Board of Supervisors Closed Meeting and Government Operations/Courts Relocation Opportunities Analysis   12/20/2017

I'm calling the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors to order and we have a motion to go into closed session.

to consult with and be briefed by legal counsel and staff regarding specific legal matters requiring legal advice relating to the negotiation of an agreement for and the possible relocation of court facilities.

Second.

Mr. Randolph?

But we are late today and we apologize for the delay.

We have a certification coming out of closed session.

I move that the Board of Supervisors certify by a recorded vote that the best of each supervisor's knowledge that only public business matters lawfully exempted from the open meeting requirements of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and identified in the motion authorizing the closed session were heard, discussed, or considered in the closed session.

Second.

Yes.

Thank you, Rick.

Fourth, land use valuation should be recognized in the revenue sharing formula between the county of Albemarle and the city of Charlottesville.

Just wanted to say that before we took the vote.

Those are the kind of things that we should be talking about with skilled people on our leadership team.

Is that correct?

and so we could talk about timing and we could talk about cost and if you think that's the appropriate time I don't know if that would be our consultants speaking to that just for a second in terms of timing and cost is that

I'm listening to Norman and I'm realizing that I didn't think we were voting for the expenditure at this time and so that might be my confusion.

The motion was to go ahead and confirm what we were asking them to do.

Do you want to go on with the vote or do you want to have Stantec address the cost issue?

I'd be glad to have the vote and have them update us on January 3rd about the details of the scope and as staff works it out with them for the scope of the next assignment.

I don't have a question.

okay so I'm hearing four all right so we'll go and have the vote that's fine so do you want to I don't I think does everybody is everybody clear on the vote or in the motion rather we have a motion and a second yes Trevor did you have something you want to say?

And that's just my reaction to this question.

That's all I was talking about there, but I'm happy to have them all go to work.

I mean, how much we're paying?

We had that in the original plan that we've already adopted, so that's why I thought we were going to work.

Well, out of today's direction, we would formalize a scope, they would formally respond to that.

Would we have another chance to vote on that price and scope?

That's at the discretion of the board.

Sure.

Absolutely.

Is that what this board is saying?

I think that's totally appropriate.

Yeah, absolutely.

But just from a timing, that might be the first meeting in February rather than early in January.

Yes, ma'am.

I'm just trying to manage the expectation of responsiveness.

But we would absolutely be able to have a discussion around that and a decision about calls.

Okay.

I'm planning on voting yes, but I'm not okaying an expenditure at this time.

So maybe at the next part of the meeting, direction to staff can be formally to bring it back in February with the proposed scope and budget.

Okay, so we have a motion on the table and a second.

We're ready.

She seconded.

Sheffield, Mr. Dill, Ms. Mallek, Ms. McKeel, Ms. Palmer, Mr. Randolph

okay so that motion passes and we will get to this discussion with Stantec for right now though I am and I know this seems a little strange but I'm going to take the chair's prerogative and Ann and Liz are going to... Can I go to the bathroom real quick?

It's closed.

We have a little series of rollouts here, Brad.

We're going to punish you so severely for leaving us.

For the public to know, remember this is Brad's last meeting.

We really appreciate it.

I think I said the other day so I'll repeat it quickly though that I personally really appreciated your leadership on that Brad because getting on the board as a new board member I knew nothing about roads and you gave me a lot of confidence when we were voting on all the issues we voted on.

Alright Norman and Rick are up next.

I'm waiting for Norman to go by.

We have this.

So I like those three qualities a lot.

Thank you.

We count on you beginning to make a great start in doing so at midnight, December 31st, 2017.

You taught me everything I know about transit.

So.

And we could have six of them hanging up in our board office.

So thank you all so much.

We know where you are.

yeah that's good yeah we'll be seeing you with a lot of our transit discussions as well so thank you for letting us have a time for this and I guess with that I will go now Trevor do you want me to roll it over to you or are we good thank you Brad that was great

Yes, ma'am.

Come back anytime.

Madam Chair, yes, did you want to review the timeline or do you want to just proceed?

So with that, Trevor, do you want to take it away?

and thank him for his service and it's been a pleasure to work with you and my gift to you Brad will be making sure those planners look good on the bridge at Route 29.

I've been accused of being a time optimist meaning I don't have a good sense of how long and how much time things take.

Well the best time to do this is probably three o'clock in the morning when there's very little traffic.

Real quick, people don't realize actually Trevor was the first county employee that I told that I was running for office because we were working together on Belvedere issues.

So with that, Mr. Leff.

So, I think our recommendation was that the next phase, and I think what you voted on, that we would be doing a pre-marketing and market – can you hear me?

If you can just put it a little closer.

That's better.

Thank you, sir.

It will also give the Board of Supervisors and staff a lot of information about the importance of civic uses and the kinds of civic uses and other things that might be necessary to make a successful development.

Any questions from board members?

That I eagerly await.

Norman?

What's the balance between talking to local developers versus non-local developers to get their thoughts on things?

Some of them are coming from further afield, but they're already working here in Albemarle County.

Just as a follow-up, when you say this scale, how would you describe the scale to someone who kind of knew Charlottesville, but not real well, and what would you be saying, just as a starting point, not, you know, obviously any commitments or anything, but I don't know what you mean when you say scale, are you talking about millions of dollars or square acres?

I think we're looking at something that probably exceeds 10 acres in space.

So am I right that this work will not be done until we come back with the scope and the price, correct?

That's correct.

That's right.

Supervisor Dill, if I could too, in the STANTEC report, pages, and we don't need to go to it now, but pages 19 and 20 are development scenarios, so I think we would anticipate the answer to your question would be kind of embedded in what was assumed as part of the analysis, and Supervisor Palmer, yes, we will further define the scope that includes cost, schedule, and source of funding that we would bring back to the board for that meeting on, I believe it's the 7th of February.

I think if you at least know where the push pop is going to occur, you can start thinking about that.

That would be, I think, our goal and looking at the comprehensive plan is important.

It's pretty strong now, but I think you're talking about making sure the policies behind the effort are being addressed.

And I'm just pointing to Doug or Mark.

Mark, it was in the back of the room, so.

It sounds great.

But there's no inconsistencies that have popped up so far.

It's just a matter of trying to make sure it's all incorporated in the comprehensive plan.

All right, Trevor, any?

This is board discussion time.

Well, I just want to make sure that Anybody else have any other questions or so we would be looking for you all to come back then.

Well, I think we're ready.

Go ahead and ask a question.

Yeah, I'm just not sure if you even have an opinion how this 20% tax break for pass-throughs is going to affect the development market that our government is passing effective January 1.

I'm not sure that we can really comment on that yet.

I figured it was a little premature, but I would suspect that since all these developments have LLCs, that there will be an impact.

Whether it's positive or negative, I'm not sure I could answer that.

Trevor, what else do you all need from us?

Convention Center, but also a listening opportunity from developers as well.

Am I correct on that?

So I think we understand that scope generally, staff has the action to bring back to the board for this February 7th meeting, you know, what that defined scope is, what the schedule is, and what the budget and potential funding source would be for that.

Jeff, did you have anything you want to add?

I think the county attorney and I are clear on what our direction is moving forward out of here and I appreciate Trevor and the consultant clarifying next steps on coming back with the pre-market study.

So I think I'm good at this point.

One thought that just occurred to me, in your experiences, it often happened that local landowners would partner with someone, a bigger developer out of town or out of, you know, in the state to create some new thing like this, not requiring it.

We've often seen that in many of the projects that we've worked on.

Good.

And Trevor, thank you very much.

Thank you Madam Chair, members of the board, appreciate it.

That's right.

That's right.

It's almost on top of us.

I'll miss you all.

We want to make sure that our citizens are aware so they don't come down here expecting to do business on the day after Christmas.

Trevor, is that, okay, so I'm getting a nod of affirmation.

And the 24th, 25th, 26th, December, already closed up.

24, 25, and 26.

And then the New Year's was the addition, I mean the day after New Year's was the addition.

Yep, thank you ma'am.

Did you have anything, Norman, I thought maybe at one point you had something, and I think I forgot.

Yeah, that's okay.

I'm sorry.

I don't know if you have any.

Then they should contact Trevor, if they are.

Madison County, correct?

Yeah.

I'd say up to New York City Director of Facilities and Environmental Services that we can bring those details back in February I think that's a probably better time we'll give Stantec a little bit of time to to assess that and I think more I would be responding off the cuff here I'd rather respond with you know with a little better studied information and landowners could be anywhere could be anywhere I mean it just depends on doesn't necessarily mean that they're within a certain distance of the intersection yeah

We'd like to develop a comprehensive list and we welcome any input you have on that.

And I know we did have developers from within the area as well as outside of the area throughout Virginia that at one point were talking to staff, so there was interest.

We will be casting the net for the regional and national developers that we know are interested in the area, but we do welcome all the local information we can get.

Great, thank you very much.

Alright, so we are adjourned.

Thank you.

Thank you everyone for coming and happy holidays