Board of Supervisors Regular First Meeting   2/7/2024

of Supervisors on the 7th of February at 1 p.m.

in Lane Auditorium.

I'd like to note that at the dais we have Supervisor Ann Mallek of the White Hall District, Supervisor Ned Gallaway of the Rio District, Supervisor Diantha McKeel of the Jack Jouett District, Supervisor Bea LaPisto-Kirtley of the Rivanna District, Supervisor Mike Pruitt of the Scottsville District, and myself, Jim Andrews, representing the Samuel Miller District.

A quorum is present.

We're also joined at Dias by our county executive, Mr. Jeff Richardson, our county attorney, Mr. Steve Rosenberg, our clerk, Ms.

Claudette Borgerson, and our senior deputy clerk, Mr. Travis Morris.

Also, let me please welcome Albemarle County police officers present.

I believe we have master police officers Dana Reeves and Eric Ketchum.

Thank you.

Board will now turn to item four, which is the adoption of the final agenda.

The only change I know, which it just came in a little bit after the first publication of the agenda, is that there will be a couple of items at the end of resolutions authorizing

letters of support, and maybe some, I'm not sure if something came off the consent agenda, but it's what you have now before you is, I believe, the final agenda.

If there are no suggested changes, if we have a motion to adopt the final agenda.

So moved.

Second.

Motion from Supervisor Mallek, seconded by Supervisor McKeel.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley.

Aye.

Ms.

Ms.

McKeel.

Yes.

Mr. Pruitt.

Aye.

Yes.

Thank you very much.

I just wanted to report, give a quick update regarding the photo speed camera bill, HB 521.

I spoke before that.

I know I heard that there were about 62 people that sent in comments or quite a number of people who actually signed up to speak.

Unfortunately, it was continued, which I was told that's not a bad thing in this case because they wanted to make sure that

and the gentleman from Richmond who focuses primarily on pedestrian uses for photospeed cameras, that it would be combined with our rural use for photospeed cameras, rural need for photospeed cameras.

So I spoke with delegate Amy Laufer and she's going to be getting together with the folks from Richmond and then hopefully they can tie all three bills together and that would be a good thing.

It will look for next year.

So it has been continued, but normally, if it's continued, it's to kill it, but this is continued to preserve it.

So that's one thing.

The other thing is, is Courtney Cucation here?

She's here, I saw her.

Okay, she's here.

So, okay, here.

So I'm very pleased to say, I think you all know this already, but the Charlottesville and Monticello American Viticultural Area,

We received the Wine Star Award for the Wine Region of the Year, 2023 from Wine Enthusiasts, and I wanted to have Ms.

Cacation, who is the chair.

She's the executive director of the Charlottesville, Albemarle County Board of Visitors.

So if you could show us the

What she's planning is to take it around to all the wineries that were involved, and that not only includes Albemarle, but includes Charlottesville, which doesn't have any wineries, but includes Albemarle, and then includes Nelson, and with the other, Green?

and Barbersville, of course.

Barbersville has an excellent line also.

So we're very proud of that.

And that ends my comments.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Supervisor McKeel.

I'm fine.

Supervisor Gallaway.

None today.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Bea, for your leadership on an extra effort on the ticketing thing, because we're going to get there.

We absolutely are, with lots of good support.

Just the day after the continuance happened,

One of my constituents called and it really helped me understand how important the urban stuff is that maybe some of us aren't so seeing every day watching a young person just about get run over on the corner of Ivy Road and Alderman.

The person had a walk light and was four feet out into the street and someone came from behind them and just was going to roll right through and turn right on Alderman.

And fortunately the kid

and the driver just flew away.

So this, I get it, that we have to cover all these bases.

So that was really hard stopping for me.

A couple of quick things.

Upcoming for school teachers, both homeschool parents as well as private and public educators, the Lewis and Clark exploratory center is holding open house tours for teachers this Friday the 9th from 10 to 12, this Saturday the 10th from 1.30 to 3.30 and then the following Friday, oh no, Friday March 15th from 10.30 to 2.30.

The two Fridays are during professional service days for our public school teachers in this area, and educators will be able to participate in hands-on activities and talk with guides about program choices, costs, and scholarships.

They include the river trails and outdoor classrooms, and they've been seeing field trips for students for over 20 years and hope that others will come and find out what it's all about.

Announcement from one of the groups that sends me emails, Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services announced $875,000 was awarded to six counties, Virginia Farmland Preservation Fund.

The funding will bolster localities efforts to permanently preserve working farm and forest land.

et cetera.

These are purchases of conservation easement programs.

Clark, Faqir, Shenandoah, Stafford, and the cities of Chesapeake and Virginia Beach.

I'm only saying this because I hope that we will get ourselves back on this list in future years.

There is lots of money that can come from the state now.

And we must have enough in our budget to be able to draw down an equal amount from the state.

So thank you all very much.

Yes, I would like to remind everyone of the most important civic duty, which is ongoing and occurring right now.

Early voting for the presidential primary is currently underway and continues in person at the McIntosh, er, excuse me.

at the Fifth Street Station County Office Building.

It will continue until March the 2nd, and then there will be an in-person primary election day on March the 5th.

Additionally, the last day to update or register to vote, if you do not want to vote by a provisional ballot for the presidential primary,

will be on February the 12th, so fast approaching.

And a reminder, there are both Republican and Democrat primaries ongoing for the presidential right now.

You can vote in either of them, but not both of them.

And then, because we love to vote in Virginia, there is immediately another primary election following that.

This is for the Republican and the Democrat congressional seats to represent the Fifth District.

both of which are being contested in the primary.

The first day of early in-person voting for that is going to be May the 3rd and that will continue until June 8th with a final election date on June the 18th for the primary.

And again, both of those, both on the Republican and the Democrat side for the 5th are going to be contested.

There's currently a four-way race for the Democrats and a two-way race for the Republicans.

That is all I have.

Thank you.

and Board.

The only thing I have is that it's less, maybe a report than an announcement, but I just thought, Supervisor Mallek might have mentioned, the two of us went to the local government day on Friday, sponsored by the Virginia Associations of Counties and the Virginia Municipal League.

There was a very nicely done introduction by the vehicle president, Ann Mallek, and others spoke, including Bob Hallsworth, who many of us heard at the chamber breakfast earlier last year, and very enjoyable.

Then the organizations provided detailed briefing information, position statements on pending legislation, and I have made sure that each supervisor has a copy of

that.

I had the opportunity to meet with our local delegates and also see them in action.

I went to a couple hearings and I was very impressed.

We're being well represented.

A lot of hard work on behalf of our constituents and in the so-called Virginia way, getting things, getting along while getting things done.

So, good experience.

Does anyone have anything else they'd like to add?

Okay.

Thank you.

Yes, with great pleasure that I read a proclamation celebrating Black History Month, and this is being read as a motion.

Whereas February 2024 marks the 98th anniversary of historian Carter G. Woodson's dedication in promoting the achievements of Black Americans

and people of African descent.

And whereas February 2024 marks the 48th anniversary of the federal recognition of Black History Month.

And whereas Albemarle County celebrates the wisdom of civil rights leaders and community builders this month and every day.

And whereas Albemarle County seeks to acknowledge and recognize Black Americans in the local workforce in community who contribute much time and service

to enhancing the well-being of all residents.

Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that we, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, do hereby honor and celebrate Black History Month as an opportunity for all county residents to recognize and support the social, physical, and cultural contributions of Black Americans

and to take meaningful actions to create a more equitable and inclusive community for all.

Is there a second?

We have a motion from Supervisor McKeel, a second from Supervisor Mell.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley.

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek.

Yes.

Ms.

Mr. Pruitt.

Aye.

Yes.

And I believe, and I should have called you up first, is Mr. Ganesha Bradford of Mahogany and Friends.

Please join us to accept this from Supervisor McKeel.

Is it possible?

Shall I take it around?

It's okay.

I do have a few words.

So I'm extremely grateful for this honor and I would like to thank Albemarle County, my family, friends, and community for your continued support.

It means a lot to me.

I first would like to share a few words on what Black History Month means to me.

Although Black History cannot be contained or limited to a month, Black History Month is an opportunity to celebrate and proudly shine a light on

the Black Diaspora.

It encourages us to remember our ancestors' stories, which serves as a guiding light for us today.

This month is also an opportunity to acknowledge the struggles Black people face globally and to celebrate our resilience.

As I watched the color purple a few days ago on Amazon Prime, didn't get to go to the movies,

The character Sophia's words all my life I had to fight struck a chord with me.

Like many others who look like me, I too had to fight against the odds in a system that seems to be designed not to favor us at times.

However, it is all of our collective responsibility to continue to fight, to show up, pave the way for the children of our future, and to create a brighter, more inclusive future filled with knowledge and resources.

This is why I created Mahogany and Friends.

At Mahogany and Friends, we prioritize teaching kids financial literacy.

Our goal is to change how children think about money by making it fun, accessible, and inclusive.

Financial literacy is a key life skill that should be nurtured from a young age.

It provides children and adolescents with the knowledge and skills they need to manage their finances responsibly, set financial goals, and make informed choices about spending, saving and investing.

Students who learn to manage their finances early often become adults who are better equipped to live independently.

I am beyond grateful for this recognition, especially during Black History Month.

It is an honor to be celebrated alongside the greats who have made it possible for me to stand before you all today as a Black woman financial advisor and children's book author.

If you know me, this is really full circle.

McKeel.

If it's all right, we'll we'll subject you to the board's comments.

Congratulations to all of you.

This is a wonderful event.

Personal Privilege here.

Anyone who has the name of Beatrice out there, would you please stand or be?

Thank you very much.

Yes, I found out I had some family in the audience, so this is all good.

This is all good.

But all of you, thank you so much for being here today.

This is wonderful that we are celebrating Black History Month.

And you're right, it should be Black History Year, Century, Forever, frankly.

Yes, we're really thrilled that you're here and lots of other folks are joining you.

That's really great.

Today, I'm just going to let a couple of folks in our community speak through me.

Okay.

And many of you know that Elmore County has a pretty active, and the city and the county have a pretty active NAACP.

And Jeanette Boyd Martin is the president.

And I'd just like to share a quote that I received

as a member of the NAACP, a quote that I received by email from Jeanette, and she doesn't know that I'm reading this.

Anyway, what she said was, least we forget, today remains a vital and necessary date, not only for African Americans, but for the nation.

We should never forget the significance of Black History Month.

It is up to us, regardless of bookbands, and watered down approaches to historical facts to reveal the involvement of African Americans in the shaping of the nation and the world.

Our children are depending on us for the facts.

And that was a quote from Jeanette Boyd Martin, president of the Albemarle, Charlottesville, NAACP.

And I thought it was really well said.

Yeah, I love that.

The other, again,

I wanted to share something that an eighth grader several years ago wrote for the assembly at Journey Middle School for Black History Month.

She wrote a poem, and I thought I would share that poem with you.

The title is It's Difficult by Miriam Wade.

It's hard being black, Muslim, and a female, but I lived through it.

Being black means being proud, confident, and beautiful.

Identifying as Muslim means being trustworthy, amazing, and a hijab.

Being a female makes me strong, fearless, and a leader.

Pushing against stereotypes about my identity is hard.

Black, Muslim, female, and so much more, but I am very proud.

Written by an eighth grader at the time.

I know.

She's going to have her own poetry book, too.

Those beautiful.

Ms.

Bradford, thank you for being with us today and having those who joined you.

I think as I do with these proclamations, I'd like to share

as an elected official, what I read and what I reflect on because all of that ultimately is what impacts policy decisions that we ultimately make that can, as we know, impact a lot of what we're talking about.

Mr. Brooks, Ed Brooks, who was here when we had Mr. Page with us a few weeks ago, he had followed up because I had talked then about

Reflecting and Revisiting, Where Do We Go From Here?

by Dr. King.

And he revisited it based on some of the comments and it was nice having him follow up on that.

But then he mentioned that he's in a book reading piece where this year the book was, or in 2022 the book was Why We Can't Wait by Dr. King.

So that's going to be one of the works that I'm going to be digging into because I've actually not read that one, which I think would be important.

But, you know, you made the comment of how it can't be contained until one month.

And I would say it can't be contained at all because it's the underlying humanity that then when we start considering the layers of the struggle and the oppression and the things that have happened on top of that humanity, it's quite profound.

I usually don't go to pop culture, but you know, the Grammys, Tracy Chapman was back in one of her rare appearances, which was phenomenal in and of itself.

But it had me go back and look at, download and re-listen to her debut album, which was back in 1988, 87.

And I lived in Cleveland for a time, which is where she is from.

And I got to tell you, there's an acapella song on that original album that didn't hit the radio and all of that, called Behind the Wall.

And not is it just phenomenal artistry, the acapella in her voice is amazing.

But the message and the experience

that she portrays in that song is one that is quite remarkable and incredible.

And this was back in the 80s, even, which just hit me in a whole new way.

So I'm just sharing these type of things because this is what I do when these things come up.

It's like it gives me a chance to go back and reflect on, and I often turn to art and works and read things to help me to continue to understand all of the history and the turmoil and the struggle that has existed.

Black People from Black Culture.

We need to reflect back.

Everyone does because you get a little piece of knowledge from that history on how to move forward and how to not repeat the things from the past.

Well, everybody else might be crushing on Taylor Swift right now, but I'm crushing on Tracy Chapman right now.

Thank you.

Thank you for your leadership and all who are here today for helping young people to be higher skilled and strong and able to really participate in every way in their future and create great lives for themselves.

I had a local rural childhood here and was able to benefit

with neighbors of all races all around where I lived.

I lived upstream from the hydraulic mill, which was a thriving grain mill owned and operated by a black family.

While it's now under

the Rivanna River since 1965 under the reservoir.

The history is so well recorded and certainly remembered well by the people who grew up around there.

And I was always very jealous of my little brother, my elder brother, because I was not allowed to go and play.

Today, Albemarle County is fortunate because there's so many vibrant communities all around our area.

where the descendants of those historic families are still carrying on and being very impactful in their communities' lives and around their churches and parishes and also for the county as a whole.

So I want to call out the north and south of Advanced Mills

Browns Cove, Sugar Hollow, Hillsborough, Freetown, Lake Evans Lane, Bleak House, Earleysville.

These are all places where there are many, many descendants of eight generations of families.

And I'm so grateful for their help and their participation and guidance in so many different issues we work on.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for being here with us today, Ms.

Bradford.

My own work outside of the dais is in civil rights law, and that is kind of the lens through which I first think about black history.

And when we talk about civil rights history and black history, I admit I sometimes become frustrated because Dr. King,

if he had not been assassinated, might well still be alive today.

When we talk about civil rights history, when we talk about black history, I'm not even sure that history is the right word.

Civil rights history is not even past.

It is present.

It is ongoing.

You know, thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Within six days after his assassination, Congress authored and then passed the Fair Housing Act into law in recognition of the work that he had done.

And today,

We are still litigating those cases.

In fact, in many parts of Virginia, the segregation index is actually higher than it was at the time that Dr. King was assassinated.

This is not history.

It's not even past.

You yourself, you're a financial advisor.

So I'm sure it is not a new data point to you that black households, trail white households, six to one in the wealth gap, a six to one wealth gap.

It's not history.

It's not even past.

So I thank you for the work that you're doing on the ground, and I thank everyone who's here to help us remember that Black History, yes, it refers to the many accomplishments and the many important moments in Black History, but it is a living, breathing thing.

Black History is now.

It is a moment.

It is a living thing that you're continuing to create.

Thank you.

And those were great words.

Thank you.

Thank you for being here.

These are all tough comments to follow.

We all try to reflect on these proclamations in advance and hopefully say something important.

But in my looking through it, I actually was rereading and saw the 1936 Langston Hughes

Poem, rather dark poem, but somewhat interestingly titled for the present day, Let America Be America Again.

I say dark because the point is that for many people America's far from the promise of America's far from the reality of America over the course of its history, but I'm struck by some lines later in the poem that I think speak to

Part of the point of Black History Month and recognition of the work that people have done and just reading those.

Oh, let America be America again, the land that has never has been yet.

And yet must be the land where every man is free, the land that's mine, the poor man's, Indians, Negroes, me.

who made America, whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain, whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain must bring back our mighty dream again.

So that's from 1936, and I thought it was obviously thanks to Hughes's, someone to be celebrated too.

So again, thank you all for being here.

Thank you all again.

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

We have no one online and we have four speakers.

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

other than items listed on the agenda for public hearing.

Individuals are allowed one opportunity of up to three minutes to speak at each board meeting during matters from the public.

A sign-up sheet is managed by the clerk's office.

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

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

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

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

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

When addressing the board, state your name and if you live in Albemarle County, your magisterial district.

Address comments directly to the board as a whole.

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

If representing a group or organization you may ask others present to raise their hands in recognition, speakers may not share any unused time with another speaker.

Back and forth debate is not permitted and do not speak from your seat or out of turn.

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

Welcome, Ms.

Holbrook.

Yeah, I'm a little vertically challenged.

Thank you.

Okay.

Good afternoon, Janie Holbrook, White Hall.

It is time to declare the Eastern Avenue 250 connector in Crozet dead and to consider this harsh reality in future land use and zoning decisions.

After many agonizing months, I've accepted that there is neither the will nor the wherewithal to build the connector.

And this is difficult to accept because my biggest investment is in East Crozet, my home.

Supervisor Mallek and others have put time, energy, and effort into the connector for 15 years or more.

but these are sunk costs and not relevant to your decision making.

I'm not here to convince you that East Crozet deserves a north-south transportation route just like Crozet Avenue through the heart of town and the boulevard through Old Trail.

It's already in the master plan, but it is simply time to end the pretense.

In June of last year, I learned from VDOT staff that the cost had skyrocketed from $24.7 million, not a small sum, to $39.5 million, and the portion not covered by revenue sharing ballooned to $23.3 million.

The gap is simply too large for cost cutting, even if a developer builds a short segment to access new homes that barely moves the needle because of the cost of a bridge.

The transportation update you will hear later today will remind you that the project didn't get funding this year either.

There are always higher priority projects.

The price tag puts Eastern well beyond a typical CIP project.

We're not talking about a sidewalk here.

and this fall, the final nail in the coffin, VDOT added an environmental factor to the priority scoring system, so the project plummeted from number eight to number 78.

It isn't going to happen.

And the only thing worse than not fulfilling the promise is avoiding the hard truth and adding insult to injury by continuing to use the Eastern Avenue connector.

to justify upzoning to the high end of density ranges.

There are just a couple of parcels left in East Crozet.

Developers have plucked the low-hanging fruit, so these last parcels come with issues.

Most importantly, they are infill developments, and according to land use guiding principles, must be consistent in scale and design with the surrounding neighborhoods.

They have preserved slopes in riparian areas.

They will add to the traffic and safety burden, which we now know will never be alleviated by Eastern Avenue.

So if the infrastructure isn't happening and we're not proposing a moratorium, then the only solution is to ensure that future development is at the low end of the ranges.

And the ranges exist for exactly this reason, to allow for consideration of other critical factors.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Board of Supervisors, staff, members of the public.

I'm Peter Krebs from the Piedmont

Environmental Council, sorry, a little brain freeze there.

I'm here to invite everybody to the Fourth Annual Active Mobility Summit on March 21st.

We're very excited because this is the first time that the Mobility Summit is going to be held in Albemarle County.

It'll be at the wool factory.

It'll be a full day event.

with food, drink, plenty of fellowship, but also lots of good conversations about active transportation.

We hope to have a good discussion about the Community Mobility Plan, which we'll hear about more today.

Also, just walking, biking, and

Good Conversations with planners from both the city and the county.

We hope to have some good sidewalks and hikes, including a visit to the Broadway area.

One of my favorite parts of the county that not that many people know about, so I'm looking forward to that.

and in the afternoon there'll be work sessions where groups come together and share resources and ideas to get stuff done that no individual or group can do alone.

So that's Thursday, March 21st, all day at the wool factory.

You can learn more about it or sign up at www.pecva.org slash mobility summit.

Look forward to seeing you all.

Hello.

My name is Matt McClellan.

I'm an Albemarle resident and a lifelong educator.

I'm passionate about early literacy and the need to cultivate a love of reading in our most underserved communities.

Thank you for your continued support

of Library Services in our community.

I'm here today to ask you to support the library's CIP request to work with the city to renovate the central library.

The county knows firsthand how the families of our community require modern library facilities that provide equitable access to resources.

It is more important than ever to have a safe and welcoming shared community space that is available to all.

Children need a place to learn early literacy skills with new technologies to prepare them for an ever-changing future.

Adults need a welcoming community commons to grow, learn, and connect with each other in an increasingly disconnected world.

Albemarle County residents reap immense benefits from a strong regional library system, one so strong that it was named the Virginia Library Associations Library of the Year

in 2022.

The Central Library is the hub of that system, and we need to invest in that infrastructure in order to maintain and grow this treasured community resource.

I ask you to help preserve one of the most important public buildings in our community and to prepare it to provide the library service our residents expect and deserve for years to come.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

I'm Fred Williamson in the White Hall area.

I came to speak in support of the zoning ordinance for artisan manufacturing.

Is that indeed coming up today as consideration?

We are

as it is right now, the furniture company named Funk Brothers has been in town, wants to move slightly out of town into the county, is finding it difficult to get a zoning permit there because there's a small overlay that permits it, but not to the whole county.

And I think that to

had the term artisan manufacturing as permitted by special use permit would solve that problem.

No need for me to go into details there, but I know of several places that hire two or three people and have no impact whatever as far as the rural nature of where they live.

And I'm sure that this can be worked out to the advantage of the county and the city going forward.

And I think also we also support agricultural

events like wineries in the same kind of mode.

So is that enough?

All right.

Thank you.

We have no other speakers.

We will move on to item eight, the consent agenda.

I'm not aware of any amendments.

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

So moved.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Mr. Pruitt?

Aye.

Yes.

We'll now move to item number nine, our first action item, Safe Streets for All Grant, Gold Determination.

I believe presentation by Mr. Curtis Scarpagnato, Regional Planner of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission.

Good afternoon, everyone.

My name is Curtis Scarpignato.

I'm a planner with the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission.

And it is my pleasure to be here with you all today to discuss the comprehensive safety action plan that the TJPDC is developing in partnership with our jurisdictions, including Albemarle County.

I'm joined this evening by my colleague, Sandy Schenkelford.

And my goal for this meeting today is to share some brief background

about the Safe Streets and Roads for All grant program and to seek a resolution of support from Albemarle County to support efforts to reduce and eliminate deaths and serious injuries on the roadway network.

So Safe Streets and Roads for All, SS4A, what is that?

It is a grant program established by the USDOT with the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2021.

with the purpose of reducing and eliminating deaths and serious injuries on the roadways.

And SS4A has funding in two pots.

There's the planning, and then there's the project implementation funding.

And project implementation refers to projects that would actually resolve these problems, and the plan would be the part where we look for those opportunities and we identify those potential implementation actions.

So to be eligible to receive implementation funding, you need to have an eligible safety action plan.

and that is why the TJPDC applied for and was awarded SS4A funding to develop that safety action plan with support from our jurisdictions, including Albemarle County.

You all dedicated funding towards this grant program as part of the local match.

And I want to again highlight something very important here, just that without this plan, without developing a safety action plan, Albemarle County and the region would not be eligible to apply for that project implementation funding.

So this opens up

the opportunity to pursue funding through a new pot of money.

And this planning process is being managed regionally by the TJPDC, but we want to ensure that this process also aligns with each jurisdiction's needs and abilities.

So we will be working closely with your staff to ensure that priority countermeasures coming out of this plan meet your needs.

So it's going to be both a regional plan, but hopefully also a locally relevant and even hyper-legal relevant plan.

and this slide shows some of the overall benefits of developing a comprehensive safety action plan and our goal is to use this planning process to identify implementation projects that will improve roadway safety for all users, motorized, walking, biking, all the above.

So these can include infrastructure improvements like your traditional engineering projects where you're actually going out into the roadways and changing them.

But it can also include things like traffic safety enforcement, education, and emergency response changes.

And another benefit of this process is we will hopefully develop a pipeline of projects for you all to pursue additional funding for through various funding mechanisms in addition to smart scale.

So this could include those SS4A implementation funds that I mentioned earlier.

But I could also include a variety of other funding mechanisms, including some of the ones you see on the screen.

This slide shows the required components of the Comprehensive Safety Action Plan.

So there's a leadership commitment requirement to supporting the reduction of deaths and serious injuries on the roads in order to meet the eligibility requirements of the Safety Action Plan.

And those eligibility requirements are important because if you don't meet them, you aren't able to get that funding later on through the implementation side of SS4A.

And the plan is also required to be data-driven and incorporate a robust public engagement process with special consideration to inclusivity and representative processes.

The TJPDC will use its established transportation programs to provide the ongoing oversight monitoring and reporting to meet the grant requirements.

And right now, today, I'm in front of you all for this first box here, the leadership commitment.

So we're hoping to get a leadership commitment from you all to work with us and to commit to working to reduce deaths and serious injuries on the roads in Albemarle County.

And this is just to provide some additional context.

This data shows the crash statistics for the most recent eight years of available data for Albemarle County.

And I'll highlight that between 2018 and 2022, there were 875 crash-related fatalities and serious injuries

in Albemarle County, 875.

And I'll also note that you'll see that there's an upward trend in this data here.

This is something we're also seeing in the national data.

This is not something that is unique to Albemarle County, but it does highlight why there's such an emphasis right now on getting funding out nationwide towards resolving this issue.

And it's also why there's this requirement for commitment from local leadership towards working to resolve this issue.

So specifically,

The grant program states that to meet eligibility requirements, the commitment must include a goal and timeline for eliminating roadway fatalities and serious injuries, which may be achieved through establishing an ambitious percent introduction and deaths in serious injuries by a specific date with the ultimate goal of achieving zero deaths in serious injuries.

So after discussion with Albemarle County staff,

and with the understanding that Albemarle County's roadways are maintained by the state, by the Virginia Department of Transportation.

Our recommendation is that Albemarle County adopts the same goals as are outlined in the Virginia Statewide Strategic Highway Safety Plan and those goals are a 50% reduction in deaths and serious injuries by 2045 with the goal of one day eliminating deaths and serious injuries.

And so we are asking you all to approve the resolution of commitment included in your meeting packets

Thank you.

We will go through our order for questions, Vinnie.

Yes, thank you very much for your presentation.

I think we've all been very concerned regarding crashes and fatalities on our roads, urban and rural both.

A couple of questions.

Is your organization or what you're doing, are you all working with VDOT or are you all working with the local police departments?

Because I just wanted to let statistics I use when I spoke before the subcommittee.

We've had four fatalities in the last 21-22, which is the most recent data.

We've had four fatalities on two roads, two roads in Albemarle County in my district, four fatalities

and 319 crashes.

So that's just on two roads.

So I guess you're looking at this in a different way or I know you're going to gather the data first and then with that you're having experts who would look at

Yes, the idea of the SS4A grant program is to take a holistic look at how to resolve these challenges in roadway safety.

And so again, it's not just the engineering side.

It's also the traffic safety, emergency response, education.

We will be working closely with VDOT and with police departments and with various other partners and Albemarle County staff to do so.

And would that also involve working with our state legislators to try to get some

Okay, those are all the questions I have.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for being here, and I think we really are very supportive of this work.

It's really great.

My questions were of a similar nature.

We're working in a lot of different ways in speaking for Albemarle County, but I know our surrounding counties are doing the same in trying to come at speed and death and pedestrian and roadway safety from multiple viewpoints.

This work will be in combination with what we're doing and I think that gets at what Bea was asking too.

You know, we're looking at speed cameras of some sort or in certainly working with

our police and enforcement and having the number of officers we need so that we can enforce our.

But I just would like to know, so we're going to get a report back from you with recommendations.

Sure.

So our plan is to eventually actually develop the plan itself and present it all to you all in a draft form and get your approval for that before coming back to you with the final form.

Okay.

Well, and I will say part of the reason we did that is you get some benefits from tackling at such a wide scale.

and what's it called, economies of scale in doing so because it would be more expensive if each jurisdiction went through it on their own to apply for their own grant to do the same thing.

Great.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I have no questions and I'll be supportive.

Thank you, and I want to thank Ned for making sure that we didn't let this get away last year because that was incredibly timely and important.

And I absolutely think this is going to be a great way to go about it.

I'm excited for it to start because the horror and disgrace of having Albemarle County have three times in the last 10 years the highest number of road fatalities in the Commonwealth.

not based on population, but just period.

That's really awful.

And so any and all ways that we can start to fix that will be appreciated.

I have no questions.

and I have no questions.

I'm grateful that Albemarle County is part of this and I look forward to working on a multi-prong approach to making our roads safer.

I'm sorry, I just had one other comment to make.

I am hoping, because I'm supportive of this, but I am hoping that a report doesn't come back and say, well, you need to increase police by 50% or you need to do things that budget-wise, financially, or just

were not able to do.

So I'm hoping for pragmatic results, actionable things, or it's going to be for not.

So that's a practical side of me.

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

Mr. Gallaway.

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley.

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek.

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel.

Yes.

Mr. Pruitt.

Aye.

Yes.

Thank you.

We're a little bit ahead of schedule, but I hope this is going to be OK.

Yeah, you're here.

All right, ready to go.

So board, we will next move on to item 10.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you.

I am David Benish, Development Process Manager with the Community Development Department, and I'm the project manager for this study.

in partnership with our Economic Development Office, and I think they'll hopefully be here shortly.

They're going to be here to help assist with any questions you might have.

This presentation discussion is to make you aware of the project and to give you a status of our work to date, which, as you said, is at the midpoint.

And it's to give you an opportunity to answer or ask us questions for us to answer your questions and to give us any direction or comment on the work to date.

that the consultant has drafted.

We have two consultants working on the project, 3TP Ventures and Line and Grade Civil Engineering.

Rachel Falkenstein of 3TP and Daniel Hire of Line and Grade will be taking you through this presentation here in just a moment.

We provided you a lot of background information in your packet, so the presentation will probably be at a little bit of a high level in overview, but we're happy to go into more depth as needed.

and we want to maximize the time available.

I think we have a little extra time than we thought we'd have.

But to maximize our time, to have a discussion and hear your input on our work today.

Thank you.

Welcome back, Ms.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

I'm Rachel Falkenstein.

As David said, I'm with 3DP Ventures working with Lion and Grade to support the County and the Broadway Blueprint Project.

Quick agenda for today's presentation.

We'll start with a short project overview, kind of where we are, where we've been, and the bulk of our discussion today will be about observations and opportunities on the four topics of placemaking, land use and development, business retention and connectivity, and then we will have time for your discussion questions at the end.

So when we say Broadway, the area we are talking about is shown here in the map.

Our study area boundary is outlined in Maroon.

The Broadway area is to the southeast of the city of Charlottesville and sits west of the convergence of the Rivanna River and Moores Creek.

And Broadway Street bisects the study area shown on your screen there.

I won't read through each of these project goals, but I do want to highlight goal number one is really the purpose of this study is to create a list of implementation projects for the county to use for short, medium, and long term action within Broadway to support connectivity, placemaking, and economic vitality.

So I want to highlight this is not a land use study.

This will not be part of your comprehensive plan.

But we know that you have a comp plan update going on right now and we can hand off some recommendations to that team that pertain to land use as well as zoning with your zoning update that's ongoing.

The scope of our project is shown here.

We have three parts that we are working through, but we really are building on the Phase 1 Broadway Blueprint Study that you all completed in February of 2022.

The intention from Phase 1 is there on the top of your screen, so we're taking that work and building upon it, and at the end of our study, which we anticipate will be in June of this year, we hope to have a list of final recommendations and implementation measures that you all can use.

Right now we're about halfway through our work, and we've worked through phase one, which was really about listening and observing, doing some study of the Broadway area.

And here we are today with some high-level recommendations.

We're framing them as opportunities.

To check in with you, I'll make sure we're on the right track before we turn that into some implementation steps.

We've been doing some community engagement throughout our work so far and we've tried to provide a variety of opportunities to meet with the stakeholders of Broadway.

We've done some pop-ups on different locations within the study area.

We've had roundtables with the business community and some one-on-one site visits and interviews with some of the property owners in Broadway to get information from them, hear their feedback and thoughts on the future of Broadway.

So what we're presenting to you today is really a summation of what we heard from the stakeholders within Broadway and we're formatting in a set of draft goals and then some observations and opportunities and like I said the opportunities are what we want to take and turn into implementation steps but wanted to have this check-in with you all to make sure we're on the right track.

As David mentioned, I'm not going to go through each and every observation and opportunity.

I'll highlight a few that I think were compelling and interesting, but we're here to answer any questions that you all have from the information within your packet.

I want to start with the topic of placemaking because this is really at the heart of what we're trying to do within Broadway.

When we say the term placemaking, we're talking about what makes a place interesting and compelling, what makes people want to live there, work there, visit there.

And within Broadway, we think there's some really unique and interesting characteristics that fall under the category of placemaking.

Often the term placemaking is focused around public planning and design of spaces.

And there's some of that happening in Broadway, especially with the public investment that went into the woolen mills redevelopment.

But there's also a good bit of grassroots placemaking happening from the organizations and businesses that are there today, inviting people into their businesses, into their spaces.

And it's bringing some vibrancy to the area.

The other category of placemaking in Broadway centers around the abundant resources of the area with the river nearby, Morris Creek, and all the environmental resources that go with that as well as some cultural and historic resources because of this important location.

So opportunities related to placemaking really center around bolstering what's there.

If you're standing on Broadway Street, you may not know that you're near the Rivanna River and the Rivanna Trail Network.

It's just a way finding to kind of direct people to the amenities that are there already.

But continuing to build out the Greenway Trail Network within this area and identifying opportunities for additional public spaces could be some opportunities to explore.

We heard a good bit about the county's role in placemaking within our conversations with the business owners down there.

There was not a desire to see heavy handedness from the county coming in and kind of dictating what uses should happen and where trails should go, for instance.

But some of that is happening already.

We've already heard conversations among business owners talking about trails across their property.

So the county can kind of be a supporter, be a partner to those businesses and that type of work.

We do think the county could take more of an active role when we're talking about placemaking within the street, within the public realm of Broadway Street, and Daniel's going to talk about what that could look like a little bit later.

Moving on to the topic of land use and development, you can see the draft goal here at the top of the slide.

It's really about retaining the industrial nature of the corridor and providing spaces for new creative industries.

Your existing use down there is primarily industrial.

You have a lot of low intensity, single story, metal frame buildings that are set in the center of lots.

So there is opportunity for infill development while retaining what's already there.

and looking at kind of the policy and regulatory framework of Broadway, we saw that your comp plan and your zoning map call for an industrial uses here, but there is an area of mismatch circled here in blue where the comp plan calls for residential and your zoning map has its own for industrial uses, so that could be an opportunity to kind of sort through what that area wants to be as you do your AC44 update.

So as I said in the draft goal, we really think it makes a lot of sense to retain industrial uses, at least in the near term.

But we want to take a kind of clear look at this area and understand that there are market forces happening that are increasing the cost of land and might want to push this area to more of a mixed use future.

The city just did a rezoning.

The area around this, the Broadway area within the city is seeing some redevelopment, some higher intensity development.

and the cost of land is going up.

So understanding that a mixed-use future might make more sense for Broadway and doing the work now to kind of set yourselves up for that, we think could be an opportunity.

And then the last topic I'm going to touch on before Daniel talks about connectivity goes hand in hand with the land use.

So we're talking about business retention and affordability here.

The draft goal is similar.

We want to maintain Broadway as an affordable place for the businesses, the startups and the artisans that are there, but also allow opportunities for new creative industries within Broadway.

Historically, Broadway has been an affordable place for startups, for industries to locate their businesses, but that is changing.

As I mentioned, the cost of land has gone up, and so property owners are seeing their assessments go up, and folks are concerned about being displaced and being displaced and not having anywhere else to go within Albemarle County.

and we looked at the data and validated what we heard from folks.

Your industrial inventory, the vacancy rate of your industrial inventory, hovers between zero and two percent.

So if people are displaced, they likely won't be able to find a space to go within Albemarle County.

It might be forced to go elsewhere.

We did hear concern that public investment through this project might further exasperate the cost increases that folks are experiencing.

So that is out there and I want to make you aware that that is something that folks are concerned about.

We heard that from tenants and we heard that from property owners as well.

So opportunities related to this topic, there can be some targeted incentives and programs that you could look at to support the businesses that are there.

Some of these you're already doing, but I want to highlight the first one, the Arts and Cultural District designation.

This could be an opportunity to support some of these users that are doing, you know, artisans, makers, there's some art studios down here.

If the county is enabled to apply an arts and cultural district within its boundaries, and if it does that, there are a number of incentives that the county could offer to users who are meeting certain criteria to support arts and cultural uses.

So that could be a tool to support some of those makers down in Broadway.

But zooming out a little bit, as I mentioned, the vacancy rate and the concern about displacement, we think kind of working, doing the work now to set up a future where if costs do displace businesses down here, there's an opportunity for them to stay within the county, so looking countywide.

at your industrial land inventory and maybe through the AC44 process or other planning efforts, finding some space where these industrial users can go and stay within Albemarle County should they be displaced in the future.

Good afternoon.

I'm Daniel with Line and Grade, and I'm going to talk specifically related to linear connectivity along Broadway Street itself.

I'll start with some general observations, and then we'll move through some recommendations that are on a spectrum of opportunities.

So the roadway itself is currently part of the VDOT roadway inventory.

that said, it does not have a functional classification in the VDOT inventory.

So the roadway is kind of, you know, waiting for its definition of what it wants to be.

Currently, it's a hybrid of almost rural, like no curb or gutter or sidewalk.

It has ditches on either side.

But then in some places, it's trending toward more suburban with gutter pans, but no sidewalk.

It's kind of an eclectic roadway as it stands.

The width varies along the length of the road.

Some areas have plantings and trees, some areas don't.

Similar to the land use along the roadway, you have some users who require large vehicles for deliveries and others who don't.

And so it really has an interesting mix of what it wants to be and what it needs to be depending on who is there along the roadway corridor.

So our work is to consider these things and then come up with implementable projects that offer the county some opportunities in varying degrees of cost and invasiveness of implementation.

So the first thing we'll talk through is near term improvements and this is really taking advantage of an opportunity that's kind of being handed to the county by

A.C.S.A., and the months ahead, A.C.S.A., A.C.S.A., is planning on a water line replacement project down the corridor.

And as a part of that work, when they're finished, they will mill and repave the surface of the roadway itself.

Basically handing the county an opportunity to do

put some paint down on the ground and striped the roadway.

And with a little bit of paint, we can start to change the character of the roadway just a little bit.

We're not saying that we're providing sidewalks or walking paths, but by striping the roadway and defining the vehicle thoroughfare, we're also saying where vehicles shouldn't go and pedestrians could be walking on the shoulders in at least more of a defined manner than they are currently.

The other thing this does

is it doesn't inhibit any large vehicle movements, which is something that we've heard is a concern of some businesses along the corridor, especially light industrial businesses who are receiving very large vehicles that have interesting maneuvers they need to do to get in and out of these properties.

We've spoken to VDOT representatives about this, and they're generally supportive.

In fact, they're trying to help us identify other places where they've done similar projects within the Commonwealth.

So if this is of interest, we'll continue to pursue this.

It would also require a little bit of additional work and coordination between the contractor doing the water line replacement and perhaps county staff or ACSA staff to maybe make the margins of the roadway a little more consistent.

That's kind of shoulder work.

I would classify that.

It's not roadway building work.

It's kind of improving the shoulders a little more to create a little more of a consistent width.

So we're identifying that as a very near term

Low-Hanging Fruit type project that can really bring some change to the corridor with not a whole lot of capital investment from the county.

The midterm improvement, as identified currently, is largely inspired by what we were hearing from stakeholders in our conversations with folks.

And it seems like the corridor, according to some of the folks who use and work along the corridor,

They wanted to kind of, the eclectic nature of the corridor should reflect the eclectic nature of the businesses and users of the corridor.

We were hearing things like, you know, whether bioswales or pollinator gardens or trying to implement plantings along the corridor that made it feel, I would say, dressed up but not in a heavy-handed way.

Folks were using X-Art Park as a similar example.

That felt very grass roots oriented and improved and yet not in a standard way.

of, say, a VDOT roadway project.

This, though, would require the county to step in and have a very specific conversation with VDOT about who is going to continue to own the road into the future.

VDOT would probably not be very permissible of this type of grass roots-oriented improvements because it doesn't really fall in line with VDOT standards.

but if the county were to say take ownership of this roadway and thus also take responsibility to maintain it in perpetuity, there might be some more opportunities available to the county in terms of these midterm improvements which are really more integrated I think with what Rachel was talking about with place making.

It may also require the county to make a few other subtle improvements to really define what is pedestrian and not pedestrian along the corridor.

We can dig into that if you have questions on it.

The long-term improvement is really oriented around the idea of a wait and see.

Let's see how the years and decades ahead, how the corridor does change if it changes, what those changes are.

Is it becoming a very integral and important link in the multimodal network of Charlottesville and Albemarle?

Is it not?

Does it retain its industrial nature or does it turn over?

So this greenway type connection, which is a long-range plan, is oriented around, let's see how the short-term and mid-term projects are or are not received before we identify this as a desired outcome.

Maybe there's parts of this that are desired, like lights or curb and gutter.

Maybe it's not a shared use path.

Maybe it is.

It's a little difficult at the moment to project

if this will be the right solution on this corridor.

And that's also taking into account what the city may do over the years and decades ahead.

We have talked with them, and currently it seems like the city is more focused on East Market Street than they are on Carlton, which is kind of how the city's feeding into the Broadway corridor.

There's not a lot of city energy right now oriented around Carlton itself.

Their emphasis, like I said, is on East Market Street.

So I think we want to be watching these things and

considering them in the days ahead.

With that, I'm going to pass it back to Rachel.

So just want to end us with our discussion with the Planning Commission.

We had a work session.

There's more of an informational presentation with them back in January and they shared some feedback that we wanted to convey to you all.

First and foremost was just kind of the idea of change that I mentioned.

They're seeing what's going on in the city and concerned about displacement and market changes, but just wanting to be open-eyed about it.

Let's recognize that this is a potential future and let's plan for it.

So, along with that, there was concern about displacement and kind of thinking about where and how industrial users and startups can go in the county.

There was some discussion of potential incentives, of tax rebates for the area, looking at TIFFs or a research or innovation district as possible incentives to support businesses within Broadway.

There was some concern expressed about the county owning or maintaining Broadway when thinking holistically at all the other streets and road improvement projects that you all have in your queue.

Does this really fall at the top of the list for the county to kind of take over ownership?

Some folks expressed that.

They wanted to really emphasize the importance of collaborating with the city and thinking about broader connectivity of this area.

Sustainability was also a theme we heard from the Planning Commission due to its location near these sensitive resources.

wanting to make sure that development doesn't go right up to the riverfront and being intentional about providing sustainable measures such as with the improvements to Broadway, maybe vegetated bioswales was brought up.

And then the last point was, this area is unique and special, it's near the river, so we want to take advantage of that so maybe some additional high-end infill development can provide river views while not impairing the land directly adjacent to the river.

So with that, we want to turn it over to you all for discussion and questions.

We're hoping to know if there are any topics or themes that we shared that we should not pursue further.

You don't think our, if you think they're non-starters, please let us know before we turn these into recommendations.

And then is there anything missing that you want us to think about more?

And just general kind of observations and discussion is welcome as well.

Thank you.

A lot to chew on here, but let's go through our order.

Thank you very much for the presentation.

I'm actually excited about what could be done in this whole corridor.

You have different things that you brought up regarding the light industrial and arts and cultural district, and it really does sound exciting.

I do have a question on slide 16.

because you had mentioned that if it goes to this, which I thought was very nice, which you said doesn't meet VDOT standards, is that because of the pedestrians along the roadway?

Wouldn't be a VDOT standard if there was a curb that separated the two, would that be better?

I'm trying to understand why, I mean, I'm hesitating whether or not the county should take control over this because then that means, like you mentioned,

maintaining it in perpetuity.

And so I have concerns about that.

I think I would rather see it as a VDOT road, but explain to me why this wouldn't work.

At least in terms of our initial conversations with VDOT and our understanding of what their expectations are in terms of geometric standards for roadways.

I think it's really oriented more around what the definition of a pedestrian path is.

and there's multiple definitions of what this is depending on what guidance you're looking at.

If we turn to a resource like ProWag, for example, and actually drill down on what the definition is, I believe we can meet the definition of what a pedestrian facility is in terms of guarding the county from accessibility, making sure we're providing accessibility in terms of what the standard requires.

whereas the VDOT definition of a pedestrian facility would require more of a traditional sidewalk, curb and gutter pen, things like that.

I think we share your hesitancy about wanting the county to own this road.

I think VDOT would be eager for the county to own this road.

Not only from a dollar's perspective, but also this is kind of an island of roadway that VDOT has to maintain surrounded entirely by city roads.

And so they're driving in through roads that they don't maintain to maintain this singular facility for, you know, less than a mile in essence.

Correct.

Okay.

And knowing that maybe we go from short term to midterm to long term improvements

along the way.

Exactly.

If the short-term or the near-term improvements suggest that pedestrians are using this very frequently and more than they are, the people are using it now, walking along the road with no markings.

If this becomes more of an important link in the pedestrian and bicycle network, which we think it is, but again, we can't predict demand.

Maybe Market Street ends up being more preferable.

The county would have at its discretion to go straight from near term to long term improvements.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

And I'm sorry, but I missed what you just said at the very end.

I just didn't catch it.

I'm sorry.

It's okay.

I'm sorry.

I just missed it.

My hearing missed it.

Thank you for the great presentation, and I really appreciate the visuals.

They're great.

Certainly this is an area that we have to be very cautious about and work very carefully.

I think many of us have been concerned about the lack of light industrial.

Certainly I've been in our community.

We need to protect the light industrial because we don't have hardly any of it.

And a lot of it has been

taken for use for other purposes.

I'm a little hesitant at this point.

I fear when we talk about putting in residential, just saying from up here, that seems to me to be the road to gentrification of this area, and I'm very concerned about that.

and causing it to be even more expensive.

Just a comment.

Because I think that's what you want to hear today or just kind of big takeaways.

Yeah.

I would really love to support an arts and cultural district.

I've been talking about that in the county for several years or for wanting that in the county.

This would be a great place, it seems like to me.

Having said that, my knowledge of an arts and cultural district is about that deep.

So I'm not sure exactly what the ramifications would be.

I'd love to know more about that.

But it would seem like to me that it could very well support this area.

I'm looking at my notes, I'm sorry.

I agree that taking over this roadway would certainly concern me, at least in the near term, maybe

I think eventually Albemarle County

We may have more of a public utilities department than we have now, but certainly we're not prepared.

I don't think to do this now.

I am interested though in some of the, certainly we should take advantage, I would think, of the service authority and what they're doing.

And I know that on Garth Road, VDOT has, as they've paved Garth Road, they have extended the

the sides and pave those as far out as they could.

Of course on Garth you have those steep shoulders.

It makes it almost impossible to do some, but they have been willing to extend the paving as far out as they could, which would be, I think that's what you're addressing here, which would be very helpful.

I think part of VDOT's requirements to bring up to VDOT standards are the depth of the pavement and stormwater is what you were saying and some of those, so those would certainly be not near, not the short term but long term because that's not going to happen with the service authority.

This is just a repaving, yeah, okay.

Very concerned, though, like I think you all have heard about displacement.

We've actually had several, I'll go back to the displacement, we've had several of the business owners and the artists come to us before over the years and speak about how they're being priced out.

My experience with putting in sidewalks or pedestrian-friendly options does not, at least in my district, it's not created so much gentrification, which is a good thing, as opposed in my head to neighborhoods and big apartments and expensive units.

I will say that I am always hopeful that the VDOT will come into the 21st century because there are other dots around the country

that we can all go to and point out that are doing much more progressive work around the arts and what is allowed on roadways in the way of paintings.

I guess what I'm saying is I'd love to keep pushing VDOT.

to look at what's happening on the other dots around the country because I can pull them up all the time and just feel very a little frustrated that our dot is not allowing us to do things as simple as even

Rapping, Utility Boxes with Art, which is kind of a no-brainer in my opinion, but that's just one example, right?

So I would suggest that let's keep pushing them long term to look out of their box to what their comrades are doing in other states, and that's just a kind of a separate comment.

I think for right now I'm good and I'd like to hear one.

Oh, one other thing I was concerned about.

I noticed in the report that it said that the folks, the business owners, are concerned at this point about petty crime.

That was highlighted and I don't think you all mentioned that.

That's right, yeah.

We didn't include everything just for the matter of time, but that came up.

So that's something that could easily be taken care of, I would think.

I'm just pointing that out because I know I circled it and noticed it on the report.

And with that, I will yield to another supervisor.

Thank you.

Daniel, you're a much taller person than the Zoom meetings from our Red Quarter study.

You're much shorter on the screen.

Good to see you, Rachel.

I think for some of the things that you're looking for, which way or the other, to me, the residential takes a backseat to the light industrial here for me.

and so on.

in support of any of the light industrial type of pieces.

I'm certainly supportive of an arts and cultural district, but it has to marry with that light industrial.

We can't call it an arts and cultural district, and then people go to the arts and cultural district and they find nothing but light industry.

And they're going to be like, well, this isn't much of an arts and cultural district.

So how do we marry those two elements I think could happen here.

but it definitely has to be well thought and planned.

I don't want it to be one or the other.

I think it could be both, but how could that work?

I noticed the public venue for community gathering, especially if we go in an arts and cultural place, that community space would be important to be able to do the things that could support art.

Bears, and things like that where the artists can go out and actually sell their items without necessarily just being in the place where they're making the items.

Same could be said depending on the light industry that exists there.

The naming of an employment district was in there somewhere.

I think in one of the opportunities, like the recommendations to clarify it in the comp plan, you know, to tidy up whether or not you're interested in mixed use or not, residential or not, I would certainly be in favor of that employment district designation, or designation, at least to learn more about what that exactly means.

and perhaps that could play out in our comp plan discussions, but I would be in favor of, yeah, cleaning up any zoning comp plan mismatches that are in there, as you pointed out, to help support the idea that this is a light industrial area and then anything that could be done to help that arch and cultural piece.

If there was a way for height to be achieved, I'd want that height to be in help of the light industrial, not

putting things over the light industrial because I'm just worried that the residential there really pushes the values away that's going to make it problematic for those.

But if we contain the light industrial in this area and there's no expansion and in the other parts of the county, then we have to start thinking about is there expansion opportunity for the industry there?

And that means if it's all spread, the only other way you can go is up.

So I don't know if we can have those conversations at a different point.

But otherwise, I'm open to considering the different things with the roadway.

I would imagine that I have a section in my district where VDOT has to drive through the city to get to maintain for snow and plowing and things like that.

That can be said of our police department, too, because these little islands off, you're not driving by and driving through.

You actually have to think, oh, we have to drive through the city to get there to police it.

So, I mean, that's just something that I get it, but I'm still open to all items on the road.

I guess I lean to just, I don't want to be in the road owning business that it should be vetoed, and we might as well just accept that and handle the cost and get it done.

So that's where I'm at, but I'm not close to the idea of maybe having the flexibility if we own it and what that could mean.

The only other piece is there been talk of or how it would connect

in your connectivity piece, the pedestrian bridge that would link over to Pantops is not dead.

We're going to be requesting a raise grant on that to try to figure out the engineering costs.

So having that connection from Pantops, from a bike-ped standpoint, specifically the location of that bridge was designed to empty into this area.

So I just don't want that to be lost as we're considering this, that that could be a future connectivity piece as we talk about getting around that we want to be planning for that, because I mean, I don't think it's going to happen in the next five years, but I think that bridge will come to be at some point, because it's still alive and well.

It's just now trying to figure out how to get it funded and what the best way to do it is.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

starting at what's most recent here from the VDOT work and what ACSA is doing is not going to jeopardize in any way the VDOT care.

It's just going to resurface and make it so.

That first run of striping sounds wonderful because that will at least provide the illusion of a safety zone for pedestrians, not a real one, but at least a place where hopefully they'll be able to move around more safety, safe wise.

The Arts and Cultural District is something which other parts of the county have also been very interested in and especially, and I'm making this up because I don't think it's real, but if it came along with a land use property tax program to help to control the cost and therefore prevent the gentrification from happening.

You know, that would be spectacular, but that's something Legislature would have to help us with.

But there are lots of industrial artisans.

I mean, there's a metal crafter in there who could not operate in a normal studio.

This person could not work at McGuffey.

or in a private place because they need very high ceilings in very big places and concrete floors and where steel stuff can crash to the ground and not cause the problem.

So it's a delightful mixture of, I mean the scientist who makes the concrete pods that are made for making reefs and those kinds of uses just can't go other places.

So I very much appreciate the work that the longtime family owners of many of those buildings there have been carrying on on their own and

It's really important for the county's exuberance to make things better, to not take over.

Because these folks really have been doing the placemaking building themselves for years.

And so my question, when Rachel started with placemaking, is placemaking for whom?

In my opinion, I would prioritize the people who are there, not trying to import hordes of tourists to come and do something

on that level.

To me, the Willow Tree effort was almost separate in my mind from what happens on the rest of Broadway, because the uses are so different.

And so I want to make sure we respect that.

I have also heard to myself of, please don't help us too much, because they're very worried about the consequences of that.

Just as many are worried about the consequences of a VDOT curving gutter road that's going to cut down every tree that's in this picture.

if you're going to go to 40 feet carbon gutter and sidewalks and all that stuff that will really take away so much of the uniqueness and the sort of small village approach.

The complementary uses

I think Rachel mentioned primacy of creative and industrial uses, absolutely all caps 100%.

Complementary uses tend to take over very quickly and using the term market values, this is going to happen anyway so we may as well give up now.

I will build barricades against that mindset at all possible times because

and so on.

Takeover.

As we've seen every other time, every other light industrial property that's come under attack in the last 15 years has been let's get the quick money grab and let's put apartments there.

And sometimes the boards in place have actually said no.

We're not going to do that.

and I hope that we will continue to be protected in that way because we can't then come back and say, well, we need more places for businesses to go if we've just given it away to somebody who wanted to flip it and turn it over.

Let me run down here.

I have a few more things.

There is sort of a small town feel in this neighborhood that I think the people who live there really, or work there, really value all the different kinds of businesses who are there and work together on so many things.

similar to what happens in small towns or villages in my district, they're becoming overrun.

And that original flavor is getting smaller and smaller.

And people, longtime residents and newcomers who came to town because of those values are concerned at what's being lost.

So we have a chance to keep those things.

You know, I just talked for years about context-sensitive roadways.

and I think if we start to raise that again it's new staff there now since five years ago and so I think we need to use that as a good push.

It's their own words and they say they're doing this but I would like to see them doing it a lot more and not getting in the way on this.

And avoiding intensification of the zoning use.

And to me the extra height set off alarm bells because that means

what could suffice fine for people sharing a undeveloped roadway now becomes overrun with delivery trucks or personal vehicles zooming up and down.

So that's a concern.

And I think I have gotten to the end of my list.

Thank you.

Thank you, like the other folks here on the dais, I also adore this community.

I find myself walking through it frequently.

I'm a runner, so I'm often on the Rivanna trails and just pop out there and just walk around for a while.

So it's a wonderful community and I share my colleague's desire to preserve the special character that makes it that.

I would like to have, I have a few actual questions here.

I know from prior discussions that there's some amount of frustration of uses currently, namely around the existing residential properties, which I believe are mostly those triplexes on the northern end and the nearby water treatment facility.

I'm curious if there are additional frustrations of uses, you know, we talk about zoning as designed to mitigate frustration of uses, and we also have highlighted several times what an eclectic mixture of uses are currently there.

I didn't hear any come up that are happening today, the concern about if additional residential comes that there would be friction.

We talked to one of the brewers down there and they were just talking about how

People like living near breweries because they like going there, but the act of brewing is intensive.

It does make noise.

There are odors associated with it.

So that was brought up, though I didn't hear that from any of the residents that we talked to of things going on today.

One concern from someone in a neighboring community, I think, was noise.

Like, if there's going to be a lot of events happening, they were just questioning, like, are there, are there going to be additional tasting rooms?

Are there going to be events and weddings and things down here?

in this presentation I know that the arts, thank you.

In this presentation I know the idea of an arts and cultural district was broached in the context of possible tools to mitigate rising rents because of improved amenities.

It's not immediately clear to me how those link through unless it's as Supervisor Mallek suggested possibly some kind of

and so on and so forth.

So, I think that's a good point.

I think that's a good point.

an opportunity that the county could explore.

So if there are certain criteria that a property owner is meeting to support arts and cultural uses, there is some amount of tax abatement that you can do.

Thank you.

I, thinking about that as a concept off the top of my head, one concern I might just highlight is that the more and more

and so on.

intentional space and art isn't necessarily intentional in that way, if I'm making my point clear.

So that would be something I'm mildly concerned about, but not overwhelmingly.

I'm not clear if VDOT retains control of this road, it is not clear to me that we actually have any tools or levers to drive the improvements that we're talking about.

like our relationship with VDOT is mostly through filing smart scale projects and hoping that they get selected.

This would probably be more of like a revenue sharing kind of project.

It's more of a small, it's how you get some of the smaller ones done, I mean smaller, like the Burke Mar to Airport Road is going to be a revenue sharing type of project, even though that's not small.

This one, who knows what the VDOT cost would be, but I would imagine that would be kind of the avenue for us to do that.

Thank you.

I did have one additional note.

We've talked several times about the tension between residential and its ability to price out the very things we're concerned about.

We've also all talked about

the idea in various ways and from various angles of supporting artistic activity and a possible arts and cultural district.

I know something that we see in other localities, normally places that have significant legacy buildings, are the idea of live-work artist lofts, the idea that this is something that is zoned specifically for people who are engaging in artistic production, but they are also permitted to sleep there.

communities that do rely on this to create kind of an organic and affordable place that people both live and produce art.

I am not sure if that would be feasible without the kind of legacy infrastructure, because these are normally in large warehouses.

I'd be interested if that is something that is workable in this space, because it does seem to potentially tackle a number of the concerns we have simultaneously.

That's more submitted as just something to chew on.

I don't know if my peers on the board would support that, but that's something I see as potentially an opportunity if it is realistically feasible.

I don't know if this is something a developer would buy on, but it seems intriguing.

Also, I would just like, at some point, data on the existing rents of the current residences.

There's not many of them.

I believe it's literally just the three triplexes on that one street.

If I'm mistaken, please correct me, but that seems like an

We talk a lot about displacement.

I'm not sure how realistic that is.

I don't know realistically what the going rinse in that neighborhood or the adjoining sink.

I mean, the immediately adjacent neighborhoods are almost entirely very affluent single family neighborhoods, the ones that are in Charlottesville.

I know the ones that we have here in the county, I believe are rentals and are slightly more modest, but I don't know actually what kind of neighborhood texture we're looking for for the actual residential folks there.

I know what it looks like, but I don't know what they're paying.

some sense of coherence to what we've got here.

I think I'm hearing that this idea of obviously using the ACSA's improvements as an opportunity to get some clarity on this road is a yes, definitely of interest.

But taking over the road, I'm hearing a lot of trepidation about taking a road over from VDOT, even though I recognize that we're looking for as much flexibility as VDOT might offer.

so that if we can put in some sort of pedestrian way, we don't lose the ability to large trucks to make their way up and down this road and to turn into the different areas.

So that's going to be a tough way to go to negotiate.

And I see Ms.

Shepherd's here, so I can continue this discussion, but just I'm not sure what the rules will be as far as that goes.

But I definitely hear the sense that

This is a VDOT road, but we want some flexibility in how this will work.

Also, I'm hearing a lot about the gentrification and the concern that it's a light industrial area.

But before going sort of there, I want to make sure that he's sort of in agreement somewhat, if we are.

Is there a slide that shows the current zoning and the comprehensive plan again together?

I know it's in there, okay.

So I'm just trying to understand better here.

This comprehensive plan actually showed the area just to the northeast as closer to the river as a neighborhood density.

So the comprehensive plan on the left has a mix of neighborhood density, which is yellow, and then green space, parks and green space, parks and green systems, I actually think it's called.

that's because there's some floodplain and slopes there but yes that's what the yellow is on the map on the left okay but that's currently light industrial

It's currently zoned for light industrial, though those yellow parcels on the right are R2 residential.

That was the green space.

And then if you would, the use of the word mixed use, I guess this is all basically the community mixed use and the mixed use is the Will and Mills site, so that's kind of developed.

and so on and so forth.

River, and that offers a little higher value, I guess, in some respects for people to live and to live near work.

So I agree that I'd like to hear more about what an employment district is and whether that actually has any bearing on the live work ideas that Supervisor Pruitt was bringing up.

I recognized that, you know, the light industrial uses

should, I agree, dominate this.

The Planning Commission talked about possible economic incentives for this area, but I haven't actually heard anything about the Economic Development Authority or Office of Economic Development being involved in any of this so far.

Yeah, they're actually the leaders of the study.

Their office is paying for it.

So we've been working very closely with them.

You know, they have limited staff and they've been coming out to the meetings when they can, but kind of leaning on us to take a lead and be out there in the community.

Okay.

Thank you.

I've looked to the board for additional comments.

Well, I'm just a piggyback on that, because I did forget to make that comment.

The local business incentives is one of your opportunities on your business retention.

And I would think that seeing the JT and barrier here, as we approach, you know, the the refraction of project enable, just in much the same way that later this month, we're going to be talking about how we incentivize affordable housing.

and so on.

Albemarle Economic Development is not just putting you in the direction or connecting you to those that could help you get grants and things like that, but we start putting actual things in place that we have to pay for to help incentivize keeping business where it's at in much the same way that we're considering it for housing and residential.

So I think the place for that could be in the discussion when Project Enable gets refreshed and to say, well, what are these actual incentives?

Do we have to come up with a budget for that?

and not maybe just have it be tax rebates.

There are other things that we could do to help.

So that's something that I don't necessarily, I wouldn't anticipate you guys wrestling with that and figuring out what those things are.

But the economic development team and the rest of us obviously when we do project enable refresh and maybe that's in compliant discussions as well, I don't know.

And it's certainly in budget every year.

We'd have to start thinking about that.

Yes, just to follow up, looking at this image on the right, these yellow parcels in the circle, are those in the city or the county?

Because I thought the city was both sides of East Market Street.

and their neighborhood density right now.

That's over the crest of the hill, basically, I guess.

Where the blue and the yellow come together is the height of land and then it slows down.

Does that make sense?

Or not?

I'll go down and visit.

The image on the right, if you drive down East Market Street

all the way to the end, and you start seeing signs that say, turn around, do not get to Broadway this way.

Okay.

Because that's the differential.

So there's two or three lots then.

Okay.

Research Business Sector, who said we often have to have staff on hand 24 hours a day.

And so this would be possible.

Just within the last year, there's been some entrepreneur, applicant person who said, well, see, it says residential here.

So we want to go residential and forget the light industrial.

And that is a real concern to me.

So there needs to be a pretty ironclad link if we're going to do anything like that and not leave it open to interpretation.

Thank you.

Yeah, I'm going to.

That's my next comment.

I guess one thing of seeing this slide here reminded me when I was doing my homework, I thought we need to recognize Morris Creek is going to be there.

That's not something that's negotiable.

So just, I know it's come up about all the various existing whatever's, but I don't see that going anywhere.

Yep, we're done.

Thank you very much for your input.

It's not intended to be adopted as part of the comprehensive plan, as the consultant said.

It's going to continue to be a study document, but the input for it will be very useful for the COMP plan, zoning ordinance, project enable in the future.

It'll be used in that way, but it will not be an amendment to our comprehensive plan.

Lord, we are actually scheduled at this point to take a 15-minute recess.

I think that we're slightly ahead of schedule, so that's great.

About 15 minutes.

Our next item is the Transportation Planning Quarterly Report from Principal Planner, Ms.

Jessica Hirsch-Ballering.

Thank you, Chair Andrews, and good afternoon, members of the Board of Supervisors.

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

Today I'm going to be presenting the highlights of our Transportation Planning Quarterly Report, covering the months of October through December of last year.

Before I really get started, I want to introduce our newest staff member, Tanya Swartz and Drew Burr.

She comes to us from Austin, Texas, where she has over a decade of planning experience in both the public and private sector.

She's going to be serving as our long-range and transportation planning manager.

So we're really excited to have her, and I hope you can talk to her soon.

Alright, so in our previous quarterly report, we wrapped up SmartScale 2022, and with this report, we begin discussions of SmartScale 2024.

As a reminder, the SmartScale grant program is the primary method for funding large-scale transportation projects in Virginia.

SmartScale doesn't require any local match, however local funds can be committed to any project to improve the cost-benefit analysis and the likelihood that the project will be funded.

So, Admiral County, the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission and the Charlottesville Admiral MPO can each submit up to four project applications per round.

Pre-applications for this round are due April 1st, final applications are due August 1st, and before that date we will be coming back to the Board of Supervisors requesting resolutions of support for all of the projects that would take place in Admiral County.

Lastly, to remind everyone of the long timelines associated with transportation projects, for projects that are submitted with this round and receive funding in this round, that funding is not guaranteed to be available until summer of 2029.

Sometimes projects are fast tracked, so it's possible that work could be done sooner, but summer 2029 is when the funding would be programmed to be available.

OK.

So Admiral County relies heavily on technical assistance from our VDOT colleagues to prepare our smart scale applications.

So we've been discussing potential projects with them over the last few months.

The seven projects listed here are our highest priority, and we think that they're likely to be competitive given the recent smart scale policy and scoring changes.

We haven't yet determined which projects Admiral County will apply for versus the projects that the PDC or the MPO will apply for on our behalf, but this is the comprehensive list.

So each project will appear on the map on the right as we discuss it with its number.

We have number one there.

One is Rio Road and the Hillsdale Northfield Old Brook Intersection Improvements.

So there are two intersections very close together.

We have the Rio and Old Brook intersection really close to the Rio and Northfield Hillsdale intersection.

This project would construct a double roundabout at the intersections to improve safety and efficiency, basically creating one big intersection.

This would also add shared use path on the north side of the project area.

There's existing sidewalk on the south side of the project area, and there would also be pedestrian crossings for all legs added.

This project was identified in the Rio Road corridor study.

Next we have project two down at the bottom of the map.

This is our US-29 and Plank Road intersection improvements.

This project would construct a restricted crossing U-turn or R-cut so that all vehicles coming from Plank Road would need to turn right onto 29.

If they had wanted to make a left onto 29, they would need to make a U-turn at a dedicated median opening a little bit downstream and then continue the way they wanted to go.

This project was identified by a VDOT safety study.

Next we have Project 3 out on the west side of the map.

This is the Old Trail Drive and US 250 West intersection improvements.

So this project would construct a roundabout at the intersection of Old Trail Drive and 250.

This includes the entrance to Western Albemarle High School.

This would be a resubmission of an application that was submitted in SmartScale 22 but was not funded.

Next we have project 4, as you can see on the screen.

This is the 5th Street and I-64 interchange improvements.

So this project is a big one.

It would reconstruct the existing unsignalized diamond interchange as a diverging diamond interchange or some other improvement.

This project would include a shared use path and pedestrian crossings within the project limits.

Next we have Project 5, the Barracks Road Improvements Package.

So this would be a package of improvements to address safety and efficiency concerns on the Barracks Road corridor between Georgetown Road and Emmett Street.

The exact improvements are currently being determined as part of the Barracks Road Project Pipeline Study, which we're going to discuss later in this presentation.

We have Project 6, the Ivy Road improvements package.

So this project would also be a package of improvements to address safety and efficiency concerns, this time on the Ivy Road corridor between Ednum Drive and Emmett Street.

The exact improvements are also currently being determined as part of the Ivy Road project pipeline study, which we will also discuss later.

And lastly, we have Project 7, the Pantops improvements package.

So this project would be a resubmission of two projects that had been submitted separately in the previous round of SMART Scale.

So the projects are at the US 250 and Rolken Road pedestrian improvements and the US 250 and Peter Jefferson Parkway intersection improvements and park and ride.

So those two projects were the result of an earlier VDOT project pipeline study.

And in the last round of SmartScale, the Rolken Road project was not awarded funding, but it had scored pretty well.

And the Peter Jefferson Parkway project was initially awarded funding in the staff-recommended scenario, but was ultimately removed from the final consensus funding scenario and replaced with the District Avenue roundabout.

So neither of those were funded last round.

They both scored pretty well, and we think this package of projects will be competitive in this round.

So now I'd like to move on to revenue sharing.

So VDOT's revenue sharing grant program typically funds small and medium-sized transportation projects, especially compared to the larger projects, typically funded by SmartScale.

This program accepts applications every other year, alternating with SmartScale applications.

There's also a 50-50 match, so for every dollar we request, we have to have that much in local match.

So in October of last year, Admiral County submitted three final applications for revenue sharing with a total request of about $7 million.

Those three projects were the Berkman Drive extension to Airport Road, Commonwealth pedestrian improvements, and Berkman Drive bicycle and pedestrian improvements.

So there are brief descriptions of these projects in your written quarterly report.

You've heard me describe them before.

I'll save you the time and I won't describe them right now.

All three projects have previously received revenue sharing funding.

However, because of cost increases or because the project was only partially funded initially, additional funding was requested to complete these three projects.

We should know in the next few months whether these projects will receive funding.

All right, moving on to the Virginia Highway Safety Improvement Program, or VHSIP.

So VHSIP uses state and federal funds to advance highway safety improvement projects that have the greatest potential to reduce the state's roadway fatalities and serious injuries.

So Amarillo County doesn't apply for VHSIP funds directly, rather we collaborate with our colleagues at the local VDOT office to discuss potential projects, and then VDOT applies for those projects on our behalf.

This round we applied for the five projects listed here.

Again, brief descriptions of these are in your written report.

We don't know which projects have been funded yet, but we should actually know that in just the next couple of weeks.

Alright, so this slide is a not-so-quick overview of some of the other planning efforts that we're juggling right now.

So first we have the three-notch trail shared use path master plan.

So back in 2022, Emerald County was awarded a $2 million planning grant through the Very Competitive Raise Program to develop a master plan for a shared use path that would extend

from the Emmett-Ivey intersection in the city of Charlottesville across Western Albemarle County through the Crozet area and into Nelson County where it would eventually meet up with the popular Blue Ridge Tunnel Trail.

So we now have a final grant agreement that, yes, please clap, it was a lot of work.

We now have a final grant agreement that is in the process of being signed by both the county and FHWA.

So, community development staff have also worked out a schedule with the procurement office and we're currently planning to release the RFP looking for a consulting team for this project in the first week of April.

With that timeline, we would expect work to begin on the project in earnest in August.

So, Freebridge Lane.

Following direction from the Board at their March 1st meeting, community development staff have been working with Parks and Recreation staff to develop a pilot program for this promenade.

Community development and Parks leadership have received a memo outlining three potential options for implementing the pilot program and their associated costs.

The simplest option includes only the minimum improvements and modifications needed

to implement the pilot program and it would cost in a range of about 50 to 80 thousand dollars.

We would also need to ask VDOT to discontinue the roadway which would have no immediate cost associated with it other than administrative staff time.

We're still working to identify where the funding would come from to implement that pilot program.

Move Safely Blue Ridge is the TJ PDC-led planning process to develop a regional safety action plan.

It's being funded partially through the Federal Safe Streets for All grant program with Admiral County and the other jurisdictions in the PDC area providing the local match.

You heard from Curtis earlier this meeting about the benefits of a safety action plan and voted to support the resolution of commitment to roadway safety.

So far in this planning process, community development staff have attended the first working group meeting for this project in December, the Regional Safety Summit in early January, and we will attend another working group meeting in late February.

So work is going.

Next, the Fontaine Avenue Interchange Smart Scale Project.

So this project was funded in a previous round of Smart Scale.

This project would replace the existing unsignalized diamond interchange at the Fontaine and 29 Bypass with what we're calling a partial DDI, a partial diverging diamond intersection.

Recently, stakeholders have voiced concerns that the design doesn't meet the long-term needs of the corridor, among other concerns.

So VDOT staff have looked into these concerns, and they've developed some potential alternatives to the funded design.

A bit more background on this project.

The MPO actually submitted the application for this project, so any decisions regarding moving forward with either the previously funded design or choosing an alternative will need to be officially made by the MPO policy board.

just a reminder that that membership includes two Admiral County supervisors.

So the MPO Policy Board received a presentation from VDOT at their January meeting and they will be asked to vote on how to move forward at their meeting on February 28th.

However, since the project is in Admiral County, staff will return to this board on February 21st to discuss county interests and how to move forward with the project.

All right, next, Plank Road through truck restriction.

So following interest from local residents, the board voted at your September 6th meeting to request VDOT investigate a potential through truck restriction on Plank Road between US 29 and 250.

The local VDOT office has completed their investigation and have recommended the through-truck restriction, but I want to emphasize that that doesn't mean the truck restriction is in place yet.

So the next step is for VDOT's central office to complete their review of the potential restriction, and they are also currently taking comments from the public and the trucking industry.

If they agree that the through-truck restriction is warranted, the VDOT commissioner will ultimately sign off on the through-truck restriction.

So we'll just keep you updated as we know more.

Secondary Six-Year Plan and the Rural Rustic Program.

So the Secondary Six-Year Plan funds our Rural Rustic Program, which is how the county paves unpaved rural roads.

In order to qualify for the Rural Rustic Program, the road must meet specific requirements, and two-thirds of the residents must agree to paving the roadway.

Community Development staff have sent letters notifying residents on Glendauer, Burton Lane, Burton Road, Blair Park Road, Starlight, and Henderson Lane that their roads could be paved, and we're awaiting comments to determine if they want to move forward.

Staff will discuss this with the board in more detail at a work session on April 3rd.

and so on.

to update the transportation elements of the comprehensive plan update and the multimodal plan.

So this board will receive a presentation and have the opportunity to offer feedback on the draft goals and objectives for both rural area and development area land use and transportation chapters at your March 20th meeting.

getting close to the end.

So lastly, let's talk about VDOT's project pipeline program and the two ongoing studies in Abraugh County.

So the VDOT 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 smart skill, revenue sharing, or other funding opportunities.

Like I said, there's two projects currently ongoing in Admiral County.

First, we have the Barracks Road study, which is intended to identify improvement projects to address transportation concerns along Barracks Road between Georgetown and Emmett Street.

In our previous quarterly report, we noted that a site visit with county, city, UVA, and VDOT staff had been completed and an online public engagement survey was underway and staff had discussed potential improvements for the corridor with the consulting team and other stakeholders.

Since then, staff has received more detailed information on feasibility of potential improvements and offered feedback on county interest in those improvements.

Next steps include additional public engagement, either in person or online, and another stakeholder meeting before the consultant's recommendations are finalized.

The expectation is that the county staff will receive those final recommendations in time to apply for funding for all or a subset of those improvement projects in this round of smart scale.

and the second project pipeline study is the U.S.

29-250 Ivy Road study.

This study is intended to identify a suite of projects to address a variety of transportation concerns along the U.S.

250 Ivy Road corridor from Ednom Drive on the West to Emmett Street.

as well as the adjacent old IV corridor and the 29-250 interchange.

In our previous quarterly report, we noted that this IV road study, similar to the Barrick's study, had completed a site visit, had online engagement survey going, and staff had discussed potential improvements for the corridor.

But unique to the IV road study is the addition of a corridor focus group.

which is a group of key stakeholders and leaders living or working along the corridor.

This group was added just because of significant public interest in the project.

This group met once in August and again in late October.

Staff has received more detailed information on the feasibility of these potential improvements and again offered feedback on county interest.

Next steps again include additional information sharing and stakeholder discussion as well as additional public engagement before the consultant's recommendations are finalized.

One difference between this and the Barracks Road study is that this is a really complicated project and it's just moving at a slower pace than expected.

So it's unlikely that county staff will receive all of the final recommendations in time to apply for funding for these with this round of smart scale.

We may be able to apply for a subset of those recommendations and if not that we will be very well prepared to apply in the next round of smart scale in 2026.

And that completes the presentation.

Thank you.

I'm sure there are questions and comments.

Wow.

Thank you very much.

I really appreciate the in-depth discussion.

I did want to ask about the secondary six-year plan.

You said that if everyone doesn't agree, not the board, but if the people who are

who are asked, do you want these roads paved or not?

Because I understand it has to be two-thirds approval by the residents who live along the affected area, because I've gone through that.

All right.

And I did want to ask about the

to the Pantops Improvement Package.

That looks like it's, we've been waiting going forward.

I keep telling people, it's coming, it's coming.

And then I keep saying it's delayed, it's delayed.

So it's moving forward as one of our potential applications for this round of SmartScale.

Unfortunately, neither project was funded in the last round.

So this would be our next opportunity.

Right.

Sorry, Kevin McDermott, the Deputy Director Plain.

I just wanted to confirm, it sounded to me Supervisal Pisto-Kirtley may have been referring to a previously funded project in Pantops Corridor, the one that improves the Route 2250 intersection and the access management throughout the length of that.

Yes, exactly.

Okay, so there are two separate projects.

Jessica was previously speaking about a future application that we're going to make for one further east on the corridor.

The 251, the corridor in Route 20 intersection improvements

is still moving forward.

I think that I don't have the exact date for that.

I think it's supposed to begin in 27.

But we are getting close to a public hearing on that.

Yes, so that's correct from

Rulken Road East is the new application that we're looking to submit.

Rulken Road West was previously funded.

The public hearing is expected later this year for that funded project.

And according to VDOT, construction is expected to begin sometime in fall of 2027.

And the last question I have was regarding Freebridge Lane.

You said it would be about 50,000 to

Do the minimum, along with asking VDOT to give us a ban in the road.

Discontinue.

Pardon?

Discontinue.

Discontinue the road, give that to us, and the minimum would be to be able to get gates or bollards up there.

which would then provide for people to be able to ride, bike, walk safely.

Okay, I think that would, and then later on we can slowly start doing improvements and such.

Is that correct?

That's correct.

That's all.

Those are all my questions.

Thank you.

Yes.

Great presentation.

Thank you very much.

Lots of information, but really good presentation.

I just have a couple of questions.

The Commonwealth Drive, Dominion Drive pedestrian improvements, can you update us on that particular?

I see the report here on page three, but it just seems like we've been working on that for such a long time.

and staff has done such a lot of work on that.

So just a quick reminder for anyone who needs it, the Commonwealth pedestrian improvements would construct sidewalk segments on Commonwealth from hydraulic drive to Peyton Drive as well as on Dominion Drive from Commonwealth to 29.

and the goal of this project was to really, in addition to pedestrian improvements, really highlight a transit connectivity.

So this project has, you're right, staff have been working on this for a really long time.

We are so grateful to our colleagues and FES for all the hard work they've done on this project.

It's still coming up a tiny bit short in terms of meeting the budget.

So what we did is we submitted this revenue sharing application.

We're just requesting the tiniest amount of money and we're very hopeful that it will be, it's a priority one project.

I think it ended up only being about $200,000.

Oh, of that.

Okay, so even less than that.

Okay.

Thank you very much for that.

Yeah, that would be lovely because we have a meeting next week.

And I can update.

That's great.

And the other one is, of course, the Lambs Lane Campus Loop Road, which is new, and I understand that.

And it's a little bit, I don't want to, maybe confusing is not the word, but it's a collaboration between the school division and county government based on the road on hydraulic and then the loop road on the campus.

Yeah, so I cannot remember exactly what happened over the summer and fall, but I know that we have a meeting coming up in the next week or two that's being planned where we're going to determine the best alignment for that loop road.

Or Kevin, I see Kevin sitting there.

So there is a meeting that's being planned.

That's great to know because I know that had been requested.

Yeah, thanks.

So we are still working.

We are under contract with the consultants.

They had provided some initial design of that, which we did share with the schools and the public as well.

and at this point we put a small pause on that to wait until we figured out where schools wanted to go with their high school center too.

So we were trying to figure out where they were going to locate that which was very close to the potential alignment of the corridor or of the new loop road.

Now that we know that, schools has come back to us and let us know where they want to place high school center too.

and so we're able to kind of finalize that alignment study and also the recommended intersection improvements where the New Lambs Lane Loop Road would meet hydraulic.

We are sitting down with the consultants and our team with Fez in the next week or two to go through that.

That's great.

Correct.

We've seen a draft of some of their alternatives that they looked at.

That was not the final version.

Like I said, we're just waiting for the confirmation from schools before we finalized all the details on it.

Okay, great.

That clarifies it.

Thank you very much.

Those are all the questions I have.

Thank you, Jessica.

The Hillsdale meeting Rio Road, the dual, the bean, the peanut, barbeau.

My question here is that, and understood that's in the corridor study, but is it still on the priorities list, the realignment of Hillsdale to Putt-Putt Lane?

This is my conundrum with the, I want to get this intersection fixed, but

We can, we will make sure that VDOT considers any other options for that or how that realignment might impact what we're proposing at the intersection of the current intersection of Hillsdale and Rio, but at this time

We don't have a way forward with the future Hillsdale realignment.

We're still, you know, there's still a lot going on.

It could be a ways down the road, whereas this intersection is a high safety priority for us.

We have a significant number of serious crashes and crashes there and it also addresses a lot of the pedestrian concerns.

just forgetting the realignment project.

There'd still be a road coming up to Rio where Hillsdale currently empties.

It just wouldn't be the main connector.

Yeah, absolutely.

That proposed Hillsdale realignment that came out of the RIO 29 study, that would remove some of the traffic from that intersection.

But not all of it.

Well, I was happy to see that.

I mean, obviously, this intersection is for the reasons you stated.

I'm glad that that is there.

The town center, oh, before I leave,

the SmartScale options.

At the MPO, Sandy Stone, just in case I need head nods, but I think it's been determined which ones can and cannot be under the new rules submitted.

Yes.

Well, the Fifth Street I-64-1 is a potential submittal for them.

And then possibly Barracks Road or some specific elements of Barracks Road and Ivy Road or some specific elements of that.

Yes, exactly.

Or because these are pipeline studies, the CTV actually voted that if VDOT leads a pipeline study and we're making an application for the results of that,

then the P.D.C.

or the M.P.O.

is able to apply for that as well.

I think that's a new piece.

This is Sandy Shocker, Director of Planning and Transportation at the TJ P.D.C.

The M.P.O.

or the P.D.C.

Gotcha.

All right, well, that's good.

I guess I'm presuming you guys are in, because some were like, well, there's a timing issue, whether or not they'll be ready in time, et cetera.

I just want to make sure the board's clear that of these seven, it's not like, oh, well, they get four, the TJPDC gets four, and we get four, that we've got more than, we only got seven here, it ain't going to pan out that way in the math, that we'll get 12 projects, and we have to, I mean, right?

Is that a factual statement?

Yes, that's absolutely factual.

All right, thank you for that.

The Town Center Community Street, that was under the, was that under the VDOT safety ones?

I'm thrilled that this is in here.

So basically this is leaving Harris Teeter and the Starbucks, take a right, hit the roundabout to get back to 29.

Now it says extend the median to discourage left turn.

I haven't seen any drawings.

You can.

It's the worst left turn.

I thought they'd been blocked off.

I've been going around the block all this time.

But if they could still make a left, I guess during non-peak times, that wouldn't be a terrible thing.

But I mean, that's really a bad left turn.

So I mean, I'm glad that's on here.

So when you get, maybe that'll be on the next update or something like that.

You'll have more details on that.

I'll probably wait till it carries up about the Hillsdale Greenbrier.

I'm happy that that's being included, but I think that's on VDOT's report.

The signal optimization between Angus and Airport Road.

Yeah, there it is, the Route 29.

Because we've done this one other time, right?

Great question.

These improvements would be focused on improving safety.

I'll let, maybe Carrie can explain that in greater detail.

Gotcha.

But that's the goal.

Cool.

So the, the Lambs Lane Loop Road,

The Green Tea got all that.

My understanding was the study also considered potential improvements to the actual hydraulic road, Lambs Lane, Whitewood Road intersection.

But I'm not necessarily seeing that in the language that's listed here.

So is this project going to be the loop road, the green tea, and improvements to that intersection?

there were some small improvements recommended for the intersection you're describing.

I mean I guess if there's just going to be pieces of it, it would be pedestrian elements I would assume because there's a lot of pedestrian activity going back and forth through that intersection.

So I'd hate to have

I mean, obviously, I'm supportive of the Loop Road and the green tea sounds like that's a good idea.

So I mean, I guess that's going to be an ongoing conversation as we continue to talk about it.

All right, I think that's all.

Thank you very much.

Let me run back to the top to get my yellow stuff.

Okay, here we go.

things that you're going to discuss on the 21st, update all the presentation that VDOT made at the last MPO meeting.

So as soon as it's reasonable, please share all the materials with board members so that they can have a chance to digest things.

Because I know that it's been around a few times and it'll be really important.

There were some great alternatives that were discussed at great length at the last meeting that I don't want any of that to be lost because the board needs to give direction to

about our priority for which one of these things goes forward.

This is not just something that I get to choose.

So we need to be ready for that on the 21st.

So that's important.

I did understand from the MPO meeting, but maybe I was wrong, that with these pipeline studies, the MPO can apply for the whole bundle.

But if there were parts of it, the county could do that.

OK, that is right.

OK, good.

So that leaves a little more flexibility depending on what comes in.

Really exciting news about the three nuts trail.

Thank you so much for that.

People will be excited.

I'm still hopeful that we'll figure out a way to be able to use rails and trails, which the previous governor gave away, but we have to try to get it back in order to be able to use that rail right of way all the way in.

I'm still hoping for, we'll support Mr. Kirtley here on Freebridge Lane, hoping for the phase one, put up a gate and get on with it thing rather than the Cadillac version sometime way in the future because I know that there are really great ways to do this very simple start.

The reason why I'm so supportive of that is that the users will show the direction that it really needs to go, whereas if

Our planters or consultants tell everybody what should be done without having that knowledge.

We may be spending a whole lot of money on something that isn't going to be used.

So that's why I was thinking two gates and let people out there and we'll see what happens because it is a great place, wonderful place to walk.

Okay, we did that.

Blair Park Road, rural rustic.

Is that beyond the railroad tracks?

I hope.

because the part between the Germans' Gap and the railroad tracks is the only part that I think has ever been dealt with and the folks on the other side can't even get mail or any kind of address because VDOT won't take it, but I don't know if that's been solved or not.

Thank you.

I'll let Elbert answer that.

Berkina Plon, Planner for Community Development.

After double-check the location of the tracks, but there is a part of the road that was an end-state maintenance sign, so obviously VDOT won't go past that.

Yeah, I did instruct in the letters that the paving

with VDOT support to use gravel road money for maintenance and engineering repair in order to not have to be paving stuff at huge expense when lots more roads could be improved with the same dollars that we're spending on one short length of paving for places that lots of other counties are similar to many residents in Albemarle who do not want to give up.

Rural Roads, and are actually becoming magnets for gravel road bike riders and things like that.

So there are so many different points of view on everything that we do, but that is something that I hope that will pass.

We'll just have to see.

Okay, I did that.

The Ivy Road corridor was the brewery moving into the old tractor place already on the radar for this

because that's going to bring so much traffic and it was just announced in the recent ABC reports.

So I probably threw that away, but I think one of the staff person who responses to Carolyn or somebody can fish that out for you out of the trash and send it over because I think this salvage is going to open either a branch or moving from Wolf Factory out there, so look out.

I always roll my eyes when I read about signal optimization because it's worked great for years up to hydraulic and then bang.

So if it's making it a tenth of a mile down the road this time, that's great.

But every morning I come into town, I can get all the lights green all the way.

So we don't want to have anything happen to that in order to do something for the last tenth of a mile.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I was hoping you could talk a little bit more about the plans for the possible diverging diamond, possible something else on Fifth Street Station.

Something that really leaps out to me, very familiar with the area, is that it has a component of a plan shared use pedestrian path

within the area, but if I'm recalling, upstream when you're looking past stagecoach, I don't know that there's any kind of pedestrian or shared use infrastructure to support that, and that's where the actual residential activity that would be using that is.

So I guess I'm asking, could you help me get a little bit more texture on what this project's going to look like, and also

I am not aware of any plans, other than vague language in the comprehensive plan right now, to improve a shared use path upstream down that road.

So it sounds like your question is mostly focused on the shared use path and pedestrian improvement, so I'll speak mostly to that.

So we, the reason you see on the screen Starbucks to stagecoach is because that's where we already have shared use path planned for.

Speaking of the north side, that Starbucks area is where we'll have one of the trail heads for the Fifth Street trail and hubs, or hub and trails, and that would obviously be on the east side.

I think we're talking about the west side for this shared use path so there'd need to be some sort of crossing there as well.

just to share maybe more with my board my concern with this is that you do have several very high density residential properties that I think we forget about, right?

Like Eagles Landing, Jefferson Ridge, Cavalier Crossing, there's a tremendously large amount of people who live there and are incredibly isolated and I

There is an element of me that is maybe slightly frustrated by the notion of putting in solid pedestrian infrastructure and connection to a trail hub to the future northern end of the Biscay Run Greenway without additional downstream plans to support that and actually help the people who live in that community connect to it.

So that's just kind of what I'm trying to tease out with what I see with this project, which I otherwise am very excited about.

I was hoping you could help me understand a little bit about what the timeline for next steps looks like with the Plank Road restriction.

I don't believe in my district, but I certainly get calls about it.

I see you've got a great kind of step timeline, but I'm not really clear what the actual win on the calendar can we expect different elements of that to be occurring.

Great.

You're talking about the plane grow through truck restriction.

I will have to follow up with you on exact timeline.

I don't think it's, we're not talking a year, but I would need to get back to you on specifics.

Sure.

This could come up in the next segment with... That's all I am.

OK, thank you.

So one thing I get a little confused about, and I understand that we've got these seven projects we have to figure out which ones are going to go forward with which sponsors, if you will.

And there's a reference, of course, in the seven to the Ivy Road Improvement Package.

But in the discussion of the Pipeline Program Project, it's an old Ivy Road study.

And so I just really am

So as part of the project pipeline study, yes, old IV improvements were considered.

So we have not seen their final recommendations, of course.

Initial recommendations showed that any improvements along the old IV corridor in particular were going to be very expensive and very difficult to implement.

I recognize that it's a very difficult corridor to deal with with the two bridges but I just was trying to understand whether the the smart scale efforts in that regard then don't really mention old Ivy but I also understand that that's delayed and that makes it a little bit more problematic for how it would be submitted perhaps in parts

and so on.

If we have any parts ready, then I hope that something can be done because it's a two-year wait to go at it again.

So I'll just make that comment.

I want to second Supervisor Pruitt's concerns about connectivity to the area south of I-64 on the diverging diamond.

I'm still not sure how the diverging diamonds.

It's very different to do it over a bridge

on below a bridge, which is what went on it to 250, but I'm still excited about the project.

I also, at some point, interested in seeing how the Plank Road are cuts going to work.

It seems logical when I look south of Plank Road, where it's wide open, but I go north of Plank Road and it gets very dicey really quickly with the topography at that location and the sight distances.

So I hope to hear a little bit more about that eventually.

and those were my comments at this point.

I really appreciate the report.

It's always heartening to hear how many projects we're trying to do.

Thank you.

Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley.

I have a couple of questions regarding Plank Road, even though it's not in my district, it peripherally can affect me, my district.

The Plank Road intersection improvements, they are cut.

I've been getting letters or emails from people that are still worried about the R-Cut at Phrase Mail and Burnley Station Road.

I don't know if Supervisor Mallek has, but I've been getting emails saying, we hear this is going through.

It is not being considered as part of our smart scale process right now.

So I've been responding that no, this is not something, okay, that's good.

and the truck restriction on Plank Road.

Is that going to be based on size or?

Pardon?

A through truck.

Right.

I'm going to pass that off to Carrie when she comes up.

I was going to ask her that.

And I'm asking for a definite reason.

Carrie may know why.

One quick follow-up question regarding the old IV improvements and the sort of disclaimer because there was a very large zoning decision recently where I may not have been the only one who felt reassured by very strident comments from Bea saying, we're on this folks, we can solve this folks.

So I'm very worried about backpedaling on that part.

And maybe I just don't have the right information and that would be good.

Thank you.

Supervisor Callaway.

Supervisor Mallek mentioned that this board with the Fontaine Avenue

Sean mentioned that he would have data that he was bringing back to the MPO about the median being closed versus the median being open.

I do not know.

So I'm telling staff there so that don't

I can't take no for an answer on that one.

Yep.

Do you have what you need?

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Jessica.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Shepherd from VDOT for our VDOT Transcordially Report.

Welcome.

Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, members of the board.

I'm Carrie Sheppard.

I'm the Bea LaPisto resident engineer, and I'm going to be providing the quarterly update this afternoon.

Carrie, can you put the mic over closer?

How is that?

Good.

All right.

So to start off, our preliminary engineering slide.

A couple things to point out on this slide is the Exit 107 Park and Ride.

We did have our public hearing that was held in January.

So the next step is going to be to combine all the comments that we received, put that together in a transcript, address those comments, and then we will move forward with the final design approval.

Also, we held a public hearing for our Fifth Street Hub and Trails Project.

That public hearing was held in December.

We received comments.

I believe the comment period is over at this time.

However, we will always accept comments at any time that transcript is being finalized and then, of course, next step would be the design approval.

Another important project to note on this slide is the Route 601 Old Ivy Road.

Bridge Replacement Project.

That's coming up soon.

The add date is May 2024.

And construction is expected to, once it begins, which should be sometime later in the summer or early fall, construction is expected to end in April of 2026.

So I just want to put that on your radar.

Next slide is our design build bundles.

So the hydraulic package is off and running, construction has started, which is very exciting, so you should start seeing some work being done out there.

Number two, or I should say, the second bundle, the Albemarle bundle, that one is almost finished.

The last piece, just like last time, is that truck arrestor system, which is being installed on 250, heading down Afton Mountain.

There have been a lot of runaway trucks.

We saw that during construction, so this is going to be a good improvement.

That was added in late, which is why the final completion is a little bit later than expected.

and then last we have Albemarle Bundle number two, which is the five roundabouts.

That one, public hearings are complete and request for proposals have been issued to shortlisted offers.

So that one is also moving along quite well.

Next, I'll just touch on our rural rustics.

So upcoming this season, what we're ready to just go ahead and start construction on to the top three.

You have Old Dominion Road, Arrowhead Valley Road, and Blenheim Road.

Those will be our first.

And then I'd just like to note that Blair Park Road and Henderson Lane should be next.

Those were fully funded last July.

However, we have not received resolutions at this time, so we cannot start construction.

And then Sutherland Road, resolution was received last year.

However, it's not fully funded until this summer.

Next, for our construction activities, we still have ongoing the Red Hill Road Bridge Replacement Project.

We've been able to optimize that signal cycle to hopefully eliminate as much as possible some of the delays that we were experiencing at the beginning of the project so far from what I understand that's running smoothly and expected to have that tepid signal in place through December.

We also have the Frays Mill Road Bridge Replacement Project that is expected to be complete this December as well.

and another item that I neglected to put on my presentation.

We do have a, I'll add it under the road projects.

We do have a project that we're working on right now.

We had received complaints of some ponding water on 29 North in the vicinity of North Garden Lane.

So we've been, there is a crash history there.

There's ponding water due to some uneven grades.

So we did some surveying and we had to look at the cross sections, do some analysis, but we have a plan in place now, so we're ready as soon as the weather breaks to get our contractor out there to fix that location.

It's a lengthy location, but it's going to be, it's going to fix all the different irregularities that are in the pavement, they're causing the ponding water.

Traffic engineering is last but not least.

So we've gotten a lot of work orders that we're trying to catch up on, which is what these top three are.

They're really just sign requests.

The first two are curved warning signs.

Those are complete.

Their views complete.