Economic Development Authority Meeting   4/16/2024

And I guess we have one person who is participating remotely.

Is that correct?

We do not.

Okay, all right.

So Steve's not even participating?

Right.

So it matters from the public.

Can we have any?

No, second.

All right, great.

So, approval of the minutes.

Are there any comments on the minutes?

Is there a second?

Second.

Discussion?

All right, all in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

All right, the minutes are approved.

So, has there been no change last month?

So the appropriation column is what is established in the budget planning process.

And the expenditures is what's actually been in or out of the account, correct?

And I will again reinforce that Liz has taken over the management analyst position.

and the roles with any kind of financial implications and is working with Liz to handle all of her questions now.

But they are working with budget to come up with a more, just a streamlined, more easy to digest.

So that makes sense.

Yeah, absolutely.

Any other questions on the financials?

Hearing none, on to new business.

And the first item of new business is a closed session on Project Lightyear.

So I think we need a motion to go into further session.

So I will make the motion.

I move that the Albemarle County Economic Development Authority go in and close.

A closed meeting is authorized by the Virginia Freedom of Information Act section 2.2-3711A of the focus of the Virginia under section 6 to discuss and consider the investment of public funds to support Project Lightyear.

The bargaining is involved and rare.

Interest of the EDA in Almonte County and subsection 39 to discuss and consider information subject to the exclusion in subdivision 3 of section 2.2-370546 related to economic development to wit proprietary information that project Lightyear voluntarily provided pursuant to the EDA's promise of confidentiality and which the EDA will use for business, trade, and develop.

Is there a second?

OK.

So I move that the EDA certify my recorded vote that to the best of each director's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from the open meeting requirements of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and identified in the motion of authorizing the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered in the closed meeting.

Yeah.

Yes.

Director Long?

Aye.

Director Mottola.

Aye.

Dr. Moll.

Aye.

Aye.

Thank you all very much.

See, I'm so excited, guys.

All right.

Second.

Is that right?

Yep.

Director Long?

Aye.

Director Morrill?

Aye.

Director Mottola?

Aye.

Director Johnson?

Aye.

Director Hsuan?

Aye.

We bought the website to us and then staff picked up and ran with it all the way.

I told them out in the hallway.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Part of the materials that were distributed for the meeting this afternoon was a copy of the 2017 MOU between the Board of Supervisors and the Economic Development Authority.

Back in February, we talked about a desire to update this document, but we didn't really go into details about

How we wish to update it.

And so this is a part of Stash's effort to prepare for the joint meeting with the board of supervisors in August.

And I thought I would start by just touching on an overview of what was included back in 2017.

So our our previous liaison to the

from the EDA to the Board of Supervisors.

Diana McKeel was the chair of the board back in 2017.

And so she and Rod Gentry, the former chair, signed this agreement.

And what's included are a lot of strategies from our 2015 comprehensive plan.

So if you were to look at some of the citations about the different ED strategies that are listed under number one, that's from the 2015 comprehensive plan.

But there's language throughout that gives us guidance on headed in the direction we're going in that basically says, once the board adopted Project Enable at the end of 2018, we would take a hard look at updating this MOU.

And so that was quite a while ago.

And we never got around to updating the MOU.

But that's something we'd like to take care of at the joint meeting in August.

And so Project ENABLE itself, the last bullet here on the slide talks about working with the Board of Supervisors to clarify the EDA's role and create some specific goals.

So the way we would like to do that is to remove those outdated policies and references to old strategies and have an updated MOU explicitly define what the EDA's role is.

That would be helpful to not only the public but certainly to staff and the EDA as well as we move forward in implementing the county strategy.

We wanted to recognize all the good work that the EDA is already doing in terms of reviewing and approving all the things that you see on the screen here.

I think some of the biggest value that our EDA has given us has been helping us develop and administer all the public-private partnerships that we've developed since the adoption of Project Enable.

Those have been agreement heavy, legal heavy, financial acumen heavy efforts that we've relied not only on other county departments, but on the EDA to help us navigate.

And so I would love for the new MOU to direct the EDA to continue doing that.

We sort of

Got a refresher on what that experience is like with Project Hornet and trying to assist on that project.

The other thing we would like to see in the updated version would be acknowledgement of the EDA's special powers under state code, specifically as it relates to land ownership.

And so the Board of Supervisors tomorrow will get an update on Rivanna Futures.

That's the county's acquisition of 462 acres.

A lot of the discussions that

We've been having internally revolve around hours that are expressly live with the EDA, but we don't currently have any policy document that cites that.

And so updating this MOU would be a great first step in

Memorializing that intent and giving staff direction on how the EDA can play that role for that project as well as other projects that may come before the EDA in the future.

And so I wanted to run through those topics and see, you know, we may not be prepared for a discussion today, but I would be interested in the EDA's feedback on what you might like to see in an MOU with the Board of Supervisors.

What staff will do is take your feedback either today up through the next meeting in May and we'll use that to talk to the Board of Supervisors ahead of that August meeting.

So the goal would be that we could have some dialogue back and forth through staff before we go to that joint meeting in August and hopefully adopt an updated MOU at that point.

One of the things that was not listed on the prior screen talked about

It's something that a lot of EDAs focus on, which is revenue producing opportunities.

What are some things that EDAs can do to produce revenue that they can leverage into other projects?

Occasionally, we've talked about loan programs that the EDA could do, which some other EDAs around the state do.

So that's something we could consider adding that wasn't listed on the prior screen.

It is, especially in the Southeast United States, it's not uncommon for an EDA to own property.

And in some cases, a not-for-profit EDA will accept property from a developer for various reasons.

And what happens is, if done right, the property can be used as an incentive

to encourage economic development for a particular project and use the EPA or the private non-for-profit as a streamlining tool to do things faster, more efficiently than potentially a government structure.

So, and then in the long run, you finance the project, let's say with the bank, but over a series of time, it starts, you have a debt service coverage covering the note, but you also have a payoff in the end, which will generate more revenue for economic development, which will relieve the taxpayers of additional funding.

For example, there is a small EDO in Arizona that actually of a community of 45,000 people took on that concept.

And today they have a $2.8 million budget, which is more than the size of Tucson's budget.

So, and that's through the ownership of property.

So it's not uncommon.

It's something that I think that we have the expertise to do that here with the EDO.

And I think we've already started collecting some of the language around other EDAs around Virginia to make sure that

We don't overstep into laws that would question something.

So yeah, I think that J.T.

's right on target by, hey, let's clean this up.

It's time for us to grow up a little bit further.

And it lays out a great foundation for the discussions with the Board of Supervisors to ensure that we're online with our roles and responsibilities and what changes need to be made to redirect that's reflective of project enable.

So there's just some particular example studies.

I've been talking to J.T.

about some particular studies that we haven't done in the past that would help support Project Enable.

And I think we should have it defined in there that we as EDA are, you know, the board wants us to fund those kind of studies, that wants us to go in those kind of directions.

But just find, just detail it out a bit.

Thanks, Barry.

He's nodding.

Sounds good.

Are there other comments from the EDA?

One, I hadn't seen this document before and in number 1L thought it was really useful.

The EDA and the Board of Supervisors agreed on new priorities and specifically arranged them in order.

It talks about, well, maybe they weren't in order, but anyway, the project enable is this huge

And that's fine.

I mean, I'm not complaining about that.

It's just, as a tool for a member joining the board, for instance, it just felt like, well, we can do kind of anything, but what's the focus?

And I really liked this exercise on the part of the two boards coming together and saying, these are what we want to focus on.

And just for the record, I'm very passionate about number three, the workforce development.

We haven't done a whole lot of work with that, but that was

That was on the original list dating back to 2017.

I'd like to see that continue.

I think there's a lot of opportunities around that because I'm very partial to the people who are already in the county.

And I'm happy to bring in, you know, to play my part as a director on the board to bring in companies that can succeed in the county, although I'm not opposed to any of that.

It's great feedback.

Thank you.

And one thing we talked about at our last meeting is trying to also further define when the board appropriates money

to give some definition about where they want us to do or how much the EDA has in terms of making a decision with what to do with the money.

So we don't, so we can try to eliminate it in the cases where it's not necessary, where the board has to act and we have to act, the back and forth and say, okay, within this, you know, we're gonna give you this money and you guys make a decision with it, as opposed to, you know, it can be as much or as little and they can,

And then other things, obviously bigger projects, the board's gonna really need to say, we're gonna give you this money to do this particular thing.

Any other comments or questions?

As far as what the board should be looking for, I think from what I've seen on my short time here, I like the direction you're heading in.

I like what you do.

I think the idea of revisiting them on you is a good thing.

And to, you know, let the board know this is what we'd like to do or this is what

We'd like your support when we're going in and seeing if the board has any priorities or what priorities we have.

I do know, and I'm not sure some of our priorities wouldn't fit in, would not fit in with some of your priorities.

And I'm talking specifically, we have a big thing with the portable house as well.

I'm not sure that's something that you all want to get into.

That's huge.

But economically, what can we do to help small businesses, especially with Rivanna Futures coming in?

That's going to be big.

It's going to be huge.

So I can see you all being a really important part of that.

Pardon?

In a lot of different ways.

In a lot of different ways, absolutely.

And you all, I think, can come up with things that we haven't thought of, and how you can help.

We're not focused, I mean, we are focused on it.

But the details, you all can do a lot.

So I

I think it's time to revisit things, because things do change.

Thanks.

Anything else?

Barry.

Yeah.

I mentioned last meeting that I was heading to Huntsville to attend the U.S. Association of the United States Army.

And there we took an update to Rivanna stations and where we're presently at with Rivanna.

Met with over a dozen companies, some of which were here, are already here.

like Northrop Grumman, Khaki and et cetera.

Some new ones that are in the intelligence business, really good feedback, a lot of follow-up I still have to do.

But so that we are doing outreach to raise awareness in the private and the public sector.

It didn't meet with two organizations, but then the DOD also updated them.

Last week, Trevor and I attended the Association of Defense Communities.

What was important about that particular conference, it's where the discussion of DOD federal grants is presented, both in obtaining them and justification of those grants and managing those grants.

There's about a dozen different projects,

Grant programs within the Department of Defense that allocates funding for planning, construction, infrastructure, everything that's centered around supporting the missions of the Department of Defense.

So even the DOD agency reminded Trevor and I, make sure you look at

Are they looking at having basically government-run housing?

Are they looking at going and basically everybody, we would say, you know,

Not really, it's not, there is funding that could qualify for housing for, but that's traditionally for military installations that has housing already.

The funding, my understanding of it is primarily around base and installation resiliency.

So resiliency can be many forms from emergency management and response to water, sewer, electrical, grid.

Road, redundant roads, things like that.

And so that's the focus of the funding.

To Barry's point, it's not assessed via economic development potential relates around the needs and supporting that installation.

Now, if we build that road out, which is really important to that function up 29 North,

That also helps us with the work we want to do on expansion and economic development.

It's just not a criteria.

Yeah.

And so there's multiple programs that we could potentially qualify for.

And some programs or some grants are $50,000.

Some of them are $13,000, $15,000, even larger.

So, depending on the program, it depends on, and like we were talking yesterday, sub-programs are competitive in nature, the bigger dollar amounts, some are not.

So, sorry, I didn't mean to take that much time, J.T., on your grade.

I apologize because I should know

That is not just one road in, one road out.

Currently it is.

Okay, so we build a road that gives them access through multiple points.

That's a type of plan.

Yes, sir.

Some of our estimates of that road extension is

where you might know.

So it's not true.

It's grade and water crossing and intersection improvements, things like that.

Not yet with Dominion.

It's served by Rappahannock, but Dominion would come in from the south.

I think there's interest certainly from

Installation to have dual power.

Just to add to that, the comprehensive plan has long called for the extension that's Boulders Road that serves the current installation called Boulders Road from all the rock.

And so that loops back to 29 at the intersection with Austin Drive, right across the street.

So Emerson, Electric, and that whole campus that used to be GE, it's that light.

You have to figure out a better way to refer to that.

Yeah, the county.

Everybody knows where that is.

Sure, absolutely.

Unfortunately, our Ashley was ill on the night of the Piedmont pitch.

She put in a lot of work leading up to it and I got to kind of feel her thunder, but I was able to co-MC the event this year.

And yes, our own Chair Long was there as a judge this year, did a great job.

And it was really fantastic for me.

It was the first time I was able to attend the event and

It was wonderful to see a lot of the partner organizations that we support and work with get to see their work and really get to see from start to finish these participants that go through this eight week sort of intensive training program, how they grow from when they walk in the door to final night of pitching.

So thank you again to

to Chair Long for being one of our judges.

There were actually more finalists from Albemarle County in the pitch competition than last year.

Yes.

And thank you, Ashley.

Yeah, that was great.

Liz did a great job co-MCing.

I think it was, I was very impressed by all of those pitches, having seen a lot of these things being involved in the Charlottesville Legal Network.

I'd say across the board they did good.

I mean businesses in various stages, but they generally did a really good job across the board.

I was impressed.

And I think the other, talking about the sort of partner organizations that are going on sort of tying into that is I think we're, with Venture Central and Community Investment Collaborative and all those organizations, I think we're coming to a point where we're going to, you know,

need to be looking at what our investments are going to be in those groups to support the entrepreneurial ecosystem that as we work on various pieces, I think that's one of the pieces that if we want to encourage the growth of these businesses here in town,

then I think we're gonna have to invest in some of the infrastructure to have these places, incubators and accelerators and those kinds of things in town in order to build that into the spectrum.

It's exciting to, in a meeting like this, to go where we're supporting smaller businesses, we're hearing about bigger projects that we're able to do and even sort of in between.

All right, well, the next bullet on our slide here talks about the comprehensive economic development strategy.

And this is really for all of our viewers online right now who are listening to the meeting, as well as the directors here, an encouragement to provide comments to the TJPDC about their strategy.

They are accepting comments up until April 27th.

I know that many of you own and operate your own businesses or know people who do, but this is the strategy that will be used for some of those federal grants that Barry was talking about, as well as many other state-directed funding mechanisms.

So the consultant that the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission has used, Camoin and Associates, they've done a tremendous amount of

serious analysis.

And I think it's worth your time to check out the webpage.

And if you're able to provide comments on what they've drafted, that would be great.

Don't want to, didn't want that opportunity to pass by without mentioning it to the EDA.

Hang on just a second.

By the way, some of the information that you're buying on the sets, which is

can be directly used to help support the update in the project.

There's some data in there that I've been asking for.

And suddenly I didn't realize that it's to be found in this said study with this organization.

So you'll find some of the data pretty interesting.

There's a SWOT analysis.

Yeah.

Thank you.

That's all right.

I was going to say, I'm going to jump back to the Go Virginia Wine Study update.

And I think as most of you will remember, I think most were involved back in September of just last year, 2023, the EDA passed the resolution to provide matching funds in support of the Go Virginia Wine Planning grant.

which was in the amount of 20,000.

And so we just wanted to provide a brief update that we received recently.

And as a reminder also that the purpose of this project that is funded by the grant, we are in need of regional specific data in the wine industry.

State data exists, but not a lot of regional data does.

And so I will refer you,

You've all found it.

So the handout here is, this is from the advisory board meeting that just occurred in March, and it will show you in detail what they're going to be doing is data collection via surveys with regional wineries and vineyards, as well as they will be conducting meetings with industry experts.

And the last, if I could fully draw your attention to the last slide there, the projected timeline, that gives you an idea of from start to finish what that will look like.

It looks like the report is to be submitted October 1st, and it gives you various dates for the survey part.

These advisory board meetings are gonna be happening monthly, and those involve

Central Virginia Partnership for Economic Development, Go Virginia staff, localities that are involved.

And just, I wanted to highlight, we were talking about this earlier, but our Go Virginia Region 9 that we are a part of, we, 58% of the 2024 Virginia Governor's Cup case winners

are from our region.

So I thought that was very impressive and shows just, exactly, thank you.

Had to read that one, but I thought that that was a great statistic to share and to show the importance of this project.

to be able to pull data out that is specific to the Monticello AVA.

So this is kind of getting into the weeds with wine, right?

So American cultural area.

So the Monticello area has its own.

And as Ashley was talking about with honey, Monticello AVA is a premium product.

The wines that come out of here are a premium product over a wine that is labeled Virginia wine.

And so there's some overlap, but it does extend outside of the Bill Virginia Region 9, but it's a lot of Albemarle County, almost all of Albemarle County, I believe is in the area.

I just wanted to mention that we know that in 2023,

This area, we won the, according to Wine Enthusiast Magazine, we won the Wine Region of the World, which in other countries were also included in this.

We won, so who would have fucked, but we did it.

It's really taking off the wine industry.

I'm all in on this.

And so, I mean, that is really, really a good thing for us.

It's really exploding a lot.

We're getting a lot of press on that through, I'm on the CACBB, the visitor's bureau.

So it's really, it's really very nice.

Yes.

And I will say that

The ones in the Keswick area, there were four vineyards in the Keswick area where during, I think it was February and March, so when it's slow, they had wine tasting.

There was $56.

You get four wine tastings in each one of the vineyards.

Director Storm, I don't know the direct answer to your question, but I know that the Monticello AVA was a part of the previous study that this is building off of.

So I fully expect that it is, but I don't know specifically.

OK. Well, I think just real quickly, if we didn't mention this, the Board of Supervisors will get a full update on Rivanna Futures at their meeting tomorrow.

And we'll have information to share with the EDA after the Board of Supervisors gets their update on the Rivanna Futures project specifically.

So I'll move us forward to unfinished business, which

It's not as exciting as anything we've touched on.

You might be blind to listen to us.

So this is just kind of the nuts and bolts and things that operationally we've been doing for a number of years without coming to this board, but finance and budget.

Lauren Andrake, she works with me.

in order to organize and to obtain the liability insurance that covers the directors and this body.

And it's been invisible for a number of years, but Lauren did ask that I come to you and ask for your approval to endorse requests for proposals and proposals for liability insurance.

I will say that we've had standard liability coverages

through the Vacor Virginia Association of Counties group.

It's a self-insurance pool with local governments for counties throughout Virginia.

And we've had the same insurance coverages for a number of years.

So really what we're looking for is just for a motion approving or allowing me to

I will say if there's anything, and there's nothing that has ever been out of the ordinary, the coverages have been standard over the years.

If something is out of the ordinary, then I'm not going to proceed.

I want to emphasize that the county, along with other authorities, has been picking up the cost of the premiums.

It's not something that comes out of our pocket.

So, I will work with finance and budget if you authorize me to do that.

Is there a motion?

So moved.

Is there a second?

Second.

Alright.

All right, all in favor?

Aye.

All right, you're so author, I thank you.

I'll stay the course.

All right, any other business?

All right, next meeting is May 21.

I'm not sure I can make that one.

What do I do in advance?