City Council Meeting   5/15/2023

Mr. Fairley?

So let's go ahead and get started.

It's four o'clock and we're all here and I will call to order the May 15th, 2023 Charlottesville City Council meeting.

Ms.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I didn't even notice Michael wasn't here.

Well,

He'll be here momentarily.

Okay.

Not here yet, but soon.

Councilor Pinkston?

Here.

Councilor Pierre?

Here.

Here.

Okay.

Is there a motion to approve or to amend the agenda?

So move.

Is there a second?

Second.

Okay.

I guess we get to cast our vote this time.

Please cast your vote.

Hello, everyone.

Let me stop just a second.

I apologize, Michael.

I hadn't noticed.

I looked right past the vacancy.

I didn't mean to start without you.

That is quite all right.

Okay.

Everyone's here.

Fantastic.

So thank you all for having us.

I'm a representative and advisor for Youth Council.

These are some of our students that are here.

Very excited that you all are getting to hear about their adventurous year.

They'll be talking to you.

but a number of activities they both have completed as a youth council including voter registration drives and packing bags for people experiencing homelessness and then they also will talk about some of the things that they've learned I'll often get requests from various organizations saying hey can we have youth perspective on climate can we have youth perspective on homelessness or things like that and so we've had different organizations that have come in and presented to us and so I'm excited for them to come with their presentation to talk about

what they've learned so far and kind of some things they have coming up for the future.

Awesome.

Do you want to introduce?

Yes.

I'm looking for David.

He's back.

Oh, just back there.

Okay, fantastic.

I see it.

Is there?

There it is.

There's a presentation.

Okay.

Fantastic.

All right.

So you all are welcome to come up.

You all remember your order?

Somebody's got to go first.

Someone.

It's ours first.

All right.

Yep.

But there's only a clicker on this side.

Hello, everyone.

I'm Azhar.

Nice to meet you all again.

I was part of the Youth Council member.

We get to

We worked with C3, the Community Climate Collaborative, and they wanted youth representation and youth voices and opinions on how things are going in the city, and they went well as part of their Jedi Ambassadors program and currently

their ambassador for PHA that they are partnering with.

We worked on trying to see on how we can reach out to community and posters and learnt about their programs that they had, other programs like their climate justice ambassadors or their internships for high schoolers so that they could get an opportunity to represent their voices and get a career building from them from the beginning.

We worked with them and they taught us more on the energy equity and all the problems that they had in Charlottesville and as they went through it year by year and solving all of them they taught us about clean transportation and their programs and future plans on trying to keep a clean city and clean transportation especially city buses and everything and home energy

challenges that people faced with either paying bills or over consuming electricity, which they were working on trying to limit for houses that needed them.

Thank you.

Hello everyone, my name is Josie Fishman and the next thing that we did as a part of Youth Council was we heard from a representative from the Albemarle Housing Improvement Program or AHIP and we learned about a number of their campaigns.

The first one is the campaign for safe at home for seniors and that was about how they are helping senior citizens in Charlottesville

with handicap ramps and chairlifts and grab bars and other things to make their homes more safe and accessible for them and another thing that we another campaign that they told us about was the safe at home for children and that was focused on

removing the lead-based paint that they had in many of the older houses in some of the neighborhoods in Charlottesville.

And then the final thing for the Safe at Home campaign was regarding neighbors, and specifically revitalizing neighborhoods, which were the 10th and Page neighborhood, the Orchard Acres, the Orangedale and Prospect neighborhood, and the Belmont neighborhoods.

There it is.

Whatever you did, that was it.

I have to go one more though.

Oh.

That's the issue.

Okay.

All right.

There we go.

Hi, I'm Nava Kurgal and I'm going to talk to you guys about what we did with our bag distribution to people experiencing homelessness.

So we packed bags with necessities such as clothes, tampons, food like ramen that can be packaged for later.

in bags that were water resistant and could be reused for later and we went on the downtown mall and we gave out these bags to people who we thought might need them by asking and receiving and they were all very grateful and while doing that we also

offered the Haven as a resource that they could use as we also gave our leftover bags to the Haven and leftover bags.

We actually had more bags than we could give out that day, which is of course due to time, but it's hopefully a good thing.

And we gave those leftover bags to the Haven and even took some to make sure we could continue our distribution.

and from this experience we got to connect with those in our community who are suffering which is really important on the ground level to treat these people like they are people and to make sure that as youth we start building that connection really is really important so that we can continue to find solutions that all of us can be involved with.

Did I do it?

Hello.

I'm Jasmine.

I'm also obviously part of Youth Council.

So I'm going to be covering the SHE Shelter and why it was important for us to have someone come and talk about it.

So the Shelter for Help in Emergency is a local nonprofit organization, if you didn't know, that provides trauma-informed services to victims of domestic violence.

during our visit from Alex Weathersby we learned that abuse can come in multiple forms and it may not always be recognizable and that's especially why I think that it's really important for youth to have connections to people like that because as like young adults it might not always be

like obvious that you could be like in an abusive relationship and abuse comes in multiple different forms so yeah the She Shelter also offers like education programs to like law enforcement professionals social service people mental health like professionals as well

They also do presentations for civic organizations and faith communities.

And for each month, well not each month, but sometimes they have activities in observance of domestic violence awareness month and teen dating violence awareness month.

And they also, I think as I said before, they do prevention and awareness programs for schools and communities.

So that's why I felt that it was important that we were able to experience

Oops, not too far.

Okay, so my name is Christopher.

I'm also part of the youth council and I'm here to talk about when we did voter registration.

So we went through the public city schools and we got the seniors and those who are going to be eligible to vote in the next election.

We gave them resources and, you know, raised awareness that they can vote and they must use their voice to vote.

So we did

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Gloria, and I'll be talking about the youth street sheet that we created.

From our experiences of meeting people from the said organizations earlier and serving our community, we have decided as a collective to create a youth street sheet that has hotlines, organizations like volunteer opportunities, jobs, and mental health resources that we felt that teens should know to better themselves and their community.

We have organizations like Sarah that was listed earlier, Abundant Life, Girl Scouts, and so much more.

Awesome, okay, so this is, we don't really have like a picture of us, everyone together, but this was a time we were just kind of hanging out and talking to each other, doing some, what's your favorite animal games and favorite movies, we found out that Azar doesn't watch TV, or he says he doesn't, but then he has some other TV references that we know of, so we'll

So I just want to say thank you to our Youth Council members and all their hard work over the past year.

You'll see if you go through the Youth Street Sheet, it's currently like a Google Sheets Excel document so we can update it regularly.

But it will also then be linked to an upcoming sheet, an upcoming website actually, through the Equity Center that has kind of like youth focused programming.

So it's going to be basically like a little link tree that has resources that you can go and view such as 988 and Mental Health Resource Hotline.

Yeah, I think the idea of the youth street sheet is really a great idea and I like, you know, that you did the QR code because I think it would just be easy for the youth to access and because I use the sheet that Ash gave me for adults all the time so I imagine something like that for youth will be really good.

Anyone good?

Is this the young man who doesn't look at TV?

I promise my TV visualization is very limited.

So before coming to Youth Council, I didn't know that Charlottesville had this many resources from Sarah and she and C3 and all these other programs to help to the community.

I thought it was more of like the social services where everybody would go report their problems and they would be taken care of or not.

So I was not aware that there were so much more

that they were like from mental health to like their housing and electricity bills everything was there I was really surprised that Charlottesville even though people call it such a small city has so many resources for youth and it just continuously works and you could see and ask those programs like SHE and C3 and the Transportation District and all these other organizations that were mentioned that they all

had future plans that were just expanding on trying to reach out to the community.

One thing I did know, however, was that there was a city council and the youth council that we could have youth representation and that youth could come and speak to them and still be able to be heard by the adults.

So that was it.

And let me add, you don't have to come only when Mr. Fairley is telling you to come.

Every meeting, whoever wants to speak can speak, okay?

Okay.

I have one quick follow-up.

I'm just curious, when you all approached our residents and housed residents with the bags, what was that interaction like?

Yeah, so most of the residents that we handed out bags to were extremely grateful and I mean even over praised us because what we were doing wasn't that difficult but it's for them it's such a simple act is going to make such a huge impact in their lives and so they're all very grateful and it was a very positive attitude and that's something I've taken away

from Youth Council is seeing the positive attitudes of our different Charlottesville community members from those people who received the bags to people who came in to talk to us because they just want to share what they do.

And with Mr. Fairley too, taking his time to help us even outside of his hours.

Thank you.

I just have a general question.

I don't know anybody can answer.

No formula here.

People keep telling us one of the reasons why we're having problems with violence in the community and so on is there's just not enough stuff for kids to do.

Anybody have any specific suggestions for us?

I feel like the city needs more of a recreational area for kids.

I know like we don't have that many like opportunities for like teens like you know the ice skating rink is now a coding building for UVA which was a place people hung out at.

She's been thinking about that.

It's a question that gets asked a lot in schools because it's a concern that many kids have.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I think going along with that train of thought having recreational activities especially after school and making sure that kids can get to those because right now there's only one five o'clock activity bus for CHS kids which wouldn't be helpful for all sports or clubs and making sure that kids can put in their energy and look to something positive and when they're feeling all of this if they're feeling a negative environment at home

I think helping with the transportation to and from extracurriculars and

Just to add on to the idea of additional recreational spaces, I think that

I think that the Charlottesville skate park is a place that's nice because it is sort of free and kids are allowed to just go there and hang out and it's not structured in the way that like a lot of clubs at school are which sometimes is a little bit scary to kids and I think that having more spaces like that where kids can hang out and be kids and have fun but not be worrying about home lives or engage like

engaging in violence and things like that.

So like Gloria was mentioning the ice skating rink.

Obviously, the ice skating rink no longer exists.

Okay.

Thank you.

I wanted to ask, Mr. Farrelly, if you would organize, work with my office to organize a meeting with the city manager staff and the youth council so that we can hear even more from them, their ideas about what we can do here in Charlottesville.

Absolutely.

All right.

Thank you.

Of course.

No, just looking forward to the students' suggestions.

You know how I am, Daniel.

You'll write it up.

I'm ready.

Fantastic.

I'm happy to hear that.

Awesome.

Thank you all for letting us present today.

We look forward to continuing on in the future.

Okay.

You can stay for an exciting presentation on our economic development plan.

MR. Yes.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Good afternoon, councilors.

It will be a tough act to follow the youth council, but we'll do our best.

Many of you are aware that the city engaged residents consultancy a number of months ago to help develop and update an economic development strategic plan, and today we have them joining virtually.

to give a presentation that will capture the work done to date and give you a look at the draft strategies as they're developing and then we'll seek some feedback from you towards the end either today or

via email or after the fact.

So with that, I'd like to introduce the team and I see them.

We have two folks joining us from Resonance.

Steven Pedego will be leading most of the presentation, I believe.

Steven is

a vice president with residence.

He's also a professor at the University of Texas and well-regarded in urban economic development issues.

And he's joined by Omne Afami, who's the research expert and all-around organizer of their engagements.

And I believe I'll hand it off to Stephen.

You guys should have the ability to advance your slides.

And we can see you.

Don't know.

Okay.

Can't hear you.

Still on mute, Steven.

I think he's out of control at our end.

David is adjusting something.

Yeah.

He says he's not on mute, so it must be something at our end.

Okay, what it appears is he's trying to fix his input because it's going to come from his side.

Yeah, testing one, two, three.

Hey, yes.

Yes.

Okay.

Thank you.

Terrific.

Somebody at the right button.

Yes.

Okay, sounds like we're good to go then.

So good afternoon, y'all.

Good to see you.

Well, can't see you, but good to be with you virtually.

We have spent the last, I guess, almost five months working with Chris and team on this economic development strategy that we're going to share with you all today.

And so as part of today's conversation, what we'll do is, one second, let me get my slides to work again for you here.

There we go.

You guys should see our slides again still.

Okay, great.

What we'll do today is talk a little bit through our project introduction, give you a little sense of how the project has progressed over the last few months throughout the engagement.

We'll then spend some time talking through our research overview and then finally move into talking through the draft strategy that we've developed thus far.

Steven your slides are frozen so we can only see the cover slide I don't think that's me yes now now it's moving that's fine yeah it's not I think there's a delay on the city side actually it's not allowing me to advance my slides for some reason okay I can advance them for you if you don't mind just saying next slide when ready

Yeah, I would rather do that anyway.

So we'll talk to the research introduction, give you a little bit of the overview of the research and then talk about the strategy.

Next slide, please.

So as a reminder, this project was really built over the course of four phases.

Phase one, which was working through a research plan for the project, an engagement plan for the project.

We also worked with Chris and his team to pull together an advisory steering committee

for this project.

So over the course of this project, in addition to presenting to Chris and team and others, we've also had stakeholders from the business community, other community organizations throughout Charlottesville, as well as some of our economic development partners see the research, inform us on the research

but also have an opportunity to provide comments on the strategy that you're going to see today.

So the strategy that you see today will incorporate both the comments that we received from Chris and his team but in addition to that on representatives from that steering committee as well.

So that's kind of phase one.

Phase two, we spent a significant amount of time doing a discovery for this project and there were several pieces of that research project which Anae will walk us through in a second to give you a sense of how we got to informing the strategy.

We then spent a considerable amount of time doing community engagement.

Two pieces to that was a community survey, community and business survey that had really strong representation

in terms of responses.

In addition to that, spent a few days doing community roundtable discussions.

And I think we actually, when Camille and I was there, we met with many of you one-on-one and in person as well.

And then we're now sort of into phase four, which is putting together the strategy.

So walking through our draft strategy, we've done that with Chris and team and our advisory committee, and now we're presenting to y'all for some of your feedback, and then we'll move to our implementation work once we're done through that work.

So let's turn to the next slide.

Thank you, Steven.

So a bit more about phases two and three of the project, the discovery phase of the process.

So during that phase, what we've done was a competitive benchmarking analysis.

This was a comprehensive evaluation of Charlottesville and peer communities across six pillars, ranging from economic vitality to quality of life, just to give us a holistic view

of the performance of Charlottesville across different categories.

We've also done an industry cluster and the career pathway analysis, which was an assessment of the industry and the workforce strengths and opportunities in Charlottesville.

We've also done a real estate and land use review, which was an analysis of the development potential and the future of the built environment for the city.

And this was also tied to the industry cluster work that we've done

so that we can see the development potential as it relates to the different target clusters.

In terms of stakeholder engagement, we've done a community and business survey which was widely distributed and was on the field for around five weeks.

This was a survey for residents and business owners

to gather input on community needs, assets, and economic development priorities.

And then as Stephen mentioned, Stephen and our stakeholder engagement facilitator Camille were on the ground in Charlottesville for three days holding round table discussions with more than 80 community members and meeting with you all.

I know.

We provided all summaries of all of that research to Chris and team, and you guys can take a look at, can share those appendixes if you'd like.

But what we'll do now is just summarize some of the key insights of that research as it's led to us to the foundation for the strategy work.

Next slide, please.

Next slide.

So we've got 10 key takeaways that drive the strategic work.

First and foremost is that Charlottesville is a diverse and young community with an authentic small town charm.

So about 51,000 residents in town.

This has grown about 3%, which is on par with how the Commonwealth and the U.S.

have both grown in terms of their population growth.

In addition to looking at the population growth, Charlottesville is also a quite diverse town.

So about 35% of the residents in Charlottesville are people of color.

And a lot of the things that we heard throughout our engagement is that in addition to being a young and diverse town, there's a lot of great small town authentic charm and place making assets that are really relevant to the identity of who Charlottesville is.

Thanks, Scott, please.

Charlottesville is home to a highly skilled workforce, a variety of industries and a really strong, healthy economy.

So one of the things that jumps out to us is how highly educated the city of residents in Charlottesville are.

About 72% of residents, excuse me, 72% higher share of residents have a bachelor's degree or higher than the U.S.

average.

About a third of the workforce is employed in knowledge-based industries.

Obviously, this is with the strong presence of UVA.

And then by all accounts, when you look at all the metrics by which you would evaluate a regional and city economy, there's strong performance on those indicators.

So a very productive workforce, low unemployment, steady job growth, and a very high labor participation rate as well.

Next slide, please.

Charlottesville has competitive industry sectors, a strong foundation for our economic development strategy going forward, and Amanda's going to spend some time in a bit talking a little bit about those specific capabilities, but really strong export sectors and defense and life sciences and business services and tourism.

Those sectors collectively employ about 13,000 employees, and that's what we would

consider your sort of export or traded based sector economy, which really provide the foundation by which we think through how we build around competitive economic development strategies look into the future.

Next slide, please.

Charlottesville's got the opportunity to really lead in life sciences and clean technology.

Obviously, these are two sectors that are growing quite fast for the country.

But in addition to that, there are really strong assets and associations in Charlottesville to support the growth of these sectors locally as well, both with two strong trade associations as well as the UVA providing a really strong foundation

and health sciences and a lot of the initial research as it relates to clean technology as well.

So really great, again, portfolios in terms of export-based clusters to which drive our economy and really become a foundation to the economic development strategy work.

Next slide.

Charlottesville has a strong asset in UVA continuing to build out that partnerships essential for economic development obviously being a college town having a really strong relationship and a positive relationship with your anchor institution is really important I mean you'll see that we have made this an important part of our strategy when we get to the strategic plan in a bit next slide please

In addition, while we have a strong innovation-based economy, it's important to think through how we're thinking about inclusivity as it relates to Charlottesville.

So while there's a lot of opportunity in terms of the knowledge-based sector, it's a highly skilled population, there are gaps as it relates to

earnings, poverty, and educational attainment levels between white and BIPOC populations.

So you'll see that we've put a considerable amount of effort and thought into how we can approach those challenges in our economic development strategy that you'll see in just a bit as well.

Next slide.

Charlottesville has a very strong and growing diverse entrepreneurial community.

So about seven in 10 businesses in Charlottesville are actually small businesses.

They are an important part to the identity of who Charlottesville is

And there's an opportunity for us to think about how we utilize entrepreneurship to support diversity and inclusion and equity in Charlottesville as well.

And so you'll see that it becomes a real pillar for us as we think about how to create community wealth in our community going forward as well.

Next slide.

Charlottesville can bridge equity gaps through innovative workforce development.

So in addition to tackling our equity gaps through entrepreneurship, we can also do that through innovative workforce development programs.

And so really having an emphasis on skill development.

BIPOC employment is concentrated currently in a lot of lower paying occupations.

So some of the original some of the work that we did to address that is through some of its career pathways research that I mentioned earlier.

So using that work to guide some of our recommendations as it relates to workforce development is going to be a key part to Charlottesville economic development strategy.

So when we think about economic development today, particularly just broadly speaking, it can't just be about business attraction or even business expansion.

There has to be a workforce development piece to that, and you'll see that in your strategy as well.

Next slide, please.

You know, while there's a lot of great assets in Charlottesville as it relates to building an economic development strategy upon, generally speaking, the economic development story is one that is largely untold.

Still needing an effort to support communication assets around economic development.

You know, Economic Development 101 says that storytelling is a really important part to

communicating our business climate and what our strengths are and our capabilities.

And so really you'll see that as we move to the strategy, that is a focus of our work going forward as well.

Next slide, please.

And then finally, there's a lot of terrific quality of place assets in Charlottesville.

A lot of things from, you know, great quality of place in terms of amenities, family-owned eateries, restaurants, activities and festivals.

But one of the things that can continue to be thought about and sort of continue to be reimagined is how do we complement those with new placemaking strategies to support a lot of the efforts that are happening as it relates to destination development.

So with that, those are sort of the 10 key takeaways.

We'll turn now to talking a little bit about our industry sectors before we move to the strategy work.

Thank you.

Next slide, please.

So there are six target clusters that form the economic portfolio for Charlottesville.

One of them is bioscience and life sciences.

This cluster is a strong contributor to the economy in Charlottesville, and it has a strong asset in the UEVA Medical Center and the Charlottesville Biohub as well.

Charlottesville has this particular specialization in research and development, as well as device manufacturing.

Another important cluster in Charlottesville is information technology.

This is actually the fastest growing clusters among all of those we studied.

It's highly educated and offers competitive earnings.

So as we think of talent attraction, we have an edge there.

It also builds on Virginia's only citywide technology zone in Charlottesville.

And there's a particular specialization in software and app development.

Business and financial services is another important cluster in Charlottesville.

It's fast growing and it's also forecasted to grow even faster in the future.

It's a cluster that has high racial diversity and it also is dependent on local supply chains, so it's quite sustainable and resilient in that sense.

There are a number of important companies in Charlottesville and there's a particular specialization in financial services.

Defense and Security is a legacy cluster, of course.

There's a strong competitive advantage in the region.

It builds on the highly educated workforce and it's a major exporting cluster.

Of course, we're benefiting here from the strategic location of the city and the major companies that are in the city.

Our particular specialization is, of course, around instrument manufacturing.

Tourism is our largest cluster in terms of employment.

It has high gender diversity, it has a very skilled workforce in what they do, and a high share of exports, of course, because it draws in a lot of out-of-region dollars.

Of course, we're building on all of the tourism assets that we've got, whether it's the UNESCO World Heritage sites, the wineries, breweries, as well as the arts and cultural facilities.

and then finally clean technology.

This is a cluster that has a large employment base.

It is a significant contributor to the economy.

It's supported by the work of the Renewable Energy Alliance.

And there's a specific specialization in sustainable energy.

Thank you.

Next slide, please.

So we're going to talk a little bit about, we're going to give you an overview of how we'll approach the strategy.

So next slide please.

So the parts of the strategy that we're going to share with you today is an overall vision statement that's going to guide economic development, our desired goals, and our strategies associated with those goals, or how do we activate on those goals.

Part of the strategy that you want to see today is actually around the action plan or the implementation plan.

We're in the process of working with Chris, but once we've got approval on our strategy and our direction, we'll come back and

to finalize the implementation plan and what the metrics and resources and action steps look like.

But we're going to talk about the first three pieces of this today.

Next slide, please.

So a vision statement.

A cultural and creative capital of Virginia, Charlottesville treasures its people and diversity, a leader in innovation and sustainability.

It's a nice strong vision statement to guide our economic development work to be kind of a future vision that we hope to achieve out of our economic development strategy.

I'll read it one more time.

A cultural and creative capital of Virginia, Charlottesville treasures its people and diversity, a leader in sustainability and innovation.

Next slide, please.

In terms of the strategy, we've built the strategy around five goals, and we'll provide an overview of these goals, and then we'll talk about each of them in detail.

The goal one is around equitable entrepreneurship.

We will invest in entrepreneurship to grow a more diverse, equitable, and vibrant Charlottesville.

Goal two is intentional and innovative growth.

We will build an innovative economy, one that values intentional growth, value-added partnerships, and sustainability for tomorrow.

Goal three is pathways for opportunity.

We will create pathways of opportunity, creating opportunity for all Charlottesville residents.

Goal four is around creative placemaking.

We will invest in placemaking to celebrate Charlottesville's creativity and culture.

And goal five is around storytelling for investment.

We will position Charlottesville as a community open for investment.

Next slide, please.

So goal one, equitable entrepreneurship.

We'll invest in entrepreneurship to grow a more diverse, equitable environment in Charlottesville.

Why does it matter?

A vibrant, inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem is important for supporting a diverse group of entrepreneurs, particularly as relates to both local and export sectors.

And through this type of economic development support, we can provide opportunity for underserved businesses, creating an opportunity for wealth generation and creating greater shared prosperity.

Next slide.

So how will we achieve this?

We've outlined eight strategies to do this.

First, partnering to grow Charlottesville's BIPOC and diverse businesses.

And you'll see that we've expanded the definition by which we define diverse businesses to include LGBT businesses, women-owned business, veteran-owned business, BIPOC businesses through technical training, capital access, and networking.

Strategy 1.2 is establishing a one-stop hub, website or app for support services, culturally sensitive resources on how to navigate city's processes.

But one of the things that we heard in our discussions with a lot of entrepreneurs is the idea that there's a lot of terrific resources in Charlottesville, but needing to create a place where they're all uphoused in one area.

It's a century located hub.

Strategy 1.3 is supporting home-based businesses, entrepreneurship, and remote work.

Strategy 1.4 is growing the GO startup initiative, setting goals for diverse participants.

Again, this is already expanding on a terrific program that's working and been quite effective in Charlottesville, but doing a bit more to expand it and have really targeted goals for participation and who's participating in those programs.

Strategy 1.5 is continuing the business equity fund program.

Strategy 1.6 is exploring the creation of a subsidized shared commercial space on or near the downtown hall.

The idea of being able to create a space where entrepreneurs could come together and sort of test the market, so to speak, for products and services is the idea around a shared space.

Strategy 1.7 is continuing to support a partner ESO for program funding.

And strategy 1.8 is promoting and telling the story of Charlottesville's diverse entrepreneurs.

Next slide, please.

So how do we measure this?

Metrics that we'll look to as evaluation metrics, KPI metrics, business formation by background, understanding how firms, who are starting firms and how we manage, how those firms are being, how those firms are growing, looking at the number of businesses, both home-based businesses and small businesses that are participating in our programs, looking at the entrepreneurs that are receiving the capital dollars and the funding initiatives that we're providing, and then thinking through about the number of entrepreneurs and who we're promoting as part of telling our story.

Next slide.

So then that moves us to goal two, which is much more of our, I would suggest, our traditional economic development outreach as we would think about business attracting or expansion goal.

So intentional and innovative growth, we will build an innovative economy, one that values intentional growth and value-added partnerships and sustainability for the future.

Again, this is about creating business opportunity, investing in those export-based businesses, creating those partnerships that are really important with our

Anchor Institution and UVA and others as well to grow that opportunity, that capacity in our innovative based economy.

Next slide.

So how do we do that?

We've outlined seven strategies to do that.

First is continuing to execute a business retention program, one that's measured and has real metrics and using that program to understand the needs of our business and our business community.

Two is to continue our the work that Chris and his team is doing with his partners at the Commonwealth and other regional partners around how do we attract in private sector investment on decision makers into the region.

Goal 2.3 is focusing in partnership with our industry associations on efforts to really focus on our scalable technology-based businesses.

So this is the efforts that are happening around life sciences and clean technology, for instance, in the associations that we mentioned earlier.

Strategy 2.4 is ensuring that we're aligning policy and planning and future redevelopment opportunities to support those industries and the need, the growth of those industries.

particularly what are some of the commercial space needs that those will have 2.5 is continuing to expand our Seville math program 2.6 is strengthening our partners our partnerships with the county UVA and others to advance our initiatives and then 2.7 is thinking about how we can use publicly owned land and public private partnerships to support you know quality job development investment in housing options that Charlottesville will need for the future

How will we measure that, if you'll go to the next slide?

The metrics to think through there are measuring the number of, counting the number of businesses that we're measuring, visiting, understanding how we're seeing new business development happening around the types of businesses both by total and by cluster, looking at the job creation that's associated with that.

Having those metrics over time, we can also do an economic impact analysis, looking at our CBO match program, then also understanding the number of outside site selectors that we're engaging, investors that we're engaging in their interest in our community as well.

Go to the next slide, please.

So goal three is around creating pathways.

This is again, how do we tackle our opportunity gaps and doing this through providing really aligned, industry aligned workforce development opportunities.

So we will create pathways of opportunity, creating opportunity for all Charlottesville residents

In doing this, we can meet the needs of our business to ensure they've got the talent pipelines necessary, but also, again, creating opportunity for residents to fully participate in the innovative economy that we're growing in Charlottesville.

To do that, we've outlined a series of strategies.

Go to the next slide, please.

We've got eight strategies as it relates to our pathway work.

So one is just continuing to educate private sector leaders on the importance of workforce development and why they should be thinking about this in partnership with the city and the county and its partners.

Two is leading some efforts to really think about how we take the earn and learn model and map that with our Charlottesville's export and tech sectors, particularly around clean technology, software and life sciences.

Working with workforce partners on strategy 3.3 around a healthcare initiative to create opportunities for healthcare.

3.4 is continuing to scale our Go Cook program that's been really successful, but also thinking about how we can link that and resources that are needed to help grow and scale enterprises in Charlottesville as it relates to our restaurant industry.

3.5 is partnering with our schools to align industry programming as it relates to our growth sectors.

3.6 is expanding our GoHire program to focus on underserved enterprises and the needs of underserved enterprises.

3.7 is advocating for leadership opportunities for BIPOC and underserved and up and coming leaders.

So this question, if

One of the things, if we want to really hold on to talent in Charlottesville, creating opportunities for public engagement for our young leaders, diverse leaders, to really have a great stickiness in the community, so to speak.

And then 3.8 is continuing to support the outline of the priorities that you've outlined in your comprehensive plan and affordable housing plan to ensure that we're creating the types of housing that's necessary to support residents that are going to be living and working in our community as well.

So we'll go to the next slide to talk about how to measure that.

So measuring that is looking through the number of program participants, the number of training programs that we're creating, the share of BIPOC residents, and looking also at the number of our, looking at our per capita income to see how that's changing over time as well.

Let's go to goal four.

The goal four is really around placemaking and that is we will invest in placemaking to celebrate Charlottesville creativity and culture.

Why do we want to do that?

Obviously, placemaking and destination development is important for visitor attraction, but it's also very important for resident retention and happiness and all the things that come with great quality of place, lovability, all that jazz as we talk about and why placemaking matters.

So then we'll go to the strategies for that goal, the next strategy.

So we've outlined five strategies there.

First and foremost is collaboratively re-imagining with stakeholders around the historic downtown mall and a retail strategy to support that.

4.2 is working to think about how we can support and make Charlottesville an even more welcoming community through a welcoming initiative.

4.3 is working to help support the rising professional program with the chamber supports.

Goal 4.4 is working with our destination marketing organization in Charlottesville to continue to support the efforts that they do to grow our destination assets and support our destination community and our destination economy.

And 4.5 is continuing to maintain, provide, and promote innovative parking solutions because I know parking is a key element of the Economic Development Department as service that Chris and team provide as well.

We go to how to measure our impact around placemaking, number of visitors, the number of events that we're doing, how are we achieving our stickiness in terms of residents that target age of 24 to 34 year old, and the new types of investments that are happening both in the entertainment and hospitality space as well.

So then we'll go to the final goal, which is around storytelling for future.

And that is investing and ensuring that we're positioning Charlottesville as a place that's open for investment.

Again, storytelling and marketing, a central foundational element of economic development to ensure that you're getting sort of the bang for your buck in, so to speak, of all the investments that you're making in the community when we want to be telling that story.

So how do we activate on that?

Go to the next slide.

We've got four strategies there.

So one is thinking through a real competitive identity for Charlottesville's economic development efforts.

What is our story and how do we want to communicate it?

5.2 is after we've got that identity and that essence is really updating all of our promotional materials to represent that, as well as updating all the materials that you have online with all the great research that Renee and our team has done as it relates to support the strategy.

So that's everything from updating our website to our investor pitches to our target profiles.

Strategy 5.3 is that ensuring that we've got the right type of technology infrastructure to support that, particularly a really strong robust CRM system that can support our business visitation program.

in our LEADS program.

And then 5.4 is after we've created all those materials, we do all the work that we're doing, this strategy, continuing to ensure that we've got a really strong, robust communication and marketing plan and effort to really support and tell the story as it relates to what's happening in economic development for residents, for you all as policymakers, but also our business stakeholders and community stakeholders as well.

How do we measure success there is the next slide.

So we'll do that through looking at website visitors, engagement around social media, all the things that are media placements, all as it relates to our visibility in the press, as well as our online visibility.

So then get to the next slide, just as a final recap, again, you know, sort of five goals to really to ground this strategy.

One is that as we advance economic development efforts in Charlottesville, we want to really be centered on

promoting equitable entrepreneurship, growing a diverse entrepreneurship community as a means to represent who Charlottesville is, but also as a wealth creation opportunity for shared value to really focusing on how we're intentional about growing our innovation based economy and establishing the partnerships and efforts around that to do that.

Goal three again is a reminder is about creating the pathways the workforce development opportunities to match residents and skills with the industry that we're growing in Charlottesville ensuring that we don't have a mismatch but are really leveraging the opportunities to create opportunity for all residents in Charlottesville Goal four is around place making again continue to build off all the strong efforts that Charlottesville has been really known for in terms of its downtown core

but continue to elevate that and refresh that and keep that always as a focus going forward because destination development and place elements is such an important part for economic development today.

And then finally, as you do all four of these efforts, as you build out entrepreneurship, as you grow an innovation-based economy, as you create the opportunities for workforce and do all the things that make Charlottesville a great place, you've got to tell the story.

You've got to invest in the marketing communications efforts to support that.

So really positioning community open for investment and investing in the marketing efforts for that.

So with that, we've kind of hopefully haven't drank too much from a fire hydrant, but that's a bit of the recap of the strategy.

Thank you for that.

That's a great question.

I'm not sure who just asked the question, but we have a draft of that actually with Chris already.

Chris has already seen that.

We're actually going to be walking through that action matrix on, I believe, the calls for Thursday.

Yeah, good question.

One of the challenges we've presented to the consultants is to present us with data metrics that are attainable, that don't cost us an arm and a leg, so to speak, so freely available data that is readily available annually so that we can use that as a starting point for measuring progress on each of these.

like 10% or 5% increase of GDP for this area.

Is that what sort of ways in looking at you as well as the consultants?

I mean, is it?

I guess you've identified sort of more micro level metrics in ways of telling if things have gotten better, so to speak.

Are there any sort of larger scale things we could measure in terms of relationships with the university or with the county or just looking at economic activity of this region and how it grows?

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, so thanks, Councilmember.

Those are some great questions.

I think the way that I think about KPI metrics, I mean, I kind of think about KPI metrics kind of in two buckets, right?

One is I think the larger what you're asking are big picture metrics, which are those larger outcome metrics.

and so as over the course of five years you know how many jobs do we create in life sciences how many jobs do we see that are created in software technology how many residents that are 25 to 34 year olds that have stuck around or sticking around how many residents are participated in our training programs for me those are big outcome metrics or what's the share of our BIPOC population that is that is that is still in the city and maybe we haven't seen a decline there so we've outlined some of those key metrics as as as

is part of the KPI plan.

We're going to work with Chris to refine that list on Thursday.

So there's those metrics.

But in addition to that, I think you're hitting on another really important point in terms of metrics.

And those are those kind of in-process metrics.

And that is the number of folks that are participating in our programs.

How do we review our relationship

with the university and how are we achieving that relationship, our relationship with the county, our relationship with our visit group, all of those also play into the importance of that as well.

So, you know, as we're working through the implementation plan, I sort of think about

Yep, the goal is to allow you all to fish.

Yeah, so it's to set up a plan, to work with Chris and team to identify the right data, to refine the right types of traffic metrics, to build out a really clear implementation plan.

So an implementation plan saying, this is what we're going to do in year one, this is what we're going to do in year two, year three, et cetera, et cetera.

And then to hand that over to Chris and to have Chris and team implement this plan.

You know, so that, you know, Chris and team and others have been doing, they're professional economic developers.

It's got a stand-up team.

They'll do great work.

Got it.

And it seems like, Chris, a lot of this is going to involve, like, working with workforce development initiatives, I guess, in the area and strengthening connections with the university.

I know they've got a new bio...

Yes, if you look through all of the various, the big goals as well as the strategies, there's an element of partnership built in and economic development, as you've heard mentioned before, it's not a solo game.

And we as a small city in a larger region have always been a participant in regional economic development with the Central Virginia Partnership, with the Chamber,

with a lot of other entities.

So there's elements that our group, our office of five will lead, and then there's things that we'll partner on and things that we'll support on going through.

So there's a mix of all of those, but heavy on the partnerships for many of those engagements.

Yeah, and that's one of the reasons that they were, you know, to build off that point.

It's one of the reasons that all of those partners that Chris just outlined have been engaged in this process.

So to Chris's credit and team's credit, they built out a robust steering committee that had all representation from the university, from

The workforce partners from the county visit organization as well to all be engaged in this process.

And so they've seen this strategy as well.

So this will not all come as a surprise.

When was the last time we had a plan?

Far too long ago.

We have not had a consultant in my time with the city.

I've been with the city 18 years.

We did an internal plan.

Not to say we didn't have a plan at all.

We did an internal plan around 2009, 2010, and then we have updated that.

ourselves throughout the years.

When we ran into COVID, we created a separate plan that sought to address specifics related to that.

That was called Recovery Roadmap.

You might remember that.

But this is the first time in a while.

When Mr. Rogers came to the city and we met for the first few times, he asked about that and said, it's time.

Do you think it's time?

And I said, yes, it is.

It's time.

and so we've engaged consultants to help for the first time in a while.

It is helpful in many ways.

You saw just 45 slides.

There's 145 slides in the appendices that I'd be happy to share and will become ultimately a part of the report in terms of the research that was done.

So that's a level of detail and deep dive that we've not been able to take in a number of years.

So I just have a couple of comments.

One, I like what you're saying about creative placemaking and, you know, the diverse economic base.

I think the public really should see that because I think, and we are primarily a big university town, but it is all spurts a lot of

of those tech type of industries that you mentioned.

And I'm glad that Chris kind of has a whirl in both of these because we're both on the visitors tourism board.

And when we're there, it seems like we're primarily talking about getting visitors to stay two or three nights or an extra night.

And of course, when I think of economic development, I'm thinking of two to three

for decades or more, you know, a lot longer, a lot more substantial than that.

But I think that they definitely can merge because a lot of people come here because of they want to visit, you know, some of the things that you had mentioned.

I think that it's great.

So I'm glad that, you know, Chris is able to talk about what we're doing on that board and how it can tie into the larger city.

and when we talk during the kind of focus groups and individual that you know I talked about the work that I that's going on in Denver it seemed like they're doing I can't think of the cute town in South Carolina that Greenville Greenville I think that y'all said y'all did the plan for it we did we did the plan for Greenville Greenville is rocking you know what they're doing down there and I think that if we could

you know get some insights of some of the things that they're doing down there here I think would really be good I know that they have some growing pains and things as well but I think that they seem to have beginning a good formula so that's all I have to say I look forward to this where you're right we really need a game plan on how we to grow but I'm glad that the board

when we looked at the project a few months ago for like New Hill development how that's going to spur a lot of the smaller businesses that could potentially grow into really bigger businesses.

So thank you all.

Looking forward to more of the information on this.

Thank you for your presentation.

looked at the slides that we had earlier prior to today and I'm glad to know that your action plan is going to address some of the potential metrics in goal one because my concern is having small businesses, having diversity, but making sure that

that not only are they visible but that they are sustainable.

It's one thing for me to open a business today and we all know that it's a two to three year time frame before businesses are going to net a profit and what are we going to do to ensure that these businesses remain and how are we going to show our community that we are committed to inclusion.

You have your metrics and you have stated what your diversity will be, but how are the businesses going to have the necessary funding?

What is the action plan going to be?

What are the support mechanisms that are going to be there?

and at what point do you have serious conversations with businesses about their viability before they launch or midstream if the viability changes what are we doing to help them make the necessary shifts because small businesses are important

and they are different from corporations and box stores and things that have monies and things available that a small entrepreneur won't have and if you're encouraging people to do this because you're encouraging people to remain in the community but we don't have the foundation or the support mechanism then all of the money that you've spent with

If I could offer just a quick comment.

I think your comment about sustainability is important.

And to speak to that recently launched, the Envision grant program with United Way supported by the county as well as the city is an effort to grab those businesses that are in place, maybe they're in their second year, the grant set up to help folks that have been around at least two years get to that third, fourth and fifth year, which are critical.

We recognize that as a gap.

There's a lot of resources around starting.

We have some of those internally.

The Small Business Development Center and other colleagues in town have other resources, but there was a little bit of a gap or a cliff that happened after a year or two.

And so that's one mechanism where it's a partnership to the other point about we're not going to be able to do everything.

So just wanted to make that comment.

One question, you made reference to developing a more inclusive economy.

Not in detail.

I don't know if Stephen wants to talk to any at the moment, but we are meeting to kind of flesh out that next and final phase of the engagement that will have more detailed metrics about growth.

The challenge is in a small community, as you further segment the business owner types, you get to a point where

There's less and less data that's valid.

So that becomes a challenge.

We're trying to avoid having to purchase data or do extensive surveys.

That's another way to get at it.

Well, yeah, a couple comments.

I think there's a lot of good stuff in here, but I continue to think we need to be more explicit as one of the top goals, having a strategy for community wealth building, which I don't just say to say.

I think this is something a lot of localities are looking at.

Richmond's created an office of community wealth building.

Burlington and Oakland have made significant progress here.

and thinking about how that connects to some of the things you mentioned like workforce development, GO programs, but how could that connect as part of an even bigger picture strategy around community development corporations, community development financial institutions that are opening up wealth building to everyone in the community, which I say because we're all aware of them but we see the statistics on the level of wealth, income gaps, lack of economic mobility,

I think we just have to tie that into our economic development plan more explicitly and have some of the metrics we look at for success the income and wealth gaps in our community by race or the orange dots report measure of economic mobility in our city and being able to see five years from now is it getting worse better changing and I think

A strategy for community wealth building I think would just be extremely important for us to try to hit that.

So again, to me that's the biggest thing is having that more explicit as a top goal.

Two, having some of the metrics being wealth and income gaps, the measure of economic mobility in our community.

are the biggest points for me.

And a third, much smaller one, and maybe it'll get to the action items, is if HUD Section 3 will be incorporated into economic development in any way, which I know is just one smaller thing where I think there could be some opportunities for wealth building.

But again, I think there's a lot of good things in it.

I just wonder if there's a way to elevate those things in a more systematic way.

But appreciate all the work.

And I would just say first to echo thanks for the work that is not quite yet done, but moving right along.

I am

I'm conscious of the fact that our economic development activities, I shouldn't say, that the development of the economy in our area is distinguished from your activities.

But the way that our economy is developing, there are a number of different critical variables at different points in the development of a company.

For the very beginning, first year, second year, maybe access to capital.

Third year if you're looking at continued expansion it may be having to get a whole new management team.

There are also issues of space.

How do you go from being a 3,000 square foot office or store to being a 10,000 square foot place where we may not have many 10,000 square feet facilities available.

I'm wondering on the latter point whether

Yeah, we think about it all the time.

Space is one of the key questions we get from new and growing companies here.

Ten square miles is not much, and 70% of it is in residential, and that's unlikely to change, only to get more dense, most likely.

So we're very limited, which is why we participate regionally, and a company that lands in Green or Louisa or Albemarle County can provide and does provide jobs for us.

Our next speaker is going to speak about the defense industry, which

is located in the county not mostly in the city anymore but there's there's obviously a benefit from that so you know we're not able to grow more land so there's not really a solution there but we do need to use it as best we can and you know part of the process with the comp plan and the rezoning is looking at

what limited kind of industrial light industrial we don't really have heavy industrial anymore but light industrial preserving that to the extent that we can preserving business opportunity mixed-use opportunity by and large most of our businesses are located in mixed-use areas now and that works for most of them but doesn't work for all of them so the ones that it doesn't work for by virtue of the zoning and or market forces

They end up moving out of the city.

And that's an unfortunate circumstance.

I don't have a way to solve that.

I don't know that Stephen would offer one either, but, you know, that's our situation as we're in right now.

I think Chris is exactly right so that is the thing that is that you have to think regionally as it relates to this that this question about space and the space that we have obviously in the city you've got 10 square miles so as we think about the growth of some of these export sectors thinking about how we think regionally particularly the relationship with our county and the potential spillover effects and opportunities that creates our current residents is one way to do that

I will say, as part of this work, we did do a real estate assessment as well, ensuring that we were looking at the space and the space needs for the growth sectors that are recommended, and that work will be included in this strategy as well.

So we have done some of the initial thinking of that, but Chris is right.

Okay.

Yes.

Thank you, Stephen.

I'm Nate.

Thank you for your feedback.

We really appreciate it.

Yep.

All right.

So our next speaker is Leti Bien.

She's the Defense Affairs Coordinator for the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce.

She's a retired colonel from the Army.

And she has been working in this space on behalf of the Chamber for a number of years.

and one of the initiatives that has long been desired was a locally done economic impact analysis of the industry, the defense sector writ large.

So that has been done.

It is voluminous and we won't bore you with the hundred pages, but Leti's going to try and condense it for you in a manner that is digestible and answer any questions that you may have.

She has a presentation that just appeared.

Thank you, David.

And I think she's going to guide her own slides with

Greetings, everyone.

Thank you for having me very much.

A little note of personal privilege, I wanted to thank Mr. Sanders for attending the Our Community Salutes event we had last Saturday, where we recognized all of our high school students graduating and going into the various services.

I hope you enjoyed yourself, sir.

I'm here today to sort of

It's kind of an extension of what we just heard.

I'm addressing one of those legacy sectors, and that's the defense community.

Let's see.

Which one am I pressing?

That one?

Everyone's clickers are different.

Is that the middle?

Thank you.

So what was the motivation behind us doing this?

It was the state has been doing economic impact studies on this sector.

Obviously defense in Virginia is significant, particularly in Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads area, Norfolk and all of that.

And they put us into a region that goes all the way up to Manassas and down past Lynchburg when they were doing their economic impact studies on the defense community.

I saw our numbers.

I knew they were significantly low.

Things were not included that I've come to know are part of the defense community here.

And so we decided, as Chris mentioned, that we needed to do an impact study specifically for our area.

and so we knew we could ferret out a bunch of hidden, if you will, hidden aspects of the defense industry including startups, patents, private sector and whatnot.

And then at the end of the day, because we think it's so important, was engaging the community on this sector and how it impacts everything we do.

The study included the City of Charlottesville, Albemarle County, and Greene.

And as we've been talking, you've been hearing a lot about partnerships and regional size and all that.

And so we included those three because those are the three that have been very involved with the Chamber's Defense Affairs Committee, and that's where the bulk of all of this information would come from.

So we talk about partnerships.

and there we go.

So thank you to the city of Charlottesville, Albemarle County and UVA Foundation along with the city ponied up the funds for that economic impact study.

It was done by the Weldon Cooper Center and we received it about a month or so ago but we've been hesitant until we had everybody that was engaged briefed before we sort of have now put it out there.

and so just want to thank everybody.

Thank you very much, everyone.

You have a slow clicker.

Now it's going to go backwards, I bet.

So what does the study cover?

I don't think it's a hundred and something pages, but it's about

60 pages, but less than the one you just heard from.

So the study gives a full description of the defense community as they identified it, the history, the size, the growth, and some of the features associated.

It zeroed in on 2021.

And I might remind you, 2021 was still a COVID year.

It also talked about the community benefits in terms of quality of life and safety and volunteerism and innovation.

because you have folks within that community that do a lot of volunteerism, if you will.

They're active in their churches.

With SBCA, they coach Little League and do all of that stuff.

So what was considered the defense industry for purposes of the study we did?

And I'm hoping that residents will get a copy of this so they can look at it as well.

But of course, Rivanna Station, which, as you know, is in the county.

We looked at DOD contracts in the region.

And that was important because we found that there were quite a few here within the city limits that are doing defense work, not necessarily with Rivanna Station.

We looked at the Judge Advocate General Legal Center and School, which, as you know, is on the grounds of UVA.

And then within the University of Virginia, we looked at their contracts and grants, their active duty military, their startups.

We looked at veterans.

We looked at reserve and National Guard that are located here in the community.

And then we looked at other things that, I mean, we dug down as deep as we possibly could.

So that was where we were with identifying of study.

So unemployment impacts, the largest percentage of employment impact, it comes out of what happens at Ravanna Station.

Let's face it, the defense industry here has been quiet, so quiet.

I mean, even the janitor at Rivanna Station will not tell you what he does.

I can tell you from personal experience, it's harder to get into Rivanna Station than it is CIA headquarters.

So, you know, our secret squirrels over there, everyone is so quiet about what they do that the vision from everybody

in the community is that it's not that big, that it's not that important.

Everyone goes, oh, you know, that place up and off 29, and then, okay, the JAG school, and, you know, that's about it.

But we have found, in fact, it is quite large.

How do I get back?

This one?

Oh, there we go.

This one's important for the city and for a number of reasons.

The 18 local companies here with 71 grants from 2012 to 2021, the majority of them are located in the city limits.

and that I think is important and that's doing research and development under the DOD umbrella, Department of Defense umbrella, so the SBIR, the STTR,

SBIR, they're highly competitive programs.

They encourage small domestic companies, usually with a requirement that they be veteran-owned, minority-owned, women-owned, to do research and development with the potential for what they come up with to be commercialized.

You have a company right here in Charlottesville that

incredibly did not even show up in the study, and we'll get to that in a moment, Luna Labs, they have these, they've been, they're right around the corner, you know of Luna Labs, and they have 65 employees, they used to be, and I think the reason they didn't show up is because they were originally, and this is very interesting, and why I think we're still under our numbers,

Luna Labs headquartered was in Roanoke with six employees.

All the work was done here in the city of Charlottesville with 65 employees.

So if you went into the Federal Register and you didn't look up by zip code where the work was being done, all you're seeing is all their contracts, all their grant money accounts for Roanoke.

and so that in fact is not the case.

Well they became independent now that's just Luna Labs and it's just a Charlottesville company.

So this is pretty important with regard to what you have here and so with all of this taking it into account what does our number look like and you saw earlier that my big reveal is it was this number.

So as my husband likes to say, 1,200 million, because people can sort of absorb million over billion.

And actually, it was 1.2 and change, like 1.2818.

That is the economic impact of the defense sector in our region in 2021, one year.

And I think that is pretty darn significant.

So what did it account for?

We just heard from the prior consultant that he mentioned 13,000 jobs in the three different sectors.

Well, of those 13,000, we've identified more than half are in this sector.

7,300 are in this sector for a total of the $1.2 billion output.

And so what we always thought was tourism and hospitality as being the second largest

Industry after the whole University of Virginia.

In fact, this is hundreds of millions of dollars more than that.

And so it becomes the second highest economic engine in our region.

And let's face it, people who work in the city in JAG school, they live in Forest Lakes.

And people who work at Ravana live in Charlottesville.

These folks do not look at the city limits and the county limits.

They live where they

They want to live and they work then within this industry.

Well, I usually start this out by saying if you're going to ask me about any of the numbers, I'm the wrong person to ask.

I'm just the cute face up here, you know.

Weldon Cooper Center does all that.

So value added equals the difference between an industry's grossed output, and that's like

Not including labor.

Okay.

But, and I've asked the Wells and Cooper Center, if I add the 618 in labor,

You get 1.4.

How does that happen?

And I was a deer in headlights as he explained to me the numbers.

But first of all, it's $831 million, not just $831.

Yes.

Okay.

And so I get the concept of value added.

Oh, yes.

I'm glad you pointed that out.

That's an error in my slide.

And I still am presenting this to some other folks.

So thank you very much, Mr. Snook.

and so at the very beginning I had said we showed you this the motivation and then the question is now what do we do with all this information I mean I can assure you that workforce is an issue on both scales so for example Northrop Grumman will hire people right out of high school to become assembly people with the ability to move up but he has a hard time getting them to do that to apply

and so we've got to get that word out on the other on the other side at the high end where you're talking about

the folks who are working intelligence and engineering and all that you have the high end and I think there's everything in between that's here and workforce has been a discussion here and it's the same thing even within the defense industry but it's interesting because the defense industry doesn't even know who each other are and if someone comes out of UVA and goes to work for say Northrop Grumman and after a year or two or three decides that they want to

You know, they think they have to go to Northern Virginia to find the next level of job instead of staying here.

You're talking about people who are making significant money that's important to our small businesses and everything else that we have here.

And so there is a communication issue even at the base level.

So, you know, if the goal is to maintain and grow and expand the sector, which just based on what we just heard is clearly something that's important.

you know we need to start to pay attention and include things that this sector needs in order to maintain it.

Because as I always ask what would the economic picture look like if we lost it?

I can say to you with certainty that a city in the Midwest has offered 100 free acres to Rivanna Station to move.

and everyone feels that well you know if Rivanna station right now is going through about what will be in the end about a 90 million dollar expansion about 73 million dollars and then they have to have to you know get the computers and all that they're putting in a 250 car parking garage and they are then putting it they are expanding the Nicholson building for 27 new labs

That's significant.

That's going to be $90 million at the back end.

So everyone says, well, they'll never move.

They just put all this money into this.

I've been involved in BRACS before, and I can tell you,

That has nothing to do with this.

If a decision gets made and it's a political decision or a Department of Defense decision, then they will move regardless of how much money they just put into a building.

So it's important that we support it, that we identify what its needs and opportunities are, and then move forward.

Then I put what steps should Charlottesville City Council take, if anything.

and it seemed based on the last briefing that Chris is all over that.

He's there looking right now at obviously the full package of an economic development program and I would submit to you that this sector is pretty darn important to not only our survival but also the growth of our community and some terrific pathway positions for our youth and for those

coming out of UVA to keep them here in our city and area.

So with that, I will just say

I know we're about out of time, but thank you for this.

It's very helpful.

I used to live up in Green and drive by NJIC all the time.

We don't have to get into this now, but I would be interested in maybe some follow-up about how do we, what are things we can do to express our

The state, and it's a good question because I will say to you at the end of this month, the state has hired consultants to do a SWOT analysis on all of the military installations in the Commonwealth.

And we have forced the issue that one of those will be to come here to Rivanna Station.

and on the 31st of May, and Chris we hope will be there.

I don't know that I've said anything to you yet.

We are having out at North Fork there will be a session where they are trying, they want to, it'll be a non-attributional session.

We'll have military there, we'll have private sector there, we'll have the economic development, people in that meeting.

They want to pull together what will be a SWOT analysis to go to the Governor and the Secretary of

Veterans and Defense Affairs on what those next steps are.

How can the state help move this?

They want to become, and this has gone across the last three or four governors, so I can tell you it's not a political thing.

They wanted Virginia to be the best state for not only the industry and the defense community, but also for people who retire to stay or get out of the military to stay here

in Virginia.

And so they're looking at all of these places and what can be done.

And so that really would be our next step, as well as what we'll do locally to review this and see where we want to go with it.

So thank you for that question.

Great.

Thank you.

Do we have a motion to go into closed session now?

Pursuant to section 2.2-3712 of the Virginia Code, I hereby move that City Council close this open meeting and convene in a closed session as authorized by Virginia Code section 2.2-3711A141, discussion and consideration of appointments to the Charlottesville Admiral Convention and Visitors Bureau,

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion passes.

We don't have to actually do all that.

It doesn't have to be a roll call vote.

Motion passes.

We're now in closed session.

We'll return to a separate Zoom link for the open meeting.

That would be at roughly 630.

So anybody watching now, come back and see us at 630.

Okay, folks, it's 630.

According to my watch, that clock, this clock, we're good to go.

Let's kind of come back to order.

Yes.

Okay.

Any discussion?

Please cast your vote.

We will begin the 6.30 p.m.

Yes.

Go ahead.

So it's my honor to acknowledge May 21st through May 27th as National Public Works Week, and this year's theme is connecting the world through public works, and we're thankful for the men and women in Charlottesville Public Works.

This year they kind of had it easy for the snow removal, but maybe next year, but they do so many other awesome things, and

things that we may not take for granted like stormwater management, environmental compliance, maintenance facility, fleet maintenance and emergency response, solid waste, climate action.

It's a list of things that our public works do that I really believe that if they weren't here, we would know immediately they were working on one right today on the way here.

in front of the old Martha Jefferson Hospital doing some work.

And so they just do so much to make our lives go a lot easier.

I just want to thank them for their work and acknowledge them for this week.

Mr. Mayor, I have an announcement.

in celebration of the 150th anniversary of Charlottesville's Daughters of Zion Cemetery.

On Saturday, May 27th, 2023, the Preservers of the Daughters of Zion Cemetery cordially invite you to join us at

UVA's Albert and Shirley Small Collections Library, 160 McCormick Road, Charlottesville, Virginia 22901 for a reception at 1 p.m.

followed by a 2 p.m.

tour of the Visions of Progress, Portraits of Dignity, Style, and Racial Uplift exhibition featuring local African Americans.

For those of you that are not familiar with the grounds at UVA, the Small Collections Library is the building that sits next to the currently being reconstructed Alderman Library.

And so it's in the middle between Peabody Hall and Alderman Library.

Library, which is currently under construction.

At 2 p.m.

on Sunday, May 28, 2023, the Preservers of the Daughters of Zion Cemetery cordially invite you to join them for a decoration day at the cemetery, which is located at 225 Oak Street, which is on the corner of Oak and First Street South here in the city.

as we pay tribute to the individuals buried at Charlottesville's historic African American Cemetery.

And this was received by Edwina St.

Thank you.

Yes.

Just one announcement that boards and commissions are still accepting applications.

There's 20 boards, including Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund Committee, Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority Board, Housing Advisory Committee, and more that are accepting applications.

Applications are due June 9th by 5 p.m., and people can find more information to apply on our boards and commissions web page.

and can submit applications virtually by mail or in person.

So again, June 9th at 5 p.m.

And just to add one board and commission committee, I guess, that needs some members is the Historic Resources Committee.

So now proclamations.

We actually have two proclamations.

This proclamation has to do with Gun Violence Awareness Day, June 2, 2023.

This proclamation declares the first Friday in June to be the National Gun Violence Awareness Day in the city of Charlottesville, Virginia to honor and remember all victims and survivors of gun violence and declare that we as a country must do more to end this public health crisis.

whereas every day more than 120 Americans are killed by gun violence and more than 200 are shot and wounded with an average of more than 17,000 gun homicides every year and whereas Americans are 26 times more likely to die by gun homicide than people in other high income countries

and whereas Virginia has 1,121 gun deaths every year with a rate of 12.8 deaths per 100,000 people, a crisis that costs the state $14.2 billion each year of which $288.3 million is paid by taxpayers, Virginia has the 36th highest rate of gun deaths in the U.S.

and whereas gun homicides and assaults are concentrated in cities with more than half of all firearm related gun deaths in the nation occurring in 127 cities and whereas cities across the nation including Charlottesville are working to end the senseless violence with evidence-based solutions.

and whereas in January 2013, 15-year-old Hadaya Pendleton was tragically shot and killed in Chicago on June 2, 2023 to recognize the 26th birthday of Hadaya Pendleton, born June 2, 1997.

People across the United States will recognize National Gun Violence Awareness Day and will honor and tribute to the memory of one, Hadaya Pendleton and other victims of gun violence and two, the loved ones of those crimes.

And whereas the idea was inspired by a group of Adaya's friends who asked their classmates to commemorate her life by wearing orange, they chose this color because hunters wear orange to announce themselves to other hunters when out in the woods and orange is a color that symbolizes the value of human life.

And whereas anyone can join this campaign by pledging to wear orange on June 2nd, the first Friday in June in 2023 to help raise awareness about gun violence,

and whereas we renew our commitment to reduce gun violence and pledge to do all we can to keep firearms out of the wrong hands and encourage responsible gun ownership to help keep our families and communities safe.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Charlottesville City Council declares June 2, 2023 to be Gun Violence Awareness Day in the City of Charlottesville to honor and remember all victims and survivors of gun violence

and to declare that we as a city must do more to reduce gun violence.

We encourage all Charlottesville residents to support local efforts to prevent gun violence and to honor and value human lives.

And let's see, Gretchen Brown, we get to give that to her.

Council Members and Mayor my name is Gretchen Brown and I'm the local group lead for the Charlottesville Albemarle Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America and I just want to accept this proclamation on behalf of our group but much more importantly on behalf of gun violence survivors everywhere.

This proclamation and this Wear Orange Day is often a meaningful beginning to the healing that gun violence survivors must endure and as you know Charlottesville has had way too much gun violence this year

So we look forward to working with you guys on continued ways to reduce this preventable epidemic through the funding of community violence interruption groups and other sensible policies.

Thank you, Ms.

Brown.

Okay.

We also have a proclamation to proclaim

May 2023 to be Jewish American Heritage Month in Charlottesville.

Jewish people have been a part of the fabric of this area since before Charlottesville was founded.

The first Jewish residents arrived here in 1757 when Michael and Sarah Israel bought 80 acres of land

between Northgarden and Batesville.

Commodore Uriah P. Levy, a Jewish naval officer, bought Monticello in 1836 and the Levy family and later the Kaufmans and the Lettermans established important businesses in Charlottesville and a growing number of Jewish residents were valued members of the community serving on the school board and on the town council.

In fact, Charlottesville's Congregation Beth Israel was built

in 1882, moved to its present location in 1902, and is the oldest synagogue in Virginia.

But Charlottesville has seen ugly incidents of anti-Semitism, particularly in the last decade.

When white supremacists came to Charlottesville in 2017, they didn't only come to protest the removal of statues, they came waving Nazi flags and chanting Nazi slogans like blood and soil and Jews will not replace us.

When political commentators talk about the rise of white supremacist activism, they start with the anti-Semitism so obvious in Charlottesville in 2017.

These incidents remind us that hate never truly goes away.

It only hides until it's given oxygen.

It is our obligation to ensure that hate has no safe harbor in Charlottesville and to protect the ideals of our Constitution, religious freedom, equality, dignity, and respect.

Government alone cannot root out anti-Semitism and hate.

All of us must confront bigotry in all of its forms.

We must each do our part to put an end to anti-Semitism and hatred and to create a culture of respect in our workplaces, schools, homes and across social media.

This month, by proclamation of President Biden, Americans celebrate the enduring heritage of Jewish Americans.

Let us honor the timeless values, contributions, and culture of Jewish Americans who carry our nation, our commonwealth, and our city forward each and every day.

And let us rededicate ourselves to creating a more inclusive tomorrow, protecting the diversity that we cherish in Charlottesville, and preserving the dignity of every human being here at home and around the world.

Now, therefore, I, Lloyd Snook, Mayor, on behalf of the Charlottesville City Council, do hereby proclaim May 2023 as Jewish American Heritage Month in the city of Charlottesville.

We call upon all residents of Charlottesville to learn more about the heritage and contributions of Jewish Americans and to join hands across faiths, races, and backgrounds to make clear that evil, hate, and anti-Semitism will not prevail.

Signed and sealed this 15th day of May 2023, J. Lloyd Snook, the third mayor.

Mayor Stook, members of the Council, and fellow Charlottesvillians.

I'm Charlotte Crystal, Vice President of Congregation Beth Israel, and I'm honored to stand before you today to represent Charlottesville's Jewish community.

In addition to Congregation Beth Israel, Charlottesville's only synagogue, there are vibrant Hillel and Chabad programs for Jewish UVA students and a Jewish renewal group called Panay Israel.

There are also hundreds of unaffiliated Jews living and working in Charlottesville.

We believe that Jews make up about 2% of Charlottesville's population.

Since our arrival in town nearly 200 years ago, Jews have contributed in many ways to Charlottesville's civic, religious and business life, including as retail shop owners on the downtown mall,

as faculty at the University of Virginia and as medical professionals throughout the greater Charlottesville area.

Our Torah commands us to work toward making the world a place of greater justice and compassion.

Both as individuals and as a group, we are dedicated to the support of numerous local charitable organizations to improve life for all in the Charlottesville area, to continue the struggle against racism and anti-Semitism, and to create a more inclusive community.

We are grateful for the many allies and partners that we have in this ongoing work.

I believe the next 200 years will offer new opportunities for the Jewish community to contribute to the rich fabric of life in Charlottesville.

As I know, we will respond in important and meaningful ways.

Thank you, Ms.

Crystal.

And I'd like to add one slight historical note here.

One of the things that

My Facebook feed reminded me this morning that six years ago yesterday was the first of the real Nazi flash mob kinds of demonstrations in Charlottesville when a group of about 100 tiki torch bearing folks came up to what was then called Lee Park, now Market Street Park, and they were shouting things like blood and soil and

and paradoxically I never quite figured it out at the time.

Russia is our friend but also Jews will not replace us and it just refreshed my recollection about how urgently we need to be making sure that we remember that we take action when we have a need to take action but that more importantly we remember.

Consent Agenda.

Ms.

Yes Consent agenda number four minutes April 25th joint work session with planning commission number five resolution appropriating rescue squad assistance fund grant funding for AEDs in the amount of $14,550 second reading number six ordinance amending city code section 22-4 methods of procurement authorized to increase the bid bond limit

from $100,000 to $200,000, second reading.

Number seven, resolution appropriating $2 million in FY23 capital improvement program for Stribling Avenue sidewalk and Beaufort School reconfiguration projects, second reading.

7A, resolution

appropriating $500,000 for the Stribling Avenue sidewalk project.

7B, Resolution appropriating $1,500,000 for the Beaufort School reconfiguration project.

Number 8, Resolution appropriating additional funding received from the Virginia Department of Social Services for adoption assistance, $450,000, one of two readings.

Number 9, Resolution

appropriating funds for Virginia Department of State Police help eliminate auto theft program $4,000 one of two readings.

Number 10 resolution appropriating additional funding received from the Virginia Department of Social Services for the view program $46,000 one of two readings.

Number 11, resolution appropriating additional funding received from the Virginia Department of Social Services for various programs, $56,634, one of two readings.

Number 12, resolution appropriating funding from the COVID homelessness emergency response program to the city's Department of Human Services for expenditure.

$14,419.60.

One of two readings.

Thirteen ordinance amending and reordining section 30-254 exemptions section 14-19 class 4 repair personal business and other services

and all other businesses and occupations not specifically listed, accepted, exempted in this chapter.

And section 34-1200 definitions to update language.

One of two readings.

Number 14 resolution, authorizing the acceptance of conveyance of temporary construction easement and approving contract with Redland Club.

Thank you.

So we will now take public comment regarding the items on the consent agenda just read by the clerk that just only on those 11 items, no other issues.

Each speaker will have up to three minutes.

In the Zoom webinar, you may select the raise hand option to be placed in the speaker queue.

If you've joined by phone and wish to speak on the consent agenda, you may press star 9.

We will alternate in person and virtual speakers.

Is there anyone in council chambers who would like to speak on one of the consent agenda items?

All right.

Any further questions or comments from councilors?

If not, let's please vote

This is the second meeting of the month.

Our written report is the first meeting, so we'll be back to you at the next council meeting with a full report.

I would point out, just a reminder, I think all of you remember that our strategic planning retreat will be this weekend, and we're looking forward to it.

We all have lots of homework.

Okay.

Community matters.

We have one pre-registered speaker leaving 15 slots for additional speakers.

Each speaker will have up to three minutes.

Our first pre-registered speaker is Derek Weakley.

Mr. Weakley?

Doesn't appear to be here in the room.

Okay.

If he comes back.

Let us know.

Is there anybody else in person here who would like to speak on any matter?

Yes, sir.

Come forward.

Give us your name.

My name is Downing Smith.

I live at 810 Locust Avenue here in Charlottesville, Virginia and I'm going to speak on the problems at the Charlottesville SPCA.

I know people have already spoken to you about this but I love animals.

I've had five dogs and this mess shouldn't have happened and it's hurting the animals and I want to speak about it.

On February 1st this year, the Seville Brielle Ensinger had an article talking about 100 current and former staff and volunteers giving a list of allegations of dysfunction and mistreatment.

The board in response said they stood behind the CEO Angie Guntz who makes $182,000 a year.

and Ms.

Corby, who is the chairman of the board for the SPCA, says, Angie Gunner is the best person.

Then they hired a public relations firm called Blue Ridge Group, which promptly blamed the staff and the volunteers for all the problems.

On March 29th, again in Seville, Ms.

Entsenminger had another article and it talked about several volunteers with decades of service had been fired.

And they had hired a lawyer called Buckley Warden basically to threaten the volunteers from exercising their First Amendment rights so they wouldn't complain about what was going on with the SPCA.

They also decided to hire McGuire Woods and Battle, which I'm sure you know is a very highly regarded law firm.

On April 15th, Gunter, who Ms.

Corbius said is the best person to run the SPCA, was placed on leave.

They hired a human resources consultant, which I later found out was in the McGuire Woods report.

And I found that the report had been completed.

Also, I found the Virginia Department of Agriculture that found repeated violations.

I also found out the city and county together

spent about a million dollars at the SPCA, taxpayer dollars.

So basically the board didn't know what was going on.

Now they're trying to cover their rear ends.

The SPCA has lost all support from the public which is hurting basically hurting the animals more than anything else.

I think the entire board has to go and I think any new board has to have a representative from the city and a representative of the county so we can see what's happening with the million dollars that's going in.

The McGuire Woods report needs to go to the city attorney and to the Commonwealth's attorney to see if there's any grounds for charges of misfeasance or malfeasance.

Thank you Mr. Smith.

Yes, Mayor Snook, we have a few raised hands.

Ms.

Okay, so Tanisha Hudson here.

I have a few things to talk about.

The first thing that I want to talk about

is that each one of you sitting on the dais right now, you voted for Kochis to be the police chief.

There has been two unlawful detainments that have happened in the city of Charlottesville.

The first one was Rita Massey.

The second one was Marcus Wilson.

Both people were arrested for crimes they did not commit.

Nothing has been done about it.

One just happened yesterday.

and then they realized after holding this man and detaining him for over two and a half hours that it did not come back as him.

So I've said this before.

I'm going to say it again.

You all have merely put an open season on black people to be profiled.

And you know that.

You know that.

Each one of you know that.

You know that.

And each one of you that did not agree with the work that Brackney was doing, this is why.

You support police criminalizing black folks.

We make up a small percentage of the population in Charlottesville.

How is it and why is it that we make up over 80% of encounters with police?

Make it make sense.

The math ain't math.

Lloyd, you're an attorney.

Do it make sense to you?

I know it makes sense to your pockets because you get paid for being a lawyer.

You get paid to represent people.

But there's no way that a small population meets the police more than all the white people in Charlottesville.

Doesn't make sense.

Look into that.

I highly suggest you all to look into this.

Next thing I want to talk about, I heard from a little birdie.

that a friend of a friend is trying to come back and get a job at the city of Charlottesville.

Now you all know that you should do the right thing and give the fire chief position to Mr. Thomas, who's already in the position, he's already doing the work.

He's maintaining the department.

There's been some amazing things.

You praised Chief Smith before he walked out on the amazing work that he did.

Let's continue that amazing work.

And we know that that amazing work is only going to continue.

This is for you, Mr. Rogers, because you have to make this decision.

This is not for council.

Let's continue that amazing work by leaving Mr. Thomas in that position.

You can't give compliments on something and then be ready to knock them out the position and bring someone else in because they're old friend of a friend.

You all really have got to do better.

Does it make sense how many black people sit on council?

When black people are the only people suffering in this city, we have a major problem.

and we've always had a major problem with the police department and Kochis is making it even worse.

And you all know that.

You get the complaints.

You hear people.

You see it.

Thank you, Ms.

Hudson.

Anybody in the room here who would like to speak next?

Okay.

Nobody?

Yes?

Okay.

You have three minutes.

Identify yourself.

Hi, my name's Adam Stevenson.

I'm a graduate student at UVA and I, for economic and environmental considerations, I depend entirely upon my bike to run errands, to do everyday things.

And although there are some bike lanes, as you obviously know, in the city, there's just not nearly enough, not nearly as well maintained as I or many other

Bicyclists in the city have realized.

And so I just want to add my voice to the other people who surely have also communicated this with you all that I would love to see just more investment in bike routes,

and making it easier to access things like grocery stores, especially from major population centers.

And yeah, thank you for your service.

And that's it.

Thank you, Mr. Stevenson.

Ms.

Hi, everybody.

I just want to give you good news that Charlottesville Public Access TV is possibly going to help one of my interviewees, a Muslim cook, baker, to become an actual TV cook.

And so anyway, because of the Chamber of Commerce program,

she'll be testing out a kitchen and then hopefully we'll have some people from CPA TV some of the producers help with the video portion of it for the pilot and anyway that's happening next Monday and then also I wanted to add Sears and Roba they were Jewish owners

in turn of the century and they started as you all might remember or not a catalog kind of like Amazon for people to homeowners but what they found was when they came to the south especially or in different parts of the country if black owner people built homes

The Ku Klux Klan would come and knock them down, or burn them down, I'm sorry, violently.

And then Sears and Roebuck would use their funds and they would build them back up.

And then the Ku Klux Klan would come back and knock them down, I mean, burn them down again.

And then Sears and Roebuck would build them up again until they got exhausted from doing their evil things.

But I wanted to mention that because

I feel like we're doing that in Charlottesville, not with the Ku Klux Klan, but with homeowners in that we're not really helping them.

I mean, we're trying to help them, but I mean, I actually met a few homeowners who are trying to get additions put on, fix up their house and all that sort of stuff.

And because we haven't hired enough people to do the inspections, they've been waiting almost a year, some of them.

And some of them want to live in place, being old.

And I don't have a clock in front of me.

Okay, so what I'm suggesting is can we brush up on the employment for the inspectors for people old like me who need to have spaces from their basement to be in the main part of their home, updated and upgraded, and they're willing to pay for it, some of them if they can, but there's no inspectors.

Okay.

Thank you, Ms.

Hoffman.

All right.

Anybody else here in Council Chambers?

Seeing nobody else in Council Chambers.

Yes, Mayor Snook.

Good evening, City Council.

My name is Brandon Collins.

I'm a lifelong resident of the City of Charlottesville.

I have a

two children growing up here and an adult daughter who grew up here as well and I've always thought of Charlottesville as a place of great potential even though we have quite a bit of problems and I've worked really hard and many others have over the past 10-20 years to help the city move in a more progressive direction

When I saw the economic development report today, I was really thrown off balance.

And I hope to have some more time to digest what I heard.

What I heard was a lot of ideology, very little benefit to the community.

And I heard the term BIPOC and diverse

used very casually without any real plan to better the economic situation for those communities.

In Charlottesville where black folks make half of what the area median income is on the whole and that is shameful and something that I think that we're all trying to work

to make better.

And so I hope as you get into economic development, you really give a few things some thought, you know, who are you benefiting?

And are the efforts at growth in certain areas going to contribute to gentrification?

And how are you going to balance that out?

And how is that going to impact our housing situation?

I want to emphasize I'm speaking as a resident today and not for any organization.

What was particularly upsetting was the presentation regarding the military industrial complex and this push for Charlottesville to really engage in that.

And I think that is contradictory to 30, 40 plus years of work by the Charlottesville city council to reduce our reliance on the military industrial complex and our recognition that it is a bad thing fundamentally.

I think you need to go back and look at the many anti-war resolutions, anti-nuclear resolutions and see that every single one of those talks about moving the money out of military industrial to social programming and efforts towards social uplift.

This is a huge mistake and really

Philly, if you think about the city is divested from the military industrial complex and its investment portfolio and particularly crass to hear a resolution on gun violence at today's meeting after just accepting that we need to grow the military and get rich off of it.

I think the military industrial complex is counter to everything humane in this world and I would hope that you all will recognize that and seek to reduce our involvement in that

rather than increase our involvement in it.

Thank you, Mr. Collins.

Okay, anybody else present?

No?

Our next speaker will be Marilyn Poling.

Can you hear me?

No.

Oh, sorry.

I can hear it.

Have we ever figured out why that happens?

So, Ms.

Do you want to try that?

All right.

Why don't you turn off the sound and then go for it.

However, that doesn't mean muting yourself.

I don't think that's going to be possible.

Well, okay.

I'm sorry.

We're going to have to move on to somebody else.

And if you can figure out what's going on, call back and maybe we can get you back in.

Ms.

Good evening, Katrina Turner.

I'm going to talk about the chief of police right now.

In May, early March, I'm sorry, early in March, we had a meeting and he was supposed to have did something for me.

He was in

He still hasn't done it.

It's like I'm being pushed to the side and I'm just so sick and tired of every time someone from the police department tells me they're going to do something, they end up not doing it.

And I don't, I can't understand why he's not doing his job.

Not just that.

Last year in November, someone hit my car while I was at work and totaled my car.

There's a video of the person hitting my car.

The very same day, the officer went to this person's house and

Every time I call about, have you found this person?

This person is a felony hit and run.

This officer keeps telling me they won't answer the door and we can't find the car.

We can't find the truck.

They haven't left message.

They haven't did anything to let this person know that they're being looked for for a felony hit and run.

I've asked this officer, how do I get the video that you have shown

He tells me he doesn't know how.

He doesn't know who I need to go to to show this video of the person who hit my car.

Now this person doesn't know if somebody was in that car when they hit and ran.

They know nothing.

And I don't understand why the officer has the name of the person who owns this vehicle but will not do anything.

I need to know if you all can tell me what I need to do to find the person who hit my car and to bring this person to justice.

How do I go by putting this video on TV to find the person who did this?

Because like I said, they don't know if they hurt somebody that day or not.

and I'm tired of having to come to the police for things and nothing is being done.

So I'm just asking you, is there anything you all can help me with tonight?

Thank you, Ms.

Turner.

I think the answer tonight is probably not, but hopefully somebody on staff can figure out what kind of a response can be made.

Is there anybody else here who would like to speak?

Okay.

Mr. Schaaf, we can't hear you.

And it's showing that you're still muted.

Well, if we can't get anything else, we'll just have to move on to the next speaker and perhaps we can come back to him if he figures out what's going on.

I mean, is she online?

She is.

OK, Ms.

Poling.

You are on with counsel.

And you have been unmuted, Ms.

Well, I don't think that's going to work.

Okay.

First action item is to authorize the issuance and sale

of General Obligation Public Improvement Bonds in an amount not to exceed $16 million.

Oh, you're right.

We did not do that.

Don't let us adjourn without having done that.

Okay, Ms.

Good evening, Council.

I'm here tonight to present to you a resolution to authorize the issuance of $16 million, up to $16 million of new debt.

As you know, part of our five-year CIP plan is funded through the sale of bonds.

We are selling approximately on an annual basis at this point.

The projects that we are issuing these bonds for have been approved in prior CIPs and are part of that plan.

The bonds will be repaid over 20 years with annual principal payments.

Our financial advisors work closely with us monitoring the market.

We think we're well suited for a good sale this year, although interest rates have continued to rise.

Based on over what we have seen in the prior years, we still expect a good sale.

In addition, we take this opportunity to look and find out if there are any bonds that can be refunded that were originally sold at a higher interest rate that we could perhaps get better rates.

Not looking too likely on this year, but we do continue to look at that.

In addition, last week we met with Moody's and Standard & Poor's

to renew our AAA bond rating which is the highest rating that a locality can receive.

We are not anticipating any problems with that and are hoping to receive those ratings within the next week or so.

So this is, hi, Ms.

Good.

I'm not asking you to answer a question that no one else has the answer to, but are you all thinking at all about what's going on with the debt ceiling situation and whether that would put a pause on this or is it sort of wait and see?

So our financial advisors continue to monitor that situation.

That is also an impetus for why we're trying to get this sale in quickly.

And so we are looking to do a competitive sale, which I failed to say earlier, I apologize, the first week in June.

Okay.

Is there any sort of...

So we go for a competitive sale.

We do set out bond parameters that are issued as part of our notice of sale.

But as you'll notice in this memo, we have asked for financing for projects that are just a little over $15 million.

But we're asking for the flexibility for you to authorize the city manager up to $16 million.

That is to allow us some flexibility to structure the deal in a way that is most advantageous to the city.

And for what it's worth,

I've talked to a number of people who claim that they know something about the bond markets and I've gotten both predictions that if there's a default everything will go haywire and the rates will go up to if there's a default our bonds will look relatively much better and therefore we may get a better interest rate.

So equal force arguing at each end of that spectrum.

Okay, we are now going to open the public hearing.

Thank you, Ms.

Hamill.

Thank you.

Is there anyone here who would like to speak on public hearing part of this?

All right, with no speakers, the public hearing is now closed.

Okay.

Sure, read it.

Okay, and the memo that we got on this tells us that the bonds would be mainly, I mean the largest is for public schools which I guess is the first payment towards the Buford reconstruction and that's almost eight million dollars.

about $5 million for affordable housing, $1.7 million other public facilities, and about $800,000 for transportation and access.

Do we need another?

You still second?

Okay.

Okay.

I was assuming that second carried forward.

Yes, second carried forward.

Any further discussion?

Ready to vote?

Let's cast our votes, please.

Next is the appeal of the Board of Architectural Review denial of a certificate of appropriateness for the demolition of an individually protected property at 104 Stadium Road.

Jeff Werner will summarize the request and the BAR's decision.

There will be an opportunity for the appellants to speak of up to ten minutes total, an opportunity for the BAR chairperson to speak for five minutes,

We're not required by our ordinance or anything to do this, but we've also typically allowed the folks who are asking to do this to have up to five minutes to speak as well.

Two appeals for you tonight.

They're both near each other so I'm trying hard to keep them separated in my head.

First one, again, I'm Jeff Warner.

I'm the city's preservation design planner and it is in that capacity that I serve as staff for the Board of Architectural Review or the BAR.

here tonight regarding the appeal of the BAR's February 22, 2023 denial of a COA, a certificate of appropriateness for the demolition of an individually protected property at 104 Stadium Road.

Back in January, as required by city code, the applicant requested a COA for the demolition of the McLeod House at 104 Stadium Road.

And this is a stone house constructed in 1927 for Malcolm McLeod, who was an English literature professor at UVA.

The property back in 2011 had been designated by City Council as an individually protected property or an IPP and per City Code the IPP designation is intended for landmarks, buildings and structures outside the City's major design control districts which are deemed by City Council be of special historic cultural or architectural value.

As an IPP, BAR approval is required for exterior alterations including demolition and construction.

Following the BAR's review on February 22nd they voted 6-0 to deny the requested COA and with that motion the BAR stated its reasons for the denial and anticipating an appeal they also included recommendations for you all to consider should you allow the demolition.

and all of these are summarized in the discussion in the staff memo.

As permitted by city code the applicant has appealed to city council that demolition and your role in this appeal is to make a final decision on that COA that is to either approve the demolition or deny the demolition and in reviewing an appeal

Council shall consult with the BAR and I'm serving in that role tonight.

Hopefully our Chair will join us later.

Consider the written appeal, the standards for review set forth within the code and any other information and factors that you all want to consider.

In considering this request you all should apply as the BAR did the criteria for demolitions and the related provisions from the ADC district design guidelines and in that deliberation Council should also refer to the February 22 BAR staff report and specifically in that staff's review of the demolition criteria and recommendations to the BAR.

and in its appeal the applicant suggests this property falls short in the criteria to be considered when designating an individually protected property and that is essentially that the property should not have been an IPP therefore the BAR should permit its demolition and I'm paraphrasing but that's essentially

the argument.

However, the property's qualifications as an IPP and making a recommendation to council regarding removal of that designation was not the subject that was presented to the BAR.

In its February 22nd discussions, the BAR clearly expressed the challenge of this application.

That is, that only City Council can remove the IPP designation.

B, by approving demolition, that would eliminate the resource that established the IPP in the first place, which the BAR thought was essentially a de facto elimination of the IPP.

And C, the BAR felt that

approving the demolition would be, if they approved it, would be assuming legislative authority that is reserved only for you all on city council.

Additionally, and also as a matter of clarity regarding all city designated historic properties and districts, 104 Stadium Road was designated because of its local significance.

And it's only because of that local designation by council that a property is subject to review by the Board of Architectural Review.

So to be clear, 104 Stadium Road is not on the Virginia Landmarks Register, nor is it on the National Register of Historic Places.

In fact, the applicant's consultant does not believe the property is even eligible for those designations and they may be correct.

However, only the Virginia Department of Historic Resources and the National Park Service can make either of those decisions and they have not been asked.

Second, and maybe most importantly, when council considers designating a district or a property

As historic, eligibility for or being listed on the state or national registers is not a prerequisite.

In fact, of the 77 individually protected properties in the city, 31, including 104 Stadium Road,

are not listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register or the National Register of Historic Places.

I know.

I live in one.

So in denying the COA, the BAR comments included the following.

The House is almost 100 years old.

and while not being the only stone house in Charlottesville, it is a fairly rare example of this house type in the city from a time associated with the growth of the University.

The house creates character of space where it exists.

It is a unique remnant of a historic landscape.

There's no reason for demolition as related to the condition of the property.

They stated it is in the public interest to protect the property as evident, they said, by Council's 2011 designation of the property as an IPP.

The BAR has never approved demolition of an IPP and the house, the property's historic landscape contributes to the context of JPA and could influence the buffer between JPA and development and finally alternatives to demolition such as rehabilitation and reuse are possible.

So quickly and only a few minutes, you all

should review the application material and standards set forth within the code for the review of demolitions.

And for the reasons that I outlined in my summary and the staff response to the applicant's appeal, we recommend that Council uphold the BAR's decision and not defer the matter back to the BAR.

However, should Council decide to approve the demolition,

The BAR included in its motion several recommendations that they would like you all to consider as conditions for that approval.

And finally, if the owner of 104 Stadium Road is aggrieved by your decision tonight, they may appeal that to the Charlottesville Circuit Court.

And the city ordinance does not allow that appeal to accept by the landowner.

I'm prepared if you all have any questions about the point by point

statements made in the appeal letter.

The one thing that I was curious about was

There was a transaction in 2011 or 2012 that has some and that's when the property wound up getting its designation.

But I was trying to figure out looking at the documents just what had gone on at that point.

What can you tell us about what happened?

Said as someone who's known me a long time.

Honestly, I don't know how to completely answer that question.

There was some

holes in the record, I guess, or how the pieces fit together.

And I simply decided that what was being presented to the BAR was a request to demolish this property.

So while there was something in that arrangement for the sale of the adjacent parcel, and it certainly, as this project moves forward, you all will likely have to

to discuss what that restriction was that was placed on that.

But it seemed to kind of cloud the BAR's

a purview.

It's not related to it.

It's not connected to it.

It's related.

But the IPP is singularly the designation of this parcel.

So I kept my review and my recommendations to the BAR in that lane, so to speak.

So good questions and yes.

And Valerie is here.

Well, at the same time that this property got its IPP designation, there was also a resolution which we were given a copy of, or maybe I just saw it in one of the documents, that basically said, and the neighboring property, which is now vacant, must remain vacant.

must remain undeveloped and I think the my guesstimate was and I think in our conversation today I think you said that sounds like it might be reasonable was that they were trying to add that property which they bought from the city basically to improve their standing with some ratios that they needed to to have in place to be able to do something else but that

I'll say this, as I looked at the situation, I don't remember what it was like 10 plus years ago.

I assume it was probably very much like what it is right now.

And I personally have a very hard time understanding why it would have been, had there been a contested issue about the IPP status, I wonder whether it could have qualified.

Could I ask a question?

Yeah.

Yeah, so thank you.

It's good to see you.

Could one argue that sort of ipso facto it would not, that the BAR should never approve a certificate if it means to demolish an IPPE?

connected property.

In other words, isn't that if we were to approve this certificate and allow this demolition to go forward, would it be the case that the first thing we needed to do would be to

Revoke the IPP status of this piece of property.

If I were on the BAR and my job was to do the things that the folks on the BAR are tasked with doing, I can see why you had a vote of six or seven to zero that almost from the fact itself that this is an IPP

House of Property, of course you're not going to approve it, approve the demolition.

So is the question tonight more one of do we agree that that should be revoked from this property?

Yes.

that if you do say yes that the rationale for saying yes is clear and if it's that oh this isn't on the state or national register well then that really sort of says well then these the other IPPs that also are not registered

I don't know why should they be.

So it's to be clear how let's distinguish this property from the other IPPs.

And that concerned me a little bit.

You all, yes, you're the elected body.

You can make that decision.

You have the ability to make that decision to allow this demolition.

And that's why I said I think the BAR recognized that.

And that's why they added those conditions.

I wish Matt Alfley were here because this project's part of a larger development proposal, as the applicant laid out in their letter.

And there's a series of steps.

In fact, I think it even lies within an entrance corridor.

So this one's going to be fun wherever we go with it.

And we're in the middle of a zoning rewrite.

So the idea was, well, if you want, they could have moved forward with a request to eliminate the IPP.

and BAR would have made a recommendation.

My guess is something similar to this.

But then you all would have had the so you would be deciding on removing that or keeping it.

That was one route to take.

And this is another route to take.

It's to say, well, we can go ask the BAR.

The BAR, I think, worked within its lane.

And then you all get to

decide if there are extenuating circumstances.

If you don't look at it as, you know, in reading the code, not look at it as, oh, we don't agree with the BAR, but to say, given these additional circumstances and as we consider them, this is why you've made that decision.

So it's not a

You're not wagging your finger at the BAR and saying you should have.

You are taking in consideration things that the BAR could not.

It does.

I just wonder, though, if the question of removing something officially from the official IPP list.

Well, that's another process.

It should have had.

Yeah.

So, in fact, there's a...

actually a very, very old structure down just below Burnley Moran.

It dates to the 1700s that the BAR, I don't know all the details, but the BAR denied the demolition, but it was ultimately, there are other means to get to a demolition and by code the structure was raised but that IPP still

is on that property.

And I get a lot of inquiries, people saying, what is it?

What can I do with it?

Somebody should probably, they should have probably requested it be removed, but they never did.

So yes, if this were knocked down and you all allowed it, they would still have to go through the process of removing its designation from the zoning.

Any other questions for Mr. Werner, we'll have other opportunities to discuss, but next step up would be to hear from the appellants.

That's true, I forgot the appellants are the people who are the owners.

Good evening, Mr. Chairman, members of council.

I'm Valerie Long with the firm of Williams Mullen.

We're representing the applicants tonight, Subtext Living.

We have a large group of our team here, as you can see, and I'm happy to, I'm very cognizant of my time, so I'm going to not introduce everyone, but we do have everyone here, including our historic resources consultant, Mr. McConnell.

I want to quickly summarize an answer to your question, Mr. Mayor, but I

I'm cognizant of my time so I want to be quick.

The short story is and I would ask that you ask me more questions perhaps after my time is up.

In 2011 the adjacent parcel at 409 Stadium the city put out an RFP for request to purchase the property for it to be developed for housing.

As part of that process there were two applications that were considered.

One would have proposed a small apartment building on the corner

The competing application was from the owner of the current parcel at issue, the Stonehouse parcel next door.

Their request was, sell it to us, please.

And if you will, we will commit to leaving that corner parcel vacant.

And we also will voluntarily agree to have you designate 104, the Stonehouse, as an IPP.

We have researched the records

at length.

We have copies of all the minutes.

We've watched the videos of the meetings.

I can summarize them for you.

There was zero discussion in those meetings in 2011.

There were three city council meetings about any historic resources or merit of this house.

It was all about keeping 409 Stadium, the adjacent parcel on the corner, vacant and limiting more housing.

There was opposition from residents of an adjacent neighborhood who very much did not want housing on the corner at 409.

There was no discussion.

There's no evidence in the record that there were any historic features of the stone house that warranted protection.

It was kind of an afterthought.

So the city council said, okay, great.

We'll take your deal.

We vote to sell it to that neighbor.

And then the staff appropriately for the BAR took that to BAR and said,

BAR hears this request.

Council has decided that council has voted and say they want this house to be an IPP, so let's go through the motions and get that done.

And BAR did.

So that's the short story.

Again, I want to be very cognizant of my time.

We are here, obviously, to ask for your permission.

There is a process in the ordinance somewhat responsive to your question, Mr. Pinkston.

The BAR, frankly, seemed to think that it was not their role

to approve a demolition of an IPP.

In fact, the city code and your demo guidelines are very clear that they apply to IPP properties also.

So in our opinion, clearly it contemplated that there could be a scenario where an IPP parcel or property would warrant demolition.

It was not that there is no rule and your ordinance does not say, oh, only council can make that change.

You're correct.

instead you could eliminate the IPP status.

There's no process for an applicant to do that other than coming and asking you, will you please initiate a resolution, you need a zoning text amendment, you need a zoning map amendment as well.

By contrast, there is a very clear and specific process for an applicant to come and ask for a demolition permit of an IPP.

So I think our opinion was that the BAR seemed to just say, well, it's not really our role, we're going to defer, this was a decision by City Council, we don't want to undo that.

We're going to leave it up to the council to make this decision instead.

However, we feel very strongly that your own criteria for demolition of IPPs is consistent.

There's nothing in your criteria, no findings.

Again, just like in 11, there's no criteria that says there's any historic feature or benefit from preserving this house.

By contrast, if you would permit it to be demolished and removed, our clients have an exceptional proposal for this project.

would be a gateway project and a supremely appropriate location for high-density residential housing, obviously consistent with your comprehensive plan, your housing plan, and even your draft zoning ordinance.

Sorry, I should have had those up and it might have been more helpful to you.

Mr. Delahunt, if you would proceed a few slides.

There's a map.

I'm going to come back to this page.

If you'll keep going.

Another one?

Yeah, it's probably never mind.

Why don't you go back and we'll come to that at the end when and if any members of council have questions for us about the 2011 history.

We have some supporting slides at the back that show the map of the two parcels in question that might make that more clear.

Thank you.

Our firm evaluates properties nationally for their historic significance right now, really from Seattle to Manhattan.

And some of them are for inclusion on the national and state registers.

Some of it is for tax credits or local

creation of local historic districts and things like that so all basically the National Park Service sets the criteria for us to evaluate historic buildings no matter what you're doing with them and they basically fall into four categories significance you know is it a significant building in the community

its architecture, its association with historic people, and its archaeology, or the potential it has to reveal things in the future, and that really doesn't apply in this particular case.

So we were asked to evaluate this house for its

basically architectural and historic significance.

It's a Tudor Revival style stone house.

It's a nice house built in 1927.

The house is really not architecturally significant.

Right next door, really across the street, there is a National Register historic district with nine Tudor Revival houses and eight stone houses in it.

So this house is not unique in the fact that it's a stone house.

I'm sure

Stonehouses come to your mind very quickly when you think about Charlottesville.

So it's not singular in its architecture.

It's not particularly, it's not the work of a master or a craftsman.

So it probably would not be included in any of these national registers like are required for your demolition criteria to be evaluated.

I'm glad you put that up there because now you can read that and not listen to me.