Planning District Commission Meeting   11/7/2024

And before I get into the results of the audit, just a brief overview of the audit that we do for the commission.

It's really three main pieces to the audit that we do for the commission when we're doing the financial statement audit.

One is we audit the financial statements to make sure that the commission's financial statements have been prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.

And then the other two pieces of the audit that we do are done in accordance with government auditing standards.

One is in addition to just looking at the financial statement numbers themselves as part of the audit, we can understand and review the internal controls that the dimension has over exponential reporting.

So we'll again understand that to design our audit test and

We'll pass those goals.

And then the third piece of the all, it's a federal compliance piece.

It's done in accordance with the Uniform Guidance.

So whenever an organization expands over $750,000 in federal grant funds, you have to have a federal compliance symbol all of it done when you have your financial statement all of it done.

And because the commission meets that threshold, that's the

Public PCL that we do.

So for the major federal grant programs, when we're out doing the audit, OMB provides a compliance supplement with a list of various compliance requirements that the commission has to comply with when it's an expended federal grant program.

So we go through that to make sure that the commission is in compliance with those requirements.

So

Those are the three main pieces of the audit that we do.

So as such, included in the audit and financial statements, there's three different reports from us that communicate the results of the audit.

And the first report from us is on page six of the audit and financial statements.

And this report here is our independent auditors report.

And in this report is where we say we did perform an audit on the Commission's financial statements.

And in the second paragraph of the report is where we issue our opinion on the financial statements.

And we have issued an unmodified opinion on the Commission's financial statements, which is the greatest opinion the auditor can give on the same.

Davis, basically, it's unmodified opinion means that the commission's financial statements have been prepared in accordance with a generally accepted account for this policy.

The other two reports from us are in the back of the report, starting on number page 70.

The first report back there is our report over the Commission's internal controls over its financial reporting.

This report was claimed as well.

We noted no significant deficiencies or material weaknesses in the Commission's internal controls over its financial reporting.

We feel that the Commission has strong internal controls in place over its financial reporting.

For instance, for example,

As part of the audit, we had no proposed audit adjustments as part of our audit.

Typically, when you go through an audit, you always find things here and there that need to be adjusted and propose a lot of adjustments for those.

There were no audit adjustments noted, so maybe before we came in to do the audit, the Commission's books and records were already adjusted as they should be.

I think that speaks to the strength of the controls that the commission has in place and the strength of the finance team to go through all of it and not have any adjustments.

And then the third and final report from us is our report over the commission's compliance with federal grant programs.

This report was claimed as well.

We had to know significant deficiencies or material weaknesses over the compliance with this major program programs.

Also to know items of non-compliance were known as part of the audit.

So all the reports from us and all the financial statements were cleaned, so very, very clean audit for the commission this year.

And just would like to highlight just two financial exhibits in the financial statements.

The first is exhibit three, which starts on page 20.

This is the balance sheet of the commission's governmental funds.

This shows the assets, liabilities, and fund balance at the end of the fiscal year.

And so at the end of the fiscal year, the commission had a whole way over to the clean, right?

The total assets were $8.5 million at the end of the fiscal year compared to a total live bill of $6.9 million, which left the fund balance at the end of the fiscal year of $145 million fund balance for being excessive.

Commissions assets over its liabilities.

And just one other thing I'd like to highlight is two pages over exhibit five on pages 22 and 23.

This exhibit shows the statement of revenues, expenditures, and changes in fund balance.

So this reports the total revenues, expenditures, and changes in fund balance during the fiscal year.

And if we go to page 23, down towards the bottom, it shows the net change in fund balance during the fiscal year, and commissions fund balance increased by $463,000, almost $464,000 during the fiscal year, so a healthy increase for the commission during the fiscal year.

But that's all I have.

Let me have an answer to any questions anyone may have.

Any questions?

I'll second that.

Motion has been made by Mr. Rutherford, seconded by Mr. D'Oronzio.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Anybody against?

The motion passes unanimously.

Did I note that we're actually properly funded for pension liabilities within the organization?

That we are funded with a surplus?

Yes.

Why isn't there a press ruling?

It's not very common to have a pension asset most of the other way around.

That was a little surprising.

Yes.

Very well.

Thank you again, Mr. Blakey.

Thank you.

Have a good night.

You too.

All right, moving on then, we have the hazard mitigation update, Ms. Isabella O'Brien.

Sorry, this is usually your job.

Hey everybody, I'm Isabella O'Brien, regional plan of two with the TJPDC, and tonight I'll provide a quick overview of hazard mitigation plans.

There we go.

In 2001, the Disaster Mitigation Act mandated that local governments develop and adopt hazard mitigation plans to receive FEMA funding.

These plans must be updated under five years.

Our region's original plan was first adopted by all the counties in the region in 2006 and has undergone three updates since.

The last plan was approved in 2023.

and the next update is required to be approved by FEMA and adopted by all of our recent localities by February of 2020.

We are beginning to develop our pre-application for the hazard mitigation grant program to fund the planning process and we wanted to provide commission with context on what the plan entails and what they can expect as we move forward towards the 2020 milestone.

So a typical FEMA combined plan, this is these four key elements shown here.

So as part of the planning process, we assemble a team with representation from local staff, emergency management, and key stakeholders like UVA and water authorities.

We also work to engage the whole community and review regional priorities, progress, existing planning data,

to ensure it is accurate and up to date.

The risk assessment identifies potential hazards, assesses their likelihood of severity, and evaluates the community's unique vulnerabilities to such hazards.

And then the mitigation strategy is the bulk of the plan, where we work with localities to just develop effective and locally specific mitigation strategies, prioritize those actions,

Consider a range of mitigation options, including nature-based solutions, structural solutions.

And it's important to note here that for each locality specific mitigation strategy, it's essential to tie in plan mitigation projects to qualify for funding for those projects through FEMA grants.

And then our last step, which is ongoing, is the plan maintenance and implementation, starting with the plan adoption.

So this involves public feedback, a review by the Virginia Department of Emergency Management and then by FEMA, incorporating those comments and then presenting the plan across our region for formal adoption.

Once adopted, the region staff and stakeholders continue to implement the mitigation strategy and we maintain this plan by coordinating annual working group meetings and tracking the progress of the specific mitigation actions.

So we're just going a little bit more into detail.

Our existing regional plan includes the necessary components I just showed, which are further divided into the sections outlined here.

So the risk assessment really involves an in-depth community profile to understand social vulnerabilities, critical infrastructure, natural and cultural resources, the sensitive environments, and the social networks.

It also identifies natural hazards,

and profiles their prevalence, intensity, and geographic scope.

The vulnerability assessment provides hazard ID with current and future human settlement patterns to ensure potential human impacts are incorporated using advanced models.

It also estimates potential losses based on historical events, scenarios, and the possibility of future events.

The Capabilities Assessment is conducted by your local staff, and it evaluates each jurisdiction's planning, regulatory, administrative, and technical capabilities, as well as the financial and educational programs supporting hazard mitigation planning and capacity.

Using this information, local jurisdictions in the working group develop the mitigation strategy, which is the core of the plan, and focuses on creating a bunch of strategies to reduce hazard risk.

So every five years, as I mentioned, the mitigation plan needs to be reviewed and updated as circumstances may change, disasters, the effects of climate change, increased areas of development within hazard prone areas, or other impacts from changing population and demographics.

So these are some of the grant programs that support local governments in building resilience and the capacity to mitigate hazards.

These grants can fund projects like generators for critical facilities, public warning systems, flood-gripping, wildfire mitigation to name a few, and voting code here.

A local jurisdiction must review and revise its plans to reflect changes in development, progress in local mitigation efforts, and changes in priorities, and resubmit it for approval within five years in order to continue to be eligible for mitigation project grant funding.

Sharing a little bit more about the local benefits.

So an example of the local benefits and what this process can look like.

This is one of the mitigation actions from Nelson County.

Nelson County is currently awaiting approval for a FEMA grant to replace aging generators at multiple fire and EMS stations.

These outdated generators can't hinder emergency response or empower applicants

and women in the use of these buildings as emergency shelters.

And when they initially sent them the grant application, it was deemed ineligible because this project wasn't included in the Mitigation Action Strategy.

And we worked with Nelson, Vietnam, and FEMA to update the plan, incorporate the strategy, and now they are waiting to get back on the funds.

But since the plan update in 2023, we have seen multiple grants awarded within the region.

There's been

Branson Ward, Torregan authorities to replace aging infrastructure with new generators and a great economy for generators for their 911 center, administration building, and the volunteer fire department.

So FEMA, as of April 19, 2023, updated its local planning policy to require housing mitigation plans to consider climate change.

These plans must analysis how climate change populations shifts and land use changes could impact the community vulnerability to future disasters.

And FEMA also emphasizes the whole community approach, which mainly engages the public to ensure everyone's needs are conserved.

And on this next slide here, I'm just pulling out a section from FEMA's policy guide.

And this is about the most specific language related to climate change.

which states to address it and how it relates to the frequency, the severity, the geographic location, and the extent of these hazards.

And then next steps.

Once BR releases the official notice of funding opportunity for the hazard mitigation grant program, it's supposed to be this fall and winter,

Staff will return to the Commission with a program budget and resolution of support as required for part of the final application.

We will apply.

Do you have any questions?

Well, that's serious, man.

What is a flood plan?

Flood plan?

You said flood plan.

That's what I mean.

Thank you.

We got a lot of help when we work with the new schools.

Just a follow-up question.

Most likely October of next year, when the federal school year begins.

Well, I just would be curious if you have a sentence, plan approved and adopted,

Yep.

Yeah.

You can, you can do up to three years that you can use the funding for up to three years and you can actually ask for extensions beyond that.

Yep, so we normally like to apply the year in advance of kicking off the planning so that we know the funding is there and ready to go.

And this one, correct me if I'm wrong, if you will.

This one is an 80-20 federal local split, and the local comes out of the per capita that you guys already contributed as part of your per capita member assessment.

Are there any questions?

Well, thank you for all your hard work.

Sounds like we've got a lot of busy times ahead.

Good.

So, I'm excited to update you all a little bit about the summit and then the study that are in the works.

Just let me know.

So what's really great is that this will be the third summit and our amazing planning committee people who are here, thank you guys for being on the planning committee, had a lot of vision and they were very clear that they wanted this next summit to be about solutions and so that's what we've been planning and that's what we're kind of putting together.

So our big objective for this time around, if you want to jump to the next slide,

is to gather people together who can offer solutions and strategies to help planners, private companies, government folks, nonprofits, all come together and look for strategies that we haven't yet adopted in our region.

And then of course to network with each other to be able to accomplish those things.

I went back and evaluated the attendance at the last summit.

It was over 200 people and it was almost

Perfectly evenly split amongst those three groups of for-profit, non-profit, and public.

And we've gotten so many great reports about how phenomenal the networking is at these things and how much people can kind of put their heads together and start thinking about projects that they can work on together.

So we can move to the next one.

So the basic agenda is not that dissimilar from last time, even if the content is like a little bit

So the evening before we will have a cocktail networking hour again at Common House.

So folks who are just automatically invited to that would be you all, our HP members, speakers at the event and sponsors.

And then we'll have limited tickets for purchase this time.

And then before that, our plan, I think, is to have an RHP meeting.

because last time we had at the end of the summit day everyone was really tired.

So instead that will be kicking it all off.

And then the next day will be the summit, so that's March 13th, 2025.

Also at the Omni again.

Our keynote speaker is Erica Sims from HD Advisors.

She's been central to affordable housing work across the state for many years.

They're HD Advisors that was involved with

Virginia Hosing, Housing Forward Virginia, Maggie Walker, like all these different, the statewide land trust as well, a million different housing programs.

And she's also just a phenomenal speaker.

So that day will be 8 a.m. to 3.30-ish p.m. with the intention that people can go connect afterwards since it's ending early enough.

And as with last time,

There will be networking hours built in during the day as well.

And there will be three different breakout session slots, each with their own three separate sessions that people can choose from.

Can I get a show of hands?

Who here attended one of the past two?

I attended the cocktail hour.

You don't look that better.

Yeah, I mean, I got to go to the last one and it was just phenomenal.

So if you haven't had a chance yet, please come or even if you didn't come before, come again.

I think it's going to be a great opportunity for both learning and connecting with people and looking for solutions.

So we have over 20, I think, really phenomenal speakers coming already.

We have a range of for-profit affordable housing developers.

We have these folks.

So Erica Sims is the one on the left side.

I told you a little bit about her.

Rocky Piro will be talking about comprehensive planning and how to think about preparing for affordable housing within your comprehensive plan.

He's an expert on comprehensive planning specifically.

Angie Rogers is from Prince George's County, and they have just

A wide range of programs that they have been implementing.

And their county alone includes kind of semi-urban to fully rural areas.

And so really interesting case studies there.

Christopher Smith is very familiar.

He is with LISC.

And he'll be talking about looking at vacancies in the rural area, which is something I've heard a lot from folks as a concern.

and how to address heirs property and things like that.

Isabel MacLean is the Director of Policy and Advocacy at BHA, Virginia Housing Alliance.

So those are just some examples of people who will be there.

We can jump to the breakouts.

So I have kind of a list of some of the breakouts.

We can give you a more fleshed out description if you're interested.

The student will be on the website hopefully within the next few weeks.

But it's going through all sorts of really important topics.

We're trying to kind of cover the gamut and think about what people will be interested in.

So addressing homelessness through Housing First Solutions, the Harrisonburg folks are going to be here talking about this new strategy that they're using that's pretty amazing public, private, NGO collaboration.

We'll be looking at different populations.

So there's the one on where will teachers and mechanics live.

We'll be thinking about what are the tools available to planners and elected officials in the state of Virginia at the Dylan Rule State.

Different ways of preserving communities, thinking about both displacement and preserving the feel of the community that has been newly established while allowing for more affordable housing to be available.

So a whole bunch of really interesting topics and feel free to contact me if you want to talk any more about it.

Really have appreciated people's input throughout this whole process so far.

So the last slide about this one is about funding.

Sorry to put a little pie chart there because I love pie charts of having the visual.

So you can see we're about 21,000 away from meeting our goal which I don't think is too bad for

The timeline that we're at right now, but we are looking for more sponsors.

There's the potential of one more grant, but we're not quite sure about it because it's so competitive.

But so you can kind of see where the expenditures are going and where the revenues are coming from right now.

As if anybody's ever been involved in putting on an event of this size, it is an awesome undertaking.

And this is our premiere event for the Regional Housing Partnership.

And folks that have attended the other sessions, I've seen other events talk about how awesome this has put together.

But without Laura Jean, and particularly her because she has to put up with one pain in the butt commission member.

I don't know who that is, Jesse.

It's me.

So I want to say thank you for putting up with me because I can be difficult.

I just want to publicly say this.

Thank you for doing that.

And this is going to be an awesome event.

And without their staff support, we wouldn't be here.

And thank you both for your ongoing

You know, anybody would need to start raising 21 grand to make this happen.

I can't hear you.

Blue Ridge Home Builders.

They donate.

But this is important.

Manufactured housing.

Is that something that's going to be addressed?

On the complaint, it requires you to address it.

In other words, you can't not address manufactured housing.

We're going to allow it already.

Are you speaking around the summit?

Those are the breakout sessions are awesome.

The secret sauce in this summit is the networking session time between each.

That's where the real magic happens.

We don't currently have manufactured housing specifically addressed in the whole session, but it is going to be part of it.

But anyway, thank you.

Yeah, just so everyone knows, for sponsorships, obviously we'll take anything, but the lowest level is at $1,000, and then it kind of has several levels.

All that information is on our website, but I can also get it directed to you all.

We do still have one $10,000 level available, which is an exclusive for filming.

So we will be having each session filmed and then we'll be putting out those videos and whoever is the exclusive sponsor will have their logo and information there.

So for those who are interested in that.

Probably for a short time.

So if they want it, they need to come in.

Okay, cool.

On to the study.

Okay, so we are currently preparing for the 2025 Regional Housing Needs Assessment.

and strategy study, I think is the full name.

We have not done a regional housing needs assessment since 2019.

I think that was the very first time our region had done that at the regional level.

And so it is, you know, really time for us to see how things have changed since then, how updated data and information.

A lot of loving to thank you.

It was the best picture of our region that I've ever been to.

Was your building each other?

No.

So the purpose of this study is to identify gaps and needs in helping affordability across the region.

We want to understand our housing ecosystem a little better and really have data to back it up.

We want to of course understand the cost margin that people are living with, everything from commuting patterns to the impact of housing on economic development, and just in general have accurate data for planning and funding purposes across the region.

So the plan is that it's a regional study, but we've definitely heard loud and clear that every locality really wants specific focus on their unique needs because

As we know every county and the city all have such different just economic context, housing context, work context.

So that is going to be deeply incorporated and it's going to have split out sections within.

So there will be the regional focus.

We're not going to lose that.

But just making sure that as people participate, as localities participate, that they are getting the specific data that they need

and the specific attention that they need.

So a big part of this is not just getting the current data, but also, so we'll be working with VCHR, which is the Virginia Center for Housing and Research.

And they've done a lot of wonderful regional studies.

I'm happy to share samples.

There's a lot online from other PDCs.

The locality is very similar to ours.

So they have a lot of expertise in this very specific type of study.

But then we will also have Housing for Virginia partnering as well and they'll be along for the whole process.

They'll be listening to the listening sessions, the focus groups, looking at the data from the beginning and then within year two they'll start presenting strategies to each locality.

I think it's a menu of 24 per locality that then the locality staff and electives can kind of

worked closely and directly with the Housing Board of Virginia staff on identifying which of these feel the most relevant.

Yes, it's based on data, it's based on already hearing what we're saying, but which feels the most relevant and which is the most feasible and really narrowing that down.

And again, they have done that work with other

regions around the state.

So really amazing to have experts who are very hands-on.

It's not cheap, but it's a really good deal still for what they're able to offer.

Also included in this is training local staff.

So in the beginning of the first half of this next year, when this begins,

They'll do listening sessions, but then there will also be five to seven trainings kind of depending on what people are most interested in, where locality staff, TPDC staff, some nonprofits have already voiced interest, can participate in training, learning how to obtain the data and analyze it in the ways that are simple enough for us to replicate so that we can spend less money on consultants in the future when we just want to kind of update some numbers.

So that's a really cool thing.

And then that cuts costs actually for us because part of the homework for that is that we're all collecting some of our own data and helping analyze it.

We're certainly not doing all of it or the bulk of it, but our homework and our practice time will actually go into the study as well.

So yeah, those are the main goals of funding that study.

So the benefits.

Now,

So every locality is obviously going to be involved.

This is a regional study, but as far as the strategies portion, localities that provide funding for that are going to get a lot more attention and going to be able to participate more in that part.

But everybody's going to benefit from just obtaining data that's sometimes really hard to come by that BCHR is really expert in finding and I don't know.

and they've really talked about how they're going to prioritize local goals and really listen to, okay, Louisa is much more interested in this side of the housing question, City of Charlottesville is more interesting.

They're really open to hearing what are our goals and what do we wanna see happen and then analyzing data and talking about strategies through that lens, which is kind of a big deal, I think.

And then the last slide,

The next steps are just finishing securing funding, finishing some grants that we're applying for.

Some of the last localities who are waiting to see what grants come in before they make their decisions of how to participate.

And we have already had one meeting of the project management team.

They'll be starting to meet quarterly once this gets rolling.

So they'll be kind of providing some really good oversight and hearing updates every quarter.

And then

Come early in the new year, we'll start doing listening sessions with BCHR.

And of course, all of you will be invited to those.

You'll be some of the first ones.

With four confirmed, we went to a fifth that asked us to come back after we'd heard what grant funding we received so they knew the exact amount.

We went out asking for an output seed amount, and then we're still in discussions with staff on the scope of work.

One of the things that we felt really strongly with is, in the previous rendition, it was

We collected a sum of funds and we gave it to a consultant and the consultant came back with the deliverable.

And it was really important for us that this was a process that built capacity within the region, within the staff to be able to be doing this ongoing.

Because it really doesn't make a lot of sense, especially with how housing has been in the last five years to do, wait five years to get updated data.

We need to be able to do that enrolling year to year as we're looking at updating comp plans.

So we felt really strongly about this approach where it's working alongside the consultant versus having them deliver our product.

The other thing we were really impressed with with VCHR, did I put those letters somewhere?

I always do it backwards.

That is, they are abundantly clear with us that they have zero interest in putting together strategies that are not supported by local governments.

They do not want plans that sit there.

And so this is really intended to be locally driven.

They are not coming in to say you should, based on the data, this is what you need, this is what we're, they want to be working directly with staff

to be identifying what is it that your jurisdiction is looking for, what is it that they're not looking for, and making sure that it's tailored in each jurisdiction.

So we thought really strongly about that as well.

The last housing study, if you remember, came with a strategies plan that came after it.

We view that more as a toolkit.

It was less of an individualized strategies as it was, here are all of the different options of strategies that can be used in order to address housing needs.

The Staten Augusta-Lanesboro area is just kind of, they've wrapped up the whole creation activity in their implementation phase.

And I've gotten to attend some of their gatherings as they're working with the same folks that we'll be working with.

And it's pretty amazing to see the collaborative sense, like the rallying behind shared goals that people have gone through this process and agreed upon.

I was going to add that certainly in that process, working with staff and local officials, that really does help to inform and guide strategies that make a lot of sense.

And I think there's still a lot of lack of understanding of the demands that are out there.

So lesser.

Ford, and Debra Disprint, I would say.

I can give you a very detailed one on paper, but basically the first year, which started in January of 2025, is going to be focused on kind of gathering all the information, compile it.

They'll have a lit review, the trainings.

So by the end of 2025, they would have kind of a draft report.

And all of the, there'll be like raw data and everything available much sooner than that.

Come May, June of this year, right?

One of my favorite portions of the old one that I still cite to this day is the workforce aspect.

How many people drive in and how many people drive out?

That was very powerful.

Any other questions?

Comments?

Moving on next to the consent agenda, we have the minutes and the September 7th financial reports.

I'll approve the decision.

I hear a motion.

I hear a second.

Second.

The questions were made by Mr. Gjorgjiev and seconded by Mr. Payne.

I'll leave it there.

Aye.

Aye.

Be careful.

That's all I have.

I abstained.

I did not.

Yeah, you said that.

I'm sorry.

It's not.

OK.

Very well.

I present a memo for the purpose of detailing the quarterly reports for the commission's financials of July through September of 2024.

In the packet for September, or the commission, it included the September financial dashboard

A quick revenue report and consolidated profit and loss statement balance sheet, which is the typical monthly.

Additionally, we've added this profit and loss prior to your comparison statement, which is currently shown on the screen as well.

So in a high level, again, same similar format as the financial dashboard on a monthly basis, we're going to

Look at quick assets not on the screen.

It's more of just a summary of information.

The net quick assets have increased by $70,580 from June.

So that's just the increase in the three month time period.

Based on the 12 month average of operating expenses, we have 11.8 months of available operating expenses compared to 11.28 also in June.

Unrestricted cash on hand as of September 30th was $363,000 which equates to 2.69 months of average monthly operating expenses.

The net gain for September was $14,966 which results in a cumulative fiscal year net gain of $67,223.

Now as it relates to what's on the screen,

In the budget versus actual, we are about 25% complete.

We are actually 25% complete of the fiscal year of 2025.

So that's kind of our marker in time.

Through September, our total income was 29.2% of the 42.6 million budgeted.

For expenses through September,

We are 20.95% of the 2.4, or 2.40, no, 2 million budgeted.

And the total pass for expenditures for September, we're 29.45% of the 40,000, 40 million, 40.6 million budgeted.

The balance sheet, basically just calling out that the accounts receivables

were $7.6 million as of September 30th.

And that is an increase over this time last year, but it is very much attributable to the implementation of the billing activity on the body program.

So they had gotten behind on several of the month's worth of expenses coming through.

So they've increased their speed at which they're getting through those and passing through these expenses.

And that also relates to the total liabilities also on the balance sheet showing as a much higher number.

It's 7.8 million.

And then again, it is body pass through once it goes out.

So that's just representative of those numbers.

And on the improved revenue report, as of September, we had 33,399,000 in grant funds remaining for this fiscal year.

of which $31.6 million are pass-through funds.

Remaining for the nine months then is the $191,000 available for the average monthly operating expenses.

So the 12-month average operating expenses is $135,100.

Operating expenses last month, the month of September, were $140,252.

Porterley, and Sam Ryan.

Any questions?

All right, very well.

Thank you.

So next is a staff professional development field trip.

For that, I'm going to use a carrying pin.

This is David is going to be at this one.

Ruth is unexpectedly out.

I am.

So this is going to be fun.

This is fun.

This is the fact that we've had fun.

So TJPDC has involved in what will be a multi-part, your multi-phase staff development and team building activity.

That is focused on, are you scrolling?

I don't know.

Did you set motions in your slides?

I don't know, but I'll keep them moving.

That's actually better.

So yeah, focused on getting out into the localities, the six different jurisdictions of the TJPDC.

And our goal is to really have our staff become more familiar with you all, with your localities, with the members, you know, to get them out, to see, to hear, to experience, you know, what goes on in your localities.

and you get to hear about what things are important to you, what are like the critical things in your county.

And so we started out on October 11th, was the day, it was Friday, and we jumped on a bus and our first stop, that was the first picture there.

We first went to Louisa County and we were joined by

Christian, Goodwin County Administrator, and Andy Wake, who's the Director of Economic Development.

And there you can see Christian on the bus talking with us.

We went, let's see, we started out in Louisa, where are we going?

First off was at the high school.

So we got to see the fire-breathing lion.

We went to Lake Anna and got to get out and see parts of the lake and ended up at Spring Creek.

And I think, you know, just a couple of the key takeaways, I guess, from Louisa, you know, obviously education, the lake, economic development, very important to you all.

And Louisa, I think your staff did a great job of showcasing that.

But we also learned that with your population growth, you're facing some pressures.

But again, I said thank you to the board at Louisa's board meeting the other night.

So somewhere in there, I think you saw rats.

We had a bunch of rats.

Well, let me say too, because there you can see a couple of our folks, and I think Christian and Andy both, and then the picture of Christine.

Seeing the sites was great and learning about those assets, but there was so much good information and information exchange and discussion and questions and answers that went on, both at the stops as well as on the bus.

I think that's where for me, I think there was a lot of really good value.

So we went from Lake Anna to Lake Monticello.

We were joined in Fluvanna by Eric Dahl, County Administrator, Kelly Harris, who's Assistant County Administrator, Jennifer Schmack, who's the Economic Development Director, and Todd Fortune, who's your new Planning Director in Fluvanna.

And started out there in time, crossroads, and just kind of made, it's a Southern swing, because we went down through Columbia and Fourth Union,

I came across some of the southern parts of Fluvanna and ended up in Palmyra.

And you have a picture there at the end.

You have a bunch of folks standing around there in Palmyra talking to Eric.

Some folks kind of took off and were checking out the courthouse, checking out the jail, checking out other parts there of the courthouse and county office complex there.

and others were just, you know, we were just having a good old conversation about the same thing that was going on in Fluvanna.

So, you know, obviously in Fluvanna, you know, we learned very excited about finally, you know, after 10 years, the James River Water Project, you know, that's a key thing.

Yeah, okay.

I don't remember 10, 10 years is a good one.

Times that by four would be my point.

Okay.

You're all right.

That's true.

But obviously key for Fluvanna.

And then, and then also, I guess some of the challenges that Fluvanna is facing is related to some of your infrastructure that you're starting to talk about in some of your facilities that you're looking to upgrade so that you can better serve yourselves.

So again, thank you to Fluvanna.

Thank you to Louisa.

It was a great, great trip.

We're probably gonna plan our next two jurisdictions sometime for sometime in the spring.

And being the first time that we did this, we spent a lot of time then debriefing, you know, like what was really valuable, what should we do differently, how often should we do this?

And there's a possibility that we may go to one jurisdiction at a time instead of two, just to be able to really spend time, go into the, you know, go in and meet with your staff, talk with your team, learn more.

about like what's pressing.

I mean, some of the great questions were like, what keeps you up at night as the county administrator here?

What are you most looking forward to in your community?

So it was a really great way to connect with the staff that we work with on, on discrete programs, but certainly not everything that you all deal with.

So we were really excited to be able to do this and it was well received by their, they were so grateful to jump on the bus with us and talk with us for several hours.

And the feedback that we got from them as well was like this was a really great opportunity to meet your team, to connect faces with names and emails, you know.

So we hope to do this with all six and then get it on some sort of rotation that we're continuing to come out and be present where you all are.

You know, it's one thing to talk about different areas of your counties.

It's another thing to be in them while you're talking about them and understand the real opportunities and the real pressures that you all are facing.

So this was a really great

We started off thinking of it as professional development, then it was team building, and then it was networking, and it was really just a wonderful day is what it ended up.

We certainly appreciated having staff out there, and I will say to Louisa that Mr. Blount admitted at the end of the meeting last night when he presented this that Fluvanna County was more beautiful.

Thank you all for coming out and we will finish.

I think you know you well.

Well, Nelson County will commit to

We'll have to stay after five.

I can't remember what year that was.

Actually, I think we've done it twice.

But you were in the Veritas when Mary Nelson went here.

That's right.

That's what we did.

It's probably been 12 or 15 years since the first round.

I know we did it 11 years ago.

You probably had a great time.

Feeling good about that?

We're professionals.

Okay, so in September, staff, Isabella came to talk to you guys about the watershed improvement program.

Detailing VDEQ's Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and that they had some implementation funding about three million dollars this round across the Commonwealth.

The previous rounds were maybe four or five different planning district commissions that received implementation funding.

So we did apply, we detailed what we were going to apply for the last time that we were here.

I'm very pleased to share that we were awarded funding.

There is no local match required for this funding.

It's $179,000 just over that for the TJPDC staff and subcontractors to conduct eight rain barrel workshops throughout the region and then to manage a pilot regional septic funding assistance program, about $165,000 towards that.

We've heard a lot working with our

housing nonprofits that they are always looking for funding related to SEPTA and so I'm really pleased with Isabella's work.

Thank you so much for everything you did for that.

Congrats on the award and then since it is not within the approved budget we just wanted to bring a resolution forward to you all to accept that funding and then to negotiate into a contract with DEQ to be able to administer this.

So moved.

So moved.

So moved.

So moved.

So moved.

So moved.

So moved.

So moved.

So moved.

So moved.

So moved.

So moved.

All right, moving on to the executive directors.

We did a couple of title-level updates.

We are in our final stages of procurement for getting consultants for two different projects.

The first was to get a firm to do a classification and compensation study, and the second was to do a recruitment.

It's been a lot more challenging to secure these proposals than we thought.

We're pretty small potatoes compared to large jurisdictions, and so this is such a small contract that it's been, it's taken a little longer than we would have liked it to.

What we're at the final stage is we should be selecting both firms shortly and kicking those off.

Again, that's contingency funding, so that doesn't require any amendment to our budget.

The next one is our staff in the last month has taken advantage of a lot of different professional development opportunities, you know, making sure we expand our team's technical capacity and understanding of all of the different associations and organizations that we can engage in.

anything from Virginia Municipal League, the Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations.

We did, you know, some OSHA training is on the horizon, the Governor's Summit for Rural Prosperity, the Rural Planning Caucus.

So I just wanted to highlight some of the different things that we're taking advantage of to make sure that we're staying as up to date as we can with our staff's training to be able to serve you guys better.

In my report is the detailed monthly metrics for the body 2022 grants.

So those are in the packet.

And then finally, legislative services.

As you guys know, because we've been out, David has been attending your governing body meetings with the regional legislative program.

And then the rest of these, I don't think I'm going to get into high detail.

They are in your packet, but lots of activity right now with the transportation planning, transit planning.

And then as you heard from Lori Jean with housing study and the housing summit.

So we're spinning a lot of plates.

I was remiss to not recognize Ms. O'Brien as well for her work so I apologize for that.

Very well then.

Next is the roundtable discussion.

I'm sorry.

That's you all.

No, roundtable.

She's asking me to start cleaning the table.

OK. All right, Mr. Rutherford, it looks like you need to wake up.

It's been a long five months.

Trying to think of kind of big things.

We're kicked off the zoning meeting, had some pretty good participation on the 151 corridor.

Had a second meeting, just kind of a town hall discussion to write the roadmap for RV zoning.

It was fairly well attended.

Still running into, I know my district trying to get natives to participate, folks who've got a history in the area.

I mean, that's always a struggle.

I think the last one I counted maybe two people who actually grew up in Nelson, two to five, something like that.

That was a little bit of a struggle, but that's always a struggle.

Beyond that, we got a series of grants in Livingston.

We did get a grant for the sidewalks.

I'm sure you guys have heard about that.

A million bucks.

We got another grant related to sewer improvements, more millions of bucks.

We recently purchased a building in Livingston to turn the DSS through one of the areas over there but also give the DSS a home and it turns out to be more affordable because that's a three-way route for us.

Adds more parking.

We just had Halloween and it is speculated that we had close to 3,000 kids in Livingston.

It was insane.

This is the first year that people reported running out of candy in three hours, in two and a half hours.

So it was just remarkable.

Never seen anything like it, so barely, amongst the most, Halloween.

Let's see, Helene impacted this a little bit, but not too bad.

I had a few bridges washed away, so I'm working with some constituents on that.

Did anybody declare a state of emergency for your county?

No.

All I have to say is I've learned a few things with FEMA related towards some opportunities.

So the private bridges got washed away.

The state declared emergency, but the locality also has to declare a state of emergency so that people can then solicit FEMA money for some of these bridges.

It was extremely isolated.

So I'm in the midst of researching if we can do a retroactive, which I am not sure.

So I've asked staff to kind of look into that to allow these people to apply for some FEMA funds that were directly impacted by COVID.

Ready?

I got a few things.

I guess over a year ago we had a presentation from the sheriff's department from Blue Line Solutions to put traffic cameras around schools, which did not pass.

We decided not to do it.

The sheriff took it upon himself to last month get funding from us to pay out a speed enforcement officer to the county scenario.

We're a real live person doing that work and having a precedence on both 29 and 51, which is a great thing that our Sheriff's been able to do.

You've probably heard this before, but in January we will have the dedication of the new Nelson County Service Authority, Wintergreen Mountain Wastewater Treatment.

So that's finally going to be up and running some testing stages right now.

In December, we will have in front of us the Wild Rose Solar Project, a 90 megawatt solar farm proposed for Gladstone area.

We have two other members on the board, not us, two others that are working with them to come up with the

and the whole package that we'll look at in December.

So looking forward to see what that's going to look like.

And finally, at the Heritage Center south of Livingston, we're going to have the grand opening of the new Virginia Health Department, which is moving from

this previous location at Louisa Medical Center there and this is going to anchor the Heritage Center which is a community center which has a non-profit that's driving it and all local community members making that happen so

Black Middle School is going to have a new face.

The Southern part now has a new face.

It's got the signage up and November 22nd, they'll have a grant opening.

Went from being a good idea to actually happening.

Great.

I think it's up there in the Center for Life.

We had a meeting Monday night and everything had been going relatively quiet.

Amazon and the program, they're pushy dirts and I hope they hurry up.

Many projects that people have come to the phone with that they want money for.

We will need Amazon real quick.

just bolted the foot in two new Asprey-Turner fields and they said Fluvanna got one.

So we got to have one.

But anyway, Amazon is rolling the

and we've got two after tariff fields now in the books but we'll see how it goes but everybody's coming into woodworks with opportunities for us to spend money

What's your general fund?

Yeah, I was pretty sure I had to spend money and not raise taxes.

I heard Fluvanna was going to let you have a little bit.

We're getting our clothes on.

All right, Mr. Woodward.

Well, you know,

The biggest thing by far in Louisiana is Amazon.

And as Mr. Barlow says, they have broken ground and moved a lot of dirt.

This is all down at the 148 acre campus down next to the North Carolina Power Station.

Along those lines, the governor was out, it's been three months from now I guess, down in North Carolina.

signed the thing about the small modular reactors, and that, you know, hopefully the whole panel will be.

So, Dementia's been looking for somebody to partner up with as far as the engineering work, and what are the studies actually required to.

So Amazon's opening up half a million, but it sounds about 500 million, and half a million of these sounds better than 500 million.

Whichever way you put it, it's a lot of money that they're putting up.

I mean, it's no doubt more than likely there'll be one there and Dominion and Amazon will partner up for it to build it.

Maybe there'll be multiples, not just one.

We're hearing about two and a half billion dollars to build one, so that'll be some more tax money.

You know, the water and energy are the two things that data centers just suck up like crazy.

So James River, we're looking at the possibility, you know, that the James River water was going to be for people to drink, take baths with and stuff.

I think we're going to wind up also having it being used as an interesting data center.

So... Do the dance players need potable water?

Or can they have other ones?

No, no, no.

This is the deal that we have with them.

They're going to build the reservoir for the Tawara authority that we own, the county of these, is down near Cuckoo, Northeast Creek.

So the biggest data center campus is about 1,400 acres right across the road from the reservoir.

But the campus at the North Anna Power Station is about, well that pipeline's gonna be 12, 14 miles.

We're gonna build it.

The county's gonna have to build and pay for it.

But every month, Amazon's gonna pay us back for building it.

But the biggest thing is we charge $7.77 per

100,000 gallons or whatever it is of potable oil.

I think Amazon's going to pay that price, but it's not going to be treated.

It's going to be involved in the world, which we charge about 52 cents.

Got it on the same map.

So that's going to be a pretty big deal for the world for the income lines.

I've gotten to be friends with a fellow that works for art construction in the Amazon higher education world.

and construction work, and he's on the war side of it, they're going to have three 800,000-gallon building tanks there, because at first they're going to use welding, so they're drilling these deep wells down here, and once the war line's completed, then they'll switch over to that, and then they have some smaller tanks down there as well.

So, anyway, it's all, it's a big deal.

I know the L-POP guitar heroes talk about it, but it's

It's probably the biggest thing for these Academy income laws that, you know, we thought Albemarle Station or something.

This is pretty unclear.

The contracts were $11,000.

So do you, will you have to, will you have to put in, get a motor, put it in a small modular reactor or will those be on the, the campus already, as part of?

There's either the whole thing on the, the motor requires anything else.

I'm curious to see, and that doesn't really sound like a small modular reactor.

I'm curious to see how, as small as it was, what we were talking about starting to take place, I was expecting, you know, as

That technology improves and is more accepted.

You would see those reactors being put in place, which some of the solar fields are mainly being put in place as well, too, because they're already connected at that point in time.

Well, I don't want to take up all the time.

I mean, I guess it's okay to talk about their business.

Can you tell what you're doing on your screen?

As far as what they do,

Hall, Robert Reichert, Tommy Howard, the two supervisors we met at this company, it's a California company, we started there.

They came, we have an industrial department still on down in Shannon, you know, 12, 16 years.

So the state politics people are there, the more state people there, you know, these people are going to start, they're going to make reactors

It fit in containers, shipping containers, backtrack trailers, 80 tons because it has a lead shield at 30 rounds and not going to be shipped with it.

These people release them and every five years they'll come back and be refueled.

The problem is that the fuel is going to stay

So the factory, the manufacturing part of it, we're 150 employees, it's two FedEx, it's two SpaceX, ex-SpaceX people, but it has other, neither one of them came to, or needed, but anyway, I think the biggest thing they're doing is logging, but they're getting ready to build a cluster or four in Utah, I guess, to show what it can do, but their plans are that municipalities can buy them, you know,

Town of Louisa, Ben Island, and providing energy to the people.

So, I mean, it's just a lot of stuff you don't want to play with.

I'm familiar with that.

And some of these, if they're building, they don't have to be required water.

This one.

Yeah.

But USC has an SMR that was literally the size of the pickup.

Yeah.

So anyway, we decided it was worth it.

So we just let them know.

Blackerstein.

Well, that's it could have gone in down next to Alabama.

Well, just in my turn, I'll follow up on that.

Oh, very briefly.

Last month on the 8th, we had a board meeting.

Ruth and Lori were in attendance.

Lori gave her presentation on the regional housing partnership.

She must've been persuasive because at the end of her presentation, our board agreed to kick in $10,000 to the RHP.

We had another board meeting on the 22nd.

It was a presentation by a representative of VDAP, at the completion of her presentation, which was an update on the status of Mary's project, Sandy Greene.

After completion, we have board members and members of the public who have stressed considerable unhappiness with the way the actions are unfolding in the county.

This is a perennial concern in Greene.

Okay.

Yeah, briefly, haven't been too much.

I would say probably the biggest things are our budget process is informally kicking off and will be beginning in earnest soon.

We've got an update about continual implementation of citywide pedestrian safety improvements, as well as improvements to roadway safety throughout the city.

There's a number of initiatives underway there, but a long way to go.

Likewise, we've got an update about our VDOT portfolio.

The city, in order to improve our all-time performance, is going to cancel several projects, some of which started in 2011 and 2016, but have not even begun construction yet.

So hopefully we're going to be on a completely different path going forward about our on-time performance

And then finally, we got a presentation from the city manager about recommendations he had for this upcoming budget session for investments around homelessness in Charlottesville and probably some of the highlights of that would be

funding converting the Salvation Army Thrift Store into a permanent year-round low-barrier shelter, funding the Salvation Army's expansion, which would be a high-barrier shelter, in addition to that low-barrier shelter, of course, the already-funded Premier Circle project for permanent supportive housing units, and in addition, some funding for staff positions around outreach to people who are homeless in Charlottesville and connecting them with social services

Or entering systems where they can start applying for vouchers and be able to get that.

Yeah, I guess it needs to be the budget.

I'm not going to duplicate this report, but sort of a pretty kickoff.

actually started the planning commission on the CIP instead of us coming in the middle to say, okay, well, before we start, so there was a discussion there with the planning commission a lot to sort of tag the transportation projects as we're spending this time thinking about CIP projects, et cetera, do we have a human capital strategy?

so that we can actually implement this stuff in a reasonable way.

There was that Planning Commission also just had, on the 29th of October, had a joint meeting with the Albemarle Planning Commission, something we had not done in five or six years.

That focused on resiliency planning for climate change.

It was an interesting and informative meeting.

We need to do this more often.

But that's also a staggeringly difficult set of projects and even thought and strategy.

And one of my concerns about that is we need to, while we do this, and if we're going to jointly move forward in a resiliency plan, we need to have a strategy for implementation.

And we need to think about the strategy for implementation as we're thinking about what we're going to implement

Yeah, so that was an interesting and productive use of time.

It was October 29th, which was both National Cat Day and National Hermit Day, and I have no evidence to back this up.

I'm sure that that's not a coincidence.

What else we got?

The funding round is underway for the Affordable Housing Fund and for what we call our HOPs, our operations.

One has closed, the other has opened, and apparently there's a whole bunch of meetings coming up in December or January related to that.

Sure.

So I would say the thing that's occupied the largest portion of our time since we last met has been our comprehensive planning process that we're digging back into.

We're kind of starting with the biggest nuts and going down.

So we started with two meetings that are kind of engaging on the real

Corr, the kernel that drives the whole comprehensive plan that drives really all policy in general.

So we had a conversation about the growth management policy.

And then yesterday we went into the development area, kind of planned, and now we look at that.

And there was a lot of fruitful discussion.

I think a few novel ideas have been bandied about and have actually picked up steam, something that

Supervisor Gallway, I think actually breathed into life has gotten, I think, some attention, which is the idea of recognizing that we have parts of the development area that we do not bear fruit from in my district, the village of Rivanna, which is an entirely low density, single family community that in almost every way kind of bails our stated goals of the development area and the locale, the area itself.

does not enjoy being a development area.

They would like to be something other than that.

They just wanted the water service, you know?

They're like, give us water and sewer, then please go back.

So there's a discussion about whether or not it is appropriate to recognize that this is a function of a development area and find some way to offset that elsewhere in our overall planning process.

But that's a big kernel, and that's going to require some investigation about what that would look like.

And there was, I think, some early tiptoeing about how we might include accessory dwelling units in the comprehensive plan moving forward.

A few different kind of thoughts on that.

I think it's fair to say that there was general

Cautious approval of the idea of ADUs, but a lot of concerns about how it might be implemented.

And there was really quite a lot to say about whether or not mixed development, mixed use development is actually succeeding as we envision it, and what the barriers to that are, and what strategies we should be using in our comprehensive planning process to kind of address some of the issues that we're seeing and really taking on.

We also have recently had a traffic camera go live

So we had a test run of the one private camera we have, where it had been recording speeding for a while.

It was, I don't have the figures ready off my head, but they were surprising and troubling numbers of daily speeders.

And at the beginning of the month, it actually went live and started issuing tickets after having that warning period.

We are deeply limited in the context in which we can do it.

Albemarle just upwards of 55 going through the school zone when the lights are flying.

Stupid.

These are folks that drive, I know there's a high school there.

This is not out of town traffic.

And of course they're mad that they're getting tickets.

And people want to say, well, I wasn't driving, somebody else was driving my car.

I don't care if your car is slowing the hell down, it's your responsibility.

Yeah.

I'd like to see how that goes in court.

Well, in the city and the county, we've just in the last three weeks had pedestrian deaths.

And there are so many kids crossing those roads over there.

Well, I mean, that's the whole point, right?

Like, the fine is nothing.

Well, the cops, graciously, have been out there backing it up and supporting it.

It's just fun watching.

I love getting those complaints.

That's one, that's one complaint I like to receive.

They love to respond to them.

You're going to call and complain to me about getting caught speeding and you're complaining about the system we caught you doing it?

Yeah.

You actually have pedestrian crossings in that.

Yeah.

It's a whole campus, so it's in front of a high school, but behind the high school, of course, is the middle school, elementary school, and then the Ivy Creek School.

And then across the street, most of those kids that are moving, we have a lot of low-income housing over in that area.

Well, David, I made it.

I'm in my car more often than I was.

I have been for years now and I made a deliberate point in exiting like in Long and Shallow Avenue and when we hit city line, I'm very very conscious I'm going to be 34 miles an hour.

It's a 35 mile an hour speed limit.

You would be shocked at how many people are like furious with me.

I wouldn't be shocked.

I don't know how it is anywhere else.

And on the city streets where it's 25 miles an hour, I'm on my scooter doing 26 miles an hour and people get furious with me because I'm doing the speed limit.

And it's just shocking to me.

Our county is trying to get in our legislative package the ability to be able to put photo speed cameras on some rural roads where it's dangerous for cops to even be able to pull anybody over.

I'm sure you guys have speeding issues in your counties too.

But that, you know, it's just, it's just multiplied.

And then, you know, we've also got the cameras on the school buses for the people that, you know, we'll just pass the school bus where kids are alone.

Well, I didn't even talk about that.

Premier Circle was mentioned by Councilor Payne and we broke ground on Premier Circle.

This is over on 29 North where you have permanent supportive housing and support works, which is the new name of Virginia Housing.

We'll also have offices and be on site there.

So the idea is that you can move folks from homelessness into a housing situation.

Then they receive all the supports they can to get financially stable, to build and move out of that housing into more permanent housing.

But as opposed to having the housing there and the support somewhere else, they're all there on site working with the folks through the whole facility.

I'm hoping that we'll be back there cutting the ribbon on that by, I think it's going to be about two years from now, 2026.

But that's, and I'm proud of that because that's right in my district.

On October 16th,

For the third year in a row, Dr. Bailey from Virginia Tech came.

She worked with our financial team in the county and provided a regional economic outlook report.

It's always a fascinating report if it's into, I mean, obviously since it's our county, we're comparing Albemarle to the state and what's going on at the national level.

And this is always a report that we use that kicks off getting ready for our budget season.

But a lot of the information that's in there about housing prices, wages,

poverty levels, immediate incomes, and all of that is regionally because they look at the metropolitan statistical areas in there as well.

So I always call it out just in case folks are interested and want to go read that report.

It was on October 16th and we can find it in the leading materials there.

And then I was pleased to be part of a second group from the University of Virginia, Albemarle County, City of Charlottesville,

Christine went as a member of the TJPDC on a, there was 20, I guess there was 18 of us that went to Champaign, Urbana, University of Illinois, Mike went on the first trip, so this was the second group.

And it was to watch and learn more about that wonderful transit system in operation out there, and not just learn about the system, but then also learn about hydrogen powered buses and learning about that whole system.

So I was thrilled to be able to go with that, learned a lot.

One thing that I did learn is the state of Illinois considers transit a civil right in their constitution.

And we found that out.

The question was, well, why is Illinois the state that funds transit at the highest level of any state in the country?

Well, I guess if it's a civil right in your name and constitution, that that'll help get the funding.

Very different.

Illinois is very different in how they fund things from

from the state of Virginia.

But once you kind of parse through all of that, you could see how this body has received reports on the Regional Transit Authority that would initiate the city of Charlottesville and Albemarle and start to break out.

But this is a system that is already partnering with the university and two different cities in accounting.

So it's a great model to be learning from.

So hopefully we'll be seeing more of that.

as we keep pushing on next steps of what to do with the information.

When you send 30 some people out there, there should be some follow up from it.

It wasn't just a, oh, hey, for kicks kind of thing.

But yeah, that was it.

And then I just say it was, it's always hard to see that, Rex.

I know that I'm the reason now.

I used to be in my district out there on 29 on the river.

Huh?

That's a hell of a lot longer than it was.

It's still good.

It's still there, too.

People ask me about that when they come in.

I'm like, well, I'll tell you where it is.

It's still existing.

Friday nights, usually, his mom and dad were around June the day they did it.

What happened to the people?

That's awesome.

Very neat.

It was interesting getting there.

Three points.

Did you have three connections?

But it was well worth it.

We had the interim executive director of the Chamber of Commerce was there with us.

Like I said, a representative from the president's office at the VA was there, and then, like I said, Christine was there from TJPDC.

We had our reps from both school divisions in the city and the county

and the Transit Director of UVA was there.

So all of that public transit moves all their school children around the slide.

Fascinating.

Yeah, really cool.

Well, since we were talking about the Housing Summit,

I thought I'd go ahead and depress people about house prices.

And so the importance of the summit and the importance of us coming up with solutions, this is year to date, literally as of this morning, median sales prices, all products, so that's attached, detached condoms.

Albemarle Canada, year over year, you're up 7.5%.

Charlottesville, you're up 15% year over year, Greene, 3.25%, our county, Fluvanna is the winner, we're at 1.5%, Nelson County is the opposite direction, 24% up, and Louisa, you are 6% up.

So Nelson County was a big winner.

You were flat on inventory though, sales inventory, but you were up 80K,

24, 24%.

What was the median sales price?

Blah, blah, blah.

You would ask me that?

Hang on a second.

But inventory is about a 2016 level.

Yeah.

Um, prices.

How many sales is that?

Well, it's 107.

You guys are the, you know, you guys are actually an 1100, 1200.

The two big volume is obviously Charlottesville and Albemarle.

But percentage-wise, you're going up.

That's the exciting news I have.

Thank you.

Just to follow up a little bit on those nuclear reactors.

I mentioned last meeting that Nevada County instituted one of the most restrictive solar ordinances in the state.

500-foot setbacks on rivers and streams.

So that's 1,000 feet on the other side.

So that's pretty restrictive, 1,000 feet from major roads and so on.

But during that meeting, when public comments were happening,

A couple of people spoke about the fact that this small modern nuclear reactor program is coming up.

And that was a good news, exciting news is that nuclear is coming.

And I had to ask the audience a question, how many of them would like to have that in their backyard?

Which is why I brought up that question.

How appealing would it be for you to have that in your backyard?

But separate from that, we are continuing our march forward

Stay very rural, and we will be revisiting our cluster ordinance subdivision next meeting.

As many of you know, that can be put in place when you have high growth, and so that was put in place.

Keith will probably know this maybe 15, 20 years ago, but I suspect that we will be removing that feature so that landowners will not have the rights

and put in higher density into their properties.

Not that we had a lot of people taking advantage of it anyhow, but I don't feel that we'll be able to buy minor subdivisions.

So if I was a two-way person, there's a standard about size that we can do.

There's still a lot of business to go to major subdivisions.

So that's pretty much what's going on.

We're starting the budget season process,

We are going to do a staff survey.

We were looking at an outside firm to do that survey for us.

Traditionally, we've done that internally, but we felt like we weren't going to sign it.

You know, feedback from staff members who are concerned that their answers are not anonymous enough.

I don't know if any of you guys have done that in the past, and if you have anything to share as far as

Burns that you use and how you go about that.

Certainly, I appreciate that comment there.

I don't think that anything else is exciting that I can talk about.

I'm just sharing what some public members felt that they were very excited about that and that the reason we didn't need solar was because this was coming and I just thought,

that they wanted in their backyard.

Ernie, it wasn't Nelson getting a nuclear reactor.

It wasn't.

It was back in the Three Mile Island days.

And that was that.

Bam.

Bam.

End of story.

We're still opening Three Mile Island.

They're right here.

Deja vu all over again.

Well, it is, as you brought up, energy and water.

Those are the big things right now.

So meeting the energy demands is going to be a real challenge for the data.

And you should certainly expect these SMRs to figure out speed.

And it's very impressive technology as we've pointed out.

Mr. Chairman, one last comment.

I forgot to note this.

I wrote it on a post-it note.

But for those of you not familiar, the Charlottesville Area Alliance, it's an alliance of folks that are committed to planning for each friendly communities.

We do partner with them.

We chair their transportation committee.

We support their housing work.

But they do have an annual report that they shared with us.

There's hard copies on your way out if you are interested in taking a look at that.

I just wanted to share that.

Anybody want to entertain a motion to adjourn?

So moved.