Planning Commission Regular Meeting   5/14/2024

Sounds like we are alive.

Good evening, everyone.

I will call to order the May 14th, 2024 meeting of the Albemarle County Planning Commission.

And I'll begin with saying the opportunities for the public to access and participate in the hybrid meeting are posted on the Albemarle County website, on the Planning Commission homepage and on the Albemarle County calendar.

Participation will include the opportunity to comment on those matters for which comments from the public will be received.

Oh, sorry.

I'm sorry.

We were on a roll.

He threw that sort of ball in there.

Okay.

Ms.

Firehock.

Here as well.

Great.

Thank you.

With that, we will move on to matters not listed on the agenda from the public.

Are there any matters from the public that are not listed on tonight's agenda, including the consent agenda that anyone would like to speak to?

All right.

Seeing none.

I will move on to the consent agenda and ask if the commissioners would like to pull any items from the consent agenda, which I believe there is only one.

And if not, I would like to ask for a motion to approve the consent agenda.

Do you have any discussion?

OK, Ms.

Firehock.

Hi.

Mr. Missel.

Mr. Clayborne, Mr. Murray, Mr. Bivins, Mr. Moore.

Great.

Thank you.

Good evening, Chair, sorry.

Good evening, Chair Missel and commissioners.

It's been a couple of months since I've seen you all.

I got married in March, so.

For public hearing as a married man.

Yes, good evening.

My name is Kevin McComb.

I'm a senior planner with the Planning Division at Almar County Community Development.

And tonight I'll be giving staff's presentation for the Granger Development Rezoning Application.

To begin with the location, the property is located near the I-64 and 29 interchange off of Sunset Avenue Extended on the northern side of 64.

It's just to the west of the city of Charlottesville and south of the UVA Fontaine Research Park.

Directly across Sunset Avenue Extender from the proposed development is Parkside Eagles Landing Condos and Jefferson Ridge Apartment Communities.

Redfields is just on the other side of 64.

This map is just to show the boundaries of the parcel.

It's about 69 acres and zoned R1 residential.

Properties bounded by Sunset Avenue Extended, Interstate 64, a railroad track, and two creeks.

The two creeks, Moores Creek and Moray Creek, bisect the property.

And there are a significant number of critical resources on the property, including managed and preserved steep slopes, stream buffers, and floodplanned.

The site is undeveloped with tree cover and hills.

There's also a large electrical easement along the eastern side of the property.

The surrounding properties include a budding R1 residential zoned lots to the east, commercial properties to the north across those train tracks, which include the UVA Research Park and the Virginia Department of Forestry.

To the southeast, again, across Sunset Avenue extended, there are apartment communities, including Parkside Eagles Landing and Jefferson Ridge.

And then again, to the west, as a Redfields neighborhood, also zone plan residential development.

Here is the comprehensive plan information, the properties within the southern and western neighborhoods as identified in the comprehensive plan.

The future land use recommendations are neighborhood density residential, which is shown in yellow on the screen, and green systems shown in green.

The neighborhood density residential designation represents residential areas with a desired density of three to six dwelling units per acre.

Primary uses include single-family detached, single-family attached, and townhouse units.

The Parks and Green System designation represents areas for parks, recreation, environmental preservation, and areas otherwise not intended for development.

Land within the green system's designation cannot be used to calculate available density.

The creek's floodplain and preserved slopes on this property make up a majority of what's identified in that Parks and Green Systems layer.

Here is the application's proposal.

The project proposal is to rezone the entire property from R1 residential to planned residential development.

The application plan provided with the application describes a maximum of 203 units in a mixture of housing types to include single family detached, attached, such as townhomes, and multifamily units, including unit types like attached two over ones.

In addition, 15% of the total units provided will be affordable for rent and for sale units.

Vehicular access to the development will be from Sunset Avenue extended.

Pedestrians and cyclists, however, will also be able to travel throughout the site

and into the city via provided multi-use pass along Sunset Avenue Extended and connecting through the site to Stribbling Avenue Extended and up towards Fontaine.

Over 50% of the site will be open including amenities, amenity areas, green spaces and also trails.

On the screen here is the illustrative plan.

So just to clarify, this is not a binding plan, but kind of gives you an idea of how the site will be developed.

The proposal shows a mixture of single family detached lots, attached townhouses in two over one style units.

On the screen now is sheet four of the application plan.

So since this is a requested plan residential development district, it's a plan zoning district, which means the application plan will be binding should the ZMA be approved by the board.

This means that the proposed number of units, locations of roadways, multi-use paths, affordable housing, trails, anything shown on this application plan will be required to be met at the time of subdivision and site plan review.

The application plan provides the applicant a little bit of flexibility as it doesn't show exactly the location of individual units, but it does show major features in building envelopes.

Tried to zoom in on the screen a little bit here to show some more of the details of the application plan.

There is one main entrance into the development along Sunset Avenue Extended that aligns with the Jefferson Ridge Apartments entrance.

That thick red line shows the public street network, and the thick dash blue line is a private street.

The Tanish area in the middle is the proposed building envelope area where the houses can go.

The Skittier Red Dash Line along Sunset Avenue Extended is a proposed multi-use pathway that extends along the entire frontage of the property.

The Orange Dash Line is a 20-foot emergency access road that will also serve as a multi-use path.

and then there's also a 10-foot asphalt trailway that will cross the creek and connect all the way to Stribbling and Fontaine.

The light tan in the northwestern corner of the screen is a private trail network but becomes public as it gets closer to the creek.

So along that creek, the trail system is public.

This is sheet six of the application plan that shows trails conditions and a little bit further detail.

There are two sections on the left side that provide what the conditions of those trails will be.

You can see the two proposed trail types, a class A and a class B. The class B primitive trail is a three foot wide mulch path trail, whereas the class A trail is a 10 foot wide asphalt multi-use path for cyclists and pedestrians.

This map also shows that the proposed multi-use trails and greenway trails will have public access easements.

This means that the public will be able to use all the proposed paths and trails shown on the application plan.

Everything that's covered in that green hatching will be open to the public.

The red hatched area is an area that will be dedicated in the future.

The applicant in Almar County Parks and Rec are still working on language when it comes to that area and reserving it in the future.

and staff in the applicant are working together on finalizing the location of that emergency access road in the trails along the eastern portion of the property.

There are some existing preserved slopes in that area.

We are working on finding an optimal location for all of these improvements that are both functional for users and taking into account environmental impacts.

and I just wanted to mention that to acknowledge that we're still very much working with the applicant on finalizing some of those details, but the application plan does show the general location of these improvements accurately.

Next, I just wanted to try and address some of the impacts that receive the most comments and questions.

So transportation impacts of this development have been evaluated by transportation planning staff and also Virginia Department of Transportation, VDOT.

The application includes a traffic impact analysis and based on the results and staff's analysis, no offsite roadway improvements are warranted or recommended at the buildout of the proposed development.

The application proposes one primary entrance to the development from Sunset Avenue extended, and all the additional roads are internal.

A secondary point of access has been provided for fire rescue purposes.

This is a 20-foot asphalt emergency access road, which will serve as a multi-use path for pedestrians and cyclists.

This path connects to a 10-foot asphalt trail that will continue through the site across a 10-foot pedestrian bridge crossing the stream and will connect to Stribbling Avenue and lead to Fontaine Avenue.

While the application does not propose a sunset-fontane connector road, as described in the master plan, these multi-use trails along the property frontage and throughout the site provide significant and safe connections for pedestrians and cyclists.

Residents of the proposed neighborhood and members of the public, since the multi-use pass and trails will all have public access easements, will have safe and convenient access to the UVA research park, and connections to fontane in the city of Charlottesville.

For environmental impacts, the site development will comply with DEQ and Almar County requirements for water protection, including water quality and water quantity requirements.

A stormwater management plan will be provided with the final site plan for land disturbance.

Application plan sheet 5 is on the screen here and shows a utility and grading plan.

The notes on the plan state that water quality and quantity practices will meet state requirements and may include a number of BMP practices such as quality swales, pervious pavers, underground retention, rain gardens, water harvesting, nutrient credits, etc.

Development has been largely kept out of the critical resources, such as the stream buffer, the floodplain, the preserve slopes, where development does impact these feature staff and the applicant has worked to minimize the impacts.

Some impacts are required to access the site and provide needed improvements.

And then regarding schools impacts, I'll touch on that in just a second.

But nothing has been proposed by the applicant at this time to alleviate any potential school impacts.

Based on the anticipated unit type mix, the total number of estimated students is 50, 24 elementary school, 10 middle and 16 high school.

So here are the factors favorable that staff identified.

So one, the request is consistent with the land use recommendations of the Southern and Western neighborhoods master plan.

The proposal is for a maximum of 203 residential units and that's a net density of 5.985 dwelling units per acre.

So that's consistent with a three to six dwelling units per acre recommendation in the neighborhood density residential area.

Second, the request is consistent with the comprehensive plan neighborhood model principles.

The request provides new transportation improvements consistent with transportation recommendations of the Southern and Western neighborhoods master plan, including new multi-use pass along Sunset Avenue Extended and through the site connecting Sunset Avenue Extended, Distributing Avenue, and Fontaine Avenue for pedestrians and cyclists.

for the request provides important public trail connections and future reservation of a public greenway trail.

These trails help complete the trail network as shown in the parks and green system plan in the southern and western neighborhoods master plan.

And lastly, the request provides 15% affordable housing, which was consistent with the county's affordable housing policy that was in place when this application was received.

On the screen here are the factors we found unfavorable.

So staff reviewed the impacts to schools based on the existing conditions of the schools within the applicable school districts.

It's noted that Mountain View Elementary School is over capacity.

and a development would contribute to over capacity enrollment.

That said, we have been in contact with our schools contacts.

We know that there's a new Southern feeder elementary school coming online in the next couple of years.

An initial site plan for that project has already actually been approved.

And when we followed up with the schools contacts, they said, the new school will alleviate current capacity issues

at Mountain View Elementary School because the student body will basically be split in half without changing the boundary.

In addition, there's also a high school center too, a plan that may also alleviate some student impacts for Monticello High School.

The center will be an option for any high school student, but it's hard to say exactly how many students

would go to that school.

So all of this is to say that yes, our one factor unfavorable is school impacts.

But again, there are two planned schools coming online in the near future that may alleviate some of those potential capacity impacts caused by this development.

So that concludes my presentation.

Staff is recommending approval of this rezoning application, ZMA 202310 Granger Development.

and now I'll take questions and I also have slides on the last slide.

Great, thank you, Mr. McCollum and congratulations.

Thank you.

I will ask the commission if you have any questions for staff.

Yeah, basically the applicant is kind of leading that up to future development.

They propose a maximum of two units, but if they develop all 203 units on the southern side of the creek, they won't have the ability to develop that.

So there's been a lot of discussion on whether that can be a future park or some sort of open space.

They kind of reserve the option to be able to build two units.

There's that existing

crossing of the stream there.

There used to be a house on that side of the property.

It's no longer there.

It's been torn down.

But that crossing of the creek is where the old driveway used to be.

Okay.

Thank you for the presentation.

I just wanted to clarify the stormwater management strategy that you kind of highlighted a few bullet points.

And you mentioned underground retention, but you didn't mention any kind of bioswales or ponds.

Yeah, I mean, the notes on the application plan kind of leave it, you know, up to their future design.

There's a lot of options available.

I think the applicant can maybe touch on that further.

You know, we will get a stormwater management plan with the final or with the site plan.

We'll review that at that time.

Mr. Murray?

Yes, looking through the county code on the determination of managed versus preserved slopes, I was confused as to why those slopes, if you can flip back to the plan there, there's a series of orange slopes that are clearly associated with the stream right there that the road is going right through that are classified as managed when they look like they should be natural slopes, I'm sorry, preserved slopes.

Yeah, thank you for the question, Commissioner Murray.

And I appreciate you sending that early, so staff could have a chance to look into that.

I spoke with engineering staff, another planning staff.

And basically, what engineering found was that they reviewed that area, given our GIS maps and the maps that are available online to them, and found that that was an intermittent, if it is a stream, it's an intermittent stream.

Stream buffers only apply to perennial streams.

and based on the information that they had, there was no evidence that there was a perennial stream there.

The slopes were zoned as managed slopes when the board adopted the preserved slopes overlay district in 2014.

And my understanding is that there was a reason for classifying them as managed and not preserved.

They might have more characteristics of managed slopes or

or not, you know, a continuous area of slopes.

So my understanding, having been around when those, those were passed and those discussions were had when the promises is made to the environmental community at that time was that this was just a preliminary map and that there'd be site truth thing of those and we wouldn't just accept the GIS algorithm as to what was going to be preserved and managed.

I'm not familiar with this issue.

Commissioner Murray, we, you know, we reached out to Frank Paul, the county engineer, and he said that, you know, if there are concerns, we can certainly look into that staff and investigate and have the applicant also, you know, investigate if there's an existing stream or channel there.

Okay.

Thanks, Mr. Bivins.

Thank you, Chair.

So I have a sort of a housekeeping question for you.

I couldn't figure out which portion was in Jack Jewett.

Yeah, the Magisterial Districts follow the, I don't have the Magisterial District map on up, but it follows the same as the school district's map here.

I don't think any of our children would go to Western, so I'll leave that for another discussion.

But I will share with the commission, I by chance was at a CAC meeting last night and had a presentation from Kate Alcock about the schools.

And so just to alleviate the question about schools on this one.

So there's two schools that are going to come on board August 26th if everything goes alright.

and one of them is the one that's down there in Mountain View.

And while I believe the developer is a platinum developer, I doubt that they're gonna have this up and running by August, 2026.

And so I don't believe as far as one school is concerned that this project will cause any pinch points for schools given what I learned last night.

and then if you're wondering, and so that you understand, they're also gonna split the schools apart so they're gonna have a lower elementary school and an upper elementary school.

So I believe on that point, the applicant has got a green light.

And then on the other piece of it, I know we've talked about this before, and center two, which is going to be on the Lambs Lane campus.

I understand from the meeting last night that that could handle four to 600 students a day.

So this project is not going to have an impact on that part of our academic community.

So I just wanted to put that out there now so that we can not have to hear, oh, my kids are going to be in the cloak closet when people, that's, you know, the cloak closet excuse.

The one question that I did have is that

This is probably one of the most challenging sites I've seen in Albemarle County.

And it has a bunch of things there.

It's got those high tension lines, and it's got the ballards, and it's got all kinds of stuff there that I will ask the applicant about later on.

But it seems to me that having one way out for 203 residents is a bit

While it may be appropriate, may it meet VDOT standards, from a cautionary standpoint, I would like us to have some further conversation about having an additional entrance there in case something goes wrong, because there's a lot of things up in the air that could go wrong.

considering the high tension lines that will run across the property.

And so that was one of the things that I was, that was severely concerned with the rest of it.

Thank you, Commissioner Bivins.

Yeah, my understanding is that they needed to request a private street for that road because they were planning to do perpendicular on-street parking.

VDOT would permit parallel parking on-street but not perpendicular.

The idea there is to have two over one units.

And so it's easier to have kind of a parking lot style parking instead of parking on individual lots.

I thought that might be the answer.

Yeah, I mean, the applicant is maximizing based on, you know, comprehensive plan recommendations, the amount of acreage that they have.

So the recommendations are three to six dwelling units per acre, and they're proposing 5.99.

They did, in their calculations, use the, if I go back to the COMP plan map,

They counted all the acreage that's shown in yellow.

So all the acreage, even on the northern side of the creek, they counted it, you know, towards the amount of usable acres that they're permitted to use in that calculation.

Yeah, I noticed it was very close to six units per per acre net.

And I just want to reiterate something I've said during our current conference of planned conversations that I don't think we should have neighborhood density residential anymore with the housing crisis going on.

We're not just going to build our way out of it.

Great, thank you.

Just a couple of quick questions.

Great staff report, really thorough, thank you.

One is on page six of the application plan.

It refers a couple of times to, let's see, location of public access and maintenance easement and says to be dedicated to the county.

I don't think you mentioned this, you may have.

Is the county planning to maintain that then?

Yes, I believe so.

We're still kind of working with them on the timing of that, but my understanding is that Parks and Recreation will be maintaining it since we're getting that public access easement.

Yeah, that's another one of the elements of the plan that we're going to continue to work with the applicant on.

Are you referring to the note that says after the 150 building permit?

Yeah.

That's something we're going to continue to work on.

I think there's kind of two components.

There's the access easement component that will be approved with the subdivision plan.

And then there's the actual dedication of the land to the county, which I think will occur later.

and I think that note's referring to, you know, the later dedication of the land, whereas the easement will be in place from the beginning.

So I think the public will have access from the beginning.

It's just the actual dedication of the land will come later.

Got it.

Okay, that's helpful.

Thanks.

Yes.

Any other questions from the commission?

Can I ask one, please?

Yes, sir.

So do we have a sense

This is not, it is about this, but it's not about this.

Did we pass the new regs on affordable housing?

Yes, that went into adopted by the board in March, but because this application came in before that, it's, we talked with Stacy Pethia, the housing director, and she basically said that we're going to apply the previous policy to things that have been under review.

So that's why we have 20%.

Excuse me, I'm hoping for 20%.

Okay.

Can I just clarify one thing on the affordable housing?

Is it that we are now requiring 20% of the units at 60% AMI?

Or have we essentially said if the applicant chooses to go that route, they then can apply for incentives?

I believe that is the case.

They might want to voluntarily enter the program, they could.

So it's a voluntary bump to 20%.

For ones that aren't like fired, for this particular one, they're still under the 15 as their grandfather.

If they wanted to enter into to 20% of the site and take advantage of some of the tax stuff, I believe that Stacey said that that would be permissible.

OK.

I was wondering if it was your question, like, if somebody applied today.

Yeah.

If someone applies today.

Oh, thank you.

My understanding is it's still 15%.

I believe the policy is 20%.

So on rezoning applications, we will want to see 20%.

But there are also incentives in place to

Okay, that's different than what I understood.

Thank you.

Okay, great.

No more questions for the commission.

All right.

Good evening, everyone.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Great.

My name is Ashley Davies.

I'm with Riverbend Development.

Tonight, I'm joined by Alan Taylor, also with Riverbend and Chuck Rapp from our engineering team.

I'm sure many of you know Chuck.

and then also joining us through the hybrid meeting is Carl Holtgren, our transportation analyst.

So wonderful.

Yeah, so you may or may not know, but our company has actually owned this site for 16 years.

And so this is a pretty big evening for us to finally be before you.

We have looked at

Countless iterations of the design of this site and what should be included here.

And so it really is wonderful.

We feel like we have struck a really nice balance among the various goals of the comprehensive plan and providing an appropriate density of housing while also preserving environmental features and great trail systems.

So throughout this presentation, the images you'll see were taken on site last week.

So for those of you that haven't had the chance to walk the site, this will give you a sense of some of the really lovely green spaces and plant communities on the site.

So the main topics for tonight, Mr. Bivins hit on a big one.

The site has many, many constraints, and that's why it's taken us a while to get here before you.

We're going to look at the neighborhood that we're creating.

I think we've already hit on the school's issue so I can skip over those slides and then we're going to kind of zoom out and look at the site as a hub within both the city and the county and as a true connector site so lots of great opportunities there.

and thank you to staff, by the way, for providing such a great report.

It makes my job a lot easier.

So, yeah, so at first glance, you can see that there are many constraints.

If you look at the image to your left, you can immediately see the creeks, so Moors Creek and Moray Creek as well as some other tributaries pass through the site, dividing it into

two different sections.

There's also the areas in green are all of those preserved slopes that go along with the stream bank there.

So that's pretty vast area of the site.

We do have the hard edges of Interstate 64 as well as the railroad tracks so that

really limits where we might access the site.

And then we also have a large transmission line, electric utility easement that's running north south on the site.

So

You know, that makes it really challenging in what you do with the site and how you utilize it.

But I think the great part is that it begins to really show you those areas that you can really create the new neighborhood and then also have areas that you really just stay away.

I call them the no fly zone.

So in the end, I think it actually serves as a huge benefit

to the site.

This slide just gives you some imagery of the various streams, some of those slope areas, and the railroad, as well as giving you an idea of the scale of those transmission lines, as well as the width of that run through the site.

It's pretty significant.

So what that leaves us with,

is a site that is 54% open space, which I think is quite unusual.

And then the rest of it, we're actually just containing a vast majority of the development in that 25

Aker section.

And then the sixth acre section on top, we did reserve it for potentially one to two units up there.

But we really are focusing the development on the southern side.

And what that allows us to do is really not impact some of those important environmental areas.

The northern slopes that go along the creek there, they have really

beautiful plant communities of mountain laurels and all kinds of great stuff.

So we're happy to preserve those.

So that allows us to cluster the neighborhood with a variety of unit types from single family to different attached unit styles, as well as build affordable housing on site that's in close proximity to the city and the university.

and we did keep it at this density because that's both what the comprehensive plan supports but it's also what the existing transportation infrastructure supports right now so we don't want to overload that.

We've already touched on the schools, so I will leave that where it is, unless you have other questions.

But one of the really exciting pieces about this site, often when we're looking at these onings, we're really just looking at the site context.

But it's great to pan out and see a site as it relates to other areas.

And what we found with the Granger property, there's already the existing Rivanna trails.

Network that passes through it.

That's the blue dots up on your screen.

So that will be within easement and

for Public Use, but we also, in pink, that is, on the site at least, that is our 10-foot Class A shared use path that provides opportunities for the future.

We don't have control over those areas outside of our site, but we think now is the time to provide our portion of those trail networks so we can build upon them

in the future.

And that is also inclusive of connections that, you know, potentially get you all the way down to Biscuit Run Park, but also over to the Seek property and the future Hedro Park.

So that's really exciting to think about.

And then, yeah, so this one just gives you, we looked at that before, but it gives you a sense for the extent of both the trails and the areas that will go in easement for public access and maintenance.

Right now, this is the existing crossing across Moores Creek for the Rivanna Trail.

And if any of you have been on site and walked that trail, it can be quite an adventure to get across there.

And many days, you can't get across at all.

So one of the really great features that you can't necessarily visualize on our application plan is

are proposed creek crossing that will be a part of that overall class A shared use path.

Now, this one shown in the picture is not a 10 foot wide.

This is the one that goes over to the Lachlan neighborhood in the city and the county.

But sorry, it goes over to the city portion of the neighborhood.

But ours will actually be a 10 foot wide bridge that matches the path.

So anybody walking or biking will easily be able to

across the creek and get right into the city there.

So those are my main points.

We're just very excited about the opportunity to provide a new neighborhood in this location.

We think it's incredibly special, both in the natural environment that people will have access to, the natural environment that gets preserved,

but also just, yeah, it's just a key location and so close to lots of great work opportunities and amenities.

So we're glad to finally be before you and certainly happy to answer any questions regarding housing or stormwater that have come up already and whatever else you'd like to discuss tonight.

Perfect timing.

Thank you.

Great.

Any questions from the commission?

I had a question and actually kind of echoing something Commissioner Bivens asked about the 20 foot wide emergency road on the east side of the parcel there.

really lovely looking multi-use trail up to Stribbling.

Sure, so basically it boils down to the fact that

We did look at different auto connections and it's really is so damaging to the sensitive areas of the site and you're not getting

A huge benefit to that.

So even if you get across with an auto connection, both the Stribbling Avenue extended by the power sub plant and the area going along the research park, those roads are not

Improved.

You know, you can traverse them barely, but they're not great for a lot of auto trips.

And so the environmental damage that it would do just didn't seem like a feasible option for us.

That's a great question.

So we tend to do a variety.

Greenwood Homes is our home building company that will be working on site.

Still getting through the pollen.

Thank you.

Yeah, so at this stage, we like to keep it open to both options because

in some ways it's I think it's great to have a variety of both home ownership opportunities and rental opportunities and we also don't know what the market's going to do coming up but you know we are

really proud of the fact that we are building affordable units in Albemarle and throughout the city so you know in the past a lot of people would just pay into an affordable housing fund and you never see those units coming online so we think it's really exciting to start seeing them coming online and we

fully agree with you.

We're in the midst of a crisis.

You know, the first quarter of this year versus last year, I just read that the median sales price in Albemarle went up 15%.

So it's really scary, quite frankly.

I ask also on that, and this might be a question somewhat for staff to riff on it, but we heard last November, was it when we all got together up at North Fork that, you know, affordable rental units do tend to get picked up pretty quickly because people are looking and

affordable homes for sale often just don't get sold because the connecting with the buyers often just doesn't happen.

I'll be honest with you, Commissioner Moore, I don't have the specifics for that.

I do know I was talking with some of the housing folks that are

just last week.

And I think that I know that they recognize that as a problem and trying to work towards solutions on it.

Okay.

That's all the questions I got right now.

Great.

Good to see you this evening.

So you know, I'm going to give you a hard time on a couple of things.

You just should know that coming into this.

But so I'm going to carry on with my colleague here.

So I'm concerned about natural disasters and bad driving.

and virtually a landlocked piece of property.

The natural disasters I'm thinking about harken back to the failure of high tension, an electric high tension that catch on fire and then burn.

And I've only got one way to get 203 people out of here unless somebody has the key to use the balance.

The other one is, as we know on 64, there have been lots of four drivers, truck drivers, who have had accidents recently, and they've spilled their loads on the side of the road.

You've got 64 as one of your boundaries.

I will even go to the next one is, while I know the Commonwealth of Virginia owns the rail lines now.

They're not the only ones that use it.

And we also know that we've seen a higher frequency of train incidents where they spill their loads.

And so that wonderful site there has got three things that gave me pause.

It has a possibility for a high-tension failure, which would cause fire with all the greenery there.

It's got a train tracks as one of the boundaries, hopefully no train ever derails.

And then we've got 64 on the other side coming down and going up to Afton.

And so there's also the possibility of just bad drivers.

And so as you're thinking this through,

I know you're not there yet, but as you're thinking this through it, I think you would give your community a bit more of a sigh of relief if they had a secondary way to get out of there.

Instead of the way that you have in there, I'm just going to give you that.

You don't have to respond to me.

I will actually respond on this though.

On the road that you're asking to be a private road, what will happen if you sell them?

So the private road right now is in the smallest units, we'll go through the smallest units, and if I were living there, and by HOA said that I had to pay for snow removal on the private road, I would be really annoyed.

Since My Street's a public street, and VDOT, when it gets to us, will take the stove away.

Or if VDOT comes to us, they'll clean the potholes out.

How will that get distributed among the part of the community that's got the smallest units in it?

and the rest of the community that's gonna have lovely units.

They're all gonna be lovely units because you don't design ugly things.

I'll get to that.

But how are you gonna deal with that?

Because that's a concern.

Sure.

That's why I have you on the planning commission.

So Alan may want to take this one, but you know, most definitely this will be part of the neighborhood will have an HOA, all of our neighborhoods do.

And my guess is that everyone will just pay an HOA fee and every single thing about the neighborhood is just going to be included in that fee.

which they do they do occur so you know I need to say that I just need to say that you showed us some images which sort of look like your your project up 29 North and I would just challenge you this is a really sweet location you know it's got all the problems you can possibly have with it don't make it look like a garden apartment complex

Make It Something Special.

You've got good designers at your hand.

You've got really creative people who live there.

You know, if you could put a biosphere there, that would be really cool.

And I know my colleague at the end of at the end would really like that.

Do something cool there.

Don't just make it like another garden apartment community, please.

Mr. Murray.

Thank you.

So I was wondering, you know, in terms of the environmental constraints that you already have, and so you're dealing with a very small, a lot of constraints here.

So we have done designs on the site that included apartments.

I will say I think that they were at a higher density than what we're currently showing and as I mentioned

We are trying to be sensitive to the surrounding areas and make sure that we're not overburdening the road systems.

So we did look at that quite carefully.

But yeah, I think at the end of the day, after we, I mean, we literally have probably made 50 designs for the site.

And at the end of the day, we felt like this was the best combination, giving a variety of unit types and home ownership possibilities in this location close to the city.

Another question.

I see on your plan, on the illustrated plan, there's these two little green triangles.

I assume there's going to be sort of pocket parks, internal amenities.

So one of the things that

One of the things that I think is a possibility for spaces like that is you can use them as both green spaces and biofilters.

So that's one thing I would encourage you to look at.

But also, I would just, you know, wonder, you know, we have a lot of people that come forward, you know, and they propose to do the bare minimum to meet their stormwater requirements.

And that's fine.

They're allowed to do that.

And this is not a site plan process.

But are there any things that you're going to be doing besides the generous green space?

I'm so glad you asked that, and I'm going to get Chuck up here to address that question.

Good afternoon, commissioners.

Chuck Rapp, the College of Engineering.

It's a great question.

It's what we've been talking about.

We do have a variety of measures that we're looking into for stormwater on this one.

First, I would say, I believe we're headed down around where we'll have

several localized fire retention facilities to capture some of the water more immediately adjacent to those homes.

And then we have, we are proposing it as Mr. McCollum stated,

and underground retention system further down that would capture the larger quantities there and release those and treat them.

The reason for doing so was to limit our footprint as well.

So by having a couple of smaller localized facilities and then that underground facility allows us to, it really helps us to disturb less of that slope.

We looked at some other options, some more traditional routes, but it really creates a larger footprint of disturbance to kind of put those in.

And so with that, I mean, plus,

The fact that we are preserving our future percent of the site is a big step towards meeting stormwater requirements as well.

Thanks, sure.

It looks like a good project.

I have a couple of questions here.

I usually ask the same questions every time so you probably know what's coming.

Can you tell us a little bit about where the affordable housing will be placed on this site?

One of the things that I've always said is we want to make sure that there's not a zone of affordable housing, right?

You shouldn't be able to tell how much money someone makes by this plan here, right?

And so just encourage us to look at ways to disperse it throughout the site.

Second question would be around sustainability, and you've talked a lot about the site piece.

I was wondering if you could maybe share about the building piece and maybe how this could be a model of break development for others to follow, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I wish Chris Scooley were here.

Alan may be able to speak to it better.

But like I said, Greenwood Homes will be constructing all of the buildings on site.

And I know that they really strive not only towards sustainability in their construction and really

Tight Unit Types and Meeting Energy Standards.

But they also focus on the aspects of how can you have a unit where you age in place and visitability.

and then thank you and maybe a comment for staff.

I'm not sure if this is like a procedural thing, but it'd be nice to have, if we know that's like the vision of the Board of Supervisors, like equity and sustainability, it'd be nice if that was like a requirement in the narrative somewhere just to start to address it because rarely do we see anything about it in these proposals.

And so that might be helpful, something to talk about offline.

But last comment I had, I guess it's,

around the two play areas of the common spaces.

You're probably doing everything you can.

It's a challenging site, I realized that.

With 50 kids being projected perhaps to live in this neighborhood, I found it a little surprising that there's like four tentacles a road bisecting the only green space in the project, you know, for vehicles.

And so that's something to look at.

I know you're doing probably the best you can.

I think that's a good point.

We wanted for the neighborhood amenity space to be centralized to the units, and we find that for parents, they really like that, and you can have a lot of eyes on the play space, and then, you know,

The other component is the 37 acres of green space that probably offer a lot more opportunities that we can be playful with, I'd say.

I mean, we, in our Glenbrook communities on the trails, you know, I think that there are various opportunities within those more forested spaces for other types of play as well.

So

And you and I live in some of their neighborhoods.

People just drive too fast.

So absolutely.

Great.

And I was glad to hear Mr. Rapp say that there will be bio soils or bio retention.

Incorporated as well as Underground.

I think they can't provide some very nice landscape amenities as well as dealing with the stormwater.

Staff mentioned pervious pavers, I believe.

Typically, if we utilize pervious pavers that's in the parking areas, so not like in a travel way, but in a parking zone.

So that could be utilized, for example, on the private road for that perpendicular parking.

Okay.

And then

your reserve area.

That could be a great place for Mr. Bivins bio sphere.

Yeah, I need to hear more about this.

Which may not too much for warm water, but maybe it could.

Mr. Firehawk.

Sure.

Yeah, I'll just make a quick comment on the bioswales.

So most of the pollution, the runoff, oily materials and such is in the first inch of rainfall, which the most bioswales are designed to capture.

After that, the rows are relatively clean, and then the excess flow would go into those underground storage tanks.

So they're getting the quality, hopefully, mostly through those bioswales and then the overflow, because we do get some ridiculous rainfall around here.

and I would say, I'll just say that at 50% open space, this does qualify as a conservation subdivision.

So I would market it as such.

I wrote a book on conservation subdivisions and I'll give you, I have my students evaluate them.

So herp and finish this and then we can evaluate it.

But I had also suggested when we went on our walk and I know you're not like, this is not the final plan, it's just conceptual.

But if you live at, like, say the end of that cul-de-sac and you want to go visit your neighbor, like, who lives in the townhouses on the other side, you have to go all the way up the street.

So what I'm getting at is interconnectivity for pedestrians within the site.

and I know that you've got some topography there.

I can read a topo, but you could put some skinny pedestrian-based trails.

It doesn't have to be a 10-foot-wide asphalt path, but you could put something that's four feet wide that little Johnny or Julie could go from that street and go perpendicular across

It would be relatively easy to skinny a trail so that you have some mid-block breaks that would allow people to just walk between the neighborhood or if I'm living way over on the western side, I don't have to go so far to get to the trail.

So anyway, just thinking about some green fingers

in between some of these to break up that monolith of buildings going down the street and then allow people to go back and forth.

Because sure, you cannot effectuate a grid pattern in this topography, but you could create some things for pedestrian.

So that was really my main comment.

I mean, I'm pretty pleased with this.

I wish your 10-foot wide path was maybe a little skinnier, like five feet.

I understand you're doing whatever the class A was or whatever.

I can't remember the different classes, but I like to see skinny trails, especially in sensitive environments.

And you can have pullover areas.

So if a stroller and a bicycle are both coming, one can move to the side rather than having a super wide path.

just because of the creek and the topography and the sensitivity of the site.

I feel like this was an excellent effort to almost shoehorn in as much as you could while being really respectful of the topography

the ability to get on trails and keep going and dedicate land to the county.

So I'm pleased to see this.

I think it's very respectful of the terrain and I'd love to live there, but I already got a house.

So thank you.

Good job.

Great.

Thank you.

I only have one question and it relates back to that 150th unit.

or I guess before the issuance of the public access.

Sure, sure.

Yes.

As we are developing the site plan and the subdivision plots with the county, all of those trails and areas, as Mr. McCollum noted, like those all get included, the location included as we get into the specifics of the plan.

And then when we do the plotting,

That's when all the easements go in.

And then the way we typically, in terms of installation of trails, we would typically be doing that when we're out doing the rest of the site work.

And so very early on in the development process, we do like in the actual rezoning to give ourselves

some wiggle room on the completion of those trails because there's always different things that come up or we may get something in and we may have to work on it with the county and go back and forth a little bit to make sure it's exactly as they wanted it.

So in terms of the rezoning, that kind of gives us

you know some flexibility on when it's like finally completed and we're not holding up home sales but

in terms of everything that we're showing here.

We like to get it in as early as possible because once you start having homeowners in place, they don't like you going in and everything becomes their yard at that point.

They don't want you to go in and mess around or have to knock down trees when you're putting in a trail system or anything like that.

So yeah, I don't know.

So if I could summarize what I think I heard you say.

Number one, your intention is to deliver the trails and the public access as soon as possible, because that's a selling point for your community and those who live there would expect it.

Number two, you want to provide flexibility.

So you're not ready to say, we're going to do that day one because you don't want to hold up the issuance of a CEO related to your first or 10th.

And number three, the 150 sounds arbitrary.

Is that right?

Sort of just kind of pulled it out and thought, that seems reasonable.

That will give us enough flexibility.

So that's a large portion of the 203.

Well, and one thing I discussed with Mr. Krebs when we were talking about the issue was, I mean, why don't we, because there was a concern like, what if you never get to the 150th unit?

That's not really the way we operate as a company or we wouldn't still be here.

OK, great.

Thank you.

I do.

It's not a question, but I want to tag on with Commissioner Firehock and encourage you to really think about your edges.

And I know people are going to say, oh, that's my yard.

That's my yard.

You can't do anything with my yard.

But when you look at the project from a bird's view,

Sorry.

I did that.

I like this one better because it's actually more accurate.

It shows the trail system coming up to the end of that cul-de-sac, which was a recent change.

Right.

No, it's helpful because I think really what will be so brilliant about this site is the fact that people will feel as if they're in this very special place.

And so soften your edges so that 50% of the preserved green space actually gets brought into the design of the space.

So it doesn't feel like I just sort of plopped

Development in the middle of the forest, and I can't get to it.

So I think what Commissioner Firehock is on is really quite smart as you're designing this to be intentional.

And then that probably will get to Commissioner Missel's piece, because as you become intentional about integrating that green space, you're going to push yourselves to say, yes, let's open up these trails.

With that, I'll open it up to public comment for those attending in person who have signed up on this list.

And I'll just remind everyone, the speaker is a lot of three minutes.

Individuals cannot relinquish their three minutes to another speaker.

Individuals can only sign up one person to speak.

And please give any written statements that you might have to the clerk.

Hello, everyone.

Thank you for having me.

Absolutely.

I'm Mary Catherine King.

I live in the Oak Hill Farm neighborhood, which is just on the other side of the Redfields neighborhood.

I also sent you all an email with most of my comments yesterday, but I do have a few additional ones that I wanted to add tonight.

I also want to say that I am the chair of the Fifth and Abon Community Advisor Committee, so I was there for the community meeting and I share a little bit of the concerns of our committee as a whole, but obviously don't speak for everyone.

Additionally, I have a civil engineering degree from the University of Virginia and I am a realtor, so I understand real estate and land and a little bit about land development.

I have also studied the schools with a lot of developments that have come through with us and I mentioned this in my letter but I want to just make sure that I highlight it because I'm not concerned about students in a closet but I am concerned that our overall the overall way that we look and count for students and new developments in the county is flawed and it has been talked about over and over and over again for three years at our CAC.

I don't know if it's talked about at other CACs but

I gave a really good example that in our neighborhood Oak Hill Farm, we have 85 homes and we have approximately 75 school-aged children.

This neighborhood has a proposed development of 200 units and they're saying that their maximum total would be 45.

So I can just give you that real world example of how, as all the developments are coming through in the whole county, as a whole, the same school modifier is being applied.

I also believe that the last time the schools came and talked with us, they said that the new schools, both the Southern feeder and the new Albemarle campus, are going to meet current over

Capacity Standards.

And so I don't think that includes future new developments, but I could be wrong.

That was my understanding the last time they came and talked to our CAC.

I'm confused about the conference plan and whether there is still an opportunity to put a road, a vehicle connection through here is that

Still available as a future option?

Is that something we want as a county?

Is it going to be eliminated by this?

I don't want this to be another Eastern Avenue where the developer sells the homes telling people there will be one and then it's not done because it was too expensive and we didn't know that up front.

Those are some of the things that I think about, sorry.

OK, thank you.

And so I'm a believer, as some of you might have heard, that inclusionary zoning, which is what we're doing here, doesn't really provide affordable units.

What I think provides affordable units is allowing this developer to sell market rate units at a higher price point to people who are currently buying lower rate units because there's nothing else available in the county, right?

So you've got a supply housing at all levels.

and when you do that, you then allow this developer to properly fund the transportation between Sunset Avenue extended all the way out to Old Lynchburg Road, which is a problem.

Great.

Thank you.

I have no one else on my sign up list, but is there anyone else here that would like to speak?

Yes, sir.

come up and if you could state your name and general location of residence, you'll have three minutes to speak.

I live at 700 Sunset Avenue extended.

Everything sounds great and beautiful for what I've heard tonight, except for the fact that one thing I haven't heard is how it affects the local residents that are currently on Sunset Avenue.

One thing that I have a concern for, what information we have

that about the site plan and the runoff is the fact that I can only speak for myself and my neighbor and the fact is that we will be totally washed away.

If you look at the plan, they plan to run the water off and put it into Moore's Creek right at the entrance

made at the corner of my land, which means that currently I get flooded as it is, but this way it will totally destroy us.

I don't know if you all have been out on Sunset Avenue extended or not, but it will flood the entrance of Eagles Landing all the way down to the bridge that connects the city to the county.

That road will be completely blocked.

So if there's an emergency, that would be no way for people to get in to address that emergency.

It also will affect a lot of the residents that equals land because a lot of the people go at the back entrance and cross the bridge to go up to Jefferson Park Avenue and to the University and other places.

I would hope that before you all decide to approve this and send it up to the board of supervisors that you would consider just what effect it is going to have on the local residents that already live there.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else present who would like to speak to this?

Unlock your iPhone first.

I'm Betty Saunders.

Hang on a sec, yes.

That's an opportunity.

I'm here representing... Sorry, could you mention your name?

Betty Saunders.

I was distracted by Siri.

I'm representing my son who had to be at another meeting.

He couldn't be here, but he's on the property since the 90s, and it really didn't flood much back then when he bought it.

I have met and talked to the person that was raised there from the 20s in his house.

He actually lives down two houses from this project.

it wasn't flooding much in the old days.

All this new construction and behind my son's home has caused innumerable floods.

I mean, I'm sure you all have heard of the destruction of the bridge, the last flood we had a couple of so years ago.

And it walks us in.

I've asked one night, when we knew it was gonna flood, if the apartments would let us come through their gate,

and keep one vehicle on the hillside so that we could get out.

That would not.

I called for an emergency to get us out another night.

We had three dogs and two of us and we couldn't get out and I told them I need a canoe or something.

and they never came.

I called later and they said they couldn't get it down there and they didn't even call us.

So I don't know if anybody's noticing the flooding.

I've called the county and nobody's really interested.

They came forward and cut the water flow down and each one of these subdivisions just caused more

Warrant Officer

Nobody seems to recognize it.

My son said he attended one of the planning commissions on the one, the first housing development behind him.

And he asked about it.

And they laughed.

We're serious.

I don't think he can sell his house.

He would like to.

It floods terribly.

He's in the water up here in his basement.

He's really suffered a lot.

So I just hope that you give a little extra consideration for the people down there.

I mean, we can't even get out when it's

when it's flooded.

That road was washed out above his house.

Man in the highway department had to come down in his truck in the side of the road to get me to take me out to a doctor's appointment that morning was the only way I got out.

So God forbid something bad happening.

We just couldn't get out.

I'm hoping it doesn't rain heavy tonight.

It's scary.

But thank you for listening and hope you pay attention because he's really concerned and I'm as a mom really concerned.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else present who'd like to speak to this?

All right, we'll go to Madam Clerk.

All right.

Thank you.

So with that, I'll open it up to the applicant and provide an opportunity to respond to what we've heard.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Just would like to take a moment to respond to the concerns about the stormwater management on the property.

So as we discussed earlier, the intention is to have that probably an underground retention system in that corner of the site there and near the stream and the idea there that it is certainly designed to handle some very large storm events.

It would handle a significant quantity of runoff.

and with modern stormwater requirements, we analyze the site for pre-development conditions and ensure that the post-development conditions meet or exceed those so that we have a slower release of water during those large storm events.

Great.

Thank you.

With that, I will close the public hearing and I'll bring it back to the commission for discussion.

Well, I just want to make a really quick comment.

Just on the stormwater, I mean, in this area, there is a lot of new development, absolutely.

But there's also development that happened before stormwater management requirements were in place.

And if you realize this, but Interstate 64 doesn't have any stormwater management.

you know that's why Moores Creek got blown out and we did to do that big creek restoration project in Azalea Park so we we have legacy stormwater problems that yeah we're not there in the 20s and 30s 40s even that are you know that there's no requirement that V dot go in and remediate

that highway because it pre-existed.

So we do have some legacy problems.

We've got steep slopes in the area, but I have to say whether this naive or not, I'm counting on this excellent firm to do a great job on the stormwater management and also use of progressive technologies like permeable pavement for the parking spaces can mean that that water just drains straight into the ground and does not run off and doesn't freeze in the winter.

So no slippery driveway.

Yeah, I just want to add some more on that.

No.

Oh, sorry.

A TMDL is an acronym that stands for Total Maximum Daily Load.

That still probably doesn't tell you very much.

Basically, what it means is there's a lot of stuff in the stream that should not be there.

In this case, the stuff in the stream that should not be there was bacteria.

And so there's a standard set up by DEQ that says that your kids should be able to play in a stream, you should be able to fish in a stream, creatures should be able to live in the stream.

And so this was declared as an impaired waterway based upon their assessment.

And so I think it's very important, you know, the comments that were made by the public about managing the quantity of stormwater, I'm glad that there's interest here in doing more than just addressing quantity, but also addressing quality.

I hope in the HOA requirements, they paid close attention to pet waste, because that is something that it's already making that stream unhealthy.

I will just add on a bit of information for the school.

So the Southern Feudary Elementary School, according to the County School Division, is the school on Founders Place, which we looked at a couple of months ago.

I think you all remember, is to have about 500 additional students there.

That's not just sort of taking care of the problem in the temporary, not temporary, but in the auxiliary classrooms, it's really to be able to add some capacity there.

Some of you may remember that this is, I think this is the schools got pushed to this, but not pushed, but walked to this position because they've decided that the Southwood possibility is not going to happen.

So this is this is to take care of that.

and so, and in addition to the high school center too, as I mentioned earlier, that's about four to six hundred students, additional students a day.

And so you really are adding capacity, we're adding capacity.

And if you, you know, people will will will notice those who live out in Whitehall and Crozet.

The 33,000 square foot addition there really took care of the elementary school issue there now.

That may be that the school board needs to do some redistricting.

So when that happens, everybody just stay calm and stay cool and don't sort of bring out the, you know, those yardstick rulers because what they're trying to do is balance the balance student load across the existing systems.

because they said something that was really quite interesting.

They have not built a brand new school from ground up in 22 years.

So some of this is catching up, but some of this is also trying.

There's a project that's going to be at North Point.

I think some of you know where that's located on 29 and that will be an elementary school at some point to try and give some release to Baker Butler at that part of Earth Park.

So they're trying.

Thank you.

Just a little bit.

All in all, I appreciate a lot of features of this project.

Improving the trail system is a wonderful part.

Maintaining that greenway along Moore's Creek and having a bridge.

that's not Big Rocks.

That'll be cool.

I also currently, though, as far as transportation goes, I do currently live in a neighborhood that just has one exit for cars.

And I mean, this last summer, it's a short bit of road at that last summer, they repaved and there's a major problem, major disruption because there's only one way in, one way out.

So just to consider whether we really need bollards on that 20 foot wide section, should people need to be able to get out?

It could be an easy change, possibly.

And then in the bigger picture, I also totally, I want to preface this and say I totally understand why pedestrian bike only up the Stribbling Avenue makes sense.

It's a really difficult area to build a car connection.

When I see this kind of thing, I see like, like old mid-century suburban development where you have to drive three and a half miles to go.

What should only be like, you know, two thirds of a miles, the crow flies.

But I also do understand why that's the case here.

But in general, as we proceed, I always want to see like neighborhoods connect to neighborhoods as much as possible.

But I think everything else I've got in my notes is stuff I already said before about density.

Alright, thank you.

The only things I'll add in somewhat of a summary method.

Number one, I think it's a tricky site.

And interestingly, you all have owned it for 16 years.

We did a rezoning for the Fontaine Research Park in 2010, and we were talking about the Granger Track back then, so I can relate to that.

I think it's a good plan.

I think it is a bit of a shoehorn into a tricky site.

I think it's great that it helps to move forward pads and greenway systems like we've discussed.

I also heard the need to reconsider school modifiers, I think was the term.

And I think it was really interesting to think about that.

That's not on the applicant tonight, but as a county, the reality of the student generation, the students generated by developments, I think is something to continue to look at and focus on.

A lot of concern on stormwater management, which I think we are probably as a community and lots of communities dealing with past sins.

to Commissioner Firehock's point.

And I would just underscore the fact that with the ability to potentially go above and beyond and help the community as it is now, hopefully that that would be something that you all would pursue.

And then one just nitpick is to modify, I would ask that we modify that 150th

Trigger Point for Building Permits for the construction of the public access.

However, that wording needs to be modified.

I'm not exactly sure.

I'm not looking at it right now, but down to 75, which would be great.

Well, I'll be honest, I don't know exactly where that 150th note is.

Is that any application plan?

Yeah, that's correct.

So it would be a request to modify the application plan to replace the 150 with 75.

Yes.

We're agreeable.

Thank you.

All right.

I'll make a motion.

You can make a second.

That's fine.

Did you put the motion on the screen, though?

I forgot my tablet.

And before I make that motion, Chair, did you want to, were you suggesting we should put that 75 unit thing in the motion as a condition?

Okay, I'll try.

I moved to recommend approval of ZMA-202-300-0010 for the reasons as stated in the staff report with the additional condition that the application plan be modified to add the open space or the trail dedication at Unit 75.

Is that accurate?

looking around.

I want to try that and then we can I would say that it's it's a slightly different.

at a minimum.

The intent is clear.

Well, thank you.

I second.

Any further discussion?

All right.

Yes.

Mr. Bivins.

Hi.

Mr. Firehock.

Hi.

Thanks, everybody.

Thank you.

Sure, after a five minute break.

So we'll see everybody back here at, we will recess until, what is that, 736.

You got it.

Great.

Thank you.

Welcome back, everyone.

We are reconvening.

I would like to begin prior to beginning the discussion about ZMA 2020-24-2.

I'd like to read a quick statement.

This is a statement of State and Local Government Conflict of Interest Act.

And I am a member of the following group, the members of which are affected by the transaction.

The group consists of three or more persons whose employer owns property along the Route 29 North Corridor.

That's that I am able to participate in this transaction fairly objectively and in the public interest.

Thank you, and thank you for taking a break so we could do the set change between staff.

It's always helpful.

I'm Bill Ferts with the Community Development Office, and we're doing the presentation today for the rezoning and the special use permit on doing that presentation combined.

just to let you know what we've got before you.

This application has two parts.

The rezoning is a proposal to rezone 172 of the 462 acres owned by the county from RA, rural areas, and PRD, plan residential development, to LI, light industry.

And from now on, I'm just going to use the RA, PRD, LI.

The special use permit would allow offices and newly constructed buildings.

This image shows the character of the area along with the area owned by the county.

The area owned by the county is the orange line.

The area to be rezoned is highlighted in blue.

This image is oriented with east at the top.

As you can see, the rural areas to the north and east are typical of the rural areas of the county with a mixture of open and wooded areas with scattered residential development.

The development along Boulder's Road is the Rivanna Station and is a mixture of office buildings.

To the west, opposite Route 29 is the Briarwood development.

This image shows the boundaries of the area owned by the county in orange again.

The area proposed to be rezoned includes areas currently zoned PRD and that's shown in green and RA, which is shown in white.

I've overlaid the area that's proposed to be rezoned here.

Access to the site is currently obtained from Boulder's Road, which intersects Route 29, and a signalized intersection.

As can be seen from this image, the rezoning effectively consumes all of the development potential from the PRD.

A proffer is proposed to limit traffic generated to 5,000 vehicle trips.

This traffic volume is consistent with what would be anticipated from the PRD and the area recommended for residential, office, industrial, and limited commercial development in the comprehensive plan.

VDOT has not recommended any transportation improvements.

One thing I'd like to note real quick is that rezonings may be initiated in two ways.

The county may initiate a rezoning or a request can be made by the property owner.

Only during a property owner initiated rezoning can proffers be accepted.

By submitting as a property owner, the county submitted this as a property owner, by submitting as a property owner, it was possible to have this proffer to limit the traffic volumes.

As mentioned in the last slide, some of the area currently zoned RA is recommended for residential, office, industrial, and limited commercial development.

It has a lot of over a lot of complaint designations.

The Boundaries of the Comprehensive Plan are general in nature except where they follow physical boundaries such as roads or water courses.

Staff has reviewed the Comprehensive Plan and the Board's past action to extend water and sewer service.

And those of you is of the opinion that the area proposed for rezoning is consistent with the boundaries of the plan.

There are two small areas that are outside the development area boundaries.

And these areas, the boundaries follow the edges of two lakes.

However, the property lines go through those lakes.

I've highlighted both those areas here.

I had to exaggerate the size with these circles so that you can see them.

They're pretty small.

No development may occur in these areas due to existing regulations.

Therefore, we find no conflict with the comprehensive plan.

These applications, the rezoning and the special use permit were reviewed for consistency with the criteria for rezoning considerations and the special use permit review criteria.

The staff report has comments for all the review criteria and I'd be happy to answer any questions you have about the staff findings.

I'm not going to go over all the findings, but I would like to point out that part of the review that focuses on the comprehensive plan.

As shown in the previous slide, a majority of the area proposed for rezoning is not shown for office, industrial, or commercial development in the land use recommendations in the comprehensive plan.

The area is shown for residential use.

However, the economic development portion of the plan has comments about supporting target industries.

The county's purchase of this property facilitates economic development and defense and security industries.

These are target industries.

The plan also directly addresses Rivanna Station in noting its importance and the importance of supporting this facility.

The comprehensive plan is divided into chapters and the plan states that the order of the chapters is intentional.

The economic development chapter precedes the land use chapter.

Based on the ordering of the chapters, it is the opinion of staff that this rezoning

supports the Rivanna Station and Target Industries allows for a finding that the proposed rezoning and special use permit are consistent with the comprehensive plan.

Staff is recommending approval of the rezoning application and the acceptance of the proposed proffer and staff recommends approval of the special use permit.

No conditions were identified as necessary for the special use permit due to the proposed proffer.

That concludes my presentation.

I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have.

Great.

Any questions from the commission?

I might be oversimple.

So looking at the map of where you're proposing the rezoning portion of the purchase of the land owned within that orange boundary, I guess my question is then what

You want to rezone some of it, then I guess I'm just like, what's happening to the rest of it?

Is it just a buffer?

So this, this area was identified for the rezoning.

I'll let the applicant speak.

They are technically the applicant.

One of the things that the boundaries do and one of the things that alleviated the need for having to have addressed buffers, for example, and a proffer is it actually doesn't go all the way to the property line.

So there's RA land that effectively serves as a buffer between the area proposed for LI and adjoining residential or rural lands, not even residential.

It had been farmed.

Correct.

And the applicant can speak more to that, but correct.

It's vacant land.

There's some outbuildings that are there that aren't being used for anything.

There was a house on the property, which has been boarded up, is no longer being used.

It's in pretty poor condition, but there's no use being made other than a small portion

Okay, and then I know this is our county's application and then we have to review it and then it goes to the board.

Someone commented to me yesterday that they had thought there would be more proppers coming with this.

and that they were surprised that they were not.

And so I guess I'm just curious, I don't know that that needs to be addressed now, but it's, I know it's our application almost to ourselves, but what- Professor, they're intended to overcome a deficit in the application.

The only deficit that we identified in the application was the need to keep the traffic volumes to a point that did not affect- Because that's the main impact, the traffic.

The things such as setbacks, building heights, lighting, the path system that'll go through there.

There's a discussion about that in the staff report that we can require through the site plan regulations, the trails that would provide the trail network that's proposed in the comprehensive plan.

All those things are already ordinance regulations.

Extra impact.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Carrazana.

Any questions?

No questions.

Mr. Murray?

Yes.

So sort of along the lines of what Karen was saying, I know I understand your point about proffers, but I wonder too, because the county owns this property,

Can the county not establish conditions to sort of as a measure of

of showing that it's going to go above and beyond the minimums that it would, you know, as a good citizen.

So, you know, we have, you know, when a private developer comes before us, we have certain minimum standards that we ask them to adhere to.

And I think it'd be a great thing if the county could show that it sets the bar higher.

And so by putting those in proffers,

As a reviewer of this application, I would defer that and answer to that to others.

others.

Yes.

Pardon me.

All right.

I didn't see the look.

Mr. Bivins.

So just just to push this piece of spaghetti a little bit more.

So the proffer here is that the applicant agrees to limit

And what was done, we used traffic count as opposed to square footage.

And because that's what actually triggers the improvements.

So you could have a building that is very large, but generates a small amount of traffic.

So that's why there's no discussion of number of building size.

And so where do we then expect that?

Boulder Drive should be able to handle whatever so we don't need another traffic.

We don't need another way out of there, even though at the end of the day at 4.30 it's a painful part of the county to have to drive through.

But that's another issue.

And then will there be any changes to the

So during the site plan review process, we're going to have to look at that access.

We can, and as part of the site plan process, the number, location and design of the entrances.

can be set by the county during the review process.

And obviously, having this volume of traffic go out on a lost passage would not be appropriate.

So we would not approve an entrance over there.

OK, good.

That was where I was hoping you would go.

Don't know.

Thank you.

Okay, I have a couple of questions.

So thinking about kind of the process that we just went through with our last application, and I realize each application stands on its own, but thinking about the county, thinking about the development community and how many applications we see here, can you explain a little bit as to why a lot of the specifics of this application are being pushed to the site plan review process?

Yeah, I mean, part of what is going on here, we are

working to try and get this site prepared.

The applicant comes up and talks to you.

We talked a lot about how we're trying to move up tiers in the state's economic development strategy.

And a lot of this is about getting the property zone correctly.

gather from funding so that we can then move forward with completing the master planning of the site.

So it's kind of a step-wise.

It gives the level two and statewide system to three and then up to four.

I think staff would also say that we are technically following the process, but it is an expedited process in part because there's been a lot of consideration on the board about

And the reason I asked the question is because a lot of the questions we received from the rest of the commissioners was really more about the detail that we would normally see on a zoning application or some form of a plan like this.

And it's just not there, right?

I think we've seen some of it in some of the economic development, Rivanna futures documents, but I think we'll leave that to the applicant.

So there's two things that I can concern.

I don't just have you concerned.

Confirm something, Mr. Bond.

So when a building, when you assume this is a partnership where the county is is is going to be a private partner, a private public partnership where the county will bring the land to the deal and then somebody else will bring a building.

When the person brings a building, will that ever come before this body again?

Or will that just go on through the site review?

I appreciate the question, and I'd love that.

I'd like to tip off the applicant.

The other thing and I, as part of how I do, I give the applicant the questions so that they know what I'm going to ask.

The other thing is, remember when the University of Virginia Foundation came to us about the 300-odd-some-odd houses that they're going to build on that piece of property there?

They were very specific about what they would contribute

to the improvements given the number of houses there.

That's only like a half a mile down the road.

And so I'm wondering, as we think about our proffer, I wouldn't want the county to find itself in a situation where it has a very, it has an excellent opportunity, but because we've proffered it in this sort of cliff manner,

that we want.

We can't we can't appreciate that.

But that, in fact, we would think about putting something with some with some flexibility in it, much like the University Foundation did, to say that if we get this number of people here, and these number and this number of people bring trapping, excuse me, bring this number of traffic or whatever it's called traffic.

here that then will contribute to this.

I'm not expecting the county to contribute, but that there's a bit more flexibility in what you're allowed to do with that piece of property as opposed to saying, we're never going to have more trips than this.

That's my proffer.

Just a comment.

I mean, back to Commissioner Bivins, it would be my understanding that they get the change in the zoning that they want, and then it becomes by right.

We wouldn't see that unless you want to call something up, which we have the right to do, but then we don't change the outcome.

We just look at it and, you know, it's by right.

All right.

Well, to say, I mean, this would be the opportunity to take a look at that in more detail.

All right.

Thank you.

With that, I will open the public hearing and also ask for the applicants report.

Chair, Missel, members of the commission.

It's a pleasure to be here.

Trevor Henry, Deputy County Executive, JT Newbury, Deputy Director of Economic Development.

First time I've been in front of a boarder commission where I've been on a clock, so I am, I'll be paying attention to that.

JT and I have

A handful of slides.

We appreciate the work from community development staff to bring this forward.

We hope to answer the questions that have been raised.

And if not, we certainly there's an opportunity within the question and answer time.

I'm going to start at a little higher level quickly to then bring us in to the land use that's in question today.

I really do appreciate the opportunity to present.

Almost a year ago to the day, within two weeks, May 24th, the board announced the acceptance of this

of a contract to purchase 462 acres around Rivanna Station.

I came in front of the board on October 24th and presented, you know, at some depth, the background, the what and the why and a little bit of the how.

And so I won't get into all that today, but I do want to just note that, you know, this is a continuation of that work.

Elmore County has been home to Rivanna Station since 1997.

The U.S.

Army bought this property.

along what is now Borders Road.

Rivanna Station is a microcosm of the intelligence community.

National Ground Intelligence Center was the original mission house there.

Following that was National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, NGA, and DIA Defense Intelligence Agency.

Altogether, the federal government has invested about almost $315 million into the site.

And if you drive up there now, you see an addition still underway.

Rivanna Station has about 3,000 employees.

on this 75 acres of secured land and the work that they do is some of the most important work for a national defense.

It's a quiet industry in the northern part of the county, but is one that is significant to national defense, but also it is the anchor of nearly $1.3 billion

billion dollars generated annually around defense.

50% of that is attributed directly to Rivanna Station.

So this is important for us to pay attention to.

And it's something our board has paid attention to for a long time.

I'm going to drill out to a bird's eye view just quickly.

I apologize.

We always think north is to the top.

So we're oriented differently than Mr. Fritz.

I apologize.

But I just wanted to show kind of with a cursor,

The red is the 75 acres of the existing Rivanna Station.

It is a sub-installation of Fort Belvoir.

Fort Belvoir is in Northern Virginia, and that is the owner.

It is a fenced and secured site.

There's a little rectangle area.

This building is referred to as Built Boulders One.

It's a commercial building that has been leased for a couple of decades for support of the functions at Rivanna Station.

And so that work has continued.

Our property is all the property that is highlighted in the white boundary with the yellow being the development area.

And just noting, the total acquisition was 462 acres.

Half of that was development area and the yellow, and we're looking to rezone just 172 of that.

So some of the intention of this is, this area has been flagged for a couple of decades as the only baser installation in the state that had available property around it.

and that was both a positive and a concern.

Positive is that there was opportunities for expansion.

A concern is what we're seeing nationally is encroachment, we're seeing bad actors buying land in and around our military bases that is affecting the operations and so

That has been known and communicated as a concern really for a couple of decades.

County stepped in last year to help solve that concern and really to help retain the functions that are there, as well as we believe there is great growth opportunity.

This is just a timeline.

You know, this has been a very public process.

We, you know, we announced it by the board on May the 24th.

All these have been board meetings.

I flagged the planning commission meeting, EDA meetings.

We've had public hearings bringing us forward to the rezoning work that we're doing now.

So this has been a pretty intensive effort, both in the public side and then significant effort on the staff side in our meetings.

County acquired the land formally on December 15th and just noting with that acquisition, we also, as property owners are landlords, we received contracts to maintain the existing parking and we get some revenues as part of that.

Just a few more slides on my end.

The June public hearing was noteworthy.

That is when the board really signaled their intention by approving a resolution to allow business and industrial development.

That really set the stage for the need to do that rezoning work.

Had we stayed just as public uses, we would not have needed to do this.

So that really is what drove the action for the rezoning that we're at today.

We did significant due diligence.

I'm not going to join all that, but we had to make sure that the property was what we thought it was for the investment that the public taxpayer dollars were investing.

And so we wanted to make sure that we did our homework on that.

And we moved forward with a recommendation to the board in December to move forward.

So since December, our focus has been on site readiness and engagement.

The engagement I'm not going to talk about in detail, but it's at the state and federal level, and it's really developing that partnership on what this future might look like, what we might develop this.

In parallel, we have been working internally with staff.

to then get the site ready to do the rezoning.

The rezoning will then open us up for funding ability to do more detailed design work, to do things like a TIA.

One of the things that the county executive and I have heard multiple times from Fort Belvoir, the parent, is how important that road connection is.

Getting boulders connected back to 229 to add resiliency and some security to the base.

That, you know, we estimate that as about a 40 million plus dollar project.

And so the design on that gets us to be able to access potential funding sources, both at the state and the federal level.

Site control was key to enable the board to have a shorty about the current operations and then get us to the table with our partners and being able to move forward with the work that we feel is important to help support and grow that area.

You got this.

Thanks, thanks, Trevor.

Mr. Chair, members of the Commission, JT Newberry with the Economic Development Office.

I wanted to start talking about site readiness just by giving a broad overview of the five tier system that the state uses to categorize site readiness.

starting down at Tier 1.

Those are properties that are designated in a community's comp plan for growth, but there's really minimal to no infrastructure, no information about how developable that property actually is.

That would be a Tier 1.

That goes all the way up to a Tier 5, which is a shovel-ready project.

That's a property that has site plans approved, permits in place, and end user has a very high level of confidence that

in pursuing that property for their use, they'll be able to conduct it with minimal risk.

So taking that context and transferring it then to Rivanna futures, we would estimate that the county's holdings hit probably about a tier two level.

It's in our comp plan for growth.

We've done some of that initial due diligence.

We have site control.

But if the Board of Supervisors approves a rezoning, that would get us to that Tier 3 level.

And as Mr. Barnes and Mr. Henry have alluded to, that would make us competitive for grant funding at the state and federal level.

So the purpose of this rezoning is really to put us in a position where we can be competitive to pursue funding to do this additional due diligence that will provide the kind of information that you alluded to after the staff presentation.

So I'll just quickly say I'm getting to about a minute left here.

The best practice is to get to a tier four level of sight readiness and that would be our goal.

That's considered a best practice to where you're still giving flexibility to the end user, but you've provided, you've done enough due diligence that there's a minimal risk to the end user ultimately using it for their purposes.

As Trevor mentioned, we're continuing two lines of effort simultaneously.

One is a conceptual engineering effort that gives us some of that technical information around the extension of Boulder's Road, stormwater infrastructure, utilities like water and sewer.

We'll use that to inform a future campus planning effort that we'll engage with

various stakeholders.

So I've already mentioned that this puts us in a position for funding.

We believe that light industry uses and the special use permit will allow us to pursue compatible development adjacent to Rivanna Station that won't conflict with any of the existing things at Rivanna Station.

Great timing.

Thank you.

Thank you, gentlemen.

With that, I'll open it up for questions from the Commission.

I don't have any right now.

Thank you.

Thanks, Mr. Chair.

And to the applicant is my comment about the proffer.

So it's not to pinch yourself.

And it's not to have something that's a cliff since you're going for tier four, which could be something in given what goes on there and what the future might be for intelligence gathering and things like that.

Yes, so we've had other situations in Virginia, and I mentioned the situation in Chesterfield where they had their economic development authority play a role in a solar acquisition that impacted a site that was of state importance and containing multiple endangered species.

We don't want to be that counting.

There's also areas in Virginia where we know that the military's impact on those sites has left a legacy of toxic waste.

For example, the Radford Arsenal.

I don't think that's going to be a problem here, given, you know, we're talking about mainly office type uses and that sort of thing.

But I think it's still something that needs to be on the county's radar in terms of making sure that that's not something that we end up with.

When people have talked about we don't have a site plan here, we don't have the normal things that we would have when we're approving a rezoning.

And, you know, you've heard us speak just recently about the importance of stormwater, the importance of, you know, stream buffers and critical slopes and all the things that have helped make our environmental protection in the county really stand above a lot of other counties.

We don't have those details here tonight, but I would encourage you to find ways of demonstrating to the public and setting those standards out front so that we can show that we're going above and beyond and setting an example so that when we do have private developers come before the planning commitment, they say, well, we should at least set an example for what they can do in terms of like doing above and beyond.

Can I turn your comments into a question?

Because I had a very similar line and this would be

Asking you gentlemen to provide in lieu of not having an application plan or detail, could you provide a little bit of narrative, and you can say that's not fair questions too early we don't know.

A little bit of just to help us sort of understand what we're not seeing.

Thank you.

I think we can answer some of those.

advanced a slide, kind of the ending slide, which is questions.

This looks like a plan that has been fully designed out.

What it is, it's a 3D rendering of what we referred to as the art of the possible.

This was engagement work that was done sponsored out of the state back in the 2014 timeframe with key partners at Rivanna Station for Belvoir, North Fork Foundation Board of Supervisors.

They talked about Rivanna Station, its current function, they did a SWAT analysis, and out of that came this concept, which was a campus plan.

and what the county has done has taken that plan and has kind of built out like what this could look like.

That's as far as the work has gone as far as the detail.

I think what is firm is that Boulder's road connection.

We know that is very important to the resiliency of the station.

And I think that that is also will be good for the community and that our development will really focus in around this initial 50 to 75 acres.

The building layout, parking, that is work that is in the future and it's going to be driven

based on some of the requirements that we are quietly working on with our partners to see what that might look like.

There is some potential of adding additional gate security and having different access for the existing station now.

So that work is coming, but it is also

It's kind of a parallel path.

We are looking to get state-supported funding to help us further the technical design, especially around the road and the impacts, and then also have a better sense of needs from our DOD side.

with our academic partners.

We've met with Foundation, with UVA, with Virginia Tech.

This campus concept brings secure side of DOD with academia and private sector in a way that has had success in other parts of the country.

St.

Louis is a model that we have followed, that we have some belief in.

But that's visionary stuff.

We have work to do to get to that.

and Mr. Missel.

I'm sorry if I don't have all those answers yet, but that's our intention.

And just to be clear, and I'm speaking for myself here, I'm fully supportive of this initiative.

for sure.

I just want to make sure as this body that, you know, is an overpaying land use that we're representing as fairly as possible and holding ourselves to the same level that we expect other developers to be held to.

Are you good?

There was one other question, but I'll come back to it.

Looks like a great opportunity.

Is that one question, one comment?

Because you talk at a very high level, like the economic development vision as it relates like North Fork and this site, how they compliment each other or they remember we had a presentation not long ago on the other site.

Meetings I've had with economic development from UVA, the term that I believe in is that a rising tide raises all boats.

And so we believe that there is growth needs in our intelligence community from a defense budget.

That is the area of biggest growth.

and quite frankly, because that's where the biggest threats are.

And so we believe that a federal level of funding is driving this work.

We believe we have a location between Rivanna Station as the anchor, the property that we have acquired that surrounds it that we're hoping to move through rezoning, the work that the foundation has done already that is built and what is in their rezoning that together it will create

an opportunity to continue to attract this kind of work and these kinds of jobs.

It's kind of growth that we think that our board supports.

And it is, I've heard the term clean.

I'm getting into the economic development world, JT.

You can step in anytime you want on this one.

Thank you.

I will say too, our focus really is, is, you know, our engagement has started with the federal DOD side and we're spending a lot of energy, you know, in that world right now.

Gotcha.

Very helpful.

Thank you for sharing that.

And I guess my comment is very rarely we have a chance to control our own destiny.

Like very rarely is the county, the landowner that comes before us.

And so as we are looking to bring fruition where there's different projects or buildings or whatever it may be.

that we kind of set the standard for what we want in terms of climate and equity.

And I think it'd be a missed opportunity if we didn't do that.

Great news.

There is a lot of federal funding in the resiliency world around bases and installations.

I was at a conference in March.

There's funding around solar panels to provide alternate power back up to bases and installations.

Not saying we're going to do that, but just saying those kinds of opportunities of funding I think are out there and certainly we would be interested in building to that level of design.

So one of the things too is I wonder about if there's an opportunity here that you've thought about of providing, because you will have military people there.

that may have had experiences where there may be PTSD or other things that they've had, you know, other challenges that they've had to deal with in their lives.

You hit on an area that when we have done the SWAT analysis over the past, you know, interval of time via the state, what the folks that work there have talked about is childcare access, medical access, they are a sub-installation, so they don't have the amenities

that, you know, if you go down to Norfolk or up to Fort Belvoir, you know, that's a big city.

And so I think there's an opportunity through this development and working with Fort Belvoir and others to look at this.

I pulled this image up because I thought you were going in a different direction, sir, but I wanted to just, you know, note that, JT, how I do that.

Oh, there we go.

Yeah, thank you.

You know, the area to the east, although there is some development area there, we look at that really as just standoff distance.

It's, you know, preventing encroachment.

But going out there, it is incredibly beautiful property.

And so there are opportunities for us to do, what's the term?

What kind of park?

Not a typical public park, but it's

It's like a natural area.

It's geared for military veterans or PTSD, anyone in that PTSD, just quiet, serene,

That's an area that we want to investigate.

And there's funding, again, for that kind of work, too.

I think that that would be considered compatible to the existing Rivanna Station, but also an amenity for the folks that work there or could access that.

It does.

And there's been some work on therapeutic forests, which is what I think you were thinking about.

And then I think also that would help provide a sentinel landscape to help

Thank you.

Thank you for jumping to that illustrative.

Actually, if you can put that up there again, if you don't mind your illustrative 3D plan that you were showing a little while ago.

Yes, right.

And I believe you shared this and some more information when you came before us in last year in 2023.

So I guess my question goes to a lot of what we've been asking here.

And you had some information.

You certainly had enough information to create a concept map.

We know that these change and the change as developers sometimes they sell after they get rezoning and so forth.

I'm just wondering why that wasn't included and why didn't we have some of the overlays that we would typically have in terms of, you know, stream buffers and critical slopes and so forth.

So yeah, that's the best question of why we felt that that was not needed.

I would just say it's not a question that it was not needed.

It's just we are not at that point of design or development to offer that.

We took what was an art of the possible, you know, 2D concept, and we actually kind of have an image if JT can help me.

And JT, you're welcome to talk up here, not just me, too.

Just saying at an end slide show.

Sorry.

I want to go down.

Yeah.

I've got to unhide that.

I'm getting to the answer.

So the image on the left, the state has run what they call listening sessions and they do it about every four or five years.

And that's what has developed the opportunities and the concepts.

The image on the left,

is really the image that was driven out of that art of the possible concept that we then took and developed that 3D plan.

That has been, we've been able to use that as a vision, but we need to get engagement at the partner level to make sure that is what is wanted.

And so until we do that, we're not able to, I think, provide that level of detail that you're asking for.

It's kind of a chicken and an egg too.

We need, when we present it to the board, you know, through

Dr.

for that.

And so the board really directed us, you know, in December to move at best speed to kind of get the site ready for this work and to do our partner engagement.

And we are just trying to continue that mission.

So the image on the left is what we built that, you know, that 3D model to just show kind of what the concept could be.

and I think the only thing I would add, part of the materials that our consulting engineer provided for the staff report builds off of this old vision.

So the area that shows the expansion in our 3D image, that's about 600,000 square feet of development and our engineer

The way we got to the 5,000 vehicle trips per day is based on the ITE assumptions for square footage for office and warehouse.

And so it relies on this diagram to get to that proffer for 5,000 vehicle trips.

in terms of traffic impact.

and other applicants to provide much more information than we're getting with this one.

So I do think there is an inconsistency here that's probably not lost in many.

And so, you know, that's just something that personally, I'm for this, I understand the importance of this from an economic development standpoint.

The mechanism on how we're bringing it forward leaves much to be desired.

I keep peering above and beyond, but this isn't even equal to what we typically see.

Yeah, plus one on that comment and also to Commissioner Murray's earlier comments as well.

And I just want to say really briefly that the whole idea like above and beyond and doing doing more in the county serving as an exemplar since this is really our project.

You mentioned that there was a lot of funding in the resiliency world and you talked about energy efficiency and all that solar panels, etc.

I just want to say that I work in the resiliency arena.

That's my career.

I work with the Department of Defense.

I work with federal military installations and projects that I have going on now.

And I would say that they have a huge green infrastructure focus, and it's not just energy.

So like, for example, I would have got real excited on your drawing if I saw green rooftops on those buildings.

Green rooftops can absorb the same amount of water as a forest.

And also you can capture and store water.

And our county office building has a fabulous green rooftop that I understood saved up to 30% of our energy costs.

So I just really like to see maybe when you're proposing this to your partners that the county sets some standards for resiliency and then go ahead and go after some of that resiliency funding.

There's all kinds of memoranda on, there's one here official, DOD taking steps for energy and environmental resilience.

And they have awarded tens of millions of dollars across the country.

And they talk about the fact that they are stewards of species as well.

And so I'd really like to see more on that aspect emphasized and that issue court partners that the county developed some

You're working with an entity.

DoD has its own green infrastructure person.

already developed all of these tools, programs, and funding.

So you may be able to leverage some of that because they talk not just about their bases, but also the land surrounding military facilities.

So if you spend a little more time articulating that, I think it would also be a little bit more palatable because it's county as developer now.

And so how is the, you know, we have a rain garden right outside this building.

I mean, we have done a lot.

We put rain gardens in Crozet.

We've done green things.

But this is our chance to say we're not just going to do development as usual with a bunch of big box buildings and a big wide road.

So I'll step down off my soapbox now.

Commissioner Bivins, did you have a... Really a pretty pedestrian question, given the space that's there.

There will be no barracks there of any type, given the direction that's a question.

I know housing is a topic that has come up for the military side of folks that are at Rivanna Station.

At this time, there's no plan for barracks or housing on the property.

And so that's really my, you know, I've sort of talked about give yourself as much room as possible to be, because, you know, our county, the county to the east of us was able to secure a business because they had a tier four.

And so I would like us to have as many tier fours so that we can secure businesses and be extremely competitive with the surrounding counties so that we can have some of that economic development.

So we can sort of be aggressive when we look at that economic development.

So that's my piece.

It's like, if there's going to be barracks, please write that in.

If there's going to be that, please write that in because that's how we get to leverage the resources that we have here.

If I could ask, there was a, and I don't know if this was just sort of Route 29 sort of ghost tales, but did the county purchase the little building where there was a woman who was a

The Pomerater?

And so when you had your strategy to action session diagram up there and you have a road coming up at the north of the property, is it coming through the, I assumed it was coming through the

Yeah, that's what I figured, because again, I'm encouraging, I mean, I'm encouraging if we're going to use that as a possible exit, please.

take that to the next level, because that's where a different level of public scrutiny will come.

And so if you need it, declare it.

So that people say, well, look, they took down the, what do you call that thing?

Psychic reading, the ghost light.

Oh, you take down the psychic?

You take down the palm reader's house and everybody sort of becomes, you know,

They get bound up.

It'll be all over Reddit.

It'll be all over Reddit.

Any other questions?

I just had another question, too.

You have former agricultural land around the edge, and have you considered anything like nutrient banking or carbon credits as a way of producing revenue off that property while also providing that benefit?

Because there's a huge amount of money in nutrient banking and carbon credits, so you could

I have not been involved in those conversations, but that is a great, great concept and an idea and something that we'll take note of.

Because we don't intend to, you know, that area won't be developed.

It would be passive use.

And so if we could take advantage of it in some way that also, you know, would gain us credit that way, then we should look at it.

It would be a very positive thing for the locality, too, in the sense that often nutrient credits, when people purchase them, they're purchased from far outside our county.

And so the more nutrient banks that we can have locally, the more we can keep those impacts, the mitigation of those impacts local.

Thank you.

Great.

So I'll

I'll take the floor for just a minute.

And first of all, greatest respect for what you all are doing and for the work that's gone into this.

I know it's a huge lift.

Secondly, I do agree that, you know, a rising tide floats all boats, and I think it would be great for this area to see this thrive.

I also am searching for a differentiator that, and I was wrestling with whether to ask this as a question or to go into discussion afterwards, but with what I've heard from other commissioners, I think I'm going to try to phrase it as a question, so bear with me here.

So I'm looking at it as sort of for the differentiator.

Maybe the differentiator is public funding, the millions of dollars that's being invested in this property.

Or maybe the differentiator is, you know, the defense related mission and national security.

But I think we need to, and maybe this is the question, how do we answer the development community that comes to us and says, as a county, I have looked at the art of the possible.

And I've determined that on this piece of property I have, I will be able to develop this vision.

But I'm not really going to be able to figure out the details until after I get my rezoning.

And so as a commission, as somebody, as a group that oversees and sees a lot of these different applications, I could foresee an applicant coming forward with that, basing it on the standard that we set as a county.

So that, I don't know how to put that in the form of a question, but how, I guess I will, how do we answer that?

And if we don't have an answer for it tonight, we should be thinking about it moving forward.

It's a great question.

I appreciate how you framed that.

I do think there's a few different answers to that potentially, or there's a series of answers.

One, because of the nature of

Rivanna Station and its function.

The acquisition was important to help provide some security and take that threat of encroachment off the table.

And that has gained great notoriety and traction from locality for doing that.

Secondly, I think the type of development that we will need to do

will be one that will have to work very carefully with those entities to do the master planning and the future design.

And so that's not necessarily answering your question, but I think that's kind of the circumstances that we find ourselves.

To have discussions with the partners that we are gonna continue to work with,

We also have to do some level of design and concepts as we go.

And so that's a process that's going to take some time.

The thing that I think is a differentiator from the developer who was here before us who does good work and you guys had a great session.

One thing that I think differentiates the county as being the applicant is we have been in the public eye on this for coming up on a year come the 24th.

We're going through a rezoning process.

Everything that we do

Even after, let's fast forward, we get a site plan, we go through that process.

Every step of the way the county will take, it takes board approval and action through an appropriation.

If we would get to the point of us actually building buildings, we have a capital process of which

for our big capital projects, our board approves schematic design, anything that we would do in a partnership, they would have to approve the terms on all that.

So I do think a differentiator compared to a private developer is once a private developer has that site plan approval, they're off and running.

Mr. Newberry will be here over the next 20 years presenting to the board

on this project.

I hope so.

I'm sorry, I don't mean to get loud.

The development pipeline on this we think is that 20-year horizon.

Thank you.

All right.

Appreciate it.

Thanks for your presentation for the answering all the questions.

I'll open it up now to comments from the public attending in person who have signed up.

The first name on my list is Rob McGinnis.

Good evening.

My name is Rob McGinnis.

I'm here representing the Piedmont Environmental Council.

I want to start off by stating that it's important to point out that PEC is not opposed to growth of the defense and security sectors in Albemarle County.

However, what we are concerned about is the process for advancing Rivanna futures through the real estate transaction entitlement processes.

The entitlement process has been significantly truncated and the counties both applicant and review and reviewer, which can be, but doesn't necessarily mean it would be problematic.

But what is really concerning for us

It's at the proposed initial two phases, and I don't know if you really got that, but there are two phases of development of Rivanna futures appear to be part of a much broader initiative to accommodate future growth with defense and security sectors.

I'm going to read you a quote from the final minutes from your October 24, 2023 planning commission meeting.

That quote is from the record.

of the presentation on Rivanna Futures as part of AC44 Economic Development Goals and Objectives.

So I'm going to start the quote.

Mr. Henry said that they saw potential for development from North Fork all the way up to Green County, approximately eight miles with a possibility of realizing a level

a potential similar to Silicon Valley at its onset.

He said that they believe the Rivanna Station futures projects would help anchor that work.

He said there was an ecosystem in the community that supported it, end of quote.

And there is a sentence in your ZMA packet in that proposal that says, it is likely that the county will make additional applications, including rezoning applications in the future to further support Rivanna Station and target industries.

The meeting minutes and staff report imply a larger initiative with a potential scope of development of virtually unknown to community members.

So I get these conversations and phone calls.

They're like, we don't understand what Rivanna Station Futures is other than this initial project.

So there needs to be a better communication of what the intensity and level beyond this.

If this is a catalyst, we need to better understand how far this project's going.

Thank you.

The next person on our list, I don't think is here, but it is Wilbert Wingfield.

I think he may have spoken on the previous project.

Okay, we'll go on to the next one.

Good evening.

I'm Tom Olivier from the Samuel Miller District.

I recently emailed to you a statement on the Rivanna Futures Project that I presented to the Board of Supervisors before its April project update.

In that statement, I questioned the benefit of Rivanna Futures to current residents and noted that residents had not seen broad impact analyses of the project.

I urge the Board to make any existing impact analyses publicly available or hold further commitments to Rivanna futures until such analyses were done.

At the end of the supervisor's discussion, the chair noted impact analyses for Rivanna futures were needed and asked the staff to develop some.

If these analyses now exist, I haven't seen them.

As far as I know, Albemarle County intends to proceed to the approval of Rivanna futures with insufficient information on its fiscal, schools, environmental, and other consequences.

Of course, there are other problems with the county processing of Rivanna futures.

The $58 million purchase of land for the project was hatched and approved in a closed meeting.

I know Virginia law allows it.

And as the Free Enterprise Forum has noted, the county's review of its own development proposal is moving unusually quickly and with less than usual required information.

If this is fine for the county, why is it different for private businesses?

County says it purchased land due to a concern that the federal government might relocate agencies at Rivanna Station if the county did not provide additional land for expansion.

Consider the precedent.

Is the county going to make hasty, large-scale decisions anytime the federal government dangles the possibility of relocating its Albemarle installations?

Also, county staff have said that a rapid review was needed to qualify for VEDP site development money.

Is the county now so seduced by economic development that it will cut corners on review processes?

for VDP dollars.

I urge you to inform the boss that the current Rivanna's future review process is substandard and they should take steps to prevent it from becoming the new normal.

Finally, a little different.

At what stage in our rise as a national intelligence hub do we anticipate becoming a target of nuclear weapons?

Thank you.

Is there anyone else here this evening?

Yes, sir.

Please come forward, state your name and general area of residence, and you'll have three minutes.

Good evening, and thank you for your time.

My name is Michael Scott.

I live out in the Earleysville area.

And I spoke at the June 21st Board of Supervisors meeting, which was held to discuss this exact

Purpose.

And my comments at that time was that I've been a resident at Moore County for 30 years.

I'm very familiar with this area and this opportunity.

And I said I thought it was the most forward-leaning move that I'd seen the county make in three decades.

So I commend the folks who move forward with it.

I believe that the county's decision that evening to open this up is exactly what this rezoning

and Ables.

That was 11 months ago, so I would not call that hasty by any stretch of the imagination.

I've read through all the due diligence work that's been done.

There's been a ton of work done on all the slope analysis and things like that.

I know there's more to do before you can build something.

But I think you're dealing with a different animal when you're dealing with the federal government and the state government.

And you need to get that level of readiness to get interested investment.

As a county resident and part owner of a $58 million bill, I look forward to bringing some of those federal and state dollars in as quickly as possible, as I'm sure you all do as well.

My real focus the night that I spoke last year, sir, gets to your, I think the heart of your question.

And that was that I had asked because I mistakenly at that time thought that the discussion was about the whether or not they should purchase the land.

I asked that the at least 20 to 25% of the property be set aside to create a right to refer to as a natural area rejuvenation zone for veterans, military and first responders, a quiet area

were people who don't have ready access to large acreage and quiet space and go clear their mind, heal their mind, work with others in the community who specialize in healing folks.

What a perfect place to do that.

The board was and the staff have been extremely receptive to that idea.

And I look forward to further developing that.

That's outside of the scope of what we're talking about tonight.

But I think if I understood your question correctly, that that gets to something that I'm personally passionate about.

And I'm glad to hear that's come up here again tonight.

So I would just encourage you to take the next step forward.

Thank you.

Great.

Is there anyone else here that would like to speak to this issue?

Being none.

All right.

So I will offer to the applicant the opportunity to come up and address any of the comments you may have heard.

And as a reminder, you have five minutes, JT.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Something we could provide a little more information on is this notion of an innovation corridor.

Once the county was publicly under contract to purchase the land, there were a number of people in our community

that were interested in partnering with the county on how we could maximize the opportunity.

And so one of the, a few of the partners that were especially interested were from Green County, which has a defense production overlay zone and also approximately 500 acres of land that's been designated in a way that is similar to the form of development that you find at North Fork.

Green County's interested in pursuing something like that in the Ruckersville area.

So the eight miles of innovation corridor refers to Airport Road to Route 33 in Ruckersville.

And along that corridor between the county's acreage, the University of Virginia Foundation's acreage, and the land in Green County, you're looking at about 1,500 acres of space that could be

intentionally planned for these types of sectors, these types of uses.

So I hope that provides a little bit more background on it.

Thank you.

All right, thank you both.

With that, I will close the public hearing and open it back, bring it back to the commission.

or discussion.

I'll kick us off in kind of the big picture and actually kicking off from a riffing on something that some folks, some of y'all including Christian Missel sort of asked earlier, what's the differentiator between this and a private developer asking for rezoning?

And I'm surprised in a way that that was such a question because to me, the answer is obvious.

We don't run government like a business.

If anybody ever is running for office and says they're going to run government like a business, they will not get my vote.

We run government to provide public goods and public benefits.

And I feel like in our country, we've really lost the whole idea of what a public good is.

And so to me, this is a county government deciding this is what's going to be in the interest of the polity, the whole public.

The site prep is something that county decision makers have decided is a public good.

That's security around the existing Rivanna station facilities, preparation of the site for stable and well-paying jobs.

And it's, yes, the presenters, the proposers noted it's a public priority that has handled through a public process.

Now we can keep hand-voting opinions about whether that's the right industry to target or not, but that was the decision that was made.

So to me, that's the differentiator.

What I also like about us being proactive in this way is that it opens the door for future public good pursuits.

And we have a lot of those needs that are out there.

We don't always have to wait for a private developer or seeking private profit to come to us asking for a rezoning or a SEP or whatever, that we can actually do things for public good.

Great.

If I could, since we're in discussion, I just wanted to mention one thing on that.

And it's a good point.

I think the challenge is that applicants who come to us with affordable housing initiative requests very much see that as something that is for the public good.

And they are not expedited.

They oftentimes take years to be approved.

So I think the challenge is, and I hear what you're saying, I think the challenge is

How do we define public good?

And this is not for us to think about tonight.

I know.

It's a bigger question.

Sure.

But it's good.

I'm with you.

Thank you, Commissioner Moore.

So I think everyone's heard my attempt to sort of give the applicant some flexibility so that they can in fact do the things that might be presented that are not known today.

But I'm also sort of going to come along on what Commissioner Moore is talking to and to remind us generally, and that's a big us.

that the supervisor was sort of asked in time, what sort of county property?

So not this piece, but what's county property that might actually help to advance housing?

that might help to advance some type of, some of the other, which I hope for AC44, as I asked when we had this conversation before that we actually have a reevaluation of what our target industries are in the future, because what they were and not what they are today, and they certainly aren't going to be what they're going to be tomorrow, so that there'd be some sort of robust sort of wrestling where it was a target industry, but in any event,

What we have found out is that if you're going to come to this community and try and buy, and everybody knows that I am not the person who thinks that you should be able to buy a house, I think you should have housing.

But I have problems with the situation that's been perpetuated by the GI Bill and all that foolishness.

But I do think that the county does have as a public good an opportunity to have a diverse workforce.

The people up there on 29 are going to need people with a diverse workforce.

the people that you're bringing over the University Foundation.

They're going to need people who have a diverse workforce.

And that diversity of workforce means that we have transportation networks, that'll come, that we have housing stock, that'll come.

And I think where I'm coming from on this one is that the housing stock could be land or could be swapped with land that the county owns.

And so for me,

What we're going to be doing at the Rivanna station and the Rivanna property is an indicator that the county is willing to think about putting a dime in the grant.

And I'm hoping that the county is willing to put a dime in the ground for the people who will work in the county.

because if people still have to drive over to Wayansboro or they've got to drive to Louisa or those various other places that people drive in, then that will make it more difficult for people to attract businesses to this location because businesses are not going to say, I want my folks to drive an hour to come to work.

The other places that they could do that is as lovely and as brilliant as Albemarle County.

So the combination of land for people to work on and land for people to live on, in my mind, is part of the economic development equation that hopefully our supervisors are thinking about.