Board of Supervisors Regular First Meeting   3/5/2025

I am pleased to call to order this regular meeting of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors on the 5th of March at 1 p.m.

in Lane Auditorium.

Like the note at the desk, we have Supervisor Mike Pruitt of the Scottsville District.

Thank you.

Supervisor Bea LaPisto-Kirtley of the Rivanna District, Supervisor Diantha McKeel of the Jack Jewett District, Supervisor Ned Gallaway of the Rio District.

and Supervisor Ann Mallek of the Whitehall District and myself, Jim Andrews, representing the Samuel Miller District.

A quorum is present.

We're also joined here by our County Executive, Mr. Jeff Richardson, our County Attorney, Mr. Andy Herrick, our Clerk, Ms.

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

Also, let me please welcome Albemarle County Police Officer present, Master Police Officer Dana Reeves,

and Sergeant Matthew Riley.

Board, as always, our first item is to adopt the final agenda.

I've heard of no recommendations or requests for change to that agenda, so if we have a motion to adopt the final agenda.

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

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley.

Aye.

Ms.

Mallet.

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel.

Yes.

Mr. Pruitt.

Aye.

Mr. Andrews.

Yes.

Thank you very much.

I just returned from Saturday Sunday steering committee meetings in Washington at the National Association of Counties.

18 hour days, lots of good work done.

It is interesting, every year there are staff

of the various legislative committees in Congress who come and speak to the Environment Natural Energy and Land Use Committee, of which I'm a member, and also the Veterans and Military Affairs Committee about what they expect to be happening in Congress.

And they used to be 40, 50-somethings, and now they're all 20-somethings.

So it's really interesting.

There's been a generational shift as far as the people who are in charge.

and we'll see how that all goes.

But there was great concern particularly at the Veterans Committee about the number of veterans who have been let go, who are providing services, case worker services, medical care services to other veterans and so I do hope that that is remedied ASAP because 6,000 staff gone out of an agency where there are already tremendous backlogs in getting service to our veterans.

Not a good thing.

Thank you.

And I'll be back with more at the end of the meeting.

Thank you.

A few quick events to put on y'all's calendar.

The Active Mobility Summit is going to be on the 6th and the 7th in Will and Mills, that secret gym of the Scottsville District that everyone is confused to learn is actually part of Albemarle County.

So this is a great event.

I attended it last year.

It is all about kind of how we can work to make kind of

Human-powered pedestrian mixed-use systems work and more successful in our community.

So that is on the 6th from 5.30 to 8th and then on the 7th from 9 to noon.

Additionally, there is going to be a ribbon cutting for a new project by SCAN, that's the Scottsville Arts and Nature Foundation.

In Scottsville, they've acquired a historic commercial property in downtown Scottsville that they're converting into a new

Public Art Gallery Space.

So the Gallery on Valley, which almost rhymes at 460 Valley, is going to have its ribbon cutting on the 20th at noon, and their first show is going to run from that time until April 27th.

Additionally, so long as we're talking about things that are opening in Scottsville, I would like to call attention.

So Town Council approved two years ago, one of the largest housing projects in Scottsville,

in recent memory, probably in modern history, frankly, because there's been quite a long time since there's been new housing approved in Scottsville.

They did that in 2022.

And there was groundbreaking on it.

So this is going to put 36 new single-family homes on Bird Street.

And it is going to significantly, I think, start to reshape kind of what Scottsville looks like and hopefully bring a little bit more pedestrian traffic to a lot of the small businesses that really defend on it in Scottsville and hopefully get a little bit

and a spark in those farmers markets again.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you very much.

I'm proud to announce that in the Rivanna District, we have closed off Freebridge Lane for, as part of Darden Town, for a one-year pilot project to see how the numbers go, whether or not people are really using it.

I'm proud to announce that in November, December, because we have a counter as people walk by and count them, 2,302 people used the free bridge lane from January to March 3rd, so a two month, another two month period, 6,405 people used free bridge lane.

Now remember,

It's been cold in January and February, and they were still there.

So I was really, the numbers are there, the people are really enjoying that.

So that's a good thing.

The next thing, this is kind of a personal heartfelt thing.

I received a call yesterday.

I was actually in a meeting with county executive Jeff Richardson when a resident

from St.

John Road called.

And to thank me, to thank the county, really, everyone involved, for giving them fiber, which has been a long uphill battle because of the area and other things going on.

And he said, my grandson is now able to do his homework from home.

That really meant a lot to me.

and I will give a shout out.

The president of CVEC is Gary Wood.

He was instrumental in getting Fiber to that location along with our own staff, Mike Culp and Jason and Yufuentes and others.

So just to thank you very much to CVEC for, they really stepped up to the plate where they didn't have to and they did to provide Fiber internet for this group.

Thank you.

Supervisor Gallaway.

Yes, thank you, a couple.

Real quick, just as all the other supervisors will also have, the Rio district community budget town hall will be Tuesday, March 18th from 5.30 to 7.30 at the center.

So I just want to start calling that out.

I'll have more opportunities to do so.

I also want to call out that next Thursday, that would be, what would that be, the 13th?

Yeah, 13, 12, 13.

Yeah, is the Central Virginia Regional Housing Partnerships Biennial Housing Summit.

So I hope that if you're not already signed up, you may be boxed out.

I think it's already, it is sold out, but there will be a lot of good conversation around solutions to helping solve the affordable housing issue.

This year is definitely a solutions-based summit.

So I hope those that are registered to go will enjoy that event.

and look forward to seeing people in attendance there.

And then I, too, was able to attend the National Association of Counties Legislative Conference.

I'm on the Community Economic Development and Workforce Committee for NACO.

And Saturday was a long day of different things.

I'll get into a couple of these at the end of the meeting, but the one I wanted to call out now, there was a, I mean, as you can imagine, there was lots of presentations on affordable housing.

on Economic Development Pieces, but one of them was called Breaking the Paper Ceiling, and it's also called Stars or Workers Who Are Skilled Through Alternative Routes.

So these are folks that don't necessarily have a college degree, but they may just have a high school diploma

but there's a large contingent of folks who have a lot of experience, a lot of work experience, may have some college but haven't gone all the way through to get the four-year degree and those folks often find in terms of upward mobility from a career standpoint obstacles to applying for jobs that require the degree, the four-year degree,

for the application.

So what STARZ opportunity at work and the folks who are trying to break the paper ceiling are doing are working with employers, both public and private sector, to remove that four-year degree, when and where appropriate, depending upon the types of jobs,

to open up so that you could at least explore and talk to applicants who may have the experience and the wherewithal of what you're looking for for a job who otherwise wouldn't apply because they don't have the degree.

And then once employed, these programs then can work with those folks if they need to get the degree, can get them into a path to help do so.

So I thought that was an interesting thing.

I hadn't necessarily heard of that program before, but calling that out for all of our business owners and our own organization and different folks here in Albemarle that I think that's a good idea.

You know, a lot of times you could, especially if you're frustrated with perhaps what you're seeing come in the door applying for jobs that this would expand your funnel and it may just be that you're frustrated with the folks that have earned the degree and that there could be other folks out there with the experiences you're looking for.

So I thought that would be a good thing to share at the top of today's meeting.

Thank you.

And not just at, you know, of course that we have seven budget town halls coming up and I encourage people to look for the one that they'd like to attend.

I'll be at, personally, Monticello High School on March 20th at the ANSI Community Center on March 27th, but other supervisors will be

either at those or at others and encourage people to attend regardless of which one you can go to.

A little more upcoming.

I just saw in the news in an email that the Energy Resource Hub is having a launch party and I thought this was interesting.

It's at the Carver Rec Center on March 11th from 4 to 7 p.m.

but this is a joint initiative of the county and the city working with nonprofits.

and looking at ways to help people save energy and also improve our environmental footprint.

And then finally, just working backwards from furthest out to the most, to the soonest, is maybe close to too late, but not quite.

I just looked.

There are still a couple slots and March 8th tire collection down at the Southern Convenience Center.

They haven't done that before there.

So I encourage people to sign up ahead of time.

It's between eight and four, and I think it may be the eight o'clock that's available.

But that's just a prelude to more hazardous household waste and other collections at IV, which are coming up April 25th and 26th.

With that, board, we turn to proclamations and recognitions.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I will read this proclamation in the form of a motion.

This is a proclamation celebrating CARS 100th anniversary, whereas, since its establishment on June 22, 1925, the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors, or CAR, has been the leading voice for real estate in Central Virginia.

Today, CAR represents more than 1,300 real estate professionals and affiliate members.

And whereas, over the past century, CAR has made significant contributions to the Albemarle real estate industry by advocating for the protection of private property rights and providing its members with the tools and technology needed to achieve expertise in serving the needs of their customers and clients.

and, whereas reflecting on its past, the association recognizes the profound changes it has made in recent years to embed diversity, equity and inclusion into every aspect of its operations and it remains committed to advancing these efforts in the future.

The association's commitment to professionalism and ethics has established it as a trusted and reliable resource in the real estate community, and whereas car members are deeply committed to enriching Albemarle's neighborhoods.

The association engages in a variety of educational programs and community service events each year, demonstrating a steadfast dedication to community development and welfare.

This community engagement has helped foster a stronger, more vibrant Albemarle County.

Now, therefore, it be a proclaim that we, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, do hereby commend the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors for their significant contributions to our community and extend a heartfelt congratulations for their 100 years of service to the residents of Albemarle County.

Signed this fifth day of March 2025, Chair Jim Andrews.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Mr. Pruitt?

Aye.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Thank you.

Yes.

Thank you guys so much.

Thank you Board of Supervisors, County employees here as well.

And yes, it's amazing to be here, you know, to think about those who have gone before us a hundred years is a long time to be helping the community.

And it's fun to come alongside of people in one of the biggest transitions that they

Well, thank you for being the first voice welcoming people to our area.

It's really important that at each stage when someone is new or even considering that they meet friendly people in stores and friendly people in offices to think that this is maybe a place where they'd like to be.

100 years is a long time.

Thank you for all your work.

Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley.

Thank you, Josh, for coming today and accepting this on behalf of all the CARS members who have done such a great job.

And we really, we rely on you.

We really appreciate the fact that you do so much for our community.

Yes, good afternoon.

Thank you for coming.

A hundred years is a long time.

I will say that I haven't needed your all services because I've lived in my house for 50 years.

But you all do a great job.

Aside from that.

Yes.

In the role of thanks.

Anyway, thank you very much.

And that facility, I'm happy to say, is right in the Rio district.

A hundred years, so that means that must be a pretty big cake.

It's going to be barbecue, actually.

Oh, barbecue.

Well, there's a lot there to celebrate.

I would simply say that I'm, and I was, I had the privilege of attending a forum that was held that I believe was part of a leadership academy that you all hold for your members.

I think that the training and the professional development you do for everyone is first-rate, so I appreciate that look on it, but it's not lost on me that whether you're a one-person realtor or you're a part of a huge agency

there's a lot of small businesses that are in real estate and small businesses are the engine of most localities so that I appreciate the fact and it's not lost to me what we gained from you all having a vibrant real estate industry here in our locality so I wish all those well and it's also not lost on me that you know

The biggest purchase you make can be a house.

Cars or, you know, a car, an actual vehicle, can be close to follow.

That was my industry.

But the ability to give your clientele a first-rate experience, I think, really matters to helping the community have a little bit different sense or a feel to it.

And I know you all are committed to that.

So I appreciate you being here and congratulations on your 100th.

and I'll just add my congratulations and the echo of the fact that the trust that people have to place in the real estate agents and the people who have helped them with that big transaction is enormous and I appreciate all that you do for them.

Board.

We have another proclamation.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I'm thrilled to be reading this.

As the oldest woman on the board, I'm very glad I'm going to be 75 in April, so I'm going to take advantage of that.

I'm reading this as a motion.

Proclamation celebrating Women's History Month.

Whereas Women's History Week originated in the United States in 1978.

launched in California during the week of International Women's Day and the movement spread across the country.

Whereas a consortium of women's groups and historians successfully lobbied for national recognition of the weak honoring women's contributions to American history until the first presidential proclamation was issued by Jimmy Carter in 1980.

Whereas subsequent presidents continued to proclaim a National Women's History Week until Congress passed a law in 1987,

designating March of each year as Women's History Month and authorized each president thereafter to issue an annual proclamation.

Whereas Albemarle County honors all the women, past and present, from our country, Commonwealth and country, our county, Commonwealth and country, whose invaluable contributions are often not recognized or recorded, and whose determination and leadership positively impacts our lives every day.

Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that we, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, do hereby acknowledge and commemorate the month of March 2025 as Women's History Month, the special recognition of the women who diligently led our county to a brighter future for all.

Signed this fifth day of March 2025, Jim H. Andrews, Chair.

We have a motion from Supervisor Mallek, a second from Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley without objection.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley, Ms.

Mallek, Ms.

Thank you.

And I believe we have a number of people here to help us celebrate this, but in particular, Ms.

Brandy Sullivan, I believe, is speaking on behalf of the Albemarle County Women and Government Affinity Group.

Good afternoon.

Mindful that your agenda says that my colleague Brandy Sullivan will be accepting this proclamation today.

My name is Kathleen Baines.

I am an Albemarle County employee and member of the Women in Government Affinity Group.

I'm joined by a small group of my colleagues and members of this group as well.

So on behalf of the group, we'd like to thank you jointly for this proclamation.

We're grateful to be recognized, but also must acknowledge that this is a testament to the collective strength and support of all women who work here at Albemarle County.

The Women and Government Affinity Group has been a cornerstone in building connections.

Through this group, we're forging meaningful relationships, we're sharing experiences with each other, and we're developing a platform for mentorship and professional development.

Please identify yourself as well.

The connections and conversations that happen in the Women Infinity Group meetings are also a testament to the power of vulnerability.

It is through our shared experiences, our willingness to be open and honest, and our courage to embrace our imperfections that we find strength.

Vulnerability allows us to connect, to empathize, and to support one another in ways that nothing else can.

I'm Erin Buchanan.

I work for Social Services.

As we celebrate National Women's History Month, let's continue to uplift and empower each other.

Let's also honor the legacy of the women and men who came before us and pave the way for future generations of women to thrive and succeed.

Together we can face the challenges that lie ahead with resilience and determination.

Thank you once again to the board for this honor.

Thank you.

Thank you all.

We'll go through our order, just add our to this celebration.

Oh, goody, thank you.

So I'm going to roll it back to the 19-teens, when my grandmother was a sewer for the Ziegfeld Follies and escaped from a Swedish household to ride the train and sew costumes all around the country.

Next Generation, my mom, was a beginning of the water quality effort here with Eni Nash and Charlotte Humphries to try to organize our community to take better care of our rivers and streams.

So we all have lots of shoulders on which to stand and to rely and to keep building forward.

And I'm so impressed with what you all have accomplished.

In 1971, I worked at Harvard Medical School, and they admitted that I was getting paid half of what a man doing my job was going to get.

And that was perfectly acceptable to them.

receiving, or you all are here on behalf of women in government.

I think it's really helpful to think about that lens as we think about the role of women's history in the United States.

You know, the previous thing that came before us was an organization celebrating its one hundredth birthday.

That means when CAR was founded, women would have been able to even vote in this county for what, six years?

Is that right?

Do I have that right?

It's

It is significant how massive a change that is, right?

I imagine that when Carl was founded, every single person on this board would have been a man.

It seems reasonable, since several of them would have stood with no women being able to vote for them.

And now we have perfect parity on this board.

I think I mentioned this last year when this came before us, but in India there was an act that actually provides for reserved seats for women on grand pancia, the basic equivalent of village local government.

And there have been a lot of studies showing how this shift in representation actually affects what happens

and what they've seen is that the people running for office are often of lower, more underrepresented castes because this is a new opportunity that are afforded to these women.

They wouldn't otherwise be able to get there because of their cast, so it actually opens up beyond just the sex boundary, it opens up access through class, through race.

They have pushed for policies that are more deeply equity-minded, more fundamentally care-minded for their community and I think this is just really powerful for us to remember

how much we're unlocking in government, how much we're unlocking in our economy, how much we're unlocking in our community when we extend participation and cooperation to women.

The role of women growing in government has been a boon in how we approach government fundamentally.

It has reshaped how we engage with the problems that face our community.

Thank you.

Well, you all know what I think because you are outstanding women.

There was one word used by the young lady right in front of me.

You used the word imperfections.

And as I look at you, I don't see any imperfections.

You're all perfect.

and also I want to let Supervisor Pruitt know that when I joined this board, we had five women and we had our token male which was Supervisor Gallaway.

As you should.

But so proud that you're all here and that we can celebrate this.

this week of Women's History Month.

I just couldn't be prouder of the advancements.

We've all made you all a lot younger than I am, but the advancements that have been made and the advancements that you all will continue to make.

That's what I'm excited about because we're not stopping.

We're going full war forward to make sure that

Well, I won't say take over the nation because that may be a little premature, but we'll get there.

But thank you very much for being here.

Thank you.

Thank you for being here and I certainly appreciate and recognize your leadership in our county and for our county government.

And we also have other female leaders I see in the audience.

I see one back there in a pink jacket.

and another one up here.

Anyway, we have lots in the room of female leaders in representing Elmar County in the room.

So I hold that title.

and I'm not saying a word.

Every minute of it.

Having said that, I just want to take a couple of minutes, because we really do have a lot of women in Almar County and in our government to celebrate.

But I want to take us back to recognize someone at the state level, as well as at the local level, two women.

The first person that I'd like to recognize is Maggie Lena Walker.

Maggie Walker was born to enslaved parents in Richmond, Virginia.

And at the turn of the century, she was one of the foremost female business leaders in the United States.

She gained national prominence when she became the first woman to own a bank in the United States.

She worked for a newspaper for a while, so she was a writer, and then she began to focus her efforts on accounting and math, which is the connection to the bank.

She founded the St.

Luke Penny Savings Bank.

She was the first woman of any race, she was African American, of course, but she was the first woman of any race to charter a bank in the United States.

The bank was a powerful representation of Black self-help in the segregated South.

The Penny Savings Bank not only attracted adults, but she worked to appeal to children by passing out savings banks, which encouraged them to save.

In 1924, the Penny Savings Bank had spread to other parts of Virginia and included 50,000 members.

while other banks collapsed during the Great Depression, St.

Luke's Penny Savings Bank survived, which is really cool.

The bank eventually consolidated with two other larger banks and moved to downtown Richmond, and it's still in operation today.

She died in 1934, but the Walker House has been maintained in Richmond.

It's been

designated a national historic site by the National Park Service.

And when you're in Richmond sometime, if you want to go by and visit it, you can.

Although they've shut down now three days a week based on the cutbacks by the Trump Musk administration.

But I believe they're open still two days a week.

So check before you go.

Anyway, I wanted to celebrate Maggie Walker.

The next person that I'd just like to celebrate locally is someone I think that most of us have heard of or knew, Emily Couric.

And of course, Emily was a state senator representing this locality.

She had a passionate commitment for lifelong learning.

and she especially motivated young people and really loved to work with young people.

She was on the Charlottesville School Board, a lot of people don't realize that, but Emily served on the Charlottesville School Board and of course in the Virginia Senate.

She was a friend and mentor to me and I know to many people in this community as well as probably sitting here in the audience.

The Emily Cancer Center is named after Emily.

and she has a leadership scholarship award that is presented every year by a group of local folks that honors young people in our high schools, women in our high schools that are leaders.

So with that, I just really appreciate you being here and think about Maggie Walker and Emily Currick and yourselves.

All of you are leaders.

Thank you.

I wasn't about to get into the hole who's the oldest woman on the dance.

I learned that during those years on the board.

I really enjoy this proclamation, as I've said in past years, that all the strongest, most influential folks in my life, especially through my childhood, were women.

I did not have grandfathers in my life, so my grandmother was the sole influence up until she passed in 2004.

I like to think that every time I talk to my daughters who are now going out into the world and finding their way that it is through those influences that I am speaking to them to give advice.

They are independent and strong, and I have no doubt that they necessarily need dad's advice, but I'll probably give it anyway.

While I was in D.C., I had the opportunity, I snuck away for a few hours to go to the National Portrait Gallery in D.C.

and walk, you know, to walk through the museum.

I did not know this, I don't have a whole lot to say to celebrate, but Jeanette Rankin was the first woman elected to Congress in 1916

and I didn't know that Montana gave the vote to women before it was granted nationally.

I didn't know that.

She again got reelected later in 1940, but she stood together and she was notable because she said, I want to stand with my country but I cannot vote for war.

She joined 49 men at the time against the U.S.

entry into World War I.

So I came across, you know, how you come across things.

I was like, I had no idea.

So I'm looking forward to going back and learning more about her, but you want to talk about women and government to be able to be a part, and she was inspired by the women's suffrage movement.

And I would say that Montana did well, not just to elect her, but they sent her back in 1940.

and I'm looking forward as maybe a way to celebrate Women's History Month as that's who I'll be focused on here in the coming weeks.

And let me just add my appreciation for all that you do.

And for the Celebrating Women's History Month, I noticed in the proclamation that we started with International Women's Day.

We went to Women's History Week an hour a month.

I think this is a good trend.

And I very much appreciate learning more about the Women in Government Affinity Group.

That's fascinating.

And I'm glad you're working together and talking about these things.

So thank you for being here.

A moment for a quick picture here.

Okay.

Board, the next item up on our agenda is public comment on matters previously considered or currently pending before the board other than schedule for public hearings.

Yeah, pull my, thank you, pull my mic down and we have two individuals who have signed up and we have no one online.

So I will, I've got my form out here.

During the time set aside for public comment on matters previously considered or currently pending before the board, individuals may address the board of supervisors concerning those matters previously considered by the board or pending before the board other than items listed on the agenda for public hearing.

Individuals are allowed one opportunity of up to three minutes to speak at each board meeting.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Speakers may not share any unused time with another speaker.

Back and forth debate is not permitted and do not speak

from Your Cedar, Out of Turn, and all comments are live-streamed, recorded, and published on the Alomar County website.

And our first speaker this afternoon is Lynn Gebhart.

Welcome.

Hello.

Good.

Yes, yes.

I am Lynn Gebhardt, resident of the Scottsville District of Albemarle County, an equine business owner, and an equine business farmer.

Biscuit Run is the largest park and the gem of the county park system.

The equine community has requested consideration for adding the equine trails back into the park.

We have offered to meet with director of parks and recreation, Mr. Crickenburger, to discuss a proposal.

We are patiently awaiting an answer.

A consideration for the Board of Supervisors that is yet to be presented is the economic benefit of equine trails as they relate to tourism.

Horseback riding leverages the historic significance of Albemarle County,

and adds to the number of attractions and activities that our community offers.

It further adds the ambiance and character of the community for many people who are looking for vacation activities or we can get away.

The other activities that would dovetail into an exceptional experience in our community

that fits into tourism model includes wine tasting, fine dining, Monticello, and other historic sites that would round out a complete package.

I'm asking what are your intentions of adding horse trails to Biscuit Run at any point in the future?

and I invite all Board of Supervisors to our horse farm to become more aware and educated of the horse farming in Albemarle County.

Thank you in advance for your consideration.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Board Members.

Thanks for the opportunity.

I'm Mark Gabbard, resident of the Scottsville District of Albemarle County.

I'm an equine business owner, a horse farm owner, retired military officer, and professional engineer.

The first issue I want to talk about

is that I'm concerned as to whether the county is run as a democracy or a bureaucracy.

The actions and decisions of the county planning commission and the Board of Supervisors will add to my final determination.

My observations of the process lead me to believe the planning commission is acting more like professional cheerleaders than elected officials.

I've discussed this issue with Mr. Pruitt, but will allow him the opportunity to brief the rest of the members, and I'll continue in no further comment on that issue.

Today's comments are largely in reference to the AC44 Appendix B Parks Recreation and Open Space.

I have been up here before and talked about, in my view, this is a plan to create a plan

or possibly a strategy to create strategy.

I've been in communication with Mr. Bob Crickenberger on this issue and I've outlined a number of what I call deficiencies that he has written back and

and the responses noted or contact the CDD.

So that brings in the question, who is ultimately responsible for this particular section?

And I would hope that when we hear from Mr. Ben Holt this afternoon, he might shed some light on that.

So another criticism would be that the actions, the objectives and actions need to be quantified, specific, measurable and achievable.

This would allow us to communicate to the community, the taxpayers, what the exact plan may be and what we can expect.

So my final comment is for the plan as a whole, the comprehensive plan needs to be a living document that is flexible and needs

and meets the demands of market forces that impact the development area.

So the other thing I would like to know from Mr. Hold is if he got the questions I had to Mr. Krickenberger and whether they implemented any of that into his plan before he presents it today.

Board, this brings us to our Consent Agenda.

No, I just have a comment to make.

Do you want me to make it first?

Sure.

Yeah, about the Consent Agenda.

And this may be for Jeff to be perfectly honest with you, but we had on the Consent Agenda the Cost of Community Services Study.

and I would very much like to have the opportunity to just have a, probably a quick agenda item at some point, Jeff, about that study.

I think it has some interesting information in it that would be good for not only us, but for the public to hear.

And I don't think, I know our genders are tight and I don't think this has to be a long agenda item, but I think if my fellow supervisors agree, I just think it'd be good to have a discussion about it.

At this point, this is an item for us to receive for information at this point, but take that under advisement.

Thank you very much.

I move approval of the consent calendar.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley.

Hi.

Ms.

Mallek.

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel.

Yes.

Mr. Pruitt.

Hi.

Mr. Andrews.

Yes.

Great.

Board, this brings us to our first action item for today, which is the special exception SE 202536701 Rockfish Gap Turnpike Country Store.

And I believe this is being presented by Ms.

Leah Bremfield, Senior Planner 2.

Welcome, Ms.

Thank you, members of the board.

As noted, I am Lea Brumfield, Senior Planner 2 in Zoning, and I am bringing to the board a special exception, 2025-03 for 6701 Rockfish Gap Turnpike, the Greenwood Grocery Country Store expansion.

The request is for a modification of the maximum gross floor area of the Greenwood Grocery per the regulations in country stores, supplemental regulations 5.1,

The maximum gross floor area for country stores, class A, is 4,000 square feet.

This is a request for an expansion from 4,000 to approximately 5,600.

Here is an aerial view of the grocery on the left, the larger building, and then the smaller building that, as described in the staff report, is requesting to be included in the country store.

and then here is an aerial that's flipped, the plan that's provided from the applicant showing the one story block building which is the country store and then the one and a half story frame residence which would be incorporated into the country store class A. And as a quick building history

The grocery itself was built as a hut for fruit sales around 1957.

The hut was expanded into a country store between 1960 and 1990.

regular changes and updates and expansions.

It was burned in 1999 and then rebuilt between late 1999, 2000 through 2003 as a longer process as a non-conforming class A country store with non-conforming status.

Then in 2008, the class A country store regulations were adopted

establishing the Greenwood Grocery as a Class A country store.

So the residents that they're requesting to add was originally, not originally, it was occupied by Basil and Vernell Morris between 1951 and 1999.

They were also the operators of the country store during that time period.

and the location wide used for fruit sales and later additional sales from a picnic table and a pickup truck before they moved to the grocery location on the parcel next door.

Following the fire which destroyed the country store building in 1999, the residence was used as a primary sales location for the business of the country store.

and then recently the current owners put in for a building permit to do alterations to the building that raised questions about what type of building permit it should be.

It was originally submitted as a residential permit.

and, following some discussions with the applicant, we realized that it needed to be a commercial permit in order to be used for the country store.

That led to a letter of determination which established that the residence was not traditionally part of the actual country store building.

and that's why they have applied for this special exception today.

So there was a stock work order on the construction of the building while we got all of this figured out.

The construction is still paused right now and so now we are here to request, the applicant has requested the expansion of the overall square footage.

So kind of looking at the building itself, this is a view of the country store from the front, the parking lot area, looking over to the side of it.

and then on the other side of the property as you noted in the area plan, this is the house where you can see the construction was started and then halted to renovate the location to be more conducive to country store use and less of a residence.

The applicant has noted that they would combine the two properties into one parcel, which staff does recommend as that would be a singular use on the one parcel of a country store.

being the single use instead of a residence and a country store.

And because the two properties are still are currently owned by the same property owner, there is a fence in between them for any operations that are behind the fence for the country store operations.

This is looking from the country store to the turnpike and there are some trees and some bushes in the front yard.

Overall, there isn't a large amount of screening there, but that would be something that would be, if there are any changes to the exterior, that would be something that we would have to address later.

So we do recommend that Board adopt the resolution of the staff report.

And I wanted to just quickly go through those to give a little explanation of the history on that building.

Okay, thank you.

We'll go through our order.

I don't have any questions.

Supervisor Pruitt.

Nothing at this time.

Thank you.

Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley?

No questions.

Thank you.

No questions.

I guess my question is that we have two different buildings, which would then become one lot, one place.

If they had been two separate owners with separate stores,

If the residents had been used as a country store and established as a primary use as a country store, then that would be a country store.

I have no other questions.

I'd just like to, when we, at our last board meeting, when we were talking about the rural area, we were talking about things that could exist in the rural area.

We talked about country stores and things like that.

So I couldn't help, I can't help, but make a, just to draw our memories back to that conversation.

that this is the type of thing that came to be because of the individuals involved and they made it work.

Now that's a similar thing that's happening now, but back then all the regulation didn't exist to allow it to happen?

and I don't think any of us are going to have any problem with supporting this and this isn't anything, you know, it's on a criticism against anybody but this does make everything more expensive for those involved and ultimately for the people that end up purchasing from them is how this works.

So I just wanted to call that out that, you know, okay, would we really have a problem, you know, the 1600 square feet in another location?

Maybe, I suppose, which is why it's coming before us to look at each individual application but, you know,

If we want this sort of thing, we like this sort of thing, are we allowing any of our regulations to get in the way of allowing it to happen or expand to help that business prosper?

Just to piggyback on that, Ned, certainly one of the issues you're referring to is the expense that it takes to bring this forward and the time it takes, right?

Yeah.

and I think there's a really good point.

So staff time is basically doing the regulation that if it goes the way I think this is going to go, this is a quick item for us almost.

Great points, thank you.

I will just say at this time, this is an example of how things in transition, things that have been operating for 50 or 100 years that have had to fit in with modern regulation.

And so I'm glad that's why I thanked Leia at the beginning because it's complicated from a civilian's point of view, including me, who asked for the wrong billing permit regularly, to get it right and to make sure that we have help provided for people.

So after the vote, I will have another comment, but I don't want to prejudice anybody right now.

It's on that side of the road.

I would make a motion to approve the special exception in the form of attachment D.

and with that motion by me and second by Supervisor Mallek.

Ms.

Lepisto-Kirtley.

Aye.

Ms.

Mallet.

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel.

Yes.

Mr. Pruitt.

Aye.

Mr. Andrews.

Yes.

Yes.

Thank you.

Only to say that Greenwood Grocery is a real gathering place.

And they provided wonderful food for the VACO Board when they came to County last spring and had wonderful contacts with local growers and sandwich makers and wonderful things that are sold and made available through the catering.

So it is a good gem.

And I'm very glad to have them continue in operation.

And the best strawberries ever.

Great.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

I'm bored.

This brings us to our biggest item for the afternoon, which is a discussion of the AC44 Parks, Recreation and Open Space Policy and Actions chapter.

This is led by Mr. Ben Holt, Senior Planner 2.

And welcome, Mr. Holt and Mr. Paladino.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Members of the Board, if you'll allow me just one moment to get the presentation.

Is that better?

I'll try to speak up.

Thank you.

Give me one moment to bring up the presentation.

All right, thank you all.

Yes, my name is Ben Holt and I'll be presenting on behalf of the Long Range Planning Team.

Today's work session is a focus on the Parks, Recreation, and Open Space chapter.

I'll try to keep my presentation relatively brief.

I'll be sharing those duties with Tim Padolino to my right.

And we'll make it a point to allow plenty of time for you all to discuss the chapter and share your feedback.

Our presentation today will cover previous feedback that we've heard from both the Planning Commission and the Board to date, and this includes our recent work session with the Planning Commission last week.

We'll also take a look at community input on the topic, as well as general content for the topic chapter, and we'll take a sneak peek at the upcoming stages of AC44.

Focus topics will include expanding the development of parks and trails within the development areas of the county, as well as creating more walkable access, improving sustainable management practices within parks facilities, and increasing multimodal connections within the Greenways Network.

Previous commission and board feedback today includes support for the new parks and green spaces within the development areas, and also noting that we previously relied too much upon developers to provide green space, which is often not accessible to the general public.

Also noted is the need for new funding sources, a desire to enhance connectivity for the parks and greenway system, provision of community gathering spaces, and considering the cost associated with expanding and maintaining our park system.

At our work session on February 25th last week, the Planning Commission noted that the language should be vetted to ensure that the objectives within the chapter are measurable and achievable.

They also indicated consensus of support for this focus to expand the parks network within the development areas.

Also utilizing area plans to integrate parks planning and trails connectivity.

They talked about exploring funding sources and that could potentially include a land acquisition fund.

as well as a desire to expand the Rivanna Trail system to potentially include additional launch facilities for canoes and kayaks and also to consider how our parks and recreation facilities may function as gathering spaces for events and arts.

Our public feedback supports the expansion of the Parks and Trails Networks that focus within the development areas, as mentioned, as well as expanded amenities and programs for different users and age groups, as well as accommodations for art and entertainment and more inclusive accessibility for all types of users.

Additional input supports sustainable management practices.

Again, the expanded Rivanna access and expanded facilities for poles and splash pads as popular amenities with the public.

At our community open house event on January 29th, we received support for parks and recreation master planning process so that we can continue as a county to involve the public in allowing them to inform the plans, our parks plans and our needs assessment.

There was also support for acquiring new land for parks system and revisiting specific recreational uses desired by the public.

As you've also heard, we've received lots of ongoing interest about the desire to add equestrian trails within Biscuit Run Park.

Although specific amenities such as individual trails within each park are not addressed,

At the comprehensive plan level, such uses would be considered and assessed as part of the countywide Parks and Recreation Needs Assessment, as well as the Future Park Master Plans, which are noted in actions 1.1 through 1.3.

The goal statement of the chapter indicates that our Parks and Trail System will provide both passive and active recreation opportunities, active modes of transportation, will support climate resilience, and feature welcoming and inclusive amenities.

Chapter objectives include planning for the needs of our current and future community, increasing county land ownership for parks, facilities and greenways, expansion of parks and greenways within the development areas, improving accessibility, enhancing sustainability, and expanded multimodal connections, and expanding our recreation facilities and programs for the public.

So continued themes from the 2015 plan are continuance to develop the parks and greenways, protection of our natural areas, expanding public access to these parks and greenways, and enhanced multimodal connections.

Yeah, thanks, Ben.

As noted, I'm Tim Patelino, your Chief of Parks Planning.

I'm happy to be here and engaged with the board around AC44's Parks, Recreation, and Open Space chapter.

In terms of the emerging themes that we're focusing on and weaving into this plan, increasing county-owned land for parks and greenways,

expanding parks and greenways within the development areas, including pocket parks, increasing walkable access to parks and greenways measured by a quarter mile or 15-minute walk, and enhancing our focus on environmental resilience and sustainable land management practices as been alluded to, including things like invasive species management, restoration of forests, riparian areas and streams, and conservation of natural heritage resources.

and additional, okay, that's the new emphasis.

Go ahead, one more slide please.

Yeah, perfect.

So one additional point of emphasis staff wanted to highlight is the Rivanna River and more specifically the combination of separate but interrelated planned projects along the river corridor.

So this vision of a Rivanna greenway and blueway is essentially a regional river park system with expanded greenway trails and improved blueway access points or river parks.

And the idea is that this is really something that becomes more than just the sum of its parts.

It's a relatively large-scale vision from Brookhill River Park down to future Buck Island River Park, encompassing 17 total river miles, which would link Places 29 and Pantops development areas, the City of Charlottesville, Monticello, which is a World Heritage Site, and the rural area within the Rivanna District.

Currently the top priority projects would be upgrades to Brookhill River Park,

the extension of the Old Mills Trail Greenway from Pantops to Milton and development of the future Milton Landing River Park.

And I'll note that based on the terms of our Greenway easement deed with Monticello, Albemarle County would need to begin construction of the Old Mills Trail extension by or before August 2027, which really requires us to begin the design and permitting phase in fiscal year 26.

And that's currently unfunded.

I'll mention also that Buck Island River Park is another excellent opportunity as a future county park.

It's perhaps less of an immediate priority than the River Park projects and Greenway Trail Extension I just mentioned, but I wanted to highlight that for your awareness.

And this is not a new idea.

This Rivanna Corridor vision is already in our comprehensive plan, in the master plans, and also spelled out in the Urban Rivanna River Corridor Plan, prepared by TJPDC for the city and the county.

So just to sum that up, the Rivanna really is the primary waterway in the Charlottesville-Albemarle metro area.

It's currently an underutilized asset, but potentially a top highlight of our region's outdoor recreation and open space portfolio.

And then for my final slide, I'll just add one more point of emphasis, and that's the fact that we currently have documented needs for additional parks, greenways, athletic fields and sport courts, and other recreation infrastructure and opportunities.

Plus, the additional factor that those needs are growing based on things like anticipated population growth, urbanizing land patterns, especially in the development areas,

and also increases in visitation and use, all of which adds up to a deepening importance of parks and greenways to our quality of life, health and wellness and even our economy.

So just as a brief example with the coronavirus pandemic, we saw a 16% increase in visitation in 2020 and then an additional 14% increase the following year in 2021.

And zooming out more broadly looking at visitation levels, we have over 600,000 more visitors in Albemarle County Parks in calendar year 2023 than we did in 2019.

So that's a 40 plus percent increase over that short span of time.

And that's consistent with national trends from coast to coast and border to border.

Great.

Thank you, Tim.

Thank you.

So just in terms of how this Parks and Recreation chapter fits in with other chapters, we have overlapped with transportation as portions of the county's trail network are maintained at a higher level.

And these are part of the transportation network.

Environmental Stewardship is another chapter because our parks land also helps preserve some of our native species and it also overlaps with our development areas, land use and housing as pocket space and open space areas and pocket parks are critical amenities to have near housing for community access.

It also overlaps with our historic scenic and cultural resources chapter, our thriving economy chapter, community facilities, and resilient communities.

And just looking at our AC44 schedule overall, we will continue our discussion on land use and community design guidelines with you all on April 2nd.

Thriving Economy will be reviewed at work session on March 11th with the Planning Commission and with the Board on April 16th.

We also recently had a Lunch and Learn event to cover our thriving economy chapter.

Community facilities and infrastructure will be covered with the Planning Commission at work session on March 25th.

And again, what the Board on April 16th is that will be a joint session to discuss economy and community facilities.

We also have a tentative date for our Lunch and Learn with the Community Facilities chapter on March 27th.

Our Engaged Albemarle website will continue to be a critical part of our engagement efforts as we continue to publish draft chapters for the rest of AC44 topics.

And with that, that brings us to our discussion portion.

We'd like to highlight in particular objectives three, five, and six as areas that need particular input and then we'll open the floor to any other objectives and actions you all would like to discuss.

Thank you.

Okay, just so I understand, so we're not talking about the charts.

Clarification, because I'm sort of with Ann just to make sure.

Well, we have

We have one, two, three, four in our packet, and I get that.

But we're going to talk about three, five, and six.

Are we going to do those separately or do you want us to do those, Jim, at the same time as we go?

I'm just trying to figure out how to process this.

And we're going to do these first and then we'll come back and do other comments on this chapter.

It might be better to take them one at a time, just to be sure that we're on the same page.

So if you have comments about Objective 3, I don't see specific questions so much as general feedback you're looking for on these.

Sure, nothing specific.

We had just highlighted these previously.

We went over these objectives with the Planning Commission as well.

These are areas where we feel like there might be pointed investment into our system.

So I wanted to make sure that these were covered.

Again, staff is fine if you all would like to cover the objectives and associated actions in any order you like.

I would prefer to keep with what we've got.

Okay, so three is a grand idea certainly to have more small places with shade and a bench.

I mean many people over many years have said we don't have to have, can we start with something simple that we can actually get there rather than

have something that's all paved and all sorts of games and things.

I mean, a boulder, a shade tree, and a bench for mom to sit on is a really great thing.

And several people have spoken about these particular very small pocket parks where they might actually fit in easily to our growth area for many years.

So I certainly support that and would be a chance, certainly during the approval process, that the board could

do more of a job to make sure that those particular little areas are designated and not lost on that.

I don't think I have any issues with three as drafted.

I do appreciate, like,

at some point this board needs a forcing function this is something I think the board talks about and generally agrees on that we need urban parks, pocket parks, we need to invest in them but it is all well and good for this board to say that but if we don't have some kind of forcing function that is going to say staff shall create a proposal for this it shall require the investment of public money and we are going to bring it to the board then there's no

at some point someone has to push the ball down the hill and I see this as the board being able to weigh in to push the ball down the hill so that staff can now also push by by developing an actual proposal to get this off the ground so so I appreciate the point you're making right this is going to implicate money but this seems to be like a necessary first step if we're actually going to accomplish that I also

kind of assumed this stuff tails into the previous objective, which talks about the fact that we don't just have county-owned land sitting around in like the dense urban, like, Rio region, right, or other dense regions, like downtown Crozet.

We're not just, we're not flush with land, and there probably needs to be some strategic approach to acquire, which itself also, of course, implicates finance.

I also do want to just

Stress this, right?

We, as a board, bandy about the word equity with some regularity, and it appears quite a lot in this chapter, and I do think there's a reason for that.

We need to think about what the actual literal definition of it means, right?

And I had opportunity to think about this this Sunday, because it was in the Psalm that we read at church, right?

It is literally just doing it to someone what justice requires, providing the thing

that is necessary

And so this has to, I think, be something we remind ourselves with parks, because it's easy to think of them as an unadulterated, normative good in all circumstances.

But if we're not actively thinking about the population that's served, then we are potentially having a regressive use of our own money.

which is why I have shared with respect to our advocates who have come today and during previous board meetings, I personally find in most cases an equestrian trail to be a regressive and inappropriate use of funding because most equestrians are people who have access to significant amenities on their own.

They are in the upper strata of incomes and that is fundamentally an inequitable use

of Funding.

So I mention that because it particularly bears on the necessity of urban parks.

These are often serving some of our lower income areas.

They're often serving people who do not have access to travel, but also as it informs the broader chapter.

Thank you.

Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley.

With actions 3.1 and 3.2, I have no concerns

I'm fine with the way it is.

I do agree that we have spoken about urban pocket parks.

I would like to know, do we have any land, county owned land?

in the urban areas to be able to put in a park.

If we do, that's a huge step forward.

If we do not, we need to plan on where we might be able to purchase some land to be able to do that.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you very much.

As you all might imagine,

This particular objective three is where my heart lives.

And everybody's smiling at me exactly.

So I have to say that the 5% at this point should be the driver.

And when I say 5%, I'm talking about the 5% of the development area, we have a lot of park land in the hinterlands that are completely

Unaccessible to many of my residents.

And so looking at this through the lens of connectivity for those folks who can't just get in a car and drive somewhere or ride a bicycle somewhere or a horse, whatever it might be.

So I think of this as the 5% driving.

I do want to take an opportunity to mention, though, we do have two areas in the development area, the Charlotte Humphress Park and the Ivy Creek Natural Area.

Both of them need attention to accessibility.

I'm going to take the opportunity to mention this, right?

The Charlotte Humphress Park, we need some safety

improvements around getting across roads that are dangerous.

And you're not in your head too, so you know exactly what I'm talking about, right?

So that's Charlotte Humphress Park.

But then when you look at Ivy Creek Natural Area, that is a wonderful park for an area that has really high density and people cannot walk there.

I'm looking at connectivity for the Ibe Creek Natural Area.

I want to specifically talk about this.

From the rock store down to the Ibe Creek Natural Area, it is impossible to walk.

And we have all those apartment buildings, Ned, all of that density in that area.

So let's think about connectivity from the rock store, a multi-use path down to the Ibe Creek Natural Area.

at the same time, that is a very dangerous, we've had, you all know, multiple recs, close calls, we need to look at improving the site distance with the bank, maybe that's part of that multi-use path work, but a turn lane where

We're really in need of the turn lane that goes down towards Earleysville Road because there are lots of fender benders and people are always going into that guardrail.

I'll bet you I go by there almost every weekend it seems like somebody's gone into that guardrail.

We have a resident who is willing to give us right of way for that turn lane.

The entrance needs to be looked at from the viewpoint of safety and accessibility and to look at this as a big picture of people should be able to walk from hydraulic road where they live

or Commonwealth or Whitewood to the Abbey Creek Natural Area and we need to be providing the safe access for that area.

I just want to take a minute and look at my notes, see if I'm missing anything.

Yeah, we need to be adding the east-west turn lane is the one I'm talking about, right?

Because we have the reverse.

We have the turn lane coming up the other way.

and I guess the other, I want to flip now to we don't have a, you all are correct, we don't have a lot of Albemarle County land in the development area and especially in these urban areas but we might have some opportunities for commercial partnerships and I think really looking at Fashion Square Mall as it evolves

the shops at Stonefield.

There's a great free space over there.

I'd love for them to determine that that should be a green space and not just another building.

But we have Rio Hill that has the ability right now to consolidate and perhaps provide some public space for us.

Holly Mead Center.

So let's think about partnerships in that development area and the rural area, I'm sorry, in the development area, but in the urban area around working with some of the, perhaps, commercial businesses and developers so that we're just not looking at

Dog Parks and Totlots for new development, but to think a little bit differently.

And again, give me a minute to look at my notes.

But I think I am close to, for example, Holly Mead Center.

Burkmore Drive has some great opportunities.

and I might add that working with the school system, we may have some opportunities with the school system because we have the Lambs Lane campus right there, but some opportunities with the school system to create more public spaces or to create some park areas that we haven't really taken advantage of at this point.

and I do think that probably is what I have for right now.

Ditto, a lot of what Supervisor McKeel has brought up.

I guess I would start with, get back on that page.

So in the overarching, well it's right there, but it's paraphrase, but the 15 minute walk from a public park and or public greenway trail.

And I think in some ways this is a call out to, it was mentioned like we look at smart goals, you say achievable, measurable and achievable in your presentation, we had a public speaker speak to that.

But the next letter is realistic.

I think it's probably realistic to have a 15 minute walk to a public greenway trail if we use all our multi-use paths that we're talking about.

But 15 minute walk from a public park in the development area is a very different goal.

I'm not thrilled, I don't know, maybe thrilled is not the best word.

But when we say a 15 minute walk from a public park and or public greenway trail, you can see what I'm leaning is like, oh well, we've really been trails.

But it's not, that's probably realistic, but if the other one's not realistic, that in the development area that you could walk 15 minutes and get to a public park, how realistic is that?

It would be very realistic for some that's over by Charlotte Humphreys.

But, you know, 15 minute walk, if you're in, and I guess if you want to include school grounds as parks, I'm going to have more comments about that.

It's probably fits better in a different objective than here.

But I feel like we're advertising that we have, we kind of claim that we have more than what we have to offer.

and I know we're trying to get there, but I think public parks should, and this isn't being judgmental to what Supervisor Mallek said, but it should be more than a bench and a tree.

You know, we require on private development to do a lot of playgrounds for the younger kids and most of our school spaces, all of our school spaces are designed more towards younger kids.

We seem to think that teenagers, all they need are open fields.

and then we have Very Passive for anybody that's older.

So unless you're involved with an organized club or activity, there's really not a lot of pickup games happening, except I love it at Cobalt Ridge where the tennis court is basically turned into a soccer field.

And there's a term for that now that's like a different, I forget what it's called, but there's a different term for that, like futsal?

Footsall, yeah.

But that's basically what's going on there, based on the community that's living there.

But, you know, giving teens something to do probably means that the life of the long-term tenure of small children's playgrounds will last longer.

You know, I sometimes get emails about the dugouts at Woodbrook on the baseball field, and sometimes they get vandalized, etc.

Well, that's usually idle hands, right, that turns into that.

But what would we say to them that if, well, if you don't want idle hands, where should they go if they're 12 to 18?

And so, I'm not

I think we can provide it all.

I think we have the means and the ability to provide across the whole age spectrum, but I think especially in the development area, since it's going to have the most intense development, it should be representative of all the age groups that are going to live there.

And if we're going to be asking families to be living in multifamily buildings,

that we're really missing the opportunity to provide something for a segment of the population that doesn't need an organized soccer event in order to get out into a pickup game of whatever.

And that, unfortunately, would include, I think for some, like basketball courts.

If somebody asked me one time, where is there a basketball court that kids could get to in Rio?

Yeah.

There's one little hoop over by a church by the mall, and there's another hoop up on the church on the other side of Rio.

And lo and behold, what happens?

There's churches are open to it.

Some pickup games can start to happen.

But they're not advertised.

I think they're more connected to the church community than just being open to the community.

But that's the type of stuff that's not even being provided in private development.

I don't, I can't think of a basketball court that's outside of a school.

I'd have to, because most of that are fields.

I can't think of an actual outside court.

I don't remember that.

I'd have to go over there and drive around and look.

We like to think that they're open to the public in their public parks, but you have to know that access to school stuff comes with some restrictions and they're not just open to the public.

So if you want to use a basketball court inside, or anything inside a school, you've got to go through a process and then it's dictated by the school calendar, etc.

To me, that's like a quasi-public park.

Same with their fields.

You know, you can't access it during the day when all the children are out there, right?

I mean, you could, but

I mean, good luck trying to get on the seahorse or the hobby horse or whatever you're trying to get on to.

But this is something that you would think that parents of teenagers would be lobbying for.

Most of the folks in my community that bring this up are seniors who recognize that teenagers need things to do and would like things to do and would use it if we offered it and add it.

So I'm just using this as the point where the development area I think has to provide that.

Like, I think it would be dumb to put a basketball court out in one of the, you know, at Beaver Creek or something.

You know, like why?

Why would you do that?

But in the development area, we have to think of programming in a little different way, I think, that may somewhat be performed by our last activities survey that we did.

And I don't need basketball courts or things like that called out.

I agree with you that the programming level of what happens at these places doesn't need to be in the comp plan.

But it is the visionary place that says, if we're going to provide parks and rec, we need to think of the whole spectrum of the population.

And that's just a clearing gap, in my opinion, in the development area when you're talking about the urban parks and such.

That 15-minute walk into points that Supervisor McKeel made become real critical in terms of then the connectivity or the ability to get there.

Because once teens get the driver's license, it does change what they do.

But before that, they're going to have to walk or ride a bike.

And how well are we doing that?

Did you all go through the Rio 29 small area plan?

I mean, there were commitments made and design elements and things made in that plan that speak to this.

So was that reviewed and said like, all right, like I didn't really see any call out to the small area plan, the Rio 29 small area plan at the comp plan level in terms of implementing what work we did that would address parks and rec and those four quadrants.

So is that in there?

Yeah, that's a good question, Supervisor Gallaway.

I think it would behoove us to call out what we committed to during the RIO 29 Smarria Plan then.

Specifically, we talked about the parkish type of thing or amenity we could provide behind the library and behind

that quadrant, it was like a stormwater rain garden or I forget the term.

We also committed during the small area planning afterwards that the county would take on some ownership working in partnership with private developers

to take on maintenance and ownership if something were to develop to the small area plan in the foreign base code.

So I think that needs to be addressed in here so that if a developer is looking at our comp plan and go, oh, well, wait a minute, we could provide an amenity, and then that could get handed off the county's already committed, which we have.

We've committed to that.

So I think there's some opportunity to revisit the small area plan and figure out how to work that into the COP plan, because I think that's, this is the right level for that particular commitment.

And then, Objective 3.

I wrote it down as Objective 3, but I think it's really, my comments are more born out of the overarching goal, would you say connected parks?

So it talks about, I don't know why I wrote it down for probably because of the 15 minute walk, but the overarching goal of the entire chapter, it says connected and accessible or why can't I find the goal?

will have a connected and accessible network of parks and trails.

So connected, I mean, by that, should I mean that all of our parks are in fact connected together in some way or to something where I can get from all these parks to other parks?

Is that what we're talking?

So it's not just a trail, but if it's biscuit run to the boat launch up at Rio, Rio and not Rio, up Rivanna and 29,

Are we saying that we want those two parks connected to one another to be able to get from a transportation?

I mean, I'm just trying to understand what connected means.

Yeah, I think the idea is from a holistic view, especially within the development area to create a network that consists of the parks.

Yeah, that's great.

And to build on that, Ben, I think the goal is not literally to have each and every park connected by unbroken greenway trail connections.

That would be a wonderful vision to achieve over time.

I think the goal statement is more broadly intending to say, let's increase the level of connectivity, whether it's residential districts to our parks, residential districts to greenways, greenways to parks, trying to make progress in all of those different types of connections.

And then if, again, if we're able over time to get to a point where all of our county parks are interconnected by greenways, ideally with other recreational opportunities in the city or at the university, that's really what we work towards.

I just, that was calling out like transit and how that could, I'd be curious, within the pilot program of MicroCat,

You know, somewhere in the analysis, how many folks are using them to get to one of the few parks that are inside that pilot area?

But like Charlotte Humphries would definitely be within the pilot area.

I'm calling that out that if that were to be connected, if we had a microtransit type of thing, that could be the way to move people around because it's not like you need a fixed route from all of these.

Thank you.

I'm just going to add my agreement that the idea of this Objective 3 accelerating development of urban parks, greenways is something I support and the way it's phrased in this objective with 15-minute walk from a public park and or public greenway trail I think is important because I think it's the achievable objective here and something that we should look to.

so it's part of a connectivity master plan if you will and may also point to something that we have to pay attention to sidewalks and things as well because that may be part of the issue.

I certainly agree with making things like Ivy Creek more accessible to people would be wonderful.

I'll push back just for a moment though not that I don't think that this acceleration of urban parks isn't the direction we should go in but I do want to make sure I make the point that

A rural park isn't necessarily accessible to people who live in the rural area either.

It is a question for anybody who is going to go to a park that's further away that they may need a car or some other mode of transportation to get there.

And just let me make a really quick point because I think it's easy to forget Ned's talking about accessibility and I've been talking about remember that we are building a pedestrian bridge right now across 29 North which has been a huge barrier for connectivity Charlottesville has lots of trails and park I'm just saying and that bridge is going to provide connectivity and at some point we also hope transit connectivity

because it has the plans to have a transit stop on one side.

So I'm just saying remember that that bridge that's not completed yet, but that will connect Charlottesville and Albemarle together when we're talking about connectivity.

And I'm about to knock my mic over.

I'm sorry.

You know, I do know that this is actually in this figure that we have that shows the different parts for three years and how the usage has increased and we could see, you know, the D'Artile and Rose Parker, two big excuses.

I had one other point just on Objective 3 before we move off of it and

It speaks to Objective 3, but it's actually at a different point in our presentation.

So we have on page 5, there's a box, parks by location that does, I think, a really good job of kind of clarifying the different nature that parks have based on their location.

Just for the public, what it says is rural area parks are primarily intended as recreation opportunities with scenic and nature resources such as mountain streams and forests.

These parks are usually geared toward hiking, walking, biking, paddling, fishing, and equestrian uses.

moving down in the development areas, parks sizes tend to be smaller and have amenities like playgrounds, athletic fields, and indoor recreation facilities.

I think that is helpful to kind of put texture on what these different parks are doing, but what I would raise is that is a descriptive statement and is not a normative statement, and I

I mean, I do not know whether or not it is this board's intention to have that be a normative statement.

I think that is reasonable, right?

Like a rural area park is there to be a destination and is there to be a public amenity for access to nature, right?

Sometimes we get critiqued that we're preserving all this nature, but it's actually all private, so what are we even preserving it for, right?

and so I see the value in that and I see that as a different value than the footsaw fields that we need in the development area for kids to play.

But I'm not sure we capture that as like a specific concrete objective or

or a component of an objective for how we want to like demarcate this or if we did, I missed it.

And I guess I would just maybe almost raise that as a discussion point.

Like I think that makes sense to adopt as a normative like performance standard.

This is what we want in this area and this is what we want in the other area.

Let me run over a couple things that I wrote down as everybody else was putting in their wonderful comments.

My comment about the boulder and the bench was just as a beginning to get a foot in the door, not that that's all we should ever do, but here's a piece of property we get people used to going there with lovely shade trees and then we go from there.

One of the things that's very popular at Crozet Park that the community board has had to deal with in the last six months is the competition between parking and the pickup games for adults who want to play there when they're away from their work for an hour or two in the middle of the day.

So those are the kinds of things where it's the multi-purpose of it is really important and we need to, if you have a basketball court you need to make sure that they're not cars being parked there so that people only have

Don't have to walk the extra 30 feet to get to the connector trail.

That's been worked out, but it just shows, I think, the level of interest in that.

I totally support what others have said about what the teens are up to because for years they hung out at the four-way.

The four-way stopped there at Crowsey Avenue and 3 Nosh Road and have begged for a skate park for years.

in the Crossey Park Master Plan, but somewhere down the bottom.

So those are the kinds of things that have been long in discussion and certainly for Ivy Creek

Getting that turn lane in there is so important because it's only a miracle that I personally have not been creamed from behind or from the front of somebody either hurrying to cross in front of me or coming down too fast and not being able to stop behind me, especially in the snow.

The other thing is that we can do it more simply.

and that's another thing, it's like the Boulder and the Rock only, it's for roadways.

We have been priced out of so many different things because we've gone for the Cadillac version when we need to go for the very safe

minimal accepted VDOT version to get it done.

The pedestrians, I just wrote down, because I don't know if it's even possible, but there's both an electric utility easement and an ACSA easement from the rock store too, and perhaps a crossing at Squirrel Ridge would take it right into Ivy Creek.

So I think there are lots of ways that other smart people could do a really good job to figure this out and move this forward.

I did have a couple of notes I just don't want to, since we're moving away from this area, the

I'll send those to staff.

I would encourage staff in the Greenway map to put red dots at all the places that are lacking red dots right now, Milton, Buck Island, Darden Tau, because they may not be in operation right now, but they should be.

And these are places, Buck Island particularly was donated to the county in 2010, I think.

and for $200,000 we could have put a driveway in to allow it to be used.

So that's the sort of simple way to get access to people.

At the very least they can put in their boat at Brook Hill and somebody can fish them out.

Very good.

And I'd like to jump in, Supervisor Mallek, just to mention that your point is well taken and we struggled with which map to include which detail.

We decided at this draft level to go ahead and make a Rivanna River specific map on page eight of the chapter.

And that does call out the kind of planned future river parks and greenway trails.

Some of that information overlaps with the greenways plan.

Well, we're actually then back to you for objective five.

Oh.

Okay.

Increase environmental sustainability and resilience.

It's called out as a particular focus topic for this discussion.

It would help if there are questions that you have that you'd like us to focus on that would certainly help the discussion.

Thank you.

We need to, what I wrote above, the objective in five is that there are parks which have different features and need to have different management levels.

Arrowhead should not be where soccer is happening because of the rare plants and things that are in there, one of like five places in Hall of North America where those things are growing.

So we have an obligation for that.

Under 5.1, I had written the safer chemical policy, which was adopted in 2010, needs to be made more powerful and used to the full extent of its intent.

Right now, it's basically file a form and get approval, and there's no alternative discussion.

There's just go and do it.

And this is allowing a lot more

were chemicals to be used in our parks than was intended when the policy was adopted.

And that's all I had written for number five.

I recognize it's not always easy to, like, consolidate a smart goal for something, but I'm particularly attenuated.

I have blinkers go off when I notice one that I'm like, oh, well, we have already accomplished that.

This is like day one when we implement it, we can check something off because we have met a technical like definition of having done that.

So I'm looking at 5.6, which we are doing currently.

So this is one that I would think if we're going to include it, it's a good activity we do.

I think the work that we're doing on this issue is really great, and I might like to see it expanded in some way.

But I think if we're going to include something that we could plausibly already take credit for, then it needs to have a smart goal connected with it, showing what we're actually trying to accomplish there.

Otherwise, broadly, I'm not sure I have major flags or concerns on five.

Unlike our previous discussion, it is not as immediately clear how this flags as like a major budget commitment.

This seems like almost more of a planning dimension for the department's ongoing work.

If I'm not correctly understanding that, let me know.

But I'm thinking, for example, I'm thinking of

Chair Andrews' comments on the unveiling of Biscuit Run, where he discussed a lot of the regenerative work that had been done to the ecosystem during that.

That was a planning dimension, that was a consideration and a goal that was incorporated into other park activities that were going on during that time.

So I appreciate how that needs to be an objective, but I guess I'm saying I don't see this as a major

and

I think less immediately impactful and consequential than the previous one.

I kept putting commas on that sentence and I kept seeing you getting ready to interject to answer my question.

That's a great comment and question, Supervisor Pruitt.

I think this board should be recognized for creating a full-time position as a natural resources specialist within Parks and Recreation.

recently.

So there is a financial commitment there, of course.

My understanding working on this kind of peripherally and not being the expert on the team is that there are resource needs based on the extent of the need and the extent of our parkland acreage in the county.

I know there's others who understand the issues on this day as better than I do, but there are a lot of invasive species spread that's happening both in upland parks, in future park lands like Hedgerow, and also certainly along the Rivanna River.

In some cases there have been great partnerships that leverage our caring and well-resourced community to help tackle those issues.

But removing invasives is one major overhaul.

Installing native plant communities is another separate investment.

And then again the scope and the scale of the issue

I think is quite significant.

Okay.

Supervisor Lefisto-Kirtley.

Right, on 5.6 are we

by the statement, are we coordinating volunteer teams?

Is that an objective or are we going to continue to coordinate?

Because of my understanding, that's already going on.

I mean, we have that in Pantops and we have that along the Rivanna River, et cetera, et cetera.

Yeah, Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley, I think that's really good.

I would agree that maybe this could be improved with a continue and expand, as others have noted, the coordination of volunteer, and then maybe have some metrics.

I mean, it's made a big difference with the volunteers along Freebridge Lane where you can now see the Rivanna River.

So yeah, I think continue to coordinate and expand.

Thank you.

Sure, thank you.

5.1 talks about the management of the, and it does occur to me, maybe what we really need, and this is just a thought, is management, a template of some sort, of management

Plans for Parks and Open Space of Different Sizes.

Because we're talking about pocket parks, and then we're talking about biscuit run.

Very different.

So in my mind, if I was looking at a template, it might be something based on size.

and the other thing that I didn't have a lot to say on this one other than because I don't disagree with much of this I do and maybe I misunderstood what Mike was saying but I do think we have to be careful with these documents to make sure that they just aren't a list of action items that you know and I know it says action but just in my head I always

Get concerned when we have page after page after page, because the more you have,

The harder it is, you know what I'm saying.

It's really good to skinny some of these down so that you really know where your focus is.

Having said that, 5.3 I had a big question mark about because, and this is not my expertise at all, but implement best practice lake management strategies to reduce harmful algae blooms and improve water quality in county lakes.

My understanding is

that the biggest problem with that are people that live along those waterways or those lakes and what's coming down off of their yards.

I think that's correct.

Supervisor McKeel, I think upstream land uses are probably the primary determinant of downstream water quality.

And this, I'll just add to that.

I think this is one of those actions that might be better stated, continue to implement best practices.

I know our Superintendent Jim Barber with our

Yeah, and this specifically says lakes, streams, but it says lakes.

And so that's where my mind went to.

And to try and figure out what the action steps will be to make that, those homeowners, because it's easy to say it, but

Yes, exactly.

Environmental, I would think, write-off, whatever.

But I think, Jim, that's all I have for this.

At that point, that Supervisor McKeel just finished on is the only one I wrote down about this.

I remember back in the fall, Supervisor Mallek and I made the comment that, well, of course, we didn't have any algae blooms at Chris Green Lake because we had a drought and there was no water running into it.

So nothing was pouring in.

and short of doing the Chris Green Lake Act and doing that with all our lakes, what can we do?

Our stream buffers, our ordinances that are in place should be protecting this public asset from the upstream things that are there.

This speaks to dealing with it when it occurs.

So it does seem to call out that somewhere else we need to be dealing with the fact that, you know, when I remember back when they were redoing some stuff over on the Ryder Hill Shopping Center and paint got into a waterway and all the streams behind Woodbrook were going white.

I mean, that was like, oh, call to action.

Let's get out there and fix this and find out who's doing what and figure it out.

But we don't do that when Chris Green Lake shuts down with an algae bloom.

We go and do it.

We shut it down.

We say to people, you can't use this, et cetera.

But then, and great, I appreciate that.

That's to the extent that's all parks and rec department can do.

But it calls out another department, just like when we went and found the source of the white paint and told them what you're doing and what you're doing wrong, we went and corrected a behavior that was happening upstream.

And that seems to me that that needs to be addressed, whether it's in this comp plan or not, at least saying, well, we're not just going to fix your problems because of your bad behavior upstream.

that we have to call out that we're going, you know, some, I don't know if that's enforcement, I'm sure it is.

Maybe, I mean, others have talked about the Chesapeake Pay Act itself.

But to me, not just the environmental concern of it, but if we had other behaviors that made us shut down a public asset to the community,

We would, in fact, go into further steps to mitigate that, and sometimes I don't necessarily know if we're doing that to the same degree when one of our lakes gets shut down.

Thank you.

I don't think there's much that I can add to this.

I do think that the comment made about recognizing in the Action 5.1 and in general for this that we have different sizes, different uses, different locations, different uses particularly for parks, dictate different management styles.

I also think that when we're looking at some county owned properties that are not yet parks,

It's kind of a bit much to try to manage invasive species, what you're calling a hedgerow property right now without any real access or anyone using it.

It's tilting at windmills, I guess, is what's going in my head.

But I agree with the comments that have been made for the most part.

So I'll let this as a priority item stand.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I would just like to pile on to the algae bloom because we're right now just dreaming it with putting more chemicals in.

And that's not helpful either because we don't really know what the impacts of those are going to be to all the swimmers out there.

But we do have an option, as McKeel has brought it up multiple times, is that if we adopted more chapters of the Chesapeake Bay Act, these things would not be happening.

There would be control of buffers upstream in all of our waterways.

And that would give Mr. Barber

and

And I'm such a big proponent of the Chesapeake Bay Act.

I'm going to jump in here right now because you use a better word than I do.

What is it you call biosolids?

Sludge.

Sludge.

We're actually looking at three o'clock, which was a scheduled time for us to take a recess.

We would come back and look at objective six, and then we would go around one more time looking at the remainder objectives and comments otherwise on this chapter.

Thank you.

We are reconvening, please.

I appreciate it.

And we will look to this list of first objectives to give comment on before going back and looking at the chapter as a whole.

And that would be Objective 6.

The next one, Expanded the Greenways Network to Enhance Outdoor Recreation and Increase Multimodal Connections.

Emphasis on Increase Multimodal Connections.

So this will give me a chance to put in a plug for recognizing the value of our gravel roads for walking, bicycling in the rural area where the density of people is too far separated to worry about sidewalks or anything like that.

But the value of the gravel roads is tremendous for the people who live along them and also for people who actually portage in in a vehicle and either walk long distance or

or Bike Ride in these areas.

And just as an example, I was out at Ridge Road with VDOT and county staff on last week talking about the parking situation where people are just parking all over and we need to find a solution for that.

But all the people who were coming and going were living in the growth area and coming out.

You know, I meet my friend and we walk the five miles out to the other end and back.

We see the scenery and it's great.

It's much more fun than walking around and around and around in circles.

But this is the kind of thing that's available to us in the rural area if we have the determination to take care of our gravel roads.

So I will... At 6.1 was what we were supposed to look at.

Make sure I didn't forget something.

No, that's fine.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

Like with our previous, the first one we started with, Objective 3, is one that I think we're discussing it because it's a big block, right?

We've used this terminology in budget discussions before, but like this, this implicates a lot of county resources, right?

This is a major project.

It would require us to bring a lot to bear.

This is something we're committing to.

It's also something I think you know personally I'm very committed to.

I mentioned at the beginning of this board meeting, now I'm blanking on the word for it, the event that Peter Krebs helps organize annually, the Active Mobility Summit.

The Active Mobility Summit last year, we talked in great depth about kind of the broad vision for this and how deeply energizing this could be for the region.

I think we only need to really look at the current attendance of a non-county park, Riverview Park, right next to the county, right?

You can walk to it very easily from my district.

But that is one of the most trafficked places in the city and it's not even near a clear amenity other than itself.

I think being able to energize this entire corridor with that kind of activity, the thing I would compare also like an evoke would be

The Washington Old Dominion Trail where it cuts through northern Virginia.

There are industries, there are pop-ups, there are commercial activity that exist along that.

There are bike shops that would not exist but for the proximity to that.

There are breweries that would not exist but for their proximity to the Washington Old Dominion Trail.

because there's such a tremendous amount of multimodal transit for pure recreation purposes that cut through that.

And I see this as like maybe the county's like most immediate way to kind of achieve that same kind of economic engine.

And frankly, it just sounds cool as hell.

I want to be on this trail.

I want to be on this one continuous trail.

I want to go run 20 miles one day and have my husband come pick me up on the other side because I can't walk anymore.

Thank you.

I think this is extremely important, of course, we always unfortunately have financial concerns, and now with the government and the state,

may be pulling back on something.

However, this is a 20-year plan.

This is something that will actually be very helpful, not only for the residents who live here, but also for tourism.

A lot of people will come from outside the county, hopefully spend the evening, spend their money here, and this will directly affect tourism.

So this is an economic engine.

I agree with Supervisor Pruitt.

This is an economic engine.

to augment what we already have and to bring in others who come in, walk the trails, do hiking, et cetera, and spend a couple days and then leave.

So we benefit from that.

So I don't have anything to add.

Other than I'm really impressed by 6.6, continue to sustain, volunteer,

trail maintenance programs.

I think that is so important.

I was going to say, put in continue to sustain and support, but I think sustain would answer it.

But if you want to slip in support, that would be great too.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah, just, I don't have any real concerns about anything that's here for the most part.

Just kind of an overarching high-level thought.

I am very supportive of improving and maintaining what we have when we're talking about new purchases and taking on big, expensive, new... I'm not in favor of that, to be honest with you.

I mean, we have a lot of parkland right now and we have limited funds.

So, but I will say that I do think we need to spend some money around safety and health issues in some of our parks.

For example, we have kiosks at the rural parks but they're not staffed very well now.

It would be helpful to have enhanced communication options.

I don't know what those might be.

I'm not an expert.

If we can do something that can increase safety, but without having an actual person there, I think that's great.

But I do think we need to look at that and see how that, because people shouldn't, you know, anyway, I don't need to deliver this.

So looking at health and safety issues, I think is really critical.

and of course health and safety water quality issues as well but outside of that and I know I sound like I'm fighting with myself here because some of this does talk about new and I'm not against what you have here.

I just think we have to be cautious to make sure that we're not taking on more than we can handle or finance.

Thank you.

Yeah, and if we were we may prioritize other things of why we might acquire property.

Exactly.

I think here, I'm satisfied with six, and I don't know if this is the right place to maybe connect it or not, but six-five, I know this is funded by a raise grant.

Hopefully that grant doesn't go away.

But the other raise grant we've been trying to get to for years is the bike-ped bridge going over the Rivanna River from Pantops to Woolmills.

So I don't know if there's a way to call out

alternative funding or raise grants, but also note that project, because in a lot of ways that particular bike-ped bridge, if that can come to fruition, really connects two areas that are difficult to connect any other way.

So that's something that I think should be in here, but I want to emphasize more the alternative funding piece of it almost than I do necessarily the project.

But the only reason it came to my attention was because you called out the raise

I mean that's a funded raise grant.

The two attempts to get the planning grant for the bike ped bridge has scored exceptionally well and they keep encouraging us to come back.

So I know that that's going to go back forward for a third attempt to try to get that planning grant.

So I'll just leave that for you guys to do.

Thank you.

And I have a supportive of everything that's in here.

I obviously agree that the three-notch trail studies funded.

We want to continue that work.

There was a description when you introduced this

We're talking at one point about the old Mills Trail and concerns about losing opportunities there.

I'd like to understand that better, but I certainly would hate to see us lose an opportunity that takes us east as well as west.

So, connecting up, again, not just our parks with the community, but also other amenities like Monticello that are made accessible by our greenways.

So, I'm very supportive.

Thank you.

With that board, I want to give us an opportunity.

The last item was others, if I recall, the other objective actions needing input.

But in addition to that, there are a lot of pages of description in this chapter that we haven't really focused on.

I want to give everyone an opportunity.

I think I'm going to just open it up once here, and then we'll have a more free-flowing discussion.

For the others or anything?

Things that you're concerned about that had not been discussed.

Thank you.

So we'll start with Supervisor Mallek.

A lot of them I will have mentioned so I won't do those again.

So at some point later please tell me what happened to draft bill number one because it's nowhere and you may point me in another direction afterwards and that's fine.

I had written down here, template management plans can be adaptable to different size parks if we can figure out a way to do that so that we don't have to recreate the wheel every time a great idea comes up or a donor like Buck Island comes up and says, by the way, I want to give you this 200 acres or Arrowhead, I want to give you this 500 acres and so how are we going to do that?

Evaluated update maintenance standards for rural roads which are used for rural area and

Draft 2.4 is also missing now, planning to include opportunities for nature-focused recreational experiences.

So those may have been put somewhere else and I just miss them.

And I will give you these sheets so you don't have to worry.

Talked about gravel roads already, access to and partnership with the Shenandoah National Park.

We've talked in the Blue Ridge Committee about the possibility of, of course before the layoffs, about the possibility of a weekend kiosk at Sugar Hollow, which is similar to what they do at Oak Leaf Canyon, where they collect gobs of money and it pays for the ranger and is that safety thing that would help our firing rescue as well.

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Expand Existing Programs and Community Centers and Partnerships to Identify Reuse of Existing Buildings for Community Center Activities, Gravel Road Festivals in other counties.

I think we can copy some of the things that they're doing.

We had some correspondence from community members about a new objective adding on.

Improve opportunities for walking, biking, and other outdoor recreation in the rural area on existing unpaved and low stress routes.

So this is a topic which is sort of floating in Never Never Land among parks, transportation, and natural resources, maybe, and so I don't know whether you will have some kind of a reference that says, see page X in transportation for a thorough discussion of this, but last time we dropped it, and we're worried about it getting dropped again.

So first, one suggestion, identify and map routes that are frequently used.

And there's the Strava thing, but also, there were some, I was trying to find the maps of the running routes.

One of them is the 16-mile loop through the Whitehall District, another one's a 25-mile loop, all on gravel.

That, I think, the long-distance runners, just like Dan in his long-distance bike cycling, where he does an 80-mile loop around the western part of the county on his bicycle, is really helpful.

and limiting the paving to high maintenance challenge areas as opposed to paving the whole thing.

located parking areas within public right-of-way, post signage among recreational routes to increase driver awareness.

One of the problems that we have on Ridge Road is that nobody knows what to do.

And so I'm hopeful that Dominion will actually give me permission to talk to people about under the highway line between Decker and Ridge Road, in which case that would provide a wonderful location for a little trail connection.

So we're trying to find solutions, but

and I know that staff does this as well.

So I think that's important.

Educating road users.

Work with businesses and community groups to educate all road users about etiquette and safety.

Some of the state laws have done a pretty good job with that in recent years as far as people moving over three feet.

But we're still seeing a lot of danger for pedestrians as well as bicyclers.

But I was a kid, we rode ponies along the country roads and everybody would slow down and move over and we never ever felt dangerous and now

I don't go outside my own gate, even hardly to mow the grass because it's just too scary with people driving by.

New objective, explore creative ways to fill funding gaps for parking greenway infrastructure.

So I've shared these with all the board.

I will send these around to county staff, but I think there's a lot to chew on here that we can really do a good job, a better job.

Thank you.

First, I want to just begin with a real quick comment on a previous section, and then I have two sections I had specific comments on after that.

So first, I actually, I neglected to mention this, and it wasn't until my peers mentioned it that I remembered.

support the study, the race study for the three-notch trail, right?

I'm deeply excited about the three-notch trail.

May it be built while I'm still alive.

But I just want to call attention.

This is a 20-year plan.

6.5 says, do the thing for the money that we've been tasked to do in the next, like, two years, right?

If we are going to commit to something around three-notch trail, I think it should be a 20-year goal around three-notch trail.

and I recognize that that is challenging when we don't know what this study is going to say about feasibility.

But I, this feels very much a, oh, three-notch trail, what's in front of us?

Oh, this is the thing, we'll continue doing that.

And it doesn't actually commit us to any kind of strategic vision on three-notch trail.

So if we're going to plant a flag there, I think we should plant a flag there and actually like,

I'm not giving you the exact checkpoints or milestones, but this should have a milestone that is actually in our future in a meaningful way.

I want to call out 2.1.

I already mentioned this previously, but this calls for a land acquisition policy.

And I want to, because I think this might have been like

alluded to, and it's certainly on my mind, but like the county acquires land for different reasons.

I can really think of three big reasons we might talk about.

One of them we don't really do yet, but we might talk about acquiring land.

That's schools, housing, parks and trails, right?

Housing we don't really do, but there's certainly a lot of community interest around land banking and land trusts, and it's something that comes up a lot.

Schools have been a recurring perennial problem of how we get the land for them.

and there's a variety of different tools we would use for housing.

The main way we would do it would probably be through like blight condemnations.

That would be how you would put things in a land bank.

And parks and trails are quite different than those.

In my understanding is that we are normally acquired, trails at least, my understanding is we normally acquire that through voluntary donations, easements and gifts of individual donors.

But we might want to outstrip that.

It is my also understanding that I don't know that we have bright lines that are communicated, that are official.

I think we do have bright lines of our rules in the acquisition policy, in the acquisition policy such as it is a set of things that we do.

but I don't know that it's clearly communicated what those are, which can make us, is my impression that we might be a challenging negotiating partner at times because our bright lines aren't advertised.

So I would be really excited for this because I think it helps us if we can coordinate and consolidate a set series of practices, things we negotiate on when we actually put money up, what we do and do not seed ground on as part of an acquisition policy for this.

I see those being something that allows us to act faster.

and maybe I'm wrong, but I see that as something that helps us accomplish these other goals that require a lot of individual discreet easements and acquisitions.

The more that can be fit and slotted into a clean framework, I think the faster we can engage with that.

So I guess I'm not proposing any change on this, but I just want to highlight the importance of this for my peers on the board is something that I think is really critical.

One other thing, so I already mentioned

issues of how equity and what it means in the context of parks and recreation.

I also talked briefly about economic development in the context of trail development.

And I would say there are things that are core to the behavior of a county government that are fundamentally unequitable.

We do things that are deeply inequitable.

A great example, and I'm going to explain this on the back end,

and

It creates desired outcomes for people who would not otherwise be served.

It helps generate jobs for the target population that we're trying to create those jobs for.

It helps grow our revenue base in a way that lets us decrease taxation.

So I want to raise it would be helpful if we consider and align economic impacts

as a consideration for when to potentially deviate from equal access or equitable requirements or standards that we're creating, right?

One of our commenters kind of touched on this, and I'm not trying to make this too much of a lightning rod issue.

I can see a cocked eyebrow.

But one of our commenters touched on this, right?

Equestrian Trails, which I've already said I'm generally opposed to spending public funds on.

can have economic benefits.

And if we can argue that those economic benefits outweigh the regressive nature of spending that kind of money on them, that I think there's probably a serious case to be made for them if there's not other incompatible uses.

There are other, we can sit here and probably brainstorm other types of recreation that would primarily benefit people who have access to amenities, that would primarily benefit

a strata of society that does not need it.

Second?

Mountain biking, potentially.

but these have economic benefits on the back end that might have broader structural implications on equity.

I think it is helpful to kind of enshrine that somewhere that we would align these kinds of economic considerations and the broader impacts it might have on equity if we're considering how to allocate county funds because that is not, I don't think that's currently enshrined in there anymore, anywhere and I do see that as being like a potential 4.8

that could have some value.

Maybe I'm mistaken, right?

There's a lot of words here on the page, sorry.

But I just raised that, right?

There are things we do that are not strictly equitable, but in the long range they are because we are trying to generate that kind of rising tide.

Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley I am good and I approve I like everything that we have here I'm good with everything I'm bringing up only one point actually and that's 2.3

and that's for point of clarification to make sure that it's clear that the Albemarle County Parks Foundation is separate from Albemarle County.

It's a separate 501C3 that raises money by itself.

It doesn't join with the county to raise money, but it does use the county's opinion as far as what we can raise money for.

So I would like to, 2.3,

I would like to see us take out the first one to, well, expand public-private partnerships and increase resources to, or that, remove that and start the sentence with accelerate the implementation of county parks projects through joint efforts with the County, with the Albemarle County Parks Foundation

and others.

The reason why I throw in others is a 20-year plan and we do not know what other entities, organizations might come to bear.

They could then also raise money.

It could also be a service to the county.

Thank you.

Supervisor McKeel.

And I would be happy to support that change.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate your support.

Just for clarity, just a big picture here, we're looking at Elmar County 44, which is a 20-year complaint.

However, we update our complaint

every five years, supposedly.

Maybe this is six years, but whatever.

But we are required by law to update it.

So what I'm getting at is that there is nothing in here that is in stone.

This is not a tablet that we have brought down from the mountains and can never be changed.

I'm just saying, it's important for people to understand that.

It's just like our CIP.

We pass a CIP, a five-year and a 10-year CIP, but we change that along the way.

It is not, again, on a tablet that's brought down from the mountains.

So it is a guideline.

I just think it's important.

So if there's something that's not in here, or we realize that it needs to be in year five or six or seven, we can add it, or we can subtract.

I think it's just good to

to have that on

Objective 1, it says, perform robust community engagement with multiple venues for community input.

I've noticed both at the school board level and the board of supervisors level.

We do extremely robust community engagement in this community.

Much more robust than most communities do.

And I support community engagement.

I just want to make sure that the community engagement that we're doing is not a delay tactic.

used by our community to delay things

and that's Diantha McKeel saying that.

But I'm just saying that we need to have robust community engagement but we have to put it into a practical, through a practical lens.

I get very concerned because we often have the same voices at the table, the same groups at the table and voices, there are voices from the community that we struggle to hear from.

and I've never really figured out in 28 years exactly how to get all those voices at the table.

It just doesn't work for various reasons.

I'm not criticizing anybody.

But we have to also make sure that while their voices aren't at the table, they're represented.

When I used to make school board decisions, I would say to folks in the audience, I have to represent the children and the parents that are not in this room.

Now, that's a little tricky, but it's doable.

And sometimes people fail to realize that staff and the electives often have a broader understanding of the issues

then a community member, and I'm not criticizing anybody, but we have much more information at our fingertips.

And no matter how we try and share that information in the community, people just don't always hear it or get it.

And that's just an overarching comment when I saw community engagement that I've been struggling with for several years.

Okay, so having said that, let's go down to 1.7.

Art, I am thrilled to see art.

in this document.

I go to parks all over the, or have gone to parks all over the United States.

I don't think I'm going to have access to the parks much anymore because, but that's another topic.

But I have gone to many parks that have wonderful art and it can be all sorts of medium, I mean different types of art when you, if you travel in Europe or in other countries, Japan, Australia,

New Zealand.

You see art in the parks and I think that would be wonderful for us to take that on.

I don't know how we do that because, but we have a lot of local artists in this community and starting with local artists would be kind of cool.

So I'm all for that and I don't want to keep belaboring it.

And let me just see.

Going on down to, so number two.

Oh,

Objective 2 and Objective 3, I think those two could be easily combined.

Yes, I think that's a pretty well-considered comment, Supervisor McKeel.

I think two almost reads like an action item for the broader objective of accelerating the development and delivery of parks and greenways.

And there's even some actions in Objective 2 that don't seem to relate to the overarching objective.

And I'm always willing to reduce these types of documents.

I've said that earlier today because I think more targeted and shorter is better than to throw the kitchen sink in.

So if we could combine those two, I think that'd be great.

And I'll move on from there.

And where am I?

I'm down to four.

Collaborate with Elmar County.

Public Schools.

I think I mentioned collaboration with the schools and I think Ned spoke to that very nicely about the schools and how collaboration and I think we could do more of that and I am all for offering our students, our young people and I think Ned you said 12 to 18, 11 to 18, something like that but maybe whatever.

something to do because you're right.

Idle, what's the expression?

Idle fingers getting, it's not Idle fingers, whatever it is.

But if you don't have something to do, you can get in trouble.

It was really interesting because when the school board, when we changed our school hours,

at the high school and middle school level to getting out at four o'clock rather than three.

Climb in this community went down.

We saw documentation, and I don't mean serious crime, but just juvenile crime that kids were getting into because they weren't around to get in trouble.

And they had less time alone without their parents being with them.

So I am all for figuring out something to do with this group of young people.

That's great.

And let's see.

I think increased public transportation access, I think we're working hard on that, so I think hopefully with the new authority formed and work that we're doing with transit that hopefully will take care of itself, we did

5, and now I'm on, and 6, and so I'm up to 7.

I'm trying to go fast, Jim.

Outdoor lighting, so we are hopefully going to, I'm at 7, right?

Outdoor lighting, 7.2.

I'm just jumping on this because hopefully our update to our extremely old lighting ordinance is going to be coming to us, and I'm mentioning here Dark Skies.

because I think for our parks, it's really important, right?

And our neighborhoods, dark skies is important in this community.

Having said that, you can have dark skies and have safety lighting.

It's not either or.

I feel like sometimes the university doesn't understand that.

very well.

And again, when we're talking about dark skies, I really would love to see us working with the university and the city, but the university is the bigger, and I'm going to say this publicly, light pollution entity that we have, you only have to come over Pantops and take a look at it to see what we're getting from the university.

If we could somehow or another get them to the table with that, it would be wonderful.

And the only other thing I have is just

It's a time I can bring it up.

Our signage in this community is filthy dirty.

I think most of it is VDOT, VDOT signs, but you go down the bypass or some of our hydraulic road, the signage is so bad at night that sometimes, you know, because it's reflective, beads is what most of it is.

We have some signage that some of the signage is green, and I guess those are state signs.

I'm not even sure of the difference.

Having said that, it really makes this community look like nobody loves it.

We can look at our park signage, absolutely.

But it's mostly what I'm really pointing out here is our VDOT signage really needs to be.

And I don't think it's as simple as they just go in and clean and wash it.

But what you said, yes, thank you very much for making that connection.

And it's just a good opportunity to mention it.

Thanks.

I'm done.

Thank you.

I'll do some

I'll just go in the order of the document.

Page four, you know, we talk about community centers, and I think somewhere in there, it might say, have all over the development area.

And this goes to schools, this goes to private, non-profit, et cetera.

We really rely on others to provide community centers.

We have one official county community center, which is Yancey.

So in the developing area, when we talk about community centers, it's really the centered Belvedere, Northside Public Library, the schools.

And that's fine because we don't have the ability to provide in the CIP to build all these different pieces.

But we act like we have community centers.

And they're not really community centers.

And in here it talks about being free of having to do retail purchases and free to use.

Well, free to use, while it might not cost something, also means schedule-wise it's free to use.

So that's where the limitation on the schools, any of the private stuff is dictated by their own schedules.

And I just don't want to act like we have community centers in the development area that are Albemarle County community centers.

We might as well just embrace the idea that we partner with other places

and then say that that's how we're going to do this until such time that we may be able to invest in our own community center.

If we do the word change that Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley was talking about with the Parks Foundation, which I have no objection to, but I don't want to limit or we need to call out because you have P3s that happen like the Crozet development out there is a P3 involved with that, right?

And then if things happen in the small area plan, that would come about as a P3.

We're taking the trailhead on as part of the Rio Point development.

So there's a lot of other private public partnerships that can happen or could happen and not just through the Parks Foundation.

Well, I don't think and others tells developers we would like to partnership with you.

Okay, so whatever appropriate... But you got rid of public-private partnership, and that's the wording that calls out that.

One-three, just to call it out, is where the whole

part of the teenager access stuff that I've already made comments on, which I won't repeat, but 1-3 is where that really kind of pulled out, equitable access, right?

Giving recreation opportunities to everybody, and I think that's a gap, so that's why it stood out there.

1-6, who does this?

Is this a

and let me ask the questions rhetorical at this point.

I think that's a difficult question to answer from my perspective, but just drawing attention to the Office of Grants and Agreements.

We work pretty closely with Mrs. Morgan Rakes and Ms.

Brandy Sullivan.

Often Parks and Rec staff will be the ones to ID a grant opportunity and then partner with OGA to kind of, you know, develop that through executive staff and other departments sometimes.

But in addition to grant opportunities, you know, some examples include the legislative agenda that Mrs. Kilroy and the Economic Development Office have been so far successful in identifying general assembly funding for development at Biscuit Run Park.

Well, that's good because, you know, I get concerned that when you put something like that in a plan that if you don't actually have

It's almost a passive type thing.

It's like some of the other stuff.

Oh, well, we'd like to do it.

But if it's not a day in, day out focus, then it will never get done.

Then you don't actually identify and pursue it.

But it sounds like we have a game plan on that.

You're welcome.

Oh, sorry.

Four for schools and community centers.

I don't think I think I've made comments on that earlier.

We just have to, again, embrace the partnership or embrace it that, you know, the community center is, it's limited in availability because of the school's schedule.

I don't know.

I can't remember.

They do.

Ned, if it's not, for example, PTO or a group that's associated with the schools, they don't.

So the free to use part, like that,

If we're counting schools as community centers and they charge a rent like we do, then free to use.

And I think, let me just clarify, I think the trigger is if the meeting or the group that's meeting charges an entrance fee, then the schools charge a fee.

Is that making sense?

I can't remember if it's a rental or not.

I guess maybe you're right, depends on who's doing what.

And then number seven, I mean I wrote the question down, it's not for you all to answer, it's probably directed at myself and other board members.

But number seven I wrote, can we really do this?

And really thinking of seven three, and then probably commentary on Supervisor McKeel's talks about the arts and wanting more arts in there.

and this doesn't, I don't mean this to be a harsh criticism or sound like a criticism, but this board based on our prioritization of funding is what dictates, these tend to be the things that get lost.

It's like small road projects.

They get the oxygen sucked out of the room from all the bigger stuff, all this other stuff that's existing above it that gets prioritized.

So what falls to the wayside?

Arts and pure public spaces.

providing actual parks programs to a greater extent to meet the demand that exists out there that is being filled by other organizations or private organizations.

So, I mean, I think when I look at 7.3 and think about the comment about the arts and even providing a community center that's not partnered with somebody else, so when I say, can we really do this, I'm looking at you all, but it really should probably be a mirror sitting there that I could look back

because we'd have to do that in our budget.

We'd have to say this is a priority and put it in the CIP or put it in the budget to accomplish.

But thought it was worth just a call out here.

And that's all I have.

Yeah, on 7.3, I understand what Supervisor Gallaway is saying, but also what has been envisioned, for example, Freebridge Lane, of working with some of the art community and just having volunteers come down, display some of their artwork and such, where, you know, you may want to have a food trek, where it doesn't really encompass

except for maybe a little bit of staff time, perhaps, but it doesn't really encompass a necessary budget.

That's what, you know, some of the things I think we can do that won't cost the county really any money, but people can come down and do a presentation.

You may even have some musical concerts or something like that in the future.

And the other thing, I'm thinking of your, when you mentioned about 2.3

Thank you.

Just quickly to piggyback on what Ned was saying, if that's okay.

The arts.

When we went to Greenville, we saw some great

examples of how the City of Greenville was working with their visitor's bureau in putting up artwork that were attractions to bring visitors in.

They were using it as a way to increase tourism.

That is one way to look at it.

We also have a lot of benefactors in this community, I believe,

that would love to help us if we wanted to put some art in different places.

But it did strike me that Greenville has some great examples of local art and art that's being funded by their, not their CACBB, but by their visitor's bureau like we have.

Then number points in there that I would just highlight as something I think are important to consider such as the

Pruitt.

Other areas, not just the three that are designated community centers, and I think that PEC calls out how we have a lot of private properties and open spaces that we try to connect to that also could be brought into this in a way that highlights that those connections are important as well to our community to give them access to parks and recreation, whether it's, as they mentioned, Monticello, Highland, Fox Haven, Fox Field, and others.

that are not necessarily our parks.

They also have several comments about the maps and things that they feel that should be considered as potentially greenway connections on the maps and indications on the maps as to extensions of these beyond the map.

And I think those are good comments, so I just want to highlight those.

They also talk about community events in our parks, which may be something to be considered.

They have other comments.

I want you to obviously vet those comments because I'm not sure all of them are quite consistent with what we have laid out as our framework, but they're still worth considering.

I will back up though to just a comment I made earlier about the

the number of visitors we have in the parks and how that has grown that the page 13 total visits and chart of visits for the last three years are not consistent with that so there's something wrong with the document in that location and we can talk about that further as something to look into if you want to know what I mean you can just look at 2013 we have more visitors than we had at 2021 but if you look at the

The green and the blue bars, it looks like the blue bars are way bigger than the green bars, so something happened somewhere in here.

So those are comments, many of those were made by the PEC's email and I want to support those.

So quick follow-up on the arts.

NEA, National Endowment for the Arts, has rolling grant programs all the time.

I did not know there was a new person at the grants office, but I will forward things I get because I'm on that commission.

I just couldn't get to it this time.

For where those are at, Jay Dick is the executive, and he's always sending out emails about all these things.

And anybody who is interested in joining the Arts and Culture Commission, just please do that because it's important.

The community centers and private properties, it's important that when events are happening

and then they welcome people.

But if there's farming going on, you don't want to list something as open all the time because then people have interactions with cattle, etc.

and that's not always a good outcome.

But for Panorama, for Foxfield, things like that, it's fabulous to list them that events are held at XYZ and that certainly opens, widens out the opportunities for people to learn about.

I do think that that comment needs to be tempered by the fact that this is our county's comprehensive plan.

Ann, are you?

I just want to add one quick thing.

To get back to community centers, I did notice, and I forgot to mention it, that we have listed a community center in the south, the east and the west, but not in the north.

Which is where a lot of our population is.

Just adding to what Ned was saying.

I would just raise there was a conversation a bit about accessibility and costs related to community centers and also a conversation about 7.3.

If I were to look at 7.3, I would actually raise the critique you've heard from me.

I think this will be the third time, which is, I think we can take credit for this today.

And so it needs a specific and quantifiable goal, because I get my little trifle from Albemarle County Parks and Rec that tells me all the classes we're doing.

and they are public-private partnerships for the most part, my understanding, right?

They're individuals who have reached out to us and are like, hey, we'd love to offer a reduced price yoga class at the scan center or whatever.

And so if we're going to do goal-making, then we should do goal-making.

They're either expand them

and

I would raise, I think, the community centers you also pay in all of them to reserve rooms.

A quick look, I think, shows that they all have a $50 an hour fee for reservations.

That doesn't mean you can't walk into them, but the same could be said of our schools.

So if we're concerned about the

issues of access that are posed by relying on the market and private partners for that, then it might also raise that we should be addressing those issues, right?

Like, I can reserve a room for free at the library and I can't at Yancey.

Not in particular.

This has been a really constructive work session.

You've given us a lot of detailed commentary, a lot of high-level feedback.

Thank you.

Just one more comment to Ms.

Mallek.

I believe the document you shared where you had marked up some notes from previous goals, objectives, draft.

That was an earlier version.

We did, most of those that you think are missing, they've been shifted.

We've combined some of the action steps.

We moved some things around.

So I would encourage you to

Do a markup on the current draft.

And if you have any questions about where did this go, where did this go, just follow the staff and we'll point out where that was moved.