Board of Supervisors Regular First Meeting   10/5/2022

Good afternoon, everybody.

I apologize for the brief delay.

Had a few technical issues.

I'll call to order the regular meeting of October 5th of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors at 1 o'clock p.m.

on

in Lane Auditorium.

I would note that Supervisor Diantha McKeel of the Jack Jouett District is on travel for county business and is not present with us at the moment.

Currently, we have at the dais Supervisor Ned Gallaway of the Rio District, Supervisor Ann Mallek of the White Hall District, Supervisor Jim Andrews of the Samuel Miller District, and myself, Supervisor Price of the Scottsville Magisterial

Supervisor Bea LaPisto-Kirtley has requested to participate remotely in accordance with applicable board rules of procedure rule number 8B1B enacted pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act.

Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley, will you please state your location?

Alright, thank you.

Second.

And we have a motion from Supervisor Mallek and a second from Supervisor Andrews.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Yes.

All right, thank you.

Board, I would also like to mention that we have present today our County Executive, Mr. Jeff Richardson, our County Attorney, Mr. Steve Rosenberg, and our Clerk, Ms.

Claudette Borgerson.

I would also like to thank our law enforcement officers who are present here today, Sergeant Angela Jamerson, Officer

Darryl Mickish, and Major Terry Valls.

And I do want to briefly make a comment.

When I saw yet another fatality in our area and thought about our police officers and our fire and emergency responders, I thought not only about the times that they put their lives in danger to protect us in potentially violent situations,

If you will now rise as you are able and join in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Thank you.

All right, Board, at Supervisor Galloway's request, we will be polling item number 8.3 SE-2022-00031, the Rio Point special exception from the consent agenda, and have that as a discussion.

Are there any other

Motions to adopt the agenda as presented?

So moved.

All right.

We have a motion by Supervisor Andrews and a second by Supervisor Mallek.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Ms.

We'll now move to brief announcements by board members and we will use the following order today.

Thank you.

I do have quite a few but I'll be quick and I'm sorry to seem like I'm hugging the microphone for a while.

This weekend, October 8th and 9th, is the 42nd Annual Crozet Arts and Crafts Festival, both Saturday and Sunday, 120

Juried Artisans.

Down the road after you go to the festival or before, the Henley Fest at the Orchard on White Hall Road is also going both days.

And Saturday night, October 8th, is the Crozet Volunteer Fire Department barbecue and raffle.

So all exciting things to happen all in Crozet if you are looking for something to do.

At our last week's MPO, Metropolitan Planning Organization meeting, there was a discussion of the long-range transportation plan.

And I would encourage people to listen out for participation opportunities to provide your input on that long-range plan because our local projects to be yet funded with state and federal dollars do have to be on that plan.

And while it is sort of a bureaucratic process, it is incredibly important.

Also, please be on the lookout for highway workers in the roadways.

At the MPO meeting last week, I learned a horrific fact that five times during this summer construction season, tractor trailers have blown through the construction site at 151 and 250.

Apparently, there were braking problems with those trucks, but as an alert to all drivers, think about the fact that the truck you might be cutting in front of can't stop and keep yourself safe

with extra caution all along and please be careful, drive slowly and move over to protect the workers who are trying so hard to finish their highway projects before cold weather comes.

I also want to be another cheerleader for a comprehensive PRAM process.

There are four terrific Big Ideas frameworks out that really deserve input from all of our citizens, both rural area citizens and urban area citizens.

So please keep an eye out online and look forward at your community meetings coming up.

At last Friday's Rivanna River Basin Commission Conference, this was the seventh annual conference, there were two speakers who spoke about different aspects of utility-sized solar projects.

And also Chad Martin from the DCR, Department of Conservation and Recreation, he's the first

Environmental Justice agent to be hired by DCR and he will be representing our central Virginia district.

Recordings of these wonderful presentations will be posted on the revantavirusbasin.org website and I do hope that people will take a chance to listen in.

The state workforce meeting which was last Wednesday and Thursday

I just wanted to call attention to the great success our local workforce board has had, and Sarah Morton, who is our executive director, was invited to do a presentation right at the beginning of the state meeting about the programs that are going on here, and she really wowed everybody with the grants that she's working under, the expanded

Caseworkers and different projects that she is working on.

We had a sidebar conversation during break with the Secretary of Education about her desire, Sarah's desire to work much more directly with the school departments to try to get more workforce things into the schools for students at younger ages.

And the Secretary, Godera, said we'll apply for one of the lab school things for your summer academy program.

So that was some really great

of the City.

spoke to me about their gratitude for working with county staff about forwarding trail projects.

They're so excited to do whatever volunteer work they can do to help with the Three Notch Trail that's just beginning that work under the RAISE grant.

So that's exciting stuff.

And speaking for Mr. Galloway, you still want me to do that?

So this is in the Rio district, but I'm going to help him.

There are two exciting cross-country meets coming up at Panorama Farm during this month of October.

And the first is Saturday, October 15th, beginning at 10 a.m.

And that is an NCAA cross-country meet.

In advance of the NCAA Finals to come to Panorama in November of 2023, they're required to host an all-comers meet beforehand.

So there'll be runners from all over the country, especially those who anticipate being able to compete in the finals the following year.

Friday, October 28th, beginning at 11 a.m.,

is the ACC Championships.

So that'll be runners from all over the mid-Atlantic.

And these three events, two this year and one next year, will really put Albemarle County on the cross-country map across the United States.

And so hopefully, people will come out and cheer them on.

Thank you, Supervisor Malek.

That was a lot of really good information.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you very much.

I had the pleasure last week, Monday, of going to and being introduced and taking a tour of the Little Keswick School.

This is a private school that deals with and educates, I think it's about fourth grade through age 16, children that are on the spectrum.

highly functional Asperger's.

And it's a wonderful, wonderful location.

And they do wonderful things for their students.

And it was a pleasure to spend a couple hours there seeing what all the children do.

They did that and seeing the positive interaction with the children.

These are children also who have a hard time

relating to each other, to others.

And they're really doing a great job.

And I was just so very, very impressed of what they do at Little Keswick School, which is right down the road for me.

So that's all I have for right now.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair Price.

And thank you, Supervisor Mallek, for the love having that event out in that area.

So that's fantastic for us.

I just want to add to, and if I missed it, I apologize if it was already stated, but there were VDOT was taking corrective measures for those runaway trucks.

So those, that is being added into the project.

So the fact that those instances occurred, VDOT quickly got involved to get that approved to be part of that.

Thank you.

Not to interfere with the great events going on at Crozet next weekend there is the Batesville apple butter weekend also October 8th and 9th so encourage everybody to be out next weekend all around the county and of course you hear this again but the Simpson Park

Community Fair was postponed due to the storm and is rescheduled for October 22nd.

Otherwise, I just want to mention that I attended the climate discussion on Thursday.

here.

I look forward to discussing the risk and vulnerability assessment at some point in furtherance of that.

Also, I will add, just to piggyback on earlier comments, that I finished the Rivanna Trail last weekend.

I had been doing it in pieces, and I finally did the last piece that I hadn't done, particularly in the Samuel Miller District.

All right.

Thank you.

I just have a couple of things.

COVID, the week of September 21st, for the first time since March of 2020, all of the communities within the Blue Ridge Health District were in the green area.

So two and a half years.

And then now we're back in yellow.

So it's still out there.

We still have to be careful.

And of course, we're moving into winter, which means we also have flu.

So get your vaccinations, your boosters, and get your flu shot.

As with the other supervisors, I endeavor to take different routes through my magisterial district and I'm very pleased to see the continued progress on Avon Street with the drainage culverts and the sidewalks that are going in.

The residents in that area near Mountain View Elementary School are going to be very, very pleased with the outcome and I really want to thank

Mr. Richardson, Mr. Walker, county staff, and BDOT for the work that's all going into improving the safety in our community.

At this time board, we'll move to item number six, which is proclamations and recognitions.

So moving on to item number seven, matters from the public.

Matters on the agenda but not listed for public hearing or on matters previously considered by the board or matters that are pending before the board.

We have no online, but we do have one in person, so I will turn the floor over to Vice Chair.

We have two in person.

Thank you very much, Chair Price.

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

Individuals are allowed one opportunity of up to three minutes to speak at each Board meeting.

A sign-up sheet is managed by the Clerk's Office.

Up to ten persons may speak during each

matters from the public session.

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

The green light will go on when you begin speaking, which begins your allotted time.

The yellow light indicates you have one minute to finish speaking.

The red light indicates your time has expired and you will be asked to end your comments.

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

When addressing the board, state your name, and if you live in Albemarle County, your magisterial district.

Address comments directly to the board as a whole.

Any written statements or other supporting material may be given to the clerk.

If representing a group or organization, you may ask others present to raise their hand in recognition.

Speakers may not share any unused time with another speaker.

Back and forth debate is not permitted.

Do not speak from your seat or out of turn.

Thank you, Vice Chair LaPisto-Kirtley.

Our first speaker is Barbara Cruikshank.

Hello, and thank you for letting me speak.

My name is Barbara Cruikshank, and I live in Earliesville.

I've lived here many, many years, 40-something.

My grandkids now attend the county schools.

I am here, I wish I was talking about something different, but I'm here to request that an evaluation be conducted to determine the levels of radio frequency radiation inside Albemarle High School and on the campus, the surrounding campus.

The evaluation could be done by a certified building biologist

who can measure, do a professional evaluation of the levels and interpret the results for the community and for the elected officials.

I have taken measures on the campus of Albemarle High School and the levels of radio frequency radiation are above what is considered safe for human exposure.

Children

have unique vulnerability.

They absorb proportionately higher amounts of radio frequency radiation than adults do.

And in particular, they absorb more in their eyes and in different locations of the brain.

I have a couple of research papers.

There are a couple of thousand at this point.

But I've given two to you and I want to just, I'm only going to talk about one.

This is hot off the press, 2022 Environmental Research Journal.

They did a review of all of the scientific research on the topic of radio frequency radiation exposure in humans.

and they looked at all of the literature and they found effects on humans to be basically in three categories.

The first category is radio frequency sickness.

So humans that live near sources of radio frequency radiation and spend time near those

devices, they will have symptoms of radio frequency sickness, which encompasses a huge array of symptoms, depression, anxiety, a lot of neuropsychiatric problems.

The second effect that they found in the research is cancer.

Cancer rates are elevated if you live or dwell near high levels of radio frequency radiation.

The third are changes in biochemical parameters, heart rate,

Blood pressure, hormonal levels, melatonin is a big one, thyroid levels, immune system issues

We need a professional building biologist to measure the levels.

Good afternoon.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson.

My name is Keith Smith.

I'm speaking to you as chairperson.

As the chairperson of the Piedmont Community Land Trust, I made a commitment to you all back when we received the $625,000 grant to update the board.

So this is what I'm going to take a minute and go ahead and do.

I'm happy to report that we have provided 10 permanent affordable housing units within the calendar year this year.

We have two more that's going to be

closing in the beginning of next year.

So the 12 that we've committed to doing, we will do probably by the end of January.

We have provided in the last 12 months 23 permanent affordable housing units.

So I just wanted to take a moment and say thank you and take a moment and update you

I know sometimes you guys do not get updates on how your money is spent and I'm here to tell you is being spent well.

A little bit of a fact, we are hitting about 65% AMI.

So our max is 80.

So we are really hitting a sweet spot and add a little bit of a personal

I just helped write a contract yesterday for a young single mother who is an Albemarle County teacher who is going to be buying one of the units at Avon Park and closing in December who rent

What I was told, I haven't had a chance to check it, is going up 12% next year.

So she was in tears and thankful.

So this money really makes a difference.

And add a little bit to it with the Piedmont Community Land Trust, it's permanent.

So that $625,000 is going to give forever.

So when this young lady goes ahead and sells her home, she will sell it to another 80% and under area medium income buyer.

I just wanted to take a moment and say thank you and I've got one minute and it's hard for me even to say my name in one minute but I wanted to say thank you.

I will continue to give updates to the previous speaker.

I've been diagnosed with Havana syndrome so it's real.

Thank you.

Alright, thank you.

And as previously mentioned, Supervisor Galloway has requested that item 8.3, SC 2022-00031, Rio Point special exception be pulled.

Can I call Cameron up?

Cameron, I know, is probably going to be able to answer the questions that I have.

basic questions before I start climbing up on my soapbox a little bit.

So the parking reduction request is just because, I guess, the developer doesn't think that they need to have as much parking as our zoning ordinance requires.

The townhouse units are actually a permitted use based on the rezoning.

I know that the application plan showed building envelopes and originally it did look like they were going to be entirely apartments on this site, but I've confirmed with the zoning administrator that they can do townhouses.

So the rationale they gave about the townhomes getting two and one inside, I think, was the claim?

That's correct.

But that's helping them.

Yes.

So none of the dwelling units are going to be subdivided off.

All the parking will be within the parking lot for the site.

and the space that they reclaim.

So obviously, they're using as a rationale, there'll be less concrete out there, which is good for the environment, et cetera.

What are they going to do with it?

It's going to be open space.

So it turns into green space in this situation.

That's correct.

Each parking space that they're required to do is 9 by 18 feet.

But it won't all be in one place.

They're, I guess, reclaiming it, adding to the other areas that were already marked as open space.

Is that?

That's correct.

How it kind of works.

They gain a little extra space on those areas.

Yep.

The community, when this went through as a rezone,

as have been other applications we've had have talked about the concern of overflow parking.

So not just the parking for the folks that live there, but when events or you have parties and people come in.

So I presume that that's being addressed and they still are confident because they'd have

I mean, the property management will want to have a functional site and not having enough parking would be problematic to rent their apartments, but... That's correct.

Yeah, so we looked at this request and when you look at the ITE figures for this use type, what they recommend for parking based on the number of dwelling units proposed, it's about 380 parking spaces.

So even with this reduction down to 483, there's going to be plenty of parking for any visitors that would be coming to visit anyone who lives at the site.

So in this, I'm not looking for an answer today, but maybe flag it for down the road, or at least I don't expect you, Cameron, to have this information.

But the trailhead

that is coming over to the county, and I forget how many spaces are dedicated to that.

So people can drive in, park there, use the trail, the Warner Parkway Trail.

One of the concerns that was just raised again prior to this special, had nothing to do with this special exception, was how, it was in a parks update at my CAC, how do we keep overflow parking from the development encroaching on the spaces that are devoted to that trailhead?

Yeah, so one thing I can say is that the rezoning proffered the commitment of 12 parking spaces within the trailhead park, which would be a separate parking lot from the parking that will be used for the dwelling units on site.

With the site plan that we currently have under review, they're providing 14 spaces, but we're still working through the design of all the features that will be within that park with our Parks and Recreation Department and the developer.

They may have more spaces than that, but they do have to provide a minimum of 12.

In relation to protecting those spaces from any overflow parking from the dwelling units, there probably will be signage posted indicating that this is for the trailhead park use only.

Got it.

So since it'll be the county's responsibility, that parking lot, I just want to, it sounds like staff's fine with the fact that there'll be plenty of parking and probably be inconvenient for people to park there.

Very good.

Thank you, Cameron.

Thank you.

The rest are really just going to be comments that I have to make about the rationale being used.

And this is more directed probably at the applicant.

But when this rezoning came through, one of the impacts that was lessened or said wouldn't be a big deal would be schools, because this type of development doesn't usually produce that many more students, especially one bedroom.

Most of these are one bedroom and two bedroom apartments.

which is all true.

But in this application for requesting the reduction in parking, we talk about how we're connecting the sidewalks which I'm appreciative of.

We've had more sidewalks going in but then talks about the access to schools.

So now we're using schools as a rationale to support a special exception request when it was downplayed during the first rezoning.

I bring this up just because it's similarity to my comments about the proffer during the Southwood conversation about having things in their initial rezoning that really aren't

don't really matter, have good solutions to the impacts they're trying to solve in reality down the road.

This particular applicant talked about having access, you know, less vehicular traffic so that people could walk to Greenbrier Elementary School, which the applicant must have forgot that's in the city of Charlottesville and that the folks that are living at Rio Point will actually be going to Agner-Hert.

So that got me a little squirrelly when I see that in the application that was being submitted to us.

Likewise, it was suggested that then they would have access to private schools with the sidewalk connection going the other way on Rio East, which is true for the smaller school to the right, that the sidewalks will eventually connect all there.

But if we had kids of the age that go to the Catholic school,

trying to traverse and get across Rio Road and down that way is probably not a good idea at this point.

Not without people there manning it, even with the crosswalk.

I would be nervous about folks walking down there, especially since there's no sidewalks from Rio Road to the school.

and there's no connection up to the sidewalk that exists in front of the school.

So while I appreciate that they are doing what they're supposed to and trying to make good reasons why the special exception should go for it, which I'm not opposed to, but I'm just asking that in these applications that the rationale be pertinent.

and not just be fluff, because this in some ways sounds like fluff of what they were asking of us.

So this isn't directed at staff in any means, but maybe just putting an eye to it that as these things come before us, whether they're proffers or all the way down to smaller type indications, that I will for one be scrutinizing it, because I'd like to see actual things going to actual impacts, not, oh, behooves us to say, oh, this helps with

lessening vehicular traffic because we're allowing walkways to schools that probably is not really functional just yet.

The other one then is also talking about the transit path.

It said we're providing a bus shelter, which will help cut down on vehicle traffic.

but we still don't have a functional transit line yet to be able to support along Rio Road for actual workday to stuff.

If you're going down and making a day trip, yes, that really helps move you around but there's not enough bus traffic yet to be able to support that claim.

Just being a little cranky and maybe some pontificating about the rationale that applicants use when they come for us and ask for whether it's rezonings or special exceptions or whatnot.

But a lot of times these get put on consent.

They don't get their due diligence or their their piece so that can maybe make applicants lazy sometimes and what they're saying their purposes are for asking for the special exception.

Thank you Supervisor Galloway.

Let me check to see if any other Supervisors have any comments or questions.

Just actually a question, and that is about the sort of paper trail as this kind of change is made.

Depending on the request, yes, sometimes we do get those sorts of maps.

This site right now is entirely undeveloped.

I see.

All right.

Thank you very much.

I have no questions at this time, but I do believe that Supervisor Galloway brought up some good points and it would be nice.

I don't know if staff can get some kind of a heads up or summary or pros and cons as to when it does change because obviously the change seems to be for the good, but are there extenuating circumstances that

I appreciate the concerns raised.

Thank you and I have no questions but I do have a comment I want to follow up and I appreciate Supervisor Galloway pulling this so we could have the comment.

I have somewhat frequently raised the concern about when we reduce the parking will there be sufficient capacity not just for the residents but for visitors.

In my observation and first off let me say I acknowledge recognize and acknowledge that once the development is completed

It then largely is outside of any county control, but what I've often observed in these sorts of developments where numerous multi-family buildings, it's less likely when you have assigned parking spaces, it's more likely when you have kind of

hunting permits where you drive around until you find an open spot, but very frequently, even if there are reserved spaces for visitors, that permanent residents will often park an extra vehicle in that space, meaning there is insufficient parking for visitors.

Again, I recognize once it's approved and built, it's out of our hands, but it does require us to be diligent in ensuring that we require a sufficient number of parking spaces in these developments.

So thank you.

All right, Board, at this time, we will go ahead

and it's time to adopt the consent agenda.

And as long as we can vote on 8-3 in with the consent agenda?

Yes.

All right.

So then there are no amendments to the consent agenda.

At this point, we still have all of the items as on the consent agenda listed.

So moved.

All right, we have a motion by Supervisor Mallek, a second by Supervisor Andrews.

Appreciate the two of you keeping everything moving along here today.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

All right, thank you board.

Good afternoon.

Frances McCall, Deputy Zoning Administrator.

I am not Leah Brumfield.

She is off today.

But she has done the lion's share of this work on these presentations and the review of these special exceptions.

I just wanted to put that out there for you all.

And we'll give you the credit.

Thank you.

So this first special exception, SE-20-22-42, is on Tiffin Farm Lane, just off of Millington Road, in for reunion.

This is one of two requests you'll see today for accessory structures for homestay use.

This particular request is for a yet-built structure.

They plan on building this structure if they obtain the special exception so that they can utilize it for their homestay.

It is on a large, rural area parcel.

And the image shown here is a rendering of what the applicant envisions their structure to look like.

It would have two bedrooms and bathrooms, but not a complete kitchen.

They were going to provide, I think, a coffee station and microwave for the guests when they're there.

Theoretically, it could eventually become a dwelling.

They do have the development rights for that purpose, but that's not their intention at this time.

The property owners are Michael and Sarah Larson.

Currently, they are raising cattle on the property, and they plan on starting a market garden on the parcel.

So we know that you all are very familiar with the particular regulations that apply to special exceptions for home stays or just home stays in general here.

So I don't want to go over them too much.

They're the rental of the five guest rooms.

I've highlighted that this particular one is for the use of the accessory structure built prior to 2019.

That means it wasn't in existence prior to 2019, so they need this special exception to build this structure to be utilized for that homestay.

Primary setbacks are met, and then the limited un-hosted stays.

All home stay regulations is pretty straightforward there that as you all know with the familiarity, excuse me, with the multiple applications that you all have seen.

Again, the staff report goes over the particular considerations and they are outlined here as again in the staff report.

particulars to the property.

Again, this homestay, let me put on the laser pointer here so you all can see that.

This particular homestay would be located near the center of that 88.31 acres in free union.

The property is surrounded on all sides by either agricultural properties or forested properties.

The structure in this particular location is where an old dilapidated farm structure was shown.

It's hard to see it.

It's right there.

But that has now since been removed.

The particular house that the applicants live in is with the yellow asterisk.

The blue asterisk represents the particular location of an adjacent property owner that had an inquiry wondering where the structure would be.

And once they were informed where that would be, they understood that that would not pose a problem for them.

And they had some future plans for installing their own farm structures in that general area where the blue asterisk is.

So that is the only adjacent property concern that we received on this particular application.

Here's a bigger picture of the overall location in relation to Free Union.

Right about there is where that home stay location, and again the house is located there.

Here's some on-site photos that were taken of the proposed location.

The left photo shows the proposed location taken from the internal road, the Tiffin Farm Lane.

And the one on the right shows the view southwest towards the nearest abutting residential house, just barely visible through the trees.

And to get a little more context there, I believe it's this house right around here into that direction from where that would.

It's hard to see it on this large map.

I believe the applicant provided this map to us.

So that's that location that's been proposed.

All right.

Thank you, Mr. McCall.

We'll go through our order to see if there are any questions.

Thank you very much and thank you Francis for the info.

When we have had one project earlier where they requested the ability to use a new building, it was approved, I understood based upon that there was a barn they could have transferred in but rather than do that, they wanted to take that one out of commission and put the new one in.

Does that criteria apply to this?

Was it used?

and if not, what are the criteria that would make this one acceptable and another one not?

I believe that it's the use of a new structure built after the date that's identified in the regulations, August 7th, 2019.

So if you want to build a new structure like this, then you need that special exception to do that.

If it had existed and they were converting something as that accessory structure, then it would not.

All right, so perhaps the one that came before us had some other reason why they needed, it was a setback issue perhaps or something else but what stuck in my mind was the shifting from a barn to something else.

All right, so that answers that question and then, so the criteria of why this would be

Approvable is because it meets all the setbacks and has plenty of space, et cetera, the standard impact questions.

It's great to see Old Georgetown Farm having a new lease online.

Thank you.

I have no questions.

Thank you very much, Mr. Mahal.

I will at the end.

We'll bring her back.

All right, thank you.

Not too much power.

Correct.

So does it, and I just want to make sure there's nothing hidden in our ordinance that limits it.

So they turn it in, they use it as an Airbnb or a homestay.

Five years down the road, they want to use it, convert it to a barn or use it for some other farm purpose.

OK, thank you.

That's all.

All right, thank you.

A quick follow-up on that, a new dwelling if they use the development right for that new dwelling, if I'm correct?

Correct.

Okay.

And I guess I'm still trying to just wrap my head around the rules.

I know we've seen many of these, so I apologize if this is old ground, but I'm trying to understand what the most relevant facts here are.

I appreciate that this is subject to the condition of the 2,000 square feet or

As an accessory structure, that's correct.

that particular date.

It notes that you can use, it's obviously the single, you have to have the single family dwelling, which they have, and that's where the home state is required as the accessory use for the home state being used in an accessory structure built on or before 2000.

So that is where you would be able to,

Yeah, they're limited right now to the five guest rooms for the

for the single family that existed.

So if they theoretically had another dwelling, they are also permitted to have up to two homestays on the property.

And that's just not this particular case.

So I would say that if they were to convert this structure to a dwelling,

I'm mostly trying to understand for the context potentially in other cases.

I didn't when I said I know you all were familiar with everything that's come through, and I know you're still knowing something.

But other things, like I said, I appreciate the 2,000 square feet, but like the image that was shown to us, that's just for illustration.

That's not actually part of this, and that any image they could show would be really not relevant to what is being approved by that.

Nor is the use of the farm for regenerative farming or other things, though I applaud that.

I think it's interesting to have visitors to see that.

So thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

And asking similar questions slightly differently.

What strikes me about this application is that they are simply being proactive.

And before they actually build the structure, make sure that what they intend to use it for will be acceptable and subject to approval.

And to that, I would say thank you.

I would say thank you to the applicant rather than being someone who builds something and then comes in you know the old sometimes get you know what is it forgiveness rather than permission and I really appreciate the people who have taken the thought process to do it the right way so thank you and thank you for your presentation and answering your questions if no other questions or comments the floor is open for a motion madam madam chair

If I may, there was a resolution or a motion that was on the screen and there's some slight variation between that motion and the language that's in the resolution that's actually in your agenda materials.

So my suggestion to the board is that

that a motion to be made simply be a motion to adopt the resolution in the form of attachment F. And that alone suffices because the resolution already incorporates the conditions that you see on the screen in front of you.

Thank you.

I am happy to make that motion.

Thank you.

Motion has been made.

Second.

And second by Supervisor Andrews.

Motion by Supervisor Malek.

Second by Supervisor Andrews.

Ms.

Malek.

Yes.

Ms.

Mr. Andrews.

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley.

All right.

Thank you.

Board, that moves us to item number 10.

SC-202200040, The Loft at St.

George Homestay.

Thank you.

This is your second special exception as mentioned previously for the use of an accessory structure

for their proposed homestay application.

And to note that they have not yet started their homestay at all.

That is not in operation at this time.

And they are being proactive in this case as well.

But the other special exception part of this is the setback.

for the structure and this particular structure that was built in 2018.

And I'll get into a little more of those details and differences here on the differences between the rural area, one we just heard, and this particular one.

This structure is a garage on the first floor and they're proposed to use what they have identified as a residential loft.

I think it's about 336 square feet on the second floor.

Would not contain a kitchen and with the size of the lot with the zoning that it is, the R4 zoning would only permit one dwelling so this structure cannot be used as a dwelling.

The property is owned by John and Jennifer Diggins.

who live in the dwelling that is on the property and was also built in 2018 along with this accessory structure.

So there's a little difference here with this particular application and the home state regulations that apply as this is a residentially zoned property.

They are only allowed to rent up to two guest rooms, but they could potentially have more if they got that accepted.

What they're asking for, and this says it's only permitted in a single-family dwelling unless accepted to use as an accessory structure.

And then the particulars, again, to the all-home state regulations, owner-occupied, we've heard that that's what is planned here.

The structures for your homestay must meet the primary structure setbacks, and that is what they are proposing as well.

With this structure is to get that exception for it to be closer than the primary structure setbacks.

They will then be in the process of obtaining a zoning clearance for this.

The parking is on site and not on the street.

The neighbors notice has been sent out and we have not heard anything directly from any of the neighbors with any questions.

And then they will have their annual safety inspection that goes on with that.

Again, the special exception criteria factors to consider that were outlined in the staff report.

Very similar to the last, obviously the last application.

Here is a general picture of what's going on.

Both of these structures again were built in 2018.

This is the primary dwelling.

You see the parking that has been the driveway that serves as some of the parking for the property with the home stay in that particular location within the second floor of that application, that structure.

So again, here's an overall location.

heart of downtown Crozet.

One thing I didn't notice, this structure is within the Crozet Tourism District that has been established.

Again, none of the property owners have contacted us, but again, heart of downtown, some of the new construction that's gone on in Crozet.

and this is that particular location.

Pretty much it on that one.

I believe here's the resolution that is up that I think would be the same as the last particular one as far as instead of the language that's up on there with the condition.

I believe that Mr. Rosenberg can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that's how this second one would have to operate or be proposed.

All right.

Thank you, Mr. McCall.

We'll go through our order.

Thank you very much.

This is a really great example.

This street is an ancient street in Crozet.

Many of the houses built before 1800, but on larger lots.

So

over the last 20 years there have been some new houses but really appropriately sized for their neighbors in there and that overhead was interesting because you can see the new sidewalk in the section where their driveway is and then on either side of those are the old 1940s you know homemade sidewalks in there but in the overlay or maybe it's a different view I think this area has a lot of backyards that sort of come together

Okay, but I know some of the houses on St.

George are long, the lots are long and skinny and they have a cabin back there or something else.

So were those types of sort of geography issues taken into consideration when recommending that the setback reduction would be appropriate?

The structure when it was created, there's a physical survey that it met the accessory structure setbacks at that time.

Oh good, okay.

7.7 feet and 7.8 feet, 10 feet is the requirement on the

If it were to be in its new use.

Correct.

Okay, so the garage was perfectly conforming.

All right, and the Crozet Tourism Zone, I think, was an important reason for a different homestay several years ago on North St.

George Street, so on the east side of Crozet Avenue where the approved

Hughes was in an upstairs of the garage at the back of that lot.

So I guess you have covered well all the other questions I had.

Thank you.

Yes.

First of all, I want to establish the fact that I do have full control over my button.

Is that correct?

I'm sorry, I just had to say that.

I don't have any, oh no, I do have a question.

Okay, and that was conforming when it was built, but it's not this side current?

So just to confirm that I heard it right or understand it correctly.

So if they wanted this to be a, they can't put a dwelling unit up there.

The one house is the meeting the density for that lot.

This is interesting.

We've had, you know, in other times where we have concerns where a homestay takes housing stock out of the equation, but this is the only use.

I mean, there could have like a business or probably some other function.

But from a housing standpoint, this is really the only use they could put up there and it's not taking away from a dwelling unit because it wouldn't be allowed otherwise.

So I think this is the first one I recall, but that's the case on where we've, where the reverse is usually the concern.

Are we taking away something that an affordable housing unit or

another type of dwelling unit.

If they wanted to do a business in here, you'd have to hear that as well.

Yeah.

As a special use of accessories.

Well, I'm just glad to see that it's not, this is an instance where it is not removing a unit that could be a dwelling unit.

So that's, I don't recall having anything like that necessarily before us.

So thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

Again, just to follow up to educate me a little bit better, you mentioned that a business would require a special exception as well.

Regardless of the setback in this particular case, it's not about the setback.

Without the supplemental regs in my head for Class Bs, that might be a consideration, that it may not be appropriate.

Right, as long as it's not part of a home business, just utilizing it for

Thank you.

So for a garage type structure,

Correct.

And it is seven feet and some number of inches, a little bit on a diagonal, but from the closest point to either the side or the back is at least seven feet.

So it clearly complied with the six foot.

It was the side.

The side setback, I believe.

Right now, per the physical survey that they got done, from that side it's 7.8.

But I heard a 10-foot setback.

That's the standard structure, the primary structure.

Oh, for a primary structure.

OK, but as an accessory structure, they're fully compliant with everything.

I got it.

It would have to be 10 if you wanted to.

needs to meet primary structure setbacks, any structure used for the homestay.

The house obviously would if they had anything in there.

And they built this for that purpose, then it would need to meet the 20-foot rear and the 10-foot side.

But they're asking for that to be reduced.

Or they could come in and ask at that same time to be reduced as well, before they actually built it.

But this was built in 2018, the structure, and our ordinance came into effect in 2019.

Right.

OK.

So the time was on their side in that respect.

Actually, I believe that you can use BiRide, you can use, let me look here real quick,

Like I say, someone builds a structure in 2018 and we don't have an ordinance until 2019.

As long as they comply with the ordinances at the time of the construction, then they should be grandfathered in, grandmothered in.

And I appreciate Supervisor Galloway's comments that this is that situation that is not in any way potentially taking something out of our housing stock.

And so, thank you, that answers my questions.

Any other questions or comments?

I think they just said on-site parking was available.

So a piano teacher with no employees would have to get a special permit to use the upstairs?

Okay.

Would that require approvals?

The use of the accessory structure requires the special exception and the reduction.

No other questions or comments?

The floor is open to a motion.

Very well.

I move the adoption of the resolution to approve SE 2020-240

Loft at St.

At this time, we will move to item number 11, Reconnecting Communities Grant Application.

Ms.

All right.

Thank you, Chair Price and members of the Board of Supervisors.

I'm excited to be here today to get your feedback and hopefully your support for our Reconnecting Communities grant application.

As you can see from the subtitle, this would fund a corridor study of a portion of US 29.

All right, so this is the agenda for my presentation today.

I'll begin by giving a little background on the Reconnecting Communities Program.

As it is a new program, I want you to be familiar with the purpose of the program and what the funding can be used for.

Then I'll describe our project proposal for a US 29 corridor study.

I'll describe the tasks we plan to accomplish and our expected outcomes.

After that, I'll answer the question of why US 29.

Highlighting four reasons, I believe we have a compelling project application.

Then, I'll cover what impacts a successful grant application would have on the county, specifically the financial implications of a grant that does require local cost sharing.

Finally, I'll share staff's recommendation regarding how to proceed and give the board the opportunity to take action if desired.

Okay, so a little background on this program.

The Reconnecting Communities Grant Program is a new discretionary grant program that was created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and it will award $1 billion over the next five years.

The program is intended to improve the mobility, safety, and economic wellbeing of communities that are negatively impacted by transportation infrastructure.

And what do I mean by negatively impacted?

So high traffic volumes, high speeds, and other design factors can make it difficult or unsafe for residents to travel by any mode, but especially by walking, biking, and transit use.

This loss of mobility has knock-on effects on residents' economic well-being when they can't safely access their school or a better paying job on the other side of 29, on their health when they can't safely access a clinic, on their emotional well-being when they can't find a bus to take them to a family member's house.

Funding for this program will help plan and or construct improvements to disruptive transportation infrastructure.

To clarify, our application will request funds for planning only.

However, the planning work that we do will allow us to request capital funds from this and other grant programs in the future.

So now that you have some background on the grant program, I'm going to describe the project for which we're seeking funding.

In our grant application, we propose a corridor study of US 29 from hydraulic road to the Rivanna River, and the road nearest the Rivanna River that we're looking at is Hilton Heights Road.

The focus of our study will be on the mobility and safety of vulnerable road users, so people walking, biking, and using transit, and improving connectivity within the corridor.

So you can see the study area in orange on this slide.

We have no if you can see my.

Here we are.

So we have 29 going up the middle.

We have Hydraulic Road, and we have the river up here.

On the west side, the study area is bounded by the Hydraulic-Rio Road loop, and then Berkmar further north.

The east side is bounded by a bunch of smaller roads, but typically it's about one third of a mile away from US 29.

It includes Fashion Square Mall and Seminole Square Shopping Center.

As you can see, the southeast portion of the study area includes the city of Charlottesville.

Since our study is focused on connections along and across 29, it made sense to reach out to the city of Charlottesville so that the needs of Albemarle County residents at the southern end of the study area are fully addressed.

City of Charlottesville has agreed to be a supporting partner in this project so Albemarle County would be the lead applicant and we would retain all decision-making power if the grant is funded but the city would be active stakeholders in the process and the time that their staff spend on the project would contribute to our local cost share which I'll describe a little bit later

Okay, so now I'll go into a little more detail on the tasks we intend to accomplish with our corridor study.

So big picture, the corridor study would be divided into two phases.

I'm just trying to bring my mouse back over here, great.

Phase one is expected to take about six months.

The purpose of this phase is to gather information that helps us qualitatively and quantitatively understand the challenges US 29 poses to the community.

The existing conditions review in that first box is a foundational component of any corridor study and it would be completed by a consulting team.

That team will gather and analyze corridor specific data such as crash data, origin and destination data and transit ridership and so on.

They would conduct technical assessments of the roadway to identify constraints and opportunities and they would review transportation and land use plans.

The second component is a community consultation.

So that's in our second box.

This would be led by Amaral County CAPE staff.

These efforts would go beyond typical community engagement practices.

This component would treat residents and business owners in the adjacent neighborhoods as local experts in the transportation challenges their communities face.

In this task, we aim to better understand the challenges residents face and the future they want for the corridor.

The qualitative data gathered in consultation with the community will be paired with the quantitative data gathered by the consultants in the existing conditions review to fully inform our understanding of the challenges posed by 29.

The other two components, staff and elected leader engagement and information sharing, will occur throughout phase one.

Staff and elected leader engagement will be mostly accomplished through a stakeholder group.

Information sharing will be accomplished through a project website and presentations on an as-needed basis.

Moving into Phase 2.

Phase 2 would take about a year, so grand total we're looking at 18 months to do this corridor study.

Broadly, the purpose of Phase 2 is to identify feasible and equitable solutions to the challenges identified in Phase 1.

Along the top of the slide, we have three major tasks that would occur sequentially

First, we have project identification, where our technical consultants will identify a comprehensive set of projects, strategies, and policies to address challenges and opportunities.

It should be noted that the solutions identified in this phase will focus on improving the safety and mobility of vulnerable road users.

Next we have project prioritization, where we prioritize the projects based on their feasibility and impact.

And then we have project development, where the technical consultants would develop conceptual designs for up to five priority proposed infrastructure projects.

Along the bottom of the slide we have four no less important tasks, but tasks that would be ongoing throughout the phase and concurrent with each of the three tasks we just talked about.

So first we have equity assessment, where we will continuously assess task outcomes with an equity lens to ensure that the communities that are negatively impacted by US 29 are those same communities that would actually benefit from the solutions.

Community engagement.

We'd have this throughout phase two so we can hear from the community to ensure that identified projects meet their needs and expectations.

And if not, we'll make changes to those designs.

Like in phase one, we have staff and elected leader engagement and information sharing, and these tasks will occur throughout phase two.

So now I want to answer the question of why have we focused on this segment of US 29.

So we've got four reasons.

US 29 is designed in a way that divides the communities on the east and west sides of the roadway.

It has really high traffic volumes.

On average it's 52,000 vehicles traveling along this segment of US 29 every day.

It has some really wide crossing distances.

There are some intersections where people have to cross 12 lanes of traffic.

There's limited infrastructure for pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit users.

For instance, there's only one intersection within the study area and it's a 3.2 mile long study area with infrastructure for pedestrians crossing US 29.

That's Rio Road if you're curious.

There's only three of 14 roads that intersect 29 but don't go all the way through that have pedestrian crosswalk striping for pedestrian travel parallel to 29.

Our second reason is that there's safety concerns, safety concerns that threaten all mode users along the corridor.

So in a five-year period, there were 656 motor vehicle crashes involving injuries and four fatal motor vehicle crashes in the study area.

There were 15 pedestrian crashes involving injuries and three fatal pedestrian crashes within the study area during that same five-year period.

There are climate concerns.

So I've mentioned to this group before that according to our own greenhouse gas emission inventory report, the transportation sector accounts for a much larger proportion of Albemarle County's greenhouse gas emissions than the proportion nationally.

Part of that is because of places like this segment of 29, where the design and safety concerns encourage people to drive and actively discourage walking, biking, and transit use.

On average vehicles along this three-mile segment of 29 are responsible for about 69 and a half tons of tailpipe co2 emissions daily

and there are equity concerns.

I don't know why you're not seeing the whole thing, but the neighborhoods immediately adjacent to this segment of 29 tend to be historically underserved.

So these neighborhoods have more non-white residents and higher rates of households without access to a vehicle than the rest of Albemarle County.

They also have more residents ages 65 and older and overall lower household incomes compared to national averages.

Overall, we think that these four reasons make it clear why we focused on this area and they make a compelling case for funding our Reconnecting Communities grant application.

All right, now I want to describe the financial impact a successful grant application would have on the county.

So for the Reconnecting Communities grant program, the federal share is not to exceed 80% of the total project cost, meaning that the county would be responsible for 20% of the total project cost.

One of the exciting features of this grant is that the local share can be in-kind contributions, so we can offset part or even all of our local share with staff time spent on the project.

We're still working out the final details of our budget.

We're very close, but not quite there yet.

But we expect the overall cost for this corridor study to be approximately $350,000.

Therefore, the federal share of this grant would be about $280,000.

That's the number we'd be requesting from the DOT.

And therefore, the county would be responsible for about $70,000.

So as I said, we can use in-kind contributions for the local share.

Given that we have several county departments all listed here who would be working with us on this corridor study, and we'd have staff from the city of Charlottesville actively participating and tracking their time as part of this in-kind contribution, we believe that we can fully cover the local share with in-kind contributions, which is very exciting.

But I want to note that if in the next couple days we figure out that we won't quite cover it We've already talked with the Office of Finance and Budget and we have money available in the transportation leveraging fund To cover any shortfall, but I truly think that we'll be able to get there with our in-kind contributions

I want to thank you for your time and attention.

I'll remind you that I'm here today to get your feedback and hopefully your support in the form of a resolution.

I have this slide here with some suggested language should you choose to support the grant application.

Thank you, Ms.

Hirsch-Ballering.

We'll go through our order.

Thank you.

That is so exciting.

And I'm one of those people who gets really excited about transportation plans when things are actually going to make a big, big difference.

And since almost every day I see someone carrying a baby in one hand and bags of groceries in the other trying to cross at hydraulic, it's terrifying.

So this is grand.

Oh, okay.

So it uses the grand majority of it then is really offsite.

I get it.

All right.

Thank you.

Ms.

Yes, thank you very much, Ms.

Hirsch-Ballering.

Perhaps.

Sorry, I have such a hard time with this mouse.

Ms.

Can you hear Bea?

I look like a kaleidoscope.

OK, thank you.

So along that segment of 29, the vehicles are responsible for 69.5 tons of CO2 emissions.

What I'm wondering is, has anyone talked about the age of the vehicles as we all

As we know that the older vehicles that are I think anywhere from five or ten years old, those emit a lot more emissions than the newer vehicles.

Has that been taken into consideration with this?

If I could comment, I'll just explain how we got the 69.5 tons of daily CO2 emissions number.

So it's not based on vehicle age.

I simply took the average amount of tailpipe CO2 emissions per sedan-style vehicle and multiplied it by our 52,000 number.

for this number.

Right.

No, I know that vehicle emissions contribute greatly to CO2 emissions, but what I'm suggesting is that as part of the study, if you wanted to, is to also look at the

age of the vehicles because reducing the age of the vehicles greatly also greatly reduces the CO2 emissions.

Right, I can give you more information on that later.

Alright, thank you.

Well, I appreciate this area being identified because it's just

the conundrum of having something that we know is a throughway that we have to keep the cars moving but then the ability for the folks that live along the corridor to be able to get to the other side in a way that is reasonable versus sprinting for your life and it is when we, you know, like we're approaching where it's getting darker sooner so that five o'clock to seven o'clock time frame when it's dark out

can be particularly more problematic than it is in the summer months when it's lit.

The division of community.

I often talk about how folks on one side have to get in their car to be able to get to a store on the other side of 29.

There's no reasonable way to do it any other way.

But the fact that if that's the case and you're getting in your car, it seems so far away when it's only three minutes.

the same would be said of folks who just want to visit with people that maybe live on the other side of 29.

So that point had never actually, I mean, I get it, but it's not been one that I've really thought that much about.

So I appreciate that this is actually thinking about that, which is reconnect the actual community function, not just the ease of shopping or retail or even employment.

So that's great that this is in here, and I hope our albemarle

looking forward to seeing what the corridor study suggests and helping that out.

Does it take into account, well maybe I just make this point now, I was going to make it during the Transportation Quarterly Report, but the microtransit study that's coming forward, it seems if we're going for this grant,

and we know that we have funds from the microtransit study that any sort of PR or community outreach, because we need to get folks thinking about that microtransit, but that also would plan to be able to connect these communities over.

Thank you.

I'm excited about this possibility.

I think it's a great thing.

I would say that we are responsible for having created this situation on 29.

And I would hope that as we look at the future planning that we recognize that we don't want to put ourselves in a position where we have to have this sort of plan in order to deal with the effects of development that's so disconnected.

So I really applaud the effort to reconnect.

Thank you, and I have no questions.

I do appreciate your presentation.

I too am very excited about this.

64, 29, 250, these are major roadways that definitively cause complications with community connectivity.

Just for the public though,

While it's exciting that we could do our 20% contribution in kind, there is a cost to that.

That cost is both in terms of staff time and the labor costs that are associated with it.

So nothing is free and it's just taking out of one pot to pay for an expense in another place.

Do any other supervisors have any questions or comments?

Just a bit of cheerleading, and that is the step-by-step funding processes can lead to tremendous success, because this is how little Nelson County got the funding for the tunnel.

50,000 here, 100,000 there, each one building upon the previous ones until they got it all done.

So thank you.

And one other thing, if I may, I loved reading the Lupeck report and seeing all the details in the RAISE grant that I'd never seen before.

So that looked really sharp.

Thank you, Supervisor Mallek.

You're right.

You eat the elephant one bite at a time.

This is helping us get there.

Ms.

Yes.

Thank you very much.

I did have a question with another question from Ms.

Hirsch-Bollering.

Is the purpose of this study, which by the way I do support, is this to, is it a dual purpose of getting pedestrians, bicyclists from one side of 29 to the other, which is basically in places of freeway or highway, or is it to reduce CO2 emissions?

So the Reconnecting Communities grant program is really focused on the people that are impacted by the transportation infrastructure.

And there are many ways in which we recognize that people are impacted.

Some of that is safety.

Some of that is mobility.

And those are our main focus.

But of course, climate impacts affect us in the long run.

But pollution affects us immediately.

Okay.

Thank you.

I will move that the board endorse the Reconnecting Communities grant application by adopting the resolution attachment A. All right.

Second.

A motion by Supervisor Galloway, second by Supervisor Mallek.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

All right, thank you.

Ms.

Hirsch-Ballering, that really was a great presentation.

Thank you board.

Let us not get too far ahead of ourselves, but we are a little early for our three o'clock break.

But out of a courtesy to those who were expecting that to be the schedule, I propose that we go ahead and do our

That'll give any staff time that they may need to come into the auditorium.

So the board will stand in recess.

Good afternoon, everyone.

We're in somewhat

So Ms.

Hirsch-Ballering, I understand you're back up with our transportation planning quarterly report.

Hi again, everyone.

I'm pleased to present the transportation planning quarterly report covering the months of July, August and September.

So first, I want to acknowledge that the organization of the written quarterly report looks a bit different than previous versions.

No information was lost in the transition and many of the sections, administrative activities, transit, development projects, and reported transportation issues will look exactly the same.

The biggest difference is in how we've organized the transportation projects.

So previous quarterly reports organized transportation projects by mode.

So we had road projects in one section and bike and ped focus projects in a separate section.

But that separation has become less and less meaningful as current projects better plan for all road users, combining infrastructure elements intended to improve motor vehicle operations and infrastructure for pedestrians and bicyclists in the same project.

So now we've organized projects more so along a timeline so you and the public can better understand where a project is in the multi-year process from project conception to project completion.

In the section titled Transportation Planning Efforts, you'll find all projects that are in the planning phase early in that multi-year process.

In the section titled Transportation Project Construction, you'll find all projects that are in the engineering, right-of-way, and construction phases much later in that multi-year process.

I'll explain a little more about how that Transportation Project Construction section is organized later in the presentation, but I wanted to give you an overview.

So moving right along into a transportation planning effort that took up quite a bit of staff time in the last quarter, let's talk about SmartScale.

Smart Scale Grant Program is the primary method for funding large-scale transportation projects in Virginia.

On August 1, 12 projects were submitted by the county, the TJPDC, and the Charlottesville Albemarle MPO.

All 12 submitted projects would be constructed at least partially within Albemarle County, and descriptions of those projects are included in the written report.

Even though final applications were submitted, we continue to work closely with BDOT to finalize still more project details.

Initial funding decisions will be announced in January of 2023, but those decisions won't be finalized until June of 2023.

Another transportation planning effort is the Three Notch Trail Shared Use Path.

So back in August, we officially learned that Amaral County was awarded just over $2 million in RAISE grant funds to complete a Three Notch Trail Shared Use Path Master Plan.

When constructed,

The three notch trail shared use path would cross western Albemarle County extending from the city of Charlottesville through the Crozet area to the Blue Ridge Tunnel in Nelson County.

I want to clarify that the raise funds received cannot be used for construction.

They're for planning only.

Specifically, the funds will be used to cover a portion of community development staff time spent on the project and to hire a consulting team to assist with the master plan.

Now that we've been notified of our award, our next step is to sign a detailed grant agreement with the U.S.

Department of Transportation, which we expect to do late this fiscal year.

Next fiscal year, we expect to put out an RFP and hire a consulting team.

Once the consulting team is on board, we expect it will take about two years to finalize our master plan.

Okay, also among our transportation planning efforts are the conceptual design of these three priority projects.

Free Bridge Lane, Solomon and Englewood pedestrian improvements, and a Route 20 shared use path.

Using local funds to complete early design work like this is relatively new for us, but we're confident that these efforts are laying the groundwork for future success.

We have learned that successful grant applications and successful projects benefit from this kind of early planning work by allowing us to hear from the community early on, identify constraints early on, and get more accurate cost estimates.

So I have a slide for each of these projects with a map, and we'll go over these one by one.

So first we have Free Bridge Lane, which you can see here.

Free Bridge Lane is a low-volume, unstriped roadway that extends from Darden Tow Park to the north to US 250.

On the west side of the roadway, there's an existing shared-use path, but that path is poorly defined at parts.

On the east side of the roadway, in that big clump of trees, we have the site of a future county park.

We've recently contracted LPDA to develop a conceptual design for improved bike and ped infrastructure along Freebridge Lane, with motor vehicle traffic being either limited to southbound only or removed from the roadway entirely.

Our next step is to hold a kickoff meeting for the project.

This will include staff from community development, parks, and facilities and environmental services.

The next conceptual design project would plan pedestrian facilities along Solomon Road and Englewood Drive from Hydraulic Road to Georgetown Road.

We don't yet know if the pedestrian infrastructure will be a traditional sidewalk, an experimental design such as an edge lane road, or something else.

That will be determined by the conceptual design process.

We expect to hire an on-call consultant in the current quarter.

And our third conceptual design project will plan a shared use path likely along the east side of Route 20 from the City-County line near Quarry Road at the very top of the picture, as far south as Dairy Barn Road.

This would provide a vital connection to recreational amenities and PVCC, but it's a challenging connection to make.

We expect to hire an on-call consultant for this project early in the 2023 calendar year.

OK.

This slide is intended to just give a quick overview of the remaining transportation planning projects that we covered in the written report.

So old IV road improvements would include pedestrian improvements under the railroad bridge on the east end of the corridor, as well as improvements for vehicular operations at the intersection of 250 with Old Garth and Canterbury roads.

VDOT staff are working on a design for that.

Ivy Creek Natural Area entrance improvements are being planned in response to safety concerns at the entrance of the Ivy Creek Natural Area along Earliesville Road.

As a first response directional signage that warned of the upcoming entrance was placed for northbound vehicles but despite that crashes are still occurring so staff are evaluating potential solutions and determining next steps.

With regards to the secondary six-year plan, staff continued to receive inquiries from residents who would like their rural roads paved.

County staff also have been accompanying VDOT staff on site visits to evaluate roadways for suitability for paving.

Albemarle County transportation priorities.

So back in 2019, transportation planning staff created a scoring system to prioritize proposed transportation projects.

These are the numbers you see next to projects in the written quarterly report.

So since then, we've completed or received funding to complete many projects, and new projects have been identified.

So we're in the process of updating that prioritization system in collaboration with other departments, including the Office of Equity and Inclusion.

The multimodal transportation plan is part of the comp plan update.

We continue to work with other community development staff on those efforts, and we'll update you as more happens.

All right, so we've discussed our transportation planning projects.

Now let's discuss the section of the report titled Transportation Project Construction.

So broadly in this section, you're going to find projects where we've completed the preliminary planning.

We've largely identified the funding needed to complete the project and planning staff from community development have mostly handed off the project to our colleagues either at VDOT or our county colleagues in facilities and environmental services.

they will complete the project engineering and usher it through construction.

In the written report, we divided the section into projects being administered by VDOT and those being administered by the county.

And those two sections are then further divided into projects that are in design and projects that are under construction.

So in design means that construction level details are being added to existing plans.

Under construction means that work is actually happening on site.

So on this slide, I've just included an example of projects in each of those categories.

But in the written report, there are a total of 24 projects currently in design or under construction.

We've included a brief description for each, as well as important dates, such as when you can expect the project's public hearing, when construction is expected to begin, and when it's expected to end.

For the future, we're working towards presenting this information in a more visual way on a timeline so you'll be able to more easily see, for instance, which of these many projects are wrapping up this fall and which projects will start construction next spring and so on.

You can expect to see that in our next quarterly report.

Okay, transit planning.

Transportation planning staff continue to attend regional transit partnership meetings.

The partnership met in August and September.

They're wrapping up their work on the regional transit vision plan and in preparation for their next project, the regional transit governance study, their meetings have included presentations from the Central Virginia and Northern Virginia transportation authorities.

As discussed at the last quarterly report, some sudden staff changes at Charlottesville Area Transit resulted in delays in getting transit shelters installed at Stonefield and Northside Library.

However, it seems like we have forward momentum again.

CAT will have a timeline for transit shelter construction for us later this week.

Lastly, we're excited to begin the pilot microtransit service in the Northern 29 and Pantops service areas, and we're taking all the necessary steps to collaborate with CAT to launch that service as soon as possible.

However, because of supply chain issues and the ongoing bus driver shortage, our anticipated start date of January 2023 is likely delayed until summer of 2023.

We'll keep you guys updated as we know more.

This slide highlights the larger development projects that transportation staff have reviewed in the last quarter.

I want to note that the projects listed on this slide are not necessarily done with the development review process.

That process involves significant back and forth between the developer and staff.

By listing it on this slide, we simply mean to note that transportation staff time has been dedicated to this review in the previous quarter.

All right, so this slide highlights some of the reported transportation issues we addressed in the previous quarter.

As you can see, there have been a lot of speeding and safety concerns, as there often are.

As always, we address these concerns in collaboration with VDOT and Admiral County Police.

I'm happy to answer specific questions you may have on any of these reported issues.

All right, thank you very much.

We will go through our order.

Thank you for the guided tour because that really helped to clarify some things that I had before.

And I guess just to add to the list, and I'll write it down and email it to you, the list of issues that you're working on is very helpful and I just wanted to get an update at some point on

where we are with the Eastern Avenue restructuring, crosswalks, John O'Lane area.

Because we had a big site visit out there during COVID and I haven't thought about it until just now, so I need to find out.

All right, thank you.

Thank you very much, Ms.

Hersh-Ballering.

I really appreciate that, very interested in all of this.

I did want to ask regarding on slide number nine, you mentioned the, you don't have to go there, but you mentioned the old IV road, I said improvements there concerning the railroad.

and what would be the improvement there?

And the reason why I'm asking is we have the same, there's the same concern along profit where there's a similar railroad undercrossing and that allows one car at a time to go through.

So what would be the solution to that?

That's a great question, and I don't have a quick answer for you about what designs they're currently exploring.

I do know that the solution will be something that improves the situation for both motor vehicles and pedestrians, because there's a lot of UVA students who go that way to access their schools.

Okay, great.

Well, I look forward to seeing those.

Thank you very much for a really nice presentation.

Thank you.

Supervisor Galloway.

So unfortunately, the walk about Safe Routes to School grant was not submitted with this particular round.

But we've been working with staff at the school.

And they should have all the materials ready to go for the next round.

If you wouldn't mind, I've received some questions about that.

So the timeline would be nice.

Yeah, that'd be great if you could forward that on.

Disappointing to hear about the microtransit.

Is it more supply or is it more drivers?

Both of the issues are a significant impediment to starting the service early.

So the smaller vehicles that are being used still require drivers to have a CDL license or a commercial driver's license.

So the driver shortage is just as much of a problem.

But the vehicles have been ordered.

So say that again about the license.

Thank you.

Well, to my earlier point, not knowing that the project was going to be delayed, the lead up to it, so if it is going to be summer of 23, I hope the beginning of the rollout or the education to the public that it's coming happens a quarter ahead of time.

So my point was we're already there.

If we started advertising now, we'd be ready for the start of the year, but I don't know who that should be directed at.

I don't necessarily think it's

It might be you, but the success of that pilot study is going to mean we need people to use it.

We can't start telling them about it when it's ready.

We've got to start telling them about it before it's ready.

I know I'm probably saying things you already know, but it makes me feel better to say that out loud.

I didn't see it on the list in here.

I had mentioned it.

I don't know if I formally requested it.

I must not have.

But there's the intersection of Brentwood and Idlewood in the Woodbrook community.

Idlewood has stop signs.

Brentwood does not.

And I don't necessarily think it's a speed study, but it may be.

But the issue, obviously, is going through that intersection.

Some of the concerns were about is a four-way stop merited or needed.

And whatever needs to happen to determine that, I'd like to make that formal request.

And if there's a different process that I need to go through, then I need to be reminded of that.

I appreciate that the Carsbrook speeding concerns are on the list.

Knowing that that's around the Marlboro Court area in particular has been the recent place identified.

And then Hillsdale Drive continues to be, and this may be better suited for the VDOT report, but the Hillsdale Drive area where we've had studies that say we don't need traffic lights, but there are now

reported issues of folks using the center turn lane as a passing lane to get around people who are driving the 25 mile per hour speed limit.

This is getting closer to where the pedestrian island is just close by to the child care center, which is also a bus stop there.

And speeding, I mean, speeding is a concern in so many places in the county, but this particular roadway still persists as an issue.

And anything that can be looked at from the county side along that corridor, I'm asking for.

And then I'll make other comments during the VDOT quarterly report.

I think that's it.

All right, thank you.

Yes, thank you for this report and I really appreciate all the different projects that are going on.

I like seeing them all in one place and getting a handle for how busy it is.

I share concerns about the microtransit.

I know it was a one-year

So just to answer that question and some of Supervisor Galloway's questions and comments, the grant was awarded to Charlottesville Area Transit and I just want to clarify, so we are talking to them and working with them on this project, but they are like the owners of the grant funding.

Written into that grant is six months dedicated to

I was just concerned about the timing and whether being behind puts us in any jeopardy.

Yeah, so the grant allows for 12 months of service whenever those 12 months begin.

OK, thank you.

In looking at the projects, there's one that jumps out at me, and we may be under the next item to discuss it.

It's a VDOT project, and it is trying to understand a little better what's going on at 2964 and the use of Fontaine as a turnaround.

I'm going to pass that one off to Carrie.

All right.

Thank you.

I have no questions.

I really appreciate the report and it's just a reminder of how many things are being done here in the county.

Very, very pleased to see how much work is being done.

So thank you and Mr. Richardson, thank your staff.

Our community needs to appreciate how much is being done to improve all of our transportation in the area.

All right, board, that'll bring us up to number 13, the Virginia Department of Transportation quarterly report.

Ms.

Good afternoon, chair, members of the board.

I have a presentation, which I assume I can pull up here.

Okay, good afternoon again.

Carrie Sheppard here to present the quarterly report for the last quarter of the year.

So we'll start with our preliminary engineering projects as always.

I'd like to point out just a couple changes to this slide from last time.

First is due to the route 240-250 roundabout.

That schedule has been pushed a little bit.

Now, last milestone we can say is field inspection with our next milestone being right-of-way.

with an add date of next fall so this has been pushed out roughly a year and that's due to some funding issues and challenges that we're working through but if we go to fall next at next if we go to add next fall then it should go to construction in the following spring which will be 2024.

Other item that I'd like to just mention just to put on your radar the two 250 projects

that have an add date of June of 2025.

I'd like to mention that we are hoping to have a public hearing coming next spring.

And more information will be shared about that as it gets closer.

The appropriate public notices will come out as well.

And then a couple updates to our bridge projects.

Route 708 Red Hill, that one we are trying to get to add next year.

And then Catterton Road has been accelerated.

We're trying to get that one to add this coming November so that we can start on that next year as well.

and I believe the rest of those are unchanged from last time.

As far as our 29 projects hydraulic bundle package remains unchanged.

It's still moving forward but at this time we have not identified the design builder for the second design build project bundle or the existing one, I'm sorry, the one under construction.

That one is continuing to proceed.

We expect completion for the two that are outstanding which is the DDI at 124

and the 151-250 roundabout to be complete in February 2023.

As far as the DDI interchange at Exit 124, we are expecting a substantial traffic shift to occur late October or into November.

And again, that will also have public notice way in advance to let everybody know, but that is the current expectation for that project.

And the rest of the projects remain unchanged.

As far as our rural rustics, we have made a lot of progress this year.

We have finished Burnt Mill, Hammocks Gap, Harris Creek, and Red Hill.

Signs are installed and the traffic engineering reviews are complete for the first two.

For Harris Creek, Red Hill, those are also just barely unfinished and just signs need to be installed.

With Harris Creek, I believe we

We'll be posting at 25 and Red Hill partially at 35 and then partially at 25, which is due to a speed study that we did.

And the part that will be 25 is the part past the school, so that second portion.

And then Cove Garden Road, we have recently started scoping environmental clearances.

As far as construction activities, of course we always have our incidental concrete repairs that we're working on in various communities as those come in.

And then for bridge projects, we finished the concrete overlays and deck repairs on 64.

Eastbound and Westbound.

The Westbound just has a couple little punch list items that need to be completed.

If those aren't already done right now, then they'll be done within the next couple weeks.

Minor inconvenience there for night work.

614 Garth Road over Meacham's River, that project is also complete.

And then just recently, we closed 627 Carter's Mountain Road.

for two double lines of corrugated metal pipe replacement.

We expect that to be complete mid-November.

A detour is in place for that project.

As far as traffic engineering, I'm happy to report that the scenic byway signs have finally been installed.

So good news there.

Burnley Road speed study came back.

We will be posting the road at 35 miles per hour and installing curb advisory signs.

and then Mountain Wood Road, I think is a new one from last time.

It meets the requirements for pavement markings, for centerline pavement markings, so we will be installing those as well.

And then currently under review down in Scottsville, there was some concerns over sight distance at some of the intersections with the on-street parking.

So we have reviewed that and we'll be providing recommendations to the town to eliminate perhaps a couple spots if the town is

Agreeable to that to improve some sight distance issues.

And that is all of my formal report.

All right.

Thank you, Ms.

Shepherd.

We will go through our order.

Thank you very much.

Yes, we're planning to install the transverse rumble strips prior to that light.

At some future time one could report on if there's any work on the northbound to westbound tractor-trailers who are still stacking up five and ten deep in the

Left Hand Lane of 29 North because they're waiting to cross over to 64 West.

And I don't know if there are any other plans that are percolating in the department that could help to resolve that.

Thank you.

Yes.

Thank you very much.

Oh, there I am again.

Thank you very much, Ms.

Shepard.

It's great to be able to

speak to you again.

I have a question regarding 250 and 20 is that's not because that's also a concern of Supervisor Galloway's.

He loves that intersection and I was wondering that's not scheduled to be improved until year 25 now.

Is that correct?

You did, yes.

There's two projects in the area, the one at the intersection of 250 and 20, and then the access management project, which will be through the corridor through Pantops on 250 from roughly Hansen's Road all the way down to the intersection of 250 and 20.

That's correct.

OK.

OK.

I think they're working on that, but I guess you just, yeah.

So hopefully that, because there's a lot of red light running there.

Those are all my questions right now.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Ms.

Shepherd.

First, I just want to echo or repeat a comment I made at the MPO last week regarding the management of the diverging diamond interchange.

I just made the comment that I feel like that project has been very well managed.

It seems that I work on pan tops every day, that the construction

is going about as good as it can in terms of keeping things moving through there while it's happening.

So the efforts there are appreciated.

It seems like when things get held up it's due to somebody hitting somebody else and not because of the actual work that's being done.

I mean, I know there's delays and some inconveniences there, but it could be much worse.

So we appreciate all the effort being done to make that happen.

as palatable as it can be for those who are driving through there every day.

You may have been in the room.

I was talking about concerns on Hillsdale Drive still, where the recent study that we did still doesn't warrant the traffic signal at the intersection.

But we now have folks who are speeding and going through the center turn lanes to pass people who are doing 25 miles per hour.

We've got issues around the bus stops where some of the pedestrian walkways are there, so we've brought that up with county staff just asking for help there.

There's multiple things that we can do, but if there's anything VDOT can do in that corridor, the activity that seems to be happening, since it's a well-used road now, is concerning, especially for those who walk and drive that live in that immediate area.

So just asking for any

and all assistants in trying to solve some of those issues along that corridor.

I wanted to follow up from over the summer.

There was some gravel road maintenance along Bleak House Road.

Has that occurred?

If we want to know gravel road maintenance, is there a schedule?

Is there some way that we can know what

This was brought up after a particular rainstorm and there were some photos and I know there was a question about which road it was.

On me, I did not follow up to see if there was any resolution out there in terms of getting that road, some maintenance done on that road.

So I don't know if that's something you could follow up on and get back to me.

It may have occurred.

I just don't know where we stand with that.

and then this may be a better question for Mr. Richardson or someone else, but having you in front of us is the opportune time and I promise I'm not going to complain about weeds in the median, but it's connected.

I know that we've been working on an MOA where we were bringing a position on and we are doing things on our end to start taking care of some of those issues.

The one particular one though are still, and this is not weeds, but trees growing out of those storm drains.

I know we've had this conversation before.

That's led us to getting the MOA eventually in place and some of our efforts along working with VDOT to solve that.

But this particular one, if it's weeds or debris, I would imagine there's some maintenance that happens to storm drains.

Is that the case?

I just want to understand storm drains specifically.

because when I see trees growing out of them, not weeds, that's a different animal than weeds growing out of cracks.

You took care of one very quickly by near Rio Road that was hitting cars that had grown up so fast.

But I'm getting more concerned in the development area of the water being able for the storm drain system to work effectively.

And the trees, along with the weeds, then can prevent the water from happening.

So what is VDOT's role?

in maintaining storm drains?

But I mean, are they inspected?

And I'm just asking in terms of, do we need to report these?

Should I encourage citizens when they see a tree to go to your website and report it like they would have down signed?

There's enough of them just in my district that I don't think they're being inspected for it So I don't want to have that expectation if that's true But I would like to know what I don't think you want me to just be emailing you about trees and storm drains So is there a process or what's the best approach to handle this?

If it's as widespread as you're saying, I will definitely make contact with the area headquarters and ask them to specifically review that.

We don't have a yearly inspection of that, but we do ride our roads.

Or the expectation is that we ride our roads so we would be seeing those things and taking care of it.

If you would like to put in maintenance requests, you can certainly do that.

Yep, just along Rideau Road and up the Warner Parkway

and I'm paying attention to it because of the one you did take care of became a site issue and was hitting cars.

So now I'm spotting them and going well that's going to be that issue in another year.

So fair enough.

Then I'll encourage folks to attack it a couple different ways I think and appreciate that response.

Thank you.

For this report, I admire how much work is being done and appreciate the update.

My questions are probably a little bit premature, so I'll ask them, but feel free to say, well, that's in design.

There is this conversation I had previously about the 2964 interchange currently

OK, I can definitely share a concept with you that should probably help.

OK.

And then, of course, the other one we've already touched on in a meeting that the Keene Southern Convenience Center is going in.

There are some concerns about traffic there, but there was a discussion about possibly putting signalized lights to warn that people are coming in off of Plank or Coles Rolling Road.

Yes, that is under review right now.

It's part of a funding source called the Highway Safety Improvement Program.

And it is going in front of the CTB for prioritization.

And we're hoping it gets funded.

Thank you very much for helping us with that.

I really appreciate it.

All right, thank you.

Yes, and I'm sorry for not asking it earlier, but there's something that is really, I have a very, very big concern about and speaking, listening to Supervisor Mallek, she may have the same concern and maybe some others too.

And that's oversized trucks on our rural roads that are not permitted.

I would like to continue working with VDOT.

We have signs saying that trucks over 65 feet, and you can tell they're over 65 feet if they have a sleeper cap.

And those are on our rural roads where they're not allowed.

So it's a very big safety hazard.

And especially along 22 and on 20, we've had accidents, we've had fatalities, large trucks

you know, turning over because it's not meant for the larger trucks.

So my question is, what can we do about that?

And I specifically, I want to know whether or not VDOT at the huge state organization has any say or control with Google Maps.

The reason why I say that is we've had our police officers stop trucks over 65 feet and ask them

Have you seen the signs that say no trucks over 65 feet on this road are allowed?

They've all said yes, we've seen the signs, but Google Maps takes us along this route, not for trucks, but just for cars.

So that's what they follow.

That's what the young, seemingly, maybe, I can't say specifically the younger truckers, but there is a truck driver map they should follow, which they don't.

They just follow Google Maps.

And that's what's leading them down some of these roads where they're not allowed to be.

So that's my question is whether or not VDOT has any control or any say or could have say with Google to with an icon or something.

I believe we've tried to do that in the past and had limited success.

I think from what I understand, there's a way that you can report something that's wrong through Google Maps.

They have some sort of interactive concern button or something.

But I know from an agency standpoint, we have tried to do that.

OK.

So is it possible along 64, which is where they all come from,

along 64 to have because we do have a sign saying no trucks allowed over 65 feet.

Can we get additional signs sooner?

Because once you get off at a certain exit, that's it.

You're stuck.

We are actually reviewing that right now because that sign, you're right, is on the exit ramp, which is a little bit late, to be a little bit late.

It's going to be a matter of funding, though, because those signs are so large and have two large foundations.

OK.

I would appreciate knowing that very much.

And I thank you very much.

I commend you on all the work you guys have done because there's so many things that you guys do every day to make our roads safer.

All right.

Thank you.

And Ms.

Shepherd, thank you for your report.

I'm amazed that you can keep track of all of the roads, all of the timelines and really appreciate this, which is scheduled projects.

But I again want to express my appreciation for those unscheduled responses.

how quick you are.

I mean just this week I think I've had a couple of emails to you and literally within hours the hazards were removed.

You have a very, very responsive crew that you direct and please express our appreciation to them for all the work that they do.

I'm still marveling at the 900,000 cubic yards that were hauled off from the January 3rd storm.

So maybe this winter we won't have as much to deal with.

Chair, Mr. Richardson, to piggyback one of the comments from Board of Supervisor Galloway, Ned's business is down on the Charlottesville side of it, I-64 and 250, and he made really good comments about the work, the management work of DOT of the diverging diamond at I-64 and 250.

That's a very complicated project, and I come from the other side of that.

and it's amazing how hard those folks work on a very busy intersection coming from 250 from Keswick.

It's amazing how hard they work to keep that in as good of working order as possible, giving the heavy complexity of change that comes with that redesign and all of the dirt and all of the roadway work.

So I just wanted to echo

the thanks of the community because that's heavily traveled five days a week as a work corridor both from Richmond dumping off of I-64 and as well from folks that live in the eastern end of the county and so really good work to have your folks out there and they're very sensitive to this community.

Thank you, Mr. Richardson.

You're right.

That is probably our busiest interchange in the county because it is in the closest to Richmond.

So we've got all the people either coming and going twice a day.

So thank you.

Yes, thank you.

One take home question.

Is someone in VDOT also scouring these new federal funding things like the VIL and all these other, for kinds of safety improvement things such as those foundations for those warning signs that would take years if we were doing it locally, but I just wanted to leave that question with you.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

All right, Board, that brings us up to our next item, item number 14, an Economic Outlook Report.

And Mr. Sumner is going to kick it off, but before he does, I have a couple of comments.

Board, this report is the byproduct of many people working.

Mr. Sumner, Ms.

Birch, our CFO, obviously Dr. Bailey, who is here,

I do not often get the opportunity to also recognize another member of that team and that's Suzanne Holland, who you'll notice was acknowledged in the beginning of the report.

I work with Ms.

Holland.

She works on her other day job with the Secretary for the Commonwealth.

and she coordinates all of the different councils.

Among other things, she coordinates all the different councils.

I'm on the Virginia Council for Women.

In the last two years, I've had the distinct pleasure to work with her and I just want to welcome her here in her official capacity today to help share this report with Albemarle County.

Thanks so much, Chair Price.

Give me a minute and I'll get the presentation on the screen.

All right.

Good afternoon, members of the board.

My name is Jacob Sumner.

I'm the Assistant CFO for Policy and Partnerships.

Today, I'll be introducing our speaker for the Economic Outlook presentation.

First, I just want to take a moment to set the stage for how this fits into our overall financial and budget framework that we've discussed with the board over the past couple of months.

In September, CFO Nelsie Birch and Andy Bowman, Chief of Management and Budget, presented an update to our financial policies.

Effective financial policies provide a framework for the county's

a framework for sound financial decisions that insulates the county from financial crises, promote long-term financial stability, and strengthen the county's financial position and link long-range financial planning with current operations.

In that same meeting, the board took action to strengthen the county's financial position by increasing the budget stabilization reserve.

This will help provide greater flexibility as we face uncertain economic conditions.

As we discussed as part of the FY 2024 budget process, we'll have future work sessions later this fall to walk through the long-range financial planning.

Having an understanding of our current economic environment and the outlook ahead is critical in this planning effort.

And to that effect, we are here today to present the county's economic outlook report.

We've engaged Dr. Cheryl Bailey with Virginia Tech to complete this work, and she's here today to present the results.

The full report was attached to the board's packet

and is there for review.

But first, a little background about Dr. Bailey.

Dr. Bailey is a visiting professor of practice at Virginia Texas School of Public and International Affairs.

Dr. Bailey received her bachelor's degree in economics from Norfolk State University and her master's and doctorate degrees in economics from Harvard University.

She has nearly 30 years of experience in academia and administration finance at the local and state levels, including Virginia gubernatorial cabinet appointments and the director of the Virginia Resources Authority.

Her local government experience extends from the cities of Norfolk and Hampton to Deputy County Administrator at Chesterfield County.

We are very thankful for Dr. Bailey's leadership, including the support from her team, including Ms.

Holland, on this project.

Thank you, Mr. Sumner.

Good afternoon, Dr. Bailey, and welcome.

Thank you so much, Madam Chair and members of the board.

It is a distinct honor that we've had to work with the county on this report.

And I must say we want to give acknowledgment.

You've already acknowledged Suzanne, which I was going to do as part of my introduction as well.

She served as a graduate assistant.

on this project.

But also, she's a state employee in our second tour in the governor's office, second consecutive tour in the governor's office.

But also, she was a student of mine and recruited her because of what she demonstrated in the course to be a graduate assistant on this project.

I also want to acknowledge Nelsie Birch and Jacob Sumner and their entire team, the entire Department of Finance,

and Budget.

We've worked with that staff.

They provided a lot of data and insight.

So I really do also acknowledge the leadership and support and staff work there.

And also, a person who could not be here today because she had to go somewhere else on another state matter for another state research project.

She went a lot further south than we did, and that's Leisha LaRiviere, who is the program director and also the SPEA

We say SPEA, the School of Public and International Affairs, associate director in Richmond and program director for our financial management graduate certificate and that track we have in research.

With that, it's a distinct honor to be here with you and to participate in this process that you have that's been going on for a while.

I was first contacted nearly a year ago in November 21.

I'll just note

when we were growing at 5.7% nationally.

So the methodical review and planning is part very much of your culture.

And I can say that because we started those conversations a year ago about expanding your economic outlook approach and the analysis.

So thank you very much for that.

So I will proceed.

And oh, one other acknowledgment.

I have to acknowledge now, I just have to say, we already had a hug in the hallway earlier this morning.

But I have a number of colleagues here in addition to Nelsie.

and Jacob, which we are colleagues in the Virginia Government Finance Officers Association.

But also I have colleagues here in the Virginia Local Government Managers Association, which is Doug Walker, Steve Rosenberg, and also Jeff Richardson.

As a result of our relationship, I recruited Jeff and his team to make a presentation on the effort you have in your culture and your culture and teamwork

and Team Development.

And they made a presentation in our Virginia Local Government Managers Association last summer.

So we have a lot of working relationships in the room.

And some others that I may, if I've overlooked anyone, please, please charge it to my head and not my heart.

So we're going to go over a few things, but I'm going to give you the bottom line up front about the U.S.

and the Albemarle counties' economic outlooks.

Then we'll talk about the global context to the U.S.

economy.

It's having a significant impact on our economy and all world economies now.

We'll walk through some US economic trends and outlook.

Then we're going to do a deeper dive and focus on Albemarle County, economic trends and outlook.

And along the way, we'll have some Virginia comparisons.

And then I'll have some closing remarks and recommendations.

So bottom line up front, bottom line up front, we have a cooling US economy.

with headwinds and a lot of uncertainty ahead.

So we're looking for this evolving situation.

The forecasts are being revised constantly, very, very rapidly, often.

And so that's related to the headwinds and the uncertainty ahead.

Albemarle County's solid economic base does provide scope

does provide scope to plan and to act defensively.

And I must say that solid economic base provides more scope than those communities that have some very chronic long-term economic issues.

So that does give you some lift there.

Well, we're not going to be immune.

None of us is immune.

So I don't know of an economic bunker, so let me talk to you about, let me connect with you about that and we might be able to bottle and sell that.

So we don't have an economic bunker.

We can be totally immune.

but certainly the solid economic base which we will talk about in Albemarle County does position the county to be able to plan and act defensively more so than some other communities.

So the global context for the U.S.

economy, we have been experiencing that a lot for two and a half years straight.

We experience it basically every day but we've been very poignantly aware the last two and a half years just as a context.

Also, we have a protocol in all of our graphs.

Blue is the US, red is Virginia, and green is Albemarle County.

So here, the blue charts, the blue bars are the US.

The orange bars are world GDP growth.

And so the world GDP growth led the US for the last 20 years.

You'll see that in every year in terms of growing years, the orange bar is higher than the blue bar.

and also in the years of downturn, the orange bar is smaller than the blue bar.

So it's actually led the US.

Now the US is the number one economy in the world.

It is the largest.

And we play a very dominant role.

But we're also very dependent on this growth in terms of for our products that we want as consumers, goods and services, and also for our businesses want to sell internationally as well.

So some of the things that are going on globally, and this is just a thumbnail sketch.

So this global interconnectedness is really important for us to be aware of, particularly now with so much dynamism and changing circumstances globally, because it affects us daily.

So we go to the grocery store.

You ask, is that fish from the US, or where is it from?

That's global.

That's a global product.

We look at our fruit.

I love to buy berries year-round.

It used to be you could only get them in berry season.

Now, they're not as good in December, but I'm still buying my organic strawberries.

I'm allergic to the other.

And I love the strawberries, so I eat so many, so I have to get the organic.

And so I don't break out.

And so I can buy those year-round.

They're not all

grown in the US.

And so that's just one simple example in terms of those products that are being shipped globally all the time that we see in the store.

Of course, you go to Kohl's, you go to Target, you go to Walmart, you go wherever, Dollar Tree, everything.

It's all, it's a global product.

So products are being shipped, manufactured and shipped globally all the time.

And those are the products that we actually use.

And our businesses are part of that and they're selling globally.

So it's a dynamic flow, a dynamic flow.

And the pandemic brought to us very much focus.

It was a global pandemic.

And it affected the US economy and all world economies, all world economies.

So the consumer demand shifted between goods and services.

So when we were first, and also the consumers made the shift before it showed up in any statistics or before any government action.

How do we know now?

Economics has a whole new frequent data, high frequency data that has been built up.

The capacity has been built up since the pandemic.

And now, I just was participating in a webinar with the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

that they're looking to incorporate that into the federal statistics.

So I don't have my smartphone.

But in our briefcases, we have our smartphones and we have our credit cards.

That's how they're watching us.

And so we can tell if they, and they say it's anonymized, so we know the mobility data, whether consumers are staying home, buying at home, or how far they are away from their residence of record for that phone.

So that's the mobility data.

Also, they're looking at our credit card purchases.

Did we buy them at home?

Did we make the purchases at home or away from home?

There's a whole large databases now for this high frequency data and the high frequency data shows that consumers made the decision based on the case count hospitalizations before any government action or lockdown.

What's the takeaway from that?

Get close to the economic activity.

Cultivate relationships with those close to the economic activity because it happens much faster than it shows up in our data.

So another one of my key secrets, I'll give it away right away.

So if you want to know when things are going to turn in the community,

Well, Peter, who is your assessor, I launched on him right away when we introduced this morning and I started pulling information from him.

So anyone close to the activity and also your business leaders, your consumers, just know and also stay in touch with the refuse collectors.

They really know.

I would really want to know what they see Thanksgiving and Christmas because they will call it before the economists will.

They really will.

And so you want to get close to the economic activity because it shows up much sooner than in the statistics.

And so what you see is that consumers were changing their minds.

They were moving toward different kinds of goods away from services in person, was no longer preferred.

And it still isn't.

We still are doing curbside pickup for so many things.

And I have neighbors who never go to the grocery store.

Everything is delivered.

Oh, I like to pick my stuff, but still, I use it on occasion.

And so we have changed our preferences there.

But at first, in the early part of the pandemic, we were buying paper towels, Lysol, cases of toilet paper, those kind of things that we could get to it.

More food, so we're buying more in-home food.

So the grocery stores were feeling really challenged to make that supply because we went from restaurant

food to in-home food.

Then as we were there the dishwashers broke down and the and so forth and so on and the washing machines so then a lot of upgrading appliances, renovations, furniture, exercise equipment.

So we shifted significantly to goods away from services.

That was ahead of when the producers and retailers could respond.

So the manufacturers couldn't respond.

That put pressure on inflation.

Service providers also had pressure to switch to automation.

You know

online ordering and pick up.

I barely go to Panera anymore and just stand in line.

Well, finally, my son and my daughter-in-law said, why are you still doing that?

So they got me set up in the app.

And so I now know how to order, and it's all ready for me when I get there.

And so all that automation, all of the service providers had to make that shift to keep us as customers.

That just caused a lot of supply and demand imbalances.

that led to inflationary pressure and also labor market pressures.

Along with that, we had the supply disruptions, supply disruptions everywhere.

If you go to look to order some things now, it's a long lead time, long, long lead time.

They're easing, but it's still quite significant.

So those supply lines got disrupted.

Also, a lot of manufacturing got disrupted.

China has a zero COVID policy, so they've had a lot of shutdowns of manufacturing plants, although now I understand they are making the workers stay and live at the plant whenever they have lockdowns.

That's caused some consternation amongst some of the workers, but we just have a lot of disruptions there.

So that was the pandemic.

We were still working through those effects of the pandemic.

End of last year, beginning of this year, but then the

Russian-Ukrainian war.

Russia invaded Ukraine.

And that threw a big curve globally.

The energy and food and raw material supplies got significantly disrupted, and we had significant price shocks.

So we had global supply and price shocks.

Prior to that, there was a thinking that the supply and demand imbalances will work the way out as we worked our way through the effects of the pandemic.

But that threw it a completely another way.

In fact, the OECD, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, just did an interim update last week of their economic outlook, and they titled it the price of war.

So it's really having impact globally on all economies.

So inflation worsened everywhere.

It's a global phenomenon.

And then what is happening, more so than in the past, that the central banks

All the central banks, not just the Federal Reserve, but the central banks, the Bank of England, the European Bank, the European Commission Bank, all banks, Brazil, Netherlands, Indonesia, all over, they are raising their interest rates, pursuing tight monetary policy to try

to heal that global inflation, the broad-based global inflation, because the runaway global inflation will threaten our overall global growth.

And we could teeter-totter into that we could dust up against a potential global recession.

That's not projected at this time, but this broad-based

Global inflation is now being fought amongst all the central banks.

And so with that, cooling, consumer, and business demand is expected globally.

And then we have the continued geopolitical risk with the war.

There is a flat out energy crisis in Europe right now, where Russia used to provide about 40% of its gas before the war.

It was down to 9% about three weeks, a month ago.

But we all heard that the pipelines were disrupted.

There was some deliberate disruption there about a week or 10 days ago.

And so that is an issue.

Europe has built up stocks.

But their stocks are only about a quarter of their need for the winter.

So how are they going to get through the winter?

It's really tough there.

There are some manufacturing plants that are furloughing, cutting shifts, because they can't afford the energy bills.

So how the governments of Europe are going to address that will make a difference in terms of the demand.

They're trying to curb demand, but if demand stays high and they subsidize the households and businesses, then that's going to maintain the international pressure on the price.

So it's going to be a cold winter, and we wish them really, really well as they

Deal with that, again, supply, demand, imbalance.

Everyone asks me, my students, everyone asks me, well, can't they import more?

Yes, they need the infrastructure.

They don't have the infrastructure of the pipeline.

We can send them from U.S.

U.S.

is number one provider of producer of liquid natural gas, but they need a pipeline to take to receive it.

from the ocean where their pipeline was going the other way, was going across the Black Sea.

So it takes time for them to build the infrastructure and for those trade balances and flows to resettle.

And so we do have these shifting trade flows.

And that's impacting where we get goods, whether things are stuck in ports, whether they're coming here or not.

And we've gone from offshoring to friend shoring because businesses want to know that they will receive delivery.

They need to have certain delivery.

And so that's another issue.

All this is going on.

And this is the context within which we have the US economy.

Next, we'll take a look at a few key things, areas for the US, which sets the context for the county and the state.

So we had, everyone knows that our, most people know, that GDP, our real gross domestic product, declined two consecutive quarters, first and second quarter in 2022.

You'll see that on the chart on the far right.

So they're negative, minus 1.6 and minus 0.6.

But we're not in a recession yet.