Board of Supervisors Regular Second Meeting   5/19/2021

Okay, and you're live.

All right, good afternoon everyone.

I call the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors to order for our May 19, 2021 1pm meeting.

This meeting is being held pursuant to and in compliance with ordinance number 20-A16, an ordinance to ensure the continuity of government during the COVID-19 disaster.

The supervisors who are electronically present at this meeting are Supervisor Diantha McKeel of the Jack Jouett District, Supervisor Ann Mallek of the White Hall District, Supervisor Bea LaPisto-Kirtley of the Rivanna District, Supervisor Donna Price of the Scottsville District, and myself, Supervisor Ned Gallaway of the Rio District.

Supervisor Palmer does have a family obligation today, so will not be joining for today's meeting.

Also with us, I'm sorry, the opportunities for the public to access and participate in the electronic meeting are posted on the Albemarle County website, on the Board of Supervisors homepage, and on the Albemarle County calendar.

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

On the meeting with us, of course, our County Executive, Mr. Jeff Richardson, our County Attorney, Mr. Greg Kamner,

from our clerk's office, our senior deputy clerk, Mr. Travis Morris, and our clerk, Ms.

Claudette Ferguson.

Join in a moment of silence.

OK, Board, we're at number four, the adoption of the final agenda.

I do not recall any requests to add anything to the agenda.

Are there any items that need to be pulled from consent?

So moved.

Ms.

We lose Supervisor.

Mr. Gallo.

Looks like Supervisor Price fell off.

Mr. Galloway.

Yes.

Mr. LaPisto-Kirtley.

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek.

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel.

All right, one more good.

Thank you.

Just one notice.

The Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center is hosting an outdoor fire pit party Thursday, May 27th from 5 to 7 30 p.m.

So in addition to visiting and hors d'oeuvres, there will be a art walk around the property and down to the river with some presentations from photographers and artists.

So go to the website for the center or the Facebook page for Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center to find out more.

Yes, I know that this is something you've all been waiting for.

This is an update on the planting of the milkweed seeds for the monarch butterflies.

I planted my seeds and within two weeks they were already popping up.

and the seeds are not expensive and it's really easy to do and maybe if you're not that good at gardening or something you just may want to buy the actual plants and then put them somewhere but otherwise they're really easy and they come up quickly.

The scouts spread them out

near the Lewis and Clark exploratory center and in other places in Darden Tow.

We had volunteers, so all that went well.

And like I said, mine are already coming up, so looking forward to some beautiful milkweeds this year and next year.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I have nothing to announce today.

Number six we do not have any proclamations or recognitions today so moving right along that'll take us to number seven from the public matters not listed for public hearing on the agenda or on matters previously considered by the board or matters that are pending before the board and do we have sign ups today for public comment?

Very good.

All right.

Thank you, Chair Galloway.

Just one moment.

I had lost the signal and had to respond.

So just a moment, please.

Alright, thank you.

During the time set aside for matters not listed for public hearing on the agenda, individuals may address the Board of Supervisors concerning matters previously considered by the Board or matters that are pending before the Board other than items listed on the agenda for public hearing.

Individuals are allowed three minutes to speak and a sign-up sheet is managed by the Clerk's Office.

The timekeeping is conducted through a timer.

The timer will commence when you begin speaking and this begins your allotted time.

You will be notified when the three minutes are up and you are requested to bring your comments to a close as your microphone will be muted after about five more seconds.

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

When called to address the board, please state your name and, if you live in Albemarle County, your magisterial district.

Address your comments directly to the board as a whole.

If you have written materials or other supporting documents, you may email them to the clerk to be included in the record.

If you represent a group or organization, you may identify the group to be recognized.

If you exceed your allotted time, you will be asked to end your comments and, as stated, the microphone will soon be muted.

If the speaker does not use all allocated time, the unused time may not be shared, and speakers are permitted one opportunity to comment during the public comment periods.

Back and forth debate is not permitted.

You are reminded that all comments are live streamed, recorded, and published on the Albemarle County website.

If participating by phone, please press star nine to let us know you want to speak.

And if by zoom, please remain muted until you are called to speak.

Thank you.

I've just unmuted.

Thank you.

Gary Grant, Rio District.

I have a proclamation.

Whereas this all-Democrat Albemarle Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on May 5th to raise real estate taxes on county residents for calendar year 2021, and whereas, according to the county's valid and reliable community survey,

Only one in five Albemarle residents say they are very satisfied with the value of services received for the tax dollars taken by this all-Democrat board.

And whereas this all-Democrat board of supervisors' leadership is rated as excellent by less than one in ten county residents, and whereas this all-Democrat board of supervisors is rated as excellent

by only 1 in 10 county residents on how fairly supervisors treat Albemarle residents.

And whereas in spite of this all-Democrat board's unanimous decision that the term community members is to be used by county officials instead of the term citizens, the board's executive continues to use the term citizens repeatedly in his annual community report video.

And whereas, in spite of this all-Democrat Board of Supervisors' unanimous decision to abide by an inclusive strategic plan, this board has appointed three white males to all three of its trust positions on the Jefferson Madison Regional Library Board.

And whereas, in spite of this all-Democrat Board of Supervisors' unanimous adoption of a climate action plan promoting electric vehicles,

The board spent over 90,000 taxpayer dollars on a gasoline-powered ban for community engagement use.

And whereas this all-Democrat Board of Supervisors, since September 6 of last year, has refused to disavow Rivanna Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley's statement, and I quote, I think most of us, by the time we get to meetings, if we've done our homework, we already know how we're going to vote.

and whereas this all-Democrat board, according to today's consent agenda item number 8.2, intends to give itself another pay raise beginning July 1st, now therefore be it proclaimed that the current members of this badass all-Democrat Albemarle Board of Supervisors are duly recognized as being much, much more powerful than the dumbass voters who elected them.

All right, good afternoon.

Fantastic.

My name is Seth Chokal.

I'm here with my wife, Leah Willey.

As of this past February, we're residents of the Rivanna Magisterial District and owners of the property known as La Force on Keswick Road.

In a moment, you're going to hear a homestay special exemption request for our property.

We appreciate you considering the matter.

We wanted to offer

Some details on our request.

First, we wanted to highlight the property's extensive history of hospitality.

The primary structure dates back to 1790 when it was built as a tavern and inn.

Guests include Lafayette on his way to Monticello and Stonewall Jackson and his army returning to defend Richmond.

More recently, the property has hosted countless short-term renters

and Borders since the late 1950s, as evidenced by articles and previous Airbnb listings before we were the owners.

The neighbors that we've spoken to have grown accustomed to this use and are supportive of our application.

We don't believe that our request will change the character of the property or negatively impact neighbors.

Rather, it will just bring its previous use of short-term rentals in compliance with the county's regulations.

Second, we live on the property with our young children and will manage the homestay ourselves.

We will be the point of contact for any issues and will also be the closest neighbors that can make sure that guests comply with all county restrictions and norms.

The property layout includes three one-bedroom apartments and a six-bedroom main house.

Allowing us to increase the number of guest rooms to five will still allow my family plenty of space to be strong and watchful presence to make sure that home stay use is not detrimental to the community.

Finally, approving our homestay request will allow us to maintain and preserve the historic nature of the property in a way that is financially viable.

We treasure its history.

We are currently pursuing getting it listed on the National Register of Historic Places and are actively renovating areas which have shown deterioration.

We feel well equipped to maintain the property as Leah's family has extensive history maintaining historic structures.

In fact, her parents were the owners of the cliff in the end from 1985 to 2017.

So they are familiar to the county.

The county's comprehensive plan encourages finding ways for the preservation of historic structures to be financially viable for property owners.

We feel that approving our homestay exception will allow us to be better stewards of the property going forward.

Thank you again for your consideration today.

Alright, thank you.

I move to our next item which is the consent agenda number eight.

We had no items removed so is there a motion to approve the consent agenda?

So moved.

All right we can call the vote.

Ms.

Price.

Aye.

Mr. Galloway.

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Miller?

Yes.

Ms.

Yes.

The consent agenda is approved.

And that will bring us to our first item today, or action item number nine.

That's SE 2021-10, homestay special exception, one we just heard the comments on.

And Rebecca, good afternoon.

You'll be leading us through this one.

We cannot hear you, although it looks like you're unmuted.

There you go.

OK, I'm sorry about that.

It was just some setting change that happened in Zoom.

Sorry about that technical difficulty.

OK, great, thank you.

You heard from the owners just a minute ago.

This is a special exception 2021-10 for La Forche and I will primarily focus on the zoning and land use side of things in my presentation since they've just given you an introduction to the property.

and it is, I will say there are currently no compliance issues with the property.

The new owners are pursuing the proper permits before establishing the use, which may have happened intermittently in the past.

When we start these presentations with you, we'd like to remind you which regulations are applicable and which ones need the waiver or modification because we do have

We have several sets of regulations depending on the acreage of the zoning of the property.

So the zoning of the property is rural area and it is a parcel of less than five acres.

So by right rental of up to two guest rooms is allowed provided that all of the home stay structures and parking meet that required 125 foot setback which you are very familiar with now.

and then there is no whole house rental would be permitted and whole house rental is when the owners and managers are not present.

All home stays must be owner occupied and obtain a zoning clearance and in terms of the process the special exception is the very first step and then prior to issuing a clearance all of the safety inspections and neighbor notifications and final parking layout and such are verified before the use would be established.

In this case, they are requesting two special exceptions, the one to reduce 125 foot setback and then to increase the number of guest rooms that would be permitted for rental at one time from two to five.

And we also provide a refresher, if you will, in terms of the ordinance criteria that we evaluate special exceptions.

There is the general special exceptions

criteria that applies.

The board's not required to make specific findings, but we do analyze these requests in terms of the factors to consider in the homestay section of the ordinance and we also provide you additional information that we think may be relevant to that analysis and the comprehensive plan recommendations for the request.

And then the primary

Analysis includes whether or not there would be detriment to any abutting lots or if there would be harm to public health safety or welfare in granting the waivers or modifications.

Board may approve, defer, approve with conditions or deny special exception requests.

So switching gears to this particular location, it is at the corner of Keswick Road and East Keswick Road.

The property is highlighted towards the middle

surrounded in yellow and the property contains three residences 355 and 3557 Keswick Road and then the other dwelling is on the East Keswick Drive side of the property.

This also shows you the surrounding properties that were notified as part of our process and we have not received any objections or concerns from any of the neighbors in terms of the county notice that was sent.

This is a photo of the site.

It's from a different angle.

Keswick Road is to the left, and then East Keswick is to the right.

And it shows you, there's a lot of established trees and landscaping on the property, so we tried to show you where the structures are.

The main house, of course, 3555, 3557 to the rear and left of that, and then to the right of your screen along East Keswick is 1061.

the other cottage on the property.

This is our standard exhibit, if you will, that we've been providing you and giving you a layout of where the guest rooms would be located and parking areas and their orientation to the roadways and where required screening would be provided.

In this case, the structure that's 3557, the structure itself and its parking does not require

a special exception to modify the setbacks because the owners also own that adjacent property to the north.

355 and 1061 are the structures that need the setback reduction as the main house is about 80 to 90 feet from the roadways and then the other cottage on East Keswick

about 45 feet.

So they do meet the primary structure setbacks for the rural areas.

And then this slide just shows you where those, just labeling where the parking areas are.

There is one parking area in particular that we had a few concerns about and noted in the staff report.

The recommendation that you received was for removal

However, the owners would like the option of keeping it there.

And that's a closer look at that cottage and where the parking is beside it on East Keswick.

After the staff report and recommendations were provided to the applicant, they said, well, what if we could reconfigure it to address your safety concerns?

So we have recommended a change to our condition of approval and the exhibit that's referenced in the conditions to note that that parking

Our recommendation is that that parking either be removed or reconfigured as a condition prior to issuing that final zoning clearance before they could establish the use if you were to approve the special exceptions today.

I think, excuse me, this is the recommended conditions of approval.

And our recommendation is that you move to adopt the resolution attachment F subject to these following conditions.

And I've underlined for you in condition for the additional language that would allow them the option of reconfiguring the parking.

Thank you, Rebecca.

Thank you, Rebecca.

And I appreciate the presentation.

I don't have any questions about this specific request, but will you go back to the last picture you showed or the map?

No, I'm sorry, one more back maybe.

I lost track.

There we go.

That's it.

This actually brings up a question in my head that

Yes, there's a private road.

This goes back to some lots that were platted.

I think it's known as Royal Acres.

It goes back, serves as the access to a property that is off the screen to your right.

What you see on the adjacent property, which the neighbors own, is a barn that they're renovating.

Right, and I would like to just know at some point, and maybe we don't need to get into it today, but what would happen if in fact that property was sold?

because there is a road there.

It wouldn't change anything in terms of the requirements for the home stay parcel and

Just to get back to this in a future time, maybe when we talk about how this is working and everything, I'd like to come back to this question about, since the approvals do go with the land, what happens if the property is, because that property may not stay in that ownership forever, right?

Maybe, we just don't know.

Anyway, we can talk about that later.

In the meantime, thank you for your presentation.

I know, attempting to unmute.

Yes, so I have visited, having done my homework as we all do, I have visited this property and it truly is a little, it's a gem in this area having been there since 1790 and used for an inn and tavern.

all the rooms are being, everything's being renovated.

It's a lovely, lovely piece of property.

I do like the idea that that parking area is going to be reconfigured.

And I do know that maybe in the future, and to address Supervisor Diantha McKeel's question, perhaps in the future, I know there's some neighbors to the,

North, and they are planning on building another driveway exit from their property onto Keswick Road.

So they're planning on doing that.

So at that point, that road that is now in between may, if VDOT approves, but it may be able to be closed.

We don't know yet, but that's sometime in the future.

But yeah, the entire thing is, I'm so happy that it's going to be continued as a homestay and I'm hoping in the future that it could actually be turned into some kind of a...

Small Inn and everything.

And the two buildings you see are very historic.

One of them, the 3557, that's actually used to be a smokehouse.

And the 1061 was the doctor's office.

So that's where his office was.

And then he lived in the big house.

But having said all that, I don't have any other questions because I think, in my opinion, I think they've addressed

I think they've addressed the issues and I'm glad to be seeing it become a home stay, frankly, legally.

Thank you.

Ms.

Ragsdale, thank you for the presentation.

It was really good, but I want to go back to Supervisor McKeel's question because I'm not quite sure what the answer is.

If the adjacent property, the one with the barn that's being reconfigured, is sold,

and that now becomes a different owners.

Okay so it doesn't affect this particular setting but again following up on Supervisor McKeel's question perhaps for Mr. Kantner again for a later time.

If we were to approve a special exception for a homestay where the distance is less than 125 feet from an adjacent property, we approve it, but then later the adjacent property is sold.

Since now it would be less than 125 feet from a different owner's property, would the special exception go away?

and would the property owner then have to essentially reapply?

So I think that's kind of following up with Supervisor McKeel's question.

And again, not for today, but for the future.

I would like that also to be a topic of discussion.

Turning specifically to this one, in preparing for today's board meeting at the invitation of Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley, I accompanied her on a visual tour

of the property, and I really concur with the removal or reconfiguring of the small parking lot by number 106-1, that small building there.

But I also just want to make a general comment.

When we have a property that has a historical use, such as this property has had for many, many generations,

or at least many, many decades.

It's part of the tradition, the culture, the history of Albemarle County, which I believe makes it attractive for both our residents as well as our visitors.

So I am much more likely to see the favorable outcome for this than perhaps building an entirely new structure, new establishment that doesn't have it.

historical connection.

So I have no objection.

I'm very supportive of this.

I appreciate both the applicant and county staff working towards what appears to be a favorable resolution with regard to the concerns over the parking.

All right, thank you.

I don't have any questions at this point in time.

There are no other questions.

Thank you.

What Ms.

Price said just brought a question to my mind.

For clarification, Rebecca, am I correct that you would not be able to build a brand new building and then do a homestay?

This is for existing buildings before the date of the adoption of the ordinance.

Well, we allow homestays in primary dwellings.

You could have a homestay in association with any single family detached welling regardless of the date it was constructed.

For accessory structures, we added the provision that new accessory structures after August 2019

would need a special exception in some cases for lots greater than five acres.

For lots that are less than five acres and residential lots, you would need a special exception regardless of when the structure was built to use an accessory structure.

So new construction does have the ability, single family homes have the ability to do home stays.

With the 3557, I think that structure is 125 feet from the road or the other lot, I'm not sure.

But if it isn't, then if that didn't have, if the other property were to be sold with the barn on it, then that one structure of 3557 simply could not be used as a part of the homestay, wouldn't that be correct?

What would happen would be that that particular structure would become a nonconforming structure.

It would not affect the validity of the special exception.

But if that structure was to be modified in a way that triggered the nonconforming regulations, then they would have to get a special exception to

Okay, so I think that answers Ms.

McKeel, Supervisor McKeel's question too.

Yes, I make a I move that we to adopt the attached resolution attachment F to approve the home state special exception and subject to the following conditions.

Yes, with one through four with number four as revised.

Ms.

Aye.

Mr. Galloway?

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

Aye.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel?

All right, very good.

The motion carries and we wish luck to Mr. Chokal and Ms.

Okay.

Good afternoon.

My name is Mariah Gleason.

I'm a senior planner in the planning division of the community development department at Albemarle County.

I'm joined by Frank Pohl, county engineer who will also be available to answer questions.

The property under discussion is located on Ivy Road across from the Ivy Post Office just west of Scott's Ivy Exxon.

The application is a special exception request to disturb critical slope areas.

The request is made in connection with the final site plan, SDP 2021-00002, I'm sorry one, IV proper, that is currently under review by staff.

The applicant is requesting permission to disturb 4,375 square feet of critical slopes on site.

Those areas are indicated in this graphic, image one, with a yellow outline and hatching.

The impacted slopes are thought to be man-made in nature, created with the construction of the railroad.

Stepping back a bit to review the history of this particular request, the item was originally scheduled for board consideration on April 7, 2021, but the applicant requested deferral in light of concerns that were raised by members of the board.

Since then, staff has worked with the applicant.

and just requested and alternative designs, drainage and erosion from the abutting railroad parcel and the design and construction of the retaining walls.

So discussion on these concerns is included in the staff report.

Please note that the request has been revised and refined to reduce the amount of critical slope disturbance requested.

The original request in April was for the disturbance of 5,515 square feet.

The request has been reduced to 4,375 square feet, which is a reduction of 1,140 square feet.

Based on staff's evaluation of the applicant's revised request, staff recommend approval of the waiver with the following conditions.

that the area of land disturbance on critical slopes must not exceed the area shown on image one of the applicant's request and that the final design of the retaining walls must be submitted and is subject to the approval of the county engineer and building division prior to approval of the VSMP application.

This actually concludes staff's presentation.

We'd be happy to answer any questions the board may have.

Please know that the applicant is also available to answer questions.

Okay, LaRae.

Thank you.

Two questions.

So I know there was a mention in your staff report that there is some rip wrapping to be added to supposedly stop some of the erosion happening from the culvert of the property upstream, uphill.

But is there actually a drainage requirement to improve that runoff similar to what some of our shopping centers have to do?

They have to take into consideration what's coming onto their property

and then control that as well as what is native to their property.

Yes, Frank Pohl, County Engineer.

OK, OK, that's good.

Thank you.

And the second question is what it was mentioned in the report that this is located in a drinking water watershed.

With this request there aren't any additional requirements that have been offered and in looking at the criteria that staff is supposed to look at we've analyzed it based on the criteria and did not

But the authority is there if the county chose to.

Am I correct about that?

Yes, that's correct.

I don't know if the authority is there.

That I would have to ask.

legal.

Very good.

I'm sure if

I am not an engineer, so I'm much more alarmist about things than those of you who have the academic background to be able to understand all this better.

But I will say that God put that dirt there for a reason, is to hold up the railroad track.

And coal trains going by, or empty coal trains even, creates a lot of vibration.

And I, from an uneducated point of view, am still very concerned that there's digging into the hill that is holding up that

transcontinental rail line, and a really important one.

And I will just remember that when we were making improvements to the square in Crozet, there were all sorts of rules laid on about having to be, can't make, even enter closer to 50 feet from the main line in order to even have a fence or park a car.

And so it seemed like the railroad took the safety issues pretty seriously.

But that was all of my questions.

Thank you.

Yes.

Piggybacking on Supervisor Malek's concern, has this been discussed with the, I'm sure it has, but the railroad?

I mean, do they know about this?

I have not discussed it with the railroad, so I relied on the structural engineer of the applicant.

I spoke with them.

They've revised the design of the wall.

Actually, they didn't specify really the design of the wall in the previous application, but they've narrowed that down to be a wall that they say will not impact the property adjacent to their property, which is the railroad property.

and speaking with them, they provide a statement to that effect.

They said that they can build this with a cast in place or a soldier pile wall.

It might be a good idea.

That's up to the applicant.

I did not reach out to the railroad.

They're not easy to reach out to and contact.

And since we're not on their property, I don't see it as being a requirement.

There are risks with every project.

Wherever walls are built, there's going to be risk with this wall, these walls.

And this is why we're in front of the board to decide if the risk is adequate or proper for this site.

I don't

I don't think that I can't accept all the risk as the county engineer.

The applicant has to accept some of the risk.

Thank you, Mr. Poll.

I appreciate that.

If this was an ordinary situation, I probably wouldn't even bring this up because I would trust our engineers, their engineers, they're responsible.

I don't know, the vibration factor that Supervisor Mallek brought up that's really sticking with me because I don't know if the increase, will there be an increase in lines coming through there?

Does that make a difference for the engineer that develop is coming up with the walls and everything?

Because we do know that there's going to be an increase

and train lines from Southern Virginia all the way up to Northern Virginia.

So does that make a difference, the increase?

Well, with regards to vibration, the structural engineer specifically addressed that and said that if the wall is designed correctly and built correctly, then that's not an issue.

I do have some photos at the end of this slide deck that I could show you.

There's two photos of

Railroad walls that are 20 feet tall.

So it shows that you can design walls adjacent to railroads and then withstand vibrations and the loading of the actual cars.

So I know these are extreme, but it shows that even in extreme cases, we can build walls, we as a society can build walls to hold up

Railroad line.

So if you go back to the slide please Mariah that we were looking at.

I wanted to point out that you can notice that the critical slopes as you move closer toward Ivy Road are all entirely on the railroad property.

So they use this area we think is a lay down area and they've they extended those and pushed those critical slopes onto this property.

They could have

theoretically kept all of those critical slopes on the railroad property.

So there is a bit of a buffer between this property and the railroad.

So if there is a slope failure, then it would not reach the railroad line itself.

Thank you, Mr. Paul.

Thank you, Chair Galloway, Ms.

Gleason, Mr. Paul, thank you very much.

I appreciate both the presentation briefing as well as follow-up commentary in response to the questions.

I also want to express appreciation to the applicant, the report that they provided, particularly where it showed the consideration of various alternatives really helped me to feel that I had a better sense of what possible

I do have one comment.

I did find in the applicant's report

The last sentence of the third paragraph on paragraph four to the subjective editorial commentary that was unnecessary and detracted from the objective consideration of the proposal.

I would simply ask that when we receive these sort of reports and applications that they stick to the property in question and not necessarily address things outside of the application.

All right, I don't have any questions.

Are there any further questions here from Frank or from Ryan?

Yes, Mr. Pohl mentioned that the applicant takes the risk for making sure that his designs are correct and the implementation of the designs are carried out correctly, but what is the

legal obligation that that person would have considering everybody downhill, basically.

I mean, I know this is a worst case scenario, but this is a very troublesome site and challenging site.

And that is probably why it has been undeveloped for many, many decades.

So does the applicant keep a bond to cover the losses of others if those slope failures and things that are mentioned

as in passing almost in the staff report if they happen.

What happens then?

What about properties downhill?

That's where the damage is going to go.

If there's a mudslide downhill with a whole lot of rain, it's going to be the rest of Ivy that is going to be getting the damage.

So anyway, I don't know what legal remedies there are, rather than just saying go fight it out in civil court, because I don't think that's fair.

For a decision that we are making, are we putting people at risk?

May I address that?

So there is a bond for, there are two different, I think you're speaking of two different issues.

One might be what Greg just referred to or addressed which is the adjacent railroad property but then with regards to erosion sediment control, yes we will have a bond

For erosion and sediment control measures, we will have a permit in place.

The applicant will have a permit in place.

If the sediment does leave the site, we do have measures or means to address that.

Not only with us, but with DEQ.

And how long does that oversight happen?

Because it may be 15 years until something happens.

The oversight, of course, stops once we release the bond at the end of the project.

If there's a future failure 15 years from now, there is no bond in place, so it may at that point be a civil matter, but if sediment from this, if the wall fails and sediment enters the stream because of the wall, the owner would still be liable to potentially DEQ for state waters.

including State Water.

So there is still a mechanism there through the state.

It feels like a long distance when you're on the road, but it is a very short distance to the reservoir from here as the crow flies.

So seeing how dirt can travel, it's very close.

Thank you.

Are there any further questions here?

I would move that the board adopt the attachment C with the conditions contained therein.

Second.

Ms.

Kleinz?

Aye.

Mr. Galloway?

Yes.

Ms.

Mallek?

No.

Ms.

All right.

The motion carries.

Thank you, Mariah.

Thank you, Frank.

Thank you.

And let's see, I have... trying to keep track of all the faces popping up here.

Kevin, I've got your name as leading this.

That's correct.

Good afternoon, board.

My name is Kevin McDermott.

I am the planning manager at Albemarle County, and I'm here today to talk about the transportation priorities and project update.

and the future grant options.

Let me go ahead and bring up my PowerPoint for you.

Okay, did that switch to the presenter view for you?

Great, thank you.

So today I have provided you all with a report that covers all of the transportation priorities from the 2019 Albemarle County priorities list.

That was approved in July of 2019.

That list provided all capital transportation projects that are recommended through the various county planning processes.

it's ranked with a methodology that was intended to identify the highest priority projects and typically we would look at updating that list every two years so that was going to occur in 2021 because we have some limits in the CDD work plan and we have a proposal before you to develop a multi-modal transportation plan we postpone the process of updating that list

And so what I'd like to do here today is just let you know where we are with the existing list and hear the upcoming projects so that we can start to make decisions about the next projects that we'd apply for in grant cycles for revenue sharing in 2021 and in smart scale for 2022.

We don't have to make any final decisions at this time.

I'll come back to you for those, but I'd like to get direction from the board to make sure that we're looking in the right way for these different projects.

As you saw in the report, we have gotten 12 projects from that 2019 project list funded.

That included eight first tier projects, three of the second tier projects, and one of the third tier projects.

Those are shown on this map and they are all listed in the document we have that you all have been provided.

But I'm not going to focus too much on that.

I'm happy to answer questions about any of them.

What I'd really like to do is focus mostly on these upcoming grant cycles in these next few years.

So as I mentioned, revenue sharing is coming up in 2021.

This year, we will be making applications in the spring and summer.

The first priority that we have discussed in the past for revenue sharing is the Eastern Avenue South connection from West Hall Drive across the Lickinghole Creek to Colby Farms Drive and Route 250.

That project is currently being evaluated through an alignment study and conceptual design which the county has funded through our transportation leveraging project.

We just recently received the updated cost estimates from that consultant that we have hired and their preliminary cost estimates are now at $19,983,000.

These are still being worked on.

There will possibly be some fluctuation in those final cost estimates, but this is where we are right now.

So keep that in mind.

I will also point out that we have some folks from the FES department here to answer specific questions about that.

This project is being managed by Jack Kelsey in Facilities and Environmental Services and if we have specific questions about it we can bring him in to answer those.

The next project that is on the list that has been discussed for revenue sharing is the Avon Street Bicycle and Pedestrian Improvements from Mill Creek Drive to Paragory Lane.

This was recommended in the Southern Area's Master Plan.

It was a top priority in the Avon Street Corridor Study and it was proposed as one of the quality of life projects a few years back.

And so there was some funding attached to that when quality of life came back.

The proposal is for a shared use path on the west side of Avon Street and a pedestrian crossing of Avon Street between Mill Creek and Paragory Lane.

That's just on the south side of I-64.

The draft cost estimate for that from the Avon corridor study was approximately 2 million.

We are having the consultant who did that study take a second look at that to make sure that we're still accurate with that estimate.

But that's where we are right now.

Those were the only two projects that we've discussed for revenue sharing.

And so I just want to put out some considerations for you all that we can discuss.

So there is a $10 million limit for a revenue sharing application period.

So Eastern Avenue with that $19 million cost estimate would eat up all of that, essentially all of that $10 million because the county would be providing $10 million and then we would be requesting $10 million from the state.

So that's where that $10 million limit would be reached.

That funding is programmed in the out years of the six-year plan now.

This is a change in VDOT's process for revenue sharing.

In the past, when we got revenue sharing applications, that money would be programmed starting in the next year.

Now they have moved to a process similar to SmartScale, where the money is not going to be available for about five years after that approval was made.

So any funding from revenue sharing would not be available until 2027 or 2028.

We could evaluate the possibility of the county continuing forward with any design to advance the project, but that would not be reimbursable for that $10 million if we spent additional money before it was approved, that would also not be reimbursed.

So that's something to keep in mind.

The pre-application for revenue sharing is open right now.

It just started on May 17th, and it will be open until July 1, so we'd have to know what projects we were going to make applications for by July 1.

And then the final application period is August through October, and that's when it finally closes and we need all of our information in at that time.

Those are the two revenue sharing projects.

I will go ahead and talk quickly about the SmartScale 2022 projects, and then we can move to discussion and questions from the board.

So SmartScale 2022, we have preliminarily identified a number of projects that we can make applications for.

This map also, as you can see, shows the Eastern Avenue and Avon Street projects in it as well, but the projects that we have discussed preliminarily

for SmartScale include the District Avenue roundabout, which was a component of the hydraulic project that was funded partially after this component was removed.

If you remember, about three years ago, we made an application for the hydraulic project that included a lot of different pieces of it.

That project was not funded.

They scaled it back, resubmitted it in the previous application round,

with only some of those pieces.

So District Avenue was one that had been removed that we are now discussing with the Charlottesville area MPO the possibility of adding that back into the project as an application.

A second project is the Hillsdale Drive extension and realignment phase one from Mall Drive to Rio Road, and that included the roundabout at Rio Road.

This was the recommendation from the Rio 29 small area plan, one of the high priorities from that if you recall, and it is also currently part of the Rio corridor study.

They're evaluating that recommendation.

I would like to also point out that the numbers you see here are the rankings from that 2019 priority list.

So you're going back and looking at the highest ranked projects from 2019 and trying to move those forward the ones that have not been funded yet.

The next project is US-250 West, US-29 Bypass Interchange.

There were recommendations made for improvements at that interchange through the VDOT STAR study that was done a number of years ago.

We have continued to see some issues out there and VDOT is evaluating potential improvements that include all the way from the old Ivy Road intersection in the county, not the one at the city side, but the western end of that intersection with Ivy Road and those intersections with the ramps on Ivy and looking to see if we can make some improvements to operations and safety through there.

Number 17 is the Belvidere Boulevard-Rio Road intersection improvement.

This was one that we had considered making an application for in the previous SmartScale round.

Instead, we decided to focus on the John Warner Parkway-Rio Road intersection.

and make an application for that which was funded and now we're starting to consider how we might be able to tie in improvements with Belvidere Boulevard and that is also currently being evaluated through the Rio Road Corridor Study so we'll have some additional details about that as we move through that process.

The Fifth Street extended bicycle and pedestrian improvements.

This was also a recommendation that was made in a recent VDOT STARS quarter study process for Fifth Street.

It looks at a lot of bicycle and pedestrian improvements.

We could also tie in some roadway operation improvements, especially in the areas just south of the interstate there where we have some current problems.

It would tie in really well with the previously funded project for the roundabout at Old Lynchburg and Fifth Street in the county Fifth Street office building entrance.

So that project is moving forward.

We also have ABC coming in which has proffered a shared use path on the west side of Fifth Street.

We'd like to try and extend that, make that a little bit more useful, and tie it in with some other improvements.

The next project I have on the list is Crozet Avenue and 250 West intersection improvements.

This was something that was previously ranked really high.

I would like to point out to the board, we are undergoing a Crozet master plan update right now.

And as part of that there was a transportation study that was done.

Through that transportation study, it was identified that of those intersections along US 250 on the south side of Crozet between Old Trail and Crozet Avenue, that actually Crozet Avenue is performing a little bit better than the ones at Old Trail and at the school's campus out there, Brownsville Elementary School entrance.

So the consideration could be made

that instead of focusing on Crozet Avenue, perhaps we should be looking for a smart scale project there at Old Trail and the Brownsville Elementary School entrance.

So that's a consideration that I think the board should probably keep in mind.

And then the next project that we have on this preliminary list is the Rivanna River Bike and Pedestrian Bridge connecting South Pantops to Woolen Mills.

As you all recall, VDOT did an evaluation of some potential alignments

they had identified some it has not been finalized yet but the ones that were identified essentially are from where the Woolen Mills facility is over to South Pantops near the State Farm property and then the second one up by the Riverside Park in the city also connecting over to Pantops State Farm area

So that project is still being evaluated in consideration for SmartScale next year.

We are already having these discussions with the Charlottesville Albemarle MPO and the TJPVC and VDOT because we're trying to get ahead of this.

We can each submit four applications for SmartScale, the TJPVC four, Campo four,

and the county for.

They have developed a process at the TJPDC to select projects and that would include a commitment to appropriate planning and public involvement prior to any submittal.

We're doing this to make sure that we don't have another situation where a project comes up that hasn't been entirely vetted.

So they have made a commitment to help working with the county to do that public involvement and planning process over the next year prior to making any submittals.

I would also like to point out that within the past week VDOT has reached out to staff about two additional potential projects they would like to evaluate for consideration for the smart scale in 2022.

I'm pointing these out separately because I actually got this information after I had submitted my report to you.

So these weren't ones that I had considered at the time, but I think we could look at it and possibly have some additional room in the application limits to get these in if the board is interested.

The first one that VDOT would like to study is intersection improvements at US 250.

and Route 22, Milton Road.

As you know, there's been a lot of discussion about US 250 east of Charlottesville and the problems we have out there.

VDOT has identified this as well through the state V-Trans process as a high priority and that's why they came to us asking about it.

The other one is not necessarily ranked in our list.

The previous one, sorry, on US 250 was ranked at number 39 in our previous priority list.

The other one is not ranked in our previous priority list.

However, components of it

are ranked at number nine and number two.

So there are pieces of it.

Those are both projects on 250 in Pantops that were identified in our priorities.

And what VDOT would like to do is look at multimodal corridor improvements

focused from Hampson Road to Peter Jefferson Parkway, which is essentially between the end of the Diverging Diamond project that was funded a few years ago and going to the corridor improvements that were funded in this most recent round.

So that one segment that was not covered of US 250 in Pantops, that's what this study would cover.

and I will point out that that's a multimodal corridor evaluation that they're looking at and components of it would be bicycle and pedestrian transit and potentially looking at locations for a park and ride that could be connected to the transit and bike bed improvements as well as other corridor improvements, crossings of US 250, all things that were recommended in the Pantops Master Plan.

So VDOT has reached out to us because they would they propose to provide the planning services that would be required for these projects that would include public involvement and conceptual design if the county wants to move forward with that.

We could also ask them to move forward and once again when

No final decision is being made today.

We could always decide later that we are not supportive of these projects and remove them from consideration for SmartScale, but they offer to do that planning process for us.

For SmartScale 2022, the pre-applications will be due next year in April and the final applications due in August.

And I know that seems like a long time away, but if we really want to get a robust planning process involved in these, any of these projects, we really want to get started now.

So that's why we're already talking about it.

And that's it for my presentation.

I will stop sharing my screen.

and as I said, I'm available for questions.

Thank you.

Thank you, Kevin.

Thank you, Kevin.

I really appreciate the information and my understanding is that this is for information only today.

Yes, and providing, making sure that I'm going in the right direction with these applications.

Yeah, and I really don't, I really, we've had a lot of discussion about all these projects.

and I feel comfortable with them.

I have a couple of comments that I would like to make at some point and then I'm not sure in looking at the future I have some questions about not the 22 but the next round and I'm not sure exactly, Kevin's with us, I'm not sure exactly, maybe we'll talk about this and then I could come back before Kevin leaves.

Because I really appreciate all these projects and I don't have a lot of concerns about them right now.

Thank you.

This is a really great report and I guess the only question I have, I'm still trying to take it all in on the third read-through.

They're the three or four categories of funding things.

Yeah, absolutely.

I think what you're referring to is for SmartScale 2022,

We have, each of us can make those four applications.

And we started to discuss who would be most appropriate for those.

The District Avenue roundabout, and I'm going to go down that list of 2022 projects again.

The District Avenue roundabout, because the MPO was the lead on the hydraulic plan, I think it's most appropriate that the MPO would probably submit that application.

The Hillsdale Drive extension and realignment because we are working currently on the Rio corridor plan and also we were the ones that did the Rio 29 small area plan.

I think that would probably be more appropriate coming from the county.

U.S.

250 West, I think that could probably go either way or actually any of the three ways if we consider the TJPDC as a third option.

But I think that would fit within R4 if we wanted to make that application.

Belvedere Boulevard, I think that once again, because the right of a corridor study would be most appropriate for the county to do.

Fifth Street extended,

I think that the MPO is offering to do that because of its connection with the city.

The STAR Study actually went from the city, Harris Street in the city, down to Sunset in the county, or actually a little beyond Sunset.

And so I think that the MPO is the one that's probably looking to make that application.

Crozet Avenue, 250 or if any project in that 250 corridor were to move forward, I think that would probably be most appropriate with the county.

Rivanna Bike-Ped Bridge, once again that's I think an MPO project because a lot of the improvements would probably be in the city.

even if it lands in the Woolen Mills area we would want to make sure it connects to the um the city facilities bike ped facilities so I think once again that would probably be best with the MPO um and then the next two projects uh the uh Pantops corridor and the

22-250 intersection.

Those I think would probably be the TJPDC or the MPO.

Thank you, that makes it more digestible for my brain and I really, that's very hopeful actually that we have some that we've studied for a long time that are sort of within the bracket.

Yes, thank you very much Mr. McDermott for the presentation.

And I thank Supervisor Mallek for the questions that she asked, because that was a good explanation for me also.

So I don't have any real questions at this time.

Supervisor Price.

Thank you, Chair Galloway.

Mr. McDermott, there was a great report and presentation and I want to thank you and everyone who worked with you to prepare and present that to us.

It really is tying so many things together that we've talked about over the last year and a half now and I can visualize each of these as you talked about them.

I especially want to appreciate number 39 the US 250 Milton Road consideration between that and the work that's being done at I-64 and 250 right now that could really improve our transportation situation in the eastern part of the county and as you know we have had

we currently have and we have to expect that we will continue to have proposals for developments out on that part of the county and 250 has improved so I would really like to encourage attention being brought there on that with regard to the revenue sharing.

And this is more an editorial comment than anything.

It almost boggles my mind how we're supposed to be able to come up with ideas for some of these projects and it's going to be another five or six years out before funding even comes up with the way

Materials and other building project expenses are going up right now.

I mean, it's basically anyone's guess what we may actually be looking at down the road.

But I recognize part of the bureaucracy as well as the time that's required to actually go from proposal to project initiation is complex.

And I just am very appreciative for the expertise that you and everyone else that you work with brings to this.

And other than that, I just have to say thank you.

This was a really helpful report.

I hope that our constituents see that the county is working very hard to address a number of traffic transportation infrastructure areas in the county.

Kevin, any concerns about, I know the MPO, we had voted to change some of the public process and public input process on applications that they could be taking forward.

Does that change?

And Ann may have to, or Supervisor Mallek may have to correct me here, but if I recall, I remember a comment about perhaps couldn't take forward as many projects or that's echoing in my brain here.

No, I don't have any concerns with that.

This does match up with their process that they have developed for that.

And it's part of the reason why I'm coming to you this early in the application period, still far more, almost a year and a half out from the actual application deadline.

their request was that they want to know what projects we might apply for we might ask them to apply for this early so that they have the time to to achieve the the appropriate planning and public involvement so we have been working with them I've had multiple meetings with them there was actually a

And I don't have any adverse reaction to anything here so it's good information to you know when you said am I not on the right track or not I think you're on the right track.

There will certainly be, have to go back and study and make sure there's, you know, a project here or there isn't getting the right due from a prioritization standpoint.

So we can go, we can move back through.

Like I said, we have some time here.

If there are other overarching questions or things that go beyond as we work on transportation.

I had a couple of items that I wanted to mention while we have Kevin and Dan and folks at the table looking for the next round of prioritization because we've really worked hard on these and I just appreciate all these projects because they really touch the key and so

What I wanted to ask though, and maybe it's, Bevin, I'm not sure if you're the right person.

We've been talking a lot about looking through at projects, a lot of our developments and projects through the lens of equity.

And I know that CIRI has been working on an equity impact assessment that's going to be a rollout to us, I think in August or something, and we're going to be

looking at a lot of our proposals projects developments through an equity lens and I just I was looking at the factors scoring land use safety congestion economic development accessibility and I just was wondering if there were

are we going to be applying that equity impact assessment on projects such as this transportation multimodal transit through that lens and will we see a column there that you all have actually used that equity impact assessment when we're prioritizing in the future new projects that are coming forward.

Absolutely.

I'll go ahead and say that I have worked with CIRI on that impact analysis.

We have discussed it.

We have walked through it.

We have tried to look at how we can look at these transportation projects with that impact analysis.

And I think that's part of the reason why we're looking to do this multimodal transportation update is because we want to

I think that is the case that we are doing that.

I will also like to point out that the accessibility factors that we looked at in the previous round did look at addressing areas with high proportions of low income,

Elby, limited English speaking populations, so we did map all that out and that was a factor that was considered when we were trying to figure out what...

what that accessibility score would be.

So there was a rudimentary analysis of equity that was done at that time.

So just want to make sure that you can see that.

If you look back at the report, it explains it in a little more detail, our initial 2019 report.

And you can also see the maps where we mapped out those areas where there was high proportions of

I don't know.

I saw Mr. Richardson came on.

No sir, Supervisor McKeel asked a great question and I was very interested in your answer and I wasn't sure how far along you were with the Office of Equity and Inclusion and Kevin, thank you so much for what I think is an extremely good and in-depth answer.

And I really appreciate the work, right?

And so I will say, Kevin, that was sort of my impression because I noticed one of the projects, a pedestrian project in one of the older neighborhoods, went from somewhere in the 90s to all of a sudden somewhere in the 60s on the ratings.

It obviously had been reviewed is all I'm saying.

So that's really good to know.

So I will be looking forward to that when that equity impact assessment comes formally to us and we start talking about how we're going to be using it for these projects.

The other question or point that I wanted to talk about, in my Citizens Advisory Committee meeting on Monday, and you know, Kevin, you've attended my Citizens Advisory Committee meeting, and they are very focused on the hydraulic Lambs Road, Rio Road transportation issues.

And one of the, and we had on Monday,

Bill Moyer came to us from Rivanna and talked about the pipeline route that will go down essentially what we're talking about here is Rio to Lambs Road and then of course behind the Albemarle High School, the Lambs Lane Campus.

The question came up around whether or not

we would be able to ask VDOT to allow, supposedly that water line is going to use VDOT right of way down Rio.

That's the area I'm talking about essentially because Lamb's Road is so narrow but the Rio Road

if we would be able at the end of the day to ask VDOT to allow that pipeline route to be used as a multimodal pedestrian bicycle route along that area.

But what we discussed with Bill Moyer was it would be very helpful, and we're talking five years out, right?

But it would be very helpful to know

What connections for bike and pedestrian in that area are we missing?

What gaps?

Or what are some of the areas that we would like to be able to connect in the future that

area would be helpful to make those connections and that would require maybe you or someone I'm not real sure to take a look at that area but if we were going to go and try and make a case to VDOT to use that right of way we really need some facts and it may be that it really wouldn't help connect at all I don't know

other than certainly it would be great for people along Rio, and that's always there.

But any other connections for our planned bike pedestrian connections, so I guess I'm just throwing that out there.

And that's future, in the future.

I'll just respond by saying

I agree, I actually saw that presentation and I noticed the alignment adjacent to Rio between Lambs up to Berkmar and I noted that we need to talk to them about that because that is the priority.

We have, as you know, we're moving forward with the shared use path going down Berkmar all the way to Rio.

A shared use path along hydraulic, they're right next to the school, but there is a gap right there.

Yeah, I hope so too, but it's never too soon.

And certainly Bill made the point that

There's no guarantee that VDOT is going to let us use their right-of-way.

I don't want to use the word assumption, but that is what the route plan is right now, but there's nothing written in stone.

And so we really, to avoid lots of private property purchases, right?

We really need to be working with VDOT to see if we can encourage them and then look at those gaps for multimodal would be wonderful.

And I'm sorry for bringing this up today, folks, but I wasn't sure when else to get it before everybody.

including staff and board members.

Seems like an appropriate topic for today.

Timing ones.

But we'll go through and see if others have similar type things.

Thank you very much and thank you, Diantha, for that idea because it is such all across the district.

There are trails sitting on top of ACSA right away that are the basis of our greenways in so many places.

So I hope that we'll be able to do the same in the circumstance.

I think that's terrific.

Right away seems to be our biggest bugaboo everywhere we turn.

Several questions that I think may be for the future, Kevin, as opposed to immediate, but you tell me as we go along here.

I really was interested in the discussion earlier today about the equity ranking

And is that folded into what I wrote down first as the smart scale criteria, the land use, safety, congestion, economic development, and environment is the one that our local area added five years ago.

But since there is now a new environmental justice person in the governor's cabinet,

Have you heard any rumblings about also expanding that smart scale criteria, which took so long to develop, to also include an equity column or not?

I have not heard anything about any changes to smart scale, but

As I pointed out to Supervisor McKeel, the criteria that we used to rank was mimicking the criteria that VDOT uses in SmartScale and similar to our ranking in that accessibility factor.

Part of the scoring is allotted to, like I said, low-income populations, racial minorities, and getting them access to jobs.

So there is a scoring factor in that.

Related to it, I think we can always probably do a better job of that, but there is something in there.

Well, it's something for us to keep an eye on as we're meeting and talking to our BDOT folks as we go along.

My screen is acting weird.

I've lost my notes.

One second.

There we go.

Okay, second question.

We have heard a lot in emails recently from the White Mountain Road people and this is the 20-year discussion and so we have not talked about in the last five years putting that road on a do not pave list.

Sorry about the fire engine folks.

But I know that Dick Woods Road has sections of it which were a continual annual argument with citizens coming to the board every year because one person would request to put it on the Pave list and 35 other people didn't want to have it done.

And so the board a number of years ago just said, okay, this section of Dick Woods Road is now on the Do Not Pave.

List, to get it over with.

So I guess in Liz's absence, I will ask you to add that to your thinking process because I would certainly support it.

I think it would give a lot of consistency going forward, comfort going forward to people to know that every

April and September, they didn't have to come in here and jump up and down.

That particular road has a lot of cut-through potential that makes the better the road surface, the higher the speed of everybody zooming through who does not live there.

Okay, then I've got my list confused.

I'm sorry.

Let's see.

In the consent agenda, you have the scenic highway, and there was a map in there, which is lovely, but it does not list the journey through hallowed ground on Route 20, which is a national scenic highway, congressionally approved.

So if you would consider adding that to the map to make it more complete, I think that would be great.

I'm still getting a lot of questions and I think others are as well from people throughout the area about the Three Notch Trail and I understand fully where we are but is there a

Scoping information that could be provided for just a small section that we could share with people to say even if we do from Crozet to the tunnel, here's what will be involved.

And I know you don't have that today, but is that something that is possible?

to create.

I think there's a lot of interest and possibly even funding from many sources on this project and I think it's sort of like looking the gift horse in the mouth and saying no thank you when VDOT says we'd be glad to do something and so I'm trying to think of all the good reasons why we've chosen to do what we're doing which is not to do it.

But I don't know if there's any section of it that we can manage.

So I'll just leave that thought with you and one of you can get back to me to follow up on that later.

Thank you.

Could I interject something for Supervisor Mallek?

Blake Appenau, Chief with FES Facilities Planning and Construction.

Supervisor Malek, you had asked about VDOT and the equity that they might be emphasizing.

And they just recently, in fact, we received this from Trevor just recently, there was a special session.

And they're looking into the public body procurement work group.

that will monitor and emphasize the Commonwealth's discretionary spend goals for certified small women and minority-owned businesses were swam.

And included in the email that they just sent out, the announcement was made just recently, the different people that are considered to be stakeholders, I would be one of them.

They've requested a survey be filled out to try to gather additional information because

Yes, thank you very much and Mr. McDermott, I

I have a question.

I don't know if this comes under, perhaps you can help me, the SmartScale project or the secondary six-year plan, but I think I've talked to you before about possible roundabout on Route 222-231.

That is also, and Supervisor Mallek mentioned Route 20 being a journey through hallowed ground and

Route 22 is it's the same thing that has a scenic byway designation that's also part of the journey through Howard ground and I'm just wondering a possibility of getting a

a roundabout at that intersection.

It's a rural road and we're getting cars, trucks, especially large trucks that shouldn't be there.

And the reason why they're going through there is because the younger truck drivers are using the Apple GPS and that's the road they take instead of going down 15 to the I-64 freeway.

So I don't know under which project it would go in, if that's a possibility.

I mean, people right now, their mailbox is on one side of the street, which is normal, but they can't even get to their mailboxes because of the speeding.

cars and I've heard from other people where they actually have to go by their driveway, go into another area, turn around and come back because they can't turn into their driveway because of the speeding cars and like I said this is it's a beautiful beautiful stretch of our Virginia road and it's a freeway

and it shouldn't be a freeway it's a rural road and it's very dangerous because on either end are deep ditches so if you go off the road you're going into a ditch and into a tree and we've even had semis that have overturned so I do believe that having a roundabout there at 22 and 231

would definitely dissuade the truck drivers, the large ones, if they're not going into the farms there, but would definitely dissuade everybody else from coming through there, along with some other traffic calming measures, such as having the same speed limit from Shadwell to Gordon'sville, which currently is not the situation, but we're working on that one.

I would say that a segment of road out there on 22 was identified in our priorities.

It's ranked number 85, a little bit on the higher side, but it is ranked.

But a project like that would likely have to be either a smart scale or a revenue sharing project because it's going to be a high cost project.

It hasn't reached the priority that we could get someone to really evaluate it unless the county wanted to identify funds to evaluate the potential for a roundabout there.

And that's something that the Board of Supervisors can work with

our finance and budget office through the capital program and identify funding that we can put towards a study to see if a roundabout would be appropriate and give us some idea as to the cost of it.

And once we get that information, then we can look at how a future funding application might be done.

So that would either be through SmartScale or through

revenue sharing.

Okay, so the first step is doing a study, which makes sense to see whether or not it would it's feasible and the cost and everything like that.

Okay.

Good.

Good.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

And good presentation.

Supervisor Price.

Thank you Chair Galloway.

Mr. McDermott the one of the following up with the what some of the other supervisors have mentioned one of the big concerns that I hear improvements is increased speed and frequency of traffic as well as the potential risk of increased pressure for development in the rural areas.

So I know you appreciate and understand that.

is with regard to improving roads, only utilizing impermeable surfaces, which then changes the water flow and ends up causing some damage to adjacent properties.

And then we run into the situation where VDOT is not taking any responsibility for the changes to the adjacent properties when they go outside of the right of way for the roads.

So really more a question perhaps VDOT,

What are the alternatives that can be used for surfaces that are not impermeable and which would allow the roadway to be improved but would not result in a significant change to water flows and those sorts of things?

Again, that's not necessarily a question to be answered today, but it is a concern in an area that I would very much appreciate getting some more information

Yeah understood and I have followed those conversations that you've had with VDOT and with residents in the rural areas.

I will point out though that a

An unpaved road doesn't necessarily mean that water can permeate that surface.

Typically, water runs off an unpaved road just in the same amount as it does a paved road.

but the difference is that when VDOT does go in and pave a road they tend to identify how they want that that water to flow off of it and direct it into certain areas typically ditches and then towards a creek and that's really where the problem is coming about is that when there is property in between the road

and the creek that they're trying to get the water to, they will end up directing it there.

But previously, it may have just come off in sheets and gone all over the place.

So that's really where that question comes in, aside from having more significant projects that would really pull that water, either put it into a storm sewer system that goes underground or more effort into redirecting it.

I'm not sure where we can go with that.

I understand the concern.

And thank you, Mr. McDermott, and I appreciate your more technically accurate response to my neophyte, not technically phrase, question.

I know, for example, though, like when one of my sons was living in Williamsburg, attending college there, the apartment complex, when they paved the parking area, it was a surface which allowed the water to absorb through the parking and into the ground rather than simply being diverted.

And so

if there are options like that to consider as well.

But again, not to be discussed in great length today, but those are among the concerns that I hear some frequency from the residents.

And I appreciate your reference back to your involvement, participation in trying to resolve some of those from previous situations.

Kevin, remind me,

It frankly took me up until just a few seconds ago to refine them here.

I know that in the last round, I thought it was smart scale, but it seems like it was two years ago at the NPO discussion of the I-64 climbing rooms.

And I'm not going to point that project out because there's others that fit this example.

But the bigger point is, is there a way to get a graphic or something that shows us over the last two or

I don't know what the number is.

Cycles of smart scale revenue sharing, et cetera.

Projects that we put forward didn't get funded, but now are kind of dropping off of our radar.

The I-64 climbing lanes was the one that kind of entered into my head here because, you know, and I'm not saying they should have been in your list, you know what I'm saying?

But that was a very important project and it seemed like everybody agreed two years ago.

And I think even VDOT was pushing that as an important project.

So I don't remember who took that forward.

But it seems to me that that information is kind of important to this discussion.

Like if we just had some sort of easy graphic that said, look, these were the Penn Park, Rio Road roundabout.

what happened, had that been funded, who knows what that does to the corridor study, to the John Warner smart scale, I mean, who knows what the possibilities were of that particular thing went through, but now that went from a 15 priority down to 49, and it's not kind of in our thinking now, and I guess my bigger concern is there a project that falls to the cracks that way that should be on our radar, and when we get a great presentation like we did today, which we don't disagree with,

But it's hard to find it in the notes updates section that that was a project that got some pretty heavy consideration For good reason a few years ago and here we're not really discussing it And I don't know of other examples that I can there could be a

So I'm really just kind of asking for another graphic or something that shows us what those are.

So we're like, oh yeah, let's not lose sight of that.

Because we know sometimes these projects take two or three times to get traction and get them through.

And it's real easy for a Warner and Ryle road project to come in that wasn't even on the priority list, gets a high priority, gets accepted and moves through the process really fast.

But something like those I-64 climbing lanes, which really are an ultimate solution we likely need, we don't want to lose sight and those get lost because of another important, I mean, they're all important.

Absolutely.

You know what I'm getting at here?

I think I do.

I'll respond with a couple things and tell me if I'm hitting at it.

For one, you can go back on the Virginia SmartScale website, the state's website.

and they have maps for every round of the projects that were submitted for those applications.

So they have a little map each application period and you can look at them all and actually it's interactive and you can select them.

All these projects like the I-64 climbing lanes and the Rio Penn Park Lane

Those are still in our priorities and they are on our priorities map that we have.

It's currently a static map available on the website under the CDD transportation page.

So you can pull up a map in the report that shows all of those projects that have been ranked, all 80 some odd projects.

A couple of other things.

I forgot to point out earlier that of those, I listed 12 projects that were funded.

We have dozens more projects that are currently funded that are being worked on that weren't in the 2019 priorities list, but have been moved forward.

So that's maybe separate from your question, but I did want to make sure I pointed that out.

Sidewalk projects all over the county, previously funded major road projects, the Berkmore-Rio Mills connection,

the 250, 151 roundabout, those are all still moving forward but not shown there.

But the last thing I'll say about that, oh, no, I got two more things to say.

One, the climbing lanes are currently being evaluated by VDOT and I was informed that they're looking for funding to potentially do that.

This came up in the most recent secondary six-year

Public Hearing that I attended just a few weeks ago and they presented a map that showed high priority highway projects for the state and that those climbing lanes on I-64 up to Afton Mountain were included on there.

And of course in the public comment I expressed my support for getting those done.

So there is still an opportunity to move those forward.

And then finally, the last thing I'll say is that this is really what we're getting at when we're talking about that multi-modal transportation plan and the need for that in the county.

We want to be able to correlate all of these projects into a one

working document and it would be nice to be able to put those on an interactive map as part of that process so that we can continue to see all of the projects that we've discussed and where they are and how they move forward.

Awesome.

Well, thank you, Kevin.

We're right at time here.

Yes, in regards to Donna's question about the damages that are coming off, there are many, many places throughout the Whitehall District where changes in the road, even grading gravel roads,

are now causing horrendous erosion of people's properties, creation of 10-foot deep gullies, and inability to mow or pasture in acres of land because of these drainage issues.

I've dragged the VDOT folks out there multiple times and they do a little surface grading and then go on.

The reason I'm saying this story is because I think it was the last legislative session, there was a proposal from mostly Eastern Virginia areas, but we have the same problems here.

They're called orphan outfalls.

And this is VDOT all across the state has places where the water from the roadway is just dumped.

somewhere and it becomes somebody else's problem.

So I think there was some legislation whose details I can't remember right now that was passed this past year to get some more leverage behind that.

Maybe we can find out the rest of the details.

to go along because that may help.

Thank you.

Interesting, just to throw this out there, interesting book that I read, oh I can't remember, a couple of years ago and actually gave my copy to Joel D'Annunzio, The Drowning of Mathews County.

Well this is not the Chesapeake Bay.

This is about VDOT and it's amazing and it goes through with the Board of Supervisors in the counties and what the very interesting book and I think

Joel has my old copy, and he's just across the mountain.

If you ever see him tell him to bring you the book, he'd like to read it.

Well, you can go to his house in Crozet and get it back.

Well, that's true, too.

It's about that thick, but it is a very informative book.

You're talking about roads and very informative.

Well, no, Kevin, thank you very much.

You were prepared to answer to the presentation that you gave, and you were gracious to answer questions that you weren't ready to necessarily receive.

And now you have a book report due, so thank you for your time.

and the presentation today.

Thank you sir.

Thank you.

We can take in our 15-minute recess and be back at 3 10 I guess we'll call it.

Travis will let us know when we're clear.

We are back from recess and ready for our next item, number 12, update on Broadway Blueprint Economic Revitalization Study.

And good afternoon, Roger, JT.

Chairman Galloway, members of the board, Roger Johnson here along with JT Newberry.

Not present with us today is Jennifer Schmack or Lee Catlin, both very much a part of this Broadway Blueprint economic revitalization study.

We had planned on today's event being a final report, but things have changed with the pandemic and other items.

We're going to give you an update instead and talk a little bit about what the next steps are.

Without further ado, I'm going to

I ask JT Newberry to take over and bring you up to date and I'll take you from today's date moving forward.

Thanks Roger.

Good afternoon members of the board.

It has been quite some time since our group was able to update the board on what's been happening on the Broadway street corridor so I'm going to take five to ten minutes to covering

some of the history and some of the recent activity and then I'm going to turn it back over to Roger to talk about our proposed next steps.

It was actually late 2019 when we last presented to the board and at that time the board accepted an interim study that approved three focus areas as well as an intention statement.

and the goal at that time was to leverage the public and private investment that had taken place and projected to take place with the woolen mills redevelopment and willow tree relocation to that site and the focus was to not undertake a large land use planning effort but to

rather have a focused economic development study.

And so a recap of that interim study was included as attachment A in the executive summary.

and we wanted to show some pictures of some recent activity on the corridor just to update the board as well as the public with some of the things that have taken place even during the pandemic.

So I'm going to try to get a pointer so you can see where I'm pointing.

The board is well aware of all the improvements that have taken place as a part of the

Public Private Partnerships at the Woolen Mills site.

We'll also be looking at some other pictures moving west through the corridor at the old Ice Attempt building where Sun tribe Solar is now located at 1740 Broadway, which has a lot of different uses with it, as well as the site across the street from 1740 where there is active construction taking place for a site called Woolen Mills Industrial Park

We'll also be looking even further west into the city where there's been recent construction for some residential projects, including infill here, this building, this building, and there's actually another apartment building we'll see that's off the screen.

As a reminder, the city-county boundary is Franklin Street.

which is located right here.

To the west is the city and to the east is the county.

The original study area is this section right here, about 45 acres of contiguous light industry zone property south of the railroad tracks.

Taking a look at some pictures, many of you are going to be familiar with the Woolen Mills site.

Moving forward from here, we've got the recently now complete and open bridge, which includes a lot of pedestrian enhancements for both hiking and biking.

This middle picture here shows some of the work that our Parks and Rec crew has recently completed to improve sections of the trail, and they continue to build that out.

And members of the public have been giving us

moving now up the corridor of Broadway Street

I mentioned the Ice System building where Sun Tribe Solar is currently adjacent to their mural on their building.

They've got a new access for their warehousing space that's been installed on the side of 1740 where Decipher Brewery is.

There was a Safe Spaces and Plates of Grant that created this outdoor space for people to come and safely enjoy

of Beverage Outdoors.

Then on the front of that building is an art gallery space, which some of you may have already seen.

This is an artist-run gallery that is not currently open to the public, but we hope will be soon as the pandemic continues to subside.

Looking across the street from 1740 by the old Eve's Alorum site is a new access road

that will be a shared easement back out to Broadway Street that will provide access to this woolen mill light industrial area.

There are about 10 to 12 pads under construction that will provide over 100,000 square feet of space for future industrial users.

So that site is actively under construction.

These pictures were taken just last week.

And then this is a photograph standing on Broadway Street looking to the west.

I mentioned those apartment buildings located in the city.

So here's the city-county boundary.

Right here, this is Franklin Street.

This is Broadway Street.

Then when you cross Franklin, this becomes Carlson Avenue.

So these are our city projects for housing.

There's this apartment building here and

This edge of that building is actually on the back side of this photograph here.

Then immediately across the street is a private development, another apartment building within the Sunrise project in the city.

So as Roger mentioned, the team was ready to bring our implementation strategies back to the board in April of 2020.

and the pandemic interrupted our momentum.

Nevertheless, we tried to stay engaged with stakeholders on the corridor.

There have been a number of projects that have continued on the private side.

Some of those we just looked at in pictures.

On the public side, the service authority is beginning their study of replacing a water main down Broadway Street

and the Rivanna River Corridor, phase two.

That plan has continued.

That's a joint planning effort with the city and the county.

And so as a result of the pandemic, we've had that limited stakeholder engagement.

Our Crop Departmental team of Parks and Rec, Community Development, Economic Development has had to look at those draft implementation strategies from before the pandemic.

Try to figure out, as a result of the pandemic, as a result of the uncertainty around future budgets, were those implementation strategies still appropriate?

Or did they need to be pared down or delayed?

And speaking of that stakeholder engagement, wanted to give the board a complete picture of what has taken place so far.

I started the presentation by recapping this interim study with the Board of Supervisors.

But before that, we had been doing some open house meetings with corridor stakeholders.

We had been meeting with our public sector partners.

Following the adoption of the interim study, we met with city staff at two different points in time.

We presented information to the Economic Development Authority and the Planning Commission.

We met with the Fitz and Avon Community Advisory Committee.

I mentioned the engaging with the Rivanna River Plan.

And during all of this time, currently the Office of Equity and Inclusion, as well as the County Executive's Office, have contemplated a new core value for the County of community, the new core value of community.

and the Office of Equity and Inclusion had also been working with the city and university on an equity memorandum of understanding.

So across this timeline, you'll see the star here on the right hand side.

Thank you for that JT.

As you can see on this particular slide, we have a new core value called community, which says we expect diversity, equity, and inclusion to be integrated into the way we live our mission.

Secondarily, JT mentioned the new MOU for equity and inclusion that is between the county, the city, and the university that happened in February of 2021.

As a result of these two new projects and or core values and memorandums of understanding,

We are going to pause our project and go back and review the Broadway corridor through an equity lens.

We don't know if that will change anything substantively or not, but we expect that it will.

I'll get into what the expected next steps are, and unless this board directs otherwise, it's the path staff will take.

However, we thought we should give you a flavor for the types of low-cost draft strategies that staff has been contemplating.

Again, these are draft.

They are subject to change based off of the information we receive in our second go-round looking through this project through the lens of community.

We had contemplated creating a quarter business association, one much like you may recognize that it occurs in Crozet called the Downtown Crozet Initiative.

If an organization like this were to exist, they could accept grants.

They may even formalize into a 501c3 and be eligible for other philanthropic activities.

We would contemplate creating an arts and cultural district for a high concentration of facilities, amenities, and events.

The overall goal of that would be to improve the business and create a sense of place.

Some other types of activities we're contemplating is complete, but pedestrian and bike connectivity, multimodal streetscapes,

enhanced public transportation.

And then Jennifer Schmack, who's not here today, plans to visit all these businesses that JT touched on that are located on Broadway, see what issues they may have individually, and see if the county can provide customized solutions to their respective needs.

What you don't see presented here are a lot of the long-term strategies, which we'll circle back around and talk about at a later date, that we sort of deferred all large capital

potential capital projects, whether it be complete streets or new roads or other types of projects that would be create a significant cost in lieu of our pandemic and tightened our belts for the time being.

We do expect to circle back around with some long-term strategies later.

However, JT, next slide please.

Here's our proposed next steps.

We'd like to meet with the city's new leadership.

Ashley Reynolds Marshall has become the city's deputy city manager for equity, diversity, and inclusion.

She started on May the 10th.

We would like to look at our project through the framework that's being created by the Office of Equity and Inclusion that would include additional community engagement and data collection and then return to this board after integrating our new

There are a number of questions that we'll ask this go-round that we may not have asked before such as who is the project serving?

Are there any unintended consequences?

What mitigation tactics may we recommend to minimize any negative impacts to any disenfranchised or any folks for that matter?

So with that being said, JT and I'll stop here and we'll entertain any questions the board may have.

Thank you Roger and JT.

I appreciate the update.

It's really great to see how this project has moved along and we certainly understand the pauses based on the pandemic but considering what we've been through over the last year I think this site has done amazingly well.

and just really appreciate what's happened.

And I've really enjoyed one of the restaurants down there recently.

I have a question to ask though.

I certainly, as you all might imagine, taking a pause to look at this project through an equity lens is really great.

And your draft strategies I thought were outstanding.

So I would not disagree with those at all.

I do have a question.

And maybe you all will help me remember.

At one point when we talked about this project, we were in the county office building because I remember we were in the auditorium.

So that kind of tells us the time period.

There were numerous young entrepreneurs that came to us very concerned about being priced out.

They were using one of the facilities, one of the buildings for their space.

And I remember that it seemed like there was an artist and maybe someone who was doing some welding

and I see Donna nodding her head.

She's remembering this with me as well.

And I know Roger, I've mentioned to you a couple of times when we've talked about this project at the EDA that we don't want to lose track of those folks and you indicated that they had not been forgotten, right?

And I was just wondering if you could give the board at this time an update

on what we might be thinking about in the way of help for those individuals.

I think, to be honest with you, it's about gentrification and them being priced out and needing a space to do their work.

Thank you for that question, Supervisor McKeel.

If you'll hearken back to the first two draft strategies that I mentioned, creating a core business association like DCI, that organization could receive grants and philanthropic activities to help pay for or promote arts in that particular district and hopefully minimize the impact that's happening.

and Arts and Cultural District sets up the framework for which you can offer incentives.

You can do other types of assessments to offset some other cost of having the artists there.

What you don't see listed as strategies and didn't make the cut for reasons I earlier stated are things like subsidies,

The county owning buildings in that particular area and perhaps offering lower rates for artists and things of that nature.

Those are longer term strategies with a higher price tag.

We have delayed or deferred any recommendations of that nature until we had a more clear understanding of what our financial future may look like.

And now, secondarily with the new community lens.

Well, and I would hope that some of those entrepreneurs were still there.

I know that I'm sure that some of them were stressed during the pandemic and don't know if they've moved elsewhere or if they're still there.

But I really do not, I don't want to lose track of the ones that are still working and would still like some help.

Anyway, so I appreciate your update.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I will add to Diantha's question about our young artists and entrepreneurs.

Morgan Ashcombe had a tour of his building in 1740.

where the lovely lady who is the welder has set up her studio finally and was going gangbusters.

It's the front of the building where the Decipher Brewery has their garden in the back.

And during the visit, the main question that they asked or that I took away was, is there a way for the county to

give some forbearance on property tax increases as they improve their facilities because the more work they do to improve their facilities for their tenants and try to also keep the rents low for their tenants to be able to stay there, the property taxes just wipe them out.

And I know we have done this for other construction projects.

where we are trying to fill that gap between HUD or something else and to get projects off the scope.

The initial answer I think I received from Greg at the time was we don't have authority to do that but I may be wrong and so I look forward to learning more about all of these possibilities because

The variety and richness of the community is all these different players have a place.

And I know all of us over many years have had experiences where I'll give Jamaica Plain, for example, in Boston, now a very posh area.

But in 1971, I wouldn't even get out of the car there to look at an apartment because it was so scary.

And yet the artists all moved in and because it was affordable and began that whole making it into a

Wildly diverse and safe and fun place to be and I see there are people who have been working in the Broadway area for decades and longtime owners who have really

not taken the quick dollar and sold their properties to somebody who's come and tried to wipe it out.

Those offers have been there and they're hanging on trying to do what they think is the right thing for their community and so I hope we will really work hard on trying to find a way to keep them all going.

Thank you and great on the report.

Thank you, Mr. Newberry, Mr. Johnson, I really, I don't have anything to add.

Supervisor Bryce.

Thank you, Chair Galloway, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Newberry, thank you very much.

Always appreciate your input.

And I just so much want to echo what Supervisor McKeel and Supervisor Mallek said and give a real shout out to Morgan Ashcombe who has really worked diligently to try and provide this resource, this avenue, this home for some struggling artists.

And you know, the arts is an expansive term.

It's not just musical entertainment or paintings.

It is so many different things and it affects our lives so much.

And part of the, Supervisor Malek, I'm going to, you know, just echo your words, the variety of the richness of the community.

And that is one of the things that makes Albemarle County what it is today.

I remember the first time I went to Sedona, Arizona, and it was just this wonderful artsy area.

And there are other places around the country that have been able to copy it.

So Mr. Johnson, Mr. Newberry, I really appreciate your talk to those first two things that you listed, which I think will allow us to provide this sort of an opportunity.

And, you know, Scottsville, if you're listening, if we could do the same thing down there in that tire factory,

These are the sort of facilities that are just so opportunistic for this sort of enrichment of our community.

So thank you for what you're doing.

I recognize there are a lot of complexities to try and achieve these goals, but I really do appreciate hearing what you're doing to try and make sure we can get there.

Thank you.

So I agree with the approach and

going back and taking the one through the equity line.

So I certainly agree with your approach and how you propose to move forward.

This is kind of a little, just a curiosity question.

In your, in the report that there was a comment, it looks like you did some site visits with Henrico.

Was it Henrico?

Yes, that's correct.

Westwood?

or Scotts Edition, so you did a site visit.

There was a bullet point in an Albemarle staff observation about pyramid zoning.

Allowing commercial uses in their industrial zones already creates more flexible opportunities than in Alabama.

When I was glancing over this, that was one where I was like, tell me more about that.

So I guess this is a good time to ask that question.

I've never heard the phrase pyramid zoning, at least in our conversations.

that I'm aware of.

Well, I haven't heard that particular term used before, but I think what it is probably referring to is that, for example, if you look at an industrially zoned area, any

less intensive use.

So in the hierarchy of usage, you go from industrial to commercial retail, to office and then to residential.

If you're industrially zoned property, then everything in that pyramid is allowed.

If you are, for example, commercial office, then just commercial office and residential would be allowed in that smaller pyramid.

Roger, you're nodding yes.

Counselor, you are correct.

That is based off of the feedback we met with staff there.

That's how they explained it as pyramid zoning.

Less intensive uses are automatically allowed up until the point of the most intensive uses by right.

And the current existing ordinances have certain percentage limitations, you know, 25% or just requiring that it be subordinate to a primary use.

Thank you.

That's all I have.

I appreciate the report.

Just one cautionary tale and that is that many of us will remember that we used to have hundreds of acres of light industrially zoned land in our county and through actions of private boards all throughout the 2000s

Those were all rezoned to mixed use and or commercial and or residential.

And then we were told, well, it's our fault.

We don't have enough light industrial stuff.

And so we don't have any place for our economic development to happen.

So this may be a vicious circle and we just need to be with our eyes wide open about the kinds of things that we allow.

That's why I've raised it every time we've had this matrix before us about putting residential into LI, for example.

Unless it's someone who is a live-work situation or the supervisor of a building who has to be there 24-7, turning 1740 Broadway into an apartment building would be a disaster from my perspective.

That's sort of what's rolling around in my head here, that we have to be careful about that unintended consequences.

It will be back where we were in 2008.

Any other comments or questions?

All right, Roger, do you have what you need for months?

We do.

We'll proceed with our action plan and circle back around with you after getting a schedule with the city and let you know when our next update will be.

All right, we are moving to number 13.

I believe our next presenter is joining.

Yeah.

So number 13, Charlottesville Area Alliance 2021 Action Plan.

And we have with us the chair of the Charlottesville Area Alliance, Marta Kean.

And good afternoon.

You are muted, Marta.

All right, try that again.

Thank you so much, Ned, and thanks to all the supervisors for taking time today.

I really appreciate the opportunity to update you on what's been going on with the Charlottesville Area Alliance.

As many of you who are newer may not realize, you are a member of the AARP network for an age-friendly community.

And after quite a year, it's a great opportunity to fill you in on what we've been doing.

I'm happy to have Peter Thompson here with me today.

He's one of the work group chairs, so he'll be adding a little bit when we get a little further through this.

And I just wanted to say it's May is Older Americans Month, so it's very fitting to be presenting to all of you today.

So a little bit of background.

And to let you know that you are a key community.

AARP has chosen the alliance with Charlottesville and Albemarle to be the key community for the Commonwealth of Virginia.

They choose one from every state.

So that means there will be additional resources.

And we'll talk a little bit about that a little bit later.

But I wanted to direct your attention to page six, which has

An outline of some of the eight elements that are recognized that would increase, I'm sorry, page seven, that would help to make a community more age friendly.

As you know, we have a large number of seniors in our area.

We as a region have about 20% and that's because

We are a wonderful place for people to retire and also because people who live here want to grow old here.

There's a real push for people to age in the community so we sort of have it from both angles and that means it's a demographic group that's going to continue to grow.

I'm curious to get the latest census numbers because I'm sure that seniors will be a piece.

We know nationally they are a group that is growing

We know that there are now more people over 60 than under two, so it's something that we need to be aware of because there will be not as many young people to help take care of all of us when we're going to be at the point where we could use a little care.

So we want to make sure we get this community in a good place.

So several years ago there was a group of eight of us who work with seniors who recognized that there was a need to really put our voices together and to begin to work on what it would take to collectively create a community.

So we were very lucky that

Albemarle County said yes, let's do it.

We had the elected officials signed a proclamation and signed up with AARP and then appointed a staff member, Emily Kilroy, to be the representative.

So you've been a very active part of the alliance all along.

And I think that's really important because we wanted to make sure we were reflecting the things that are important to you.

So on page seven, you can see those eight life elements, they call it.

And I think it really covers a lot of what intersects with your comprehensive plan.

Looking at buildings and outdoor spaces, parks and recs, certainly with trails and for walking and for biking, transportation, housing, and the support that one needs in housing, not just housing, social participation,

respect and social inclusion, civic participation and employment.

I think sometimes people forget that many people over the age of 60 are choosing to stay at work longer or when they retire sometimes realize they need to go back to work part-time.

And so that's an area that often is not thought about when we talk about seniors.

communication and information, and then community support and health services.

And I'm sure there are many other areas, but AARP wanted to make it a manageable group and a lot of things can fit under those categories.

So the first step that we took as an AARP age friendly group was to do an assessment.

And so in 2018 to 19, we were able to be a part of the health districts general survey.

Then you all helped us get a survey out to seniors.

It was on your website.

We handed out paper copies and then we did focus groups in several places within Charlottesville Albemarle and

some of the rural counties and out of that we found out that seniors often do not feel socially included in the community, that there's not enough affordable housing

and that transportation is a bigger issue, especially for those who don't live near the services.

I am sure that not a single thing there is a big surprise to you.

Probably we didn't even need to do the survey to come up and tell you that, but at least we confirmed what many of us anecdotally felt was happening.

However, the majority of people said that the community they live in is a good place to age.

So despite all the things they said that didn't occur, they still would prefer to age in their community.

And I thought that was a real plus because it tells us we've got people committed to making this work.

So then 2020, the next step was to develop an action plan.

And we got started and we were really moving strongly.

And then, of course, we all know COVID hit.

And so almost the 30 agencies that belong being volunteer

All were very focused on trying to make it through COVID, and I have to say most of us were not looking at the goals that we were working on at that point, as I think probably most of you were feeling the same way it really redirected us.

and on page nine, you can see the list of all the agencies.

It used to be that Peter and I could list them off, but we're up to the point where I know we'll leave somebody out.

So I just would rather you look at them.

But I would say it's important to see that the planning district is a member, the health district, both hospitals.

There's a real variety of the legal aid, just as region 10,

It's really a great group where we're trying to look at all the different things that are important to help our community move forward.

So, and I'm trying to talk fast because I know you all have a lot on your agenda in case you have questions or comments.

So the three areas that we found that people really said, not only is there a gap, but it's a high concern is housing.

And so we've been very happy that we've been able to be a part of the regional housing partnership and a

Representative from the Alliance Ginger Dillard is our chair for that committee and so right now they've been busy being a part of the panel on affordable housing as well as commenting and contributing to the housing plan.

We really appreciate the plan Albemarle put together and

and we were given the opportunity to have comments specific to seniors and we appreciated that awareness.

And then looking at comprehensive plans and just trying to make sure that we don't want to do something separate.

What we want is for senior issues to be a part of what's being developed, not a distinct goal by itself.

And so that's why we're really glad to be

working in conjunction with the housing partnership.

The other area is transportation, which I'm gonna wait and save for Peter.

And then social participation was the third.

And George Worthington, who is a co-founder of Dementia Friendly is that chair.

He also happens to be in charge of the dementia programs at the Department of Aging and Rehab Services at the state level.

And so the goals under that have been, one is to begin to do more dementia training to businesses as they open up again.

So that as people are out and about, for instance, waiters or theater ushers or retail merchants have an understanding of how they could help someone with dementia feel more comfortable when they come in a store with their

loved one or even on their own if they're still at mild levels of dementia.

And obviously some of this carries over to just being good training for working with seniors as well.

We also will be looking at a survey to find out what people want for social engagement.

We've got OLLI, we've got a lot of things going on in our community.

Albemarle County offers a lot of different activities and programs.

And so when people say they want more social participation, what are those things?

And then we've also been working for about a year and a half with the Albemarle Rescue Squad doing the Humains Project.

And so both Department of Social Services and Java has info on the different rescue squad units so that

When the high utilizers are being cared for by your rescue squad, they can offer them opportunities to address those social determinants because often it's not about the medical care.

And so how can we help take some

people out of that high-utilizer group by being able to address those areas.

So that will continue to move forward and we're hoping to do more in that area again now that we can all focus again.

So now I want to let Peter share with you the goals for the transportation.

Again, we were very appreciative that the planning district and

The Regional Transit Partnership agreed to having the Alliance have a non-voting member, and that's Peter.

Thank you, Marta, and on behalf of the Senator Belvedere and CAA, let me add my thanks to Almorro County for doing its part to acknowledge the need to be a part of the AARP WHO age-friendly network and to use this data-based

approach to a holistic age-friendly community for all of us is really going to be a vital thing that we will all need to work for for as long as any of us live and probably beyond.

And the Center and I are pleased to have been a leader in helping get CAA started and working closely with our friends at Java, MARTA, and so many of our other CAA partners.

So as you see in the action plan, and as Marta said, we identified three main priority areas out of the eight dimensions of an age-friendly community, and the transportation has no surprise to all of you, is one of those key ingredients.

And the first goal, create a one-call, one-click

information plan and trying to get involved more with the regional transit partnership, we are well on our way.

Importantly, one thing that CAA has always from the earliest just informal discussions we had of first five and then as Marta said eight before we even formed CAA was very much about collaborating, coordinating,

Aligning and not creating whole new mechanisms.

There's a lot of good work needs to be done in the community and our CAA partners just want to work with private business nonprofits and municipal governments locally to do this.

And when there was already the regional transit partnership, it was really obvious to us to see how we may align and be a part of

So with Supervisor McKeel's support and guidance and Mr. Boyle's both in his former hat and his new hat helped us approach the RTP about becoming a non-voting member and we were welcomed I believe it was back in March

and I've been attending as the CAA representative as the transportation work group chair at the RTP for the last few months.

I've had a lot of conversations with the TJPDC staff and have had an email communication with Diantha today about trying to catch up next month to see how else we can be a resource for RTP.

and work in tandem with the RTP to move forward.

We are well aware that, again, COVID interrupted transportation quite a bit.

Certainly transitions in the city government have impacted things in some of the key organizations in the transit partnership.

But CAA stands at the ready to be a resource and an active partner with RTP and the municipal governments to move forward in some of the areas that transportation needs to work for in our community.

The second goal, which was not surprising to me too, I was working on a different work group and moved over to transportation this year to chair it at Marta's request.

And I had been on the CAT advisory committee for several years, again with Diantha and others three, four, five, six years ago.

And boy, did we talk a lot about the need for bus stop amenities to be improved, which doesn't mean just the bus stop themselves, but can you actually get to and fro a bus stop?

So that is a transportation focus for CAA.

I've talked a lot again with the RTP and with CAT Director Williams, who did do a presentation at length about a

vision and a plan to make amenity improvements throughout the city and county for CAT.

And we have voiced our support for that through the transportation work group and stand again at the ready for when advocacy for the funding for that vision comes to the MPO and beyond.

I and the CAA will be there to work in tandem and to get energy behind those bus stop improvements.

and then the third goal is around rural transportation help.

We have a great partnership also with our friends at Fluvanna County and of course you all know Albemarle County's got plenty of rural areas that need services of many kinds.

So that was an area we had back-burned a little bit but are starting to pick up.

A few members of our transportation work group are now trying to do, are looking to do a census of particularly volunteer driver programs that are already existing in our planning district.

we know faith groups have some there's a couple of others so we want to get a better handle on what's out there which ones might be able to be leveraged which ones may not and then see if there's a gap and then we know that there are volunteer driver programs in the country particularly aimed for older adults who no longer drive whether it be due to physical or intellectual reasons financial reasons or environmental choice reasons that want but still need to be able to get around and our public transportation may not meet their needs

So we are at the early stages of evaluating that and look forward to seeing where we get with that.

Thanks, Peter.

And so I just want to return for a minute to the fact that as a key community, what we really want to make sure is that

The goals that we're setting are in sync with your goals and then how we can leverage the resources from AARP.

We will be having a meeting in June with the Virginia AARP person to understand what those consultants

opportunities are because I think a lot of them could be things that staff could take advantage of.

So Emily and Diantha and Peter and myself will be meeting with the state person so we can better understand what's out there and what we want to make sure we take advantage of through the rest of this year.

And that's why we wanted to be sure to get

a chance to share with

resources that will come at no cost to delve into maybe some new or different ways or best practices particularly around transportation that we can bring to Albemarle County.

So I thank you for your continued commitment to the alliance and as Peter said

Certainly as Java, I also thank you for your continued commitment to the seniors in this area.

Thank you, Marta.

Thank you, Peter.

I do.

I have some of both.

I really appreciate the report.

It's great to have an update on your all's work.

Just a comment that the data in the report I really found great to have.

You had regional data as well as specific data for Albemarle, and that was really great, and I thank you for it.

I have put a couple of those pieces aside to try and remember them.

I did want to just say, and this is certainly not a criticism of your all's report as much as it is a comment probably on my eyes,

But on page 11, I really had trouble figuring out locality, gender and race.

It was so small, Marta, that I got lost in the colors and trying to figure out how those pie graphs were divided up.

probably just me trying to figure out the colors, but I'd love to see those pie graphs a little bit bigger maybe so that I could figure out which is which a little bit better.

Like I said, probably my eyes, but anyway.

Another comment I wanted to make was when you all were talking on page 15 about domain three housing,

and I'm sure you all are aware of Porch Light Virginia.

But I'm gonna mention it because it's a good opportunity maybe for the community to hear it.

Porch Light Virginia is a website that was created through the work of the Regional Affordable Housing Partnership.

And if you go into Porch Light Virginia, you put in your zip code and whether or not you wanna rent

or whether or not you want to buy.

And it is an affordable housing locator for Central Virginia.

And I have sent several people to that site that have found it very helpful.

You put in how much you can afford in rent, how much you can afford to pay in a house, and Ned can probably add some details here for me as well.

The Affordable Housing Partnership created it, but it's just like everything else.

To try and get the word out and to make people aware of it is really important and your group could really help us do that.

That's great.

Thank you.

It is really a great website and they do keep it up to date.

So at least as far as what I can tell it's been kept up to date.

I do want to thank Peter for the transportation transit piece and I just wanted to say that we are thrilled at the RTP to have you all at the table and

Just a couple of comments.

It's going to be important as transit in our community evolves through the two important transit studies that we currently have just begun.

The one study that's Albemarle County centric and another one that's regional.

These studies are looking at what transit should look like in our community in the future, right?

It's going to be really important that your alliance has the ability to weigh in and to be at the table with these discussions.

Both studies have community outreach and are going to be talking to the community.

So I'll try and make sure you stay connected.

Bea will try and make sure you guys stay connected through the partnership.

But it's important that you guys, that we have you all at the table to represent that community.

I'm just trying to think what else I had.

I wanted to make, oh, bus stop amenities, as Peter alluded to, we've all wondered in Albemarle County and been frustrated that we don't have shelters, we don't have concrete pads, very, you know, even for the

the transit stops that aren't appropriate necessarily for a shelter.

Many of them don't even have concrete pads.

Right now, and Trevor can maybe update us a little bit, but right now VDOT and CAT are working out a memorandum of understanding so that we can get bus shelters and amenities on our Albemarle County roads that are controlled by VDOT.

That has been the issue all along.

There was never an MOU created between VDOT and CAT about Albemarle County roads.

Albemarle County doesn't have as much to do with it as VDOT because they are the folks that control our roads and those shelters are on VDOT right of way.

That's in the works.

If Trevor is there, do you have an update on how that MOU is coming?

No, ma'am.

I apologize to Trevor Henry, Assistant County Executive.

We should make sure that there's an update.

I know there's been a lot of work going on behind the scenes.

because trying to get, of course, a bureaucracy like VDOT.

It's been challenging, but they have worked really hard to get this done for us.

And I just want to say that that's been kind of the hang up for years.

We're trying to work that out.

And I'll stop with the only other thing that I wanted to mention again is, and I've said this before, I was looking at your action step descriptions.

I think the volunteer program is a great idea.

I'm going to push back a little bit on using the words, encourage rural residents to become drivers for Uber or Lyft.

That's a business model that pushes all the cost onto the drivers.

That concerns me.

Having said that, the on demand model, the use of the word on demand, which is what this is, we have, you know, we started in the county working on an on demand model with jaunt.

and we're hopeful that we can get back to that at some point because I think that is, in fact, you're right, that on-demand model will be able to solve some of our connectivity problems for our community.

So I'm probably sharing my opinion there, but rather than the Uber or Lyft, it's the on-demand model.

And I thank you very much.

Thank you.

It was a great read and I appreciate all the information.

I don't have questions for you because I think that you're working on so many parallel tracks and bringing so many different people together who all have to be part of the conversation.

Still muted.

Okay, thank you very much, Miss Keene and Mr. Thompson.

I love the presentation.

I just have one question.

You mentioned about bringing in resources and I wasn't sure if that was through AARP in regard to transportation needs.

Thank you for getting that clarification.

AARP is by making us a key community is allowing for consultant resources.

So it will be sharing how to go about doing some things and approaching some of these goals.

They also have some small grants for specific projects.

So yes, as a part of the key community, anyone who's a

charter member of AARP has the right to apply for the grant.

As a key community, we have a little more priority in the list when they're looking at the grants.

So as we find some areas that have actions that we'd like to do that are specific to what you have in your plan, then that would be the sort of thing that together we could apply for those.

And that's why I wanted to make sure

with Ms.

McKeel being the chair of the RTP and an Albemarle Board of Supervisors that she get to hear from our state person and be able to sort of ask about some of those things so that we really make this meet the needs of Albemarle County not be something that stays theoretical but rather is very practical.

Supervisor Price.

Thank you, Chair Galloway.

Ms.

Keane, Mr. Thompson, thank you very much for your excellent report and presentation.

I greatly appreciate the work that you're doing, as all the other supervisors do as well.

I don't have any questions on this.

Ms.

Keane, I do have another matter that I'd like to discuss with you separate from this, though, so I'm just going to reach out to you so we can schedule a time to talk about that.

Thank you.

I just want to take the opportunity to, Supervisor McKeel mentioned the regional housing partnership.

Supervisor McKeel is actually moderating spring speaker series, I believe.

Oh, tomorrow.

So that's on transportation and housing.

So hopefully that's on your radar.

Tomorrow.

At noon.

and I know that then the June one is on housing and equity.

So the Regional Housing Partnership, if it's not on your radar, definitely should be.

The quarterly meeting of the entire body will happen in June as well.

The date of that I'd have to look up.

It's usually the last Wednesday, I believe, of the month.

But you can find that on their website.

The six localities are surrounding jurisdictions

private developers, public advocate groups, nonprofits, citizens.

I mean, there's a lot of involvement in that organization.

Thank you, Chair Galloway.

We do have our Chair of the Housing is a partner on the partnership.

and we have been advertising the monthly webinars to the entire Alliance so that they can share it with their staff as well because they're right there, great opportunity.

Who is that, the chair of your?

But then I didn't have any questions.

I think the questions that were asked were all good ones.

So I appreciate both of you being here to give the presentation and look forward to continued involvement and advocacy.

I mean, I suspect if anybody knows the two of you, you know, you're powerful advocates.

So we appreciate both appreciate you bringing the information forward, but we're also noting that you two are involved.

Everybody, thanks for your leadership.

We are actually, we made it to our closed meeting.

However, at this time, Mr. Cameron, we do not have any items for closed meeting, correct?

Would there be any objection from the board or the county executive to go ahead and move numbers 21 and 22 here?

That's from the

from the board and from the county executive from the evening down to this section since we have the time.

No objection.

So I'll go to number 21 from the board and go through our orders.

I did.

Yeah, no that's okay.

So we're talking about what we might be presented at the end of the meeting is what I understand right under other business.

I'm just going to point out that I saw this just today in the news.

Roanoke City Council unanimously passed a new plastic bag tax.

that will charge residents five cents per bag to use at grocery stores, drugstores, and convenience stores.

They are the first in the state and they're going to be figuring that out.

I'm just putting it on our radar screen because I was very pleased to see that we had a locality now that's doing that.

And I don't have the article.

I have it here somewhere on my desk and I should have had it ready to go and I'm sorry.

Yeah, and part of the board's decision was to hold off until we got out of the pandemic.

But the details in the article were really interesting about how they were going to be providing certain things for people, low-income folks, you know, free bags, reusable bags.

Anyway, it's a great article, and I was excited to see it.

So thank you.

That's it, Ned.

Okay, so I have some questions from today's staff report to leave for future answers.

And one is, in the transportation report, it talked about Rivanna River Corridor Phase 2, which I think is the $300,000

some kind of community outreach thing.

So my question is, is this funded?

And if not, I mean, I do hope it will be coming back to the board with a whole lot more detail if we're thinking of spending funds like that.

So that's just a wish that I will leave.

and I've sent a, since I got a reminder again today from an applicant up in the White Hall district who would like to have a no employee home occupation where she could groom someone's dog in her garage from 25 or 30 years ago this was a

prohibited use.

I don't know why, but that's what the text says.

And I know we're not supposed to be thinking up new things to do, but if it's taking an item off of a list, I mean, Greg will have to advise on whether this is as simple as it seems, because most of the time it's not.

We were talking about entrepreneurs and her letter again was, life is really hard.

I'm home here with kids.

I'd like to be able to work at my house because my kids aren't in school and I'd like to do this.

And I know there are lots of other rural boarding kennels and things all around the area in the Whitehall district which have been in business for 30 and 40 years that probably

were there before zoning came along.

So I guess that's just something I would like people to think about.

And as I said, Greg will have time eventually to give me the bad news on that.

But the staff met with her and I think since she's trying hard to

Develop a business, the $2,500 for a special permit to be able to go through the process for something like this when it's all indoors.

They just can't manage that.

So please all be thinking about your possible response to this, and I will provide more information when I get it.

The last thing to think about is also in the grant report, it talked about the

VDACs, the money for the preservation local person of development rights, the RA's program.

But I understand we do not have the money to get the state match.

So I guess I would like to get an update on that later on and find out.

Because that would be the first time since the year 2000 that we have not done that.

And that would be something we'd like to know about.

So I will just leave all those questions for people.

I think that

That is all of them.

Yes, assuming that no one wants to hear any more about the monarch butterfly.

I'm now transitioning to, kudos for Scottsville, the town of Scottsville, to have a 40 cent cigarette tax.

I thought that that was really, yep, really, really good.

And also I was just wondering when we will be addressing our legislative agenda.

Hopefully, I'm hoping that comes up soon.

I don't know when the chair or Mr. Richardson has a schedule for, but I would think that that should be coming up soon, I hope.

Thank you.

We've had one meeting with David Blunt to start compiling a list of what

I have heard what's on the horizon.

With it being an election year, we're probably timing it so that we will come before the local delegation in either October or November.

So we will count back from there.

So we'll probably be coming to the board in July for the first time.

The General Assembly is also going to be in a special session as you probably have read late in the second half of summer.

David thought it was going to be July, August, but I think I've read somewhere that it sounds like it may be a little bit later in the year.

Good.

Yes, I'm hoping we do it sooner than later so we can then start to work with our state legislators.

Thank you.

Well, I just have one item that, you know, a few meetings ago I recall we had the issue with CenturyLink in service relative to some folks in the rural area getting both phone service and internet service and outages and getting quick return of services.

This past week, and it's not just that I'm dog-powing on CenturyLink, but this is something you may see or could see even in the news media at some point,

We had a resident in the Rio district who was dealing with an issue with their sewer, and the utility was found as they were digging up to figure out the sewer issue.

And there was a disagreement over who owned the utility that was clearly in place, whether it was CenturyLink or Tink.

Van Ting was in the area.

This resident, you know, I think reaching a certain point of frustration reached out and had been very complimentary of staff and helping try to resolve this issue for them.

But as he has continued to learn why this was happening, it sounds like this happens with some frequency errors, at least this isn't a

isolated incident of happening around the county when a utility gets involved or a utility is found and utility ownership can be in dispute and nobody taking responsibility for said utility infrastructure.

So that seems to be somewhat absurd to me that we can't determine or a utility service provider cannot determine whether or not it is in fact theirs or not and then if it is theirs taking responsibility for it.

I'm very appreciative of staff getting involved to help this particular resident.

helping to get this resolved in all the time and effort that's gone in quickly to make it a priority because they can't use their facilities and their own house until it's resolved.

But I'm using my platform here and my soapbox, if you will, to call attention to it, that utility providers, if they are sought out for, if they have ownership for something and need to take responsibility for it, that they need to own up to that in quick fashion,

so that residents aren't basically stranded or having to resort to hotels until these matters get resolved so that they can get their issue fixed and fixed quickly.

You know, if there's other things that I can do that other supervisors who maybe have dealt with this in the past, whether it's writing a letter or calling somebody or doing something, I certainly welcome the advice of how I can also continue to advocate that this type of issue doesn't continue to happen.

But it's one I'm certainly going to call attention to

and think that we should call attention to it every time we know about it so that, you know, if nothing else they know that we're at least going to be vocal about the fact that they're avoiding a responsibility that they need to do to take, avoiding a responsibility to take ownership of their infrastructure and getting in the way of residents when they're trying to resolve their own issues.

So hopefully, I know Trevor's been involved with that.

I don't know the extent of this beyond countywide or elsewhere, but it's an issue that I've, in going through this one, I'm learning that it could happen with more frequency around the county and that's not acceptable in some ways.

I'm sorry if I just poked a hornet's nest here, but I see Supervisor Mallek and Supervisor McKeel wishing to weigh in.

Thank you.

I think putting something like this on our discussions with legislative priority, even if we don't get a bill, that we get our delegation to understand what's going on, because they may not.

But when I was a kid, Centel was actually a utility.

They were it.

They were the Ma Bell in Virginia, and they were required to act like a utility, a monopoly, and provide services.

And they were covered by the SEC.

That is no longer the case.

And having done warfare with these, they call them private investor

communications businesses now, so that they can look you in the eye and say, we're not responsible.

It has been the biggest infuriating situation for three years all around the White Hall District and lots of other places, I'm sure.

Century League also had no idea where its lines were.

And it held us up in the streetscape back in 2008, 9, and 10 in Crozet because we waited for months and months because they didn't know.

The diggers were digging across Crozet Avenue and moving the real utilities, the Dominion things around.

And then they'd come across some other wires and about six weeks later, somebody would finally show up having the street all torn up the whole time.

to say oh yeah that's ours I guess we'll move it you know next year.

I mean so unresponsive because nobody in Richmond is bearing down on these folks and I think this is an issue for our broadband level at local as well as Evan Feynman's organization in Richmond because these people are these companies are untouchable and they know it.

So I feel terrible for your person I think that's really sad and I wish that the county had

I mean, this is a health and safety issue for these people, as is not having your telephone for six weeks at a time because the company can't be bothered to get a technician out to fix something they should have replaced 30 years ago.

So I'm going to get off my soapbox now.

But this is a really important issue across all of these service industries.

And unfortunately, Virginia does not do a good job of keeping these companies on a short leash, as other states do far better.

So that's really sad.

Thank you.

Just to add, Ned, to what you were saying, and I'm not being critical of Dominion Energy and VDOT specifically, but I worked about a year ago to just try and get these streetlights on Georgetown Road, the bulbs replaced, because the lights had been out for I don't know how many years, right?

And what I found out was that the poles

were up on one road and it's a what, Georgetown Road is what, five blocks, the equivalent of three blocks maybe, I don't know.

The light poles were a mix of Virginia Energy and VDOT and they didn't know which poles were there.

There's not even a marking on the polls, I guess, that tells them this is a Dominion Energy and this is a VDOT.

And so it took a long time for them to just sort out which one was which so that they could change a bulb out.

I'm just saying there's got to be a better way, right?

and they did it and they were gracious about it and they're all, and I've had numerous residents because that's a highly, you know, that road has a lot of pedestrians.

I've had a lot of folks that work at Barracks Road or wherever that have said to me, it's so nice to have those lights back on, but what seemed like it would be a simple call to turn into?

Yeah, I mean, it kind of boggles my mind in some ways, but you know, I'll be continuing to follow up with this resident, but again, thank you to the staff that has been helpful and continues to be helpful to this, to try and get this one resolved.

And we'll go from there.

Well, thank you for that.

Mr. County Executive, that's the next item, number 22.

Yes sir, I do have a County Executive's report and I'll be happy to provide that to the board and our community at this time.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to be here this afternoon.

This is the County Executive's report for May 19th, 2021 and if you would please advance the slide.

Thank you.

I'll be brief today, but we do have some really cool things going on in our community.

Last week, we observed National Police Week.

This week, we're recognizing National EMS Week to celebrate the service of our officers, as well as the career and volunteer EMS providers.

And they give such great service to our community each and every day.

And we've noticed them more than ever over the last 15 months because they've been here for us in our community.

We just know them are heartfelt things.

I believe it was just a few days ago, Wawa officially entered our community and they had their ribbon cutting in, I believe, the Pantops area.

They did donate $1,000 to the charity of the police department's choosing in observance of Police Week and in celebration of the new store that opened here, the new stores that opened here.

The police selected the Special Olympics to receive this donation.

On a parallel track with some of these celebrations and noted service weeks, our community, of course, is aware of the cyber attack on the Colonial Pipeline and the subsequent disruption of fuel distribution all through the Southeast.

I wanted to talk just a little bit about our local response last Tuesday with the emergency declaration by the governor and a day of long lines at local gas stations

Our police department and our fire rescue department begin with the school division and other regional partners to develop a shared understanding of the scope and scale of the issue.

We have an understanding of our essential fuel needs.

What is our daily usage rate?

What is our suppliers capacity?

What were our officers observing in the community as residents waited in long lines?

What do we do to ensure that our police cars, our fire trucks,

ambulances, and school buses have the fuel to keep moving.

We had staff from our facilities and environmental services department, CAPE, IT, finance and budget, alongside police and fire rescue working together to ensure that our continuing needs were met all during the fuel disruption situation.

As a precautionary measure, we did direct our staff who couldn't tell or work to do so

It felt good to be real honest with you because it truly was flipping a switch and most of the time it's not.

It's much more difficult than that but we flipped the switch and with some quick communication we were able to very happily work most of our organization to relieve some of the pressure with the community on fuel demand.

I really appreciate the departments that I mentioned, as well as all of the departments who continue to work through this, as hopefully we come to an end to this issue.

They wouldn't be a bad day to be where those folks are.

Summer swim will return this year and with some changes.

We were able to recruit lifeguards, which we believed would be the largest challenge.

Not all of the interested applicants had the required certifications, however, so at the beginning of the season, we will be operating all three swim legs at Chris Green, Mint Springs, and at Walnut Creek four days a week, Thursday through Sunday, beginning June the 17th, and wrapping up August the 22nd.

Our hours of operation will be typically 11 a.m.

to 7 p.m.

The fees will be one rate.

For anyone looking to cool off at our lakes, kids under three and seniors will enjoy our lakes for free.

Our county office building will be reopening for members of the public in support of tax payments beginning on May the 24th, running through tax deadline on June 25th.

While we continue to strongly urge customers to make use of other convenient payment options online,

using our upgraded payment kiosk.

Customers wishing to receive online services, on-site services this cycle will certainly be able to do so.

Community members will need to go through the screening questions, temperature checks, and must wear a mask to enter the building to receive these services.

A wider return to more normal operations is still being considered and scoped.

We expect to have more information shortly to the board.

guidance changes around face coverings announced by the CDC and Governor Northam last week did not come with changes in guidance for employers from ASHA or VOSH, which we have an obligation to meet as an employer.

Linda Crawford, who is the director of the Charlottesville Albemarle Airport, gave a presentation a few weeks ago for members of the tourism industry.

Our travel remains below 2019 levels, which was historic.

Our outbound flights and passengers being served has increased significantly from the significant drop-off they experienced in the spring of 2020.

COVID-19 protocols are in place at the airport and thanks to the CARES funding, they have been able to weather the significant decrease in revenue

revenues that were experienced throughout 2020.

And I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank the airport staff for tremendous effort, tremendous hard work to continue to serve our community members coming into the airport and leaving from our airport during this very complex time for travel.

We just wrapped up our first community read.

The book, The Monacan Indians, our story, has been distributed at Little Free Libraries in seven of our parks as well as through the Jefferson Madison Regional Library System.

The short history of The Monacan Indians written by our two members, written by two members, the late Karen Wood and Diane Shields.

There was a panel discussion of this book last Friday and a recording of that is available at the county's

YouTube and Facebook pages.

That is the county executive's report.

I believe later this evening we'll be speaking to the board about our local emergency proclamation which will carry forward the the brief mention of the services for this building moving forward through tax season.

It will also have as you know Dr. Bonds from Blue Ridge Health District here and I believe that's that's starting after

I do, Jeff.

I have just a quick question.

When are the tax bills going to be mailed?