Board of Supervisors Regular First Meeting   9/3/2025

Good afternoon.

I am pleased to call to order this meeting of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, the 3rd of September, 1 p.m.

in Lane Auditorium in the McIntyre Office Building.

Noted today, we have Supervisor Ann Mallek of the White Hall District, Supervisor Ned Gallaway of the Rio District, Supervisor Diantha McKeel of the Jack Jouett District, Supervisor Bea LaPisto-Kirtley of the Rivanna District, Supervisor Mike Pruitt of the Scottsville District, and myself, Jim Andrews, representing the Samuel Miller District.

Quorum is present.

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

Claudette Borgerson.

Also, let me please welcome Albemarle County Police Officers present.

Board, as usual, our first action is to adopt our final agenda.

I've heard no suggestion of any changes to the agenda today, so I'm looking for a motion to adopt the final agenda.

The motion from Supervisor McKeel, second from Supervisor Malek.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Mr. Pruitt?

Aye.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

And board, we'll turn to brief announcements by board members.

Yes, thank you very much.

This is coming from me directly, the styrofoam lady.

I'm hoping to bring back at our October 2 meeting, I think it's October 2 meeting, a support for what the state has already passed regarding Styrofoam uses by vendors.

This took place July 1, 2025, for those who have 20 or more restaurants.

And then it's going to take place again July.

First 2026 for all restaurants.

But what I would like to do is the SWAC committee will be looking at a letter to send to the board.

And I'd like to present that letter on the consent calendar.

Or I'm going to present that letter on the consent calendar as soon as the SWAC passes that letter.

Other than that, the CAC meeting went well.

A lot of questions on data centers, frankly, that was the big topic.

So it's just OK.

And a lot more understanding of data centers and how they're going to be used, different sizes of what we're going to do, how that helps the economy.

So a lot of people had a lot more information, which frankly was very helpful.

And I think that's what our role is, is to educate everybody and not make rush judgments on anything.

And that's it right now.

Thank you very much.

A couple of quick things.

I assume that others will talk about the elections and the

Solid Waste stuff, so I'm not going to go there.

But I will say, we've had a really long time without any rain.

And I think I personally forgot that it was not raining, because we've had so much rain previously.

But the earth is really, really dry out there.

So everyone, please be super careful about any kind of combustibles and fire.

And our trees are already starting to suffer.

And so this is the way of our world nowadays.

But it is something we need to be really paying attention to.

On a more fun note, Wednesday, September 24th from 9.30 to 3.30 will be, I think, the 10th Rivanna River Basin Conference and speakers will include from

State level water supply planning topics, DEQ perspectives, planning at the local level with RWSA, local drought and flood records with Dave Hirschman, and then more information about data centers and RCA, Rivanna Conservation Alliance updates.

So it should be a great day.

And it will be at the center.

And there will be food, breakfast available, and lunch available.

So hopefully people will register at RivannaRiverBasin.org.

And I look forward to seeing you there.

Thank you.

Supervisor McKeel.

I don't have anything today.

Thank you.

I want to begin by thanking our police and first responders.

There was an incident on Scottsville Road just north of Carter's Bridge earlier this week involving an active pursuit and closure of a main arterial road in this county that did end with the apprehension of a

a very young man who had done some crimes or is accused of doing some crimes.

So thank you for that work.

I also want to put on everyone's radar.

First, the Loop Deville, the annual celebration of the Rivanna Trail is coming up.

So that is at the end of this month.

It is going to be on the 27th of September.

There are events all day starting with quite early for the folks who actually want to run or hike the trail because it takes a while.

But there's also going to be a block party.

It's a great event that gets thrown every year.

You can go to their website to learn more and you'll probably see posters around town.

Additionally, it is Charlottesville Pride Week, because we get a whole week, and we're a college town, so we do it in September, despite everyone else doing it earlier in the year.

And that is going to be punctuated, of course, with the Charlottesville Pride event at Ting Pavilion starting at noon thirty on the sixth of September, Saturday.

And additionally, of course, every year is election year in Virginia.

We have three districts that are having local elections.

That's the Jack Jouett district, the Sam Miller district, and the Rio district.

But of course, there are statewide elections that are contested on every single person's ballot.

And early voting is about to start.

So early voting runs from the 19th through the 1st of November.

Early voting can be done in person, of course, at the Albemarle County offices on Fifth Street.

and you also of course can do mail-in voting during that time and the actual election day will be on Tuesday, November 4th.

Again, so we are going to have contested races for Governor, Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General and both of Albemarle County's local delegates will also be on the ballot albeit uncontested.

Thank you.

I had the pleasure of attending the grand opening of Home Depot this past week, which I have to say I've been sharing with folks that this has been the most energized grand opening that I've ever attended.

The employees were hopping.

They did some employee appreciation type of things as part of the presentations.

I was joined there by Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley.

Senator Deeds, Delegate Kallsen, and Congressman McGuire were all in attendance and were able to share some words.

But as I remarked to the Home Depot team, I said that if the store is as half as successful as the energy they had that day, it will be the most successful Home Depot in the country.

It was just a phenomenal welcome.

It was also nice to visit with some constituents that day to hear about some concerns, folks that I haven't seen.

I appreciated their patience because one I couldn't remember the last time.

But it was good to hear that.

It was also just good to see folks that were in the community and not just attached to the Home Depot employees to come out that evening.

And they were open for a couple of hours.

Of course, there was plenty of county staff there.

I also just want to remark that I mentioned to my CAC last week and they agreed that for all of the board meetings that I spent railing about weeds and our medians, the medians, I just want to comment at the end of the summer when we have had rain more than we've had over the past summer, not recently of course,

Thank you.

And before I get to the solid waste announcements, as far as events go, I participated for I don't know how many years in a row as a volunteer at the Charlottesville Women's Four-Miler, which is at the Fox Field racetrack.

About 1,700 runners came out for the in-person portion, and that race, since its inception, has raised 4.2 million dollars for women's breast cancer research.

That's impressive.

It's very impressive.

And the numbers are impressive.

And the number of volunteers out there was incredible.

We were parking a car every three seconds as they came in from two directions.

It was an exciting day.

And of course, I always want to remind people about fall cleanup.

The 13th of September is the electronic waste day.

It's full, but there is a wait list.

And if you have signed up and don't think you'll make it, please tell them so that they can pull somebody off the wait list.

After that, the 19th and 20th of September are household waste days at the Ivy Solid Waste and Recycling Center.

The 27th is furniture, the 4th of October is appliances, and the 11th of October is tires.

So this is your chance to get rid of that stuff without paying a fee.

Yes, really quickly.

I just want to turn back to Ned.

I am so sorry that I missed the Home Depot event.

I had a conflict and I just couldn't make it.

Having said that, I was fascinated because it was not a ribbon cutting, it was a board cutting.

And when I saw the invitation, I said, what do they mean a board cutting?

I was thinking about us as the board.

But can you tell me just a little bit about how that worked?

Yeah, it was a 2x12, right?

And they had it with, you know, different things marked up on it, and then they sawed that sucker right in half.

Did you get to saw a sucker?

No, are you kidding?

They wouldn't let us around.

That was what I thought.

It would have been fun to have gone if I could have.

And trained professionals did the sawing, I'm happy to say.

But I did want to mention, I forgot, you bringing that up reminded me.

I don't know if you all recall, but when we approved the permit that they needed because they have the garden center outside and some other things, that Home Depot had created this fencing and this screening for the fencing specifically for Albemarle.

So if you're out there at the garden center, take a look at the fence because that is, Jody just made a comment, so I hope this is still right about it, but the Home Depot folks have said they're going to start using that as their standard everywhere.

Board, this brings us to Proclamations and Recognitions.

Thank you very much.

I move adoption of the proclamation recognizing September as National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month.

Whereas every year nearly 26,000 people in the United States die from firearm suicides, an average of 704 people in Virginia died by firearm suicides and 24 are wounded by gun suicide attempts.

and during the last two decades, youth suicide has reached its highest rate in more than 20 years.

Firearms account for more than half of all suicide deaths nationwide.

And whereas Albemarle County joins in observing National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month by raising awareness to foster a culture of understanding and empathy and encourage community members to become better educated on the signs of suicide risk factors,

Elevate local suicide prevention resources and destigmatize conversations around mental health.

And whereas the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline plays a helpful role in suicide prevention and mental health support by offering immediate confidential assistance 24-7 to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress.

and whereas Albemarle County has played an important role in suicide prevention with the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office, hiring a new prosecutor for emergency substantial risk orders, University of Virginia law students working with state lawmakers on legislation to protect at-risk school children and Albemarle County Public Schools launching the HELP-ME app and Lightspeed Alert.

and whereas there are many local organizations including Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, Students Demand Action, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Region 10, and the National Alliance on Mental Illness, dedicated to saving lives and bringing hope through research, education, policies, advocacy, and resources for those who have lost someone to suicide, who struggle with suicidal ideation, or who have otherwise been affected by suicide.

and now therefore be it proclaimed that we, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, do hereby recognize suicide as a public health problem and designate September 2025 as National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month.

Signed this third day of September 2025, Jim Andrews, Chair.

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

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Malek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

And I believe Mr. Mike Fox from Virginia Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, Virginia Chapter.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Supervisor Malek and all of you for your support.

Suicides are never inevitable and are entirely preventable, but means matters.

Removing access to firearms is one of the most effective ways to intervene.

The majority of gun deaths each year are suicides, and guns are the leading method of suicide in the US.

The problem is especially acute with our rural and veterans communities, and now with young people with the fastest growing gun suicide rate.

So what can be done?

Storing firearms locked, unloaded, and separate from ammunition is one of the key principles of responsible gun ownership.

People in crisis can hand off the keys or let helpers change the combinations on their safes and lock boxes.

They can put more time and space between themselves than any household firearms by voluntarily storing weapons outside the home.

They can take advantage of Virginia's Do Not Sell law, with which people at risk for suicide can voluntarily block themselves from purchasing firearms.

And lastly, Virginia's red flag law allows law enforcement to intervene by petitioning a court for an order to temporarily prevent someone in a crisis from accessing guns.

Thank you.

Starting with Supervisor Bickel-Kirtley.

Thank you very much for coming.

And it's really, I'm glad we could support you with this proclamation.

And I wish the laws would change, and frankly in Virginia and all over the nation, that we could do more to lock up firearms or not have them available as much.

So thank you for what you did.

phrased everything extremely well.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for helping us to stay current with all these recent efforts and all the community and collaborative community that you all have developed around here.

I was especially interested in your comments talking about veterans and how that transition from active duty to civilian life has put a real strain on the VA system as well as individuals.

And fortunately, we do have Living Free Together and many other organizations in our region who try to help intervene as well.

But this is important.

Thank you.

Supervisor McKeel.

Welcome back.

It's not been long since you were here before around guns and safety for guns.

I think there are not very many people, probably even in this room, that haven't been affected in some way by a suicide.

either by a family member or a friend.

I know I've lost three people that were close to me or their family was close to me.

Two of those suicides by God.

So it really is an important issue.

And the only other thing I would add is

I would have put hearts on this list as well because our hearts team, I think, our local hearts team that works with social services and goes out to answer calls for mental breakdowns and mental illness calls, I think they're helping a lot in our community too.

So we have to think about next year putting the hearts team on this list.

Make a note.

But thank you very much for coming.

This is a really important issue.

Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you for your continued advocacy on this important issue.

I think that's actually all I have today.

I appreciate those that are in the professional support roles, but the point about encouraging the community to become better educated on defined signs, you just never know what people are going to go through.

And in a culture where we are

fast becoming our own dopamine addicts to watching people experience negative things to be able to reach out and say, hey, are you OK?

And then to be able to follow up.

Because if you're in that situation, you've lost hope, right?

And it's contingent on the rest of us to be able to see it and do something about it.

So I appreciate your efforts in that regard.

Thank you.

And I'll echo the comments of my colleagues in appreciation and especially the comment regarding the fact that it's become on all of us to be aware of this issue and when people are in need and what we can do to help them.

Supervisor Malek has the proclamation.

I will, just let me get myself adjusted here a minute.

We have one, two, three, four, five speakers all in person and no one online and so I will read the

the request for the way that this will proceed.

During the time set aside for public comment on matters previously considered or currently pending before the board, other than scheduled public hearings, individuals may address the board.

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 starts your allotted time.

The yellow light indicates you have one minute to finish speaking and the red light indicates your time has expired.

and you will be asked to end your comments.

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

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

Address comments directly to the board as a whole.

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

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

Speakers may not share any unused time with another speaker.

Back and forth debate is not permitted.

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

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

And our first speaker for today is Mark Ewer.

And maybe I'm mispronouncing your last name.

Perfect.

Great.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

Yes, sir.

Thank you for this opportunity.

You have my expanded written comments.

First, I'd like to publicly thank my former supervisor Bea LaPisto-Kirtley.

Last year,

You not only instantly replied to my email regarding my Barbersville property tax questions, but also called me the same day welcoming me to your beautiful county.

That's public service at its best.

Next, kudos for the action on suicide prevention.

Suicides in America are at epidemic levels, primarily due to our inability of our human brains to process the massive amount of information available in our new technology and social media area.

Too much information without enough love,

empathy and compassion is poison, toxic for the brain.

Males represent 77.9% of all suicides.

Our tough manly ego prevents us from reaching out when we need help.

Suicide is the second leading cause of death for youth between ages 10 and 19 with males as a high risk.

Finally, I would like to enlist your support for the inclusion in the upcoming Virginia budget next year on capital expenditures, the expansion

of Healthy Aging Opportunities in the Commonwealth, including funding to eliminate our $5.8 billion debt for our award-winning center at Belvedere, one of the five best senior citizens centers in North America, an important factor in retiring for

Retiring from Columbus High was a report by Kiplinger recommending your beautiful community, home to Thomas Jefferson as the best place to retire in the United States.

The report highlighted the center at Belvedere's healthy aging, social and intellectual travel, physical and spiritual activities.

According to the

U.S.

Surgeon General in an 81-page report.

Widespread loneliness and social isolation proposes the health risk as deadly as smoking 15 cigarettes daily, costing health care industries billions of dollars, declaring it a public health epidemic.

All of us, half of us old folk, have indicated we've experienced loneliness and social isolation.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

You can provide the comments that you couldn't read to this clerk if you need to.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Maria Koss.

And do bring the microphone down so that we can hear you clearly.

Thanks.

Maria Koss, Jack Jouett.

I wanted to talk about the cars on the road with loud stereos.

I find it very distracting and jarring.

Last week I was on Rio Road, and I was next to a car, and we were stopped.

And the stereo was really loud, and I made motions like, can you turn it down?

And he reached for the dial, and I thought, oh, he's going to turn it up.

And he turned it up.

And I wrote down his license tag number, and I called the police.

And there is nothing that the police can do about it because it's against the First Amendment, freedom of speech.

And same thing is on the light at Commonwealth and hydraulic.

Sometimes there's three or four cars lined up at the light and they're all playing music really loudly.

Oh, I have two minutes.

Also jarring is adjusting mufflers, engines, and racing.

Thank you very much.

Next speaker is Neil Williamson.

Good afternoon.

My name's Neil Williamson.

I serve as president of the Free Enterprise Forum, a public policy organization focused on the local governments of central Virginia.

Albemarle County has had a number of economic development wins in the last few months, including your strategic plan, Home Depot, Afton Scientific, and more.

Adding to these wins the potential job creation in Rivanna Futures, the long-term outlook for jobs and demand for housing seems high.

Now you have another potential economic development win that, because it's not finalized, you are unable to discuss.

let alone consider as you examine your development area capacity analysis.

On July 22nd, Virginia Governor Youngkin announced both Eli Lilly and AstraZeneca would be establishing significant operations in the Commonwealth.

Virginia is dedicating $10 million to each of these organizations to support this expansion.

while not officially announced, several media outlets have suggested Lilly will be in Henrico County, and AstraZeneca has plans to locate in Albemarle.

I'm curious if this would qualify as a so-called Black Swan event.

A Black Swan event is explained, it was popularized by economist Nassim Nicholas Tlaib.

He thought a lot of these things in the context of the financial markets in the early 21st century and then expanded his scope to include historical, scientific, and other events.

Talib argues, while human beings are good at turning environmental stimuli into meaning information, they tend to be narrow-minded in their beliefs about the world.

Being dogmatic about beliefs makes humans blind to concepts that fall outside of accepted use.

Today, you are not allowed to speak of AstraZeneca.

It's kind of like Voldemort, the word that cannot be said.

I just hope that as you review the 2025 update of a somewhat flawed 2022 analysis of your development areas, you will ask what impact the AstraZeneca

or any other black swan in the next 20 years will have on the simple trend demand line that you're utilizing.

Thank you.

Welcome.

I will.

Yeah, thank you.

OK.

Let me get my papers up here.

Hi, I'm Stuart Overby with Don't Spread On Me.

We're a group of citizens working on the issue of sewage sludge being spread on local farms as fertilizer.

I live in the Samuel Miller district of Albemarle County.

I said two quick things today.

First, I wasn't here for the last work session on legislative priorities, but I watched the video and I'm here to express our support and encouragement to you all to adopt both documents under consideration, the legislative program as well as the legislative positions.

Please don't consider the legislative positions document as optional.

I understand that during General Assembly our state reps are running from one thing to another with little time to listen to anyone about anything, so I agree with your assessment that putting the county's priorities as bullet points on a card that can fit in a pocket is a good idea.

But, and also doing that without having a more in-depth document available to explain those bullet points is a bad idea.

because one, there may be an occasion when a legislator or one of their staff asks for information about your position on an issue, in which case you better have that information available for Mr. Blount or anyone else to distribute.

And two, there are items in the legislative positions document that are not explicitly mentioned in the program document, for example biosolids.

We're really excited and grateful that you included that paragraph in there about biosolids, and we definitely want to make sure that our state reps have a chance to see that.

It's especially important now because our reps are becoming more and more aware of what a problem this is, and some are willing to take action.

And three, thinking about the future, that positions document represents a bit of institutional knowledge that will be important to preserve as the composition of the board and staff inevitably changes over time.

You'll need to have a more complete record than what the legislative program document provides on its own for future staff and supervisors to be able to reference when the time comes for them to craft their annual legislative priorities.

And second, a while back I sent you all an email invitation to write me if you're interested in seeing a draft biosolids ordinance that we created for the county to use as a starting point.

I'm sorry to say no one has responded and I'm excluding Supervisor Mallek because I gave her a copy already.

So I'm crying uncle and distributing hard copies of it to you today with a cover letter explaining some of the thinking behind it.

I hope you'll read it, at least thumb through it, reach out to me with questions.

There's an email address at the bottom of the letter.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You can give it to the clerk.

And our last speaker today is Renee Schoeninger.

I know I'm not pronouncing your name right, but you can come up and help me.

Oh, and you have a friend with you.

That's great.

I'm just going to read this.

I have never been before anybody before.

I'm not sure how this process works but I'm just kind of in a little emergency situation at the moment because I'll read this to you.

I am one of the people of Albemarle County, VA.

I stand here today to inform and give notice of harm.

The county has installed a new pole on the easement of my property, and the power company tells me it's a 5G cell tower.

They also said the safe zone is 150 to 250 feet from the base of the pole.

My home is 125 feet from the base of the pole.

This creates an emergency for myself, family, and others depending on my services, as we must move immediately if 5G gets installed on my property, which could be any day.

I need to know who is installing the tower and a description of the planned units.

I don't know where to go.

I need to ask for advice of getting

Maybe they can move the tower elsewhere.

Or if they're earning revenue off of this tower, I won't consent to that and will file something that's called a usufruct.

So I'm asking also the board to exercise due diligence and spend some time reviewing some materials that I can provide a few now and via email this week to help understand why more and more people are having difficulty

Thank you Where's the clerk?

The clerk is right over here.

Board, this brings us to item 8, our consent agenda.

Second.

A motion from Supervisor McKeel, second from Supervisor Mallek.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Mr. Pruitt?

Aye.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Board, our next item is Board to Board, quarterly report from the Albemarle County School Board.

Kate Acuff is here.

This is the backup band.

This is the backup band and I'm not sure I know how to work.

Okay, I've got it.

Good afternoon, Chair Andrews, Vice Chair McKeel, members of the board, and county staff.

I'm Kate Acuff, chair of the Albemarle County School Board, and with me is Dr. Rebecca Berlin, vice chair of the school board.

Dr. Haas is our superintendent.

He is here, along with much of the cabinet.

Two of our colleagues, Judy Lee.

Two of our colleagues, Judy Lee and Leslie Pryor, are here also.

Should we not be able to answer your questions, we've got a team with us that can do so.

What we're going to cover today, I think that's pretty self-evident.

Secondly, whenever we do a presentation, we give a nod to our strategic plan, which guides the work that we do on the school board and the school division.

And I'll just read our mission, which I think is very important.

Working together as a team, we will end the predictive value of race, class, gender, and special capacities for our children's success.

through high quality teaching and learning for all.

We seek to build relationships with families and communities to ensure that every student succeeds.

We will know every student.

You may know that we started school a week early this year.

We changed the calendar, shifted the calendar to align better with neighboring counties in Charlottesville.

And although there were a few grumbles about a shortened summer break, it's gone relatively smoothly.

And just to remind you of how exciting the first day of school is and why we on the school board do what we do, the division does the work it does, and why your support for public education is so important,

Welcome to the new school year.

Today is the first day of school.

We're so excited to welcome all of our students.

There was a little bit of nervousness going on, but for the most part, everybody was really joyful and excited to be here.

It was just really great to see some of the faces of the students we haven't seen since June and welcome them back.

And students are just really excited to start a new year, ready to learn.

And Miss Morris and I are just really happy to welcome them to the school year here at Ivy.

We are really proud to be the Bluebirds.

I'm so excited about the first day of school.

We're welcoming our Jaguars back, getting everyone adjusted with their lockers and their schedules.

First day of school is awesome.

It's amazing.

Good morning everyone.

We're here at the number one middle school in the nation, Journey Nation.

We're excited to be here.

Our students are excited.

I love the comment that the first day of school is like the Super Bowl for educators.

I'm going to now spend some time just giving you an overview of some of the safety and security initiatives that we are undergoing, that we are putting into place this year.

First is personal device

We had already, as a school division, limited cell phone use in elementary schools.

We were piloting, putting devices away for middle schools, and we had a rule, a policy that high school students were not to use them during class, but that was

have problematically enforced, let's just say.

And it really depended teacher by teacher.

And with the governor's executive order in the fall, Executive Order 33, they required everyone to have a cell phone restricted policy as of January of this year, which of course we did.

But we did implement a bell to bell policy for K through 12.

Bell to Bell policies mean no cell phones, leave it at home.

We had some pushback from some high school students wanting to at least have access during breaks or during lunch, but we said no, that this is from the time you get to school until the time you leave.

My understanding is we have a committee of staff and community members and even students to monitor how well that's going, but so far

We're only three weeks in, but so far the principals report that it's going very well.

Second item is our new visitor management system.

If you've been in a school in the past several years, you know that you always had to buzz into the main office, sign in, and maybe get a name tag.

We've dramatically improved that system.

and we have starting this fall a visitor management system called Visitor Safe as part of our efforts to keep our students and staff safe.

This updated check-in system offers greater convenience, improved security,

For all guests, including parents, contractors, and volunteers, what it does is let you know who's coming in the building.

By scanning an ID, their information is screened against the sex offender registry and other custom databases, including custody orders and banned visitor status.

It also keeps the data so you know if they've tried to enter other schools or what the situation is going forward.

And if a visitor is flagged as a security risk, we can intervene at that moment and not let them in our building.

Third is our new weapon screening technology.

It's not metal detectors.

It's more broad than that.

We piloted these weapons detector systems at our high schools in their athletic events, in varsity football, basketball, girls and boys basketball.

And really, they were remarkably trouble-free.

People seemed to navigate them very well.

And the good news is that we did not detect any weapons.

I think they have a significant deterrent effect.

I think they were navigated very well because they're already pretty common.

To go to JPJ Arena for an event, you already go through more bush gardens, I'm told.

So that has gone very well.

I think they're going live this week after some training.

But that is another level of security for our kids and staff.

We've also reintroduced SROs and expanded the program.

We had SROs, as you may recall, four or five years ago.

We pushed the pause button after there was a lot of national media about some bad actors, frankly.

We did not, at Albemarle schools, have any reported problems.

And we also have other security staff, which we can talk about during the Q&A.

but we piloted reintroducing an SRO at Albemarle High School last year, had few problems and now we have them at all three traditional high schools.

If you look at the photograph you can see I said we had three SROs but there's four people.

I will explain this mystery.

Officer Lilly on the left is

on my left.

Yeah, on the left is at Western Albemarle, Officer Joiners at Monticello.

I'll skip the next one.

Officer K for Kowinski.

I think I've come close to pronouncing his name.

He's at Albemarle High School.

Officer Profitt is a floater.

She is not one of our SROs, but she is SRO trained.

She's with the Special Operations Unit at ACPD.

and when there's a call at another one of our schools where an officer might be needed, she can be dispatched to that.

I suppose she also provides cover or backup for the other SROs.

What we did when we reintroduced the SROs

is we revisited the MOU to be very clear about candidate selection, training, and the scope of authority or scope of duties within the schools.

And we have modeled it on best practices and we're two weeks into this expansion.

But we had no reported

challenges or impacts last year.

Two other things I'll briefly mention that bear on safety, but I think it was partnership with the county and VDOT.

We instituted speed zone cameras along hydraulic along Landsland campus last year.

I know Ms.

McKeel and I heard a report from VDOT.

Given that these cameras are only on two hours, maybe in the morning, two hours at night, during the school year, only on weekdays, they generated almost half a million dollars worth of tickets at $100 a ticket.

Unfortunately, the school division doesn't get that funding, but that's another story.

But the most important thing was

that it did result in a 40%, I thought it was interesting, a 40-45% reduction in speeding.

And speeding was defined as 10 miles over the 25 mile an hour speed limit.

So it did reduce it.

If you were going north, it didn't reduce it as much as if you were going south.

But it's still a significant improvement in safety for our kids walking to school along those routes.

It has now been expanded to the Western Albemarle campuses along Rockfish Gap Road, and that has already started.

After a month's introduction to the community, it will go live on the 15th.

One more item with respect to the Lamb's Lane speed monitors.

The highest speed that was recorded was 68 miles an hour.

during the school day when the lights were flashing.

I think that's remarkable.

Additionally, I know that one of my colleagues on the Board of Supervisors had a call from a constituent complaining he had been ticketed multiple times and therefore was complaining about the cameras.

I think he was advised to slow down.

which is very excellent advice.

And finally, the stop-arm cameras.

We've had the ability to have stop-arm cameras for a long time, but only recently have we had the authority to issue tickets.

Well, someone has the authority to issue tickets.

and these have been installed on four of our buses in sort of the high traffic areas and those tickets also will start next week and they will be $250 per.

We did a study several years ago at Albemarle County Schools

and they did a sample and estimated that there were at least 6,000 incidents of cars passing stop school buses in Albemarle County, which is extraordinary.

Thank you so much for this opportunity.

I'm going to just take a couple of moments to update you on our new buildings that are under construction currently.

So we have Mountain View, Upper Elementary School, and Ace Academy at Lands Lane, which was formerly called Center 2.

So I'll start with Mountain View Upper Elementary School.

So both of these schools are planning to open for the fall 26-27 school year.

And just a note, if you haven't already received an invite, we'll make sure that you have one.

We are doing a topping out ceremony tomorrow on Thursday beginning at 11 AM.

And that is when they place the final beam on the outdoor construction.

So we'd love to share that celebration with you.

And if you don't have that, we will make sure that you have that in your inbox.

before the end of the day.

I believe we're doing lunch and we will also be doing a site visit at the time.

Just a little note, if you come make sure you wear closed-toes shoes because we are at a construction site.

So just a couple notes about Mountain View.

So as a reminder, this is at the Founders Place plot of land.

And it is in direct proximity to Mountain View Lower School.

And that is a school that has been seeing significant overcrowding.

And so the decision was made, instead of creating two elementary schools near each other, Mountain View Lower School will be pre-K to two.

and then when it opens, Mountain View Upper will be three to five.

In addition to this land, ACPS purchased two plots of land, actually a plot of land and a house, that will allow a walking path to be constructed between the two schools.

So that will allow children, families,

Teachers and administrators who maybe have a student at one school as well as the second school to be able to walk.

Right now, there is not a way to drive between the two schools without going on an exterior road, but we wanted to make sure that students would be able to walk down the path.

So that will be part of the plan and will open, I believe.

You guys can correct me when the school opens.

The size of the school is about 60,000 square feet.

Apologies, it's 72,000 square feet.

It will host up to 500 students.

And when it opens, it will be at least LEED silver.

It's tracking to be LEED silver, but could be additional.

The estimated construction cost right now is $47 million.

So there's a few construction sites.

It is an active construction site.

If you are going down that road, it's very exciting to see the progress that's been made.

And then the second is on Landsland Campus.

It is ACE Academy.

And just a reminder, that's Albemarle Career Exploration.

Previously, we'd been using the designation Center 1 and Center 2, but all the schools want a very specific identity.

and so the determination was made to use the ACE and this will be at Lambs Lane Campus.

This will house 400 students a day and because of alternating AB schedules that would mean up to 800 students would move through this every week.

It is again for grades 9 to 12.

We'll be open to all students at the high school level in the community.

And it will feature six of our 12 scholar studios when it opens.

And again, it too is tracking to be LEED Silver.

And the last piece about this is that it will also be housing our data center, our ACPS data center, as that is something that we have been looking at a home for over the years.

So a few pictures of that.

If you have been driving down hydraulic you will see this moving forward and we are making great progress.

The last thing I wanted to share is, as you know, we have student representatives on our school board.

These are non-voting members.

They sit on the dais with us, and they participate in our meetings.

And we have five amazing representatives this year.

We just did an overview of school board policy for them.

So from Albemarle High, we have Amy Wang.

From Monticello, we have Maximilian Colfer.

From Western, we have Claire Curry, Community Lab, we have Leighton Cox, and then we do have an alternate from Albemarle High.

That's Maxwell Keys.

And they will all be alternating, sitting on the dais throughout the year.

And they have been an excellent addition to our discussion.

They are not able to vote, but they do participate in our discussions.

And it is a way to get student voice.

So they're all part of Student Send It.

and actively involved in their community.

So part of their job is to get voice from their fellow students and to bring that to us and to participate in those discussions.

And then last, these are my amazing colleagues.

As member Pruitt mentioned, we do have voting.

And our Rio, our Samuel Miller, and our Jack Jouett district are up for voting this November.

So thank you so much.

And I will open it up to questions.

And Ms.

Thank you, and welcome to all.

Great to see all the people here.

Thank you very much to both of you for a wonderful presentation.

It's good to know all the things that you are doing, everything you're accomplishing.

And I also thank everyone that you brought with you, because I think that entire team there is representative of

what can happen with our schools and how well they're run.

Thank you so much and thank you for your support.

I appreciate it.

All right.

Hello neighbor.

So thank you for this information.

It's really very helpful to me and hopefully others to have these presentations for us.

So a couple of things I wrote down as you were speaking.

I'll give it a shot.

We have two levels.

We have school safety coaches.

They really might be a social worker or something like that.

They're really focused on mentoring the kids, working with teachers to teach the students conflict resolution and recognizing their emotions.

they can interact with our mental health teams if there's an issue that you know can have an intervention before it gets to be worse.

The school safety officers have more of a focus on enforcing school policies like you really aren't supposed to be vaping in the bathrooms or you really need to

That's what they do.

We have vaping detectors in the bathrooms.

Or you can't actually be talking on your phone during school hours.

But they also interact with, if we have emergencies at the school, they interact with first responders.

And as you know, the SROs are sworn police officers.

And they are focused on informing

staff and students, what the law is, intervening when there's signs of criminal activity, dealing broadly with security of the building and such.

Great, thank you.

That's really helpful.

And just sharing the kudos on the success of the first year of the speed cameras.

I know lots of people who have gotten tickets and they're

Ashamed by it, but have also learned their lesson because there's nothing like changing behavior with a steep expense, so I'm really grateful.

I remember the early discussions on having to go back to the legislature a second time to get the permission to use the ticketing for the arms and so hopefully that will be

equally successful right away.

I mean, I remember the 1,000 cars a day on Georgetown passing the arm.

I'm going, that seems hardly possible.

But of course, it was.

And it's terrifying to be putting kids at risk that way.

So I thank you and I think.

And off the top of your head, the scholar studio topics.

I can do six of them and I can do the rest.

So actually, at ACE Academy, there will be Venture, which is entrepreneurship, business, and innovation, Solve, which is science, technology, engineering, and math,

Thrive, which is education and human development, Blueprint, which is architecture and urban design, building and construction, Impact, which is global leadership, law, social justice, and then Saver, which is hospitality, eateries, and recreation.

And so when the committee worked with

Students, teachers, the community, the business leaders about what makes sense to be at Ace Academy, Lambs Lane, those are the ones that will be there.

And then there are six additional that are within the other schools.

And I may ask my colleagues to go.

Can you add a couple?

I mean, we have Pulse, which is going to still be located at Monticello, and that is Health and Medical Sciences.

What else do we have?

We have Terra, which is out at Western, which is Environmental Studies.

Absolutely.

I'm Dr. Hayes, the Assistant Superintendent of Instruction.

So we have Blueprint Studio, Encore, Impact,

Saver, Solve, Tara.

I guess I should have told you what they represent.

Sorry.

So Blueprint is around design and construction.

Encore is music, theater, the arts.

Impact is around social justice, civil discourse, and leadership.

Saver is culinary, lodging, travel, hospitality.

Solve is STEM, science, math, technology, and engineering.

Terra is forestry management, ecology, and plant studies.

Just another word about this.

These were all taken from the state's 17 different career pathways.

We selected, as Dr. Berlin said, after conversations with the community, with parents, with businesses, what jobs might be most readily available in this area.

and we have selected and rebranded 12 of the career pathways.

Great.

Well thank you very much.

And we can send you the sheet and a link so you can have those as well.

Of course.

My turn.

Just a quick question to go back to the cell phones.

You all brought in a pouch at the last board to board, last year.

So that's what you all are using now for the cell phones?

I'm just curious.

But they're not supposed to have them.

I just remembered seeing the pouch.

And I was wondering if you were using those.

Yeah, so some Walton Middle School piloted the pouch last year.

And currently, there are different options for schools to monitor.

Of course, the teachers have conversations with students to put them away in their backpacks.

If students have lockers, they can put them in their lockers.

and really just constant monitoring, just making sure that all teachers, our counselors, our administrators are sending the same message.

Kind of what you do in your house.

Okay, thank you very much.

I will say that I just want to piggyback on the speed cameras because what I have noticed, obviously the Lamb's Lane campus and Hydraulic Road is in my hood, so I'm out there all the time, and it really is

Wonderful how those speed cameras, two hours in the morning, two hours in the evening, have changed the driving culture in that area.

Certainly, there are still some speeders.

It goes without saying.

But what I notice is a reduction in speeding through that area any time during the day, which is really wonderful.

And I hope that that happens out at Western Albemarle as well.

Changing the culture is really what we were after, not money.

trying to make that area safe for children and for adults as well.

So thank you for that.

And I have two other items that I wanted to just mention.

Could we have just for our knowledge and for the public as well a quick update on your Foundation for Education?

I see Daphne.

Three years ago we established, launched the Albemarle Foundation for Education.

Dr. Berlin and I are the board members, school board members who are also on the foundation board.

That board is designed to provide for

More systems changes in schools that are not easily incorporated into the operating budget.

We recently hired a new executive director, Atalia Sergi.

She's been there for two weeks, so it's pretty quick.

The most recent project that we did is we took over the

Mount Zion, the back to school backpack bash that was held at Ting Auditorium and handed out.

And here Dr. Kaiser can probably be a little more specific.

I know we handed out something like 1,400 backpack.

We packed, I mean physically packed in a very hot warehouse, 1,400 to 1,700.

Wow.

1700 backpacks, about 1400 of which were distributed on the day of the event and the others are distributed at various schools because we get a lot of latecomers into the schools and I'm not sure if they've all been distributed yet but it really is a signal of a level of need.

Thank you very much.

And

Getting back to, and I'm going to get used to saying it, the ACE Academy.

I'm just now starting to feel comfortable with the changes with the elementary schools and the school names, so I'll try real hard with this one, ACE Academy.

Can you talk to me a little bit for the public to understand what Ural's work is at that academy?

with, say, the chamber and the community and what the community job needs are.

In other words, I hear folks saying, well, I certainly hope that they're looking at what jobs we need in this community so that our kids don't have to leave the community to find a job.

Of course.

And this is an ongoing conversation, right?

So in the uptick to the planning for ACE Academy at Lambslade and these

that is part of it is working with the business leaders one-on-one as well as at the we do quarterly and correct me if I'm wrong business breakfast where we bring in business leaders from around the county and people from the cabinet and others

from the school system to listen to hear about what their needs are, as well as talking to students and parents.

I mean, part of my personal belief is that we have to raise those student and parent voices as well to see what are those positions that they want.

And so as the AIDS Academy at Lambs Nait Lane was being designed,

It is designed so, for example, it will have a culinary home so that that studio will have a place to train students as well.

And that will be a continuing conversation with businesses as our demographics and our needs change.

Because I think that's the important thing for us to remember is when we do this, it's one point in time.

But as we think about that changing demographic, the changing

agriculture, what are some things that are continuing to grow that we need to stay on top of.

And so I think it's important to remember that this is what we designed then, but we designed it in a way that other things could come in as needed, because I think it's important.

We often think about it's just teachers returning, but no, it's custodians.

It's business leaders.

It's medical leaders.

And obviously you're all operating within the framework that's provided by the state.

Exactly, exactly.

Because the state always gives.

Exactly.

And with the new criteria that we will talk about at a later briefing, that's always changing.

Yeah, with a focus.

That's great.

And just one more quick question.

I'm a little.

I was just going to add a couple of things.

Most of you probably remember our academy model, the MESA or the Environmental Studies Academy.

What we're trying to do with these career pathways or these scholar studios is to touch all of our students.

I mean, at best, having those three academies became very elitist, and maybe we had 400 students out of our 4,000 high school students that were able to participate.

The Scholars Academies do two things that I'm particularly supportive of.

A, it broadens the avenues for students to pursue and it has a lot of on and off ramps.

You can do the Pulse Scholar Studio and you don't have to have

have the goal of becoming a physician.

There are off-ramps and other jobs you can do.

So that brings up just a comment that we really need the community to step up to the plate to help with those entrepreneurships and speaking to students about career pathways.

So that's great.

And I guess that's all I had with just kudos for the SRO piece.

I think that's great.

And that's a good move back into the schools.

Thank you.

Just a few very brief things.

First, I really loved hearing a little bit more in-depth during this Q&A component about the Scholar Studios and something that really

stood out to me and excited me was how many of them seemed to focus on elements of the arts, which is something I feel like as a country we're stepping back from.

I think at least three of them touch on it because you had one for the performing arts.

You had one that was about construction and design.

There was one photography.

There might even be more, but those are the three I caught.

Arts is very important to me.

I talk about the trades a lot because it affects our work more.

But I went to a residential boarding magnet school in high school because I wanted to be a novelist when I was a kid.

That very much completely, you know,

set my path in my personal life.

It is the real turning point that was, I think, able to enable my success in life.

So I think that's deeply important.

And I do want to just, on that note, ask a question, which is, it doesn't sound like any of them actually focus on creative writing in their portfolio.

Is that right?

I know you have the state framework.

I'm just now curious.

I'm curious.

Yeah.

So there are multiple opportunities for students to engage in creative writing.

Excuse me.

Whether it's in a high school class like journalism, theater arts, it could be through the studios, the pathways.

Thank you.

The other thing I was curious about, so there's

Two changes that you all briefed on, one of which I see as very exciting and positive, the other I see as maybe necessary but kind of grim, right?

And that's the bell-to-bell policies on cell phones.

I think that's a pretty unmitigated positive for mental health for the culture in the schools.

And the other is, of course, the weapons detection system.

I see how it might be necessitated, but it's bleak.

It's a bleak thing.

And both of those, the thing I was curious about was kind of to delve into the technical implementation of it.

We already talked about how apparently we're not using the yonder pouches anymore.

Fun fact, we have to use yonder pouches in courthouses now, which is wild, I think.

So I gather that it's kind of an ad hoc kind of just disciplinary enforcement seems like the direction it's going.

Rosalind Schmidt, Chief Operating Officer.

So the yonder pouch was a pilot at Walton, one of our smaller schools.

And so the point of that was to see how manageable that was.

And one of the feedback was it was just one more thing to ensure compliance of.

You know, kids were

not putting their phone away, but not in the pouch.

So realistically, it was not a necessary tool.

Got it.

I think that makes sense.

It seems like one other kind of just thing to manage, technology to manage, personnel involved to manage, which brings me into the parallel question with the weapons detection systems.

That seems like it could introduce some similar challenges as far as operations.

For one, I would assume it seems like it assumes that students are all arriving at the same time, which I imagine is not accurate and not true.

The student I might be most worried about would be the student who rolls in at 1030, when I wouldn't imagine this is operating or manned.

And then the other thing is just what does that throughput look like?

What does the manning look like?

I just don't understand.

So I first want to echo your first sentiment.

It was, this is unfortunate that we need this.

Today was the first day.

I and Chella went live today with it, so we are learning all the logistics of it.

Beginning of the day, the majority of the students do arrive on time, so we have multiple stations set up.

Then there will be a single station at the front door the rest of the day.

Is this front desk staff who's operating them?

Yeah, so both during arrival and then during the day, it's staffed by our school security officers, which are school-based security positions, and some additional staff members.

Got it.

Thank you.

Yeah, sorry to ask any prying or difficult questions.

I just find that these things touch the culture of the community as a whole a lot more than almost anything else we do, right?

The presence of yonder pouches, a silly thing, becomes something that people who don't even have kids in the schools know about and talk about.

It's deeply ingrained in our culture.

I tell people sometimes the very first day I ever went door knocking as a politician, every single person I knocked the door of was talking about school buses, regardless of whether or not they had children in our school systems.

So it is helpful for me to make sure I have as much context on these things as possible.

Thank you.

I just wanted to add one more thing, Mr. Pruitt.

I could ask a lot of questions about your writing curriculum.

So I just want to follow up on the metal detection.

So I dropped, because I noticed today at nine o'clock the lines that were still out Monticello High School.

So obviously it was the first, I went, oh something's different today.

And I really am, you all take when students miss instructional time very seriously.

As a parent who's had a few students miss some instructional time, I know what they have to make up at the end of the school year.

So in this regard, I can't imagine they all got into that building by 9-10.

Yes, today was our first day.

We did anticipate it going a little slower as everybody learns routines and what to take out of their backpack and this and that.

So it is our goal that this is not going to impact instructional times and we will tweak the logistics to ensure that happens.

Well, we'll see, right?

We'll see how it goes.

I want to commend Principal Barfield at Albemarle High School.

It's my understanding that the business across hydraulic from the high school have had enough of people getting dropped off and picked up in their parking lots and have taken, put their own security people out there to keep that from happening, which means even more people have to cycle through the front parking lot because they can't do that little trick anymore.

He was actually out there directing traffic himself yesterday, but his security coaches, is that the right name?

They do a great job and they seem to not be rattled and get to, I mean I don't know, I wouldn't have the patience to be able to do that job directing traffic and all of that stuff.

I said this last year, and I think it's the same this year, and I know there's bigger constraints or obstacles with the parking situation and everything.

You just have more people cycling through.

Yeah, absolutely.

And we'll pass that along to him, as well as I think it shows what

All the jobs that our teachers, our principals, our counselors, our safety coaches do.

They have their job, but they all are going over and beyond to make sure our kids are safe, kids get in for instructional time.

Huge thank you, especially during these first three weeks of school, which are so busy for everyone.

I haven't met Principal Barfield.

It's my hope this year to be able to tour Albemarle.

I know back in 24 we were told to go through Ms.

Bolton to set up school tours.

Is that still the appropriate contact to set up school tours through the central office?

We will when we get back to you with the schedule for tomorrow, the studios, and that.

And I know all of the school board members would also love to do those in conjunction with you as well.

So we'll make sure it's as easy as possible, but also we'll also try to, when possible, pair and do it together.

Ms.

Mallek and I did one at Western last year.

And it's very helpful to bounce ideas off of each other as well.

Great, thank you.

There was a land use application we did with the apartment building that's going next to Agner.

It's probably not started yet.

Part of that application or process, the person doing the building had

opted to allow that building of a staircase up the back of his building to connect to Agner and his school division at the time we were told didn't want that and then the school that would reroute the students around to have to interface with cars if they had to walk or go way up around a loop to the back.

I made it a point that evening and the supervisors agreed to keep that

provision or condition in there that the property owner is certainly willing to build that staircase.

So I'm hoping for some follow-up on that.

I don't think that's something that will necessarily hit the school board again, but if we could find out if that could happen.

Because really if they have to walk on Berkmar and down, you're putting them to have to cross the traffic of the cars coming in, which I didn't think, and then otherwise they have to walk all the way up to Woodburn

through that new piece, because this is the smaller, there's a dentist office and they're reconstructing building up over there.

I think it would be a way to get conflict away from pedestrians and cars for both staff and students, especially if they're living in either place.

So just hoping for a little follow up on that one.

And then the only other thing I think would probably come up on, I don't even know what that word is, just because I know you all were going through collective bargaining piece.

Is there, it's a campaign year, so I'm getting questions about school stuff that I don't know the answer to.

Do you all have a sense?

Is that something that you think will come to agreement this year?

The school board is getting a briefing on it next Thursday, so I will have.

Good afternoon.

I'm Dan Redding.

I'm the chief HR officer for the school division.

We are in negotiations with our union, the Albemarle Education Association.

Our goal is to come to tentative agreement over the next couple of months.

Employees would have to ratify that agreement, and the board would have to approve the agreement.

So the school year.

I mean, it's not going to be.

Much longer.

Awesome.

Thank you.

And the only thing I'll put out there real quick is that don't need it right away, but I know as we get to our joint meeting in the fall when we start doing our outlook and get into budget, the last, I'm looking at Rosalind, the last trailer report that you had provided, that's actually been shared with and discussed amongst our planning commission recently.

But if there's any changes, because that was December of 24,

of how they're being used in the current school year because I know sometimes things can shift.

It'd be great to have the most up-to-date usage of that if you all were willing to share that in the next 30 days or so.

Thank you so much.

This was great.

And I loved seeing the video the first day.

And with my final child going through, and he's a teenager, they just get a little different with their energy.

But I know when I used to be in the classroom that, boy, did I enjoy the start of school year.

So thank you for sharing.

Sure.

And I also want to thank you for being here.

I don't have additional questions.

That's fine.

I appreciate all you're doing for focusing on safety.

and on learning opportunities throughout the schools.

I appreciate the connection of walking path between the mountain views as an example of where you're obviously focused on the safety of getting from one place to another there.

Again, thank you all for being here.

Jim, just quickly, and I know we're running short on time, but a really good example, Ned, of what you're talking about is at Stonefield, where they connected the apartment complexes with a staircase going up the hill to the strip mall that's up on

Commonwealth.

That's a great example of what that staircase, and it has been wonderful for the community to be able to connect back and forth and not have to go all the way out and around.

Just saying that that's a great example of what that staircase could do.

And I do have a quick question about, and it's gone out of my head.

And that's what happens when you get old.

I was so focused on the staircase.

It's OK.

We'll just let it go.

Please send it.

Please accept it.

Yeah, sorry.

Oh, my gosh.

It's probably good for timing anyway.

Yes, I was just wondering regarding you went through all the different specialties that you're offering.

with the acronyms and such.

Is there anything for farming 4-H?

Yes, the farm bureau.

The farm bureau and everything.

Yeah, the Terra Academy.

OK.

Is it the Terra Academy?

It's focused on agriculture.

I'm sorry.

Tara Scholar Studios.

We're all relearning our language.

Okay, and just wanted to know...

Regarding cell phones, you have to take them away from students.

My experience, if you tell them, I'm taking it away, I'm giving it to the principal, and you can have your parents come and pick it up.

That will.

that eliminates, they don't want that to happen.

But thank you very much.

And I'm sorry but I just thought about my question because you stalled long enough.

Ned talks about this a lot in different venues and I just mention it in that one of the number one complaints that we hear from businesses is the lack of soft skills.

Children don't know how to get to work on time.

Issues like that.

And I know that's just another level of what teachers have to do.

But I hope as we go through some of these

some of the years with schooling that we can think about those soft skills that are really important as kids grow into adulthood and have to show up for work and other soft skills as well.

Ned talks about it.

We were meeting with the Chamber not too long ago and Ned was talking about the soft skills and how critically important they are because

Absolutely, and I had the ability to participate in some of the conversations at our community breakfast with business owners, and that was one of the things they discussed as we were doing some of the

the work around the scholar's studios, including writing skills.

And those are, instead of having a scholar's studio about just those soft skill things, those are entwined into everything.

And because, as we spoke about in some of them, in all of them, there are internships, there are projects, those are

Requirements right so if they're doing the internship part of that internship is learning about those time skills and then just in general Mr. Galloway spoke about being on time and instructional time part of just what we do and the stricter enforcement of being on time for school being on time in your class staying for the are also teaching those foundational skills and

and we've all talked, we've heard constituents talk to us about how those were a little lax as we came out of the pandemic and those are things that we are working on and what we have been doing as a school community has improved both our chartiness as well as our attendance.

which is very important for school.

If kids are at school, they can learn and so making sure they are aware of that.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Our next item is a guest from Shenandoah National Park giving us an update.

John Mahoney, Chief of Commercial Services.

Hello everybody.

How are you?

Thank you for having me here on behalf of the park today.

My name is John Mahoney.

I represent the Commercial Services Program for the park, but not only that, I deal with lands, utilities.

I work out of the superintendent's office and handle just about all external affairs.

you know a park that stretches 110 miles and 300 linear miles of boundary we tend to have to do a lot of community engagement which is interesting because over the summer the administration issued Secretarial Order 3434 strengthening coordination with gateway communities which is kind of funny because I came out the same time that our leadership turned over in the park and we're all kind of getting up to speed and trying to figure out how we were going to divide and conquer and meet with the eight neighboring counties that surround the park

That said, representing the neighbor to the west, Shenandoah National Park, just as a brief background, although most of you, you know, we see it as the mountains to the west of here.

You know, 198,000 some-odd acres.

Roughly 14,000 of those acres fall within Albemarle County.

Just for brief statistical purposes, Rockfish Gap, which is the closest entrance station to here, accounts for about 175,000 entrances into the park each year.

And the south district of the park, which we define as from Route 33 south to Rockfish Gap, accounts for roughly 284 boundary access entries.

Keep in mind that's most of this county.

About half of Augusta, although it's tough to equate Augusta into that because we've had a lot of boundary disputes over there.

Most of those boundary accesses are blocked right now.

About half of Green and about a quarter of Rockingham County.

Of all of that, I mean, last year, 2024 visitation, we had about 1.7 million people come through the park last season.

That's a little bit of a downward trend from our peak bubble during COVID, which was around 2 million annually.

Once it was all accounted for, roughly $11 million annually comes back into our rec fee revenue.

When I mentioned the Rockfish Gap, the dynamic, when it's about 175,000 entries for the entire year, as part of what we're looking to is implement changes and kind of move the flow of people a little better, especially as we're looking to work with gateway communities.

You know, we're a big part of the local economy in that context.

Keep in mind that Front Royal, about 100 miles to the north, the month of October alone, during our peak busy season, we put, that we're aware of, 112,000 people, 112,000 cars, rather, through that entrance to the straight station.

Anyone that's been through Front Royal in the month of October, I'm sorry.

My counterpart, our chief ranger, Eric Yonta, is meeting with them tomorrow regarding what we can do to kind of help the flow of traffic up there and make life a little easier for the people that live in that community.

Regarding tourism, you know, the last time the National Park Service did an economic impact study, we count Shenandoah National Park alone accounts for 104 million dollars spent on local gateway communities adjacent to the park.

supports 1,240 local jobs with a cumulative benefit back to the local area of $145 million.

On the topic of tourism, we are one week out from final submission for our concession prospectus.

About a year ago, many of you may have noticed that was some local news.

It got recalled.

We were three weeks out from announcing.

But due to just turnover, of course, and a lot of additional legal compliance reviews that got pulled back, we had to do a re-advertisement.

Went out late May.

But all bids are due next Friday.

We're paneling it shortly thereafter, and we hope to announce.

That contract is for all lodging, food, and beverage, all four campgrounds in the park, which was a huge thing for us.

Gas station, Lewis Mountain Cabins, three fast, casual restaurants, Big Meadows Lodge, Skyland, you name it, the full gamut is in there.

That contract is valued at,

Oh, close to $530 million gross revenue over 15 years with a minimum franchise feedback to the National Park Service of 14% annually.

That contract is also going to cure $10 million in deferred maintenance in required capital improvements.

Where is the impact in Albemarle County on that?

Well, I mentioned the campgrounds.

Currently, the campgrounds, we have four of them, Loft Mountain, Big Meadows, Lewis Mountain, Matthews Arm, are all managed under Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act.

You don't collect any tax on that.

Once that gets privatized as it pertains to Loft Mountain specifically for Albemarle, those campgrounds will be privatized by the concessioner.

Those do fall within the boundaries of this county and there will be an opportunity for taxable revenue there under the lodging tax.

Just for your own statistics, we do roughly 25,000 stay nights in that campground.

Projected revenue annually, we sit about $600,000 in revenue just out of that campground alone.

And I'd be more than happy if you want to send me emails offline.

The group, of course, we can provide more information as the statistics on how that goes, so forth.

That said, how can we support each other?

Specifically as it pertains to this county,

I see one of the uniformed officers in the back.

We're all aware of the Sugar Hollow.

They use issues.

It's a city of Charlottesville Island in the middle of the county adjacent to the park.

We're a federal enclave with exclusive jurisdiction.

The county can't go into the park.

We can't go out and force on county land.

It's a weird dynamic.

I'm not from here.

I'm from New York, which is a home rule state.

It was very unique for me to understand all of this.

It was actually also really weird for me to understand that we actually didn't really have formal relations with any of our neighboring counties.

The last park I was at for 13 years, Fire Island National Seashore, the only way we got things done was working with local government.

You know, we're also, as I mentioned, Rockfish Gap.

We are working through a comprehensive federal highway study to ease the flow of traffic.

Not only is Front Royal an absolute disaster to get through during peak October, 2-11 coming out of Sperryville is no bargain, 33.

It's not bad.

It's not great.

We're working creatively to see how we can shift the flow of traffic south to better spread the demand.

Everybody wants to be in the central district, Big Meadows, Skyland, where all of our commercialization is, but we have hundreds of miles of hiking trails throughout the entire park.

South district

Selden Development and we recognize that.

We're working with the Shenandoah National Park Trust who is actually, their base station is right here in town.

They're working with donors to get an accessible trail constructed in the Loft Mountain area and we're working to improve, create improvements there just to again make more visitor attraction.

Regarding lands issues, you know, we are

We're working proactively to stay ahead to block any blocked access issues.

Supervisor Mallek, it's my understanding, I think you may have met with folks from our staff maybe about a year ago regarding something western part of the county.

We're trying to stay ahead of these issues before they become major issues.

We have some trails where we have files this thick in the solicitor's office with post-its because of turnover.

What happened?

Where do we go on that?

And that's just the pitfall of being a condemnation park.

We recognized that there was infrastructure here before the National Park Service came along.

There were roads, there were lives that were there.

The park came in, it became parkland, and then all these trails and cul-de-sacs became roads to nowhere.

Lands changed over time, there were handshakes, deals for hiking, and then somebody purchased the property and says you're not allowed in.

Our goal is to stay ahead of that.

We will do all of our due diligence to make sure that we're not trespassing on someone's private property rights.

But if there is a right of access, and there is a right of public access for someone to get in, we'll also do what we have to do to make sure that that public access is preserved.

As it also pertains to just business in the county, we're working with the city of Waynesboro, the Blue Ridge Tunnel, which has been a huge tourist boon the first few years it opened.

I think people have realized, like, cool, I just walked through a tunnel under a mountain, now how do I get back to my car?

I got to walk through that tunnel again?

It's like, OK, now what?

Waynesboro realized that, and they're actually working to create a connector trail, which goes up along 250 through the park.

Down the county side uses the AT as a bit of a spur back into Nelson County, where it connects to the trail.

City of Waynesboro is working on that.

I don't know through your context if you're aware of that, but again, just something to keep on your radar.

And lastly, as someone mentioned at the start of this, that data centers have sort of been a local point of contention and power and everything else.

Just for awareness, transparency, we've been in contact and coordination with both Dominion Transmission and First Energy.

Going back to that holding of condemnation, utility companies have easement rights across the park.

First Energy is rebuilding the 211 transmission line.

That's just because it's 100-year-old infrastructure.

Dominion reached out to my office about two months ago regarding the Jarman's Gap line, and that is also on the path forward for them to rebuild.

National Park Service, we are supportive of this independent of what goes on outside the park boundaries.

The reality is we see these fires happening in California.

It's hundred year old infrastructure with overgrown trees right up against the powerline corridor.

Any opportunity that we can have resilience in the park, we are all for it.

I mean, we had the Madison run, the Quaker Run fire last year.

We had another day in March, two years ago, and everything was burning on the other side of the mountain.

You know, being cognizant of that, making sure the power lines are redundant and that we can improve that, you know, we're doing what we have to do.

But regarding those two lines, often, you know, we make headlines for, you know, positions and so forth.

I mean, they're on deeded land.

If we legally try to do anything that the National Park Service would be guilty of a land take, which puts us in a very precarious position.

So we're working with these organizations to protect their land rights while also simultaneously protecting their resource.

I didn't have a fancy PowerPoint.

The resources are backdrop.

So I don't roll that way.

Thank you.

We'll go through our order for questions.

Thank you very much for that wonderful update.

Wow, I wouldn't mind hearing it four times a year, your updates and what you're doing, because that was very informative.

And I'm glad to see there's a lot going on.

I do worry that if you don't have enough personnel, that's a concern.

So we're currently under a hiring freeze, which has been extended.

We are allowed to recruit emergency life safety positions.

So our chief ranger is currently advertised on the street.

through Operation Opportunity.

We are allowed to advertise lateral reassignments within the agency.

So we do have a couple positions out.

We've made a selection for deputy superintendent.

It does need approval from the secretary's office because she's coming from another agency.

We also did made a selection for an administrative officer who handles budget and HR for the park.

You mentioned Sugar Hollow and I just wanted to, we've had really good collaboration in the past with Rangers working with our ACPD and Fire and Rescue when we've had

people have to be carried out, et cetera.

And during COVID was a spectacular seven hour rescue that really made everybody very aware of what our issues were.

up there.

So I want you to be optimistic about that so that you know you can count on us.

One of my dreams is that someday we would have a kiosk and a weekend ranger similar to what they have at White Oak Canyon at Sugar Hollow, because I think that would be a welcome.

And also, once we get all the other changes made and sort of provide a bit of official welcome to the travelers who come and go up the North Fork.

and regarding Old Brown's Gap, the 637, which was the meeting at the neighborhood we were talking about, the formerly VDOT section, which is now seriously eroded away and there's really no way to get equipment in.

So managing, I mean it's going to be dicey for foot traffic, but I think that's the best we can do right now, unless we can find another way around.

But having the, there is also great interest among the community

I appreciate that.

And I think it would be beneficial, probably, to include the Shenandoah National Park Trust, as they're allowed to do a lot of things off property that it's a challenge for us to work through.

The last thing.

You mentioned First Energy.

They're not an eminent domain owner.

I mean, Dominion is the owner of the eminent domain.

So this is a private venture capital something or other.

First Energy is on 211.

That's Dominion.

I just want to make sure because that low catenary on Jarman's Gap when you're up there hiking, it makes your hair stand on straight.

And Big Meadows, the line coming out of Madison on that is also Rappahannock Electric is rebuilding that.

I mean everybody's cognizant.

Nobody wants to be

Yes, to piggyback on that, I had multiple notes about fire.

So, the concern about fires in the forest.

What's the condition of your trees?

There's been a significant tree mortality that's been occurring between the hemlock willy-diligia, between the spongy moth defoliation, between there was, oh, there were two other tree blights.

I'm not a botanist or a biologist by any stretch of the imagination.

Yeah, the emerald ash borer.

There's been a pretty significant tree die-off.

Generally speaking, we're not in a high fire danger right now.

It's been wet.

We do see around here when we do have fire, it's what occurred last year, especially a medicine rather two years ago where it tends to create but doesn't crown.

But still that doesn't make it any easier or make it any calmer.

Yes, oh yeah, absolutely.

The urban ring.

And I would say that it is very dry in Albemarle County, certainly in portions of Albemarle County, very dry.

Yes.

Even though we've had a lot of high humidity and moisture in the air, we've not had any really good rainfall.

And that kind of leads me to my second question about campfires, cigarette butts.

We see our fire department responding constantly to fires started along the edge of the road with cigarette butts.

Really concerning and some of them have gotten out of control.

Just a question about what are you all doing around, because it is dry.

and we often have dry periods.

What do you all do about with regards to campfires and even people smoking along the trails?

So when it comes to backcountry use for camping, of those 200 some odd thousand backcountry entrances and folks that are using the EAT getting backcountry permits, there is a burn ban 365 days a year.

There are no open fires permitted in the backcountry.

For the front country, if fire conditions get to the point where we are in a high fire danger, we issue a burn ban park-wide.

We instruct our concessioners, you're not allowed to sell firewood.

Rangers are actively patrolling through the campgrounds, making sure that folks are not burning and issuing tickets accordingly.

What we also do, if it really gets extreme, we call the utility companies and tell them, just kill the meters for the night.

Big Meadows, Loft, it doesn't matter.

They're all on my speed dial.

That's great to know.

At least in one area, and I don't have to go into details, it was so dry that the pond was dry.

It had no water in it.

and they did, at one point we did lose power and that may be what happened.

Two years ago when there was a day in March when there were all those fires all over the area, there was not a single fire that originated in the park because of that deliberate action where we made the call ahead of time and said, these buildings are empty.

Why are we powering empty buildings in the middle of March?

Right.

Kill it and we'll see what it looks like afterwards.

And there was some pretty significant damage.

Most of our buildings were offline for two or three weeks after that day because of all the power line damage.

Right.

And because we are always concerned in this community about fires up there because we have houses that just run right up to the park boundary.

So I really appreciate your comments about the power lines.

Aging infrastructure, whether it's old water infrastructure or old power line infrastructure needs to be upgraded.

So that's great to know that some of that work is going to happen.

This sounds wackadoodle, but it's been a long time since we've had anyone from your department to come in and chat with us.

I remember the last time the ranger was talking to us about a huge concern, and he scared all of us to death, about wild boars.

So that expression that you just gave me explains it all.

Ann probably remembers that discussion.

Way down in that western North Carolina.

Not that I'm aware of.

Thank you very much.

Not that I'm aware of.

Well, you would have thought they were going to be here within the year, right?

And so thank you very much.

Like I said, whack-a-doodle question, but following up from the last presentation we had,

And I think that is all.

Oh, let me just ask you a quick question.

If you had your druthers, what is the one thing that you would like to see happen?

What changed or what new?

It's probably fresh off because as I was walking in here, we actually had our check-in with Federal Highway.

and just with all the crowding as we're going into October, I mean, I would love it if we could figure out a better way to control access, to better control egress and ingress coming off of 211 and 33.

Fortunately, these are not problems for this group to figure out.

But again, we're working with VDOT.

We're working with Federal Highway to figure out how we can better get people into the park.

Front Royal has its issues getting in, coming in off of 211 from Sperryville.

It's not uncommon at backs of three miles down the mountain.

Wow, three miles is a set up for a lot of problems too.

Yeah.

Yeah, interesting.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

That's great.

Yes, and we're going to make this a point to be visiting at least once every few weeks.

Thank you.

Thank you for the presentation.

The one thing that kind of left out to me that my peers have not asked about yet, so I will.

You mentioned about the privatization of some of the short-term stay opportunities that are available inside the park.

and how that is going to make them potential revenue sources for those counties, including ours, which is very cool.

We have in Albemarle County an uncommonly high transient occupancy tax, which we are generally comfortable with because we have amenities that are only available here, so there's not much option and we move in lockstep with Charlottesville.

We do not move lockstep with Rockingham County or Augusta County or wherever the other three campgrounds are.

And I'm curious if that is something that you know has come up, right, like the one

Short term stay that is in Albemarle County will necessarily be much more expensive.

And if that is something that y'all have grappled with as you're looking to privatize these.

When you say expensive, do you mean?

We have a higher tax rate on transient occupancy by a not insignificant margin.

OK.

Like a 30%, 33% higher than one in Augusta, higher than Rockingham.

I don't know if that matters to people.

I'm not sure I understand the question.

So in terms of our counties where our overnight facilities are, most of them are Page County.

Page County does roughly $1.2, $1.3 million in lodging tax annually from Delaware north.

That's comprised of 190 hotel rooms at Skyland and other 130 hotel rooms at Big Meadows.

The Big Meadows Campground is 100% located within Page County.

So Page County will be the benefactor of that.

I don't know what the lodging tax rate is for Page.

The Matthews Arm Campground, which is about 10 miles north on 211, is also in Page County.

So they'll also be the benefactor of it.

The other campground, Lewis Mountain, is within Greene County.

And they're seeing roughly $30,000, $40,000 a year coming in in lodging tax from the seven Lewis Mountain cabins.

We did a comprehensive financial analysis through a third party.

CHM government services prepared all of our prospectus documents and they went through every aspect of them.

accounting that Delaware North had.

And they went back 10 years into our records and did significant market comps of other campgrounds in the area.

So when they determined that the reason they locked in on the max price that any of those campgrounds could support would be $50 a night as is within the next three years, assuming improvements happen.

And we do recognize that there's going to be some glamping and other improvements that a concessioner is going to want to bring in.

Thank you.

It's not going to slow them down.

And it looks like they just raised it from 5 to 10 two years ago or a year ago.

Thank you for the report.

Lots of good information.

I don't have any further questions.

Thank you again for the report, for this idea of building relationships.

And I appreciate you being here.

I do think that annually would be great.

Oh, absolutely.

Yeah, if this group could facilitate that conversation, and the Blue Ridge Committee

If you can leave your information, phone number, anything, I'll get in touch with you and let you know how you can do it.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Great.

Board, in light of the time and what we have left, I think we should do a recess and come back in 15 minutes and proceed to our next item.

Okay.

Board, our next item is the discussion presentation on AC44-2025, built-out analysis, talked by JT Newberry, Senior Planner 2.

Thank You chair Andrews and members of the board.

My name is JT Newberry.

I'm a senior planner in the Department of Community Development.

I'm joined this afternoon by Deputy County Executive Ann Wall as well as who's sitting by my side and then in the audience I have a legion of colleagues from the Department of Community Development to help me answer questions that may come up as a result of today's presentation and

and also with us is our consultant on the project from line and grade, Jeremy Goldstein.

So as the board is aware, we are currently in phase four of the AC44 process.

And attachment A to today's materials was actually published early on in the AC44 comp plan update.

That's the 2022 land use build out analysis.

And that document proved to be very integral to how the AC44 process has moved forward through phases two and three.

And as the process has gone on, the board has asked for updated information about what's happening

in our development areas.

And so today's presentation is aimed at providing updated information about what's happening in our development areas.

It will cover the time frame from when the 2022 land use build-out analysis ended.

So we'll be looking at development information from January 1, 2022 through the first quarter of 2025.

There's no action that needs to be taken today, so we're really looking to receive your feedback and questions on the analysis, but we'll be returning again in January of 2026.

to look at other information that the board has requested, such as a draft scorecard.

There'll also be an updated capacity analysis that uses more of a market-based lens to look at this information.

And we'll also have the opportunity to respond to any questions or feedback that you've given us today.

Why is this information important?

This information is essential to implementing the goals of AC44 as well as several of the board's strategic plan goals.

And the way we've been thinking about it internally is that both the 2022 analysis and the 2025 analysis are really snapshots in time that kind of give us a sense of where we are currently.

and they help orient us to how far are we from where we want to go in the future.

And so in that way, it kind of reveals to us what are the questions that we should be asking, what are the strategies that we should be pursuing if we want to reach those goals.

And so there's strong connections to those goals related to housing and economic development.

This information will also be helpful moving forward as the board considers

current development proposals like rezonings and special use permits.

As a reminder, this information only looks at development within our designated growth area and our five master plan development areas.

And so the graphic on the screen was included in attachment B, but it outlines the different neighborhoods and communities that are included in each of our various master plans.

I thought it would be helpful to just look a little bit at some brief history of this analysis.

There have been different versions of this over time.

So over the past 15 years or so, there have been two staff-led analyses, the first one in the 2015 comp plan and the next one was the 2019 growth management report.

Those were both similar but not quite exactly the same.

and then as I said attachment A is the 2022 report that was developed by Kim Lee Horn and we've replicated that methodology and approach for the 2025 analysis so that for the first time we can actually look at these numbers over time and try to have an apples-to-apples comparison of what we're seeing that's happening and so

Before we look at the results, I think it would be helpful to go through some of the terms and exact methodology.

One of the terms is developable or redevelopable.

On page five of attachment A, you'll see the beginning discussion of the criteria that's used for different land use types for parcels that are considered developable and redevelopable.

A common factor is often that the land value is greater than the improvement value, but there are some specifics depending on the land use types, and those would be residential, office, industrial, commercial, and hotel.

Another term we're going to talk a lot about is theoretical maximum build-out.

And that's really looking at what is the maximum amount of development that's called for in the comp plan.

And so these results are based on the 2015 comp plan.

Just to give one example, if we were to look at one acre of developable land that was designated urban density residential,

The comp plan calls for a density range between 6 and 34 units an acre and so we would be looking at that as having 34 dwelling units per acre.

And so at its highest level, the 2022 report is over 70 pages of information and analysis.

But at its broadest level, it's adding the development pipeline.

Those are projects that are either approved, but not yet built, or currently under review.

And it's adding it to that calculation of that theoretical maximum build out.

And that gives us our total capacity.

So one example of a project that would be within the development pipeline, you've probably seen the construction happening, would be old ivy residences.

That's a good example of a project that's currently under construction, approved, but not yet built.

That would be captured in this analysis by the development pipeline.

There's a little bit of a sophisticated calculation that's involved with the theoretical maximum build-out calculation.

So first those developable parcels are identified.

Then there are some assumptions that are applied to those parcels that remove area for things like steep slopes or flood plain.

It provides area for roads or other infrastructure as well as required open space.

That gives you a developable acreage for that particular parcel.

And then the analysis includes a set of assumptions of how densely that would develop.

So the graphic on the screen here shows

a few of the different land use types and as one example that that top line that neighborhood density residential low includes only residential uses so we would look at the recommended density for that land use and apply a hundred percent of the developability to residential uses.

If it was more of a mixed use category, there would be a portion of that developability that would go to office uses and commercial uses as well as residential.

We can go through a specific example if you'd like, but this is just kind of broadly theoretically how it works.

So let's look at some of the residential findings.

For both residential and non-residential, I'll quickly go through the 22 information because it's been a little more than three years since we've reviewed that.

We'll pause briefly on the 25, and then there'll be a comparison slide where you can see it all together.

So the 22 analysis determined that the total theoretical maximum build-out would result in just over 24,000 residential dwelling units.

And so the different columns on the screen, the development pipeline, are those first two.

And then the third column is that theoretical maximum.

And the final number circled in red is the total.

In 2025, we see that that's a decrease to just over 21,600 units.

And here's the slide that compares the two

And again, for the first time, we have a chance to compare some apples to apples numbers.

And we can see one portion of the development pipeline has gone up.

The number of projects that are approved, the number of units that are approved but not yet built, those that are under review have decreased.

And then the overall, the theoretical maximum build-out has also decreased.

As you probably saw in attachment B, one significant portion of the explanation of this decrease in capacity is going to come from those units that have been built over the past three years.

And there's been some healthy construction activity that's taken place.

In total, there have been nearly 3,000 units that have been built.

And the 2022 analysis says that to meet the projected demand over 20 years, we need to be building about 675 units a year.

And over the course of this time frame, our average has been well over 700 units.

So we are currently developing at a pace that would meet the projected future demand.

based on those findings.

So let's look at nonresidential really quickly.

In 2022, these are the totals for those nonresidential categories.

In 2025, we have these updated figures.

And then finally, here's how the two reports compare on nonresidential findings.

Now I'd like to talk a little bit about some overall findings.

The 2022 analysis calculated that there was about 6.9% of the development areas remaining for future development.

This updated analysis finds that there's just over 6%, about 6.1% and 1,446 acres.

Just over half of that is vacant.

813 of that 1,446 acres are vacant.

And we'll talk a little bit more later about some of the implications of our remaining development capacity.

Another figure that has been talked about quite frequently throughout the course of AC44 is

the degree to which we're approving projects towards the maximum recommended by the comprehensive plan.

And so the language shown on the screen here comes directly from page 46 of attachment A, and it just gives you the full context of that 58% figure, where it ends by saying that

Over from 2016 to 2021, the actual approval of residential rezonings was 58% of the theoretical maximum build out.

As you saw in attachment B, the 25 analysis found a very similar figure that overall for all of the residential rezonings and one special use permit that

provided for more residential units that we're now at 56% of that theoretical maximum build out.

That said, I think it's important for the board to consider the full distribution of all of these approvals.

And in particular, I want to draw attention to one of the approvals that I think the board will remember, and that's related to North Fork.

So in that first column on the screen, you can see there's 1,403 dwelling units that were approved at less than 50% of their theoretical maximum density.

But nearly all of that figure is dedicated to the residential that was approved at North Fork.

That approved up to 1,400 residential units on 172 acres on neighborhood model district zoning.

And so the way this analysis would look at residential within that very large park, over 550 acres within North Fork, there was a little portion in the 2015 comp plan that was dedicated to residential units and it was called for at a density of 34 units an acre.

And so the area that was approved for residential units within North Fork recognized that the park contemplated some residential

But it really skews this figure in a way that doesn't feel like it is accurately capturing the vast majority of the work that the board has approved between 2022 and the first quarter of 2025.

So if we remove just that one project, for example, that 56% goes to 70%.

And so I think, for me personally, having looked at this data closely, that feels like it's more of a representative figure of what the board has been approving.

And you can see the distribution of those other projects.

The vast majority of units fall within that 50% to 79% range.

But you have many that even go above that 100% figure.

So as we think about these numbers, I think it's really important that we recognize we're talking about theoretical maximum capacity and that it's very difficult for projects to do that consistently throughout the development area.

The 2022 analysis includes a number of constraining factors that are still very relevant and applicable to the remaining capacity that we have today.

Things like the cost of land, the mismatch between existing zoning and our comp plan are just two examples.

So as I mentioned, the analysis is really revealing for us where do we need to be looking if we want to be closer to reaching our comp plan goals.

and some items that we've identified so far are related to redevelopment activity.

Approximately half of that remaining capacity are parcels that have structures on them already.

And so how can we support folks that are going to be redeveloping their property in a way that more closely aligns with the comprehensive plan?

That's especially true within the activity center areas.

We want to think about how can we make sure that we're being strategic in investing in public infrastructure in a way that's going to leverage private investment as efficiently as possible.

We want to evaluate opportunities to align our land uses in a way that can spur development activity.

And we also have strong recommendations from the recently adopted Economic Development Strategic Plan.

And we also have other steps of the AC44 process that are aiming to improve review processes.

So one big takeaway that I want to make sure isn't lost in today's presentation is that I mentioned the history of this analysis.

With the help of our consultant, we're moving away from these sort of static PDF reports that we'll be capturing one snapshot in time every few years.

We now have an editable Excel-based digital tool where we can run different modeling scenarios.

We can use this to evaluate current development proposals.

It can be especially helpful not only for community development but other departments such as schools.

We have other agencies that are constantly interested in updated information about our development areas.

So things like ACSA and others.

And so we're really excited that this is now moving from kind of a static method to one that's more dynamic.

So at the next meeting scheduled for January 26, we'll be bringing forward, using this digital tool, integrating more of a market-based approach to try to figure out, in a more detailed way,

how our current capacity can serve our comp plan goals.

We'll bring a draft scorecard, which is something I know the board has been talking a lot about.

And then we can also respond to questions and feedback today.

Thank you very much.

And we'll go through our order.

Thank you very much for a very informative presentation.

Just a few questions.

You spoke about we were only approving 58% of buildable units and everything, but you said now it's gone down to 56%?

And what is the reason for that, do you know?

We have not reviewed the numbers in a way to think about all of the reasons why.

We've really just been doing the calculus behind what it is actually yielding.

And so that number comes from looking for all of the projects that were approved over the time frame.

What are the total number of units that were approved?

And what are the total theoretical units that could be built?

And so it's close to 5,600 units that have been approved.

And theoretically, it would be close to 10,000, actually just over 10,000.

So when we have our January meeting, would you be able to maybe

Yes, and that, I wanted to, in showing the distribution of all the different approved projects, I was really hoping that the board could focus on, you know, if we remove just one project from that, the North Fork project, you get much closer, you get to 70%.

And so that would be,

OK, and I understood that.

If we remove North Fork, it's closer to 70%.

And the reason, what is the reason?

And I'm sorry I didn't catch why.

Yeah, the reason North Fork is treated differently is that the vast majority of that 550 plus acre park is designated in our comp plan for office R&D, flex light industrial.

The comp plan has no recommended density for that designation.

And so, although there is that small portion of the park that would call for 34 units an acre,

It doesn't quite feel fair to apply that but it is consistent in how we applied it to all the other projects and so you know just being you know strict calculus we get to 56% but kind of taking a step back 70% is much.

Okay, good.

That answers that.

And I do like the fact that you said we've been building 675 units a year.

That's what we should be building, theoretical calculations.

And getting back to my first question as to why the discrepancy, I notice, and you mentioned page 53, that the

Let's see, middle of the paragraph.

Furthermore, having a long-term vision that is not realistic or achievable creates uncertainty which can make it difficult for developers to accurately plan, finance, and develop their property.

Yes, so this section of the report was really looking at

What are some of the constraining factors that limit projects from reaching their full potential?

And so it appropriately acknowledges that

maximum theoretical build-out is very difficult to achieve and so it's recommending something that is more in line with what is actually the prevailing development pattern and so that's why in January 26

We'll have the chance to come back with a more updated approach and methodology.

We really wanted, for the first time, to get some sense of what was happening over time in an apples-to-apples way.

Perfect.

And if you could go to slide 16.

OK.

I tried to write my question down before you switched slides because some of them were a little quick.

No, I understand all that.

Page 23, slide 23, because I read that before now.

Could you

Could you go over this for me for my edification?

Yeah.

Many projects that come forward are completely

that have come forward in the past have been for Greenfield sites that have not required any kind of redevelopment work at all.

And one of the intentions behind this slide was to say, moving forward, there's less and less of that Greenfield property that's out there.

And so thinking about projects that could benefit from redevelopment strategies

are going to be especially helpful moving forward throughout the lifespan of AC44.

Because just over half of our land is just completely vacant.

But 44%, or 633 acres of that 1,446 contains some type of structure.

Contains some kind of what?

some type of structure.

But I mean, if a developer, if there's a house on it and you have a few hundred acres, they're just going to demolish the house, right?

Well, the availability of those large tracts that you're describing is less and less.

And so we're often talking about very small acres or areas where there would need to be an assemblage of small lots to get a critical mass that you could bring forward a development project on.

And so the purpose behind the slide is to just indicate that more and more we're going to be seeing projects where

OK, last question.

OK, I understand vacant developable acreage.

Nothing's on it, OK?

And the person may or may not sell, correct?

The owner, OK.

Developable acreage, once again, they

Is it developable if it's not being sold?

So someone lives on the acreage and they don't want to sell it.

So the analysis, just to use the residential land use type, it would require that the land value be more than the improvement value.

And then it would have a minimum acreage of two acres in order to be considered developable under this analysis.

Right, because I know a lot of people that have

Land Acres, and they're not selling.

And so that's why I was wondering why are we, unless we know that land is either vacant or for sale, how is that developable?

No, it's a great point.

And that's the kind of feedback we want to hear that we could integrate into future analysis.

But I think this was the approach that Kimley-Horn used in 22, which we were trying to replicate here.

I was really trying to take a high level approach and it didn't consider individual property owners, but you're correct.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

This is really helpful, the homework as well as today.

But I do have, I'm going to start at the bottom.

When we looked at this a few months or last year ago, I'm not remembering properly, there was a lot of discussion about outdated shopping malls and giant parking lots and things which were excluded totally from being considered in the 2022.

And I understand your point about

keeping the methodology fairly similar so you can trend but that seems like a really important thing to figure out how to involve that in some way otherwise we're just ignoring a pretty substantial area so I'll just leave that thought with you.

Is there a map

of the areas which were excluded from consideration?

Or do we just sort of make that up out of places we know from our anecdotes?

So that's a question that I guess you can answer before I go on.

Okay, so that's a possibility, okay.

Good old Excel, even I can understand Excel, that's great.

So now I'm going to go back to my beginning here.

I think many people over many years, like 20, have heard me asking for where in the world did the 34 units per acre magic number come from.

And nobody has ever supplied any answer.

So I'm just putting that out there because I feel rather crabby that we're continuing to beat ourselves over something that has no discussable basis.

So I'll just leave that there too.

It's not your fault.

It's way before maybe Michael and Barbara here, but not in their current roles.

But long, long time ago.

No, he was definitely not involved in that way back then.

So that's OK.

Slide 16.

I think you already answered my question, because it sounded like the reason the numbers are falling is because some of those are hitting the market, and therefore they're not in the pipeline anymore.

They're out in the world, which is great.

Developable to me should be the physical ability, not whether somebody owns it or puts it on the market or anything else.

We could go insane trying to figure out the other option.

So I just think the constraints are really important.

And you did mention in your presentation that you were going to be excluding, when you get to that detail level, the steep slopes, et cetera, et cetera.

And so eventually, we will get to more accurate numbers.

but we have to have something that can be fairly understandable by me and others as well.

The theoretical max.

It's harder than it looks, I think, to get the max when applicants don't see it in their business model.

to do that.

And many times over many hearings, planet commissioners have said, why don't you go to six or seven stories?

You're right here on 29, and this would be so much better.

We have a bus, et cetera.

And the response has been, well, no, we're not applying for that.

So that's another situation where I don't want the county putting itself

in the whipping post for something like that, which is not our choice unless we start to deny all these things that are four stories and say, no, you have to do this.

And I don't know what the answer would be for that either.

But the county is not generally the originator of these.

The county is the application receiver and then

sees how things match the rules.

So as long as that is the process, then I guess the guidelines have to be made more strict or something if we're going to try to force this higher density in places where there are not physical constraints due to steep slopes, flood plains, et cetera, et cetera.

Let's see.

But I think the private investment role is really important that we not forget that.

And I think the market will help us with that.

Way back in the 60s, people said, don't worry about making rules for the environmental protection because the market will take care of it.

Well, it took 50 years, but we're slowly getting there.

But I think that in this situation, the market will.

because our market here is so different from other counties around us.

There are a lot of Keynesian economic things that don't work here because we have an unlimited supply of people who graduated from the University of Virginia and want to come back here when their pockets are full of cash and they will continually buy anything that comes on the market regardless.

That's just an insatiable demand.

Okay, I did that one.

So anyway, I'm going to stop there.

Thank you.

And this gets back to my concern about all these blowers that we have all going all over the county.

I listen to this all day long in my backyard.

I'm just saying.

Blowers, and I'm just using the opportunity to say that there are some communities that deal with some of this and it would be nice, but I won't be on the board.

Sorry folks, and it's not any of your all's fault, it's just that that blowing was going on in the background and it was irritating.

So I have a couple of questions, just general questions.

And I know we're talking about attachment A, so obviously there's a lot in attachment A that you didn't have in this slide.

So I just have a couple of questions.

We recently worked with our economic development authority

to pass a strategic plan.

And a big part of that strategic plan, I'm getting back to this because I think you alluded to it a little bit, but part of that strategic plan was jobs.

Jobs in this community.

Well, I think that we need to be integrating the recommendations of the strategic plan.

Considering that in concert, that strategic plan is a part of AC44.

And so it informs how we'll be bringing back the future capacity analysis as well as the scorecard.

There are some good recommendations

And so what I'm hearing you say, I think, is I was really pleased to hear you say in January, update for the approaches, right?

So maybe in January, that will be part of what you all are looking at for the update.

So that's good.

I'm all for that.

That's great.

When you're talking about some of this undeveloped or some of the, what do we call it, not the, I'm just trying to get at strip malls and all the vacant properties we have.

I mean we have malls that have huge amounts of storefronts that are empty.

huge amounts of parking spaces that are just sitting there, right?

So I'm trying to get at, will we be seeing eventually recommendations on how, I know they're private property, I get that in the struggle, but, and that leads me, and I kind of sound like I'm rambling here, but they're all connected in my brain, where are we on form-based code?

Has that worked?

It works in Crozet, okay.

But has foreign-based code really been successful?

And I would like to have just a, could I have just a two-minute quick on how we feel like that's been helping us?

No, no, I think it's an interesting thing because I think what you're really getting towards is a larger question of these activity centers, a lot of which correspond to some of these walls.

How do we sort of set the incentives to make those things help redevelop?

And one of them is to do the form-based code.

So at least you make it more by right to give us the form we're looking for.

you put in what the market will support in those buildings but give us the forum and give us some places that do create some community gathering, a street or two that has those types of facilities that provide for the sense of public space and then plenty of room for residential development and economic job growth, that type of a thing.

So what I would say is this, none of our team led by Margaret Malyshevsky and headed up by Mariah Gleason are working really hard on the rewriting the form-based code I think some of the major elements we understood from it was the previous code sort of like focused in the Rio area at that intersection of 29 and Rio Road

A little spoiler on their presentation, but I think one of the feedback we heard from a lot of people is that's probably not a really great space to have sort of that gathering, that community space because of all the traffic.

So we're sort of relooking a little bit at that plan as it plays out in that area, but more importantly as far as the form-based code, we're really trying to create something that is

It's going to be development friendly in regards to easy use, but yet builds the forum that we look for in our community.

And they're actually almost wrapped up with a draft that they'll be circulating with Cadre and other folks in our community.

Because I know I spent a lot of my portion of my life on that form base going a few years back.

And I was just interested.

Yeah, I think one of the feedback that I heard from some of the developers who have used it was that it had some elements that were very difficult to use and implement and didn't work in some real world situations.

So that's part of what we're trying to respond to.

It makes it a little more streamlined and straightforward.

That's very helpful because I've been thinking for several years now, form-based code, where are we?

And to be honest with you, I was kind of joking when I said Home Depot, but that was the area that we were focusing on, which is why I mentioned it.

Yes, ma'am.

Yeah.

OK, thank you very much.

And Ann mentions Crozet.

And I noticed in here, we know that the alternative development in Crozet was approved for 2,200 units.

but now it's expected to deliver 1,200.

I think that's important for the people of Crozeta here.

I'm just saying, but that is development, those are units and homes that people are not getting.

There's a difference there.

I'm just saying that we were anticipating, but it's been reduced by that much.

Well, I mean, it's independent of where we are in the county.

I think one of the biggest things you take away from this analysis is this is at a macro scale.