Board of Supervisors Regular First Meeting   3/4/2020

And if everyone would please join in a moment of silence.

and board we need to adopt our final agenda and I have a note here that item number 8.4 is being removed from the agenda and the county executive may want to make comments or not.

Let's see 8.4 is the resolution revitalization area designation for south low income house tax credit.

but we will, that's just being removed from the consent agenda.

And then I would like to pull the 85, the VDOT monthly report for a comment.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Palmer?

Yes.

Ms.

Mr. Galloway?

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

And brief announcements by board members.

Briefly, Chair Galloway, thank you.

I'd like to just comment about a wonderful opportunity a couple of weeks ago that we had to attend the Southwood Showcase Weatherization Program.

This was a program sponsored through LEAP, the Local Energy Alliance Program, as the project manager and implementation habitat for humanity of the greater Charlottesville area, which was an implementation partner.

Creative Conservation, which later became an implementation partner through donation, Albemarle County, Dominion Energy, Fitch Services, which was an implementation subcontractor, and an anonymous donor who was very generous in helping to fund this, and this was an opportunity

to go through Southwood and improve the weatherization on a number of the residences there, providing incredible benefit both in terms of the better climate control that the residents had, reducing their expenses and also helping to reduce some of the environmental impacts from individuals having to use too much energy to either heat or cool their homes.

I have two.

I'll go next.

Thank you.

Last Friday, I was fortunate to go along with Mike Culp on an adventure to Buckingham for the $28 million announcement from the USDA to CVEC, our Central Virginia Electric Co-op, to greatly support the project that they're doing to provide Internet and broadband to so much of the surrounding counties here.

And Albemarle's station, primarily included in the new funding, will be the White Hall substation.

And this grant will help SEVAC continue to forward momentum and add White Hall to its Firefly current fiber build by the substation list.

The Midway project's already underway, but we're still several years away with the rest.

We're encouraging people who are interested in learning more about the SEVAC Firefly schedule to check in with Mike Culp or to go to FireflyVirginia.com website where they have maps and all sorts of dates.

But it was a great way to learn about the partnerships that so many communities, the state government and the federal government working together to provide this for our residents and it was an exciting day.

And just listening to Bucky Walsh and Mike talk in the car was like a

advanced degree in electro something or other because it was fascinating and I was glad I was able to learn what I was able to manage to understand.

But I also want to give tremendous credit to Mike Culp.

He has managed to create a whole new world for us here with all of his work and I know there's a lot more to do.

and the last is a, uh oh, that second Saturday, March 14th at the Crozet, all around art venues in Crozet.

That's the small town, big art adventure.

Restaurants are doing special things and at the Crozet Artisan Depot, at the old railroad station and at studios throughout the area, there will be things going on.

So I invite people to come out and have some fun.

I do want to just say that all of us, I think everyone that is here this afternoon, attended on Saturday night the police foundation annual police foundation banquet where we awarded

our Albemarle County's finest awards and celebrated the great work from our police department and it is good for folks to just realize that there is an Albemarle County Police Foundation.

They're happy to take donations towards the good work that our Albemarle County Police Force does for us and keeping us safe every day.

One last one in case I just forgot, the Well Water Testing Clinic sponsored by Virginia Tech and the Virginia Cooperative Extension again will be May 25th.

So check in with the extension agent or because there'll be a chance to purchase your testing kits ahead of time since they sometimes sell out.

So keep an eye out for that.

I'm just going to piggyback a little bit on Ann's talk about SEVIC and the good work that Mike Culp has done along with other staff.

We have a much better ability to map

We have underserved areas now because of the good work that our staff has done.

And I do want to encourage everybody to, if you know people who have poor internet service out in the rural areas, please have them do the speed test and provide their information to our IT department because we're collecting

quite a list of folks.

And what we're trying to do is cobble together groups in areas that need service in order to apply for grants.

And now I'm going to lose my voice, but I will mention the fatty grant that

we've already announced here and talked about, but this is with Albemarle County, the state, and CenturyLink to bring much, much better internet service to 837 residents in the county, which is, along with all the wonderful work that SEVIC is doing, that's another big slice of Albemarle County.

and there are, I believe it's about 3,300 or 3,600, I can't remember exactly, houses in the county that are served by SEVIC, almost all rural, and they'll be getting to everybody at some point in the next few years.

I'm just going to make a brief comment.

I usually vote in the mornings when I vote, so yesterday I voted.

But I had to vote late in the evening, so I got there with maybe 15, 20 minutes to go.

And since I usually vote in the morning, I see all the volunteers when they're up and amped up and ready to go.

So yesterday I saw them at the end of the day.

and they were ready for 7 p.m.

But it just reminds me, I want to thank all the volunteers who, yet again, were out there to make sure the polls, everything ran smoothly during the voting process.

I think they told me, at least where I vote, it was like a 40% turnout, which was higher than what they'd expected.

I don't know what it was county-wide, that was just for the one precinct.

So that was encouraging to hear.

Ned, just to add to that that we should put a plug in because they're always looking for more volunteers and it is a very rewarding experience.

They are there all day, but what a good, just a wonderful effort it is on behalf of our community and I know that

Yeah, and I'll echo that.

Well, there's a camaraderie to it, too.

I know that, you know, it's...

And it's also nice on Election Day not to talk politics because as an election official you don't do that.

You just make sure the election is run smoothly.

The person that was running that poll, they ran out of stickers.

So I didn't have a sticker to prove that I voted yesterday.

But he was like, that's both a good and a bad thing.

Board, let me take a step back.

I did not introduce those on the dais, which I should have done before announcement, so I apologize for that.

Today we have Officer Kevin Dean with us and Captain Terry Walls, so thank you gentlemen for being here.

And next to Officer Dean we have Trevor Henry and Doug Walker from the County Executive's Office.

Here at the desk, we have our county attorney, Mr. Campner, of course the supervisors, our county executive, Mr. Richardson, and behind Mr. Richardson, we have our senior deputy clerk to the board, Mr. Travis Morris.

And we do have some proclamations today and recognitions, so we'll move through these one at a time.

There are four.

The first proclamation is recognizing same page 2020, Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson and Mr. David Plunkett, the Executive Director of the Jefferson Madison Regional Library is here.

If I may, I'd like to read this and you can be ready to jump up if you would like.

but I would like to go ahead and make this proclamation in the form of a motion.

Proclamation, same page 2020, Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson.

Whereas, same page provides residents with the opportunity to read and discuss a single book within their community by an author appearing at the Virginia Festival of the Book and whereas the Jefferson Madison Regional Library

Invites all book lovers to participate in Same Page, which will be held throughout March 2020.

And whereas the library's goal is to encourage all residents of central Virginia to read and discuss Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson.

And whereas the book is a collection of vivid poems that describe what it was like to grow up

Second.

Ms.

Malek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Palmer?

Yes.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Galloway?

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Chairman, members of the board, I just wanted to thank you for your support of the Same Page program, for library services, and everything you do to support literacy and reading in Albemarle County and our region.

We're very lucky to have the Festival of the Book here, and the library is lucky to be able to partner with them.

This book is a wonder.

This is the third year that we've partnered with the Festival of the Book and this event.

I hope that all of you can join us to meet Jacqueline Woodson, the New York Times bestseller,

National Book Award winner.

There's no literary award that she hasn't won, basically.

Wednesday, March 18th at 6 o'clock at the Dickinson Theatre at Piedmont.

We ran out of room at the Northside Library the last two years, so we've had to expand.

I brought a copy of the book for each of you.

Thank you very much for your time here.

When does it do?

When does it do?

These are free for you to have.

I'll come collecting next budget season.

And if I might, Mr. Chair, I just want to thank you, Mr. Plunkett, again for the great work that your library does.

To have this regional library where no matter where you live, within I think 24 hours you can have any book delivered.

You can go online and download the audiobooks.

Board, the next proclamation is recognizing March 18 through March 22, 2020 as the 26th annual Festival of the Book.

I believe we have Executive Director of the Virginia Center for the Book, Jane Kulow, with us today.

See, Jane, come on up, my dear.

Come on up.

It's good.

We're delighted you're here.

So this is in the form of a motion board proclamation Virginia Festival of the Book.

Whereas Albemarle County believes that literacy is critical to active and engaged citizenship and is committed to promoting reading, writing, and storytelling within and outside its borders.

And whereas reading stimulates the creative and intellectual growth of individuals.

while also building community through shared experiences and understanding.

And whereas the Virginia Festival of the Book draws attendees, authors, illustrators, and publishing professionals from the region, the Commonwealth, other states, and indeed the world serving as an economically significant event for this area,

while providing the majority of programs free of charge.

And whereas Virginia Humanities, the Virginia Center for the Book, the University of Virginia, local businesses and schools, as well as cultural and civic organizations, collaborate with the Virginia Festival of the Book to explore the world through reading, foster empathy for the stories of others, and promote literacy for all.

Now therefore, be it proclaimed that we, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors,

do hereby recognize Wednesday, March 18th through Sunday, March 22nd, 2020 as the 26th annual Virginia Festival of the Book.

And we encourage community members to participate fully in a wide range of available programs and activities.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Palmer?

Yes.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Galloway?

Yes.

Ms.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for this proclamation and recognition.

We are grateful for Albemarle County's long time support for the Virginia Festival of the Book.

We know that Albemarle County staff and supervisors appreciate the value and the impact the festival provides to county residents and the entire community through accessibility to 125 free public programs this year, the diversity and inclusion of speakers and attendees,

author presentations to thousands of Albemarle County students in 21 Albemarle County public schools and the many thousands of attendees who travel more than an hour to attend, including coming from 40 states and the economic value they provide to county tourism, restaurants and hotels.

We look forward to seeing you and all county residents at the festival beginning two weeks from today, March 18th through the 22nd.

Thank you, Jane.

And you'll want to... Not that you need it, but good luck with this year's Festival of the Book.

You always seem to outdo yourself from the year before.

The next proclamation board is recognizing... No, that's the one we just did.

The next proclamation is celebrating Women's History Month.

Thank you and if I could invite Ms.

Charlotte Gibson, President of the Charlottesville Chapter of the National Organization for Women up to the podium.

Before making the motion on this proclamation, it's personally a great pleasure.

Charlotte was one of the first people I met when I moved to the area a few years ago.

quickly join the local chapter and her actions and efforts in improving the recognition and protections of women's rights and women's rights are civil rights and civil rights are human rights is worthy of recognition in its own right.

Mr. Chair, at this time I'd like to offer a motion, this proclamation celebrating Women's History Month.

whereas Women's History Month celebrated during the month of March originated in 1987 to recognize the heritage and achievements of women in the United States and whereas women of every race, class, religion, and ethnic background have been fundamental to the growth and development of Albemarle County, yet their contributions have been consistently overlooked and undervalued.

and whereas the leadership of women have been critical to the prosperity of Albemarle County, including the contributions of Sarah B. Jones, born in southern Albemarle, who became the first black woman to pass the Virginia Medical Examining Board's licensing exam in 1893 to become a practicing physician,

Mary Rawlings, who wrote multiple books about the history of Albemarle County and was one of the founders of the Albemarle County Historical Society.

Agnes Rothery, whose will provided the means to found the Albemarle County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Dorothy Newton Earp, who endowed Crozet with its first library in 1907.

Mary Frazier Cash, a longtime president of the local League of Women Voters, who once said, quote, Whatever I have done is the result of a life-long love affair with Albemarle County, close quote.

And whereas there is a history of courageous female leadership on the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors,

including the exceptional guidance of Opal David, Ellen Nash, Patricia Cook, Charlotte Humphress, Sally Thomas, Jane Dittmar, Liz Palmer, Diantha McKeel, Ann Mallek, Donna Price, and Bea LaPisto-Kirtley.

And now therefore be it resolved that we, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, do hereby acknowledge the importance of celebrating Women's History Month as an opportunity for all county residents to recognize and honor the contributions of women throughout the history of Albemarle County in order to encourage and empower future women leaders and pioneers.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Palmer?

Yes.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Gallaway?

Yes.

Ms.

So, thank you.

Women have made a lot of history, but you wouldn't know that from the history books.

Many still don't know that International Women's Day coming up this Sunday was first celebrated in 1911.

and the United Nations has sponsored it since 1975.

Before the 70s, women's history was largely absent from school curriculums.

In 1978, an education task force in California created Women's History Week and the idea, great idea, rapidly spread across the country.

President Carter then declared the first National Women's History Week in 1980 and states began expanding that to a month.

So in 1987, Congress established March as National Women's History Month.

In 1966, a new organization, the National Organization for Women, was founded to take action to achieve and protect social, political, and economic equality for women.

In 1975, Charlottesville Now secured its first local government proclamation for Women's Equality Day.

to both recognize women achieving voting rights and to acknowledge how far we have yet to go to achieve full equality.

Since then, we've taken many actions to both make history and make sure women's history is recorded.

You only have to look at our own state to see how important this is.

The first women were brought to Virginia by the colonists to be wife servants for the men already here.

and black women were brought to be slaves.

Over 400 years later, we now have the first woman speaker of the Virginia General Assembly and the first African American woman is the majority leader.

So after hundreds of years, finally this year, the first monument to women has been unveiled at the Virginia Capitol.

As we celebrate National Women's History Month this month, we remember the empowering women who recognized the need for change and acted upon it, starting locally.

And we celebrate history in the making.

On January 27th, Virginia became the 38th and final state needed to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, enabling constitutional equality for women in the United States.

A parade to mark this accomplishment will be held this Sunday, International Women's Day, at 3 o'clock in Richmond.

Everyone is invited to join the celebration and be part of the historic photo to be taken on the steps of the Capitol.

You can find all the details about that at VARatifyERA.org.

On March 17, Charlottesville now invites everyone to our Women's History Month program, Her Story, Her Voice, 6.30 p.m.

at Northside Library.

Our speaker will be an author of the just released book, The Campaign for Women's Suffrage in Virginia.

It reveals the overlooked history of the many Virginian women who organized, marched, lobbied, and even went to jail to obtain voting rights for all women in the United States in 1920.

At this meeting, we'll also hold our annual book drive for the Jefferson Madison Regional Library.

We ask now members and friends to donate feminist books for children and adults from a wish list that the library provides us each year.

Let's ensure that women's voices are among those recorded and available at our institutions of learning.

Thank you.

Thank you to the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors for taking the initiative to recognize the importance of Women's History Month and by issuing this proclamation today.

We at Charlottesville now are grateful, as always, for your ongoing support.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And Ms.

Gibson, y'all, here you come.

We like to hand these off.

Thank you.

And board, our final proclamation today is one celebrating the 100th anniversary of the League of Women Voters of the United States.

Alright, I sure will.

I first want to say that I asked to do this even though other members up here wanted to.

and as compared to some folks on this dais I'm a newbie having been in the league for only 22 years.

Ann has beaten me I'm pretty sure.

But I did ask for this because when I first moved here in the late 1990s and recognized that we had a problem with our

Water and Sewer Infrastructure, and the environmental impact it was having on our rivers, I started asking around, who works on this?

And at that time, and still does, it was the Natural Resource Committee of the League of Women Voters.

And I joined them, that's when I met Sally Thomas, that's when I met people like Treva Cromwell, anybody that knew her, knew how extraordinary she was.

and I blame the League of Women Voters for eight years on the Albemarle County Service Authority and six years now on the Board of Supervisors.

So I, and I joke, but I wouldn't be up here right now if it weren't for the League.

So I got the privilege of reading this and I think Pat Cochran, the president of the Charlottesville area League of Women Voters is here to

I'm reading this as a motion.

And this is a proclamation celebrating the 100th anniversary of the League of Women Voters of the United States, whereas the League of Women Voters was founded in 1920

as a mighty political experiment by the foremothers of the suffragists movement at the National American Women's Suffrage Association.

And their goal was to help the 20 million women who were granted the right to vote by the 19th Amendment

understand and carry out their new responsibilities as voters.

And whereas with the success of this effort and the timeless efforts over the last 100 years to strengthen and uphold its mission to empower voters and defend democracy, the League has become a trusted, nonpartisan, grassroots organization.

and whereas the League has sponsored legislation and fought in the courts to protect and strengthen voting rights and access and for free and fair elections, civil rights, children's community health and education and whereas the League has consistently been noted for its non-partisan election information including sponsorship of candidate forums,

and information on state and local ballot issues, as well as its commitment to register, educate and mobilize voters.

And the League champions government systems that are open, transparent, inclusive and equitable.

Whereas the League believes that active and engaged citizens, irrespective of gender, ethnicity or political affiliation, are the hallmark of democracy.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that we, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, in recognition of its 100th birthday, wish the League of Women Voters and its local affiliate, the League of Women Voters of Charlottesville area, many more years of defending democracy.

Signed this fourth day, March 2020, by our chair, Ned Galloway.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Palmer?

Yes.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Galloway?

Yes.

Ms.

Very good.

Thank you very much to each and every one of you for this proclamation and recognition of our League.

Our members have been working to make a better democracy

through informed and registered voters for 100 years.

I hope that the continuing volunteer efforts of the men and women members of the League inspire upcoming generations to continue our important work

for another hundred years.

And I invite you all to the Northside Library exhibit that will be maintained during the month of March celebrating this centennial anniversary.

We're very excited about it.

It has the past, the present, and the future activities of our League.

Please join us tomorrow for an activity celebrating it.

Thank you, Pat.

And Pat, if you would like to come forward to get the proclamation.

And who all is here from the League today?

Would you like to stand so we can see who's here joining in this accepting of this proclamation?

Good picture.

Thank you all for being here.

Can I say one more really quick thing about the League?

When I first got on the board, I advocated for getting all our meetings online so people could watch.

Very good and thank you all again for being here today.

At least till nine o'clock tonight.

I did want to ask Sally Thomas if she wanted to say anything because I think you did when we first all the very first meeting but you had to leave because the meeting went so long.

So if you want to say anything now's your chance.

Well, I get so emotional I might even cry, but I wanted to say how wonderful it was to see all you women up there.

Sally, you'll be glad to know that there is on occasion the clerk says Miss Galloway when she's going to be there.

Not that I'm taking any

The next item on our agenda today is from the public.

These are matters not listed for public hearing on the agenda.

Thank you, Chair Galloway.

During time set aside for matters not listed for public hearing on the agenda, individuals may address the Board of Supervisors concerning any issue that is not listed on the agenda for a public hearing.

Individuals are allowed three minutes to speak.

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

The green light will go on when you begin speaking and this begins your allotted time.

A yellow light will indicate you have one minute to finish your comment and a red light indicates that your time has expired and we ask that you bring your comments to a close at that time.

When called to the speaker's podium, we ask that you state your name and magisterial district.

that you address your comments directly to the board as a whole.

If you have written statements or other documents supporting your your position, you are invited to leave a copy with the clerk.

If you represent a group or organization, you may ask others present to raise their hands and be recognized.

If a speaker does not use all allotted time, the unused time may not be shared with another speaker, and you are permitted one opportunity during each of the public comment periods to speak.

Back and forth debate will not take place.

We ask that you not speak from your seat or out of turn.

Individuals in the audience are encouraged to raise their hands to indicate their support or opposition to speakers at the podium or any item during the meeting.

And we ask that you refrain from applause or other forms of approval or disapproval as a courtesy to each speaker.

Signs are permitted in the meeting room so long as they are not attached to any stick or pole, and do not obstruct the view of other persons attending the meeting.

Also, when you come to the podium, please move the microphone directly in front of your mouth, and we ask that you speak loud enough to ensure that everyone in the room can hear as well as those watching at home.

I'm going to call the first four names and ask that the first name come to the podium and the next three names, if you would please come and take the reserved seats on the right left side of the auditorium.

Good afternoon, Mr. Supervisors.

I have to stand here and acknowledge I'm a little overwhelmed by the sense of community that I've seen already acknowledged here.

I'd like to thank all of those who were recognized for all that they do and the board's appreciation for a good public-private partnership.

After all, that's what makes our community great and sort of what I'm here to talk to you about today.

So I'm James Pierce.

I'm from the Rivanna District.

I live in the Albemarle County Rivanna District.

I'm the CEO of the six area Boys and Girls Clubs.

And just want to submit for public record our request, which each of you have seen individually, for inclusion in the upcoming operating plan that you're considering here shortly.

I just want to tell you a little bit of a story about what happened the last two days in the club, and then a little bit of the timeline over the last three years as we've kind of gotten closer to this request.

So coming off hot, two days of school being closed, right?

We have to have schools for voting places.

We need to give teachers a chance to engage in professional development.

Another thing that makes our community great, where do the kids go?

Kids go to the Boys and Girls Club and they have a great time and they learn and they stay fit and they engage in acts of public service during the time at the club.

So I just have to tell you the last two days have been fantastic.

But we do, it's kind of an unseen time of year when Boys and Girls Clubs are open during those times when schools are closed.

Same things happen in the spring break, summertime.

So we're really excited to be able to expand our opportunities to serve more kids from Albemarle County.

I think you've all been familiar with our request and I'll submit a copy of that on my way out to the clerk.

I want to say we've gotten really engaged in this back in 2017 when we discovered that there were a thousand kids without a positive place to be during out-of-school time from an Albemarle County Public Schools study.

From there, the Boys and Girls Club and the Albemarle County Schools engaged in the study.

and we've got a good plan.

It's a costly site, it's not going to be easy for us to do, but we think that we can rally the resources with the county's involvement to get it done for our kids so that we can serve 500 more.

When I think of who's standing here, it's 500 kids who are unavailable to be here because they're right now in school, but during the out of school time they need a place to be that's positive.

So we are ready to, you know, minimal charge $35 a year for membership.

We scholarship kids who can't afford it, and we provide the best of out of school time possible within our budget.

We very much look forward to your continued partnership.

And thank you for all that you've already made possible for our county's kids.

Thank you for all you do.

Thank you, James.

Thank you.

My name is Eddie Payne.

I live in the Scottsville District, Albemarle County.

I serve on the Scottsville Town Council.

Last week, a friend of mine, Steve Besika, suffered a massive heart attack, passed away at the age of 65.

He worked at Albemarle County for most of his life, recently retired.

He was a widower.

He was a chief caregiver for his mother, who also recently passed away.

Steve always wanted to be a cowboy, and he'd spend his vacations hunting, fishing, horseback riding out west.

He was a great handyman.

If he couldn't fix it, he'd find someone who could.

He devoted his life to helping his family, his friends, and the greater community of both Fluvanna and Albemarle counties.

He never met a stranger and was always willing to help anyone, anywhere, anytime.

Steve was a life member of the Scottsville Voluntary Rescue Squad for 35 years, over half of his life.

helping and serving the citizens of Scottsville and Albemarle County.

He was never paid and just knowing that he was there for people in need of emergency care and assistance was enough for him.

I've seen times where first responders pass away and

That was a great outpouring of, a public outpouring of sympathy, some publicity, usually maybe a motorcade of police fire and rescue.

I didn't see that type of recognition at his service Friday, nor would he have wanted it.

What I did see was a gathering of people from all walks of life who he had touched at one time or another and whose own lives were enriched by just knowing him.

So the purpose of my visit here today is to ask the County of Albemarle to reach out to Steve's family and the citizens and the county he served for so many years with some type of resolution or recognition for his devotion to emergency medical services and service to his fellow man.

I've got a copy of my statement.

I've got a copy of a resolution by the Scottsville County Council.

Any questions can be addressed to the

Town, Scottsville administrator.

Thank you.

Hello.

I'm Craig Decker.

I'm from your little sister county to the north, Greene.

I come before you this lovely afternoon on two matters.

The first is the possible events around Thomas Jefferson's birthday this year, which would be the 75th anniversary of it being celebrated by Albemarle.

and the second, more briefly, is the possible disposition of the Lewis Clark and Sacagawea statue.

I came before you last June to speak in favor of keeping Jefferson's birthday.

I must have not been very persuasive because that same week you and the City Council both voted to do away with it.

But I was given the impression that you weren't hostile to Jefferson, that it was just a matter of keeping the courtroom open.

So I was hoping to come back and get ideas from you on possible events for this year.

This will, as I said, be the 75th anniversary.

and I'm trying to start a guide on University of Virginia, city of Charlottesville, new city of Charlottesville and Albemarle County, tentatively called the New Ridge Guide and one of the things I'd like to help encourage is some things around Jefferson's day.

So I'll be following up with an email to all of you to get any ideas you had on events or people or groups within your district that might be interested in participating.

My initial thought was to have a series of days, maybe from Jefferson's birthday to the end of the Tom Tom Festival.

So that would be from around April 18th, April 11th to 18th.

and to broaden it to not just to be Jefferson, but all three of our hometown presidents, including Madison and Monroe.

But I'll follow up with email on that.

Lastly, just briefly, I understand that it's likely that the city of Charlottesville will be getting rid of the Lewis and Clark and Satchee Dewey statue.

I also understand that Meriwether Lewis is a native son of Albemarle and so I felt that perhaps you would want some input into where that statue was to go after a hundred years if the city decides to dispose of it.

Ivy, where he was born, might be one possibility.

The Lewis and Clark Exploration Center is another, but I would think you'd want to possibly weigh in on that.

and again I'll follow up with an email on that and thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Dr. Charles Baddeck, Scottsville, members of the board, at the last meeting two of the supervisors had related how on their vacation time they had flown over the states or made some trips giving them a newfound interest and appreciation for environmental destruction.

So I'm sort of puzzled that the order supervisors, you're still all in with the so-called Paris Climate Agreement.

When you put up wind turbines, this is what happens on native land.

You blow up into native habitats.

You put in concrete structures and steel structures using up thousands of tons of material.

Once it's all done, those roads don't go away.

These monstrosities, termed bird killers, have to be serviced.

They wear out.

And if you're lucky enough to achieve what you want, a nirvana of windmills, then you'll be interested to find out that Harvard has done a study.

If you do enough of them, you actually warm the climate instead of cooling it.

Did you fly over Southern California or Nevada?

You were seeing this big, huge mirror complex, a $2 billion waste of public money on solar power.

It was famous mostly for killing birds in flight.

Same thing up near Sparks, Nevada.

Another $1 billion boondoggle.

Well, you don't have to go that far away.

Look around here.

There's a process called biomass, very much promoted.

You use up bits and pieces of lumber.

Rather than going to waste, you can burn it.

Well, it became so successful that they're now cutting down forests here, grinding up the wood, and shipping it over to where?

To England, so they can burn the wood pellets there instead of the coal they have.

And you remember carrying coals to Newcastle?

Well anyway, here's what you're going to have if the governor's plan gets signed off.

He's got a bill that's going to be authorizing a lot of this stuff.

You're afraid of seeing destruction of neighbor habitats.

Imagine thousands and thousands more of these.

These things don't go away.

They don't last forever.

They wear out, and then you've got a real disposal problem.

Here's over a gigabyte factory.

In Germany, they cut down 800 acres of native forest.

Scotland cut down 17,000 acres and millions of trees.

Here's what you get when you use fossil fuel.

That works 24-7, unlike the wind and solar.

You can hide a pipeline.

It's buried and green stuff grows.

This is a resting place for a turbine out in the desert.

And you're worried about plastic residue?

Well, they've done a study.

Most of all, this famous floating island of plastic is fishing nets.

They use fishing nets made out of plastic.

and when you recycle plastic here, do you know where it really goes?

Most of it goes to the Far East and they are no longer accepting it as much in China.

They are dumping it in their rivers and it winds up floating out and you see it again.

Good afternoon, Sean Tubbs, Piedmont Environmental Council.

Just wanted to start real quick with the fact that the League of Women Voters are here today.

I did want to say that my own desire to do this work was very much inspired by the legacy that I believe they have left for this community.

On that matter, in our growing community where there are many competing needs, the work ahead of you today with the Community Development Department's work program will determine the future that our children inherit.

For decades this department has led Albemarle's effort to plan and implement for the future, protecting natural resources while preparing the ground for the urbanizing community that we find ourselves in.

All of us here benefit from the stewardship of previous leaders and PEC urges continued support for attention to growth management policies that balance rural and urban needs.

Now, there's a lot of unprogrammed requests in this, and I'm not going to have a lot of time to go over them all today, and I look forward to your conversations.

But I definitely look forward to discussion about the recycling uses which is in there.

It was my understanding that that was actually supposed to move forward from your September meeting, but we'll hear details on that in a minute.

But I also encourage you to also think about prioritizing the second round of agricultural operations, given that there are still multiple loopholes that could lead to outcomes that are against the comprehensive plan.

Recently, a potential commercial industry came very close to setting up a use that was not consistent with the plan.

and so that's another reason to go back for that.

I'm also intrigued by that there's an item in there quote overlay districts around the drinking water impoundments maybe that gets to that but I'm curious to see that and it would be good to see what that detail is.

But there's also been calls for you to revisit the lighting ordinance fulfilling a long-standing comprehensive plan strategy.

I've been working with others to help publicize efforts that have been coming forward for that for years

and I believe that people previous to me have suggested a fairly low-cost solution to proceed and I look forward to hear what staff is going to present to you today.

Of course you can't get to it all and I understand that scarcity of resources is very important.

That's why when I was listening to your budget discussion yesterday I was very interested in the $356,000 that is being suggested in one-time money set up from anticipated fees that would pay for some of the additional things that are in the work plan.

Now, I would say rather than invest in consultants for this, maybe consider investing in staff.

In particular here, there's one item there, the hydraulic small area plan, which would be really great to see go forward.

I think that's a need that we have in the footsteps of the Rio plan, the Pantops plan.

It'd be really interesting to see that if we could think about building our capacity in community development as well as hiring consultants.

PEC believes that Albemarle's leaders should put a priority on anything that helps strengthen the urban area and preserves the rural area.

This overall strategy has served us well and has created the community that we all want to be successful and for some of us continue to defend.

My name is Rick Barnett.

I live in the city of Charlottesville.

I'm here to also push for a specific, urgent priority with the community development work priorities list, which is the lighting ordinance, which is badly in need of an upgrade

If you take a look at a map of light pollution in our area, it is stunningly simple to see what has happened in the last 20 plus years while the phase two of the Dark Skies Initiative from 1998 has remained near the bottom of a list of priorities for the county.

What has followed is not just two decades of intense new growth, but the introduction of LED lights and poor enforcement of guidelines from the original exterior lighting ordinance.

It's become clearly understood how artificial light, the lack of natural darkness, is damaging human health and interrupting or eliminating natural habitat for many plants and animals.

The spread of new lights, the abundance of LED bulbs being installed in old fixtures, and even new design LED fixtures which are incorrectly installed, have all contributed to the over-lit and often blinding experience of the nighttime.

There was a fairly dark sky to be seen from my yard on the southeast side of Charlottesville, but that's been sadly diminished in the last 25 years, most especially in the last five years.

Now there is obvious skyglove from Pan Tops, from the RWSA sewage plant, and the development areas of Mill Creek, Monticello High, and generally south of I-64.

Even the clouds are lit from the underside, and none of that wasted light is doing anyone any good.

Imagine there's no one of you who would hang a bare light bulb inside and indoors of your house.

You know how unpleasant and annoying that would be.

So why do we allow it to be done out where it can affect others?

Any steps towards upgrading the ordinance and more strict enforcement will encourage Charlottesville to do the same.

That will in turn improve the quality of night and the quality of life for the county.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, sir.

I'd like to leave a couple of

Good afternoon Chairman Galloway and members of the Board of Supervisors.

I'm Maynard Sipe.

I'm a land use and zoning attorney here in Charlottesville, Virginia.

I'm before you today representing Ms.

Elizabeth Hyatt, the owner of Whistlefield Farm in Afton, Virginia.

And I'm here to speak on a matter coming up on your agenda shortly.

Ms.

Hyatt is opposed to granting the special exception for the homestay for Guinea Inn at 8500 Beacon Hill Lane and I want to say that that's not a personal objection to this particular applicant but Ms.

Hyatt is greatly concerned about the continuing expansion of new commercial uses in the rural area and their impacts on the existing landowners and residents.

Land owners and residents, even out in Afton, are increasingly seeing their peaceful enjoyment of their property and their homes intruded upon by these new uses.

The problem is often that you are seeing persons or companies, many from outside the community now, seeking to establish commercial uses such as event spaces for weddings and conferences.

And they develop the minimum agricultural component needed under the law to justify them.

This can be true as well for home stays and short-term rentals.

While each one may only have a few guests, the cumulative impact of traffic noise and the interference with the rural way of life can become a nuisance to the area residents.

Ms.

Hyatt already contends every week with noise from Blue Ridge Brewery, which I know is just over the line in Nelson, but she faces trespassing also from the guests of neighbors.

If you should approve this use, I would like to recommend that you do adopt the recommended conditions by staff.

And I would suggest you may want to add a third condition, another condition that requires establishment of a fence along the back property line, which is the property line with Mrs. Hyatt since she's an abutting property owner.

And that's not a great expense to perhaps even a wire fence.

but it would help to ensure that guests at the Inn know the bounds of the property if they're walking in the woods or walking their dog and they do not trespass on abutting owners such as Ms.

Hyatt.

So I would ask that you consider that if you do choose to approve the use but of course I reiterate she is against approval of these homestay uses.

Good afternoon.

I'm doing my best Sean Tubbs, not using paper.

I'm Neil Williamson with the Free Enterprise Forum, a privately funded public policy organization focused on local governments in the Charlottesville-Albemarle area.

As we've known in a recent budget meeting yesterday, the FY21 projected income from community development fees increased by, I believe it was over $400,000.

This is not a windfall, as by state code,

Fees are designed to be cost recovery.

The Free Enterprise Forum further believes that the cost recovery should be about 80 percent because there is clearly a community benefit to having such inspections and fees done.

Yesterday, in the budget work session, we were encouraged to hear a new term.

external resources as it relates to community development.

Later today you will hear the community development work plan that will further explain this process.

With the risk of being supportive of something that you may all of a sudden not like, we actually support testing the external resources.

We see it as a best management practice

that utilizes and expands the internal staff capacity with the active management of such external resources, not letting them just go and come back.

We further believe that this test, managed properly, will be successful and worthy of rolling out in the future, not today.

In the future, we can see the use of such external resources with internal management could positively impact the county's capacity for inspections, site plan reviews, small area plans, rezoning reviews, traffic studies, and much more.

Such activity also prepares Albemarle County for what I call the current and impending silver tsunami.

We have a number of staff members in Albemarle County that are punching the clock.

They're headed toward retirement.

God bless them.

Someday I want to retire too.

These types of innovative management strategies expand your capacity

and May get you through the Silver Tsunami.

The Free Enterprise Forum respectfully asks for your support of these external resources.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else who would like to speak before the board?

Can I just say one real quick thing?

Just a quick thing.

It was mentioned the RWSA and lighting.

We got to get to our consent agenda next.

So moved.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Palmer?

Yes.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Galloway?

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

and I have no need for reaction or response from staff today on the VDOT report that I asked to be approved.

I just want to state for the record since we've been discussing the raised forward Earliesville intersection, it's on here as a secondary six-year project study to further scope, but I also just want to make sure it's clear as we discuss it through the strategic board priority reserve that I'm looking for a faster track than going through that process and hope that with our new VDOT rep here

that they'll understand that we're obviously looking for their assistance, but this is something we're trying to get done without having to go through the length of time that it takes to sometimes get funding through other means.

and then just to confirm that it is my understanding that the temporary radar signs, as is listed in the monthly report, are temporary because of that mini-roundabout that's coming.

Otherwise, we expect that they will be there until such time that the intersection receives further safety upgrades.

So I'm obviously directing that more to our staff and team than I am to VDOT.

Yeah, we're getting to that point.

Ann has been pestering me, all meeting Mr. Saunders, so I'm going to bring you on up here to introduce our new VDOT rep.

And the surveyors were out this afternoon, this morning as I was coming down at the corner, so they're working.

Somebody's working.

It's all yours.

Good afternoon Chair Galloway, members of the board.

I am excited to introduce Ms.

Kerri Shepherd.

Ms.

Kerri Shepherd has a degree in environmental engineering and a master's degree in environmental engineering.

She's got a broad spectrum of VDOT experience and we're really excited that she's come to the Charlottesville residency.

She's going to do a really great job for you.

There were a couple of items on the monthly report.

I think we'll, this was like I said, more directed towards our staff.

You certainly weren't ready for us to be responding to that as it was on consent.

Welcome, Ms.

Please say hello.

Hello.

Thank you.

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

I'm excited to finally be here and meet you.

This is my second week in the Charlottesville residency, so I have a lot to learn, but I'm looking forward to working with each and every one of you.

Please let me know if you would like to schedule a ride along in your area.

I'd be more than happy to do so.

I will leave my card on the back of my cell phone, so please don't hesitate to call me anytime you need anything.

And again, thank you.

And as we said to Alan when he was here as interim, get ready, it's one of our favorite topics.

So I'm sure everybody will be taking you up on that ride along.

Okay, so a little bit about my history.

I'm from Suffolk, Virginia, and then I went to Old Dominion University, like Alan said.

I worked for a few years with a private consulting firm at a college, and then I relocated all the way to Salem, and that's where I started working for VDOT.

I started as a hydraulics engineer, worked out there, and then became assistant resident engineer in Farmville.

So I relocated again to Lynchburg, where I've been for the last four years.

and then most recently I'm relocating to Charlottesville for this position.

So I've been all over the state.

Thank you very much.

If you can leave us a card, that'd be great.

Wonderful.

Thank you very much.

But Alan, we are still going to have you on our Rolodex.

Oh yeah.

Well, I'm just thankful for the focus you have on transportation.

That's really great.

And I'm not going anywhere.

I'm going to work for Kerry for a few more weeks and then my way back to Louisa.

That's great.

The email and phone will still work.

With her introduction, we do not want to not thank you for your service because you've been an excellent stepping in for Joel as he stepped aside.

Lots of projects underway.

Thank you very much.

And Ned, just real quickly, while we're talking about transportation, not for you all, appreciate you coming, but when you pulled this item, I was going to say something earlier, and I just wanted to point out to the public so that they know, on the report, we have six major projects in this community that are anticipated to start construction in 20 and 21.

and I think it is really important because our community talks about transportation needs and how we need to do and build critical infrastructure and I just wanted to point out it's coming.

Some of what we're looking for is really coming and many of the complaints and the areas that we talk about are on this list so just wanted to

Kudos to VDOT, kudos to everybody.

And we're going to all have to be patient because construction is not fun.

Thank you both.

I see the chair of the school board has been waiting patiently.

Mr. Alcaro, you are up next for the board to board for February.

Dr. Chair, Madam Vice Chair, other members of the board, I'm really pleased to be with you.

And one of the reasons I'm really pleased to be here today is because my first and last of the five topics I bring to you are two of my favorite subjects in every school year.

The first one is the Winter Song Concert.

that took place last Saturday night at Monticello High School.

And it raises money for the shelter for help and emergency that has been a very, very important group within the county.

Since its debut in 2015, when Craig Jennings started Winter Songs,

The Winter Songs concerts have raised up to $20,000 a year for SHE, the Shelter for Help and Emergency.

And that assists women in need and about 400 women in need every year just from the Winter Songs.

and it provides up to two months of care for them.

Craig Jennings, who directs the choral program at Burley, established the concert in response to concerns in our community about dating and relationship violence.

As I noted, the Winter Songs concert provided a lot more than two months of shelter for 400 women last year.

Joining the barrettes in the concert were women's choruses

from Henley, Jewett, Sutherland, and Walton middle schools, as well as Albemarle, Charlottesville, Monticello, Orange County, and William Monroe high schools.

The women's chorus from Charlottesville day school also participated.

And the last part of the show, for those of you who've been there, you know this because it's absolutely fabulous.

They get all 300 of the young women on stage.

And Jennifer Morris from Albemarle High School has trained them that morning and that afternoon in doing one song all together.

And I've got to tell you, it's magnificent.

Don't miss this one next year.

Next up is the Sutherland Renaming Committee.

The first meeting of the Summerlin Community Advisory Committee was held night before last on March 2nd.

There are a total of 13 school and community members who have been selected to serve on the committee, which will review the name of the school consistent with a school board directive and the school division's updated naming policy.

Members of the Sutherland Advisory Committee were chosen from among those who expressed specific interest in serving.

Two committee members, Megan Wood and Jasmine Fernandez, are in required positions.

Ms.

Wood is the principal of Sutherland and Ms.

Fernandez will provide support to the committee and its deliberations as the committee leader.

Three committee members are from the Sutherland faculty.

Three are parents of Sutherland students.

Two live in the school community but do not have students attending Sutherland.

And there are three parents of children who attend elementary schools that feed into Sutherland.

So it's a pretty broad brush of people associated with Sutherland or to be associated with Sutherland.

The committee will also include a student representative who will keep students informed of the advisory committee's progress and will solicit named suggestions from students.

Sutherland Middle School is the second school in the division to have its name reviewed following the school board's decision to have Dr. Haas evaluate all schools named for individuals.

Of the division's 25 schools, 14 are named for individuals.

Mortimer Sutherland was a teacher and later principal in the school division, retiring in 1946.

Between 1954 and 1962, he served on first the Albemarle County School Board and then the Board of Supervisors.

The middle school bearing his name was built in 1994.

The committee's final recommendation on a school name will be provided to the superintendent who will in turn make a recommendation to the school board.

Just a quick update for the public about the funding request.

On Tuesday, the 25th, last week, it hasn't been too long since I was with you, Graham Page and I presented the school board's funding request to you for your review and adoption as part of the county's overall budget for the new year.

The school board will formally adopt its budget in April.

We continue to thank the Board of Supervisors and the taxpayers of our county for your support and ongoing support of our public schools.

The next one has to do with the proposed merger of our two charter schools within our school division.

At the February 13th meeting of the school board, Chad Ratliff, who's the principal of Murray High School and the Community Public Charter School, CPCS, proposed to the school board that the two schools be merged into one beginning in August of this year.

Students from the middle and high schools already share the same building within the Murray High School, but students receive instruction in separate areas of the building.

Currently, 81 students attend Murray and 58 are enrolled in CPCS.

Mr. Ratliff's proposal was in the form of an amendment to the Murray Charter, which is before the school board for its five-year renewal.

The board approved the merger of these two schools in its work session on February 27th.

A couple of just side points.

The average scores in both the schools on the state SOL tests this past year exceeded their counterparts

across the state.

Very proud of that.

But one of the things that is a striking number is compared to two years ago, applications to the two schools have grown significantly.

From six new applications for CPCS to 130 this year.

and from 12 new applicants to 90 for Murray High School.

So the big picture of that, 18 grew to 220 in two years.

Their new programs are outstanding.

The last thing I just want to mention is the spelling bee, which is the other one that I dearly love.

And an eighth grade student at Henley Middle School became the school division's first three-time champion in this room two weeks ago.

And in the 15th spelling bee, with 21 rounds of competition among the 25 students who won their individual school championships,

Leila Buber captured her title by spelling both soto voce and resiliency in the final round.

More than a thousand students in grades four through eight competed in their school-wide spelling bees beginning last November.

Ingrid Flaherty, a seventh grade Burleigh Middle School student finished second.

The top six placements qualify for the regional competition, which will include champions from public and private schools throughout Central Virginia.

The regional B will be held at Albemarle High School this Saturday, March 7th, beginning at 10 a.m.

I hope to see you there.

In addition to Layla and Ingrid, the four students who also qualify for the regional B are all elementary school students.

and include Maximilian Alhusen from Brownsville, Sophia Aylor from Woodbrooke, Louis DeFranzo from Agner Hurte, and Hayden Castle from Meriwether Lewis.

This is the fifth consecutive year that Leila has moved on to the regional bee.

With the winner of that bee, we'll be qualifying for the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which Leila went to last year.

And this year it's going to be held in the week of May 24th to May 29th in National Harbor, Maryland.

I open it for questions.

Exciting stuff.

I have just a couple of things.

Just a quick question, John O. Murray High School used to have spots for Charlottesville students way back when.

And they had a school that we had spots in for our Almar County students, so there was sort of a reciprocity.

At this point, I believe the answer to that is no.

Just curious.

There also used to be students from outside of the county.

who could come and be admitted, and that's no longer the case.

I was really just kind of interested in whether Charlottesville and Albemarle still had, you know, working together on spots with Murray.

The other thing, I just wanted to make a comment.

James Pierce was here earlier, speaking about the proposed new Boys and Girls Club over on the Lambs Lane campus.

Well, I love the concept of the Boys and Girls Club.

I'm not familiar completely with what the ask is for the funds that he's looking for, but I am so supportive of the Boys and Girls Club.

It's something that's needed in this part of the school division, and I think that it would serve the students beautifully.

And we have a number of students

Dr. Acuff and I were at Barracks West Department Complex a couple years ago to talk with parents who don't normally come to school board meetings or don't reach out.

And they were not even aware of the fact that there was after school programming available.

But none of them would have been able to afford our EDEP.

I have so much respect for the Boys and Girls Club and what it is they're trying to do and the cost factor would be fabulous for that community, for our community in this area or in the Albemarle campus, Lamb's Lane campus area.

And just one more quick question, and then I'll stop on this issue.

But I think the school board's already seen a proposed design.

We've seen preliminaries.

OK.

Just curious.

OK.

All right.

One follow up question to that.

So can you update us?

I know the original plan was that the driving course would go somewhere else and the building would be there.

Is that different now?

And it's now going to be basically behind Jack Jouett.

So trees are coming down.

It's a wooded area.

Someone asked me just recently what fields were being lost.

At least a portion of it.

I just have a quick comment too.

That is already a very, very confusing driving area.

We have some maps of how people have to drive through Lambs Lane Campus and it is very confusing.

We've had the electoral board complain and ask us to see if we can do something about it.

I would just urge you if you're looking at

connections and new roads and a way to get to that facility that you look at it holistically and not just a separate road down that way, but to see how you can fix that driving from the whole campus viewpoint.

Thank you sir.

All right board the next item on our agenda number 10 this is HS 2019-09 homestay special exception Daniels.

Good afternoon Mr. Chairman.

Board members, Francis McCall, Principal Planner in Community Development.

I'm here with Rebecca Ragsdale.

We're here for two special exception requests for homestays.

The first one is the HS 2019-9 Daniels.

As we've done with previous special exceptions for homestay applications,

We'll provide a quick overview of the homestay regulations and special exception process before getting into the specifics of this request, the characteristics of the property, and the recommendation which you received in your packets.

So as you probably have seen before, this is probably a familiar slide by now for rural area properties of less than five acres.

Any home stay, actually, is subject to the items that are listed in the, down here, and those are all the same, so don't need to, I don't think, go over each one of those right at this moment, as we know that they're all applicable to any home stays, but for rural area,

Properties of less than five acres, they are limited by those additional criteria, the rental of no more than two guest rooms, no accessory structures, no more than one home stay on the property, no whole house rental, and the 125-foot yard requirements for the dwelling and the parking.

So as we know, this parcel that is subject to is actually 3.73 acres, so it is subject to these regulations.

So here's the particular slide we've seen as well before with regards to the regulations that are subject to special exceptions.

and it's those four in blue there.

The particulars of this application are being asked for are the increase in the number of guest rooms and the reduced setbacks.

so as again this is probably a familiar slide as well it's just a quick overview of this of the board's actions as far as that can happen with special exceptions with regards to the factors that are considered and those two factors that are identified in the regulation themselves being that there are no detriment to the abutting lot and that there's no harm to the public health and safety

and the board has the option to, when reviewing these, to approve, approve with conditions or deny the special exception and is not required to make specific findings in support of said action.

So as noted in the report, the request for this special exception for the application, this homestay application, is for an increase from two to four guest rooms.

and to modify the 125 foot rear setback for parking only.

The dwelling itself meets the 125 foot setback from all property lines.

The abutting owner notification resulted in one letter of support for this proposal and with that staff is of the opinion that the additional guest room and parking setback reduction would not cause detriment to abutting lots

or cause harm to the public health, safety or welfare.

Here's a quick overview, an aerial photo of where the property lies off of Stony Point Road.

There's a private street that goes in, it's basically their driveway that gets to the lot in the back there.

And you can identify there, you can see the other surrounding features with the wooded area to the rear.

Correct, yes, that is where the homestay location is.

Here is a particular edition.

This is the additional packet that you received was this slide.

This slide represents what you see, the survey that was provided with regards to not in the packet.

So you received that and you also, I believe, saw an email from Ms.

Ragsdale on that.

But this is basically the layout that is used for the condition.

for the proposal.

And it shows again that home stay location along with where the approximate, that 100 feet there from the property line.

This actually worked out better than most because there was an actual physical survey that they provided and you can actually see those distances as far as how far the house is from the different property lines.

Could you pop back to the aerial, please?

Sure.

So on your site visit, the trees which are shown, are they pretty substantial?

I mean, they look like it from here.

And you probably can see a little better with the layout of this one how that is actually laid out where the location of the physically where the gravel is.

So yes, I believe that that...

Yeah, to answer your, I believe that that wooded area would provide that, and it's hard to see a little further out, but I'm not sure if there's beyond that stand of trees without looking a little closer at our GIS.

So I did send out an email to staff asking since this more intense use of a special exception would go with the land,

How would abutting neighbors, if the land was sold, would they know that this more intense use was in effect?

And this picture really shows me why that's important, at least to me, because I'm remembering an incident in my

District where someone bought a piece of property, had to cut down all the trees for the septic field, and then there, whoops, right next door was a structure that they weren't too interested in staring at, but they didn't know about it.

Now, so that's what I'm interested in, is making sure when we intensify, because

Making it four rooms instead of two rooms, to me anyway, is an intensification that's a little bit different than the setback.

When we were discussing this whole ordinance, we settled on rooms rather than number of people.

And so we would assume that this would probably be eight people in a household, but it could be more.

You know, there's no understanding of how many people could sleep in the room.

And so this is going to go with the property.

So we had some response as to how we could do that.

I know there were a lot of emails about that.

Well, I'd have to go back to the email, quite frankly, because I didn't have a chance to go back right before this meeting.

I wasn't hearing anything different that there might have been other ideas and and it was it was that potentially that or the database that we currently keep with our special use permits and a number of other applications because we currently don't actually do that for our special use permits or the special exceptions we do for our zoning map amendments because that is

And the other component of that is that the potential buyers need to actually look at the county's records.

They may not, but at least

you know if you're doing your due diligence I know when I bought my house I definitely looked at all the surrounding areas not everybody does that but everybody should and so I just want to and I don't know how the rest of the board feels about this but I'd like to

if we can decide that that should be on the electronic records when somebody goes and looks.

I know that we had a conversation, I can't remember what it was now some time ago about interest in streamlining that information, because I asked why there wasn't something on, and then we said, well, we were trying to streamline it.

So I just, I recognize there's interest in not making it too cluttered, but

I need to check with the clerk's office.

I haven't done that but the regular practice would be because the board now takes actions on special exceptions and special use permits and even rezonings there are documents that are adopted either resolutions or ordinances need to see if those could be if the clerk's office would accept those into the land record so they could be picked up in title searches.

I do know that

and this information is rather old but over the years there's been the question about recording proffers and we're only aware of one locality at least when we checked and it has been a while only James City County was recording proffers I think

Traditionally, these types of county legislative decisions are not recorded, but they just become part of the zoning regulations which are separate from the land records.

Correct, and it's just, yeah, so it's not going to show up, but you did, well you'd have to, well you might.

I think you'd have to dig through the records to go through if you're going to do it that way.

I think

I honestly don't know how difficult that actually is, but we would have to speak with other divisions, our GIS and our finance division, because a lot of that information comes from those.

It's linked in there, so we would do that.

One suggestion that I would have is we would look into this a little more and then actually come back to you all at the April 15th work session that we're planning on having and maybe give you a little more information about this.

and what we can do.

But I would like to just say that we have a particular person in our office, a particular position that handles all of these kinds of requests when that citizen comes in.

And I was in that position for a long time.

I enjoyed that position as far as talking to the citizens and giving them that information and about the surrounding properties and what it is.

So we do, as Greg mentioned, we do that kind of work and make sure that if people are asking and if that's the case, then we help them out with that information.

even a little asterisk that says special exception and people would look it up then or something like that it doesn't have to be a big explanation but just some kind of indication that there's something there's a commercial use on this residential property and I guess that's where I'm coming from

It's one thing if there's an ordinance throughout the county so everybody knows that there may be a homestead application on any property, really.

So that'll come back in April.

You know, what a way to handle it instead of saying that this one has this property or the property next door to you has a special exception to put somewhere on the GIS under notes that be sure to, you know, basically be sure to check neighboring surrounding properties for any special exceptions.

Then that means that the person, the citizen will have to go to you to find out, OK,

Are there any special exceptions that I need to know of?

Instead of us making sure that there's something on there for each surrounding property.

All right.

Thank you, Chair.

I have a question.

It might be for county staff or county attorney.

It has to do with parking.

And if you give me just a second to kind of lead up to that, if you make a hotel reservation, the rooms will typically say no more than two adult guests.

Sometimes it might say you cannot put a rollaway bed or anything else in there.

So as part of the earlier discussion, we've talked about bedrooms that are available to rent, not necessarily number of people.

But if you go to four bedrooms, theoretically, you could have, if you have two adults in each bedroom, you could have eight adults, which means theoretically you could have eight vehicles that show up at this house.

If you could go back to the satellite view that you had up just a moment ago, and when we talk about parking is limited to what's currently existing,

Where exactly do you draw the line on that parking?

Is that just the little expanded parking area?

So it's seen a little better here as far as where the existing parking area is.

A dwelling requires two spaces, so each guest room would require one additional space.

We visit the site and we document it with the home state clearance approval.

So we'll have a, this survey shows you the location of the spaces which we verified in the field.

and then when the home stay clearance, which is the next step after the special exception gets approved, it's documented.

Okay, I appreciate that because the copy that was provided in the packet was pretty light and difficult to read.

And I'm not trying to imply any ill intent on any applicant, particularly this one.

But as you know, we're trying to work through what achieves all of the objectives that we've got.

All right.

Other questions?

Okay, I move that we move approval of this special exceptions in this parcel.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Palmer?

Yes.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Galloway?

Yes.

Ms.

Aye.

All right.

Very good.

That one is approved.

Yes, so this is the second request that I mentioned this afternoon.

2019-30 Guinea Inn.

Again, the quick outline, this parcel is actually over five acres.

So it's a little different when it comes to the additional regulations that apply to the parcels over five acres.

Again, the same home stays applications apply to everything there.

But for these particular properties, they are permitted to rent up to five guest rooms.

Still the 125 foot setback supply.

Only existing accessory structures may be used for the guest rooms.

A maximum of two home stay uses may be permitted and the whole house rental is permitted with properties over five acres.

So in this particular case, the application is requesting that only the reduced setback special exception

And as noted in the report, the request is for that 125 feet to modify the 125 foot front and side setback for the dwelling and for the parking, I believe it is.

We'll look at it when we get a little closer to the description to see the distances there.

So the dwelling does meet that 125 feet on the rear property line and the side property line.

And as was noted in the objection at the public comments, that rear property line is approximately 800 plus feet away from that home state structure that's on the property.

So speaking to that as well, the abutting notification went out.

We only received one letter of support for this proposal and this afternoon was the first time that we've actually heard of the objection.

Currently, staff is recommending that the conditions be approved with the two.

But I just want to show you a little bit more about the specific site location.

And again, there's the blue dot that is described where the approximate location is on that larger outer view there of the subdivision that the property is in.

And then

A little closer look with another aerial photo as far as, again, the surrounding location.

This unfortunately does not represent the distance that you can see with the wooded areas that goes all the way back to the rear property line.

And here is the actual parking and housing location exhibit that will be used for the condition, the proposed condition.

And you can see that the parking is approximately 90 feet and the structure itself is 121 plus from that edge.

Not very far from the missing off on the 125 from the requirement.

So with that, the staff is, again, does not believe that modifying these yard requirements or the results, sorry, would result in a detriment based on these characteristics and that would allot.

So again, while we heard that objection, I was looking up the property and the

It is approximately 800 feet to that back property line, and then the house itself to the other house of the objectors property is over 2,000 feet.

Francis, can you go back to the GIS map?

No, 6930, sorry, I apologize, yes.

Which on the GIS, if we looked at it, the house would be way up out of the site.

Okay, so that's predictable as well.

and I guess we don't get into whether the easement is going to allow this use or not.

That's somebody else's difficulty, unless it's our easement, the ACEA easement, for commercial use or not.

On the applicant's property, yeah.

I misunderstood.

Yes, the big property had the conservation easement.

It's zoned rural areas, and they have requested two guest rooms, which is less than the five that's permitted on a larger rural area zone parcel.

And then we do note in the report that the residential zoning districts in the county are allowed two guest rooms by right and there is no increased setback.

Yeah, I was a little bit confused by it.

So thank you.

and they've only asked for two.

So they could come back and they would have to come back and ask for another special exception to go up on the roads?

Or future property owner would.

Other questions?

I just want to make a comment about, and this isn't, not that I disagree or agree with the public speaker earlier, but when we were working through the Airbnb, the homestay regulations, you know, thinking about how we were trying, in some ways trying to use Airbnb regulations to regulate behavior, the issue of trespass has nothing to do with whether or not there's a homestay there or not.

So if somebody's trespassing, that's against code, so there's other avenues for that to be dealt with than trying to come through this special exception thinking that could restrict it.

You put a fence along that property, I guess they just walk around the fence?

Are there any other questions?

All right, then I will move adoption of HS-2019-30, homestay exception, Joyce.

Second.

With the conditions as written.

Ms.

Malek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Palmer?

Yes.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Galloway?

Yes.

Ms.

Very good.

Thank you both.

Some more special exceptions.

Board, we are running a bit behind and our next item is scheduled for at least an hour with the anticipation it may go longer.

We did not schedule a recess.

The next item on our agenda, light topics.

Number 12, 2020 Community Development Work Program.

Our Director of Community Development, Jody Filardo is here.

Amelia, good afternoon.

Good afternoon Chair and Board of Supervisors.

My name is Jody Filardo, the Director of Community Development.

With me at the dais today is Amelia McCulley, Deputy Director of Community Development, and David Benish, the Interim Planning Director, is sitting in the audience and he may help us out if we need it as we go along.

Before we start, I must acknowledge the help and guidance we've received over the last couple months in building this approach.

From you, the board, to the planning commission, the county executive's office, the organizational leadership team, and to our community development team, many have guided the work we're presenting today.

In the audience, I'd like to thank our fellow OLT members who've shown up to be supportive, and our CDD team as well.

This is the Community Development Work Program 2020 through 2023 update as of March.

This program outlines the discretionary policy initiatives work beyond that which the department is mandated to perform.

On a regular basis, we come before the board to summarize projects requested by various sources and to request input from the board on these requests.

Set in the context of the county executive's fiscal 21 budget, this work program outlines recommended ways in which the community development department seeks to work differently, more efficiently, more effectively to position us for the future.

Today is a time of transition for the county as our population expands.

In contrast to concerns of an economic downturn, in CDD we're experiencing a surge in demand for services.

Despite a hard-working team of can-do members, this environment challenges our ability to keep up.

Therefore, to address increases in demand, we must update our processes for this new reality.

Deputy Director McCulley and I are going to outline this discussion in context.

Further, we'll provide an update on the work program you reviewed last September 18th.

Then we'll go over the upcoming work we face moving forward.

As this is scheduled as a work session, we'll provide an approach to the work ahead with full expectations of the board's engagement.

By the end of this session, we hope to have board alignment with our approach for the next six months.

This is a chart familiar to many of you.

This illustrates CDD has little control of its overall workload.

We are mandated to complete these non-discretionary mandatory items with the exception of the work program pie shape there.

Volumes of many of these items, residential building permits and zoning complaints in particular, have increased substantially year over year.

Slides that follow will provide further data.

Staff notes, managements, and experienced staff capacity continue to limit resources available for the work program.

Remember, the work program is a compendium of discretionary projects and policy updates desired by the board and others.

In pursuing projects, of course, their complexity and the number of stakeholders with differing interests directly correlate to the time necessary for completion.

We strive to right size engagement processes to the project complexity and impact.

In summary, the purpose of this slide is to illustrate the amount of staff time available for the work program is limited by non-discretionary demands.

This topical array of 21 different non-discretionary demands on staff time is illustrative, not exhaustive.

Each varies in the people and time needed to address them and in the frequency with which we receive these requests for service.

Some of these items are legislated with commensurate timetables associated, such as review times for applications and legislated mandates.

Some projects are driven by the board's strategic initiatives.

Others are organizational mandates such as the implementation of Kronos, the timekeeping system, and the new website.

Other items are dictated by request for support from our sister departments such as high priority projects determined in collaboration with the Economic Development Office.

We're presenting all these items to illustrate the magnitude of requests our department faces daily.

Of these, the category over which we have some control is the work program.

Suffice it to say, in our present environment, addressing this work is challenging.

Increasing volumes of non-discretionary requests leave little or no time to assess or improve the efficiency of the processes or to take on extra projects and requests.

One example of non-discretionary demand increases is residential dwelling permits, one type of application from the previous slide.

Receipts of these permit applications represent a substantial increase since pre-recession levels.

The 2019 volume in fact represents the highest volume experienced in the past 12 years.

and policy changes have driven expansion in the number of zoning cases and complaints.

In zoning, our co-compliance officers handled both homestay investigations and complaints.

Year-over-year counts grew 82% from 2018-19, due in large part to the new homestay ordinance.

While regular complaints remained relatively stable from 18 to 19, 197 of the 434 cases were attributable to homestays.

Of those, all but five were found as a result of the software used to identify homestays advertising on social media platforms.

As of late January 2020, 43% of last year's homestay complaints were resolved.

Regarding homestay cases for this year, 29 new cases have been open since the beginning of January.

Let's explore who works on CDD's request for service and you'll see staffing levels haven't kept pace with service requests.

We have a team of 74.5 professionals working hard every day on behalf of Albemarle County.

Many of us have our master's degrees and most are professionally credentialed in the fields of engineering, residential and commercial inspections, planning and zoning.

Approximately 75% of our team are classified as non-exempt employees and therefore earn comp time or overtime.

Thanks to the work of the Kronos team and our CDD timekeepers, we now have visibility into exactly how much overtime individual team members work.

So let's explore CDD's capacity in more depth.

One way to address increased demands is to work overtime.

Thanks to Kronos, implemented in April of 2019, we now have accurate monthly information on how much overtime and comp time individuals earn while attempting to cover increased demand.

We have a dedicated staff working hard to get the job done that simply isn't enough.

The CDD non-exempt team alone has earned comp time and overtime almost equivalent to an extra person.

These figures don't show the amount of extra time worked by exempt employees.

We recognize the need to approach our work differently moving forward, and we'll explore some thoughts on an approach to that in this presentation.

This chart demonstrates the CDD staffing levels over the past 12 years.

You'll note that the current staffing has not caught up with staffing from 2008.

That's only part of the story, however.

We are resource constrained in other ways as well.

We enjoy a seasoned staff in CDD.

Overall, our employees' average length of service is about 10 years, resulting in extensive institutional knowledge.

Due to their long length of service, our employees drive an equivalent of three full-time positions in annual leave obligations per year.

In addition, we currently have five folks on family medical leave, which by law yields an annual impact of 1.15 full-time equivalents.

We have three open positions in varying stages of recruitment.

We also have approximately three FTEs working on the timekeeping system and on the upgrade to the new website.

The good news is that since 2008, our staff has worked to increase efficiencies.

In 2011, our employees processed an average of 12 permits per person.

By 2019, our staff processed 15 permits per person, a 25% increase in productivity.

However, that's not enough to meet the demands of our customers.

In the past, we've added to staff to address volume-related increases.

With this year's budget instructions, we requested four additions to staff to address transportation needs, inspection compliance levels for the engineering division, and for support in permit review in the intake area.

Due to budget constraints, these positions could not be funded.

For fiscal year 20, the board gave CDD an additional $20,000 to fund a temporary position to help with anticipated homestay volumes.

That has helped.

In the county executive's proposed budget, all departments are called on to work differently in the future to address our county's needs.

As a result, a holistic approach to improving departmental efficiencies is essential.

While we've implemented departmental efficiencies over time, the data and our customers indicate more is needed.

Over the last six months, we've engaged with a variety of community members to discuss their thoughts on doing business with CDD.

Different developers, attorneys, and engineers have come in to share their experiences, their frustrations, and their hopes for improvements in our ability to reduce cycle time on projects.

We've also engaged with business-related and environmental organizations.

And we've run this work program presentation through an array of our OLT members as well.

and they've all been very helpful in tuning this to represent the presentation in front of you today.

Three developers have taken us on site visits.

To a group, all appreciate the knowledge of and care with which staff evaluates projects.

All were concerned about the time it takes to develop projects in Almarque County in contrast to neighboring counties.

Additional feedback indicated our development review process is difficult to navigate, as the comprehensive plan doesn't align with the zoning ordinance.

This misalignment results in a lack of certainty and excessive cost to develop here, plus increased review time.

Our developers and builders are open to working collaboratively, aimed at finding a win-win forward, benefiting the county and our residents.

Their desires align with support needed from CDD to further project enable as well.

Staff interacts with and receives input from our residents in various ways.

These include community advisory committees, the planning commission, and of course, Board of Supervisor meetings, as well as neighborhood meetings near new development.

The need to address transportation is a recurring theme.

As you're aware, transportation leveraging funding was the number one choice for the CIP funding identified by each group at the recent joint CAC meeting.

Transportation funding must consider not only existing and proposed vehicular traffic, but also multimodal travel.

The public also wants more convenient connectivity as the county continues to develop to include transit options.

As development projects proposing rezoning for additional dwellings or for non-residential building move forward, the public is also concerned about inadequate infrastructure.

This infrastructure gap includes the lack of school capacity in place or planned.

These issues impact directly what residents perceive to be their quality of life.

Given all the customer feedback, we'd like to summarize documents and policies adding additional guidance to our department and the processes we follow.

For the public, we will quickly review the nine Board of Supervisors 2020 through 2022 strategic initiatives.

Our department is involved in various ways in every one of the nine.

So the first one is climate action planning, and I'm not going to read all the smaller print in interest of time, but number two is to continue to expand and promote the county's outdoor recreational parks and amenities.

Three is to develop an economic development program.

Four is

Four is school space needs.

Five, infrastructure planning.

Six is revitalize aging urban neighborhoods.

Seven is expand and upgrade the general district court and circuit court.

Eight is redevelop Rio slash Route 29 intersection area.

And nine is expand broadband.

The board's adoption of Project Enable, the economic development strategic plan, also put forward priorities impacting CDD.

Project Enable asks, how do we reduce uncertainty and shorten approval times?

Zoning ordinance simplifications are possible without compromising health safety, welfare, or environmental impacts.

These changes are not easy and take a lot of time to do.

It also posits the need to effectively remove and reduce barriers while simplifying requirements.

Currently, staff is already working on the following EDO priority projects, Southwood Phase 1, Woollen Mills or the Broadway Blueprint, and Stonefield upgrades, to name just a few.

However, the comprehensive plan zoning ordinance and development process improvements, which are the basis for improvements that need to be made, have not been addressed in a comprehensive way.

We're going to discuss these in a few minutes.

Before we do, we'll cover the current status of items from the previous work program presented to you last September.

In this next section, we're going to review the previously approved work program, progress made, and additional requested projects from the board and staff as well.

This slide shows the approved work program outlining discretionary work from the board's work session on 9-18.

This work program view shows outlined in red the work allocated to fourth quarter 2019 through first quarter 2020.

Last September we suspected we'd be stretched to capacity during that time frame.

That's why we recommended that work relating to the new priorities begin after we completed the items already underway.

We're happy to say we completed these three projects.

At the 12-4 board meeting, you approved the Biscuit Run Park rezoning and 12-18, you approved religious assembly and a special use permit on authorized signatures.

Also at that September meeting, the board selected the fill-in waste project as its top priority to be addressed over the subsequent six months.

We discussed rightsizing this project to streamline it and to improve our chances of completing it without scope creep.

As you recall, fill-in waste project is ongoing.

The ordinance is under development with the draft being vetted with key stakeholders.

This project is scheduled to return to the board in the last meeting in June.

Also at the September work session, the board supported hiring a consultant to update our wireless policy in keeping with your strategic goals.

The initial rough funding estimate for that consultant was $100,000.

The search for funding for this project is ongoing and we hope to begin our scoping of that project in the second quarter of this year.

So now what?

Given the feedback from our customers and the demands on our staff, we need to build capacity and increase efficiency to work differently.

We recommend we finish what we started.

These projects all appear in the work recommended to continue through fourth quarter 2020.

Work on Southwood phase one is ongoing as agreed as are the home stays lodging and affordable housing projects.

A board update on home stays is scheduled for April 2020.

The update on affordable housing is due at this board meeting with work continuing this calendar year and a housing policy expected by September 2020.

Crozet master plan is on schedule to complete fourth quarter of this year.

The related parking study and transportation modeling are already budgeted.

Rivanna corridor plan phase two is underway to be completed by the fourth quarter of this year.

TJPDC is managing that project and we are assisting.

So let's transition to items previously requested but not scheduled at our September presentation to you.

Ag operations phase two RA rural area landscape contractors, recycling uses, and home occupations in the development area are not scheduled yet, although we think we can fit two of these projects into the recommended work program moving forward, the RA landscaping contractors and recycling uses.

We consider nimble projects to be those with a very narrow and well-defined scope, requiring limited resources and short cycle times.

We understand there is also interest in amending our ordinance related to performance standards for commercial industrial uses in the rural areas of the comp plan.

We're working to understand what that means and how best to accomplish it.

Now let's list board items raised since September 2018.

Since the updates to the work plan last September, staff has received these additional discretionary requests from supervisors, although these haven't yet been vetted by the entire board.

Due to the time constraint on the Opportunity Zone related project, we have a suggestion on how to approach the first project on the list.

The remainder of this list is not included in this presentation as scheduled.

In order to grow staff capacity to address discretionary projects, let's now consider an approach to increase capacity and efficiency.

We must work smarter and more effectively to deliver those things which you and the community need us to be doing.

For years we've tried to cobble together solutions, but we can't increase efficiencies with misaligned tools.

We must set up our approach to business so the majority of requests for service can be handled without exception processing.

Prioritization in implementing the comprehensive plan, zoning ordinance, and development process updates necessitates diverting key members of our planning and zoning staff to do this work.

We intend to right-size the comp plan update to incorporate those policies already adopted by the board and not yet reflected in the plan.

It's our intention to be strategic and restrained in our update process to maximize the result while minimizing the elapsed time.

This means we'll need to delay new master plans and substantive zoning text amendments to accomplish these updates.

In a couple slides, we're presenting the work we're planning in a similar work program format to the previous format you saw last year.

To augment staffing, we will pursue external resources where possible, of course with board concurrence.

Even with this restrained approach, this is a heavy lift using critical resources.

As noted in your most recent meeting, land use designations, especially in the rural and development areas, densities, and housing policy updates are especially critical.

These must inform updates to the zoning ordinance and zoning map.

Let's explain the work we'll undertake to build capacity.

We need to invest in career development and management training to support succession planning and to find ways to work differently, more collaboratively, and more efficiently.

We need to look at managing more decisions administratively to speed up the process and to reduce the staff burden of these projects.

As previously mentioned, we intend to pursue external resources to expand capacity without expanding staff.

Further, if we do experience a prolonged economic downturn and a reduced demand for services, we will redeploy staff resources as appropriate.

Suffice it to say we are committed to working smarter and doing the right work.

To sum this up, we are rural, suburban, and urban, and we're becoming more urban in the development area, as intended.

We believe this drives the bottom line listed here.

I'd like to touch on item five briefly.

As we update our guiding documents and processes, we will begin an exploration of updating our tools, particularly our permitting and review tool, CountyView, which is 16 years old and no longer serving our needs.

This is simply a heads up.

This won't impact our plan immediately.

We will likely begin an exploration of the marketplace for such tools before the end of fiscal year 20.

It is a key component to working smarter.

This slide depicts some projects in which we think are very well suited to the use of external resources.

They can be handled more expeditiously that way, and sometimes we're using resources externally that have subject matter expertise that we don't have internally.

Now, of course, managing the projects are going to require our staff resources.

Given the board's initial support for the pursuit of external resources in your budget meeting yesterday, we plan to scope each of these projects and derive some related cost estimates.

Each of these in some ways relates to the necessary conference and plan work.

For information, I'm going to quickly go through an overview of each one.

Relative to the multimodal transportation systems plan, we need this plan to inform key aspects of the COP plan update.

The hydraulic Commonwealth Road small area opportunity zone plan is very time critical at this point.

It's an opportunity zone designation for investment with the remaining window of eight years.

If we wish to spur investment in this area, then of course time is of the essence in examining this.

As for the Rio Road corridor study, we're currently considering an array of projects, development projects, on Rio Road.

In fact, one is coming to you tonight.

Residents in the area have been vocal and concerned about impacts to the traffic volumes on Rio Road.

This Rio Road corridor study would assist staff, the commission and board in making informed decisions on these development projects.

The last item, the Mill Creek Small Area Plan, is a focus planning process for the area that includes and surrounds the large undeveloped parcels that are owned by the county and the Mill Creek Drive area.

It's a small area planning process.

It would be a collaborative process to result in a plan that addresses land uses and form of development, size, scale, massing of buildings,

with a pedestrian orientation for civic activities, transportation connectivity with road connections, transit, pedestrian, and bike access, protection and management of important environmental features, streams, stream buffers, preserved slopes, and open space and park as well as recreational needs and other design guidance and implementation priorities for the area.

Thus far, we've provided you context for the work program.

Moving forward, we're going to be discussing the specifics of the new work program in three slides.

Of course, we think it's important.

It's actually critical to emphasize what we're proposing is not business as usual.

This slide shows both finish what we've started

and projects that we recommend to improve departmental efficiencies.

And we're gonna go into that in more depth with subsequent slides.

The blue triangles indicate milestones, major milestones, deadlines or completions of key features of that project.

Could you just go back for one second on that?

Thank you.

And we're going to have two slides that break that out and to finish what we started and then the new work.

Are you ready to go forward, Supervisor?

Yeah, I'm sorry.

I just wanted to see the difference in the water resources stream health development area versus rural area.

Okay, moving on to finish what we started.

Yeah, this is a little bigger.

So this depicts the existing work program that we brought to you in September, and it shows that we plan to finish what we talked to you about and we've already started on.

At least eight of the ten projects are underway at this point in this quarter.

The red line, of course, is the end of this quarter.

Shown in green at the very bottom is the wireless policy.

We've already talked a little bit about that, and the board may recall that it was endorsed by this board in September.

So, moving on to the recommended work program for us to do the right work.

The three major initiatives which appear under the header, Schedule the Unscheduled, is a bold yet critically strategic effort to better position ourselves for the present as well as the future.

This work has three components.

First, strategic comp plan update.

Second, zoning ordinance amendments that implement that comp plan update.

And third, development process improvement and all of these update and align key tools.

The critical work outcome from the three initiatives will increase efficiencies and better assure that we're attaining the land uses and development that is consistent with our policies.

In addition, I want to just again remind the board about projects for which we're seeking external resources support and for which we will bring updates back to the board later.

You may ask, this is a substantial investment.

It will cause a delay of other projects.

Why now?

Why this work?

First, much of the work that community development has been asked to consider has happened on a special exception basis.

The board just heard two special exceptions this afternoon.

Almost every meeting we've had one or two or three special exceptions.

And that's part of project time.

It's not a good use of anybody's time.

Not the board's time, not staff's time, not the applicant's, not the public.

Second reason, for years we've got a mismatch between our guiding policy document in the Conference of Plan and our zoning ordinance which is intended to implement the Conference of Plan.

It's time within the organization-wide approach to improve efficiencies and have alignment.

Third, there are possible legal implications for not fixing the tools.

We know that there's some outline issues, some loose ends that we want to tie up.

Fourth, these documents being out of sync negatively impacts our credibility.

Fifth, as

Neil has said previously, the silver tsunami is hitting the workforce and we're certainly experiencing that here at the county.

So we need to prepare our staff for the future and we need to make sure that we're working on the right work.

The third item under the unscheduled is development process efficiencies, and that links back very directly to project enable.

So below those three, I'm going to call them the big three, work efforts that are the right work, there is a very narrow window of opportunity with zoning ordinance work.

And you see that that zoning ordinance work is not projected to begin until first quarter of 21 to implement the COP plan policy work.

There's a natural time lag.

We think that we can seize that opportunity, that window, and fit in two nimble projects.

They have to be nimble though because they need to be things that we can do with limited resources in a short amount of time.

These are two projects that came up in our September work program discussion.

We do believe those are the right ones to move forward on.

We can get both of them done with that projected timeline.

In summary, stepping back overall, this is not business as usual.

We want different results.

We've got to do things differently.

So this presentation walked us through the previous work program for discretionary projects, recommended an approach for the 2020 work program predicated on finishing what we've started, revising the comprehensive plan, zoning ordinance, and the related development processes to increase efficiencies, and pursuing external resources to augment staffing on very specific projects.

So, Supervisors, I expect all of us are going to want to weigh in on this so each person can be, will kind of march through each Supervisor when you're ready and hopefully get everybody in and then can loop back around for follow-up if needed.

Thank you, Chair Galloway.

I'd like to thank both of you for the work that you and your staff have done.

I recognize that everything you do is significant, so I don't want to in any way have my comments diminish one area over the other.

There are pressing things that you have to do every day.

Scheduling the unscheduled, the comprehensive plan update, and the zoning consistency.

I don't believe there's anything more important that you will be doing over the long term than that.

As Amelia just mentioned, we need consistency, credibility, and we need to reduce our liability because of those inconsistencies.

I think we all wish it could happen sooner, but we all appreciate that you're going to take the actions to bring those into consistency.

Well, you went a lot faster than, not you, but I thought each person was going to take a little longer.

I have a clarification question if I think I'd like to ask that right off the bat.

Could you tell us what the milestones for the development process efficiency for 2020 in the third quarter and 2021 in the first quarter are?

Supervisor Palmer, are you talking about specific things that we're going to be undertaking as part of the comprehensive plan?

That work has not been fully scoped.

We do believe that there are going to be some earlier gains that we can receive in terms of process improvement, and then there are others that are going to take a little bit longer.

So it's not fully defined at this point.

That is something that we would, with your endorsement of this plan moving forward, it is something we would begin working on fairly soon.

Sure, I just wanted to know what a milestone was in that particular situation and why you put them there.

So the fill and waste now, that's still in here, correct?

That is due to come back to you with a zoning code update at the end of June, I believe.

That is correct.

So, I will try to be really quick.

We've gotten several emails on the dark skies situation, and plus the fact I really appreciate all your work.

Thank you very much.

We've got a lot of emails on the dark skies.

If people didn't get a chance to watch Kelsey Johnson's TED Talk that she sent us yesterday, it was very good.

But anyway, we've been talking about that for a lot of years.

We put it off for good reason, didn't have time in the work plan.

I wanted everybody to know that in my meeting with Jody and staff and my planning commissioner that Karen Firehawk brought up once again a plan with several professionals kind of led by one of the astronomers from

McCormick Observatory, and others to do the work for planning to run the outreach, to get people to comment on the dark skies phase two of the ordinance, actually write the ordinance and hand it over to staff.

And if they object, I'm assuming it would take at least a year for them to do that,

Hand it over to staff and have them review it.

Obviously, there's a lot of questions and issues in there that have to be considered.

Totally, completely understand that.

but I hope that since it's their efforts probably going to take a year and a half anyway at least a year that I wanted everybody to know about it and and hope that somewhere in there you can consider getting that kind of professional help from folks because I do think it's very interesting and I'll quickly say that in that TED talk

Kelsey Johnson mentioned something that I had no idea about is that some LED lights are much worse than others.

And I didn't know that as far as environmental impacts.

Some of these kinds of things, I would just like to make sure that when you're

when community development is looking at lighting for projects that they are taking that into consideration, I have no idea if you are or you're not.

Can I just add something to the Dark Skies piece?

I brought up, and I think people agreed with me last fall, that our lighting ordinance was almost as old as our wireless ordinance, which is part of the problem.

Technology has really moved ahead of us.

When I look at, let me back up, this community really strives to have dark skies.

But we can't make the skies over Albemarle County dark if we don't look at the city and the university.

And when I come up over pantops and look down, much of what I'm seeing in the way of real lighting

And I'm not I don't I think the university is wonderful, but you look at what the university is contributing to our darks to our skies and our scatter.

If I look away from the university, I see much darker skies, relatively speaking.

My thought was and I have no idea if this is even a possibility, but we have a working group now with the university and the city and the county.

I think that would be a great group to take on what would it look like if this community tried to reduce our light scatter.

We've got to all do it together or we're just

It's not going to get us to where we want to be in all honesty.

And that means the university has lights they need to address.

The city has lights they need to address.

I'm not saying that a common lighting or

Ordinance would be maybe one, I don't know whether one for all of us together would be beneficial, but I don't know if it's even possible.

But I just know if we don't look at this as a community regional problem, we're just not going to get there.

We need to look at what the developers are doing.

I love some of the developers.

I really like the developer who put in a community behind my neighborhood.

The lights stay on 24 7.

That's what they're making in the market these days.

I don't understand why, but when you just go out and buy a lighting fixture now for outside, it stays on 24-7, dusk to dawn.

I can stand on a sidewalk in a new subdivision and read the newspaper.

at two o'clock in the morning.

And they're not thinking about it, to be honest with you.

So I guess there's a lot to this, and I get it, but I'm wondering if looking at this from a bigger perspective with the city and the county and the university, Scott Stadium, the hospital, it goes on and on.

And we have that new working group.

I think you've made an excellent, excellent point and I really appreciate you bringing up that working group.

I will say that the group that has organized around this subject, several of them are universities, some of them are city,

I think you're really excellent, but I will say that that group that's been identified and talking to the county for years now,

I'm thinking they've been talking to the university too.

Yeah, and I don't know if that involves your work plan or not.

It involves staff, and I understand that.

It could.

A regional approach to dealing with lighting makes so much sense because it's not an issue that stops at jurisdictional boundaries.

We also think that there's a logical connection with what's going to be in our first phase of comp plan work and integrating the climate action plan and strategies to implement that plan.

So I think there's going to be an opportunity in some of the work that we've already identified to find some dovetailing of

You're asking if we currently provide that information?

I will need to check on that.

I'm not aware of what type of assistance we provide.

LEDs, we did amend the lighting regs to address LEDs, and of course we have dark sky regs that are kind of the

the easier first phase of dark sky implementation to get more advanced than that.

It's fairly complex.

Let me check on that.

And I was just suggesting that that might be a way to get started on that with another group somehow.

Just to add on that point, having a blank piece of paper when all these groups get together is really daunting.

And I think our Admiral County group, who was very instrumental in our very first Dark Skies elements, these people are still here.

They've been working on this forever.

do their outside work, inside work, and have something ready to be considered as something to talk about as the different regions.

I think the needs of the different regions are dramatically different in some ways, but if we're all thinking about it, then that's good.

Looking at the whole elephant, I'd rather look at just the trunk right now and start and then we progress on to the elephant later when we have some beginning.

And I think the one thing that's shown up with our newer construction in the White Hall District has been the numbers for the lumens that we use for the old incandescent lights do not help us with LEDs because the same number is blinding.

compared to what it would generate in the old fashioned thing.

So that's certainly one of these technical things that somebody who knows all about this can fill in the blanks.

But we have a really good structure.

Let me ask this question because this is just a good example of others.

So in thinking about this meeting prior to the past week, there were other items.

I thought, oh, I get that into the work plan.

We're practicable, and I hate to be that restricted, but that would be our fondest hope.

I think we haven't had a chance to meet with this outside group at this time.

I sit on Lupeck.

So I can carry that interest forward and see what kind of interest we receive also from UVA and from the city.

It does fall in a land use, environmental planning kind of context.

Perhaps I need to ask the question or make the comment differently.

Coming into this, my CAC was interested in having a master plan update for the Rio 29 area.

And listening to this approach and getting up to speed for this meeting and what you're proposing to us.

it convinces me to not come in and piecemeal ask for that project because the work you're going to do on the comp plan, the zoning alignment will in many ways take care of some of the concerns and why people are asking for that Master 29 plan update.

So I'm just reinserting this project in for dark skies or whatever else the project is.

So my bigger point is that

You know, some of us sometimes want to get going on specific projects, but a little bit of strategic approach dealing with the bigger picture will help us get there even though it's not defined down to a very specific project.

Is that fair?

And I am very supportive, just like Donna and I think probably some of the rest of us, of what you were saying earlier about doing that work first.

It's just that Dark Skies came up and I'd been thinking about LUPAC or whatever we're calling it.

Yeah, I think it's LUPAC, but I don't know.

And I thought maybe I would just mention it this time.

But you're right, you have to do the structure and the process first.

Yes.

Okay.

Yeah, I compliment you also on the work you've done and I'm very excited because I've been hearing from, I know I have at least two instances where the comp plan doesn't match the zoning and the people who are building or doing something else, they're getting very, very frustrated because they're told, yes you can do it, no you can't, yes you can, no you can't, because it doesn't match.

So I think we're long overdue of doing all this, which will address a lot of the other issues that we have.

So I'm encouraged by the discussion we just had with Ned because something that came up abruptly because of outside forces was doing something to reinstate a stronger water protection ordinance for a certain feedback from the water's edge at all of our reservoirs.

Now, maybe that's a chapter that you would do when or those things could be inserted when you redo the comp plan update, just like we're going to drop in the new Crozet master plan and the new other master plans that have been done and also the

Rio small area plan.

Those will just become new chapters because they're updated and that's terrific.

But bringing these other things into the modern age I think would be really important now that we know more about what's ahead and what some of our challenges are going to be.

That was my whole role was to try to get ahead of some of these questions because that saves everybody a whole lot of angst and time.

I am assuming that

and hoping that once the homestay issue is, we're continuing to bring on the other 45% or 55% of the people who have been doing this and are becoming compliant, most of them or some of them, as the new rules are implemented and also as you learn things that you need to make

Small changes to the rules because what we've learned in the last six months means, yes, these things are okay, but these things still need to be addressed.

I'm looking forward to a lot more simple things going forward, and that will free things up.

Last year, I think it was last year,

There was discussion about how we, or two years ago, we changed the rules about how one had an access to a comprehensive map amendment, CMA or CPA, and it had to come through the board only.

And then, Greg, I think there was something that came out to us, or maybe from Bill Fritz, who said, well, that didn't turn out, so we're not going to do that anymore.

So where are we now in the

and maybe there has been no official written change, but I know that it was, I'm sorry to be vague about this.

Everybody collectively looks at Bill Frick.

Bill Furst, Community Development.

So that's the section 33 changes and what we had talked about was undoing the changes we had made in 2018, I believe it was, going back to what we had before.

I've taken a look at that and there are some things that you did that you said you wanted to do like change the zoning tax amendment and comprehensive plan amendment.

We're trying to retain those things and fix a few other things and we think we can bring back to you an ordinance that

returns us to what we had previously and fixes some of the things that were in there.

But it's still, it's not as major of a change.

Well, that's spectacular.

If I could just ask a follow-up question, because Ms.

Mallek, I think you also alluded to the fact that we previously had public initiated complaint amendments, public initiated zoning tax amendments, and we changed that process to have them come through the board.

So I took half of it but shouldn't have taken the other half.

I get it.

Thank you very much.

So help me a little bit because I have been hearing, I think, some reference to working differently and working differently may mean using some outside help.

And I am all in favor of that.

while at the same time I've been hearing using outside help but maintaining control within, which is critical, right?

And so that still involves staff.

It's not as if we can just we would want to just send it off.

Talk to me a little bit about how you all visualize that or when that might be kicking in or when what how that might work.

We could... Our plan following this meeting, we have a meeting set up for early next week to actually have a discussion of the approach on all of this so it may be a bit premature.

Sure, that's fine.

What we're hoping to do is scope out each of these projects that are on that external resources list, also come up with some rough cost estimates for you and bring them all back to you.

And you're absolutely right, it is not a hand-off.

Staff must continue to remain involved to make sure that they're achieving the intended purpose for Elmore County.

Well, it's appreciated, as you noted earlier, the Rile Road Corridor Study.

That's when we would have to get external resources.

So that's about, that's not capacity or timing, that's skill set.

I think that's great.

On your list, if you could add to share back with us sort of a current update or have somebody about the Rio corridor plan because I know we didn't take as long a pause at the end of phase one as I was personally anticipating.

Supervisor Mallek, I just want to be sure I am on the same page with you.

Are we talking Rio with form-based code?

I meant to say river.

Rivanna?

Rivanna, okay.

We'll be happy to do that.

I was thinking about the

Skill set and everything for the speed study of the Rio corridor.

So yes, it's the river fan and it's been sort of stirring round and round and round in circles for many years and I would like to stop a circle.

So we'll find out more about it later.

And I think this outlay is really well done and it's so challenging to wrap my brain around it.

Well, there's an old expression, if you keep doing things the same way, you're going to get the same outcome.

I'd like to make a few comments if I would.

If you could go to your overtime slide.

I think, and I'm guilty of this myself coming into this meeting, we get our heads wrapped around so much about what projects do we need to get done, what items need to happen and timelines and all of that.

But if in my work outside of the board, if you brought this chart to me in my organization, this would be so unacceptable you can't even begin to understand it.

So I appreciate the fact you're saying it's not viable, but it's also completely not fair of our employees to have to work this kind of overtime.

Now, knowing full well that the approach you brought from a standpoint of getting at the things we would like to attack, our individual projects, the things we think of that are going to be, create more efficient work for us, I know that part of the plan is to also cut into this.

Because if we start working more efficiently, that this approach you brought forward is about bringing this down.

So I appreciate that, because we cannot continue to ask, I agree it's not viable, but again, it's just not fair to ask that.

of people.

Work-life balance is something you need to have, and part of work-life balance is to be able to go home and not stress about the work you didn't finish.

So that's something that I appreciate as part of this work plan.

If you could go to your slide seven, I think, which is your We Are Community Development.

I also appreciate this approach, and I have appreciation for this board and our guidelines.

That is correct.

That's from midnight to 2 a.m.

Now, I appreciate our guidelines because while I bring you an urgent item, my urgency does not mean it's an urgent item.

and I know that following our guidelines and going through the county executive and the director, it's your job to go in and manage what really is the urgency here.

And because you're dealing with such a stretched capacity team with so much overtime involved, that it's incredibly important that those guidelines are in place so that when we bring something to you,

Regardless of how much I think it needs to be addressed right away, it's contingent on you to figure out what is this relative to all the other things that you're dealing with.

So I'm hopeful that this plan too helps with that because I think once we have the bigger picture things taken, there might not be so many things coming to us that we think are quote unquote urgent.

and then third I know that this is what will eventually allow us to get the capacity because we are at zero capacity as you've said not just because of all the things we want to do but the overtime document is that way and like I said all the things that are coming before us to make spot decisions on so it's all the evidence is there that you brought forward the regular plan I just wanted to make those couple of comments in endorsement to what you brought forward.

One follow-up, and that is that for many years there was a complete lid on staff expansion.

And rigidly, and I kept arguing with the previous county executive and previous director about the fact that

this was just, there were too many tasks even when the mandated category only that our current number of people so please keep in your mind and roll around and debate with our county executive about how when you get to that over time equals an FTE person level then maybe that over hire or whatever you might call it also is helping to

work ahead towards succession and increase because of all the you 35 year people who give me nightmares at night that things are not going to go away and so there's a lot of

Long time preparation.

I would expect it takes years for a new employee to really take off in this complex environment.

I certainly have to ask you all all the time for things that I should know, but I'm too afraid to give the wrong recommendation to somebody.

So I always say we have to talk to staff about that.

And I think it's better that way.

But it makes a lot of work for all of you as well.

So that's always the mathematical thing is not the only part.

And so prevention of disaster is also really important.

That basically was my comment, only much better done.

When I look at this and we talk about the silver tsunami that Neil brought up earlier, I question whether you, if you hired somebody else now by the time you got through all this work and another year of redoing it,

which you need to hire somebody anyway especially when you showed in here the FTEs basically that are the time that just vacation time does to your department.

So I would echo what Ann says is that maybe you should be arguing with the county executive a little bit more about staffing because that's what I see when I look here.

I appreciate the frugality

but I also am very concerned having read through this that you don't have the capacity.

Before we leave this item, if I could just clarify what the board's expectation is relating to the dark sky issue.

What I heard was that there is interest in finding ways that it dovetails with the work already scheduled, and that is something that we'll know more about when we come back to you in scoping if that occurs sooner or in the six-month check back.

Is that accurate?

that's what I would like you to do is talk to Jody talking with Lupic and your staff talking with some of this group that has stepped forward and said that they were willing to put in the time and the effort and so I don't know how you do that but just a conversation and maybe you've already had that conversation and you've already come up with decisions but I would like it if there's something that they can do

that is acceptable to you guys.

I'd love it for you to hear their story.

I'm not asking that you necessarily do it.

So explore a little more about the what needs to be done and some of the how it could be done and come back to the board before we're committed to resources undertaking that work.

I was just interested in making the point that it is a regional problem.

We can try and take care of ours, but if we don't look at this through a regional lens, it really, and I was just thinking we may have the opportunity with Lupeck.

Am I saying that correctly?

Maybe that would be an interesting place to have a discussion.

Yes, I think that's viable.

At LUPEC, we haven't firmed up our agendas yet or even how we're going to operate just yet.

Sure, I can understand.

So it'll take us a little while to get, I think, our sea legs with that organization.