Board of Supervisors Regular First Meeting   4/5/2023

Good afternoon everyone and welcome.

I'm pleased to call to order this meeting of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors on April 5, 2023 at 1 o'clock p.m.

in Lane Auditorium.

The supervisors who are present are Supervisor Ned Galloway of the Rio District, Supervisor Ann Mallek of the White Hall District, Supervisor Bea LaPisto-Kirtley of the Rivanna District, Supervisor Jim Andrews of the Samuel Miller District, myself Supervisor Donna Price of the Scottsville Magisterial District.

Supervisor Diantha Keel of the Jack Jouett District is expected to join us a little bit later today.

I would note that a quorum is present.

Let me also mention that on the dais we have our County Executive, Mr. Jeff Richardson, our County Attorney, Mr. Steve Rosenberg, our Clerk, Ms.

Claudette Borgerson.

Also let me welcome and thank as I introduce our Albemarle County Police Officers, Officer David Sprouse and Officer Chase Payne.

Thank you for being here and the service that you and your fellow officers perform every day.

If you will now join in a moment of silence,

Board, at this time, we can move towards the adoption of the final agenda.

I do, however, have a few notes or comments to make.

The first is that if we have time, we will look to move item number 23 from the board to after item number 12 this afternoon, rather than at the end of the meeting, as we anticipate it might be a long meeting.

I'd also like to make mention that for item number 12, the Virginia Department of Transportation VDOT quarterly report was updated online on March 30th to correct an error in the original report.

As a point of clarification, item 8.3 on the consent agenda, consideration of permit approval for area private emergency medical services agencies

Our action today would be to authorize the advertisement of the item for a public hearing, not to actually issue permits to allow Delta Response Team and Kiwi Emergency Medical Services to provide non-emergency medical transport services within the county today.

That would be a public hearing.

I'd also like to mention that for Woodridge Solar, the order of the public hearings is being reversed from that in the published agenda for a better flow.

That's with regard to items number 21 and 22.

Without amendments, so moved.

All right.

I heard the motion from Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley and a second from Supervisor Andrews.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Thank you.

All right, board, moving to item number five, brief announcements by board members.

No real announcements today.

Thank you.

Supervisor Galloway?

Thank you, Chair Price.

I'd just like to take a moment to

Apologize to constituents.

I needed to cancel my budget town hall.

There were, uh, I did have two personal and professional events in March that has put me behind that had me alter my schedule.

All right, thank you.

Thank you very much.

I attended three budget meetings with my constituents, two CACs and one at the Westminster Canterbury, which were all very, fairly well attended and successful.

That's the word I was trying to think of.

Also, I attended the planting of the pinwheels

for awareness of Child Abuse Month and Child Abuse Prevention Month.

It was very moving because they asked us at the beginning to close our eyes and remember something from our, and remember our childhood.

What do you first remember about your childhood?

And I think that's very important because not everybody

has a childhood that is similar to maybe what you personally have experienced.

It was very meaningful to know that our place shining a spotlight

on child abuse prevention.

The Albemarle County Fire Department was there.

The Albemarle County Police Department was there.

DSS was there.

It was a very successful event, planning pinwheels because they twirl in the wind.

And that's the way a child's experiences should be in their childhood is running around with a pinwheel.

or Kite, you know, running around and having a good time, but not everyone has that.

So I think that's, to bring that awareness to everybody is very important.

Thank you, Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley.

Thank you very much.

I will jump to the front.

I have circulated among the board and shared with the clerk for public access a series of links provided by VDOT at the last MPO meeting about the smart scale process for funding and also grant application backgrounds and other useful things like information about the grant that's in support of an east-west rail corridor that would be

through the MPO.

So check out officially the documents on that.

Another item that was discussed at the MPO by Michael Barnes and Sean Nelson from Culpeper was that the residency has begun a new process of supporting localities in involving project selection to make the projects more complete and better.

Eight of the northern counties did participate, Culpeper, Fauquier, Green, and Orange.

among others.

What this involves is a site visit with engineers, our local staff and residency people to improve the concepts of our projects and jumpstart the engineering process.

And so they wanted to share a little bit about that so that other counties who had not participated in the past would perhaps think more favorably about participating and therefore helping our projects to do better.

They begin the meetings before the engineers actually get a hold of them to identify any risk factors like floods and flood lands and wetlands and it helps to really narrow the scope of what's going to be done.

There will be a July meeting again for smart scale projects and these will help the planners to get ready.

People may have seen public information from Dominion Utilities because we're having large storms, wind, lots of frequent outages to please ask everyone to report if you have an outage.

Not thinking that somebody else in your neighborhood is going to do it, but please if you have telephone service to use the dom.help

phone line.

There are also lots of mobile apps and things available that one can download ahead of time from the Dominion website, because as we all know, when there's a power outage frequently, the first thing that goes out is our telephones as well.

So I hope that people will continue to plan ahead.

We certainly had trees down everywhere from the storms last weekend, including a very big wire snarl on Three Notch Road that had that road completely closed for an extended period of time.

On a happier note, EPA is hard at work in developing regulations and communication of risk on the PFAS chemical process and in two phases.

One is looking at drinking water standards and we are reassured that our local

Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority is already using the highest and most sensitive level of testing for our drinking water, but also looking at it from the wastewater side.

And while it is a smaller, less than half of the effort on the wastewater, they are very aware that biosolids or the sludge that is taken from wastewater plants

is containing lots and lots of PFAS now and then spreading that back on the fields, then exposing that to rain, which then runs off into the rivers, cycles all of that material back into the drinking water after communities like ours have spent millions to get it out.

So this is something that I hope we will all be thinking about and especially the Commonwealth will be thinking about because the biosolids regulations that we are forced to have come from the General Assembly.

So we will have to work on that as well.

And the White Hall Virgin Club is holding its 12th annual plant sale, Saturday, April 29th, 8 to 1, and Sunday, April 30th, 10 to 1, on the grounds of the White Hall Community Building.

And lots of wonderful plants, trees, shrubs, bushes, just like Lady Bird Johnson said.

and all Doug from Members Gardens and carefully potted and ready to go in yours.

So the funds raised will go for local scholarships, educational opportunities and improvements to the 100 year old community building.

All right, thank you.

Just briefly.

I had the opportunity last week to attend a presentation at Washington and Lee Law School where Phil Hershkoff was the speaker.

He was the lead attorney in Loving versus Virginia.

And then this coming Friday, next Friday, I will be on a panel on civil rights for the LGBTQ community at my law school.

So I'm very excited about the opportunity to do that.

And those tie in a little bit.

I'll come back to it when we do our proclamations or proclamation in a few minutes.

But it is just and they are just reminders that we must continually be vigilant to fight against discrimination against marginalized communities.

And I'm very proud of this county for the actions that we take for our inclusivity.

Thank you.

We'll move on to item number six, which is proclamations and recognitions.

And we do have a proclamation today.

Yes, and I am reading this as a motion, a proclamation celebrating National Arab American Heritage Month, whereas the National Arab American Heritage Month is recognized in April and is a time for celebrating the history, contributions and cultures of Arab Americans, and whereas Arab American communities have played an important role in shaping, advancing and enriching the fabric of our nation,

and Albemarle County by making immense contributions to all areas of life including government, business, arts and sciences, medicine, law enforcement, technology and the military and whereas the history of Arab-Americans in the U.S.

has been neglected or defaced by misconceptions, harmful stereotyping and whereas Arab-Americans join all Americans in the desire to see a peaceful and diverse society where every individual is treated equally and feels safe.

and now, therefore, be it proclaimed that we, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, do hereby recognize and honor Arab American Heritage Month and continue to affirm our commitment to equity and inclusion in Albemarle County.

Thank you.

We have a motion.

Is there a second?

Second.

Second by Supervisor Mallek.

The motion by Supervisor Andrews.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

All right, thank you.

And Ms.

You can give me the microphone down.

My name is Tamara Ryan.

I am the Coordinator for the Office of Equity and Inclusion.

We appreciate you adopting this very important proclamation today.

And to accept the proclamation, I would like to introduce to you

Professor Hanandi Al-Saman.

Hanandi Al-Saman is an Associate Professor of Arabic Language and Culture in the Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Virginia.

Her research focuses on contemporary Arabic literature and diaspora studies, as well as transnational and Islamic feminism.

She has published several journal articles.

She is a Fulbright Scholar, a Woodrow Wilson Career Enhancement Fellow, a Virginia Foundation for the Humanities Residential Fellow, and a Mellon Humanities Fellow.

She is also the past president of the Association for Middle East Women's Studies.

Thank you and welcome.

Good afternoon.

Thank you, Tamara, for this most gracious introduction.

And I would like to thank the Albemarle Board of County Supervisors for debating and issuing this historic proclamation in recognition of Arab-Americans' longstanding presence and contributions

to the American story.

Unlike the common knowledge, Arab Americans are not late comers or immigrants to the United States.

Their presence in the Americas has been documented even before Christopher Columbus landed on America's shores in 1492.

In fact, the 19th century Muslim historian al-Masaudi in his book, The Meadows of Gold and the Queries of Jewels, reports that a young man of Cordoba named Kashkash ibn Said ibn Aswad crossed the Atlantic Ocean, made contact with people on the other side, and returned in the year of 889 in the Common Era.

Additionally, several reports and archaeological artifacts suggest that Andalusian sailors and Moorish merchants have reached the Americans, the American continent in 1178.

That is 314 years before Columbus' arrival in the Americas.

Columbus himself was purportedly guided by a Moorish sailor as well.

Furthermore, an excavation in Venezuela unearthed the existence of Mediterranean coins, mostly Roman but also some Arabic coins with scripts dating as back as the 8th century, indicating the existence of trade between Arabs and indigenous people of the Americas since early times.

The founding fathers were aware of the presence of the Arabs and Muslims in America.

Thomas Jefferson, who owned a copy of the Quran and an Arabic grammar book, included Islam in many of his early writings and political treaties.

Campaigning for religious freedom in Virginia, Jefferson argued in the proposed Virginia statue for religious freedom that neither pagan nor Muhammadan

quote unquote Muslim, nor Jew ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the Commonwealth because of his religion.

Unfortunately, this language was amended before ratification to remove references to non-Christian groups.

Jefferson was not the only statesman who recognized religions other than Christianity in his work.

We can't really determine how far Mr. Jefferson reached in his Arabic language acquisition, but we can certainly recognize his recognition of the immense beauty of its poetry and the priceless value of its culture.

I would also like to add that an Arab country of Morocco was the first country to recognize the newly independent state of the United States in 1777.

In the modern era, however, Arab American presence in the United States increased exponentially due to four waves of migration starting from the late 1890s.

Like their fellow Americans, they came to seek economic opportunities, religious and personal freedoms, and to claim their share of the American dream.

As engaged citizens, innovators like Steve Jobs, poets like Jabran Khalil-Jabran, judges, factory workers, soldiers, politicians, actors, comedians and academics, they formed an integral swath in the American fabric and then adding their variegated colors and stories to the unfolding of the unique melting pot that is America.

Albemarle County's Board of Directors Proclamation today celebrating National Arab American Heritage Month is a recognition of the immense possibility we all gain when we embrace our hyphenated identities and a celebration of the differences that bring us closer together and make Charlottesville and Albemarle County unique and an inspiring place to live and to thrive.

Thank you, Professor Saman, and I'm sure the supervisors have comments we would like to make as well as present you with the original of the proclamation.

Supervisor Andrews, any comments?

Just briefly, it's April, which is a celebration of spring.

And I think this is just a perfect moment to sort of celebrate Arab-American heritage, to recognize diversity and the importance it is to our country.

And I appreciate this, even though it's a relatively new proclamation, but I really appreciate it.

Thank you.

I did not know that about Morocco and the fact that was enjoyable to learn.

I wasn't aware of that.

I'm always struck when we do a proclamation, especially when it could be a population that is easily vilified and has been in our country, that when you go to some of the folks that stand out, and I often look to authors and poets and things like that,

And when you see how they can reach beyond their own cultural heritage to some bigger abstract idea, that's what always gives me pause to go, why are we vilifying?

And you have to correct me on this professor, but Naomi Shihab Nye, if I said it right, is an Arab American poet.

And her

It's kind of due to things of the past four weeks, it was nice that this poem kind of came back, but then this proclamation reminded me of that.

And I won't read the whole poem, but she has a poem called Kindness.

And one of the lines in there is before, you know, kindness is the deepest thing inside.

You must know sorrow is the other deepest thing.

You got to go through sorrow and tragedy and things like that to discover the light and warmth and

That type of element and that type of abstract thinking is in every culture that we have.

And especially when a population is vilified, like I said before, and we see that voice coming from that, to me, that's wonderful.

Yes, thank you very much.

It was very enlightening.

The year is 888.

and 1178, I was just, I love numbers and I was just blown away by the fact that there were people other than the Vikings who we now recognize as first coming over, but now Arab Americans also, Arabs first came over.

I have been privileged enough to visit Morocco and Egypt, which I love both countries, cultures.

And my brother was born in Oran, Algeria.

So that's always very special to me.

This is very, very meaningful to be part of the proclamation that was read.

Thank you.

Well, thank you.

This takes me down memory lane for sure because as a 17-year-old long time ago, a spring vacation family trip to Spain and all over the south of Spain, everywhere one looked, one's guides were talking about the advances in medicine and astronomy and science in general.

education in general and algebra, which I had, was just getting ready to study.

And the architecture, so spectacular.

And I will never forget being in the mosque in Cordoba and having the guide at the, it was like a hundred yards away standing in an alcove and speaking in a very small voice.

And you could hear it everywhere as if that person was standing right next to you.

And it was all because of the architecture in the building.

It still makes me have goosebumps.

So I will always remember that.

But when I was very small in the fifties, my parents, dear friends, Nesta and Rui Ramazani spent a lot of time at our house.

And so I really feel like I had an extra special chance to get to know them.

And it is sad that in some ways then things were more inclusive than they were in the in the following

I also did not know that about Morocco recognizing the United States.

and the other dates and the other information as well.

That's one of the best things of these proclamations, the people who come to speak to us and teach us more.

And I totally agree with the comments of the other supervisors about a community that has too often been unjustly and unfairly vilified.

As Martin Luther King Jr.

said, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

And just yesterday, it was 55 years since he was assassinated.

I acknowledge that there's a difference between ethnicity and religion, but Islam is the predominant religion of the Arab community as well as in other areas.

And I'm really looking forward to a community Ramadan dinner on the 16th.

And sorry, I was unable to make another one I had been invited to, but I look forward to an opportunity to be a part of the community at that event.

And we thank you for everything that you've done and for being here today.

Thank you.

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

Yes.

During this 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 one opportunity up to three minutes to speak at each board meeting and sign up sheets managed by the clerk's office.

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

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

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

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

To give all speakers equal treatment, the board requests to adhere to the following guidelines.

When addressing the board, please state your name and if you live in Albemarle County, your magisterial district, please address comments directly to the board as a whole.

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

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

Speakers may not share any unused time with another speaker.

Back and forth debate is not permitted.

Please do not speak from your seat or out of turn.

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

Thank you.

Yes, my name is Barbara Cruikshank.

I live in Earliesville White Hall District.

Ma'am, could you just speak up a little bit, please?

Yes, yes.

Eight months ago, I spoke before this board and I asked that there be an evaluation done at Albemarle High School to check the radiation levels from the cell tower.

Instead of that happening, I'm told that there are going to be additional antenna added to that cell tower.

and I also saw, just driving past the school, that we have three new antennae on the roof of a one-story school building.

Several of these antennae are T-Mobile antennae, but it doesn't matter what company it is.

So they are very close to the inhabitants in that building and I am concerned about that.

I did give you a sheet.

This is from my meter.

It's a printout.

And I wanted to show you what kind of levels I got when I did my reading several times.

Green is safe for humans.

And all the way up at the top of my meter is the extreme levels of radiation and those that's in red.

And at Albemarle High School, I was getting red readings, only my meter was flashing, which meant it's actually higher than what my meter goes to, which is eight Gs.

gave you another document from T-Mobile.

This is part of an 86-page document that T-Mobile generated for its shareholders back in 2000, 23 years ago.

They knew at that time, and you'll see it in the document, that this technology of wireless radiation can cause cancer, it can cause immune system damage,

It can cause infertility.

It's got a big list of things.

It can cause neuropsychiatric problems and it can cause

Electric hypersensitivity, which I know well I have it.

So there's been no evaluation and I'm still waiting for that.

The other thing on page 37 in this document, they say anyone near a base station for more than four hours should be not under anything more than 0.01 level of radiation.

that is in the green zone.

That is where if you have electro sensitivity, you're okay, which is my situation.

So they knew back then that that should be what humans are exposed to from a cell tower if you're spending more than four hours there.

I shudder to think of the students and the parents that are there.

for eight hours, 40 hours a week.

So there was no knowledge of any of this to the general public.

Thank you very much.

If you were not able to finish, you can submit any of the rest of your remarks to the clerk to make sure that we get them.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

The last time you heard my voice it was from Zoom and I decided today to be here in person.

You're going to be in action on my home stay variants for a three or four bedroom.

I had applied for a four bedroom because that means six cars and you should have new pictures up today.

showing how many cars can fit in my driveway and how easy it is to manipulate.

Basically for a three bedroom, you're looking for five cars, for four bedroom, you're looking for six cars.

My driveway handles more than that, but we've never tried it.

Also, there was a comment last time made on, I don't want anybody on my cul-de-sac short-term

renting or anything like that.

And I understand that concern.

And that is why you're asking the homeowners to be inside the home.

Otherwise, we wouldn't have to be there.

Also, I also understand the concern that you might not use an app for your own purposes when you go on vacation.

But when you go on vacation and you want to stay somewhere or you're not on vacation and you're there for a week or whatever,

You, as an owner of something that would be such as this, you get the privilege to use these apps that are very safe.

You get to review people who are looking at your home.

It's a very safe and effective way of renting.

And I'm saying this because there was a lot of question as to moving of cars.

That's not what this is about.

This is about a situation where someone in my age category can make the payments

on taxes, on siding, on windows, on doors, on roofing, whatever maintenance is needed for their home.

And this is a way for them to do this.

It's called aging in place.

I really appreciate the people who did vote positively last time and understood the aging in place.

So I'm hoping today the last comment was you don't want to walk through a bedroom, but that bedroom has actually got a door and the door is on that bedroom and then you walk.

It's at the landing and I have pictures of it here.

I don't know if it's going to come up today.

I'm grateful that you take this on a case by case basis.

I think it's really, really important to do that.

And remember that if this isn't your thing or my home isn't your thing, then you don't want to rent my home.

That's how it works.

You have choices of individual bedrooms and other homes.

You don't have to take mine.

You don't have to bring your family.

You don't have to bring your reunion to my home.

You can choose a more expensive and a better home in the county other than mine.

Thank you.

Supervisor Andrews.

That's it.

Thank you.

That concludes item number seven.

We'll move to item number eight, the consent agenda.

Again, I want to mention that the VDOT report was updated on March 30th to correct an error in the original report that was

Item number 12.

No, wait, sorry, that's a different one.

Yeah, that was item number 12, but that's not on the consent agenda.

And is there a motion to adopt the consent agenda?

I move.

Second.

Motion from Supervisor Mallek, a second from Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

That moves us to item number nine, an action item, SC 2022-00065, Greenfield Short-Term Rental Homestay.

Ms.

Good afternoon, members of the board and the public.

All right.

Thank you.

So good afternoon.

As noted, my name is Leah Brumfield.

I am a senior planner, too, in zoning.

And I am returning to you with a modified request for SE 22

2022-65 Greenfield Short-Term Rental at 225 Star Crest Road.

This was originally presented to the board on March 1st, 2023.

So I will be presenting the current request and I'll be giving a brief rundown of prior discussions.

And then I will hand this over to our zoning administrator, Bart Sobota, to give an explanation of our current staff analysis and our recommendation.

As a note throughout the presentation,

We'll be using the term bedroom as a shorthand for a guest room for sleeping, which is the term used in the homestead regulations, but is a bit of a mouthful.

The term bedroom in this case is not limited to the legal real estate definition of a bedroom.

And since this is an encore, we will dive right in.

At the applicant's request, she did request an exception for three or four bedroom short-term rental.

And in conversation and correspondence with the applicant, she clarified that while she would prefer a four bedroom, which was outlined in the original staff report,

A three bedroom would be preferable to keeping a two bedroom, which is the current permitted use.

She does currently have a Bi-Rite homestay use with two guest rooms rented out.

There have been no complaints since the beginning of operation last year.

And so in the last board meeting on this topic,

We did hear concerns over the number of parking spaces that are available to guests and we heard expressed concerns that the parking for four guest rooms and the homeowner in addition are, while possible, maybe not realistic and that guests may disregard the county requirements for homestay guests to park only on the property and not on the street.

The applicant did forward staff the photos that are up on your screen right now showing that multiple cars do easily fit in the driveway.

The top photo was actually taken with drone footage and it shows the additional space that's left with the cars parked there.

Additionally, the board did express concerns over the advertisement of the loft bedroom, which would require a guest to walk through one bedroom to access the second bedroom.

And we did confirm with the building official that there are no safety concerns and no building official restrictions on a bedroom that you have to walk through to get to another one.

So one question that was posed at the end of the March discussion

was whether the board could approve a four-bedroom homestay with a condition limiting the vehicles associated to the homestay to only two.

Bart Svoboda, Zoning Administrator.

I'm just going to touch on that briefly.

So when we look at those conditions, we don't kind of want to expand beyond what the ordinance says.

And with some continuity within regulation, we don't want to change parking regulation, meaning there was talk about limiting the number of spaces.

And that would be a change in the parking requirement versus the impact of

The number of vehicles there.

So in staff's analysis, what we're looking at is in order to limit the traffic, we would limit the bedrooms and stick with the regular parking requirement.

So that's kind of it in a nutshell.

Let me touch on the walkthrough bedroom.

Add a few more things to that, which is there's nothing that the code would require extra as we would in a regular homestay.

So like the exit map that's required for all the other bedrooms, different things like that.

That's all part of the safety process as for the homestay.

So all that is considered as part of the application review when it comes to that, the concern over the loft bedroom.

I don't know if you have any more questions.

Leah did an excellent job of kind of explaining everything.

Unless you have specific questions.

Let's see if we have any questions.

Thank you, Ms.

Brumfield, Mr. Cifoboda.

We will go through our order.

Thank you for that.

I guess I still

I'm concerned about the presence of lots and lots of cars in someone's parking and someone's driveway in this kind of context.

But I appreciate that that's not, we're going to draw the line, consider bedrooms, each requiring one parking space.

So no, I think I'm good.

All right.

I mean, I was fine with the original application, so if this is what

We're going to be comfortable with and we'll see how the vote goes.

I appreciate the comment about sticking to the original parking requirements because when we created the original homestay, it was about limiting the impact.

The impact was get parking off the street and the owner had to provide those spaces.

So to me, the count shouldn't matter because the requirement

We always say, well, it's difficult to enforce.

You can't police.

Well, if you're somebody that's running this and that income's valuable to you, you need to adhere to the rules.

Otherwise you would lose your ability to earn that income.

To me, that type of policing is what, you know, keeps things in line and allows the impact, uh, offsite parking.

That's what we were trying to establish.

So, um, I'm fine with that.

Upon reading this and the new piece about the concern through the broom, I must not have been as paying as close attention to that as I did at the last meeting, I'd be

Reluctant to ever try to get into that type of level of minutia and trying to dictate to somebody how to advertise.

I mean, lime green walls are offensive and we should say that you can't, we've got to make sure you have pictures of that.

I mean, that's too subjective for me.

We need to stay clear on objective criteria.

And, um, you know, I think the speaker, the owner had a very good point.

If you don't like the fact that you have two beds and one's a

Futon because it hurts your back to sleep on, well, then you don't rent there.

You find a place that's suitable.

So as I said, I was fine with the original application.

I will vote to support this as if this is what we can do to get it done.

But to me, the impacts are the same.

The parking's off site.

The parking was off site on the first one.

The parking's off site here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm still concerned regarding the parking in this situation.

I always think of the safety issue, if there's a fire or something, because it looks like cars are going to have to juggle to be able to get out of here.

It's not just that they each have a spot that they're going to have to move, so you have to move this car to get to this car.

in and out.

So I'm concerned about that, especially in an emergency situation of being able to clear that area, especially if, you know, there is an emergency either at the site or emergency personnel having to come in.

And I'm not, I appreciate what Supervisor Galloway says, you don't have to rent, you know, if you don't like a futon, you don't have to rent there.

However,

I'm more concerned about just sticking with what we originally proposed, which is two bedrooms, because this location has two actual bedrooms.

And I don't like going through one bedroom to go to another one.

I realize that's the choice, but we don't know how people are going to advertise that.

They may advertise it as a walkthrough.

They may not advertise it as a walkthrough in another year or so.

Personally, I would like to see just the by right, which is the two bedrooms and

or parking that goes with that for two bedrooms.

Before going to Supervisor Mallek, Ms.

Brumfield, you came back up.

Yes, I had a clarification that there are three bedrooms.

The fourth bedroom was the one that would be a loft bedroom.

There are three with a door, no walking through bedrooms.

and one of those belongs, well, they're... With the owner.

The owner has indicated that she actually has a bedroom that is not in real estate, but she uses the basement area as her space, which is not included in the three bedrooms.

So there are three bedrooms upstairs plus the loft area, and then a basement area where she has her own living space.

Okay, did you say there were two or three bedrooms upstairs?

Not including the loft area.

I apologize I had not foreseen needing to pull up the details as far as the floor plan.

We have never looked into that before.

Okay, so let's see if I can zoom in on this a little bit.

So up on the top floor, there is one full bedroom and then the loft area.

This is the loft area that you walk through to get to the second bedroom.

Then there are two bedrooms on the first floor.

This one, bedroom labeled number four, and then this one labeled number master bedroom.

And then the owner's space is in the basement.

OK.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I appreciate the my my own desire to stick with the ordinance that we're what we've adopted and focusing on the vehicles.

I think fire rescue.

I'm sorry that Dan is not here anymore, but I don't think they would have any problem at all pulling a hose for that short distance, even if there were four cars in the driveway that would

They would be there in a heartbeat.

So I don't think I will pick up on that concern.

Having traveled with grandchildren when they were very small, it was really great to have a little room that was attached to another just for being able to always hear them.

So I think that I'm just from hearing the stories of my own family traveling.

They very carefully look at the films and search very carefully for all the details of what a particular offering has in order to pick a place that suits their particular family.

So I don't really have the ability to predict what other people are going to do.

but I did the question I had, sorry, I went to comment first.

The question I have is we do have the registry, we do have the three strikes in place now.

So if there is any concern, I mean, that is the jeopardy for the applicant as Mr. Galloway talked about that if they want to continue and be successful, they have to be very careful about following the rules and making sure that things go well.

That's up to the person who's running the business.

Thank you.

Supervisor McKeel, you were not here for the presentation part but want to give you the opportunity either to have Ms.

I think I read it pretty carefully and I don't think I have any questions right now so I'll

I'll join in in the conversation later, but I don't have any questions right now.

Your second to last on questions, so there may not be a lot more on questions.

It's not our first homestay, but just the clarification on the counting of parking spaces.

Each homestay sleeping room, bedroom as we're using it, requires a space.

It's a minimum of two for all single-family dwellings.

So it's detached single-family, which are the only structures that are currently allowed to host homestays in the ordinance.

Right.

So if, and I think that's what supervisor Galloway was actually talking about onsite, rather offsite.

So if four bedrooms were approved, then there would have to be sufficient on-site parking for six vehicles.

Correct.

If three bedrooms were approved, there would have to be sufficient on-site for five vehicles, two bedrooms, four vehicles.

All right, thank you.

I don't think I have any other questions right now.

I will have some comments.

I think I'm OK.

Right.

Any other questions by the supervisor of staff?

No?

All right.

Then we'll go around for comments.

Thank you, Ms.

Brumfield.

Just that there's a buy right for two, which I appreciate as a starting point.

There have been no complaints.

I personally feel that jumping this to three would be appropriate under the circumstances.

But when I start to think about six cars in that driveway, it does start to feel like

or the neighborhood and in position of a lot of vehicles in one place.

So that's where I'm leaning.

I made comments.

I'm supportive.

I was, again, a supporter of the original.

I would say this, that we have to remember, you can have this, if this person wanted to host a, not related to the home stay, an event or have family or somebody come visit,

There's no parking restriction on that.

So I always get troubled when I hear when we try to specify to just homestays that I'm not picking on Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley, I'll do that later.

But the point is, is that if there's a fire event, because I'm having a party, a birthday party for a family member, and there are eight cars there, well, there's nothing that restricts the ability to do that anytime as a property owner.

We are restricting the use to the onsite for the homestay folks to lessen the impact of that business on the neighborhood, and I think that's appropriate to do.

But I don't like when rationale are being used specifically to make comments on homestays that if there were no homestay there, we couldn't make those comments on.

We might voice them as concerns.

Well, I don't like having 12 people over and 12 cars with them, and they're parked onsite, offsite, and everywhere else.

That's how it works.

I mean, you know, if people come and I don't have enough spaces for them and they're visiting for the, you know, the neighbors are either going to put up with it or not if I'm having a party.

And I usually, if I'm a good neighbor, will tell them, hey, I'm having a party this weekend.

There's going to be extra cars in there.

So those are things that can happen day to day without homestay use.

All right, thank you.

I would never disagree with Supervisor Galloway because of my high level of respect for him, but my comments were specified of an emergency nature, but also impact on the neighbors.

I understand if you have a party and you have a bunch of people over,

But when you have a homestay, it's a business and you're making money off of it.

And I don't think you should be able to, we have a regulation where you don't impact your neighbors.

So, I mean, I could live with three.

Thank you.

Before going on, Ms.

Brumfield, you can sit down if you'd like.

Thank you.

I have, I can support four and I can support three.

I mean, I definitely don't want to have them lose out altogether.

So I'm definitely seeking something which can get four votes, but I would not have problems with, especially having seen the layout, I think that makes it even more appealing.

Thank you.

I am in the same position.

When I read it, I felt like I really could support the staff recommendation.

Having said that, my concern is the parking.

I will say that because, and I appreciate what you said, Ned, but, and I don't, you know, I'm not going to address where anybody else lives, but I live on a quarter acre on a cul-de-sac and parking is a challenge and parking for

A party or an event is different from something that can happen more routinely.

So I understand Ned's argument, but at the same time, I do agree with it, Ann.

Well, I had teenagers too, but they were a long time ago.

All right, and I have concerns with four, not as much with three.

In order to be as fair as possible to the applicant, I'm gonna open the floor for a motion if a supervisor desires to make it to approve the maximum number of bedrooms that the applicant has requested, which is four.

So the floor is open if a supervisor desires to make a motion to approve four.

So moved.

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

Any further discussion?

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Ms.

Mr. Andrews.

We didn't.

I wasn't fast enough.

I didn't see the order of the vote.

Because I thought I just missed it.

OK.

So we have yes from Supervisor Galloway and Supervisor.

Should we start again?

Mallek.

Sorry.

I'm causing all kinds of problems.

Motion was by Galloway.

All right, I vote no.

Yes.

All right, Supervisor Galloway?

Yes.

All right, and the vote was four to two.

All right, so the motion passes.

All right, thank you, Board.

All right, thank you.

All right.

We'll now move to item number 10, the work session.

Albemarle County VDOT FY2429 Secondary Six Year Plan.

And hello, Ms.

Hirsch-Ballerine.

Chair Price, may I interrupt for one moment?

Yes, please.

I think that there was a resolution for the board to adopt in connection with the homestay.

All right.

Thank you.

Second.

All right.

And then do we need to revote or just for clarification?

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Price?

Nay.

Mr. Galloway?

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Thank you, Mr. Rosenberg and Mr. Herrick, for making sure we got that done right.

I apologize.

Now, Ms.

Thank you Chair Price and thank you members of the Board of Supervisors.

Jessica Hirsch-Ballering, Principal Planner with Admiral County Community Development.

I am joined by my colleague Elbaric Carina Plun, Transportation Planner.

We're going to be presenting on the fiscal year 24 to 29 secondary six-year plan update and recommendations.

I'm going to start by giving a little background on the secondary six-year plan and then Elbaric is going to step in and give some specific content for this year's secondary six-year plan as well as next steps.

So the secondary six-year plan is a document that applies to roads in the secondary system.

Secondary system roads tend to connect local destinations.

They're often labeled with a route number of 600 or higher.

They differ from primary roads which tend to connect cities and towns to each other.

The purpose of the secondary six-year plan is to identify the funding allocated to Albemarle County for the secondary road system for the next fiscal year.

It also estimates the available funding for the next five fiscal years.

The funding programs included in the secondary six-year plan are tele-fee and district grant on paved funds.

Tele-FEE is funded through the fees utility companies pay to have their infrastructure within the VDOT right-of-way.

Tele-FEE funds can be used for a broad range of secondary road improvements.

District grant unpaved funds is a much larger funding source, but it can only be used for the hard surfacing of unpaved secondary roads.

Between these two programs, there is just over $1.2 million available to us for fiscal year 24.

And because most of that money is coming from the district grant unpaid funds program, that is going to be mostly for paving unpaved roads.

The secondary six-year plan document also lists the specific Albemarle County projects that will receive funding from these funding sources, and the document is updated and adopted by the Board of Supervisors annually.

The secondary six-year plan is heavily informed by the Albemarle County priority list for secondary road improvements on paved roads.

This document was included in your meeting materials as attachment A3.

This priority list is created by Albemarle County staff.

It lists all the secondary roads which someone, a member of the public, a county department, or a member of the Board of Supervisors have requested to be paved.

The process for determining how roads get onto this priority list is guided by the Albemarle County Unpaved Road Policies and Review Process, which is a document that was included in your meeting materials as attachment A2.

This policy document was last updated in May of 2022.

A major change in that update was that requests to pave an unpaved road need to be supported by a petition signed by two-thirds of the property owners along the roadway to be paved before it can be added to the priority list for secondary road improvements.

This means that any requests for paving that were added to the priority list before that May 2022 update still require a petition signed by two-thirds of the property owners in order to be added to the secondary six-year plan.

So Albaric actually has letters ready to go out to the individuals who had originally requested paving on roads before the May 2022 update.

This letter will inform people of the changes in policy and specify the deadline by which they need to have that completed petition submitted to Amarillo County in order to move forward with the paving process.

So since so much of the funding allocated by the secondary six-year plan goes toward roadway paving, I wanna briefly describe our two main options for paving unpaved roads within the county.

So first we have traditional reconstruction with additional right-of-way.

This is done if significant improvements to the roadway are needed or if significant development is expected in the area in the near term.

With traditional reconstruction, a minimum 40-foot right-of-way is usually required for these projects.

Alternatively, we have the Rural Rustic Road Paving Program.

If the roadway doesn't require significant improvements and all of the other criteria are met, this is the paving program we prefer to use.

With the Rural Rustic Road Paving Program, it maintains the character of the rural area, it minimizes the impacts to adjacent properties,

and it's more cost effective.

And in fact, according to our own policies and review process, the board has previously determined that all roads that qualify for the Rural Rustic Road Paving Program should be prioritized over projects that would use the traditional reconstruction program.

Thank you.

Thank you, board.

Thank you, Jessica.

My name is Albert Creno-Plun.

I am a planner in community development.

I am a transportation planner as well.

So for the draft, fiscal year 2024 to 2029, secondary six-year recommendations, Arrowhead Valley Road, Blenheim Road, and Sutherland Road have the required two third signatures.

These are new additions to the rural rustic list, so signatures were needed before being added onto our list via the new policy that was passed last year.

Beam Roads, 20 Point Pass East, 20 Point Pass West, and Old Dominion Road have been on the list for years as prioritized projects, but still require signatures.

Next steps for these roads.

If you, the board, supports or approves of the draft of the secondary six-year plan, property owners on these roads will see notification letters sent out shortly.

If they are on one of the roads with signatures already collected, it'll be notifying them of what is happening and how to contact us now if they do not want the road paved or any other questions.

For the roads without signatures, it will include instructions on how to show support

for paving and what is required from everyone on that road explaining how two-thirds signatures are required from everyone who lives on that road.

Next, we will return on May 17th for public hearing on the secondary six-year plan.

There we will require resolution for the secondary six-year plan, as well as a resolution for each of the roads on the priority list.

If the board passes that resolution approving of a secondary six-year plan and the priority list, VDOT can start work.

Other secondary six-year project updates, Burt Mill Road, Haneck's Gap Road, Red Hill School Road, and Harris Creek Road have been paved as of fall 2022.

Coves Garden Road is nearly done and will be finished this spring.

Berkmar Drive Extended has been funded through Telefie funds and revenue sharing funds.

Currently, the road goes through at a roundabout on Timberwood Boulevard and stumps out shortly afterward, but will connect to Airport Road and Lewis and Clark Drive at another roundabout.

The project kickoff meeting was held with the design team, VDOT, and Albemarle County staff.

As design progressed, a shortfall in the funding was identified.

Staff is currently working with VDOT on how to address that shortfall.

Since the materials were posted online, we have received an updated draft of the secondary six-year plan that provides a new cost estimate for Berkmar Drive, which is now $17 million.

The draft secondary six-year plan shows that telehealth funding for the next five years is being used for funding this project as well.

This map right here shows the distribution of projects for rural rustic around the county.

Roads in green are projects that are completed this past year.

That includes Burt Mill Road, Hammocks Gap Road.

And roads in red are projects that are prioritized for this upcoming year.

Roads in gray are unpaved roads in the county.

All these roads are coming from the VITA unpaved road database as well.

And I'll let you look at that for a second if you would like.

Okay, I'll move on.

For final feedback, does the board support the proposed additions to the secondary six-year plan and the Albemarle County priority list for secondary road improvements on paved roads?

And additionally, does the board support using Teleview funding to make up the existing funding shortfall for Berkmar Drive extended?

Alright.

Thank you, Mr. Karina Plun.

Ms.

Hirsch-Ballering, we will go through our order.

I'm sorry, could you let me understand a little bit more about tele-fee funding.

I can stay here.

I'm the Acting Planning Director.

Apologies for the Berkmar.

We are still working on how to address that issue, but as Alberic mentioned, we did receive the updated cost estimate, which was significantly higher.

then the initial cost estimate which we had fully funded through by 2025 through the revenue sharing and tele-fee money.

So we are still working on trying to figure out how to address that shortfall, but the one way that they did suggest

to do that was to add the telefeed funding for the rest of the six-year plan, which is approximately 250,000, I believe, I can't remember the exact number, per year.

That would still not quite be enough to cover that $17 million.

We are talking to the state.

There may be opportunities to get additional state funding to try and make up that shortfall.

Thank you.

Back to slide eight for just a moment.

I'm sorry, Mr. Corina Flynn.

I think I should, I'm curious about this because it doesn't seem to comport with descriptions of the roads.

For example, Arrowhead Valley Road, if I'm right, is pretty darn close to the center of the county there.

Yes, but that segment that you show on the map is not the segment that's going to be paved.

That's the part that's going to remain unpaved is my understanding.

The petition specifically addressed paving from 29 to the bridge right past the entrance to Potter's Cider, which is a very, very heavily used segment of the road.

So I think that's in the description, so I'm not going to... I'll double check and apologies for that mistake here.

And I guess my last question just following up is understand our policy that we require two-thirds and that notices will go out to the owners but it does mean that if someone doesn't respond then they're not included within the two-thirds and it's as if they said no.

And we'll try to follow up as well.

Okay, thank you.

All right, thank you.

I don't have any real questions about what's reported or

in the packet and what we're going to vote on.

But I am going to take the opportunity just to ask some process questions because I had one come up that seems related to rural rustic, but not to the level of paving.

Within the last 30, 40 days, a resident emailed about Ray's Ford Lane and just condition.

And the point being made was that it's gravel and it'll get

Graded and some maintenance, then the rain comes just like a lot of our unpaid roads and makes it problematic.

So it sounds like drainage could be a solution there.

Now I had originally sent that to VDOT.

They went out, inspected, et cetera, but they were the ones that threw out the rural rustic road program.

but then said the width and places were problematic.

But I see in our own report that it says that we do an evaluation and occasionally the primary concern can be addressed through means other than paving, drainage concerns, unsafe curves, blind spots, no shoulders.

So that's one that just coincidentally popped up on the radar recently that's also then this report came.

So it gives me the opportunity to go, okay,

I didn't bring that concern up to the county.

I just took it right to VDOT to check it out.

But like tar and like a different level of gravel, I don't know if that's the solution either.

That's just what the residents or the resident had suggested.

So I'm really bringing it up here to go, all right, if this is on the radar so that I understand the process of getting it studied, inspected, checked, I mean, VDOT's done it just to make sure that

If it's it could be on a regular maintenance schedule and it could be that's the information I need.

So I'm bringing that one up that clearly the residents are not interested in this going beyond what it is.

They don't want any paving, anything like that.

So I'm just looking for all right this sounds like I need to have it involved if it needed a little different treatment or if it's just on maintenance schedule then we go there but I'm just taking the opportunity to put it on the radar.

Absolutely.

Carrie will be here later today to present, but we can confirm with her that that concern has been looked at from her team, and then we'll discuss the best way to handle it.

So yeah, it seems like there's that answer between the current maintenance schedule, not wanting paving.

And then how do you find for a particular road, the sweet spot in between, but this one sounds like the drainage is the primary concern.

Um, and then I guess I'll make a comment here on the, the Berkmar extent.

I mean, we, I get it.

The prices have increased, but we can't, we can't punt and projects got to get done.

I mean, that was the whole.

the whole parallel nature of running Berkmar up there.

And we've got some development, big development projects that are going to come out there.

So I get that the costs have increased, but I appreciate the efforts to keep working with the state, but we can't, and I don't think we can delay it either.

We've got to figure that one out.

Understood.

Thanks.

And I know you guys get it.

I'm not telling you guys anything I think you don't believe, but

In addition to just getting that parallel network completed, the coming things are gonna require that to be in place.

But I think you all, when you first did Berkmar Extended, the prior members of the board knew that last little chunk was gonna be the most difficult, trickiest, costliest segment.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for the presentation.

Could you go to slide four?

They are different.

I don't know the specific differences between them.

I don't want to speak on them and be incorrect.

I think that's something that would be better answered by Carrie when she comes speak later.

Do you know?

They are different.

A chip and tar is similar to a hard surface is my understanding.

And my question was regarding the 40 foot right of way.

That's the width of the right of way.

Okay.

All right.

So if you could go to slide number seven, please.

So you listed Hammocks Gap Road and that's listed under the fact that it was done, completed, but that was only a portion of it.

It wasn't the entire length.

So are you saying that it's up to be completed or is it just the portion up to the bridge?

So Hemings Gap Road, the portion after the bridge was completed and late last summer, early last fall, I went out there with a VDOT person and a person that lives in the road to look at the remainder of Hemings Gap Road to see if it would qualify for rural rustic and there are places it is too narrow or it's degraded, it's not good enough so that

VDOT wouldn't be able to complete that road under the current rural rustic guidelines or essentially you don't want to do too much engineering and too much grading to disturb the rural landscape.

But if residents do want to have that last leg of hammock scab paved, that would be under a different type of project.

Right, no, understood.

So I'm a little confused.

Yes, they would have to.

I believe that VDOT requires usually 18 feet of actual roadway width so that it can be paved so that you can have two vehicles pass through this safely.

And in some portions, it was too narrow.

And there's some portions where just the earth around it was just kind of pressing right against the road.

Okay.

So if you could go to slide number three, I think it was slide number three.

But there was a slide where you talked about telefi and then you said something about the telefi and district grant, unpaved funds, but you talked about hard paving.

Regular paving, okay.

And last one, slide eight.

Thank you everyone for your indulgence.

So in the Rivanna district, I see the red line prioritize.

Yes, it is separated into two projects.

Okay, but east and west has gone up.

It's gone 0.9 from 20 into 20 going

East, and then 22 going west, it's only 0.9, which leaves this section in the middle.

You're, you're correct, Supresso-Pisto-Kirtley, that this map isn't quite accurate in that sense.

Stony Point is only getting paved.

No, no, and I know that, but I got all excited.

I thought, okay, this is it, this is for me, right?

We do not have that in the list right now.

Okay, thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So,

The Berkmar Extended, I'll jump to that first.

This is questions only, right?

Okay.

So, so many sidewalk projects all over the growth areas were swept into that Berkmar bucket.

and we thought it was only going to be until this year.

So I agree with Ned that we had, number one, the heartbreak when I found out that the 29 Solutions bidders were allowed to ditch that last mile without telling anybody.

There was no public discussion about that or anything.

And stick us with this bill is really irritating, but we can't go back.

So in answer to your question, I am very much in favor of

using Telefee funds until 2040, if that's what it takes.

Does that mean we can actually get going with the project and just know that that future income is set aside?

Yes, we are already currently moving forward with design.

because of the existing funding we have.

And we're looking to try and figure out how the schedule will work with the funding.

Okay, that big mountain of dirt is going to be difficult.

So I'm very glad to know that.

And just, I understand that during the next month or whatever until we actually have the debate and adopt these things, that we will be able to have some information update about the discussion the board had last fall.

Regarding the unpaid roads, because even though what I printed off the unpaid funds must be used for hard surfacing of unpaid state secondary roads, but other counties in Virginia are using this money to improve the drainage.

and do things to solve problems.

And they're not having that yes or no, one way or the other only.

So that was the takeaway that I really look forward to hearing.

And I understand that Kerry may be the source for that information.

But I would just wanted to be sure to mention it now that using Ray's Ford Road, which is a divider between the Whitehall District and the Rio District, it is a tabletop flat.

instead of a crown.

And so of course, they're giant potholes the size of a Volkswagen, and it's not possible to keep them no matter how many times you grade it because the water just sits there.

So that kind of design change, it seems to me, and any place where there are culverts that are jammed and then they flow over the road and then they wash out the road, those kinds of things could be fixed and would keep the edges from breaking in, which is what causes the roads to get so narrow and dangerous.

So I look forward to having more

information about that before we have to vote in May, if possible.

That would be great.

One comment I wrote as you were presenting about the letters out to constituents on these roads.

I hope that you can find a way to be neutral when you invite them for their input.

Definitely say you must respond to get your view known, but being careful not to couch it in a way that

slams it one way or the other.

It's tricky, believe me.

And so I really appreciate that.

And let me run down my list here.

In item 15, it's still showing Rio Mills as a paving project, so I think we could erase that and save ourselves the $10-15 million on that one because those barricades I think are permanent and we don't need to go back there.

And I'll stop there.

Thank you.

I don't have any questions at this point because, of course, the Jack Jouett district doesn't have a lot of unpaved roads.

Having said that, I've been interested in the questions you all have asked.

I have a couple of process questions.

So, Burtmar Extended, as Ned and Ann has referenced, is critical.

And one of the organizations in this community it is critical to is the University of Virginia.

And maybe this is a question for Kevin.

Have we had any outreach?

Did a nice day and step there.

That was good.

Have we had any outreach to the University of Virginia?

That's exactly right.

That's what I'm saying.

Cause they might want to pony up and help us with some skin in the game.

It's just my suggestion because that is a critically important road for them as well.

Yes.

Be very clear about that.

And then I want to go to something else and this is probably really whack a doodle, but.

When we come up with these shortages, does the state step up and say, oh, we know the environment we're in, and while you have a one-to-one match, we're going to help, we're going to increase our portion so that you can increase.

You see what I'm getting at, Kevin?

We have not had confirmation that they are going to do that for sure, but it has been implied to us that the state is willing to add additional state funding

So you're getting at what I'm asking and what I would, that's great.

And what I would suggest to the board is we think about something like that for a part of our legislative packet next year, that when we get into these positions where we're missing the state funding, that we see if we can figure out some way that we can get a bill that would

at least address the inflation number or whatever it is, I don't know.

But that might be an interesting piece to add to our legislative packet.

Would you make a note for that on that, Steve?

May I follow up?

I understand you to say that they do have the authority now and they're mulling it over or have applied extra money.

I think the Belvedere roundabout might have scooped up some money from some other project or had something added to it.

Does it need legislation?

I am not entirely sure if that's a legislative issue or if it is something that's discretionary to the Commonwealth Transportation Board to provide that funding.

But I know that VDOT has talked to us about possibly being able to cover that inflation amount for us.

And not just for us, but for projects across the state that are in the same position.

But we have not had any final confirmation

that that that's going to be provided.

OK.

And if there's advocacy, that would be helpful.

I mean, in past years for various projects, we've trucked up to CTV meetings and made

conciliatory comments to them.

Get some guidance from you.

Thank you very much.

But what I'm suggesting is that it become a part of our legislative packet.

And we say that if we have smart scale projects,

revenue sharing projects that come in above that they at least help pony up their share of the day.

I'm just saying we could put that on our legislative packet and might not go anywhere, but you never know until you ask, right?

Thank you both, all three.

I have a couple of questions kind of quick.

Telefee funds.

When I look at our board materials, page one of four, attachment one, it shows the telefee funds basically being projected out, not basically, but actually being projected out at the same amount every year over about a six-year window.

It could.

So what you're seeing in the six-year plan, the draft six-year plan there, next year, FY24, is the amount that we expect to get.

Of course, it is still a draft that might go up between now and when we approve it next month.

But those other five years are just estimates.

And so that number is likely to change, and it has changed every year we come back.

So it has gone up, but that is a statewide pool that they put all the money in.

Okay, so we don't necessarily receive the gross benefit from the increase of the infrastructure within Albemarle County.

We get some portion of that.

Correct.

It would be nice if I'd like to see what the previous five years to see if there's some sort of a trend at least in terms of understanding what the increases may be if that's not too hard to provide.

And I take it then a similar thing with the district grant unpaved because other than a projected change here from 24-25 of 939,000, 2026 going forward it's 953,000.

I'm not sure I can look into that.

Just trying to figure as we go forward, there doesn't seem, other than that one change, there's no other changes in the projections.

I want to echo and

For my part, reiterate the criticality that the other supervisors have shared with regard to Burtmore.

I mean, we just have to find a way to get that done.

That is, perhaps, as if not the most important road improvement in the county from my perspective.

That really has to be done.

Right.

Yeah.

I mean, that is a huge project.

One of the things that we've been dealing with lately, and y'all have gotten some emails on this, is the rebuild of the bridge in Batesville.

And that is a different setting than the Hardware River Bridge, which was rebuilt in, I think, about 2017 era, which was rebuilt, again, as a one-lane road.

And I'm not asking that any change be made on what you're doing with Batesville, a lot of communications on that.

This ties in, I think, with part of the rural rustic road paving and that half of the community loves to see the roads paved and the other half would put a pox on your family because of the increased speed and

development pressures and everything.

And so I just want to acknowledge the challenges that we have in improving our infrastructure where it's necessary for things like fire and rescue to be able to get there while at the same time trying not to dramatically change the nature of the rural environment.

So I appreciate the work that you all do.

And this slide in particular, number eight, while y'all were talking, I did send an email.

There are four significant roadways in the Scottsville district overlapping into Samuel Miller that I just would like an update on the status of.

I'm not asking for any action, but these are very helpful and we can visualize, which I have a hard time with the numbers sometimes on the highway.

So thank you for that.

I don't think I have any other questions.

Just a clarification, Kevin, about the University Foundation.

I'm not suggesting that we go to them and say they should come up with everything, right?

I'm just saying that maybe they would like to chip in and help us a little bit, right?

With some skin in the game.

I don't think it'd be realistic for us to ask them to come up with a whole amount.

But some skin in the game would be nice to help us close the gap.

All right.

Anything else?

If not, thank you all for your presentation.

Board, we can move.

Let's see.

And have you gotten the feedback that you need?

Thank you, Chair Price, members of the board.

I am satisfied.

I did not want to miss this opportunity, though, to acknowledge this is Mr. Carina Flynn's first presentation in front of the board.

This is part of ongoing effort to grow our staff capacity.

And as you saw from Ms.

Harris-Ballerine several months ago, we have quite

I'm talking about the environment that you all know that but there's no substitute for experience and we appreciate the

the active engagement part of all board members and helping the staff kind of use this as an opportunity to understand how to better prepare for future presentations.

And thank you.

And thank you for those comments.

And again, it was a pleasure to have you up here today.

I'll butt in with one thing and that is I spent 17 years on that side of the microphone and I understand how hard it was for me to get down there the first 16 years of that and everything scripted out.

I appreciate all that you do.

So I'm back and I am joined by my colleagues, Alberic Carina Plan and Kevin McDermott, Acting Director of Planning, as I present the Transportation Planning Quarterly Report covering the months of January through March.

So as we often do, we'll begin with a smart scale update.

So the smart scale grant program is the primary method for funding large scale transportation projects in Virginia.

And it is a competitive funding program.

Back in August of last year, 12 projects were submitted by Albemarle County, the TJPDC and the Charlottesville Albemarle MPO.

Descriptions of those projects are still included in the written quarterly report.

Earlier this year, in January, VDOT released the project scores, rankings, and the recommended funding scenario for this round of SmartScale.

Scores and rankings are included in the written quarterly report at the end of each project description.

The highest ranked projects for the district and the state are included in the recommended funding scenario, which I want to emphasize is an initial list of projects recommended for funding.

Projects in the recommended funding scenario are not guaranteed to be funded.

That will happen in June when the Commonwealth Transportation Board will release the consensus funding scenario, which is the final and official list of funded projects.

The consensus funding scenario may differ from the recommended funding scenario or it may not.

So the slide after this one is going to list the specific scores and ranks for our 12 projects, but first I want to share some background info to help that next slide make more sense.

So SmartScale scores are a ratio of the project's benefit versus the project's cost.

The benefit is the sum of these benefit sub scores, the project safety score, the accessibility score, and so on.

The summed benefit score is then divided by the amount of funding requested through SmartScale.

So this might be the full cost of the project, or that cost might be offset by committing local funds.

I want to caution that this is a very simplified version of the smart scale score.

These benefits sub scores are actually converted into normalized values and the scores are weighted differently based on where you are in the state, but generally I just wanted to emphasize that these scores are a ratio of project benefit to project cost.

It's also important to note that funding for SmartScale comes from two main pathways, the district grants program and the high priority projects program or HPPP.

To be eligible for the district grants program funds, the project application must be submitted by the locality.

So it would have to be submitted by us.

Projects that qualify for district grants program funds compete only against other projects in our VDOT district.

Alternatively, we have the HPPP funds.

Projects can be submitted by the locality, the MPO, the PDC.

All of those applications are all competing for HPPP.

These projects are competing against a much larger pool.

These projects applications compete against all the other projects in the state.

So when we say a project is funded by SmartScale, we don't typically specify whether they're getting the district grants program funds or the HPPP funds.

We just say they're getting SmartScale funds.

But in some cases, this behind the scene info can have an impact on what gets recommended for funding and what doesn't.

And that will apply to us.

OK, so this slide lists the 12 projects submitted by Albemarle County, as well as by the TJPDC and the MPO on our behalf.

So for each project, we have the cost estimate column, the smart scale score column, then the smart scale rank, which is how the project scored compared to all the other projects submitted across the entire Commonwealth, and then the district rank column, which is how the project scored compared to other projects within our VDOT district.

The highlighted projects, starting at the top, Belvedere Boulevard and Rio Road intersection improvements, US 250 and Peter Jefferson Parkway intersection improvements and park and ride, and Avon Street bike and pedestrian improvements from Druid Avenue to Avon Court.

Those projects are recommended for funding in the recommended funding scenario, which again is just our initial recommendations, not official final recommendations.

So our highest ranked project was actually the one at the bottom Avon Street bike and festering improvements from Druid to Avon Court.

And this project was submitted by the MPO.

So because it was submitted by the MPO, not the locality, it was only eligible for smart scale funding through HPPP.

So it's competing against all the other projects in the state.

So we're going to look at the smart scale rank column.

So it was ranked 54 among all the projects across the state.

That's a really good ranking.

So it was recommended for funding.

The second highest ranked project was US 250 and Peter Jefferson Parkway.

Intersection improvements along with the park and ride, this project was submitted by the TJPDC.

So again, it's only eligible for HPPP funds.

Compared to all other state projects, it was ranked number 92.

Again, that's really good.

So that one was recommended for funding as well.

Our third highest ranked project is actually not highlighted.

It's the Hydraulic Road and District Avenue roundabout.

So this one was submitted by the Charlottesville Albemarle MPO.

So again, like those other two projects, it was only eligible for HPPP funds.

As you can see here, it ended up being ranked 130th out of all the projects in the state.

Unfortunately, that missed the cutoff.

So that one was not recommended for funding.

Our fourth highest rated project was the Belvedere Boulevard and Rio Road intersection improvements.

This project was submitted by Admiral County, making it eligible for either HPPP or district grant program funds.

So we get to look at both the SmartScale rank and the district rank for this particular project.

So SmartScale rank compared to all the other projects in the state, it actually came just behind the Hydraulic Road and District Avenue roundabout.

It was 132nd in the state.

That was not enough to qualify it for getting funds through HPPP.

However, when compared to other projects submitted for our VDOT district, it came in 13th.

That's 13th out of all of the projects for our VDOT district, not 13th out of the projects that were eligible for DGP.

So it's actually a little bit higher up.

So even though it comes behind Hydraulic Road and District Avenue Roundabout in terms of ranking within our VDOT district, unlike Hydraulic and District Avenue Roundabout, the Belvedere Boulevard and Rio Road intersection improvements was eligible for these DGP funds.

And that's why it was selected or included in the recommended funding scenario.

Let's see here.

To wrap things up, these three projects that are highlighted are the ones that are being recommended for funding in this initial recommended funding scenario.

Remember, things may change between now and when the Commonwealth Transportation Board meets and makes their final decisions in June.

All right, I'm going to move us on from SmartScale.

We're going to talk about VDOT Project Pipeline.

So VDOT's project pipeline program is designed to develop a pipeline of high-priority projects that address identified V-trans needs and may be considered for implementation through SmartScale, revenue sharing, or other funding mechanisms.

The program does this by supporting studies with a focus on priority locations and corridors adapted during the V-trans process.

As an aside, V-Trans is Virginia's statewide transportation plan.

So the VDOT project pipeline program is about to kick off two studies in Albemarle County.

The first one is the US 29 US 250 Ivy Road and Old Ivy Road study.

This study is intended to identify a suite of projects to address a variety of transportation concerns along the Old Ivy Corridor, the adjacent US 250 Ivy Road corridor, and the US 29 and US 250 interchange.

This study would include the area where the Triangle About had been proposed.

That was at the intersection of Old Garth, Canterbury, and 250.

The proposed Triangle About is on hold until this study is complete.

Ultimately, this study will take a more comprehensive look at the whole area to improve operations and access more broadly.

It may or may not include the Triangle About in the future.

The second project pipeline study would look at the Barracks Road corridor.

Again, this study is intended to identify projects to address transportation concerns including pedestrian, bicycle, and transit access along Barracks Road between Georgetown Road and Emmett Street.

All right, these next couple of slides, I'm just trying to give highlights of some of the many transportation planning efforts that we have ongoing right now, as well as highlight a couple of next steps for some of these projects.

So we have the Three Notch Trail Shared Use Path Master Plan.

This project is going to be funded by a RAISE grant.

The RAISE grant's been awarded, but we haven't signed the agreement with FHWA yet.

Amar County has submitted the draft agreement to FHWA for their review.

There's probably going to be some back and forth over the next quarter as we get it ironed out and signed on both sides.

We still plan to release an RFP for consultants for this project late in the first quarter of the next fiscal year, and we'll begin work on the project shortly after that.

The Lambs Lane Campus and Hydraulic Road Study.

This study is being led by FES with support from transportation planning and schools.

A consultant has been hired to complete the study, which will result in 30% design for the on-campus loop road and conceptual design for the intersection bike and pedestrian improvements to the hydraulic corridor.

A reminder that funding for this study does come from the board's strategic reserve, and the timeline of this study should provide transportation planning staff with enough information and time to submit an application for the next round of revenue sharing to fund that loop road construction.

Revenue sharing pre-applications are due in early July of this year, and final applications are due in early October.

Free Bridge Lane Conceptual Design Project.

Consultants are completing the final concept package for the promenade design or promenade.

This will include a cost estimate for full implementation of the design.

Simultaneously, we're working on developing that promenade pilot program and we'll return to the Board of Supervisors when we're ready to implement that program.

We also have our Route 20 Shared Use Path conceptual design project.

We've already completed a site visit and the first of two stakeholder meetings for this project.

Stakeholders included representatives from Monticello, VDOT, the MPO, and the Charlottesville area tree stewards.

City staff and PVCC staff were also invited but unable to join us for that meeting.

This project is going to follow a very similar process to the Free Bridge Lane project, where our consultants are developing these two different conceptual designs for the shared use path.

Staff will share those designs with the public and with the Board of Supervisors in the next few months, and then we'll use that feedback to develop a final concept package.

For Fontaine Avenue, back in round four of SmartScale, the MPO submitted an application to improve the Fontaine 29 interchange for an estimated cost of $12 million.

The improvements would replace the existing unsignalized diamond interchange with a partially displaced left turn.

But recently there's been some concern from stakeholders, including UVA, that the design that displaced left turn wouldn't meet the long-term needs of a rapidly growing area.

So Amarillo County staff are currently working with fellow stakeholders and VDOT to determine next steps for that project.

Safe Routes to School.

So transportation planning staff in collaboration with public schools was awarded a Safe Routes to School Walkabout Mini Grant for Woodbrook Elementary.

At the end of the grant activities, Safe Routes to School staff are gonna make recommendations for improvements to improve the active transportation infrastructure and programming for Woodbrook.

And they'll also identify potential funding sources to implement those improvements.

You just heard about the secondary six year plan, so I won't say anything more than we'll return in May for that public hearing.

For transportation priorities, staff are in the process of updating the priority list of potential transportation projects.

We'll return to the Board of Supervisors in June to present the prioritization methodology and the draft rankings for all the proposed transportation projects.

Transportation planning staff continue to work on the multimodal transportation plan, which is a component of the larger comprehensive plan update.

And lastly, fiscal year 24 is when we will submit our next round of revenue sharing submissions.

So revenue sharing projects can receive up to $10 million per project.

Applications require a 50-50 local match, and for this round we plan to submit an application for the Lambs Lane Campus Loop Road, as I said on the previous slide, and we will also likely seek additional funding for projects that had previously received revenue sharing funds but need additional funding to be completed.

We're currently working with our contacts at VDOT to prepare competitive applications for these projects.

Moving on to transit planning.

So transportation planning staff continue to attend regional transit partnership meetings.

The partnership met in January and March.

One of the things they've been working on is the regional transit governance study and they've gotten a few updates on that.

The purpose of that study is to identify strategies for achieving regional transit priorities and goals identified in the regional transit vision plan.

One of the highlights from the Regional Transit Partnership meetings was a presentation and discussion of peer cities that have effectively implemented transit or transportation authorities.

Progress continues on our transit stop improvements.

We continue to work towards installing a shelter at the Northside Library.

And there's also been some exciting progress on transit shelters for Commonwealth Drive.

So the Commonwealth Drive pedestrian improvements is an ongoing revenue sharing project.

That project has always planned to construct several transit shelters within the VDOT right-of-way.

We have spoken with Charlottesville Area Transit and they have several shelters on hand that can be installed as part of this project, which is great news.

However, as some of you may be aware, constructing transit shelters in the VDOT right of way can be incredibly tricky for a variety of reasons.

So not only do we need to get each specific location approved by VDOT, we also need to get the specific shelter design approved by VDOT and it needs to go through the same permitting process as a building would because transit shelters are legally treated as a habitable space.

The good news is that we have a champion at DRPT who is working with us to get the Commonwealth Drive locations and the existing CAT shelter design approved by VDOT so these shelters can go in as planned.

Lastly, an update on the upcoming microtransit service for North 29 and Pantops.

CAT released an RFP for a microtransit service provider recently and staff will be returning to the Board of Supervisors this summer with a more significant update.

We're wrapping things up now.

So this slide highlights the larger development projects that transportation staff have reviewed in the last quarter.

As I always do, I just want to note that these projects listed here are not necessarily done with the development review process, but it's where our staff has spent a lot of time the last quarter.

and on to reported transportation issues.

So this slide highlights some of our recently reported transportation issues.

As you can see, there have actually been a lot of requests for pedestrian and bike infrastructure, requests for crosswalks, sidewalks and bike lanes.

Fortunately, we've been able to meet some of these requests along with help from VDOT.

So there will be a crosswalk, a high-visibility crosswalk installed at the intersection of Old Trail and Bishop Gate, as well as at Whitewood Road, where it will improve access to Charlotte-Humpfers Park.

Commonwealth Drive is going to get shared lane markings, so not a bike lane, but still something to improve access for bicyclists.

As always, speeding and safety concerns are something that we hear about.

And they're included here.

Thank you, Ms.

Hirsch-Ballery.

We will go through our order.

Supervisor Andrews.

That was a very thorough report, I think.

I appreciate it.

And some things on it that I'm just now appreciating better, this difference between the district grant fund and the high priority projects and the decision, I guess,

When a project might be something we can put in on our own because that's advantageous, I hadn't really considered before.

So I assume that you're on top of that and looking at future opportunities to

play that difference.

Thank you.

I had also heard that there have been surveys to look at the smart scale process generally and get feedback.

Those surveys were put out by VDOT with the intention of using the survey results to improve the smart scale process.

I don't have a ton more information than that right now.

I don't know if Kevin wants to come up and say anything more.

Okay, I appreciate that.

Otherwise, I appreciate all the different pieces on here and obviously have a great interest in many of them.

The Fontaine not meeting the long term needs of stakeholders certainly piques my interest and recognize that we will hear more about those long term needs, I'm sure.

in the coming months, not years.

Thank you for all the report, the shelter work.

I noticed slide 12 didn't mention Plank Road.

I know that's taken up a certain amount of time recently and some of these other areas.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you for the report.

I just make the comment that the Belvedere-Rio Road, part of the reason that the scoring went well is the, I think it's 8 million.

If it's under 8 million, it gets better scoring or there was something, I think it was, it might be 9 million or 10 million, but the fact that it's a four or $5 million project helped with that getting in the ranking for the smart scale funding.

I know the smaller projects sometimes, if they still score high for other reasons, but then they can earn some more points depending on their total overall cost.

I will make a comment on that.

Every time I see that in writing, I still get concerned that it just says we're still considering the potential for a lighted internship.

So I'm just going to reiterate my interest that this is not going to be one of the ones that I'm going to go, oh, we should have done.

that perhaps we do and then we might not need because then we can just put the light.

My expectation is that the lights, you know, great all knowledgeable supervisor, right?

But I suspect that we can put the lights up during the peak hours and then it's flashing lights or something else during the other time.

And if that's what's necessary or needed, it seems logical, then we're already in place to do it.

And if we don't, then I have to keep living what we're living down at Greenbrier and Hillsdale when we were supposed to put lights in and then other reasons we didn't and how that continually is a problem.

I'm not interested in having a second situation like that.

So I hope that we can find a way that that is part of the planned project ahead of time and not one that we think, oh, we should have done.

The pipeline project, I'm glad to see or appreciate understanding the pipeline projects, but obviously I'll call out as I would imagine Supervisor McKeel will call both of these out.

But that one, when we approved the recent redevelopment, we all there are, well, at least I heard a lot of support that that was critical.

The triangle about I thought had some good

immediate fixes there that could help with some of the concerns, but since they've punted on that one, I don't want us to just, you know, I'm curious what the timeline is to get that one rolling.

I just, I guess I've been here enough then it's like, Oh, the next year we're like, Oh, what happened to that?

So I hope that that one gets out of the gate and get gets moving.

Not to say that.

the Barracks Road one shouldn't be in that same vein because it clearly is one that should have that concern as well.

But I'm just, for what it's worth.

The Airport Road, so this connect, I've already made my comments on Berkmar Extended.

There've been two different constituents, I'm starting to hear from more constituents who live south of Airport Road.

and now that Lewis and Clark Drive and up in that area has some trails and things that folks want to get to, pedestrian safety to get from south of Airport Road across to Lewis and Clark Drive.

Now I know, I think Jody had told me at one point that when Berkmar extended it actually happens.

I think that's a roundabout that happens there.

And then there's pedestrian treatment that will occur.

But now that that road's open and there's some amenities up there, there's some concerns

I mean, what is that?

Four, at least four lanes, if not six that you got to get over.

So if there's, I'm just calling that out as a safety concern, that if we see more pedestrian activity from the home south of Airport Road, trying to access things above children, kids, families walking up that way, that if there's something we can do before the Burkemark extended piece is there, that I'm just requesting that be looked at.

That's all I have.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Let me zoom up here.

Okay.

I did that.

So I really appreciate the description about all the various buckets again because they keep changing and I'm really glad to be up to date.

And I know that there was also an important part for the initial cost of the Belvedere roundabout was made even better by the fact that the county put in

two million dollars of cash to buy it down.

So hope that is just and I think we've done the same thing with the Eastern Avenue Bridge doing the design and trying to get some of those risks removed to cut down on the contingency.

So I hope we will continue to do that.

The I will just add one comment to what Mr. Galloway just said about the pedestrians trying to cross from

Maybe it's Timber, no.

Timberwood may loop around by Laurel Hills Church and then cross over.

Is that it is a daunting.

Four big lanes on each side of the median there.

And I don't know if, there's also having cut through traffic because people are getting off 29 at the southern light and then coming through and around through those neighborhoods.

It's also compounded now by the fact that there's a major detour going on in the middle of

Hollymew Town Center.

So instead of having four or five different routes to go now, everybody is going into one way.

And I think that is probably increasing the risks and also the speed of people trying to get through there.

So that will be something to watch out for.

I was a little confused by the scores when you're looking at these scores.

And I originally wondered if it was ratio, if you were supposed to be closest to one, but then it looked like that wasn't true because the 8.4

at Avon was presented as a high score.

So the bigger the better is what that means.

I'm not quite sure how you achieve it, but that's beyond me anyway.

So that's no problem.

Can you clarify on the Route 20 shared use path that there are several different options being looked at, but they're all east of 20, correct?

So the scope that we have provided to our consultants leaves that open.

We have clarified that our intention with the beginning of the study was to look at the eastern side of the roadway rather than the western side because there were fewer ramps to cross.

Speaking with the consultants, we wanted to leave the median open as a point of comparison, just in case the eastern side is not feasible at all.

Okay, well, that'll be interesting.

Jumping down to what's the Fontaine bypass, I will ask whoever is able to do it to dig back in the record books because of the last rezoning at Fontaine and Valerie Long was representing the foundation at the time and they proffered

substantial financial investments in whatever the lights and stuff to stop the difficulty of people not being able to get out of the exit ramp from the bypass going 29 South and all those circulation things because it is really important that we get that money and committed to these projects.

And yes, there's a whole new cast of characters at both university and here and new staff and everything, but

they're bringing a massive new impact to that with the whole new biomedical center, which they're putting up there on top of what is there today.

So I would agree that I found the crossover things that they're proposing a little squirrely for me, but I keep bringing this up because this is what they agreed to do.

And I really hope that we'll find a way to hold them accountable for it.

The same thing happened with the sidewalks by what is now the orthopedic hospital there on 250.

They skated away from that and the county ended up paying for all of it.

So I'm just, this bothers me and I want to make sure that we're doing what we can to stand up for our taxpayers.

All right, thank you.

And I will, and just to piggyback on that, I will add that we had a bus stop located at the Children's Medical Center.

and they took that out of the drawing and the design.

So now there's no bus shelter there at all for employees or people that are trying to get to the children.

You know, the one down on Main, right on West Main.

Anyway, we have to be very careful what happens at the end of the day.

Let me just go back.

Ned, I wasn't sure, I might have misunderstood your question, but my understanding on the pipeline project

For Ivy Road and Old Ivy Road, they're going to be making the March 23 smart scale application.

That's what they said.

And I think I'm looking at people here, they're nodding their head.

That was my understanding.

And I think that was your question.

Yeah.

And the reason it's a pipeline is because they were trying to accelerate it to get it done because of the urgency.

which is really great if we can make that March of 23 because, you know, you have to wait two years.

Well, they're getting ready so they can make the smart scale application for March of 23.

That's what my understanding was.

Oh, 24.

I'm sorry.

Yeah, because we're in 23 right now.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

Again, my lidocaine is going to my brain.

So yes, so the next smart scale application, because if they don't, they're concerned they'd have to wait another two years.

So we're good.

Couple of questions.

When we're talking, I'm thrilled to hear about the Barracks Road, Georgetown Road.

That's really good because of all the congestion that certainly is coming down from Crozet and Garth Road and compiling in on all that.

Help me understand, though, if that work goes to the 250,

to 250 Bypass hydraulic, no, I'm sorry, Barracks Road exit.

In other words, what I'm saying is that part of the congestion on Barracks Road in Georgetown into the city, right, I mean, it's that whole corridor, is coming from, as people are leaving JPJ and the university, and they can only make a right onto the bypass, and they head down to Barracks Road

They get off at the Barracks Road exit, they make a big U and they come back up around.

It's sort of a similar problem in a way that we have on the at the Ivy Road piece.

And what's happening is they're backing up on the bypass sometimes

Not all the way to Leonard Sandridge, but pretty close.

And it's really dangerous.

It's the same problem, right?

The backing up on the bypass.

So let me know if this answers your question.

Yes, that would make it.

My assumption is that would make it.

Thank you very much.

That's great because that's really, it's very dangerous.

You sit out there on the bypass and you just look in the rearview mirror to make sure no 18-wheeler is coming at you.

Yeah.

Okay, thank you.

Fontaine, we've been talking, I think Ann was talking about the Fontaine problem concern.

And I'm not sure, Ann, I may have missed you saying it, but the Piedmont Housing, the University of Virginia housing project that's going to go over there, Piedmont Housing is going to add to that traffic over there as well.

Yeah, I'm not sure you mentioned that, but that's another.

So we're going to have a whole housing development over there that's going to be springing up.

And I hope quickly to add to the traffic.

Oh, and the only other question I had really was about the hydraulic, of course, as you all might imagine, the hydraulic roundabout.

that was part of the Hydraulic Road District Avenue roundabout was part of the study that we did for the intersection.

And it marries with the roundabout at Whole Foods, right?

That was all part of what was going to make that intersection work.

So now we don't have that.

I guess my question is, we're gonna be thinking about how to come back to that?

Yes, so we would consider it still a high priority for the county, something that we would want to apply for in a future smart scale round.

But I want to note that what the highlighted projects here are part of the recommended funding scenario.

It's not the official final list.

We still have to see what the Commonwealth Transportation Board decides when they meet in June.

Yeah, but at the end of the day, I mean, really, you know, I understand you have to say that, but so we'll continue to look at that as a high priority project because people right now are creating their own roundabout on hydraulic road.

and what they do is they just leave and then they make their own circle in the middle of the road.

And they're U-turns and Kevin's laughing because he knows that's true.

So we've got to figure this one out.

All right, and other than that, I would add that the bus shelters that we're trying to get, the prototypes that we're trying to get approved through VDOT,

Jessica was right.

It goes to one of their departments that is, I don't know, I don't want to say a black hole, but it's somewhere there.

And they consider a bus shelter a house that doesn't have a bathroom or a kitchen.

And not only what Jessica was saying is accurate, but right now they're requiring them to be re-approved annually.

That's in process now for all of the... That's the process that they're using right now.

So anyway, and I'm sending you all a link to the Virginia Mercury article

It just came out recently that talks to, they talked to DRPT and yours truly about bus shelters.

And that is, oh, it has wackadoodle in it.

They quoted me as saying something was wackadoodle.

Anyway, having said that, we just need to start talking about this a lot in the press and everything, because it is really, we've got to get this figured out.

And it's not just our community, but every community.

Again, VDOT is great for interstates.

With that, I'm going to stop.

Thanks very much.

Thank you.

Ms.

Hirsch-Ballering, wow, this was a great report.

And Mr. Richardson, I just want to compliment staff.

I mean, we are so fortunate to have caliber staff that we've got here.

Supervisor Andrews, I've been here a couple of years more than you, and I didn't really fully appreciate or know or remember the slide three, the difference between the district versus the high priority projects.

scoring and funding opportunity and everything.

That slide right there was worth the price of admission.

I really, really appreciate that, the top part as well.

Slide four, the way you've been able to list through the projects and even show how one might have scored higher overall, but because of the funding, it actually ends up being lower.

That was great.

I totally agree.

If we don't have the Hydraulic Road, District Avenue roundabout, then it really affects everything that we're looking to do at 29 and Hydraulic because only having a roundabout on one end, not the other defeats the purpose of what we're trying to get.

Concur on slide five.

I'm really pleased to see the old Ivy, Ivy, not to take anything away from Barracks Road, but that was our discussion when we approved

That development recently is that's got to be done.

And on Route slide 6, the Route 20 shared use path, I appreciate why all considerations are left open.

I would express again my concern with anything other than on the east side of 20.

Great presentation, great discussion, thank you so much.

Any other comments from supervisors?

I did forward to each of you earlier today a list of links and one of them is about the, has lovely diagrams about these pipeline projects and those were from the MPO last time.

You're welcome.

All right, Mr. Walker, Mr. Richardson, have you gotten everything you need from the board on this item?

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

And we can move now to item number 12, Virginia Department of Transportation quarterly report.

It's always good to see you, Ms.

Shepherd.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Madam Chair, members of the board.

I will certainly do that.

It's been a hard week with trees falling on roads with wires wrapped around for the last few days.

And it seems like that's just the state of our weather these days.

I think we're still seeing after effects from the 72 inches of rain in 2018 because the roots have just wadded off.

A lot of these trees are just breaking off at the bottom.

but we're not having the tornadoes, they're having other places.

Ann?

Can I offer to just talk through?

So my presentation is not quite loaded yet, but I can offer to talk through it.

Most of the things were covered wonderfully by Jessica.

So, you know, I just have some additions and of course I'm always here for questions, which I think is the majority of my time anyway.

So if you'd like, I can just kind of talk through some stuff.

Sure.

Okay, we'll do that.

So generally I start off with the preliminary engineering updates.

A couple things that I was going to point out or that the 240-250 roundabout

has an ad date of winter 2024 right now.

We are working behind the scenes to try to include that as part of the bundle, the existing bundle of the three roundabouts, which is the Fifth Street roundabout, the

I want to say Dunlora, but I don't want to... The John Warder Parkway-Ryer Road roundabout and the 5320 roundabout.

So if we can bundle that together, it would save and be much more efficient in the long run.

But I don't have a final answer on that.

It's just in the works right now.

Another comment, the 250-20 intersection improvements as combined with the 250 East Corridor improvements.

That add date is now fall of 2026.

That is due to, like a lot of our projects, the add dates have slipped a little bit.

And that's due to the adjustment for inflation that was mentioned earlier.

So we've been refining our estimates, working very hard to get a handle on that.

And of course, as funding becomes available, we will try to accelerate any project when possible.

And then moving on our state of good repair funding, which is that funding designated to address structurally deficient structures and bridges.

There are two that I would just like to give updates on.

One is the route 667 Catterton Road bridge replacement over Piney Creek.

That has been awarded.

It is currently being, the final design is being reviewed and I don't have a good date for you on construction start, but I would just like to point out that the closure has a contractual limit of 40 calendar days.

And of course our goal is to be complete sooner than that as well.

And then the second item I'd like to mention for our State of Good Repair funding bridge replacements is Route 708 Red Hill Road bridge replacement.

That has an add date coming up here soon in June.

We will have one lane open at all times.

The duration is 13 months though, so that one is going to be, we're going to ask for patience with that project, but just letting you know that that is on the horizon.

There we go, okay.

And then just a couple updates on the other bundle project.

So the hydraulic package, we expect CTB award mid-April at the next CTB meeting with a notice to proceed following the next month on May 23rd.

Not too much updates about the next design-build bundle.

The DDI is still in progress.

They've started some paving.

Same with 151-250, they've started some paving.

I don't believe it's complete yet, but still working on completing those projects, some punch list items.

So it's coming up soon here too in the spring.

And then last but not least, the county design-build bundle two, the one I mentioned that we're trying to group with the 240-250 roundabout.

and 29 Fontaine.

I'll just echo what Jessica commented about the additional concerns brought forward.

So that's gonna warrant some further discussion, but as it stands right now, that was the expected timeline with the advertisement in 2024.

As far as our rural rustic roads, at this time, we have a resolution and full funding for Cove Garden Road, which is currently under construction.

We have a pipe replacement, and then we will be looking to do paving shortly thereafter.

After the approval of the secondary six-year plan, of course, whatever projects are prioritized will be added to this plan, and we will do our best to get as much done as we can this summer.

A couple additional projects.

These are our maintenance projects, bridge maintenance projects that I'll mention.

So Route 600 Watts Passage had to be closed back in February.

It was an emergency closure.

And so we are fast tracking that replacement.

We had to do an emergency procurement for the design materials and funding.

and they just had a bid opening Monday.

So the goal is to have the construction start at the end of April with completion expected no later than October and early November or early November of this year.

and then next Route 672 Plank Road, that superstructure replacement.

Due to concerns raised from the community and the school transportation system, we have pushed that start date out to not conflict with the school bus routes.

We do not have a revised start date yet.

As soon as I get more information about that, I will be sure to let you know.

Still expecting approximately six week construction and closure.

And then of course our traffic engineering.

I won't mention the ones again that Jessica talked about, but just to point out the I-6429 improvements, we were finally able to get those underway.

So the rubble strips are getting put in, the actuated flashing beacons.

So, you know, that'll be a big improvement there.

And then the other thing I'd like to point out is Route 240 at Music City today and Star Hill Brewery.

We have a field investigation complete.

The design is being finalized for crosswalk.

pedestrian crossing improvements and some flashing crosswalk signage.

And that is it for the formal presentation.

And before I ask for comments and questions, I do have one follow up for Supervisor Andrews.

I think you were asking about the changes to the procedure for SmartScale.

So just to give you a quick update on that, the initial findings from the survey came in in March.

They are expected to have a procedural review complete in July with recommendations for changes presented to the CTB in October with policy change adoption shortly thereafter in December.

So there will be more to come on that item.

All right.

Thank you, Ms.

Shepherd.

Yes, thank you.

Very helpful.

I appreciate your understanding of the concerns of people on Plank and the need for the school buses to continue to run over that bridge for a little bit longer.

I am curious of what caused the Watts Passage emergency closure.

As we wouldn't want to get in a situation where we suddenly needed to have an emergency closure.

It was a routine inspection and that bridge over tops a lot for even just low volume storms and it creates a lot of scour underneath it.

How was this discovered?

It's a two year inspection cycle, unless the bridge is deteriorating quicker than that two year cycle allows.

And then we bump that up to a yearly.

a yearly cycle for the inspection.

And yeah, there's a lot of great projects going on.

I appreciate the rumble strips and beacon at 2964.

I think of the help to focus people's attention on the fact that that stoplight is there.

The Red Hill Road bridge replacement, again, important.

All right.

Thank you.

Yep, thank you, Kerry.

If I haven't said so publicly before, I want to thank you for the, I know that I, well, I'm fairly certain it was VDOT that helped clear out some median and debris and stuff that we've complained to you about before.

Storm Dre, I've complained to you about before.

So that was back in the fall, I believe, and it may have been ongoing, but it's something that the residents, especially along Rio Road and other areas were

took notice of and appreciate the efforts to help get those things cleaned up.

So we received a request.

I think there were two different requests.

I think one was to do a sweep of the neighborhood for signs that have been potentially added.

by residents or by the community that are not our standard signs.

I think that was part of it.

And then another part, I believe, was just having to do with the different signposts and how we handle that, whether it's because I believe they had

They had a more decorative post, which is not something that we put in.

That's usually under a maintenance agreement.

And I think that there's a desire to perhaps go back to just our standard posts.

That sounds like Dunmore.

Is that Belvedere?

Did I say that out loud?

Belvedere I think was more of the signs that are non-standard.

Yeah, so it's like stop signs and things are on metal posts and the street signs are on wooden posts and painted and lovely.

Well, thank you for that.

I think I'll just forward the email.

You weren't here.

Raysford Lane had come up.

VDOT's already responded.

I forgot from who.

You may have even been copied on that, but it's just a maintenance thing.

in rural Rustic came up, which is why it came up in an earlier conversation.

It doesn't sound like nobody wants it paved, but it just sounds like there's drainage stuff that's ongoing.

The VDOT folks made it sound like it's in pretty good condition.

Residents sometimes disagree with VDOT.

I'm not saying one way or the other.

I'm just saying that if there's anything there, I don't think we want to increase it to any other status to get it to pave.

The residents we're looking at, is there a treatment

ahead of paving, they brought up the tar and the slurry type thing.

But ultimately, I just want to know if drainage is the issue, if there's any way to get at that to help keep the condition so it's not a bunch of just regrading constantly.

And then that's the only one that's raised Ford Lane.

And the other one, I think you were in the room for the Berkmar

that just that treatment on Airport Road and all of that, just calling that out as a safety item.

I never know sometimes if it has to be county and VDOT for those type of things or not, but I think

We know there's got to end game to get some pedestrian infrastructure out there.

But in the meantime, what do we do?

So just a concern.

So thank you.

Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley.

Thank you very much for always being there and responding to all of our requests.

It's very, very much appreciated.

I love working with you and VDOT.

Thank you also for Polo Grounds Road, the speed study.

I know everyone's concerned and I guess the speed limit changes from one point to another along Polo Grounds Road.

So I know residents were asking me why does it change.

And so I think that that's why you're doing the speed study to determine whether or not it should be the same speed limit throughout, you know, the curves and such.

But, um, really that's, that's all I have.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for these updates.

So just a couple of questions.

Is there still an ongoing program for taking care of the tree remains which are cut right at the edge of the pavement?

because there's still a lot throughout the rural areas everywhere and this makes drivers swerve into the middle so they don't lose their side mirrors and then so I just didn't know I know we've heard over now and then about the hundreds of millions of tons of stuff that's been taken away but is that still ongoing because there's so much left in our area anyway.

That effort is concluded.

but we will take a look at that.

We have other avenues that we can- Would you like photographs or something like that to guide you?

If you would like to give us some locations, I will be more than willing to take them, but I will also just ask our superintendents to do a sweep.

Wonderful, thank you for that.

I'm glad there's still someone who can look at it.

I was very glad to hear about the rumble strips and thing on 29.

South, because that is a solution for northbound 29 south of Burnley Station, which many, many residents wanted to have instead of our cuts and other stuff that fortunately didn't go anywhere at CTB.

So I do hope that you keep that in mind for that northern part where the White Hall District and Rivanna District come together, because that will be something that could bring immediate relief at that stoplight.

get people to pay attention a lot better.

You had mentioned Catterton Road.

And so my question for that is, where is the detour if you're going to actually close it?

There was a huge concern for everybody up there because the bridge is on an S curve right now.

And so wondering, and it's right on Buck Mountain Creek, we're just drinking water.

So what is going to happen with the design?

I don't think we've had a design meeting about that yet.

I hope I didn't forget something I saw on Zoom or whatever.

As far as I know, there's no way else out of there except over private property at the north end that I've tried to get open without success for the last several years to give people an option to avoid the, and Allen Road there too.

Or maybe I'm confusing Allen Road and Catterton.

So anyway, we'll check on where the detour's gonna go.

That would be very helpful.

And

I think that's all my questions.

It is a big bureaucracy.

Having said that, a couple of questions and concerns.

Oh, and I just wanted to say thank you for all the work on Woodlands Road.

I'm not sure we're finished there yet, but the guys filled in for you with the meeting.

and I'm sure they've updated you and so maybe you and I can get back together about that piece at some point, Gary, that'd be great.

You used to have, VDOT used to have a list of the bridges that were deemed critical

in the Culpeper District or specifically in Almore County.

Could you share that list with us where we are now?

I haven't seen that list for probably maybe six or seven years.

It would be nice to know, and I think there were five or six, maybe seven bridges at that point on that list for us.

It'd just be interesting to know which ones are listed critical right now so we know what's coming down the road.

I would appreciate that, thank you.

To get to what Ann said, on Barracks Road, right on the Albemarle County side of the bypass bridge on Barracks Road, there is a huge pile of debris and trees that have fallen and everything.

Do you need me to email you about that for cleanup?

It would be great to have that cleaned up if you don't mind.

Yeah, if you want to send me an email that I would just do it that way.

Okay, I'll send you an email.

That's lovely because we do have some little piles of that tree work debris that just didn't get cleared away and that's fine.

When we're talking about signs in neighborhoods, a few years ago we tried a pilot

Now I'm talking about neighborhood roads that are obviously VDOT roads, not private roads.

We tried a pilot in one of the urban neighborhoods in my district where we used a sign diet approach.

And rather than putting in multiple posts and signs, we attached, we went in and retrofitted.

In this case, signs on one post, just so you deal away with some of the clutter and all of the oldness and, you know, the extra junk.

Are you all still pursuing that?

Because it really worked well, I think.

Was it Trevor?

that worked with me on that.

Yes, and when we do these kind of widespread sign reviews, we do take that into consideration.

We try not to have too much, you know, if there's too much redundancy, we see places we can take signs down and that kind of thing.

Yeah, and it really worked great on this older neighborhood because it reduced by about a third the number of signs and some of the posts were old anyway.

And by combining them with a new post, it was just great.

So just wanted to throw that out there as a whatever.

I was hoping you were continuing to do that.

And I continue to notice in the urban ring, and you all may be having problems in your urban ring too, down signs that have been, I don't know if it's deliberate,

or not down, there is one right now on hydraulic and the equivalent same sign on Barracks Road.

And what it looks like is somebody has just taken it and pushed it down.

I don't know if they're using cars or some kind of contest.

Is there, you all can't do, I mean, it's costing you all a fortune.

We've talked about this a lot, and no, I don't think there's anything more that we can do other than just come out and replace them.

Well, it just seems like to me in some of these urban areas where you have intersections where it's constantly happening, I could probably call you weekly.

about signs in that urban area that a sign is down.

Sometimes it looks like a wreck, but other times it looks like people are just deliberately somehow or another.

pushing them down.

And it does get to be a hazard.

I'm thinking at the triangle about the west end of Old Ivy.

That stop sign has been missing for quite a while.

And I know it's been reported in through the 800 number.

And before you went on leave, I reported that that sign was down.

It was replaced.

And it's down again.

Yeah, down again.

That's another example.

And many of these are areas, because they're at intersections or on busy roads, they're a safety issue when they're down.

If you have a stop sign down, that's not good.

Anyway, just a thought.

And I guess with that, oh, one more quick question.

On page one of three, superstructure replacement Old Abbey Road over Route 29, you all are not replacing that whole bridge.

You're only replacing the deck.

Correct.

Because it's confusing people.

Just want to say.

So the deck is being replaced.

Now, my understanding is that you have somehow or another found the width on that deck to put in a bicycle pedestrian lane.