Board of Supervisors Regular First Meeting   6/5/2024

I'm pleased to call to order this regular meeting of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors on the fifth day of June, 1 p.m.

in Lane Auditorium.

I'd like to note 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, myself, Jim Andrews, representing the Samuel Miller District Quorum is present.

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

Claudette Borgerson.

Also, let me please welcome Albemarle County police officers present, master police officers Dana Reeves and Paul Quillen.

We thank you for your service today and every day and the work you do with your colleagues on behalf of the citizens of Albemarle County.

I also want to make sure I welcome the, I think it's a kindergarten class from Murray Elementary, if this is

Great.

I don't know if Serena, you have more information on that, but welcome.

We're thrilled to have you.

Can't start young enough?

Very well behaved.

Good example.

We now can move on to adopt the final agenda, and I've not heard of any suggested amendments changes, so I'm looking for a motion to adopt the final agenda.

So moved.

Second.

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

Mr. Pruitt.

I. Mr. Andrews.

Yes.

Ms.

Mallek.

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel.

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley.

Board will now move to item number five, brief announcements by board members.

Thank you very much.

I will save some stuff to the end of the meeting, but I just wanted to let you all know that Senator Marsden is beginning an energy task force.

I will be attending tomorrow as in listening in, representing BACO as well as the county, and we'll report back.

There'll be another meeting next week.

I think in response, trying to find some middle ground to prevent the debacle that we had in the General Assembly this past year with the general takeover of all local government decision making.

So he hopefully will lead something useful.

Also on June 27th,

The High Growth Coalition will be meeting in Culpeper.

And please let Claudette know if you want to go so she can register people and also announce how many will be there.

And Housing and Land Use will certainly be hot topics for that meeting as well.

And I'll save the rest.

Thank you.

Yes, I just wanted to state that on Tuesday, June 11th, the EDA Economic Development Authority will be having a joint city-county meeting.

on that day from four to six at City Space.

And that's all I have for right now.

I have no announcements.

I was able to attend my first full-size full-school graduation as a supervisor recently over at Monticello.

It was really thrilling, and I wanted to just extend a congratulations to all the graduates in our community at the University at all our high schools.

and some of our lower grades as well.

Also, I would like to just circle back.

I know last time we were all here, we mentioned the concerns about traffic during this period in which our town size multiplies briefly.

And I made a tongue-in-cheek joke about being careful on the road for my mom who's not confident on the road.

Turns out I invoked that for the wrong person.

My father was, in fact,

had his car totaled in the dead of night by a reckless driver in the town of Scottsville.

So I want to extend a thank you, and really I was impressed by the diligence and the work and some of the shoe leather investigation by our Scottsville town police.

So I wanted to extend a congratulations and a thank you to Chief Jenkins and his team down there for getting all that sordid.

I also did have the pleasure of

joining the Scottsville branch library at the JMRL for their 65th anniversary.

They're the oldest branch that we have operating in the county.

It was a lovely event.

We had Mayor Smith's folk band down there.

It was a real delight, and I want to say my thanks to everyone.

And also, I just want to acknowledge it's hot as heck out there right now.

This is a thing that I think we need to remember is an intrinsically dangerous condition for human beings.

So I would encourage everyone in the audience, and so far as you're able to practice limiting your exposure to hot weather conditions as much as possible, don't get, you know, I'm a runner.

I also know right now I should not be running during the day most of the time.

I should be running either in the early morning or during the evening.

and, you know, I am marrying into a family that has a lot of farmers and they will tell you it's important to always wear a hat when you're going to be working outside because skin cancer is serious.

So that is really all I have.

Yes, and as the retired nurse in Edadias, I just want to add to what Mike just said, hats that cover your ears.

Because ears are the vulnerable place, especially for men.

So hats are good, but hats that cover your ears.

Just a couple of things.

We did have our graduations over the last perhaps ten days.

The three high schools in our community graduated somewhere around a thousand students, three separate graduations, and they were really wonderful.

and it was exciting to see the children that were graduating and I shouldn't say children, the young people that were graduating and the awards, the many students that were going into the military were recognized so the graduations were really wonderful in many ways.

For those of you in the audience that didn't connect or have the ability to connect, the children here today were from Murray Elementary School

and they were presenting to us three ideas.

Ideas that they felt would make Albemarle County more fair, more fun and better for kids.

And those ideas were

They were suggesting to us they want us to build them a water park.

I think that's actually a very interesting idea, especially a splash pool.

Anyway, more playgrounds, because all of our playgrounds really are associated for the most part with schools, so they're thinking more playgrounds that are more conveniently located for other kids, and a children's garden.

So, Water Park, Playgrounds, and the Children's Garden, and we really do appreciate the kindergartners and the young people from Murray Elementary coming to join us today.

The only other thing that I wanted to mention was, excuse me,

The Virginia Department of Transportation held a public information session last night at the Holiday Inn on Emmett Street, or Route 29, and 29 North.

And it was about getting public input on the proposed roundabout

at District Avenue and Cedar Hill Road, which is, for those people that might not know, District Avenue.

It's where the Stonefield movie theater is along hydraulic road.

Their proposal is for a roundabout to go there.

and so they were taking public input about that roundabout.

You can actually go online and fill out a survey and they'll be taking public comment and the public comment is to be sent to, you can email it to john.rose1 at v.virginia.gov

and so on.

Input is Friday, June the 14th, so you have a little bit of time.

And that's all I have.

Thank you.

I have no particular announcements, so I'll add my congratulations to the graduates.

He's fine.

Well, I'm going to add one more thing.

If somebody gets out too much, particularly a farm type

I'm sorry, I forgot two things.

Over on the desk to your right is some information from Veterans Services and I hope that you would consider getting one of those if you know veterans and be able to share this information with them.

It's about extra new coverages and qualifications and eligibility for various Veterans Services things and also regarding the weather.

He checks for our neighbors.

We have lots of older neighbors and very young ones all around our area who often have a very difficult time keeping themselves moderated temperature-wise.

So please check in on those folks nearby to make sure that they're okay.

Think about being in the derecho again, and then that'll help us know exactly what to do for the next little while.

Board, that takes us to item six, which is proclamations and recognitions, and this is particularly special today.

We're going to start with a resolution of appreciation.

Thank you very much.

This is once again a resolution of appreciation for Richard Hewitt.

Whereas Richard Hewitt

has become a strong supporter of the Albemarle County community over many years and recently retired from many years of formal service on the Police Citizens Advisory Committee, including several years as chair.

And whereas Richard Hewitt has also been a longtime supporter of the Police Foundation and supports a variety of events that support the community and local law enforcement.

and, whereas Richard Hewitt was instrumental in the development at the former JCPenney property of the COVID-19 vaccination center and most recently the Public Safety Operations Center, which is a state-of-the-art facility that houses the county's fire rescue

and police operations and logistics, allowing them to maintain the fleet of emergency vehicles, managing logistics for personnel, and substantially increase their ability to streamline operations and enhance the services provided to the community.

And whereas Richard Hewitt has provided quality, affordable space for Albemarle County Public Schools, High School Center One,

and for administrative departments, which has resulted in cost savings over several years, freeing capital capacity for other county priority investments.

And whereas in numerous ways, Richard Hewitt has shown his commitment and stewardship

to our business community by enabling businesses to grow their operations in affordable office space, which supports career ladder jobs and allows them to pay a sustainable wage.

Now therefore be it resolved that we, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, do hereby commend Richard Hewitt for his significant contributions to our community and extend a heartfelt thank you for his years of service to the residents of Albemarle County.

be it for the result that a copy of this resolution be spread upon the minutes of this meeting of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors as a lasting testament to the esteem in which Richard Hewitt is held by this board.

Second.

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

Mr. Pruitt.

Aye.

Mr. Andrews.

Yes.

Mr. Gallaway.

Yes.

Ms.

Mallek.

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel.

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley.

Thank you.

Mr. Hewitt, would you like to come up?

At least give us the opportunity to make a few remarks, but you have something prepared, I see.

I've enjoyed the relationships with other members.

supervisors, staff, and the three chiefs during my tenure.

We as a community are fortunate to have such talent in public policing.

I am happy to be able to raise two wonderful children and now two grandchildren.

I would not trade if you're anything.

Thank you.

Please remain for a moment if it's okay.

Oh goody, I get to go first, thank you.

I'm so glad to be able to recognize you today and your family as well, because we've known each other since our kids were little, and it's what a wonderful generation of commitment that you have made to Albemarle County, and I'm very glad that now you get to be a grandpapa, because that's the best, the best of all.

In addition to all the items mentioned in the resolution,

I'm so grateful for all the effort you made to provide those build-to-suit spaces at Commdial, now that you've called Seminole Place, for all those startups, those research businesses, and the schools to provide those jobs and family sustaining jobs.

I remember taking my campers to visit the artificial wetlands people way back when you first took it over, and the jet engine people, and all those businesses in between, all those different scale levels.

and then there's Fire and Rescue and your decades-long support for Seminole Volunteer Fire Company and the Station 8 and the construction of the Woods Slaughter Training Building.

Really important for all of the fire companies on our part of the county.

And then there's the support for the local health department already mentioned and the thousands of people in addition to myself who did get

Vaccinations, and that lovely, spacious, secure, comfortable place in a pretty scary time.

So I'm grateful for that.

And I understand it was the second most widely used vaccination site in the whole Commonwealth during that time.

So thank you for being an articulate advocate for our county and for being you.

And we'll see you more.

I'm sure.

You are truly a testament to what this community is all about, which is service to the community, helping people.

I've just never encountered a business person such as yourself that has been so committed to helping everybody, especially public safety, police, fire, and even during COVID, what you did for us there.

You've helped so many people and probably saved a lot of lives also in doing that and you have done things selflessly and because that's what someone does for their community.

I truly admire, respect,

I think we all do.

Admire and respect you because you've done so much.

You truly are a pillar of what community service is and what people should be doing for their community to help everybody.

And this is just a small resolution of appreciation.

You deserve so much more.

You deserve, you have our undying commitment.

Thank you because of what you do for us.

Thank you.

Richard, it's been truly a pleasure to get to know you over the years that I've got involved in you and I first met.

We actually first met, I think, during a car deal back in the day before some of this other stuff was going.

And just like then, I remember you and appreciate the fact that you are, to the point, direct.

And, you know, let's have a conversation and get to the point.

So I've always appreciated that.

especially when you can work with somebody that is committed to the community as you are.

It would be enough that business that you're in and the quality of work that you do and the multiplier that has on those companies that come into your spaces, the impact on our local economy would be enough to recognize you for.

What that means for individuals for our community and our quality of life.

Being the individual you are, you didn't stop there in the volunteerism that you have put forward, especially with the public safety and the other things that have been mentioned today is truly quite remarkable.

and I can't help but connect those two dots that that care for the community and the passion to have a good place to live, not for yourself but for others, is what drives both your business work and that volunteer work.

So I appreciate your energy and your commitment to that and everything you have done for the county, the county schools and for the citizens of Albemarle and you have my sincere appreciation.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you so much.

I've not had the pleasure of getting to know you for as long as my peers up here on the dais, but for the last about a year that we've known each other, I've

and always impressed every time I've spoken with you and have deeply valued your counsel and your expertise that you've been able to bring to this board.

I also do just want to say I shared this with you in private.

Now I'm going to embarrass you on the spot.

You know you're doing something right when you have people really, really fighting about who gets to read the proclamation to recognize everyone up here wanted it.

And that's, I think that really goes to share just how deeply respected you are in this community.

And that respect isn't just from folks on the dais, right?

It is something that we hear from staff.

It is something we hear from the public.

What a real cornerstone you've been of our community.

And also, like we were just talking, that's not just in your capacity on the advisory board.

That's not just in your business professional capacity, but all your volunteerism over the course of your time in this community.

All the different ways you've tried to be involved show a real commitment to local government, right?

Which is increasingly rare these days.

It's maybe less sexy than other ways one can get involved.

But this is, you've really staked the claim here and you've shown it and you've lived it through your actions.

Thank you, Richard.

And I'm not going to repeat.

I agree with everything my fellow supervisors have said.

I will try not to repeat too much.

But I do think that you connect the dots of as many of us up here do, the importance of safety in the community and strong education.

in the community.

And those two pillars really create a really strong and vibrant community.

And you have made those connections beautifully for us and helped us make those connections.

I will just add that I had the opportunity this week

to attend a meeting in the new space at Seminole Place for the Albemarle County Public Schools facilities.

So Center One is there, but now they are using a space over there for their facilities, moving from Albemarle to the Lambslake campus, and it is a great space as well.

I think they were all thrilled because they have offices now with walls and a place to put their computers so that is very much appreciated as well.

The other thing I just want to point out is that I remember a period of time in this community where we were trying to

established separate pay scales for our safety officers, fire and rescue and police and the sheriffs and the ECCs.

And you and the foundation really worked hard to help us get that through and an explanation to the community as to why those pay scales were so important.

And I really appreciate that help as well.

and I'm going to just say ditto to what my colleagues have said.

We don't do this very often, so this has been very special.

I hope are not done helping.

I understand you're stepping down from the police.

Citizens Advisory Committee, but other ways in which I'm sure you'll be involved with the community, so thank you again for all that you've done, all the service.

And Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley has the formal resolution to hand you, so.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Board, this brings us to a second proclamation today.

Thank you.

Proclamation celebrating LGBTQ Pride Month, whereas Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month, also known as LGBT Pride Month, is celebrated annually in June to commemorate the catalyst event of the 1969 Stonewall riots and works to achieve equal justice and equal opportunities for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning

Americans, and, whereas, on April 11, 2020, the Virginia Values Act was signed into law, making Virginia the first state in the South to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination in their daily lives, including discrimination in housing.

Public and Private Employment, Public Accommodations, and Access to Credit.

And whereas Albemarle County's stated mission is to enhance the well-being and quality of life for all citizens through the provision of the highest level of public service consistent with the prudent use of public funds.

And whereas the Board of Supervisors is committed to supporting through its actions and its partnerships the promotion of an equitable and inclusive Albemarle County

that allows all members of our community to grow and thrive, and whereas LGBTQ individuals have shaped, advanced, and enriched the fabric of Albemarle County and our nation by making immense contributions to all areas of life, including government, business, arts and sciences, medicine, law enforcement, technology, and the military.

now therefore be it proclaimed that we, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, continue to affirm our commitment to our state admission to enhance the well-being and quality of life of all the members of our community and recognize with pride the rich cultural diversity and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning residents to the vibrancy of Albemarle County.

Second.

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

Mr. Pruitt.

Aye.

Mr. Andrews.

Yes.

Mr. Gallaway.

Yes.

Ms.

Mallek.

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel.

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley.

Thank you.

And I believe we have Mr. Nick Hutchins here to accept this on behalf of the president of the Charlottesville Pride Network.

Welcome.

Hello.

Thank you all so much for having me today.

Thank you so much for this honor.

My name is Nick Hutchins.

I'm the president of Charlottesville Pride.

First, I'd like to thank each of you all for recognizing and commemorating Pride, which here in Virginia we get to celebrate not only in June, but in September as well, when a lot of our cities here in the Commonwealth have our annual festivals.

Secondly, I'd like to extend a heartfelt thank you to the wonderful folks in the Albemarle County Office of Equity and Inclusion who have been really thoughtful partners, both to me and to this community.

And thirdly, I'd like to recognize Supervisor Mike Pruitt, and I told him that I would be doing this and embarrassing him, so he's approved of this already.

But Mike has shown that being open about who you are is not only good for the soul, but it also allows you to view service to others through a wider aperture of human experience.

and just thank you all so much for being dedicated to creating a community that we can all be pun intended proud of.

National Pride Month commemorates the anniversary of the uprising at Stonewall in 1969 which was widely credited as the catalyst for the modern LGBTQ rights movement.

The first pride was a riot is a common phrase among LGBTQ activists and while I assure you I'm not going to be calling for a riot today I would like to recognize their importance.

In a speech given in 1968 amid a year of unrest that many have likened to the protests and student-led movements that have sprouted up across the country this year, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

said, a riot is the language of the unheard.

Pride is a megaphone announcement to demand that people hear us.

Pride is a rainbow strobe light aimed at eyes that turn away.

and Pride from 1969 to today declares that we are here.

This spirit, whether at a protest or at a festival, is still deeply ingrained within the context of Pride.

We've been fortunate enough to celebrate more Pride festivals than Pride protests in recent years, but we cannot recognize that future without honoring the past, without honoring the brave people who grabbed a megaphone in the streets so that people like me could speak at a microphone in a government building.

So thank you again for this honor.

And finally, I would like to invite each of you all and everyone in attendance to attend our very own Charlottesville Pride Festival, which is going to be September 7th at the Ting Pavilion.

Thank you.

We will comment, so please stay.

Thank you, and thank you for all the work that you and your community members do because all voices are needed, all work is needed.

all across our spectrum to make our community the very best place it can be for everyone.

what we do.

We do include everybody.

And the fact that you're here, you're accepting this, and Supervisor Pruitt has given and read a wonderful proclamation that really says it all.

It's nice.

It's really something to be proud of.

I mean, I know this is a pride thing, but we're very proud of the fact that we do include everybody.

And thank you very much.

And I was there last year.

in September.

So I'll be there this year again.

You have good food there.

It's fun.

Supervisor Gallaway.

Thank you, Mr. Edgins, for being with us today.

And I'd like to make a few comments.

I'm not going to read any poetry today.

I have made comments in the past, as we all have.

I think the supervisors that have been here for a long time know the history of this proclamation and getting its way, not just have a vote, but to a vote and support that's going to be there.

and I've made comments in the past relative to our staff and what it means for the board to stand behind that.

Today I'd like to focus on the young people that are in our school division in that community.

This is an environment right now, both nationally for various reasons that is not the most accepting, especially for our trans students and I think that should be called out and those students need to know that we have their back as well.

So Mr. Brookings, I'd like to make the request that this proclamation

Be sent to our school division and specifically to our principals to share with both the students and parents that are in this community that are in our division if the other board wouldn't object to that.

I'd also like to just call out the wonderful work of the Trevor Project, which I've come to know.

and that if there are students out there that are feeling like they need a place to go and don't have a person that they feel comfortable reaching out to that thetreverproject.org, they can chat, they can text and they can call and I would appreciate that information being shared as well when the proclamation goes out.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

So as I've said before, when celebrating Pride and on Pride Day, I have to fight the urge that when we talk about LGBT issues to kind of be a doomer, to talk about the threats that are manifesting kind of on the horizon against the LGBT community.

So I'm going to try not to do that again today.

But I do have to start with a thing.

My fiance was watching recently a viral little TikTok that was talking about

King of Queens.

Everyone remember King of Queens?

It was on until very recently, and how people are watching the show again, and they're saying, oh dang, that show is so homophobic.

It's borderline unwatchable, how just casually homophobic it is, and this being an observation that people are making.

This is a show from ten years ago.

I remember growing up in my own school division in

Rural, Appalachian, South Carolina, and being terrified, like day to day, in walking the halls of school, right?

It was an acutely unsafe environment in a lot of ways, and it felt that way.

And we just had a whole room full of kids today who I would wager are not feeling that way, for the most part.

and that is what I think we should recognize.

We should recognize that we have a whole generation of kids who don't feel that terror, who are growing up in a very similar community but don't feel that.

A whole generation of kids who are going to be like watching on 2B for the first time, King of Queens, because it showed up in their recommended feed and they're going to say, what in the heck is this?

People watch this?

And it was in our recent past, but that is how quickly that we have started to evolve away from that.

And that is, I think, what I really want to share and be joyful about.

at Pride.

We are blazing a new world.

God, I'm sure there's a Republican who's going to clip that quote.

We're blazing a new world.

But it's true, right?

I am talking a lot of wedding stuff right now with my fiance.

And every part of that, you're creating an entirely new system, an entirely new world.

I'm sure you talked about what you're going to do with last names.

We're talking about what we're going to do with last names.

My fiance is a priest.

He's trying to figure out, oh, how are we going to do the liturgy?

Because the liturgy has had to be created from scratch.

It is an entirely new world, new ways of being a new future that is being crafted by this growing acceptance that we've had.

and there is, I'm sure, from people who aren't happy about that.

There's a tendency to view that as combative.

This is a riot.

They're trying to burn down the world and institutions, but it's really not.

This is a creative process.

It is a process that people are leaning into and that people are just so excited to see what does this world look like when we are not driven by hate, when we are driven by love and acceptance and we have to figure that out.

And that's all I have.

Yes.

And I want to just go back.

Ned, I really appreciate that suggestion.

And I know the other board members I'm sure do as well.

I was going to send a shout out to our school division for their willingness and acceptance of dealing with children in our school division.

But that takes my thought to even a higher level.

So I really appreciate that.

As your representative on Java, Jefferson Board for the Aging,

I just wanted to, and I don't want to be Debbie Downer here, but I just want to provide some statistics from the National Resource Center on LGBTQ Aging.

Nationally, there are three million people identifying as LGBTQ over the age of 50.

There are two times more likely to be single or to live alone.

there, they are 35% or 35% of them worry that they will need to hide their identity to access housing.

That's shocking.

53% feel isolated from others.

So I guess what I'm saying is that we need to make sure as we are going through all of the ordinances and all of the community events that we do and everything that this board and Elmore County does that we focus on these issues

because certainly seniors are experiencing isolation, living alone, fewer family members to provide services, and those same feelings that the seniors have our LGBTQ community has as well.

and I'd like to also add my gratitude, I certainly do appreciate sharing this with the schools and I'll look to my right and left and ensure that that's certainly acceptable to everyone and also notation about thetreverproject.org, a very good suggestion.

1969 was over 50 years ago.

And so, you know, over 55, but 2020 for Virginia, it took a long time in coming.

I do hope we're making progress, but I do think that, you know, while we can celebrate our diversity with proclamations, it's actions, and I do hope that we continue to move forward in our actions as well.

So, thank you again.

for being here, representing the community and I can appreciate this.

Thank you.

And this brings us to our third final proclamation for today, National Gun Violence Awareness Day.

Thank you.

National Gun Violence Awareness Day.

Whereas every day, more than 120 Americans are killed by gun violence, alongside more than 200 who were shot and wounded.

And on average, there are nearly 18,000 gun homicides every year.

Americans are 26 times more likely to die by gun homicide than people in other high-income countries.

And whereas Virginia has 1,121 gun deaths every year, at least, with a rate of 12.8 deaths per 100,000 people, and has the 36th highest rate of gun deaths in the United States.

And localities across the nation, including Albemarle County, are working to end the senseless violence with evidence-based solutions.

and, whereas protecting public safety in the communities they serve is the local government's highest responsibility and support for the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens goes hand in hand with keeping guns away from people with dangerous histories.

Local officials and law enforcement officers know their communities best and are the most familiar with local criminal activity and how to address it and are best positioned to understand how to keep their citizens safe.

and whereas gun violence prevention is more important than ever as we see an increase in firearm homicides and non-fatal shootings across the country, increased calls to domestic violence hotlines and an increase in gun violence.

And whereas anyone can join this campaign by pledging to wear orange on June 7th, the first Friday in June in 2024,

to help raise awareness about gun violence.

By wearing orange, Americans will raise awareness about gun violence, honor the lives of gun violence victims and survivors, renew our commitment to reduce gun violence, pledge to do all we can to keep firearms out of the wrong hands, and encourage responsible gun ownership to help keep our children safe.

Now, therefore, be a proclaim that we, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, do hereby recognize the first Friday in June as National Gun Violence Awareness Day and encourage all residents to support their local community's efforts to prevent the tragic effects of gun violence and to honor and value human lives.

Seconded.

Thank you.

Mr. Pruitt.

Hi.

Mr. Andrews.

Yes.

Mr. Gallaway.

Yes.

Ms.

Mallek.

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel.

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley.

And I see Orange in our audience, which is very helpful and appreciate.

And I believe Ms.

Rachel Kessler-Paul is here to accept the proclamation.

Thank you.

Hi everyone, thank you so much for having me here today.

I'm Rachel Kessler-Palm.

I'm a volunteer with the Charlottesville Albemarle Group of Moms Demand Action for Gunsense in America.

I want to thank you all so much for taking the time to recognize Wear Orange, which, as was mentioned, takes place this year, June 7th through 9th, and I want to say I'm honored to be in the company that I'm in with today's proclamations.

A little bit about Wear Orange.

We honor the communities that are shattered by gun violence.

As Ann spoke about, more than 120 people are shot and killed each year and hundreds more wounded and traumatized in our country.

This is every day.

Excuse me, 120 people shot and killed and hundreds more wounded and traumatized every day in our country.

We deserve much better than to live in a country where firearms are the leading cause of death for children and teens

and I think that's especially poignant in giving the group that sat behind us today.

But as incidents of gun violence have grown, so too has the energy around this movement to end it and I'm proud to be part of it.

Together we're going to build a future that's free of gun violence.

Thank you.

Thank you all and thank you, Mike, for all of your history of bringing this forward to us and helping us all understand where we can do more to provide safety for our citizens of all ages, but particularly the emotional

Damage that fear does to everybody, whether it's citizens in this room, many of whom left when they saw someone five years ago come in with his weapon.

And half of them who had come to speak to us just said goodbye and left the room.

They didn't get their chance to participate because of that.

So I think that this is an example of the kind of

Daily Experience, which people have, and it increases their anxiety level, which then contributes to a lot of other health issues as well.

So while I appreciate all of the work that our law enforcement does, I hope that our legislators will continue to do their job as well.

But thank you all for doing yours.

Thank you.

Maybe this is just the beginning of the nation waking up to know that

we have too many guns, they're too easily accessible and we have too many victims of violent crimes.

Hopefully we can continue and maybe there will be a future where we don't have as many guns that would be very nice and we don't have the killings and the murders because it can happen so easily and even innocent children being killing each other with guns that haven't been secured.

So this is just the beginning.

I honor or I speak to the people, the victims that have suffered because of too many guns.

And I'm just hoping, I really do hope that someday this will all change.

And I thank you for being you and your organization and everybody who's supporting that for supporting responsible gun ownership.

In fact, I emphasize very, very, very responsible ownership in helping to eliminate this problem.

Thank you.

Supervisor Keller.

I will say full disclosure, complete accident.

I cannot tell a lie.

I'm sorry.

I appreciate in the resolution that it talks about end the sense of violence with evidence-based solutions.

The gun debate immediately turns people to dig their heels in and argue and hold a stance.

And that doesn't, we've seen where that's got us.

You know, so at the local level, a lot of times we're not involved with that debate.

We can make ordinances for spaces.

But the things that we do at the local level, and our hearts team is a good example of it, if you have an organization or a department in your organization that is legally allowed to carry a gun, and then has the responsibility of how to discharge that weapon when needed.

And we have an approach to policing in this county that says, we're not going to go there first even if it's justified.

but all of the training and the things that are behind getting to that mentality and all the work that's required to get there leads me to go, this is hopeful in like our school division where we have a social emotional learning approach.

We have ways so, you know, I don't want to just put this off on people that have mental health issues.

You can't.

It would be just a gross misunderstanding of the issues.

But what is behind when a human being gets into such a moment of crisis that they feel they have to reach for that weapon and inflict harm on others?

What broke down to get before they got there?

And the things that we can do in our social services department and our education division and all of our departments when we interact with community members, whether it's even just being an ear,

could be years ahead of an avoidance of a situation that could turn out in a way that leads to gun violence.

So I appreciate, and I'm not saying this to undermine or in any way to devalue the gun debate and where people fall on that.

but we have to stay committed to the things that we do to help our community members get through when they need it and be there for them so that they have a way to cope so they do not feel like a different outcome is necessary.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

I want to actually echo some of the sentiments we just heard.

There's a second time I'm going to reference a TV show today.

There's a very powerful moment on an episode of West Wing, where a young conservative tells, I think, Sam Seaborn, you don't hate guns.

You actually just hate the people who have guns.

the kind of people who choose to be gun owners.

And that kind of speaks to this element of there is sometimes a sense of a culture war.

People dig in their heels around gun ownership.

And what I've always appreciated about MOMS is that you are able to bring, MOMS Demand Action, not MOMS, generally, as an organization.

And the advocates that we've seen really take hold in this space

are able to capture both energy and nuance.

That is something I've always been deeply impressed and proud of the advocacy that y'all do.

You're able to disentangle these things, because I do feel like when we talk about gun safety, often what we actually have are policies that everyone agrees on if we can actually get people to listen.

And I want to really commend the work that y'all do around getting people to listen, because I think it is also

it is so deeply obvious that this is a crisis, this is a national epidemic that is under addressed by policy by the people in the positions that matter who have a responsibility for this.

I think I've been to several of y'all's meetings, I've been to other meetings where it is a common thing that we begin by saying who in this room has been impacted by gun violence or knows someone who has been impacted by gun violence?

and we live in a country where every hand goes up or many hands go up.

We live in a country where you say that across different age ranges, you say that to school children and hands go up.

We live in a country where ministers in our churches, especially our more progressive churches, are regularly taught what they're supposed to do when someone comes in with a gun in the middle of a service.

So we're obviously confronting a national epidemic.

Thank you.

Thank you for being here.

Our hearts team is a really good example of what we're doing in this community to provide a safety net for the residents in our community.

Seems like to me, and I think most people will recognize that in the United States we're lacking safety nets for our citizens.

And the result is gun violence, mental health issues, challenges around homelessness, the list goes on.

And other countries

Don't have these problems because they provide and they elect representatives that believe in a safety net for the citizens and their communities and the residents of their communities.

And I hope we get to that point where we can start to have really realistic

discussions, and not be at opposite ends, but we can start to have those discussions.

What's happening, for example, in our public schools is appalling about how children are trained to deal with the possibility of gun violence in our public schools.

And I'm very careful when I say that's happening in our public schools.

Because as we all know in this country, not everything is the same.

and but we have got to figure out how to create safety nets, whether it's mental health or all of these factors that play into gun violence.

Thank you very much for being here.

and I will add my gratitude as well for your being here.

This is not an easy topic, obviously.

I agree with the comments of my fellow supervisors.

I would like to see us be making progress on this.

I recognize that I believe we have more agreement than our progress shows.

So it's the question of making sure our voices are heard and I appreciate that your being out here today is helping to

and make sure those voices are heard.

And I also agree that while there's the focus in the numbers, I think that there's a lot more study that needs to be done and it should be something as a public health matter.

And of course, those statistics include both self-harm as well as harm to others.

Thank you.

And that is, much of your work is legislative and legislature is all about building bridges.

And I think, as was already said, there is a lot of agreement on certain aspects.

And I will just give the example of my 92 year old retired soldier.

who was continually, and every year he talks to me about this, like for 20 years, there has to be training because of his personal experience with someone who purchased a weapon and didn't even know how to unload it once he had loaded it.

And my constituent was in the next room of when he was transitioning to another post in the Army, and the guy had seen him in your form and came to the door and said, can you please help me with this?

And of course,

The purchaser got a stern lecture about how he needed to put this in the box and go get lessons on how to use it, how to protect himself, because some could have gone through the wall and, you know, heard somebody on the other side.

So I think there is huge gaps in training and management and all those kinds of things.

And those are things we could make progress on.

So thank you very much for that effort.

Board, we will now move to item seven from the public.

Matters on the agenda have been not listed for public hearing or matters previously considered by the board, matters that are pending before the board.

We do.

We have one person who signed up and there's no one signed up online.

So I will read the guidelines.

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.

The sign-up 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.

A 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 the 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.

Speakers may not share any unused time with another speaker.

Back and forth debate is not permitted.

And please do not speak from your seat or out of turn.

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

And our speaker for today, and I believe this is Adrienne Eckner.

Not a good choice.

I may be mispronouncing your... Eichner.

Is it Eichner?

Eichner.

There we go.

Sorry.

and as you come forward, will you address the microphone to make sure that it's right for your height and we can hear you?

Sure.

There you go.

I also want to thank Paul Cuellen for his service and I'm sorry to hear about your dad.

All right, I want to apologize for my attitude at the last meeting.

It was not clear on the website or the clerk's office email or my phone call with the chairman as to how these meetings are ran and I was very misplaced in my anger and

I want to thank you for all you do because I'm starting to understand that the people that are here actually are doing really good things and I want to thank you.

So I want to talk about the affordable housing voucher

The Voucher has been around for a while and the program is about a ten-year waiting list.

So why are we continuing to sign up for something that has a ten-year waiting list for people that have already applied and have been granted housing when it's there?

So the Rio Point that's going up, only 15% of the building is actually going to be affordable housing.

I've heard that out of the 49 apartments of the 328 are marked at $568 a month.

and they will be guaranteed that price for five years.

It definitely is not enough, 49 apartments of those apartments to be affordable housing when other affordable housing has been given away like Section 8 on Monticello Road and other spots that were supposed to be affordable housing and weren't replaced by anything else.

Also regarding affordable housing, is Albemarle County allowing UVA to buy residential homes?

I really do want to know the answer to this.

I was told yes they are and that's very upsetting to me when I know what chaos they can bring and bringing them into neighborhoods is not a good idea for crime or anything else.

also wanted to talk about the solid waste, that's on the agenda as well, that the Rivanna is still not cleaned up, the smell is still bad between Charlottesville and Keswick, and that it's recommended to only eat one fish a month out of any waterway around here, unless it's trout, so very disappointed that the water is still

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate it.

Board that brings us to item eight, the consent agenda.

I have not heard of any item to be pulled from the consent agenda.

So we have a motion to approve the consent agenda.

So moved.

Second.

Mr. Pruitt.

Aye.

Mr. Andrews.

Yes.

Ms.

Mallek.

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel.

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley.

This brings us to item nine, our first action item.

This is SE 2024-5, 320 Homeport Lane Homestay.

This will be led by Ms.

Leah Brumfield, Senior Planner 2.

Welcome, Ms.

Good afternoon, members of the board.

Let's get this open.

All right, so as noted, my name is Leah Brumfield.

I'm a senior planner two in zoning and I'm bringing before the board special exception in 2024-05.

It is an accessory structure at 320 Homeport Lane requesting to be used for a homestay.

The parcel is

6.93 acres.

It is zoned rural areas.

It is located in the Samuel Miller District.

The parcel currently contains a single family dwelling, built approximately 1908, and it has multiple outbuildings, including a large shed, a greenhouse, and multiple smaller outbuildings.

The parcel currently contains three development rights, one of which is being used for the existing single family dwelling, two of which are currently unused.

So by right, the 6.93-year parcel is permitted to rent up to five guest sleeping spaces within a single family dwelling or a previously existing accessory structure.

The applicants are requesting to hold a homestay in an accessory structure that is built after August 7, 2019.

So as the owners do reside on the parcel and it will meet setbacks,

The use itself is by right, and the only exception required is for the new structure.

If the special exception is approved, the owners would then apply for a homestay zoning clearance.

And during that process, the structure used for the homestay would be inspected for building and fire safety, and the owners would send notice to their neighbors providing them the contact information of their responsible agent who could be contacted in case of any disturbances or any emergencies related to the homestay.

The property is currently in compliance with all zoning and taxation requirements.

So due to construction concerns, the applicants did already apply for a building permit for a 1,000 square foot two bedroom accessory structure that permit came in in March and construction has commenced following the building permit.

The applicants are aware that if the special exception is not approved, the structure cannot be used for the homestay and they have agreed and said they would still use it for their own personal use.

They wanted to build it regardless.

However, they did confirm that the structure is being built to meet homestay setbacks.

You can kind of see that here.

This is a very general view.

I think it's a little bit closer to the house than the location actually is, but we have a photo later showing the setbacks.

So this is a view of the house from the front looking at the single family dwelling on the left and then the location of the homestay structure currently under construction is to the right behind the work truck that is in view.

at the top of the hill looking down at the accessory structure proposed for the homestay use.

This shows the foundation currently being laid, looks at the photos taken from near the property boundary looking back towards the single family dwelling which is kind of located behind all of the trees.

You can kind of see not the green, that's the shed, it's the white behind the trees, which is not very visible.

This photo is taken from behind the structure's construction site, and this shows the vegetative screening between the site and the nearest budding parcel.

The fill that is shown is still construction fill, and that is primarily going to be used to backfill the foundation when it is completed.

The vegetation you see here is a mix of deciduous and evergreen trees.

And also, Code Compliance Officer Matt Chow measured the distance of the foundation at well over the 25 foot required setbacks for homestays.

So to summarize this application, the request is for an accessory structure built after August 7, 2019 to be used as a homestay.

The parcel is 6.93 acres in size.

and it retains two unused development rights which may be used to build additional residences or to subdivide the parcel in future.

Since this request is for use of an accessory structure, the development rights are unaffected by this request.

The accessory structure itself is a by-right construction, which is why they are permitted to build it as of now.

And had it been built before August 7, 2019, the structure would have been permitted to be used as a homestay also by-right.

So as such, looking at the use of the structure built after August 7, 2019, staff does not believe there would be any inverse impacts to the surrounding neighborhood, general public health, safety, or welfare.

The homestay use itself is a by-right accessory use to the primary dwelling on the parcel and is therefore considered consistent with the comprehensive plan.

And due to the size of the parcel and the proposed size of the structure with a footprint of about 500 square feet,

The structure proposed is consistent with the structures in the homestay neighborhood.

I'm sorry, in the surrounding neighborhood.

Due to the nature of special exceptions, which one the land, we are looking at this use based on the property itself and the greater context of the neighborhood, not the individual landowners.

As such, staff does recommend the following motion to adopt.

Thank you.

We'll go through our order for questions and any comments that we can see if we need more rounds after that, but at least questions and comments if possible.

Thank you.

Only one question, I think.

Many benefits here.

So there was a discussion many years ago, some years ago, about if there were other outbuildings that could have been renovated, but it was better to build a new one, that that was part of the thought process.

So that is not in the ordinance, but in this case, I don't think that the greenhouse or the storage sheds on the property or the, I think it's, I didn't examine it or measure it closely, but I believe it's a like four foot by five foot milk shed that is stone.

Right.

I do understand that, but I just wanted to, I keep asking this each time one of these comes up with a newer building because there seemed to be concern about putting up a whole lot of new buildings for this and bringing more residential uses unless it was somehow related to what was on the property before.

So anyway, you've answered my question.

Thank you.

I don't really have any questions, but there's what I want to ask.

So the certificate of occupancy would permit residents, but it is generally not considered a dwelling because it would not have a kitchen.

So the building code, that would be a separate question.

Thank you.

That answers my question.

Supervisor Gallaway, I have no questions.

Thank you.

That also actually speaks to something I just wanted to make sure I'm fully understanding.

So they could also build a single family home by right.

They're choosing to build an accessory dwelling by right.

Yes.

Got it.

And in addition to the kitchen, I don't suppose you know just cold what side of the key distinctions are going to be that are going to keep it from having a single-family home status.

The way that we have interpreted the requirement of a dwelling is to have full sanitation, cooking, sleeping, and living quarters.

Hit.

All right.

Supervisor McCoy.

That's great.

Leah, as always, thank you for a very clear and concise report.

We appreciate it.

I don't have any questions.

I appreciate it.

and I think my questions have been answered, so I appreciate that.

Look, if anybody has any other comments or questions, as this location is in the Samuel Miller District, I will move that the Board adopt resolution for SE 2024-05, 320 Homeport Lane Homestay attached to the staff report as attachment F. Second.

Motion for me and Supervisor Mallek, I think was in there with a second.

Mr. Pruitt.

Aye.

Mr. Andrews.

Yes.

Mr. Gallaway.

Yes.

Ms.

Mallek.

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel.

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley.

Board, that brings us to item 10, recommendations for the Affordable Housing Investment Fund.

Good afternoon, Stacy Pethie, Assistant Director of Housing.

Again, sorry, let me untongue time myself.

I am here to bring recommendations for the Affordable Housing Investment Fund.

You will notice a change in the name of the Housing Fund Reserve.

We did that to differentiate it further from the Housing Assistance Fund.

It did tend to cause some confusion on occasion.

We're trying to make things clear.

So this is now the Affordable Housing Investment Fund, AF for short.

And the request is from Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville.

This is related to the Southwood Project Phase II.

There are two portions to this.

One is for a septic-dissuer project.

The other is for matching grant funds for the grant that they're applying for with the U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Looking again at the spectrum of housing needs that you all should be familiar with or fairly familiar with by now.

This covers a huge range of this spectrum, but really focuses in on the 60 to 80 percent AMI categories of affordable home ownership and or rental housing.

Back in fiscal year 2023, Habitat had submitted an application for the nonprofit

Capital Improvement Program.

Grant Awards in the amount of $1.49 million.

The request was to use the funds to remove the remaining 50 septic tanks within Southwood, Phase 2, and replace them with semi-permanent water and sewer lines.

At the time, it was not recommended for funding, and the Housing Fund did not have enough money in it at that time to take care of that request.

So that is why staff is here today.

Staff is recommending 1.4 million of the request be funded.

Again, that's due to the balance of the housing fund.

Staff is also recommending that we expand the use of those funds to include the cost of site remediation and the construction of affordable housing.

In terms of the grant matching funds, again, Habitat is applying for a grant through HUD, the U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development.

They are seeking approximately $47.6 million in grant funding.

to cover a wide variety of activities in the park.

There are really two main funding tracks to that, the Price Grant Preservation Reinvestment Initiative for Community Enhancement.

And they cover the preservation or revitalization of mobile home communities, and that covers just about anything you can think of.

And then there is a replacement pilot grant, which is really working to replace aging manufacturing mobile homes with new affordable housing.

The total grant request will be $47.6 million, and the price main grant does not require a match, but it is highly recommended.

It is really the replacement pilot grant track that Habitat is seeking funding for, and that would be staff is recommending $1.1 million out of their $1.5 million request.

Again, that's because of the balance of the housing fund.

Both requests really align with several county policies and strategic plans, so strategic plan goal, quality of life, to encourage the vibrant community with economic and recreational opportunities that serve all community members, along with several of the objectives in Housing Albemarle that really speak to the preservation and expansion of communities and affordable housing.

and Diantha McKeel.

and the appropriations that staff, not staff, some staff will be bringing back to you later this evening.

And disbursement of the 1.1 million in matching funds will only occur if the grant is awarded to Habitat.

Otherwise, those 1.1 million will remain in the housing fund for a future use.

Thank you.

We'll go through our order.

Thank you.

holding here because I thought in the email communication or something we had received that it was not going to be contingent upon winning the grant because of using it for, or maybe I'm conflating the two different policies.

I think having it, the increased flexibility and be able to keep the work moving was what accelerating the funding was for, not to have it

Wait for another year.

$1.4 million that staff is recommending to really do the septic and sewer project, a site remediation and housing construction.

That would be awarded no matter what, grant or no grant.

Staff is recommending that be awarded today.

even though there's certainly a lot of need and process to use that money too.

I mean, I know that that's your proposal.

I guess the board could decide to take away the if, the contingency.

You can always do that.

Which I would certainly be in favor of.

One other question.

In the staff report, it said that the county had provided

$9 million.

Can you identify where the cash is because I thought the cash was more likely?

That is the total amount of funding from a variety of sources, so that includes county funding, the property tax rebates that are underway right now, as well as CDBG and home program and other federal grants that the county has to apply for on behalf of Habitat.

We count that as county contribution towards the project because without

Right.

I guess I would ask the board to remember and consider that five years ago or so this was we were all the board was all in and the county was all in for these 400 plus families who have lived here for decades.

So I've just asked us to keep that in mind and to try to find ways to accelerate the dollars to keep the heavy equipment moving and the building permits going and all these other things so that people don't have to continue to wait for a really long time.

That's all for now.

Thank you very much, Dr. Pethia.

So there will be a mixture of permanent sewer lines and semi-permanent sewer lines, and that's because it's really to service

families that are not yet relocating to new housing.

So they will need to live in those trailers for the next seven to 10 years until new housing is built for them.

And they cannot continue living on that, those failing septic systems.

So when those future villages are constructed, those semi-permanent lines will be replaced.

However, they last for a really long time.

Yes, that's for the matching grant and one of those grants would cover that.

And we're already committed to that.

We are committed to the 1.4 which would actually help with the septic and sewer and other things.

So that is what

The 1.1 has been requested.

Okay, so if the grant is not approved, then we're not obligated to the 1.1?

That will remain in the housing fund for a future use.

That doesn't mean Habitat can't come back and ask, but because the ask was very specific for the grant-matching funds.

Okay, that answers my questions.

I think Supervisor Mallek brought up the $9 million breakout.

I think we all need reminded of what you did verbally.

When writing, I want to see the breakout of what the $9 million is.

And I think that should probably start to be included with all of the packets or anything that comes forward with this particular one, because I think a lot of times our own memories and histories get a little cloudy.

So I just would like to make that request as a packet addendum moving forward, especially when habitat comes forward.

So the 1.1 million, the contingency, they can come back and request it.

The total grant work, regardless if they get the grant or not, is going to the same item as the first 1.4 million?

a little bit of both but it's likely to be for very similar use that the first 1.4 and if the grant isn't achieved then they'll be coming they could come back and ask for that money correct for the same purpose that they're asking for the grant money correct but because the request for the 1.1 million is very specific to matching grant funds that is what we are coming forward today with

Understood.

You've said that now two or three times since it's the matching grant.

I'm not getting the rationale, just because that's the request and we want to be in line with it.

So if we get something more than $93,000 or whatever the balance was, assuming we approve this, then if the...

I'm pausing because this is probably a conversation that's not relevant to this vote today.

But it gives me the opportunity to say, I'm sure there was shared disappointment in how much we were able to put into the Housing Investment Fund that we're calling now.

Since we're calling it the Housing Investment Fund,

there is a tool now that the incentives program is out that could help us with this so that it's not just on housing staff that we all voted on it well a lot of us voted on when we voted on housing Albemarle and that's the trust fund and the structure that was going that was designed or theorized to go around that if we had that I feel that that puts us more in alignment with

how we deal with economic development projects and all of the analysis that goes behind it so that when these decisions are in front of us we can decide is giving this three million dollars up the best use because right now I do feel that we are getting we all think affordable housing is important it's a critical need in our community but as these come forward I've yet to see one where we're like no we don't want to do it but it's more the pressure in the

the need to address the issue that's in front of us.

That's not a long-term plan or solution, and we don't do economic development projects that way.

So I feel that in order to make this decision, knowing that we're going to deplete the housing fund for a full 12-year fiscal year is concerning, but we need to start getting at a different process of analysis.

and understanding.

In next budget cycle, we'll be having a very, we're going to have to have a conversation about monies that are going into this investment fund.

Otherwise, making these kind of, we're going to continue to make these kind of one-off decisions and not have any sort of comparative or data

I don't even know what the word is that I'm saying.

The evidence suggests that the return is going to be proper.

Now I'm committed to this project.

If there is some legal concern about making a contingent on the matching fund, but with the momentum that I hear Supervisor Mallek mentioning with keeping things moving and going, that can be problematic.

So I don't know if that's a legal concern or if that's just us trying to be consistent.

But I certainly understand

I mean, if this is going to go and how it potentially could have in the past, if they turn around and come back and ask for 1.1 million, how much staff time does that take just to get it back on there?

I mean, is that really what we want to do?

Is that a wise approach?

So I'm still thinking that through.

Thank you.

Yeah, I want to just echo what my peers have all said so far.

I appreciate the point you made about, you know, we are the but for cause of those $9 million funds.

But I do think of CDBG monies as different, say, than monies that are coming directly out of the ACIF.

And I would appreciate that breakdown because I think that does influence how we think about those kinds of disbursements.

And I would also just

It is far from the first time I've said this.

You've heard it when I was stumping on the campaign trail and you've heard it while I've been here on the dice, but I think we would all appreciate it.

a transition toward a more formalized process so we don't feel like we're doing things that are one-off like this.

And I think that will also, of course, be easier when we have a larger pool of money to deal with so that we don't feel like we're under this stress and we also are soliciting really compelling projects.

And lastly,

We know that habitat's problem is not that they don't have money.

It's that they don't have money at the time they need it to keep with this very complex process that they're managing.

And that is the thing, because we are moving people into new homes and we are repairing existing homes.

And so these hiccups in the road cause really significant problems to habitat.

and I don't know that I have an appetite for making this grant contingent because I think we all have an appetite for dispersing this amount of money.

I frankly, when I knew what amount was going to be in the housing fund, I mean, we all know, I was talking about what is the shape and extent of habitats expected needs and obligations in the next year because I will

I expected it would mostly, frankly, be what the housing fund was going toward.

And I think we all kind of went in with that expectation.

We knew that we had a very specific set of needs that they were coming to us with, and that was realistically probably what it was mostly going to be here marked for.

So I don't know that the contingency requirement is necessarily going to serve us in our partnership with this.

If you disagree with that, if there's like alternate program projects that you know would have to be like schedules that would have to be changed, I would really invite that comment when I'm done.

I also would say comparative projects is hard because we don't have a good metric for it.

I did and I looked into this for the board's sake, but let's talk about federal program management and evaluation very briefly.

when you're learning to get your MPA about how federal program evaluation works.

Something that really leaps off the page when you read these different programs is that the thing that they're looking at is leverage rate.

That is what they think of as this is how many dollars I'm spending and how much dollars I'm getting out of it.

My research focused mostly on the Appalachian Regional Commission.

The Appalachian Regional Commission's grant-making projects normally target a four-to-one leverage rate.

which is considered good for those federal dollars.

Impact, when they come and talk to us about the Housing Trust Fund, they are normally predicting a 10 to 1 leverage rate, which I think is good, maybe actually slightly ambitious.

I think we saw with Premier Circle, we saw an 8 to 1 leverage rate, which is still very good.

Southwood currently has, I believe it is a 15-to-1 leverage rate, maybe higher, that is almost unachievable in any other project.

So I would just suggest that while we don't have necessarily the comparative breakout of how we might rate these projects, I do think Southwood is about as good a dollar as we could spend because we are getting more return out of this because they have, frankly, good brand ID, diversified revenue streams.

and other grants that they're uniquely eligible for that mean that that we're getting a lot back from every dollar that we spend.

So I would just suggest that to the board that this is a good dollar spent compared to other projects.

That's all I have.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

My comments and questions may be all over the place, Stacey, but I'll just start.

So I do agree that we need to think about this going forward.

strategically because we only have so much money.

Just simply saying that, right?

And to get the biggest bang for our buck in affordable housing just across all the projects is really important.

And having some metrics, as I think Ned was probably talking about, I think is a really good idea.

Just clarity.

So we are in June of 24.

So when we're talking about what's left in our housing fund, we're talking about for the budget cycle that's coming up that will be starting July 1.

Okay.

Just for clarity for the public.

And in just thinking about this and how little money is going to be left in that fund,

and recognizing that we're all talking about what we want our goals for housing for next year.

I also want to just remind folks that we are anticipating this next budget cycle to be more challenging than the one that we just went through.

Just putting that on the table.

It's not as if our next budget cycle is going to clear the way for lots more extra monies because of the commitments this board has already made that will impact the next budget cycle.

So that makes it even more urgent.

to

kind of confusing because when these issues come to us, we say, oh, well, how much have we already given them?

And where does it stand?

And it would be great to have that breakout every time we deal with this.

And my sense is I'm just going to add this.

We have a lot of money we've spent on in-kind services that are not really accounted for.

And I'm not asking you to account for that.

I'm just reminding people that over the years that we've been dealing with this wonderful project at Southwood, there have been an enormous amount of in-kind services from staff that's worthy of recognition.

You said a couple of times, and I just

I understand some folks here probably understand affordable housing better than I do.

But I heard you say a couple of times, this is what we have the money to afford.

That's true.

So if we start adding to and taking away the parameters here, where are we going to get that money?

But another question I have is, what are we not funding to do this?

So those are two questions, I guess, and I shouldn't have thrown them at you both at the same time.

I can go with the second one first.

Okay.

It could be any number of things.

We have not done a partnership with AHIP for a bit, so that would have been housing rehabilitation projects that are going unfunded.

I do know there are some rental housing projects that are on the horizon.

One of those is with Piedmont Housing Alliance and their partnership with the University of Virginia and their affordable housing initiative.

Those are two of the things that are on the top of my head.

I forgot what my first question was.

Right, so really looking at the balance of the housing fund, we did not want to leave it completely empty in case something popped up.

There was an emergency, maybe

something happened in a building, an affordable housing unit, or an apartment building that needed to be fixed on an emergency basis, and we could contribute to that.

Right, and still have that very small amount left over.

Yes.

Right.

Okay.

And I'm going to

I'm going to just turn because I noticed Jeff leaning in a couple of times and I just want to ask Jeff, did you have anything you wanted to make a comment on with this?

Because I saw you leaning in a little bit like you were really thinking hard and listening intently.

No, Supervisor McKeel, you're not at all.

After the Board's discussion and your decisions on what you want to do with this, what I was going to say

and I can say more now or I can wait, is that Ms.

Demick and her team have indicated to me recently that they believe it's time to spend some time with the board separate from today.

talking about a broader discussion about affordable housing and what our investments have been.

Certainly Habitat is a significant partner without more county government, and they have been for most of the time, well, all of the time, that I've been here without more county government, and that's approaching seven years.

And so she indicated to me, separate again from today, that let's spend some time with the Board probably later this summer

Broadening the discussion about where we've been and what we've been doing and talking more broadly and that will be as you move into your early fall discussions about your capital programs and as we begin to plan for fiscal year 26 Mr. Sumner has been a part of those discussions as well and the staff is keenly aware of what the board has talked about in the past about dedicated funding and significant ongoing funding for affordable housing and so the staff's aware

of the Board's interest there.

And again, Ms.

Demick did a good job, I think, of bringing this to the broader staff's awareness of, Jeff, I think it's time.

I think it's time that we talk, you know, because we do get hit based on timing of grants.

The final thing is it relates to the tieback to the

Matching Grant is that I will just very respectfully just remind the Board in general that several years ago the Board challenged the staff and said, look to see where your local dollars can leverage money from outside of Baltimore County and make that a point of emphasis of where we can take local money and we can leverage dollars from outside the county across a number of departments.

Most notably our work with community development

and the various infrastructure grants with transit.

And the Board is keenly aware of that and I know.

I really do appreciate that, and thank you, and I look forward to that discussion.

I do think it's important because that discussion will help us perhaps not just do, and I hate to use the word, but sort of reactive.

We need to be more thoughtful because we don't have a lot of money.

I mean, we don't have money that we can just, we're struggling.

We have six, eight pages of unfunded projects and requests this year.

Thank you.

A lot of the same questions have come up.

I'm hearing a consensus that in the future we need a better understanding of the 9 million.

We need a better understanding, I believe also of the status of the various allocations to date and whether they've been paid out and how much is contingent on what.

obviously you know we have this funding right now this is highly leveraged that makes it something that I think is something we should be supporting but it's also very relevant several people have asked what's missing what's down the pike we're looking at you know I don't think any of these projects come to us and we act on them within weeks so you know at this point we already should have some sense of six to twelve months what is out there and you've mentioned a couple things

that sound very important and will be, I think, very unhappy if we can't fund additional projects that might come in the same area.

So, I don't have additional questions, but I do think that kind of wraps up where we're at on this, but I did hear several people suggest whether they wanted to keep the contingency.

in this.

I definitely would be supportive of doing the award for use, and I think that the application, if it's successful for the grant, would be great, but what I see is really important is the cash, and I think everyone

is very aware that there was a perfect storm over the last several years where things did not proceed as quickly as they could have for sewers and waiting for state and all these other things going round and round and round.

And getting the lots ready to sell and therefore then return more money to the building project is what has really been slowed down.

I definitely heard the concerns of where the money is going, et cetera, but keeping the heavy equipment moving to get the lots ready to sell so that the market rate houses can be sold and therefore increase the pot that's coming in and therefore helping that money to put toward getting these folks out of their trailers and into the apartments that are already designed.

and so on.

to keep that project moving is, I would support that completely.

And I think that the accountability of all of the various projects that have been done, not just one, but I mean, there were millions that went to another project in the last several board meetings.

So I think that we need to know what those are as well when we have this dashboard or whatever is the preferred way to deliver that information.

and I look forward to the broader discussion, but I hope that we can put the 2.5 into the cash pot to be able to keep these things, get these things caught up, build these houses that get back to the pace of the normal number of units per year, like 50 instead of 15, which is where it's slowed down to.

When do we know the grant will be funded?

If I remember, they keep changing the application deadlines.

No, they need to apply.

Now I believe the beginning of July.

Okay, so then we'll have an answer September, October, whether or not they have the grant.

I love this project.

I love this project.

But I do want to state that I'm concerned because that would, if we do the

and not the ore, then that leaves us with what, $93,910.

I don't know what's coming up because by the time all these decisions are made, we're into the fall, we're starting December, starting to look at budget again.

And I just don't know what's coming up and it makes me a little bit nervous not knowing if something really important comes up that we need to fund.

I'm in favor of staff's recommendation because if we don't do the 1.1, we can always come back and do that.

I don't think it would be that much as far as staff time and be the same presentation you've given.

So that shouldn't be hard.

But I just hesitate

to have that.

And I like staff's recommendation.

I think that covers us.

I think it covers Southwood.

I think it covers us in whatever situation.

Thank you.

So it seems to me that we want to claw back if they don't get the grant, but we have the knowledge that they'll just come forward and ask for that money anyway.

Is there a way to keep it contingent on the grant?

but if the grant is not awarded when we find that out, that the application received is already the new application for the monies that's not contingent on the grant so that we can shave out three to four months so that September, October doesn't mean they're back here in February asking for that money.

It would also give us the ability to go, okay, the 1.1 million, we'll know at that time what other things are there.

So that would satisfy, I think, some supervisors' concerns, including my own of, well, what are we putting this forward?

against other projects.

But we can't fund anything if we vote on staff's recommendation period because we've locked the money away.

So this seems to me to be a good way to commit the money to the grant, but if the grant is denied or not awarded, habitat doesn't have to go through the rigmarole of getting, I mean it triggers that it comes back to the board for a decision what that 1.1 million is for.

It could save out the time.

So if it's September, October, if they keep pushing the deadline off to some other time, I mean that's none of our control, habitat, our control, whatever.

But to me that seems that that would immediately get it back to the board.

I mean the clerk would obviously have to have a say in some of that.

and

I appreciate the point that Supervisor Gallaway is trying to make here.

I would still very much lean in favor of removing the contingency altogether.

It seems like that proposal is coming to us with the collective understanding that this is still a project that we're excited about, and this is money that we'd probably still be willing to allocate.

and

I guess I'm not clear how much we think the added utility would be.

We have talked recently about how we want to try and manage our own meeting backlogs, and I'm just not sure I see the utility in having an additional hearing on what this funding could be used when we do know what it could be used on.

With price, yes, it's being part of the grant submission, but we know what the grant submission is going to be used for.

It's going to be used for the same

and so on.

So I'm interested in making sure that Habitat is able to continue to meet their kind of

and so on.

if there is a project that happens to apply during basically a three month window in fall is really the only thing that we would be preserving the window for.

A very good project that applies in a three month window in fall.

As I tried to illustrate, there is very little chance that it would be

and frankly, dollars for donuts more compelling than this.

And frankly, if it is at that point where it can actually compete with the kind of leverage we're seeing from Southwood and the kind of value per county dollar, I would expect it's the kind of thing that we would be able to figure out an alternative for, right?

That would be a, I mean, that would be a once in a lifetime kind of opportunity.

And I truly do expect that we would be able to identify the points of flexibility in our budget at that stage.

I realize that's a big ask, but we would be talking about

and unprecedented hypothetical project, the likes of which I don't think we should expect.

So I guess to put that all in a bow, I'm not sure that the alternative for which we're trying to preserve is compelling or even exists.

Supervisor McKeel.

I'll just cut to the chase.

I appreciate staff's recommendation and supportive of that, but I like Ned's nuances to that.

I'd like Stacy to speak to how that might be possible.

I have been around the barn enough to know that I never know what's going to happen between June and September or October.

Wright, all kinds of things that can happen.

An earthquake, a pandemic, you name it, lots of stuff can happen.

But I really do think this is a worthy project, and I'd like to be able to address it as best possible.

But I think Ned's nuances were practical and sounded appropriate.

You might want to just address them, though, Stacey, at some point about how you might think that could play out.

So I'm going to jump in and say that I also agree with staff recommendation and appreciate and would like to see how quickly this could be reacted to.

I did.

I have a couple of things.

First of all,

Well, I'm not hearing a consensus to remove the contingency.

So I'm going to ask a question that I don't know the answer to.

and it may be that Dr. Pethia knows, it may be that Dan Rosenzweig knows.

Is there anything about the removal of the condition or the contingency, as you all have called it, that would disqualify these funds as the match funds for the grant?

So does the grant, is there anything about the grant program itself?

Certainly.

So the replacement pilot grant that requires a match, the match funds must be used specifically for that project.

and there, staff is drafting a letter for the county executive design that specifies those funds would be specifically for that grant.

I think it would make it stronger if it was approved as specifically that and then be able to come back, staff would come back later if they are not awarded that.

That grant has a really strong

Possibleity of Getting Funded.

It fits very much into what the grant description is all about.

So I know Habitat feels pretty good about their chances.

Staff also feels good about that.

So I feel like that 1.1 million would be used for that.

If not, if something happens and they are not awarded that replacement pilot grant, it's very easy.

Staff could get on a future board schedule tomorrow.

Thank you.

Do you have a motion for us to look at?

We have additional comments.

Now I will actually open this up to comments or questions that any board member would like to make before making this, whether the motion is going to be made.

I mean, I'm just, the question is, even if the contingency were removed, the funds are still locked up until the grant award is decided.

So removing the contingency, it wasn't expected that we were releasing those funds sooner.

I mean, that was, the idea was that even if the contingency was lifted,

The funds are basically locked away until the award of the grant is known or not.

So I just wanted to clear that up to make sure nobody was thinking the funds would release whether the contingency was on there or not.

Did I have a misunderstanding of that?

I would just, I think I can count noses, but just to kind of put myself in Mr. Rosenkrieg's shoes

The thing I would say is a distinction, though, right?

I appreciate your point, right?

It won't be dispersed yet.

They will be able to talk to other fundraising sources, though, and say that they have a committal for $1.1 million, which I don't think he can reliably do or can do in good faith if we agree to basically rehear the question immediately on denial.

And I would be concerned that that could limit their access to outside capital.

I will just push back that I don't think you can say that you're going to use it for other things if it's already committed to this grant until we hear what the results of the grant are.

And at that point, if we can act quickly, it's the same thing because it cannot be used for other grants in the meantime if it's pledged for this one.

Yes, I do have a question.

If the grant was not approved,

then, and we would move the contingency, then they would have the 1.1 million, correct?

Okay, so they were expecting 2.2, correct?

About, okay.

if we give them that 1.1, how does that affect what they wanted to do?

In other words, would they be able to do, they wouldn't be able to do what they wanted to do with a 1.1, correct?

I think their total ask is unchanged.

It just means they're going to have to look for other non-federal funding sources.

The one-to-one is their federal non-federal funding match.

We are a small piece of that because I mean they're asking for what, 47 million?

47 million.

But I'm just, no, but my point was I don't know how that changes if we were to remove that contingency.

how that changes because they may not get other funding.

I mean, they may get other funding.

They may not get other funding.

So I'm not hearing any enough motion to change this.

So I'm looking for someone to make the proposed motion.

So would the board consider having a hard deadline?

so that at a certain point, first week in September, a decision is made because in the wishy-washy of Grantland, it could easily be sometime in the future.

And that, I think, makes their financing to be very, very challenging for other sources and that kind of thing.

So if we're being told that it's a September decision, then I would hope that the board would

React That, rather than saying maybe December, maybe February.

So Habitat will need to include a commitment letter from the county along with their grant application.

And that commitment letter will need to specify that this $1.1 million is matching funds for the price replacement pilot grant request.

So we need to be, if the board wants to make that commitment, then we need to hang on to those funds until HUD releases the grant awards.

After that, once HUD notifies everybody who received a grant and who did not, then stuff can come immediately back and say,

Thank you.

I have a motion and I'll make the motion.

I move that the Board of Supervisors approve the following uses of funds in the county's affordable housing investment fund as proposed for Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville, Southwood Phase II redevelopment project, subject to the conditions detailed in the related executive summary.

No.

1, 1.4 million for the infrastructure, including the sewer septic improvement project proposed by Habitat, site remediation and the construction of affordable homes, and 2, 1.1 million for the price replacement pilot.

Mr. Pruitt.

Aye.

Mr. Andrews.

Yes.

Mr. Gallaway.

Yes.

Ms.

Mallek.

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel.

Yes.

Ms.

Aye.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Because I don't think it would need to be in that motion.

We don't need a vote on that.

Let it come back quickly.

Thank you, Chair Andrews.

I will be brief.

You have materials in your

Agenda Package, both an executive summary and an attachment to it that are responsive to a request made by the Board during its February 28th meeting when this subject was last discussed, providing to the Board some detail about the resources that would be required to support the County's partnership with a to be formed

Charitable Foundation to support the county's fire rescue department.

And so I volunteered at that meeting to pull together information from three departments, the fire rescue department, the Department of Finance and Budget, and my office

concerning, one, the initial investment of time required to negotiate and finalize a memorandum of understanding or a memorandum of agreement, and then the amount of time that would be required on the part of those three departments or offices on an ongoing annual basis, as I describe it, to support the relationship

between the county and the foundation.

And so that is the attachment that you have to the executive summary.

You know, it just very briefly, it details those time commitments.

So the Fire Rescue Department estimates time in the initial setup to be minimal.

And then on an ongoing annual basis, about eight hours per year, Department of Finance and Budget believes it would devote 10 to 15 hours to the initial startup of the foundation with ongoing efforts requiring five to 10 hours annually.

and in my office, largely the effort would be limited to the initial startup requiring about 10 to 15 hours.

And I do want to underscore, as I have tried to previously, that this is not a question of whether this board is approving the foundation.

That's not within the purview of this board.

what is before the board is whether the county wishes to engage with a group that desires to form a foundation, you know, to come to the table, if you will, with this group that proposes to organize a foundation to support the county's fire rescue department.

So that's the information that I have for you.

I don't really think that there's any

formal action that's required on the part of the board.

I think that if we have an understanding from the board that this is an acceptable amount of time to move forward, we would take that and we would engage with the

organizers of the foundation and move forward to negotiate a memorandum of understanding that would then come back to the board for formal approval at a later date, just as was the case for the Parks Foundation that is now in place between the county and the foundation.

Happy to answer any questions.

Thank you.

Thank you for the clarification as to what it is that we're asked to look at today.

At this point, I think I'd like to go through the order for questions and comments and sort of a consensus, see if we have a consensus.

Thank you.

So I've got two sides of the coin.

First of all,

It's not in our purview to decide how to do this.

That's one thing that I wrote down that I think you said.

And then the second part is the MOAs coming back to the board.

Because it's not up to the board whether to establish a foundation.

I mean, the foundation will be a separate legal entity

that can be formed by any group of incorporators in compliance with state law.

and so on.

Correspondence with, and maybe Chief Eggleston has this information, the other foundations for our volunteer agencies who are raising money have been for between 50 and 100 years for their facilities, firehouses, et cetera, and how they would participate or not and be impacted or not with this fundraising.

So there's the question.

one-on-one, but also came forward with a presentation at our last film's board meeting with the way I viewed it, is that this would not, in my opinion, it's just solely opinion, would not compete necessarily directly with the existing non-profit agencies out there, but would perhaps complement while the foundation could pay for

Such things is a banquet for the ACFR career staff who we don't have ability to do that now because of procurant rules.

I would think in general that this foundation could benefit the entire fire rescue system by perhaps funding some things that are outside of our preview right now.

So during that presentation, even after, I didn't really receive any concerns.

Everybody seemed to think that that would work well.

So I didn't necessarily get any direct comments or questions after that or before.

So I feel pretty comfortable right now.

OK, so I guess I was on the wrong page as far as the sort of size of the effort because I know each of these volunteer groups is out looking for big foundations for hundreds of thousands of dollars to put toward, you know, multimillion dollar projects.

So it sounds like this is

The category for this is not what I was worried about.

Operational things.

It wouldn't supplant, in my opinion, what's going on right now.

For instance, Western Albemarle.

Yeah, it's the competition mode is what I'm really concerned about when you have many millions.

Thank you very much.

Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley.

Could you also address the fact that you do receive small donations and there's a pot of money in there that hasn't been used in the time?

We do.

That's why when I was asked to put together the time for a

It required for fire rescue.

I was sort of stuck for a while because we receive a number of small to medium donations from residents throughout the year.

And then that requires us to compile all those checks and then put together an appropriation.

You all approve to amend that to our budget.

So if we can defer those donations to a foundation, that would save an enormous amount of staff time by touching all those smaller checks.

So I think that would be a big benefit to us.

And also, right now you have no, the police foundation has the ability to raise monies and then they can have, they can purchase different things.

that the county doesn't supply, so they're actually augmenting what the county doesn't supply.

No, we're somewhat limited in terms of how we can use funds to benefit particular members.

And one particular thing that we wanted to do is, for instance, any kind of promotional ceremonies we have for staff.

Right now, we can't do that because of our procurement regulations.

So that would be one unmet need.

But in addition to the system, overall, we have some specialty training that's much needed, for instance, on electric vehicles and battery storage and some of the solar installations that we would love to fund some training that everyone could benefit from those kind of things.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I don't have any questions.

We attended a business conference together as a board recently and the keynote speaker of that, when given a commemorative prize at the end of the night, was asked if she wanted to make any free remarks and she leaned into the mic and she said, I like getting free things and walked away.

That is about how I feel about this.

There is free money on the table.

It takes 10 to 15 hours to get it.

That's basically free.

I have no problem with this at all.

And I would think that, Dan, to be honest with you, I would think this and our volunteer, this could complement.

There's no reason why the foundation couldn't be working for something that the volunteers want.

I mean, that's not, so, I mean, I just don't see an issue.

My only question will come when we get to the governance model and what that looks like, and that sounds like that's not on the table right now, so that's okay.

That's not on the table right now.

No, it would be, but the MOA will be.

Exactly.

So I'm just going to add that I'm also supportive of this effort.

I did, you know, I saw this, I knew this was coming and I took it upon myself to talk to the local volunteer fire department closest to me and heard nothing but praise and support as well, so I was not concerned.

It certainly looks like it's... No, sir, it seems to me that there's a consensus amongst all of the board members to move forward, to engage with the

and the organizers of the foundation and to negotiate an MOA or an MOU and bring that back to the

Board for Consideration at a later date.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Board.

And, uh, Board, this brings us to a recess.

15 minutes.

Yes, sir.

And a presentation.

And I see the school board representative here.

I guess I would disrespectfully ask the board chair with schools elected official being here.

Do we want to consider doing it now?

I recognize that.

Thank you for pointing that out.

No, sir.

You've got a lot of moving parts.

But if the board is okay with it, I'm fine with moving ahead.

Would we, Jen, if I'm understanding this as we would jump to item 13?

with the Board's consent.

We would now go to Board to Board, a quarterly report from the Albemarle County School Board to the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, and Judy Lee and Kate Pickup.

And we have good contingency here, so thank you.

Welcome.

A little behind.

Thank you for

Your patient so far, I hope this helps.

I emailed her to you this morning.

It's very visual this time, so we brought a presentation.

I can do my part without the presentation, if you want me to start.

But yours needs the presentation, yeah.

I'm going to go ahead and start.

Good afternoon, Chair Andrews and members of the Board.

I'm Judy Lee.

I'm Chair of the Albemarle County School Board.

Great to see you here today.

You know, I always say that's people when they're presenting, so I should have remembered that.

And we're here to provide our Board of Board presentation today.

So first, I would like to talk about our social media class action lawsuit.

On March 28th, we unanimously voted to join a class action lawsuit against major social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Snapchat.

We're deeply concerned about the addictive nature and deceptive practices of these platforms which have led to severe mental health issues among our students including anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and suicidal thoughts.

This situation has imposed significant costs on our schools in terms of both financial resources and student well-being.

When you have the slides you'll be able to read more about the lawsuits.

We aim to recover resources spent on mental health care and to hold these companies accountable.

Our broader goal is to push for changes that will better protect our children.

Our school division attorney, Josiah Black, will oversee our involvement in the litigation.

We believe this action supports our current initiatives and helps create a safer environment for our students.

Another issue we've recently taken up in terms of safety is safe firearm storage.

In February, the Board took action to promote safe firearm storage, addressing both mental and physical health in our community.

By taking this proactive step, we aim to prevent gun-related tragedies in our community.

With more than 4 million children in America living with loaded, unsecured firearms, we felt compelled to act.

At our January 25th meeting, at-large Representative Allison Spillman highlighted that gun violence is the leading cause of death among children in the United States.

on February 8th, we unanimously approved the resolution directing staff to send a letter to families stressing the importance of secure firearm storage.

This resolution aligns with state and federal initiatives promoting firearm safety.

The full resolution is available on our website and we can absolutely send it out if you would like.

And last I'd like to tell you about our new reading curriculum, which we have approved for kindergarten through fifth grade students to be implemented in next school year.

The selected program, HMH, into reading, Virginia, was chosen by an adoption committee of more than 60 members, which included teachers, administrators, parents, and others for its inclusiveness and effectiveness.

Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Dr. Chandra Hayes emphasized the importance of professional learning for successful implementation.

We introduced the new curriculum to our educators this spring and will provide ongoing professional development this summer and in the next school year.

We have already procured all necessary materials, I know sometimes that's an issue, to ensure readiness for our new school year and teachers already have online access to it.

This curriculum, of course, aims to address achievement gaps highlighted in SOL results for many, many years.

We've seen this for a long time.

We've talked about this for a long time.

And I'll also mention that while we were adopting the new curriculum, we also implemented UFLY, University of Florida Literacy Intervention, to help us close those gaps.

And while this year's current SOL, this current year's SOL scores have not been finalized, the way the data is coming in, it shows that we are making some gains.

in closing those gaps.

So do we have?

Okay.

Yeah.

Just let me ask a quick question.

We're probably jumping in after it's too late, but is there any way that the supervisors could help you with a class action suit?

Oh, I just don't know, but I think that's a...

Good afternoon.

I'm Josiah Black, School Division Counsel.

Thank you for the question.

I, at the moment, don't know of a way in which the Board of Supervisors can help us directly.

It's the school division that has standing to act as the plaintiff in the class action, but we appreciate your support.

We certainly will keep you posted on the litigation and if there is,

Just something for y'all to think about as things go by.

Thank you.

Recognizing we don't have standing.

Thank you.

I personally think it's really important for us to do something about this.

I think that social media and technology and devices have really become an epidemic with our young people and we're seeing now

really troubling mental health issues and so the big challenge in the litigation obviously will to be show causation.

I agree with you, and we're working hard.

We formed a committee that will be working over the summer to think about ways that we can enforce that policy more effectively.

Should we take the recess?

Is that right?

Great.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

15 minutes recess and we'll be back here and hopefully everything will work well.

I hope so.

Oh, sure.

My technology skills are about like over the years.

In this potpourri of school-related topics, I'm here to talk about two things.

One, our two new schools.

Do I need to bring this closer?

Yes, a little bit.

Thank you.

Our two new schools.

That's better.

and also our work toward environmental sustainability and they're interrelated since we have two new gorgeous buildings going to be going up in the next couple of years.

Do I know which one to do?

Oh, there we are.

As you know, we have, as you well know, we have two new schools that have been approved by you all, and as well, design plans have been approved by the board, the school board in last month's meeting.

I'm going to give you just a thumbnail.

I have packets of, you know, 80 slides showing every floor plan, but I won't do that today.

High School Center 2,

is designed, this is a view of the front of High School Center 2.

High School Center 2 is designed to serve 400 students a day in 60,000 square feet.

It is expandable to 90,000 square feet and 600 students if we get to that point and decide to build more density on that location.

but more importantly it's very adaptable space and it can adapt to various student cohorts in our career learning communities that we will be developing across the county.

The three learning communities that will be housed in this facility are hospitality and tourism and we have a level one culinary arts

Kitchen in the facility, in the design.

It'll be business, entrepreneurship, and innovation.

And it'll also be the new version of Mesa, which is math, engineering, and sciences.

We'll all be housed here.

And in terms of redesigning our high school experience, students from all high schools, juniors and seniors from all high schools can come and attend these core courses in these different careers.

just to give you an idea of where we've located it.

Hydraulic is a diagonal line.

It's going to be immediately adjacent to Albemarle High School on the site currently located by the 70-year-old building services facility that will be demolished and we will place the center there.

on the Lambs Lane campus.

Here's another view of it.

If you're turning in the driveway at hydraulic Albemarle High School to your right, center two is to your left, and the lovely backdrop of the Blue Ridge Mountains is preserved.

That building site itself is a little lower than street level, so it won't be a big intrusive thing.

You can still get your views as you're standing in traffic getting past Albemarle High School.

Here's another view of this building, the front entrance.

You see it's primarily two stories of classrooms.

There is a subfloor, a lower story where we're going to house our data center that we've been trying to relocate for the past few years.

So it's a two-fer.

The two single-story structures, parts of the building in the front one is primarily for administrative.

on the right, it is the culinary, it's meetings rooms and also the culinary arts center.

And this is when you're coming in, the culinary arts would be to your right, and this is a big common area when you're walking into the building.

And again, if you want much more detailed slides, we have slide decks of at least 80 photographs of all of these, so I can send them to you if I can get through your firewall.

The second school is our Southern Feeder Pattern Elementary School.

That is going to go on the site that was originally called Founders Place that this Board of Supervisors deeded to the school division.

This will be a 72,500 square foot facility, home to up to 500 students, about 30 classrooms or breakout rooms in that facility, and it is going to be designed to be our first upper level elementary school.

Focus groups with teachers and community really preferred this structure, so that's where we're going.

Grades pre-K through second will remain at Mountain View.

You can see here's an overhead.

You can see that all of our schools are sort of squished between Avon Street extended and Scottsville Road.

The new elementary school is in the center and just

to the top right of the slide is Monticello High School and to the left of the new school is Mountain View Elementary School.

And you can see the two properties just almost touch, but not quite.

And so we are trying to find some solutions with neighboring property owners to have a path, which would be ideal.

I'm not sure we can get there, but we're going to make the effort to do so.

here's a front view with a drop off zone and here's coming into the main lobby it's nice open airy we have students going to be working on artwork for that stairwell

and this school has three levels of classrooms.

This is one, this is, this is a, right now it's showing its capacity to be a double classroom but there's double doors to slide to shut it so you can have just one classroom in there.

In terms of both projects, we have approved the plans.

The design development last month, construction documents are being developed now, bidding and negotiations September through December.

We hope to break ground or at least start bashing the existing building by the end of the year with a projected opening for the 26-27 school year.

So that's pretty exciting.

We have not built a new school in 22 years, so a lot has changed in our understanding of educational space as well as environmental impact of our buildings.

So that, here we go to the environmental impact of our buildings.

We have been doing for many years a lot of things like solar panels, LED lighting, and we're purchasing for electric school buses, but two years ago the school board established the advisory committee for environmental sustainability or ACEs and Supervisor Keel serves as your liaison to that committee.

and what the overarching purpose is to sort of consolidate all of our work in terms of environmental impact and initiatives, but also to align with the county climate action plan goals.

And there's four main buckets of that, transportation and land use, buildings and renewables, sustainable materials, landscape, natural resources and agriculture.

But since we are an educational enterprise, we also have to add in environmental studies, climate awareness and action into our

Education of our kids, our curriculum.

The word escaped me for a moment.

Here's a different breakdown of how we are coordinating climate action plan and our goals, focusing on the buildings.

We are aiming for energy efficient upgrades to all of our buildings, net zero ready new schools, and solar on all of our school buildings.

And here's just some of the efforts we're undergoing already.

Electric school bus in the top left.

On the top right, you see the photoelectric cells on top of the Scottsville Elementary School Edition that were added in 2022.

We have implemented conservation mowing on our 750 acres of properties to eliminate mowing, certainly on steep slopes and ditches.

We've had to put some signage up to say that we're not just slacking off, that this is important, that it increases the habitat for insects and small

Burt, other wildlife, Burt's another wildlife.

It reduces CO2 emissions, improves erosion and stormwater quality and noise pollution, just having the mowers going all the time.

And finally, on the bottom left, and perhaps John Coles can help me out, I know we have a grant from

Department of Energy, federal.

We have a grant to help support our sustainability efforts.

And one of the things that we have done is input sustainability monitors at some of our schools, and they help educate our kids and focus them on environmentally important issues.

And here's a couple of students learning about the watershed.

We've also developed, I say we collectively, I've not done any of it, but John Coles has done.

We have dashboards on our website for all of our 24 existing schools and we'll of course have that for the next two schools as well that we can monitor energy and water utilization as well as greenhouse gas emissions and we're looking at solar composting and transportation information also to be posted on those sites.

in terms of looking to sustainability in our existing buildings.

You may remember that we added 30,000 square foot feet to Crozet Elementary School that was finished two years ago.

And this was, as I said, a 30,000 square foot addition.

We had a very old boiler in that.

School, and we were able to convert about half of the building as well as 30,000 square foot addition to geothermal energy, I think, which is great.

And if you want to see the impact already at our first full year of geothermal energy use, notwithstanding that we

and so on.

We also, in addition to looking at the county's climate action plan, look toward the state law and

enacted the High Performance Building Act in 2021, which requires all new buildings, public buildings, to be designed, constructed, verified, and operated in compliance with High Performance Building Certification Program.

If you're not familiar with LEED, it is from the Green Building Council.

LEED is Leadership in Energy and Environmental

Yeah.

Environment and energy design, it also requires new structures, public structures to have EV charging infrastructure, and some feature that measures the energy consumption and carbon emissions.

We also, as a school board, modified our building policy to a sustainable construction policy in the fall, like I think in September we passed it.

We incorporated, of course, the Virginia High Performance Building Act, and we also set goals for all of our new buildings.

They have to be lead, silver, or better, net zero ready, and electric only, no on-site fossil fuel combustion.

And here, this is the schematic looking over Center 2 and all the various sustainability features that have been built into the planning.

It's not limited to Center 2.

These are also, in effect, at elementary school, Southern Theater Pattern Elementary School.

But you can see we have roof overhangs to provide.

Shading, we have LEED Silver certification, which is the second highest electric vehicle charging.

But I think also it's important to note that both of our new school facilities will have heating and cooling systems that are geothermal.

So other notable features.

Both of these are of the elementary school, drawings of the elementary school, lots of natural light, windows that open, low-flow plumbing fixtures.

The top is the cafeteria area with views of Carter's Mountain.

And then this is the building itself is sort of a U-shape.

So this is a center courtyard and also outdoor learning space.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I did write down when you were back talking about juniors and seniors and all the new curricula at Center 2.

So it sounds like you're doing more of the sort of technical stuff in-house there and picking out more certificate programs and things so that students won't have to travel to another campus.

Well, we're going to have, I mean, as I say, the state has crafted 17 different career learning pathways.

Pardon?

The workforce calls them pathways.

We know what we're talking about.

11 of which we've adopted for various schools across the county.

So some of you were at the Center One graduation last week and you could see that that's very focused on information technology, digital security, game development, but there's various ones across the county and one similar to the

Health and Medical Sciences.

There's going to be that kind of pathway.

But it won't be, the point is that every student will be engaged in one of these pathways.

It's not just every, a few kids at the academies and then everybody else.

So it's trying to engage students in their education along the way.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for a very informative presentation.

Enjoyed that.

eventually perhaps.

I think that's the plan we would like to have, wildflowers and all kinds of things.

I think right now we're just sort of, is that about right?

Yeah.

And I think we initially started with maybe 15% of our properties non-mowing and then we're slowly

John, increasing the size of that.

But the point is, we're going to really cut back on the mowing, promote, you know, natural grasses and plants at some point.

Is that right?

Yes.

Okay.

Sure.

Good afternoon.

I'm John Coles.

I'm the Environmental Program Manager with Building Services.

A little louder, please.

I'm John Coles.

I'm the Environmental Program Manager with Building Services at the School Division.

As Kate said, with the mowing reduction, we set a goal of 15% of all non-athletic field mowed grass to be brought into this conservation mowing.

And I think we achieved about 20% last year, and we aim to increase it a little bit more every year.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

I love what you're doing and I will say that compared to the elementary school when I was a principal, this is so much different because it's light-filled and it's open.

and even the stairwells and everything.

Thank you.

I mean, about eight years ago when I was new and failing new on the school board, our long-range planning advisory committee identified about 10% of our classrooms had no natural light, about 90 out of our 900 classrooms.

I mean, so we've tried to put in knocked out walls when they're on an outside wall, of course, but sometimes you have to put those sunshafts, what do they call them?

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair Lee and Vice Chair Acott.

Did I get that right?

I know, it got flipped.

Particularly thought the community lab school and the way it was done this year was really well done and just relative to past ceremonies.

I hope they've found a home with where they're at, which sounds like Chad had said as much, but that one was particularly nice.

I don't, I think maybe I knew, but I didn't really connect that the new Southern feeder pattern school would be an upper elementary, but that actually solves what could have been a strategic issue of putting a second full K-5 there, so that's, that's

Congrats on that.

What we've got to is where it's going to be and that's it.

I don't know if this is the best, if anybody can answer.

Do you, and an answer may be, you can come to the 13th school board meeting.

Do you know where you're at on your budget?

Have you finalized your budget?