Board of Supervisors Regular Second Meeting   9/15/2021

Good afternoon, everyone.

I call the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors to order for the September 15, 2021 1 p.m.

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 Liz Palmer of the Samuel Miller District will be joining a tad late at 1.30.

And just to note that while she'll be in attendance, her camera will be off during attendance as she's had a medical procedure and just for the recovery of it would be better suited to for comfort reasons to have that video turned on.

but she will be in attendance.

You'll see her name on the screen.

As always, we also, let's see, 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.

With us today, we have our County Executive, Mr. Jeff Richardson, our County Attorney, Mr. Greg Campner,

our board clerk Ms.

Claudette Borgeson and our senior deputy clerk Mr. Travis Morris.

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

And we need to approve our final agenda.

Are there any changes to the agenda and or any items from consent that need to be pulled?

So moved.

All right, the motion was made and seconded.

We call the roll, please.

Mallek?

Yes.

Mr. McKeel?

Yes.

Mr. Price?

Aye.

Aye.

All right.

Thank you.

Next item, number five, brief announcements by board members.

We'll go through our speaking order for today.

Ms.

Palmer will be first when she comes on to the meeting.

I'm fine right now.

Thank you very much.

A couple things.

Yesterday, the Rivanna River Basin Commission met.

We had a really great, much more detailed update on the Rivanna River Corridor Plan.

So we'll all look forward to seeing that in its final polishes out pretty soon.

And also, the Rivanna River Basin Conference will be at the end of the month.

Their email invites went out today for the 24th.

Great speakers from all around the state.

So I hope you can join us for an hour and a half in the early afternoon.

I have been appointed recently to the NACo Veterans and Military Services Committee.

And our first meeting I attended last week, there were presentations on programs

for what's called Expiration Term of Service, ETS, for service people who are ending their tour and adjusting to their first year in civilian life.

This is a very high risk time and the suicide level is many, many times higher than people in the same age group who are not going through this transition.

There is a company who has an MOU with the VA to assist counties in service provision to veterans, including mentorship and making sure that they are connected with the services provided.

In many ways, this has begun locally with our DAC committee.

but I hope that we will get that committee connected with this company via a meeting and can get even more resources available.

It is especially important here as with Rivanna Station we have no base and no base services for soldiers as they would if they were at another post.

So that more burden falls upon local agencies and local government to fill that need and something that I know we will take care of.

Exceptionally happy note, Workforce Local Agency career work organization has been certified by the state.

And also the Albemarle County branch of the career works is now almost completed its certification process as part of the DSS department.

Juan Wade took the lead with Dave Kilgore of the Workforce staff to get that certification done.

The meeting room there for the CareerWorks in COB5 is lovely and sunny and full of resources for people who may come to social services for other things and can very easily stop in and get tremendous help on their job searches and new training.

And we have also had new board members appointed to the state workforce board

And I represent local governments on that board.

There are about 100 businesses and government leaders also there.

And Jane Dittmar is the executive director at the moment.

But the new board member for Access and Equity is one of our own, Sarah Morton.

She grew up in Advance Mills in the Miller and Morton clan.

And for the last 15 months, she has been the director of the Piedmont Workforce Network Agency.

We have accomplished more in her time in the last year than we had in the previous 10.

And I'm so thrilled.

and congratulations to Sarah for this appointment to the state board.

And Friday is the first day of early voting at COB5 and deadline to register to vote is October 12th and hopefully everybody will get out and do that.

Thank you, Chair Galloway.

I have two quick things.

It's a beautiful Saturday down in Scottsville this weekend.

The farmer's market was bustling.

Blue Ridge Health District had their mobile van down there doing testing and

and vaccinations.

It was the opening weekend of youth soccer.

It's just a great day to be down in Scottsville and I'm just so proud to have that community down there.

The second thing is not so much an announcement or recognition or anything, but it's just something I want to bring up for both the board

to think about as well as our county executive, Mr. Richardson, but also for our community to be aware of.

And so I'm going to direct my remarks to Mr. Richardson, but it's really, I know he's aware of this.

It's really to everyone, the board and the community.

I've noticed over the last several months that Albemarle County has lost some really incredible employees.

They've left for several reasons, principally all financial, some have been retirements, others have been opportunities, they've been offered

with other entities that candidly are providing a financial compensation package that Albemarle County just simply could not match.

These are the forward-facing the people that we at the board had interacted with with some degree of significance and I know that there are many other members of our county employment staff that we don't have that same type of interaction with on a regular basis but are also facing the same challenges.

We know that the economic situation around the country has been difficult, but we also are seeing that employees are no longer willing to accept being undercompensated and underappreciated.

And so this is something that's happening throughout the country.

And I think for Albemarle County to be able to maintain the high

The high level of quality employees that we have, we're going to have to do a more in-depth analysis and review of our compensation package.

Every job is important.

Some have more critical skills or significance in certain respects than others may have.

And we cannot afford to lose our quality workforce.

So Mr. Richardson, I know that you've been on top of this because you, of course,

keep up with our personnel.

But I think the board and our community need to be prepared for the county to do a more in-depth study of compensation.

We cannot continue on an

and every other year, 2% pay raise sort of a situation that we've done more recently.

We already had to make some modifications for our first responders that we did an increase earlier this year.

And I think we just have to be prepared that our personnel costs are going to go up.

And as we go into the budget session, I think this is something that Mr. Richardson, I know you'll look at it.

You'll provide the board with the information we need.

And our community needs to be prepared that there is a cost to quality.

and we have to be prepared to pay that.

Yes, I just wanted to say last Saturday that Chair Galloway and myself attended a really nice VFW event here in Keswick honoring those on 9-11 that made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.

So not only were they honored, but also all those who serve police, fire,

EMTs, all those who serve and help protect our community.

So it's a really nice event to be able to attend.

That's all for me.

Thank you.

That was going to be my note as well.

The same event, Supervisor Mallek was also in attendance as were some representatives from the city.

some state legislators as well.

The county and the city both had received a service flag that was delivered to the county executive on Monday.

Trevor, was there a protocol, I hate to put you on the spot, about flying that flag?

Chair Galloway, thanks.

Trevor Henry, assistant county executive.

Mr. Richardson made me aware of receiving the flag on Monday.

and I apologize for missing our wreath laying on Saturday.

I came in for the event, but I guess the event happened early, so I missed it by a few minutes.

I'm actually, Chair Galloway, researching the protocols around flying that flag.

Thank you so much.

It's a white flag with a border and a single star in the middle.

So those involved in the military, I'm sure will know exactly the flag.

But once that's figured at the request, and obviously in honor of those it represents, I hope it will be flying over the building.

as a part of it.

And then I'll just mention as part of that day, the guest keynote speaker there was Colonel Joel Jenkins, who was the chaplain for the 116th Regiment, 29th Infantry Division.

And he was somebody that during service overseas has gone and done the service for those who have fallen.

And it was, I guess, his remarks were, I mean, he was a great keynote speaker.

I mean, his remarks were well received.

Definitely on the right tone and tenor for the event.

So appreciate all those who were involved who represented the county and the city on that particular event.

The first is a VACO or Virginia Association of Counties Achievement Award.

And we have with us today Gage Carter,

with the Virginia Association of Counties.

And my understanding is I'm going to you, sir, for some remarks.

Good afternoon.

Thank you, Chair Galloway and members of the board.

I'm very happy to be here.

to present you with, I believe this is your seventh Achievement Award.

So for those of you that don't know, the Achievement Award started in 2003.

And in fact, in 2003 Albemarle County won two awards in that inaugural year.

And you've won in 2005, 2008.

and then I visited you in 2016 and 18 to present.

And I think I stopped at a Bojangles on the way back both times to Richmond.

So always enjoyed it with nice afternoon drive and great to be here with you virtually.

So a little bit about the Achievement Awards this year.

It's the 19th year for our Achievement Awards.

It's truly competitive.

We had

what 102 entries and we selected 20 29 winners or I'm sorry 30 winners from 19 counties so that's about 29 percent winning percentage so Albemarle County was one of

you know, 29 awards to win.

So 102 during a pandemic is great.

Our high was 106 in 2018, another year you guys won.

So you like to win on the very competitive years.

But getting to your award, I don't know if anyone's here to speak about it, but I just want to outline one part of

the award description.

You know it was about the at-ready statue that was removed from your square.

But just this paragraph, if I may, just read, in Albemarle County, our process of creating community partnerships and empowering community members resulted

in a removal event with no incidents.

And I just love that because it just shows we can differ in opinions.

We can share opinions.

But in the end, let's be civil.

Let's do it right.

And you went through the whole process to make sure it was inclusive, everyone was involved.

And then you came to your conclusion, and then you executed your plan with no incidents.

And I don't know if that can be said everywhere, but congratulations.

Yeah, thank you.

I'll grab it from Mr. Harder.

Thank you so much members of the board and Mr. Harder for letting me speak for a couple minutes today.

First, I really want to share that the VACO Achievement Awards are really meaningful because they let us share our work with other communities that are facing similar challenges.

And internally, we really do look at the award recipients each year

to see what we could or should be doing or just doing differently than we have in the past.

So I really want to thank VACO for the work that they put into the program and also for the recognition this year.

Obviously, the app-ready removal process started way before the actual removal of the statue.

You may remember that the Board of Supervisors gave direction to staff in January of 2020, which was before the General Assembly had even made some of the changes to the state code.

to begin an intentional and inclusive community engagement process because we had not had a community conversation about what we should do with the Confederate statue in front of the courthouse if in fact we were given the authority to do so.

That direction really established the commitment to listening to the community and enjoining them to take part in the conversation series that we put on.

I also really want to thank the community that showed up in person initially.

This was before we weren't able to do that.

To talk about public spaces, talk about this public space, share experiences and reflections.

When we pivoted to virtual, we had even more participation, people willing to listen and share.

and as Mr. Harder indicated, these conversations were tense and they were at times extremely difficult and that was okay.

We got through it and we had a really great group of over a dozen community facilitators from area nonprofits that were there to help facilitate discussions that were very challenging for many.

We had an incredible array of partners that enabled us to be successful.

Albemarle, Charlottesville Historical Society, the Jefferson Medicine Regional Library, citizen historians.

We had access to great archives through the University of Virginia that allowed us to share historical documents and original primary sources to tell the whole story of how the statue came to be placed in our community.

And that really set the stage for us to ask, does that really align with the values that our community holds today?

One final thing I wanted to just note is that the work that went into planning for successful removal was remarkable.

It's the kind of work that you go into public service to do and it's the work that most people in the community never get to see.

We began meeting in January also for the possibility of a removal because we knew that we wanted to balance our goals of having a really safe event.

with being a moment that the community could be part of.

And we knew that that was going to require a really high level of coordination and collaboration to be able to pull off.

So this project, I've never been more proud to work alongside the members of the police department, fire rescue, facilities planning and construction, our procurement office.

the public engagement staff and also the equity and inclusion teams.

And if I may say in closing, Emily hit it on the head when she said that this project can be, or this program can be replicated.

And that is one of the main spirits of the Achievement Award.

So hopefully you'll get a call from some counties with a similar issue.

But we will mail this to you as soon as possible.

Thank you, Emily.

Thank you, Gage.

I was kind of expecting one of those magical TikTok moments where the plaque left your hands and arrived.

And so we have to pull that up.

Supervisors like to make remarks here.

Sure.

Thank you.

And I appreciate your zooming in with us today.

And we certainly are honored to have this award.

I think in all the years of service on the Board of Supervisors,

This was one of the projects that I was the proudest of for our community.

And I also want to thank our local teal construction company who really worked closely with us and made all this possible.

And I will say that they took some hits from the community, but they too said that it was a moment that they were really proud of.

So with that, thank you very much.

And I think of all the spaces that need to be neutral, our courthouses and our judicial spaces need to be neutral.

And we achieved this.

So it was a great moment for our community.

Yes, thank you.

And thank you, Gage, for dropping in.

It's great to see you.

I think that the process that Emily and colleagues laid out made possible those difficult conversations and therefore brought everybody together in a communal, not necessarily agreement, but acceptance of what needed to be done.

And the board was direct about its plans, no equivocation, and I think that really helped us to get through this very well.

Thank you, Chair Galloway.

Thank you, Mr. Harder.

And I'm going to echo the remarks of the other supervisors.

There is so much to be proud of, both in terms of the substantive outcome, but more significantly, I think, for these purposes was the process.

and it showed foresight that our county leadership had months and months before this actually started to see on the horizon that this was an opportunity and then to plan and schedule and work with our community so well and while I fully agree with the accolades that are being given to those in the county for the work that you did the diligent effort that you made to ensure that our community members were all a part of this

I also need to give a great deal of thanks to our community members themselves for the manner in which they approached and saw this through.

I could not be more proud of Albemarle County as the first local jurisdiction in the Commonwealth of Virginia to follow the new legal process and to do so seamlessly

and without any animosity, it was really, it was a pleasure to the whole, so fortunate to be honored to be a part of it.

And thank you very much for the recognition that is now being given to our county staff for the work that they did.

Thank you so much.

Yes, thank you very much.

I'm a little bit taken back that we're being awarded for something that was the right thing to do.

But I am thankful for the award because of the fact that you did recognize that this was a wonderful effort by the county, by the staff, by everyone community, everyone involved, to make sure that this was a good, seamless, open, and transparent process

Everything we did was out in the open.

Everyone knew what we were doing, what we were going to do.

And for that, I'm very grateful.

Actually, I really am thankful for the award because you did recognize the hard work of our staff, what they did, how they did it.

And I'm very proud of all of us for making sure that this happened in a good manner that we honored

everybody.

And we made sure that this happened without really, I know there was some controversy, not very much, but it was a seamless process of openness and transparency.

And I'm very glad we were able to take the lead on that.

Thank you.

So the board clerk, Claudette Borgeson, she shared the application with me that

that went into this.

And I noticed in one of the paragraphs, I mean, there were basically three things that staff identified as focused.

The community engagement process, a strong logistics plan, and a coordinated public safety framework.

And those three things, when you look back on it, I recall that day being incredibly proud of the staff for those three things.

I mean, obviously, the engagement process played out for the months that led up to.

But it takes actually being there, seeing it play out the way that it did to understand how strong the logistics plan and the public safety plan, how strong they were.

So much appreciated.

And I'm glad that that process, which is what's being recognized here, is on display and that it is a blueprint for others to follow if they so choose to do so.

So congratulations to staff on receiving the award.

Mr. Chair, thank you for you and the board and your support.

I really appreciate all the kind words.

Gage, I'll be quick, but I do want to tell you that I do appreciate everything you do across the Commonwealth to support local government.

It does not go unnoticed.

But I did notice one thing in your presentation that I feel like the county executive's office has let you down on.

you've been to our community twice and you've ate at Bojangles both times and so next year we're fortunate enough to compete for one of these awards and I like the sausage biscuits just fine at Bojangles but I want you to come and us to plan the county executive's office to take you to each magisterial district and we're going to find good food

and every magisterial district that is unique to Albemarle County because we owe you a little foodie trip through our community because we've got some amazing places to eat and we need to show you some of those places.

So please, please, when we compete next year in person, hopefully, let us know so that we can show you some of these wonderful places to eat in Albemarle County, sir.

So there you go.

I'll make sure I don't eat for a couple days, because... Yes, thank you very much.

Gage, thank you for being here with us today, and thank you again for the recognition and the award.

Emily, thank you.

Thank you.

Board, our next item is a proclamation celebrating National Hispanic and Latino Heritage Month.

Let's start with the resolution.

Thank you, Chair Galloway.

Whereas Hispanic and Latino Americans make up 18.5% of the nation's population, making them the largest ethnic minority, and whereas Hispanic and Latino Americans enrich every community, they are a part

of

make significant contributions to their leadership in government, protecting freedoms as part of the military, helping feed our community through agriculture, inspiring children as educators, helping fight against COVID-19 pandemic as healthcare professionals, and advancing society through science and technology.

and whereas Hispanic and Latino owned businesses contribute to Albemarle County's economic growth and job creation and whereas the stories of Hispanic and Latino community members are woven into the fabric of our community and Hispanic and Latino history is our collective history

and now therefore be proclaimed that we, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, do hereby recognize September 15 through October 15, 2021 as the 53rd National Hispanic and Latino Heritage Month and recommit to building a diverse and inclusive society that works for all members of our community.

Ms.

Marley?

Yes.

Ms.

Ms.

Price?

Yes.

Mr. Bea LaPisto-Kirtley?

Very good.

That motion carries.

And with us, we have some folks with us today.

First, we have Gus Colombe, who will read this proclamation in Spanish and do the translation for us.

Before I turn it over to our supervisors, I just wanted to say hello and introduce them a little bit.

This is Erica, Coordinator for Equity and Accountability.

And I just, as always, wanted to take a moment to thank you for your continued commitment to creating a more equitable and inclusive Umrah County.

and also for taking the time with these proclamations to tell a more complete story of who we are as a community.

And today we actually have a few guests from Simbereras who will be joining us to accept the proclamation.

But before that, I wanted to introduce Gustavo Colón from the IT department to read the translated version in Spanish.

Gus wanted you all to know that he was born in Guatemala, has been part of Albemarle County Local Government for 26 years, and he did not do this translation, he is just reading it.

Buenas tardes.

Proclamación para cereberar el mes de la erencia hispana y latina.

Considerando que los hispanos y latino americanos contribuyen el 0.5% de la población del país los que los convierta en la minoría ethnica más grande.

y conciderando que los hispanos y latinoamericanos en dicensa en cada comunidad de la que forma parta atraves de sus culturas y vibrantes y diversas.

Conciderando que los hispanos y latinoamericanos han perseverado y prosperado, gracias a su hardua labor y con promiso a pesar de las barreras, sistemicas y linguiscas.

y considerado que los hispanos, latino y latinoamericanos, hacen contribuciones importantes a través de soliderasco en el govierno, protegen las nuestras libertares como parte las fuerzas armadas, ayudan alimentar la comunidad a través de la agricultura,

Inspiring the children as educators, helping to fight the COVID-19 pandemic as professionals of health, and bettering society through science and technology, and considering that the companies of Spanish and Latinas are contributing to economic growth and the creation of jobs in the area of Albemarle,

and considering that the history of the members of the community, Spanish and Latin, are intertwined in the structure of our community, and the history of Spain and Latin is our collective history.

And yes, for so long it has been true that we, the group of supervisors of Albemarle,

For the present, we recognize the period from the 15th of September to the 15th of October 2021, as the 50th mass national event in Spain and Latin America, and that we will continue to contribute to a diverse and inclusive society that functions for all members of the community.

Thank you, Gus.

I'm sorry, you did say there were a few others here that are joining us to accept.

Absolutely.

So we have, I see Edgar Lara from Cimbereras here.

I think waiting on Fanny Smedley, but I will hand it over to Edgar too for his remarks.

I am working on it.

I don't believe we have seen... I'm sorry, was Fannie?

So that's unfortunate.

So what I would say is that Mr. Lara, if he has prepared remarks, we would certainly welcome him to send those to us via email so that we can include those remarks as part of the official record of the meeting.

And sir, if you can hear me, I apologize that the technology failed to allow you to participate, but we appreciate your willingness to be here with us to accept the proclamation.

And then you can send that to BOS at Albemarle.org, and the clerks will make sure that we get that into the record that we have your comments there.

No, I just wanted to note, I think this is one of the first times we've had an opportunity to read a proclamation in Spanish.

So that was exciting for me to hear.

And I hope the community appreciates that as well.

Thank you guys for being here to do that, of course.

Thank you.

Wish you a good day.

All right.

We will move on to our next item.

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.

With apologies, I had moved the screen so I couldn't get to the unmute button.

During the time set aside for matters from the public not listed on the agenda for a public hearing, the board will hear from the public matters previously considered by the board or matters that are pending before the board.

Individuals may address the board of supervisors concerning these matters.

And the sign-up sheet is maintained by the clerk's office.

When called to speak in order to ensure that all speakers are given equal treatment and courtesy, the board requests that speakers adhere to the following guidelines.

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

Address your comments directly to the board as a whole.

documents, or other statements that you would like for the board to consider, then you may also email them to the clerk to be included in the record.

When you begin speaking, your time will start and the time is maintained by the clerk and each individual is given three minutes to speak.

We do ask that you conclude your remarks upon the conclusion of the three minutes, as after a few more seconds your microphone will be muted.

If you exceed your allotted time, you will be asked to end your comments.

If a speaker does not use all allocated time, the unused time may not be shared with another speaker.

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

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

Calling in by phone, please press star nine.

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

Thank you, Chair Galloway.

Good afternoon, Supervisors.

Good afternoon.

I'm Lori Schweller, attorney with Williams Mullen.

As representative of the applicant, I would like to express my support for the special exception request for Ramsey Cottage and offer to answer questions you may have during that action item on your agenda.

Tom and Ree Sargent purchased the Ramsey estate in 2012.

It comprises two parcels on the north side of Route 250 West, an approximately 75-acre parcel containing the main house, a farmhouse, barns, and other buildings, and a 3.6-acre parcel containing the cottage and a studio where the farm manager resides.

Ramsey and its structures are described in detail in the National Register of Historic Places.

According to the National Register, William Langhorne, whose family arrived in Virginia in 1673, commissioned the main house in 1900.

Langhorne Gibson and his wife Parthenia Ross Gibson purchased the property in 1936, built the cottage in 1950, then later transferred the property to Langhorne's mother, Irene Langhorne Gibson, who was known as the prototype Gibson girl, a social and fashion icon popularized by drawings made by her husband, illustrator Charles Dana Gibson.

According to the Library of Congress website, the Gibson Girl was a vibrant new feminine ideal who was the visual embodiment of what writers of the period described as the new woman in the period between the 1880s and World War I. Irene Langhorne Gibson lived out her retirement in the cottage until her death, at which time the property was conveyed back to her son Langhorne Gibson.

His children sold the property to the Lankanows following the death of their mother in 1998.

The property is under conservation easement with the Virginia Outdoors Foundation by Dita the Lincoln House.

The main house and cottage has spectacular views of rolling fields and forests to the north and west toward the Blue Ridge.

Historic estates such as Millburn and Meridor lie to the East Ridgely Farm to the northwest and Tiverton to the southwest.

The sergeants would like to share the beauty of Ramsey Cottage and its gorgeous setting with their homestay guests and use the income to continue

to maintain this beautiful and historically significant property.

We're requesting three special exceptions, the granting of which will not change the property in any way or negatively affect neighbors.

The request support a number of goals in the comprehensive plan, such as providing a way for preservation of historic structures to be financially viable for owners, promoting tourism that helps preserve scenic historic and natural resources,

promoting reuse of historic structures, protecting the county's historic and cultural resources, and promoting rural and historic landscapes that enhance visitors' experience.

The owner agrees to the conditions one through three staff has proposed, and since staff's report we've had further discussions regarding number four, which has been modified, we agree that the special exception should run with the land only so long as the two parcels are under common ownership.

The owners have no intention of separating the parcels

which to our knowledge have always been under common ownership.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

My name is Rex Lindel.

I work for the Piedmont environmental council and I live in the Samuel Miller district.

Later today, you will hear from county staff about the Albemarle Conservation Easement Authority and the Acquisition of Conservation Easement Program.

These programs are the primary tools that Albemarle County is using to protect critically important conservation values and public goods in our community.

As you all know, an important and primary element of the Albemarle County Comprehensive Plan is the preservation of quote, natural features, including the mountains, valleys, rivers, streams, forests, farms, and meadows.

and the conservation of areas outside the growth area for quote rural uses such as agriculture, forestry, and resource protection.

A clear and compelling expression of this conservation preservation goals can be found throughout the existing comprehensive plan.

and further, the protection of natural resources is an important element of our strategy to fight climate change and is clearly called for in Albemarle County's Climate Action Plan, which lays out the need to, quote, maintain and increase the county's land conservation programs and related efforts, end quote.

These goals are articulated in important county planning documents because our rural area is more than just a pretty place.

When we conserve land, we are investing in our quality of life and the future of our community.

Land conservation protects the Rivanna River, which is the source of the water we drink.

And when we protect our land base, we protect our rivers and streams.

Farther afield, land conservation also protects the James River and the Chesapeake Bay, which are important to all of Virginia and all mid-Atlantic states.

Land conservation protects farmland that keeps working lands and family hands so that we can have delicious local and healthy food on our table.

Land Conservation protects natural areas that provide wildlife habitat and ecosystems for the benefit of hunters and fishers and simply for their own sake.

Land Conservation protects our scenic views that we all enjoy from Shenandoah National Park, the Appalachian Trail, downtown Crozet, a drive through Keswick, or a local visit to a winery on a Saturday afternoon.

Land Conservation protects historic places such as Monticello or Ashland Highlands and their scenic settings which connect us to our past and bring tourism revenues to our community.

The Albemarle County Easement Authority and the Acquisition of Conservation Easement Program are the primary tools available to you to protect these resources.

I hope you will listen carefully to staff this afternoon and make sure that these important programs have the resources they need to be effective and help our community protect these important public goods.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

Can you hear me?

Yes, sir.

Very good.

My name is Neil Williamson, and I serve as the president of the Free Enterprise Forum, a privately funded public policy organization focused on central Virginia's local government.

I'm going to speak as Mr. Lindell did regarding your agenda items 11 and 12 about conservation easements.

I appreciate all that Rex had to say about the benefit of conservation.

I'm not certain easements are required to achieve such conservation

I know several property owners, not an easement, that are adding to the fabric of Albemarle County's rural areas.

Recent media reports have raised a number of concerns with Virginia's conservation easement program, including enforcement and most recently, equity.

Albemarle County is in the top five localities in the state for a number of conservation easements.

Some of the questions raised about the state programs are beyond the county's purview, but others are not.

I asked the supervisors to examine the taxpayer-funded Acquisition of Conservation Easements program utilizing the newly minted Albemarle equity lens.

Finally, the Free Enterprise Forum has a number of questions.

One, what is the overall goal of the conservation easement program?

Mr. Lundel often comes to you on an annual basis saying how many acres you have in easement.

How much is enough?

Do we have a goal?

Or is the maximum number of property rights extinguished the goal?

I'm hopeful

that we can balance and really look at what it takes to do an easement versus what it takes to promote private property conservation and respect those private property rights of property owners that choose not to go into conservation easement.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

Yes, this is Chip Giesler.

I was just given the unmute button.

Good afternoon.

OK, thank you.

My name is Chip Giesler, I'm a resident of Albemarle County and have lived here for about two years, moved here shortly before the pandemic and so it's been a tough time to get to know a new community but I live on Rio Road right across from KTEC and this is my first meeting to attend and I appreciate the opportunity to do that and it seems to me in the next month or so you all will be considering more the traffic

Redesign, Road Redesign considerations of Rio Road through the Rio Corridor and so I just wanted to come on today at the beginning of this process and invite any of you who want to see that design as you see it on paper who want to see it in person to come by my home the back my backyard goes right on to where they're proposing putting a large traffic circle and I think that

It's a traffic feature that would not be appropriate for a suburban residential-style neighborhood.

I've lived in places like, you know, near DuPont Circle in Washington, DC, where there's residences right along a large traffic circle, but that's a considerable bit of a feel than here on Rio Road.

So anyway, just open invitation to come on to a neighbor's property and see what the impact might be.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

So since Mr. Laura

was able to stay with us.

Yes, thank you for the patience, and thank you for today's proclamation.

We accept it on behalf of our local community.

We appreciate and are encouraged by it.

This proclamation celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month allows our community to express its recognition and support for the contribution the Hispanic population has made

in helping our country grow and community grow and prosper.

Although many think of this community as a relatively new population, Latin Americans have lived in what is now the United States since the 16th century.

Along with the often overlooked presence and contribution, so too is the brutal history of anti-Latino discrimination in America.

Segregation, lynchings, and mass deportations of Spanish-speaking US citizens

are just some of the injustices Latinos have faced.

I share these sobering thoughts because they're just as important to be aware of and remembered as the contributions.

We should be aware of our history and reflect on it when considering what's happening in our country, our world, and our community today.

Although we represent the largest ethnic minority, anti-Latino discrimination in the US is far from over.

Much of today's discrimination centers on immigration with presumptions of illegality and criminalization,

but the reality is the vast majority in this community are U.S.

citizens or documented and each is deserving of respect and dignity regardless of their status.

The Latin American population in the U.S.

is very diverse originating from over 30 countries and immigrating due to vastly different circumstances.

Some come to the U.S.

from wealth, education and privilege but a large number also come from far less privileged and have been displaced or had to flee from their home countries because of

natural disaster, violence, oppression, or lacking ways to survive economically.

Our local Hispanic community is just as diverse as it is in other parts of the country, but on average, it is more recently arrived than in other parts where there's generations of established communities.

In our area, much of the Hispanic community continues to be largely invisible and unknown to the broader community.

The pandemic has shown us how much we depend on the Hispanic community as essential workers and neighbors.

As our value of equity and diversity continues to grow, more and more well-intentioned organizations look to include Hispanic voices and open a seat for them at the table.

But years and decades of neglect won't be solved overnight by invitations to join the program.

What we need is long-term investments.

In this community, many people look for leaders and end up finding the same names over and over.

What we have are people with potential that need support so they can be part of the solution over time.

At Simbarreras, our mission is to empower immigrants and their families through education, advocacy, and direct support with a focus on the Hispanic population of Central Virginia.

We've been doing this for nine years in Albemarle County.

We started as 100% volunteer, and today we have a staff of five supported by dedicated volunteers.

My hope is that this proclamation and celebration of Hispanic heritage will translate into an acknowledgment of our contributions through investment in our community.

We hope and ask that you think of us as partners and advisors in the important work that's needed in the months and years ahead.

Thank you, Mr. Lauren.

I don't believe I gave supervisors an opportunity to make remarks during the earlier portion.

So I'll just quickly, in conclusion, after hearing remarks, if supervisors wish to make some comments.

Supervisor Palmer, you're joining us.

No, I don't think so.

Just thank you very much for coming forward and I do not have any comment.

Thank you for joining us and I agree with much of what you said and really appreciate the history that you shared with us, which is really important for us to remember and thank you.

We hope to move forward in the direction that you describe.

Thank you also for your comments and the more we learn about our community and all of its members the better off we will all be.

Thank you Chair Galloway.

Buenos dias and muchas gracias.

And with that, I will revert back to English so as not to interrupt myself.

Mr. Lorry, your words were so eloquent and they were so moving and they were so true.

Very often, it's easy for the majority to lose sight of the contributions of the minority.

And that applies to every ethnic, religious, whatever demographic we may be speaking about.

And your words really carry meaning for all of us

No matter what group we may participate.

I also want to express my appreciation for having the Spanish translation of that resolution today.

I think that there are times where that

Symbolism itself can carry great weight in showing how much we truly value our different community partners.

And thank you for your patience also so we could work through those technical difficulties to give you the opportunity to so eloquently share your words and thoughts.

Thank you, Chairman.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Laura.

I really appreciate it having spent my entire career working in the Hispanic and Latino community.

I wish everyone would have had that opportunity to know how enriching it is, how much it enriched my life, and what a wonderful experience that was and continues to be.

and I'm just so proud that we could do this and recognize and work with you and do more for this very, very important part of our population, our community.

We are with you.

Mr. Laura, thank you for hanging in there while we got everything worked out.

We appreciate the thank you.

resolution, and then be able to make remarks with us.

So thank you again for joining us today.

Thank you all for the patience and the proclamation.

Have a good afternoon, sir.

Have a good afternoon.

All right, board.

The next item up is our consent agenda.

No items were pulled, but I will mention that on consent item 8.2,

It mistakenly recommends that after the public hearing the board adopt the proposed cigarette tax ordinance.

The recommendation should read that the board approved and scheduled a public hearing on the proposed ordinance for October 2021 as stated in the discussion section of the executive summary.

So just cleaning up the language there.

But with that, we just need a motion to adopt.

So moved.

Is there a second?

Second.

All right.

It has been motioned, made, and seconded.

If we can call the vote.

Ms.

Ms.

McKeel?

Yes.

Ms.

Yes.

Aye.

Very good.

It's an agenda.

Passes.

And that will take us to our first action item today, number nine, SE-2021-30, Homestay special exception, Ramsey Pottage.

And Rebecca is with us this afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Thank you.

Yes, this is the item before you is special exception 2021-30.

And I will begin to share my presentation.

Thank you.

And this is for the Ramsey property.

You heard from the applicant's representative who spoke under other matters of the public.

So she's given you an introduction to it.

We like to start with the ordinance framework when we talk about these special exceptions.

The parcel where the cottage is is less than five acres, so there are a number of things that you can request a special exception for, and they have requested to waive or modify three of those things.

and that includes a reduction of the 125 foot setback to the eastern property line.

They'd like to increase the number of guest rooms from two to three, so just one additional guest room and then waiving the owner occupancy requirement because the farm manager is the resident on that parcel and then the owners themselves live right next door.

When we review these special exceptions, we are analyzing them based on the criteria that you've seen before, that there's no detriment to abutting lots, and that there's no harm to public health, safety, or welfare.

You may approve, deny, or approve with conditions, or in some cases, you know you've deferred the item to another meeting.

Segueing to the specifics of the property, I think the applicant's representative gave you a good sense of the area in terms of it being located in the Greenwood Afton Historic District.

It's located along Rockfish Gap Turnpike off of 250 and it has its own driveway.

There's its own driveway to the cottage and then there's a separate driveway to the main house.

Looking a little closer at the property and the structures that were described to you earlier, the red outline is the roughly approximate because it is pictometry, the property line for the 3.6 acre parcel, and then the larger 70

some acre parcel sort of surrounds it to the north and the west and the owner's residence is all the way over to the left not too far from the cottage the top of your screen kind of hard to see because of all the trees that's where the three guest rooms will be located and then the tenant resides on the property when the guests

The guest rooms are rented.

The tenant would stay in the artist's studio.

And then they also use the cottage for their cooking and laundry facilities.

Here's some photographs of the structures, the cottage in yellow on the left and then the artist studio on the right.

There was some discussion in the staff report about whether the artist studio would be converted to a dwelling.

And that is not currently the proposal.

It's an accessory structure.

So there would just be one dwelling on the property and then the three guest rooms in the cottage, as we said.

There are some more photographs for you along the eastern property line where that 125-foot setback reduction is requested.

There are a number of deciduous trees.

And we've heard from that adjacent owner, and they don't have any objections to this homestay request.

They did ask that a couple additional trees be planted to re-establish the buffer where there has been some tree damage, and they've gone over

and talk to the owners directly about that.

And that is also one of our standard conditions that the buffer that's existing be maintained.

And then, you know, in some cases there's some supplemental planning that's necessary.

So we'll verify that if this home stay is approved, staff will verify that prior to approval of a zoning clearance for guest room rental.

So we didn't have any issues with recommending approval of the three special exceptions requested.

We have a unique circumstance here with two properties that are under common ownership and are historic in nature.

We did identify some technical compliance issues in the report.

And there was some discussion about that.

This is a physical survey of the property.

And we have a situation where I'll orient you.

You can see the red dashed line, hopefully.

around that homestay parcel, which is tax map 75A.

And then there's our little green asterisk where the house is with the other farm properties to the left.

Zooming in, again, the property line is in red.

And the footprint that encroaches over to the other property is in yellow.

So we identified this in the report.

It is technically a zoning issue in that

The structure doesn't meet setbacks.

It's nonconforming to setbacks.

However, that does not preclude us from approving a home stay or this special exception.

We identified it.

And like I said, it's a technical issue, but it doesn't prevent approval of the special exception.

We also noted that the parcel was 3.6 acres in size.

So if they did want to add a second dwelling, then they would have to do a subdivision to make sure they had at least four acres, because the minimum lot size is two acres, and then they would need to come into compliance with setbacks.

Again, the summary of the request is to increase the number of guest rooms to three, reduce the required setback to the one property line, and waive the owner occupancy requirement, and in this case, staff

not have any concerns about any impacts to adjacent properties and any harm to public health, safety, or welfare.

The speaker earlier touched on our original condition, and you may have seen an email about it today.

The original report had a condition that would address those technical issues before we approved a homestay, but after further discussion with the applicant and their intentions for the property, they don't have any intention to change anything, as their representative said, and there's no reason to force them to at this time to approve a special exception for a homestay.

So what we did was recommend an alternative condition for number four, and that addresses the common ownership, that this special exception that you may approve today would only remain valid if the two properties were under common ownership, because we have this unique situation.

Any questions at this time?

I don't think I do.

I guess I'm interested in the fact that we can put that fourth condition on there because we've always said that we could not put a condition on

on a piece of property remaining under a particular ownership.

But this is just the same ownership of the two properties.

So I guess that's where the difference is.

That is a difference.

Yeah.

OK.

All right.

Well, I'm good with this.

All right.

No, I don't have any questions.

Thank you very much for the presentation.

I actually agree with adding number four.

I think that was a good idea.

So thank you very much.

Thank you.

I agree also that the four clarifies the situation to everyone's benefit.

And judging by the fact that the house goes or the boundary line goes right through the middle of the house, substantial other work would have to be done with the boundary maps before any property could be sold.

So I think we are all well protected

with the arrangement that staff has proposed here.

Great, Supervisor Price.

Thank you.

I concur with the other supervisors.

The special exception number four condition answered the questions that I had.

And I had contacted county staff about some concerns prior to that.

So I really appreciate both county staff and the applicant coming to a common agreement on that.

Ms.

Ragsdale, would you go back to this image that shows the yellow line going through the red dotted property line?

There isn't an easement we found.

When I first saw this situation, the first thing that we did was make sure that we did a parcel of record determination.

And the applicant sent us, and she went through a little bit of the land records.

She sent us this description.

I think it was just something where in 1950, when the house was built, it was built over the line.

And this is the situation now.

And I guess if it's the same owner, I mean, do you have to do an easement to yourself?

I don't know.

Mr. Campbell could answer it perhaps, but I don't know it's necessary.

And I presume that

Records going back to perhaps 1950 may not necessarily address permitting to the same extent that we have records today.

I know in the case of my own property where a house was built with several additions over the years the records are not as complete.

as we might hope that they would be.

And again, it was just a curiosity aspect that I had when you see a structure that goes over a property line, albeit the two parcels run by the same individual.

The only other thing I would add, and again, I do support this, is I am very wary of resident manager rather than owner-occupied situation.

And I think that the resolution here with the special

exception condition number four addresses the concerns that I would have in that area.

Just to fill in a couple of blanks, the 1950 cottage, of course, preceded zoning in Albemarle County, so the setbacks would not have been reviewed.

And this particular part of the county

probably was not subject to the subdivision ordinance.

The county's first subdivision ordinance was adopted in 1949.

So there would not have been review for that issue.

So it wasn't subject to any kind of review.

Thank you, Mr. Kanter.

And I'm not going to allude to you having actually been here in 1949 when that was

My appropriate memory is exceptionally appreciated.

Yes, I'd like to go back to Ms.

Bagsdale.

Thank you very much for your presentation.

Would you please go back to where it showed the actual dwelling and the artist studio?

Could you go back to that one, please?

Yes, the artist's studio was constructed as an accessory structure.

and it doesn't have all of the features of a dwelling.

Typically, it's the permanent provisions for cooking that are absent and then that's the case for this cottage.

OK, so this has more, it doesn't have a real kitchen, so to speak, just maybe a microwave or something.

Is that it?

That's correct.

OK, and then this particular parcel is less than five acres.

Is that correct?

Yes.

OK, so we are approving a resident occupancy or manager on a less than five acre parcel.

Yes.

OK.

Those are all my questions.

Thank you.

I don't have any questions at this point.

I would be thrilled to do that too.

Where did it go here?

To approve, I move approval of SE 2021-18.

Second.

For Ramsey Cottage.

All right, any further discussion?

Yes.

Ms.

McKeel.

Yes.

Ms.

Palma.

Yes.

Ms.

Price.

Aye.

Ms.

All right.

Very good.

The application is approved for the exception request.

Thank you all.

You as well.

All right.

The next item, number 10, Southwood phase one update.

We've got a couple folks joining us.

Meghan, good afternoon.

I believe I'm starting with you.

Dan joining us from Habitat.

Good afternoon, sir.

Good afternoon.

Thank you, Chair Galloway and members of the board.

I'm Meghan Madosta, Development Process Manager.

And with me today to tag team this presentation are representatives from Habitat for Humanity, including Dan Rosenzweig,

who will introduce the full team later on in the presentation, as well as Stacy Pethia, who's available to answer any questions regarding affordable housing.

I think that's me who's supposed to be sharing.

Yeah, so I have it up.

Next slide, go ahead.

So the presentation is going to be broken up into two sections.

I will cover a brief history of the project, the site plan progress to date, and a performance agreement update.

Next slide.

So just to remind everyone the location of Southwood, that blue star on the right side map is the location.

And then to the smaller insert enlargement to on the left side of the screen, pointing to Southwood, you can see Covenant School and to the south is Biscuit Run Park and it's located along Old Lynchburg Road.

Next slide.

So Habitat acquired the property in 2007.

1,500 residents live there and 341 mobile homes.

In 2016, the county partnered with Habitat for Humanity on their board resolution to

Redevelop Southwood.

And then fiscal year 17 through 19, the board adopted a strategic plan initiative revitalizing urban neighborhoods, which included Southwood in that.

Then in 2018, the board approved an action plan.

And along with that approval, we appropriated $675,000 for Southwood to assist with the rezoning application.

In 2019, the performance agreement was approved.

1.5 million for construction of 75 affordable units, $300,000 for 80 or more low income housing tax credit, LIHTC, and 1.4 million over 10 years in tax rebates.

And then in that same year, 2019, the phase one rezoning was approved.

So this is just the rezoning plan, a reminder of what was approved.

450 maximum units.

The top of the map there you can see is Old Lynchburg Road coming into Hickory Street.

And to remind you all, this was the area that was greenfield and not occupied by any mobile homes.

So there was a maximum

of 50,000 square feet of non-residential approved.

There were 12 blocks, including the neighborhood center special area, which is the red part on the plan.

And blocks one and two were amenity areas, which is the green area.

So now I'll get into the site plan update.

This is all of phase one and

It's currently all under review.

I'm gonna walk through, there are four separate areas that the site plans were broken into for site planning.

Blocks 11 and 12, and then blocks nine through 11, village one and then village two.

Next slide.

So coming in off of Old Lynchburg Road, this is the first section, blocks 11 and 12.

And these are being developed by Piedmont Housing, 40 PHA, for 121 Lytec multi-family units.

So you can see there are three buildings and apartments.

There's a plaza area on the corner of Hickory as you come in with the parking trucks behind those buildings.

Next slide.

This is the site plan for blocks 9 through 11.

There are 70 market rate townhomes, 16 affordable townhomes, habitat homes in these blocks as well for a total of 86 units.

Next slide.

So we're gonna kind of reorient.

That's the horizon, that new road coming in off of Hickory Street comes down.

This is village one.

and there are 23 single-family detached market rate homes and 8 single-family attached townhomes that are market rate.

For the affordable units, there are 3 single-family detached, 18 single-family attached townhomes, 8 duplex units and 20 multifamily condos with a total of 80 units and 49 are affordable.

So I apologize again, the reorient, turn again.

Horizon Drive is on the top now.

Market rate includes 19 single-family detached, eight single-family attached townhomes, and the affordable piece includes three single-family detached, 10 single-family attached townhomes, two duplexes, which are a total of four units,

Four multifamily condos for a total of 48 units and 21 are affordable.

This is the update on the milestones from the performance agreement.

So milestone 1A, which was $100,000 included planning work and applications.

So that is complete and was awarded.

Milestone 1B was for $300,000 for 80 LIHTC units, and that one is in process.

The LIHTC was awarded two PHA earlier this summer.

Milestone 1C included $200,000 when Habitat demonstrated secured funding for 57 affordable units, and that one is in process.

Milestone 1D was for $300,000.

There were two parts to that milestone.

1A was site plan approval for 20 affordable units, which that has been completed for Village 1.

But 1B was Habitat demonstrating secured funding for 64 affordable units.

So that is in process currently.

Milestone 1E was for $300,000 and includes a submittal of building permits for 37 affordable units and we're waiting on the site plan approval to complete that milestone.

And Milestone 1F was $600,000 when Habitat demonstrated secured funding for 72 affordable units and that is in process.

So I want to mention also in addition to the performance agreement,

The county did apply on behalf of Habitat for Humanity and was awarded a community development block grant of $1 million.

And we are in the final process and should be under contract very soon, hopefully within the next couple of weeks.

So now I will turn it over to Dan and Habitat.

Thanks, Megan.

And I want to thank

Before I go on, I want to thank Megan.

I know this is your last day at the county, and thank you for your service.

You really have been wonderful to work with.

So thank you, and best of luck in your future endeavors.

Thanks, Dan, and thank you so much, Megan.

Good afternoon, Supervisors.

Lori Schweller of Williams Mellon here on behalf of Greater Charlottesville Habitat for Humanity.

Since your approval of the Southwood Phase 1 rezoning application two years ago, Habitat has made extraordinary progress towards Southwood's redevelopment.

Land and lot sales contracts are in place with LIHTC and market rate builders.

Site work is ongoing, and prospective home buyers are preparing for home ownership while a second wave of homeowner applications are under review.

As you know, phase one will provide the county with over 200 affordable units, a range of product types, and a variety of green spaces and recreational amenities.

We're pleased to have this opportunity to report our progress on the development and construction of phase one as we plan for submission of phase two.

We're here today to share our progress with you, answer your questions, hear your comments, so we can ensure that the county's expectations are realized.

You know Dan Rosen's wide CEO and president of Habitat,

and I'd like to introduce to you today Andrew Vaniske, who's the Chief Construction Officer.

Andrew has 30 years experience with two of the largest home builders in the country as their Chief Land Development Officer and has handled all aspects of land development from purchase and sale contracts through construction.

I'm also happy to introduce Melissa Sims, Habitat's Land Development Coordinator.

Both Andrew and Melissa earned their Masters of Science in Urban and Environmental Planning from UVA.

Dan will provide you with an overview of the development and take you on a virtual tour highlighting streetscapes, non-residential areas, building massing, parks, and green space.

He'll update you on the number and percentage of affordable units, habitats rehousing program, and nondisplacement program.

Then Andrew will provide a construction timeline and then I will mention next steps and turn it back over to you for questions.

Thank you, Laurie.

And thank you members of the board for inviting us to give you an update today.

The first thing I wanted to do is to, I know Megan oriented you with planned views of the neighborhood, but we wanted to show you a fly-through of what it's actually going to look like in a couple of years.

And so we're coming off old Lynchburg Road.

This is Hickory.

We're moving through the PHA LIHTC project.

You've just seen the

the 6500 square foot civic park that will be sort of part of the core of the neighborhood downtown.

We're now moving down the Horizon Boulevard, which is the new road we're building to bypass the existing mobile home park so that the first phase can be on green fields.

allowing us to build homes, move people from mobile homes into the new neighborhood and then proceed in that fashion.

We work very closely with Atlantic builders to design a new product typology so that this streetscape created a really great walk from deeper into the neighborhood toward the neighborhood downtown.

So what you're looking at are townhomes that are two stories in the front.

and then they take advantage of the grade to be three stories behind.

So what it appears, so it's townhomes at a really human scale providing, that was very important to the planning commission.

Now we're getting into the heart of the neighborhood, Village One, which is what the residents really, really wanted to roll their sleeves up and design.

And on the left, they wanted to make sure that when you move into Village One, you open up to a lot of green space.

So it feels open and fundamentally different than the

than where you were before as you headed into this.

This is the areas, they took a lot of field trips to places like Sunrise and Burnett Commons and Forest Lakes and this was the neighborhood that they dreamed about and designed.

What you see now is a mixture of Habitat Homes and Southern Development Homes.

Southern is going to be building single-family homes and townhomes as part of Village 1, but Village 1 is going to be majority Habitat Homes for Southwood families.

So 49 of the roughly 70 units are Habitat Homes.

And now you're coming around the corner.

What you see on the right side is what the residents identified as edge conditions.

These are conditions that are in working with the landscape of the existing topography.

These tend to be at sort of on the sides as the topography drops down.

So these set up really well for duplexes, single family homes.

And then on the left, this is internal conditions, which is where sort of the fun happens where you get a real mixture of townhomes, condos, single-family attached homes, accessory dwelling units.

On the right side is a 20-unit condo complex that we're building.

The residents really didn't want it to be a sort of big, massive apartment building.

They wanted it to look like townhomes and feel like townhomes and walk out onto the street.

and now we're circling around into the heart of Village One, which is Five Pillars Park.

The residents got together with UVA basketball coach Tony Bennett.

They talked about their shared values and the residents asked them if they could name the Central Park a Five Pillars Park after the pillars of his basketball program.

And at the middle of it, I'm really pleased to let you all know that the United States Soccer Foundation and Dick's Sporting Goods have sponsored a soccer field, a unique, one of its kind, small field, right in the middle of Five Pillars Park, surrounded by a fence that the kids can play in all day.

It'll be the first of its kind in the area, and we are super, super excited about it.

Going back, let me walk you through a little bit more closely, a little bit more carefully and slowly through the neighborhood because I think this is a critical component for you all to remember.

I know you deal with a lot of different applications that come through, so the sort of basic idea and concept of phase one isn't as top of your mind as it is mine.

But if you remember, the residents presented a block plan.

So rather than a more traditional PUD, which tells you everything that's happening on every street, what they did was identify general formal-based regulations that went hand in hand with the topography and the streetscapes.

And what they did that for was so that as the neighborhood develops, it could develop a little bit more organically.

So you could take a chunk

a planning section.

handed over to a group of residents who said, yes, we want to live together.

We're working together to be part of the same neighborhood and cohort and team.

And they could design them block by block.

I want to show you what the residents did, because what they did was extraordinary.

And there was some apprehension about this on the part of the Planning Commission, recognized that it was taking a little bit of a leap of faith.

But they trusted the residents to really be the experts in their neighborhood.

And I think the residents knocked it out of the park.

This is what it looks like underneath.

As you see, it scales down like any good plan from the more intense neighborhood commercial type activity to a little bit less intense townhome blocks.

These townhome blocks create essentially a grid system, but it's not all car-based, so there's porosity

and openings that will be trails that connect the outside trail to the inside walking and biking infrastructure.

So some of the connection connectivity will be for cars, but some of it is specifically for pedestrian and bicycle connection through that section of the park.

Then this is village one.

This is really where a lot of the soul went into the neighborhood.

This is where the majority of Habitat homeowners south of the residents will live, and it includes everything from a condo development to townhomes to single-family homes, accessory dwelling units.

And importantly, it left the next planning area for the next group of residents to come in and design Village 2.

A little bit more close up.

This is what it's going to look like off of Old Lynchburg Road as you drive into the neighborhood.

I know that there was some concern about massing along Old Lynchburg Road.

I think our architects did a really good job stepping the buildings back after two stories, setting them back off the road.

and so on.

As Megan noted, this is the 6,500 square foot civic space, which is really sort of the core for social gathering and interaction in that first moment in the neighborhood.

And it's flanked by commercial-like spaces so that over time, these could be a community center, can be a cafe.

The initial use in this space is going to be community center, which is the thing that the residents wanted most.

and we'll talk a little bit more about commercial business incubation that we're looking forward to doing in phase two.

This is the streetscape along Horizon as you move from the neighborhood downtowns or the special area along Horizon Road.

Those are Atlantic development, Atlantic builders' homes and some of the things that we required as part of the architectural design

controls were stoops or front porches, something that's going to make the front of these buildings live so it's a really open and lively street for people and not just cars.

These are the resident planners.

After the rezoning was done, we said, hey, who wants to go first?

And there were 32 families that stood up, raised their hands, and said, we want to share our futures together.

They took the regulations of the form-based code and they got really granular.

You see them working on a layout table and they built themselves a village.

One of the things that was really, really crucial to them is that there was a series of interconnected parks because they know that the future of Southwood is different than the current Southwood.

The core of the neighborhood will still be the people who live there, but they're looking forward to welcoming new people who move in, market rate purchasers, potentially new low-income renters and homeowners.

And so they wanted a network of parks that were connected so that every home just about looks out over something that's a welcoming space, a public space and common area for everyone to use.

This is one of the first ones that you drive in, so we're fronting some homes on a green which we think creates a really nice streetscape and a place for kids to play and again a way to activate the street rather than the street just being about automobiles.

What you see here is a typical, this is an actual section, but it's typical of the edge conditions where there's a mixture of habitat homes and southern development homes and you can't tell the difference between the two.

Here you're looking at the first two pilot flex unit structures that we're going to be building as part of phase one.

we've applied for a grant from Virginia Housing to help us with this and essentially these are structures if you'll recall you created in your zoning code a definition of flex unit structure that can at times be an affordable rental at times over the life cycle of the home a family can own this and their in-laws can live in the back or this can be one of the 90 resident owned businesses that operate out of Southwood right now the low impact businesses that

that within the context of a low-scale residential neighborhood work really well.

So a party planner, there could be some home cooking, tamale shop, that kind of thing in those businesses.

It's worth noting that we're offering a one-story and a two-story version of this so that there is an accessibility component

But in this case, because parking was on lot here, these are two-story units with parking underneath the flex unit structure above.

Again, these are the network parks.

This is the more senior-oriented park that kind of looks across the street through an opening between buildings to Five Pillars Park.

The older residents wanted at least one space that wasn't particularly programmed that served as more of a passive use park so that they can hang out together.

And then this is Five Pillars Park, again, which is the core.

And this was inspired by our Sunrise neighborhood, where the big backyards are surrounded by buildings so that families can be in their kitchens cooking while looking over their kids playing jointly, protected from the road by homes themselves.

And this is part of the overall green space and trail connection idea of the park.

If you'll remember, there's going to be a multi-use trail that circumnavigates essentially the entirety of the park so that no matter where you live,

If your child wants to take his or her bike from their house to maybe someone over here, you can hop on the trail, ride off the road on the trail to somewhere else and that will continue in phase two.

It will also be networked with the trails that will come out that will be developed in Biscuit Run.

Park.

As you'll recall, one of our proffers was we proffered trail connections so that we can make that connection between future county trails and southwood trails.

Along the way, as part of our environmental review, the Monacan Nation emerged as an interested party.

Turns out that part of one particular location in Village 2, the second village the residents designed,

was a historic hunting ground for the Monacan Nation.

Non-permanent structures, no burial grounds, nothing like that.

But it was a place high on a bluff overlooking a consistent stream biscuit run where members of the tribe would go and hunt for prey down below them.

And so we have reserved

An area up on that bluff.

We eliminated a lot and created some parking adjacent to it.

And we'll be working with the Monacan Nation to design a memorial for Monacan Park on that site.

And then this is Village 2.

Again, this goes back to the central idea that the form-based code regulates the general forms and uses, but not exactly what it looks like, so that cohort by cohort families can come together and design each phase.

And so this was the second phase that attached, or the second village that attached to Village 1.

I know there was some concern a part of the Planning Commission that, well, how do you do this?

How do you do that kind of piecemeal planning?

And it actually was easier than it might seem.

This is a road, this is Horizon Road, but it ends right here.

So there's only one place where that road is going to continue into the next.

And so we simply took the common elements, the right-of-ways, extended them into Village 2, and then the residents did the rest in designing it.

And it's as cohesive as could be.

There was concern among planning commissioners about the ultimate amount of affordable housing in Phase 1 and whether that would be enough housing to take care of the residents.

who exist at Southwood now as we move phase by phase, but also to create new affordable housing in the region.

And I think we've done a pretty good job of the 335 total units in phase one, 207 of them are affordable.

The Habitat's going to build 86 of them.

That's going to be almost exclusively home ownership, but there are some residents at Southwood who will not want LIHTC.

or who will not want to purchase a home.

So we've committed to making some deeply affordable rentals available interspersed in the neighborhood as well.

So we're going to build 86.

We believe that there will be somewhere between 5 and 15 Southwood residents in Lytex.

So in the first phase, which is roughly one fifth of the land mass of all of Southwood, there'll be roughly about 100 families rehoused permanently, mostly in the homes that they own.

there was concern about after the initial design phase how do residents sort of stay in control of the neighborhood and so we as part of our COD it's written into the rules of the neighborhood the makeup of the architectural review board has to be at least 51% existing Southwood residents and one thing that's unusual relative to what normally happens in development typically the developer stays as the leader of the ARB

through a prolonged multi-year process.

But we turned it over to the residents right away.

So they already were the ones who vetted Atlantic's and Southern's architecture, and even Habitat's architecture.

When we present it, when we design a house to put there, it has to go through the architectural review board that's majority Southwood residents.

There's also, I should point out, Mosby Mountain representative on the ARB, because we wanted to be good neighbors.

Re-housing, I've spent a bit of time talking to some of you all about re-housing.

As you know, the initial idea was to build only on green fields so that people could stay in their trailers and only have to move once.

The reason for that is significant, that there is no affordable housing in this region.

And so we have to rehouse people on site.

Well, as we started to get into the site work for phase one, we discovered that the extent of the environmental degradation that we inherited was way worse than even our geotechs imagine.

And instead of one or two mobile home parks hooked up to a septic tank, there were 10.

And so those leach fields are extending into the areas of construction.

So out of abundance of caution and safety for residents, we're actually in the process of moving the first 25 families from the area immediately adjacent to the construction site to the other side of the mobile home park in trailers.

where there is sewer where that's served by sewer and that's a better long-term solution.

We're in the process of searching for solutions for about 50 more families that are in part of the next phase and so we've talked to you a little bit about that.

Thank you to Doug for suggesting the idea of a rehousing task force that we've been working with members of the county

other partners.

There's now a rehousing task force that will be meeting every month to try to make sure that there are healthy and safe solutions for everybody as we move through the process.

There's also a remediation task force that has formed to deal with some of the things that were a little bit hard to predict.

So for example,

The mobile home park has been on electric for many, many years, but originally there was an oil tank installed underneath every trailer.

As we started removing them, we expected maybe one in every ten to leak.

If they were decent material to start with, they wouldn't leak.

but all 10 of the first ones that we dug up like leaked which suggested us that all 347 are going to need to be removed.

Thankfully the DEQ has a program to help with undercutting and removing some of the bad soil.

They don't have any money for removing the tanks so there's a lot of it's kind of blowing our pro forma.

I want to be really really clear with everybody on the panel and watching from home

The site is clean.

What you see in the first picture next to the words here, that's what we found, leaching septic fields.

But what we do is we work with the DEQ, with county inspectors, and with our own contractors to essentially undercut the soil.

So it's kind of like cutting out a tumor.

You remove the bad stuff and also dirt around it.

The site is pristine now but it has cost us a lot more than we expected to do it and we're looking for a place actually we're looking for certain places for the compact for the non-compactable soil to go

Looking forward, we've got a host of partnerships toward the next phase.

One of the most exciting ones is a steering committee for business incubation.

As part of phase two, we are looking to put together or stand up either a new entity or a partnership with a number of entities to stand up a 10,000 to 15,000 square foot business incubator located in the second downtown phase of Southwood.

Among the uses there that the residents would like to see are a shared commercial kitchen so that many of the food prep could grow their businesses, do it in a way that's healthier and more compliant with zoning, stalls or permanent installations for people to sell their wares, kiosks where the multiple resident owned businesses, people can come to Southwood and find a gardener, find a landscaper as a way to enhance businesses there.

In addition, we believe that there will be about 25,000 square feet of commercial space available in the next phase of downtown Southwood.

And so we're having conversations between the Piedmont Housing Alliance, MACA, and Boys and Girls Club to locate a new 10,000 square foot Boys and Girls Club facility there and a 5,000 square foot MACA facility as a site for early childhood education for the Head Start program.

And so that's a number of partnerships that are coming together.

It's, I think, part of the really exciting part of phase two, which brings me to what happens next.

Phase two is the mobile home park.

And so we will be in front of you within a few months.

hopefully by the beginning of next year with an application for a second phase.

And essentially what we're going to be asking to do is to extend the block plan and the uses and the rules because they worked so well in phase one.

basically extended throughout the rest of the park.

So you'll have edge conditions that are like the edge.

So this is phase one edge conditions.

We'll extend that into phase two.

This is internal conditions that will extend.

More intensive uses will extend.

But it will all essentially be an extension, more like a zoning amendment than a rezoning.

And at this point, I'm going to turn it over to Andrew Vaninsky, who we're really blessed to have on our team.

Andrew, as Laurie said, brings so much experience as a developer.

Thank you, Dan.

Thank you, everyone.

Good afternoon, members of the board of supervisors and others here with us this afternoon.

Dan, is it possible to go back to one of the very first slides of the presentation in which we defined the various villages?

It was probably slide one or two.

While Dan's doing that, folks, I'll just give you, again, a quick update.

I am the chief construction officer here overseeing all of us at the very beginning.

It has the villages, Dan.

I think it started out with Megan.

Right there.

Right there.

One back.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dan.

So just quickly, folks, I just wanted to update everybody.

So as most of you know, we did receive site plan approval working with Megan and the staff for Village One late last year.

We immediately engaged Faulkner Construction.

Site work began early this year in Village 1 in Blocks 12.

Blocks 12 is where the dirt is coming from to be able to finish the Village 1, the 80 units that Dan spoke about a moment ago.

All of the units, all 335 units in Phase 1,

All those site plans, all four of those site plans have been submitted, have been filed with the county.

We are expecting site plan approval soon or next with blocks nine through 11, followed by blocks 11 and 12, which are the three PHA buildings.

I believe they're expecting site plan approval sometime early next year.

Finally, with village two.

So as we continue to complete the site work for block 12 and village one,

before the end of

And once those pads are completed, we'll immediately jump to village two.

So by this time next year, we expect to be fully underway with all of the construction activity, having received all the necessary entitlements for all phase one.

Thank you.

OK, thank you, Dan.

Just to reiterate, so as both Dan and Andrew explained, we've been working closely with staff on site planning, subdivision, and to plan for our submittal of phase two, which will be an amendment to the existing zoning map amendment by means of a phase two concept plan and code of development.

We are targeting mid-October for submission of our rezoning application.

We very much hope to do that so we can have our first hearing with the Planning Commission in January.

We'd like to move forward as quickly as possible for several reasons.

First, we are very sensitive to the expectations of Southwood residents who have been working very hard to plan the development

and are waiting to move out of their trailers.

We have grant funding deadlines and market rate sale deadlines to meet.

And we have land development and construction costs to consider.

So we'd like to avoid as much as possible any construction downtime between the phases of development.

Phase two planning meetings with the Southwood residents, planning and design group have, as Dan illustrated for you, guided us towards simply an extension of the planning concepts, the block pattern, and forms of development that you've already seen in phase one to carry through to phase two.

and the planning group has confirmed their commitment to these concepts and has been focused on the green space and open space and trails for phase two.

So with that, we look forward to your feedback and let us know your questions and if we're headed in the right direction.

Thank you, everyone.

That was a ton of information.

Supervisors, we'll let you start tackling.

We've got questions, comments here we'll go through.

Supervisor Palmer, you're up first.

Yes, I do.

My questions are all for staff, though, actually.

I'm thrilled to see this moving along.

It's great.

And I do apologize.

Some of my questions may have gone over.

My internet cut out while Dan was talking.

But I'm going to manage to get back on.

But I do have questions for staff.

On the performance agreement, I just want to make sure that I understand about the milestones and the performance agreement first.

So Megan, the performance agreement, we had 155 affordable units.

When you were going through your presentation, I was a little confused.

It didn't seem like we came up with 155, but clearly,

there seem to be.

Sure.

So the total was under the performance agreement was for 75.

units.

And the milestones were broken up into those different unit types.

In addition to the 75, there was 80 for the LIHTC if the LIHTC was awarded.

And so those were the two numbers within the performance agreement.

I'm looking back at the presentation on what the total is.

So total within phase one is actually going to be 207 affordable units and 128 market rates.

So PHA is providing 121 under the LIHTC and so that's from the 80 and then it's 86 units for the habitat where 75 was under the performance agreement.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Stacey Fedby, Housing Policy Manager.

Yes, both plans have been submitted to the county and they have been approved by all of us.

Okay, and I'm glad you're on Stacey because I think my next question is for you and I'm not quite sure that you're able to answer this completely at this point in time.

But as I look at this and I look at, I mean we've committed to phase one just shy under 4 million total.

of taxpayer dollars.

And for you know the performance agreement 155 units we're clearly getting more than that and of course there's more in this than just the affordable units.

But I'm wondering going forward on future

On future projects, how we compare what we're getting for the amount of money that we're putting in because these numbers are kind of hard to keep track of over time.

A lot of decisions in flux or I'm not saying for bad reasons or for good reasons.

A lot of decisions have been made along the way and not in the beginning.

Can you comment on that at all?

If there's a way that you would have liked to have done this better maybe in the performance agreement in hindsight?

Clearly it's hindsight because we were all very much involved in the performance agreement and lots of comments from everybody and lots of hard work.

No, I think the performance agreement is great the way it is.

I'm not sure it would change anything.

It really, it's difficult at the beginning of any project to come up with exactly a cost per unit and we can set one and like as we did in performance that all of you agreed to.

The costs, as we've learned over the past year, can significantly change and have a significant impact on the project.

What I can do, because I don't have all the numbers in front of me, is I can go back to the performance agreement after this and really look at all of the investment in the project so far

I think it would be helpful going forward just to have that comparison.

And of course, as I remember, we had Macon dedicated to this project for well over a year, I believe.

And that was a cost to the county also.

Those, I guess, are my questions.

I had one other.

Oh, yes.

My other one, and I guess this is for Dan, is how has COVID affected your expectation of Southwood residents qualifying for the different housing units?

I'm assuming there's been some job losses or changes there and it's been a few years.

That's a very good question.

Thanks for asking it.

COVID had a disproportionate impact on low-income communities, not just here, but across the United States and across the world, frankly, and Southwood was not immune to that.

And so thankfully there was some relief money available.

Our full-time staff has been working with folks at Southwood to access that relief money.

Always a challenging thing for anybody, much less somebody who has language issues.

We also abated rent for the first two months of COVID to help people get through.

And the reality is that where people suffered was not as much on income, but on health at Southwood.

because so many people were self-employed.

They didn't necessarily lose jobs.

In fact, a lot of them are laborers.

And as you know, the market for home improvements and landscaping was boomed during COVID.

So they continued to work, but they got sick at an alarming rate.

At Apex, folks at South, we had a 43% positivity rate at South, which was alarming.

In response, we partnered with the Blue Ridge Health District and other partners

and did weekly vaccination clinics at Southwood.

And so that has actually made it so that our Hispanic community throughout Albemarle County, because of the work in Southwood, is the most vaccinated Latino community in the Commonwealth.

So that was a really good thing.

And so long term, Ms.

Palmer, I think that the community is recovering okay.

I think that the

The job losses were fairly temporary and the long term impacts on income were not necessarily seeing that they're going to have an impact on people's ability to afford what we provide.

The other thing I will note is that our rehousing obligation is 100% not just to the people who can afford stuff.

And so if people have no income,

They will have no rent.

We are going to index people whose ability to pay is little to nothing, and that's what they will pay.

Hopefully that's not many people, because that's a huge subsidy, but they're substituting every home.

Going back to one last thing, maybe this will help space tea out a little bit.

So the $4 million city-county contribution, again, thank you for that.

That works out to about $19,000 a unit.

The cost for each of our homes on average is probably looking because of COVID price spikes in the mid twos.

And so your funding represents a little less than 10% of each of the units.

That's total, right?

Right.

No, that's affordable units.

So $19,000 a unit per each of the 207 affordable units.

I'm not sure how that math works.

I just did it on a calculator, but that's okay.

Yes, I'm sorry.

Yes, good afternoon to all of those of you who are joining us.

This was a really, somebody sent a lot of information and it really is, but it was a great presentation.

the descriptions and the drive-thru and all just really good, Dan.

Thank you very, very much.

And anybody else that helped with it.

I have a couple of questions and maybe just a couple of comments.

I really like the ad fact that there is also rental along with home ownership.

Just to put a plug in for some of the rental options.

I think that's really great.

The Greenways are wonderful.

This is really, I think we think about proposals that we get that contain affordable housing, but this is really a unique, very, very unique proposal.

A partnership among many between county government, Habitat, other organizations.

And it probably is a model.

to other communities.

And I really appreciate that.

I have a couple of, well, let me just make another comment.

I saw the Planning Commission comments around transit.

And I think you mentioned transit and your response back to the Planning Commission.

We certainly want to make sure this community really does use transit.

transit is going to be changing over the next few years in Albemarle County, though.

And whether it will always be cat buses or on demand, Dan, it might be good for you to just keep a tick port in your file.

I wouldn't mind at some point having

having you come to the Transit Partnership, the Regional Transit Partnership to talk about this.

I think Bea might be interested in that as well.

Having said that, transit follows developments.

Transit doesn't go before.

And we know that there is transit there now.

So it's a little early to start talking about that because of the build out and the changes that you're going to have.

But just keep that tickler in mind for the Regional Transit Partnership.

I know that you mentioned MACA, which I think is great.

I just wondered if you'd reached out.

Albemarle County Public Schools has now taken over the Bright Stars program completely.

And knowing Bright Stars and Kailh's not very far away and all might not be a bad idea to reach out to the county, to the public schools around their Bright Star program.

Be interesting to see what might develop from that connection.

And the only other question I had was around roads.

Where do you stand, Dan, with VDOT and your public roads and the roads that you're, I know that there's been a struggle around your road system.

I can.

I'll try to be uber diplomatic.

So one of the things that's really important in a low-income mixed-income community is that you fill the roads to a standard that VDOT will accept so that they can be accepted into public use and ownership.

Otherwise, you're saddling low-income folks with the burden of maintenance of roads, and that's ultimately probably too much to bear, too much to put on them.

The challenge with that is that the residents' dreams of a community are not a dream of wide roads with no parking that are often typical VDOT street standards.

They're more minimal neighborhood-scale roads, even shared

shared and flexible use roads where the pedestrian has every bit the right to be on their primacy over cars.

Parking is also a major, major issue.

The residents at Southwood, they work.

And despite the fact that they use transit a lot and they do, many of them can't because they're self-employed or they have multiple jobs during the day and they need a car.

And so the availability of on-street parking is particularly important.

I'm an urban planner who believes that parking in neighborhoods on street is actually really good.

It slows traffic down.

It gets people out of their cars and walking from cars to front porches so that it activates the street.

But we have had some struggles in terms of getting street sections that we think are really truly neighborhood scale.

and we've had a hard time figuring out how to close that loop in a way because we want to get some alternative streetscapes in front of VDOT but we sometimes get pushback from county engineers well VDOT won't accept those so let's not even propose those and so sometimes we have to kind of pick our battles

Ms.

McKeel and say, look, we just have to maybe, you know, rather than engaging in a three, four, five year battle to try to get a more narrow street, maybe we have to just go ahead and design them, over engineer them and over design them to a bigger standard.

I would love some assistance and some help and figure out how to navigate that.

I think that there are people at VDOT, I know there are people in the county who would like to see different street profiles, especially in low

U.S.

Well, I think you summed that up fairly diplomatically.

I do think that VNOD is beginning to recognize, because I've seen a change over the decades, that they're recognizing that they're going to have to adjust to more urban roads and streets rather than just interstates.

and Secondary Rose.

But having said that, yeah, I would be interested in trying to help you all figure out how to do that if I could be of any use.

I'm just thinking, well, I guess maybe just leaving it that for right now.

Certainly, there are dots.

Department of Transportation, I believe across the country that are doing this type of work much more now than probably the VDOT group.

And if you know of any DOTS, that might be, or any developments that are in other states.

where the dots are doing that might be helpful.

It's always helpful to be able to point out.

And I think I've had some mention to me in the past, but I don't want to quote any because I may be wrong.

But that's just a thought.

And I would go back to maybe thinking about working through the research council that is located here in town and have a pretty big influence on our local VDOT

is maybe a pilot, thinking about pilots, research studies and pilots around this project.

Anyway, that's fascinating.

And can you just talk a little bit about where you stand now with the sewer connections, which is really critical.

I know you've had to do, you explained in your presentation, some of us have been out there and looked at that area over the years, you know, and certainly see what you're doing right now.

Just a quick update on where you stand with that work.

No, absolutely.

Thank you for asking.

I'll give you the high level.

Yeah.

I'll turn it over to Andrew, who's been more working with the engineers.

So as many of you know, half of Southwood, all of the area south of Hickory was originally built on, was built off the county sewer system.

Originally, my understanding was that there was its own internal processing plant that was shut down because it wasn't performing and never replaced.

It was shut down by the county.

This was maybe a few decades ago and never replaced.

And so what happened was you had people jury rigging their

Trailers to too few septic tanks.

And so for years, we've been actually pumping and hauling from a lot of them that have been overflowing at a tremendous expense.

It's one of the reasons why we have to redevelop.

But it really came to light when we started digging in the green fields adjacent to it.

And so it started bubbling up in no other kind way to say it.

and so that has really spurred us to essentially take a kind of emergency approach to rehousing and expedite the rehousing of families who are adjacent and on the septic.

Fields.

We are narrowing in on a plan for the first section that's on septic.

We still have some housing.

We still have some gaps in our housing alternatives.

But again, thankfully, we've now got a group of folks helping support us on that.

And Stacy has been really great.

And Kathy seems like she's going to be really great as well.

but really we need to do it on-site because there isn't much affordable housing.

One of the ideas that has come up is the idea of finding a single location if we have to move people off-site, finding a single location so that families can move en masse, keep that sense of community together, we can stay in connection with folks.

We think there's a much better chance of people coming back into the neighborhood if we can do that.

In terms of longer-term plans,

We are having conversations with the authority, the sewer and water authority and county engineers with the idea of actually a head of redevelopment coming in and installing a permanent sewer line in what we're calling Area 2, which is sort of the second part of Phase 2.

so that there's roughly 100 maybe more trailers that are in that part that they can stay in their trailers for a little longer and instead of funding temporary solutions we're funding something that could last through the entirety.

Along with that I have to before I turn it over to Andrew I should say too about roads some of you may have seen a report on CBS 19 news yesterday about street conditions at Southwood

It was unfortunate all of you have been in the situation where things are kind of taken out of context.

I can assure you all, more than two months ago,

We contracted with a local contractor to patch those roads, but given the amount of work that they've had, they've had a hard time getting them on the schedule.

Those should be patched very soon.

The challenge is that those roads will continue to degrade.

Every single year, we're investing tens of thousands of dollars in simply patching roads that aren't built to last.

And so one of the things that I would really hope that you all would explore is that the upgrade of Hickory is actually part of your long-range transportation, part of the regional long-range transportation plan.

It's one of the unfunded projects right now.

So it could go into any of your plans.

And so that could happen ahead of redevelopment as well.

And that may be a way to take dollars, investing them in a permanent solution rather than continuing to patch something that's going to have to come up in the first place.

In that way, we could also potentially do utility installations under Hickory that could serve the longer term.

Thank you, Dan.

Just real quick, folks, so as we've said earlier, there's roughly 340 trailers on site today in various stages, and roughly half of those trailers, most of which are south of Hickory, are on drainfield systems as we know it.

Over the next few weeks we are going to be meeting again with, I see Bart's on this call, we're going to be meeting with senior county staff as well as members of the service authority in hopes of sharing with them a concept plan and that concept plan we hope is something that we can all agree on and move forward with so over the next period of two years the 180 or so

Trailers that were on drain fields that were, if they're not being relocated today over the next 12-18 months, the 110 or so trailers that remain in the next two years, this sewer system that Dan just referenced, this public sewer system that we will be tying into the service authorities,

Main trunk line that runs along Biscuit Run where the drain field leaches is leaching into the water body today.

All of those drain fields would come offline and all of those remaining hundred or so trailers in the next two years would be put on permanent sewer.

That's really great information.

Thank you.

You know, you just assume in this day and age that in the development area,

that folks are on public sewer.

We're struggling in the urban ring neighborhoods.

And some of the Jew in the Rio district, we have 254 people in neighborhoods right in the middle of our urban ring that aren't on public sewer.

So it's more pervasive, I guess is what I'm saying, than the folks would realize.

And when we're talking about environment and climate change and just the health and safety of people, it's a pretty important thing.

Great.

This is fabulous because so many of my questions have already been asked and that's wonderful.

But I'm especially appreciative of the review because it takes me back to the beginning when it was all a dream and it was a giant leap

off into the sidewalk we knew was there but couldn't see to make sure that we could do this.

And I know that it gave people tremendous angst to not have everything written down ahead of time.

But I think your experiences this year with the failing septic fields is a reason why we were correct to not spend another five years trying to write everything down, because we never could have anticipated that anyway.

And I think

The only thing to know is that things are going to change.

And I am so excited to see your numbers and how many more units you are providing than you even anticipated you would.

That is just wonderful.

Having met with the families there so many times, seeing their personal excitement and their really anticipation of getting into a place of their very own with a little bit of dirt.

which is what so many of them seem to really appreciate.

It's just a really great, great news.

I'm looking back through my notes here just to make sure that I haven't left something behind.

But I know the rehousing is just an incredible burden, a blessing for them, but a burden for the organization.

And I don't have a magic solution about that.

With the streets,

There are, in regards to what Diantha said about other DOTs in other states, there are communities in Virginia who are succeeding better with context-sensitive design than the Culpeper district.

And I learned this because I went to the state about what was going on and the difficulties we were having in Crozet with J.B.

Barnes and two years worth of delays.

and the state commissioner was not happy to hear what we were suffering.

So I would be glad to connect you with the people who might be able to give you some extra leverage to see about getting this done.

I mean, for years, our own VDOT representatives have talked about context sensitive and how that's the new way of their planning.

But we have failed to accomplish that in the White Hall district.

I mean, in the Culpeper district,

and part of the problem is that there's a continual change in staff and every new staff person who comes in has to put their mark on things.

So, glad to get in and see what we can do to stir the pot on that.

It is so important that we not make things look like every other place with 60 foot curb and gutter.

People have lived for 100 years on Beacon Hill, and the roads are nine feet wide.

So it's probably a tremendously valued place to live with community building, et cetera.

So it's really worth fighting for, and I hope we will make some progress on that.

And that's all I have.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair Galloway.

I want to go over all the names and in the interest of time I'll be very brief.

Two things, one, thank you for the meeting that you hosted just a few weeks ago where you brought so many partners together to be able to see the progress and also to inform us of the challenges that you continue to face.

I believe it's probably

At least virtually, if not literally, the case that redevelopment is more complicated, complex, and expensive than new development because of things that you're facing as you've described us today.

And we recognize that those are some of the challenges.

I believe that what Habitat is doing in the Southwood remains a model.

not just for our community but ultimately I think maybe for the nation.

I did send you with virtually no time for you to prepare a response a series of questions just yesterday and I just look forward to response back that we can share with county staff and the other supervisors.

Other than that I say thank you very much for a very informative and detailed presentation.

Thank you again with regard to thank you for giving us the grace to not have to have them done today.

We did all as a full team, we met yesterday and we parsed out the homework necessary and the research necessary to answer those questions fully.

Thank you.

And I knew it was insufficient time.

I apologize for not giving you more.

Thank you.

I look forward to those answers.

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

Really appreciate it and everybody else.

All the other supervisors have asked the questions that I had, so I'm very thankful for that.

And I do look forward to you answering the questions that Supervisor Price has.

The only thing I would ask is if you could send the, I like the PowerPoint, but the informational items, the things that were written out, because I think that's very useful as we have new developments and we do need to clean up

We go from septic to a sewer system.

I think it's important to realize how this is just not an easy process.

And I like the figures that you had discussing what you're going through in the transition.

And like I said, I'd like a copy of just those slides, not necessarily all the pictures, but the informational slides.

I would appreciate that.

Thank you.

Ms.

Pisto-Kirtley, are you specifically referring to the slides we presented last month that had the cost overruns from going from septic or just the information that was in the PowerPoint today?

Just the ones for today.

Thank you.

I don't have a whole lot of questions.

Many were asked, so I'm thankful for that.

I'll make this comment though.

I remember, gosh, this is probably three years ago, in a meeting, bringing up an idea about residents there that had businesses or a way to help facilitate them, you know, augment their business, have areas to do that, etc.

And frankly, that's one of those things that I have found that I have said in meetings and just said, you know, hey, go figure that out.

And with what you brought forward today, I mean, you figured it out.

I mean, it's a pretty clever idea of how it was done or the community has figured it out to have the community space for the cooking ideas, the kiosks, the areas for folks to come in and pick things up.

I mean, I didn't have to conceive of the ideas, right?

I just get to say, oh, it'd be great if you guys could figure this out.

So well done on that front.

I think that's a phenomenal way to augment their own economy, if you would, for their businesses, but also will be a draw for other people to want to come in and interact in the neighborhood.

You know, we're starting to see those similar type of concepts play out in other areas that are pretty popular in the area, so I think that's going to be fun to watch how that really comes to life.

and I'll ask other questions of other times I suppose just on interest of time.

I'm sorry there was one I forgot and that is I don't know if Eric Johnson and DHCD has any more recent information but are everything with the COVID funding seems to change every minute but is there COVID funding for to help you with your sewage sewer attachments I mean water and sewer are supposed to be one of the big parts

of these bills.

And so I hope that there's some rock you can turn over that would help you offset some of the investment you've had to do with moving all these folks, moving in the dirt, etc.

Yeah, the state specifically, the funds they set aside.

Yeah, and this is just a quick question because we have so many staff on this call and we don't often have them.

Does staff have anything they would like to add or say before we all break up?

I would thank you, Supervisor McKeel, Mr. Chair, members of the board, Doug Walker, Deputy County Executive, and this has nothing to do specifically with Dan, his team, and Habitat, but it has everything to do with Megan and Austin, and an extra special shout out to her for her extraordinary service to the county overall.

for all of the cases that she's been involved in, and in particular for her just amazing work in the role that she has played in bringing this project where it is today.

So thank you, Megan.

My guess is we'll be seeing you again pretty soon, perhaps, on this screen in a different capacity.

And thank you, Doug.

I appreciate that.

That was great that you did that.

Any other, though, from staff?

I don't see anybody.

Stacey, you're good?

I mean, everybody's OK?

Bart, you jumped on, but you're not in your head okay.

All right.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

Yes, I will.

Thank you, board members.

It's been great working with you all.

Very good.

I appreciate everybody's participation here this afternoon.

A lot of information and a note that you said that the presentation will be made available to us, so that's appreciated as well.

And then we will all look forward to the homework you've divvied out, Dan, in response to Supervisor Price's questions, and we'll be watching for that when it hits our inboxes.

Thank you.

OK, Board, we are running behind, but the next item we're scheduled to do a recess.

I would say let's go ahead and do the full recess and see if we can make up our time on the coming up items.

But it's 3.28, 15 minutes, so that gets us back right before quarter till.

So we will go on recess, and Travis will let everybody know that everything's all clear.

Okay, and you're live.

Thank you, everyone.

And the next item on our agenda, number 11, Albemarle County's Conservation Easement Programs, and Scott Clark.

You are muted if you are speaking.

Of course, thank you.

Good afternoon, Supervisors.

Thank you for this time and your busy agenda to discuss the county's conservation easement programs.

So today I'm going to talk about conservation easements, what they are, how they work, how they help the county meet its goals for the rural area, and what the county's own easement programs have achieved in the past.

Just as a refresher, we're talking about programs for the rural areas of the county at 690 square miles of the county as opposed to the 35 square miles in the development areas.

It's a large and very diverse landscape.

The county's goals for that landscape are equally diverse.

Several factors or key aspects of the rural areas that we're trying to protect through our policies.

They include the ones you see in front of you.

Strong agricultural forests and economies, protected natural resources, cultural resources, rural and historic landscapes.

Crossroads communities are not so relevant to the easements, distinct boundaries between the rural and the development areas, and of course well-informed citizens.

As part of that resource protection and land use protection approach,

The county's policies call for us to direct home building away from the rural areas as much as possible and into the development areas.

So we have these ties in the rural section of the plan that say development areas should be the livable, attractive places where the development happens.

and in the rural areas we're looking to do less of that residential development activity and provide landowners alternatives to that kind of development so they can protect resources and rural ways of life.

Now unfortunately that's not that simple.

Over the last many years you can see here every year we've had a pretty large number

of new dwellings in the rural areas.

So the development is always ongoing.

The levels were higher before the recession and have been somewhat slow to recover, but that has never stopped.

So that's an ongoing problem.

Our population is projected to continue to grow.

And of course, some of that development pressure from that population increase is going to fall in our rural areas.

So we need tools to protect the landscapes that we have.

Conservation easements are one tool for doing that.

But what are they?

How do they work and how do they help us?

Conservation easements are a voluntary form of land conservation.

They are voluntary permanent agreements to protect land and associated natural and cultural resources.

They're an agreement between a landowner

and an organization called an easement halter, each of which has their own rights and responsibilities.

The landowner keeps ownership of the land, keeps all of the rights not limited by the easement, and is responsible for complying with the easement's requirements.

The easement halter has the rights to limit certain land uses, and those include subdivision, construction and development, and impacts on natural and cultural resources, whether that's historic houses or a riparian buffer.

The human holder's responsibility is to permanently watch over the activities on that land and make sure that the restrictions in the easement are held to.

So how do the easements help the county?

We refer here to a lot of our own comprehensive plan goals and how the easements help them.

First, of course, growth management, protecting rural and suburbanization, maintaining a rural land use pattern,

and saving public funds by reducing the demand for suburban levels of services far out in the rural areas where the distances make them expensive.

Just one example, easements are assessed at a lower value.

are assessed with the value under the easement.

They lower the state's assessment for the composite index, which means that the counties owe less for school funding and get more support from the state.

So just one of many ways that easements help fiscal planning for localities.

Rural land uses, obviously the easements keep rural land available for agriculture and forestry against the pressure of development and maintain the large areas of land that you need for a viable agricultural economy.

If your farmland is broken up into a few scattered pieces, you don't have the level of activity left to support the supporting businesses that make it happen.

To go along with this, another aspect of fiscal

Assistance for localities.

This was a study that was done for the Middle Peninsula in Virginia, but it's known to be true in general across the country.

Residential development costs you more in the expenditures than you get in revenue from it.

Working in open land, including those under easements, is more like industrial or commercial land in that it consumes fewer resources, fewer financial resources than it produces.

In terms of natural resources, easement helps protect drinking water from development impacts.

It protects our rivers and streams, reducing pollution and sedimentation.

They protect habitats for wildlife, and they reduce land clearing erosion and other impacts on our mountain areas.

They protect the character of our rural area, keeping more of a pattern of farm and rural uses against the riverization.

And they maintain the scenic landscapes that we depend on for attracting tourists.

Finally, with climate protection, as we've seen in our action plan, rural areas contribute a lot for carbon sequestration.

And reducing development in the rural areas means less traffic, less energy expenditure, and getting people back and forth to those different areas.

So those are the things that easements can do for us.

What have Albemarle's own easement programs done so far?

I have to acknowledge that there are many organizations that hold easements in the county.

We saw a list of them here.

You see that between those organizations, they have all protected almost 108,000 acres, or about 24.5% of the rural areas.

You can see all those easements lumped together in green there on the map.

That's a pretty impressive achievement in the time that we've been working on this.

What many people may not know, however, is that the county, combining the county itself and the Albemarle Conservation Easement Authority, is the second largest holder of easements in the county.

Second only to the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, which is the state's largest and oldest easement holding organization.

Albemarle has three easement programs, each one which is tailored to address a specific issue.

Three problems, three solutions.

First problem is a lot of our farm owners with lower incomes are often under pressure to sell their land to meet their expenses, whether it's medical expenses, other issues that come up, emergencies.

Their land is their wealth, and it's often difficult to afford to keep it.

The ACE program, the Acquisition of Conservation Program, allows the county to purchase the development rights on working farms and keep those landowners on the land, pay them for the rights that they're not using, and let them keep the land to farm.

By design, the ACE program directs county funding to

Landowners most in need by having an income test and to the most important land to protect by having a scarred system that establishes conservation value.

There's a complex process for getting through the ACE process to put your land under one of these easements.

I won't run through it step by step right now.

I'll be happy to answer your questions later.

But as you can see, there's quite a detailed process to establish both the conservation value

and the income need as part of the decision making process on which applicants in any given annual round are funded and purchased.

The second issue we were facing with rural land conservation was that there were a lot of landowners out there who wanted to protect their land but had moderately sized properties that

or some other elders.

They didn't have large estates, very large farms.

And it was hard for them to find a program that would accept their easements, even if they had very important resources on their property.

The Albemarle Conservation Easement Authority stepped in early in the 2000s and accepts donated easements on a whole range of property sizes, focusing more on the resources to be protected than a simple acreage test.

This provides the county benefits in protecting more land and resources in the rural areas and helps benefit the landowners because they have access to state and federal tax benefits and lower local property tax rates.

The county supports the easement authority with

CDD staffing, varying amount, a quarter to half of a planner for easement negotiation, acquisition, and management processes, a recording secretary for meeting support, a lot of support you couldn't do without from the county attorney's office to make these easements happen, and of course, vehicles and equipment for site visits and monitoring.

We also received some funding for the easement authority from the State Department of Conservation and Recreation.

Through the transfer tax, they distribute funds to easement holders based on their recent level of activity.

That money is directed to go toward monitoring and enforcement work to make sure that the easements stay effective.

Third and last problem that we've addressed with our easements is that under standard RA zoning in the county,

Subdivisions tend to cut properties up entirely into residential lots, small lots, large lots that are all residential but not really useful for farming or for forestry anymore.

A somewhat common solution to that across the country is clustered subdivisions.

We call them preservation developments.

They group all of the lots but one together in a smaller area and then put the residue under an easement so it can stay available for farming.

Just as an example to show how that works, here is a conventional subdivision layout on multiple properties in the rural areas.

And you can see that we've got a scattered mix of small parcels, 21-acre parcels, a very long road, and five lots that have ended up on top of this high point, where they're visible to everyone and they have a lot of resources back through the steep slopes.

What we got instead through the RPD program was a grouping of all the development lots together and then one preservation tract on the eastern and higher side where a lot of the important resources are that stays under easement.

This is an example of what we end up with as a shorter road.

streams leading up on the preservation tract and the prevention of those ridge-top lots.

So while our clustering program isn't perfect, it's a much better form of development for the rural areas.

So in the past, we've had three problems and three solutions through conservation easement programs managed by the county and by the Eastman Authority.

One thing that these programs have in common is they all require monitoring and enforcement to be effective.

An easement that exists only on paper is ineffectual.

We have to stay on top of new activities on these properties, new construction plans that landowners may have to make sure that the resources stay protected.

CDD staff carries out both automated notification of building and development activity through monitoring permits on these properties and field monitoring of easement properties.

We're currently aiming for once every two years.

We hope somebody to get the point to the Land Trust Alliance National Standard of once every year.

So measures of success of an easement program.

How can we tell how we've done?

One way of looking at it is how much of that rural development, rural residential development that our compliance says we don't want, how we manage to avoid.

Through our three programs, we've protected just the county, 27,000 of those 107,000 acres protected in the county, and 1,980 possible residences across the county have been prevented.

It's all getting our compliant goals of keeping a rural land use pattern and avoiding suburbanization, directing presidential development to the development areas.

That's, depending on how you measure it, 7.8 years worth or maybe 10 years worth of development that's been avoided through just the county's easement programs.

Of course, just eliminating

dwellings is not in itself the best or only measure of how a program is doing.

We take the ACE program, which is the one we have the best information on, we can also look at all the other resources that these easements have protected.

Prime farm and forest land, 4,800 acres, 24 miles of buffered streams, five miles of frontage on scenic highways, over 1,000 acres of mountain protection areas protected.

The ACE program,

has paid out in 44 out of 53 cases at least 94% of the easement value.

This means that these are landowners with relatively low incomes who are in serious need and whose income amount was low enough that we paid almost as much as the entire value or the entire value of the easement, showing that we're really focusing on the people who most need the financial support and have the land, therefore, most at risk.

This program also helped us acquire grants and matching funding of over $3 million over the last 20 years to protect over nearly 10,000 acres.

What this colorful graph shows you is that over recent years, easement authority and the county together have become the most common holder of easements in the county.

Since back in 2006 when there was a real mix of holders active in the county with new easements, the county and the easement authority together are the red bar.

It seems over time the other bars decline as other group programs become less active or concentrate on monitoring.

And we have become, in many ways, the holder of choice or the most common holder of easements in the county.

Our number of acres protected per year have varied a lot.

You can see the ACEs in green, the RPD easements, which are very scattered, are in yellow.

And you can also see that here that while the ACE program from the early 2000s on was more active in recent years, the donated easements have become more active in terms of the total number of acres protected.

base funding has been fairly scattered over the years.

It was fairly consistent and increasing before the recession.

Since then, it's been quite a bit lower.

And so the rate of acreage protection has been scattered along with that variable rate of funding for the program.

Another emerging issue that we've been discussing with the ACE funding is that for several years now, our comprehensive plan is called for this strategy to strengthen and make permanent and steady the funding source for the ACE program.

We haven't yet managed to do that, and that's something that would make the program more effective and more reliable for the landowners who need to know what kind of funding is available for them into that program.

Another emerging issue for our programs is staffing capacity to cover all this work.

Our current staffing includes the ACE coordinator, Chescote Hall, who is not half time, variably a quarter or half a time of one planner for easement authority work.

In some years, we are able to hire interns from that DCR funding to do field monitoring.

That's on the study since COVID hit.

It shows here that we're at two people.

We're actually back down to more like one or one and a quarter because we haven't been able to get those interns.

And this is staff resources for all of our easement work, not just monitoring.

So that is an increasing issue.

As you can see, the staffing is not rising at the rate of the number of easements protected.

Albemarle County has more easements per program staff person than is typical for similarly sized Virginia land trusts.

Several other agencies and organizations here that have easements in parts of the county or across the state, sorry, across the other parts of the state or across the state.

And they typically have fewer easements per staff member when we do it at present.

So where do we go from here?

We have these three tools that we're familiar with that we worked with over 20 years and applied them to some great success.

But we haven't reviewed these tools or analyzed these programs or updated them across that 20-year span.

This leaves us with several questions.

Can we make these programs more effective?

As the activity increases, how does staff capacity compare to the actual workload?

And are there new needs requiring solutions that these programs can help with?

We know there are new opportunities.

The county has several high priority conservation policies that could be partly implemented with private land conservation, like easements, including the climate action plan, the biodiversity action plan, and the ongoing stream health program.

All of those could benefit from land conservation with conservation easements.

So from a small beginning, we have essentially built a large successful local land trust.

But to continue that success, we need to identify potential updates to our programs and prepare for new opportunities that are coming up.

Staff proposes to research and recommend updates for our easement programs as part of the upcoming comp plan review, including looking at conservation funding mechanisms, staffing and program capacity, and goal setting for increased effectiveness.

That's my main presentation for now.

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

Thank you, Scott.

Sure.

I don't know that I have any questions at this time.

I just very much appreciate this update.

We need it.

We need you guys to review what we're doing and your recommendations.

I think it's spot on.

I can think of a variety of new things that we need to look at and I know that you have all those on the list.

So, or at least many of them.

So I will, I'll just say thank you very much and let the next person go.

Yes, Scott, thank you for the presentation.

I really appreciate it.

I've been wanting to talk about this program for a good while, and I think this is a great beginning, and I really do agree with your recommendations.

I'm happy to do that.

We have, I don't think, and I could be wrong, I think the last time our ordinance was reviewed was December of 2002.

Now, I don't want to get into a lot of challenges over this.

I'm just kind of stating general facts here that, or not facts, but my impression that we haven't really reviewed this ordinance in a long time.

And I think that's what you're getting at with your recommendations, that we need to look at it.

Again, I would love to know, for example, what landowners of modest means means.

I don't know what that means for one thing.

And you don't have to tell me now.

Let me just throw out some things.

Because if you're going to be reviewing the program in an effort to save some time today, I mean, we'll be coming back to this, I assume, Scott.

But one of the things I'd like to know is what is the criteria when it was designed to provide incentives for landowners of modest means?

criteria would we need to address or maybe change if we were looking at it through the lens of equity, right?

And that might go to the modest means.

In general, I am very much in favor of this program.

I just think that when we talk about a program that in our head has no downside and is only upside, and we're only looking at it through one lens,

and taxpayers are paying for it, then we ought to be able to say, we have reviewed this program, we know what the benefits are and what the downsides are and we think the benefits outweigh the downsides.

And I didn't hear any downsides today and maybe there are none.

Where would we be in the county if say we didn't have this program or even if depending on maybe we need to figure out if we want to, I know there's a push for a certain amount of money every year.

Maybe we need to look at what is the appropriate amount of money to put into it every year.

I was just looking at my notes.

What would the impact be if we all just said we're not going to fund it?

What would really happen?

I don't know other than I know we're really saving a lot of our properties from development, but I don't know if we're saving those properties in the right areas.

Are they really at risk for development?

I don't know.

I mean, I can't justify that sometimes to the community.

Let me just look and see what else I had.

There have certainly been a number of articles recently in the news that are negative.

I mean, I have articles like this that have been in the news.

I'm not saying that that's us.

I don't think that's us at all.

But it is causing some discussions in the community.

and when we look at our program that hasn't really been reviewed through a lens of what are the positives and what are the negatives and how can we make the program better, right?

I think that is what I'm trying to go for.

And I didn't mean to stop you all from making comments.

I just didn't want to go into the actual review today because I don't think we have time.

Is it possible for me to respond to Mrs. McKeel's question about the income?

Basically what we have is an income grid that's been in the ACE ordinance since the very beginning.

And we have this income grid where landowners who make $55,000 or less over a period of adjusted gross income over an average of the past three years, we pay 100%.

If their adjusted gross income for the past three years is $55,000 to $65,000, we reduce what we pay by 6%.

And then $65,000 to $75,000, we reduce it another 6% to 88% of easement value.

So that by the time you get to about $200,000 in adjusted gross income, we're basically telling landowners, you should be donating an easement, not looking for ACE funds, because we're not going to be able to pay you very much.

So, and this really plays pretty well into what you've been reading in the papers and that ACE has always had this income grid that has focused on these

Landowners of modest means, or what I call land-rich, money-poor farmers, many times farmers, in fact 37 out of 53 of the ace easelents, are real farmers who aren't making a lot of money.

They have a lot of expenses, but they are not generating a lot of net income at the end of the day.

And so that's how we came up with this funding grid.

And I thank you for that information.

That's great.

If that funding grid, as you describe it, has been around for a couple of decades,

then maybe it would be interesting to take a look at it and see if there were ways to improve it or to make it better.

I mean, there's not very many things that I know that have been around for two decades that I'm just saying.

So at the end of the day, Scott, I am going with your recommendation.

I think it would be great to look at it, but as with everything else, I'd like to look at it through the lens of

What are the positives and what are the negatives while there probably are not many, I think everybody on the screen would say there are not very many negatives, but nothing is perfect.

If we don't look at things after 20 years to be able to justify them to our taxpayers, I just think it's time to take a look at it.

And I really would like to look at it through an equity lens.

And maybe there'd be no changes, but I think I'd like to, and I'm certainly not capable of doing that.

It would be interesting maybe to bring in, I don't know, I would just like to have a

You gave us a glowing report, and I understand the glowing report, but it just seems like to me that there must be ways after 20 years that we can improve this program and look at it through an environmental lens, an equity lens, and maybe some changes are due.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate hearing that.

Thank you.

I'm also very glad for the report and the summary because it was great to have all that information in one place.

And I don't want to get into an argument, but after 18 years of working with the ACE committee as a civilian and then as a board member, I will say that every year there were modifications and analysis.

And I would look forward to that being brought out about how many things have been modified, changed, or whatever.

to recognize natural heritage items, to figure out about historic preservation linkages and stream buffers, all sorts of changes.

So I think having all that explained very clearly in a concise way will really help to improve the understanding that our community has.

And I'm really glad that so much information has come out in the last week.

regarding the initial testimony that our maybe now former, I don't know, Secretary of Natural Resources made and has brought a lot of people from different perspectives and different minority agencies forward to talk about things from their perspective.