Board of Supervisors Regular First Meeting   12/7/2022

Good evening everyone.

I'll call to order this December 7, 2022 meeting of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors.

It's 6 o'clock p.m.

We're in Lane Auditorium.

I do need to state that Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley has requested to participate remotely in accordance with applicable board rules of procedure

Rule number 8B1B enacted pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act.

She is unable to attend the meeting in person due to a medical condition.

And so the floor is open for a motion or a second.

All right.

So the motion is by myself, a second by Supervisor Andrews.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

All right, and I forgot to have Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley state her location, so I should have brought her in first.

Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley, good evening.

All right, thank you.

I'd also like to mention that we have, in addition to the supervisors present, who now are Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley, Supervisor Ann Mallek of the White Hall District, Supervisor Ned Gallaway of the Rio District, Supervisor Diantha McKeel of the Jack Jouett District, Supervisor Jim Andrews of the Samuel Miller District, and myself, Supervisor Donna Price of the Scottsville District, we have our County Executive, Mr. Jeff Richardson, our County Attorney, Mr. Steve Rosenberg,

Our Clerk, Ms.

Claudette Borgerson at the dais.

I'd also again like to thank and welcome our Albemarle County Police Officers who are present, Officer David Sprouse and Officer Andy Munsey.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We will now move to item number four, adoption of the final agenda.

So moved.

All right, we have a motion by Supervisor Malek, a second by Supervisor Andrews.

Ms.

Price.

Aye.

Mr. Andrews.

Yes.

Ms.

Malek.

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel.

Yes.

Ms.

You're muted.

All right, thank you board.

I think I'll pass.

I think I'm okay.

All right, thank you.

Yes, thank you.

Two things.

The Seaville Band, Charlottesville Band, formerly named the Municipal Band of Charlottesville, will be holding its very popular Christmas concert this Saturday, December 11th, in Dickinson Auditorium at PVCC at 3.30 in the afternoon.

And it will be packed, so get there early.

Secondly, and not so cheerful a note,

A spotted lanternfly dead was found in a Christmas tree at one of our local Christmas tree cellars here in Albemarle County.

VDACS was contacted.

They came and inspected all the trees on site and have contacted the source place in Pennsylvania.

The reason I'm mentioning this is for families to be careful and check the tree you're looking to take home to your house, whether it's potted with dirt or a cut tree.

because we all have to do what we can to put a stop to the spread of these eggs.

It's unlikely to find live insects at this point, but as you know, that's a very striking appearance, and there's still pictures and brochures, I think, out in the hall about this.

The egg mass is most likely what we would see now, which looks like a meringue or a dried whipped cream along the stem or on a side branch.

And so please, if you see something, please point it out to the person at the store.

and to make sure that they take proper action.

And the State Plant Office of Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services is the office to call and our clerk will have all the information if anybody needs more details or phone numbers.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair Price.

I just want to take a moment to

Remark on the passing of Congressman Donald McEachin, who just recently passed away.

And it's just a personal reflection.

When I, in 2015, I made an attempt to run for State Senate.

The first individual at the first event that I went to within days of making that decision who stood up and met me for a few minutes and then talked in support of me was Representative McEachin.

So I have fond memories of him and all the effort and support he gave me when I took on that task.

But he was very gracious.

He was always there to give advice.

And I was always grateful for the fact that he did put some miles in to help me with that effort that year.

So we'll always appreciate that.

And that's just one little slice, not to even mention all of his accomplishments representing the Commonwealth of Virginia

Thank you for that.

I'm going to jump in with something that I could say for the end, but I want to make sure people hear it, is that the Albemarle Broadband Authority met yesterday, and you may have seen in your emails this morning, the launch of the Affordable Connectivity Program bridge with an additional $20 per month for people who need Internet cell service to supplement the federal Affordable Connectivity Program.

has launched.

Comcast is the first partner.

They project over 350 households will be served in the initial cohort.

There will be more coming.

Thank you.

December 7, 1941, a day that will live in infamy.

At that moment the Japanese surprise attack on our naval forces at Pearl Harbor brought the United States into World War II.

Of course by that point the war in Asia and the war in Europe had already been going on for two to several years.

At that point the German Operation Barbarossa into the Soviet Union, the largest military campaign in history,

involving millions of troops over thousands a mile front had already taken place.

Over Thanksgiving I had the opportunity to travel from the eastern edge of Western Europe into the western edge of Eastern Europe through Germany, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary.

I want to speak briefly about my time in Hungary.

Hungary was loosely aligned

with Nazi Germany at the beginning of the war, which if you look at their geopolitical location, it made perfect sense.

They had Italy to the southwest and Germany to the northwest.

But by 1944, Hungary was looking to move away from Nazi Germany, and the Nazis became aware of that.

At the beginning of World War II, Hungary had the third largest population of Jews in Europe with 800,000.

In the spring and summer of 1944, when German forces were already being pushed way back, they sent 10,000 SS troops into the country.

10,000 troops into a country the size of Hungary is not very much.

There were 800,000 Jews in Hungary at that time.

Within seven weeks, 600,000 had been rounded up.

450,000 were put on trains and sent to Auschwitz where they were gassed immediately upon arrival.

Within five days, they were all dead.

No food, no water, no rest.

Not having killed enough, another 10,000 were rounded up and stood on the banks of the Danube River where they were shot and their bodies fell into the water.

The other 50,000 or so died in the ghetto over a course of just a number of months from starvation and cold and disease.

Nazi Germany did not accomplish that by itself.

It was accomplished because the people of Hungary contributed to rounding up the 600,000 Jews and sending them to their death.

On August the 12th, 2017, the city of Charlottesville and Albemarle County experienced an invasion by haters who shouted among other things, Jews will not replace us.

And anti-Semitism has been on a rise throughout the United States as well as around the world.

I want to express my appreciation to Governor Youngkin's administration for his recent announcement of 21 steps to fight anti-Semitism in the Commonwealth.

We would be foolish and naïve to think that things that happened in Europe and other places in the world could not happen here.

We've seen this sort of violence in Northern Ireland between Protestants and Catholics and the Palestine and Middle East area between Christians, Jews, and Muslims.

We've seen it between Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda and many other places around the world.

We require vigilance to stand up and protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

At this time we'll move to item number six, Proclamations and Recognitions.

We'll move to item number seven, Matters from the Public.

Matters on the agenda but not listed for public hearing or on matters previously considered by the Board or on matters that are pending before the Board.

Let me check with our Clerk.

Item number eight is the adoption of the consent agenda and I do need to point out that item number 8.3, a boundary line adjustment with regard to Fluvanna County, is being removed from the consent agenda as some additional work must be performed on that item and it will be considered at a later time.

I'm not aware of any other action by board members to remove any other items from the consent agenda.

So moved.

Right.

All right.

Thank you.

So we have a motion by Supervisor Malek and a second by Supervisor McKeel to adopt the consent agenda as amended, which is the removal of item 8.3.

Ms.

Price.

Aye.

Mr. Andrews.

Yes.

Mr. Galloway.

Yes.

Ms.

Malek.

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel.

Yes.

Ms.

You're muted.

All right.

Thank you.

Mr. Richardson, I understand that you do not have a formal report this evening.

That is correct.

All right.

We'll move to item number 10.

Members of the board and the public, we have a number of public hearings this evening.

Our first one, item number 10, is fiscal year 2023 budget amendment and appropriation.

And Mr. Bowman, good evening.

Welcome.

Yes, that is correct.

My name is Andy Bowman.

I am the chief of budget in the Department of Finance and Budget.

And tonight's item is a public hearing and action item to amend the fiscal year 23 budget.

I just have one slide that I will overview before I turn it over to the chair and the board for any questions and then to hold the public hearing.

Under the Virginia Code, the county is required to amend the budget when the total cumulative appropriations exceeds 1% of the adopted budget.

That is the case tonight.

I won't go through the appropriations and details because they are in the packet, but I will mention that the primary reason we are having a public hearing tonight is because we're at the point in the year where we complete the reappropriation of any funding the board approved in fiscal year 22 to fiscal year 23.

This is a combination of things, such as the county's economic development fund,

Funding for fiscal agents such as the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau where the county serves as the fiscal agent on behalf of that board.

And then other examples where, for example, a vehicle that was planned to be purchased in fiscal year 22 due to the environment we're in, that actual expense will occur in fiscal year 23.

I will note that of that total amount of 18.9 million, 4.9 of that is for the general fund and the appropriation of the general fund's balance.

Part of the reason we wait to bring this is because it coincides with the completion of the county's audit that will be before the Board of Supervisors next week.

That $4.9 million is funding that is above the Board of Supervisors' financial policies for what is required to maintain the county's fund balances.

So in no way does this dip into or utilize any of that.

That funding all remains intact.

Also included this is a combination of about $1.3 million in federal and state revenue for grants and other support.

In the interest of time, I won't go through any other items in case there are questions, as attachment A does have those details.

At this time, we'll go through our order to see if there are any questions by members of the board.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Supervisor Galloway?

No questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I have no questions.

Thank you again, Mr. Bowman.

At this time, we will open the public hearing.

I'll check with the clerk.

All right.

Thank you.

At this time, we will close the public hearing.

Mr. Bowman, do you have anything else that you'd like to add?

Thank you.

All right.

I will check to see if any supervisors have any comments they would like to make.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley?

Thank you.

Supervisor Galloway?

No.

Thank you.

Supervisor Andrews?

No, thank you.

And I have none.

We have a motion by Supervisor McKeel, a second by Supervisor Malek.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Autista-Kirtley?

All right.

Thank you, Board.

Thank you, Mr. Bowman.

Move to item number 11, an ordinance to extend the county police and fire rescue sworn and uniformed employee sign-on bonus payment.

And I understand, Ms.

Coltrane, you will be keying this off.

Good evening.

Good evening Chair Price and members of the board.

I'm Mia Coltrane, Human Resources Director for Albemarle County Government.

This evening, I would like to come before you to request the extension of the ordinance number 21-A-10 approved during the December 1, 2021 board meeting.

During the December 1, 2021 board meeting, the ordinance number 20-A-10 was approved and granted to provide sign-on bonuses for uniformed sworn officers within the fire and police departments.

The action was in efforts to help with the high number of vacancies each department was experiencing and the challenges in recruitment.

However, the ordinance had an expiration date of November 30, 2022.

The impact of the ordinance has assisted each department's recruitment events or efforts in a very positive way.

Some examples of this are such for fire and rescue.

On the timeframe between December 21st, when the ordinance was approved through September 22nd, the Fire and Rescue Department received 235 applications.

We were able to successfully hire 20 uniformed officers.

Currently, we have 22 recruits that will begin recruit school beginning January 28th, 2023.

Also for the police department, between December 2021 and September 2022, we received 84 applications.

We were successfully able to hire 31 officers, but currently we have five applicants that will begin recruit school January 3rd.

That will leave us with the remaining seven positions to fill, and those seven vacancies will go through an academy in July, July 2023.

So in essence, we're asking for the sign-on bonus and the adjustments made to entry-level positions this year.

The recruitment bonus is very positive for us.

It's provided us a lot of momentum in hiring for police and fire rescue department.

Therefore, based on our market conditions and an increase in applicant pools, which has been very good, the request is to extend this program until November 30, 2023.

Three reasons why, to sustain the positive momentum with recruitment and hiring.

To support the current recruit schools beginning in January for both fire and police.

and then with those seven additional positions we need to fill for police, we will have an additional recruit school slated for July 2023.

Funding for this will come through remaining ARPA funds and previously appropriated funds from the departments.

All right.

Thank you, Ms.

Coltrane.

We will go through our order.

I don't have any questions.

I really support this, though.

Thank you.

Ditto.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

Yeah, I'm very supportive.

I guess my question is, I mean, obviously this expired.

We're going to extend it.

At what point, and perhaps the compensation study helps us understand this when we get that back, do we say that sign-on bonuses are just normal operating procedures so we're not just doing this once a year as a tool?

I guess if we get compensation in line, you might not need a sign-on bonus because

Thank you.

Yes, I share that question, but I'll add just a curiosity with the number of people going into recruit school in the academies.

Good evening.

Dan Eggleston, Fire Rescue Chief.

To answer your question, Mr. Andrews, it's very low, believe it or not.

Given the fact that the people coming into recruit school, many of which have never even been in the fire service, so we have a very low attrition rate.

We do have turnover.

It's roughly about 10%.

We'd like it to be a little bit lower than that, but we've been very successful at undertaking a full recruit school.

Excellent.

Good evening, Chair Price, members of the board.

Supervisor Andrews, to answer your question, on behalf of the police department, previous studies leading up to this have indicated our attrition rate is roughly one in four officers.

There's a turnover rate.

So right now, it's too early to tell the impact of these sign-on bonuses.

and what they're having as far as the attrition rate.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And for the record, the last comments were by our Chief of Police, Reece.

Thank you.

I was just going to ask before Colonel Reece sat down, if you didn't mind, sir, could you talk about the length

You're talking about one in four officers.

Yes, sir, excellent question.

The average start-up time for a brand new officer with no law enforcement experience is about a one-year turnaround time.

That is getting through their background phase of the hiring process as well as getting them into one of the two academy dates, whether it's January or July, and then the post-academy training

which is approximately 12 weeks in-house training that we have.

And then after the in-house training, that's when they begin their FTO training.

So we go above and beyond in the Albemarle County Police Department training our officers, make sure they're good fits for this community.

One follow-up.

The turnover rate that you described, many of those are long-time officers.

Is it a different rate for those who begin the recruit school?

Do they all matriculate?

Do they all graduate?

I'm sorry, to clarify, Supervisor Mallek, that is for the brand new officers.

That is all for the brand new officers.

We can anticipate maybe one in four of those getting out.

Traditionally, they get out of law enforcement altogether.

Right, okay.

Just found out it wasn't quite for them.

I see.

Other questions?

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

Ms.

Coltrane, I have a simple question, I believe.

We've been just referring to this sort of

anecdotally as a sign-on bonus, but it appears to me that that's half of this.

So as I read it, current employees at a 0.7 or above FTE are eligible for the same $3,000 that new hires as effective December 1st would get.

So it actually is a broader coverage to both forces completely.

It's just a sign-on.

For clarification, 0.7 would be a part-time person, a part-time recruit if the departments had that opportunity to come on board.

All right, just to sign on.

What I would add, and I'll make sure in looking at my budget team that I don't misspeak, last year when we implemented this program, we implemented it in sync with existing fire and police employees receiving the same level of bonus.

So in essence, they received that a year ago.

You see what I'm saying?

Thank you for clarifying that.

I have no further questions at this time.

Thank you, Chief Eggleston, Chief Rees, and Ms.

Coltrane.

We'll now open the public hearing.

Let me check with the clerk.

All right, that being the case, we can close the public hearing.

Again, we'll brief quickly, I believe, be able to go through our order.

Any additional comments?

Thank you.

Thank you.

No comment.

Supervisor Galloway?

No comment.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And because I did not make comments earlier, I will briefly.

Mr. Richardson, Ms.

Coltrane,

Chief Eggleston, Chief Reeves, I know all of you have collectively worked together to find this resolution.

The proof is in the pudding.

The evidence is clear that it is working.

Chief Reeves, I want to also comment on how valuable this is for our community in light of the report that you released last week, I believe, with regard to some increased activity in the area.

We need our law enforcement officers.

This board is proud to support them.

Chief Eggleston, I really appreciate the conversation I had with Mr. Henry and you earlier today about some extraordinary and heroic action taken by some of our fire and rescue individuals and I fully support this.

All right, we have a motion from Supervisor McKeel, a second from Supervisor Mallek.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Mr. Galloway?

Yes.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

All right.

Thank you, Board.

Thank you all again.

Thank you, Ms.

Coltrane.

Board, at this time, we'll move to item number 12, Agricultural and Forestal Districts, Hatton AFD edition.

And Mr. Clark, I believe that you'll be taking the lead on this.

I'm Scott Clark, the Natural Resources Program Manager.

Tonight's hearing is about a proposed addition to the Hatton Agricultural and Forest District in the southern part of the county.

The parcel in the hatched area of the map there

Parcel 9H2 is just over 82 acres and the landowners also own the parcels located just to the east.

This parcel was previously located in the district but only a small portion of it, about an acre.

It was removed during the most recent review.

A piece was taken out of the middle there as you can see for a residence but now the entirety of the residue of this parcel

is being added back into the district, so we're actually increasing the acreage in the district from about 860 acres to over 940.

67.4 of that is important agricultural soils on this parcel.

and just to give you an idea of property in question, this at the lower end of the photo is the CSX Railway down near the James River and the portion of the property to the east here is, all of it obviously is farmed but also during the summer this eastern portion is used as a religious summer camp and

On November 9th, the I-4 Districts Advisory Committee voted 6-0 to recommend approval of this proposed addition and then on the 22nd, the Planning Commission also voted 6-0 to recommend approval of this addition.

Thank you, Mr. Clark.

We will go through our order.

No questions other than just this is more of a process question.

I believe that was where they had a problem getting the quorum for the Planning Commission.

No questions.

Glad to see it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Supervisor Galloway?

I have no questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And I have no questions.

We'll now open the public hearing.

I'll turn to the clerk.

All right.

We will close the public hearing.

The matter is back before the board.

No comments.

I'm fine.

Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley?

Thank you, Supervisor Galloway, Supervisor Andrews, and the only comment I have is I think this is wonderful.

The more we can put into some sort of a protective status closer to our waterways, the better we improve our stream health and the Rivanna River water quality.

I also support it.

All right.

Thank you, Supervisor Mallek.

Right.

So motion by Supervisor Price, a second by Supervisor McKeel.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Mr. Galloway?

Yes.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

All right, thank you.

And to be clear, that was attachment B. We'll now move to item number 13, SP 2022-00003, Daylily Preschool.

Mr. McCollum, good evening.

Lily I'm going first.

You're going first?

Good evening Chair Price, Members of the Board.

My name is Kevin McCollum.

I'm a Senior Planner with the Planning Division of Albemarle County Community Development.

Tonight I'll be giving staff's presentation on Special Use Permit Application SP-2022-3, Daylily Preschool.

This is a proposed Special Use Permit Amendment for an existing preschool facility.

The subject property is located at 4281 and 4297 Old Three Notch Road.

It is located east of the Crozet Development Area and is just north of the intersection of Three Notch Road, Rockfish Gap Turnpike, Ivy Road, and Browns Gap Turnpike.

Specifically, the property is two separate parcels, one that's home to an existing church and the other an existing dwelling.

The properties are at the intersection of Browns Gap Turnpike and Old Three Notch Road.

As I mentioned, the property is home to a church and existing dwelling.

The subject preschool currently operates out of the Sunday School building at the church.

Their existing special use permit allows for up to 20 students.

The existing zoning of the property and the surrounding area is rural areas.

The character of the surrounding area includes rural area uses including low density residential, agricultural with some vacant and undeveloped land.

The applicant has requested a special use permit amendment to move the preschool from the Mountain Plain Baptist Church to the existing dwelling and to increase the maximum number of children from 20 to 35 with a maximum of five teachers.

The proposed preschool would operate from 8.30 a.m.

to 5.30 p.m.

and would utilize the existing structures and playground areas.

The conceptual plan provides an overview of the proposed site layout.

Minimal site changes will be made.

Parents and teachers will utilize the existing parking lots and parents will escort their children down to the preschool.

A do not enter sign will be provided at the entrance to the proposed preschool to prevent parents from turning in.

There's an existing playground behind the church and one will be added behind the preschool.

Based on the findings in the staff report, the use is consistent with the Comprehensive and Rural Area Plan.

The proposal provides a preschool and daycare option for people who live and work in the area.

Thank you, Mr. McCollum.

We will go through our order for any questions of you by the board members.

Just a quick question because I noticed in the Planning Commission discussion there were questions about the number of the 35 spaces that they were asking for.

Can you give me or give us a little bit of information about what determines that and because so often schools come back for an increase.

I'm just trying to figure out

Sure.

During the initial submittal, 50 students were proposed.

The existing conditions of the site, transportation planning staff specifically had some concerns with cars backing up into those existing public roads.

There's no site plan currently on the site, so those factors kind of weighed in.

And because of those concerns, we asked the applicant

I did see some of those points made, but I guess I just didn't connect it with the number that they were asking for and what you all thought was appropriate.

So that was helpful.

And I guess more of the same.

So was there any discussion, and perhaps applicants will want to address this when they have their turn, about families with multiple children still making only one trip as opposed to 35 trips per student or per class.

So I guess I hate to have people have to come back over and over again.

So I'd like to have some more information about that Sure, the way the condition is written the number of proposed students is 35.

There's It's 35 students it doesn't include whether or not they will be carpooling or

are also in the same family.

It's the number of students in the enrollment.

We can ask the applicant to provide that enrollment data.

But like I said, staff reviewed this at that 35 number transportation planning staff in the review comments.

Assume that some of these students may be carpooling.

That kind of factors into their review that the initial submittal of 50

All right, thank you.

Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley?

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley, can you begin again?

No questions?

Thank you.

Yep, so I'm on the dog-pow on here on the same thing.

So currently there are 20 students.

Are there spaces for 20 cars to be parked there?

They have provided striping.

I can get you the number of spaces that they've provided, but they've essentially striped a number of spaces that will be closest to the preschool entrance.

and there are some existing spaces on the other side of the church that I believe are handicapped and striped as well.

But the entire site is not striped.

Like I mentioned, it does not have a site plan.

Staff felt that with the minimal increase in students from 20 to 35, we would not require either a traffic study or an additional site plan at this time.

Let me just follow up so that you ask my question.

I'm trying to understand, regardless of what the number is, what the threshold is.

Are we thinking cars are pulling in

stopping.

Like in an elementary school, it's a loop.

Cars pull up, kid gets out, runs in, but person in the car stays and leaves.

My experience with daycare operations is you must park the car and take the child in.

So when I see or was reading something about cars falling out onto the public road, I was like, well, wait a minute.

This isn't about a loop trying to drop kids off.

You're not sending the 16-month-old to crawl into the building.

It seems more that they have to stop, park the car, take the child in.

So now I'm going, well, wait, were we worried that there was going to be parking going on on the outside road and take it in?

Was that the concern?

I can pull up the area, I think, that's helpful.

There's also a site where we did a site visit, and that kind of helped us along during this review.

That area where you see the parent parking sign,

There's no clear difference between the road that's going through there and the beginning and ending of the parking lot.

So you kind of just pull off the pavement area.

The gravel doesn't really have clear endpoints.

So there's obviously space there to park perpendicular, but staff is concerned that if a sufficient number of those

perpendicular spaces were taken up, it would be hard for an additional car to either pull in and it would be a very narrow travel way to then proceed through the site.

I see another person standing up.

If you like I can maybe help address this because I did review this project.

Kevin McDermott, Acting Planning Director.

Thank you.

There is a requirement for one space for every 10 students for one of these types of schools.

That wasn't necessarily what we were looking at was the 20, but when we saw 50 students, we look at approximately how many trips we think are going to have to be made.

and we have to consider over what time that drop-off period would be and we were afraid that at 50 students that the parking lot area would not be able to accommodate that number of parents that would be parking and leading their kids down and then coming back and that there would probably be some spillover onto the road or people just waiting in line to get a parking space that could once again back up into the road and so

Got it.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Yeah, just trying to wrap my head around the fact that we've got an internal sort of transportation issue, the parking, and then we also have a need at this point for any kind of traffic analysis at the entrance, but there's a worry about traffic building up, trying to get in and out.

I recommend that my grandkids preschool that the teachers actually come out and sort of scoop them up and bring them in so that they're constantly keeping that process going.

Thank you.

I have no questions at this time.

We'll open the public hearing.

I understand, do we have the applicant here this evening?

All right, so if you'll give me just a moment, ma'am, I'm going to just have our Vice Chair, Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley

Read the procedural rules.

And let me check with the clerk.

Do we have any signed up?

All right.

So Vice Chair LaPisto-Kirtley, we have only the applicant.

No one else has signed up to speak.

If you'll read the procedural rules, please.

Thank you.

Applicants are limited to a 10 minute presentation of their proposal and are allowed a five minute rebuttal at the close of the public hearing.

Timekeeping is conducted through a timer and light system at the podium.

The green light will go on when you begin speaking, which begins your allotted time.

The yellow light indicates you have one minute to finish speaking.

The red light indicates your time has expired and you will be asked to end your comments.

All right.

Thank you, Vice Chair LaPisto-Kirtley.

Good evening, ma'am.

Sure.

Good evening.

My name's Elizabeth Klayman, and I'm currently the director and lead teacher at Daylily Preschool.

Daylily Preschool's been in operation for over 10 years.

And daily will provide an essential role in the community because it will prepare children socially, cognitively, and physically for kindergarten.

Children will learn reading, art, math, science, and social skills in a safe, nurturing environment.

They'll be actively involved in small group learning centers and instruction on a daily basis.

As a reading specialist, I will individualize the daily lessons for all the enrolled children and implement the lessons for the four- and five-year-old children.

The children will be immersed in a language-rich environment.

They will be read in multiple books per day, and the alphabet will be taught through letters and letter sounds, writing, rhyming activities, and poetry.

The intention is to serve the Western Albemarle community,

The preschool will be operated from an existing building with no major exterior or parking lot changes planned.

Thank you, Ms.

Clayman.

All right, at this time we will go through our order for any questions that the board may have of the applicant.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Could you estimate over what time frame the children are dropped off?

That's correct.

So they can start coming at 8.30, but I have parents coming between 8.30 and 9.30 every day.

OK.

So if you now have 20 children, is there a guess as how many people come to drop off in the morning?

OK, that's good to know.

Thank you.

That's my only question.

One quick question.

You mentioned four and five-year-olds.

Thank you, Supervisor Galloway.

It is two years old?

Did I miss that detail?

Preschool waitlists always are a conundrum, especially if they're young, because it's like, what do you plan the pregnancy around when you can get into days?

And what is your procedure?

So parents park in the front parking lot of Mountain Plain Baptist Church, and they walk down the stairs and into the Sunday school building.

Because of COVID, they've been dropping children off at the door, and we meet them at the door.

And then they go back to the car and leave.

And then in the afternoon, they again come back down to the preschool and pick up their child.

And I actually feel like that's very safe, because if you've got 10 kids out there and two teachers, it could be actually

Not as a great situation for the child.

So they're parking the car, leaving the car, getting in.

And in the evening, I would imagine most people are coming close to the 5.30 to pick up.

I remember if I didn't get there on time, I was getting charged by the minute to pick up.

So there's a half-day option at 1230 p.m.

and then parents there's another option at 3 30 p.m.

and another option at 5 30 p.m.

All right, very good.

Thank you.

Supervisor Andrews?

I'm also satisfied.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I have no questions.

Ms.

I'd just like to say that I love teaching children and I am really hoping that I can continue doing this so children can go to kindergarten and be successful and prepared for life.

I will now close the public hearing.

The matter is back before the board.

We'll go through our order for any comments that the supervisors may have.

I guess I don't have any more questions or comments.

I think we obviously need these programs desperately.

I mean I would be happy to increase the numbers.

It just sort of seemed like

the way the parking area was going to be needing a lot more.

It's going to be paved and lots of different things to be done to it.

It just wasn't in the budget for me at this time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So you mentioned

At 50 students or beyond, you may determine a need for parking improvements.

So that, I don't understand what that means.

And you know me, I'm a rural girl, I want to have everything very clear so that people know what the expectations are.

So, certainly this close to the reservoir, I'm always in favor of not paving anything, if not absolutely required.

So can you, and I know that the applicant was

changed her request.

I guess I'm following a really good lead, I thought, from the Planning Commission of why are we doing this when we have a really great established place with out-of-the-way locations in the three pickup times.

Is that a question?

Before answering, before answering, Board, I need to reopen the public hearing because we had already gone through a question period and were more in comments.

Since these are now questions, I'm going to reopen the public hearing in order to ensure that the information we're receiving is considered as part of the public hearing.

Okay, even though it's staff.

Thank you.

Yeah, I'd like to maybe ask some of my staff for assistance on that.

Like I said, we evaluated the proposal as it came in.

We thought the 35 students didn't trigger the need for a new site plan or traffic analysis, but at the number 50, we felt the existing conditions of the site may not be adequate or safe for that number of students coming in on a daily basis.

Rebecca, would you want to add anything?

Clayman, if you could just give our staff a moment at the podium.

Thank you, Rebecca Ragsdale, Planning Manager for Development Review, and this is a lot of the discussion that was had at the Commission and like Elizabeth said, I think the number is based on what we feel like the current capacity of the entrance and parking is.

Once you start adding parking,

once entrance improvements are necessary.

And the numbers were analyzed by transportation staff and engineering as far as what we thought the realistic capacity of the existing site could be right now.

And we always speak with applicants about what the right number is and what are the implications of going higher.

And so a site plan is a significant application and review.

The application has been advertised for 35 students.

So the notion of increasing it, I think,

would require another public hearing, it would require staff review to determine what those improvements are.

Thank you, Ms.

Ragsdale.

Thank you.

Are there any other questions by supervisors of staff?

All right, so without any further comment, I'll reclose the public hearing.

We are now to Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley.

All right.

I mean, I'm supportive of the 35.

Daycare seats in this county are at a huge deficit, huge deficit.

So I know that we analyze every application based on the standards that we use and go through that process.

and perhaps I'm more used to these, you know, in my area I've not seen a lot of these smaller daycares come up.

We've got, you know, Park Place, Parkway, you know, these huge developments.

And the efforts that we go to to get those developments through and right should be, you know, I shouldn't say should, seem to include a lot of creativity to make them to happen, especially if the need that's going to be addressed or the bigger need is important.

I'm probably not saying this very well, but I mean, daycare is a county-wide problem.

So to be able to get more seats in a place that seems appropriate to it, I mean, I appreciate the fact that a site plan's a different application.

It's a different process.

I guess I wish some of that could have been addressed or talked through in a different way somehow to realize the import of what that extra even 15 seats means.

especially since it was addressed or came up as a conversation, that very point was made by Commissioner Bivens at the Planning Commission level.

So if it triggers that, what's the assistance that can be done to prevent an application to have to come back and go through the whole process again anyway, especially if expansion is needed?

so even if it were a delayed piece like okay you're approved up to 50 contingent on student 36 gets you a you know you require a site plan but then it's already at least approved and going through maybe I don't know maybe I'm maybe I'm wrong on that so it's disappointing that this is that this dropped and it seems to have dropped when the intent was otherwise so obviously I'm going to vote to approve

Thank you.

Thank you.

And my comment would be that I understood from the applicant that part of the reasoning of dropping from 50 to 35 was because of the current economics.

As a frequent filer myself in CDD with permits, I understand that there are things that can be done now that may not be the complete package that I might want, but at later times I can come and refile.

And I'm very supportive of this.

I also want to thank Mr. McCollum, Ms.

McDermott, Ms.

Ragsdale for your contributions, and Ms.

Klayman, thank you for your presentation.

Second.

Second from Supervisor McKeel.

Ms.

Price.

Aye.

Mr. Andrews.

Yes.

Mr. Galloway.

Yes.

Ms.

Mallek.

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel.

Yes.

Ms.

Abuso-Kirtley.

All right, thank you.

Clements.

Chair Price, can I ask, I should have asked this during it, but this I guess is now a process question.

Could we have required that place to be paved?

I'm asking, I didn't want it to come, you know, I'm just saying that these small places that Supervisor Malek's point relative to the reservoir, can spaces like this, can the county say you must pave it to meet a site plan to get to a student number?

Even though philosophically we might not want paving.

We potentially can and that's oftentimes something that we consider in the rural areas.

That's why I'm asking the question outside of this application now.

Well, I guess I'm not understanding the question as far as what can be required.

If somebody would have come to me and said, hey, I'm thinking about putting this application in.

Are they going to require me to pave it?

I would have said, I don't think they can require that.

So maybe.

So what zoning administrator?

There are different requirements for surface, depending on what application you're doing.

One of the struggles we get, or we think about, in general terms, that paving is different than gravel, for instance.

In engineering standards, it's not.

The runoff coefficient is the same, so I may take the risk of adding some storm water requirements, or WPO, if I start to gravel things that aren't gravel now, which is different than

putting gravel on something that's existing for maintenance.

So if more parking was required and we said you don't have to pave it, you have to gravel it, you could find yourself in a situation where you need an engineered plan to accommodate the additional gravel that's beyond what was existing.

I don't know if I'm speaking clearly because I'm kind of half in technical and half in engineering, half in zoning.

So one of the things when we analyze these applications is to look for unintended consequences for the applicant, where we don't have regulations that would apply, and I'm going to pick on VDOT for a moment, which we don't have control over their comments.

So if we end up suggesting or requiring something that

would make them do a site plan.

Then there's external agencies that get a bite at the apple, which could require closing of entrances, turn lanes, some other improvements that with a small business such as this, that that cost now doesn't make it effective to go through with the application.

So part of that is that we listen to the applicant about what their thresholds are as far as what they're prepared to do and invest, not just in

the operation, but any site improvements.

So I think in this particular case, to go above the 35 as an example, there's a risk of additional regulation that comes with the cost.

Alright, well I appreciate the tutorial.

I mean, it was for clear understanding.

Thank you.

My train of thought just got derailed.

All right board, we are now at items number 14 and 15.

Now I do want to make a brief public announcement before we get into that.

These two items each require public hearing, but they are connected.

And when they are connected, then we are able to hold a single public hearing for both of the items.

As everyone may recall, generally for a public hearing, an applicant is given ten minutes for the presentation, members of the public can be given up to three minutes for comment, and the applicant is given up to five minutes for a rebuttal.

When we combine two items into a single public hearing, however, our procedural rules allow for the applicant to be given up to 15 minutes, up to four and a half minutes by members of the public, and up to seven and a half minutes for the rebuttal.

So we will now handle items number 14 and 15, SP-2022-9, Virginia Institute of Autism expansion adult service center and elementary school.

And item number 15, SP-2022-10, Virginia Institute of Autism stand-alone parking in a single public hearing.

So I understand Ms.

Yes, and thank you for going over how we'll be handling these two items.

Rebecca Ragsdale, again, Planning Manager.

I'm going to give you a brief presentation, which will cover both items.

Thank you, Ms.

Ragsdale.

And I did not mention that we will be voting on them separately, but we'll be conducting a single public hearing.

Thank you.

So the items before you are an expansion of the existing Virginia Institute of Autism facility that's at the corner of Hillsdale and Greenbrier.

That special use permit was approved a couple of years ago, and that existing facility is shown there.

Excuse me, my pointer's not wanting to work.

I believe you can see where it's shown as far as being labeled with blue and being the existing via.

And then the proposed expansion is to the building shown and labeled in yellow to the south of the existing facility.

And then the proposed parking is located across Hillsdale Drive and is also labeled in yellow and is currently a vacant lot.

I don't know why this thing doesn't like me.

It's not advancing the slide now.

I'm sorry.

Thank you for your patience.

This is a zoning map.

The immediate parcels and the parcels that are involved in this proposal are zoned C1 commercial.

There is a great deal of commercial surrounding this area on Hillsdale.

And then to the east is planned unit development zoning with Brook Mill and then also Branchlands.

taking a closer look at the site.

The two parcels that are involved are shown with the stars.

And this, as I mentioned, would allow an expansion.

Currently, it is the high school and older adult programs that are located at the corner.

And this expansion would allow the elementary school and programs for younger children to be located there.

In that expansion, additional parking for staff is proposed.

It would be solely staff parking across Hillsdale Drive.

The number of students proposed is 137 with approximately 158 staff members.

Currently, there are 52.

participants and programs at the existing location and 69 staff members.

As I mentioned, existing buildings would be utilized and existing parking with some improvements to provide an outdoor play space for the elementary school.

And then the proposed parking it proposed is about 66 spaces and there

There have been improvements to Hillsdale Drive that provide sidewalk on one side, shared use path on the other, and lots of pedestrian improvements including a crosswalk that is convenient to the site and is signalized.

This is a view of the concept plan, again labeling the proposed expansion and then the parking area is shown conceptually in yellow.

This will require a site plan and the final number of parking spaces will be determined then.

This is generally approving standalone parking on that site without a need for a lot of additional conditions because it is covered in the ordinance as far as landscaping and surface requirements for it, the parcel, this of course being in the development area.

And then this also shows over to the right where the proposed playground area is shown

It has been reviewed again by transportation and we did not have any concerns about the proposal and recommend approval with conditions that you typically see in general accord with the plan, addressing the number of those enrolled, hours of operation, and then a condition from the prior special use permit regarding signage and a turn restriction for buses that was established with the site plan.

for the existing school which there will be a shared entrance if I didn't mention that before so I just wanted to mention the conditions while we were going over the presentation and again for the parking it's very limited to one condition for general location of the parking areas for the standalone parking.

The Planning Commission recommended approval and then also staff has recommended approval.

We don't have any concerns with any of the typical criteria we look at for special use permits, comprehensive plan compliance, public healthy safety and welfare, and any detriment to abutting property owners.

All right.

Thank you, Ms.

Ragsdale.

We will go through our order for any questions by supervisors.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Just to clarify, Ms.

Ragsdale, when you say left turn out for buses, that would be southbound, heading toward the city.

Yes.

So the right turn is restricted because the buses would go into the other lane, but when making the left turn, that's not an issue.

It's the radius, I guess.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Ms.

Ragsdale.

You mentioned a signal.

I guess my concern is how everyone gets across from the parking lot on the opposite side because I travel that road a lot.

Where is the signal that you had mentioned?

Oh, I'm sorry, I'm not sharing my screen anymore.

I can share my screen again if you'd like, but the crosswalk that is signalized is

directly across from sidewalks and where the school is located.

So this is the, when I was talking about a signalized crosswalk, that's where that is.

And again, we have a sidewalk on this side of the road with crosswalks.

Their entrance is actually already there for this parking area.

It's a signalized crosswalk, but it's not a traffic light.

Right.

Yes.

That's why I got confused.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you.

Yeah, well, I guess I do have a question.

I'm trying to remember when this was presented at the CAC, because these are younger folks at this facility, the other facility, are serving an older

age population.

I remember there was a fence put in at the previous location.

What's this perimeter for the – if I remember right, there's playground area, play area, that sort of thing.

What are the add-ons or the similar type of physical

For the playground.

Yes.

So to be a similar type of way.

And the bus, thank you for the bus reminder.

All right, thank you.

Supervisor Andrews?

No questions, thank you.

All right, thank you.

With that slide up, and Ms.

Ragsdale, I do appreciate the explanation.

I'm still a little puzzled in terms of the aspect of a left turn only, as I generally think right turn is the safest turn.

I understood what you said is the problem with the right turn would require the bus to go out into the opposing traffic lane.

I presume because of the nature of the curvature for the turn coming out.

Is there no other alternative?

It just strikes me as the least safe option to have a bus turning left across traffic rather than right.

And I'm presuming that that has all been looked at.

I'm sure Kevin would be happy to add because he has more technical expertise with transportation issues, but it was reviewed by the transportation staff internally again and VDOT.

We haven't explored any other options.

I think the condition would limit those movements if we want to leave that to site plan.

Actually, this was a VDOT comment that this was addressing as far as the turning movements and we see this pretty often where large vehicles have to enter opposite directions of travel to make turns in VDOT.

Typically has a similar comment and they want you to be able to address that and the only way really is to adjust the entire roadway which ends up being fairly expensive.

Right.

And I appreciate that.

I just felt like I needed to ask that question because again, generally you think a right turn would be the safer, especially a school bus, a large vehicle, relatively slow to get started.

There's a curvature in the road.

I believe that's right.

Thank you, Mr. McDermott.

Thank you, Ms.

Ragsdale.

I have no further questions.

and so I understand we do have the applicant here and we also have at least one individual who's signed up so before you get up Ms.

Long just to save you with your your scooter there I'll turn it over to Vice Chair LaPisto-Kirtley and let me first check so we have one electronic participant let me check with the clerk do we have anyone in person who has signed up

All right, thank you.

During public hearings, the board will acknowledge speakers addressing the item listed for public hearing.

Speakers are limited to one appearance of four and a half minutes per public hearing item.

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Thank you, Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley.

So, Ms.

Thank you, Madam Chair, Members of the Board, I'm Valerie Long with Williams-Mullen.

We are representing the applicant, Virginia Institute of Autism.

We have our team here, Ethan Long, who's the CEO.

I'd like him to say a few words to help you all understand even better perhaps sort of their mission and how they're going to see all this work.

We also have Jonathan Showalter here with Timmons Group, Civil Engineers.

Before I turn it over to Mr. Long, no relation, however, the comment about the site plan and the no left turns, I appreciate you raising that.

Mr. Schollwalter made a really good point that at the time that was a requirement by VDOT, as Mr. McDermott stated, but it may be that they might have a different approach now that both parcels would be under common ownership and common control.

I realize I'm springing this on Mr. McDermott, but if there were a way to perhaps either strike that condition or modify it so that it could be an option if VDOT were okay with it

Frankly, it's not a problem right now for VIA, so they can live with that requirement staying in place, but if it makes sense and could meet the criteria when the parcels are under common ownership, that would just be a nice option to have.

Thank you, Ms.

Long.

Good evening.

It's nice to see some of you again.

It was pre-COVID when I was last here and we were actually seeking special approval for what was the Senior Center to become our Center for Adolescent and Adult Autism Services.

I am excited about our next project.

which is before you.

This is a culmination of a vision that started way back and the Virginia Institute of Autism as you know is a non-profit organization.

It was started right here in Charlottesville by parents.

and we have a commitment to evidence-based practice and helping folks overcome significant challenges as a result of their autism and we do that by employing a number of specialists and this project in particular what we're very excited about is the opportunity to create a school but it's more than just a school that we'd be creating here

So you're aware of our student population.

We'd be serving students from the ages of five up to about 14 in that building, is what we'd anticipate.

And these are all children diagnosed with autism or related developmental disability who are experiencing severe or significant challenges in their areas of communication, learning, adaptive behavior, and social interaction.

and as an extension of the public schools, we are licensed by the Department of Education and all the schools coming to us would be public school students who are not able to be served appropriately and as mandated by federal law in the public schools.

So about a third of our children would be coming to us, at least currently, are coming to us from Albemarle County and Charlottesville City.

The other students come from as far away as an hour around who come for the day programming and we go year round as a school.

If you were to come, you'll see that the team that works with these students, it's a multidisciplinary team.

We have licensed teachers, special educators, but of course we also have licensed behavior analysts, speech and language pathologists, social workers, psychologists, all experts in the field of autism and autism treatment.

and we build a very unique and individualized program which allows us to have some real successes with our students with the goal being of course to put all of our students get them back into their public schools so that they can rejoin their classes.

So the exciting part about this project is that we would be able to refurbish this building.

Ultimately what we found when we built our other building was that the purpose-built space has just been incredible.

We would see unique learning spaces that really allow for social interaction and teaching to occur.

We'd have functional play spaces.

You asked about the outside.

We'd have a fenced area of special needs playground.

that would be an indoor and outdoor space.

The other unique feature is that we often have a one-to-one student-to-staff model.

So the students are very highly supervised and that's as a result of some of their disabilities.

And so there's a lot of supervision, a lot of unique spaces that would allow for motor skill development, both fine and gross motor.

Development.

We'd have a lot of unique spaces that would take the natural interests and use those to be able to teach learning and the basics of learning, social communication, social interaction.

This is one of the few programs in the United States, I have to tout us a little bit, and we are so lucky I think to have this in our community and to share it with the rest of Central Virginia and to leverage this program with the wonderful work that's happening at the University of Virginia.

so that we can show others how we can better overcome some of the challenges of autism.

This building would house ten classrooms, one being a very unique program where we hope to have some of the folks, students who have some of the most severe challenges

Work with the University of Virginia Medicine and School of Education to be able to sort of stabilize some of those students' behavioral challenges and then ultimately build some skills and help them matriculate back into our program and then hopefully matriculate back into their public schools.

Thank you.

I was going to say, Madam Chair, I do have some slides.

I'd be happy to share them if there's interest or a particular issue or question anyone has.

But otherwise, I'm happy to forego that.

But for now, I'll hold off.

I think you'll have plenty of time if you need it in rebuttal as well, but thank you for your consideration.

So what we will do though is first go through our order if any questions of you representing the applicant or Mr. Long.

So we'll go through our order.

I don't have any questions for the applicant.

I do have another question for staff later, but I just want to say this is a wonderful school.

We are really lucky in our community to have BIA.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you and my only question is will you be able to use the entire new building or will you just be using some floors?

Yeah, in fact, we fully intend to use the full building and the synergy between that building and then having right next door our Center for Adults would be fabulous in our high school program.

Thank you.

Totally in favor of this.

Anything we can do for children that do have autism.

That's a great thing.

I know this is a public school.

We also have a private school, Little Keswick School, that addresses the autism needs of older children also.

So I am really glad to hear of your expansion.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Supervisor Galloway?

No questions at this time.

Thank you.

I have no questions at this time.

I do.

I think it's just more of a question to help inform me, not so much about my ... I'm certainly approving this project.

Help me a little bit though.

This is a little different where we have a school or an entity on one side of the road

and we have another parcel on the other side of the road that is parking, just parking, right?

So it's a little different and it's a special use permit.

I'm trying to figure out because we often talk about what happens once we approve these properties

and something happens and it changes hands, just help me understand what the

and I don't think anything's going to happen to Viya.

I don't think you all are going to close or anything, but I'm really curious just to try and figure out what, Rebecca, would happen with that stand-alone parking area that we are approving for just parking.

Maybe it's a whack-a-doodle question on my part.

is a separate special use permit in our ordinance I think because typically we prefer that parking be associated with the building so we think it needs a little bit of extra review but that special use permit is not going to limit any of the buy right uses on the property for Viya so if they decide they don't need that parking

or they only need some of it and they want to build a building, I think that the special use permit is not intended to overly restrict the parcel if that helps you any.

What happens then with that product?

Does it have to stay?

I'm just trying to figure out.

It doesn't have to stay a parking area.

Right.

We're allowing this option for the parcel.

It's an additional option.

It could be whatever because VIA would no longer have it.

All right, just curious as to how.

No, it's a good question.

And it doesn't go with, but even though it goes with the land, because it's not a rezoning, it's a special use.

I'm just not used to seeing these.

So for my own education, I appreciate you answering the question for me.

All right.

So we've gone through our round of questioning of the applicant.

You've asked that.

We do have one individual who has signed up online.

Ms.

I'm Muriel Grimm and I'm in Rio District.

My questions have to do with the parking lot, not so much the parking lot, but the dangerous spot at which it's located.

I don't think the safety has actually adequately been addressed.

You spoke about the buses, but I have a couple of other questions.

For example, if people are making left-hand turns out of that parking lot,

I'm wondering if it's been considered how long it takes a car from making that turn to get into the blind spot which exists for drivers who are sitting at the intersection of Greenbrier and Hillsdale.

We cannot see past that building and up the road.

We decide when cars are coming by looking beyond

The Blind Spot.

I'm not quite sure how that would manage with left-hand cars making the turn here.

The other problem, which I think is very important, is something you mentioned, which is crossing the street.

I, as a person who walks there often, know that I cannot

possibly consider crossing the street where that driveway will be for that parking lot because one, you do not have good visibility and two, by the way, the speed limit is supposed to be 25 miles per hour on that road.

It is well listed, however, most cars seem to go much closer to 40 miles an hour.

I thought about the people crossing at that particular crosswalk that you spoke about.

I never use that.

I go all the way up to the one at the top of the hill where you have visibility and it's only crossing two lanes of traffic.

So my point is that I'm fine with this whole project.

However, I'd like to know what has been done, what consideration is

Thank you.

Alright, thank you.

At this time, Ms.

Long, you have up to seven and a half minutes for any rebuttal that you may want to make.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

And I'd be happy to pull up some slides or maybe just rise still.

It may be faster and easier if we need to.

If I understood the speaker correctly, I think her concern was that at the entrance to the proposed future standalone parking lot that's vacant now, that it would not be safe for anyone to cross Hillsdale right from that spot.

She may be right.

There's not a crosswalk right there.

There's a crosswalk across the front of that parking lot driveway entrance.

But there is a parking lot towards that intersection with Greenbrier.

A crosswalk towards?

Right.

There's a crosswalk in between.

It's the one that Ms.

Ragsdale was showing that is signalized.

So someone could come, if a

and again that parking lot would be for future staff.

I don't think my cursor shows up but you can see right where Hillsdale Drive is labeled in the street right just to the left of the H. You can see a crosswalk because that driveway was sort of built out at the time.

Someone could park their car in that future lot and then walk down the sidewalk that's on the same side of the street

and then safe to the crosswalk that kind of is right across, well you can see it, to that crosswalk there is a signal there which I understand is like a button you push and the lights flash, cross safely over to the opposite side of the street and then whether you're going to the existing Via building or the new one, then there's another crosswalk to get to to go either direction.

So we're comfortable with that at this time.

As was mentioned, there will be a site plan requirement for this.

Standalone parking lot would probably not be built initially.

It will be all subject to VIA's capital campaign to do their second phase of students.

So that will be probably a future site plan requirement to build that out if and when they're able to.

But initially, they won't most likely need that parking lot immediately.

It's really just to know that they have enough parking long term when they're at full build out because of their particularly high

ratio of staff to students, unlike most schools.

So I hope that answers that question.

I think that was everything.

Again, we're happy to address that more.

Mr. Showalter is here again.

He may have some specific comments.

I think there seems to be some consensus among some of the residents nearby that there are challenges at the Greenbrier Hillsdale intersection.

But I would note the distance

that the crosswalk is located from that intersection.

Thank you, Ms.

Long.

Before you move away, just in case anyone has a question, supervisors, in light of the rebuttal, any questions?

No, I'm okay.

No questions.

I'm sitting here wishing that our stoplight had been put in when the road was done.

Thank you.

I don't have questions.

Thank you.

Supervisor Andrews?

No questions.

All right.

I have no questions for as long.

I believe you are safe to sit down.

Thank you.

Thank you.

At this time, we will close the public hearing in the absence of any further questions to staff.

Seeing none, and we will go around for any comments.

I am very supportive of this project and I don't have any other comments or questions about it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

No, all my questions were answered.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah, I appreciate the speaker's comments.

Just, I mean, obviously, you know, as I listen to what Ms.

Grimm had to say,

I'm looking at the Google view right now.

And if you're on the side that you're building the parking, I'm saying all this by the way that I'm not, I'm supportive of the project.

I'm calling this out as warnings and education you're probably going to need to do with your staff when they go to cross the road when that time comes.

But also for our team to think about it.

you know I can see now if you're crossing from the parking lot side through that crosswalk I could see how if you're looking right the way the curve is and with cars parked there how you don't know if cars approaching you so obviously a signalized crosswalk helps you think the driver sees the signal

I'm not certain that was the perspective, but I mean when Ms.

Grimson, she goes up higher and crosses up there, you have straightaways that you're looking at.

So I didn't really appreciate that because I don't walk that area very much.

I tell you that to her point about the, now I was a little confused about the left hand turn, but I'm going to address two left hand turns.

I'm not disappointed that the bus can only take a left hand turn out of the lot because then it's not going through a problematic intersection.

And the problem is, and what's interesting to me is the Google view has got a semi in that left-hand lane in this particular capture.

But if you're sitting trying to turn left onto Hillsdale coming from 29 and a large vehicle sitting in that left turn lane trying to take a left, you can't see the traffic that's not stopped cutting through.

So when you take that left, you better hammer down and pray.

because they did not take their sight lines into account, Valerie.

They're puppy dog tracks and you hit at the stop sign, you're a good 20 yards away from being able to see if you can get through there.

Now I'm letting my own thoughts of a signalized intersection come through and what's needed there.

But that being said, I hope your buses do go left and even if VDOT someday says it's okay to, go left.

You can go down to a signalized intersection in a shopping center, turn right, get to a signal at 29.

It's just going to be a safer procedure for the bus movement.

To the point of turning left out of the parking lot, not knowing the sight line well enough, anybody coming out of your standalone parking lot taking a left could have a sight issue with the curve coming up the hill.

So you may have to, I'm sure, I hope VDOT has taken that into account

but I would chalk that up to education of your staff to just be mindful of that when the time comes that they need to start going in and out of there.

The corridor is pretty well lit so I would think at this time of year being able to get to and from the car it's well lit.

There's not a safety issue from that standpoint but who knows perhaps with the size of the school and the increased traffic maybe that finally gets us to the tipping point on the warrant analysis to get the light in that intersection.

That could be an unintended consequence down the road and then that would help satisfy, I think, some of the concerns that Ms.

Grimm, I appreciate her raising.

All right, thank you.

Perhaps something like school zone signs near the entrances to both the school facilities as well as the parking lot may also help to at least reduce the potential incidents of a vehicular accident.

Much like we just talked about with the last item, which is preschool.

The increased incidence of autism in our population clearly necessitates programs such as yours.

I really appreciate, Mr. Long, your description of what I would characterize as some sort of a public-private partnership with regard to your school and the public school system, and I'm extremely appreciative

of what your school does.

One of my daughters was nearly killed, hit by a car and suffered significant traumatic brain injury and at the time in Virginia Beach we were concerned that the closest facility where she could go would be in Richmond.

We know that we have families here with children on the spectrum and it's wonderful what you do to allow them to stay here at home.

My only question really and I'm going to have to ask our county attorney on this is I have no problems after the explanation with regard to the left turn only language but I sort of feel that maybe if that could be softened a bit so that it was perhaps if directed by VDOT so that if at a later time with some sort of change in the structure

of the transportation situation there that the applicant would not be required to come back and go through a long process to eliminate a provision in the special exception conditions that at that point would no longer be necessary.

So one option would be for the board to adopt a motion that simply deleted the condition, if that was the desire.

I'm going to hesitate slightly on the word requirement because I'm not sure Mr. McDermott may be able to answer this a little more.

directly, because I understood it was more like a recommendation, maybe it was a requirement, but essentially that would be it, that if VDOT does not require, that the left turn would be subject to a VDOT requirement, and if VDOT later, because of changes in the parking lot entrance egress, no longer determines that to be necessary, I would just not want to impose a condition that VDOT determines is no longer necessary.

Yes, Kevin McDermott once again.

All right, and I would just ask if the applicant has any objection to that or comment.

No?

All right.

Okay, thank you.

I would offer for consideration when a motion is made if that would be something that the moving supervisor would want to consider.

I have no further comments.

I very much support what you're applying and seeking to do.

I'll speak to the condition of the left hand turn for the reasons that I stated, I'm not

that are different than your reasons for wanting it removed, which I understand and appreciate.

But I would think that even if the right turn movement and the radius and all of that was fine, I still have a problem with them going through the intersection down at Hillsdale and Greenbrier for the existing conditions there.

This condition helps me, with all due respect to the applicant, mitigate a problem that I can't

that's just going to exist until there's a signalized intersection there.

So I think for both the safety of the kids in the bus and the people going there to have such a large vehicle and that queued up in that left turn lane and the folks going, it creates problems.

So I would say let's keep the condition in there.

And then if we get the double hit of VDOT saying the entrance requirements allow the right turn movement,

And I appreciate your more intimate knowledge of the area and location and happy to defer.

Just a comment to add on to what Ned was saying.

Ned, my recollection is when all of this happened, when we changed that whole intersection, VDOT put in the ability to signalize that.

So it's built in.

So that intersection was built to be signalized at some point to be honest with you by VDOT when it was, yeah.

We have a motion by Supervisor Galloway and a second by Supervisor Mallek.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Mr. Galloway?

Yes.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

All right.

And then we also have a second item.

And we have another motion by Supervisor Galloway with a second by Supervisor Mallek.

Ms.

Price.

Aye.

Mr. Andrews.

Yes.

Mr. Galloway.

Yes.

Ms.

Mallek.

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel.

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Long, Ms.

Long, and I see Mr. Long as well, so I don't know if any more Longs will be coming in.

I take it you will not long be with us anymore this evening.

Thank you.

Why all the long faces?

All right board, at this time we are prepared to move to item number 16.

Consider the adoption of an ordinance to create a commercial property clean energy CPACE finance program.

Good evening.

Good evening.

It's nice to be back.

It's good to have you back.

I'm just gonna pull up the presentation.

OK, well, thank you so much for having me back.

So I'm going to keep this presentation short.

And hopefully, you can end your evening soon.

So I'll be sharing about a proposal to request for the board to adopt an ordinance that would approve a commercial property assessed clean energy program here in Albemarle County.

And this would be opting into a statewide program

that was set up, created by the state that localities could opt into.

So I will go through a few items and much of the information here will reflect what you might have had time to see in text in attachment D with this agenda item.

So you'll see some similar information reflected.

and hopefully that will help clarify items.

There are also one or two folks who are affiliated with the statewide program administrator, Virginia PACE Authority, who I believe are called in on Zoom.

And so if you end up having any questions about this program that I'm not able to answer, I'll defer to them and they may be able to include some additional information if you find it helpful.

So I'll start with just some top level highlights of

the benefits of CPACE and then I'll go into a little bit more detail of what CPACE is CPACE particularly in Virginia and then the roles and responsibilities for Albemarle County in participating this program and the kind of the process that would be involved after after setting it up

So CPACE stands for Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy.

I will go into a little bit more of a definition of what all of that means momentarily, but I did just want to give a highlight of what the benefits of a program like this are.

So allowing CPACE in the county will accelerate environmental improvements to new construction and existing buildings that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and also help

enhance building resilience to climate change impacts.

Ultimately, a CPACE program makes it easier for local businesses and commercial property owners to make these kinds of investments in energy efficiency, clean energy, water conservation, et cetera.

So the program seeks to make property improvements cost neutral so that the benefits match or outweigh the property assessment that's involved.

Properties projects could include installing solar panels, improving insulation, electrifying appliances, upgrading to energy efficient windows and lighting, etc.

So lots of the kinds of actions that are included or types of improvements to buildings that we talk about in the county's climate action plan.

So just to give a more specific example, since that was a long list, a local business might, for example, use sea-pace financing to install rooftop solar on a building or electric vehicle charging stations on their property.

Ultimately, the program is meant to incentivize the private sector to participate in local climate action and then also realize savings in terms of their energy costs.

So I'll come back to this slide at the end.

But just to preview, staff is recommending that the Board of Supervisors adopt the local CPACE ordinance, which will allow Albemarle County to opt into this statewide CPACE program.

So that was sort of the executive summary of the presentation.

And now for a little bit more detail on what CPACE is.

So CPACE is one type of property assessed clean energy, PACE being that acronym, and then the C standing for commercial.

Basically what PACE programs do is they create a type of financing mechanism to help support investments in clean energy, energy efficiency, other environmentally beneficial investments.

And those can apply to new construction, renovations, and other types of retrofits to buildings.

Broadly these improvements can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and also improve resilience to climate change impacts.

I thought it would be useful to share a definition that the US Department of Energy provides for what CPACE is.

There's more information at the website that's linked there, which you can take a look at with the slides.

So PACE programs allow a property owner to finance the upfront cost of energy or other eligible improvements.

on a property and then pay back those costs over time through a property assessment.

The unique aspect of PACE assessments is that the assessment is attached to the property rather than an individual, which would be the case in taking out a conventional loan, let's say, to make improvements to one's business or one's property and then paying that money back directly to the bank.

So I'll say a little bit more about what, on the next slide, why that distinction is important.

CPACE programs overcome two obstacles to property owners making these kinds of investments in their property.

The first is lack of financial capital for the upfront costs.

So they can be expensive, they can save the property owner money over time in terms of the operation of the building, but there's an upfront investment cost that often either folks don't want to incur or are unable to.

And then the second challenge is that the payback period between when the upfront investment occurs and when the improvements finish paying for themselves can sometimes be a length of time that provides a disincentive to property owners or business owners from taking these kinds of steps.

So how does CPACE help overcome those two obstacles?

For the first one, similarly to a loan, it provides the upfront capital.

So that's where there's some overlap, similarity to a conventional loan that you might take out as a business owner.

But the second one that's important is because the payments are attached to the property rather than the individual owner or business, like a loan, property owners can realize the benefits of the improvements even if they sell the property before that payback period or timeline comes to fruition.

So that's how it helps to overcome this other obstacle of

I could put all these investments in my property, but if the payback time of the upfront investments and then the reduced operating costs over time is maybe long after I hope to expand my business and move elsewhere, then maybe I say, well, it's not worth the trouble.

It's not worth the expense even to take out a loan.

Why would I make these improvements?

So CPACE helps to overcome that, which we hope will incentivize more property owners to make these kinds of improvements and over time help to transition

our building stock towards more energy efficient and with more renewable energy.

Another benefit of CPACE that I didn't include in the two main obstacles but is worth mentioning is that because the repayment structure tends to be a bit more certain, the interest rates are lower and so that helps to reduce the overall cost for the person who's entering into agreement and making the investments.

I wanted to include a little bit of information because Supervisor Mallek had raised I think a very fair question the other day about some consumer protection issues around PACE and there has been some information in the media as well as some government websites about some consumer protection challenges so I wanted to offer a bit of clarity but if the question still remains

The folks from Virginia PACE Authority who are online can probably shed some further light.

So generally the consumer protection challenges, there have been some cases reported in the media of folks entering into agreement where they didn't fully understand what was involved and the property assessment ended up being more than someone could afford.

Generally, my understanding is that those issues have been involved with residential PACE, so someone wanting to do this with their own home.

Residential PACE is not yet enabled in Virginia at this time, so we're not considering standing up that kind of a program, and if someday that becomes enabled, then those kinds of questions would be something we'd want to grapple with.

how to avoid those kinds of consequences.

My understanding is that with commercial property assessed clean energy with CPACE which is what's enabled and for your consideration tonight that does not tend to be as much of an issue in part because the types of loans

that are working through CPACE, they tend to be pretty large and with business owners who have experience borrowing money to finance investments with their business.

Lawyers are generally representing both parties to the agreement when they're coming together and so there's a little bit less risk of that kind of, you know, a homeowner wants to, you know, do something good for the environment and for their bills and maybe doesn't quite understand the process.

Hopefully that helps to answer that question, but again, happy to address that or have my colleagues online address that further.

Lastly, I did want to highlight that this is reflective of an action in the climate action plan.

So B33 recommends assessing the adoption of a local sea-paced program.

and this is an interesting one because it feels like an example both low-hanging fruit for the county to implement an action in the climate action plan but that then facilitates community members local businesses and commercial property owners to then do their part to also implement the climate action plan with us so CPACE in Virginia it's actually been enabled for over a decade in 2009 it was initially enabled they made some updates to the state legislation in 2015

and that early enabling legislation was for localities to create their own program.

There were some early adopters.

Some of these were during that early period, I believe Arlington County, City of Alexandria.

Several other localities have now come in and been adopting once the state program was set up.

So Fairfax County, Loudoun County, Louisa County and several others.

but in that early period you had localities kind of standing up their own program working with Virginia PACE Authority

but each doing their own thing, having to write their own legislation, modeling it after another locality who paved the way.

But there was more work involved.

And so what the state decided was, well, if we could create a program with a model ordinance and model agreement language that would be relevant to all localities in Virginia, it would help smooth the process in terms of us as a locality opting in in terms of the administration of the program and the processing of payments when individual projects are created.

So that's a bit of the background and rationale for this new statewide program.

This organization that I've mentioned a few times, Virginia PACE Authority, they're the administrator.

They facilitate coordination between lenders and borrowers and they actually handle the payment processing.

And as I've mentioned, the state program really lowers the bar for entry for all the parties involved.

So where are we in terms of roles and responsibilities?

There's been some one-time setup work that's involved and we're through most of that process and now here before you to present the ordinance for your consideration.

In terms of ongoing roles and responsibilities, what we're going to expect for Albemarle County staff is some staff time on an ongoing basis.

We expect it to be quite minimal, maybe around 20 hours a year.

I expect to be involved as Climate Program staff in doing some help to promote the event, or excuse me, to promote the program, although Virginia PACE Authority sees it as their responsibility to do the bulk of the program promotion.

I think there are opportunities where our climate program could do some education, webinars in the community, connect with developers, commercial property owners to promote and educate about CPACE if they're not already familiar with it.

Although there are many folks in the community who are already familiar with it and we've heard from them about that.

And then there will be an element of the county executive and chief financial officer co-signing each unique CPACE financing program agreement

that might take a little bit more time for the first two or three of these as we're getting used to it and then over time it should become easier and a little bit more pro forma.

And then like I mentioned the PACE authority, they'll broker the agreements, they'll manage payment processing, program participation and do quite a bit of promotion themselves.

Terms of the process for each project, there's a promotion phase, which like I mentioned, a bit of the two entities involved in that.

There will be negotiating of the financing, the actual language of kind of the details of the project involved.

Albemarle County will not need to be involved in that.

There's the signing of the agreement, which we will have a part two, and then the processing of payment and essentially the running of the project.

And that will be happening.

You know certainly with with our awareness, but we won't have direct involvement So again just sharing the the staff recommendation that we think this will be a beneficial opportunity for the county way of implementing the climate action plan and also enabling others to do that along with us and So have a final slide with a proposed motion language for you all once we get to that point in the

Public Hearing.

That's it from me.

Thank you very much.

I think you've answered most of my questions.

Really, this is for commercial right now for us, not residential.

That's pretty basic.

It does seem like to me, Gabe, this is a win-win.

I just want to make sure that staff capacity is not going to be reduced by participating in this.

It sounds like other than signing the agreement, which is

Interesting.

Our understanding is no.

I may do a couple of events to promote, educate about the program, but we're not going to be involved in managing it.

because recognizing our limited capacity for staff right now to get things done, although it's really a great program.

It is interesting that even though we don't have anything to do with running or regulating the program, we're signing the agreements.

It's interesting.

So short answer, the reason we signed the agreement is because it's a property assessment and so there's a link to local government.

I think in terms of the second part of your question if there is any risk I wouldn't mind if they're online and available to tune in to defer to Holly or Ellen with the Virginia PACE authority.

I don't believe so but I think they can answer that more definitively.

Just wondering what, yeah.

This is Holly Edinger with the Virginia PACE Authority.

And the main role of the county would be if a property owner were to fall behind in payments, just like they would fall behind in the tax payment, the PACE loan is collected and kind of enforced like it's a tax, because it is a special assessment on the property.

So that really, out of the $3 billion nationally in PACE loans, it hasn't happened because these are pretty much big commercial loans to substantial property owners and business owners.

But that is when the county would have to get involved.

At that point, the county would probably already be involved in the property because it would probably be delinquent on its taxes as well.

This step of adopting the ordinance and kind of understanding all the documents associated with it is the first big lift for your staff and for your county.

And then as we get projects in, agreeing to the agreement, which is with the property owner and the lender and the county.

And then once the agreement's in place, the property owner makes their payments and everything

kind of moves forward through the years as a loan is repaid.

If there's a problem with the repayment, that would be when we would need the county to help again.

But like I said, I mean, it's a fairly big loan program in other states.

Thank you very much.

That was helpful.

Gabe, just a quick question for you.

I can see it would be much more complicated and risk-taking, perhaps with residential.

I mean, I get that.

All right, thank you very much.

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

One follow-up to your consumer protection question.

That's a good question.

I'm going to also defer to Holly on that one.

As part of the program guidelines that the state adopted and kind of recommends, there is a process where capital providers, the lenders themselves, have to register.

And they are vetted by the Virginia PACE authority.

We do a deep dive on them and make sure they're a registered lender, make sure they are active in other states and not having any negative findings,

We do reference checks and kind of, you know, confirm each lender that wants to be in the Virginia program.

Thank you.

That's very reassuring.

I really appreciate it.

And perhaps someday we'll get to the point of doing on-bill financing, which will really be a way for residential someday to be able to pay for their work by the savings in their utility bill.

but we're not there yet, so thank you.

All right, thank you.

Yes, following along what Supervisor McKeel was asking, on the slide presentation you had county executive, what would be or how much time involved would be

Yeah, so I believe on the individual program agreement, there is a place for the county executive and then the chief financial officer to sign, essentially.

And so, you know, the first few agreements there might be, you know, maybe it takes staff an hour to kind of look through, make sure to understand it.

I should say that our

our finance department and CFO as well as county attorney's office have reviewed and vetted the forms already so they have some familiarity with them and yeah it might just be in those first you know one two three programs or projects that get going where it would take a little more time to kind of look through understand all the details but once it's going

you know we expect it to be somewhat pro forma in the sense that the county is an important signatory to this being able to kind of scan for the key information that's unique but the program agreement the only details that will change will be the specific list of you know building improvements that the property owner wants to do and then the financial arrangement and so county executives and finance department staff will be able to look through those specific details pretty quickly

OK.

Well, I wanted to ask those, because I think this is a great opportunity.

But I just wanted a point of clarification regarding use of staff time also.

All right.

Thank you.

Supervisor Galloway?

No questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm going to follow up a little bit on this.

I'm sure I understand it.

It's an assessment.

If the property changes hands after the loan, how does that work then?

Right, so if the loan as it were is still active and payments are still being made on it when, let's say I have a, you know, own a building as part of my business and I am growing and need to get a larger facility, so I sell my building to buy a new one.

If it was like a loan for my business, I'd have to continue servicing those payments.

In this case, because of property assessment, it becomes, so the specific function is it's part of, it becomes a lien on the property.

And so, you know, I sell the place, leave, the new buyer assumes those payments as part of their new, you know, in addition tacked on to the property assessment.

And then they would continue paying it off until either they sell the property,

Sure, that makes sense to me.

You said VPACE handles the payment processing, but is it paid through their taxes or is it paid separately to Virginia PACE?

Can you hear me?

Yes.

OK.

Is that the annual collection actually be delegated to the lender?

The way the ordinance was structured and the way the loan are structured is that the annual payments get collected by the actual lender on behalf, as a special assessment, but kind of on behalf of the county.

That alleviates the administrative burden from your locality and it puts the onus on the lender.

If there's a delinquency, if there's a problem, then

then the county gets involved.

So it does seem like the relationship between the owner and the lender, if that goes south, the lender then has to come back to the county

in order to try to enforce the payments.

I mean, you said this is like a lien on the property, so how does it get recorded?

Yes, at the closing of the loan, it is recorded.

It is recorded on the parcel tax ID number so that if you were to buy a property and do a title search, it shows up.

So a buyer knows about it.

And so it follows the property.

Okay, thank you.