Board of Supervisors Regular Second Meeting   10/19/2022

Good afternoon.

Thank you for your patience while we had to work through some technical difficulties.

I'll call to order the October 19 regular meeting of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors scheduled for 1 o'clock p.m.

It is now approximately 1.08 p.m.

I would like to mention that in addition to the supervisors who are here present, which is Supervisor Ned Gallaway of the Rio District, Supervisor Ann Mallek of the White Hall District, Supervisor Bea LaPisto-Kirtley of the Rivanna District,

Supervisor Jim Andrews of the Samuel Miller District and myself, Supervisor Price of the Scottsville Magisterial District.

Supervisor McKeel of the Jack Jouett District will not be able to join us today.

Also present at the dais are our County Executive, Mr. Jeff Richardson, our County Attorney, Mr. Steve Rosenberg,

our Clerk for the Board, Ms.

Claudette Borgerson and our Senior Deputy Clerk, Mr. Travis Morris.

If you would now stand as you are able and join in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right board, at this time we'll move to item number four on the agenda, the adoption of the final agenda.

I need to make motion, mention that attachment B for agenda item number 12, the Albemarle County 44 draft framework for an equitable and resilient community was updated on the online agenda on Thursday, October 13th.

This does not amend the agenda.

It's just mentioned for transparency that people are aware that there was that document change.

At this time, the floor is open for a motion to adopt the final agenda.

So moved.

Second.

All right, thank you.

I have a motion from Supervisor Mallek and a second from Supervisor Andrews.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Mr. Galloway?

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

At this time we'll move to item number five and we will go through our order.

Oh, okay, just one second.

I am having crisis here.

Maybe this is it.

No, that's not it.

This is the trouble with doing all this homework to have things on a list, then you can't find the list.

All right, here we go.

All right, thank you very much.

Yesterday, I was fortunate enough to listen online to a discussion at the university about the 50th anniversary of the Clean Water Act, telling about the history, the burning of the river in Cleveland, which I was there shortly after it happened.

It was pretty horrendous.

And the fact that it was adopted over the veto of President Nixon, even though he gets all this credit for supporting it, he really tried to kill it.

The Congress at the time thought it was so important to have cleaner water that they passed it anyway.

So I will circulate the link to the recording in case anyone would like to listen to it.

It was a really spectacular discussion.

Also, I think it's at the end of this month, I've been searching for the date, is the deadline for new applicants for people seeking a property tax waiver for the elderly and disabled.

people in the program do their resubmission in April but if you're a new applicant that needs to happen during October and all the information is available at the county finance office.

November 14th, 15th is a deadline for the forestry fund and I was really thrilled to hear that county staff is working hard on this new program that was authorized by the legislature this past session to

offset some of the reductions in revenue for localities who have forestry land use in process, which we clearly do for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of acres.

So I look forward to learning more about that.

On November 12th and 13th,

is the 28th annual Artisan Studio Tour.

Hopefully you got one of these in your mail, but if not, we'll make sure to get you one.

And this is 28 studios in Albemarle, Charlottesville, Greene County, Madison County, and Nelson County.

And the artisans are there to greet you.

They will have food and drink and pieces to purchase.

It is an absolutely wonderful way to see the country and also meet some really spectacular and talented people.

All right, thank you.

Thank you and it's great to be back in person.

I just have one brief announcement and that's that the Stony Point Volunteer Fire Department on October 30th is having treats in trunks.

So people will be bringing their cars and opening up their trunks and they'll be full of treats for the children.

and that'll be from six to eight on October 30th.

Thank you.

Supervisor Galloway.

Thank you, Chair Price.

Members of the board, a few meetings ago talked about or voiced my disappointment and frustration with our governor politicizing trans children and it seems that continues.

And the problem with politicizing something like that is that when a division, a school division, does their job and puts a policy in place to protect those children,

because it's now been politicized when people speak of that policy or show their support for that policy, now they are being criticized for being political.

And that's out of line.

So I felt it, since I brought up this topic a few meetings ago, to at least state what I believe is the way to think about this and what my opinion on the matter is.

But in Superintendent Haas's email to parents, reminding them after the governor's acts,

about the division's policy protecting transgender and gender-expandive students.

It says right there in his summary, it's a policy protecting those kids.

If local government employees or school division employees want to wear a shirt that says protect trans kids, that to me sounds like a summary of a policy.

And that's a policy statement and not a political statement.

And I for one hope that all of the good school board attorneys that are employed in this state can stand up and say that.

would be no different than any other policy being pulled out of our books, summarized, and put on a shirt.

So I for one think that the political statements are when somebody like me criticizes the governor for his actions and things that he does for his own political purposes.

But it is not political when our teachers, our employees, and members in our community stand up to protect these children.

and basically put on a shirt what our policy is.

Thank you, Chair Price.

Yes.

First off, I concur and thank you for that comment, Supervisor Galloway.

Very well stated.

My only announcement was that community day at Simpson Park, which had to be rescheduled, is on for this Saturday, five o'clock in Esmont and followed by the showing of Encanto.

Thank you.

Well first, thank you Supervisor Galloway.

No minority group is successful in our country without support of allies and your words mean a great deal to me personally as well as to our community.

I have several announcements.

First is Friday and Saturday in Scottsville.

They're having their night tours and on Sunday there's a play at Victory Hall, The Voices of Scottsville Past.

You can get tickets online through the Scottsville Museum.

I've signed up for both the tour and the play and I hope to see you there.

Last night I had the great good fortune to be able to attend the Rivanna Conservation Alliance commemoration of 50 years of the Clean Water Act.

As Supervisor Mallek mentioned, passed over a presidential veto at a time when

Our government was able to find common ground on things that are very significant to all of us and it was really quite an honor to be there and to see the organization recognize those individuals who have gone out and literally physically in the streams check to make sure that our water quality is being protected.

On October 30th, between 1 and 3, a historic marker will be unveiled at Riverview Farm at the Ivy Creek Natural Area.

So I hope that you will put that on your calendar.

It's an incredible location out there, very historic, particularly for the African American community, but this is not necessarily black history.

It is American history, although it does focus on black families and their successes during a time of great discrimination against them.

Last week I had the opportunity to go to Yancey Mill and see it in operation.

They have the capacity to turn out up to 250,000 linear feet of lumber a day.

This is a critical part of our forestal industry here in the area.

There are very few pine lumber mills, lumber yards still in the commonwealth.

And I'm also pleased to report after checking with our community development that they are in full compliance.

with the conditions that were imposed last year when their application was approved.

And finally, Board, last weekend was my monthly trip with the Sorensen Institute's Political Leaders Program, this time to

The Tidewater area, two points I'd like to highlight.

One was a visit to the Newport News shipyard.

As a retired naval officer, it was great to be back in those environs.

And for our public, it's important to understand the role of national defense at this shipyard.

We only have one shipyard in the country that builds aircraft carriers.

It takes 10 years from design to delivery.

We only have two shipyards that build submarines.

and there are only about six shipyards left in the country.

By contrast, in World War II, Liberty ships, you've probably heard of those, they were fairly simple supply ships.

There were 18 shipyards solely building the Liberty ships, not to mention all the other shipyards.

And at the height of construction, between 1942 and 1945, 2,710 of those ships were built.

They were averaging three ships every two days, versus today for an aircraft carrier, which is much, much more complex, ten years.

There were 14,500 ships sunk in World War II, 350 were American warships.

We do not have 350 ships in our Navy today.

Unlike World War II, where the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor,

Fortunately, if you want to look at it that way, we did not lose our aircraft carriers.

We lost most of our battleships and other ships, but our aircraft carriers survived.

At the Battle of Midway, we sank four Japanese carriers, a loss from which they were never able to recover, and that turned the tide of the war in the Pacific.

So when it comes to national defense, it is so imperative that the weapons that our industry develops

delivers and are operated by our military personnel are critical to our national defense.

And if you look what's happening in Ukraine right now, the Russian industry is not sufficient to stand up to Western weapons and training and that is a national defense and issue that we all need to pay attention to.

The other aspect that we did was we went to Fort Monroe and talk about a little bit of a juxtaposition of, you know, industry and warfare.

And at Fort Monroe, I was reminded that morality and legality are often strange bedfellows.

Fort Monroe, as you know, in August of 1619,

was the place where the first African slaves were brought to Virginia and what later became the United States.

The first African slaves were actually brought by the Spanish in 1526 down to South Carolina and in 1527 to Florida, but in 1619 to Virginia.

There were two British ships operating under Dutch letters of marque, which is sort of legalized piracy back at that day, and slavery was legal.

Again, my comment with regard to morality and legality.

But a Spanish ship had taken about 300 slaves from Angola, Africa.

They were captured by two of these British privateers, the White Lion and the Treasurer.

And only about 50 of those 300 enslaved people survived the Middle Passage.

About 20 to 30 were brought to Virginia, and it is inescapable, the ill that comes from slavery.

And I just want to remind people of that as we fight today for equality and justice and, Supervisor Galloway, this ties back to your comments right now.

with the LGBTQ and particularly the transgender community being targeted, we must always remain vigilant to protect our constitutional rights.

And with that, I thank you for listening.

We'll move on to item number six on our agenda, which is proclamations and recognitions.

So we'll move to item number seven, which is 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.

I'll turn to our clerk first.

All right.

Thank you.

And are they all in person?

All right, thank you.

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 your comments directly to the board as a whole.

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

If you're representing a group or organization, you may ask others present to raise their hands 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.

Members of the audience, we do have 10 people signed up, so what I'm going to do is call the first three and ask that the first one come to the podium, the second and third take seats up near the front just to expedite the transition from one speaker to the next, and we'll continue that as we go through.

Our first speaker is Helen Cawthon.

So Helen, if you'll come up to the podium, please.

Followed by Doug Earl and Christine Putnam.

Good afternoon.

What do I do?

OK, great.

I have it on my screen, but you all can't see it yet.

Oh, an expert.

Thank you.

Look at you.

Perfect.

Hi, I'm Helen Cawthon, President of the Central Virginia Partnership for Economic Development, and I wanted to come here today to share with you a new initiative that we have.

First of all, to remind you who we are.

We're a public-private partnership.

You all are great supporters.

Roger Johnson serves as a board member, and we greatly appreciate

your all's involvement and support.

Last year, we had a pretty good year because of an Amazon data center that shows Culpeper.

So that $500 million certainly makes our results better.

We focus on three main areas which are listed on the slide.

What I wanted to talk to you about today is a new initiative to attract, retain, and align talent.

And first of all, I want to introduce Mary Kay Campbell, our new talent director who I brought with me today.

Thanks for coming, Mary Kay.

We have a new website, LivingCentralVA.org.

On the home page is on the left.

It shows you that we have sections on Live, Work, and Play.

You'll see that there's also an Albemarle County page under the Live section.

And we're excited about that.

That is really customizable.

So we worked with your economic development team to put those slides together, to put the links together.

It can easily be changed.

So if you all see something that you'd like to have add, or something you don't like on it, we can easily change it.

We also are excited because the same website has in the section on work are six target sectors.

So information technology, for example, you can actually click on any of those company logos and go right to that company's website and if they have it, their careers page.

So you can get right to their job openings.

You'll see, it's hard to see on this slide, but there's a blue find the job kind of long oval.

You can click on that.

It just goes to jobs in our target industries in Central Virginia.

So we're really excited about that as well.

We also have some fun videos.

So the top one is Willow Tree, and the bottom one is Castle Hill Gaming.

We don't have time for you to hear those today, but I encourage you to go to the site.

They're really, really well done.

And they talk about their company, but also living, working, and playing in Central Virginia.

So they're a lot of fun.

We also, our new initiative that has now been funded by Go Virginia is actually to help retain UVA talent.

So what we have done is with Mary Kay's leadership, we've hired three UVA students who are figuring out how best to talk to students about the tech job openings in our region

at our employers in target sectors so that we can actually help retain those kids.

You all know that your employers are struggling to find talent.

We think they don't have to stay here forever, but start your careers here to stay here a year or two.

We'd love to see that.

I also want to quickly point out that we're part of a talent collaborative with BCW Virginia CareerWorks Piedmont region and the Talent Supply Connector and their work to do internships for community college and

High School Juniors and Seniors, and also the Region 9 Internship Collaborative, which is UVA and Virginia CareerWorks Piedmont Region, to do internships for UVA students, high school students, and community college students.

And with that, thank you all so much for your time.

And I don't know how to get out of this.

I hope you can help me with that, too.

Thank you, Chris.

Our next speaker is Doug Earl.

I'm Doug Earl.

I reside in the Scottsville District.

And for the record, I want to tell you that I support ranked choice voting.

But when it comes to considering ranked choice voting by yourselves, the full Board of County, I believe that you all have a dilemma.

The dilemma is that even though the Virginia law allows you to adopt this voting initiative,

There's no way for you to determine how much it would cost.

Let me explain.

No doubt you're aware that cities and counties are required to fund the application of upgrades to their voting machines in order to do this initiative.

And that's as it should be.

But what you're probably not aware of is that before a vendor or any vendor will give you a cost to do that,

that vendor's software has to be certified by the State Board of Elections prior to him giving you the estimate.

In order for the software to be certified, Virginia law requires the cities and the counties to reimburse the State Department of Elections for the software certification.

and to make the dilemma, further compound the dilemma, the State Board of Elections will not tell you what that certification will cost you.

So, you not only have to pay the state to do their job of certifying the software,

You have to do that before you can do your job of figuring out what it would cost to upgrade your machines.

And oh, by the way, you'll now have a vendor that the state has essentially given a full monopoly to that you now have to contract with.

In summary, in order to adopt ranked choice voting, you must be prepared upfront

to write a blank check for unknown costs and on a financial playing field that's tilted against the taxpayers of Albemarle County.

I believe, however, the way for you to resolve this dilemma is to request that the Virginia General Assembly step up and fund the State Department of Elections to do what is their job to certify software for rank choice voting, and once done, these vendors

can compete for your business at state and local on a fair and uniform basis.

I urge you to add this to your legislative request agenda and do so on behalf of the many citizens of Albemarle County who I believe want to give right choice voting a voting chance.

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Christine Putnam and I live in the Scottsville district.

So first of all, I want to thank you for your thoughtful leadership and to thank the staff for their tireless efforts.

As a citizen, I've appreciated the opportunity to share my ideas through the Engage Albemarle AC44 projects and for the chance to talk to you today.

So last week, the World Wildlife Fund

and the Zoological Society of London published the Living Planet Index.

This is a measure of the state of the world's biological diversity.

Thousands of populations of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish across the globe are being measured and monitored.

The report details the shocking overall population decline of 69% in the last 50 years alone.

Habitat loss and climate change are the main stated reasons for this decline.

Biodiversity is a key indicator of ecological or ecosystem health.

Albemarle County has adopted a Biodiversity Action Plan, or BAP for short.

but nowhere in the 2428 strategic plan goals or the AC44 draft framework is there a reference to the BAP or to the role biodiversity protection plays in providing healthy ecosystems that human beings depend on for our very existence.

The destruction of the natural world is like a dripping faucet.

Often, we do not notice the damage until it's too late, and that is how we lose our native forests and grasslands, one patch at a time.

The BAP provides a roadmap for the protection of our natural resources and the ecosystem services that we depend on.

For the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, flood protection, mitigation of climate change, and perhaps most importantly, our well-being.

The way one feels listening to a chorus of birds on a spring morning or enjoying the comforting shade of trees on a hot summer day.

So I implore you to recognize the importance of biodiversity in the framework planning documents in front of you today and to push forward with implementation of the goals and recommendations in the Biodiversity Action Plan.

Thank you.

Our next three speakers will be Neil Williamson, Rob McGinnis, and Tom Olivier.

Good afternoon.

Neil Williamson with the Free Enterprise Forum.

Can a comprehensive plan based on conflicting big idea tactics stand?

If a document seeks to have something for everyone, might it say nothing?

Later this afternoon, you'll be discussing your framework for an equitable and resilient community.

One of the big ideas is to be welcoming an equitable community.

Under the how do we get there section, there are five specific tactics listed.

It seems two and three are opposed to one another.

Number two, ensuring that new housing, especially in field development, is appropriately scaled to surrounding neighborhoods.

Number three, locating higher density developments strategically, where access and services are already located or planned, including redevelopment over new greenfield development.

Luckily, I know this is not a new concern, as it was mentioned in at least two of the AC44 focus groups that the Free Enterprise Forum participated.

I question that Albemarle County really wishes to have new infill development appropriately scaled to mirror existing neighborhoods.

If so, the overly restrictive development areas will be exhausted long before the end of this 2044 planning horizon and development area expansion will become inevitable.

All of my conversations about the AC44 comprehensive plan have focused on placing increasing density within the existing development area rather than expansion.

Considering Albemarle County currently has less than 5% of its land mass dedicated to development and a large number of small area plans have been completed, it's hard to imagine a place within the development area where access and services are not currently located or planned.

It is not difficult to find locations where such amenities are not funded.

The Fray Enterprise Forum has been told for two decades that comprehensive plans are aspirational documents.

If Albemarle aspires to be a locality that offers a variety of housing types that are affordable and equitably distributed with access to transportation and community facilities, strategy one, there needs to be a community vision for becoming.

Yes, this will mean high density adjacent to lower density.

It will mean apartment dwellers and condo owners living in proximity to single family homes.

It will also mean an increase in the diversity of the citizenry that will enhance, not detract, from Albemarle's fabric of community.

Failing to do so will be failing to provide a clear vision forward and reminds me of the great bard Yogi Berra, who once said, when you come to a fork in the road, take it.

Thank you.

Rob McGinnis.

Good afternoon.

My name is Rob McGinnis, and I'm here representing the Piedmont Environmental Council.

My comments pertain to the framework for an equitable and resilient community.

I have also transmitted written comments to you as well.

Albemarle County is a great place to live because of its tradition of thoughtful planning and its commitment to smart growth policies that focus on well-connected, livable communities alongside protection of its natural resources and rulers.

PEC is proud to have been part of this ongoing effort to help shape the character of the county.

PEC can support much of the draft framework.

However, we believe that the framework does not sufficiently address the urgency of climate action.

Though growth management policies must be informed by an understanding of climate change impacts, PEC is recommending that the framework fully integrate climate action and equity throughout the entire document.

The framework should be prefaced with an overview of how Albemarle County will likely be impacted by climate change.

The framework needs to emphasize and clearly communicate the multiple values of the rural areas including the various ways the protected rural areas address climate change impacts.

We should also take a moment and acknowledge that the 2015 and previous growth management policies have worked.

These policies aimed at directing growth into the existing development areas are the primary reason we have largely intact rural areas with a high percentage of countryside supporting forest cover and open spaces that protect water quality, wildlife, and support working forests and farms.

All of these benefits are not only critical to addressing climate change, but they also support our local economy and our community's character.

While continuing protection of the rural areas needs to be a clear pillar of the framework, the county also needs to emphasize critical investment in the designated development areas, including revitalization of aging neighborhoods.

This is also part of good climate work, and it recognizes the needs

need to support compact, walkable, and bikeable communities with access to work, school, services, as well as access to nature.

The comprehensive plan is the guiding document for the county.

The county has a tradition and reputation for solid planning.

We hope the county will take the time to ensure that the framework honors the work of the past while recognizing that change, particularly due to the challenges of climate impacts, will require us to be even more proactive.

Thank you.

Tom Olivier.

Good afternoon.

I'm Tom Olivier and I live in the Samuel Miller district.

I've come to speak about the importance of carrying forward the county's past commitments to environmental protection as we proceed through this age of ecological crises.

Among the crises climate change stands out, scientists tell us that containment of climate change and adaptation to it will require broad transformations of modern societies and we must act soon.

Not long ago, thanks to the efforts of the PEC and others, you received an extensive climate vulnerability and risk analysis.

The report makes clear that climate change will inflict potentially disruptive new stresses on our community.

If we're wise, we will acknowledge and plan to adapt to these stresses.

In the past three decades, the county has passed a water resources protection ordinance, helped develop the regional sustainability accords, committed to protecting its biodiversity, created conservation easement programs, supported research into our optimal sustainable population size, committed to becoming carbon neutral, and developed a climate change mitigation plan and some other environmental initiatives.

With our tradition of facing and addressing environmental challenges, you'd think our now being updated comprehensive plan would begin with acknowledging the breadth and urgency of threats from climate change and the need to adapt to projected risks and vulnerabilities in planned chapters.

You'd be wrong.

So far in the comp plan documents, climate change has received only passing comments, passing consideration.

Maddeningly, we seem headed for a comprehensive plan that mainly seeks to refine past policies, one that hardly rises to address some of the most significant challenges humanity and our community will face in the next 20 years.

As supervisors, you have the power to fix this.

Today, at comp plan work session,

Please insist that the new plan broadly and deeply addresses projected climate risks and vulnerabilities.

I wish you success in this afternoon's succession.

I plan to attend virtually.

And before I go, I fully support Christine Putnam's comments and I also want to support the PEC statement.

Our next speakers, Joel Mangum, Marjorie Vanderslice, and Michelle Mangum.

Good afternoon and thank you.

I'm Joel Mangum and I'm in the Rivanna District.

I've come to

to really give you our opinion on a particular agenda item and that is the homestay special exemption that you're being asked to vote upon and that's for the vertical acres homestay exemption.

Our understanding is that one of the key things about a homestay, about the special exemption is that the homestay does not affect neighbors.

and we are a neighbor and we do feel like it would affect us negatively and so we would ask that the Board of Supervisors deny this homestay exemption.

The reason it affects us is we're more than just neighbors, we also share the same driveway and the homestay would cause more traffic and more tourists on the driveway and we don't feel like we have a

We're being compensated for the additional load on the driveway that we have an obligation to maintain and to share.

The other complication is that the area is an agricultural area and in the past we know that the owner has actually themselves but also with others has permitted people to come up to our farm

pet animals and do things without asking our permission.

And we feel like with more tourists in the area, at least in this particular situation, that simply increases our liability.

So in summary, it does have an effect on us.

It increases our liability and increases the burden on the shared property that we have with the driveway.

Thank you very much.

Marjorie Vanderslice.

Good afternoon.

Please pull the microphone down.

I'm also against this proposed homestead house by Dr. Jason Lobo of North Carolina and his wife.

The house is on Hammocks Gap Road.

And I feel this way because my daughter and her husband live on a quiet road with one house that is used as an Airbnb.

It's a large house and it abuts her property.

Because it's so large, it tends to attract families in big groups.

They have family reunions, pre-wedding parties, and sorority and frat reunions, and it's ideal for this type of venue.

They can party hardy, they can have their revelries and not have to worry about the neighbors because they likely won't be back again.

For the residents, it's another story.

In my daughter's case, it means increased traffic by people usually ignoring the speed limit.

Thus, they disregard the kids on bikes and kids riding horses.

They raise road dust.

There's noise at all hours.

There's litter.

There's parking issues.

It means occasional police calls because several sisters were dancing on a two-story roof drinking shots of tequila.

Hemmocks Gap Road is only partially paved.

Most of it is Narrow Lane dirt road.

It's gravel also and at times cars can't pass each other in opposite directions.

It's so narrow one car has to back up.

The road is hilly, it's curving, it's unlit at night.

It's dangerous to those who don't know it, especially at night if they're going fast.

And God help them if they've been drinking.

But we love it and we don't want to see the added traffic for commercial purposes.

This area is also a gap.

It's a valley between two hills where noise carries exceedingly well.

So it affects many, not just the immediate neighbors.

When my neighbors next door are having a marriage fight outside, every hound on the street gets set off.

The Lobos house is really two houses and it may well attract large groups like this.

But this house also has extremely limited parking and the overflow will probably be the narrow road.

We have a lovely, quiet, rural venue.

Help us keep it that way.

Let us encourage visitors to use one of the many local hotels who need their business.

Thank you.

Michelle Mangum.

Hi, I'm Michelle Mangum.

I live on Hammock Scapp Road for the past 36 years.

We've been an Eastern neighbor to the Lobo family, doctor and doctor and doctor and attorney, Lobo, the four of them.

And I'm a farmer.

Education and by business and I feel like since I'm home, since I've left veterinary work, I'm home for the past 19 years.

I'm pretty witness to things that go on next door and we have to pass the house within a hundred feet every day, a couple times a day if we have to go into town.

My sons still live at home and we have, my husband has

From day one, we have graveled, planed,

done every repair to our driveway for 36 years.

Every penny of nail, fence, board, wire, everything for 36 years has been done from our pocket.

We have not received one penny from any of the four Lobos and we feel like this is only going to bring more activity onto the property that we drive, that we need and use

and I don't see from their past experience getting a penny reimbursement.

When we've asked, when we had to repair for $5,000 the driveways bridge that they'll have to go over and we pull their tenants out of with our tractor because they go into the ravine or they go into the hole in those big culverts.

We've always been able to straddle the holes fine but his tenants can't.

You know, he said to me, well, we didn't need that to repair.

So he yelled at me for repairing it.

But he didn't realize that his tenants that were paying him every month to live there were picked up by us and my husband's tractor.

So I just ask that you really consider farmers, we have 130 acres next to him, and

the sheep that I have pictures of of his parties coming and petting and feeding with our guard dogs within five inches of the children's faces and see how I am going to manage being a shepherd for the next 20 years.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

Hi, I'm Mike Pruitt.

I live in the Scottsville district.

I'm a veteran and also a law student specializing in civil rights and housing law issues.

I'm here today to talk about the strategic draft plan, the comp plan,

and that's a big picture thing, but I do want to take a moment to put a more topical and current lens on it.

You know, last week we had a pretty spicy session over at the school board talking about how to best address the shortage and really the crisis of school bus drivers.

And while most of that is going to be a school board issue, I think there's a really big part of this that relates to the comp plan and that relates to the board's work here.

And that's when you look at our school bus drivers, they live in Fluvanna,

They live in Louisa.

They live in Nelson.

Because this is fundamentally a community that they can't afford to live in.

Now, you know, I've joined in on a lot of the working sessions that went into the draft framework that you're looking at today.

And I really want to thank the county and the staff for the work on that.

So I know that this draft does deal and really touch on issues of affordability.

It doesn't really confront the gravity and really the sense of crisis that I think our working families and our especially poor individuals living in this county do feel on a day-to-day basis.

It doesn't really confront the profound sense of disinvestment some of our communities feel, especially when we look at the south side of our community and further into the rural area.

Instead, it's optimistic and if I was being maybe a little less generous, it's satisfied.

or even congratulatory.

When we look at housing specifically, which is what I want to talk about, the principle like actionable, concrete, tangible recommendation is to implement the housing Albemarle plan.

But when we look at the housing Albemarle plan,

at least what I see when I look at that is mostly a department that's working very hard using the tools it already has that has already been given and the new resources it is asking for are mostly things that they're pretty confident are going to pass.

This doesn't confront this and this plan doesn't confront this like a crisis.

It does not carry that sense of gravity and urgency that I think some members of our community really feel.

When we talk about a crisis of affordability, what I think we need is something transformative, major investment.

And I would really hope that the board would be leading on that.

If we want a community that's really accessible, a community that is actually welcoming to working families, to firefighters, to school bus drivers and teachers who have to live outside of our community, that needs to be something transformative.

And I just worry that that's not the direction

The documents I've seen are going toward.

All right, board, that moves us to item number eight, the consent agenda.

I'm not aware of anything being pulled.

So moved.

I have a motion by Supervisor Malek and a second by Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Mr. Galloway?

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

All right.

At this time, we'll move to item number nine, an action item, SC 2022-00044, Vertical Acres Homestay.

And Ms.

Good afternoon, members of the board.

Let me just pull up my presentation real quick.

And if we could get the... There we go.

So thank you all and good afternoon.

This special exception is SE-20-22-44 vertical acres at 903 Hammocks Gap Road.

As I am recovering from a cold today, I am at the podium instead of on the dais, which I think is better for everybody.

This request is for a special exception for a resident manager.

We're in the owner of the property, Leonard Jason Lobo,

lives in North Carolina.

His father Peter Lobo resides on the property and in this case Peter Lobo the father of the property owner and the current resident of the property would continue to reside on the property and serve as resident manager for which the special exception is being requested.

So as a rural area property of more than five acres in size by right this property is permitted to have a homestay with up to five guest rooms and

Those guest rooms can be in a single-family dwelling or in an accessory structure built before 2019 By right the property is also permitted up to seven days of unhosted stays a month up to 45 days per year And if this property were owned by Mr. Peter Lobo the resident of the property This would be a completely by right use with no special exception required but because it is owned by his son

It is required to have a special exception for his father to serve as the resident manager of the homestay So per the homestay regulations The board considers whether there would be adverse impact to the surrounding neighborhood public safety welfare Proposed special exception would be consistent with the comprehensive plan and small area plans and

and consistent in size and scale with the surrounding neighborhood.

So we'll come back to these factors in a little bit as we address some of the comments that we have heard.

As you can see here, a vertical area view of the property.

The structure has multiple houses in it that were combined as one is an accessory apartment within the structure itself.

There are four guest rooms in the house total, and it has been added on to multiple times.

The home itself predates the zoning ordinance.

We're not sure on the actual date it was built, but it's definitely before 2019.

There are also multiple farm buildings in the property and the use of the farm and the fields are rented to a local farmer.

So this isn't a binding part of the application because that is handed at the homestay clearance stage, but since the home does contain two kitchens and four total bedrooms,

the applicants are considering renting part of the home on a regular basis the second kitchen part while they remain in the other half of the house and then as permitted the entire house on the limited basis which is the seven days a year forty five days sorry seven days a month forty five days a year giving some context the applicant is in the blue outlined parcel the yellow line on this map highlights Hammocks Gap Road

which is Route 612 of VDOT-maintained gravel road.

This stretch of road is a one-lane gravel road and drove down it Monday.

It's very beautiful there.

Trees are all changing colors.

And so as the board is aware, after the packet for this item was completed, we did receive comments from neighbors expressing concern

Here we see where the comments were received from.

The applicant's parcel is in yellow and the concerns were from the owners and the other highlighted parcels.

So here you can see the distances between the proposed homestay location and the neighbors who have expressed concerns.

The closest distance is 900 feet away.

The furthest one is 2100 feet.

and one of the concerns that we received was from the owners of Parcel 6342 do share a driveway with the applicant.

Their concerns also focused on guests entering the property and a quote, general disregard for government rules and regulations.

This shared stretch of driveway is unpaved.

It's shown on this map as red.

It's approximately 200 feet in length.

The blue driveway is exclusive to the applicant's residence.

That is paved.

And the remaining driveway leading to the neighbor's parcel is shown in green.

That is a dirt road that is unpaved.

The neighbors asserted that the driveway is not intended to be suitable for commercial use, but the scale of the homestay use as regulated by the number of bedrooms permitted to be rented is not intended to reach a level of use that eclipses normal residential traffic.

So here you can see where the driveway does split.

We took a photo of that as well this week.

The applicant's residence is to the left, and the access to the neighbor's parcel is on the right.

There are two signs pointing to the two properties.

Our ordinance does permit address signs up to four feet in size.

and here is the view from 903 Hammocks Gap Road looking down into the neighbor's access road.

One of the additional complaints against the applicant was that livestock was permitted stream access.

Unfortunately, that is beyond the purview of community development, but we do see a fence separating the stream area, which is shown in the bottom right hand of this photo with trees.

So not sure what's going on there.

We do know this parcel is not under a conservation easement.

And finally, we have a picture here of the entrance to Hammocks Gap Road, where the gravel surfacing of the road begins.

The remaining concerns expressed by neighbors via email centered around this road being a one-lane gravel road.

And as noted earlier, a homestay's intensity of use is not intended to be a commercial hotel scale.

Do the limitations of the number of bedrooms

the requirement that home stays be in existing structures or single-family dwellings, which is limited by development rights, then guest trips are not intended to create a significant amount of traffic over the daily trips of a family residing on the property who may have friends and family come to stay, who may drive themselves in and out of the property to go to the store multiple times a day.

Commercial uses in the county that do cause concerns about traffic are reviewed by VDOT, but VDOT has declined to review homestay uses brought to them in the past as they consider homestay uses a residential accessory use.

So the ordinance specifies that the considerations of whether a resident manager resides in the property instead of an owner residing on the property may cause adverse impacts to surrounding neighborhood, public health, safety, or welfare consistent with the comprehensive plan and consistent in size and scale with the surrounding neighborhood.

So as everything proposed in this application is by right except for the occupancy of this property by a resident manager instead of the owner,

The use of a resident manager does not appear to cause adverse impacts.

The use is consistent with the comprehensive plan, as it is a buy-write use that is not changing.

And the use is consistent in size and scale with the neighborhood, as is proposed within an existing dwelling.

And that...

Accordingly, staff recommendation remains recommendation of the board's packet shown here.

All right.

Thank you, Ms.

Brumfield.

We will go through our order.

Thank you very much.

Could you go back to a comment I

No.

Here, let me go back to, there we go.

So this kind of shows you where the outline is.

The applicant's property is the top where it says 903.

and the neighbor's property is at the bottom where it says 901.

The stream is the blue line below the driveway.

from your diagram.

Yes, exactly.

So that was my understanding, and that was correct.

So I don't understand about the comment about somebody not having a fence out when it's on their property.

Secondly, what was the comment about the conservation easement that you made?

Oh, just that that's one of the factors that we look at is this under a conservation easement.

OK.

That's not something that's in the ordinance.

would think that that is generally covered by our requirement that either the responsible agent who is a named person defined in the ordinance as being able to respond to any problems, or the resident manager who may also be the responsible agent, they are required to be able to answer any issues, which is why we require them to provide their phone numbers to all the neighboring parcels.

So we don't require that, but this is the kind of thing that we are trying to avoid by requiring the responsible agent be able to respond to any issues.

having it very clear about what the obligations are for people who are staying in this house.

I mean, I think there have been other home stays where people have trespassed off, and it's been something we've discussed in this board meeting in the past.

So I just want to make sure that people understand this is not free for all, have at it, because the risks to visitors messing with livestock

are very large.

I mean, anybody who got between one of my cows, who were normally very docile, and her calf would likely be flattened.

And anybody who goes near a guard dog who is a working animal, not a pet, and allows their child or anybody to go close to them is putting themselves at risk.

And this is part of the problem when the county doesn't have

thorough expectations written down.

When you have a lot of people who are totally unfamiliar with life in the rural area coming to enjoy this.

I have had visitors, you know, people who just appear in the field and, well, I'm sorry, but this is not a safe place for you.

You need to not do this.

But that puts a burden on neighbors to always be worried about somebody coming over the fence or getting themselves

in trouble and then it becomes a big fistfight about who's liable.

So that's another burden that I worry about putting on people.

So I guess I'm concerned since there have already been occasions reported of people leaving the property and going on to neighbors.

Is that it?

Yes, thank you.

Thank you.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Was that a question?

I didn't realize that that was a question.

Mr. Herrick would like to answer this.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Supervisors.

Ms.

Mallek, to address your question, there is a provision in the county code that deals with the expectations of the responsible agent.

And if you'd like, I can read that to you.

It's the home stay parcel owners must designate a responsible agent to promptly address complaints regarding the home stay use.

The responsible agent must be available within 30 miles of the home stay at all times during the home stay use.

The responsible agent must respond in an attempt in good faith to resolve any complaints within 60 minutes of being contacted.

The responsible agent may initially respond to a complaint by requesting homestay guests to take such action as required to resolve the complaint.

And the responsible agent may also be required to visit the homestay if necessary to resolve any complaints.

This is the responsible agent.

So the resident manager can act as the responsible agent to respond.

I see.

These are the requirements that the agent is required to follow and to address.

I see.

And just to be clear, that's Mr. Andy Herrick, deputy county attorney.

I threw you off when I greeted you at the podium.

Thank you, Mr. Herrick.

All right.

Yes.

Thank you very much.

So my understanding, Mr. Herrick, is that if the responsible agent does not respond to a complaint,

by the neighbors, then that goes to the county.

Then that can go to the county and their license or permission to operate a home stay can be revoked.

So what this would ultimately be, it would be a question for the zoning administrator.

The administrator would enforce a potential zoning violation.

So if they're repeated

We have all the big guns here today.

Bart Svoboda, Zoning Administrator for the county.

So after a certain number of instances, so we have the registry and we have the three strikes, depending on what we have going on, another willful non-compliance, this is in violations in general, there's a possibility to revoke approvals.

So the answer, the short answer is yes, we would be able to, at a certain point through

And I'm asking whether or not is it based on the number of times reported or also the seriousness.

So for example, well, they crossed into my property by one foot, okay, big deal, but

Someone was injured because they came into my property.

They came in close proximity to my animals and someone was injured.

Yeah, there's going to be other county regulation or ordinances that cover those things, such as trespass and some other things.

So for us, it would mainly be those three strikes with the registry where we would not be able to issue them.

and the renewal that they come for annually.

I don't want to say you can't do it because of the severity, but that would be unusual for it to reach that level.

But there may be other nuisance regulations or different things that might come into play.

So bottom line is if you are given this permission, it's not in perpetuity if you're a bad actor.

For any bad actor that we have in the county, for zoning purposes, there's remedies that may include up to an injunction which has to be granted by the court.

So as I say yes, we have to

Thank you.

It has to be fair.

Okay.

Okay.

I have another couple of questions.

If I could see the, um, thank you, Mr. Cebota.

Yeah.

Thank you, Mr. Cebota.

The slide where it has the three colors, the red, the blue, and I guess the yellow.

Yeah, there it is.

Green, sorry.

So my understanding is the red, which is approximately 200 feet, because I drove this yesterday.

I was up there yesterday.

That's common property.

That is to be maintained by

Okay, so going to the right, the green driveway, which goes off to the neighbors, it cuts through the Lobos property, plus it goes to the Mangans property, so

is that's a common driveway or from, yeah, how does that work?

That would depend on what the details of the shared driveway maintenance agreement say.

So that's really what the two property owners have written down.

So whatever that has already been worked out has been worked out.

Okay.

I guess my question is, and if you go back to where it veers off, okay, there's, and I was there and I didn't even, those signs aren't very large.

Is there a way to better indicate or can we even ask that the local property be

better indicated for a home stay, the one on the right, the Mangum Manor.

That would be a property law thing, I'm not sure.

I do know that they could post no trespassing signs

on the edge of their property.

And there's no limitations on no trespassing signs within the sign ordinance.

That's an informational sign that we allow.

The signs here where the driveway splits off, that would be considered an address sign.

And those can be up to four feet in size.

So I think they could be probably bigger.

No, they're not.

They're very small.

Yeah, they're actually very, very small.

Okay, that's what I was wondering is whether or not the man-arms could put up to protect their property since the first half of their property belongs to the Lobos.

that goes all along the driveway, the long driveway up to the Lobos house and their main view is to the left of that so away from the Mangum property and I cannot, I know some people said well they don't want them going on bicycles or walking on Hammocks Gap Road I have to tell you it's it's probably half a mile from there up to the Lobos house I can't see anyone really walking along or

riding bikes along Hammocks Gap Road.

It's all gravel.

I don't have that photo.

It's far away from a lot of other.

Pardon?

Yes.

Yeah.

It's not in the best condition.

We're looking at, I'm actually talking to VDOT about tar and chipping, but I don't think that's happening anytime soon.

But anyway, that may or may never happen.

Okay.

Those are all my questions.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Brumfield.

No, they have no recorded activity for any previous rentals and any of the service that we have.

Yeah, because it's a long-term rental.

trying to focus on questions.

And then I think your point about the, it's difficult because when we get down to the letter of the ordinances here, the only change being asked for is allowing the responsible, or allowing the resident manager to occur.

So I think I heard you right, so like traffic impacts,

Other items, if they did this without a resident manager, it's all by right.

It's already allowed in the ordinance.

So when you did the analysis, it was focused on the change, allowing the resident manager.

That's accurate.

Thank you.

I'm troubled here and I want to make sure I understand.

I realize that the issue is that the resident manager is not the owner, but there have been concerns raised about people interacting with animals on other properties, perhaps not maintaining a driveway.

Those could be interpreted as based on the fact that the owner

is not there.

So I'm not sure whether it's not impossible to think that the owner's presence is relevant here for addressing issues that have been raised by the neighbors.

Sure, I think one thing, I'm not sure who owned the property at the time those incidents happened.

This property has changed hands within the Lobo family, and Mr. Peter Lobo did own it at one point.

So I can't really address that.

A quick question.

I think I know the answer is that the picture shows the split in the driveway.

No, no, no.

I mean the actual photo of the shared portion.

This is pointing towards the split.

I don't have one that shows that, but the condition of the road that's immediately before the split is indicative of the rest of the condition of the road.

So where the split is, there's some gravel that's missing, there's some dirt showing.

All right, thank you.

Mr. Brumfield, I just want to make sure I understand the chronology here.

Okay.

And the property changed hands.

I don't have a full description.

So going back on the county tax records for the property real estate, the first mention that I saw of the Lobos owning the property was in the year 2000, and there was

Could you go to the image that shows the highlighted different properties and different colors?

So the yellow, 63-41, that is the applicant's property.

Yes.

Yes.

All right, so we heard from them.

And it's the other three, 6327, 6341A2, and 6341A.

Did we hear from those property owners?

One from... Were those supportive?

No, they were against.

Okay, where does Hammocks Gap Road connect to the closest one?

Let me measure that.

About 20.

Okay, so Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley said it connects Hammocks Gap Road connects to Route 20 and it's about a mile, mile and a half in.

That sounds right.

Yes, it's paved.

Alright, thank you.

And then

So Leonard Lobo, the owner, he's in North Carolina, and he wants his father, Peter Lobo, to serve as the resident manager.

Got it.

Thank you.

I have no further questions.

I will have comments.

Any other questions by any supervisor?

No?

Just a second, please.

OK.

Is the Board interested in learning about the shared driveway agreement from someone in the audience or not?

Well, it's a very narrow section of that roadway, which would be, yeah, it's only about 200 feet, so I mean, I don't think we really would need that, and not every gravel road has a mutual maintenance agreement, but I think we understand it's only a couple of hundred feet for that.

Don't want to get into that.

I am interested in hearing as well, having access to gravel driveways that are shared.

I understand the nature of, especially when there is no agreement, understanding who's maintaining what.

I understand that.

One of the issues though, this is not a public hearing.

It is an action item and it would be a variance from our procedure to open up to witnesses at this point.

on the matter.

In the absence of a majority of the board, I would be inclined to proceed with the information as we normally would for an action item.

Thank you, Ms.

Brumfield.

We'll go around for comments by members of the board.

I think my comment is that

for these to be successful.

The whole basis of our ordinance was resident homeowners or someone who lived next door who wanted to have a little extra income to support their mortgage, et cetera, whatever.

And we have, I think, become much more rapid about just approving all of these resident

Managers without concern about whether there's really going to be proper care, and I am concerned about the impacts on the neighborhood.

It may not be part of our ordinance specifically, although it was always implicit in the discussions in years past that these were going to be

accepted only in places where they didn't have a negative impact on neighbors.

Alright, thank you.

I also, I'm concerned about the impact, but I'm not seeing, I guess the incidents that were told to us were from before.

We don't have any indication to say that this wouldn't be a well-respected homestay.

It's the owner and his father and his wife are living in the house.

It's like two houses there, so they're living in one house.

and then they're asking to have the home stay for the other house.

And as long as things you know the neighbors aren't disturbed which and nobody wanders into anyone's properties which we do have a solution for that.

You call up the resident manager and you say you know this is happening but we have no indication to

show that it's going to be otherwise.

That's the case for any home stay.

We are getting into the larger properties.

How many acres is this property?

It's over 90.

Over 90 acres.

I mean, there is quite a distance from where their house is to where the next door neighbor's house is.

The one neighbor, you can't even see the house.

The other neighbor, you look down the hill and you can see the house.

I mean, it's quite a distance, frankly, away.

Now, do we want people going on to other people's property?

Absolutely not.

But then there's, we don't want that, whether they're in a, it's a home stay in an urban area.

You don't want them going next door.

The thing is to be respectful.

Those are my comments.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair Price.

A couple of comments.

The resident manager concept

When we did the ordinance, this was what, in a lot of ways, what it was designed to do, having a family-owned property where a different member of the family, while not an owner, could be on the property.

That was part of the discussion we had in allowing this as a special exception.

And it comes to us, and we have to review and decide if we agree or not.

So that, this is in the spirit of what was in the design of the special exception from the get-go.

I remember making comments when we were working through the ordinance that when we have issues such as noise, traffic, in this case trespass or property lines, that you can't, I was concerned

because in the discussions we were having, folks were trying to dictate or build into ordinance people's behavior, which you can't do.

We have things already in place that restrict, and we have the why you can't trespass, if noise is being violated, there's an ordinance in place, and there are avenues to take if that's occurring.

So if that's occurring prior to the Airbnb,

then it of course would not be allowed if the Airbnb is there.

The whole point of the responsible agent was to hold the business or the Airbnb or the homestay into compliance with our existing ordinances.

So to rehash behavior within the homestay ordinance didn't make sense, at least to me, which is why it shouldn't be in there.

But if we have, in this case, a property owner

who would like to have a viable and successful Airbnb or homestay, the fact now that they will have to abide by the requirements of the responsible agent in some ways, if there's been past behavior, could correct some of that negative behavior that's occurred in the past.

Otherwise, they'll lose their ability to operate a viable homestay.

And that's on them.

If things have not been sent to the county for ordinance violations in the past, then obviously if those concerns are existent now and continue to be existent, there are pathways that need to be followed to address those, whether there is a homestay there or not.

I'm just reviewing my notes here.

And in terms of the, I mean, if there is a written agreement for shared use in a maintenance agreement or something in writing, then if that's not being adhered to, I'm guessing there has to be an avenue to bring that into compliance.

So I can't, I don't see that,

as relevant to this application for the Airbnb or the homestay, that's something that whether this homestay application comes forward or not, if it's an agreement not being obeyed and followed, there has to be a pathway to make that happen.

So that has to occur if it's not occurring.

And I don't know if that's a conversation with both property owners or if somebody is

thinking that that agreement is not being maintained, then they need to be informed as to what to do to bring that into compliance.

In regard to this, I wanted to make sure I clarified with Ms.

Brennfeld earlier that we're talking about something here that's by right all the way up to and because of the resident manager allowance.

I'll go back to my opening statement, which is when we built this in as a special exception, when we built our homestay ordinance, there was a lot of conversation about family ownership and allowing other family members to reside there, even if they're not an owner, which was what we created that opening for.

There were some that agreed and some didn't agree, so the special exception was somewhat of a compromise.

All right, thank you.

I understand the concerns, I believe.

I would just emphasize again that we've not in any way considered in the ordinance the presence of a shared driveway.

and the presence of the shared driveway when you're talking about potential adverse impacts on a neighbor rises to a greater level of concern than just somebody happens to live that distance away because they have to interact through the shared driveway.

Unfortunately, we have, to my knowledge, no idea whether there is a

an agreement with respect to the driveway or not.

My own experience in this sort of situation is that basically the law is that whoever can't stand it any longer pays for it.

Which means that if the neighbors' activities substantially were damaging a driveway that they didn't care.

the one who cares ends up bearing all the burden.

That's why this driveway troubles me so much because I know this is an additional burden on the drive.

This isn't a, you know, it's just a homestay.

It is not a hotel, but it is one of the larger ones.

That's it.

I understand that what's before us is really the question of whether or not

The father could serve as a resident manager.

And I haven't heard anything that suggests that he's incapable of doing that.

So that's where I'm at.

Thank you.

I have a few comments.

This could be where I live.

I live out in the woods a mile down a gravel road.

Used to be called a private access easement.

We do have a mutual agreement on the road, but Supervisor Andrews, you're exactly right.

It's when I can't stand it anymore that I end up fixing the road because the mutual agreement requires that everyone agree to pay for it, and if people don't care enough, then it's left to those who do.

I walk that mile to the mailbox and back, so I think people would be walking, not just down the driveway but also down Hammock Scapp Road.

Because of the nature of the road, the expectation is that it would not be heavily traveled.

Bicycles are a little more difficult on those gravel roads, but walking is pretty common.

It's a beautiful area out there.

Living in the country with valleys on the side, I hear noise quite a bit through the woods.

And I've got woods.

And I look at this and I see cleared land where noise travels even further.

So I can hear the loud music or the dogs barking.

And I believe that people move to the country because they want to have quiet enjoyment of that type of life out there.

The applicant's family has owned the property for about 20-22 years apparently and all of the surrounding property owners have sent objections to this being approved as a homestay and there have been indications by the statements before us that

There have been these instances of either you can call it trespassing or on the property near working dogs.

I believe that past behavior is an indication of what we could expect as future conduct.

I also think that there is a reasonable distinction between previous long-term tenants versus short-term homestay residents.

A longer-term resident would have a greater interest in the quiet enjoyment as opposed to someone who may but is not likely to return.

So when I look at a history of issues with the property, the surrounding neighbors,

and recognizing that there are pathways to enforcement but what appears to be a history of some concern with the property, recognizing that the only decision we're making is whether or not to grant authority for a resident manager.

I have concerns with the history of what has taken place there and I will not be supporting this application.

Any other comments by any supervisors?

I just want to add, and that is the county authority cannot get involved in these civil disagreements, but a decision allowing this today would basically

create that situation where we are saying to people, solve it yourselves.

We're creating this for you, but solve it yourselves.

The courts, the way they are, are four and five years behind seeing really serious things right now.

I think that that's a real risk that a decision positively here today would create for neighbors.

Yes, there's a written pathway, but it isn't perhaps an effective one.

And we are limited by our authority, so it's not something we have a choice about.

Thank you.

I just want to, I asked a question and I wanted to know the answer and I've just been informed.

that if we were to say no, which is a way of saying, work this out with your neighbors a little bit better before doing this, there is a one year wait for reapplication.

Thank you for that clarification, Supervisor Andrews.

Any other?

Madam Chair, if I may, in the course of listening to some of the questions and the discussion,

Let me make a few observations and provide some clarifications to the board.

My understanding for Mr. Herrick is that the property's actually been in this particular family since 1978.

There's been a lot of discussion about the shared driveway and that's

really wholly outside of the scope of the review before you.

It's not a matter concerning the county.

It's entirely a civil matter between the property owners who have rights to use that driveway.

And I would suggest to you that it's not an appropriate consideration in connection with the matter before you.

Supervisor Andrews has mentioned the fact that if the board chooses to deny the application that the applicant could apply again after the passage of one year.

And if it is the desire or will of the board to act to disapprove the application, we would ask that you defer the matter until later in the meeting to give us an opportunity to prepare a resolution

All right, thank you.

Then first off, I just want to clarify my commentary with regard to

private access easement shared driveway was simply trying to explain some of the circumstances, not to use as a basis for my decision on the process.

But Mr. Rosenberg, would it be appropriate, should the board have a motion to defer a decision to later, or can we simply do that at this point?

I don't know what the outcome will be, but I don't want to put us into a time crunch on that.

and perhaps it would be better simply to defer a decision to later in the meeting.

All right.

Any comments?

No.

OK.

Any other discussion?

All right.

All right.

There's a motion.

Is there a second?

I will second the motion.

Any further discussion?

Seeing none, if the clerk will call the roll on the motion to defer.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Mr. Galloway?

Yes.

Ms.

LaPisto-Kirtley?

All right, so thank you.

We will defer action on this until later this evening.

Ms.

Brumfield, thank you.

Mr. Herrick, Mr. Svoboda, thank you.

All right, board, we'll move to our next item, number 10, legislative priorities and legislative positions and policy statements.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'm pleased to have David Blunt with the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission here with us this afternoon.

to assist and field some of your questions.

And I'm very mindful of where we are in the schedule.

You're due for a recess in 15 minutes.

So I'm going to move deliberately here.

Let me start by reminding you of where you've been previously

concerning your legislative package for the 2023 session.

On June 15th, with Cynthia Hudson, who was serving as the interim county attorney, you reviewed the 2022 initiatives and you began discussion of possible priorities for the upcoming session in 2023.

On September 7th,

I think at that point I had joined you and you continued your discussion of priorities as well as legislative positions and policy statements.

Today we're going to invite you to set your priorities and your positions and policy statements for 2023.

I will note there is one more meeting on November 2nd if you're not ready to take action

this afternoon and that one more meeting would occur before your meeting on Friday, November 4th with the local members of the General Assembly delegation which has been scheduled.

So it would be close because we would like to get these materials to the legislators in advance of

your meeting on November 4th, but if you feel that this is not ready for your adoption this afternoon, there is one more meeting that remains before the meeting with the members of the delegation.

So there are seven priorities that are proposed

for inclusion in your priorities for 2023.

And the first three are familiar to you, so I'm not really going to spend a lot of time on those.

The first one, and the reason they're familiar to you because they are carried forward from the 2022 session, and they were either

not adopted at all by the General Assembly or they were adopted partially in one case which requires a reenactment.

So the first of those is the local authority to establish civil penalties in lieu of criminal penalties for violations of local ordinances and I'll review what occurred

during last year's session after I go through these first three generally.

And so this would allow the county to establish a uniform schedule of civil penalties to deal with certain infractions that are currently subject to criminal penalties, allowing the county to decriminalize numerous activities that are regulated by local ordinances.

The second priority carried forward from last year

is the expansion of the authority to use photo speed monitoring devices.

That authority is currently very limited.

This would broaden the authority and permit its use where the county adopts a local ordinance on secondary roads with speed limits of 35 miles per hour or higher, where data supports the need for additional enforcement.

and then the third familiar priority is one that would allow the county to require agricultural buildings used by the public to be subject to minimum safety standards and this was adopted by the General Assembly last year but it has a reenactment clause and if it's reenacted it would provide the county with the authority to require

AG buildings open for public use to have safety features such as automatic fire alarm systems, emergency lights at exits, panic hardware on exit doors, and portable fire extinguishers where those safety measures are not presently required.

And these facilities, of course, are hosting events with large numbers of attendees.

So those are the three that are carried forward from last year.

Here you have a summary of what occurred.

The civil penalty legislation and the photo speed legislation both failed in committee.

The ag building legislation was enacted and approved by the governor.

As I've mentioned, it does require reenactment.

although there was a portion of the legislation that established an advisory committee to provide input on these issues to the General Assembly and that advisory committee has convened and has met at least once since the legislation was approved by the governor.

So the new priorities that we've been discussing with you

There are four of them.

The first concerns taxing authority to provide a revenue source for school capital projects.

There are currently nine counties in one city in the Commonwealth which enjoy this authority to levy an additional 1% retail sales tax, which is used exclusively to fund school division capital projects.

This would require a local referendum in order to exercise the authority if it's granted by the General Assembly.

And the authority if granted would continue for a period of 20 years after you begin the process for the referendum.

And this would provide further fiscal capacity and flexibility to the county with this additional source of revenue to fund school capital projects.

The next priority in the realm of economic development would change eligibility requirements for the Virginia Business Ready Sites program.

This is a program that funds grants for both site characterization and site development of industrial sites in the Commonwealth and

The threshold, and let me just be clear, again, there are two different grant programs.

One is site characterization, the other is site development.

We're focused here on site development grants, the site development grant program.

The site characterization grant program provides funding to do site characterization work for properties that are 25 acres or larger.

and so we have an inventory of sites that qualify for that program and we're making use of that program.

Where we are hampered is in the area of site development grants where the current minimum requirement to qualify for funds is a 100-acre contiguous developable parcel.

The county in its zoning ordinance has adopted certain measures, for example, concerning steep slopes, scenic streams, other issues related to the development of real property that have created a situation where there are not that many properties in the county that satisfy that 100-acre

contiguous developable standard.

And so what's before you is a proposal to reduce that requirement from 100 acres to 50 acres.

There are two go Virginia regions in which the 50 acre requirement is the requirement.

So there's precedent for the lower threshold elsewhere in the state.

and the Economic Development Office has identified sites that would otherwise fulfill the requirements but for their acreage.

And I'll finally add on this item that there is one site in the county that does satisfy the requirement and it's in North Fork and the EDO is currently working with the UVA Foundation

in seeking funds for that site under this Virginia Business Ready Sites program for a site development grant.

The next priority would allow local public bodies to hold all virtual public meetings.

We had discussion about this priority the last time.

This was before you.

We started with a discussion about making it possible for the community advisory committees to convene more frequently in an all-virtual capacity.

And you may remember that there's currently a limitation that all virtual meetings may be convened for the greater

the number two or 25% of the public body's annual meetings.

And the further restriction is that there could be no consecutive all virtual meetings.

So if you had an all virtual meeting on one occasion, you couldn't have an all virtual meeting on the next occasion.

So in your discussions, there seemed to be support not to target

the community advisory committees, but simply to come forward with a proposal to make it possible for all public bodies, including the planning commission, the board of supervisors, and the school board to conduct all virtual meetings as frequently as desired, provided all of the other requirements associated with all virtual meetings were observed or fulfilled,

ensuring complete continuation of open and transparent meetings.

And so that's the way that we've brought this back to you, is that it's not limited to community advisory committees.

It's broad.

It applies on a wholesale basis to all public bodies, provided all of the other requirements associated with all virtual meetings are observed.

Then the final priority is one concerning special exceptions for short-term rentals, which are regulated in the county here as home stays.

And you'll recall a discussion about imposing limitations on those home stay approvals once they're adopted by the board.

And we've presented to you

not here in the PowerPoint, but in the materials that were included as an attachment to the executive summary, some proposed language that would allow the county to provide for the automatic expiration of a homestay upon the occurrence of one of several events.

a change of ownership of the property, a change in the owner of a business or a transfer of control of a business entity, a change in possession, a change in the operation or management of a facility, or the passage of a specific period of time.

So as we've framed this, you could adopt a provision in the county code that would

allow you to limit the home stay to the particular owner at the time of the application.

You could also limit it for a certain period of time, just for example, five years.

And after the passage of that time, the property owner would be required to return and reapply for the home stay.

So those are the additional four proposed priorities.

And then finally, we also discussed back in September the legislative positions and policy statements.

Thanks to Supervisor Andrews for helping me realize that we had failed to include this as a part of your materials.

for that last meeting.

But on September 30th, I emailed to the board an updated version of these, what are now styled as the 2023 legislative positions and policy statements.

I would note that there were two of these that were identified last year as being significant positions and policy statements.

One concerning impact fees, the other concerning erosion and sediment control standards for ag and forestry operations.

Both of those continue to be included in this document.

There are updates to the other positions and statements in this document, but none of them, I suggest to you, is significant.

It's essentially

for all practical purposes, the same set of positions and statements that you adopted last year.

So that's what you have before you and after your discussion and questions.

Thank you, Mr. Rosenberg.

We'll go through our order.

Thank you and I appreciate the red line very much.

That was very comforting to see the small changes that were in there.

I support all of these issues which we have brought forth this year and the only thing I would leave for perhaps future edition is some more detail about ranked choice voting which I know we're not going to talk about I think until November but if there's some information based upon the comment this morning from someone or the earlier this afternoon about

things I was not aware of, the sort of financial trap that's implied with this, and I was looking on Arlington County site, nobody seemed to mention that, but perhaps you can, or someone can find out a little more detail about that before we lose the window, shall we say, for legislation.

Thank you.

Yes, could you please, when we talk about impact fees,

on residential development.

Well, as you know, our current system is one involving voluntary proffers.

And so impact fees, which are common in other states, would allow the locality to impose a requirement associated

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you for the virtual and just being at all.

I mean this is part of the problem we have with the General Assembly.

They want to try to micromanage what we can and can't do.

They should just give us the authority and then we'll decide.

You know, I don't think any of us would do all virtual meetings for this body, but the ability to do it could be flexible.

So it's about us being able to make our own decisions for what works best for

for us and then be held accountable by our voters.

So I appreciate it just being put in there that way.

This isn't a concern about anything that's in the packet, but I hope that when we talk with our local legislators about the economic development, the sites going from 100 acres down as a strategy and talking to them that day, we don't want to come across as sounding like, oh,

We want this change just because we don't have any sites that qualify.

I think the whole point of Project Enable and the type of businesses that we are attracting aren't suitable for these larger acres.

It's not just an availability issue, it's by design a strategic plan.

When I think of like helping businesses that are already located here expand and the type of industries that we're bringing in here, a hundred acre site does not does not fit the bill for what we're trying to attract.

So the the spirit of any grants or support that go to it should be in line with our strategic plan or project enable and just want to make sure that we go about it that way because in the past they've said things like oh well then just change

Change your approach down there and go find yourself some 100-acre sites.

That's an easy way out for them to not have to deal with the issue, they being the General Assembly that votes pronouns.

The ranked choice voting item, just because it did come up, this is, I know we're going to be receiving, I believe, some information on this.

I mean, other than my own cursory readings in the news, I'm really uneducated on ranked choice voting.

I've said that.

I, for one, if it's the intent of this board to go that way, we're going to need a lot of information on it beyond just this item that was brought up in the public comment, although that's an important one.

I'm not writing a blank check to anybody.

So one, if that's true or not true, we've got to find that out.

But just understanding it, how it works, what it could mean, et cetera, it's going to take some information at least for me to get caught up.

So I don't know if all the boards there are not.

I'm just throwing that out there as what's going to be needed.

But I would imagine that, because I know this is an important one for Delegate Hudson,

that in some capacity she's doing what she needs to do to work on it, whether or not we are or not.

So does she have any, I'm sorry, David, does she have any plans to bring?

I think the authority already exists.

It's whether we want to enact it or not is what we're moving to.

So maybe there's no need to, I shouldn't have put it into this legislative thing.

Oh, OK.

All right.

So it's just our game plan.

All right.

You're off the hook, David.

I tried to get you up here to talk.

What we heard about was not whether we have the authority, but whether what we would pay for it.

And so this is certainly something that I expect to be in contact with Delegate Hudson about what she understands and what might be done with that regard to clarify and to limit what we would pay for that.

So if that becomes an appropriate matter for legislation, then that will come up.

I think I agree with Supervisor Galloway that it's great that we're asking for basically full authority to decide how our meetings are run, but I also caution that that'll give opportunity if there were a way to craft it.

So that we weren't completely at a discretion, it might help, or if there was some intent put in there with respect to openness and the availability for meeting in person.

But I don't know how that would quite work, but I'm aware that there's a conflict there that we could find ourselves pushing so hard that we don't get anything.

and that brings me to my final point really is I know that the photo speed cameras were put forward last year but then didn't make it out of committee but I believe there's more to that story and that there may have been versions that were more acceptable or less acceptable and that what we're supporting there may in part depend upon what version is being put forward because

how well they can be implemented may depend on that.

I can comment on that, resident expert on photo-speed cameras.

Right.

No, no, no.

We know that.

I understand.

Right.

The people who he knows full well that why his was not accepted and I think Mr. Blunt knows very well what our intention is and

That's what I was trying to get to and that we don't necessarily support something that might have that poison pill, as you call it.

I said those were all my comments.

All right, thank you.

Being the contrarian, I will be the one member of the board that does not support that all local public bodies be given the authority to have all meetings virtually.

I do not believe that elected bodies should be able to do that.

That's not a comment about us as the Board of Supervisors of Albemarle County.

But that is a comment about that I believe is too broad a statutory grant of authority because there will be those jurisdictions that I believe would abuse that.

Other than that, I support all the rest of it.

The rank choice voting comments are not for the legislative.

Except for what Jim said about the funding aspects may require legislative change.

So he saved me.

The other part of it is for us to decide whether it's worth it given there are only five elections that it would even apply to.

But yes, I agree with that.

The funding for rank choice voting needs to be taken care of.

and I just don't support all public bodies.

I do not believe elected public bodies should be able to hold all their meetings virtually.

Thank you.

Any other comments?

Well, I'm just pondering what you said and it's not material really going forward.

So the sort of combination of us being able to meet

in person and have other people live and that kind of thing doesn't exist for any of our other committees.

I'm very happy with the way our board level has functioned, but that same ability is not allowed for others.

And it's a decision that has to be locally made by finance and everything else.

Just to follow up on that, I would comment that I would have liked us to have the authority to do a limited number of virtual meetings, not back-to-back, the ways permit presently allowed for some committees.

I agree also, I think we're asking for everything in hopes of getting something.

And for elected bodies, I think we should meet in person, but I think we should have that flexibility also.

Weather dependent, illness, whatever, we've gotten used to that.

It's been very, very effective.

It's been disastrous, I think, for some of our other committees that have not been able to meet virtually.

It's elected bodies and all meetings.

That's where I get hung up on it, that authority.

I'm not asking for all virtual for everybody to get something less.

I'm asking for that.

So the authority

And there are so many other places where they try to micromanage what the localities can do that the argument here is in bigger picture than just allowing all virtual meetings.

It's saying to the local government, regardless of how I might feel about how other local governments handle their responsibility, that's up to their voters to figure out.

but we should have the capacity to say we can do this and then we work through and have our conversation as a board to define what we do under that granted authority.

But there are just too many instances where this state dictates to the localities what you can and can't do in very minutia type way that I'm tired of trying to ask and fit into that mold with them.

Give us the authority, we'll figure out what we want to do here in Albemarle County with that authority.

formal action by the board.

I don't have a drafted motion for you, but it would be very simple.

I would note the executive summary references two attachments.

It references attachment A,

which is your proposed 2023 legislative priorities and attachment B which is your proposed 2023 legislative positions and policy statements.

And there could be a very simple motion made to adopt attachments A and B as presented.

It requires nothing more than that.

I move that we adopt the legislative priorities attachment A, attachment B, that have been proposed.

All right.

We have a motion by Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley and a second by Supervisor Mallek.

Any further discussion?

Then I will simply point out I will vote no on A because of the language of all public bodies, all meetings.

Otherwise, I would vote yes on both.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Mr. Galloway?

Yes.

Ms.

Albisto-Kirtley?

All right.

Thank you board.

May I just make one request for future?

Mr. Blunt, could you, at some point, email-wise, inform all of us of what's happening with SB400, with the meetings?

Thank you.

I know you and one VACO person, they're all alone, and everybody else is the industry, so that would be great.

Then I think we'll probably be okay.

All right, good afternoon, everybody.

We are now on to item number 11, an action item, the FY24 to FY28 strategic plan draft.

Good afternoon, Ms.

Good afternoon.

So this is a work session for us to talk through updates and changes that we've made on the strategic plan since we last spoke.

As you'll recall, we used our vision statement as the foundation of our goals that we worked to build for this proposed plan.

We've been focusing over the last few months over strategic goals and objectives

And today, I'm going to present to you the changes that we've made since we last talked and also some of the community feedback that we received and hopeful that we will adopt today or we'll hear input from this board to do something different.

And so the intention is that this will inform our next steps as you'll start talking about the five-year financial plan in November.

As I've mentioned, once adopted, we will start focusing on the projects and initiatives and performance indicators that we want to attach to these objectives.

We'll talk in a little bit about the community feedback and how we can implement that into the projects and initiatives area.

So this slide presents the preamble that we have written of our core values, but it also, the addition in the last paragraph is really based on the board input around documenting and highlighting the Board of Supervisors operating guidelines for high quality governance.

and then as well as the staff of Albemarle County use the pillars of high performance.

And so we included this statement in here, these efforts are maximized through board-staff collaboration.

guided by the Board of Supervisors operating guidelines for high quality governance and the pillars of high performance.

The following goals have been prioritized to realize the county's vision and to achieve the mission to enhance the well-being and quality of life for all community members.

So this is that big picture vision of our goals and how the workforce and customer service goals and also objectives really are the central part of how we will deliver quality of life, safety and well-being, education and learning, resiliency, equitable, engaged community, as well as infrastructure and placemaking.

So I'm now going to go through each goal, and I'm going to move more quickly because you've seen these before.

But as I move through them, I'm going to call out the update that was made based on September's input from the board.

So for goal one, safety and well-being, it remains the same.

For goal two, resilient, equitable, and we added, engaged community.

and so we really called that out as a major goal based on the input that we received that for so many of these things like climate action and equity and climate resiliency that we really do need to continue to engage our community and focus on those partnerships.

We did not have any changes to infrastructure and placemaking.

And so in goal four, quality of life, we did change the wording from refresh to update, project enable.

And on the last bullet, we focused more instead of the development area.

We have changed this to urban neighborhoods to be more focused in on what we heard about being able to have the areas that don't have the spaces or the walkability to do the parks and recreational opportunities.

And then there was no change to goal five, education and learning, or goal six, workforce and customer service.

So now I'm going to go through what the community feedback was.

And I've been able to put these into themes that we were able to identify.

And what I think was really positive is that most of what we heard really aligns with what we have already drafted here.

The community is asking for a balanced approach.

to have to fulfill current commitments and that's something that we've talked a lot about as well.

There is an addition about talking about biodiversity action planning along with climate action and stream health.

We there specify that outreach is intended to engage all community members which we've identified in our preamble.

include an evaluation strategy to measure implementation effectiveness.

And that's something I've discussed with you all about creating key performance indicators with these goals.

Because with the projects and initiatives that align to the objectives, we're going to be asking for specific measurable progress.

And so we'll be able to be able to report our progress a little bit more clearly.

For the development area, this is another theme that we found.

And it was prioritize livable, affordable housing, aging in place, and workforce housing.

Invest in redeveloping existing vacant buildings.

Promote the redevelopment of underused properties.

Make existing development area more sustainable.

and improve existing development area, increase smaller accessible recreational opportunities.

So you're hearing a lot of what we've been talking about since August.

Lastly, the other two themes were a focus on rural area, increasing services and investment in our rural areas, maintaining the rural character,

And then the last one is really countywide, what I would call countywide or cross-county issues.

And that was to identify and make necessary bike connections and corridors, prioritize support for families and children, both in and out of school, foster and leverage nonprofit community partnerships and regional cooperation, strengthen existing programs that focus on conservation and preservation,

increased recreation opportunities and offerings and ensure equitable access to projects and programs.

And that encouraged entrepreneurship and creativity.

So what I would like to add about the community feedback is I've already started working with the departments on what might projects and initiatives look like underneath these objectives.

And what I found very inspiring and also hopeful is that many of the things that they're calling out are items that were addressed.

Workforce, housing for example, different things like the biodiversity plan.

The departments have already started mentioning as areas that they believe that you'll be seeing throughout our budget process as areas of work.

All right, thank you.

We will go through our order.

Thank you.

This has been a really well done process and so I feel like I can keep it in my brain as we go along, chunk by chunk, which is not always possible.

I know you're just beginning to figure out now the sort of measuring things, measurement stuff, and that's going to be challenging for you because in places where I've had to deal with this in some things from state level, we want to avoid just checking the boxes.

and figure out some sort of more portfolio-based things than how many people responded to a survey which wasn't meaningful participation or not.

And I don't know how you get there, but I'll just leave that thought with you.

Under the rural areas, what struck me as you were

I don't, I don't, it'll be an interesting discussion going forward about what increased services in the rural area means because there are lots of people who do not want that at all.

And so there are many, many villages in the Whitehall district that are not

Eager to have lots more commerce move in.

They might love to have a little grocery be brought back to life from the 100-year one, the one in Hurleysville that was there forever and now isn't.

So we all would like something like that.

But this, I think, will come as we get more detail.

Some of those concerns may be assuaged.

But the rural character and the increased services are sometimes in tension with each other.

So that, I guess I'll just pass that along for you to mull over.

Oh, last thing, the county-wide, you mentioned creativity, and I do hope later on this evening I was going to report back on the NACo Arts and Culture Commission.

So many counties are really putting effort into their arts communities and helping them as a placemaking issue, as

a way to bring together people of widely different opinions who can get together at a school play and not just love it.

So I think that if that's a category where that type of discussion can happen, then I'd be thrilled.

All right.

Thank you.

Yes.

Thank you very much for your presentation.

Can you go back to the last slide?

Yes.

OK.

The themes, the rural access.

Deaf, you know, maintaining the rural character is very important.

This was from the community feedback talking about what they wanted to see about services.

OK, so they were not specific in what types of services?

Right.

Okay, all right, that's interesting.

Okay, so that's, I mean, I think I understand maintaining rural character, but when you're talking about increasing services and investments, then there's no further guidance there, so that's very broad and open.

I'm done.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Supervisor Galloway?

So I think relative to the development area, and I know this is community feedback, but I think it's important for us as we go through this process.

When I see anything that says that the public body should invest in redevelopment and improvements of existing properties, we have no capacity to do that.

They're private property owners.

But this is a constant conversation that comes up.

when we look to the development area when folks see underutilized shopping centers or open storefronts and things that could have things in them and think that we can do something like that.

It's similar to Albemarle has all this land, just go put affordable houses on it.

Well, it doesn't work that way.

So we want to make sure as we go through the process

that when we say if we're going to invest in redevelopment improvements in your specific, what are you calling them, your action items, your

objectives that in there we can invest in redevelopment, but it's not us investing specifically in redevelopment.

It would be providing incentives that would encourage redevelopment.

So I just want to make sure that as things come up in the community feedback, we have to make sure we tie the thread from here in this objective goes back to what you think of as invest in redevelopment or trying to

I mean, we just did a whole small area plan in the Rio 29 corridor, which is all about trying to encourage redevelopment.

And that is how we invest in redevelopment.

So I just want to make sure that we're drawing those lines so that whoever out there is thinking that we need to invest in redevelopment, and they read our action items, don't go, well, what the heck happened to investment in redevelopment?

And that's probably a generalized statement for all of these, including the services item.

We could all guess what those probably are from rural folks, but I think we need to be on the same page where we say, all right, the county thinks this is what you mean by services or this is what you mean by invest so that we are trying to get on the same page with them when they say the same thing.

But that's my only comment.

Otherwise, I do think update the Project Enables right, the word change there.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you.

I'm trying to understand what we're tasked with right at the moment.

I really much appreciate the community feedback, and I'm finding myself reading it and saying, well, is that in here?

Should that be in here?

How much is it in here?

So if it's all right, I'll just focus on the

and others.

the biodiversity action plan and the climate vulnerability and risk assessment as things that we should treat as priorities that we need to focus on and so for example under goal one develop countywide public safety long-range plan to include emergency preparedness and response I would add and long-term resilience

because that's an important part of what we should be doing with respect to that kind of responsiveness for safety, especially in light of, as we saw in the vulnerability assessment, the heat, flooding, drought, fires, etc.

that we risk.

Similarly, under goal two, we had to implement the climate action plan.

We already do have implement stream health initiatives.

Perhaps we could add after climate action plan and the biodiversity action plan.

Because I don't see that really reflected in that goal directly, although some things

Do you mind if I respond to that?

Please.

One of the things that we discussed is that the biodiversity plan is a component of the climate action plan.

And so what I want to articulate is I am looking for your support on these goals and if you want language change based on what you've heard.

and that if what my hope is is that these objectives are broad enough that anything that you've heard still nests and fits and connects in.

And so to your point about safety and well-being, I think that I'll ask if we need to add the word resilience there or if you just want to inform that those are plans and work that is done and that you will see in the FY24 budget process.

So I hope that makes sense.

As we start to develop, these are broad, and so you're soon going to hear specifics about how our organization plans to support the community and develop progress and performance underneath of these things.

And so that's an example of they have a whole lot of ideas about the things that we can do to support our community safety, support emergency planning.

I appreciate that very much.

I guess I'm only suggesting language that I think is very broad and suggestive of focus on particularly climate and those matters.

So that's why I think adding the word resilience somewhere is important for that purpose.

to get into the weeds.

And to the extent that the climate action plan includes biodiversity action plan, I would still suggest perhaps we have comma including the biodiversity action plan.

So we recognize this document is not just saying something about how

We are dealing with the people in Albemarle County, but also how we're dealing with the natural resources, which is mentioned in here, but I think it's worth emphasizing.

And those were my comments.

That was not my intent.

I was trying to add clarity.

All right, thank you.

I appreciate the other supervisors' comments, especially yours just then, Supervisor Andrews, and I'm good.

Thank you for the work you've done.

Any other comments, supervisors?

We've already been around.

Thank you.

In your mention of affordable housing, I will just raise again

that that means a lot of things to a lot of people.

And so, consider how we can more carefully define what we mean and the two terms that have been lumped together in many things I've participated in or listened to recently are attainable and sustainable.

Which means, yes, it's a place where someone can actually afford to live there.

Not an $1,800 a month, one bedroom apartment.

And sustainable means over a very long period of time.

Christy may be clear on just a couple of comments.

I think we're close to wrapping up.

Mr. Andrews asked for goal one, third bullet, to include emergency preparedness and response and long-term resilience.

And I saw some information from the board, but I want to make sure that we have the board's guidance on goal one, bullet three, to add that language.

That would be one edit from this discussion today.

And then Mr. Andrews in goal two, under implement

Climate Action Plan, I think he also reflected that he would like to purposefully say, including the Biodiversity Plan.

And again, I saw some affirmation.

Perfect.

Did we miss any edits that the board was looking for with any of the goals?

Hearing none, Chair Price, I'd like for the board to take formal action today.

So we're prepared.

We have no more presentation and discussion.

All right.

So moved.

We have a motion by Supervisor Mallek, a second by Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley.

Ms.

Mallek?

Yes.

Ms.

Price?

Aye.

Mr. Andrews?

Yes.

Mr. Galloway?

Yes.

Ms.

Thank you for the work y'all have all done.

Thank you, Ms.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for your input and your feedback and all the way through the process and your support.

It's been really, really appreciated.

Thank you.

All right, board, we'll move on to our next item, number 12, a work session.

AC44 Draft Framework for an Equitable and Resilient Community.

Ms.

Kanalopoulos, will you be taking the lead on this?

Good afternoon.

Thank you.

Tori, you're very quiet, so pull that microphone right up next to you.

Thank you.

Good afternoon members of the board.

My name is Tori Kanalopoulos and I'm a senior planner in the county's Community Development Department and I'm joined today by Vlad Gavrilovic, principal planner with EPRPC and

Today, we will be discussing phase one of AC44, which stands for Albemarle County 2044 and is the project name for the county's comprehensive plan.

Thank you, Tori.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, Madam Chair, members of the board.

Again, Vlad Gavrilic, principal with EPR here in Charlottesville.

We're very honored to be leading the consultant team helping your first-rate staff on this comprehensive plan update.

Just a reminder, this is about phase one of this process.

We really look forward to hearing your input as we present the results of this phase.

We had very good community input in this phase.

We want to share that with you and an enthusiastic response from the working group.

And as you might imagine, they were very eager to get into the next phase and how do we start implementing some of this.

And we know this must be on your mind too and everyone's.

We heard some of this this morning.

We look forward to presenting for you a work plan for phase two the next time we come before you.

But at this point, we just want to share with you today the takeaways from phase one and this summary framework that we really see as a springboard to get us to the next phase.

Thank you, Vlad.

So today we'll start off with where we are in phase one of AC44 and an overview of phase two, then share an update on the land use build out, then move to an overview of community input and the four big ideas, then we'll share the draft framework for an equitable and resilient community, and we'll have time for board discussion and questions.

Later in the presentation, we will share more details about the framework, but we wanted to begin with an overview of how we got there.

Throughout the AC44 process, we are using two main lenses to guide our work, which are equity and climate action.

In 2019, the board adopted a resolution in support of an equitable and inclusive community.

Additionally, the board has identified climate action as a top priority and adopted the county's climate action plan in 2020.

Therefore, the framework prioritizes equity and climate action resilience as key principles to guide our policies.

Additionally, the framework was developed based on input from community members, the AC44 Working Group, and the Planning Commission, as well as a review of goals in the current comprehensive plan and research of best practices.

This graphic shows an overview of phase one with a blue circle to indicate where we are now.

There are three main steps.

In the first step, we shared a local history of growth management, an overview of the current growth management policy, and initial findings from the land use build-out.

We asked for community input on the current policy and what should be prioritized when reviewing the policy.

We heard that the current policy has been successful at protecting natural resources and agricultural and forestry uses.

We also heard that challenges include housing affordability, the need for more transportation options, and infrastructure and utilities planning.

In the second step, we developed potential growth management options to consider while reviewing the current policy.

We received significant community input on these options, and there was interest in continuing to explore all of them in future phases.

We also heard community feedback to expand the conversation beyond the growth management policy, especially around the topics of multimodal transportation and economic development.

Based on the input we received, we developed several common themes.

In the third step, these common themes were refined and developed into big ideas.

We asked for community input on the big ideas, which were then developed into this framework for an equitable and resilient community.

This graphic provides an overview of the number of attendees we heard from and the number of online questionnaire responses we received during Phase 1.

This would include participants who both attended an event and filled out a questionnaire, and anyone who may have participated in all of the engagement options.

We wanted to note that the number of attendees and online responses varied between the three steps,

with significantly more online responses during step two compared with attendees at the open house, while step three had more attendees at the round tables compared with online responses.

And as we scope engagement and content for upcoming phases, we will continue to refine our engagement methods.

This will include continued collaboration with our working group and outreach to community partners.

The next steps in phase one are to finalize the draft framework based on planning commission and board feedback and share the final framework.

In phase two, we will review and analyze existing conditions, trends, and challenges and opportunities for each topic.

We will update policies for each topic, using the framework to guide our work, and we will use the framework to refine the structure of the plan.

And as Vlad mentioned, during phase one we heard significant interest from community members in exploring how we will implement the framework.

So we wanted to note that in phase two we will dive into more detailed policy discussions and in phase three we will update and prioritize action steps.

Phase one lays the groundwork for these upcoming discussions.

And as we move toward the end of phase one, we are also wrapping up the land use build-out which we shared a draft of with the Board of Supervisors in June of this year.

The purpose of the land use build-out is to understand the maximum theoretical capacity of our development areas and consider if this maximum theoretical build-out is sufficient to accommodate 20 years of projected growth and demand for both residential and non-residential uses.

Residential rezonings have tended not to be approved at the higher end of recommended densities.

Between 2016 and 2021, the total number of units approved through rezonings was about 58% of the maximum number of units recommended per the comp plan.

So to show how the buildout could vary for residential uses, we included three scenarios.

The first is the theoretical maximum build out based on the maximum recommended densities in the comp plan.

For example, it would assume that all properties designated urban density residential build out to 34 units an acre.

The second scenario uses the 58% figure from total units approved through rezonings to adjust the maximum land use buildout down.

We also adjusted the pipeline based on average buildout of approved units and subtracted 1,000 units from the pipeline to adjust for old trail, which is expected to build out lower than total approval.

In the third scenario, we used low and high ranges for the buildout based on the zoning district of each property

with a potential for development or redevelopment and adjusted the pipeline as in scenario two.

While the total estimates for each scenario still exceed projected demand, there are a number of constraining factors that will also limit actual build-out.

Along with a review of constraining factors that could impact both residential and non-residential development, the land use build-out includes a tier analysis specific to non-residential uses.

Each tier represents a different level of site readiness for development, with tier 1 being the least ready and tier 5 being prime for development.

The tier analysis included the development area parcels that were at least three acres, currently vacant, and already zoned or designated for non-residential uses, which resulted in 39 parcels totaling 890 acres.

Based on Albemarle County Economic Development Office staff's review of these parcels, only one property met the criteria for a tier four site, which could theoretically have a project brought to market in 12 to 18 months, and none were a tier five, which would be a shovel and pad ready site.

Based on the build-out methodology, the buildable acres for potential new development or redevelopment comprise about 6.9 percent of the development area's total land area.

There appears to be sufficient capacity for residential uses, however recent build-out trends have tended to be lower than maximum densities recommended per the comp plan, and constraining factors such as high land costs could further limit actual build-out.

and while there is theoretical capacity for non-residential uses, constraining factors result in less than the maximum theoretical build-out and negatively impact the amount of developable land, especially in the short term.

As we consider policies in phase two of AC44, especially for topics of housing, land use and economic development, we can refer back to the land use build-out.

A key step toward drafting the framework for an equitable and resilient community was to develop and gather input on four big ideas.

To develop the big ideas, we used the community input heard during steps one and two of phase one, equity and climate action lenses, planning commission input, goals in the current comprehensive plan, and best practices and research of other localities.

These big ideas provided a foundation for the four components of the draft framework.

During step three, we asked community members to share input on the big ideas, including do the big ideas reflect your vision of our community in 20 years?

Do they guide us toward a more equitable and resilient community?

And what's missing?

And the next slide summarized the feedback that we heard.

On housing affordability and accessibility, we heard that housing needs to be affordable to people employed in Albemarle who want to live here, community members should be able to age in place and have housing accessible to all abilities, housing needs infrastructure to support it, and there is a concern that many community members who want to live in Albemarle cannot afford to do so.

On workforce development, we heard a need for opportunities for local residents and for a variety of career ladder jobs, a desire for more partnerships with our schools, colleges, and universities, and more space and support for local artists and small businesses and startups.

We heard transportation needs to be accessible, safe, and affordable, and that just having connections between places is not sufficient.

We heard there especially needs to be connections between centers of activity and neighborhoods, that public transit needs to be more frequent, reliable, and easier to get to, and there should be regional coordination on transportation networks and opportunities.

On protection and enhancement of natural resources, we heard a desire for enhanced tree canopy throughout the county, having clean and protected waterways, rivers, and streams, and concentrating development to keep natural areas protected.

We heard support for local food systems and community gardens, for equitable access to and distribution of resources, amenities, and services, and for climate resiliency and climate action.

And after hearing community input at our roundtables and online, we have several main takeaways.

There is substantial support for these big ideas, and there are significant areas of common ground at this high altitude despite potential disagreement on how we implement the big ideas.

And we will be able to come back to where we heard support for these big picture concepts as we refine the goals, objectives, and strategies in upcoming AC44 phases.

Thanks, Tori.

As Tory mentioned, we've taken the community input we gathered on these big ideas and put them into this draft framework as a culmination of phase one.

You received a copy of this in your packet, so I won't go through all of it, but we just wanted to hit on some of the big picture points to show how it relates to the current comprehensive plan and how it could be helpful for the next phase of this effort.

So the purpose of this framework, as you know, as I'm sure you know, there are diverse interests in the county.

and one of the reasons to do this is to find common ground among these diverse interests so we can move forward with a growth management policy direction.

As we get into implementation and specific strategies, a lot of this common ground can divide and people can disagree on how we implement one thing or another, but we can go back to the principles embodied in this framework and say, let's go back to the principle as we decide on what the implementation for it is going to be.

So it builds this foundation of community support that we can come back to when we're drafting these specific policies.

It also gives a guidance to how we can incorporate your priorities for climate action and equity into this comprehensive plan.

And finally, it supports the overall project goal that you have given to make the plan more user friendly, consolidate similar content, and create a streamlined document.

So as mentioned, the next slide, the framework is a bridge.

It bridges phase one and phase two of this update.

Phase one is about growth management, the direction, incorporating the direction we received from you and the input we received.

And phase two is about turning that input into a policy direction to all the different chapters of the comprehensive plan.

So I'll do a quick overview of the four themes, just hitting on a few points for each theme.

The green and resilient community theme relates closely to the stable countywide vision that has been around for quite a while.

It talks about a greener future with natural values of the rural areas being preserved, while also infusing more green networks into the development areas and new building practices.

Most importantly, though, this theme hits on the important board priority of developing a resilient future in the face of climate change.

The next theme, welcoming and equitable, also relates to one of your priorities for equity.

And note that the focus here is on both current and future residents, so that there's an emphasis on an equitable distribution of services for current residents, revitalizing older neighborhoods,

as well as building more equitable and complete communities for the future.

The connected and accessible themes relates to a lot of what we heard in the public comments.

There's a desire to have better connections throughout the county, especially walking, biking, and transit.

It relates to the themes of being able to age in place, equitable transportation choices for all ages and abilities,

But note also that this is not just connecting roads and trails, but there's also an aspect of connecting natural systems such as wildlife corridors and stream corridors.

And finally, the thriving and prosperous theme received substantial positive feedback from the public.

We heard a lot of input that the county needed to have well-paying jobs for existing residents and not just jobs that recruit from outside talent.

and people also commented very interestingly on the interconnectedness of this theme with the others.

So for example, if you want to provide living wage jobs, you need to couple that with supportive policies about good transportation options, affordable housing, housing that's affordable to this workforce.

So this is the framework as it stands and really now we want to talk about how we relate this framework to

The update of the comprehensive plan.

Current comprehensive plan has 10 chapters, as you know.

Each chapter has only one goal.

Each goal has multiple policies, though, multiple objectives, and each objective has multiple strategies, leading to quite a few strategies.

It's your current GOS, goals, objectives, strategies.

I want to talk about how we start to refine this policy structure using the framework as a guide for this next step.

So you'll see in the next slide the overall framework themes.

And I said before that this is a bridge between phase one and phase two.

In phase two, using the public support we heard for the framework themes at this relatively high altitude to refine these GOSs and give them a stronger policy direction in each of the chapters.

Important to remember the value of this framework for phase two, not only building a framework or a platform rather of common ground of input, but also helping to infuse the plan update with the priorities for equity and climate action.

So we've started to crosswalk some of this, some of the key concepts within each framework theme with the chapters of the current comprehensive plan.

This was in your packet as well and I won't go through it in detail.

But it's a first step in how we might refine individual policies using this framework as a guide.

Currently, the growth management chapter has one goal and one objective and three strategies.

And you can see that these are somewhat iterative in nature.

They reinforce the county vision for having these two basic areas of a development area.

and rural areas.

We believe the framework can add considerable depth to these policies, keeping the policies but enhancing them particularly with the major initiatives of equity and climate action.

So that's something we'll look forward to working on in phase two.

And then looking at the other chapters of the plans, just to touch on a couple of key points from each theme in the crosswalk.

For the green and resilient theme,

So we would anticipate that this provides direct guidance to chapters like natural resources as well as cultural and historic resources.

But it also relates somewhat less directly to chapters like transportation and parks and recreation.

And as with all the themes, it should give an input into refining the policies for your development areas and rural areas.

And moving to the welcoming and equitable theme,

So this is something that it's not readily evident in the comprehensive plan and the existing comprehensive plan goals.

So we would anticipate using this framework to refine most of the comprehensive plan chapters under this, especially ones like growth management, housing, community facilities, and such.

Thirdly, the connected and accessible theme, obvious direct relationship to things like transportation and community facilities,

but also parks and recreation and as I mentioned natural resources through natural corridors.

And finally the thriving and prosperous theme.

So direct relationship here to economic development but also chapters like natural and cultural resources looking at the county's economic assets and then as I mentioned supportive policies like transportation and housing.

So that's just a preview of the work that's ahead in phase two with your blessing and encouragement

Thank you, Blad.

At their September 27th work session, the Planning Commission provided a number of considerations for the final framework and recommended that the draft framework be forwarded to the Board for their input.

A summary of the Planning Commission's considerations for the framework is provided on this slide and includes

use Albemarle specific language and examples, include language on measuring and tracking success, include language more clearly that this is what the county aspires to, acknowledge the potential conflicts and how we may be implementing the themes in this framework, and use more specificity when referring to the rural area, development areas, or both.

The AC44 team welcomes board input on both the draft framework and the planning commission's considerations, and we will update the framework based on the board's guidance.

And as a reminder on next steps, once the framework is finalized based on commission and board feedback, we will share the final framework.

And as we wrap up phase one, we will begin scoping phase two to update the goals, objectives, and overall plan structure.

We have the following questions to guide the board's discussion today, which are, does the framework for an equitable and resilient community provide guidance to support updating and drafting policies and action steps in upcoming AC44 phases?

If not, what's missing?

So we will turn it over to the board for discussion, and we are happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Ms.

Kanellopoulos and Mr. Gavrilovic.

We will go through our order.

I think so, yes.

And I really appreciate the crosswalk exercise here because that gave me a lot of confidence and a lot of information about the way things are being pulled from the old days into the new.

And obviously things are different now than they were 20 years ago, but many of the things that brought people here, we need to remember those, and for our long-term residents as well.

So the question is, what's missing?

and you've talked a lot about, I already mentioned, or maybe you didn't hear because you weren't in here, the housing element that just calling it affordable doesn't tell me what that means.

So finding a term, whether it's the out there term is attainable and sustainable are terms that are used commonly in other places to mean more specifically what we're looking for.

All right, thank you.

I have no questions.

Thank you very much for the presentation.

Very much appreciated.

Thank you.

I'm trying really hard not to get to the next step, or the next phase.

Because, and I'll be frank, I think that's what I've heard in the public comments, is all the phase two work.

So I struggle with hearing that the framework somehow has to be more expansive because just the sheer nature of it being a framework, it shouldn't be more expansive.

It's a framework.

The expansive tools or strategies need to be built within that.

So the question are, are the four categories sufficient enough to let us to get to that work?

But we created that using climate action and equity to even get to that framework.

So I'm not being dismissive or saying I'm calling into question the concerns, especially around climate action that we've heard.

But I'm struggling with understanding what the results should be, even in rereading some of the letters we've had.

I mean, as a planning document that has to withstand time, it can't just be infused with whoever the six members are and their

political priorities at the beginning.

Whether we're supportive, not supportive, all in, not all in on that.

So I see it as when we get to phase two, the work that we do there will always hinge on, is this equitable?

Does this meet what we're trying to accomplish with our climate action plan?

And frankly, it's going to be other policies as well.

Housing Albemarle, Project Enable, those things have to be

be used to inform.

We're not calling out climate action and equity to the exclusion of our other guiding policies that we have in place to hit some of these other categories.

So yes, I think the framework gets at what we're trying to do.

And while the folks who

perhaps think that the framework should have gone further, I would expect that they'll be paying attention to the work that we do in phase two as we work through these items and holding us to account there.

Because I think what they're after is probably more important in that work than necessarily in the guiding framework.

So I'm satisfied that the four

items that we've developed are going to lead us and get us to what we need to do relative to what we think our long-term priorities are.

So no, I don't think anything's missing.

Alright, thank you.

Thank you.

I think I may be respectfully disagreeing a little bit on this.

While I don't want to get into phase two, I do think that climate and equity are overarching goals that we expected to see kind of in everything as we go forward to these big ideas, that they're part of the big ideas.