Planning Commission Work Session   12/11/2025

Everything is in order, thank you for asking, Chairman.

Very well then, I'd like to call this December meeting of the Louisa County Planning Commission work session to order.

and chairman and members of the commission.

Tonight I'm here to present the capital improvement plan for the items that we would like the Planning Commission to review.

So this meeting of we will go through at a very high level just the projects that we feel like

have an impact that we'd like you to consider and make a recommendation to the board.

The next meeting I will bring department heads with me and they will go in much more detail.

If they're small questions I can probably answer them tonight.

If they're more detailed we'll make a note and we will get those answers for you and then they'll come and make more presentations and then you will make your recommendations in February.

So the first item in yellow is the fire and EMS fire training center.

Not all of these are for 27.

But by law, you're required to look at these type of items for five years.

So we can at least have a five year plan.

The county went years ago to looking at a 20 year plan, we know these numbers are going to change.

But at least we know these projects are things that we need to keep in the forefront.

that we may need to save money for.

We may not have the need of something changes, but at least these are items that we don't forget about.

And it helps us planning for projections of how to pay for them in the future.

So the fire training center is an FY 28 request.

And this is a building out at where our current fire training center is it would replace that building.

And it would be a new facility for our to meet the growing needs of our personnel.

And we could provide our own training, professional development, things like that.

which we've already started to do.

It's just such a small unit there.

But as our staff grows, it's almost a money savings to do it ourselves.

So that's what that's for.

The next one is a new station at Zion's Zion's Crossroads Fire and Rescue.

The facility they have there now, we're going to do a study and see where the best places to put the next stations like based on call volumes and numbers of calls and

response times and things like that.

We're going to do a study in 27.

See if zions cross order Fern cliff are the areas we need.

We feel like they are based on what we see.

But we're going to look at the study with with a third party and make sure we have the right locations.

And then the following year in 28.

We hope to put stations where they're needed for better response.

Then the fourth thing for Fire and EMS is an upgrade expansion for the Locust Creek Volunteer Fire Department.

We have career staff there.

Right now they're not set up to house all the career staff we had in a really good way.

And so this is an expansion so that we can have women and men at that station.

We would give them a day room place for the kitchen and do some safety upgrades that are needed out there make it ADA compliant, things like that.

Next, the general services projects.

A couple of these you've seen I have here the last the landfill closure and the new cell development funding.

We put annual allocations in these funds.

So we're saving for when we have to open a new cell or close a current cell based on regulation as those times come.

This is to build an addition to our current animal shelter so that they have a added space to care for the animals.

If a sick animal comes in, it's easier to quarantine, gives them more space to intake and for fenced in areas for the animals, but to make that a better facility.

That facility has been there a while and they do great things there, but this is to give them more room to handle and do what they need to do.

The grounds maintenance shop, that's to construct a post frame maintenance shop for our parks and rec ground maintenance equipment.

Right now they're in a mobile unit for the staff that works out of a little mobile unit.

I don't think there's running water in it.

It's just this facility that they have now is smaller and this would make as we grow and the county grows and we maintain more areas that would give that additional space.

Then we have an airport maintenance building that's we're looking at for potentially 28.

And that's a storage facility at the airport to keep the grounds maintenance equipment and facility equipment and maintenance supplies that are strictly like airport specific kind of things out there that they have out there.

The next thing I put this one on here because it kind of goes with the animal shelter building addition.

Once the building addition is set and the fire training is done and the storage buildings are built, they want to do the roadways and the signage and the paving.

for that.

So that's what that animal shelter fire trainings that are storage building paving parking lot roads.

It's once they get all that other up and done that we can and they want to do the roads all at one time because the amount of asphalt is cheaper to do it at one time.

But this would be to put the road structure and the paving in for that.

Any questions on general services?

Mr.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I have a question, Deborah.

No, not at the airport at this time that I'm aware of.

Pass that on to the appropriate department.

OK.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr.

Sorry.

Just making a note on that.

Any other questions on that?

For the public schools, we originally last year had a new elementary school in for FY30.

The population in the schools have grown this year immensely.

As the county grows, our school population's grown.

And it looks like we're going to need potentially a new school in FY28.

So we've got a little bit of money in 27 to start doing the planning and the design and all that good stuff.

And then in 28, build the school.

So that's what that's for.

Parks and Rec long-term capital project reserves.

This is a continuation, it's a savings plan to continue to save for Parks and Rec capital projects in the future.

This could be things like the indoor aquatic facility or a community center, but it's saving towards those needs as you all identify in the county, they identify those needs that we need.

So we're continuing with that.

The Water Authority, we have the bowlers mill dam improvements, we've been doing an annual allocation for that it's cost classified as a high hazard dam.

And we are going to be required at some point to do some upgrades.

To prevent a dam failure, we've applied for grant funding.

And once that grant funding comes in, these funds would be used to meet the match.

The Ammonia Nitrogen Louisa Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant Ammonia Nitrogen Project is again an annual allocation to upgrade the plant for freshwater ammonia nitrogen regulations.

These upgrades are anticipated at N-26.

We'll have to start with them and then it'll go over a period of several years to complete them.

Louisa County would pay half, and then the town of Louisa would pay half on this.

And we're also hoping for grant funding and other things that will offset some of these costs.

There potentially will be more water authority projects.

We're kind of doing a study right now to determine what those needs are and when we need to place them.

So as we get that information, we'll add those, and I'll bring you all up to date with those when we get that finalized.

But we weren't quite ready with that yet.

Next, the Louisa County Airport.

All these projects you see listed for the airport, these are done with grant funding.

The federal grants normally pay about, I want to say 80, 80 some percent, the state normally pays about 10%.

So it's like 90 and eight and two, the county pays about 2%.

So to get these done, it's normally once we get the grant funding.

So some that we're in for 27 originally have moved out to 28 as the grant funding becomes available.

And so the first ones that they'll work on, we've already done the design part or working on the design part for the south side apron taxiway hanger site.

And the next step would be the construction once that's done.

and then the next one that's in a row would be the Southside access road parking.

We would start with the design and then do construction also in 28.

And then I listed some of the others that if after those are done that could potentially be done as the grant funding came out.

Again, this is very high level.

I will take back Mr. Goodwin suggestion to see if that's something that we can look at.

And if you have any questions, then I'm here to answer them.

Thank you all very much.

All right, that is all that's on the official schedule here.

However, I do see a couple of other odds and ends that have shown up.

Well, just to bring up, I believe Ms. Johnson passed out the filing schedule and public hearing dates for 26.

So you have that for information.

The school enrollment update, I believe, is information that Mr. Dickerson had asked for in October.

And we got that.

And so Ms. Johnson provided that for you all to look at.

And I think that kind of goes to some of the school issues that Ms. Colvin was talking about in the CIP with the new elementary school.

I think there's some information in there.

And the third item that was passed out, and this was kind of just really to get it in front of you all this evening to let you know

that will be bringing this back, excuse me to the Planning Commission.

There have been several instances in which county administration has received requests for replacement of road signs.

And currently the ordinance in chapter 64

When the E91 addressing and street naming was done in the early 90s, the ordinance that was written didn't address future maintenance and replacement of road signs.

So the fire and EMS department has been responsible for doing that and they have an amount in their budget every year, but each sign costs about $270.

So really what we're doing here is two part.

It's an it's amendments to chapter 64, which the Planning Commission won't have a public hearing on because it's outside of zoning and subdivision that will be done by the board.

But it just puts language in the ordinance that talks about the responsibility will be the counties the board talked about this and felt due to the emergency services and being able to access, you know, finding

How homes when they receive calls that it was important that those road signs be in place.

So the second part of it is amendments that we've proposed to the fee schedule under community development or planning and zoning fees, ways to help offset costs of those road signs.

We currently

like GIS fees for new parcels created for new road miles and that sort of thing but we've included here information to add a GIS fee for a new address as it's assigned when someone applies for a building permit because that is something that is added to the GIS and and so a fee for that a fee for

The street sign on a new development when it involves a new internal state road that we actually charge that fee up front rather than firing EMS trying to collect it from the developer at a later time.

And then just some increases to some of our fees for special projects through the GIS.

that we get requests for maps and data sets and that sort of thing.

And these are all ways that we're proposing to help offset those costs of the replacement road signs.

I can't remember the exact number, but I think that they had a request last year for somewhere 20 plus road signs to be replaced.

We really wanted to just get this in front of you.

If you want to talk about it more, we can add it as a work session item.

Next month we can add it to the regular agenda tonight to talk about a little bit more.

Do any commissioners have an opinion?

Go ahead and get these things.

I think the January meeting is going to be not maybe as

And that's just for the fee schedule.

That's the only thing we're going to be taking up as I understand.

That's correct.

The other part of it in Chapter 64 would only be a public hearing with the board.

We're welcome to talk about it if you have any feedback on the language that we've proposed so far.

But we try to keep it as simple and clear as possible.

All right.

Very good.

All right.

That's all I have on the agenda for the work session tonight.

Does anyone have any other things for the work session?

Chair.

Mr. Goodwin.

I believe in January we are scheduled to elect new officers and we're also scheduled to review our bylaws.

That's an annual thing.

Very good.

So I guess the message from that is that it's a good time to review your bylaws now.

Before we get together again, I think we did a pretty good job the past few years tightening them up and getting them in good shape.

But if anyone identifies anything between now and January, then it's a time to bring it up.

Thank you Mr.

Chair.

Very well.

If there's nothing else then