Board of Supervisors Regular First Meeting   3/1/2023

Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome.

I do need to first announce that there have been some issues technologically with the Granicus today.

I'm not sure if we've got that sorted out.

We are still available via Zoom.

And if there are still issues when we get those resolved, I'll be happy to make that announcement.

So I'm calling to order today the March 1, 2023 meeting of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors at 2 o'clock p.m.

in Lane Auditorium.

The supervisors who are present are Supervisor Bea LaPisto-Kirtley of the Rivanna District, Supervisor Diantha McKeel of the Jack Jouett District, Supervisor Jim Andrews of the Samuel Miller District, Supervisor Ned Gallaway of the Rio District, Supervisor Ann Mallek of the White Hall District, and myself, Supervisor Donna Price of the Scottsville District.

I'd also like to mention and welcome our County Executive, Mr. Jeff Richardson, our County Attorney, Mr. Steve Rosenberg,

our clerk Ms.

Claudette Borgerson and we may have at some point this afternoon our senior deputy clerk Mr. Travis Morris also present.

Additionally and today with

Deep significance, I welcome our Albemarle County police officers, Joshua Wright and Andy Munsey.

As we all know, yesterday there was an incident which is a reminder of how every day they put their lives on the line to protect us.

We thank you for your service and the courage that it takes for the jobs that you have.

Thank you.

At this time, Board, we're prepared to adopt the final agenda.

Are there any proposed amendments to the final agenda?

Seeing none, the floor is open for a motion to adopt the final agenda.

All right.

The motion has been made by Supervisor Andrews and seconded by Supervisor Mallek.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Yes.

Thank you, Board.

At this time, we'll move to item number five on the agenda, brief announcements by Board members.

Up first today.

So no real announcements, but as I'm sure other supervisors may, we learned of the passing of former Supervisor Ken Boyd this past week.

When I first became interested in local politics was 2009 when I had an unsuccessful run for the school board but as I began to engage I remember all of the players that were there at the time and you know, I eventually I became elected to the school board in 2011 and I have to say that all of my interactions with Ken Boyd and

even though from a political standpoint on very different ends of the spectrum.

But he always treated me with dignity and respect and that was prior to even being an elected member of the school board.

And I always remembered that, I always appreciated that in all of my interactions with him.

So I just want to acknowledge his service and I am grateful for my interactions with him while he was a supervisor.

Thank you, Supervisor Galloway.

Yes, I'll just add and agree with Ned.

I served on the school board and the Board of Supervisors with Kim.

And of course, over the last few years, we've lost touch with him after he and his wife moved to North Carolina.

So I was saddened to see the obituary pop up.

and you're exactly right, he certainly was, he was a different stripe of political beliefs from me.

But having said that, when he was on the school board with us and on the board of supervisors,

For the most part, I'll bet we voted, what, 95, 96, maybe 98 percent of the time the same way.

People tend to think that there's a lot of difference in how the Republicans or the Independents or the Democrats vote, but we really agreed about most important topics.

The one topic that I would say Ken would really be happy about right now if he was in this community is our work around economic development.

That was one of the, because at that time when I was serving with him, we didn't have an office of economic development like we do now.

We didn't have a focus on economic development.

And I think it was a frustrating, he was frustrated about that often.

So he'd be very happy if he saw that economic development office and Roger Johnson and JT's work.

So thank you very much, Chair Price.

Thank you.

Supervisor McKeel.

Yes, I never had the pleasure of knowing Ken Boyd, but I do know that he served the Rivanna Magisterial District, which is the district I serve.

He served that district faithfully for 12 years.

He was on the school board for four years prior to that, and he was actually chair of the board from 2007 to 2008.

His passion was for serving the community.

from what I understand.

And he did go to North Carolina after he finished here in Albemarle.

He loved this area.

He loved Charlottesville.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you.

I appreciate those comments.

I did not know former supervisor Boyd personally, but definitely a dedicated public servant.

On a happy note, I want to let everyone know, if you haven't heard, that Christine Hirsch Putnam, who's working on several county committees, as I'll explain, has been honored with the UVA 2022 Sustainable

State University.

In the young and old, as this announcement reads, Christine is a subtle genius at inspiring sustainable habits in Albemarle County.

She not only sows the seeds of inspiration as a leader of these committees, but also waters them day after day with her time and energy.

She leads meetings, but also puts up flyers, digs dirt, pulls weeds, writes content, organizes events and projects, picks up trash, and teaches us all with a smile on her face.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

That's spectacular news.

I'm very, very pleased for her because she deserves it.

Adding a few more memory points for Supervisor Boyd, he and I did not always agree.

I think that would be fair, but he also was very careful to explain exactly what the reasons were why he felt a certain way.

He was chair the first year that I came on in 2008, and I was fairly terrorized facing that budget.

and went to his office with the 300-page budget and sat there for hours and hours asking questions about all the spreadsheets and how to analyze them because I was swamped.

And he never treated me as I probably deserved, you know, don't be an idiot sort of comment.

He was always very thoughtful and very helpful.

I would say that the 2010 to 2014 board was collegial, even though we did not agree.

There was no bitterness, no semblance of any kind of irritation.

Plenty of debate, and that's good.

We have to be able to do that.

He told stories about his advocacy for the YMCA and why he felt so strongly about that, that it had actually saved his life in his hometown.

because he spent lots and lots and lots of hours at the Y getting through his teenage years.

And Brenda was with him at many, many events here and his daughter-in-law, Annette, has been the executive director of the Wine Board in Richmond.

So they're the only other family members whom I know, but I know there are other sons and families as well.

So we will send our condolences to all of them.

And the other item on my list

is the sign jail is ready for captains because as spring always happens there seems to be this explosion of illegal signs all over every intersection everywhere and I just want to announce that flag signs number one are not allowed anywhere.

Period.

So businesses, I think, who buy some advertising sign are given the flag signs as sort of a come on, but they're not to go up.

Secondly, the BDOT does not permit off-site business signs in the highway right-of-way, period.

And this is something, one of the many things that zoning has to deal with, and I think we can all offer to help them.

So I wanted to raise that and also we had received some emails recently about spotted lanternfly and its link to the Ailanthus tree or tree of heaven.

I did want to update people that I asked VDOT to get involved a year ago on this and they said we're not in the invasive species business and refused to have anything to do with their rights of way.

I talked to Matt Lohr who's Secretary of Agriculture and

asked him if he could apply some levers in state government to try to get departments to work together and have not heard back any great move on that.

But I think we just need to turn up the heat and see what else we can do.

And that's all I have.

Thank you all for being brief.

I have a number of things I'm going to mention this afternoon.

First off with regard to Christine Hirsch Putnam who is a neighbor, lives just down the street from me.

I first met her at a neighbor's house and then after that picking trash up and one day out picking trash this young woman comes running by and says thank you and I say you're welcome.

She says my mother used to have me out doing this and of course it was Christine's daughter.

Just the other day as I was driving down Secretary's Road she was out there again picking up trash.

She is a doer.

She gets out there and does it and I'm so proud of her and appreciative to be able to call her friend.

I met this morning down in Scottsville with Eileen Morse and Mayor Ron Smith.

Eileen is the newly appointed member of the Scottsville Town Council.

She has an incredible background from business and education and will be a wonderful addition to

to that council.

So Eileen, thank you for stepping up and doing your continued part of public service.

Last weekend in Scottsville, I had the opportunity to see a play, Love, Loss, and What I Wore, a Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron play.

by the Victory Hall Players and the Scottsville Center for the Arts and Natural Environment.

I encourage people to pay attention.

It's great to see your local community theater doing really neat things in a very intimate setting.

The news this week had a couple of things.

One, this board, among other entities, had received a lot of communication with regard to the situation at the SPCA.

There is an appropriate state agency that has jurisdiction over that.

They did conduct their investigation.

and there have been reports that have come out and it's important I think for our community to be aware of the differences in jurisdiction.

We have an Albemarle County School Board, they have jurisdiction over certain things that the Board of Supervisors does not.

There are state agencies and we appreciate the fact that action has been taken there.

Mr. Richardson, I want to thank you and Dr. Jerry Turner for the college day for historic black communities, coming colleges and universities that took place here Monday morning right in our lobby out there.

I came in the building and the excitement

I've got the goosebumps again.

It was a great event.

But for you all to schedule that here in the county office building, that's a message to our most marginalized communities and I want to thank you for taking that opportunity.

to spread good things.

Also this week, Rob Bell announced that he was not running for re-election after 22 years in the House of Delegates.

I want to publicly thank Delegate Boyd for his years of service.

I'm just going to get to Kim Boyd and tie that in.

Delegate Bell

for his years of service.

And much like each of you have spoken about Kim Boyd in terms of being a gentleman, even though your political views or perspectives on things may differ, Rob Bell has always treated me with dignity and respect.

And as a member of a marginalized community that is greatly appreciated.

I'm a lifetime member of the VFW and last year they were celebrating a memorable milestone and they kind of forgot that I'm also an elected official and Delegate Bell was there and they called on him to go up and speak and he said but you've got Supervisor Price here as well and she needs to have an opportunity and a lesser person would not have given up the limelight on something like that and then I was very proud last year

During the hundred days, I announced I was going to run against him in the House of Delegates when Delegate Bell and I walked together into the auditorium for graduation.

So our community could see that you may disagree with someone.

It may be a very strong disagreement, but you do not need to be disagreeable when we do it.

And so while I also did not know Ken Boyd, I really appreciate the commentary by the members of this board in recognition of his service

because that's what we're really talking about.

It's a time to honor those who have served their community.

Everyone from Christine Boyd, Christine Hirsch Putnam, Kim Boyd, Rob Bell.

And finally, today's my grandson's ninth birthday, so happy birthday.

All right, thank you.

May I add one thing?

You mentioned about the play at Victory Hall.

It's one example of how important the arts are for our entire community of all ages.

I think we learned even more about this during COVID, that people who had a chance to

have something which distracted them from the misery they could not control was really, really important for their well-being as well.

So we'll be hearing more about that as we go forward.

We do have one today.

And I'm going to read this as a motion.

Proclamation recognizing March as Red Cross Month, whereas during American Red Cross Month in March, we celebrate the humanitarian spirit of Albemarle County and reaffirm our commitment to help ensure no one faces a crisis alone.

and whereas caring for one another is at the heart of our community and exemplified by the people of Albemarle County whose simple acts of kindness through the Red Cross provide help and hope in people's most difficult moments.

Continuing the life-saving legacy of Clara Barton who founded the organization more than 140 years ago to prevent and alleviate human suffering.

and whereas in Albemarle County every day ordinary individuals lend a helping hand to make an extraordinary difference for neighbors in need whether it's providing an emergency shelter, food and comfort for families displaced by home fires and other disasters, donating life-saving blood for cancer patients,

Accident victims and people with sickle cell disease and other life-threatening conditions Supporting military members and veterans along with their families and caregivers through the unique challenges of service Using vital skills like first aid and CPR to help others survive medical emergencies or delivering international humanitarian aid

and reconnecting loved ones separated by crisis around the world and whereas their support, volunteerism and generous donations are critical to our community's resilience.

We hereby recognize this month of March in honor of all those who fulfill Clara Barton's noble words, you must never think of anything except the need and how to meet it and ask everyone to join in this commitment.

Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that we, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, do hereby recognize the month of March 2023 as Red Cross Month and encourage all residents of Albemarle County to get in touch and support their humanitarian mission.

Signed this first day of March 2023.

All right, I've got the motion from Supervisor McKeel, and it was close, but I heard Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley

as a second with Supervisor Mallek as a third.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Yes.

Thank you.

And we do have representatives from the Red Cross.

Good afternoon.

Welcome.

If you would like to come up to the podium and share any remarks with us.

If you would just identify yourself for the record.

Thank you so much.

You may need to move the microphone down.

Thank you.

I'm Carolyn Saint.

I chair the board of the American Red Cross Central Virginia Chapter.

I'm here today with Larry Murphy, who is the vice chair of our chapter.

And we're just so proud and delighted that you have proclaimed this to be American Red Cross Month.

And so just a few remarks on our longstanding relationship with

Albemarle County.

So Albemarle County, Charlottesville City American Red Cross Chapter was first established back in 1918 with the support of county and city leaders and remains a stable force during times of disaster and other emergencies in the community.

The American Red Cross Central Virginia Chapter has helped prepare the Albemarle community for emergencies by providing home fire campaign and sound the alarm events, installing free smoke alarms, and helping hundreds of families prepare emergency plans.

Our next event in partnership with Albemarle County Fire and Rescue is this coming March 18th, and we welcome everyone to participate and join us in that effort.

Thank you.

Thank you, and my thanks for the proclamation.

Again, my name is Larry Murphy.

I think the proclamation spells out extraordinarily well the services that Red Cross provides and is committed to providing every day.

It's worth noting that your American Red Cross here in Albemarle County is the sole provider of blood and blood products to UVA and to Sentara Martha Jefferson hospitals.

It's a critical need that we partner with everyone in the county to fulfill.

The American Red Cross in Central Virginia also has a very robust program for services to the armed forces.

We host Joining Community Forces meetings on a regular basis.

We bring together organizations that serve the military, their families, and veterans.

And we're the only organization that provides emergency messaging for active duty military and their families back home.

And finally, adding to the invitation for you to come to the Sound the Alarm event later this month, we also have a fabulous event next month.

Hope you all join us for the seventh annual Help Can't Wait Celebration of Heroes event that's on April 20th.

It's going to be at the center at Belvedere.

And that's where we recognize and celebrate ordinary local community members for extraordinary acts of kindness and leadership.

And the nomination process has begun.

It's well advertised by some of our media partners, including CBS 19.

And we get nominees from throughout the community for first responder heroes, teacher heroes, youth heroes.

And we get to recognize those heroes in April at that annual breakfast.

All right, thank you.

We do have the proclamation and we will go around for supervisors to make comments as well.

But if you'd like to come up and get this first and then board, we'll make our comments.

and board I know that we will want to make commentary so again we will go through our order.

Well I thank you both for being here today and for all the work that I know the Red Cross does not just in our local community but beyond but I mean what a wonderful you know when you read such a simplistic but powerful quote it can have lasting impact and as we go into our budget season you know

Yes, thank you.

And we really appreciate you bringing this forward for us to point out the importance of the Red Cross in our community as well as across the globe.

As a retired UVA nurse, I used to deal fairly often with the Red Cross, whether it was blood drives or CPR lessons or re-certifications for myself.

So I really am very aware of the good work that you do in our community.

And I just wanted to point out, I looked at your, I went to your website, and looked at your mission and values, statements, and one really jumped out at me.

It was about impartiality.

It makes no discrimination as to nationality, race, religious beliefs, class, or political opinions.

It endeavors to relieve the suffering of individuals being guided solely by their needs and to give priority to the most urgent cases of distress.

Thank you.

I just wanted to say thank you also for taking the time to come down here.

It's an honor to recognize you and all the work you do.

And I did find out about the

the blood that you're behind, the major donors of blood in this area.

So really, really appreciate that.

And the fact that you help everybody, not just some people, but everybody is to be commended and what a wonderful organization.

And as a side note, I probably shouldn't say this, but you're wearing the appropriate color.

Thank you, Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley.

I just want to echo those remarks.

Again, it's our honor to have you here before us to have this chance to recognize the tremendous work that you do.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

When I was little, back in the Dark Ages, Red Cross was the only place one could go to get life-saving training, to be able to have a teenage job.

And I remember painfully those experiences in the old Mem Jim pool.

being drowned by football players who would be supposed to be our raucous rescuees, shall we say.

But that's just one small example of all the many things that you do to help our community.

Thank you.

I'm retired Navy.

My son is a Marine.

When a national security issue comes up, the first thing you say is send in the Marines.

When a disaster comes up, the first people who go in are the Red Cross.

My first direct interaction was the emergency messaging when I was stationed overseas in an arduous environment and got the message my father-in-law was dying and it came through the Red Cross.

All four of my children were lifeguards.

They got their training through the Red Cross.

There are not enough things I can say in the time limit that we're given except to say thank you for what you do.

Really, thank you so very much.

Board, we'll move to item number seven from the public, matters on the agenda but not listed for public hearing, or matters previously considered by the Board, or matters that are pending before the Board.

Yes, during the time set aside for matters on the agenda but not listed for public hearing, individuals may address the Board of Supervisors concerning matters previously considered by the Board or matters that are pending before the Board other than items listed on the agenda for public hearing.

Individuals are allowed up to three minutes to speak for a public hearing item.

The sign-up sheet is managed by the Clerk's Office.

Community members physically present for the meeting speak first, then those who are attending the meeting electronically will speak.

For those attending in person, the Chair will announce the speaker.

And for those participating electronically, the Clerk will announce each speaker before it is their turn to speak.

For in-person speakers, timekeeping is conducted through the 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 that you have one minute to finish speaking.

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

To give all speakers equal treatment and courtesy, the Board requests that you adhere to the following guidelines.

When addressing the Board, please state your name and if you live in Albemarle County or Magisterial District, address comments directly to the Board as a whole.

Any written statements or other supporting material may be given to the Clerk.

If making comments through Zoom, you may upload written comments through the e-comment portal or email your comments to the Clerk.

If representing a group or organization, you may ask others present to raise their hands silently in recognition.

Speakers may not share any unused time with another speaker.

Back and forth debate is not permitted.

Please speak from the podium, not out of turn.

All comments are live streamed, recorded, and published on the Albemarle County website.

If participating by phone, press star 9 to let us know you want to speak.

Press star 6 from a landline to unmute.

Thank you, Vice Chair Andrews.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Thank you, Chairman Price, and thank you all of the members of the Board of Supervisors for giving me this opportunity to speak.

Many people do not know me personally, but there are some that do.

I live in Riverside Village in the Pantops area.

I was a former member of the Pantops Citizens Advisory Committee and was on the committee when the master plan was formed for Pantops.

I also am a poet, and I've been an active professional poet since 2009.

I do a writer in residence at the University of Virginia's College at Wise.

And as an aside, I'm also a blood donor.

Several years ago, walking by the river, I had this vision.

And before I start in that vision, let me tell you how a poet puts things together, if I may.

We will always have astronomers to tell us where the stars are.

We will always have physicists and mathematicians to tell us why they stay where they are.

And we will always have philosophers to tell us why we're here and what is the meaning of life.

But we will always need poets to tell us why all that matters.

And with that, I want to tell you why it matters that we close Free Bridge Lane.

When I was walking by the river when I first built in Riverside Village, this vision came to me of a place that could be poetry in motion.

A promenade, if you will, where cars no longer were by the river, where pedestrians and strollers and bikers and birdwatchers could envision seeing the river, enjoying the beauty of the river.

I can imagine clean air and clean water and a canopy of native plants restoring our green space.

I want all of that and I hope you do too.

And maybe we can marry that with a vision with Charlottesville on the other side of Free Bridge.

Please help pull this all off and let us have a wonderful new natural river walk.

Thank you.

And may I also say thank you for speaking with sufficient volume and clarity that it's easy for us to hear and understand.

Thank you.

Thank you.

My name is Kristin Swenson.

I live in the Jack Jouett District.

I'm happy to have Diantha McKeel as my representative.

Thank you, Ms.

McKeel.

And thanks to each of you for serving the peoples and the place of Albemarle in this capacity.

I'm here today as regards our local CASPCA, the Charlottesville Albemarle Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

specifically its board of directors.

Despite the fact that the organization receives almost a million dollars each year of local taxpayer money, we have no representation regarding its decisions and management.

As a taxpayer, I'd like to suggest a means to correct that, two actually.

One is that conditional to receiving such funds meetings of the CASPCA board of directors be open to the public with a schedule posted on the CASPCA website and opportunity for the public to contribute agenda items and or to speak such as is the case here.

The second is that the CASPCA Board of Directors include an elected official from Albemarle County and an elected official from the City of Charlottesville.

Because local taxpayer money goes to the organization, it seems appropriate that we have a seat at the table.

a member from the Albemarle Board of Supervisors and a member from Charlottesville City Council or persons independently elected to that role.

This is simply to correct a present situation, taxation without representation.

These requests have nothing to do with any investigation of the CASPCA, such as one hired by the CASPCA board of directors on which the executive director sits and whose vice president worked for the law firm they hired.

These requests have nothing to do with any such investigation but simply attempt

to identify the fact that despite receiving considerable public monies, the CASPCA does not presently have a commensurate mechanism for the public to participate in its decisions and management.

Thank you for seeking to rectify this by making conditional to receiving public funds that the CASPCA board meetings be open to the public and that its board of directors include two additional members publicly elected

One from Albemarle and one from Charlottesville City.

Hi, how are you guys?

My name is Louise Finger.

I am a resident of the White Hall District.

I have struggled immensely with the words that I will choose to share with you all today.

It's difficult to separate my personal experience

of what I see as poor treatment of staff and volunteers at the Charlottesville Albemarle SPCA from the bigger picture of the lack of accountability and transparency of the organization's board of directors.

The treatment of people trickles down to the treatment of animals.

as people are in foundation of animal care and in their absence neglect results.

As a taxpayer in this county, it is difficult to sit with the fact that my taxes are supporting an organization whose leadership has been documented as questionable at best.

The two changes that we are asking the county to request of the CASPA Board

One, that a representative of county government have a seat on the CASPA board, and two, that the CASPA board meetings be open to the public.

These seem quite reasonable given the large amount of public funding that this organization receives.

Additionally, the fact that the county depends on the long-term viability of this organization to serve as the county's pound makes this an important change for long-term success of this organization.

Enacting these changes are a vital step towards giving at least a small voice to the people and the animals in this community that are directly impacted by the decisions of the CASPA board.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

My name is Dick Ruffin.

I live in Riverside Village, which is part of the Rivanna district.

And I'm here mainly to thank you all for being such good listeners and wanting to engage the communities that make up Albemarle so actively.

I'm here to speak on behalf of the

Freebridge Lane that had become a promenade, as my previous speaker said very eloquently.

But I want to focus just for a moment on what I believe are the transformative impacts that that proposed change will have.

So I invite you to imagine, say, summer 2033, 10 years hence.

The promenade is alive and active, full of people, young and old.

Public art and other amenities go along that stretch from Dardentalle down to Riverbend.

Through the efforts of a new Pantops trail crew, invasive species have been largely eliminated, mostly mitigated in that stretch between Dardentalle and Riverbend, where invasives dominate all the growth.

The Old Mill Trail.

is now open all the way to North Milton.

A restaurant overlooks the river on the west side of the Pantops Center.

A scaled back pedestrian bicycle bridge connects Pantops and Charlottesville and also to this Omel Trail.

as several spurs that bring people from different parts of Pantops down to Old Mill Trail.

What is more, the Pantops family restaurant located in the Riverside shops is alive and thriving.

More importantly, Rivanna River has become a focal point for this community.

It's a place people come to from all around the area.

Businesses no longer turn their backs on the river, but they strive to place their front towards the river.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

OK.

So I am hoping the county will certify my residence as a four bedroom homestay, at the very least certify it for three bedroom.

I understand the strong rules and regulations the county has put in place in order to provide for safe and effective short-term homestays.

I am thankful you allow homestays on a case-by-case basis.

Two inspections, one by county staff and one by my supervisor of Scottsville District, Donna Price.

I found the process whole and complete.

Aging in place is a real concern of mine.

I'm on Social Security and still work part time.

Being able to maintain a healthy home is very important for the health of all communities.

Sadly, there are many homeowners who do not or cannot afford what is required to maintain a home of this age.

My home is 26 years old.

My repairs have been extensive, and I sent you a sheet, hopefully you all got to browse through it, thousands of dollars worth of repairs, including furnace, windows, HVAC, appliances, flooring, roof, driveway, decking, landscape, tree maintenance, just to name a few.

And we're not done.

I believe Airbnb and other homestay apps provide safe and effective platforms to continue to make this type of rental successful.

And when you go in as a host and you check off certain boxes, the boxes that I check off are no parties, no tents.

I do have driveway space for the designated one car per bedroom rule, plus my own.

And I hope more people in the future will be able to enjoy this type of sustainable income, allowing them to maintain and repair their homes.

Thank you.

Board, we will now move to item number eight, the consent agenda.

I am not aware of any desire to pull anything.

Ah, all right.

Just one second.

Let me go back to what I sent to the clerks.

Just a minute.

Where are you?

There we go.

All three of mine.

and May 5th, 2021.

Any other minutes polled?

No.

If not, then the and no other amendments.

So moved.

All right.

We have a motion from Supervisor Malek.

I'm sorry, McKeel and a second from Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Yes.

This time we'll move to item number nine.

It's an action item, SC-202200065, the Greenfield Short-Term Rental Homestay.

Good afternoon, Ms.

Good afternoon members of the board.

Let me get this opened up for you.

Nope, that is not the right way.

There we go.

We had it reversed.

You'll all be seeing the next slide instead of the current one.

So good afternoon.

Again, my name is Leah Brumfield, Senior Planner II and Zoning.

The special exception we're bringing to you today is located at 225 Starcrest Road in the development area of Albemarle County.

The applicant currently operates a fully permitted home stay on her property with two guest rooms for sleeping.

And as we just heard, as she called in,

A minute ago, the special exception is to request to increase the maximum number of guest rooms for sleeping from two to four.

In the applicant's request of the board, she requested an exception for a three or four bedroom short term rental.

So just to clarify in conversation and correspondence with the applicant, we did clarify the applicant wanted a four bedroom homestay, which is what was outlined in the staff report.

But the applicant wanted to make sure the board understood that if they were unwilling to grant a special exception for two additional guest rooms for sleeping, but they were willing to grant an exception for one additional guest room, she would rather have one additional guest room than no additional guest rooms.

That was the reason for the language in her written request.

So most of the homestay special exceptions we've brought to the board have been located in the rural area.

And this one is in the development area.

So I'll give a brief reminder of ordinance requirements for homestays on residentially zoned parcels.

First, the reason for the application is that residentially zoned parcels like R1, R2, R4, PRD, PUD, they're only permitted to rent up to two guest rooms for sleeping.

and to clarify that, which is not a term we necessarily use in normal parlance, a guest room for sleeping is literally what it sounds like, any room intended for use as a sleeping space for a home stay guest.

The zoning ordinance is explicit about the term guest rooms used for sleeping because home stays often have rentals where a room used for sleeping

might not meet the definition of a bedroom per real estate or for taxation purposes but the room has a bed in it and it is rented to guests to sleep in and therefore is limited to the two or with exception this exception up to four guest rooms for sleeping.

Additionally, the home state ordinance does require a guest room used for sleeping meet real estate definition of a bedroom.

Sorry, it does not require that, but it does require it meet the safety requirements in the building code for safe egress, smoke alarms, general safety in the room itself.

Additionally, home stays on residential parcels are only permitted in single-family dwellings, may not have un-hosted stays, must meet primary structure setbacks, and must be owner-occupied.

So if this special exception is approved, the owner of the property would then apply for the home stay zoning clearance, which would be an update to her current clearance.

During that process the additional guest bedrooms would be inspected for building and fire safety and the homestay would be confirmed to provide the number of guest parking on site at a rate of one standard parking space per guest bedroom.

So as per the homestay regulations in section 5148, the board may consider whether permission of the special exception would have any adverse impacts to the surrounding neighborhood if there would be adverse impacts to general public health, safety, or welfare, whether it is inconsistent with the comprehensive plan, and whether it's consistent in size and scale with the surrounding neighborhood.

So as you can see here, 225 Star Crest Road is located at the end of the cul-de-sac.

There's preserved green space encircling the property on three sides.

And beyond that green space, which is preserved in Lake Renovia, there's actually the lake, Lake Renovia, to the rear of the property.

Additionally,

We did want to go over that the homestay parking regulations require one on-site parking space per guest room in addition to the parking required for the dwelling unit.

The dwelling unit, all dwelling units require two parking spaces as a general rule unless it is otherwise exempted in a site plan or in a planned unit development.

As the homestay is not a commercial regulation with drive aisle requirements, the parking may be stacked in a driveway.

So in this aerial view you can see that the driveway for this property is around 57 feet long and the standard parking space in North America is 18 feet long and 19 feet wide.

However, you can see also here the standard average car length is only 14 and a half feet.

Here you see that with four guest rooms for sleeping, this homestay would be required to provide four on-site spaces for guests to park and two parking spaces for the dwelling and its residents.

As you can see here with the two-scale drawing, the driveway easily fits six cars which would meet all of the requirements for both the homestay and the dwelling unit.

Also of note, the

Two spaces required for a dwelling unit are not actually required to be on-site.

They can be allowed on the street if the neighborhood subdivision allows on-street parking.

And that's only for the residents of the dwelling, and that is entirely up to the neighborhood itself and when it is created as a subdivision whether on-street parking is allowed.

So as such, staff does not believe a homestay under the homestay regulations would have a negative impact on abutting properties with the expansion of two to four guest bedrooms.

All right.

Thank you, Ms.

Brumfield.

We will go through our order.

Supervisor Galloway.

Was there a map up there on the slides at some point?

So the green space around it is Lake Renovias.

On the other side, there's a big spot open.

That's a different phase that's not developed yet?

It looks like it says something Phase 2, just looking at it in the GIS.

If you're looking on the screen, it's the top left corner.

When I read the current owner of that, it says Mill Creek Phase 2.

Is that going to be developed?

Do we know?

I mean, that is not something that I'm aware of right now, but I can... I mean, the point I'm getting at is it still seems like the preserved green space that's owned by Lake Renovia gives enough buffer that if that were developed for some reason with homes or units that, you know, there still would be sufficient screening and stuff that we tend to look at for a homestay.

So I was just trying to see if we knew what was going on in that particular lot.

But that's all.

Thank you.

Go back to the parking slide.

Thank you, and I appreciate your good presentation and the pictures are great.

I live on a cul-de-sac and we've had this exact problem with parking.

Now we don't have an HOA to protect the neighbors, but the reality is that no one who visits wants to stack their cars.

Nobody wants to be trapped.

in a parking situation, especially when you have six.

I can't imagine.

I see people not wanting to stack when there are only two or three cars, much less six.

And help me with, Leah, it looks like the parking is on top of the trees here.

That's just the aerial view.

But that area is really tight in there.

I mean, I'm not, I have real concerns about allowing that many, or expecting that many cars to actually stack, and on a cul-de-sac in a neighborhood, which is similar, and I mean this is,

What was it?

A 1.4 acre, which is what I live on.

And the houses around me essentially live on, although they have deep backyards, but they're like that.

I have concerns about this.

Thank you, Supervisor McKeel.

I have some of the same concerns.

I'm wondering why this is a small piece of property, 0.4 acres.

in a development area and I'm worried that this is going to be a slippery slope.

The next person is going to come in, they're going to ask for three bedrooms and they're going to ask for four bedrooms and they're going to ask for five bedrooms.

So that's what concerns me and also I know that the applicant said that there wouldn't be any, they wouldn't allow any parties or anything like that but remember the homestay goes with the land.

So we don't know what the next owners would do.

And then I guess a reason for saying yes was that there was no negative impact on the neighboring properties.

I understand that, but if you rented out five bedrooms or six, you could say the same thing.

And I'm not sure if that's what our original intent is.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you for the presentation.

It clarified a lot of things that I was uncertain about.

All of the properties that touch the parcel that is requesting the application.

Touch the property?

Okay.

I just want to clarify.

And you mentioned on-street parking, which I had not considered before.

Is that in fact allowed?

That's a standard permission in any kind of neighborhood that has a public street.

If there is a street and there's not explicitly no parking, then parking is permitted.

And that's just in a normal residential neighborhood.

If it's not posted, it's entirely up to the neighborhood.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

that a limitation could be put on this approval in that depending on who is coming, they could have no more than a certain number of cars.

When my own younger generations are traveling, it's at most three kids and a mom and they're all in the car together.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Bart Svoboda, Zoning Administrator.

I'm sorry.

There is that ability to put that condition on there if you want to limit the parking with cars to mediate that impact.

To skip back maybe to Mr. Galloway's question if I may for a minute, that Mill Creek property appears to be actually Mill Creek open space.

Thank you.

Yes.

Supervisor Malle.

All right, thank you all.

This is in the district I represent.

I did have a chance yesterday to go and actually do a site visit, as the applicant mentioned, during matters from the public.

I want to thank you, Ms.

Brumsfeld, and also

Ms.

Filardo, who has moved again behind the computer, but I do see you back there.

Because late yesterday, I raised questions about a couple of things that are both specific to this application, but also on a much broader issue.

And so I'm gonna raise this for a later discussion, and that's the distinction between the home stays allowing a guest room for sleeping versus a bedroom.

I think that's for a conversation that we need to have about the whole homestay situation, but under the current regulation,

A room for sleeping is considered acceptable even though it may not qualify for a bedroom.

So I will come back to that at the very end.

Secondly, with regard to the aerial view that we see here, it is extremely steep slopes as you go either clockwise or counterclockwise around this property.

If you look, for example, at the red line that separates this property from Lake Renovia, on a horizontal it's a very short line, but on the vertical it's a very long line.

It is extremely steep.

I would estimate easily about a hundred feet elevation distance between this property and the lake down there.

So it's extremely steep.

You can see the dam there, which is as steep as you might envision by looking at this.

and then the property to the upper left corner of this that Supervisor Galloway brought up is extremely steep.

I do not see that there's any development reasonably that could be placed in that property and it does then lead towards Biscuit Run Park.

So I truly believe that there is virtually no potential of that being further developed into anything other than leftist green spaces.

I, too, had and continue to have serious concern over the parking.

If you would go to slide number six, Ms.

Brumfield, which shows the six vehicles, Supervisor McKeel, as Ms.

Brumfield explained, it is under the crown of the trees, and I actually did speak with the owner about, you know, if you cleared back some of those lower branches, it would

open it up a little bit so both on the right hand side and the upper left side there are ways that some branches cleared back would make room for six vehicles but that does not address the issue of whether cars will actually park there.

And the applicant was very clear about, nope, they have to park on the driveway.

But I came back to the same concern of the practicality of stacking in that many vehicles.

And the applicant is a very nice woman.

I mean, you know, I have no reason to question her sincerity or authenticity.

But again, as Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley mentioned, and we all know it goes with the land,

not with the landowner and my concern is that that's a lot of cars in a very limited space.

I'm also I guess I'd raise as another area of concern that if you go back to slide number four please Ms.

Brumfield, if only the property owners adjacent are contacted that means we've only only two neighbors have been notified.

So while I want to be supportive of a property owner wanting to make a little bit of money on the side on these short-term rentals, I've got some concerns with moving this from two to four.

And that's where I would leave my comments.

Follow-up questions, if I may, because I did not do a site visit.

Is there sufficient width in the current driving area that they could make angled spaces because then people can back out.

Really not, no.

So my comment is that if this was passed and we had the parking like that or even if we had a condition of we're once again setting up a situation where staff is going to be spending a lot of time trying to enforce something that we have tried to make happen

possibly in an inappropriate place.

Thank you.

Any other comments?

Just to go back, you know, Airbnb owners can dictate parking as they need.

The Airbnb owner wants to have the Airbnb and wants to have a viable operation.

So, you know, the last time I stayed at an Airbnb, it was in a major city and they were like, you're on your own when it comes to parking.

So there's no obligation

to provide it.

So if they do provide or set a rule, the ones that did provide parking said one spot is available.

You must park in the back, and you won't have access to it between eight and nine.

So you can put any restriction on your parking that you want.

So there's some self-policing that goes on that says, well, I want to be a proper Airbnb practitioner.

And if I don't adhere to those things, then I'll have it pulled.

So self-policing can be a part of this, whether it's this owner or another owner down the road.

So when we said that off-street parking was a must, it doesn't matter if there's on-street parking allowed or not, it might be legal, but for the Airbnb use, it must be provided off-street.

And that was originally put in there as the rule for what was allowed by right to hit the parking impact.

So that's what is allowed here.

If they don't want to be stacked in or whatever, you know, everybody that comes to my house, you know, with two teenagers, my neighborhood's ready for my kids to be grown and out of the house because of the 152 cars that seem to show up there with regularity, and none of them park in my driveway, which can hold about eight of them.

and I don't get it.

It's just, you know, they're all out there.

I get it.

That's behavior.

But guess what?

It's allowed.

And nobody, you know, so regular behavior is going to dictate that people are on parking.

Airbnb actually allows us to get it off the street and say it must be there.

And the business owner must adhere to it or they'll lose their opportunity to make that extra income.

So I, to the points that were made at the last Airbnb when we had the different structures and saying, well, if we had three structures and it invites three different

parties that could come and three extra parties means that more cars are coming.

Well, the reverse seems to be true here, that if it's one structure with five bedrooms, you probably don't have five parties renting out this place if they want the whole unit.

The separate structure, I understood the argument to be

lends itself to more people renting the area, more people coming in, more impact.

Well, if it's one structure with multiple bedrooms, then, you know, if I were this applicant, I would simply say no more than two cars allowed for my five bedrooms.

and people could come.

And if they're using Airbnb, their short-term stays, then they'd have to adhere to that.

And if it doesn't work, then they have to go find another place that's there.

Point of clarification, I thought the registry was gone now.

I thought there was some discussion that we were no longer tracking the way... I think that was the software.

That was the software.

Yes, to clarify, the registry is the Virginia Code of Virginia enabled short-term rental registry.

That's the title of it.

And it is a tool that we can use to track annually.

And home-stay practitioners, home-stay owners are required to renew their registry annually and have a safety, a fire safety inspection annually.

and if they are found in violation of any of the regulations pertaining to home stays, whether it's state, federal theoretically, or local, then that is a strike.

So we're still using the registry, but we did away with the software?

So yes, the software is primarily, we primarily use that to track who was starting up an Airbnb or who was starting up a homestay that did not register or receive any kind of permits.

Now, I'm not sure on the details of it.

I would need to get someone from finance to talk about it, but we are monitoring home stays through Airbnb and VRBO reporting and taxes, which is the primary tool that we're using to make sure we find out who is operating.

If they're in violation, if there's a complaint against them, and that is found to be a violation, the violation is a strike.

Yes, if someone is disturbing their neighbors, that's the situation that we want to avoid.

I have another question.

When evaluating a guest room for sleeping, does county staff consider whether you have to access one

It's not under consideration.

It's just, is this a room?

Is there a space for sleeping in it?

In some of the older houses, the extremely old houses in the county, that's very common, is to have to go through one bedroom to get to another bedroom, and that is even legal bedrooms by real estate definition.

So we don't consider that to be a suite or anything like that.

So effectively then, if you have to go through one sleeping area to get to another sleeping area, that's probably more either a marketing or the decision, I presume, of either the person renting the property or, if they have the information, the person

either the owner who is renting it out or the person who's renting the room to know that, oh, by the way, for the room you're going to be renting, people will have to go through that bedroom to get to the other bedroom.

All right, any other questions?

No, I'm still concerned about the fact that we're saying two bedrooms, this person's asking for double that.

This is a small piece of property.

In getting to Supervisor Galloway's concern, if they say, well, you can only have two cars coming here no matter what,

If they park down the street, and I'm sure that wouldn't happen every time, but if they park down the street, probably no one's going to complain.

The homeowners of the Airbnb may not even know.

So the parking situation concerns me.

I do think this is a slippery slope.

I think we're going to get a lot of other home stays that will say, can I rent three bedrooms?

And like I said before, can I rent four bedrooms or five bedrooms?

If they had large parcels,

of California.

All right.

Thank you.

Supervisor Andrews?

I'm just going to reiterate, I'm mostly concerned about the neighborhood and the effects external to the home itself, which is why I'm very worried about extra parking and how many cars will be brought in for that.

And also, still worried that notices only went out to the adjacent neighbors.

I would agree with Jim.

I'm not as concerned about the interior piece, although I recognize your point, and I'm happy to talk about that further, but I'm more concerned about what I've experienced with problems like this, about parking on a cul-de-sac in a small area, and only two of the neighbors have been notified.

No other comments?

All right, as a point of privilege, I would have the opportunity to make a motion to approve this.

I am not going to do that.

The floor is open if another supervisor would like to make the motion.

Ms.

There it is, Supervisor Galloway.

Motion's been made by Supervisor Galloway.

So the second by Supervisor Mallek.

Any further discussion?

Ms.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

No.

Ms.

Yes.

Alright, so the motion fails four to two.

You might want to go back to the slide where we have the stacking.

Yes.

The applicant has also indicated that she would primarily park on the edge of the cul-de-sac.

All right.

So, I mean, that's where I was.

I mean, as opposed to rooms, if nobody had a problem with the number of rooms and parking was the issue, it seems to me that if you allow the four rooms but limit the parking allowed for the Airbnb to two, put that on there as a condition, because that's allowed now by right, correct?

Yes.

So we're essentially increasing the room's use, but keeping the parking as is under the current buy-write use.

And then that seems to me to be probably a better scenario.

I mean, I don't know.

I'm not speaking for the applicant.

The applicant would have to say it.

But that allows the applicant the additional room use, which to me is probably the priority over the number of parking spaces.

But then we don't change anything.

If we deny it, she goes on and got the parking.

Let's keep the parking the same but allow the room use, which seemed to me to be a reasonable way to proceed.

But I don't know, I'd want to know if the applicant would rather have three rooms and additional parking or four rooms and no additional parking.

So maybe I'll ask the question of the county attorney.

If we approved the four rooms, put a condition on that parking allowance could not increase,

What I would suggest at this point, because of the variability, is that the Board postpone consideration.

I'd like an opportunity to confer with staff as well as with Mr. Herrick.

the county code requires a space for each room and there's no provision under the home stay provisions for a special exception from that requirement.

I understand that Mr. Saboda indicated that there could be variability in the parking requirement associated with the home stay but there's no provision in the

Parking requirements in the code for home stays are clear that it's one space for each room without provision for a special exception from that requirement.

So I think that staff can have a discussion with the applicant about her preferences and we can have a discussion internally about the variability in the parking requirement and then

Yes, the homestay ordinance expressly requires one space for each homestay room.

Oh, and we didn't think to

And there's no provision, unlike other provisions of the homestay ordinance that expressly permit a special exception from a requirement like the one that you're considering to go from two rooms to four rooms.

The code section says it's two rooms by right and up to five with the special exception.

I think it seems fair that the board would want to limit the parking and deal with that and it seems fair that the resident would like to increase the rooms.

I would also ask that if we do this that staff look into one other aspect of the rentals.

In this particular instance on the upper floor you go upstairs through a loft which is approved as a guest room for sleeping to then get to one of the bedrooms.

On the main floor

There is a den or study room that you can either access directly or And then through that is a bathroom a Jack and Jill and on the other side of that is a bedroom that is accessed either through the first room or separately on the other side so that if we have a situation where a

You have to go through one sleeping area to get to a separate sleeping area and it's approved that at a minimum there would need to be a condition that that be part of the advertisement or listing so that no one would be surprised to find out they've rented a room that someone else has to go through in order to get either to another sleeping area or a bathroom.

I understand where you're going with that and to a degree I concur.

but once again we're putting more on staff so if they have to make sure that it's advertised in that fashion instead of just saying no that's because I don't think that's an appropriate bedroom use for an Airbnb but once again the more conditions we put on things the more we have to monitor and the more time it takes and that's just a lot of staff time for

Supervisor McKeel?

Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley and McKeel, I don't disagree, but we have the regulation that says a sleeping area and you can go through one to get to another.

And I hate to get down, it sounds like we're getting down into the weeds a lot.

I'm more concerned about the parking here.

What I'm seeing, which I know in my world doesn't work, and it creates more work for staff and more angst.

So where I understand we are is we have denied the application.

And there is no current motion on the floor for consideration, but there has been discussion.

So would the motion be to defer?

Is that what we're... That could be one or deny.

You haven't actually denied the application.

Right.

And I think staff has heard our concerns.

And I'm happy to have them come back to us, take another bite at the apple, so to speak.

I would be pleased to make a motion that the board defer further action on this application until not earlier than the first meeting in April.

Because I don't want to push it just two weeks out.

Right, but we've got a, March is completely filled with budget and then we go into the tax rate.

I mean, I don't see any rush.

I think we need to give staff, maybe ask Mr. Richardson what he thinks would we... That's why I said not earlier than the first meeting in April.

I think that's early, I really do.

I would ask someone, maybe Jody Filardo, to give the board some direction on how quickly or what's reasonable in bringing this back to the board.

It's difficult for me to gauge the workload in that department, given the discussion.

Good afternoon, Board.

Jody Filardo, Community Development Director.

Let me just turn to my team because they're the ones who have to consider this.

I phoned a friend.

That friend said, let us work with Claudette if it would please the board so that we can determine a date.

So that's a great answer and I just want to add that there really are two sides to the coin and I know the board knows this but one is the department workload and trying to figure out is this easy or hard and thank you board for recognizing that and the second not speaking for the clerk's office but that the agendas are quite full usually going out

three or four agendas out and sometimes it's okay to find a spot and sometimes it's really tricky.

So Jody, thank you for that and board, thank you for your sensitivity to us trying to get back to you and sort of thread the needle there.

Alright, so thank you.

I think that the motion that you made, Chair Price, is

sufficiently specific.

You were not establishing a deadline for the items returned.

You were proposing a date before which it would not return.

And I think that with that, and that staff can bring it back at a later date that's no sooner than

All right, thank you.

Then I will stand by the motion I made that this be deferred to a future date not earlier than the first meeting in April 2023.

Second.

All right, we have a motion by myself, Supervisor Price, a second from Supervisor Mallek.

Any further discussion?

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Yes.

All right.

Thank you, board.

Thank you, staff.

We'll move to item number 10, acquisition of conservation easements programs, action on the 2019 class.

Good afternoon, Chair Price, members of the board.

I'm Scott Clark, the Natural Resources Program Manager in the Community Development Department and the item that I'm hoping to pull up now is a discussion of the status of the Acquisition of Conservation Assistance Program 2019 class.

So, as you all know, the ACE program, which stands for Acquisition of Conservation Easements, is a rural land protection program that provides a financial incentive for landowners of modest means to protect their land from future development.

Farm properties are protected by conservation easements that are purchased by the county.

So far, since its beginning in 2001, this program has protected 52 properties in the county and over 9,600 acres.

You can see on the map that these properties in red are scattered throughout the rural portions of the county.

So today we're here to talk about the most recent class or round of ACE applicants.

At the point in September of 21 when the analysis of the original four applicants from this class was completed by the ACE committee, the committee recommended purchase of the Campbell easement.

and deferral of consideration of the Henley easement.

Those were the two that had made it through the process.

We brought the item forward to the board in that same month and given that the Henley property, while small, was located in a water supply protection area, the board directed staff to obtain final appraisals on both properties and in December of that year, we received those appraisals.

However, in January of 22, the ACE program as a whole was put on pause.

And so no further rounds or applications were begun.

And for some time, the two unresolved applications, Campbell and Henley, were on hold until in June of 22, staff presented analysis of the ACE program overall and its 20 year plus history up to that point.

At the end of that work session, the board directed staff to forward the two remaining unresolved ACE applications, Campbell and Henley, which we wanted to bring to some sort of resolution to the ACE Appraisal Review Committee as a next step.

That's the typical next step in the ACE process.

Unfortunately, the following month, the applicants for the Campbell property withdrew their application, leaving us one rather than two

applications for the ARC to consider the Henley application.

So as a reminder, this is the Henley property.

It's located on White Hall Road between White Hall and Crozet.

It's a 19-acre parcel located in a water supply watershed.

Later in 2022, the Appraisal Review Committee, whose job is to verify that the appraised easement value of a conservation easement property, an ace property, is plausible and correct, did recommend that the board invite the landowner to sell the easement, which is their typical action.

However, they stated that it should be at a somewhat reduced value due to their concerns over the number of actually usable development rights.

they felt that the property could probably use two rather than the theoretical five.

So the next step in the normal ACE process is to go from the ERC to the co-holder of the ACE easement.

The ACE ordinance requires that all ACE easements be co-held by the county and by another body.

Usually the Albemarle Conservation Easement Authority, a few times it's been Virginia Outdoors Foundation, that was many years ago,

So in December, ACEA considered the Henley proposal, but believed that it would be more appropriate if there were a couple of features added, like a dwelling setback and some commercial use limitations.

Staff worked with Mr. Henley, the landowner,

and we returned to the easement authority in January.

At that meeting, the authority voted to find they were not willing to cohold with the county an easement on this property.

So to sum it up, all ACE easements have to have two co-holders, the county and another public body.

We cannot complete the easement purchase without a second holder.

It seems likely given that the property itself will not change that finding other holders would be difficult because they would share the same concerns raised by the easement authority and the Appraisal Review Committee.

As a side note, we don't have currently enough funding to purchase the easement on this property, even at the reduced price recommended by their Appraiser Review Committee since we fall a little over $40,000 short with current funding.

Given all of that, staff recommends that the Board close consideration of the 2019 class and direct staff to notify Mr. Hanley that the county will not invite an offer to sell the easement.

Thank you, Mr. Clark.

Supervisor Galloway?

No questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley?

No questions.

Thank you.

Supervisor Andrews?

No questions.

Thank you.

Sorry to break the pattern here.

Thank you for your presentation, Scott.

And my question to you is about

This new description regarding the county fund leveraging program as a point, which I've never heard of in 20 years.

Anyway, the adjustment of the points once it was determined that the development rights were not appropriate.

I've never seen that happen before, so could you provide any extra information about why that was suggested or anything?

I will try.

I'm not sure how many times in the past we have had to use that section of the ACE scoring portion of the ordinance, but essentially what it does is gives an application for an ACE easement some additional points for funding that is from another source.

It can be either some specific conservation funding source or it can be essentially a donation by the landowner

if, as in this case, the scoring for the property doesn't quite hit the minimum.

The minimum score to qualify is 20 points.

This property was at about 19.7, if I remember correctly.

So if the landowner is willing to take a reduction, essentially, in the purchase price, that's considered a donation toward that small amount by which it didn't meet the minimum, and that adds to the points.

um,

When that was calculated originally with the understanding that the property had five development rights, then the purchase price came up to, I believe, about $135,000 for the easement.

Going by the Appraisal Review Committee's understanding in which it scored lower overall by having fewer, they believe, development rights available, that gap between the actual score and 20 points became larger.

the effective donation that the landowner would have to give in order to make up to 20 points was larger and so the county's purchase value dropped to that 109,000.

So in either case the property didn't quite make the minimum score for consideration and that

Line for funding sources was being used to pull it up to that minimum score of 20 points, which I think has happened I believe a few times, but not many out of the 52 properties that we've protected over the years.

Honestly, I don't have any data on that.

Well, thank you very much.

for that explanation because I was alarmed when I had no idea what in the world those words meant.

But the scoring is incredibly important in my personal opinion and we did not want to be investing taxpayer money in properties that do not really provide a benefit to our overall process.

So $55,000 per development right is like more than double what anything that was considered before.

even properties surrounding reservoirs and that kind of thing.

That was alarm bells very high for me.

Thank you.

I have no questions.

Any other questions?

Seeing none, the floor is open for a motion to

The floor was open.

So Supervisor McKeel made the motion.

Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley seconded it.

I just tried to make it easy.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Yes.

All right.

At this time, we'll move to item number 11, Freebridge Lane Conceptual Design Alternatives.

Ms.

Hirsch-Ballerin, good afternoon.

We're going to have to tie Bea down in the chair here.

I know.

All right, thank you Chair Price and good afternoon members of the Board of Supervisors.

I'm Jessica Hirsch-Ballering, a Principal Planner in Community Development.

I'm joined by my colleagues today from Parks and Recreation Director Bob Krickenberger and Chief of Parks Planning Tim Padolino.

We wanted to see your face.

So you don't need to see me, you just need to see the slides.

So this is the agenda for today's presentation.

First, I'll describe Free Bridge Lane today, where it is, what it looks like, and how it functions.

Then we'll describe the improvements that were initially proposed for Free Bridge Lane in the Pantops Master Plan.

Next, we'll situate the work we're currently doing in the overall planning process.

Then we'll look at the two design concepts for improvements, the one-way design and the promenade design.

Then we'll describe a few additional considerations for these two designs that are not immediately apparent by looking at the illustrations alone.

Lastly, we'll lay out the staff recommendation for how to proceed before I turn things over to all of you for feedback on the design concepts and a potential board action to approve immediate next steps for Free Bridge Lane.

So here is Freebridge Lane today.

To orient you, north is at the top of the slide.

On the left, that thick green strip is actually the Rivanna River, and 250 is down at the very bottom left-hand corner of the picture.

Freebridge Lane is a low-volume, unstriped local street that extends for approximately half a mile from Darden Tow Park at the northern end to US 250 at the southern end.

To access Free Bridge Lane from the north, you enter Darden Tow Park along Elk Drive and then make a left turn onto the paved road.

Free Bridge Lane can also be accessed from the south from 250 and it is right in, right out only.

There's limited parking on both the northern and southern ends.

At the northern end there's a trailhead parking lot that's striped for about a dozen spaces, but because of the exact layout of that lot it's challenging to make use of all the spaces at the same time.

At the southern end there's room for about five vehicles to parallel park.

Along the western side of Freebridge Lane, there's a degraded, narrow shared-use path that's poorly defined at parts.

This is part of the longer Old Mills Greenway Trail.

On the east side, in that big open green space with a bunch of trees, that is the site of a future county park.

Overall, Freebridge Lane is relatively flat, it has views of the Rivanna River, and it appears to be a popular walking, running, and biking location for people of all ages.

I also want to note that like many roadways throughout the county, Freebridge Lane is currently owned and maintained by the Virginia Department of Transportation.

So now I want to go back in time a few years to the creation of the Pantops Master Plan.

At that time, the Pantops community envisioned a future in which Freebridge Lane would become a green street with enhanced bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure and elements of stormwater management.

As you can see in the picture, which is taken directly from the Pantops Master Plan, the specific vision at that time was for a one-way southbound street with a contraflow bike lane.

There was also to be improved landscaping to buffer an improved footpath.

This plan was approved by the Board of Supervisors in 2019.

Now I'd like to situate the work we're currently doing in the overall planning process.

So we just talked about the Pantops Master Plan and how that process gave us that early vision.

We're now working on the conceptual design for the conceptual design phase.

For this phase, we've hired consultants to help us complete the three tasks listed in that box on the bottom.

So first, the consultants and stakeholders, including staff from Community Development and Parks and Recreation, met at Free Ridge Lane for a site visit and the consultants documented the opportunities and constraints for the roadway.

Second, the consultants prepared two conceptual designs for the roadway.

These are the two designs we're going to talk about in detail next.

You'll recall that one of the things we're hoping to get from the board today is your feedback on these two designs.

This feedback will help us direct the consultants for task three, which is to create

a final conceptual design that incorporates the preferred components from the two conceptual designs in task two.

Finally, we could move into engineering and construction of improvements, but I want to note that we would need to identify additional funding for those activities.

Okay, so let's go into these two designs.

We'll review the one-way design first, and for each design concept, I'm going to share a typical cross-section followed by two slides for the aerial overview.

So here we have the typical cross section for the one way design.

In this cross section you have the river on your left, so imagine you're standing on Free Bridge Lane looking north.

So you see the 11 foot, approximately 11 foot wide southbound travel lane that would be open to vehicles and bikes.

Northbound bikes would use the five foot wide contraflow bike lane, which would be separated from the southbound traffic with a one foot wide painted rumble strip.

The existing path would be improved and reserved for foot traffic only.

There would be a vegetative buffer of varying widths separating the foot path from the contraval bike lane.

Just kind of depends on how much space there is.

And then any remaining space would be used for amenity areas.

So now I'm going to go on to the aerial overview which is spread across two slides.

As we move from left to right and from this slide to the next we're moving from north to south.

So over here

You can't see my cursor.

So the very left side, we have the very northern end.

And just off the slide, we have Darden Tow Park.

So you're coming in off Elks Drive.

And the very northern portion of Free Bridge Lane with the one-way design would remain open to two-way vehicle traffic so that it could act so vehicle traffic can access an improved parking lot on that northern end.

There would also be a trailhead plaza with kiosk and seating added.

In the picture, you can see the southbound vehicle travel lane, which would also be open to bikes.

You can see the green contrafo bike lane.

You can see the footpath, which would start at that parking lot and then connect to the existing roadway and go alongside that for the duration of Free Bridge Lane.

You can see potential amenities along the roadway and I want to emphasize that these are potential amenities, but it could include things like picnic seating, a fitness station, a bird blind, a river overlook, or some public art.

I also want to point out a few places where we're expecting higher numbers of pedestrians crossing the roadway at Riverside Village, the apartments and condos, and also at the entrance to the future county park site.

These popular crossings would be identified with something like a colored and or stamped pavement to indicate to drivers and bicyclists that they should expect cross traffic at these locations.

So moving a little bit further south, you can see all of that stuff continue to a new and improved parking area on the southern end of Free Bridge Lane.

And like the northern end, the southern end would remain open to two-way vehicle traffic, just so you could access that parking area.

Also in this aerial you can see a proposed splitter island which would improve crossings for pedestrians.

So pedestrians trying to cross free bridge lane at 250, they would only have to focus on one direction of vehicle travel at a time as they try to cross the roadway.

Okay, so moving into the promenade design, here's our typical cross section and as you can see we have about 15 feet for the promenade and this promenade space would be shared by bicyclists and pedestrians and the roadway would be closed to vehicles entirely.

Because we're taking vehicles off and we're having bicycles and pedestrians share space, there's a lot of space left over for amenities on either side, as well as a bioretention area, which gets at that stormwater management component that was identified in the Pantops Master Plan.

Here's the aerial for the promenade design and again this is moving from north to south as you move left to right across the slide.

Like in the one-way design in the promenade design the northern portion of the roadway is again going to be open to vehicles going in both directions.

We would have an improved parking lot and add that trailhead kiosk and seating area.

The promenade would begin at the parking area and continue all the way to the existing roadway where it would continue as a promenade.

There would be some sort of barricade at this, you can't see where I'm pointing, right at the, you can see where the pavement kind of ends just at the, like parallel to the parking lot.

That is where a barricade would be to prevent most vehicle traffic, but that little bit of kind of shaded out pavement

where the existing roadway is, we would not take that pavement out.

That pavement would remain to allow for service vehicle and emergency vehicle access to the promenade itself.

As you can see in this design, there is a lot more space for potential amenities.

So there's a lot more potential amenities called out in this aerial.

And we would continue to have some sort of colored or stamped pavement to indicate areas where we are expecting to see lots of potential

With the prominent design on the southern end, we would also expect to see an improved parking area and keeping that southern bit of roadway open to vehicle traffic in both directions.

So now I want to point out a few additional considerations that are not immediately apparent when looking at the illustrations alone.

So this slide aims to compare the one-way traffic design to the car-free promenade design based on the metrics of design flexibility, ongoing maintenance to the county, and speed of implementation.

So as you'll recall, Free Bridge Lane is currently owned and maintained by VDOT.

With the one-way design, we could do either.

We could continue to have VDOT own and maintain it, or we can ask VDOT to abandon the roadway and the county would become the new owner of Free Bridge Lane.

If we pursue the one-way design and VDOT continues to own and maintain the roadway, and we're looking in the upper left corner of this table here,

That would mean that we would have the least design flexibility of all the options.

This is because VDOT has very strict rules about how close to the roadway things like benches can be located and what kind of parking is allowed on VDOT-owned streets, for example.

On the other hand, this option represents the lowest ongoing maintenance costs for the county.

And lastly, this option would be slowest to implement because it requires us to identify most of the funding for implementation all at once.

as many of the pieces of a one-way design need to be built together to function properly.

Moving into the box on the upper right, if we pursue the one-way design and have the county take ownership of the roadway, we have slightly more design flexibility but higher ongoing maintenance costs.

Again, implementation is going to be on the slower side just because of the nature of implementing a one-way road.

with a contraflow bike lane.

So lastly, moving into the box on the bottom right, we have the promenade design with the roadway being owned by the county.

There's an X in the other box because VDOT is not necessarily interested in owning a promenade.

With the roadway being owned by the county this offers us the greatest design flexibility of all the options not only because we would own the roadway but also because removing vehicles from the roadway means fewer safety considerations and a lot more space.

Ongoing maintenance costs are moderate because removing vehicles from the roadway means less wear and tear on it and there would be opportunities for immediate partial implementation as we could close the road to vehicles as soon as the county takes ownership

and then add other improvements as funding becomes available.

All right, so now we're moving into recommended next steps.

All things considered, staff from community development and Parks and Recreation would like to suggest that we pursue the promenade design.

Now there's two parts to this.

First, we'd like to direct the consulting team to develop a final concept design and cost estimate for a free bridge lane promenade.

This is the third and final task of their existing contract.

This final concept design would set us up for the long term by illustrating what a fully built out promenade would look like, with all the possible features and amenities, as well as estimating how much it would cost to complete the engineering and construction.

At the same time, we would like to develop a free bridge lane promenade pilot program.

This pilot would make the minimum necessary improvements to free bridge lane to allow the roadway to function as a bike and pedestrian promenade that is closed to motor vehicles.

At the conclusion of the pilot program, free bridge lane could be returned to its current condition, it could be transitioned to a one-way street, or we could make more improvements to make it an even better promenade.

As you can see from the graphic, the pilot program would add a new step into the overall planning process.

It's a unique opportunity to implement an improvement quickly, learn from experience, and then make more informed decisions as we move into engineering and construction of a more long-term project.

I want to be very clear that we're only requesting the board support to develop the Promenade Pilot Program, which is labeled as step number one in that box at the bottom.

Once the pilot program is developed, we would return to the board to present the program and request approval to move forward with implementation, which is labeled step two.

OK.

So lastly, what would go into developing a promenade pilot program?

Well, what we would do in the development is identify minimum necessary improvements to transform Free Bridge Lane from its current state to a promenade.

We would develop a cost estimate for those minimum necessary improvements.

We would establish a timeline for implementation.

We would have discussions with VDOT regarding roadway ownership during and following the pilot program.

and then we would also want to have some discussions about operations and maintenance with the city of Charlottesville.

Darden Tow Park is co-owned by the county and the city and Freebridge Lane is so close to Darden Tow Park that we want to have those discussions.

Developing this pilot program would be largely completed by staff with some assistance from consultants using the remaining funding left on the existing contract.

So that concludes my presentation.

I'd like to give you the opportunity to share your feedback on the two designs and ask for your approval to develop the Promenade Pilot Program.

All right.

Thank you.

Ms.

Hirsch-Bellering, we will go through our order.

Thank you, Ms.

Hirsch-Bellering.

I was actually surprised.

I thought we were just closing this down to vehicle traffic.

So I wasn't expecting the first option.

That's fine.

I mean, I would think the promenade promenade.

Excuse me, pardon me.

My nod and nade were promenade.

We have this river, you know, a lot of places, I don't want to say exploit, but take advantage of having a river.

We're cities where there are rivers

And I always appreciate here that we don't take advantage of it in a true fashion, like developing around it, but just trying to make improvements so that folks can get access to and enjoy the river in a different way than some other places do.

You know, Brookhill Park, for example, getting that there.

And to be able to do something like that all along the river makes complete sense.

So I understand the process.

We're going to develop a pilot, come back to us, make sure we're OK with

There's not funding for the pilot.

After the pilots in place, presuming the board goes along with it, then the final design for a more permanent park and then you'll have to come back to us to sign off on that design and

that funding, et cetera.

Is that right?

That's correct.

There's a lot of coming back to the board for this where I guess I thought maybe somewhere along the lines we had some maneuverability with the funding where we could just develop a pilot, implement a pilot, and then we can get to work on the more permanent piece.

I'm just saying my willingness as a board member to give staff that flexibility to just get this thing developed, to get it in play so that we can have some access and open and then we can spend the bulk of our time on developing the permanent piece and then figuring out what that cost in funding is.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you.

This was a great presentation.

I really appreciate it, and the drawings were very informative.

I do have a couple of questions.

In general, I am supportive of the promenade.

I agree with that.

Having said that, tell me what the surface will be.

I'm thinking about people in wheelchairs.

people that need ADA access and the possibility down the road of a nice little autonomous shuttle running up and down that promenade because that could be very nice for people that have mobility challenges and we're going into the world of, you know, there are autonomous shuttles all over the place.

They're not very big.

So what would it take?

And I always worry when I see we're not going to spend a lot of money, we're going to do the minimum, but we're going to have this great facility, right?

So that, and I understand taxpayer dollars, but I'd rather spend a little money and really get it right than to cheapen out on it and say, well gosh, we wish we had done this.

But I would like some help with the autonomous, maybe,

shuttle piece or whatever.

I can speak to that and you can let me know if I answer your question adequately.

This is an existing roadway.

It's already paved.

In fact, VDOT is planning to repave it and give us a very freshly paved roadway this spring.

So that would give us the opportunity to just have a very nice roadway to start this pilot program with.

That's great.

I just remember in working with VDOT over the pedestrian bridge over 29, and they were saying, no, even to have a little autonomous shuttle going across there, we have to build it to these requirements.

I guess my question then is,

sounds like we would be better to leave VDOT out of it if that's the case because we wouldn't want VDOT to come back to us later and say, oh, well, you didn't build it to these specifications so you can't even have an autonomous shuttle running back.

I'm just saying.

Yeah, because they literally said that when we planned that pedestrian bridge because we were talking about putting some sort of a little shuttle going across it and they said we have to build it to the expectation that a Mack truck is going to go over it as opposed to a little shuttle bus and it sort of was very disconcerting.

It was kind of sad.

I agree, though, that this is a great idea.

I'm really excited about it.

Did you need me to answer another question for you?

I think that was pretty much what you wanted.

Thank you.

I think I understand what Supervisor McKeel was talking about with the bridge.

However, that is a bridge.

This is actually flat land, and if we can get VDOT to pave it, then we're

I didn't mean that VDOT shouldn't pave it.

And I guess autonomous vehicles would also be on regular roads and this would be built paved according to VDOT standards, I believe.

I mean they're not just going to put a slurry, they would repave it.

The other thing I'm excited about, which also goes to your ADA questions, people with mobility issues, walking, is I understand there's a pedestrian path.

that that will be redone, that will be redone also or improved it, correct?

With the promenade option, there would be a portion of the promenade that connects pedestrians and bicyclists from the parking lot area to the rest of the promenade along the existing roadway.

This is something that I've been working on for years and with Sarah Robinson and the Pantop CAC group, part of the master plan.

I think this is something that we can give back to the community, a beautiful, beautiful promenade space for everyone.

I'm so enthusiastic.

I'm containing my enthusiasm.

I just want to jump up and shout, but that wouldn't be real professional.

But anyway, I am totally in favor of this, but I do understand what Supervisor Galloway said about we're doing the pilot program and then we're seeing, we're seeing, we're seeing.

I think, I mean I could be wrong, but can we move this?

Can we go from

pilot implementation.

I think we want to see maybe some of the renderings at the end of it, but can we just kind of move this along?

Yes.

So I appreciate everyone's confidence in community development and parks and recreation, but I want to point you to bullet number two, developing a cost estimate for the minimum necessary improvements.

We don't know if this looks like $20,000 or $200,000.

With the implementation, hopefully, of the new Parks Foundation, that possibly could help too.

I'm also very enthusiastic about this.

I do want to just ask, because I'm looking at the map and saying, you know, if there's a reason for an emergency vehicle that can't get out, I'll drive.

Are they currently trying to use Free Bridge Lane?

Have we worried at all about access from Nardin Tower?

It looks like Elk Drive is plenty wide for getting access and getting out, but I just wanted to raise that as something that I hope has been considered and weighed in this.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

I'm ready to hang the gates tomorrow, actually.

Going back a long, long time, that was certainly the more colloquial decision or support for the nice roadway that's already there and being able to not be run over by a car was the two most important things that I see.

I do understand you're planning to improve from the north parking lot, which is currently gravel.

Is that right?

Or is it asphalt?

It is paved right now.

It just needs to have some lines and stuff put on or squared up at the corners or something.

I guess all of my comments are based upon keeping it simple and getting it going because I

We can buy benches and things when we're ready for that, but in the meantime, I think getting people the ability to walk on it properly is the most important thing, because that will then build support.

Is there a bona fide reason to have a southern parking lot?

Because there is not really one there now, so that would be a major expense that might be getting in the way.

There is nice parking right there at Darden Town.

and I would hope that people would just park there and amble their way south toward the bridge and not be covering even more property with paving of any sort and I would also encourage that people to think about

having the parking lot similar to what there is at the boat put in right around the corner rather than a paved thing because the paved thing just makes more runoff and that makes more problems that then we have to spend money to deal with.

I'm very, very supportive of this and really the KISS approach is really, really important to just get people out there walking around.

I guess that we're going to be bothered so that if there was some emergency that

ambulance or the fire engine can pull the bottle and go right on through.

And I think that's pretty standard for all of our park properties now.

All right.

Thank you.

I agree with all the other supervisors.

I do have a few comments.

First off, I love the selfie stick couple on slide 7 and 11.

That was a nice little touch on your concept plan.

Virginia Beach has a great boardwalk.

It runs about 40 blocks.

It's got a really wide concrete section for pedestrians.

then a little vegetative separation and then a bike path and we always run into the problem in Virginia Beach with pedestrians on the bike path, bikes on the pedestrian path.

So one of the things that I believe is really important is to try and at the both ends to make it very clear, you know, consideration bicyclists to pedestrians, pedestrians for bicyclists.

When the surface, when the road is resurfaced,

I would really hope that we push VDOT to make sure that it is a smooth asphalt both in terms of the surface and the surfacing and I use the distinction between going from cement to concrete to aggregate.

All of them are hard surfaces but when you get to the aggregate you're really limiting the number of or types of wheeled items and I would expect here we'll have everything from roller blades, skateboards, bikes, wheelchairs.

So we want to make sure it's a surface that really is suitable for all the people who may be using it.

Most significantly, we've heard promenade, promenade, promenade.

My favorite is promenade, but according to the Google, the appropriate pronunciation is promenade.

I, however, will continue to say promenade, and I fully support this.

Any other comments?

Yes, originally it is a French word for monade.

I'm with you, I am with you.

And I did want to, regarding what Supervisor Mallek said, is this possible to, for example, you don't have the money for two parking lots

to implement one.

In other words, maybe this could be phased in in some steps as we maybe get donated money or someone writes a check, but to be able to implement it over time also, do what we can immediately.

And I have one other comment and I apologize for if I got to mention it.

And I want to thank Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley and everyone in the Pantop CAC.

That was a great meeting you had a few weeks ago.

I've never seen or rarely do you see a community work as closely together towards the common good and you need to be complimented for the way you handled that.

Eagle Scout projects, they love to build benches.

When you have something which is actually in use, it's much more convenient to attract projects like that to come and help.

One of the early zoning things that I did vote on as a new member of the board was Riverside Village.

We were promised a restaurant overlooking the water.

and I was gravely disappointed and harangued for Mr. Henry about it after that change happened.

But anyway, we will get back there eventually, all you folks there.

Thank you.

Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley, it's a matter of privilege.

We have a motion by Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley, a second by Supervisor McKeel to approve a development for a promenade pilot program for Free Bridge Lane.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Yes.

Thank you.

We're having too much fun.

All right board, at this time we'll move to item number 12, board to board, quarterly report from the Albemarle County School Board to the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors.

I'd like to welcome the chair of the Albemarle County School Board, Chair Carlson.

Hello, Madam Chair Price and all of Board of Supervisors members.

Thank you for having us.

It's a privilege to be here and be able to present on the work that the school board is doing.

I know that you introduced me, but Vice Chair Judy Lee is also here with me sharing the presentation duties.

I will go ahead and kick things off.

I know that we sent you a written board to board report and we have the points in there.

We're happy to answer questions and we would love to see this as a back and forth and just take questions as you have them.

I will jump in on a few things that we didn't mention in that board to board report.

One that is important to me is that we have been doing some work on staffing and trying to address some of the shortages that are affecting our community and I'm sure the ones that you've heard about as well.

So our bus driver shortage, which is a nationwide shortage that's happening and it's impacting our schools and our communities, our parents, families, everyone.

Me, I drive my kids to school every day and pick them up.

My husband will be mad if I take credit for driving them to school every day.

My husband drives them to school every day, and sometimes I pick them up.

So we've done a lot of work on that front.

We have increased benefits.

We've increased compensation.

We have increased our recruitment efforts.

We have done legislative lobbying, and we are proud to say that we did, with Cree Deeds sponsorship and Rob Bell sponsorship, get some bills moved into, passed, assuming they get signed.

for a return to work and allowing school employees to come back to work after they retire.

So that hopefully we can address some of those shortages.

Also on that, which was in the board to board monthly report, was work we're doing with substitutes.

That's another issue that it's just a substitute is not just a body in the classroom.

It helps teachers feel like they're supported and that they can take days off when they're sick.

And it helps students have continuity in their learning if they have high quality subs who are there and available.

And so we have been doing, we've done pretty well.

We were at around a 40%, 42% fill rate two years ago in 2021.

Is that right?

Two years ago, yes.

And we were up to 66% as of this last winter.

So we're proud that we're making progress there.

And we're putting other metrics in place, like bonuses, referral bonuses, a tiered structure for substitutes based on how many days they're working.

So that is an update on staffing.

I'm going to let Ms.

Thanks, Chair Carlson.

Thank you Chair Price and esteemed board members.

I also wanted to give an update about collective bargaining, which I think would be of great interest.

At our February 9th meeting, the AEA presented a collective bargaining resolution to our board.

At our February 23rd meeting, we had an open discussion about where each of the members stood in terms of

And please feel free to jump in with questions if you have them.

Or you can let us talk some more at you and then ask them all at the end.

Save them up.

One thing I'm really excited about, which was I believe mentioned briefly in the board to board report, is that we have hired a instructional audit consulting firm.

We did an RFP.

We got a fabulous firm, Bellwether.

They have been doing work in the educational equity and in providing quality education to divisions across the nation for a really long time.

They're actually where we based our

School Board Evaluation Tool on, which is a fabulous tool that we've been trying to do with Fidelity with our school board.

They will be diving in to hopefully provide us with some tools to better get at some of those achievement gaps that we're seeing and also just instructional gaps that we're seeing with our students.

So particularly, they're going to be focused on elementary students, because we know how important those foundational skills are to have success in the later years.

And then high school algebra, something near and dear to me as a former math teacher, I'm having algebra.

Maybe there's an argument to be made for whether or not like calculus and advanced math is important in day to day life, but algebra is a foundational skill that we want to be diving in on.

And the reason that we're excited about that is the board has been doing a lot of work and we try to tie ourselves to data backed

Research driven practices that can get at student achievement and making sure that our students are graduating with all the skills necessary We are making progress but it's not as much progress as we want to see and so this is another tool in our belt to go in and do a deep dive and Figure out different ways that we can be reaching our students and giving them the skills They need to succeed which is ultimately what we're here for.

So I'm excited about the start of that process And I'm gonna pass it back over to miss Lee.

And I just wanted to give a couple of updates.

We are watching the state carefully of course on their proposed 2% raise for all state employees and obviously right now we're nowhere with that.

So this is the 2% raise for SOQ funded positions on top of the 5% in the second half of the biennium.

It appears likely to pass but at this time we just haven't had movement on that.

Right now our draft funding request is pretty much down the middle and there are other monies that might be able to make up for that by then.

Also, no changes have been agreed upon by the General Assembly, but they have proposed appropriating monies to address the $201 million shortfall error from earlier this year.

And also, I just wanted to give sort of late breaking news that the State Superintendent stepped down today.

So those were all the points that we had.

All right.

We will go through our order.

Thank you both for your information.

Thank you both for being here today.

The instructional audit, who did you say was doing that?

And it's spelled weather is with an E and not an A. Just an E, like the goat.

And I don't recall getting an update.

The GA, the General Assembly, they were playing nice in a bipartisan way at the VACO conference about moving beyond just SOQ positions.

So they didn't change anything relative to that?

Yeah.

I mean, just sitting there that morning, I was just watching them like, yeah, your lips are moving.

So the collective bargaining piece, you're sending it to a labor attorney.

Does this mean the school board agreed to do collective bargaining?

Explain to me what I'm a little confused on.

I mean, did you all say, yep, we're doing collective bargaining.

Is this a matter of ironing out the details?

I think it's closer to the latter.

We had, I would say, an open discussion in which I would say five of our board members expressed openness toward it.

Yeah, and I would, I mean, for full transparency, just anticipate it, as a board of supervisors, that because there was expressed interest by five of the board members, I would anticipate a resolution of some sort coming forward to say that we'll at least be moving forward.

Good.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

I'm not going to get into the bell weather, so I'll stay away from that.

I have a couple of questions.

The state funding gap, because I think we were talking about SOQs, which is a different issue.

I see someone coming down behind you.

Introduce yourself.

Oh, sorry.

I'm Helen Dunn.

I do legislative work for the school division.

I will say they have, so there's what they've called a skinny budget that just came out over the weekend.

You all know that General Assembly adjourned over the weekend.

They did not pass a budget.

they did however decide that they would they're proposing at least nothing's been signed yet but they will cover that 201 million dollar gap from the error calculation error with monies appropriate in various ways so what I'm happy to send y'all there are sort of some there are a few line items that are going to cover that over two years so some of that some is going to cover

So it's in the skinny budget, and I get that, and that's a good sign, but what they are also famous for doing is taking away from one place and giving it to another place.

So unfortunately the summary, the budget summary does not yet include enough details to be very clear about all of that.

And I mean your suspicion may very well be right about that.

Well, I've lived through that having happened several times, so I get it.

That's very concerning, so we'll be following that closely.

The other thing that I wanted to just ask about was where you all stand right now on SROs, because I know there's a lot of discussion around SRO positions.

Yeah, that would be the answer.

We haven't made decisions and that hasn't been a subject of our work session yet, but I do know that part of the proposal was putting an SRO into

Actually, I guess I wouldn't really necessarily feel comfortable talking about how we are fully done because we haven't had it in our work session.

But we are trying to beef up or make sure that we're addressing student safety in a lot of different ways, including increased access to mental health supports, security assistance if needed.

But that is something we have not discussed fully yet.

And that's fair.

I appreciate that.

I was just wondering where you all stood on it.

So that's great.

I have two other things.

I just want to make sure, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, but very often what happens with the budget that comes from the General Assembly, there's much drum beating and praise and excitement and they make all these grand statements about how the state is going to pay state employees or teachers seven percent

The reality has always been that for our community we don't ever receive that entire 7% because it funnels through our composite index.

and our community says, well, why are you all worrying about teacher salaries because the state's giving you 7% when in reality, because it goes through our composite index, we don't get 7%.

I'm just, and I see no one's coming back.

But I just, maybe since I've been off the school board, that's changed.

I think that's a beautiful point to make because if you hear, oh, the state is giving 7%, well, then we should be able to add a little on and make it great.

But no, there's a lot of local funds that are going to make sure that we get 7%.

There's a lot of local funds to make sure that there's equity and parity among our employees to make sure that all employees are getting raises.

So yes, that's true.

A lot of it's local.

And the local composite index in particular, I wouldn't say necessarily disadvantaged, but the formula makes it so that some localities pay more, and we're one of them.

So we will not receive, but when it goes through our composite index, Albemarle County will not be receiving the amount that they are happy to beat the drums about that they're giving everybody.

Helen Dunn again.

So you're absolutely right.

So it's not actually 7%.

We're talking about 5% and then 2 more percent, which I think it's a meaningful distinction to make in this case.

The 5% was 10% over the biennium.

to 5 and then 5 basically.

This 2% would be on top of that and it would also run through the LCI.

So no, absolutely not.

The locality will be covering some of that.

And I think it's a really important distinction to make.

And the public doesn't understand it.

So I just want to make sure as we talk about that and that plays out in the press, everybody needs to understand that.

That's a big deal because we never get as much money as the public thinks.

I only have one more question.

I know that Charmaine, your Director of Transportation, who we are thrilled to be working with at the Regional Transit Partnership because she's at the table with us, has talked about her efforts to move towards a career pathway for bus drivers.

which I think is pretty significant and really is a different way to look at that particular career.

I just wondered if you all had any updates on that or if you know where she stands.

If you don't, that's okay.

I'm giving you a familiar answer here.

I do not have an update on that, but I'm happy to put you in touch with Charmaine.

She's been doing wonderful work, and we are excited about the pathways to learning.

I just had lunch with Steve Kolozar, who I know you worked with.

I remember he used to talk quite a bit about how we could get our high school students driving buses.

And there's something to be said there.

Well, that's okay.

She'll give us an update, I guess, at the next Regional Transit Partnership, but when you figure it all out, I know our whole board would probably be interested in knowing.

And I would agree, from what I'm hearing at the partnership, the transit partnership, she's really thinking out of the box.

And that's what it takes.

And I do think there is some work that's happening with the city.

around how things may be.

Maybe there are some connections where monies could be saved if we did certain things together, and so that's all good too.

Anyway, well, thank you very much.

That's all I have.

Sorry I asked so much.

Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley.

Yes, I would just like to go back to bellwether.

Not the spelling, but just so you're employing them.

I can tell you my tenure on the school board I do not recall us using an instructional audit consulting firm.

Matt, have we done?

No.

So no, we have not.

It's a multi-pronged.

I'm happy to share a little bit more about what that RFP looked like and what they came back with.

It's a multi-pronged approach.

I believe, if I'm remembering correctly, the first step is going to be kind of an introduction.

We're going to deep dive into our schools, visitor schools, understanding the needs of our locality.

Then there will be a data collection process, which I think they might be starting now.

I imagine so.

That would be me making an assumption, so I don't want to put that on record.

But I imagine so.

I imagine they would be going into classrooms and doing stuff there.

And where I could see the usefulness, this isn't something, because it's already something we've undertaken, and it was recently shared in an email to all of you.

you know reading instruction just how you deliver reading instruction Albemarle has that has been something that has been changed over the past few years and we're three years into a process of training changing the way that we deliver reading instruction to our young students hopefully to get better reading outcomes and so that's the kind of work that I think they could do look in and see where can you adjust your practices to get better outcomes for your students because sometimes the way you haven't have been doing things aren't isn't always the most effective and for your reading instruction for the last three years what program were you using

Prior to that we're using a, and I am not the reading specialist, Debbie Collins would be the better one to speak about this, but I know that we were using reading instruction that was a combination of sight words and phonics, and it has been shown since then that phonics is highly effective.

It helps when kids transition to text that is harder to read, that doesn't have as many context clues, images to help children.

Guess at the Word.

And so that's what we've been moving to.

We adopted being a reader.

We also wanted to have a curriculum that was shared throughout all of our schools with fidelity, because we have high transiency between certain ones of our schools.

So we want a child to be able to be at one elementary school, go to another elementary school, and be receiving the same instruction.

This is when I've got the crowd coming in to say, Katrina, stop talking.

You were right on target.

That's all.

That's just coming up in case you wanted.

But we also are, this is Matthew Hall, Superintendent.

In our budget also, you're probably aware that the recently passed Virginia Literacy Act requires minimum funding for reading specialists in schools.

And we've exceeded that.

So we're going to have a reading specialist at every one of our schools, including secondary schools.

So we're adding to that staffing.

And as Ms.

Carlson said, in the past few years we've adopted a reading curriculum called Being a Reader, which is phonics based and we are working on having fidelity across all of our early elementary school classrooms in the usage of that, which requires a real cultural shift because

For as long as anyone can remember, teachers were told that reading is a holistic approach that involves comprehension.

It involves sight words.

It involves reading aloud, not necessarily understanding the basic units of words.

So it is a cultural shift.

Not all universities have shifted.

In fact, most haven't in terms of how they train teachers to teach reading.

So we're also going to be providing this year specifically really in-depth training so that the literacy specialists we're putting into our schools are prepared to do that kind of work.

Okay, thank you.

No further questions.

Thank you.

I really don't have questions.

I appreciate the team approach here and the emphasis on evidence-based practices and the willingness to consider as things evolve.

ways to improve and I see that, so I applaud it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I will try not to put on my old crone hat here because my older brother suffered for 50 years because of sight reading because that was what they were doing in 1948 and so I'm very glad to have this affirmation that you all are

Clearly helping kids sound things out because how else would you do a word you've never seen before?

So thank you for that.

Now, do I understand correctly?

I heard somewhere about instructional, I think you call them, we used to call them intervention specialists that used to be in the classrooms and if somebody was having a particular learning gap that day, they could help them over that hump and then there was no more problem.

Is that what we're putting back in?

Can I ask a clarifying question?

Yeah, so I will let because I know that he because he came up so I'm gonna let Dr. Haas talk about the reading special in particular.

Thank you for giving me a chance to talk.

I knew you could talk about all these things.

So the reading specialists are there specifically around literacy instruction.

Interventionists are specialized support that can provide any of the subject area instruction, reading, math.

And they, as you know, probably I think 10 years ago, 12 years ago, we adopted

Response to Intervention in our schools, which is a way to cut down on referrals for special education, particularly around students that are disproportionately represented.

And so there's something called a Response to Intervention program at each school, and they have a school-based intervention team.

The interventionists at the school run those teams, and when a student

is not being successful academically.

It could also be behaviorally.

The team convenes.

They look at the gap between the students' performance and how the rest of the school or perhaps even the rest of the school system is doing.

And then they come up with a specific plan for that student.

So that's what interventionists do.

They also serve to like reading specialists.

to work with small groups of students that need extra time and support.

They also provide professional development.

The instructional coaches is the other model that I think to which you were referring.

They do not reside at the third floor.

They're stationed out at the schools.

They're assigned out into the schools.

I think there are 23 of them.

And what they do is they provide

on the job professional development for our teachers.

So it is part of our professional development model.

and so I think that we all agree that while as a school system you have particular programming that you might refer to as training that everybody needs to know that we want all of our teachers to learn how, for example, to use phonics in their reading instruction with fidelity that we want our math teachers to all be using a program that we have that's called math investigations and that's the base and to work in Albemarle County Schools

You need to learn that, including culturally responsive teaching.

That's another requirement that we have.

But because teachers are licensed professionals and they are recertified based on things they want to choose to learn that's going to enhance their practice, then we offer professional development reimbursement for courses they take, that they choose to take.

We offer

reimbursement for conferences they attend.

And we also provide a coaching model that is somewhat teacher directed.

So if a teacher really just wants to get to be a better teacher in the vain practice that they want to do it, then we have staffing on hand to help support that.

When a teacher is on an improvement plan,

Oftentimes, it becomes directive to work with an instructional coach.

Great.

Thank you very much.

I lied.