Board of Supervisors Regular First Meeting   10/2/2024

I'm pleased to call the order of this regular meeting of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors on the 2nd of October at 1 p.m.

in Lane Auditorium.

I'd like to note at the dais we have Supervisor Mike Pruitt of the Scottsville District, Supervisor Bila Pisto-Curtley of the Rivanna District, Supervisor Diantha McKeel of the Jack Jewett District, Supervisor Ned Galloway of the Rio District, Supervisor Ann Malick of the Whitehall District, and myself, Jim Andrews, representing the Samuel Miller District.

Quorum is present.

We also are joined by our County Executive, Mr. Jeff Richardson, our Interim County Attorney, Mr. Andy Herrick, our Clerk, Ms.

Claudette Borgerson, and our Senior Deputy Clerk, Mr. Travis Morris.

Also, let me please welcome and thank our Albemarle County Police Officer's President, Sergeant Matthew Riley, and Senior Police Officer, Christian Hernandez.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I have not heard of any suggested changes.

Second.

Ms.

Malek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Lupisto-Curtley?

Board, we're going to move to item five, which is our brief announcements by board members.

Before we start, I just want to note that we will be having an update on storm matters from the County Executive at the 6 p.m.

hour.

Of course, we also have the pleasure of having BDOT's Representative Kerry Shepherd here later this afternoon.

So we'll get some updates from that as well.

I want to begin just by acknowledging that everyone up here on the dais recently came from a lovely event in the Scottsville district where we were joined by the governor and some of his team to announce the expansion of a really impressive locally owned and run scientific manufacturing

Outfit, Afton Scientific, that's going to be bringing in a lot more what we might call new collar jobs.

These are good paying jobs in the tech and manufacturing space that do not require a college degree, but do help lean into our really amazing workforce development capabilities that we have here in the county.

And it was a great event.

And I'm thrilled about this opportunity for partnership between our economic development team and between the state.

County.

Additionally, I would like to remind people, right after that, you know what I went and did?

I went by the county offices on Fifth Street to go vote.

I was unable to vote because I forgot to bring my ID and I chose not to do an attestation, which is an option if you do not have an ID.

But early voting is ongoing and will continue to be ongoing.

We have a sticker up here at the Dias from Vice Chair McKeel, who voted, I believe yesterday, but she still got the sticker.

You can keep that sticker.

You can wear it on election day if that's the thing you're squirreled up about.

So please everyone go out and go vote.

Thank you.

I just mentioned that I was pleased last evening the Viya Centers for Neurodevelopment had a screening of the documentary in a different key at the Paramount last night.

If you haven't had a chance to see this documentary, it's about individuals with autism.

It gives a wonderful history, case studies, etc.

I came away from that learning a whole lot.

It was just very impactful.

and again if you just haven't had a chance to catch it it's called it in a different key highly recommend thank you thank you yes and in addition to what else is going on we have COVID and the flu that is going around so just to let everyone know you can actually get four free COVID tests

by going to covidtestswithanus.gov, covidtest.gov.

They will send you four free COVID tests.

Now you're going to look at them and you're going to say the expiration date is, it's out of date, but there's a little paper that goes with it and you can check to see because they are extending the life of these COVID tests.

The other thing I wanted to report is October 4th at Darden Town.

The Peabody School is doing plantings.

The children are doing plantings.

They're not planting those monarchs.

They're actually planting.

They actually have plants, pollinator plants, and they've been doing it all week.

And I think October 4th is the last day.

Between 8.30 and 10.

they'll be doing plantings of pollinators.

Thank you very much, and I will take all of everybody else's time that they did not use.

Thank you.

So many correspondence over the last week of the horrific news and images all up and down the eastern half of the country regarding the hurricane has brought several constituents to thinking about how we need to do a really good job on our waterways and our stream buffers.

So as flooding occurs in Albemarle and throughout Appalachia,

This can be a moment to really take notice of where we could be making improvements to help prevent future situations that create life or death danger, damage property, and require expensive repairs to infrastructure.

And we have time now as we're working on our comp plan and other zoning issues for true consideration with all of this storm damage in our mind.

Some damage, some disasters certainly cannot be avoided, but we can make flooding situations worse or better with good policy.

I look forward to

I wanted to give a few reports on the RBC, Rivanna River Basin Commission meeting last Friday, the 27th at Carver, more than 100 participants were present and talked about, received, heard updates about the Rivanna River Corridor Plan and also had discussions and questions.

River was the first designated scenic river in Virginia more than 50 years ago.

Lisa Wittenborn of the Rivanna Conservation Alliance reported on the health of the river and with 22 years of data certified by Department of Environmental Quality, Tim Padolino gave a fantastic presentation of the Parks and Trails and Outdoor Recreation in Albemarle County and the focus for Phase 3 of the corridor plan.

The inventory coming of cultural and historic areas, sensitive ecological areas, and determinations of the best places where future human access without environmental damage might be done.

He talked about progress on the Old Mills Trail extension to Milton along the north side of the river and the donated easements in process.

that Brook Hill River Park is shovel ready and ready for funding from outside sources or some here and it will be the northern entry port point to the Rivanna Blueway, 17 miles of river south to Buck Island on the Fluvanna border and the Cobb family had the largest black-owned farm, the Buck Island farm and there will be

working with the family to record that and to have mentioned of that at the park as it's developed down there.

Chris Ritter is the Destination Manager at the Convention of Visitors Bureau and he talked about outdoor recreation and the national 4% increase annually during COVID along with a dramatic increase in diversity among outdoor recreation visitors in our region.

Courtney Cacation talked about the CVB strategic plan

and that the river park system was the highest long-term game changer for visitors.

The master plan included outreach conducted by SIR from Richmond, resulting in data supporting the county focus on natural resource protection.

Eighty-four percent of visitors from this report want outdoor recreation and the number one asset in Albemarle County was recorded to be natural beauty scenic roads, historic properties, outreach assisted by Virginia Tourism Council, corporation.

Next, October 6th is the new date.

It was postponed from last Saturday for the Riverwalk and Ice Cream Social from Riverview Park north to Rivanna River Company.

So there is time to register for that and you can do that through the PDC website and it will be shuttled back to your car if you're able to do that.

Next October is Wine Month.

For more than 40 wineries in Albemarle County, our major contributors to the Wine Region of the World Award in 2023 and have been awarded multiple entries in the Governor's case every year and have had multiple winners of the Governor's Cup.

The direct 1% local sales tax revenue annually to Albemarle in 2023 was $6.2 million.

The indirect impact of that 4.5% extra that goes to the state, as well as the benefits of employment, purchases of supplies in this agriculture sector all happening locally, and the expenses of the operation far greater impact than that $6 million.

In addition to contributing to tourism and the more than $900 million in visitor revenue for the region,

The enjoyment for our local residents who can gather and listen to music at the wineries, that all contributes to our quality of life.

And lastly, November.

And I want to get head start on this so people can order things.

November is the month to display our green lights on porches and fences in honor of our veterans.

photos of the, oh here we go, there's the picture of the beautiful green spotlights that county staff set up on the county office building last year and hopefully they can rummage in their closets and find those again because November 1st will be the day to turn them on.

And the reason for the operation green light is to raise awareness of the increased services available through the VA and local agencies for our veterans and active duty soldiers and their families of all ages.

I invite businesses to decorate your storefronts and offices with green lights on strings or as the COB has done with green spotlights.

Last year throughout the county on rural roads and in towns and neighborhoods, I saw citizens displaying these green lights for their veteran neighbors.

Let's do it again.

Thank you.

Obviously, we'll have a chance to talk later about some of the things going on with the storms, but it can't go without saying that there have been tremendous efforts by many to help people in their neighborhoods, help people on their roads where they're in trouble.

And I've seen a lot of this, particularly in the community of Batesville, where I've been particularly impressed with the work that's been done to take care of things there.

and of course just in time because I want to shout out again for the Batesville Apple Butter Festival coming up on October 12th and 13th and I hope that we can get things in shape there for making sure things can go off without a hitch.

Thank you all.

If not, we will turn to our next item, which is proclamations and recognitions.

We had the green light on the county office building a minute ago, but now we can look out in the audience and see green very happily.

Thank you very much.

It's an honor to read this.

I've had children in the organization many, many decades ago.

Proclamation recognizing National 4-H Week.

Whereas October 6th through 12th, 2024 is National 4-H Week in the United States.

And more than 1,800 students, ages 5 to 19, are involved in 4-H in Albemarle County and Charlottesville City alone.

whereas Virginia Cooperative Extension System conducts 4-H programs throughout the state, land grant universities, Virginia Tech and Virginia State, with the mission to help young people acquire knowledge, develop skills, and form attitudes which will help them become self-directed productive members of society.

And whereas 4-H addresses issues facing youth wherever they live, in inner cities, suburbs, rural communities, it helps break down barriers by focusing on learning by doing.

building self-esteem, leadership and citizenship skills and focus on critical issues such as protecting the environment and provide programs on food and nutrition, science and technology, natural resources, substance abuse prevention, animal and plant sciences, career education, community pride, citizenship and leadership.

Now therefore be it proclaimed that we, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, do hereby recognize Sunday, October 6th, through Saturday, October 12th, 2024, as National 4-H Week, and encourage community youth and families to participate fully in the wide range of available programs and activities Albemarle, Charlottesville, 4-H provides.

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

Ms.

Malek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Lepisto-Curtley?

Thank you.

And I believe we have not only many members present, but Mr. Sam Leach is here to accept this as extension agent for acute development from the Virginia Cooperative Extension.

Yeah, step forward to the microphone and thank you.

Thank you all for having us today.

It's a pleasure to be here.

We've brought in

several of our youth as well as volunteers and parents with us today.

And we just want to thank you all for your support of our programs, especially our paid salaries, both full and partial.

Those mean a lot to us and we're able to cover more ground and serve more youth in our communities that way.

Thank you.

Thank you for being here and it's always lovely to see young people in our audience.

We really appreciate you being here.

It does strike me as I'm reading your goals that many of them really are critical for us during these times.

When you look at critical issues such as protecting the environment, providing programs, I won't go through the list, but the 4-H really is

a great organization to help our children no matter what age to help us in the future solve some of these problems because we're facing lots of problems with the environment right now and so we really thank you for your work and we thank you for participating in the 4-H.

Thank you.

When I was first running for the board, something that I thought about a lot and focused on is

What makes people as they age want to stay where they live versus want to move somewhere else?

And I think really the key to wanting to stay where you live is caring about your community, caring about your neighbors and having that connection.

And especially when you live, you know, further out in a rural area, it ain't always easy to know even who your neighbor is because they might be a few miles down the road.

And as a country, I think we're atrophying a lot of these organizations that help you

really invest in your local community, really invest in your neighbors.

4-H is such an amazing way that people right from the jump, still as young people, can get that experience, can get to know people who they might live near, who they might not otherwise see down the road, get to know what side of the issue is actually affecting the physical soil of where they grow up in, and how they can be part of that solution.

I think it's an extraordinary organization that helps build that kind of texture, that fabric of community that's essential to having, you know, a community, a people, a culture that lasts, that wants to stay here, that wants to give back to Albemarle County.

So thank you for the work I'll do.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I appreciate you all being here.

I just want to commend all of the young people here because in an age where these can really take our focus, I think when I think of the 4-H, it's hands-on knowledge and skills, but then it's also different age groups working with younger folks as they continue through the different programs.

So impressed with all of you.

Thank you for being a member of 4-H.

Some of the terms in this proclamation that really resonated with me were building self-esteem, leadership, citizenship skills, and the number one, learning by doing.

and that's what you're doing and I think that I highly commend you for being part of such a great organization.

In 1800, between Charlottesville and Albemarle, that's incredible.

Yeah, those are going to be future voters.

I like that.

But I really thank you very much for being a part of such an important organization that touches all of our lives.

And I commend the parents, the supervisors that are over you, that are supporting you in doing this because without their help you probably wouldn't be able to do it.

Can we ask them to stand and just, you know, would you just all stand up, all the members there?

I noticed there's someone in kind of an off-green shirt.

I just don't know if that was a washing error or if you've aged out.

Thank you.

It was such an honor to read this proclamation and to recognize all of you both very young and adults as well who helped.

In the 1980s, my nine-year-old daughter attended meetings in a neighbor's kitchen in Earleysville and ended up taking her heifer to show at the State Fair in Richmond in the Getty Sire class with Polt Hurford.

The experience across so many different topics, as the proclamation mentions, are survival skills.

What happens when we don't have those cell phones?

You need to know how to use a screwdriver.

You need to know how to build things and measure things, measure twice and cut once.

Those kinds of hands-on experiences that you all have now and are getting every day, taking care of your animals during COVID.

People who really suffered most were people who did not have outdoor responsibilities and have to get out and take care of animals because it helped to put all those stresses in perspective.

So having that variety of activities that you're helping, you adults are helping them to have is really important for lifetime.

And thank you very much.

Thank you.

And I really appreciate you all being here and what you do.

4-H was a big part of my community when I was growing up.

Head, heart, hands, health.

Obviously this is, you know, I hope something very meaningful for you growing up as you work through this.

Thank you again for having us.

Have a great day.

Bye bye.

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

Then board, we can now move to the consent agenda.

and again, I'm not aware of any interest in pulling any items from the consent agenda.

If not, then do we have a motion to accept the consent, adopt the consent agenda?

So moved.

Second.

Okay, we have a motion from Supervisor McKeel, second from Supervisor Lapisto-Curtley.

Ms.

Malik.

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel.

Yes.

Mr. Galloway.

Yes.

Ms.

Lapisto-Curtley.

Our two action items for this afternoon, first one being both home stays, first one being SE 2024-1, 1234 Carter Street home stay, and this is being presented by Francis McCall, Deputy Zoning Administrator.

All right, thank you, Chair Andrews, Board of Supervisors.

I am Francis McCall, Deputy Zone Administrator.

We're here today to go over the special exception 2024-1 for Homestay at 1234 Carter Street in Crozet.

The applicant is requesting two special exceptions, one for a resident manager on the parcel.

and another to increase the number of permitted guest rooms from two to three.

The parcel is a half acre in size, zoned R2 residential and owned by the Square LLC.

The parcel does contain one single family dwelling with living quarters in the basement for a resident manager and three bedrooms on the primary level.

So it's kind of an overview again of what is by right within this particular district.

The residentially zoned parcels are permitted to have the home stays up to two guest sleeping spaces within the single family dwelling.

The applicant, the square LLC is requesting exceptions for the number of the permitted guest rooms and the owner occupancy.

The property previously applied for a homestay special exception to increase the number of permitted guest rooms and waive the residency requirement for a homestay, meaning that the property would not be the primary dwelling for anyone.

That request under SE 2021-32 was denied in November of 2021.

So since that time, the property owner has renovated the basement of the structure and added living space for a resident manager.

The owner has been renting out both the upstairs and downstairs as long-term rentals for 30 days or more, but has noted they prefer to do short-term rentals in the primary level and install a residential agent in the basement living area, as noted in Attachment B of the packet.

The confirmation of resident agency residency will be verified during the home state clearance process when staff visits the site and inspects the property for building and fire safety compliance as well as residency manager occupancy.

This area shows the entrance to the basement living space as well as the off-street parking areas dedicated to the home stay.

and the resident agent.

The Square LLC additionally owns multiple parcels abutting the parcel addressed in this application, including vacant parcels and long-term rental properties.

These are views of some of the surrounding area.

The Crozet Post Office is located across the street.

Residential parcels and vegetation are located

to the rear and sides of the property.

Again, here's another picture of the entrance of the visitors, sorry, of the resident manager's entrance.

It's currently in the final stages of the building permit renovations for those living quarters in the basement.

The final inspection of that, the living quarters, is the only remaining step to bring the property into compliance

with the zoning and it also is in compliance with the taxation requirements.

So in summary, the request again is to permit the resident manager to fulfill the residency requirements for a homestay and to allow an increase in the number of guest rooms from two to three.

So as such, looking at the use of a homestay based on the property itself and the use in the greater context of the neighborhood, permitting the resident manager

and an increase in guest rooms from two to three on the parcel at 123 Carter Street does not violate any of the special exception factors.

As the parcel would remain a full-time residence and a resident manager would be required to be onsite during rentals, staff does not believe that there would be any adverse impacts to the surrounding neighborhood or general public health, safety or welfare.

The home state, the use itself is a by right accessor use to the primary dwelling on the parcel and is considered consistent with the comprehensive plan.

The already existing structure proposed for use as a home state is consistent with size with the surrounding neighborhood.

So as such, staff is recommending, with the following motion, for your action.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We will go through our order with questions.

I had a couple of questions, but it was really about the basement.

And I think your picture answered my first question, which was, does it have a separate entrance?

and it looks like it does.

Yes.

Yeah, I just didn't see it in the, maybe I missed it in the loop in the information, but and I guess a follow-up question to that Francis is when we're in not for this particular one because I see that there are windows and a door, but when the fire department and we're inspecting these applications and folks are staying in basements, I would assume that part of our

County, and

if one goes off, everybody knows, and that's a big part of that fire rescue, which we actually do into ourselves as far as our code enforcement folks.

Lisa Green, Manager of Co-compliance.

In this particular case, yes, the basement has a building permit.

So all of those fire safety regulations for the use of that as a residence is inspected by the building officials to make sure that it's safe and has the requirements

There have been real tragedies when people were in basements, specifically underground.

This one is above ground, and at least partially above ground.

One of the things that we do when we look at these is to make sure that they have a building permit and that it is looked at as

County, Charlottesville, Rivanna,

Thank you.

That's helpful.

You've informed me.

I think after this last week, we're all looking at situations where people would need to be necessary to get out quickly.

In this case, it would be a fire, but there could be other more natural events that would cause someone to need to evacuate quickly.

So thank you very much.

I want to make sure I'm fully understanding when some of these special exceptions attach and are triggered with the bedroom requirement.

If the short-term rental is listed as an aggregate pricing rather than pricing them to individual and discreet, like three individuals who are asking to do a short-term rental, if it is just this is the amount to use the entire upstairs,

would that still trigger the special exception because of just the number of bedrooms?

But if the applicant

basically just locked one of these doors.

So take two hypotheticals, both in which they are renting the entire upstairs, but one of which they are locking one of the doors.

That's a particular situation we'd probably have to see and do the evaluation during their application to see if that actually

would meet the muster if the room is actually still there, but they're locking it.

I'm not sure if that's, that may just be an interpretation, but I don't know that just yet as far as how we would make that call as far as you have the space.

So we're going to say that you have three, so you need the special exception or let you lock it.

Thank you.

I appreciate those.

I know the board has been grappling with these exact things coming before them for many, many years.

I've only had the nine months so far, so I'm still trying to make sure I understand how all of the rules get actually executed in practice.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McCall.

It seems in the past when we've approved resident managers, they've either been the owner or there's already that person identified and on site.

They should probably be the responsible agent, but I guess the way it's written, it's not necessarily required that they both be that or be the same person.

But I just want to make sure that if we're approving a resident manager that's not already identified, isn't an owner of the property, and the person coming in, this isn't, like I said, just like signing a lease for a year.

Yes, so I believe the Square LLC, Mr. Stevens, he is the responsible agent and he's the one that lives within the area and does the, but it's the occupancy, having the house being used as a dwelling and that's all the requirement technically is for that

resident, if that's a resident manager and they're actually managing it as well, that's fine.

But it's being used as a dwelling.

That's the primary use and then you have the accessory uses.

So is this a homestay, this particular one where the person needs to be on site at all times while it's being, the homestays are in place?

I believe so.

So if that's not the responsible agent, that would have to be the resident manager.

So the responsibility isn't just living there.

You got to be on site.

You can't take your own vacation if the house is being put out.

So that is correct.

So at the time, so right now the process is they're looking to see if they can get a special exception to do this.

If approved, then the home state zoning clearance application will go forward.

Part of that application review is to identify that resident manager who will occupy that basement.

And that will be the resident manager that

and it is a part of that review of that application before that application can be approved.

So it would be, we would not approve that without that responsible agent being named so that we know.

Thank you very much.

I just have a couple questions.

The downstairs basement has a building permit, correct?

That's correct.

But it's not completed yet.

That's my understanding at the moment.

I don't know that right off the top of my head.

I didn't check the actual dates.

It's up to them to actually request the final inspection.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me like we're approving something.

We're giving an okay to something that isn't finished yet.

But it would be possible for you to, you know, again, the home stay zoning clearance would not be approved without the finalization of this building permit to make sure it has a CEO and can be occupied.

Okay.

I mean, there's a large part of finalizing permits in the checklist of making sure everything is done before the home state application zoning clearance.

The actual document that says the home state can actually go here.

say they want to do something they don't get the, then it's kind of a waste of their time so that they don't feel like that they would want to do that.

So they're asking for these exceptions beforehand.

Okay, well that answers that.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

And I know, depending

I'm piggybacking on what supervisor Pruitt said there's three bedrooms.

Correct me if I didn't hear, understand correctly.

If you have three bedrooms, could they rent two?

County, and

I would send it the impression that the people had to be a family or relatives or friends or something, but you could just have completely separate.

I'm not aware of any additional.

I don't believe so.

I know he operates a hotel room in the DCD that's out of one of his spaces that he actually has in the downtown Crozet district.

But I believe as noted, this is the one that he's trying.

Okay.

And a lot of people do that too.

Yeah.

And the long-term rentals, no problem.

I like that.

Okay.

Those are my questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And all these questions have been really helpful to make sure we all have the understanding of what we're doing here.

And I appreciate the clarification about the process that

It's not a problem to do this stage first because then all the others will follow along and if things do not meet muster then that's the end of it.

And I will just point out that in this Blue Ridge Avenue is the oldest street in Crozet.

and there are numerous historic houses right around this property that are owned by the same people who have restored them and rent them out and really care for them very well.

So I have confidence that this building will continue to be as well maintained as it has been all along.

And there's a lovely big backyard that goes with it in places to play and run your dogs around that kind of thing.

I don't know if they'll have dogs, but that's all I have to offer.

And I especially appreciate the questions about the basement exits.

I mean, Mr. Andrews and I both received communications about having wet water.

Why?

Water rescues from campground up the road during both the previous, this recent storm and the previous one.

And those were people in great big mobile homes who still had to get out in the middle of the night because someone pounded on their door to say get out.

So it is really important and I'm glad we're paying attention to all those things as well.

Let me know when you're ready for a motion.

Thank you.

I have no additional questions, the questions that I have been answered.

And the one, the ECD one is the one that's up above.

They're all in the registry.

I'm assuming we would not have had us come this far without having everything be in the registry properly.

Great.

I'll be glad to make one.

Second.

We have a motion from Supervisor Malek, a second from Supervisor Galloway.

Again, look to my right and left to see if there are any additional discussion.

Seeing none, without objection, if the clerk will call the roll.

Ms.

Malek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Ms.

Lupiso-Curtley?

Thank you.

So, next up is, similarly, SE 2024, 174975, Blue Fox Farm Homestay, this one presented by Lisa Green, Manager of Code Compliance.

Good afternoon, Chair Andrews and Board, and thank you for your time.

My name is Lisa Green.

I am the Manager of Code Compliance.

This special exception is somewhat similar in nature to the one you just heard.

The property is owned by Blue Fox LLC and the applicants are requesting a special exception from the Board per county code 18.518

Dash 5.148 B2 for the resident manager at 4975 Blue Fox Farm.

The property primarily consists of cow pastures and forested areas.

There are two dwellings on the property, a 1699 square foot dwelling at 4975 Blue Fox Farm built in 1976 near the front of the property and a 3141 square foot dwelling at 5035 Blue Fox Farm built in 1985.

This is in the center of the property, which is the primary residence for the dissidents who are the sole owner of the Blue Fox LLC entity.

The property also contains multiple farm buildings.

The structure proposed for use as a home state is located near the entrance of the property down a private driveway and includes ample parking seen here with the red star.

And then the parking, let me get mine.

Parking, off of the private drive.

The Dessaud's residence, shown here by the green star, is at the end of the driveway.

The proposed homestay, shown here with the red star, is at the beginning of the driveway.

The closest adjacent structure to the homestay is to the north, which is an accessory structure on a separate parcel also owned by Blue Fox LLC.

This is a view from the proposed homestay looking toward the property owner's residence.

with the barn in between.

This is the property owner's primary residence.

This parcel meets all of the requirements for a homestay use and by right is permitted to rent up to five guest sleeping spaces within a single family dwelling or a previously existing accessory structure.

The special exception is only required due to the property being held under the Blue Fox LLC entity and for the Dessauce to serve as the resident managers for the LLC.

If the special exception is approved, the owners would then apply for the homestay zoning clearance and go through all of the approval process.

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

to summarize this application.

The request is to permit a resident manager to fulfill the residency requirements for homestay use containing two single-family dwellings, one of which is the primary residence of the owners of the LLC, the DSODs.

Looking at the use of the homestay and a second dwelling on the parcel occupied by the owners of an LLC, staff does not believe that there would be any adverse impacts to the surrounding neighborhood or general public health, safety, or welfare.

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

and due to the size of the parcel and size of the structure, the dwelling for use as a home state is consistent with the surrounding neighborhood.

Staff has analyzed the use itself based on the property and the use in the greater context of the neighborhood and such staff recommends approval.

Thank you.

Supervisor McKill.

Thank you, Lisa.

Correct.

They are the sole entity owners of the LLC.

Right.

Thank you.

I want to clarify that I'm correct in understanding.

I just wonder how much work we create for ourselves with this particular thing.

And how much work we create for you with this and whether or not there might be some kind of razor to identify sole beneficiary LLCs and cut through that.

Something to think about in the future.

But this is my terrible habit on these home stays.

I always think about reform instead of thinking about the issue before me.

Thank you.

As I agree with Supervisor Pruitt, I think if the only reason it's before us is because it's an LLC, then I think that's something staff could have handled.

Thank you.

I will ask Attorney Herrick, do we have authority to make a different process for an LLC beneficiary who lives there?

That's something that we could look into.

As the board is aware, the criteria for granting home stays should be based on the land use criteria, the impacts that they have.

So we would need to identify what angle of ownership was a land use impact.

That would be the challenge that staff would face.

I remember that issue coming up in previous years.

I just want to float that idea to you.

Thank you.

I have no further questions out in Brown's COVID is sure remote and quiet.

And you saw the view of Byron Park in the picture there.

And I have no questions either on this one.

So again, I think I will look to the right and left and see if there are any additional comments or concerns.

very good.

I'm happy to make one.

We have a motion from Supervisor Malek second from to provise a prudent without objection.

Yes, Miss McKeel.

Yes, Mr. Pruitt.

Hi, Mr. Andrews.

Yeah, Mr. Galloway.

Yes, Miss Lapiste.

Thank you.

This is being led by Jessica Hirsch Ballering, Principal Planner of Transportation.

Chair Andrews.

Yes.

As we transition, I would ask you to consider

talking with the board prior to our adjournment tonight to see we had two members of the board that expressed interest in the county attorney's office looking more closely at the issue that Mr. Herrick answered.

Thank you.

Where are the fact that there's also legislation that has enabled us to consider a different length of time associated with the ownership of the homestays.

So I think that has to be sort of rolled into one discussion.

rather than just this one item.

I just made a note about that very issue that I was going to bring up at the same time.

Yes, General Assembly legislation.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair Andrews, members of the Board of Supervisors, Jessica Hirsch-Ballering, principal planner with Albemarle County Community Development.

I'm excited to be here today to present on the Ivy Road corridor pipeline project recommended improvements.

So the purpose of today's presentation is not only to share the study identified recommended package of improvements for this corridor, but also to get the board's feedback on those improvements.

There's no action that needs to be taken today.

So first a bit of background.

This study was funded and led by VDOT as part of the project pipeline program.

This program is designed to develop a steady stream or pipeline of high priority improvement projects that address needs identified in Virginia's transportation plan, which is also known as VTRANS.

The improvement projects identified through this process may be considered for implementation through funding programs like SmartScale or Revenue Sharing among others.

The study area for the Ivy Road corridor study includes Ivy Road from Ednom Drive on the west to Alderman Road in the city of Charlottesville to the east.

It also included the US 29-250 interchange as well as Old Ivy Road.

The study focused on improving safety, reducing congestion on all the roadways in the corridor, as well as enhancing multimodal accessibility, especially along Old Ivy.

The study began in May of 2023 and included VDOT, County, City, and UVA staff.

This board has received periodic updates on this project through our regular quarterly reports and presentations.

You may remember that this study included site visits by staff and the consulting team, two online public surveys, and a corridor focus group, which was a group of key stakeholders living or working along the corridor who met three times throughout the life of the study.

So we are now at the conclusion of this study, and we have a recommended package of improvements, which are shown here.

To orient you, and I've got the little pointer here, so going left, right across the screen, this is Ivy Road or US 250.

Going north-south, we have the US 29 bypass.

Right here we have the triangle about that had been proposed previously, and right here we have old Ivy Road.

So the improvements identified here, moving from west to east, include two roundabouts identified with these green circles.

One is at the Bors head drive, Coleridge drive intersection with 250.

The other is at the Old Garth Canterbury intersection with 250.

The median would be closed between these two roundabouts for safety.

that is indicated with this blue line here.

And the roundabouts would be used as turnaround or U-turn locations for drivers who would otherwise be turning left into or out of their destination.

We also have the triangle about here, the Old Garth, Old Ivy, Falconer Drive triangle.

Up here we have the extension of both the southbound 29-250D cell lane, indicated in orange, and the extension of the northbound acceleration from Old Ivy to Leonard Sandridge.

County.

We have a shared use path indicated with this dotted line here along the south side of old Ivy from the intersection with old Garth on the west end to the intersection with Ivy Road on the east end.

This would include improvements to the underpass beneath the railroad to demarcate space for

So broadly speaking, this is a pretty complicated corridor where any one improvement is going to have both upstream and downstream impacts.

So these recommended improvements were carefully considered so that they work together to achieve those study goals.

This particular package was vetted by the corridor focus group.

It was also the scenario that was scored most favorably by our second online public survey that included over 1200 respondents.

Given that, we expect that these improvements would have broad public buy-in.

Lastly, I'll note that the consultants identified other potential improvements both west and east of the area as shown in the picture.

If you recall, the study area was actually a little bit larger than what you're seeing in this picture.

But county staff decided to focus on the improvements in this middle section because these improvements address the county's most pressing concerns.

So let's zoom in on what each of these improvements might look like.

A note that all of these sketches are from the consultants.

They come from the middle of the process, so I'm going to explain some differences between the pictures and what we intend to have as the final package of improvements here.

Okay, so this is the roundabout at the Boer's Head Drive intersection.

This is Ivy Road going east-west across your screen.

Here's Coleridge Drive and here is Boer's Head Drive.

Not shown in the picture, but included in the proposed recommendations is a raised concrete median that would continue from this roundabout east to the roundabout at Garth Canterbury in 250.

before we look at that east roundabout, let's look at some data.

So this is an excerpt from the consultant's analysis showing significant improvements in level of service if this roundabout is built.

So the top block shows level of service and expected delay at the intersection in 2045 if no improvements are made.

This is our no build scenario.

You can see that while the east and westbound approaches are all green, everything looks good.

The north and southbound approaches are not looking so good.

Red and yellow is not good.

The bottom block shows levels of service and expected delay at this intersection in 2045 if the roundabout is built.

You can see decreases for those north and southbound approaches and our levels of service for all approaches are green.

Moving on to the roundabout at the Old Garth Canterbury IV intersection.

Here we have IV Road.

Here's Old Garth.

Here is Canterbury Road.

This is a gas station.

Again, not shown in this picture, but there would also be access management, the closed median between this roundabout and the roundabout at Bore's Head to the West, continuing through here.

The roundabout would likely be shifted from its location in this sketch a little bit to the southeast and the purpose of doing that would be to limit right-of-way impacts to the gas station and reduce potential confusion between the gas station driveway users and those exiting the roundabout to the west.

This is an excerpt from the consultant's analysis showing again significant improvements in level of service in the horizon year going from some failing movements, lots of yellows and oranges and reds to almost all A's and B's if we were to build the roundabout.

moving on to the triangle about.

This would enforce one-way counterclockwise vehicle travel around this triangle-shaped set of roads.

So down here, this is the Old Garth Canterbury IV intersection with the roundabout that we just talked about.

This is Old Garth Road.

It's an extension of the off-ramp coming off of 29.

Here's Old Ivy Road.

Here's Falconer Drive.

This is a railroad underpass here.

County would strongly support some changes to the sketch shown in this slide as this sketch doesn't consider multimodal connectivity and county staff would like to see a continuation of the shared use path that will be over here, continuing all the way to the west to this intersection with Old Garth Road.

Second, the triangle about success is contingent upon efficient flow of traffic through the Old Garth Canterbury IV intersection here.

Without efficient flow through this intersection, we would risk back up into and consequent gridlock in the triangle about.

For that reason, this triangle about can only be constructed in tandem with the roundabout that we discussed on those previous slides.

right?

This slide shows an extension of both the southbound D cell and the northbound acceleration lanes on the 29-250 bypass north of IV-250.

So just off the picture here to your left, that's where IV-250 is.

The bottom side, this is northbound 29 and the top side is southbound 29.

This is one of the St.

Ann Bellefield campuses here.

So what we would have is an extension of this deceleration lane as you're getting off of 29 and an extension of this acceleration lane as you're getting on 29.

So the data in the left corner, basically what it's showing is a decrease in the density of vehicles on the ramps when these extensions would be built, which means just if the extensions are built, you'd have a lower likelihood of vehicle backups on the ramps.

We don't like vehicle backups on the ramps because that can affect traffic that's moving at much higher speeds along 29 continuing past those those ramps

One, these extensions pair really well with the other proposed improvements to reduce overall congestion in the area.

One concern the county has regarding these improvements is that sound walls, which are expensive, could be required for these improvements, especially with the addition of the old Ivy Residences development on the east side of 29, which would be right here.

Here we have the shared use path indicated in purple.

As we discussed it would go from Old Garth Road all the way along the south side of Old Ivy up to the railroad underpass just before you hit Ivy Road.

This allows for multimodal connectivity and improved safety which were both important outcomes for the project from a county perspective.

On the east end of that shared use path, we have the challenge of a narrow underpass beneath the railroad.

You can see it here.

This is the roadway, but it actually goes underneath the railroad shown here.

The county's preference is to maintain two-way vehicle traffic at this underpass while formalizing the existing practice where vehicles enter the underpass from one direction at a time, with the vehicles coming from the opposite direction waiting to enter the underpass until there's a gap in oncoming traffic.

That would be formalized with the addition of a new signal and stop bar west of the underpass.

You can see them right here.

one-way alternatives have also been proposed by the consultants, but these alternatives have had mixed responses from both the focus group and the broader public, so that's why we support the two-way option.

Not shown in this sketch, this improvement would also include a six-foot wide raised sidewalk on one side of old IV to demarcate space for pedestrian and bike traffic in the underpass.

A note that the raised sidewalk would likely need to be on the north side of the roadway so that the eastbound bike and pedestrian traffic can continue along the north side of Ivy Road.

If the raised sidewalk were to be on the south side of the underpass, we would need to add a crossing of Old Ivy at Ivy Road right here.

A crosswalk at this location would increase delay for motor vehicles and not be the safest option for bikes and pedestrians anyway.

So what this means is that we would need some sort of mid-block crossing on this side of the underpass so that folks using the south side shared use path could cross over to the north side raised sidewalk.

All right, that actually covers all of the improvements in this recommendation.

Here's our overview slide again.

I'll come back to this in just a second.

This is the discussion question for you.

As I said, we're presenting all of these improvements and we'd love to get the board's feedback on them.

Thank you.

I'm sure we'll have questions.

The quick answer is, at first blush, yes.

The other thing that I would just caution, and you alluded to it as, these are schematics.

and you can't take everything on these diagrams literally.

That's really important because we watched that happen to some degree with the barracks road and the diagrams.

I mean, it is what it is.

They're schematics.

So I really appreciate you pointing out the changes, which really sounded very appropriate to me.

I will use this opportunity to just let folks know that in the last regional transit partnership meeting, the university transit announced that they were purchasing some smaller buses that would be able to access Old Abbey Road under these railroad passes, which is really good news.

Just using this is a time to let you all know because that's always been one of the

is one of the problems we had getting transit with all of the students and the university folks living along Old Ivy Road.

They couldn't get the transit buses, I'm sorry, the UTS buses underneath.

So that's really good news.

And you were at the meeting, I think, when they talked about it.

So that's all good.

I don't think right now I'll probably have all kinds of other questions.

But for right now, I think the answer is yes.

Oh, one quick question.

All of these projects really are, many of them, work together.

So it's going to be important that we don't try and separate out the projects.

So is this pipeline study going to be competing with the other pipeline study?

I mean, are we going to have dueling pipeline studies challenging the monies, the smart scale monies?

That's a great

Barracks Road, all of the projects that came out of that pipeline study have been submitted in the current round of SMART Scale.

This is not being submitted in this current round of SMART Scale.

That submission has already happened.

So this will not compete with the Barracks Road study.

That being said, the next round of SmartScale is coming up in 2026, calendar year 2026.

We will do more pipeline studies with VDOT between now and then.

Okay.

But the two that deal with this one area along the bypass are not going to be competing.

That's great.

So that's, we don't have dual lane pipeline studies at least for the bypass areas.

That's great.

And I think for right now that's all I have.

Right now there is a sidewalk on IV road.

I don't remember for exactly which portion and I know that UVA is interested in improving bike and pedestrian infrastructure in this area, but you're correct.

I think that sidewalk diggers out right when it crosses 29, but I might look to folks who live more familiar with that area.

Can you go to the section that looks at the triangle about area?

So imagine you're coming off of 29 and you take this off ramp.

That off ramp eventually turns into this road, which we call Old Garth.

If that was the movement you were trying to make, you were trying to go this way and get onto Ivy, your movement would not change.

If what you wanted to do, if you were coming from Ivy here, or you were coming eastbound or westbound along Ivy, and you wanted to

head north up to perhaps St.

Anne's Bellefield is off this direction.

You would no longer go up Old Garth once the triangle is in effect.

You would make a right hand turn here on Old Ivy, make a left hand turn on Falconer Drive, and then you could continue up towards St.

Anne's Bellefield.

So basically, we're treating this as a giant roundabout where you can only go in one direction.

That's where the triangle about name came from.

Do we have another shot that's just right of this?

I thought we did.

Yeah.

Right here.

And there's no

Is there any existing sidewalk on the north side of the road?

There is existing sidewalk along Old Ivy for various reasons.

The only thing I'd mention, because I always like to mention it, you know what I'm about to get at?

Go for it.

Really the worst section of the Rivanna Trail is right here.

because you can't cross the bridge or you can't cross the railroad tracks so you have to go all the way around and back up up Old Ivy and then cross onto that farm right there.

It is one of the sketchiest parts of the Rivanna Trail because there's often a lot of traffic going over the bridge at Old Ivy and there's not a sidewalk there.

I don't know if this is the appropriate place to raise that, but I just mentioned that, right?

There is a pedestrian need to cross the north end of the old IV right at the end before you get to that bridge, and I don't think there's any facilities that serve that.

I don't know how urgent that need is, but certainly need I have with some regularity to cross that street.

Thank you.

Is there a response to that crossing from the south side on the multi-use to then get to the bike pad infrastructure that goes under the railroad?

That I discussed.

I think that it would let, is there space for folks, bikes and pedestrians under the railroad underpass?

There is six feet of space.

That is what the consultants came up with, a six foot raised sidewalk, potentially with some railing barrier.

That is all the space that is available.

That's much narrower than a standard shared use path, but that's what we have to work with.

That's a great question.

Can I just, and I'm sorry, I'm not trying to take away from your time, Ned, but my understanding at one point when we were talking about this project and that particular railroad bridge, VDOT was talking about straightening the entryway into and under that bridge that would make a difference

is that part of what you are, I guess that's part of what you all are talking about, because you go in at an angle and they said if you straighten the road and go in straight, it gives you more space.

That is not what we decided to do.

Okay, and I didn't mean to interrupt you, Ned, but I just remembered a big

discussion about that.

And once, while there has been a lot of flooding there, when they were doing our sidewalk project, they actually found a buried drain that no one had been maintaining.

And so the water retention under that bridge is, I won't say it's been fixed, but it is much better.

Now, if you get 30 inches of rain in two days,

You, it doesn't matter what you have, it's going to flood, right?

Because it's a bowl.

But just, I know the VDOT folks said to me, just finding and realizing that that drain was there and opening it up has made a significant difference.

Ned, the trick is to make sure over the decade that people know that drain is there and not allow it to become clogged again.

Can you show the roundabout in front of the market?

Nope, that's exactly correct.

Because of the access management that's going to be in place,

And to get there from coming west, you go through this roundabout and empty into the parking lots.

Yes.

So is at the end, which, if you're heading from west,

and you want to go northbound on the 250 head towards Leonard Sandridge.

Do we want them taking, like it seems like I understand and even if we were not dealing with traffic coming from the west, the extension of the excel lane is a good idea, period.

But for those people coming from the west, do we want them taking the on ramp to 250

I don't think that we have a preference for the decisions that individual drivers make.

Currently, the expectation is that people will use these ramps.

As part of the whole pipeline project, they did look at extending and improving these ramps, but that was also determined to not be cost effective.

Some people will use this triangle about to get over this way and then take the ramp here, but these are all open and public roads.

I know it seems with the extension of the diesel light you're almost encouraging them to take Old Ivy Road up there and then you don't have a light to deal with because you hit the roundabout and go through there so I understand what you're saying we can't decide for them but we sure can't influence where they go is and did they have any thoughts of the roundabout being so close to that light to get on to 250

I'm a fan around about, so I'm not complaining about the roundabout.

I'd put a roundabout everywhere.

But having to come out of a roundabout and hit a light, it seems pretty close to that.

No, that's a great point, and I don't think we discussed that in detail.

and then I would just note that to the conversation about the competition against pipeline studies, we're assuming it gets funded under the current smart scale.

You're correct.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for the presentation.

That explains a lot to me, because what we received in our packet wasn't nearly as detailed, and I was like, whoa.

Regarding the railroad bridge, are you going to have, because it's going to be a two-way with a six-foot raised path, that will be for pedestrians and bicycles?

Both.

OK.

And the signals that you're putting there

So this would be a new signal, the one just west of the underpass.

I see.

OK.

Got it.

Got it.

OK, so that answers that question.

All right.

And if you could go to page eight, slide eight.

I think that was it.

Okay, so in reality, right now you can only go if you're coming from Old Ivy and you turn right.

You can only go right and then left if you want to go on 250.

You can't go up Old Garth Road.

That's just one way coming down.

So it would just be, like you said, kind of a big triangular roundabout.

Okay.

So far I like your

looks a little complex in some areas, but it seems to address a lot of issues, and hopefully we can get the funding for that because it would greatly improve the safety of that area.

Thank you.

Go back up to the top.

Okay, so I've been writing things down as other people have asked their questions, so.

So the Boers had roundabout.

When the Boers had golf club entrance road was improved, that was presented to the board as only for golf.

And now I've been told that it is the primary entrance for this whole sports club.

University.

So I'm always saying, you know, show me the money.

Was there consideration of having a stoplight there as had been put in when the approvals for the residential townhouses across the street, there was a proffer and everything put in for that to pay for that stoplight?

So I can't speak to it being considered as exactly specified in the proffer, but I will say that the project pipeline study did consider every single intersection in the study area, so from Ednem to Alderman Road.

So every single intersection was considered and multiple potential improvements for each of those intersections were considered.

What you guys are seeing is what was determined to be the best package of improvements.

the triangle about basically is I think the only change that is on there is that someone coming west on Old Ivy Road will no longer be permitted to go from where Faulkner starts down to the exit ramp they will all have to go up and then down and at the same time so that's going to quintuple that traffic for sure as far as the numbers of people who will then have to be merging into

the high-speed exiting ramp people.

Was there consideration of some structural something to slow those ramp people down?

I mean, it says 25 miles an hour, and people pile up on my bumper when I slow down.

After I get off of the bypass, I slow down quickly because they want to hurry up and get on through.

I would love to know more about the numbers that are considered, and I'm sure you've done all sorts of studies about this, just having lived and worked in this area for 25 years.

There are times of day when things are tricky, and after five, after the schools are all done, is when it's the worst, because that's when all the home commuters are trying to beat it out of town and go west.

you're asking a really great and really big question.

I want to answer your question really broadly and then if you want to follow up after the fact we can do that.

So broadly the project pipeline study decided to look at two major routes for solutions and one route was to make improvements to these northern ramps which is the route we chose.

The other potential route for improvements was to make improvements

to all of those ramps south of Ivy Road.

Yeah, I'm much more concerned with what the engineers have to say.

And I know there was discussion a couple of years ago about having a double lane exit ramp as a weight instead of having a single lane that went under the bridge and the bridge is too narrow, blah, blah, blah.

Then you have a double lane exit ramp that takes people to the existing light and a double lane left and Bob's your uncle.

So those sort of common sense

NON-engineer suggestions I think are important because the triangle about is going to have consequences that I think the out of town engineers may not get because they haven't been there watching the length of time they may need to be watching.

People wanting to, as was already mentioned, people wanting to go on the bypass will continue to be able to go under the trestle and then go east on Old Ivy and then take the left.

That makes sense.

the concern about taking out that 50 yards between Faulkner and what you're now calling Old Garth Road.

That's really interesting to have the exit ramp now have a name that because Old Garth Road actually goes from that intersection straight off to the upper left corner of your picture.

I mean that's been Old Garth Road forever.

So anyway that would help to have that have a label also for everybody's understanding.

So that's a concern there.

So the eastern underpass, I've gotten confused as people have been asking their questions.

It is two-way but one-way at a time.

Correct.

It's not going to be like it is now of people trying to get by.

I wanted to make sure I had heard that correctly.

Okay, the bus is a fabulous idea.

Would the bus go to the western end of Old Ivy Road or only due to the

I'm really glad that that's a consideration.

All right.

talked about that.

I guess that's all of my questions at the moment.

Thank you.

I'm going to start on this slide before going back.

So I was worried at first about how to control traffic going to the west, but you said it's going to be, the bar will be coordinated with the light.

but is the light also impacting like the light turns coming out of the car wash and the parking lot there because they are already kind of, I'm not sure where the light exactly is here.

So the light would be here where the stop bar is for Westbound.

For Westbound, those lights would remain in place with the stop bar here.

You're correct that this driveway would need to be addressed as part of putting together a final product.

Yeah.

OK, I don't know what.

County, New York.

when a lot of those people could have gone a little further on the bypass and taken the other exit.

But at this point, at least, you know that if you're not, if you're from here, you look at that and you see that back up and you know that you're going to have to make your way through the light, under the underpass through the light, before you can get to Ivy going west.

Which, you know,

at many times a day is not as viable an option as just continuing on a little further.

But if we put the roundabout in, the people coming to the second exit are still going to then come up off their off ramp and have to sit in a stoplight to wait to turn left and then go through the roundabout.

This is actually encouraging people to take the first exit because that's the one where it's a free flow pretty much all the way through.

Okay, I just want to make sure I understand, because I do see that, I don't know how you control local versus non-local, because if you're trying to get to Pros-A, you want to go on high, that's the way you go.

So, yeah, problem.

Yeah, I'm generally very supportive of this, though, as a package.

I realize it's a pretty big package, though.

I just have to ask, because I've noticed changes in the university's properties, that I want to make sure they've looked at, or if they've understood, and what effect they have.

No, I understand that.

It's happening now.

It's opened up.

I don't know how much that's going to be regulated as far as who uses that, whether that's going to open up a whole new avenue for people to get out of that area.

The other one that I haven't personally investigated, maybe you have, is the access at the underpass at the end of old IV to IV, which is slide 11 again, that the

So UVA was included, UVA staff were in attendance at all of the project pipeline meetings.

Okay, all right.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate that.

Are there additional questions or comments?

We do want to answer the question, I guess, which is whether people are supportive or not.

Thank you.

That was something that was considered.

Oh, important clarification because that would otherwise double the traffic at the other end.

People coming out of the orthopedic hospital and trying to get to one of the residences there.

So that's a huge, I'm glad I asked that again.

And just

The question of how to stop microz residents from zooming through the quick way is to stop the westbound traffic under the trestle, which has been suggested for 25 years.

University.

people can also figure out other ways and get to 64 and go west that way where we have bigger ability.

So I just want to keep raising the sort of simple and common sense things that people could consider.

I can't remember if that specific thing was looked at.

Yeah, I'm fine with the package as it is.

I'm impressed.

Any other

Cummins.

Supportive?

Are we worried about it?

All right.

Thank you very much.

I'll board this time for a research.

Mack from our recess and our next item is the transportation planning quarterly report.

Thank you.

Good afternoon board, Chair Andrews.

My name is Albert Karina Plun.

I'm a planner in community development and I'll be presenting the transportation planning quarterly report.

So first I want to talk about smart scale updates.

As a reminder, smart scale doesn't require any local match.

Albemarle County applied for four projects this round.

The Rio Road appears in the map as well, the numbers, the Rio Road intersection, or the Rio Road in Hillsdale, Northfield, Old Brook intersection improvements.

the U.S.

29 and Plink Road Intersection Improvements, the Old Trail Drive U.S.

250 West Intersection Improvements, and the county portion of the Barracks Road Improvement Package that was recommended as part of the Barracks Pipeline Study.

The NPO also applied for four projects.

They applied for the Fifth Street I-64 Diverging Diamond Energy Change Project, the U.S.

250 Peter Jeff and Rural Conroad Improvements as part of the Pantops package, the city portion of the Barracks Pipeline Study,

and to improve the likelihood that funding for this corridor can be secured.

They also applied for funding for the entire recommended barracks improvements covering both improvements in the county and the city.

So for clarification, we applied for county improvements as part of that package.

The MPO applied for the city as well as county and city just to increase our odds.

applications were submitted this past August with information about funding likely coming early next year.

Funding for these selected projects will be available summer of 2029.

3 knots trail Albemarle County was awarded a $2 million planning grant through the very competitive race program to develop a master plan for shared use path that would extend from the Emmett IV intersection in the city of Charlottesville, go west across Western Albemarle County through the Crozet area and into Nelson County where it would eventually meet up with the popular Blue Ridge Tunnel trail.

Staff finalized the grant agreement with FHWA and released an RFP for consultants in early April 2024.

A selection committee composed of different stakeholders in the region reviewed several written proposals and interviewed the highest scoring consultant teams.

Staff expect to complete contract negotiations and kick off the project before the end of the year.

Free Ridge Lane on August 12th, 2024.

The board approved $15,000 to fund the pilot program, which is expected to kick off before the end of the year and will run for one year, after which we will assess whether or not to make the project permanent.

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

It has been funded partially through the Federal Safe Streets for All Grant Program with Albemarle County and the other localities in the PDC area providing the local match.

Segments or intersections that have had three or more injuries or fatalities in the last five years were identified as high injury network locations.

in September, county staff, the consulting team, TJPDC staff, and ACPD officers conducted visits to some sites in the high-enduring network to better understand some of the safety problems at each location.

The plank through truck restriction.

In July, the county was informed that the commissioner of VDOT had approved a through-truck restriction on Plank Road.

Signs have been installed and restrictions effect.

staff also attended the August and September monthly meetings of the regional transit partnership.

Highlights from the meeting include presentations about the formation of a Charlottesville Albemarle Regional Transit Authority CARDA followed by a vote by the RTP to endorse the formation of CARDA.

The board may recall from your joint meeting with the Charlottesville City Council that the CARDA presentation was there as well.

and county staff continues to meet monthly with VEDAW and ACPD to address citizen transportation concerns.

Issues from this past quarter include requests for pedestrian infrastructure on Penn Park Road and Penn Park Lane and there's some safety concerns on Penn Park Road, Alboreen Road and Advanced Mills Road.

There's also been some maintenance concerns on Garth Road, Georgetown Road and Old Lynchburg Road.

Thank you.

We'll go through the order.

I don't have any questions on your presentation right now.

Thank you.

I reserve the right to come back in a few minutes.

Of course.

I'll allow a lot of projects.

I'm very excited to see you move forward in the future.

Thank you.

Yeah, this could be more commentary than questions, but since the Penn Park Road came up as a driver safety piece, I know that some citizens had reached out.

I don't know if it was to be on staff or both about the speed limit on Penn Park Road.

It's currently posted at 35, so you come off of Rio Road, drive down to the park,

School,

VDOT Posted Sign says that you should take the curve at 25.

So really, if you're leaving Penn Park Road and you're obeying the cautionary sign about doing 25 around the bend, that really leaves almost 100 yards, if that, to get up to 35 before you hit the red light to get back onto

So I'm just bringing all that up to say with the addition of some new units that are there that were built by right, the ongoing requests there for pedestrian infrastructure that I always forget if I'm to make a speed limit change request, if I have to do that through staff or through VDOT or through both.

But after the resident brought it up and going out and driving that again, it's really kind of baffling why that would be at 35 anyway.

So I guess I'm formally asking that if there's no objection anywhere that that be looked at to have that speed limit reduced down to 25 to match really what you do when you exit.

Anybody that's actually driving 35 into there hits those speed bumps.

They're going to be on the golf course, which I guess they earned it if they do that.

Park Road.

I have to double check and I believe we have one.

I don't know if we do, but I think VDOT did complete a study of Penn Park Road in the past.

I mean, if that speed study somehow says it supports 35 miles per hour, I call BS on that speed study.

It's just going to be that point blank.

It just doesn't seem to make sense.

And if the timing of the study was done before those additional units were put on there, and now we have the Bennett's Village over there, I mean, there's just other things that make sense to have that be a lower speed limit.

Thank you.

I commiserate with you because we have a Gordonsville Road that is 45 and 50 halfway through Gordonsville Road going north to Gordonsville it's 45.

The other half is 50.

I asked VDOT to do a study.

They did a study asking them to reduce the northern part to 45 miles per hour because everyone's speeding.

Can you go to slide five please?

Yes.

Okay, bullet number three segments in a section with at least three injuries, fatalities identified as high injury network locations.

I do not have them on me right now, but I can get the list for you.

Because I know one of Gordonville Road, that fits it right there.

So I would really appreciate getting that.

Thank you very much.

Regarding the transportation dashboard, which I'm not expert at, was there a start time for that because you mentioned a few things that were, I guess,

But ongoing things, Foothills Crossing, Hilltop, Park Road, West Hall, those things.

So it should have been studied for five years without resolution.

Are they still on the dashboard in some process?

So I would love direction on how to access that kind of information.

Yes, the dashboard that I made that has the different projects listed, that's mainly for smart scale projects and other CIP level projects that we do.

Okay, so a different place to look.

So I will update on how to find that then.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

I have no additional questions.

I do, and I was trying to separate out my questions and my concerns, so I'll wrap back around here.

Georgetown Road has a through truck prohibition.

Through trucks are prohibited.

Kerry has been working with me really well on how to get the signage improved because we have one of the things that really came out of one of my Citizens Advisory Committee meetings with the police, whereas the frustration of all the folks that live along Georgetown Road on trucks, specifically dump trucks right now with lots of dirt and just really big trucks constantly using Georgetown Road.

The signage, and Carrie sent me pictures, and I understand the signage, there are five signs right now that say, through trucks prohibited, they all reference the state route number.

I couldn't tell you what the state route number is for Georgetown.

I don't think.

that the drivers of these trucks know state route numbers.

So I guess my question is, is it an absolute that the signs have to say the state route numbers?

I'm not too sure what VEDA science standards allow.

Yeah, I mean, I don't think, yeah, and I don't need to belabor it, but it should say, in my opinion, through trucks prohibited on Georgetown Road.

If you have to throw the state route number in there, that's fine, but people don't know what state route numbers are.

I mean, I don't.

This has been, frankly, a burning issue with me and the through truck prohibitions.

Carrie knows that you know it.

The truckers do not pay attention to the signs.

I supported Planktown or Plank Road getting the through truck restrictions.

But let me tell you the reality is that truckers ignore the signs unless you have police out there all the time.

riding tickets and, by the way, riding tickets but not points against the license, which is a problem.

And that's a problem we've had on Gordonsville Road.

It's been very frustrating.

The police came out last month.

They wrote 17 tickets for oversized trucks.

And by the way, we have large signs put up by VDOT on either end saying,

Trucks over 65 feet, not allowed, prohibited.

They come through all the time.

Last week, we had a large oversized Amazon truck that flipped over on its side, thankfully, no one was hurt.

But I had an email from a constituent today that on Tuesday, within 15 minutes, two oversized Amazon trucks.

And if you over 65 feet and you say, well, how do you know it's over 65 feet?

if they have a sleeper cab that is an over 65 feet truck.

This is just going to continue until we get some kind of creative way vis-a-vis VDOT, hopefully the county can do something, but I mean with VDOT to deal with this, people are getting killed and injured.

and by the way, Gordon's Real Road was shut down for 11 hours when that happened, when that Amazon truck overturned.

So, thank you for letting me vent.

Are there any other?

Please direct me if this is a carry question instead.

Which department is

keeping up with

No Truck Zone, the sign which identifies the times when the cameras are working is about this big.

and the letters are about this big, and if one is in traffic, it's very difficult to read.

So, two questions.

How do we improve those situations?

And does the county have the authority, and I don't know, Andy, to have it 25 miles an hour all the time in that section?

Because then you wouldn't have people going, is this the time?

Is this the time or not?

And if the lights aren't flashing, which people rely on to know when the kids are there, that's a problem.

I think ways for people to weasel out of paying their fines, which they really will deserve if they're speeding.

But we need to have the sort of a bulletproof mechanism to make sure we're doing this right.

So I don't have the magic answer, but I do have concerns about that.

Also, I saw myself one time and others have called in the Hillsdale Roundabout Pedestrian Crossing.

is a

and then they can't get across because the drivers are ruthless coming off that roundabout and I don't know how to resolve that either.

So sorry to jump all these problems on you and I'm sure that Ms.

The one at Hydraulic and Hillsdale.

Yes, thank you for that.

Yes.

Yeah.

About the flashing lights, I think that would be a VDOT question.

Okay.

Great.

That would be a VDOT question, yes.

Okay.

Thank you.

Is there any additional comments, questions?

and next up, Kerry Sheppard for our VDOT quarterly report, Charlottesville Residency Administrator.

Welcome.

I've realized that you've had a busy few days probably hearing about a lot of issues.

Oh, yes.

There we go.

Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, members of the board.

Carrie Sheppard here to provide the quarterly presentation.

Before I get into the formal presentation, though, I would like to give you an update on the storm damage.

Currently in Albemarle County, we have eight roads closed.

Five of those are due to washouts, which means it's going to be a little bit longer term repair.

that includes 614 Sugar Hollow Road.

I do have an update on that though.

That one they are actually working on right now and it should be open later this evening.

So that one will come off the list.

But in addition to that one is a washout.

We have 635 Craig Store Road, 682 Broadax,

Bairwood, and 839 Whippewill.

Whippewill and Craig Store and Broadax are going to be a little bit longer term for repair so it could be in excess of two weeks or more because we have to get a contractor in place.

And then we have three roads that right now are closed for flooding.

That is 622 Albavanna Springs Road, 689 Burgess Creek, and 712 Plank Road.

So that is what we are continuing to work on at this point.

We are hoping for no more rain.

County.

Okay, into my formal presentation.

So not too much has changed on the slides since I was last here.

I would like to point out that we do have a public hearing scheduled for the Berkman connector that's scheduled for November 13th at UVA North Fork and there's the address

and then I also would like to mention that we are actively trying to include the Route 680 Brownscap Turnpike Bridge with the bundle project so that they can do the roundabout at 242.50 and the bridge at the same time.

The last piece that they're trying to see if it's feasible is the funding.

So if we can figure that out, then hopefully they get rolled in together.

As far as our design build bundles, the hydraulic package, they are starting construction of the pedestrian bridge at Zan.

There will be a traffic shift.

They were supposed to have that traffic shift this week.

I'm not sure if the weather has delayed that a second time or not, but just be aware of that.

The traffic will just shift so that they can work in the median to start putting in that bridge.

and then no real updates to bundle number two and then status for our what I'm going to call our Albemarle bundle number three, which is the hydraulic Cedar Hill Road District Avenue roundabout and Fontaine interchange improvements.

We have public hearing tentative for early 2025 and request for design bill qualifications in February.

So that should be moving along as well.

as far as rural rustic updates, Old Dominion Road construction is complete.

Sutherland Road is under construction.

We did have a pretty severe washout on that road, a lot of damage from these storms.

We're still trying to replace a pretty large pipe, and we had a lot of stone wash away.

So that one is going to be under construction.

Well, the goal is actually to pave it next year.

So it's going to actually be stone put down and let it get compacted through the winter so we can pave it first thing in the spring.

County.

Henderson Lane is pending construction that is also going to be prepped, but not paved until next spring.

And then we have Glendale Road phase one and as a separate project phase 2 that is in preliminary engineering and will also be readdressed next year.

As far as construction activities, we have the Afton Mountain warning system installation that's in progress.

That one's still moving along.

Estimated completion is still in December.

But I do want to draw attention to Phrase Mill Road.

That bridge was completed three months in advance of schedule and is open.

As far as traffic engineering, I do have the truck restriction signage still on the list.

And we will discuss with the county if we can add Georgetown Road signs to that.

But generally speaking, we did confirm that

all signs are in place and clearly visible and the appropriate size as well.

We also have Milton Road, it's a curved warning sign review that's also in progress right now.

We have Stony Point Road, speed and sign review that is also in progress.

Thank you.

I'll go through order.

Thank you, Kerry.

And I mentioned it to the county folks because I know you all work together so closely and talk about the three trucks restriction.

What happens is that we have five signs for Georgetown Road.

Three of them are on between Barracks Road and Hydraulic Road.

And by the time you get on to Georgetown Road, it's really too late for these trucks.

I'm just trying to figure out a way to get

County, and

County, New York.

Yes, so there has been some falls out there and they've been reported through work orders.

So we had our contractor go out and do a full assessment of Georgetown and hydraulic up to Lambs Road.

They presented that back as a report to us and they identified the different tripping hazards and gave us a cost estimate.

So we're proceeding with getting that work done.

They are a little delayed.

That's why I haven't gotten back with you on a date yet.

They're delayed because of the weather.

It's good because we have had people hurt and it's really important to get that done.

At the same time though, I recognize you all are probably overwhelmed right now.

there's a lot going on.

I do recognize that and I guess that was one of my questions was your maintenance budget is always so big and I get that because I think we're all aware that VDOT is underfunded based on all the changes in the funding structure and the money that goes into your

York, VDOT.

But given the stress right now on the maintenance budget, are you anticipating that there will be things that you'll have to put a hold on or a stop order on in order to deal with some of the storm issues and the repairs?

We have roads that are going to have to be repaired.

We're hoping that we would get some sort of reimbursement depending on the type of project or the cost.

We won't know that for a long time so to answer your question in short, yes, but the good thing is

as far as major projects, we're kind of coming to a little bit of a slowdown because we're coming into winter.

So that's kind of one good thing about it.

It's coming at a time where we're already going to slow down anyway.

But it'll be interesting to see how the winter plays out.

That'll affect our budget.

And then we'll have to just reassess in the spring of whether we have to kind of put the brakes on some projects and hold off until the new fiscal year.

And I get that.

And the winter, of course, is snow and ice.

and how much you have to spend to clear all of that because a lot of the, even the ice, the liquid that you all put down when you're anticipating ice is so expensive.

And I understand that.

So it's just always a concern.

Agreed.

Yeah.

Well, thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

very, very simple.

The project that is always nearest and dearest to my heart because I get so many questions about it.

Glendauer Road, phase one and phase two.

I know the other rural rustics you mentioned all have a kind of spring 2025 target date.

It sounds like Glendauer is also spring or summer 2025.

Yeah, that would be our goal.

We have to work through the priorities as they're listed in the plan.

That's why the other roads are kind of slated as first.

Yeah, that would be our goal.

Thank you.

I'll have.

Hello, Kerry.

I know we've got a couple ongoing things going, so I appreciate the updates on those issues.

So the one I brought up prior, I don't think I saw you in the auditorium yet.

and I always forget if speed limit changes or requests are through VDOT or through staff, so they're aware of how I feel on Penn Park Road.

Sounds like it's been looked at before, but as I made the comment earlier, when you enter, it's posted as 35.

All the off-shoot roads are 25.

You hit speed bumps at the end as you approach Penn Park.

When you're leaving Penn Park,

VDOT has a take at 25 around the curve, which really only leaves about 100 yards of 35 when you're exiting the park.

I'm not sure why that sign doesn't exist going into the park around the same curve.

but it seems that if you were obeying it, a good 75% of this road you should be doing 25 anyway based on what's posted.

So I'm just asking that that road with the addition of, we have additional residential units that are there of the folks and we don't have any pedestrian infrastructure even though a lot of pedestrians are accessing the park down Penn Park Road that that be looked at to be switched over to 25.

And if they mentioned there was a study done at some point, so I'd obviously want to know the timing of that study if that was before the additional residential units had gone in or not.

But this is one of those things where it just doesn't seem to make sense to me that this would match the speed of Rye Road on a street where houses literally front the road.

It's going into a community asset that a lot of people attend.

So any assistance or help on trying to get that?

I would personally like to see the road change down to 25.

It just seems to make sense.

But I always kind of forget the process for these speed limit changes.

So that's a new item.

Thank you.

Oh, and the hydraulic, you know, Whole Foods, where the roundabout is.

Now I know that there are concerns there, but I have to admit that right before that project, I went out as a pedestrian and tried to cross from the Kroger side over to Whole Foods.

and kind of paid attention during a busy time.

It was in the morning, and it took a long time to be able to cross over there.

Same time of day I went out after the roundabout was in place, and I was able to traverse that intersection as a pedestrian in a way that I didn't have to sprint, even with the sign crossings, and just felt safer going it, and it didn't take as long as I thought it would.

Obviously, it does seem to be that people need to learn what the yield sign means and learn how to keep it.

Because I love, I don't love,

Bad Choice Award.

But it's frustrating when folks will criticize infrastructure when it's their driving skills that are in question.

Because if people were yielding and knew how to properly yield, that roundabout would be working effectively.

Yeah, roundabouts, slow traffic down.

That's why you're able to cross the street and everything.

I mean, they're fantastic.

So I'm going to make another pitch for Gordonsville Road, which is halfway 22, the other half 231, going up to Gordonsville.

Because half of it is 45, 22 is 45, then from 231 on, it's 50.

And with the number of trucks we have there, these are

rural roads with deep ditches.

There's no place to go.

You go off the road, you're going into a ditch, you're going into a tree, you're going into a fence.

It's not pretty.

And it's been happening a lot.

Within the last year, we had someone that died.

A guy that was in a truck actually hit a tree and died.

and we've had, you probably heard me mention about the Amazon truck.

We've had lots of trucks turn over, turn over because if someone else is coming and it's oversized, boom, then someone's going to go off the road.

But I would like to see that reduced from 50 to 45 so we could get additional coverage.

But I do want to ask you, because I know the other roads, you know, Supervisor McKeill,

Supervisor Malik.

We have truck restrictions, my roads, that one road.

We have truck restrictions.

What can we do when the truckers use their mobile phone and not their truck GPS?

What's the solution to be able to enforce that?

Unfortunately, we don't really have any control over that.

We've tried through our central office and other avenues to reach out to GPS companies, but we have not had success.

And is there a, what about going through that?

Well, I know we're average.

Our legislative agenda has photo speed cameras on it, if we can get that.

But do you know of any restrictions on trucks where the police can give them points on their license instead of in addition to a ticket?

That's not something I know.

All right, within the legislature.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Direct Ridge was on the washout list yesterday, but it's not one of the ones you mentioned.

The bridge was washed out on Direct Ridge in northern Albemarle.

It should be open.

I looked at our list and it had just been updated.

Fantastic.

That's great.

Thank you very much.

The afternoon morning, is that the lights?

that had the public hearing in Stanton six weeks ago.

Because I wasn't able to get to the public hearing.

I think this is a warning system to alert drivers when there's a slowdown and a backup in congestion.

So it will alert drivers to slow down.

I'm glad that that's it and not just very high poles with 24-7 big highlights because the migratory bird pathway would be ruined and that is a really important skyway for the whole of the western part of the United States.

So that was my confusion if that information was, I misinterpreted what was in the public hearing before.

So I'm thrilled with your answer on that.

I will double check.

Okay.

Is for the reciprocary Senate bill last year which passed about allowing

Grubble Road funds to be able to be used for redesign and maintenance to solve problems.

Is that process a VDOT process or is that a county process?

Who needs to work on that so that we can start contributing?

So that's a very good question.

That's still being discussed internally about how that's going to

We actually have a meeting Friday that I'm going to be attending where we're going to discuss how that works and how that works with the funding.

How do they get added county or us and who decides what can be done or not?

These are all good questions that we also have.

So we are ironing that out as we speak.

When we have something finalized, I'll be sure to share it because I know that's a big

And different parts of the county have different desires, needs, etc.

with the users of those particular roads.

So hopefully there will be some kind of public input that's allowed before you write everything in stone, for sure.

Is VDOT or the county

taking care of the flashing lights at the Amal High School for speed times when the reduced 25 miles an hour when lights are flashing, which was normally a rival in dismissal.

was historically the way to know you were supposed to go 25 instead of 35.

But those haven't been working for a couple of weeks and I just didn't know who to call if I saw that again.

Those are county under permit from us, so it would be the county.

Okay, so I'll talk to the county about that.

And then

I guess perhaps it's an attorney question for later.

Do we have the authority to make the whole roadway, or maybe it's you, that section 25 all the time so that there is not the confusion about the time of day?

So in order to change, so speed limit is 35, right?

So in order to change it to 25, we would have to do a speed study and it would have to be justified.

But for the locality change in speed limits, that's only on a residential or business district that's already 25 miles an hour.

It gives you the ability to lower that to 15 miles an hour.

But if it's more than 25, it's in a different category.

Correct.

Out consideration.

Okay.

Okay, well that throws me in the ditch a little bit there.

Okay, I will think about it another way.

And you've already addressed the, I'll go back and work some more on Hillsdale and see what I can do about that.

The, or think about how I understand that better.

Thank you.

Oh, yeah, I asked you about the right range.

Okay.

Yes, I think I'm all squared away.

Thank you.

I very much appreciate your taking time to come here today knowing all that's going on.

And I appreciate the update on road closures and washouts, but I suspect that there's situations a lot worse in some respects.

I mean, those are the roads that are closed

the damage done to roads that are still open.

I guess I'm trying to understand and to help people realize that there's an inspection process but there's a reporting process.

We can remind people the reporting process because I think that there are people who are looking at their roads and saying well this is starting to be undercut here, the pavement's buckling or if it's a gravel road it's got sections that have

They're still passable, but they're washed out.

Is this just a matter of getting people to file reports from 1804 Road, or is it something that, you know, there will be an inspection?

How bad is it?

if people report things that would be excellent we can't be everywhere at once right now so we're just kind of trying to focus it's like putting out one fire at a time so we are strained for resources we did I left one out because I found out about another way here we found out similar to what you're saying a pipe on 810

out past Whitehall, and I don't know the exact location of it, but they found that this afternoon, and they determined it was serious enough that they're actually doing it right now.

They're going to open, cut the road, and replace it.

So if we get help from the public, that would be great.

We're trying to find the problems as fast as we can.

It's just going to take some time.

So yeah, there could be things out there right now that we need to address.

Yeah, the work order system is really good because then it gives us ability to track it, but it also can, we get responses back to who submits it so they can track it as well.

Great.

Thank you.

I certainly encourage people, because I know we've got a lot of situations like that.

And then I had, this is off the topic in a sense, but a report from a constituent, it was in a very serious accident on I-64 involving hitting a deer.

and there is an effort to have those fences I take it everywhere except for obviously where there's access to the public so on ramps and off ramps.

I have nothing further at this time.

I really appreciate your report.

just a comment we received carried today, a really great report on the two pipe on the pipeline study for Ivy Road and old Ivy Road.

And I just want to thank you and all the folks the team at VDOT for getting to because that was a lot of work to do.

And I just appreciate the work because those are hugely important.

Both of those pipeline studies are hugely important and really deal with safety in this community.

So thank you.

It was a great report.

Thank you.

Board, that brings us to item 14, which is closed meeting.

Yes, I would like to move that the Board of Supervisors convene a closed meeting pursuant to Section 2.2, TAC 3711A of the Code of Virginia under Subsection 1 to discuss and consider appointments to various boards and commissions, including without limitation, the Crozet Community Advisory Committee, the Historic Preservation Committee, the John Board, Jefferson Area Board for Aging,

We have a motion from Supervisor Pruitt, a second from Supervisor Malek.

Ms.

Malek.

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel.

Yes.

Ms.

LePizzo-Curtley.

Call us back to session.

Yes.

Motion.

Ms.

Malek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeil?

Aye.

Mr. Andrews?

Mr. Galloway?

Yes.

Ms.

Lapisto-Curtley?

We do.

I will read all of the appointments for the boards and commissions as one motion.

for the Crozet Community Advisory Committee, Wallace Barrett Johnson for the Historic Preservation Committee, Charles Chapman for the Jefferson Area Board for Aging, Cameron Moet, Monticella Area Community Action Agency, Crystal Bland, Places 29 North Community Advisory Committee, Misty Parson,

Social Services Advisory Board, Janine Braithwaite and Zarina Burge, Village of Rivanna Community Advisory Committee, Judy Hudley.

Hudley, I'm sorry.

Ms.

Malik?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeele?

Yes.

Ms.

Lupiso-Curtley?

Our next item is from the county executive and I know we don't have a regular report today, but we have

Yes, sir, as you referred to at the beginning of the meeting, we have our fire chief here this evening, Dan Eggleston.

And I'll ask Chief Eggleston if he would to come to the board.

And the focus tonight would be on the storm work and effort that's going on and has been going on across Albemarle County or region.

And anything that Chief Eggleston feels would be relevant.

And thank you, sir.

Good afternoon or evening.

Board Chair and members of the board.

My name is Dan Eggleston, Chief of Fire Rescue here to talk about sort of an overview of our response to the storm that worked its way up through the Commonwealth earlier this week or last week as well.

On the way up here, it's odd to think that we weren't that long ago that we were before you talking about how the wildfires scorched hundreds of acres and threatened the lives and homes of many people in the county.

which then led into discussions about the drought that we had over the summer.

Now, I'm standing before you to talk about the floods that happened from the remnants of the hurricane.

I hate to say it, but I think this is just our new normal, unfortunately.

But I thought I'd just give you a quick overview of what we did to prepare, what we saw in terms of damage and the challenges, and then maybe circle back and talk about what we can do to learn from this experience and

and really focus on what we can do perhaps to mitigate some of these efforts.

But, you know, as usual, anytime we see activity out in the Gulf or in the Atlantic, we start planning right away.

So we pulled our team together and really focused on what we can do to prepare ourselves best for this storm, which we activated our emergency team, which we also use online

Program to bring people together to generate action plans and scenarios that we can then respond to as things start to unfold.

I will say that this particular event, I wanted to highlight two high performers in this event, one of which is our National Weather Service, which is managed out of Sterling, Virginia.

It's a great group of folks that not only provide us with really good information

But you can pick up the phone and call them and they can discuss and give you pinpoint information about what will happen to our county.

And that is so valuable.

Because as you can imagine, we have a 723 square miles.

We're trying to figure out, you know, how this is going to be impacted.

And we can't do it alone.

But the other group, too, is that Rivanna, Water and Sewer, you know, they were instrumental in helping us get a better picture from their gauges and what they're seeing at their reservoirs.

to what impact that's going to mean to our citizens downstream.

So they were online 24 hours a day providing updated information and also had recently reached out to talk about what they can do even more now that we've learned from this experience.

But I just wanted to mention that great work and we really appreciate those partners.

You know, as I mentioned, one of our challenges is that our county is so big, 723 square miles, it's really difficult to get a situational awareness of what's going on.

We rely on a handful of gauges to let us know about the streams, but that's very limited.

A lot of times we get information, quite frankly, from our public safety staff.

Our firefighters and police officers are out there on the street all the time.

And while that's great,

usually it's a result of an emergency and we want to know some of this information ahead of time.

So we are trying to work towards establishing some better partnerships with DCR and the National Weather Service to see if we can replicate some of the great work they've done with gauges along the rivers to see if we can spread those out throughout the county and get a better picture of what's going on in cases like this.

You know, I would say that it's still a challenge, and even as we talked about earlier, Supervisor Malick and I have had lots of conversations, even applicable to our drought.

We've got to do a better job of trying to get our arms around what's happening with the environment in our own county, but it's going to require a lot of partnership.

This particular event really sort of came in three waves.

We had the event right before the hurricane as it moved its way up, which caused a significant amount of damage.

That's what probably hit Batesville the hardest is that first storm.

It caused flooding to many houses along Batesville.

It washed out the road, washed out some private bridges.

Then we had another wave that worked through Sunday night into early Monday as well, Friday night as well.

But the one that worked through on Sunday night also created flooding at Misty Mountain Campground, which caused us to evacuate many campers along that

area as well.

So these events caused several cases in which cars were swept off the road and the occupants had to be rescued, but we're very thankful that there were no serious injuries as a result of any of this happen.

But I think that's just luck.

I think we're very fortunate not to have those turned into anything more than they were.

I'm keeping in mind while we're doing that that's sort of above and beyond our normal duties I just want to let you know that during that period we also had three very significant hazardous materials caused both in transportation and fixed facilities as well as three significant structure fires one resulted in a fatality in the eastern southeastern portion of the county so our fire marshals were very busy trying to determine that

So the ability to do our normal job as well as to staff up and respond to something like this is really important.

And I'm so grateful for all of our folks, volunteers and career that train and prepare to do this kind of work.

They really stepped up again this time and did a wonderful job.

So looking forward, I think we've already had a hot wash of what we learned already.

We think there's a couple opportunities.

First is to go back and help

County.

We're going to put together a better way to understand what's happening in our county from a weather point of view.

We're going to follow up on that.

But also think there's an opportunity particularly related to the Batesville area.

There might be a mitigation opportunity down there.

I know that that

when the dust clears from the Department of Emergency Management, we're going to engage with them to see if there is an opportunity in Batesville as a pilot, perhaps, to do some mitigation projects to lessen the impact of future flooding.

I know that at least three or four homes were flooded, at least twice, if not three times.

And so it's likely to happen again.

Stillhouse Creek was raging pretty high through that area.

It washed out the road in a couple of areas, washed out a lot of private bridges.

So the community is very interested.

It's one of the more engaged communities I've dealt with.

I was down there talking to the community and they were brainstorming about ways they can step up and help.

But I think also we just need to keep an eye on our additional threats.

I think climate change is a real thing and I think we just need to be prepared to

not only respond, but look at other ways in which we can perhaps mitigate some of those risks because we're going to likely see this happen more and more often.

And I'm not just saying that, but I think it's something that I've seen in my career.

It's the frequency and the intensity of these events are increasing.

We've also have reached out to some of our surrounding communities, especially in Southwest Virginia and North Carolina.

We're working now with the ECC.

I think there's an opportunity for them to help out some of those communities with some dispatchers and call takers.

We're trying to help facilitate that.

We also have some staff that are volunteering to go out and help to reach some remote areas in North Carolina to bring needed food and water and medicine to those communities that are cut off.

Now that some of that

Search and Rescue efforts have died down.

A lot of those state and federal resources will leave those areas, and they're going to need long-term support.

So we want to be in a position to help them out as much as other people have helped us out over the years.

So I'll be more than happy to answer any questions you all have.

Thank you.

We'll go through our order.

first just we all thank you and the team and all the and we're really glad that all of you all are safe and our community members are safe and we really appreciate it these times though do present as you just said an opportunity to say okay how can we do it better

and I really appreciate that looking at it.

And maybe there'll be some lessons that we can learn from North Carolina and what they have struggled with.

Sure.

I don't have any real questions, but I do appreciate all yours.

Everybody's hard work.

Thank you.

Great.

I've joined my peers in thanking you and your team for all the hard work you've done.

was sharing with some of my peers earlier that my family is from the Western Carolinas.

That's where I grew up.

My father still does not have power and probably will not for a week more.

And that's true of most folks down there.

It is

County, it could have been so much worse, and that is not something that feels comfortable to say.

I mean, we look at the levy there, churning along down in Scottsville, and we look at that and we say, oh, yes, it could have been so much worse if we did not have this kind of preparation and this kind of technological advancement that's protecting us.

I am curious, especially when I compare kind of how we've endured this last week.

I am not familiar with any major utility strain that we've seen, like you have seen in other parts of Appalachia.

They're kind of down power lines, kind of outages, those debris, also them blocking things with live wires.

Is this something that your office has been tracking on significantly?

We do.

We have a good relationship with Dominion Energy and the cooperatives that serve Albemarle.

In fact, we have a dashboard that we can monitor outages

I think one of the reasons that we didn't see that level of activities, mainly the winds didn't materialize like we thought.

They kept below around 20 miles an hour.

We were really concerned if the winds were gusting higher with the wet weather that that would create lots of issues in terms of power.

But we really lucked out in that case.

The priority was to make the family lived out of state, so we wanted to make sure they were in a good spot when they came down from New York.

But they're continuing to investigate that right now.

At this point, we're not sure if it was related to the weather.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chief.

Appreciate the update and everything that everyone's been doing.

I think the only thing I would add

and it's I'm not looking necessarily for response here tonight that's not why I'm bringing it up but I see Mr. Harper here and in the past sometimes we talk about our our water infrastructure and how it moves and a lot of times it's the you know we talk about the stormwater infrastructure and the urban area but it's more these natural areas that depending on what's in them well what you can't stop the water

But if something's blocking that surge of water coming and then it releases, then you have a double surge that happens.

And I know that going out and investigating all of that infrastructure is moving as quickly as it can, but it's not a well-budgeted area necessarily.

I'm not saying it's underfunded, but it's probably not funded to get past the pipes and things that are in there.

so I would you know when we see an emergency like this or things like this start to happen it leads me to go well as you said if we can do opportunities for improvement seeing what's in the way if big water does come and what can we do to mitigate that whether it's helping working with private landowners or whoever to keep our known infrastructure areas clear so if all that water does come it's not getting multiplied because there's things lying in wait to hold the water up and then release again

so I think that's something worth talking about come budget time and I don't I guess Jeff I've never thought about emergency we have contingency funding for emergencies so you know we don't know what could happen and those are there for those reasons to go to that but when you talk about like river gauges you know I think like if you're trying to do emergency preparedness if it doesn't if it

actually when I was visiting Batesville, Greg Harper was out there with me.

We were commenting on the enormous amount of silt that came through Batesville that's going to end up in the basin there in Crozet.

It's going to fill up that basin and that's happening everywhere in the county.

I think