investigation, but also, uh, with regard to outreach to populations we may not be reaching, which brings me to the next point. Um,
this section of the ordinance I kind of think about as our outreach section. Um, you can see that we did a lot of outreach in 2024, um, and reached a lot of people. However, u, I think there's more work to be done there. Uh while the commission does engage in outreach on
its own, oftentimes it's in conjunction with the office of human rights uh outreach. Uh and so we're looking this year is how do we more actively engage in planning for outreach um and simply because the more outreach we do, the more community engagement we we seek uh
that leads to better uh and more informed systemic impact work especially around policy and legislative agenda recommendations. I think another thing to pull out of the data from this year is that uh we received a significant number of inquiries um originating in Almor County which may point to an
opportunity for a conversation with the county about how they're thinking about human and civil rights in their jurisdiction. Um again, all of this work especially around the outreach uh is a big task. Uh requires staffing to engage both with the commission and the community in that regard and to help uh
arrange any of that engagement. Um so again we're thinking a lot about how do we structure uh our current four staff office to maximize uh the community engagement impact work going forward. One of the other responsibilities of the
commission each year is to take a look at city policies and provide some recommendations to council on those city policies. For the past couple of years they've been focusing on housing issues. Um, and again, they're focusing on housing issues, uh, in 2025, uh, with a little bit different twist
this year, but we'll talk about that when we get to the work plan. Um, I think one of the important things I want to point out to you as counselors is that, um, this is an invitation for dialogue with the commission. Um, when they send you recommendations, feel free to uh, respond and give feedback if you
have concerns or questions about any of those recommendations. Um, the uh, commission anticipates that and welcomes that. Um I think uh the other thing I want to point out here in terms of observations and opportunities is that providing uh well-informed and relevant
recommendations to council takes a bit of community engagement and partnership uh as well as some research. Um and as we think about again what does that entail? That entails a lot of staff time um in support of the commission. So again, we are thinking about how do we
best use our uh limited staff to do that work um and in in increasingly uh better ways, but also how what partnerships can we seek in the community to to facilitate that and make it less of a burden on staff.
Uh over the last few years we've worked pretty hard on this federal work share bit that is uh uh to remind you seeking partnerships primarily with the federal fair housing office um and the uh equal employment opportunity commission. Uh we
focused mostly on the federal uh uh fair housing office under the fair housing assistance program did a lot of ordinance amendments to uh achieve what they call substantial equivalence in our ordinance to federal fair housing law. What I would say is that while that made the ordinance stronger and more
comprehensive and the likelihood of of work share um very strong and conversations with the director at the HUD office, I will also say that I've not heard much uh in response to that in the last few months and I know that there's been a lot of changes at the federal level in terms of how they're
enforcing civil and human rights. So if a contract is presented to the city, I think it's really important to consider what are the impacts there and is it still in the best interest of the city and community to enter that contract if it does come. On
you have a question on that on that point. Obviously that's something the city and and you all have been working on for years to beef up um you know our ability to do investigations into housing discrimination. So basically at this point It would sound like there's no certainty
they will even respond to get to that finish line. It's my understanding that there's not very many staff people if if any left uh at the federal office. So, while they were working on a contract um when we spoke with them back in March,
uh we have not heard any more response from that. So, I know the proposal, I can't remember if it was to cut HUD staff by 40 or 60%. It's significant. Yeah. So, um I, you know, I have some hope that it may continue in the future, but at this point, um I don't think it's
likely. Uh with regard to the legislative program, that is another primary responsibility of the commission. Um each year they provide you with uh state level legislative agenda recommendations. Um and they'll do so again this year. Uh I think their
process with this continues to improve using uh panel uh discussions during their meetings also engaging with the public through polls as well as uh they're going to do some more stakeholder meetings this year. Um again it's takes a lot to organize that. So, I
just want to point out again that as we try to improve this process and make it more relevant and um reflective of community needs, uh we're going to continue to think about how we restructure our staffing to to effectively support that work.
Last on that list of duties in the uh ordinance is a review of commission policies. Um this is primarily around the guiding documents that uh tell us how we do our work and how the commission does its work. Um so that's the human rights ordinance and the human rights commission's rules and procedures. Um a lot of revisions
happened uh during that process of uh preparing for those federal work shares that that strengthened the ordinance and clarified some of the roles of the commission. Um again this is another one of those areas when we do that work. Um I think it's important on an annual basis to take a look at all of the
governing and guiding documents u that reflect uh how we're supposed to do our work. But again, thinking about how do we how do we prioritize staff time to make sure that that work um gets done and is done effectively on an annual basis is another thing that's on our minds now. Um I'll briefly go over how
we're thinking about work for the commission in this year. And you'll notice that the dates say March 25 to February 26. their their work plan year really runs between those dates because uh when new commissioners start that are appointed by council who are replacing uh commissioner terms that have that
have ended they start in March and that's also the month that the annual meeting of the commission takes place so that's why those dates look the way they do again housing access and stability across protected classes and economic status is the focus this year uh similar to last year I think what uh what's
different about this year as I pointed out in the other parts of the presentation is that engaging community to better assess current emerging needs is really a way um forward for us. I think that's something we're really trying to prioritize um going forward just because the changing needs and the
changing uh national and local landscape um really I think cater to that right now. So, um, again, we'll hold some public, uh, expert panel meetings, uh, as well as some individual community stakeholder meetings to hopefully get you those legislative recommendations by
August 30th. Um, and then we'll adopt city, uh, policy recommendations for you sometime thereafter. I haven't quite decided on those dates yet. Um, that's that's all I have to give you in terms of a presentation here. Um, but I'm open to questions. I think it's an important time to consider what is our role with
regard to human and civil rights uh in our local community as things change uh at the local and or at the federal and state level. I think it becomes a very critical question and um if you have questions I want to invite uh Jason to come up as well if you have any questions specifically about the
commission's work. I I don't have any questions. Um I did read the full report. Um, and you touched on a little and I don't know the answer to it, but one of the things I'm definitely thinking about is
particularly with, you know, the FHAP agreement. How do we approach that? Is it holding on to it and, you know, hoping that at some point there will be a different kind of administration um, and a different kind of leadership at HUD and we can return to that? Um, is
it to abandon it if you know certain directives come or if it's just abandoned by HUD? Um, I was just kind of wrestling with I don't know the right approach. Um, and something else in the report that really jumped out to me is how many cases that came to you were
people who are needing assistance navigating CRA because CRA is the main issuer of vouchers in our community. And I don't know if that is the office of human rights role to take on that, but it jumped out at me. It's like that is already a huge need in the community to
to help people navigate through CRA and I'm just thinking again with you know 40 or 60% of HUD staff under proposal to get cut I mean that crisis is just going to become even greater. Um so no questions but those are kind of the two things that jumped out to me that I was
like I don't know what we do here but it's a big problem. Well, and if I can offer you just a short response, I think um with in terms of the Fair Housing Assistance Program, um you know, it it doesn't really change anything for us at the moment, right? We the the changes made to the human rights
ordinance stand, right? And it strengthens the ordinance. strengthens the the the ability of the office to do investigations and the the ability of the the commission to to review those findings and and uh ultimately if there's a finding of reasonable cause u
that that automatically leads to uh a civil proceeding in court which is a powerful thing for us to hold. Um and it that stands regardless of the the federal work share. I think that if we were to receive a contract um a draft contract from HUD, it would just be very important to look at what are the terms
of that contract. Um and that would be something we'd immediately share with the city attorney's office for that review. Um and in terms of uh navigation with the complexities of of of vouchers and all that stuff, yeah, it's a it's continual issue. I know that there are a
number of uh mostly nonprofit and some city agency uh workers who are helping with that navigation, but it it's a it's a big deal. It's a complex system. There's uh always increasing complexities when interacting with landlords and how they interpret
vouchers. So, I don't have an answer for that either. And I I would love to see yes, maybe more discussion around that, especially as we think about how we engage with the community and hear more about what they need. Um maybe some recommendations will come on that. Yeah. And just um again not a question but just wanted to shout out the work of the
human rights commission as well just in terms of the work you've done on state legislation which has made it into our city legislative packets and I think hopefully over the next couple years may actually a lot of it may actually be able to come legislation um if there's a different context. So, um, that work
has, you know, made it made its way into our legislative packets. And, um, I think it's important to hold on to, I think we're the only locality in central Virginia with a human rights, um, uh, uh, office that investigates, um, housing and employment discrimination.
Um, one of the few in the state of Virginia, as well as the, um, work of the Human Rights Commission, I think, is pretty unique in terms of Virginia. Um, and so I hope we don't lose sight of the value of what you all offer because, um, it's not just annual reports that you give us that we, you know, breeze
through. Um, your work really does influence, I think, um, you know, our actions as as city council and city government. So, thank you. And, Council Member Payne, I apologize. I wanted to thank you for bringing up the housing navigation issue. Um, I bring this up not to embarrass my colleague, but to
share that over the past four years of us working together, that navigation is something that we've continuously had discussions back and forth about how much can your office of human rights do along with those other functions that you just highlighted of being, you know, the only office of human rights that
does those investigatory services. Also in the audience, we happen to have our Brack lead who can also share about the uh work that that nonprofit along with other um nonprofits serving our unsheltered community does for that housing navigation. And internally, Home
to Hope and Department of Human Services also does that navigation. And I'd hate to say it's still not enough. Um same with our Department of Social Services. It's just a very complex topic. So I just wanted to share that is something that we actually talk about quite often
of how much of that work can this office carry other offices as well as uh working with our colleagues uh to you know to figure out how we can better manage that. But it is a bit of a beast. Yeah, definitely. And I know you all are involved in a lot of inform work. I got another phone call today about elevators
and HVAC being down in Midway Manor and I know there's issues like that all throughout the city that you also try to get involved in. So anyway, I'm done. Thank you. Yeah. Could I ask a question about your slide? Uh 2-433A individual assistance. You said that the
complaints nearly doubled. Yes. Any sense of what that what's driving that? I don't know. Um and part of that is could be I mean there's a lot of different factors there. Uh we did a lot of community outreach in 2024. Uh we really ramped that up. Um that could
just be mean meaning that more people know about it. Um uh I think also that we have been able to with the addition of our in intake and investigative staff um we didn't have them before. Um now we have staple staffing we can actually take complaints where we've had to refer
to federal agencies before because we just didn't have the capacity to investigate every complaint that came in. So there's a number of things um that could be contributing to that is uh one of those things we're trying to figure out how do we track that? Um, one of the things in our database that we do now when we get a new contact, a new
inquiry or complaint, we try to ask people, "Where'd you hear about this? Why what brought you here?" So, we may get a little bit of a sense of that um after we do that for a year. Mr. Melindas, you're how often does the commission meet? So, we are meeting on a monthly cadence for business meetings
and work sessions the first week of the month. Okay. Occasionally. in your meetings is I guess there's a time and place for people to give comment and Yes. So, we do have two public comment periods. They usually take place at city space, so uh super easy and convenient. We've got parking
validation tickets for folks as well. Uh just come in, sign up for public comment. There's one at the beginning and one at the end of the meeting. Good deal. Are you is there are you are you having lots of people come every every meeting or is it sort of sparsely attended or you know, I'll say it's been
sparsely attended, but it's has started to pick up recently. We've had a few folks uh come to some recent meetings um and share some concerns we've been able to actually, you know, facilitate some action on. So, Okay, great. Well, thank you. Laura, do you have any questions? Thank
you. I just have one. Um uh for the complaints being doubled, um I just it might be helpful to go back to that slide if possible. Um because it says 288 unique individuals served, 13 complaints open, and 1841 incoming contacts. And then the next says the
next says complaints nearly doubled. Does that mean 13 is the double number? That's correct. Okay. Yes. So we use some terms of art in there. So if you think about um uh complaints as being the thing that's jurisdictional under the ordinance that we can investigate uh
use uh our uh alternative dispute resolution tools to address or investigate. Um that that's what I'm talking about there. inquiries are when people contact our office, but it's either non-jurisdictional for whatever reason or it's a different issue that
has not a discrimination issue um that we try to refer or address in some other fashion. So that's the bigger number there. Okay. And so um complaints going from like 7 to 13 for example is nearly doubling. But do the the new inquiries
that kind of seem because that seems like a relatively small number just in the grand scheme of things out of you know 1841 incoming sure um contacts did that number change let's see that number is I
think it was higher I'm trying to I have to look at the data again I could look it up if you really want to know or I can talk well just you know is that scale also doubling or it's not just a that went up. It peaked a little bit like two years ago and now it dropped maybe by a couple hundred or so. It's
kind of holding steady at around that 2,000 range per year. Um but yeah, that if you want the exact numbers, I can pull those. Well, no, I think that just kind of means I mean those mean different things, you know. So, so if it's that um complaints are sorry, uh
inquiries are staying about the same but then more complaints are being handled, that feels more like a capacity expansion than a Yeah. you know, increase in bad things happening overall. Hopefully, that could be true. Yeah. I mean, who knows? Who knows why? Yeah. But, um, okay. Thank you for help
clarifying what those numbers mean. Sure. Thank you. Appreciate it. And thanks for all the good work that you're doing and the bracing you have to do for whatever comes next. Thanks. Yeah, it's been, you know, you I've done a lot of work over the few years. You almost got it the ordinance approved. I mean, we
approved it by getting the certification or whatever from the feds. That's uh a lot of agencies and departments are going through that. They just have no one. I was talking with someone today about the airport and you know it's a lot of people have been working FAA for
30 40 years are leaving and it's going to hurt you know a lot of airports that are looking to grow, expand and change and it's it's chaos. So, thank you all so much. Thank you. That is the city manager's report. Thank
you. So, um the next item on the agenda is some action items. We have a um a public hearing and resolution to appropriate additional funds for the um VAT Virginia Department of Transportation um city of Charlottesville's um project portfolio
23 um,000. Is that No, it's 23 million. It's 23,317,263. The first of two readings. Good evening, city council. Good evening. Uh Mike Otter, deputy director of public works here to present the
aforementioned resolution. Um though it looks relatively complicated, it's actually a fairly simple uh resolution. I think uh we're appropriating uh with two exceptions, we're appropriating VOTE funding for VOTE
projects that the city's administering. Um the two exceptions I'll point out. Uh first is a transfer from the city's underground utilities project account. That's for the East High Street project in the amount of 3,90,985.
uh and that's simply using our own funds to take care of some undergrounding of utilities which was uh part of the project scope. Uh the other exception is a transfer from the parks and wreck trails project account for the uh bike
ped project at Washington Park in the amount of $5,961. Here to answer any questions you might have. Yeah. Before we open up the public hearing, does council have any questions? Just um to confirm my understanding was
accurate having read through it. These include projects you've modified in the past, but this essentially has no significant changes to any of these projects in terms of the design scope or what will be built? No, there are not changes to the project scope. This is just the matter of bringing in the VOTE
funding and making it available for us to spend. Right. Thank you. Um, no. Thank you. Okay. So, I now we'll open up the public hearing for this item. Would anyone from the public like to um speak on the um
this item, the appropriation of this fund? If not, I will um close the public hearing and um it would be on the um next agenda for um approval. Before we move on, Mr. Gdard, quick
question. When do you expect the uh bridge at Derry Road project actually take place? Uh we're in design right now. I think construction should kick off um in the fall of 2026 is our plan. I had somebody
ask me about it yesterday. I thought Yeah, we plan to have a uh a public conversation about that with the neighborhood associations adjacent. Great. Thank you. Y. So, do we want this on a consent agenda um next time or in action?
Consent agenda. Okay. Is there any expediency like by waiting till the next meeting does that slow down the process of construction at all? Okay. Thanks. Okay. Okay. The next item on the agenda is a resolution to approve a lease amendment
for property located at 105th Street Northeast um to the Blue Blue Ridge Area Coalition for the Homeless. Oh, I was going to say Brenda. Yeah. Good evening. For the record, Brenda Kelly, redevelopment manager. In August
2023, you approved a lease agreement to allow Brock, that's the Blue Ridge Area Coalition for the Homeless to lease a portion of space within city space. Uh that was a two-year lease. Uh under that lease, they had an option or the ability
to come forward and ask for a one-time one-year lease renewal. That's what we're here for tonight, to ask for your approval. Uh Shayla Washington is here with Brock and this is a one reading resolution following a public hearing.
Okay. Any clarification, questions or comments from council? So this is the one time one-year renewal. What happens next year? We they either have to find somewhere else to go or we would come back in front of you with a new lease.
Okay. Thank you. Okay. I will now open up the public hearing. Would anyone from the public like to speak on this um agreement? Okay. If not, I will close the public hearing.
And this is a um one-time um hearing. So, if we if there's a motion to approve it, I will accept it. I move the resolution to approve a lease amendment for property located 105th Street Northeast to the Blue Ridge Area
Coalition for the Homeless. Second. Okay. All in favor, please say yes. Yes. All oppose, please say no. Okay. Motion passes 5-0. The next item on the agenda is a public hearing and resolution to amend the city of Charlottesville, Virginia um um CDBG and home fund awards
for um program year 2526. um a m amendment to the city's first year um annual action plan I mean in amount of uh 6,835 and $285947
um and this is the first of two readings. Good evening council mayor Wade. Yes. Thomas um Anthony Warren uh city of Charlottesville office of community solutions. Uh it's my pleasure to come before you tonight and announce that um
we received a little bit more money uh much to our surprise um for both the community development block grant program and the home investment partnerships program this year. Um the funding recommendations that were presented to you before and that were approved were based on our 202425
funding levels. Um so the slight increase gives us an opportunity to come back before you for a little bit more discussion. Um, so those are the two motions before you. While the numbers look a little bit larger than they might be in terms of our ability to allocate
new funds. Uh for on the home side, I I just want to remind you guys that the money comes as a pass through to um the Thomas Jefferson area uh home consortium and then it gets broken down in terms of planning administration funding. U a
special award for community housing development organizations and then the remaining additional amount goes out to the um six members of the consortium. So, it doesn't turn out to be a lot of money, which is why on the home side, we recommended um taking that small little
balance of money and just adding it to the previously approved activity um for the Pedmont Housing Alliance 905 Reeves Street project, which is going to take one u residential house and um convert
that into as many as 12 um long-term affordable housing units in partnership with the Piedmont Community Land Trust. Um on the CDBG side, it's a little bit more money. Um the priority for us was to take the money that was now available
to us for public services activities. Um in the discussion that we had before, the majority of the applications come in for public services activities. We wanted to make sure that we maxed out those awards uh this time which um is why uh those three activities would
receive a additional award if approved of 300 it's about $347 and $341.75. uh the remaining balance to be added to the strategic uh development fund for
future consideration by council. With that, I make myself available for any questions. Okay. Any clarification, questions or comments from council? My only comment would be um as we know the
speed with which um federal money can be or federal gifts can be rescended, I would say that maybe we vote this through today. Yeah. So, we can um I will get opinion from the city attorney. I'm sorry.
With a four fifths or greater vote. Are we able to wave the second reading? Yes, you are in this case. Yeah. Um things are changing quickly in in Washington. I get Yeah. Of course, the reality is that they're currently
taking the position that they can claw it back regardless of whether we've yet matters. It might make a little bit different if it's already been allocated. So, um so but that's Have we had the public hearing? No, no, not yet. Yep. That was my only comment. Just a
suggestion for us. So, any other comments um and um before I open up the public hearing? So, um I'll open up the public hearing. So um is this for for both A and B the public hearing? Okay. So the public
hearing is for um um both of the um allocated um funds. So any any comments on this from at all from the public? If not, I will close the public hearing
and um for um council consideration is to wave the second hearing um to um approve them both um tonight. So it will be um a three-part one to um wave the second hearing and then the the two
resolutions. Did Kina, what were your concerns? I just I just wanted to make sure the attorney was on board with I'm sorry. looking at. So, this is an appropriation of these funds per 2-98 of the city code that would require a
second reading. I'm sorry. I even for a second to step back in. Um, yes, this would require two readings and you cannot wave on an appropriation. Got it. Okay. And yeah, and this one is not important, but I'll just say again, I think doing these
two readings is good on our end for both compliance and transparency. And I just still come down there, but Um so um this will be um can we put on the consent agenda for next time? Okay. So be on the consent agenda
um for um the next council meeting. Thank you very much. Um the the next item on the agenda is a resolution to allocate um $8,690,000 of capital improvements um contingency
fund. Mr. Uh Miss Hamill's going to take care of it for me. Good evening, council. Chrissy Hamill, uh city budget director. This is a second reading of a resolution to allocate some of the money from the CIP contingency fund. As we've discussed,
this fund is uh basically uh generated from funds for prior year surpluses. Um, and last at the last council meeting, uh, city manager Sanders presented to you, um, a PowerPoint that listed a bunch of what he termed community
interventions. Um, and this resolution basically is allocating, uh, 3.8 or just under $3.9 million to those uh, things that are listed on page 219 of your packet. In addition, there are a couple
of what we're calling budgetary guideline or policy um compliance issues that we are asking to use some of the surplus to address such as the healthc care fund um to offset the increased pension costs related to the teamsters
contract etc. That's about 4.8 and that gets us to just under 8.7 million that we're asking you to allocate through this resolution. And with that, I'd be happy to take any questions. Okay. Any questions? Did Did we have a
restroom picked out yet? No, we've looked at a few different models to see which one would work where we have to still figure out some measurements and connections. Okay. So, that's kind of an approximate allocation. Thank you. Um Okay. Um any questions? Actually, I
do have one more. Okay. Um And our bike ped team isn't here, so this might be a James question. Um I I was just those of us who attend BPAC meetings know how this list was created, but I realized I should have asked this last week when you got the presentation. Can you um just let the public know how
the 34 urgent infrastructure projects were picked out? Sure. Uh that project list uh started out as much larger list but it was initially uh crowdsourced if you will from the bike bike bike and pedestrian advisory committee as well as
talking as I understand it to uh public safety officials also based on our knowledge of our team broadly's knowledge of the infrastructure of the city uh emails sent to city council in particular and other sources. So, it was
a pretty kind of long and uh broad-based community effort. Broad-based community effort is a great set of words. Uh yeah. So, uh looked out to a lot of sources and then they assessed it and and in particular, we're looking at what can we do within the funding available and within the time frame that we're trying
to accomplish these goals within. Great. Thank you. Absolutely. Okay. Is there a motion to Yeah, I would move the resolution to allocate $8,690,000 from the capital improvement program contingency fund.
Is there a second? I'll second it. Okay. All in favor, please say yes. Yes. Yes. All oppose, please say no. No. Um, and we discussed it last time, but I'll just state for the record, my opposition is in the 1.2 2 million for the clean team program
which I think has good desires for creating it. I don't think it will accomplish the goal and given the federal budget environment, I'm very cautious with how we spend money. And finally, anytime we outsource work, I'm very concerned that we're undermining our unionized workers. Um, and it's
almost guaranteed when we outsource, they will not be unionized. They will have lower wages and they will have worse potentially no benefits. Um, so just want to state that for the record. You said the clean what? The clean team. The 1.2 That's the only part of this that I have reservations about as well. Um, but I do
support everything else and knowing that it's a pilot. Hopefully, we'll have a better plan in place by the end of it. So, with that, I'll I'll say yes with that asterisk. Yeah. So, the motion passes four to one. Okay. Then the next item on the agenda is a
resolution approving the Charlottesville for Almo Regional Jail um renovation plan for a finance for the um C um ACJ authority issuance of a 2025 bond and of
the 2025 grant anticipation note. Mr. Mayor, members of council, great to see you all again. My name is Courtney Rogers. I am with Dport and Company. We're the financial adviserss to the jail authority. Um, some of you may remember, I was here about 18 months ago when we did the interim financing for
the jail. And what I'm going to do tonight is, uh, as my colleague Steven G is handing you the books. U, what we're going to do is walk through the jail funding process. It's a little bit different than your normal bonding process. Um, also going to uh walk you through the two-part plan of finance and
uh talk about the the our recommendation in terms of the funding approach for both the permanent financing and the grant participation note, walk you through the timetable and projected budgetary and cash flows. Um once I'm done, I'm going to let Colonelk walk you through the bids and and talk through
the project itself and answer those questions for you. Um so I'm going start out on page two, uh the jail funding process. Um, as some of you may know in the Commonwealth of Virginia, regional jails are eligible for a 25% reimbursement of eligible major costs
for capital projects. So once the authority decides to undertake the project, it has to go through and put together a community-based corrections plan and planning study that was done and approved by the state board of local and regional jails. So the request was um reimbursement was forwarded on to the
general assembly which was approved and included in the governor's budget in 2023. Um so that reimbursement is is basically set in stone at 11,689250. Um and that and that again has been
approved. So we're in good shape there. On the next page um it's a two-parter because we have to go out and do the interim financing which of course we've already done. that was completed in December of 23. Um, that money was used basically for preliminary design and
engineering cost. Now, we're on to the green section on page on page three here at the bottom, the light green section. This is where we are now. This is the permanent financing and grant participation note part of the two-part plan. Can we get it? Is can we get this
to advance? Todd, can you We either need to make sure you um can ask u Mr. trail to advance or there is your Sorry, here we go. So, um on page three, we're basically on
to the interim financing part. Um that I'm sorry, we did that part that was closed in December 23. For those of you at that point, we were using a planning interest rate of 4.5%. We came in at 449, so that was basically right on the money. In terms of the term, it's set for 18 months. So, it comes due in
January of um 27. Um that's going to be repaid though this summer with part of the refinancing of the uh the permit financing with the bonds of the permit financing and the GAN. Essentially, we are uh recommending to
go through VRA to uh do the permanent bonds and we're going to go through a bank loan for the grant anticipation notes. Essentially again that grant anticipation note while the state has given the money in the budget they don't pay it back until the construction is complete. So we have to go out and do an
interim financing. Uh in this case we're calling a grant anticipation because the grant will pay it off once the construction is complete. And so it takes a little bit of time after construction to work through all the paperwork at the state level. So, we've set that uh we're going to set that to
where it's it gives us enough time to complete construction and then have the money come in from the state. The permanent bonds will pay the balance, the 75% of the project as well as take care of the interim financing. A recommended approach for the
permanent. Yes, sir. Um, a question. I've asked this in the past, but I can't remember. That's right. So the interest rate for the interim financing is higher than our municipal interest rate, but that only applies for the interim financing because of that very specific
situation or that does that also apply to the um so the permanent financing. So keep in mind when we did the interim financing, we still had an inverted yield curve. So we had very short rates that were higher than actually longer rates. um that's starting to correct itself a little bit, but with the Fed
not lowering rates, it's still a little bit on the high side, but not quite as high as it was. Um so I'll get to the moment I'll talk about the GAN interest rate, but that's why you saw that higher uh interim financing rate, that 449. We're actually right now our estimate for the permanent financing for the
25-year permanent financing is at a 450. That's our that's our current estimate right now. Okay. Thank you. I'll get into that here in just a moment. Good question, though. Um, so on page six here in terms of the permanent financing, we had a couple different approaches. We could go to the banking
world, send out a request for proposal. Um, but there's a number of different reasons why u we're not going to go that route. Not recommending that route. And that is because right now the banks are reluctant to give a fixed rate for 25 years. That's one thing. It's pretty important. Um, and the rates that we've
seen on the banking side, which kind of goes to your question, Mr. campaign is that those rates are typically been higher the bank rates. We've seen much better rates in the public market right now for long-term bonds. And so that leaves us with two other options. One is to have the authority issue the debt
itself uh which it has the ability to do or go use our uh Virginia Resources Authority uh as the issuer. The reason that I we recommended there, you'll see it highlighted in green, to go through VRA, as I mentioned a moment ago, is because we would have to go out, the
authority doesn't currently have bond ratings. It would have to go out and get its own bond rating. Then it's going to look at each of the participants. Of course, you all in the in the county of Al Marl have AAA, so they're highest ratings that we can get. But Nelson County doesn't currently have a bond rating, and so they would have to go through the process of actually getting
a bond rating. Um, we think they'd be a solid double A. they they they probably are not going to be AAA like you in in the county. Um but with VRA, you're going to get basically what a blended double A plus rating. And so our recommendation is to go through that
process. Um so as part of that, when we presented back to the uh the authority back in March, we got the approval to put an application in. We did so uh early in May and have been through the process and they have basically um given us the permission to move forward with
the uh the process and go through their pool program. So we've been approved by them at this point and are in good shape. Um as far as the GAN um our recommendation there is to basically go through the direct bank loan process. Essentially we've put together a request
for proposals. We'll send it out to various bank institutions. Um we put on this page back in May when we sent you this presentation early in May. We were looking at two different options uh of going through the typical bank loan uh situation where we would have the
authority as the uh issuer and also as VRA as a condu issuer. We've decided that to go just through the authority process at this point. It's a new program for VRA was we were going to have to go through some more hoops. So we decided just to go through our typical process. We've been doing these
jails uh over the years back um um for many years and this is the way it's been done. And one of the reasons we're going to do this as a not uh through the public market process is because we get better call provisions here and prepayment provisions. We want to be able to take this out as soon as we're
done with construction and the money is available from the state. So we want that flexibility even though we're going to set a uh a certain final maturity on it. So Mr. Payne, this kind of goes to your uh questions here about interest rates. So right now um our planning interest
rate for the GAN is at 5% at three years. We hope that it'll come in a lot better than that. But just for running the numbers, we've been running the numbers now for several months. We just used a higher rate at at 5% knowing that we came in at five at four and a half before. Um for the uh permit financing,
we're looking at basically 5% planning rate 497. You'll see there in the parenthesis, but we've added 50 basis points for cushion. We don't know what'll happen out there in the world. Obviously, right now we've got a war going on overseas that typically helps interest rates. Um, but right now they've actually been holding pretty
steady. So, we're we're estimating though right now if we went to the market, we'd be about five and four and a half% for a long-term financing. Um, that has three years of interest only and then we've got 28 uh 25 years for a total of 28 years, 25 years of level debt service. And I'll go through the
numbers on those on the final chart here in just a moment. Um, again, Colonel Kumer is going to talk a little bit about the actual project cost. We're still using 49 million as our projection. 12.1 million is the GAN. That again covers uh the the reimbursement from the state, which also
baked into that number is some interest earnings. Um, they basically will pay us back for some of the interest on the on the actual GAN. Um, so there's a lot of I call it machination of numbers that go into this. So, these are all very um um projected right now and and subject to
change. Um 36.9 million is what we're projecting for the permanent financing. Um and again, you'll see the allocations of debt service in just a moment. We're using the fiscal year numbers which puts your number at 39.54% based on uh the calculations from the
jail authority. So in terms of calendar where we are now. So as I mentioned we spoke to the authority back in March of 13 walked through this presentation with them. Um worked with bond council sans Anderson to put together the uh the application
for the summer pool. We uh we met that deadline May 1st and uh and of course during that time the invitation for bids was sent out and received back uh just recently at the end of May. Um so here we are now. We're a little bit behind from we were originally supposed to be
with at your previous meeting. Um we are talking to you tonight. We'll be in front of the uh Almor County Board on Wednesday evening and then Nelson next week. Um and so once we get through those uh processes, we'll uh we'll be u
we'll move on to the uh award from the authority on June uh later in June. And then the tenative vet deadline basically for all these local approvals is June 13th. Um, and so we're trying to meet that deadline so we can get all the approvals in.
June 13th was a couple days ago. That's right. They gave us an approval to to go. They understand that we're behind by a couple weeks. So they gave us a Okay. As long as we get once we get the Nelson approval through, we're in good shape.
So, um, the second time table is talking about the GAN. Again, we're going to get that we got that RFP out today. Um, we're going to get the responses back July 2nd. Um and then we're going to uh come back to the board on July 10th for their approval to uh to move forward
with that GAN. The bond sale is projected for the week of July 21st. We have to know the GAN information before we go to the permit financing because they both work in tandem. Um and so we'll have that for the June July 21st week of pricing. We'll close um
thereafter and then u have the closing of the bonds uh August 4th. So basically about two 3 weeks after the bond sale. So what does the debt service look like? Um it changed a little bit from what we showed you 18 months ago. Uh only
because interest rates had gone up a little bit in our estimates. Um but what you'll see there in 2026 the total uh projected for the member jurisdictions is just shy of 1.9 million and then it's 2.5 million for the full year 27 and 28.
Um that is the projected debt service on the GAN along with the projected debt service on the permanent financing. You'll see that the solid line basically is where the interim financing is projected to be taken out the GAN and the 29 uh 2029 be the first year of full principal and interest on the bonds
which is 2.6 million a little shade over 2.6 million. Um you'll see the projections broken out between the uh the different participants. You'll see yours there in the first column next to the dotted blue line. Um roughly about a million dollars a year of debt service.
Uh once we get to the permanent uh debt service, um one thing of note, put a little asterk by 2026. Um the jail authority is going to use some interest earnings from the proceeds of the bonds when they're sitting waiting for the construction um bid u project invoices
to come in. They're going to use some of the interest earnings to downsize your $700,000 for this year um for your for budget purposes. So, Mr. Mayor, with that, I'm happy to answer any questions. As I said, Prim is here. He's going to talk a little bit about the uh which I know you all want
to hear about the bids and things like that, but as far as financing goes, I'm happy to answer questions or I can take them once he's finished. Yeah. How much do you anticipate the interest downsizing that $736,000? Stephen, you don't remember what that number what's what is their debt service
with the interest earnings that uh the the jail estimate. You remember that the jail the jail's accounting folks worked that out. So they were doing those estimates and get those right. Thank you. Are there other questions on financing while he's pulling pulling
that up? Um if if not we can um get that you know. Yeah. Yeah. We'll get you in a second. Thank you. Good evening. So, I'm here to answer any questions. I know there's been a lot of changes in the process here last several weeks when the when the bids came in. So, I'll kind of start back when we got
the bids and kind of tell you where we are now. Uh May 30th, as you know, we got all our bids in. We had six prequalified biders. We received five bids. The bids range from 53 million all the way up to 76 million. The lowest
bidder was English construction. We have been working with them since to reduce the scope. Uh at that moment, we chose then not to come back to ask for more money to complete the project as it was. We chose to work within the budget and reduce the scope. That's we've been working hard actually the last several
weeks. I can tell you now I know there's some concern about that the final project is not fully approved. I can say that as of last Thursday afternoon we had about 95% of the project is the scope is now finalized working on the final 5%. That scope now is for the most
part tearing down of the oldest portion of the 1975 jail that received no renovation. We're going to leave the middle section alone. It was to be renovated. That did see receive some renovation back in 2000. So it is more up to date than the current section
we're looking at tearing down because it is also in the middle of the jail. It is the most disruptive to operations both to the inmates and to staff and to visitation and to services we provide. So we're going to focus on this section where we can move the inmates out to another section of the jail. Turn that
section over to the contractors with minimal disruption to the service we provide to our inmates to our staff and to the citizens. Now, with the that section, we're going to tear down and rebuild. In there will be a total of 65 general population beds that are fully compliant with DOC standards. They're
all single bed, single occupancy. They're all trauma-informed design. There'll also be an additional two mental health units, seven beds each. There will be four mental health offices, two for our current staff and two for visiting staff, both mental health providers who come in to provide services. There will be additional
office space for staff. There will be addition. We will double the visitation room. It'll also be private as opposed to the large rooms we currently use. A new lobby and three brand new recreation areas. And this entire area will be trauma informed design 100% to code and
ADA accessible for all staff. And we think we meet most of the things that the community identified, the community based correction plan identified, my staff and that we've been talking about now for almost 5 years. Most of those things will be accomplished. What won't be accomplished? We will not be removing
the bar grate right now from the 1975 middle portion that will stay. Eight cells will remain with bar grate. We have eight downstairs don't have bar grate. Uh a lot of the toilets, mechanical, and plumbing in those sections won't be part of the renovation. The HVAC will be part of the
renovation. It's that 5% we're still working on trying to figure out exactly what amount of money is left over and exactly what the that HVAC plan is going to look like for that 1975 portion. So that will be achieved to some degree. staffing area phase two in the middle
has been taken out. There was some new office space for shift commanders, some new uh attorney visitation space was done there, a new break room for staff, and a new fitness room for staff was going to be moved to make way for another classroom for inmates. We're going to leave that room where it is, and we'll add the classroom at sometime
later in the future. So, a little bit of everything was given up in the renovation portion. We are confident as of Thursday we will bring it into the budget that we originally said. Okay. Um any questions?
I'll just make a comment. I was there when the bids came in. Um and it was a frustrating moment to to see all the work that had happened and and we think that the main cost driver for exceeding the budget are are the tariffs. There's a lot of metal
in this project. Um, and so, um, that was deeply frustrating, but I've been, you know, I'm, this is the sort of work that I do. I was I've been very impressed with you and, um, Bill Downey and the the architects that you have and
engineers are trying to rightsize this project given the fact that we aren't increasing the budget. Um, and I think that what y'all have decided that the choices you've made seem like thoughtful, reasonable ones. I think everyone realizes that at some point,
you know, a number of years down the future, we'll have to go back and make some renovations in the spaces that we're not touching. Um, but I I just want to commend you and your staff and the and the professionals who've been associated with it. I think y'all done a good job of being nimble and responding
to um a very difficult pricing climate. So did and I also want to just mention that you know the board um the ACRJ ACR ACJ board has been um briefed on all
these things and supportive as well and I will be going back July 10th with the um final scope of work for the board to approve as well and with the final budget as well. And to be clear, what you're looking for tonight is basically the approval of the the bond capacity to
go out to the VRSA V and um and have access to that. It is if there's like non if the bids come back and the board does not approve the final scope, the final budget, the final what they see it.
Yeah. But you need this approval for to go ahead and do now so that we meet we need this for VRA as well as the go ahead for the GAN to be able to meet the bond sale otherwise you lose 6 months or something otherwise we got to right it'll be November right before we could
come back so did you have Yes sir to answer your question um is $180,000 so you're instead of 736 it' be aboutund8 it's just under 200,000 thank you yes ma'am and then that was provided to your budget team they've Not the exact number
and that's just our portion. That's not that's just your portion. Yes, ma'am. So, any questions or discussion on this before will y'all finish your presentation? We're done. Yes, sir. So, any questions? Happy to answer. Any question? Just a couple quick questions.
How is there any chance that if tariffs steel tariffs come down that the cost could be adjusted? This is a lump sum bid. So, when we sign those prices are what they are. So if they go they escalate, they're stuck with that cost. If they save some money because tariffs
come down, they Okay. So there's no there's no no we decided that was the the safest way. So we are not unhooked. Have to come back later with more money, right? We know what we're going into regardless of the climate two years from now. If all goes well uh on the financing side of
things, when would construction start? September 15th. You wouldn't see shovels hitting the ground necessarily, but September 15th, materials will start to be ordered. construction will be on site to start making some and anticipated completion date would be about two years from that date depending on the because some of the scope although it's been
limited it'll be um simultaneous we're able to chop off a large portion at the very end hopefully that will also save some cost on construction administrative costs as well that's fine thank you Brian did you Nope
comments or questions Um, I mean, I think you covered it. So, it's my understanding, you know, to the concern that we're voting on it without fully knowing the um scope or the cost at this point, even though you're going
to try to get to as close to that original cost as possible. that is driven by what what is the deadline by which it has to be decided on our end before you'd have to wait that six months for um issuing any
bonds. Is am I understanding correct the reason for voting before we know the final cost or scope? One thing I'll point out is you're you're voting on a not to exceed number tonight. So we cannot go above it without coming back to you. Just so you know that part you want to answer this. As far as the bond
sale goes, if it weren't, we can't come back later because the deadline will have passed for the bond the summer bond sale, which then means we jump into the fall bond sale, right? There's a point in time which they're they've got they mail the POS just like if you were doing your own bond sale, they have to mail the POS for the other
participants and they're not going to wait on us. So, what happens if we lose the price of English? Uh, it's only due for 90 days, I believe. Uh, the price says they are worth back up to pity again that time. So that that's the reason Michael for
moving forward now. And the other concern we have the reason it started several years ago and we got to where it is now is because our population had dropped significantly. We are now on the increase. I believe we have we've bottomed out. We probably had bottom back in January February this year and our count daily population is
up about 20%. We're now frequently going over 300. We haven't seen 300 since 2023 and we're now frequently over 300 throughout the week. So, our our time frame to finish this without having to move inmates someplace else is slowly shrinking. I do believe we can still
squeeze in, but I have no idea what tomorrow brings. I can't make any promises, but I do believe we are now back on the upswing. Now, we are still historically low, but I believe we hit our bottom about 6 months ago. What is driving the increase? A little bit of everything. we've looked at thought there was a rise in certain
property crimes or drug offense so forth. It's just a little bit more of everything. Nothing specific to point out. So, um are you do you have more? Um you just said you wouldn't be able to exceed the
amount suggested today without coming back to us. Right. Which means there potentially could be a scenario where you come back to us. No. Um it is a budget that once we sign it like I mentioned earlier it is a lump sum they agree to do the work for this cost
regardless of material costs go up. There are contingency funds also in there as well and we also have a good project manager to make sure that as if those opportunities come up to increase it we can um kind of go back and look at the scope at that time too. So lots of ways to keep it within budget. I was
talking about the financing vehicle itself. We can't we have a not to exceed number in terms of what we can borrow at VRA and the GAN and so we can't go above those numbers. I see. Okay. Um we we got
a list briefly uh or I mean earlier uh a couple days ago about some of the changes that you just mentioned including um the removing the workout room for staff. Um,
do the staff currently have a workout room? They do, but that space was being moved from where it is, which is in the center of the jail up to the front of the jail, which is um a non-secure area, and in the secure area was going to be more classroom space. So, been burned in classroom space to meet the community based corrections plans requirements.
Okay. The reason why I asked that is because when a year two years a year and a half ago when we were doing the presentations about the plans A, plan B, plan C and plan C and a half um it was kind of broken down into the wish list,
a certain number of essentials and a certain number of essentials. And when we got the renderings of the plans recently, it was, you know, big shiny gym for the staff. That didn't seem super essential to inmate welfare. Big shiny lobby that still doesn't seem very
essential to inmate welfare, and that's still on the ticket. So, I was glad to see that um the the locker room was has was one of the things that got cut to rightsize the project to the to the current budget. Um,
I'm I'm still not convinced that everything that is on this list is the most essential, especially if we're missing some of the plumbing and that potentially we need. Um,
and that this was since the beginning, it was kind of set up to highlight the wish list and not really focus on the the kind of more paired down versions which could address certain things um to
make the conditions in the jail um less bad. Um so this whole kind of process we've heard from people's coalition, we've
heard from um all kinds of people who don't want the city to spend their money this way. We have heard from nobody who wants the city to spend their money this way. Um and so I I understand wanting the conditions of the jail to be better and
that there is some amount of renovation that is worthwhile. I'm still not sold on it being this amount of project. I do want to be clear that the plumbing issues and so forth will be addressed and annual maintenance budget we have
will now stretch further because the portion that we otherwise would have been spending money under the oldest 1975 portion will now be new. So funds so the middle section you said wasn't going to be part of this renovation would just be handled throughout the course of correct regular operations. Right. So maintenance funds that would normally been spent over here, which is
now new, those funds can now be shifted over here. So those things will still be addressed. It'll just be longer. It won't be under this package. Just be quicker. Well, that's good to hear. Absolutely. Other questions or comments on this? I want to comment a little bit. Um,
you know, I I've spent a lot of time in the jail, uh, visiting a lot of clients in a lot of different parts of the jail, and the need for its renovation has long been apparent. Um
I find that that this process of the jail board doing its job and then coming to us giving us not very many options is is frustrating. On the other hand, I'm
not in a position to sort of secondguess the construction efforts and the costs and what what makes sense. I will say that overall the the goals of the project I think are are
worthy in that that number one we'll take care of the the the problems that are most serious some of which actually have health consequences uh we will uh pretty much eliminate I guess it will eliminate double bunking
and everything will be single bunked and there will be it'll now meet the building code in a whole lot of different ways that it doesn't now meet the building code. Uh it'll allow for more classroom space, purely personal interest, more lawyer visitation space.
Um people might think I'm just being self- serving in that respect, but I can tell you if I can't get out to see my clients, they can't see me. Uh so that that's a real problem. the all of the different things that are being uh
offered as goals are goals that I that I favor and I support and I would have been happy to support the uh the option that was presented to or that would have been presented to us last month, the last meeting uh at the at the price that
that was being extended. Uh unfortunately the bids didn't come in that way so we can't I'm not going to sit here and say well I think uh though the way that I personally would downsize the project is this and this and this and take out that and oops and increase
something over here. It's not certainly not my competence and it's not my place. I I basically I have confidence in the the board and the administration to spend our money wisely. Uh granted,
people may disagree about whether we ought to be spending money on jails at all, but we're required to have a jail. We're required to have a jail of a certain capacity. This doesn't increase the capacity. uh it allows for a lot of
good things to happen and I I'm I frankly think it is going to be in the best interests of the folks that are my clients who spend time there is going to be in their best interest that this go forward and so I'm going to vote for it.
And um you know for someone who has um been in the jail many times to teach job readiness classes and work on resumeumés and help the um residents um for their exit um back home. I saw the need to for
the renovations and and we are able to to support at least I am in my mind to support this and still support other initiatives like housing. um like school like like schools. We have um increased the budget for the
schools. We have um just approved the budget for um Buford Middle School or Charlottesville Middle School. So, I'm going to support this as well because I I believe we we need it. Um is there any other discussion on this? If not, can I get a motion, please?
I move the resolution of the city council of the city of Charlottesville, Virginia, approving the execution and delivery of a support agreement or agreements with the Almor Charlottesville regional jail authority for the issuance by such authority of its jail facility revenue bond and jail
facility grant revenue anticipation notes. I'll second the motion. All in favor, please say yes. Yes. All oppose, please say no. No. No. Okay. The motion passes three to two. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is a resolution to
amend um and reallocate tax and rent relief budgets. It's the first of two reading. Um Chrissy. Good evening, council. Chrissy Hamill, director of budget. Thank you. Um this um uh resolution tonight is something
that we talked about during the budget work sessions. Um during the 26 budget development, Commissioner Divers spoke to you at that time about um how some of the different tax relief buckets had uh changed around uh largely due to the
efforts of his office to make sure that we are getting people to the right um aid. And when we pass the budget ordinance each year, we're we're doing this in a year in advance. And so, um, when we write the ordinance, we basically write it and ask you to
approve it, um, at a sum sufficient, which we estimate. And so, this agenda item is basically coming back to you to give you the final, um, for where we landed. um it's reallocating some dollars that were previously budgeted,
but also um it's adding a little more as we were able to um give a little more aid than we anticipated. Um I will one note uh uh Commissioner Divers pointed out to me that I have these reversed. So in the actual resolution where it says
budget increases, those are actually decreases. And where it says budget decreases, those are actually increases. And uh uh madame clerk, I'll get you a revised resolution. And with that, I'll be happy to answer any questions or Commissioner Divers is
here as well. Okay. Um are there any questions or clarifying questions on this? Nope. I And this is not a public hearing, but it is first of um two readings. So um did we want to put this
on the consent agenda um for the next meeting? Sure. Okay. Sure. Thank you. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is um LLC entity creation authorization resolution
West H West Haven phase 1 and six street phase 2 redevelopment projects. Mr. Williams. Yes. Good evening council, members of the public. Antoine Williams, housing program manager. Council has asked to adopt two resolutions authorizing the CRA to form one or more
legal entities. These entities are to support project financing and uh the development for specifically resolution. Let me get this correct. Res resolution A pertaining to six street phase 2 and res resolution B West
Haven phase one. Uh as part of these efforts, CRA must establish single-purpose entities uh to serve as ownership and/or management entities in order to comply with IRS, HUD, and Virginia housing requirements. Um under
title 36, section 19, subsection 12 of the Virginia code, CRA may only form such entities with the prior approval of city council. On June 13, 2024, CRA had got approval for its board commission to
um form formation for West Haven phase 1 and it's September 23rd, 2024. They had got approval for Sixth Street phase 2. At this time, council's asked to ratify these resolutions. Uh we also have on hand uh Mr. John Sales, the executive
director of CRA. And we're with that, I'll pause for any questions. Any questions? Um, at this this point down here, we makes sense to me. We've gotten just one question that we've gotten from the public um in the past about this.
Why um have it be two entities instead of one? If you could just break down the rationale for that. Yes. So each uh each phase has to have its own entity uh because most likely the investors for each entity uh will be separate and
different and so we can't guarantee the investor for West Haven will also be the investor uh for Sixth Street uh phase 2 and so each entity has its own entity and CRA is the owner of that entity but it's like a 01% ownership of the entire
development itself. Thank you. Annual registration fees cost 50 bucks. So yes. So we put this on the consent agenda. Is that is that Y? Yep. It seem doesn't
seem like it's um on both both RE resolutions um on the consent agenda for the next meeting. So um no other discussion on that. We're into general business by motion to approve an
employment agreement. Oh. Um, is Chris. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of council. I'm Chris Culland, the city's director of finance. Uh, this agenda item is the approval of an employment agreement appointing William David Milton as the Charlottesville city assessor. Um, as you know, Mr. Davis,
uh, Mr. Jeff Davis, the city's current assessor, announced his retirement effective at the end of July 2025. Uh we've engaged in a um uh hiring process uh through the city's uh normal hiring
processes. Uh this one's a little unique in that it does require uh by city code uh requires the appointment of the assessor by uh city council. Uh it's with great pleasure that uh myself and Mr. Sanders uh unanimously um recommend
for selection uh William David Milton uh goes by David uh as the city assessor. Uh he's currently the commercial appraiser for the city's uh real estate assessment office. He's been with the city for about seven years and in addition brings a wealth of experience
from some prior uh stops along his career uh doing mostly commercial appraisal but also having some some residential experience uh with Alam Marorrow County. And again, this is a unanimous u recommendation. Uh Mr. Milton is with us this evening. If you
have any questions uh you'd like to ask him, but uh we recommend approval. Okay. Any questions for David? Uh if not, um can I get a motion to um just
want to let the public know that we already interviewed him in close session, so we did have an opportunity to ask our questions already. As did I. Yes. I move approval of the attached employment agreement appointing Milton
as city assessor. Second. Second. Okay. All in favor, please say yes. Yes. Yes. All oppose, please say no. Okay. So, um the next is a confidential confidential settlement
agreement. Um and um so is there a motion to to approve that? We've been briefed. Approval. Second. All in favor, please say yes. Yes. All opposed, please say no. Motion passes 5. We're now at the opportunity for the um second
community manners. Will anyone like to speak? Before I speak, I want to say to you three two things. One, Lord, it's our money. It's the people money, not your money. You three,
I can tell my grandkids that you're the reason why they still have to pay for a jail. Okay. Um, it's no use me introducing myself. Y'all know who I am. Um,
tonight what I make tonight, I want to make one thing clear. We still here. We're not going anywhere. The People's Coalition will still be here to hold all y'all accountable because if no one holds y'all accountable, y'all do what
y'all just did to the city. We're deeply we deeply and disappointed of council for those move we deeply we deeply disappointed that council moved to choose to go forward with the jail expansion especially when we are
voting on a promise and not an expected um scope. The people coalition do not support this expansion. Many community members and organizations spoke out loudly and clear against it. Over 100 individual and almost 20 organizations
signed on to say we need care not cages. We thank everyone who organized, who spoke, who signed a letter, who showed up. Your voices matter. Your work matter. Even though this vote didn't go our way, our movement is not
over. We're building power. We're growing stronger. And we'll be back. It's not over until it's built. Remember that. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you first for listening to me for
so many times. I appreciate that. Um I it's come to my our attention that um there was an email um that was sent from uh Superintendent Kumer to the board chair and the board vice chair. Um, and
I learned about that at the uh 12th meeting last Thursday, but the rest of the board didn't get it. So, when the board was talking about it during the meeting last Thursday, they did not have
this email. And apparently, you all got it even before the board got it. So, you all got it on the 11th and they didn't get it until either during the board meeting or after the board meeting. The
only two people from the board who got it were you, Vice Chair Kingston, and the chair. I want to point out one paragraph in this email that contradicts what uh Superintendent Kumer just said.
I believe it's the second paragraph, the last sentence. Any remaining funds in the budget will be directed to removing the antiquated special management units and replacing and improving the HVAC and plumbing in the
remaining 1975 portion. Those antiquated segregation units are disgusting and there are people in them now. So, this project is going to be a big fancy jail and the
people who are in there are going to suffer consequences because the renovation is going to be delayed for maybe not even starting in two years until two years until the construction's over. This is disgraceful. I thank you
for listening. Thank you. Um, would anyone else like to speak? With no other um discussion, is there a motion to adjurnn? So moved. All in favor, please say yes.
Yes. All post, please say no. Thank you.