Board of Supervisors Regular Second Meeting and Public Hearing on Board’s Proposed Budget   4/17/2024

Good afternoon.

I'm pleased to call to order this regular meeting of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors on the 17th of April at 1 p.m.

in Lane Auditorium.

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

Also, we're joined by our county executive, Mr. Jeff Richardson, our county attorney, Mr. Steve Rosenberg, our clerk, Ms.

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

Also, let me please welcome Albemarle County police officers present, Master Police Officer Chip Riley and Officer Andy Munsey.

Thank you.

Board, at this point, it's time for us to adopt the final agenda.

I have not heard of any proposed amendments to the final agenda.

I move that we adopt the agenda as posted.

So we have a motion from Supervisor Mallek, second from Supervisor McKeel.

Ms.

Mallek.

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel.

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley.

Thank you very much.

And other than just reporting on the EDA meeting yesterday where they approved giving monies to a beekeeper for a mobile beekeeping processing plant that can actually, or trailer, that can actually go to smaller beekeepers

in the area actually go there so they can process their honey, which saves them time and money and helps get more honey and helps the environment.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair Andrews.

I want to acknowledge that it, especially over the last seven to ten days, it's been a particularly difficult or trying time for our public safety officials.

both in police fire and the folks that the emergency response and all the systems that are in place to deal with that.

I want to speak to one in particular that occurred in the Rio district in Belvedere that bordered

the Fairview Senate Swim and Tennis Club.

It's not lost on me that if you're not aware that what happened was the hearts team was first on scene and the gentleman was found to be in a mental health crisis and eventually the police department had to come in to help resolve the situation.

The fact that the situation was resolved and that man is receiving treatment is a specific commitment to an approach here in Albemarle County that I appreciate.

It is not lost on me

that this gentleman would have been shot and killed in other jurisdictions in this country.

And frankly, the shooting and the death of the individual could have been justified as a killing.

Just because it's justified does not mean it's the right choice or the right thing to do.

And that goes to our approach to community policing in Albemarle County that I am very appreciative that we have.

So I am grateful to all the men and women that were involved that day.

to handle that situation with patience, compassion, and thought and care to resolve the situation that no residents or any of the personnel received injury and non-lethal means were used to subdue the gentleman and now he's receiving treatment that he needs.

That type of commitment takes strong leadership to pull out.

So I'm very grateful that we have Colonel Reeves in place because I know he is committed to this policing model and that's how we're going to do and conduct business here in Albemarle County.

So I'm particularly grateful for his leadership and Mr. Richardson and that of the county executive's office.

But it also takes buy-in and commitment from the men and women that are on the street putting that in place because they are the ones that are first unseen often encountering the situation.

and know that that is the right approach to do, even though perhaps other justified approaches could be used.

So I just wanted to take the moment, as it happened in the Rio district, to say that.

I also shared this with an HOA.

I was invited last week to be a guest to an HOA in my district.

And sometimes, you know, if I go and host something, it's a political event.

People come out, and those who are politically involved will come out.

If we host town halls, those that are

typically come to town halls will come out, but this was an event while I was invited into, so the citizens there were a mix, you know, at different ages, at different political minds, different political thoughts and views on things, but when I shared that story in these same words with them, they were all nodding in agreement, every single person in the room.

that this is the correct and right approach to follow in Albemarle.

And I think it's important for our police department and all the men and women involved in our public safety positions know that your citizens are behind you with that commitment and buy-in for the approach in Albemarle County.

So if Mr. Richardson, if you wouldn't mind sharing that, I would appreciate it.

Thank you.

Yes, so first I'd like to recognize that right across the street in our neighbor, Charlottesville, is the beginning of the Tom Tom Festival.

That's not in our jurisdiction, but I do think it's important because it touches on a lot of issues that are close to how we govern and how we think about ourselves as a community.

Specifically on Saturday, there's a reentry day-long panel for former offenders who are reentering our community, talking about the challenges they face and how we can build a

and so on.

is the Scottsville Literary Festival.

We combine the word Scottsville and literary.

Scottsville Literary.

Very, very tricky.

So if you are in the neighborhood, please make it out to that.

You are invited to wear a book-themed costume.

They're going to be starting at Victory Hall.

That's the big building that says Victory Hall on the side.

and lastly, much like Supervisor Gallaway, I would like to thank all our public safety professionals in the county who have been dealing with a really trying past two weeks and I will briefly speak to the incident that occurred in my jurisdiction.

There was a

A bomb threat that faced a planet fitness that was in my district.

It was temporarily shut down, as were several adjacent buildings, as was trafficked to one of the most important commercial areas in my entire district, Fist Street Station.

It is one of the dozens across the country that appeared to have been targeted in response to the fact that planet fitness as a gym as a policy does not ban trans women from locker rooms.

So I view this specifically as an anti-LGBT terror effort.

I've been deeply reassured by the fact that our community has really wholly rejected the notion that this is an appropriate response in our community and that this is an appropriate form of hate to find any home in our community.

I would also just like to address that the Board has learned that our ability to seek damages following a conviction by the Commonwealth Attorney for the

The expenses that we incurred during this is severely limited and would need to be contingent on an ordinance and I would suggest to my peers on the board and to our community this is a very essential and basic next step that needs to be pursued to make sure that we're responding as fully as possible to these future threats as we can.

I would also note that in general our tools for directly confronting those who incite such incidents is deeply and frustratingly limited in my personal capacity

and so on.

can be deployed in order to make it easier to hold people responsible who bring these threats into our community.

And lastly, I think I'd be remiss if I didn't, again, thank our public safety personnel and note, this resulted in an increase to security concerns.

This resulted in an increase to security concerns to the county and to myself.

In my personal capacity, I received multiple death threats.

I've received hundreds of direct accusations of sexual predatorism and pedophilia.

Send directly to me.

Because I spoke against an anti-LGBT terror threat in my community.

and we expected this as a community and frankly I have a lot of guilt with making this statement knowing that we would expect this kind of additional concern, this kind of additional threat in our community and I want to suggest that this is something that as a society we are becoming too comfortable with the normalization of.

We have accepted and

agree as a community that this kind of threat of violence is normal in these certain contexts.

I would ask everyone in the audience to think about how we do participate and join and empower the kind of voices that normalize political violence in our community.

And on that note, I'd like to note that the first day of in-person elections is May 3rd for the congressional primary.

And the first day of in-person elections for the general is going to be in September.

Friday 20th.

Supervisor McKeel.

Yes, there seems to be a theme here today, but I appreciate the words of my fellow board members, and I just want to recognize, again, the hearts team.

I had just last week a business owner

who remarked to me that they had an employee in their business during the working hours that had a mental health breakdown.

And she called 911.

and she said I was so appreciative that the hearts team came and she said they were able to diffuse the problem and she said it worked out really beautifully but she said in the in prior years it would not have been the good out possibly not have been such a good outcome so and just speaking for all of us I know I can say this

We are thrilled that this budget does contain the money to provide another team so that we will no longer be just responding to those calls during the week, during business hours.

We'll have another team out to answer calls in the evenings and on weekends.

On another note,

I just want to thank the folks that came to my town hall, we had the budget town hall, for I think the first time that I can even remember I had more residents and more constituents than I had staff, which is a good thing.

35 people came and I really want to thank staff for providing, I think, a really different look at our budget town halls where we combine the transportation and safety and other reports that I know are on the minds of our constituents as well as our budget information.

So from the Jack Jouett District, thank you very much Albemarle County staff and team and I really appreciate the

Community, coming to our town hall.

Sorry, is that me?

Yes.

Okay, so thank you.

Looking away.

Thank you all very much.

I'm going to add a couple of thoughts to the recognition of my colleagues regarding community policing and share again my appreciation for the three police chiefs over since 2009.

and the board leadership of successive boards since that same time to focus on community policing, the old cop on the block, the getting people out of their patrol cars and familiarizing with their neighbors and keeping the same staff in the same region.

which hadn't been done for 20 years before then.

Staff were always moving around and almost kept separate from their constituents and the citizens whom they were protecting.

So I'm very grateful for all of those advancements and the work that Chief Sellers, Chief Lance, and leadership from Chief Reeves to sponsor the Hearts team and to really allow its great success that's already happened in the first six months.

I look forward to that.

The White Hall Town Hall sort of brought up the end of the season and the 91st one of mine since 2008 was in Crozet on April 10th.

It was the very first time I'd had a contingent of staff there.

It was a fantastic experience.

So I really enjoyed that.

We all felt very pampered.

The presentations were excellent.

Kent Executive Richardson did a great introduction and took with along with other staff, and I took a lot of questions from constituents.

So it was really fun, one before and one after on my own, had slightly smaller contingencies, about 20 in one and 10 in the other.

But it was a great season.

So thank you all for participating and continuing to reach out to all the board members with your concerns.

Announcements wise, three quick things.

This Friday, April 19th, at 11 a.m., is the 58th rededication of the Dogwood Vietnam Memorial, right down in McIntyre Park.

Parking will be in the field, but you'll be directed to enter through the skate park going

Westbound, Northbound on the bypass only.

Then on the 27th of April, only one day, the White Hall Ruritans will be holding their plant sale.

These are plants raised from seed or dug from our members' gardens.

Funds are used for high school graduate scholarships to college or advanced training, and also to restore and maintain this historic building, which was a parish church in 1905 and given to the community about 60 years ago.

The last announcement is the 21st of May.

No, sorry, the 21st spring plant sale hosted by the Piedmont Master Gardeners.

That is Saturday, May 4th at Albemarle Square from 10 to 2.

And a great chance for people to spruce up their own gardens with native plants grown locally.

Thank you.

In keeping with the theme, of course, in the Samuel Miller District, we had a couple of fire incidents to respond to.

One was just an unattended grill, but it caused them damage and everybody should practice safety and recognize that even if we've got rain and all the fire season is still upon us.

And I also wanted to let you all know that I had the honor of signing and sending off thank you letters to the

Localities that helped us with the March 20th Mutual Aid on Nelson County, Carbone County, Amelia County, Isle of White County, Town of Pulaski, and our neighbor, Green County.

So very much appreciate that.

And I also very much appreciate Super Arthur Gallaway's comments about the importance of the HEARTS team and the approach that we're taking towards this sort of issue.

Thank you.

Yes, it is my privilege to be able to read this proclamation, a proclamation recognizing National Public Safety Telecommunications Week, which also supports the fact that we are extremely supportive of law enforcement, fire,

Health and Safety.

I'm very proud of the programs that we have.

Whereas in an emergency, community members depend on public safety telecommunications and access to 911 as their only means to request help from fire and rescue, law enforcement, animal control, and emergency mental health responders.

And whereas when an emergency occurs, the prompt response of field responders

is critical to the protection of life and preservation of property.

And public safety telecommunicators are the first, first responders.

The single vital link between field responders and persons seeking immediate relief during an emergency.

And whereas the Charlottesville UVA, Albemarle County Emergency Communications Center, CUA-ECC, was founded in 1984

as a joint venture between the City of Charlottesville and the University of Virginia and Albemarle County.

And whereas public safety communicators of the CUA ECC process approximately 250,000 calls per year from persons who call, text, or video call the Emergency Communications Center.

and ensure the safety of our field responder personnel by monitoring their activities and providing them crucial information, thereby significantly contributing to crime reduction, fire suppression and patient treatments.

And whereas each day public safety telecommunicators provide life-saving treatment, instructions, compassion, understanding and professionalism during the performance of their jobs.

now therefore being proclaimed that we, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, do hereby recognize the week of April 14th through the 20th, 2024 as National Public Safety Telecommunications Week in honor of the telecommunicators

and whose roles provide support for them, whose diligence and professionalism keep our communities safe and healthy and commemorate the 40th anniversary of the CUA Emergency Communications Center.

Signed the 17th day of April, 2024, Jim Andrews, Chair, Albemarle County Board of Supervisors.

We have a motion from Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley, a second from Supervisor McKeel.

Ms.

Mallek.

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel.

Yes.

Mr. Gallaway.

Yes.

Ms.

Aye.

Thank you.

Thank you.

It's a mouthful, right?

Thank you.

I appreciate that, Chair Andrews.

I do want to say I'm privileged to serve as your executive director of the Regional Emergency Communications Center, but I'm also the immediate past president of the Virginia Association of Communications Officials, and so on behalf of both organizations, I just want to say thank you.

for taking the time to recognize our public safety communications officers.

We've got over 60 co-workers at the ECC, and they're very thankful for the recognition.

And with me today, if I may, would like to ask those that join me to stand up and be recognized.

And thank you, Chair, if I may.

Also, we're having an open house tomorrow from four to seven at the Emergency Communications Center.

They're on IV, and we'll have hamburgers and hot dogs.

And I'd love to have the community come out if I may.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Please hold tight for a moment.

I'm sure people will have remarks.

Yes, I think I said it all, but I'm very appreciative.

Without 9-1-1, frankly, where would we be?

You have saved so many lives through your professionalism, through the dedicated employees that you have, in support of police fire, the heart team, because you are the ones that notify them.

And that is something that we're extremely grateful for.

Thank you.

Yeah, I echo the fact that I'm very appreciative of all you do.

It's not lost on me that the individuals involved when, I mean, you think of the skill set you need to be able to take a call in an even-keeled, calm manner to keep what you're dealing with, that you never know what it's going to be, and then figuring out where to route it to the appropriate place.

I mean, that's quite the skill set.

So to all those that work with you, that is acknowledged.

and it's not just about taking the phone call, it's also then about all of the process that has to happen behind that to make it all work.

So incredibly grateful for all the work that you guys do day in and day out to help keep our community safe.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, and thank you to all the communicators who were able to be here today, as well as those on your team who weren't able to be here, because they're busy.

I think we've all expressed already today how deeply appreciative we are of the public safety efforts that are taking place throughout the county during what's been especially a challenging few weeks, and I understand that y'all have been an integral part of that.

So, again, thank you so much for the work that you'll provide to our county.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All of you all do back there.

Yes, would love that if you had time.

Yeah, would love that.

Thank you so much.

The photo op I would love.

Thank you.

We're very proud.

We've got a little over 60 right now.

Still, we're looking for a few, but yeah, a little over 60.

Amazing, though.

Hi, thank you.

I'm Celeste Baldino.

Good afternoon, board.

Thank you for your kind words today and recognition of the team.

My name is Josh Powell.

I'm the Deputy Director of Support Services for the ECC.

Hello, Lily Gregg, Deputy Director of Technology.

Thank you.

Hello.

Penny Banks, I am the Senior Systems Engineer.

I've been there for 24 years.

Sorry, I get a little nervous.

My name is Devin Capello.

I've been with the agency for a year now.

I'm very grateful to be here and working in Albemarle County.

Thank you very much.

I just want to say that this is a really good example of how the university and the city and Elmar County work together for the benefit of our community and for folks that say we don't get along, actually we do.

I'm always amazed because I know there's an ECC number for Charlottesville and non-emergency as well, and one for Albemarle, and I assume, I don't know if there's one for the university, but I know all of those numbers just go directly to you guys, and once you get it, you figure it out.

Thank you all very much.

Over the last 40 years, it's amazing when I think back, each of us used to have a postcard next to the phone with directions of how to find us.

And back in the 90s, my technology, elementary students learning to keyboard, used their practice time to actually digitize the directions notebook for the Earleysville Fire Company.

They thought that was really cool because every fire engine had a notebook and they're looking through, trying to figure out how to get to the Mallek's house, basically.

Thank you very much our systems engineers and technology people for helping us to do have access to so much more ability to so you can do your job so much more easily because it's really great to have the babysitter or child senior care person be able to just pick up the phone and not have to worry about how to describe how to go one mile to the tree take a left that kind of thing to get there and I'm also grateful that our 911 actually comes to you

Thank you.

I echo the sentiments of the other supervisors and appreciation for what you are doing, what you've done, what you will do on behalf of our community.

I had the pleasure of attending the read award presentation at the Virginia Festival of Book and one of the recipients who read is

When you're done.

Oh, great.

I see Jeff leading in.

I would like to take a second, Chair, to mention the point that was made by one of the supervisors about the regional nature of the work with the University, the city, and the county.

We've got an amazing team over under Mr. Saxton's leadership, where the advantages of having this multi-agency

representation in one room.

So many of our emergency events end up being more than just one responding agency, and you are looking at balancing three different organizations, and you're balancing also calls for service in other parts of a very large county, a very dense city, and a very busy university.

These people do amazing work and so often times this board does a wonderful job in your board meetings of recognizing our emergency response services out of police and fire.

And we always need to remember that everything that our people in the field do is anchored back to the wonderful work out of the ECC.

Sonny, I was not a part of this conversation, but I just want you, if you would, and you and I did not rehearse this, so I hope I ask you the right question.

You were recently in a conversation with one of our staff talking about your observations of daytime population growth in our community versus permanent nighttime population growth.

Could you take a second and speak to that as it relates to the call volume in your organization and what you see

Could you say something about that for our board?

Thank you Mr. Richardson.

Thank you for mentioning that.

So that's one of the things that we are challenged in our community to make sure that we're available to answer that call.

and so what we see just to keep it short is that our

so the volume of people that are reaching out and asking for assistance is on order of communities that are two times our size and that probably our guess and our study shows that that's because of that influx of population that we see during the daytime hours and so quite frankly some of the challenges and some of the opportunities that we have come from that daytime population, evening population really spiking during the week and so more to follow on that but

Thank you.

That's a really important point.

The only question I was going to ask you to take away with you is at the night out at Stonefield a couple of years ago, I had a conversation with some of your staff who were describing how crowded it is in your space.

Thank you.

Yeah, we're working with staff on that.

I appreciate that.

Thank you.

And I believe you're going to take a picture.

Thank you for all your time today, guys.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

About ten years ago, the PED talked about 35,000 people coming in and going out every day from the regional community.

Should we stand up behind him here or sit right here?

We can stand up.

We'll peek over your shoulders.

You all are the spotlight.

It's okay.

Thank you.

Some of you got some work to do to catch Miss Banks 24 years ago.

Good to see you.

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

I believe we have some signups, and I will ask Vice Chair McKeel to read the rules for in-person speakers.

We have two sign-ups and I will read.

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 signup sheet is managed by the clerk's office.

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

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

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

and 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 material may be given to the clerk.

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

Spakers may not share any unused time with another speaker.

Back and forth debate is not permitted.

Do not speak from your seat or out of turn.

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

And with that, our first speaker is

and I'm struggling with the, and I see you looking at me.

Mary, I believe that's you and your last name is Crumbian.

I'm just not sure about, I'm sorry.

Welcome.

It's combined, but that's fine.

All right, I'm ready.

My name is Mary, and I recently purchased in Albemarle Colony in the Scottsville District, the former Slate Hill Baptist Church, which is the old historic Slate Hill meeting house.

and it's on the National and State Historic Registers of Places and I'm just asking for a minor special exception to have it titled in a business name instead of a personal name I will eventually be living there once it's renovated for partially for liability and also because of the construction loan I'm going to do to restore the property and kind of take it back more to the

It's an original look and show how really beautiful it is.

It's an SBA, a small business administration loan, so it has to be titled in a business, not personally.

I've also gotten a lot of helpful information from Ms.

Leah Brumfield.

She let me know that I probably don't need to subdivide as I initially had put in in a special exceptional quest, so I probably won't be doing that.

That's it.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

I'm Tom Olivier from the Samuel Miller District here to speak about Rivanna Futures and related developments.

In past updates to the Planning Commission and to you, the County Executive Office staff suggested that Rivanna Futures could anchor an eight-mile defense and technology corridor running along 29 North all the way to the Green County line.

and business community support for such a corridor was said to be already in place.

I have questions regarding the projected economic and environmental consequences of such developments.

For starters, what obvious community need would an eight-mile military industrial complex on 29 Northmeat, and would its benefits exceed its detrimental effects?

No doubt a multi-mile tech DOD corridor would expand the local economy, but is that vital or even good?

Albemarle's economy has been relatively strong for decades, and for better and worse, UVA is anchored here and an engine of growth.

An eight-mile military industrial complex on 29 North undoubtedly would attract many highly skilled residents to fill new high-tech jobs.

But think of the associated new homes, expensive new schools, new shopping centers, new growth areas, worse traffic and more.

I'm skeptical that most residents want these.

Current low-income residents could reap the fewest benefits.

They will lack the skills to fill fancy tech jobs.

Existing housing costs will rise.

Rising costs will drive many poor people out of Albemarle.

Turning to the environment, new buildings would destroy a fragment of forests and other habitat blocks, undermining the county's 25-year-old commitment to protect its ecosystems.

New buildings also would expand heat islands and exacerbate climate resilience challenges.

The energy needs of new residents would undermine county efforts to become carbon neutral.

These environmental consequences of a tech DOD corridor would add to threats to our community's future.

I could be wrong with these seat-of-the-pants assessments.

Perhaps you have analyses of the many impacts of a 29 North Tech DOD corridor.

If you do, please post them on the county website so citizens can examine them.

If you don't have impact analyses, please hold promotion of our commitments to the 29 North Tech DoD corridor until you have studies to inform your decisions.

and our concludes are number seven, number eight, which is the consent agenda.

So moved.

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

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Mr. Pruitt?

Aye.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

The Board will now move to three similar action items relating to special exceptions for homestays.

First, from the Rivanna District.

That's the 2023-42, 3074 doctors crossing homestay.

I believe this and the next two items will be led by Ms.

Leah Brumfield, Senior Planner 2.

Welcome Ms.

Good afternoon, board.

There we go.

Alright, so good afternoon.

My name is Lea Brumfield, Senior Planner 2 in Zoning.

We do, as mentioned, have three Homestay special exceptions before the board today.

They are all three requesting authorization for a resident agent to fulfill residency requirements.

for a homestay use.

Our first special exception is special exception 2023-42 at 3074 Doctors Crossing in Stony Point.

The parcel is 65 acres in size, largely forested and in hay.

and as this is a rural areas parcel of greater than five acres in size, it is permitted to rent up to five guest sleeping spaces within a single family dwelling or an accessory structure built before August 7th, 2019.

Unhosted stays are permitted up to seven days per month, up to 45 days per year.

If the special exception to allow a resident agent is approved,

The owner must at that point apply for a homestay zoning clearance.

And during that review process, the structure used for the homestay would be inspected for building, fire safety.

The owners would be required to send a notice to neighbors, providing them with responsible agent contact information.

And the homestay is also required to provide guest parking on site.

at a standard rate of one parking space per guest bedroom.

In following years, the property would be required to pass a fire safety inspection annually.

So here I have a slide that was included in the board's materials.

The homestay at 3074 Doctors Crossing is proposed to be located in the center of the 65-acre parcel, as shown here with the yellow star.

And then the close-up shows the structure itself from the aerial along with a lot of parking that is along the driveway.

This is a full view of the front of the single-family dwelling proposed for use as a home stay.

The reason that this is being requested for a special exception is because the property is owned by Ms.

Leslie Martina Durr.

Her letter to the board was included in the packet provided.

As noted in the application, Ms.

Durr currently resides in a retirement community, and her son Mr. Eric Hurt resides on the property.

with his family.

Mr. is requesting permission for Mr. Hurt to serve as her resident agent to permit the property to host a homestay.

And if this special exception is approved during the homestay clearance process, the residency would be reviewed and approved at that point.

This slide shows views from the structure looking south

West and North in that order.

As you can see, there is dense vegetation and a lot of space in between this property and any abutting dwellings.

So as such, we would like to note the factors to be considered in a special exception.

Adverse impacts to the surrounding neighborhood, public health, safety or welfare, consistency with the comprehensive plan, and consistency in size and scale with the surrounding neighborhood.

Looking at those factors, reviewing the application as a land use decision,

We do not, staff does not believe that the Homestay would propose an adverse impact to the surrounding neighborhood, public health, safety or welfare.

And as it is in a existing structure and it is an accessory use to a residential dwelling, the use is considered consistent with the comprehensive plan and in the size and scale of the surrounding neighborhood.

as such.

Staff does recommend approval of the Homestay, special exception 2023-42 at 3074 Doctors Crossing.

And I think I set a record there.

Thank you.

Board, we'll now ask questions and comment.

Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley.

Yes, I have no questions.

Thank you very much.

Supervisor Gallaway.

No questions from me.

Quick question.

When we have an exception for a specific resident manager, I know these Homestay exceptions survive the existing owners.

They run with the land.

No, it does not.

The permission is for a resident agent.

As in the resolution that's provided, it's not a specific resident agent that is listed in that resolution.

They usually do just for context.

I don't know if we could list that in our resolution.

I don't think that the board has the authority to

require that level of detail, either under the existing ordinance or to amend the existing ordinance to require that detail.

McKeel.

Just to share with the board what I'm thinking, I think we've frequently come to in the past when I've observed the board's work on homestay exemptions.

We generally are supportive of the individual residents who are coming to us with these and also have a lot of concerns with the program itself and how that legal title is structured and the permissions are structured.

And this to me strikes as another potential thing to raise as a concern when we talk with our

with our colleagues in the General Assembly in the future.

This strikes me as something that is prone to a potential for abuse, because this becomes a thing that travels again with the land like the homestay itself, but also that allows a non-resident to continue to manage the property, an infant item.

All of the ones before us, I think, they are people with a personal connection to the owner.

In one case, it is literally the owner.

but that does not have to be the case the way these are structured and that is the concern I'm just wanting to highlight.

Thank you.

Leah, would you help me understand where I'm a little confused?

He's going to live, the son is going to live on the property, but not in this house.

No, he does live in this house.

That is a full-time residence.

The rental currently would only be for the unhosted stays, which is limited, very limited.

That's only the seven days a month, 45 days a year.

I don't know why I was confused, but maybe it doesn't matter.

So he's living in the house itself.

He currently does live in the house.

Yes, he would be the resident agent and he would also be the responsible agent.

So my other question was sort of mirroring a little bit what Mike was asking.

So if we approve this in the future, who knows what would happen, but if the land changed hands and then we had a new owner and all, this would, these

The resident manager, the piece that we're approving, would not follow.

So the details in the agreement do follow because they are specifically only limited to allowing a resident agent.

We're not.

The proposal in front of the board today, the proposed resolution, does not specify who the resident agent is.

It only specifies that it permits a resident agent.

and the, as far as kind of addressing Supervisor Pruitt's concern a little bit earlier, part of the annual short-term rental registry is looking at and updating the resident agent and making sure that that is still a occupied parcel.

that is very helpful.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

I didn't have any questions until the question started and now I do.

So I'm probably going to go round and round again in circles because I think I've asked this question in previous years and now I can't remember what the answer was.

When we've discussed LLCs in the past, it has been the beneficiary of the LLC is a member of the family and it has been owner occupied

is the whole basis for our ordinance.

So the LLC coming in and having a resident agent was because the beneficiary is still the owner family person, which seems to work perfectly for this particular property.

Where now I'm confused is, where's it going?

Because now it seems like the answer has been, that's not the case anymore.

And we did not change the ordinance to my understanding.

So I would love to have some clarification on that, but I won't have to answer it again for the other two things that are coming up.

There's a reinterpretation, it sounds like, that's going on now, that it's not owner occupied anymore.

So you described how everything would be carrying forward if a new person came and would have different circumstances.

So a resident agent, we do not specify, we have never specified who the resident agent is.

The ordinance currently does still require owner occupancy, which is why the special exception is in front of the board today.

So if it was owner occupied, they would not be required to get a special exception.

So if Ms.

Durr still lived on the property, she would be able to rent out the home as a homestay under her own name.

Miller.

Since her son lives on the property, that is why they need a special exception.

Thank you.

And to be clear, in this instance, there is no LLC involved.

There is no business entity involved.

and just the add-on is that July 1st the board will get authority to limit at three years and so that's something we need to keep in our mind and get that in the schedule.

Thank you very much.

Thank you and I have no questions.

Yeah, I'm ready to make a motion but I did want to make a statement.

We have approved in the past where the owner owns

couple parcels maybe that aren't touching, but they have a renter in one of the homes, and yet the other home that's on the same piece of property, the renter is able to act as the resident manager for the home, the other home.

So we have approved that in the past, and they weren't related, but we have approved that in the past.

I would Mr. Chair if I can just remind the board I see a motion on the screen in front of you if the maker of the motion would specifically incorporate

Yeah, that's what I was going to do.

Okay, so I move that the Board of Supervisors approve a special exception shown in the staff report Attachment G for SE 2023-42 at 34 doctors crossing.

We have a motion from Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley, second from Supervisor Mallek.

I just want to look around to make sure if the board has any comments or discussion.

Ms.

Mallek.

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel.

Yes.

Mr. Gallaway.

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley.

Thank you, Chair Andrews.

Moving right along, the second special exception we have for the board tonight is proposed at 5799 Tabor Street.

The parcel in question contains two dwellings.

The first is the one that the property is occupied by Ms.

Cynthia Chiles.

at 5803 Tabor Street, and the second structure is at 5799 Tabor Street, which is proposed for use as the homestay pictured here.

5803 Tabor Street is the primary structure on the parcel, and so that is what was listed in the staff report, I'm sorry, in the agenda.

And as a point of clarification, the staff analysis for this application

did erroneously list the comprehensive plan designation for the property as rural area.

It is, in fact, in the development area, and it is zoned R2 residential.

So the reason that the property is before E4A, special exception, is because it is owned by R&H Partners LLC, a family-held LLC.

One of the owners of the LLC, Ms.

Cynthia Childs, is requesting authorization to serve as the resident agent

for a homestay use on that parcel.

She does live on the parcel as noted.

Additionally, as the structure proposed for use is six feet from the property boundary, the applicant would also be requesting a setback reduction.

This application is for a 3.26 acre parcel near downtown Crozet.

Residential zone parcels are permitted to rent up to two guest sleeping spaces within a single family dwelling.

Primary structures setbacks are required unless accepted and unhosted stays are not permitted and all the other requirements for homestays are standard across the board and required including parking, annual safety inspections, and short-term rental registry annually.

So on this parcel, the proposed resident agent, Ms.

Chiles, resides in the dwelling shown on the left with the blue asterisk.

The proposed homestay dwelling is highlighted with the green asterisk.

And as you can see in this image on the screen, the parcel directly abutting that would be affected by the reduced setback is also owned by the same family-run LLC.

This aerial shows the proposed homestay location again with the green asterisk and a budding parcels highlighted also owned by the same family-owned LLC, RNH partners.

the abutting parcel and then the again next abutting parcel 1107 and then again the abutting parcel directly east of the parcel in question all owned by that same family that I'll see.

Directly north of the proposed homestay location outlined in blue and purple is the Foster Forge School and the Tabor Presbyterian Church respectively.

The image on the left shows views from a proposed home state to the nearest dwelling to the east.

As you can kind of glimpse through the trees there, that is the only directly abutting parcel not owned by R&H Partners LLC.

The image on the right is in looking in the direction of the requested reduced setback, facing a dwelling owned by R&H Partners LLC, occupied by a family member.

and again as we are noting the special exception factors to consider.

Due to the nature of special exceptions, they do run with the land.

We have analyzed the use, looking at the property itself, the greater context of the neighborhood and less so the individual owner and the individual ownership type on this parcel.

because we are looking at it as a land use decision and the use does not appear to propose to cause any adverse impacts to neighborhood public health safety welfare.

and that is in a existing structure consistent with comprehensive plan as an accessory use and it is consistent in size and scale with the surrounding neighborhood as a I think pre-1900s structure that has existed in Crozet for quite some time.

It is consistent in size and scale with the neighborhood.

as it is owned by a family LLC, occupied by a member of that family, we do not find any negative impacts to surrounding properties.

And additionally, the reduced setback is also reducing a setback to an abutting parcel owned by that family LLC.

As such, we do recommend approval of the staff exception, special exception as shown in the staff report.

Thank you.

We'll go through our order.

Yes, if you could please go back to I think a slide one or two.

That one.

This one?

Yes.

Thank you.

So, quick question.

So, I know we're looking at a six foot setback in all the other properties surrounding it are owned by the same person.

I don't know if this would be from Mr. Rosenberg or not, but this is, what happens if the one label, 1105, if to the directly to the south, if that was sold to somebody else, then you have this six foot setback

would that nullify the homestay exception or not?

No.

Okay.

Well, then that answers my question.

Thank you.

Supervisor Gallaway.

I have no questions.

Thank you.

I have no questions.

And my only comment would be obviously if this land was sold and someone was purchasing it, they would be aware of that.

And it is, as you can see from the image, let me go down there again, the property is in view.

It is visible from the abutting parcel.

Yeah, that's all.

I have no questions.

I'm very glad that this is

A wonderful reuse for this historic property.

And the folks who stay there will be able to walk out the front door and be right there in downtown.

So, great location.

Good to hear.

I have no questions or additional comments.

Very good.

I move that Albemarle County Board of Supervisors approve the special exceptions as shown in the staff report, Attachment F, for SE-21E2343 at 5799 Taper Street.

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

Mallek, Ms.

McKeel, Mr. Pruitt, Mr. Andrews, Mr. Gallaway, Ms.

All right, so

and

of the Slate Hill Baptist Church.

The property owner, Ms.

Combine, came a little bit earlier to speak in front of the board.

She is the holy, sorry, single owner of Monticello Inn and Cottage LLC, which owns the parcel upon which 2895 Rolling Road is located.

So, by right, this 10-acre parcel is permitted to rent up to five guest sleeping spaces within a single family dwelling or accessory structure built before August 7, 2019, and it is permitted to have up to two homestay uses, one per single family dwelling.

If the special exception is approved, the owner of the property must, at that point,

apply for a homestay zoning clearance.

During that process, the structure used for the homestay would be inspected for building and fire safety.

The owners would send a notice to the neighbors providing them with contact information and homestays would be required to provide guest parking on site at a rate of one guest parking space per guest bedroom.

If you look at this aerial, there is currently plenty of parking.

The former site of the Slate Hill Baptist Church is highlighted in with the yellow star.

Ms.

Crumbine intends to convert the former church into both her home

and a bed and breakfast style homestay.

The renovation process would be a historic preservation project.

The contributing parts of the building are the main chapel, which would be registered and considered by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.

First, I want to point out that this slide illustrates that the parcel surrounding the vast majority of the parcel in question is forested and it is held by the University of Virginia Foundation.

The other large parcel immediately to the south is undeveloped and the small parcel directly abutting this property contains a structure at 2941 Rolling Road, which was recently declared by ordinance to be blighted.

and, well, is under an abatement plan, including, I believe, demolition.

As noted in this application, the applicant intends to renovate the church and live in it, running a homestay as an accessory use on the parcel.

In her application, she additionally noted that in the coming years, she intends to build a second dwelling on the parcel, out of which she would run an additional four or five bedrooms for rent in the style of a bed and breakfast.

the approximate location of the second dwelling is shown highlighted with the blue star in this image and then also as she brought up a little bit earlier following discussion she indicated she'd be willing to not subdivide the land but preserve the entire acreage using the development rights that exist on the parcel to build a second dwelling which would be on the same parcel as the one that she lives in.

This would also remove any need for an additional resident agent, although she does intend to install a manager to oversee the rental of that structure and maintain just general peace and harmony in that side of the parcel.

and as this proposal is a bit different from any previously brought to the board, I did want to highlight the section on the ordinance that would permit this if Ms.

Crumbine were just owning the parcel under her own name instead of her LLC.

County Code 18-5.1.48c2.

A rural areas parcel of over 5 acres is permitted to have up to two homestay uses in two single-family residences.

and a use here means a single family dwelling with up to five guest rooms for rent as a home stay.

This is by right through the ordinance and the exception that we're asking for here is the authorization to do a use while owning the LLC, sorry while owning the parcel through the LLC.

We would like to note the factors to be considered for a special exception, including specific adverse impacts to the surrounding neighborhood, public health safety or welfare, consistency with the comprehensive plan, and consistency in size and scale with the surrounding neighborhood.

as the conversion of this property into a residence with a homestay would promote both reuse and restoration and preservation of a historic structure and the surrounding parcels due to the ownership of the larger parcel is fairly unlikely to develop anytime in the near future and the use proposed is by right under the property owner's individual name instead of an LLC

We are reviewing this application solely as a land use decision, and staff does recommend approval of the Homestay Special Exception 2023-48 at 2895 Road as shown in the staff report.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Just to clarify, so I get the LLC needs the resident manager piece.

She could, yes.

That would be possible.

Thank you.

I do just have one question.

Can we go to the slide where you discussed, I think it's two back, the building rights, thank you.

I think I didn't fully catch this when I read through the, so am I understanding in the rural area normally this would not have the development right to build two single family homes, but under a homestay use it does?

No, the property does have the development rights.

If Ms.

Crumbine just wanted to live there and then she had maybe a family member who also wanted to live on the parcel, she could renovate the church and then build a second dwelling and then we would never see that.

Only the building inspectors would see that as a building permit.

That is a by-right use.

Under this, it actually reduces the number of uses that, sorry, it doesn't reduce the number of uses.

It does require a five acre parcel.

So in the rural area, if you had two development rights on a four acre parcel, you could have two single family dwellings there, but you could not have two or even one five bedroom homestay.

You need the five acres.

So under the homestay regulations, it actually expands the size of the parcel a little bit.

that you would have the second dwelling on.

Can you go back to the picture of the homestay with the parking?

I should have looked in to see what... There you go.

That's it.

Thank you.

I'm just curious.

I believe that Ms.

Okay, I was just curious because obviously you can drive out into the grass but it did look like to me and you have one entrance in and I'm just thinking about

We discussed heavily during the building permit process as well.

Currently, two cars actually can pass on the far side where it says parking.

You can have one car parked and another one passed.

It is right enough there.

But yes, that would fire safety access would definitely be something that would be addressed.

Thank you very much.

So my questions, I guess, reading through the application, there was a discussion, obviously, of both the plans for a second dwelling, and then also there were comments in his about, well, we're not going to do weddings, we're not going to do these other things.

And I guess I wanted to just clarify which of these

require further action.

Correct.

The approval is for the resident agent for the parcel.

I believe that the events portion of the application was included

because this was something that we had stressed during the pre-application meeting for this application was that weddings would not be permitted on this parcel unless it was agricultural, which she is not intending to run a winery or have

events like that, any kind of weddings or events serving anyone who's not staying on the parcel.

So it would be, it was included in there just as part of a business plan explanation that yes, some bed and breakfasts do have weddings.

This one, because it's in Albemarle County, because that's not the type of business that they're intending to run.

just to ease your mind, we will not be following that.

We will not be pursuing that path.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

I have no other questions.

And it is a attachment G, I believe.

Thank you.

Ms.

Mallek.

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel.

Yes.

Mr. Pruitt.

Aye.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley.

Thank you.

This brings us at just after 2.15 to a point where we have the next item, a special exception relating to orchard acres, but we also have a recess.

BOOM!

and we're back in session.

Thank you.

And we're at item 12, an action item dealing with SE 2023-36, orchard acres, lots 37 and 38, Clean Earth fill led by Mr. Bartsovota, Deputy Community Development Director and Zoning Administrator.

Thank you very much for having us.

I have Lisa Green with me, our manager of code compliance.

Lisa will be doing the majority of the staff report.

I just want to do a brief little intro on Phil and inert Phil.

So we've had a lot of conversations about this topic.

This is actually only the third SE that we've done in regards to Phil.

Two of them were done by the same individual, Mr. Kinder.

Right, so this is the third one.

This particular situation appears to be ideal in how we set up the ordinance.

And if we wanted to do infill type parcels such as these, this is the reason that we're here is these particular lots that are not our average thing that happens.

Normally we set up pads when we're grading out a subdivision.

If I use Belvedere as an example, that masquerading takes place.

In a situation like this, this subdivision was done back in the 70s.

So it's kind of unique under how we see lots develop now.

Since the houses weren't built, these are just residual lots.

So I'm going to turn it over to Ms.

Good afternoon, Board and Chair Andrews.

My name is Lisa Green.

I'm the Manager of Code Compliance.

Thank you for your time today.

The special exception for you today pertains to parcels 55C A-37 and 55C A-38 in the White Hall District.

The parcels shown above are in the Portrait Acres subdivision, an established residential neighborhood in the Crozet development area.

The applicant's request is to waive two sections of 5.1.28, the minimum setback requirement, and the minimum light size requirement.

The parcel's history is fairly simple.

As seen here, the properties were rezoned in 1974 to R2, represented on this slide by the gold-green color.

The two parcels involved in the request contained .54 acres and .46 acres respectively.

They both front on orchard drive and have historically been vacant wooded land.

The current owner has owned these two parcels since the inception of the subdivision.

For reference, this is a view of the parcel from Orchard Drive looking toward the southwest.

This is a view of the parcel looking at the road, which helps us understand its topography challenges more clearly.

The elevations indicate approximately an 8 to 10 foot drop from the road to the buildable areas.

This view is looking northwest along Orchard Drive.

Again, this is another visual of the grade change difference.

Phil has been placed on the site.

However, once the community development department notified the owner that this property was subject to 5.1.28 regulations, a stop-work order was issued, the importation of Phil and Grading ceased, and the property was stabilized.

Staff has been working with the property owner's representative for several months to develop a plan to bring the site into compliance.

This is an additional photograph from the road showing the stabilization of the fill area.

The owner submitted a water protection ordinance plan in September, followed by this special exception request in October.

This plan submitted with the special exception application indicates the limits of the fill activity area.

The improvements proposed are to create two single-family building sites, keeping the building sites close to the road and minimizing the disturbed area in the buffer.

This exhibit is part of the WPO plan that was submitted.

It shows the representation of the location of future homes to be built.

The current status of the WPO plan is under review, pending the outcome of today's vote.

If the special exception were to be granted, the WPO plan could be approved, abating the violation.

Because these lots have existed since 1974, if a building permit application were submitted, this type of activity would be reviewed and approved administratively through the building permit review process.

A special exception would not be required in that case, and staff recommends approval of this special exception request.

Thank you.

We'll go through our order.

Yes, going back to I think it's slide seven.

This is what they've done so far to stabilize the area.

Correct.

Okay.

All right, no other questions.

I have no questions.

I don't believe I have any questions.

But you all haven't moved on, that hasn't been approved because you're waiting to see if it's approved today.

Correct.

But we will make sure that that happens.

That is correct.

Yeah, yeah.

Thank you.

So since this picture is on the screen right now, this is on the right if I'm coming south from Lane Town.

This is looking north toward Lane Town.

Your orchard drive is on your right.

OK.

All right.

Got it.

How far, if this were to be approved, is this the extent of the fill that's shown in your diagram that shows the 24 by 36 foot house on the line drawing?

Or is there more fill that has to be pushed where these trees are and further down the hill?

It's hard for me to get a perspective from this photograph of what- Yeah, there'd be some more fill.

Yeah, but it would be compliant with the plan.

Okay.

Slide six showed a pipe.

That is the current location that would be made official if this today's were approved.

And is this the right length or is this the narrow version?

and I'd have to verify for sure, but I believe that this is the correct pipe, that no extension would be required.

Not just a drawing, but to see how it's really happening.

Let me go back here.

I understand completely the lot preceding the age of the ordinance, etc.

there still are limits to that interpretation.

In other words, it doesn't mean any old lot could be built on.

I mean, there are some lots that were never built on because they don't meet any requirements of sustainability.

So DEQ has weighed in on your deliberations.

Yeah, I believe in your packet is the letters from DEQ.

And so they went out and did their investigation.

and their findings does not indicate any concerns, so what lands and things that were investigated based on a complaint were resolved.

This is Powell Creek, so it goes straight down to the basin and into drinking water, so that is important.

in your packet there was the, as I said, the schematic that showed 24 by 36 foot house envelopes or is that the building envelope and the house is smaller than that or is that the maximum of the house which could be put there?

Because that's important.

So this particular application is about the fill.

So this gives us an idea of the size of the houses that fill that goes in there would accommodate.

The underlying zoning district there does not have a maximum square footage for houses.

So as long as they met setback

Building Code, any other conditions that an ordinance would require.

We wouldn't be limiting the size of the house.

And that could be conditioned as part of this approval, because they are stipulating it as part of their application.

I mean, you didn't create this.

So I would say no, and the county attorneys can clarify that.

Because this is regarding the fill, that this is about the impact of the fill, not the impact of the house.

So as an example, if I came in for a building permit, we wouldn't be doing a special exception, because backfilling along a foundation of a house is part of that permit.

that permit would not limit the size of that structure other than saying you need to be out of stream buffer or setback or things like that.

In this particular case, some of the reasons to be able to cross the stream is that these lots existed prior to the adoption date of some of our regulations.

So it says that you have the ability to cross that stream to create the first dwelling unit with no limitations on size.

Normally we see, not normally, but mostly we see this kind of out in the rural areas on parcels where we got across the creek.

This is a little bit unique in the fact that it's in a subdivision with a number of lots.

And the headwaters, if you trace that back, kind of starts in the farmer's field.

Right next to the mixing shack.

Yes.

Yikes.

But the amount of fill that is shown here is part of the plan, the condition.

So that in effect limits the area where the house could go.

My concerns are about we've been asked to give a waiver for setback from the property line.

and we've been asked for a waiver for the fill.

But that should have limits.

It should have some amount of what they are asking for a waiver for.

That's correct.

To fill in accordance with this plan limits what we call pure fill, right?

No, because under a building permit, it's not fill.

Under building permit, it's part of construction.

So the way we reviewed this application is as if the fill wasn't existing right now, right?

And so there's two analysis to do.

One is, if they came in with a building permit, all of our regulation would allow this without any special exceptions.

Because these lots existed prior to the adoption date of the ordinances that are in play now.

That they're asking for waivers from or stream crossings, any of those things.

in order to prep the lots without a building permit, it now subjects that what would be backfill to the fill and earn or waste.

And that's where we want to limit the amount of activity that they're doing pre-development, pre-structure, because we don't want to guess that we don't want to issue a fill

Exception that covers the whole lot if they're only going to build a thousand square foot house.

But if they want to come in and build a 1200 square foot house instead of an 800 square foot house, then they can modify the backfill with that building permit.

It wouldn't have to be the special exception.

This is only here because there's not another application that would exempt it.

If I applied for a building permit for, let's say, a 5,000 square foot house on this lot, they could fill as much of that, backfill as much of that lot as they could as part of that construction as long as they stayed out of all the other things that are required.

Based on the age of this law, a lot of the things that were used to being required, like don't cross the stream as an example, is out of play because these lots existed prior to the adoption day of the ordinance.

And I get to use that lot under the reg as if it didn't exist.

So this is strictly about I got ahead of myself in putting Phil on the site, trying to develop a pad site.

Thank you.

Yeah, my main concerns really have to do, I guess, with the WPO plan, which is not really before us at this point.

But I do see on the DEQ report how they said that not observing any wetland soils within this area, which was filled, could not be evaluated as a wetland because it had been filled.

Exactly.

Yeah, without having seen it again to your point, I don't know exactly what was there.

Probably regardless, there's a way to mitigate that wetland to allow the use of these lots.

based on the regulation that we have.

So I couldn't prohibit that, but there's a way through process, either DEQ or ours, to mitigate wetlands impacts.

one way or the other to prevent a taking.

We need to allow the use of the lots.

And without another access point.

This was a double fronted lot.

This might be a different conversation or a corner lot where they could have access in a different area.

One lot may qualify.

The other one may not.

But to your point, without knowing what was there kind of prior, but also there was no

Pre-Records of what wetlands would be out there, meaning we hadn't had even prior to this disturbance or this field being placed.

Thank you.

What are their additional questions or concerns?

Well, I do feel bound by the fact of the pre-existing law and will rely upon the determined oversight of staff to make sure that the mitigation

First, we're told there aren't any wetlands, and then we're told there may be wetlands, but you're going to mitigate them, whatever.

So that part of confusion is a problem, and I was, I guess, expecting that there would be an applicant to be able to question, but that's not, I guess, in this action thing.

So I will move to adopt the resolution attachment G to approve SE 2023-36.

and Parsley 55CA37 and 38, for reasons stated in the staff report and with staff conditions presented.

We have a motion from Supervisor Mallek with a second from Supervisor McKeel.

Ms.

Mallet.

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel.

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley.

And I guess one follow-up list for you going forward is what sort of accountability would be going forward when these repeated fillings happen.

So think about that.

Yes.

Thank you.

Our next items board are a couple of presentations, starting with a Department of Social Services Advisory Board Annual Report, fiscal year 2023, which will be led by Ms.

Cackidemic, Chief Human Services Officer.

Congratulations on your agenda.

It's kind of amazing.

Good afternoon, Cachydemic Chief Human Services Officer.

I'm delighted to be here today with the annual advisory board report to the board.

We are required by statute to provide this to the board, and it's something we enjoy doing, so thanks for letting us.

I'm pleased to be here with Mary McIntyre, who is our board chair.

She'll be providing the presentation and I'll be lurking, lingering nearby for questions afterwards and hopefully Mary Stebbins will join us as well by the time we get to those questions.

Thank you.

Hello, I'm Mary McIntyre, and I am the RIO District Representative and the Chair of the Department of Social Services Advisory Board.

Thank you for having us here today to talk about the annual report.

I want to say this is almost my sixth year on the board.

and I want to thank you, Ned, for giving me the opportunity to serve the community on the DSS advisory board.

When he asked me if I was willing to be a representative and represent the right of district, I said, I don't know anything about social services.

And he said, that's okay, you don't have to.

The point is that we want a board that's made up of people from a bunch of different walks of life, a lot of different professions, people who are going to be willing to listen and learn,

and give recommendations and so that's what I've tried my best to do over the past few years and I'm looking forward to talking with you about the board and what we've been working on this past year.

Now I need to figure out how to operate this.

We invited the rest of our board to come here today.

They are not here yet, but they're probably going to walk in during my presentation or shortly thereafter.

You can see we've had some stability for the past two years.

We have all of the same members, but we are missing one.

We do not have a Scottsville representative, and we have it for some time.

So we are still looking for someone who can represent the Scottsville District, who isn't interested, someone who has an interest in human services, and

you just need to talk to your supervisor and the Board of Supervisors about that opportunity and I'm also happy to talk to anyone in the community that's curious about serving on this board.

I also want to say one thing I'm really grateful for about the board that we have is everyone is really intentional and thoughtful about listening to the presentations and reading the materials ahead of time and the questions that they ask the staff.

It's really been a good experience to serve.

So the theme for our annual report this year is impacts and I want to draw attention to this number because when I was appointed to the board I said I don't know anything about social services and in my mind I was thinking I might not even know anyone who has anything to do with social services but that's actually really not true.

When you look at the number of people in Albemarle County

that receives some kind of services from the department.

You probably do know someone who receives services from the Department of Social Services, whether you know it or not.

And in fact, all of the people who come through DSS as clients impact you in some way.

They are your neighbors.

They are driving on the roads next to you.

They are shopping in the stores with you.

They are playing in the parks with your children.

So I want everyone to keep that in mind.

So one of the big impacts that DSS has is that we help the most vulnerable people in this community.

As far as people receiving supplemental nutrition assistance program benefits, the number that you see indicates nearly a 44% increase from pre-pandemic levels.

We do have more people needing assistance in the community, and we are able to provide that in many various ways.

Also our CPS referrals have increased nearly 20%.

We've been able to manage those CPS referrals using essentially the same staffing levels, but I want you to pay attention to that because if this becomes a trend we are going to need even more resources to meet that.

As far as patients securing Medicaid benefits through UVA, some of the 1,479 people who receive assistance doing that don't live in this area.

They are here to receive medical care and they need assistance getting connected and accessing Medicaid, which we do because the requirements would be the same across the state.

and

in a dangerous situation because they don't have heating or cooling and they need an emergency assistance fast.

One thing that's not on this slide that I wanted to point out to you is another way we help the most vulnerable, and that is our Family Support Program.

This supports elementary and middle school students and their families, and we have an average of 123 families that receive support through the Family Support Program every single month.

They are helping them find and maintain stable housing, employment, childcare, mental health services, and much more.

Another impact that DSS has, really this is a belief that drives our impact, is that we believe that youth do best in their families, and that it influences the decisions and the actions that the department takes.

So I want to draw your attention to the fourth bullet point where we discuss kinship placements.

One of the things that I was really impressed by was hearing our department talk about their success in finding kinship placements for children who are in need of support or a foster placement.

We have among the highest rate in the state for being able to find kinship placements and that's something that we should be really proud of.

The Family Preservation Services partner with families to create family-specific service plans.

They increase child safety, they reduce risk, and they build on the family's existing strengths.

This can only be done through the vital collaboration with community partners, which you will hear more about just a little bit.

Family partnership meetings are based on the following values.

We believe that families are the experts on themselves.

We believe that all families have strengths and can make well-informed decisions about their children when they are supported.

We believe that teams often can make better and more creative decisions than individuals.

And when families are involved in decision making and share responsibility with DSS for achieving goals, then the outcomes improve for their children.

We do have an ongoing need in Albemarle County for foster families who are willing to care for LGBTQ youth.

This has been a very vital need for the past few months and sometimes it results in children having to be placed outside of this area because we don't have families in Albemarle who are willing to take them in.

Another impact that the DSS has is that we support affordable housing.

Even though housing is no longer through our office, we wanted to share this information here because it is related.

The families that receive a housing voucher have received up to $3.7 million in subsidies.

But I want you to know that we're able to help only about 20% of the people who need it.

The others are referred to outside community agencies and resources, and vouchers and subsidies can really only be a part of this solution.

Because of the difficulty in the rental market, we've had to increase the amount of the payment that is given to people for rental assistance.

and if you remember a survey from a few years ago showed that there was a need for around 10,000 more affordable units.

We have very, very far to go.

The DSS helps people find and get living wage jobs.

We provide

Job Leads Daily to People Seeking Jobs.

In our career center of the 846 people that visited the career center, 427 were first-time visitors.

And our career center is known as a one-stop shop.

We have computers with internet, a fax machine, telephone, and we give resume assistance.

We explain and help with local and state employment information, and we help people apply for jobs online and much more.

We also assist people who have recently returned from incarceration with reentry support and we help them find jobs to hopefully avoid being incarcerated again.

One of the things that I learned recently in a board meeting that was really concerning was the fact that Albemarle is a childcare desert.

We have people who are working hard to become self-sufficient, obtaining job training, and obtaining very well-paying jobs who have to quit those jobs because they can't find a place for their child to go during the day.

This is also hard for people who receive the childcare subsidy because so many places will not accept the childcare subsidy.

So even if they have a spot that can take the child, they can't put them in it because they have to use the subsidy.

Our team helps we will create a long-term plan to build their own self-sufficiency and celebrates with them when clients reach their goals.

So I would say this is a huge impact.

The DSS leverages really big money.

We can turn $10 million into $216 million for Albemarle residents.

I challenge you to find a better return on investment in this county.

We want to thank you for your ongoing commitment to this department and to funding the needs of Albemarle residents.

Here's a list of just a few of the collaborators that we mentioned previously who help us meet all of our goals.

I asked Kaki which one was her favorite and she wouldn't tell me.

One thing that I am continually impressed by is how strategic and planful this department actually is.

They spent considerable time this year understanding and aligning with your new strategic plan goals.

Every work unit and staff member knows now how their tasks and their goals help the county achieve their goals.

and as a board member, I've really been impressed by the level of reflection, the openness to feedback and the responsiveness of the entire department during the past five years on the board.

The DSS is meeting the community's need.

I want to draw your attention to the two numbers at the top.

the number of children in the county who live in poverty and the number of people above the age of 65 in the county who live in poverty.

Those two numbers used to be closer together.

However, recently, we have more older residents than children who are living in poverty and it will be interesting to see if these numbers stay.

We do have 16,000 households that are identified as asset limited, income constrained, and employed.

and this is important for us to remember that they are working but they are yet not earning enough to support their families.

It is very hard to find enough resources, enough well-paying jobs and enough affordable housing units for all of the residents of Albemarle County.

If you look at the last bullet point, we have nearly 5,000 Albemarle residents who pay more than 50% of their household income just for their housing.

One of the things that the department has done really well and continues to improve on is language assistance for all of our clients.

It is a requirement of the Civil Rights Act that people with limited English proficiency have meaningful access to our programs, and we meet that requirement through staff interpreters, contracted face-to-face and telephonic interpretation, and now using new technologies like handheld devices that are inexpensive and provide on-the-spot translation.

The languages most commonly needed are Spanish, followed by Pashto, Arabic, and Dari.

Now for a point of pride.

And there are many, but we just want to feature this one.

We do have a staff member who was a child in one of our Bright Stars classrooms.

And I normally hate PowerPoint karaoke, but I'm going to read this quote to you.

All it takes is one adult to show up, believe in you, and help guide you in the right direction.

I often reflect on my time with bright stars and firmly believe that my journey and the person I've become today are deeply influenced by the love, compassion, and kindness of a single person showing up every day, no matter what.

As I continue my work in the youth development field, I remind myself that I have the power to help a child feel safe, loved, and respected in an environment that allows them to flourish.

and in doing so, the possibilities of who they are capable of becoming are endless.

When I asked Kaki what is the biggest challenge of this department, she said staff stability and that is true.

They are struggling to fill openings with highly trained people.

But one thing you should know is that this department has the highest staff satisfaction rating of all the departments in the county and that's amazing.

because with the workloads and the stress levels that I have heard of that this staff manage every day, I would certainly think that would not be the case.

And that says a lot about the leadership and the organization.

These are some pictures of children who were adopted and who agreed to share their names and their faces.

And so we love to celebrate successful adoptions of our kids.

We love to see children get moved into loving and stable, safe, supportive families.

In closing, I want to invite you to our board meetings.

I have seen Diantha there many times.

We love to have visitors.

Our DSS advisory board meetings are the third Tuesday of each month from 3.30 to 5 o'clock at the DSS office, and you're always welcome to come.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I'm sure the board will have questions and comments.

Thank you.

Very impressed.

Very impressed.

Thank you very much.

And I think we'll be set these slides.

We'll be able to receive them because this is very, very good information.

Thank you very much.

Just had one question besides accolades for what you're doing.

I noticed when you had the list of people that you're working with, do you also work with CASA?

Absolutely.

Okay, thank you.

Supervisor Gallaway.

Yes, thank you, Chair Ingers.

Well, thank you, Mary, for your service.

I mean, I think after six years of conversations with you related to the work that you've had on this board, the way you may not have been a lot going in.

You know a hell of a lot now, and you've been doing a great job.

So thank you for that.

I have nothing but respect and adoration for the department and for everything that's being done.

So the questions I'm going to ask while it's picking out on some areas is really just in the spirit of tell me a little more so I can understand it.

on page seven of the report under adult services, reports of abuse, neglect, it ends up going to the monthly touches for those folks.

It looks like we had a drop-down year-over-year down to that 74 percent that happened in the first two quarters.

It's really a community partner issue because we do these cases together with others.

So, I mean, with the increases in the third and fourth quarter, it looks like that was aware, I mean, you were aware of it and started working on it.

Exactly, exactly.

On page A to the report under family preservation, or maybe that was the monthly contact piece, I misspoke, there was a Q4 drop to 74%.

I mean, anytime I see those kind of drops,

So this is where the target is 90 percent.

I mean, the overall target you're hitting was 87 percent.

90 percent of ongoing cases have the required monthly contacts per the state's CPS policy.

Yeah, just didn't have the people to get it there.

That's a good question.

We are down two staff in that unit right now that we're hiring for.

I think we just filled one position.

We might have filled them both by now.

I mean, it just, as I was going through these, staffing was the one, like, for me trying to answer the question, that's how I kept answering these.

The thing that was mentioned in the report, I appreciated that, and some of the other questions that I had were answered in the presentation.

On the CPS referrals, so this is page 14, what I've noticed, your validations have pretty much stayed similar.

It's your case, what's been reported is spiked.

I mean, your high point was a 972 back in 20 and over 1200.

and that's over 400 more than the previous year.

So this is one of those ones I'm looking for a little editorial on.

Like, okay, we got, because obviously, as Mary said, if we've got the reports coming in, we still need staff to figure out if that's a validation to validate.

which increases workload, but that's a big jump on the reports coming in.

The vast majority of our reports come from government agencies, which is primarily schools in this case.

And so if you think about fiscal year 23's relationship to the pandemic,

That's kind of a let's see what happens this year and see if that drops down or if that's the new normal

because I mean that goes to your, I mean you already have the staffing issue, that could really create another staffing issue.

In the presentation that was mentioned, the 591 seniors receiving services to remain living independently, do we think we're missing people?

I mean, I'm certain we're missing people.

I'm certain that there are folks who don't know what's available or what they're eligible for, or that there are folks who are getting, are in a setting in which they're getting more services than they need at the moment.

The sort of ideal setting or continuum is that you get the services you need, not, you don't go immediately from one to ten, but sometimes our system is not set up for that sort of nuanced progressive

sort of caregiving.

So I'm certain that there are folks that we're missing.

However, we get most of our referrals from caregiving agencies.

And so we don't wait for people to come to us because they say, I think I'm eligible for that.

Other people identify them.

And I don't mean to be stereotypical.

I mean, but it just seems that everything we push out that we would say would be available is electronic these days.

I do think we work our relationships really hard so that we're trying to do a lot of word of mouth and educating the people who do have natural contact with our client customers and not waiting for them always to find us on their own.

Exactly.

Or we're talking to a doctor and we're making sure a doctor's office or that kind of place understands what services are available or how to access them so that those are folks we know are likely customers are already having natural contact with.

That's great.

I appreciate everything you guys do.

Thank you.

I'm standing.

Thank you again so much for the presentation and for all the work that you all continue to do.

I have

a few things in addition to actually some of the questions that Supervisor Gallaway already had on there were a few other things I wanted to ask about.

First, my understanding, I appreciate you all bringing up the Energy Assistance Program.

My understanding is this is entirely federal pass-through money through those three programs.

I am curious if you could speak a little bit to the need in that area and the degree to which you might be seeing it on the Met.

This is something I know I highlighted in our

discussion on the comprehensive plan that I was frustrated was not discussed in the comprehensive plan because I see this as a major climate equity issue that is potentially facing very low income and increasingly rural residents.

I know that one of those pools of money, the emergency money, we've never run into not being able to get an emergency money for somebody, but the traditional money we run out every time, and we run out sooner in the year than we ever have before.

Awesome.

And to Mary and the rest of the board who's with us, I'd be interested the next time this comes before the board if there are additional local tools that you might be interested in exploring and sharing with us about ways that the county could actually step in for any unmet need that's going on in this.

I think this could be something that's increasingly important.

in our community and specifically increasingly important to members of our poor rural community that I want to make sure we're adequately accounting for and dealing with moving forward.

I appreciate you highlighting the good work we're doing with kinship placement relative to the rest of the state.

And I also just I want to make sure I'm correctly correlating that with the KPIs.

There's also the KPI in which we are doing the worst to our own KPI.

Is that correct?

I understand we're outperforming the state, but I want to make sure I'm associating that with the foster care children are reunified with their family within 12 months KPI that you've set out.

Association, but not exactly the same.

So kinship placements are we don't find this particular household to be safe at the moment and need supports in order to be safe.

But there's a sister who lives down the street with whom the kids already have a great relationship.

Who's willing to take those kids for this temporary spot?

So that's the kinship piece.

Reunified is really about the case timeline and so I will say that there's a number of benchmarks from the state particularly related to foster care that are wildly optimistic that no one in the state can match in large part because we're also relying on juvenile and domestic relations courts, agendas, and what's the right word?

and their caseloads in terms of their timelines for that.

And so we can do all that we can to try to move through all of the requirements for us, but we can't move faster than the court can or move faster than some of our community partners.

And so this is the piece of data that came up earlier related to adult protective services responsiveness.

We're trying to be able to tease out, we want to be able to report accurately

whether we're matching the state standards but also in relationship to other people in the Piedmont region or other DSS's in the state and try to get that data for you.

Sure, thank you.

Love just as a, again, flagging a thing that I'm interested in seeing more information on and more about what we as the Board could explore in the future moving forward.

Yeah, and the other piece to that is

Very often our kids who are in foster care, their parents have a substance use disorder and that is nearly impossible to remedy and provide safety and stability in a 12 month timeline.

So it's very difficult to get the services in place, get everything that's needed and then reunify the kids with the parents within a timeline and we see

and an awful lot of substance use.

That is one of the barriers to having children come home quickly.

Of course.

Thank you so much on that.

One other thing, you know, I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about it.

I appreciate you hitting on the Housing Choice Voucher Program in this presentation.

Even though, as you noted, it seems a little bit tangential.

It seems like deeply interconnected to everything else.

I'm curious if you do know just what our utilization rate is right now, like how many vouchers that are issued are realized.

I appreciate that assumption.

I think we have had lower utilization rates without adjusting our rent.

So we recently adjusted our rent, so we're covering a higher percentage of local rents, and I anticipate better utilization.

At this point, I don't know what the number is for the number of people who are unable to find an appropriate

Rental location within the 90 days that's allowable for the housing choice voucher, but it's higher than you'd like it to be.

Sure.

Thank you so much.

And again, like

I just want to highlight for everyone, this does not have to be a wealthy neighborhood, poor neighborhood issue.

This is not a problem that's being caused by the fact that we are an expensive place to live, ideally taxed to our AMI through our fair market rent standard.

This is really an inventory question and a diversity of inventory question.

There are richer communities than us that have utilization rates in excess of 95%.

And that is something that we should be striving to.

and also I just want to highlight that 20% number that Mary threw out.

That is the amount of people that we are serving with the HCV program that need it to be able to live and to be able to lead prosperous lives in our community, meaning there's 80% who aren't.

I would also highlight that Charlottesville has a voucher program called CISRAP that is borderline identical to the HCV program and half of them

and Rivanna County.

Those are Albemarle residents, Albemarle voting citizens who are being paid to live here by Charlottesville and I might suggest it might be prudent to have a little bit of matching on that and to in some way mirror that program or figure out a way to regionalize it.

That's all I have.

Thank you.

Yeah, and just to piggyback on, great, by the way, great presentation.

Very informative.

And as Bea said, I would love to have this presentation.

What was in our packet was great, but this one as well would be really good to have.

Piggyback on the voucher.

Is there a way that you could let us know what apartment complexes and areas are actually accepting the vouchers?

Do you track all of that bylaw?

It's a moving target always about where there are openings, but they are required to accept a housing choice voucher everywhere.

So as long as the housing choice voucher covers the published rent, they should be saying yes to those things.

Oh yeah, and I get that.

Do you have a trend or any, I don't want you to have anything to go back and create, report to anything.

I was just wondering if you had a sense of,

And I guess where I'm getting with this, to be perfectly honest with you, the voucher program we're talking about is different from the IRC.

But the IRC says that they have very limited access to apartment buildings throughout the county because the apartment buildings don't answer the phone.

And so I'm trying to get at where the, how this

It's very hard to sort of create those connections where landlords are property managers, and so this experience of sort of difficulty navigating the rental sort of world is reflected and experienced by most everybody in our community, particularly nonprofits.

And so some nonprofits have actually created positions called housing navigators, and their job is to go with the client, to go meet the landlord, to get people to answer their phone.

We used, Albemarle County used some of our ARPA funding to support a housing navigator that supports Albemarle County clients at the Financial Opportunity Center.

Interesting.

Thank you for that.

Because I know, because the IRC has provided with me the apartment complexes and where the majority of their folks go.

They do that for me every couple of years because I'm interested in.

Recognizing that, of course, it's critical that those apartment buildings also are on transit lines.

and other amenities that their folks need, right, those folks need.

And so that's another reason why we need to get our transit system up and running better.

But thank you.

I appreciate that.

I do have a couple of questions.

I thought it was fascinating.

If you can help me a little bit more about the

I had no idea that your department was filling out or helping folks complete their Medicaid applications.

Applying for Medicaid.

We have a separate subset of our Medicaid units that's actually sort of embedded at the University of Virginia Hospital that helps people apply for Medicaid who are actually facing medical bills while they're in the hospital.

So I guess I'm surprised.

So is that true across Virginia and across the country that the localities are helping the major universities are doing the work for the major universities with people?

You see where I'm going?

I should clarify.

UVA pays 100% for that unit.

and the work is great.

I was just confused as to why you all were paying for that staff to go.

Clarity is always good.

I'm glad I asked the question.

Thank you.

The only other... Oh, I have two more things.

We definitely have a child care desert in this community.

And UVA does a lot to help our community, and I'm not trying to just pick on UVA today.

But having said that, they do have four child care facilities in our community, and they only accept faculty, which was very frustrating for me.

when I was head nurse at UVA and trying to staff my clinics.

And the number one reason why my nurses couldn't come to work or AIDS or whatever was child care issues.

And as the largest employer in this community,

just trying to figure out maybe thinking about going forward.

UVA stepped up to the plate with affordable housing for us, which is great.

But in many, many, many university towns, universities help with childcare.

and I'm just simply, because a lot of it is their, a lot of those need is with their employees.

I don't know where I go with that, except that reaching out to UVA, trying to figure out how we do this with childcare might be, and I'm not even sure they're aware of it.

Maybe they are, but I know when I was on the school board, we reached out several times just to ask for slots in those four childcare facilities, scholarships.

and didn't work out so well.

But thinking about it through the lens of maybe trying to partner more and seeing if we can get UVA to come to the table, because it really is a concern.

And it's a concern for them.

I don't know if we have any data.

Oh, we have great data.

Oh, you have great data.

There's a recent report that was done that demonstrates the current sort of emergency state of our sort of desert status, and we're happy to share that with you.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you very much.

And the only other question I have is, you referenced the Alice data, which I've been very, very interested in, and I talk about a lot because of the Jewett district.

And 58%, I think, are the folks that live in the Jewett district.

But do you all have, my data is, Alice data is old.

My data goes back to Siri providing it to me, which gives you an idea, pre-pandemic.

Alice data we have is from 22.

Happy to share it.

If you would share that, I would really appreciate that.

And obviously share it with everybody.

That'd be great.

And that's all I have.

Great presentation.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

This is one of those presentations that blows me away because of the demands on all of you and your

Emotional Stability when you do this job, which is heart-wrenching.

I went along on one CPS meeting at the request of the grandfather who met with John and others, and it was

and so on.

I keep thinking about it.

And I'm so appreciative of the work of the advisory board as well because the notes that we get from our representatives are incredibly helpful.

And I do have a couple of clarifications.

So the caseload thing has been something we've heard about for decades.

Are we more in balance?

So I think we are in a better spot than we have been, thanks to the positions that we have received, thanks to you all over the past year and a half or so.

So I do feel we, so I think a main issue of ours right now is now workforce stability and keeping the staff that we have.

And so that is a big focus of right now.

And I think once we are able to do that, and we're basically fully staffed at this point,

So if we can keep that stability, then we'll have a much better idea of where we are in terms of case loads and not.

We are still over, if you saw the workload measures, we are way over case loads in several areas, according to those standards.

So yes, that is true.

However, we're trying to assess what is the real need based on having staff that are all up and trained and ready to go to have a better idea of that.

And thank you also for the update on the family placements with the children in needing foster care for any number of reasons.

And within the last month, NPR did a really extensive, like maybe it was the through line an hour thing about

these young people who had been 20 years in revolving foster care situations when their grandmother could have taken them and no one, they didn't even know their grandmother and that connection was never made, whereas you all were doing this 10 years ago and I'm just so proud of what you have accomplished already.

The voucher question

That last sentence is sad but true.

It's a fixed pool of money.

It's not a fixed pool of vouchers, right?

The voucher funding amount is what determines how many vouchers we can actually distribute.

Most communities with high costs of living are high rents like we have.

So you have allocated vouchers but have no dollars to support them?

That's correct.

That's what's missing right now.

That's correct.

Okay, good.

Thank you.

That is a clarification.

I'm also having worked with the Workforce Center for 16 years.

I'm also incredibly grateful that you all catch people who are coming to you without even knowing that the Career Center is there, both your satellite and also to help people get connected with the services from all the different federal agencies and state agencies over on Rio is really, really important and has really helped the success of so many different people coming forward.

The rural folks living alone and not understanding what help might be available.

Do you reach out to any partner churches?

Is there a pastor organization who can be linked with you?

Certainly there are a number of pastoral groups that know about the services that we offer and make referrals to us for them.

Okay, because there are so many, I think, rural services that are provided through those very tiny congregations of many, all the people are over 80 and they're just all helping each other as best they can.

So that I will send you some connections that you can do on that if you can.

The Bright Stars, I always remember also annually when you come that was probably in the 2012 or so time when

All of the first cohort who had graduated from high school came and sat right there in the front row and told us all about this.

So I was thinking about that when Mary was reading the statement from your staff person.

It's really, really great.

But that was all my questions.

Thank you.

I was also very impressed by the presentation, very impressed by the information that you gave us in our packets and the work that you do.

I noticed going through how many different areas of work the

The number of people served has been increasing and it troubles me and I don't know whether it's sometimes because we're serving better or because the needs are really increasing that much.

We previously referred to page 14 where Supervisor Gallaway mentioned the Child Protective Services referrals.

and we discussed that when the total referrals and what has been an impact coming out of the pandemic.

But then when I look at SNAP recipients, there's a significant increase on the bar chart over the five years.

, 47%, Adoptive Children Support, subsidy payments going up, average number of U-Cases.

The temporary assistance to needy families bar chart was just scary in terms of the increase

there.

And I don't know whether these are, again, are we seeing just the needs going up here more and more?

Yes, I think need is going up, both the intensity of the need for people who are in need and also the number of people in need.

But the charts are slightly artificial in that during the pandemic, the federal government loosened requirements for SNAP.

and for Medicaid and for TANF.

And so there are more people who receive those services during the pandemic than would have normally.

And so part of the unwinding that you all have heard about is about the federal government going back to the pre-pandemic standards or rules around who should get those services.

So over a 10-year period of time, we might see a chart that goes up a little, up a little, up a little, up a lot, up a lot, down a lot, down a lot and then

Normalizes, again.

So I anticipate we're going to start to see some of those changes for our fiscal year 24 report that you'll start to see some of those things go down.

Okay, yeah, that's troublesome to think that it might go down only because the support isn't there, which is worse.

There was a discussion about staffing needs and staff stability, and I guess there, I guess I'm just interested in people burnout.

Is that what happens?

It is.

People do burn out.

And Ms.

Mallek said, you know, how do you do what you do?

And it's a special sort of constellation of both experiences and intentions and skills and strategies that makes a social worker who can last.

I think it's the same for firefighters.

I think it's the same for police.

And so we might get somebody for a year, train them up, and then have six months after their first year where we give them the real experience of the job and they think, I'd rather work in a bank.

and so it takes us a while to get them to a place where they're really trained and experiencing the work to find out whether we're really going to stick it, whether this is somebody who's going to stay with us or going to have a lifelong social worker.

And it's a concern for most departments of social services because most departments of social services end up taking a number of people who are brand new to social work.

And it's an 18 month process to see if that person can stay or will stay.

and then if they leave, the people who are staying have a higher burden to pick up their caseloads and so that gets harder for them.

Thank you, and I applaud your efforts.

This is a very important part of it to prevent that.

And I guess I'll just end with saying, and nobody's mentioned this, but the packet contains pages of acknowledgments and personal stories, and I think that that's one of the places where you really see the reward for the work is

When I read through these stories, I'm just blown away by how meaningful what you do is.

And again, I appreciate that you included that in the report, even though it's not data.

It is an important part of our understanding of the real impact this work has.

So, thank you.

Yes, I just had two, after the presentation, such two points of clarification.

You said that 8.5 percent

of our children live in poverty.

You also said that 11% of those over 65 live in poverty.

My question is the third one, 24% of people over 65 live alone.

Would that be living alone in poverty or just total?

Two separate definitions of risk for me.

One, living in poverty, the other, living alone.

So, no, they're not the same.

11% lives alone, or 11% in poverty, 24% live alone.

Okay.

Maybe with means, maybe with not.

Pardon?

Exactly.

Well, that's what I was, that was my point of clarification.

With means, without means.

Okay.

and the other question I had, I know with CASA kinship can mean not only family members but also non-blood family friends that would be kinship and so someone could either adopt or foster someone and I think that, at least that's the way it was for CASA, I don't, if that's the same definition that you don't have to be a relative, you can be friends

Absolutely.

We call that fictive kin.

It's a separate category within

within kinship.

But yes, we often will look outside of family when needed, if it is a close family friend, who knows the family.

Sometimes it might be a teacher, a bus driver, somebody who knows the kid well, but outside of blood relatives.

Right, and that's within the kinship umbrella.

Those are all my questions.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

sometimes you can't meet the 12 month deadline because there is medical health, mental health, substance abuse issues.

Could there not be an asterisk to give yourselves a little break on this?

I mean, the safety of the child is absolutely the most important thing rather than some state deadline that is meaningless because they're not taking this into consideration.

Thank you very much.

Very helpful presentation.

Okay, board, our next presentation, Mr. Trevor Henry is coming forward.

Deputy County Executive on a Rivanna Futures update.

Chair Andrews, members of the board, good afternoon.

It's hard to follow Kaki in a presentation.

I will tell you that.

I have to work on that timing in the future.

Thanks for the opportunity this afternoon.

I'm honored to be here to present on the project that we have been working on for quite a while.

Today primarily will be myself and Michael Barnes, our Director of Planning, who will be here at the podium.

But we have a great team, pretty much everybody that's down on the first, I'd say the first few rows in the auditorium have been supporting this project.

from the inception, and many of us are continuing to meet on a weekly basis.

So even though we did a lot of work last year to get us through the acquisition, I joked with the team that that actually was the easy work.

We continue the work both internally and with some engagement that we'll talk about today.

The purpose for today is just to provide an update.

We closed in December, but the work hasn't stopped.

As we said last fall, there were things we needed to do

just to, you know, get the property zoned appropriately, had inconsistent zoning and that's something we'll talk about today and then also some significant engagement.

This work, I'll just, you know, thank the board again for this action because it has created a buzz in the intelligence community and we've had some outreach to us in a pretty meaningful way over the past quarter.

So just a handful of slides that we will go through

and ample time for board questions and again for either Michael or I to answer or with

My esteemed colleagues that are here to support the subject matter experts.

This is a visual that we've used really throughout the process.

It's a 3D rendering, kind of the art of the possible, if you will.

It's the concept that really was created through state work back in the 2014 timeframe.

It shows a potential campus-like extension, completion of Boulder Road,

some opportunities for federal expansion along with university support and other entities that would really be support in and around the mission areas.

Again, this is a concept, but it is I think a great visual that has carried through and the intelligence and national security innovation campus is really the concept that we've been moving forward with.

today we'll just hit on the acquisition, some work that we're doing on site readiness, that Michael will talk about, some things that will be back in front of the board over the next few months, and then I'll end with some partner engagement updates.

for the Board.

Big picture, I think our last presentation to the Board was in November on this and that really is where we recommended the green light to closing.

We did close in December, December 15th, some heavy lift out of the

CFO's office and our county attorney's office to make this happen.

Extraordinarily grateful for that work to get us through December and then the work that has been ongoing since.

Just to orient the slide, the image on the right.

Let me see if I know how to do this.

and EGT up here because he's a whiz at this.

So the laser pointer, just kind of orienting, it's 29 North.

So that's the orientation on your screen.

Boulder's Road, which is a VDOT road, comes in and terminates at the commercial building.

This is outside defense line.

The folks that work on Rivanna Station refer to this as Boulder's One.

It's a

elements of support for DIA and GIC for well over a decade.

It is hardened on the inside.

A lot of money has been invested by the federal government to support their work in that facility.

And it's also my understanding that the Army is extending that lease for another five years, which reflects the demand down there.

Again, it doesn't show up great on this image at the scale, but the red boundary is generally the property that the government owns, the Army.

Fort Belvoir is the property owner.

Technically, this is a sub-installation of Fort Belvoir.

and it's comprised of 75 acres, nearly fully built out with this last addition that's happening.

The National Ground Intelligence Center is this facility.

It is undergoing a significant addition which will be open a year from now.

The Defense Intelligence Agency

and the wait list is great.

It's to support staff that work this facility.

And so again, I know the board knows this but I think for the benefit of the public, I'm just kind of giving an orientation to

to this work.

The county has been involved with the state certainly with our Defense Affairs Committee for the past decade around this property.

There are many reasons why the board moved forward with the acquisition and support of staff's recommendation last year.

One of the main reasons was around concerns that have been raised over encroachment.

and Bill it out of this property in an incompatible way or incompatible use that would threaten this use.

And so Mr. Richardson has referred to that as kind of a defensive maneuver to help secure, you know, through the land acquisition

the existing function and what that brings to our community and in support of our defense and in the offensive side of this is we believe there is demand and a need for some expansion of this function of this work and there will be some economic development opportunities that come with that.

also worth just noting and reminding that the Defense Affairs Committee of which the county is a funder to support that work.

I'm one of the steering team members on that committee and did a study end of 2022 released in 2023 by Walden Cooper to assess economic impact in our region.

We knew defense was significant

We didn't realize it was the number two economic generator in our whole region, region being Namar County, the city and green.

Those were the sponsors to tune of about $1.3 billion annually with Rivanna Station being really the anchor of that work at over 50% and nearly 3,000 employees.

Just a little more orientation.

The yellow or the white outline reflects the total acquisition of the property.

We believe the yellow is what is currently an approximation of what is in our development area.

But we told the Board last year, even though the yellow is development area, some of the zoning is mixed.

And so one of the things that we need to do as internal work is to get that zoning consistent.

that allows us to do things with the state that we currently can't do some of the requirements that Mr. Barnes will talk about here in a little bit.

And it's also worth noting that as we became the property owner, the existing parking lot, which is just under where my cursor is now, the red laser cursor, that we, as property owners, we also inherited a lease with

with the Army, and we get about just under $30,000 a month that then helps cover the cost of the maintenance and other things that we need to do up there.

So now, as property owners,

A handful of slides.

We were responsible for the safety and security.

We were responsible for maintenance.

A minor thing, when we had the one weather event earlier this year, a complaint that has existed out of Rivanna Station is that's considered a secondary road.

VDOT has a methodology by which they do treatment and they work through their process and that had created historically challenges for staff.

There's some elevation and some slope and anyhow, we had that storm.

We were able working through our facilities department and our contractor that was out clearing the

you know, the parking lot because we're the owners.

They also ran the blades up and down the road.

And next week we got a shout out from the cleaning officer at the National Ground Intelligence Center.

His staff said it's the first time in 10 years the roads were cleared, you know, that quickly and so it caused no, really no intervention.

That's a minor thing, but that's just an example of, you know, us as the neighboring owners, we have the ability to control some things like that.

There's work we need to do on site, and luckily we have some revenues that help cover that work.

And so we just are being the best neighbors that we can be.

We're building our relationship with Fort Belvoir, who is the property owner, but also with the entities on Rivanna Station that are there day to day.

In my role with Public Safety, I've also been very engaged with them over the past year on emergency management.

We have a memorandum of agreement on fire rescue.

We're in the drafting side of one for police, for response.

And we have some discussions around potentially doing a tabletop and maybe even a field training exercise for a response, similar to what we did with schools.

Those are the things that I think being a good neighbor in town.