Planning District Commission Meeting   5/1/2025

Supervisor Galloway, Supervisor Pruitt, here.

Supervisor O'Brien, here.

Mr. Smith, here.

Supervisor Goolsby, here.

Mr. Higgins, here.

Supervisor Barlow, Supervisor Woodward, here.

Supervisor Reed, here.

Supervisor Rutherford, here.

Commissioner O'Brien, here.

Okay, very well.

Next, we have the comments from the public.

If anybody would like to speak, give them your permission.

All right, good evening.

So normally, my staff member, Lori Jean Touloun, would be presenting this for you.

But I will do the honors tonight as she's on vacation.

There we are.

These days I will figure out how to make that larger spear.

Anyway, the Home CDBG 2025-2026 Annual Action Plan is in your packet today.

It is a home consortium that is made up of the same jurisdictions as the TJPDC just under a different agreement.

It is funded by HUD through the Home Investment Partnership Program, and it is formula funds that are received for the region.

used for building, buying, and rehabbing affordable housing units for either rental or home ownership or providing direct rental assistance to low-income households.

These funds come to the consortium annually.

We have not found out what the allocations are for this next year yet, but we have drafted the plan as required and hope to update the plan with the

For program year 2025 we estimate about $651,000 coming to the region for the home consortium.

The way these funds are distributed

We take 10% for administration of the program, 15% is set aside for CHODO.

That's a special project and that rotates through all six jurisdictions.

And then the rest by agreement is split six ways to each locality.

So you can see the breakout here really

We're looking at about $83,000 going to each of the jurisdictions.

It's not a lot of funds, so they don't go very far, but we are able to do a lot of rehab work with these funds and some gap funding.

So we do have a home CDBG consolidated plan.

It's a five-year period.

We're three years into the current plan.

We are also required to do an annual action plan, which is basically how we're going to achieve the goals in that plan for this year.

You may be wondering why I keep saying CDBG as well.

This plan also includes CDBG, but Charlottesville City is the only entitlement recipient for those funds.

O'Brien.

The use of CDBG funds for the other five jurisdictions would have to go through the state's CDBG allotment, not directly from HUD, as they're not a part of the entitlement.

That the major issues in the area were folks paying more than 30% of their income towards their housing costs.

There are a lack of affordable rentals, which has been talked about a lot.

We have a lot of substandard housing in the region, just not safe, which is why we end up having to do a lot of rehab work to keep the people in their homes and accessibility issues.

People who are disabled,

often need modifications to rental units and there are funds available to help with that.

The CHODA rotation that I mentioned this plan year, Greene County is the recipient and they have at this time over 25 rental units reserved for low-income households and will either purchase or build additional units with these funds.

So I mentioned there were goals in the five-year plan.

Those goals are to expand the affordable housing stock in the region, preserve the existing supply of affordable housing, and ensure housing is accessible to residents under 60% of the area median income.

We've achieved a lot already with these funds, 37 rental units, 10 home buyer units, 116 homeowner rehab units,

one rental unit rehabbed and 22 households provided with down payment assistance and 24 households provided with rental assistance in Charlottesville.

So I did say that there was not a lot of funding but we're still able to make a huge impact with it.

There are planned activities for this year shown here by jurisdiction.

We have about 24 homeowner rehabs planned for this next year, 10 rental units planned, one home buyer planned, and nine direct support, either down payment assistance or tenant based rental assistance.

Public comment is currently in progress.

It will end May 15th.

Charlottesville City Council is anticipated to approve this same plan since they are the consortium lead entity on May 5th.

You all tonight will consider approving the plan and we'll also hold a public hearing.

And the plan is due to HUD in the end of June.

and the activities will commence July 1.

Nope.

Nope.

Yes.

Yes.

As a matter of fact, the recommended action motion, I would like to revise because I would like us to be able to,

Anybody wishing to speak on this matter?

The medical court is public hearing.

Any discussion from the board?

I can read it.

Seconded by Mr. Higgins.

All those in favor?

Aye.

All those in favor?

Aye.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Thank you.

All right.

Good evening, Mr.

Chair, members of the commission.

Wanted to spend just a little bit of time with you this evening.

Take a quick look back at the 2025 session.

Also look ahead to some things that are happening now and some things that are going to be happening in the coming months.

Just as a recap, a short session this past year ended on February the 22nd.

The governor was very active once the General Assembly sent bills in the budget proposing, as you can see, almost 160 proposed changes to bills, vetoing another almost 160.

He proposed over 200 amendments to the changes to the biennial budget that were sent to him, eight items that were also vetoed.

General Assembly came back early April to deal with the governor's recommendations, many of which were rejected.

I think in fact of the 200 and some budget amendments, I think there were only 30 some that were accepted and most of them were technical in nature.

But the governor gets the last say.

He has a deadline of midnight tomorrow night to act on the legislation that was sent back to him.

He can either sign it or he can veto it if he does nothing.

Unlike at the federal level, the bill becomes law notwithstanding any action by the governor.

And then to this point, 677 measures that the governor has approved.

Focus a little bit on the state budget and what he was trying to do with those 200 plus amendments.

He was really trying to find more money to put aside in reserve, I think in anticipation of what may be happening at the federal level and how that might impact state revenues.

So there were a lot of reductions, big and small, from different things that the General Assembly had approved that the governor

had tried to change and again many of those reductions were rejected.

We've heard just within the past couple of weeks that the governor is expected to sign the budget but more recently you're hearing that there may be particular items that he has back in front of him that could be vetoed.

He can only really address those items of which he had made recommendations on initially.

He doesn't have free rein to go back and veto things that were not

A couple of items of interest here.

Locally and across the region there was additional money that was included in the current fiscal year.

for harmful algal bloom remediation at Lake Anna.

There was also, that was $250,000.

And there was also another $250,000 that was put toward doing some freshwater testing for HABs, which has been something that has been sorely lacking at the state level.

There's been no money for that freshwater testing.

And then there were a couple of amendments.

Charlottesville's low barrier shelter had gotten appropriation from the General Assembly.

and also there was some money included to help with the Biscuit Run Walking Trail.

Those were both recommended for reduction by the governor, but those were also two amendments that were then rejected by the General Assembly.

So those items are back in play or are back before the governor for his consideration.

So we'll be looking late tomorrow or first of next week when they get loaded on the system for action that he

has taken in that regard.

Legislatively, I know we reported all throughout the session, really the local legislation that we had at the request of Nelson County that was successful two House bills, a House bill and a Senate bill that would allow private police officers to have access to line of duty act benefits.

Got that one on the second try.

So kudos to Louisa County and all the other folks that

We're successful in advocating for that.

Other things have been discussed and kind of prominent for us the past couple of years.

The one-cent sales tax for school construction, this was the second year in a row.

that the General Assembly passed the legislation, sent it to the governor, second year in a row that the legislation was vetoed.

A lot of bills this past year on local land use authority as we see every year, a couple of big bills really from the past couple of years dealing with local authority to deal with solar development.

And then again, many other bills that addressed and oftentimes trying to limit or restrict

I think we came out pretty good in the end in terms of not a lot of onerous things passing that impacted your local land use authority.

I am currently working on a summary of legislation that is approved and wait until after tomorrow to see what the governor's final action is.

And then we'll be getting that out to you really soon.

So moving ahead to look forward, I touched on the solar discussions.

I think there will be some continued discussions about Virginia Clean Economy Act and solar, probably not as intense as we saw this past year leading up to the General Assembly session.

It is an election year, as it is every year in Virginia.

But with the House of Delegates up and the three statewide offices up, things look a little bit different in the off season when it's an election year.

Every year, Virginia Housing Commission takes bills kind of under its wing to look at during the off-season.

Those are bills that either have been directly referred to the Housing Commission by legislative committees or things that are kind of directed their way by a letter from the committee chair.

They've got, as you see there, about 17 proposals.

They're going to parcel those out to two different work groups and take a look at those in the coming months.

Some of those will probably get ultimately in a different form endorsed by the Housing Commission.

I think I've seen as we've moved through the years, just because you've got a legislative commission that has endorsed a bill heading into the next General Assembly session,

You know, whether it's housing commission or as we saw this past year with the solar bills, freedom of information, doesn't necessarily guarantee that you're going to get your bill passed in the coming session.

It seems to be more so that it's not.

Speaking of FOIA, Freedom of Information Advisory Council, two subcommittees, records and meetings, they've got a number of issues that they will look at.

I mentioned just the one, Senate Bill 876 from this past year.

Interesting bill, there was some concern from the open government advocates.

Or advocacy organizations that in some instances they'd seen where items had been added to agendas at the very last minute, like once a meeting had started and something that they didn't know anything about, the public didn't know anything about, and by the end of the meeting it was being voted on.

you know they cited some examples where there's some pretty significant things so legislation was put in to say that if you're going to add something to the agenda after the meeting begins that you could not act on it that meeting unless it was either time sensitive don't know how that was going to be defined or with something that was coming out of a closed session so that bill ultimately failed

Foy Council's gonna look at that and we'll see where that goes in those discussions.

It didn't get a very warm and fuzzy reception when the Foy Council had its initial meeting a couple of weeks ago.

And then finally, I wanted to point out legislative study, the HJ 443, SJ 253 was approved.

It's going to be taking a look at elections and whether state elections, local elections, some or all of them should be aligned with the election timeline for federal elections.

I think is very intriguing to think about.

Should they recommend something ultimately that would require a change in the Virginia Constitution, which then has its own other process that lasts a couple of years.

So that will be one for monitoring over the next 18 months or so.

And then I think this is a final slide, just kind of a little bit more on a couple of special subcommittees.

You're familiar with the one that was established last year, a joint subcommittee to take a deeper dive into the JLARC recommendations on K-12 education funding.

You know, they've, they've got some short term, some short term goals and recommendations.

They've got some issues.

They're going to look either even longer term.

Probably the main thing that they put forward from the study this past year was the recommendation to get us back to 2009 and restore the full state support for those instructional support positions, which the General Assembly finally did include the amount of money needed to roll that back completely.

So the governor tried to cut that one.

Don't know where we'll land on that one after tomorrow.

But they're going to continue their work.

And then probably the two newest things, and I've written about these in the latest legislative updates, both the House and the Senate have special committees that they've appointed to look at what's going on with regard to federal revenues, workforce, and other things that are happening at the federal level that may have an impact again on the state budget.

Those groups are meeting fairly regularly.

House committees already had two meetings.

The Senate has just now scheduled its second meeting for later on this month.

So I'll be trying to monitor those passing along information as I can.

You know, depending on how things go, you know, the General Assembly technically is still in a special session.

Believe it or not, it is a 2024 special session, not a 2025 special session.

So if there is a need for the General Assembly to come back, they do have a mechanism in place to be able to come back pretty quickly to address things that may be happening.

And that is all I had for you.

I'm not clear if there are like four larrys and other disciplines and here's why I mentioned that.

I spent a lot of time with this commission on electric utility regulation, which was dealing with all things related to Dominion, as well as the solar and the regional planning issues.

There's code commission.

There's a whole list of them that I'd be glad to provide you, but

They're going to be things that have a broader impact or implications from a statewide perspective, yes.

In terms of your current home use, the last couple of sessions, they continue to get a little more lenient with electronic paintings.

We kind of had a pause on that.

They had the legislation, I guess, in 2024 that moved for the advisory committees from 25 to 50%, but no changes this past year.

In fact, there was very little that happened

I think probably the thing that I think we're going to continue to hear about it's not necessarily related to meetings but it's going to be related to notice of meetings and you know you have to publish things in newspaper and the cost of doing that and the timelines that you know different publications are on

I don't know, I just had a conversation with VML about this last week.

And I think they're trying to, and so we didn't, you know, we get this bill every year to try to ease up on that in some way, kind of help local governments out on that.

And, you know, the other side is not particularly.

Is there an option out there that would allow for an electronic posting, either not just on your website, but through, in fact, I think that it's the Virginia Press Association that keeps a database of postings that they receive, but is there some option out there

that would allow electronic posting to suffice for meeting the provisions of posting notice of meetings, but then also still having the discretion for a locality or any other public body to pay to put it into a printed media source.

Hey, folks, just a bit curious about SB 974, which Glenn had none to sign.

That would be correct.

That is correct, yeah.

And there's a number of bills we've been seeing from the past several years, they're just

trying to eat away, eat away at the slowness that they say exists with getting approvals.

That particular point, though, is actual payment.

There's some sort of more than a grand, I mean, oh, the planning commission, the chair of the planning commission needs to sign this.

Lang, Commissioner Stott, Brian Saenz, and Danny Lager.

I mean, what's the problem?

I don't know all the anecdotes that they have thrown out there, but I imagine they keep track of them.

Thank you very much.

Good evening, Mr.

Chair, members of the commission.

My name is Gorjan Gjorgjievski.

I'm a regional planner at the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission, working on the Move Safely Blue Ridge Initiative.

Online, we have attending Danielle McCray, who is part of the project team.

It's my pleasure tonight to present to you the draft comprehensive safety action plan.

which I really hoped you had a chance to review it.

As a regional project, it is tailored in a way that it has specific chapters for each of their jurisdictions, outlining specific solutions for the transportation safety issues in all of the localities.

Today's discussion will include the background of the Safe Streets and Roads for All program, TJPDC's leadership commitment, the planning process, the high injury network, the four E's of roadway safety, public engagement, proposed solutions, and next steps.

Move Safely blurages the region's plan to reduce fatalities and serious injuries for all road users regardless of their mode of transportation.

In 2021, a bill was signed into law that became the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which established the Safe Streets and Roads for All discretionary program, which enables

The commission to apply for a comprehensive safety action plan to support its member localities with their project.

This program supports the United States Department of Transportation National Roadway Safety Strategy and its vision of zero fatalities by 2050.

This slide highlights the TJPDC's commitment to roadway safety.

On April 4, 2024, this commission adopted a resolution to support its member jurisdictions with their projects from the Comprehensive Safety Action Plan.

And what they committed to is to reduce the total number of fatalities and serious injuries in Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene,

and Nelson, and to eliminate the roadway fatalities in the city of Charlottesville and reduce the serious injuries by half by 2045.

Before I talk about the planning process for the project, I want to acknowledge the project team who besides TJPDC included staff from all of the jurisdictions and VDOT.

All of the strategies in this plan that are highlighted are in collaboration with staff and VDOT.

So their feedback was very valuable in developing all of the proposed solutions throughout the plan, not just the planning process.

Ultimately, the planning process consists of four key components and is supported by three rounds of public engagement and serves as the foundation for development of the final safety action plan for adoption.

We used many strategies to develop the comprehensive safety action plan, but one of the most important ones that we used was the Heinz-Jerry network methodology, which serves as a map that shows the highest concentrations of severe crashes in our region.

Just as a note, more than 50% or actually a little close to 50% of the severe crashes in the region occurred in Albemarle County.

And this data that the project includes is from 2018 to 2022.

All of the strategies in this comprehensive safety action plan are integrated across the four E's of roadway safety.

By adoption of this plan, all of the localities, the goal is to create a safer and more efficient transportation safety network through engineering

build a culture of roadway safety through education, reinforce safe travels through enforcement, and save lives through emergency response.

Public engagement was a key factor for the development of the plan.

We did that in three rounds through surveys and public engagement across the region.

We were present to where the public was to gather that feedback.

In round one, we asked them what are their concerns when traveling throughout the region?

What do they think

In round two, we had engaged them on strategies again through a survey, but this time we asked them what are the types of solutions they think would be most valuable for transportation safety.

In round three is the current round, which is the review of the draft safety action plan.

The public has an opportunity to review the plan through the public meetings that are at your localities.

So far we have presented at the three localities and we have three to go.

I'm not asking the board to adopt the plan tonight, but I will ask the board to adopt the plan in the June meeting because by then we are hoping that all of the localities have adopted the plan.

This is just the high level.

Again, I want to thank the project team and VDOT because the proposed solutions are the key part of the comprehensive safety action plan.

What that is is specific projects outlined in the plan that once the locality adopts the safety action plan, it will position them to be able applicants for implementation funding in future Safe Streets and Roads for All rounds.

We have three categories of the proposed solutions.

We have spot specific improvements for all of the jurisdictions.

These are specific locations at high risk intersections.

Then we have systemic improvements, which are projects that are outlined in the plan, but this can be used for the entire network in the region.

And finally, the non-engineering solutions are the policies and programs.

These are tailored to address all of the other E's in roadway safety.

I mentioned that the adoption of this plan will enable the localities for implementation funding through the Safe Streets and Roads for All program future rounds.

However, it will also help them with smart scale applications, the Highway Safety Improvement Program, and revenue sharing.

When it comes to the monitoring, the project team plans to do an annual update of the crash data on the website so we can share that with the jurisdiction so we can all be in line with current safety transportation trends and further refine our strategies as needed.

Through the adoption of this Comprehensive Safety Action Plan, the goal is to create a more safer and more efficient network across the entire region.

Thank you for your time.

Maureen, just so I have this straight in my own mind, Move Safely Blue Ridge would be a manifestation of the safe streets for all

D.O.T.

funding program here next month, grant application receives in fundamental school.

So Safe Streets for All is a credible DOT program.

You have applied for money, you intend to apply for a grant from Safe Streets for All to administer what you are calling a Move Safely New Ridge.

Yes.

So there are actually two different move safety to bridge things going on right now.

This one, we have already applied for safety to the grants.

This is a plan and a grant that is creating the safety action plan.

So this is the one that we have been doing for the past year is now coming to you all in its draft form with the strategies that we're asking you all next month to take action to prove it.

Later in tonight's meeting, you're going to hear from a team on potentially applying for another grant, a supplemental planning grant.

So that's a separate initiative.

The implementation funds, so USDOT has two different threads, planning grants and implementation funds.

The implementation funds would be your local governments then seeing something within this plan and saying, let's go seek implementation funding to get additional federal dollars in order to implement it.

We would not be the eligible applicants for that.

Nope.

All right.

I can't go up.

Did you listen to the podcast on the Jon Stewart podcast?

When Ezra Klein came in, the top guy was a recently published book, and he had talked about a program to implement broadband in the United States under the Biden administration.

There was something like 15 consecutive steps

Appleton's had to go through.

They had to get a submission for a planning grant.

If that was awarded, then they would, you know, only at the end of this entire laborious new process would they actually get funding.

In order for local jurisdictions to be able to apply for implementation funding, there does have to be an approved safety action plan.

So this is what we did, is develop the plan so that you all could be eligible for implementation funds.

And the fact that the TJPDC took on the grant for all six organizations, meant with the matching money up front,

It was shared by six places versus each locality that they could do it in and of themselves if they took the cost out of it.

So by combining forces, we did a safety action plan for the region, then each body decided what they were going to do to move it forward.

But each jurisdiction would have had to do that plan in and of themselves and make up the burden.

In fact, one jurisdiction almost did not opt in.

I mean, that will ultimately, that ultimately should improve the score.

So we'll be talking very briefly during my Detective Director's report but then in further details later about the scoring methodology for SmartScale and changes that it's made over time and our area being we get classified as area types.

Area type A, B, C, and D and there's different scoring weighting depending what area you're in.

So we'll talk about that a little bit later today on some changes that might

Like, take you from safety being 25% of the score to safety being 35% of the score.

I guess I don't have a whole lot of hope for SmartScale, but for revenue sharing or EHSIP, that could mean something.

Right.

Yeah, we still have to present to Albemarle County.

Questions?

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm so sorry.

We're just going to see if you're okay.

Very well.

So we have Mr. Redford, seconded by Ms. Villanueva.

All those in favor?

Hi.

Next, we are moving on to the financial new business, Streets and Roads for All.

Good evening, everyone.

So you just had a presentation from Gorjan on the Regional Safe Streets and Roads for All, a Move Safely Blue Ridge project.

We are here today to talk to you about a supplemental planning grant that the TJPDC is seeking to apply for.

And this one specifically will be for the MPO area only.

and we'll look at vulnerable road users.

So we have Rob Teeman here today with a professor of practice at the University of Virginia for civil and environmental engineering.

Specifically, Rob will be our point of contact on the UVA side as part of this partnership that will be between the UVA, the MPO and Honda as well.

Thank you, and thank you very much for inviting me here this evening.

Super excited to talk to you about this.

I tend to walk around a lot, so I apologize.

So the timing's great.

Whoever did the agenda tonight, thank you for carrying us right after the Safe Street Brawl Grant majority have.

This is a new effort that would dovetail the night through with what you just heard about.

So I put a lot of information on this presentation.

I don't know if you've had a chance to look at it.

It happens, hopefully, at some point,

Please don't try and read all the words, but I will lead you to what's most important on these slides.

Quick overview, the lead applicant is Campo.

They will be the grants that are there.

The other thing on this slide that's important is, under this bar, here's the way to make that go away.

So the other thing you can't see, I think, is the budget is $4.62 million over three years.

and what's really important about that is the 20% match is going to be done 10% by Honda and 10% by ADA.

So that means there is zero cost for the MPO for the sector.

And what you see here on this bubble display here, it represents a lot of hard work.

We had spent an enormous amount of effort and date to bring in stakeholders, get them to the table, get their feedback, and determine what's important to them so we can craft,

Groves ran an application we bring forward to actually solve a problem and make a meaningful difference.

And what you see here, these will be the key stakeholders throughout the process.

So what problem are we trying to solve?

If you can see this, I don't know if you can all read it.

This is from NHTSA, Safety Organization at the National Level.

Fatalities for virtual road users or VRUs, one fatality every 70 minutes.

If you come over here, one pedestrian entered every eight

But it's bad.

It's stark and sobering.

And as you all know, Central Virginia is not immune to this.

We are experienced as well.

It's a very sad situation.

We are used to our focus in the transportation world right now, as you all well know.

And unfortunately, this situation has gotten worse the last few years, especially since COVID.

So down here,

As you all know, especially in the localities, public expects existing and new roadway systems will safely support all modes of transportation.

That means a bigger road and you're a biker, you're a walker, you're a vehicle user, you expect that it will be able to accommodate you, whether it's an existing unstructured asset or a new unstructured asset.

Lastly, industry challenges.

The biggest industry challenge at the moment with VRUs

is with risk-based safety design due to minimal VRD crash data and limited understanding of VRD behaviors based on infrastructure characteristics and interactions with behavioral traffic.

There's a long wordy sentence, and I'm gonna get into what that means.

But this right here is where the industry is struggling, and this is exactly what our grant is going to address.

So how'd we get here?

Honda approached us.

Honda approached UVA.

They have an internal target

drastically reducing fatalities associated with any kind of vehicle in America by a certain year like a lot of different companies.

They realized they cannot do that just by building better cars.

This is a bigger problem.

The boundaries are bigger.

They specifically came to UVA because they wanted to work at UVA.

They came to UVA because they wanted to work in Virginia because of Virginia DOT.

So they came to us.

UVA, we kind of circled the wagons and thought about it for a while and thought, what could we do that's meaningful?

What could we do that's impactful?

And we reached out to VDOT, who connected us with Campo, goes back to the previous slide.

We brought a lot of people in because of where we are today.

I know it's really bad form to read slides to everybody, but I'm going to do that because I think this is important.

The objectives of this grant, improve VRU safety, reduce accidents, reduce injury associated with mobility and cost and save lives.

That is a no goal.

That's what boards like this should be doing, but research should be doing, trying to save lives.

This effort will also improve understanding of VRU interactions with traffic and infrastructure, and I'll explain what that means in a minute.

We're going to provide a holistic safety picture to better evaluate realized safety benefits from risk and infrastructure design, and then touch on that as well, and develop models to advance automotive crash avoidance systems to further protect VRUs.

And I'll touch on that in a minute.

So what you see here

This is the UVA team that will be working on this.

There's two things of importance here.

This may seem like silos, especially it came from corporate world.

There are definitely silos in most every corporate organization.

Don't think of these as silos.

Think of these as areas of expertise.

That's point number one.

Point number two, the people you see on here, this is not the BT team.

This effort

UVA has decided we are putting forth the varsity.

These are the thought leaders in their respective areas of concentration.

Bringing these areas of concentration together is unique.

And I'm going to talk about why that's important in a minute.

This is not typically done when it comes to study and VRE safety.

So this is an important slide.

There's a lot of words here.

Don't try and read them.

But I'm going to walk you through what the strategy is and how we're going to approach this should the grant be granted.

First, we're going to collect a lot of data.

There's a lot of traffic data out there, especially on vehicles.

There isn't just a very, very small fraction of data out there as it relates to pedestrians, scooters, and bikes.

Very small amount of data.

We're going to collect a lot of data.

Some of you may know, UVA does this already.

We put sensors on scooters and bikes and people and have them work around and collect that kind of data to see what they do, see how they react in certain situations.

And it's fascinating to connect that behavioral aspect to actually what we do, given the circumstances of the traffic.

It's very reasonable, logically, but we're able to determine that I would act very differently than some of the humans, given the weather, given the noise, given the geometry of the assets.

So we're going to collect a lot of data and we're going to leverage one area of expertise in UVA, which is collecting that data, connecting it to behavioral behaviors and how people act.

Then we're going to augment that with VR, virtual reality.

UVA has another really cool lab.

where they can do a lot of virtual reality for scooters, and bikers, and pedestrians.

Very unique, they actually have a contact with them, they show you how to create scooters and bike VR.

Very cool.

Why is that really important for VR use?

Because we don't have much data on near misses.

With traffic, behavioral traffic, we have a lot of data, traffic, accident data on near misses.

Theories, we have very, very little to make a lot of assumptions.

We're gonna see if those are true.

So we can collect and analyze the data.

And what that leads to is creating a VRU trajectory model.

So in a situation, if I'm walking down the street, here I go, given the geometry of the roadway, given the traffic conditions, noises, all those things, they will be able to determine, really smart people, what I will likely do, the distribution curve, which is course A, course B, course C, what will be my natural tendency to do whatever course I would think.

Maybe very different than some of these.

We're going to create a very trajectory model.

Then we're going to go to another area of expertise at UVA and create an injury consequence model.

So if I choose path A, what would my likely injury be?

If I choose choice B, what would my likely injury be?

Choice C, what would my likely injury be?

Why is that important?

Let me put a just bad example, but it's the first one that comes to mind.

VTRC, I know, has done a lot of

Great research on this already.

But if it's a five foot shoulder, we shrink that to a four foot shoulder, does it matter?

Does it save lives?

How do you think we know that right now?

Do you think we know that right now?

Is it gonna help with that?

Is it gonna help with that?

Then we're going to another area of expertise right here.

If there are any unfortunate accidents, EVA Health has the ability to go in

take a look at the medical file and see what followed all the way through rehab and everything.

They did this for siren and some other programs, so if they could go with traffic, they can do it also with VRE, provided the right approval they're given by the victims themselves.

At the end, we're going to create new and significant insights.

Right down here, create a better holistic understanding of VRE safety and effective mitigation designs.

How that's going to happen.

They're bringing together all those different areas of expertise, which right now is not being done.

A lot of effort right here in this silo, and a lot of effort right here in this silo.

Taking a step back and seeing how they all connect, that's what this is going to do.

And that's the power of it.

So, to what end?

To what end are we doing this?

We're going to fix your money with a lot of money over three years, right?

Where are we going to get out of it?

The grand holder is Campo.

We are very focused to deliver a meaningful deliverable that's tangible and provides benefit to Campo.

Otherwise we shouldn't be doing this, right?

So we're going to enhance TJPDC's comprehensive action plan.

What that means is where their action plan funding ends for what you're moving forward with, this will pick up right at the end strategically and keep moving forward.

It's super cool.

It's focused on safety, accessibility, and equity.

and action items with prioritized short midterm timelines and anything else we can do to help Campo finalize, refine their program with the overall orchard goal, saving lives.

Don't worry, don't worry.

But that's not the only benefit.

It's the most important benefit because they're the applicant.

That's not the only benefit.

And I just listed four others.

First off, there's a lot of other localities in here that may not directly feel like they're getting better because most of the effort is going to be in the urban area.

Right?

That's where most of the VRUs are.

Not all, certainly, but most of them.

Charlottesville, Urbanized Albemarle.

Everyone else who's in this room and representing this room is going to be able to leverage the state and its conclusions.

And that will all be done through campus.

Awesome.

Performance-based design.

Are you familiar with performance-based design at all?

Anyone?

That's it.

I'm used to being around engineers.

So the power roads were developed for decades and decades and decades.

and engineers.

We would have these neatly refined manuals on ourselves and kind of blindly, very loyal to whatever they said, right?

In every situation.

So that's what AASHTO said.

AASHTO is the governing body at the federal level of the make up the rule by which we play the transportation game.

That's what it said.

So that has changed.

It isn't Mr. James.

And it is hard.

There's a lot of growing pain.

We're going away from that kind of blind adherence and loyalty to the manuals and the standard guidelines in every circumstance and going to what we call performance-based design.

What that means is we're looking at each individual situation and saying, what makes sense here?

You start with the standards, but we don't plan to adhere to that.

So that's when you hear things like design labor, design exceptions, right?

Does it make sense to put a four-foot shoulder here versus three-foot overhead?

This study is going to make

Big difference in being able to determine, if we move from four to three fourth, are we risking a lot?

Also, and this really excites me personally, this can provide some great insight in very new situations.

So think of retrofitting an urban intersection in a roundabout.

There is no standard for that, right?

So one-on-one.

How do you handle the bikes that are coming through there?

How do you handle the spheres?

A lot of this experience, which is wonderful, from the engineers, that this can provide a way to more realistically determine is this based on data that makes us feel good about how we're feeling and verify our deficits.

And lastly, on the other auto manufacturers, they are confident of it to get this information.

Again, the industry problem for VRE safety from a holistic perspective is hearing those behavioral tendencies

with what we do in the real life, even the geometry of the roadway.

I'm just going to take this information back and use it to help develop their case studies, help refine their code, to benefit them in advancing their accident avoidance systems.

And I can tell you, they're a for-profit company, but in every discussion I had with them, there was very much a help for a significant difference.

It is not intended to be for a tired chariot, it is intended to

So the passport, a lot of these boxes have already been checked.

This is a schedule that was put forth, working very closely with Campo.

The main goal, of course, is to meet the date of submission, which is the end of June, as per Seychelles-Shkol brand.

So this board, should you so agree that this is a good idea, will need to take action as they recommend them.

Yes?

and every word of your oversight to your government over you, it's really, really ambitious with a lot of synergizing parts that, I mean, just being able to pull that off is going to be very impressive.

I've given some thought to this.

You know, I know the plural of anecdote isn't data, but I have an enormous amount of personal data that in Europe has sensed this would be our view.

As is my primary expectation as a backscooter.

But I assume that, and this is like way in the weeds here, but this, I mean, the lessons learned, I guess, should be portable elsewhere in terms of general principles.

I wonder if there's a college and university town, the meaning of that is going to something else.

That's a great point, and we've talked about that.

So this is actually the second such effort trying to equip for it.

The first one is in Ohio, and they're from the Ohio State University in Columbus, and large, very different focus, but very centered.

The idea is there's a lot of pedestrian in their own Palestine.

So you're able to collect a lot of data in a hurry,

and a lot of the ERU act and they are younger people and age-related people.

Not everybody certainly, but I think there's where there's this perception by some that that's where we could cut down a lot if we can solve some of those issues.

Not all, I certainly understand there are real issues as well.

But in the answer to your question, yes.

That has been talked about with our group.

They're willing to normalize the data in some fashion.

It really seems to me, if you're trying to set a standard, this might be like, the thing that people look at is the standard of that and do this.

I was already trying to bring this many pieces into one.

And it's a lot of bandwidth for me to have my own thoughts.

Oh, I agree.

Yes.

So you're a Green County resident and advocate.

Would there not be merit?

So

Potentially.

So we're working with PAM.

They're one of our UVA centers of excellence, which is Applied Biomechanics Lab, something you have to do with a T-plane, or where they break things.

It's super cool if you've never been there.

They were extremely close with PAM.

I mean, they're like that.

So they do a lot of car crashing that they already have the established relationship with Honda because of those.

That's not a bad idea.

Cool.

That's more of a comment than a question, but I would hope that at the end of this, that y'all can take some of your information and name

around Scott Stadium and John Hall, Jones Arena, and improved it.

Anyone else?

There's a clear definition on that.

I think most people who say VRUs within the traffic rules could

Can you help me understand a little bit about what the end product delivery looks like, right?

Because you're talking about these variety of engineering stakeholders and something that can be used by all of them who want something more in the future.

I'm sure they'll actually understand what the thing that we tangibly get out of it.

It's great.

Question, thank you for that.

Oh no, I was just gonna add.

So since this would be a supplemental planning grant application, this would be an addendum to our existing safety action plan.

And since that action plan has a goal of zero fatalities and serious injuries eventually, this is also gonna help us kind of create that roadmap for what are some things that we can do to help us get there specific to vulnerable road users.

That's one thing I would definitely say would be one of the deliverables.

Other things we've discussed are more like maybe a toolbox, like what are some things that a jurisdiction could pick up and see as a systemic improvement for pedestrians, for bicyclists, for people on scooters, for things that we might be able to apply broadly that could be something that comes out of this, or maybe even an educational component.

Great.

Mike, more of a comment.

We actually do have one other question.

So it makes a lot of sense that Honda would want to do this if they think they're able to outsource anything, right?

Let's have the government do this research for us, and we'll pay a marginal cost with it.

But I'm curious if y'all are aware of any other regulations that might be driving their largesse.

There's a lot of cool things banks do, and they're heavily driven by the CRA.

We don't know who they want to know.

Even you.

If there's something that is driving this largess.

So I'm going to answer your question maybe a little around the bend, but tell me if I don't satisfy your curiosity.

So the emphasis of this project is not satisfy harm.

We'd be very clear on that.

We are now providing them code.

We are not providing them any information that their engineers could and would do themselves.

What we are doing is partnering on that.

to provide them a larger view of the VRU situation that I'm not sure they have as partisan, because that's what they do.

That's where they spend their money, is the running target.

What we are providing in this grant is a much broader perspective, taking a look at the infrastructure of Iran, taking a look at how people behave, which are things that they may not necessarily do.

And once again, the key deliverables, if not the Honda, they are interested in making a

but is in their role organizing a very small contribution of money from their research department and forwarding the knowledge down the field which can help them meet their goals.

And you said the data collected not be proprietary, so it would be open to other quality manufacturers or old people in trust

I'm not an attorney.

I will say that, you know, both is the grant holder.

I think it would be a little bit more difficult.

Right.

Williams, or your liability for not $800,000.

In that case, $300,000 is really, really fast.

But why don't you do this modeling?

Your avoidance system can take advantage of this.

Let me try and check.

I want to reiterate what Mr. Smith said.

It's wonderful that at UVA, working with librarians would have been silly then.

and a UVA professor for a couple of occasions.

My folks have had that presentation.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Are we getting credit for this course?

This is Cameron, can I make a motion?

Yes, you will.

Are there a direct motion if you want to make it?

Oh, really?

I did not see that.

It's in the executive director's report.

I'm happy to read it if you don't want to use it.

What the executive director said.

I will second.

A motion by Mr. Swartz, seconded by Mr. D'Oronzio.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Chair works enthusiastically.

Aye.

RPU, Regional Water Supply Planning.

Yes, so in October of last year, there was an effective code amendment to the Virginia Code requiring regional water supply planning instead of local only.

And they also defined these regional planning areas by river basins.

We are largely a part of the Middle James One Regional Planning Unit, which includes Charlottesville, Albemarle, Greene, Fluvanna, Louisa, and Buckingham Counties.

Nelson is in a different RPU.

And the kickoff meeting with DEQ was held about a month ago.

And at that meeting, the RPU members present asked TJPDC to coordinate the planning efforts on behalf of the RPU.

So I have sent a memo to each of your

County and City officials, letting them know that you all are considering this resolution tonight to authorize us to act as that lead coordinator for the planning effort and also apply for the grant administration funds.

Small pot is like $8,000 for the current fiscal year, which as you know, the current fiscal year is rapidly ending.

There's a little bit of an extension for that.

And then the resolution also affirms each of your jurisdictions participation in the RPU.

Buckingham is separately considering a resolution for RPU participation and then Nelson will be separately doing a resolution to participate in the RPU that they are a part of, which is Middle James II.

The VAPDC will be advocating for more funding at the General Assembly.

We are expecting a similar amount of administrative funding by $8,000 for fiscal year 26, but that hasn't been announced officially yet.

We don't know when the application will be.

We have already been awarded the funds, but we are awaiting that grant contract.

It's supposed to come in early June, and once that happens, we'll be able to schedule the kickoff meeting with our stakeholders.

It's unclear whether or not we will need consultants to help with this project.

The final regional water supply plan is not required to be completed and submitted to DEQ until 2029.

So there's a good amount of time.

And I imagine there will be a number of things that change.

But one thing we do know is that a lot of the data that's needed for this plan is already in your local water supply plan.

So it's going to be a lot of just coordinating and making sure that everyone's on the same page and all the data is in the same place.

And then potentially working on strategies to secure our water supply for the future.

Second.

Mr. Bruit, and I'm a general time.

So this is just the, just to kick it off, you guys elect officers at your June meeting for the bylaws.

The nominating committee has to present their slate in the May meeting.

So in April, you all identified or appointed the nominating committee consisting of Mr. Galloway, Mr. Rutherford, and Mr. Dronso.

We met last Thursday, reconvened again this past Tuesday.

All individuals, they could be impacted by the slate that we'll discuss with them, so everybody was kind of in on the conversation.

If the slate would be to continue the two jurisdictions that are currently in leadership, Fluvanna and the chair role, Charlottesville, the vice chair role, but switching the Fluvanna chair would be Mr. Smith as the nominated for the chair role, Mr. Payne to continue as vice chair, and Mr. O'Ronzio to step in as the new treasurer.

So that would be the slate that we came to agreement on.

And then Jesse or Phil and I had begun this.

Yeah, of course.

Ms. Jacobs, you want to say a few words?

And, you know, I think since I've been on the nominating committee for like several years now, it has been a sound tradition.

And I remember you told me this once with Tommy Barlow, trying to make sure that we're representing urban, rural, and as best we can in all fading and non-executive committee.

Smith.

It is well deserved, I think, to finally see Mr. Smith, you know, seat of the chair, coming up.

Thank you.

Anything else?

Let's see.

We now have the draft up by 26 budgets.

Ruth is going to pull up the presentation, also put it in the meeting materials as a

Fairly likely detailed memo on the budget in case you want to really dig into specific details.

And then I also included in the budget the copy of all of the revenues within the budget, as well as all the local contributions broken up by program.

As you guys are well familiar with this, we have the three-part process.

We're in September and October of last year, 2024.

We project the budget in order to set the per capita rates so that we can

applied to the local governments in their budget process for the local funding.

We then come to you now.

It's usually April, May.

This year we voted to defer it a little bit in order to complete the classification and compensation study.

So draft in May, we'll come back to you in June for consideration for approval.

And then as the year changes, we get to February and March of 2026.

Anything that has changed, any grants that have been received is amended.

so that our financial audit is based on that amended budget with the most accurate projections for the year.

Right, so this is the TJPDC's largest budget.

It is 49.6 million revenues and expenditures.

It is a balanced budget as is required.

Move to the next slide.

I broke out these two tables.

The first bar chart that you're seeing is our total revenues, that 49 million broken out by source.

So you can see that just under 73% of our revenues are from a federal source, state at over 12, local at over 14, and then the local per capita member assessment is 0.4% of the budget.

I then went ahead and pulled out BODI and the Blue Ridge Cigarette Tax Board.

so that you can really see the impact of that and look at our operating budget exclusive of those two large programs so that it brings our federal share down to 62 state up above 16 and a half and then you can see that that local share is higher.

These are non-BODI federal revenues.

So what I did is pull out BODI again because otherwise it's not much of a pie chart because BODI takes up the entire pie.

So I pulled that out just so it didn't skew the data

But our non-BODI federal revenues are 2.2 million.

And you can see on this slide, they are broken out by source.

You can see our largest federal source outside of BODI is the home consortium.

I have 18, 813.

I know that is different than what you saw in the presentation because we are managing multiple grant years at a time.

They are five-year grants, so they're overlapping.

So they're anticipated to be 813 to be spent in this next fiscal year across those grants.

The next highest source would be the home ARP funding.

That was the one-time ARPA funds that we received and then second to that is transportation programs.

Looking at the Campo, Safe Streets will be closing out and then if we're awarded a grant we'll be added back in.

I did not include that in the budget because it is an affirmed revenue source and I only included here what is either confirmed or is very likely to be awarded.

I don't put anything in the budget that we have no idea if we're going to get it or not.

Next one is state revenues.

Again, if you pull out the VATI state funding source, it is just under $600,000 in state revenues.

Our largest state programs are then also transportation.

We've got Rideshare.

We do have, let's see, off to the upper left, the DHCD contribution.

That's the annual funding that we received from the state.

You'll also see transit planning, which is a

technical assistant merit grant from DRPT, the MPO funding that we received, the state match to that from VDOT and DRPT, and then patent mobility management programs.

Upper right hand side is where you see the housing.

Local revenues, 7.1, but if you pull out the cigarette tax revenue that passes through us and you pull out the local match for the body program, we're looking at 574,000 in local revenues.

Again, broken out by program.

You can see the largest fund for this is legislative services.

And then it goes into some of our transportation programming.

Off to the right, you'll see the other, that 90,000.

That's rental income from our tenant spaces back here.

It's renting this space out.

It is bank interest.

You'll also see at the top, this is a new one.

Incorporated in this budget, 26,000 is a capital reserve transfer.

And that is an initial estimate.

It's a placeholder, to be honest with you.

It's an initial estimate if we were to consider building renovations.

We will be pulling the buildings committee together to be able to talk with our owners and landlords about what types of renovations we are looking to do, flooring, paint, things like that.

Just some cosmetic upgrades in order to bring this place, not to have ripped carpet.

They are willing to do the work

in advance, and then spread it out across our five-year mortgage, I mean, five-year lease.

Should we re-sign a lease?

Again, that will come to the buildings committee once we have a draft lease in our hands.

So I do have in there a placeholder to be able to pull some funds to be able to pay for those evictions.

Next.

And then the next one is local per capita.

Then if you look at our $49 million budget, $47.2 million passes through us.

So 95% of our funding comes in and goes out, whether that's tax revenue to the local governments, whether that is to sub-precipients, whether that's private, you know, contractor for the broadband project.

You can see the list of places that that pass-through funding goes below.

And then the operating expenses are 4.83% of our budget.

Like I talked to you guys about, we have a very lean operating budget for the amount of work that we're doing and the amount of money that's passing through.

Personnel expenses are 76% of that operating budget.

Included in this budget is the recommendation from the classification and compensation study.

It was option 3B that in the last commission meeting through consensus, you all asked me to try to make it work in the budget.

It does work within the budget.

We were able to balance it with a one-year implementation timeline.

So that is an increase in base salary of $268,000 from previous fiscal year.

And then at the very bottom is our fringe expense.

And that's just all of the fringe benefits, you know, like the state unemployment health insurance.

It is noted in here that our health insurance rate for the base plan did go up 12%, very similar to what's been happening

to a lot of other organizations and then as you all also voted to add an additional health insurance plan to our offerings.

And then this one I wanted to highlight is our indirect cost rate.

The indirect cost rate for this organization over time has fluctuated significantly to very high levels.

We are down to the lowest indirect cost rate that we have ever had.

I'm very proud of that.

However, I also caution that 41% does not cover our rolling average of operating expenses.

So as you guys remember, in FY24, whatever your actual costs were for administration is what sets your rate for two years later, FY26.

So in some of these last few years where we have had large net gains, we anticipate there could be a need to be able to use some of those in order to cover, if we do not recuperate through our indirect cost rate, our actual expenses.

The budget right now balances, but as you guys know, a lot changes between right now and when it comes back to you in February and March.

So what we're showing here is the trend over time is we are bringing this down.

So the 10-year average has been 67%.

When I first started here, there was advice given to me that 65 is your sweet spot.

That's where you want to make sure your indirect costs are because then you'll make sure whatever revenue you're bringing in will cover those administrative costs.

Through a lot of very intentional changes to how we build programs for administrative costs and through some unintended consequences of having vacancies where administrative staff is billing to programs,

That indirect cost rate has come significantly down.

However, you're looking at that five in that three-year average.

It looks like our sweet spot is actually closer to the mid-50s.

That if we were to bring in an indirect cost of the mid-50s, that would cover our administrative expenses without having these large net gains and net losses fluctuating from year to year.

So I just wanted to highlight the 41 is in the FY 26 budget.

I do expect it to come up for the FY 27 budget.

because now that we are fully staffed we'll have a lot less of the administrative team doing programmatic work.

I think within the packet is all the spreadsheets.

I'm happy to go into any deep dive that you all want.

I certainly know you have 30 days between now and the next time this comes up.

If there's anything you want additional information on that you want me to bring to the June meeting, I am happy to provide to you whatever.

I have a program spreadsheet

by program, by revenue source, by staff member for every single activity that we do.

So any level of detail that you're interested in, I can bring to your attention.

We will, yes.

The first thing we need to do that in closed session,

So we may want to defer a vote on this until closed session.

Right now, what is in the draft budget is directly out of that study.

OK.

So no questions?

Then we will come into a process.

We don't have to vote on the budget, though.

Not until June.

That's my point.

You don't have to take action on this budget until June.

I think what we're asking is discussions we had today at the Finance Committee.

I'm about to go for my nap.

You know, old people like to think that.

I know.

Very well.

Would you like me to read the?

Yes, please.

Go for it.

Mike T. Smith moved that the commission be convened to a close session pursuant to the exception found section 2.2-3711 A as in alpha 1, the Code of Virginia, to discuss matters of employee performance of the executive director.

He's speaking to the next.

Second.

All right, you got a purpose for each second.

All right, roll call.

Chair O'Brien.

Aye.

Supervisor O'Brien.

Aye.

Aye.

That's okay.

Yes.

They're not recording that.

So we got to get it.

Yes.

I think we moved that the commission makes it closed session motion.

We need a second.

I'm sorry.

All right.

I'll call it made by Mr. Smith, seconded by Mr. Reed.

Supervisor Pruitt.

Aye.

Supervisor O'Brien.

Aye.

Supervisor Goolsby.

Aye.

Mr. Higgins.

Aye.

Supervisor Brown.

Aye.

Supervisor Woodward.

Aye.

Supervisor Reed.

Yes.

Supervisor Rutherford.

Aye.

Yes.

Chair O'Brien.

Aye.

Supervisor Goolsby.

Aye.

Mr. Higgins.

Aye.

Supervisor Woodyard.

Aye.

Supervisor Rehleberg.

Aye.

Commissioner D'Oronzio.

Aye.

Yes.

All right, very well.

Three quick items on that one.

In your previous meeting, you have approved the rural transportation work plan and having it reviewed by VDOT and SPR funds are eligible to be used for hardware, software, and technology.

That's imperative to do the scope of work.

So we went in and amended language in section 8.

Oh yeah, page eight, section B to specifically call out computer and other technology purchases.

So when we need to replace a laptop, we can go look to the program.

It does not require action from you all, but we are required to notify the commissions of a change in language within an ordered plan.

So we added that so that we can recover that expense.

The second item is a letter that staff received from the US Department of Transportation, from the transportation secretary, US Transportation Secretary,

This is just an effort to keep you guys abreast of the uncertain federal landscape communications that we're receiving.

The letter was sent to all recipients of federal financial transportation assistance.

It clarifies that all recipients of federal funds have to follow all applicable federal laws.

It further stipulates equal protection principles prohibiting entities from discriminating, quotes the Civil Rights Act, talks about Title VI, Title VII, and other relevant acts.

It does provide further guidance on policies, programs, or activities that are discriminatory related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the recipient's legal obligations to cooperate with federal authorities.

So really, this is just an act of transparency to share with you all the communications that we're receiving.

There hasn't been any direct requests for us to do anything different, but we will be really diligent in reviewing the language of our agreements and the language of our plans to make sure that we are complying with federal law and state

All right, it's equal opportunity, but no diversity aggregated.

Yeah.

OK. Next one is smart scale area types.

This one is really just bringing this to your attention now with the intent of coming back and doing a more thorough presentation on it.

Just wanted to share it with you as quickly as we could after receiving it.

So TJPDC and VDOT have been having some discussions about how our smart scale applications projects are scored and trying to better understand the different area types on how the methodology for scoring is developed.

And so by that big words down the little words is metropolitan areas are type A is based on density.

They are all scored with the same methodology.

and I put information in your packet to show you what weight is safety, what weight is congestion, what weight is economic development.

There are then B, C and D types.

There is a map that I provided to you all that shows that the majority of rural areas within the Commonwealth are type B.

If you look at the map, you will see TJPDC's rural areas surrounding Charlottesville are type C.

which is very different than the rest of the Commonwealth.

And so that does change the weighting for those different categories.

VDOT did a lot of analysis on our behalf.

They went back and looked at the last three rounds, round four of SmartScale five and six, and re-scored the projects as if we changed our area types for rural areas from D to C to see how they would have scored.

And across the board, the majority of those scores would have improved.

They would have increased with a couple of exceptions.

There's a couple of exceptions in projects in Louisa where the score already was significantly low.

It wasn't competitive.

It was at a 0.68 and it went to a 0.66.

So it would not have changed the competitiveness, but the score did come down.

The vast majority of scores went up and there were actually a couple of projects that would put us right in line for having been next funded.

So we are bringing this to your attention.

We're also

We've already talked about the Rural Transportation Advisory Committee.

We've brought it to their attention so that they can start having conversations among staff.

And then we're going to forward both the memo and all of this information on to your CA, to your leadership, to see if there is consensus in the area of considering changing the area type for the rural jurisdictions.

And what that would do, and it's detailed in the memo that's in the packet, is that would increase the priority for safety

in the rural areas, and it will decrease some of the other weighted categories.

So really, I'm putting this before you because I think it's going to probably be a very quick discussion that has to occur in order for us to then go to the Office of Intermodal Planning and Investment, OIB, who then brings it to the Commonwealth.

I know it's my favorite acronym to say all that, OIB.

who it has to be considered by the Commonwealth Transportation Board.

So this would have to be an act of the Commonwealth in order to change the area type if there was consensus.

It is not something that you can change by individual jurisdiction.

It has to be done by the planning district.

And so it would have to be all rural jurisdictions agreeing to change their type.

What is also unique when you look at the map is Nelson is in the Lynchburg construction district.

The rest of you all are in the Culpeper construction district.

all of the other localities within the Lynchburg district that are rural are a different area type than Nelson.

And so if we did this, it would put them more in line and competitive with their surrounding rural counties, as well as change the rural counties in our part of the Culpeper district.

So something to consider, really important information to have at your fingertips, how this escalates up to decision makers within your jurisdiction and comes either to your board or a decision is made at the commission level.

We're going to have to navigate.

We've not done this before, but there is precedent in the Commonwealth that other areas have requested area type changes and have had them successfully changed.

You have information in your packet if you want to learn a lot more about that and then be prepared to ask questions the next time we create you guys.

Great.

I see no questions.

We'll now move on to regular.

What's up?

Do I hear it or not?

Cheers.

Okay, anybody dying to speak right now?

Okay.

Well, a couple of things.

We finished up, all of our budgets got voted over Monday night, and I was pretty happy with it.

We over rebate it by 3.3% to 2.6 cents, I think.

So it brings us from 72 cents down to 69.4, 69.6, something like that.

So that's it for that.

We were really excited, opened the bids last year,

Schorck.

I guess quickly, early voting begins Saturday for local primaries.

This will be our first election with Brent Trislow in Charlottesville.

So everyone's here to see how that plays out.

Likewise, recently, adoption of a budget didn't have any tax increases this year, but we obtained previous appointments to affordable housing, climate, and transportation.

We're continuing on the land bank appointments to hopefully facilitate

The acquisition of land for affordable housing.

The state is working on a tax abatement program as part of an inclusionary zoning, which requires affordable housing and projects, attendance, and more.

It's for the tax incentive to try to encourage developers to build those projects.

Although what we're finding is the current market conditions, most projects just aren't fizzling out and don't include any inclusionary zoning.

So that's really the main thing we're countering.

And then probably the biggest news is the city acquired the Federal Executive Institute for zero dollars in the interest.

So after the Trump administration abolished the Federal Executive Institute by executive order, then we realized shortly after that there were preexisting regulations for how the federal government disposes of land.

So when they get rid of it, if anyone submits a proposal for a homeless shelter, the federal government technically is legally required to give it to that applicant.

The federal government rule can't be used for that purpose because of historic preservation existing on that site.

But below that, if a public education institute submits an application for public education use, it receives a top priority over any other applicants and they get it for zero dollars.

So together with our city schools, we see an application UVA did as well, a portion of the city.

That's 14 acres with existing buildings for

O'Brien.

So that would be zero dollars.

That would be people for a unified pre-K education center for the city, as well as some administrative offices and other things in schools.

I think the story was on NPR as well, too.

Yeah.

I mean, they submitted an application, but it was just

Interesting that that used to be a hotel too.

Yeah.

Way to go like that.

So a lot of history there.

And it's a, it's a, I mean, it's a really, I mean, they recently updated a lot of the buildings.

It's a beautiful campus.

That's a swimming pool.

Two swimming pools.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Don't really kneel, you know, highly trained federal executives.

Congratulations.

No.

Yeah.

I think they've had over 30,000 federal executives since 1969 or something like that.

Yeah.

Jonathan Johnson created it, but no more.

You're on to it.

No, I don't really know.

My 60-second summary of the last week, a contingent from TJ came up to our Board of Supervisors meeting in Greene County.

Lorianne Gaylor, Sarah Simba, and I believe Daniel McRae was in attendance also.

Lorianne gave a presentation on Lucie Lou Ridge.

He outlined the sites in Greene County that are proposed for remediation.

Lorianne's presentation elicited a good amount of feedback from our board of supervisors.

Yes.

We take our final vote, maybe 13th on their budget for the year.

And we actually dropped the

There's an equalization from the 71 to 69.

They're parking property from 450 down to the forward.

So for the last two years, we came down on the property level in America.

It went up, but we finalized it on

You know, in fact, with EMS, you know, all that usually, I mean, usually is a way to hit for anything.

But, I mean, you want to put public safety before anything really, so it's, you know, the sheriff's department and the EMS did get in trouble with what they wanted, but they got what they needed to sustain and to keep, you know, the piece of the universe safe.

So that's the way to, you know,

H.M., this whole water impoundment thing, so hopefully within the next month we're going to get started on getting all that figured out and when we get this ground moved or something like that, please don't open it up.

That's where we're at.

Awesome.

Awesome.

There you go.

We're

We had a joint meeting with the Board of Supervisors and planning commission on that.

We had a large working group meeting with me this week discussing different possibilities.

Stay tuned.

Everything else is kind of stay tuned stuff.

We're going to also get the final plan for the new Department of Social Services building, which will include a price tag and all the funding data that we need to be able to put out the bid.

That'll be fun and exciting.

I think this relates to other moving parts in the counties, raising kids, discussion point.

I of course had many opinions of the zoning.

As we were talking about block minimum sizes, we have some stuff that was proposed that looked like a little bit of a reflection on the news.

Let me hear, Christine, how many of you all have C1 as an agricultural tool, certainly, you know, districts?