Board of Supervisors Meeting   9/13/2022

Yes.

All right.

We call this board advisory meeting to order this September 13th.

If we could all rise for a moment of silence.

All right.

We will now do the Pledge of Allegiance.

Mr. Barton.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you all for coming today.

We are now going to go to the public comments section.

At this time, we have a couple people who have signed up to speak.

The rules of the meeting are as so that you will be given three minutes to speak.

Please state your name and address for the record.

If you're speaking on behalf of the group, please specify the group and the chair may recognize that you get a couple more minutes for a total of five minutes.

At this time, we will have Mr. Reed as the timekeeper.

You have two sets of sign, 30 second warning and stop.

So that'll give you some kind of indication of where you're at.

We currently have two people.

Mr. Steve Vane, come forward.

Thank you.

Thank you, Board of Supervisors.

Steve Bain, 620 Farrinot Cline, Nellysford, Virginia 22958.

Members of the Board of Supervisors, please, please view the big picture of Route 151 corridor.

Route 151 is struggling chronically and increasingly to service volume along the Route 151 corridor.

Random development combined with explosive agritourism, accelerating

Commuter Finder.

My wife and I moved here in 2018.

This fact is so apparent to us.

Just look at social media, you will see a multitude of residents with stories of unsafe conditions.

We know that the time to act is now.

Responsible parties in this room, including the Board of Supervisors, Planning Department, Planning Commission, VDOT must plan and execute effectively both strategically and tactically

in order to avert further tragic but avoidable growing pains for Nelson County.

As my wife and I observed in the recent comprehensive plan workshops, the residents were essentially unanimous in explicitly avoiding the Route 151 corridor for further material development.

In fact, the work groups focused solely on limited growth and development, targeted for the eastern half of Nelson County, avoiding the Route 151 corridor altogether.

They cited the already known overgrown status at the right 151 corridor and the need to protect land with closest proximity to the Blue Bridge Mountains.

They cited the concept of targeting limited growth and development to areas in Nelson County that could benefit from development and serve as food locations for lower cost housing.

One work group presented the idea of biking pedestrian lanes along a smaller road

wouldn't even consider the dangerous idea of such lanes along Route 151.

The smaller Route 1 would run west-east and would also provide connection with the Blue Ridge Parkway south of Wintergreen.

The work group also presented a plea to cease allowing 18-wheelers to cut across Route 6 between Route 29 and Route 151, citing the significant contribution to the unsafe conditions on Route 151.

Finally, most of the work groups cited the short-term rentals, Airbnb's, as a leading problematic source of undesirable sprawl along Route 151 corridor, pleading county leadership for a significant rate of regulation.

I implored VDOT to use a more holistic approach to implementing traffic, tactical traffic solutions on Route 151, particularly the requirements for turn lanes and or deceleration lanes.

There is a 180-degree disconnect

Please wrap up your thoughts, sir.

Good afternoon.

Nathan W. Arrington, Virginia.

As chairperson of the Nelson County Department of Social Services Board, I wanted to publicly thank this board for putting the new building for the Nelson County Department of Social Services as a priority.

I wanted you to know that we have an active working group consisting of

the Director of the Department of Social Services, another member of the Department of Social Services, two Department of Social Services Board members, and also I understand two of the Board of Supervisors members.

We just request that the Director of the Department of Social Services be notified in advance of all meetings regarding the construction or infrastructure for the new building.

We are ready to get to work and we want to thank you publicly and we'll thank you privately, but this is a giant step forward that's well overdue.

Thank you.

Robert?

Robert McSwain, 3254 Dutch Creek Lane, Chipman.

When I was looking through the documents for the meeting, the Safe Roads program that was proposed, I wasn't able to read it all.

But I hope that in terms of what safety they're talking about, we especially emphasize pedestrians and bicycles.

There's been a number of people killed.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, I'm David Hill, Sheriff Nelson.

Co group road is needing some attention

But there are some areas where if you do not have a four-wheel drive vehicle, you can't pass because the ditches are so deep.

So if you don't, maybe mention that would be great.

Thank you.

You do have to take note.

There you go.

Nope.

All right.

We will now close the public comment section at this time.

Moving forward to the consent agenda.

We have several items.

We have to make a quick revision to the budget amendment.

All right.

It doesn't look like that was anything major.

Is the chair's recommendation that we approve the consent agenda?

I have a real small technical edit.

June 14th minutes.

So we have a motion from Mr. Parr, do we have a second?

Second from Mr. Harvey.

Is there any discussion?

Hearing no discussion, we'll do a vote by acclamation.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any objections, abstentions?

Hearing none, let the record reflect.

This was unanimous vote.

Moving on to presentations.

Good evening.

My name is Jeff Sayer.

I'm with VDOT in Longwood.

He apologized.

He had a family matter.

Couldn't be here today, so.

Tell them we're thinking about it.

Thank you.

I'll let them know.

I want to update you all on Route 722, Blade Road.

I got a word from the vendor that the structure is tentatively going to be delivered the South of October.

And we'll have work prior to that to get the streams being ready, get the old structure out, so we can, as soon as it gets there, we can go ahead and assemble that.

814 Campbell Mountain, just finished that last

and the Route 620 that we just opened last Friday, the surface repairs, we got several in the county to do and we'll do those next week and we'll get the permanent repairs on Route 620.

I'm glad, sir.

Greenfield Drive, are you familiar with it?

Yes, sir.

I would think it would have to do this

Mr. Reed?

I want to repeat some things that I said last month that look like they're still in the same state.

While you're looking at Cup Creek Road, if you're going down Rockfish Highway by Bull Rock,

Cross from on the same side of the 151 as Bold Rock just before you get to Horizons Village Road.

There's a deep drop off just kind of midway between the entrance to Bold Rock and the entrance to Horizons Village.

It's on the east side.

Please take a look at that.

I don't think that's gotten filled and it's a deep one.

And Spruce Creek Lane, where that comes into Rockfish Valley Highway,

And actually, Greed Sea is the big snow and rains that we have on the south side of Spruce Creek Lane, not far from where it jumps out on the Rockfish Valley Highway.

So you can take a look at those.

And check the sight lines.

It looks like you could be cutting back some on the banks, especially if someone turns to go south, if you're coming off Spruce Creek, going south on the highway.

Anything else, Mr. Reed?

That is it, thank you.

All right, moving on to Mr. Parr.

Your comment on North Fork, were they rural rustic?

Yes, sir.

Okay, so were you all aware of the recent storm damage on the upper end?

Somebody had sent a message to us, and I forwarded it on,

And then I'll just reiterate what Sheriff Hill said on Cup Creek.

I got some pictures on that too.

It was pretty bad.

Right?

Lovingston, after the torrential downpour, we got seven inches in just a few hours.

Some of the residents, obviously Culver Pipes, you mentioned, Glade Road, which we appreciate that being expeditiously being done.

Bus routes have been changed a good bit, and we're trying to get kids back in a regular route is important.

So thank you for the update there.

Lovingston, I know there was a meeting

You're aware of it?

You don't know too many of the details of the stuff.

I do not.

Okay, sounds good.

Well, I'll just wait till Robert gets a chance to talk to him.

The only other thing that someone had mentioned, some trees on Laurel, and I can't remember what side Laurel was on, so I have to email you.

All right.

Yes, sir.

All right.

Is there anything else that you forgot?

VDOT report.

All right, moving on to Route 151 corridor to study.

Good afternoon.

It is a pleasure to be back here again to see you aboard.

My name is Rick Youngblood.

I'm the District Planning Manager for VDOT Lynchburg District, of which Nelson County is in our history.

So, you know, we've already heard today some concerns with the Route 151 corridor.

Back in 2012, 2013 was our first run at going to a corridor by a study on 151.

Mr. Harvey remembers that he was a partner on that study and we've heard from Mr. Reed in this past year in regards to concerns up there and some of the other ongoing issues.

And so I was able to push forth this suggestion again that we updated the study and we secured funding

to do so.

And what I'm here today to do is give you that kind of front end load of the study and the information regarding it and how we're going to move forward.

So the study area is going to be very similar to what we looked at before Route 1 or Route 6 and 151 up at Afton.

And we're going to go just a little bit beyond about two miles beyond Beech Grove Road, looking at some of the curves through there as well for

concerns along through the corridor and we know that you know over the from the last study that we did we've had a number of successful applications off turn right offset turn lane we've had intersection improvements either funded through the smart scale program or through the highway safety improvement program, ACIP.

We have conducted traffic counts already.

We pulled data from last

This past summer, with school in session, without school in session, we're trying to get an idea of what the tourist travel patterns are looking like up in Avenue Corridor.

So just to kind of give you an idea of where we're at in September, consultants are currently looking at existing conditions.

That's due to traffic count, looking at accident history,

freight movements through the corridor, bike pedestrian issues, looking at all of that information in order to tie into the recommendations as we move forward.

And as you see as we go forward here, looking at the operational analysis, we'll be using a program called Synchro, where we run analysis, operation analysis up and down through the corridor.

There will be off-peak and decal movements through that as well as weekend traffic patterns.

That's going to take

and as we move through December through April will be the recommendations development.

We'll be looking specifically at intersection improvements, corridor wide safety improvements, picking and looking at Nellysford specifically for bike pad improvements and traffic calming through that area.

And then one of the concerns that Mr. Reed had brought up, really the multimodal strategies through the entire area.

That's not only including bike pad issues, but also,

You know, Transit, Jaunt, and other on-call, on-demand food areas.

In May, as spring releases, we'll be providing conceptual designs and estimates, and we're looking at a completion date next summer to have this all wrapped up.

Now, I know the one thing that everybody's interested in is the public involvement phase.

You know, because of COVID, we've really minimized a lot of the face-to-face interaction.

This study, we will have two public engagement sessions, one in October here coming up, which will be a face-to-face meeting at one of the locations along the corridor.

The last time we did Rockfish Road Community Center, and I believe we used the elementary school for one of the other ones.

So we'll be working with Candy and the board members to find the appropriate locations for that.

We will also have another one in March as our wrap-up.

and the conceptuals and seeing how the final recommendations are coming forward.

And one of the things that's not shown on here is we will conduct an online MetroQuest survey.

This will give everybody an opportunity to take a look at the corridor, the existing conditions, put their two cents worth, their public knowledge into that survey in order to help us

We've had success with mental requests, not only through Thomas Jefferson PDC's efforts, but also all of our study efforts that we've done over the last couple of years.

We typically see anywhere from two to 300 inputs into the survey.

Now, these particular public engagement sessions, I'll tell you,

One of the things that we're looking at is the anticipated public interest.

I believe the two sessions that we had back in 2013, we had no less than 80 folks that turned out to be public involvement.

I believe the elementary school may have had about 130.

So the folks along the Nellysford corridor were very invested in the corridor and they have strong interest and strong support, community support.

And that's one of the things we've always enjoyed about working through the 151 corridor.

We'll pull 2013 previous study recommendations to see what needs to be updated with that.

But this is kind of more of a quick hit on the effort that's undertaken now.

We will be leaning heavily on Mr. Harvey and Mr. Reed as champions.

I just have one and I know this is early to bring something up that might be more appropriate to bring up during this process but since 2013 you know we have literally dozens of

of properties that have come before the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors for event spaces and large events.

And my understanding is that A1 zoning allows by right events up to 1,000 people, which is something we need to deal with eternally, of course.

But for this, in the busy season, like we saw last weekend, a single event

pretty much by itself was able to gridlock 151 for a period which made it really difficult for Fire and Rescue to do calls from that event and that was really problematic and I've heard from numerous people about this so I'm just wondering or at least putting out there that I would love to see some kind of analysis about maximum traffic flow at maximum build out for things like that along the corridor because it boggles my mind

What is allowable along that corridor that property owners can do even without having to get special permits for it?

I believe so.

Right.

So what we would be happy to do is get that information, retrieve that, use that as part of our analysis for special case scenarios.

Appreciate that.

Thank you so much.

And thank you for doing this, again, for getting this moving at the same time we've got our comp plan going so that we can

Yes, sir.

Correct.

Including restraining areas?

Working with the county, we understand there's other components that need to be looked at as well, which hopefully this study will help assist the county moving forward with some of their decision making.

How much does money come into providing the improvements?

Well, one of the things that we look at when we go through studies is we look at all of the different funding streams that VDOT has available.

Nelson County has participated in revenue share.

Nelson County has had HCF, Highway Safety Improvement monies that have become available, and we've also gotten really good projects through the SmartScope program.

Each one of those funding streams have different time frames from which the money can come on board.

Revenue share comes on board much quicker, and if it's, say, it's a $2 million project, the county's willing to come up with a million VDOT, kick a million in,

When it's smart scale, you know right now the application period for the applications that were just submitted will not see any type of first money until about 2028.

So there are long time frames on some of the funding streams and then you're in a six-year cycle for completion for a project.

Eight-step funding can come on a lot sooner and what our hopes are

In this particular corridor is in order to secure H-SIP money, you have to be able to start threshold with the benefit cost ratio.

And we're hoping to see a number of projects come out of here where we can get highway safety money put on the project and get projects done a lot faster.

And so if you decided 23 that it's preferable to

The chances are, unless the county comes up with a certain amount of money, it's not going to happen until 28.

This is why it's always important to have partnerships with the developers themselves as part of the process.

And we're hoping to be able to provide this data to the county to possibly make some changes, recommendations in your comp plans, and have you guys move forward.

We'll probably see a preponderance currently in improvements that will be part of the necessary process from a safety standpoint along the corridor.

All right, any other questions?

None?

Thank you, Rick.

All right, thank you.

Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, members of the board.

Thank you for your time this afternoon.

I wanted to just spend a few minutes giving you a little brief legislative update and then turn your attention to, believe it or not, the 2023 General Assembly session

at the end of January.

You probably will recall the close of fiscal year 22.

State revenues came in on this $2 billion above projections.

You couple that with some expenditures that did not have to happen.

Some budget transfers and actual budget surplus is about $3 billion.

So it's a lot of money that's still rolling into state coffers in Richmond.

As far as the revenue is concerned, as you may recall from the past, whenever there's a surplus, a lot of that is already spoken for.

A good chunk of it goes to the state's ranking day fund, the reserves, the savings account.

There are funds that are directed to the water quality improvement fund as well as some funds for transportation.

And then this year, the approval of the fiscal year 23 and 24 state budget

which didn't happen until June.

The General Assembly included a number of contingency items and those funding items were contingent on there being a revenue surplus at the end of the fiscal year in June.

So since the revenues were ahead of projections, the number of those contingency items were funded.

Probably most significant for us in the local government

The other thing that's of significance I think as we move forward with the budget is that Governor Youngkin had announced when he presented to the money committees last month that he will come forward with a little less than $400 million in proposal

General Assembly can consider an additional tax relief in the next budget.

And remember, there was some significant tax relief provided this past year.

He wants to provide a little bit more.

So the state budget process actually is underway at the state level.

State agencies had to submit their budget request by the end of last week.

So they'll go through their review process at the state level.

And then in the middle of December, Governor Nelson will present his proposed amendments to the existing two-year state budget.

So as we move into 2023, it is a short session, 46 days, I think January 11th to the latter part of February.

It is an election year.

All 100 seats in the House of Delegates as well as the 40 seats in the State Senate are up for election.

And as you know from redistricting, Nelson County's House and Senate districts are going to look different next year.

So be mindful of that.

You will have perhaps

I know in the House of Delegates there's not an existing incumbent who is part of the Nelson County District.

I think it's going to be a session where we're going to be playing some defense on some issues, particularly in the land use area.

Hearing that with regard to short-term rentals, which I know you all are discussing, that the industry is going to be coming forward with some proposals that would have the effect of limiting local authority

We were called, I think it was about five or six years ago, the state put in place a framework for what the local governments can do in terms of regulation of that industry.

But I think as different ordinances have been enacted at the local level, there are things that the industry is looking to see if they can go back to the state to limit the authority.

And again, I think it's going to be some things.

Haven't seen any proposals specifically.

I've been hearing that it may be things in the zoning area, number of occupants that you can have, length of stay, parking, permitting, whether they happen to have a business permit or business license.

So, definitely will be keeping an eye on that and working with my colleagues at both Binko and DML to address those issues.

Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

Well, you have folks like myself.

You have representatives of the Virginia Association of Counties, Virginia Municipally.

There are a number of local governments around the state that have people like me that are in Richmond full-time during the legislative session.

I think on this issue also you're going to have support from the

In the lodging industry, they want to see this Airbnb type of industry treated more on equal footing with what they're having to comply with in terms of state and local regulation and taxation for that matter.

Yeah I mean I feel like that when we had this big battle again five or six years ago I felt like that we could have gone very far the other way in terms of the restrictions that local governments would have and their authority in this and I felt like at least the framework that was adopted at that time in five or six years in a technologically advancing world is not a very long period of time.

I felt like that was a good framework that said

So I'm hopeful that there are still, in addition to the lobbying effort that would be made, that there are folks that were present during that time in the legislature that would continue to be friends with local governments and the bricks and mortar industry again.

We've started talking about different legislators who were heading up the committees that were involved in the discussions.

And being able to have communications with them in advance of the legislative sessions so that they can at least make sure that this is on their radar and hopefully have it as a priority to help us with this.

But we really won't know until we start seeing the legislation or outlines of legislation as to what the specifics are.

I was going to mention, Mr. Chairman, on the housing standpoint, from the housing front, I think there's going to be some focus on housing affordability and affordable housing, and I think that's going to be a situation where there's probably going to be

The local governments and their ongoing efforts and perhaps some legislation on the other side that will not be as helpful.

That's all I really wanted to present to you as far as a legislative update.

I am focusing on the legislative program and developing that.

What you have up on the screen that was in your packet was just a summary of the top three legislative priorities from this tax general assembly session, really focusing on COVID recovery, the all-encompassing position that we had for a number of years on the state budget,

And then, of course, your favorite topic, Mr. Chairman, in supporting the state for broadband expansion.

I will mention, with regard to the budgets and the funding to address, I guess, some of the recent email traffic, there was a letter that came from BACO that they were sending to the governor in advance of him developing

And then also, I would mention

We do have another position outside of the priorities.

I believe it's in the Public Safety section that addresses compensation of law enforcement officers.

And I'm going to take a look at that position as it relates to some of the discussions you all have been having regarding competition that's out there for salaries and having law enforcement officers be able to stay in the Oregon-Nelson County and other rural areas.

Hearing none, thank you, sir.

Appreciate you for coming out and all the hard work you do for us in Richmond.

Excellent.

And I, of course, would like to remind the board, if you ever do have any legislative questions, Mr. Blount is the best talking point for us as a board.

He can give you the ins and outs and does a great job for us up in the up in the assembly.

So thank you, David.

All right.

Thank you.

Again, my name is Ted Reed.

Thank you.

Thanks for allowing us to be here today.

I'll take you on a jog.

I want to recognize one of our board members from Nelson County, Diane McDonald.

She's been a very strong proponent for transit in your county.

I also want to recognize a couple of staff members of Stodden Morris and Monique Means.

They actually run the place, so they're here to make sure everyone's on the same and raw food.

The purpose of John really is to provide people with independence dignity and a

allow the individual to live their own lives the way they want to, and that we provide that means in order to make that happen.

And thanks to your investment, that makes it even more palatable.

We have considerable resources at John to make this happen.

We have a very dedicated staff of people who care passionately about the riders that we serve,

Combined, our bus operators have over 500 years of experience.

We cover a pretty wide range of service areas as well as urban and rural terrain.

The investment that Nelson County makes in transit pays back three to one.

For every dollar you've invested in transit, John, you're getting $3 of service in return.

That's because we're able to leverage

We provide services mainly within the county on Mondays and Tuesdays, and we also provide services in Charlottesville on Monday through Friday to support the work trips.

One more thing, most of our services provide social service type access, which is vital to the health and well-being of your citizens.

Again, our goal is to provide independent living for people, especially older,

And being able to provide this independence allows people to keep their health up if we're not able to take people to medical appointments and such healthy outcomes.

There might be more emergency transportation as a result, so we provide an outlet for that as well.

We also enable people to afford their housing and their ability to live.

We do serve a number of work trips in the county.

Again, mainly to Charlottesville and Albemarle County.

For every dollar that person earns when they're working, it turns over seven times in the county.

That means we come back home and cash your paycheck in

and turns that over.

So us being able to provide employment access is really an economic stimulus to the area.

We're not resting at John.

We're looking to improve and move forward on our transportation programs.

Let me give you a couple ideas about what we're doing.

We're looking at alternative to fuels as people are concerned about the environment.

We're looking at reducing John's carbon footprint.

Most of our vehicles are gasoline powered.

We're looking at either electric vehicles, CNG, or hydrogen fuel cells.

Furthermore, we are exploring something called microtransit.

If you're familiar with Uber, it's an Uber version of transit where you can book a trip using a smartphone.

We are also embarking on a five-year transit development plan.

We're kind of looking at the future to see where John ought to be.

We're looking at where transportation needs are most evident.

This is the six-county region that we're serving.

This is Nelson County, the darker blue indicates very high need for transit, a lot of blue, less of a need, as you can see, around Livingston to the west and north, northwest, high needs for services.

Speaking about the older population, a similar distribution of older people where our services are widely needed.

Okay Amanda, thank you.

We are trying to promote our services.

Recently introduced, since 1975, John's professional operators have offered compassionate and inclusive transportation for everyone.

And in the past two years, we have delivered essential workers to their jobs, taken patients to critical health care appointments, shuttled voters to the polls, and helped you stay connected.

We are grounded in service to our community.

These commercials, we have two other versions of this commercial be playing on all the local stations and it will be playing through the spring of 2020-2022.

You may see that and hope you enjoy it.

If there are any questions or comments, I'd be happy to take them.

I understand that your funding is going down.

I'm not sure about that.

We do rely upon a local contribution to match federal and state resources.

So a lot depends upon the contribution of the county, which enables us to leverage more funding.

I'm not aware that our state or federal funding is being reduced.

So I'm not really sure about that.

Are you aware that any services delivered to Nelson County can be reduced?

We need more services, that's part of the issue.

Part of the county that's not served is the southern part of the county, which in your map doesn't show a need

Well, I think it's a big issue.

We also look at demand, and I showed you those maps earlier.

We are studying what demand for services are.

If there's an interest in looking at more service in Nelson County,

And Diane has been a strong proponent of this.

I would like to get together with stakeholders in the county to better determine what the needs are, where to go.

I know we only operate services within the county two days a week.

Most places have it five, six, even seven days a week.

So even when you do have it, it is limited, but it's kind of driven by the amount of funding that's available to us.

And part of that is really kind of a local decision.

Well, it's about a third of what it costs to actually operate the service.

57176.

How dare you not know that?

Sorry, Candice.

You expect better next time.

One thing that, you know, I've had these conversations, and first and foremost, I'm glad to see you here.

And hopefully the operations are in much good working order these days.

So we're thankful and

Looking forward to a really great future.

I could speak to probably four or five years ago.

Where instead of going to the house, it was like a half a mile away from the house because of the mileage.

And keep in mind, there was some issues going on inside of the industry.

Obviously, we can now see that result.

But today, I've heard much more positive interactions relative to some years ago.

And if we do need more services, I do suggest you have a meeting with them with some of your constituents, some constituent leaders who might be able to connect to the docs because a lot of people don't know about jobs.

There's a lot of folks who, you know, need to get access to health care and they don't know this is an opportunity for them.

Correct.

I was in touch with him two weeks ago and he said that, and Danny is the chairman of the senior senators, and he said

I mean, we have more demand on those two days than we can handle.

Now, we'd like to talk to Mr. Harris about that.

If there's an opportunity to shift demand to other days of the week or other geographic areas within the county, we might be able to provide services with our existing resources.

I guarantee there is.

Maybe we can get together really soon and talk that over.

I look forward to that.

And you all should be getting a survey if you haven't already.

As part of our five-year transit plan, we're sending surveys out to stakeholders in all the counties asking about transit needs.

So if you've seen that or it's in your spam folder, you might want to take a look at that if you have an opportunity.

This question might be beyond your cabinet of knowing, but you know, opportunities for health care and jobs exist in Lynchburg, Madison Heights, and Amherst.

Is there any service between, if there was a service, who would provide that service?

Is there any

Well, we don't go outside our area, and we certainly don't go to Lynchburg, but if there's a demand for that, we just really reach out to the Lynchburg area.

I don't know if they have the equivalent of a jaunt there.

We would certainly be open to those kinds of long-distance trips.

My wife, for example, treats cancer patients at UVA, and people would drive a couple of hours each way just to get treats

Well, we connect with six counties.

That is the scope of your environment right now, but we would like to be able to look for longer distance type services.

We'll be open.

I've not heard that until today.

So we have something to do

A person who's suddenly part of this county is 30 minutes, at the most, from Lynchburg.

Yeah, I don't know anything about the services there and what they have to offer.

And we'd be happy to facilitate that discussion and see what things might be.

All right, any other questions?

You're done.

Thank you guys so much.

A brief overview of what's taken place over the last year or so and answer any questions you may have.

So we're gonna, you've got the report, the full report is yay thick.

We've boiled it down into, what, 15 slides?

So we're gonna breeze through it fairly quick and any questions that you may have or any follow-up questions, we'd be glad to.

We were lucky enough to have a basis of design, which was from the Old Dominion Ag Center, which is located right there in Chatham near Dampel.

And that was what was given to us as being pretty much the program.

Program meaning all the bits and pieces that Amherst County and Nelson County

had come up with and I think it was mainly an Amherst County derivative because we got a PowerPoint presentation from them that included some detailed information.

To put all that together, we actually have drawings of the Ag Center for Old Dominion and so we used that along with some other data to come up with

The site on the left is the site at Amherst and the site on the right

and the same scale is Old Dominion.

So two different sizes of sites, greatly different.

But as far as the parts to it, a lot of what you see at the Old Dominion is almost a copy of what was proposed or is proposed at the Amherst Nelson ag site.

The perspective there is one that Pat put together based on our programming and relatively simple architecture, nothing over the top.

A lot of pre-engineered buildings, wall systems, or either masonry block, or e-books, so nothing exotic.

So, what AmPERS came to us with as far as mission would be to support local farmers in year two counties to provide career and technical education for the residents and to have some revenue generation as well.

So with all that in mind, we

developed this program and it's quite a lot of different types of spaces.

So right now we're looking at interior spaces.

So these will be under a roof.

So this main building all encompasses an arena, conference rooms, large conference rooms that you can have meetings or events in, classrooms for training or education offices.

Anyone who's working there.

And then also in this, we'll skip down, there's a kitchen, a cannery, meat processing.

All that is in this one building here.

And if you go back to this, our basis of design, that building right there is pretty much what we're talking about right now.

Yeah, so additionally, the program asked for a farmer's market to kind of bring the community together, cattle working building for education or training or for local farmers to come, training areas for CDL certification and farm equipment, warehouses to support the farmer's market,

A greenhouse for environmental education, horse stalls for similar reasons for local farmers, and then another campsite with cabins.

And that's more of the revenue generation to encourage families to come and spend a weekend camping.

And now we'll move into exterior spaces.

These include

Mostly education and supporting local farmers type spaces so you have a large environmental education area, the equestrian center, fairgrounds for large events that can also support RV parking, equipment training again for CDL certification,

livestock paddocks, camping campsites along with cabins.

So we'll have a big, we proposed a 10 acre campsite so you could have a nice sprawling space.

A two and a half mile riding trail or take ATVs out, take horses on.

And then solar, compost, viticulture, all that's more environmental education.

And the site that you saw, of course, was a 300-acre site versus, of course, the older men.

I think 20.

20.

So some of these big areas, such as the fairgrounds, that's about a 16-acre piece of grading top right there.

So some pretty big, flat areas that need to be carved out of this rolling hill type of site that you've got.

So it's not a one-for-one

It was just a basis of design to start with.

So, getting into the slide a little bit, is it okay, y'all can ask questions as we go along, is that okay?

So y'all just spurt out questions if you have them as we go along.

Let's see here, how's this?

Red button?

You can see any red button.

I see a on-off button.

Okay.

I didn't want to turn it on.

So, this is the entrance right here, and this really plays into a location that Hurton Profit, who is a consultant to us, determined with VDOT guidance that that's about the only place you can get the entrance into.

And the site is

A lot of rolling hills, a lot of open pastures, which encompasses mainly this southern half of the site.

Up here where the campground is, we put that up there up on a hill, and it's some streams, there's a lot of trees, putting in a new pond.

But the big, big flat areas are down here on the southern end, you know, the handling of outdoor spaces here and here, with this being the fairgrounds, which is about 16 acres, the camping going on here, and then the actual Ag Center proper being right in this area here.

So, you know, these small buildings are fairly easy

There's been a lot of thought, even though this is a preliminary feasibility study, there's been a lot of thought and a lot of pre-engineering already that's taken place to come up with the estimate.

Just to be clear, we were asked

Okay, yeah, we talked a little bit about this.

This is our main agricultural complex with the large arena.

That's going to be a great event space.

In the red, you see the large conference space that can also be used for event space.

And then everything else is community support, education, you can

You know, the kitchen can be used for events, but can also be used for education, the meat processing and cannery, same thing, and then classrooms and offices.

And to the cost now, so this is just a

We've got a breakdown snapshot.

We've got supporting data for all of these.

We did just round out some numbers.

As you can see, the site cost is pretty close half of the project cost.

We put land at 1.2 billion, and that was based on some public data that was out there.

The land was assessed at maybe 900,000, something like that, and so we figured market value would be more than that.

We just dropped a 1.2 in there.

Then the site preparation is all the grading, and there is quite a bit of it.

Rough Grading, Final Grading, Roadways, on-site improvements of the finishing up of the site, utility and infrastructure, a lot of piping, electrical, storm, fire protection is a more storage tank, fire pump, etc.

because

and then landscaping.

So about a $28 billion site project.

The structures, we broke those down into individual structures and if you have questions about how we came up with those numbers, those were broken down into smaller bits and weren't in the packet of the report.

Again, we were using pretty much pre-engineered metal buildings.

Nothing real crazy.

We got some nation block that would be required for some of the abuse areas, etc.

The cabins, more residential design, what you would maybe see

And then we put the alternate in there for the camping at the fairgrounds for, let's just say, a $54 million project.

These are the breakdowns that you can see that are even more broken down in your report packet.

But if there were any questions about that, what's on the right-hand side is

put their numbers together using their modeling software and we used historical data and also some contractor pricing on our data which is broken down here which also breaks down the programming as to which buildings have fire sprinkler, which ones are just heated and ventilated, which ones are air conditioned and heated.

So this line over here will tell you

Again, more cost analysis.

I know that water on the site was a big question mark in the preliminary study, so we didn't have going out and drilling wells to test to see how many gallons per minute we could get, but we did go and get

If you were a vet man, would you vet here?

And they told us that yes, you would probably get water here.

You've already got two wells already.

There's one that was at the old house that was up on the knoll.

And then there's another well that's down in the southwest part of the site.

And so you would need

You need quite a bit of water, but we've got a holding tank as well.

Yeah, you need 27,000 gallons per day to serve the whole site.

And we're thinking that probably about three wells would probably do it.

Now, we did give a proposal to go out and drill to test wells and to test the wells that are already there because they decommissioned as far as we know.

So we don't know the quality of them.

We don't know the hours per minute or hour or day.

So that would have to be taken place, and that's one of our recommendations that we made before you would put a tendency on the land.

These are just some of the land features on the site.

It's a beautiful site.

Some old structures there.

We've tried to stay away from destroying the whole site, trying to work around some of the existing structures.

The pond we've left, the barn, some of the barns we've left, and trying to stay together

It's pretty interesting and we'd like to keep that integrated into the client.

So entrance into the site, like I said, is very limited as I showed you on the site plan that we had.

with the fairgrounds being over here.

So high visibility along 29 coming along here.

All your heavy duty big stuff is right along 29, the fairgrounds, the outdoor spaces, with further up the hill being the, with a fairly commanding view would be the complex proper.

Just basically some elevations.

for the sake of submitting for the report.

Again, mostly pre-engineered buildings.

This is a cabin right here, which would be made out of all wood shingles and things like that.

Tuck up into that wooded section pretty well.

So, that kind of concludes our presentation.

Anything you'd like to tell us, Pat?

Great.

Sound good?

So, try to stay within 15 minutes.

Alright.

Any questions?

Okay.

Thank you for allowing us to present.

Appreciate it.

Okay, moving on to new and unfinished business.

Changed November regular board supervisor meeting.

Mr. Barton had brought staff aware about a conflict with the suggested date.

We need to pick a different one, right, Mr. Barton?

That's correct.

I had a brief conversation with Amanda before the meeting started.

How does November 7th look for everyone?

Now November 7th is the... Now election day is the first.

Why does my phone say first?

I got this wrong.

Well guys, I am now busy.

All right, so how's the seventh sound?

Monday?

Mr. Reed made a noise.

I'm still trying to get there.

Looks good.

All right.

So I'll make a motion that we amend the regular board of supervisors meeting to November 7th.

Need a motion.

So moved.

Motion, Mr. Parr, is there a second?

Allison, seconded from Mr. Reed.

Any discussion?

Hearing no discussion, we'll do a vote by acclamation.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any objections, abstentions?

All right, let the record reflect a unanimous vote in reference to November 7th at our regular times.

Moving on to safe streets and roads for all grant program.

Thank you for having me here tonight and for those of you who I haven't met, my name is Sally Shockelford.

I'm the Director of Planning and Transportation for the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission.

So I'm going to talk to you all tonight about the Safe Streets and Roads for All Discretionary Grant Program.

There's some information in your packets, but just to give a little bit of background information, this was a grant program that was established in the bipartisan

And it allocates between $5 and $6 billion in funding over the next five years, so approximately a billion dollars annually for the next five years.

And it has a stated goal of preventing or significantly reducing roadway deaths and serious injuries.

There are two types of grants that are eligible for funding through this program.

The first one is a planning grant to develop a comprehensive safety action plan.

And then the second type of grant

In order to be eligible for implementation funding though, localities or regions must first have a Qualified Safety Action Plan in place.

Based on the grant guidelines, there are eight components that are required in order for the Safety Action Plan to conform to the eligibility requirements.

So those include a leadership commitment from a governing body such as yourself to a stated goal of reducing and setting targets for reducing and eliminating roadway disaster injuries.

There has to be an establishment of an oversight group to develop, implement, and monitor the plan.

There has to be a comprehensive approach to safety data collection and analysis.

So this component is actually one that we are working with VDOT to do regardless of whether we are successful in securing this grant or not because we think this is going to be really helpful.

So starting in January, we're going to be working with data to start this data collection

The plan has to be developed using robust public and stakeholder engagement.

It has to include a representative process in the plan development to making sure that we are considering issues of equity and diversity and how the strategies that are identified and prioritized would impact disadvantaged members of the community.

has to include an evaluation of processes and policies.

So we're not just looking at infrastructure improvements, although that's certainly one important component of it, but also looking at other types of strategies that would support safe outcomes regardless of infrastructure or beyond just infrastructure.

We'll have to identify and prioritize projects as part of this comprehensive safety action plan.

And then there has to be ongoing monitoring and reporting

to help understand what the impacts are.

So one important thing to keep in mind is that nobody in our region has the Comfort of the Safety Act in place yet.

So we are doing this as a multi-jurisdictional application for anyone who is interested in participating.

So we'll go through and talk about what it looks like for a regional process, but we will be doing this for any of our member jurisdictions in the region before have already committed.

The benefits of having a comprehensive safety action plan in place is first of all we're going to have a better understanding of where our crash locations are and what the contributing factor to those crashes are.

So looking beyond single or individual locations and really looking at what is contributing to crashes over the board and identify some of those recurring and systemic issues that maybe aren't going to be apparent.

So it's a little bit of a different approach.

Mr. Youngblood was here earlier talking about the one that you want corridor study.

And that is one way that we identify how to make safety improvements looking at specific corridors or locations.

So this is taking a step back, looking at our entire system as a whole and understanding beyond just looking at one individual location.

Are there certain things that crash hotspots have in common?

What are those contributing factors?

And that will help us better understand

What our opportunities are to potentially make improvements beyond that are not just site specific.

They consider safety for all users.

So we're looking at roadway, we're looking at vehicle safety, but we're also looking at bike path safety as well as safety for transit users.

And I also did not include this, but it also considers safety on all roadways regardless of partnership.

So implementation funding could be available for improvement on privately maintained grid systems as well if there's cooperation from the owners of their juries.

There will be an opportunity to build substance information system on stakeholders.

So by having a regional approach to the safety action plan, we are going to be able to engage regional and state partners

at a deeper level than maybe we would be able to do if this was more of a locality driven project.

So we'll be working with our state agencies like the Department of Transportation, the Department of Health.

We'll be working with

A variety of departments within the local jurisdictions, so not just the planning staff, but local law enforcement, state police, first responders, really trying to make sure that the stakeholder engagement includes everyone who potentially has an opportunity to impact safety or has feedback that would be helpful to understand.

We're also going to be developing multifaceted strategies to reduce or eliminate roadway safety.

So like I said earlier, we're talking about infrastructure improvements being one way that we're going to do this.

But this goes beyond just identifying opportunities for infrastructure improvements.

Also looking at maybe there are some strategies that

are lower cost in nature that don't require significant investments into capital.

So things like enforcement strategies, reviewing processes and policies.

As you all are going through your comprehensive plan and potentially looking at your zoning ordinance, there might be some things related to how projects are reviewed or opportunities to work with developers that could be considered as strategies

as well as public information and communication with the greater public.

So really trying to approach this from a variety of perspectives and not just identify where are the opportunities for infrastructure improvements.

And then as Mr. Youngblood also talked about, another opportunity here is that it's going to help you all be aware of what projects might be in the pipeline for applications through a variety of funding mechanisms.

Not just the additional implementation funding through your safe streets and roads for all, but it could potentially also help you identify projects that might be more appropriate for transportation alternatives, revenue sharing, highway safety improvement program funding as well.

So it helps you all build your capacity to take advantage of these funding opportunities as they become available.

As I mentioned, we are going to be submitting as the Thomas Jefferson Planning District a multi-jurisdictional application.

So we have four localities that have already committed to participating in this application.

We're here with you tonight and we'll be with Green County a little bit later today to also determine their interest in participating as well.

We will, as the TJPDC, we will prepare the application and submit the application.

And you all, if you choose to participate, would benefit because the TJPDC would bear the administrative responsibility for making sure that we know the federal grant requirements and coordinate the project to make sure that we complete the project within our 24-month period of performance.

There'll be a regional approach to the data collection and analysis.

As I mentioned earlier, that will be supported by VDOT and will also help us identify larger trends.

So we'll have a bigger sample of information to help us identify trends over a larger amount of information.

There'll be cross-jurisdictional information sharing.

So all the jurisdictions will be going through this together, be able to learn from each other, bounce ideas off of each other, sort of see what's been working from different localities.

We'll have substantive engagement with our state and regional partners.

The Thomas Jefferson training district commission will support the ongoing monitoring and reporting functions and we will plan to do that as part of our existing program funding outside of funding that's requested from this grant.

And then you all will also benefit because while we're doing a lot of this on a regional basis, you're going to come away with it with a safety action plan that is specific for Nelson

So, what I need from you tonight is, first of all, if you look at your calendars, today is September 13th for Big Red

If so, this is an 80-20 grant, so it's 80% federal funding with a 20% local non-federal match that is required.

We're pretty close to the final scope of work with the consultants, so we know that Nelson County's portion would not exceed $30,000 if you all would like to participate.

Questions?

Yeah, so the final grants amount, I think, you know, we're going back and forth, checking just a few details.

I think it's going to be $1.1 million or just under $1.1 million for the region as a whole.

Nelson County would receive a specific safety action plan, but that would be the total amount for all of the jurisdictions in our region to participate in this.

Nelson County's share, but they would be contributing to that.

would be $30,000 and you would get the public engagement specific to Nelson County.

You would get a specific safety action plan.

I think we have, I apologize, I left my notes at the office or in the car, but you'd get either four or eight public sort of pop-up meetings, which are

There are times when we would go into the Nelson County community specifically to do events.

We would get public meetings from this.

I just want to note that Tandy did provide a letter of support, a draft letter of support.

All right.

I have no problems with it.

Do we have a motion?

Do we have a second?

Second.

Second from Mr. Parr.

Any discussion?

Hearing no discussion, we'll do a vote by acclamation.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye Any abstentions, objections, hesitations from Mr. Barton?

No.

I'll let the record show this is unanimous.

Thank you so much, Sandy.

Nice to see you.

Moving on to Emergency Services Council, interest-free loan.

Lovingston needs a truck.

Right, Candy?

Yes.

Is Danny not here?

David, do you know anything about it?

So you have your packet of requests from the Nelson County Emergency Services Council.

They submitted a letter that they had approved an emergency loan request unanimously for Lovingston-Vollinger Fire Department and they found $40,000, which was approved at their August 16th meeting.

They want to use the money to purchase a 2005 HMB fire engine.

They do have a current loan from the interest-free loan account and ask that this emergency request be added to the approximate $47,000 on the current loan so they would have a total loan of $87,000.

They're requesting this due to the poor mechanical condition of the current 1995 engine that they must replace.

They submitted financials, details, a few details on the truck.

I guess it would be an eight-year interest-free loan on the $40,000.

They're replacing a 95 engine in poor condition and they would plan to sell that for a salvage price.

The 95 engine needs major repairs and they couldn't justify the cost due to the age of that unit.

And it would make this resource available county-wide.

And I will add that our EMS loan fund has a current

Available balance of $646,786.

Alright.

Let's do it.

They did state in a request that it wasn't an emergency request just due to the poor mechanical condition of the 95 engine.

Which is why I think they're looking at doing this and adding on to the existing loan rather than just waiting for their turn of rotation for a new truck.

I'm not sure about the status of ordering and receiving fire trucks right now but I know with the ambulances, those are

It's the same with fire trucks.

Holy cow.

Well, it's my suggestion that we give them this emergency loan.

It's a good step.

I don't know where it is right now, but it's one.

Okay, so they have.

Yes, they've been there.

Yeah, I sure wish we had someone here.

Yeah, just one sec.

Yeah, I know they've sent a couple of members from the department up there to look at it.

Okay.

All right, we have a motion from Mr. Parr?

Yes.

We have a second.

I second.

Second from Mr. Parr.

Any discussion?

Mr. Harvey?

So.

Mr. Barton?

Yes.

Yes.

Okay, moving on to proposed amendment to K-9 at large.

Kevin, you're here.

Obviously we had voted on this ordinance a couple years ago, put it in place, wanted to see how it went.

And obviously we still have repeat offenders who are not correcting their animals and their situation.

And so that's why we're here today to discuss mechanisms going forward about how we can put some teeth to this so that these bad players can feel a little pain.

I'm hoping you guys have a copy of my provision here, but what I'm looking for is to kind of streamline this thing to eliminate some of the pitfalls that you've had in the courtroom.

And what I originally submitted is 111 wanted for written.

And out of those, 21 civil penalties to strike two was issued.

And again, out of those 21 out of that 111, they were in violation within a matter of days.

And that kind of tells you the numbers of out of the 111 out of the 21, a lot of that was when this thing initially got put to work.

So you had people that were unaware of it and then once they were advised of it, it just, the numbers just dropped.

So when we got to the strike two, 21 out of that 111 is what we were looking at.

From there,

Well, the problem we're running into, again, was the written warning part of it.

There was confusion in who gets the written warning and also is a written warning to be issued to

The judge started immediately doing advisement hearings on the strike two.

So anybody charged with the civil penalty was immediately brought in the following week for an advisement hearing with the potential that they were going to be a strike three offender.

So they're holding advisements anyway.

And just from talking with Phil, other localities, and with our own prosecutors here is like just what we need best is to simplify this thing.

And clearly to me, it's a no brainer.

The class one misdemeanor packs the punch to shut this thing down because out of all that 111 you got five, it shows you that it's effective and that's what it takes.

The reason why all these other, all the other 21 that got to strike two, they surrendered their dolls to avoid class one misdemeanor.

So it sounds like, and it looks like to me, this thing is promoting responsible pet ownership.

It's eliminating these problems in the community that these people are facing.

And I don't know anybody, and y'all can

We haven't dealt with any negative complaints or anything that's come in.

We definitely haven't dealt with any hunters.

So this thing was and haven't had any reason to.

They've all been compliant with everything that's been quiet.

You know, our basic general law about and citizens are OK with this, and we've approached it as I wrote it here that, you know, we're trying to preserve

We're not going in trying to pick up every dog at large, but as soon as a call comes in for service or somebody's complaining about something, of course, we go in at that point.

We got to kind of think about it, but the problem with that is as soon as that happens, one person reports another person, everybody starts reporting each other at that point.

So it just turns, we got to go in and clean that mess up for a while.

Again, I feel like what Phil has revised for everybody here is the go-to thing.

There's not been an abuse of any kind with this, believe me.

Our goal is to measure what we consider a success in the field, not here in the courtroom.

So we're gonna be everything we can to continue to resolve this stuff.

And not to mention, as y'all consider approving this,

I believe, to order in some minutes, it would be two notices a week apart.

October, worst case, November.

And again, you know, we're sending this to a public hearing so this allows community input if anybody has any comments.

I think this is an important issue as it relates to, you know, how we can enforce this.

We have some folks who are dealing with repetitive situations with their canines.

Now, is this also farm or is that separate?

Well, it's definitely a separate deal and really what needs to happen with that

Okay, so that is in the process?

Yes sir.

Just a question, so the law we passed a couple years ago,

I see significantly made, in your opinion, a good thing.

Less people, runners are being abused, and you haven't had any headaches about people using the law, basically.

They thought we were going to try to change your way of life, but I think once everybody went back home, they found out that it wasn't going to be as bad as they thought.

What I'm finding, and I hope I'm answering your question, Mr. Barton, is if you look at those five people, look at who they are.

I mean, we have a lot more going on with those five people than just K.

I mean, we're still using all this discretion outside.

We're still picking dogs up and, you know, things just happen.

You know, these batteries do go dead.

You know, dogs, you know, do get out of it.

Things happen and we're backing all those things in.

I really do.

There are certain situations where, for instance, my officer being attacked this week, he got a K-9 at large, and well, I take that back.

There could be a legitimate reason that dog could be out.

And we would look into that.

We're in custody of that dog right now.

But it was at large.

It attacked Officer Bryan over the last week.

She was picking it up as a stray.

But you haven't had large numbers of people complaining about their dogs being picked out.

We have a motion, we have a second.

I'll second.

Second from Mr. Reed.

Any discussion?

Any discussion?

Mr. Harvey?

Yes.

Mr. Barton?

Yes.

Yes.

Mr. Rutherford?

Yes.

Okay.

Moving on to reports.

Thank you, Kevin.

Thank you.

Uh county administrator's report.

Annie, I got your packet and I was like, oh my god.

What's that?

Good afternoon.

We'll start with the usual and customary COVID-19 update.

The current VDH data for Nelson County is that September 9th reflects two new cases reported in the last 13 weeks, and we have a seven-day average of new daily cases reported of two.

To date, the county has had 3,020 cases of the virus and 38 deaths.

For the CDC, Nelson County's community risk level remains at medium, which means if you're at high risk for severe illness, talk to your health care provider about whether you need to wear a mask and take those precautions.

And stay up to date on COVID-19 vaccines.

And thirdly, get tested if you have symptoms.

Next, I will report on the FEMA flood insurance study and flood insurance break map update.

Staff participated in a webinar regarding the FEMA's flood insurance study and the updating of the flood insurance rate match for the county.

Once the preliminary firm and FIS reports were released,

The firm maps will be available for downloading and viewing on FEMA's website.

The county will also receive hard copies of these reports, and there will be a comment period prior to finalization of these.

More specific information regarding the county's data and accessing it will be provided as it is received.

I did receive an email with some information on this earlier today, which I forwarded onto the board.

As far as the comprehensive plan, our project website as you know is www.melson2042.com Public input survey deadline was extended to August 31st, 2022 and the idea wall and youth art challenge remains active online.

Public engagement workshops were held at various locations in the county on July 13th and 20th, August 3rd and August 28th with valuable participation provided by all who attended.

Next public participation opportunity will be a public input results forum to be held on October 2nd, 2022.

Four joint work sessions of the Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission will follow on October 25th, January 18th of 23, March 15th of 23, and May 17th of 23.

And all of this information is posted on that website.

Closing on the Larkin Part B purchase and bond financing of approximately 300 acres and joining the north and south sides of the Nelsonville High School complex occurred on August 12th.

I'd like to express appreciation to the Nelson County EDA, Mr. Payne, County Attorney, Amanda Spivey and Julie Ali-Viedra, County Staff, Sans Anderson, our Bond Council, and that important company, our Financial Advisors, in working tirelessly to finalize these transactions.

In relation to that, on September 7th, a Board of Supervisors work session was held to discuss next steps in planning for the use of large property.

Discussion was facilitated by architectural partners and included the Board, County staff from the County Administration,

Parks and Recreation, Economic Development and Finance, and School Division staff, including the superintendent, assistant superintendent, and school board member.

The subcommittee was designated to assess countywide recreation assets, including community centers.

A public input survey and research on YMCA and our Boys and Girls Club facility operations was commissioned, with results to be shared at another work session to be scheduled in November.

At that time, the aggregated

Yes, aggregated public input from the comprehensive plan will be known and also be considered.

PMA Architecture is our architecture firm working on the new office building for social services and building inspections, planning, and zoning.

We're working on finalizing the initial conceptual package to be shared with the project team in early October.

I believe that date has been established as October 4th now, from 2 to 4.

They've included the spacing assessments for the departments and have moved forward in developing the conceptual site analysis, which includes suggested locations for the new building footprint, parking services, and roads required to access the site.

The TJPDC Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy SEDS grant, we were informed on August 30th, 2022, that PDC was awarded an $80,000 ARP

U.S. Economic Development CEDS grant, which requires a $20,000 local match from all of the participants for a total of $100,000.

The board committed the county share of about $1,100 back in February of 2022, which is being paid out of FY 23 budgeted funds.

The grant process will engage public, private, and nonprofit sector partners to establish a strategic blueprint for regional economic collaboration and capacity building

to guide economic prosperity and resilience for the region.

The award letter was emailed to the board on September 12th.

The county received official notification from the Commonwealth Department of Transportation that the historic Lassen Depot project has been awarded a transportation alternatives funding grant.

for FY 2324 in the amount of $586,966.

The county has not yet received a project administration agreement, at which time the board, if the board authorizes execution of the agreement, the county will have to commit to providing the 20% local match of approximately $147,000.

Friends of Gladstone have commissioned an appraisal of the depot structure to assess its value in order to potentially use that for in-kind match with those results pending.

They are tentatively scheduled to come before the board at the October regular meeting to discuss the project and its funding.

We did provide the letter of award to the board by email yesterday on the 12th.

Our short-term rentals, which is a hot topic in a lot of localities in our region,

We contacted the Virginia Institute of Government to request that an inquiry be sent to other localities statewide asking about their regulation of short-term rentals and their use of any tracking software or online subscription databases and their usefulness.

We will share this information once that's received.

Supervisors Reed and Rutherford are conducting meetings for short-term rental community members prior to establishing and convening the overall work group on the subject.

Next, we received the 2022 Map to Health Report, which was forwarded to the Board by email on September 9th.

The Blue Ridge Health District released the 2022 Map to Health Report on its website as of September 2nd.

The National Association of County and City Health Officials has implemented a community-driven strategic planning process for improving community health called Mobilization for Action through Planning and Partnership, or MAP, N-A-P-P.

This framework, known locally as Map to Health, includes engaging community partners in the collection and review of qualitative and quantitative data from trusted local and national sources.

In doing so, participating partners can clearly define the conditions that support or

This joint matched health report was completed in collaboration with the Blenrich Health District, EVA Health, Sentara-Martha-Jefferson Hospital, and Sentara-Martha-Jefferson Outpatient Surgery Center, which had the identical search areas of the city of Charlottesville, Albemarle, Pasadena, Greene, Louisa, and Nelson counties.

We, as noted, I sent the report to the board on 9-9, and we can schedule a report presentation with your question aboard.

Lastly, there is no new information to report on the Renaissance Ridge Housing Development.

And I believe you all received all the other staff reports with your packet or in a separate email.

All right, any questions for Candy at this time?

Here you go.

Thank you, Candy.

Moving on to board reports.

I have a couple reports which will turn into directives.

So don't let me forget, one of the school board likes to schedule joint meeting.

Amherst has inquired about having a joint meeting and there's something else I said, short-term, so I need to make sure I get to those.

Some of those, most all of those are pretty much directive, so I'll probably save most of my stuff for then.

Great, thank you.

On Sunday, August 14th, I attended the rededication of the Margaret C. Henderson Gym at the Heritage Center and it was incredibly well attended and so grateful that the Tendersons started the initiative and I believe they've raised over $400,000 for that and I believe it may be up and running as we speak.

So I'm very grateful to having the gym back in the county at full force.

On August 18th, Mr. Rutherford and I, and also Mr. Blount, who was here earlier, attended the Virginia Association of Counties County Official Summit.

That was in Roanoke.

I attended the Education Steering Committee meeting and also the Environment and Agriculture Steering Committee and the Climate Steering Committee.

These steering committees work on the

One of those things when we were there.

And there were some specifics that went on, but probably nothing that I need to bring up now.

Attended the comprehensive plan workshop on the 28th.

Midweek last, I attended a public meeting with Curtis Sheets with Wintergreen Fire and Rescue and Police Chief Dennis Russell at Wintergreen about the services that they provide.

It was basically on behalf of the Stony Creek and Mountain residents to let people know exactly what they do, how they do it, how to participate, and things like that.

A few things that were really interesting to that, the police chief gets an average of over 10 calls a day, which is over 3,000 over the course of the year, but of course those aren't all interactions or things that necessitate action.

For instance, they've had over 70

Two things that they do have going on that I thought were particularly interesting that I was not aware of.

One is that Fire and Rescue will do fire-wise inspections for the houses up there so that people will understand what they can do around the house, inside and out, to make sure that their residence is better protected, meaning they have a fire.

Not just one that starts inside, but one that makes time to start

Yes, a couple things about that.

Oh, I want to personally, and for the county to think of Joanne Aptscher, who has worked really hard on the Gladstone Depot.

And it was really nice to see your face glow.

And she said, I think I could do this.

I think I could.

And I might.

It's not a done deal yet, in a sense, but I wanted to mention.

Tomorrow, I'm attending Virginia Korea Works.

Normally, a board that is interested in employment, but the last several times, the talk has been about how to get people, you know, both the sheriff's department, the fire department, anything, whether it's McDonald's, you know, and it comes down to finally, where I say, offer more money,

and of course that is the answer, but that's not seemingly feasible.

All right, so I just had a very, very

A large conversation with manufactured housing.

Manufactured housing, this is my own private world, building houses, and I think there's a lot of home builders who probably would agree with me.

Most builders are limited to not really clients.

Selling a house is now easy.

It's about your output.

How much can you actually produce?

And we ask that same question all the time.

Where is the workforce?

Where is the workforce?

And of course, we talk about the great resignation.

We talk about pay.

And I can easily tell you that jobs that were $14 an hour two years ago are now $24 an hour.

And that's in a whole lot of different sides of construction.

And so it's not even necessarily become a money thing.

It's just bodies.

We don't even know who's working.

So one very large piece, and I think

This is going to be an important conversation in rural communities such as ours, Southwest Virginia, Southside Virginia, and these counties are already discussing, especially in the home builder world, is migrant workers.

That is seemingly, it's very difficult to figure out the process of how, you know, but at some point when you don't have much of a working population that exists in communities that have aged quite exponentially, that is becoming some of the only answers, especially for those blue collar.

And I think it's important, and I can tell you that the National Home Builders Association locally, there's those associations, anybody that's related to that, are having those conversations about how is it that we can utilize H2A, H2B workers in our areas?

I'll take that with you.

In the last few months, I've become a member of the Albemarle Charlottesville Jam Board.

And I what we share felt once and with

With Candice, a second time, there was an incredible accident that I saw on Route 29.

The trailer truck that came across the median, and he was involved in that, so he didn't get the last one.

But I think it's incumbent on me to tell you what I've experienced.

Well, the first time I went there was the view of the jail itself.

and the jail itself was built in 1971 and the park that was built in 71 needs to be redone.

Now, along with that, what I have experienced is meeting of the person who runs that jail.

Also, I want to say before I go on is

The people working that jail were very complimentary of the people that they worked with at Nelson County.

Steve Carter and Candy and Sheriff Hill, et cetera.

And what he would like to see is the jail in which, first,

One of the things that really impressed me was that I was introduced to his people who worked for him, headed various departments.

And almost every one of them had been there for 20 years and then started at the lowest level and were committed to it and were complimentary that it was a place in which they knew if they made a mistake, they would be

It would not be the end of them.

Now, I worked at the detention facility, and the pressure is enormous.

And it was really nice to be here about a place in which people worked in a jail and felt comfortable.

Now, they're redoing that jail, much of it.

And it's going to cost a lot of money.

The state itself is going to contribute with 30% or something like that.

Yeah, they haven't decided that.

But it's hard for me to, you know, I want to impart to you that I had a positive feeling about my experience in this facility and that they were committed to making sure

That's it.

Mr. Harvey?

Mr. Parr?

Yeah, that's counsel.

Mr. Reed just mentioned the box box and I

but from a school facility standpoint and perfect timing.

But they are hoping that that's something as they try to get the meeting started back up with the school system and there's a school safety group that was meeting quite a bit before COVID and COVID came along and that group kind of felt by the wayside.

It was fire and rescue and sheriff's department

The other topic they do want to bring up in that meeting is trying to get knocks boxes on the schools as well.

So when an alarm goes off or something happens at the school, fire and EMS can gain entry to the building rather than having to wait for somebody to come in.

And then the other thing was the run that we just approved for the Lovingston engine.

But that's all I have.

All right.

TJPDC had a great meeting.

Ms. Reed, welcome back.

It's a fun time.

This is a big push.

Recently, we did become successful in finalizing the details for the $107 million for broadband outreach, which has now gone regionally all the way from here to all the way from really the tip of part of Rappahannock to even Campbell County now at this point.

Firefly's footprint will be

So that's the big thing, Regional Housing Partnership.

Please keep that date.

I gave you all on your calendar for the Regional Housing Partnership Housing Convention.

We are going to be talking about several different items.

I think that'll be important.

It's the

Displacement of rural communities are just the natural loss of young families.

That's going to be a type of topic that we haven't really taken the title for.

Just talking about rural communities that have lost the general population.

There will be a discussion point on short term rentals versus long term rentals.

There'll be discussion on zoning, what that looks like, accessory dwelling units, et cetera.

I have a few other things.

I'll save that for directives so that we can get a few more details on the short-term rentals.

Let's go on and move to appointments.

In appointments, we do have one person who has applied for the Nelson County Service Authority.

That was Sergio Sanchez.

Mr. Barton, that's your district.

Do you want to put them on there?

I move Sergio Sanchez.

Second.

Second from Mr. Parr.

Any discussion?

Any discussion?

We'll do a vote by acclamation.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any abstentions, rejections?

Tell surgery he's got a job now.

We don't have anyone currently for the Nelson County Library Advisory Committee.

However, I did get an email from Susan Huffman that she is working on a potential North District person.

Excellent.

OK, moving on to correspondence.

Mr. Barton?

No.

Mr. Harvey, Mr. Reed, Ms. Parr, all right, moving on to directives.

Does anybody have, Ms. Parr, do you have a directive?

All right, okay, I'm gonna get to the directives here then.

Mr. Reed, Mr. Harvey, Mr. Barton, I thought you said you had something, Mr. Barton, or is that just the jail?

Okay, got it.

We have a few housekeeping items that Amherst has inquired to me about doing a joint meeting to discuss the agriculture facility.

What is the Board's appetite to do that?

I think after today's presentation,

What's everyone else?

Mr. Harvey said he hadn't thought it all the way up.

I mean we discussed this before and we discussed going down when we went down there and the people who ran that facility said how difficult it was to make it

So they didn't lose any money and how dependent they were on tobacco money to keep it going.

And, you know, just in terms of the price tag on it and the needs of Nelson County, I voted against doing this study.

Mr. Reed?

I'm not in favor of such a meeting.

Okay, gotcha.

All right.

I think, you know, for myself, I think the discussion can be worth at least the discussion.

We haven't even got to the dollars and cents.

Okay.

Okay.

All right.

So generally speaking, it's two members who are interested in the joy of the three or not.

So that will leave that discussion where that is.

Moving on to Joint School Board.

Shannon had inquired about doing a date in October.

If everyone could open up your calendars real quick.

I'm going to just throw some dates that work for me.

See if they work for you guys.

Shannon, when is your meeting in October?

That's the 13th.

Yeah.

Yes, so the 13th.

That's after everyone's meeting.

And I'm out of town on the 17th.

All right.

How about the 10th?

October 10th?

Oh, okay.

Then let's go to the 24th.

I'm for evening.

Mr. Barton?

Yeah.

Mr. Harvey, are you general?

Mr. Parr?

Yeah.

6.30.

Alright, so Monday the 24th, it's 6.30.

All right, thank you, ma'am.

Moving on to the next item, short-term rentals.

This has been a hot topic.

The county has taken this seriously, and there have been a lot of conversations in the background with individuals in our community.

And recently we had a, Mr. Reed, hopefully you would concur a good discussion with some of the stakeholders about the topic of enforcement.

Learned a lot about the struggles of what some of the folks are dealing with today, and also their input on those who are not paying the TOT tax.

It does appear that there's just a lot of people who don't know that it's part of the process, who are presumptive that the platforms themselves are paying the tax for them.

There's also some, I'm not sure if discrepancy is a proper word, but in terms of registering your short-term rental,

You know we found that according to finished revenue that you'll have one group that is registered then that registration counts for years so you don't have to register directly for your own Airbnb so there's some policy that we need to make some adjustments on.

All this to say I think the county does have a little bit of ways to go and this is now requiring the big meeting of a couple board supervisors, county staff, commissioner of revenue, planning and zoning,

Council to discuss some of these key labs and probably maybe potentially include a couple of members from the public just to figure out a pathway of enforcement.

There's a lot in Nelson County.

In just one zip code, there's about $2 million of regular revenue just on that Wintergreen Mountain all the way down to 151.

$2 million in revenue a month.

That's not DOT tax, but that's money that the county is likely not receiving tax on.

So we do have an enforcement issue.

It's pretty big.

We've gotten some input from interior stakeholders of platforms, websites, consultants, and whatnot who have helped answer this question before and how best to enforce there likely is going to be a piece that requires this county to invest in a position directly and more than likely mostly or solely

based on short-term rentals and gathering data, what the enforcement mechanisms are, and on and on and on.

So I think at this time, we've talked with staff.

Let's go ahead and schedule a meeting, Andy, with Commissioner of Revenue, Ernie and I, probably by a member or two of the Planning Commission.

I think that's it, but I would certainly like to see some introductory meeting of the lines on getting some resources together to look at possible regulations at the same time, since we're all together.

So we can at least be prepared for the discussion.

And it should be a working meeting.

I think at this point it's fine.

All right.

So is that a good enough directive for you to read on short terminal?

All right.

I think that's good.

And we'll just figure out a timeline in the next few weeks.

Probably in October if I had to guess because we have a pretty busy schedule.

Yeah.

All right, we got that.

Torture and rental, drug school boards, hand hurts, not missing anything else.

I think I did everything I said I needed to do.

May I just clarify, you want to look at enforcement and also... We're going to be starting about talking about discussion of the backside of that because one thing that we've learned and just discussions with Commissioner Revenu and our staff is

We could, even if we regulated it, we have no enforcing mechanism that exists because we can't even chase down the 400 people that have short-term rentals in Nelson currently.

And so both these things need to happen together, or one before the other, we gotta figure that out.

So some things can probably happen sooner than later, such as the registration of short-term rentals per building, not per business, if that makes sense.

So that'll be part of the discussion as well.

Sound good, Candy?

All right.

Anybody have any directives other than that?

Hearing none, we do have a closed session.

Mr. Reed, you got your paper.

You want to do a quick recess, though?

Let's do a quick recess.

You had to go.

I did.

I think that really matters.

It's important.

Yeah, it can.

It's not important.

I don't think it matters.

I don't think it matters.

I don't think it matters.

I don't think it matters.

I don't think it matters.

I don't think it matters.

All right.

Call this continued meeting from this afternoon to session.

First thing we have on the agenda is public comments.

Mr. Reed will be our Sergeant at Arms.

Public comments are a time to talk about anything except for the public hearings that we have after that.

So if you came here to speak about any of the items tonight, there's a special time to speak about that.

If you came to speak about something completely unrelated to that, this is a great time to talk about it.

So the first person I have to speak in public comments is Sue Smith.

Yes, ma'am.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, sorry.

You got to come up.

You say your name and address.

And you got three minutes.

And Mr. Reed's going to hold a sign that says 30 seconds or stop.

So anyway, first of all,

I'd just like to say thank y'all for listening to me tonight and I would like to get started.

It says, my name is Sue Smith.

I live at 1910 River Road in Fayetteville, Virginia.

This is the first time my mother spoke before a meeting.

I'm here to urge you to condemn the house on 1996 River Road right near me.

and to urge you to provide the legal authority to the health department, the building inspector, and the zoning commission so they can take action to condemn houses in cases like this one.

You may be surprised to know that I grew up in this house in 1996 where we rode the same one

I'm singing a speech with him.

It was owned by my mom.

I have clean houses for living and my house is very neat and kind.

When I grew up, we had to work hard, but our house was always clean and neat.

About a week ago, I was coming up my driveway after I got my grandson off the school bus and we heard the sound of a dog in distress.

I immediately called the animal

They came the next day.

Animal control heads were respirated to enter the house.

There was an animal hoarding situation.

There were dead animals in the house.

The gentleman from the animal control told me he thought someone had jumped on him, but it turned out to be a dead cat that fell out of the ceiling onto his back.

Now I am in the process of helping

Animal Control trapped the cats to the left.

I have caught ten so far.

They are skin and bones.

Their legs count.

Walking around with a little fur on the down.

They are covered with bleeds and ticks and have upper respiratory infections.

Some don't even have four legs.

It breaks them off.

I understand that the owner of the house was charged

on Vaughan, Anderson, Maryland.

In addition to call animal control, I called the health department, I called the building inspector, the planning commission.

It seemed that no one has the authority to take action against this house.

So that's, that is why I'm here today.

I'm scared to live in my home with my grandchildren.

The owner could come back.

or someone else could move in and start boarding animals again or doing drugs or works.

I hope you will take time to see the house, but don't get too close or you will be attacked by fleas and ticks.

The house is a menace and a threat to the public health of animals and must be condemned.

Thank you, ma'am.

Jerry Lloyd,

All right, you saving up?

Yes.

All right, is there anyone who wishes to speak the public comments at this time?

I would suggest we speak to staff and they investigate and then report back and then collect your info and find out where we're at.

No, it is definitely something that he could do something, but whether that would take care of the situation would be different.

Animal control would have the more direct pathway.

So Candy, let us know what you eat.

Candy's going to go investigate.

All right, thank you.

This is a request for a special use permit to allow a vacation house in the R1 residential district, located on Afton Mountain Road in the North District.

The property is 10.334 acres, owned by Chris LeBlanc and Rachel Horvath.

The property has recently been subdivided and has an active building permit for a single-family dwelling with four bedrooms, and the owners are proposing to utilize this dwelling as a vacation house.

which is defined as a house rented to transients where rental arrangements are made for the entire house, not by the room.

Section 5-1-5A of the zoning ordinance requires a special use permit for a vacation house in the R1 residential district.

The area is residential in nature.

The property is located near the intersection of Afton Mountain Road, Avon Road, and Chrysler Shock Road.

Zoning in the vicinity is R1 and A1.

There is an approximated floodplain on the property, although the new dwelling is not located within the flood boundaries.

The property is accessed by a private access easement with an entrance onto Afton Mountain Road, and the entrance plans were approved by VDOT in July 2021.

Subject and well permits have been issued for the property.

and is located in an area designated rural residential on the future land use map, which would allow low density residential and compatible non-residential uses in rural areas where agriculture is not the predominant use.

The sites are adjacent to identified development areas and adjacent to existing institutional or small scale industrial uses.

At their meeting on August 24th, the Planning Commission recommended approval five to one of the special use permit

And the four factors that should be considered for the approval of special use permits are that the use shall not tend to change the character and establish pattern of development of the area or community.

It shall be in harmony with the uses permitted by right in the zoning district and shall not affect and versa the use of neighboring property, shall be adequately served by public or private water and sewer facilities,

and shall not result in the destruction, loss or damage of any feature determined to be of significant ecological, scenic or historical importance.

Up here is the subdivision plat that was recorded and this access easement starts on Afton Mountain Road right here, follows through these lots, cuts across the Williams Creek and then this red is the driveway to the home site right there.

So the roads comes up here, cuts through this lot, cuts across the creek, and then the driveway just spins around.

This blue outline right here, yeah.

And the road is right here.

This is Afton Mountain Road.

and this is a private access easement.

So this part's a private road.

I believe it's Hilly is back here, which is why the driveway scoops around the way it does.

But the applicant owner

Yeah, so the access easement is 50 feet wide.

Right here is Afton Mountain Road.

This lot is about two and a half acres right here.

The width of the right-of-way is 50 feet.

So this lot actually has an existing home on it.

So this one's already built on.

I think it's 459 Acton Road.

So there's existing homes here, here, and here.

No, that would...

They have the right to do the structure.

The ability to build the structure is by right.

Well, we hadn't even started yet.

So all right.

All right.

Let's go to the applicant.

Kurtz of Law, I'm a little bit old.

It's 459 Afton, Maverick, waiting for my 911 address.

My wife and I have been in the area for 15 years.

She went to undergraduate down there and brought me back up there.

We live just south of town.

We have two boys.

Our idea was to have something to get away from our vinyl box

swamps the snakes and things.

And looking to get a hold of something, we faced the same problem everybody else did.

We tried to find a house that we could rent and then offset and we couldn't find anything.

So we found a higher end piece of land that was hard to build on, but I knew this could be something that we could stay around for a while.

So we're

We need to offset our expenses to get a little bit further on in our careers, but the plan is for this to be where we get away from our turbulent waters.

We have a bunch of precedent going out back to Mountain Road of existing Airbnb on similar and smaller lots, existing homes.

There was already a creek crossing put in when I purchased the property.

Ten feet.

No, twenty feet.

Sorry.

All right.

Let's get on with the public hearing.

If there's no further questions, we'll call you back up at the backside.

All right, moving into our public hearing, we have the same rules as the public comments.

You have three minutes as an individual, five minutes if you're with a group, if you could specify the group before you speak, if you are speaking with a half a group.

Mr. Reed will show a sign of 30 second warning when you're getting close to the three minute or five minute mark, and then a stop.

It'll be at the chair's discretion if you have another 30 seconds to finish your thoughts.

And if you could just, before you start talking, say your name and address for the record.

So moving to the first person on the list, I have a Jana Cruder.

All right.

Welcome.

Good evening.

I'm Jerry Lloyd.

I live at 9322 Rockfish Valley Highway in Afton, Virginia.

I obviously do not live near this particular piece of property.

However, I am extremely opposed, adamantly opposed to this particular scheme.

I have spoken with

A couple of the landowners in the area and they're not real happy about it.

They've not come to the meetings primarily because they're like planning commission.

It's gonna do what it wants to do.

The board of directors is gonna do what it wants to do.

What can we do?

What is our recourse?

And my main objective is the fact that this is an SUV.

If you see where the access road is,

It will change the area specifically because it's going to have increased traffic.

If they're renting it to transients, they're going to be in and out, visiting the bars and the local wineries that are inundated 151 and created havoc on that particular road.

It's crossing.

It's a right way.

It's not even a paved road.

Who knows whether they're going to be following, you know,

Reasonable speed limits and things of that nature.

In terms of the SUP, the Planning Commission at their last meeting lamented the fact that even in this particular area, there's a lot of SUPs.

There's R1 with A1 and, you know, the person who's wanting to build this says he's a builder and that sort of thing.

He should have known that the R1

is right next to his part of his property is 81.

He could build his access on the 81.

He could build this little business up there.

So they should have known about that.

The private access, you're driving across people's property.

The transients don't have that access.

Obviously, they're going to be paying to rent the home, but they don't live in the county.

My assumption is that right-of-ways or private accesses were for people who actually lived on the property.

This particular couple doesn't even live in Nelson County.

They don't live here.

They're going to build a piece of property, rent it out, and have transients come in and out across someone else's land.

Numerous people's land.

The planning and commission and or supervisors are abjectly abusing the intended use of the special use permit.

They need to develop the guts to stop it, use what we have for what it's intended, not to change the integrity of the neighbor's property and the other area around it.

All right.

Chris, I saw you put your name on there, but you're going to be called up anyway.

Is there anyone else who wishes to speak in reference to Special Use Permit 690?

You're reading none.

All right.

I will now close the public hearing relating to Special Use Permit number 690.

Any questions for staff at this time?

No, it would just be for this one.

The building of the home is by right.

They've already got a building permanent and started building.

They just want to use this home to rent out.

How many acres is this property?

Good.

Was that a whole lot of trouble?

Built three homes on that piece of land?

Yes.

I didn't hear it.

I know, but I mean that it's conceivable.

It's very what they're opposing.

It's not.

But this isn't a house that you found living in here.

I'd rather not spend any time there.

And so if we're talking about people we use and spend money, yeah, I come down here frequently, and I'll use it.

I'm looking for the same opportunities that in my opportunities I'm talking about offsetting my costs like I'm looking for the same the rules to be applied the same for me like anybody else and yeah three houses and all of that I am a builder and I'm building

This really, I can't say, I was pressed at the last meeting about this being conditional upon me living there.

I'm not here trying to lie and say I'm gonna live in this place.

And we all already know there's a lot of people that are just renting out their Airbnbs, not following any kind of rules.

One of the observations that we made at the Planning Commission and of course while we were in there is when you pull up the map of short-term rentals on Afton Mountain Road, you know, there's certainly some folks on that road that are probably not compliant without looking too deep at it.

More than likely there's some folks in the R1 who aren't and this guy is

going through the right process to do it.

And that's something to be complimented.

He could very well have built it, just started doing it and then went about his business there.

One observation that was made at the Planning Commission was, you know, as it relates to this particular situation and land is the topography question.

You know, it's not necessarily ever going to be conducive to do multiple homes.

They could.

You're absolutely right.

Absolutely.

You can build anything anywhere.

Just got to have the dollars and cents to throw at it.

You know, I think he's already building the home.

Doing it as a short-term rental is probably not the end of the world in our mind and where the Planning Commission was.

You know, I just don't think it's that big of a deal for this one, especially, you know, as going through the right process too.

And there's a lot to be confident in there.

Mr. Reed?

So the applicant has building permit.

He's building the home now.

If we were to deny the special use permit, he could live in the home.

He could move in.

He could live.

But let's say hypothetically, and I'm not inferring that this is anything that would transpire or that the applicant would consider doing.

say he was to start putting that home on the short-term market.

What enforcement tools would we have since he had applied for something, he was denied it, and then was using it for a use that he was basically denied for?

Sure.

So it would be considered a zoning violation.

And we have different ways to research that, you know, neighbor testimony, you know, if they got a business license or things like that.

But essentially, we send a notice of correction first in cases where they may not know.

In cases where we know they did know, we would start them off with a violation notice.

They've got a certain amount of time to reach out to us to contact us.

And we either tell them, hey, you need to stop using it like this.

or you need to apply for this permit to be able to do this, but until you get that, you need to stop using it.

But not for a special use permit, but apply to do a short-term rental and get a business license and rent it because it's his home.

Even though he got denied the permit, the ability to do a short-term rental there, could he, in fact, start renting it again on the short-term market if he got a business license and registered?

Well, that's kind of my question.

You know, my question is, you know, say we deny the permit, and he is resolved to building the house and, you know, his option is to live there, sell property or whatever.

We could apply for one, but actually going forward, the Commissioner of Revenues Office is going to be sending anyone applying for a short-term rental to our office first because the business license doesn't preclude them from getting zoning approval.

They're supposed to be getting zoning approval.

in order to get the business license, which hasn't been a common practice in the past, but that's something that the Commissioner and I have resolved procedurally.

So they're going to be sending all short-term rental business license applications to our office first so we can sign off on the business license.

That's really fascinating.

I can say from my 10,000 foot research it's at least 900.

No, that's the thing.

Probably 400 of them.

Yes, that's why the whole discussion this afternoon was what it was.

So Mr. Reed and I have been working hard on figuring that out with staff.

This guy's doing it right.

Listen, he's doing the proper way about this.

Yeah.

And I do too.

This was just, you know, the information you just gave us.

That's good to know.

Yeah, they are.

I mean, you know, I've mentioned it before, as someone who has probably have 30, 40 long term rentals in Nelson, and a short term rental pays three times and the tenant, the short term rental, the person leaves every three days.

I know, and that's why we want to chase that down.

Anyways, any other questions for Dylan?

Thank you, Dylan.

All right, board.

Planning Commission gave this to us.

Approved.

What conditions were on it?

No conditions, just the standard.

Approved, as the Planning Commission gave it to us.

We have a motion.

Do we have a second?

Oh, sorry.

Second from Mr. Reed.

Any discussion?

Mr. Martin?

Yes.

Yes.

All right.

Motion passes.

Moving on to other business.

I feel like there was something we were supposed to talk about, was it?

Or did I throw it all?

I think it's probably because of this short-term rental stuff.

We already talked about that.

My love life?

Oh, yeah.

It's great.

Oh, boy.

All right, we have a motion to adjourn.

Yes, Mr. Harvey, the agenda is done.

We have a motion for Mr. Reed.

Do we have a second?

I second.

All right, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

I did.

Why?

You asked for the primary.

Oh, for the night.

Would you like to oppose?

Yes.

Alright, mister Harvey says he doesn't, he's not had enough on yet.

It's the vote three to one.

Thank you all.

Have a great day.