County Business

VIRGINIA:

At a regular meeting of the King George County Board of Supervisors, held on Tuesday, the 17th day of November, 2020 at 6:30 p.m. in the Auditorium of King George High School at 10100 Foxes Way, King George, Virginia:

PRESENT: Cathy Binder, Chairman Jeff Bueche, Member Annie Cupka, Vice-Chairman Richard Granger, Member Jeff Stonehill, Member Neiman C. Young, County Administrator Matt Britton, County Attorney

*Several comments were submitted via letter and email to the Board of Supervisors concerning the Villages Public Hearing. Because of their volume, these comments are not included in this PDF version. Please contact the County Administrator’s Office to view these comments at 540- 775-9181.

0:00:00 Ms. Binder: Alright, I will call to order this regular meeting of the Board of Supervisors of King George County. Dr. Young, do we have any amendments to the agenda?

0:00:09 Dr. Young: Yes, Madam Chair, I recommend that the board move action items 11-04, 11-05, 11-06, 11-07, and the county Administrative report, which is 11-09 ahead of the public hearings, as noted in 11-03.

0:00:26 Ms. Binder: Thank you. Do I have a motion?

0:00:28 Mr. Granger: So moved.

0:00:30 Ms. Binder: Do I have a second?

0:00:30 Mr. Bueche: Second.

0:00:30 Ms. Binder: Any further discussion?

0:00:31 Ms. Cupka: Yes, Madam Chair. 0:00:32 Ms. Binder: Go ahead, Ms. Cupka.

0:00:33 Ms. Cupka: I note that I have a closed-session script here before me dated today, however, I don't see... Oh wait. Yep, I'm sorry, I just wanted to make sure. My apologies. My mistake.

0:00:47 Ms. Binder: It's all good. So we have a motion properly seconded. Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye.

0:00:53 All: Aye.

0:00:54 Ms. Binder: Any nays? Chair votes aye. Motion carries. The agenda has been amended. Next up is public comment. Comments will be limited to three minutes per person in order to afford everyone an opportunity to speak. If comments relate to a specific public hearing item, so if anybody is here for the three public hearing items, please do not come up at this time, there will be public comment during each of those public hearings. We ask that you offer those comments at the time of that public hearing. So if there is anyone that would like to speak on any other matter that is not in the three public hearing items, please come up at this time to the podium.

0:01:35 Kim Dodge: Kim Dodge, 6150 McCarthy Drive. I have three things, and first I will start off with budget '20-'21. I'm asking not to increase our property tax, don't know if that's in the plans, but some of us... I had to close my small business here in King George, and some of us aren't employed, and a lot of us do not work for the Navy base and we can work at home and we still get a paycheck, or we're not a public school teacher. So there are a lot of people struggling financially, and we can't get jobs to replace what happened to us. So I'm hoping that property taxes are not gonna be increased next year. Can you hear me? The next thing is the solar farm. I did not like the solar farm being put behind my neighborhood in Hopyard off of Port Conway. I supported the farmers behind there. Some of those farms were generational farms, had been in their... That land had been in their family for centuries, and then there was a lot of retiree people that had retired back there because they wanted the country. When you put up a solar farm, it ruins the view back there. Solar farms do not create jobs. Once they're built, you just have somebody come in there and maintain them. They're all computerized. Solar farms, you cannot store the electricity like coal and gas, and you cannot sell it on the grid.

Recently in Hopyard, we were asked now to make a decision. I was against the solar farms being put back there, being approved, and now we're being asked, "Are we gonna get our electricity from the solar farm?" My vote is no because they're heavily taxpayer-subsidized. I'm fine with coal plants and gas-fired plants, and they can sell it on the grid and store it. They cannot... Solar farms can't sell this on the grid and store it. And I don't support things that are heavily taxpayer- subsidized. The last one is food trucks. We didn't know we were... It was wrong to have food trucks come with this covid-19. My question is, what can we do so we can have food trucks come to our developments? And we are not taking away from the restaurants here, we only have a few restaurants here, and most of us drive to Fredericksburg, or it's just a change or we would cook at home. And I also wanna know how come Chick-fil-A can come sell food here at the high school at times, and that's alright. And then the school bus has been giving out what they call free food for kids under 18 once a week. My understanding with my neighbors was that's not prepared food, it comes from the public schools. But nothing is free, taxpayers pay for it. But we are delivering food from a school bus in our neighborhood, too. So I'm really concerned about us not being allowed to have food trucks. We were told how to live, where we can worship, how to close everything down. Those were my three things, the increase in property tax next year, the solar farm I'm against, and that was the second solar farm, too, the first one was in the industrial park in King George, and it is behind Hopyard and Port Conway, and allowing food trucks in neighborhoods.

0:04:48 Ms. Binder: Thank you, Ms. Dodge. Would anybody else like to come to the podium?

0:05:00 Anne Maria Lovell: Hi, my name is Anna-Maria Lovell, I live in Presidential Lakes, and a long resident of King George. I wanna thank you for all the jobs you're doing, but most of all, I wanna thank the Sheriff's Department. I know the two previous sheriffs do an outstanding, outstanding job to the people in King George, and for that reason, we should support the police department in King George. And I hear too many times, they say they're gonna defund the police. No, we will never defund this police because these police help us. When I'm walking in my neighborhood, either dog bark at me or I am scared, I'll be able to call 911 and they always been there for me. And then I really thank you to all the police department. Thank you.

0:05:50 Ms. Binder: Thank you. Would anybody else.

0:06:04 Brandy McCusker: Hi, I'm Brandy McCusker, I'm a resident here in King George. I'm here to talk to you guys about a few things. I definitely agree with both of the ladies that just spoke, 100%. Putting solar power here in our county, I didn't see where any of us got a vote on that, which is why I'm here to talk tonight. I think that you guys are making some pretty big decisions without really talking about... Or talking to the people that it really matters to, the people of this county. That is a huge deal because you're definitely moving us in a different direction, and a direction that many of us are not okay with. And then to get to the schools, the schools need to be open, I understand that that meeting was last night, but you guys do hold the purse strings. You guys are still funding programs that our kids are not taking advantage of.

Why do we have coaches that are still collecting paychecks? Why are the teachers still collecting their full paychecks? Let me tell you, I don't get to sit at home and do my job and still continue to get paid. I'll be darned if that's okay. That's not okay. And we're telling these children that that's alright, that they don't have a social life, that their immune systems are gonna suffer significantly because they're sitting at home instead of having the normal playtime and access to people to touch. There is nothing wrong with any of us. We are not gonna die from coronavirus. Y'all are absolutely insane if you are walking around scared to death. That is not living. This is America, land of the home and the free, you understand? We are allowed to breathe God's air. We don't have to muzzle ourselves, that is a control tactic. I am not okay with that. I will never tell my child that they have to mask their face. You're making them feel like little germs. You're making me feel like a germ. I'm not a germ, I'm a human being. I have rights, and they have been violated significantly, significantly. And a whole nother thing, and I don't know if you guys have anything to do with this, but the voting system that we've used, that we've all used, is Dominion, which is well named for fraud. It was created in Venezuela, it's been used in other countries. It is not good. It's got Smartmatic software in it, which is easily hacked, and votes can literally be changed. I'm not okay with that. I'm not okay with that at all. Who made the decision to put those machines in our state and in our county? Who decided that, "Hey, we're gonna go ahead and buy some new voting machines and put those in here," and then decide to purchase them through a company that is known for fraud? I wanna know that when I voted, then my vote actually went to the candidate that I chose. That's a really big deal. And it's not being talked about, and it needs to be talked about because it's affecting everything.

0:09:10 Ms. Binder: Madam, your three minutes are up. Thank you very much.

0:09:10 Ms. McKusker: Continue to [0:09:11] ____ more than you can [0:09:16] ____.

0:09:16 Ms. Binder: Would anybody else like to come up and give public comment, not on the three hearings? Mr. Dines, is there anyone online?

0:09:25 Mr. Dines: No, Madam Chair.

0:09:29 Ms. Binder: I know my colleagues have correspondence from the three public hearings, but is there any other correspondence that is re-entered into public comment that is not the three hearings? Alright, with that being said, I will close public comment and take reports from members of the board. Mr. Granger, way down there.

0:09:45 Mr. Granger: Yes, ma'am. Mr. Stonehill, you okay with me going first? Okay. First of all, I would like to say thank you to everyone who came out and shared their public comment, I appreciate that. Ms. Dodge, I know you've come out here a number of times. Your questions about the taxes this past year, we did not increase taxes, obviously, that was a concern of ours in order to try to make a budget that would work. I don't think anyone is wanting to increase taxes this year either. I can't make any promises, but I think we all recognize the current climate and we would endeavor to try to avoid it. At least. I would say I would try to endeavor to avoid it, but I don't wanna make you a promise I maybe can't keep. So that's where it is for me at the moment. Solar Farms, I know we had a couple of different talking points about solar farms. We did have a public hearing, it was a couple of years ago now, where the opportunity for people to come out similar to tonight with the rezoning request to speak about Solar Farms. It does change the zoning of that property to become industrial, which does increase the tax collection for the county, so there is an advantage from that perspective, but I do appreciate where you're coming from when you talk about jobs.

You are correct, it does not really generate jobs, but after the term is up, then those pieces of equipment will be removed and it will be turned back into farmland. So that is one of the big advantages, I would say, coming out of that. As far as food trucks, again, with our current climate, I can appreciate the situation and why people would like them, and we did talk about it at our CIP meeting, and I think that's something we're gonna look at for making amendments to our current ordinances. And right now, our current ordinances are silent upon it, with Virginia being a Dillon Rule state, what that means is if the rules are silent upon it, then it's not allowed. Just the way our state is set up, and so it flows down to the localities. So we do recognize that, and I think we're gonna try to find a way to find a middle ground where we can maybe find a little more leeway to food trucks. But it's not something we can just do at the drop of a hat, so it'll take a little bit of time. Ma'am, I didn't catch your name. About the sheriff's office. I know you said it, I apologize for missing, but thank you for coming out and sharing your experiences and just speaking about the sheriff's office. I think they're doing a fantastic job as well. It's always nice to hear people speak about them though, and have positive things to say. And I think it was Ms. McCuster. Okay, thank you. Solar power. Spoke a little bit about the solar power. Schools need to be open.

I think you recognized that. You said that the school board's the one that makes that decision. And as you said, we do control the purse strings. And so, we could reduce funding. That's something we could do, we could pull back. There's concerns though then with just making sure that as you pull money back, it has an impact as well to the students. I can appreciate your frustration. I am well as in frustrated by the current situation of three children in the schools. I don't think it's the teachers that are at fault or anything along those lines, but I think there are children who are definitely having challenges with the current climate, due to internet connectivity, just the environment, being in front of the screen all the time. There's all kinds of challenges in this. I don't think it's optimal, and I would also like to see us moving more into an in-school education as well. But, again, as you said and as is true, the school board has that ultimate decision. Again, about masking, that is at the state level. I know you're frustrated by it, and I can appreciate that as well, but as a locality, we don't have the authority to say to the governor, "Well, we're not going to, as a locality, have any... " We're gonna say, "This a no-mask zone," or something like that. It's not something we have the authority to make that kind of a determination, again, with the way our state is set up in our localities.

So while I appreciate your anger... And maybe anger's the wrong word, but the frustration, and I can agree with that frustration to some degree as well. It's not at our level that we have that authority. Voting machines, I'll be honest, I can't speak to that a whole lot. I do trust our Registrar's Office. I know Ms Gump does a fantastic job. She has every confidence of mine, that things will run on the up and up, and people's votes counted. I can't speak to any other locality about theirs because I don't know the people who work in those, but I would always be concerned about people's votes counting, and I think that's always a concern for anyone. No one wants that idea to be true. And if it is true, then that's a travesty. So as I said, I can't really speak to our voting machines. I just don't know, so I apologize for knowing that information off the top of my head.

I think I hit all the points. If I've missed anything, please feel free to reach me, though. You're welcome to contact me. You can reach me at my email. And I'll try to... We have an opportunity to set up a time to talk, or whatever. So if you wanna discuss further, please feel free to reach out to me. Other than that, I'm gonna go back to my board report, then. I'll try to be brief, 'cause I know we have a lot of business on the agenda. On October 27th, we had our CIP work session. It was only one. I'd like to thank the department heads and the staff for the presentations they made for our needs. I'd also like to thank the Planning Commission for their time to make a recommendation to the board in the first place. Thursday, November 5th, we had an FRA finance committee and board of directors meeting, and it was just an emergency meeting to adopt the budget with everything going on.

They've had as well some challenges for adopting their budget. And so we were finally able to get around to that. Wednesday, November 11th, we had an FRA annual meeting. This was our end-of-the-year meeting. One of the things out of it, we had a panel discussion from a handful of industry individuals who work on finding businesses' locations in different localities. And so they had a couple of good questions, I thought, that were pertinent to really any locality, talking about expansion to existing companies with the current covid impact, and what's driving decisions, and how can communities position themselves to draw business. And some of the things that came out of that were... They were saying that new relocations are not something that's really occurring right now. The ones that they are seeing are the ones that are finishing up from those that started before covid. The big things are driving our fiber ability, which I think we probably all recognize, to begin with, and the ability to telework, especially with the current climate.

So as a locality, we have some challenges with those, and we're currently working to resolve them. So, I think that's probably for our best interest. And they also say covid hasn't had a whole lot of impact on the industrial sector. Commercial, yes, but industrial had not been as impacted. Some pieces of industrial, but on the whole, it was doing fairly well, they said. There was a question about what kind of data's desired when companies are looking at localities. Again, the big thing was, what kind of services are available, and internet was one of the big ones. Another big one, they said, is employees who might be moving in schools. Schools of information, and how they do for students. That's a really important driving choice for companies, when they're looking for where they might wanna relocate, and if it makes sense for their employees that they would wanna go there.

Some simple things, though, was just data available on the internet, and contact information to an actual person, not an @info address. So, those are some things to keep in mind as well. Other than that, on, I think it was Saturday, November 14th, I attended the King George Light Up the Night 300th Grand Finale. I'd like to say thank you to staff and to Gravatt Entertainment for executing those events. I'd like to thank all those who came out to participate. It was a great event, and with the fireworks. It was quite the fireworks display. For those who got an opportunity to come out to see it, it was pretty impressive. It was a lot of fun. It was nice to be able to get out, because obviously, with our current climate, that's not something we've had as many opportunities for. So I think it was great for those people who were able to come out, have some fun, and maybe be a little bit more normal that day.

So other than that, just last two things. I would like to say, in particular, thank you to Ms. Gump and the Registrar's Office for holding the election. I know this year's been challenging, with the governor's mandate that we provide... Or the state's mandate that we provide 45 days of pre- voting, which I think is the most of any state in the country. And I know that puts a lot of burden on the Registrar's Office. But I know they handled it well and professionally, and so thank you to Ms. Gump and her staff for that. I'd also like to say thank you to Chris Clark in the Census Committee for all they've done in order to help make sure the census was done accurately, and we got all of our counts done properly. And so we can have an accurate reflection of who's in the county. I think that's all I have. Thank you so much.

0:18:53 Ms. Binder: Thank you, Mr. Granger. Mr. Stonehill.

0:18:57 Mr. Stonehill: Good evening, everybody, and thanks for everybody coming out here this evening. Ms. Dodge, thanks for coming out, like usual, and I think Mr. Granger said it pretty well. No one is really looking at a property tax hike. We all live here, we would all have to pay it ourselves, so it's definitely something we don't wanna do, but we are looking at some shortfalls this year. So like I said, it's not a very popular thing, but we're gonna do what we can to avoid that. But like Mr. Granger said, we can't promise anything. Solar farms, yes, I hear you. I think that's a long ways off here. I think tonight we're just gonna be looking at some storage facilities for that. I know there are a lot of people down in that area, and the flats were opposed to the idea of solar, but that's a ways off. I think we're just scratching the surface now, after the last meeting a couple of years ago that they had. Food trucks, I know in this time, and when we're having the flu pandemic and everything, it's convenient for people to have food delivered to the neighborhoods, but you also have to think about all the brick-and-mortar restaurants here in the community that have to pay rent and electric and all that kinda stuff.

And I know we have a few restaurants, not a whole lot to choose from, but you gotta think about those folks that have invested that much kind of money and then have a small truck come in. So we need to try to figure out some kind of balance for all that. And thank you for the comments for the King George Sheriff's office. Yes, they've done a great job. They continue to do a great job, and I know Sheriff Giles will lead that ship very well for the future. But thanks for those kind words for them. And Brandy, sorry I didn't get your last name. The solar, and like I said, it's something that we have to work on here in the future, and we will get people's opinions on that. It's not something that we are going to do just on a whim or if we want to. We always listen to what people have to say. Teachers, I agree with you wholeheartedly. I think, me personally, they need to be back in school, I think that's a good thing for everybody, kids, teachers, the whole works, but that's just my personal opinion. School board are all elected officials, and they do what they want. And as you said, we do control some of their budget, but like Mr. Granger said, we don't wanna have the kids be short on anything. But I agree, they need to be back.

Voter, I can't speak on that. I know Mrs. Gump's office has done a great job, and I thank her as well for everything that their office did. And I hear and I look in the news, and if you can believe the news or not about the Dominion and all the other kinda stuff, but I can't speak to that, you just have to look at the news sources. But I feel pretty confident that here in King George County, the people who had voted here, their votes counted. And then getting back to my report, Saturday 31st, Mrs. Cupka, Mrs. Bender and I got to plant old flags up there at the library for the flags for the heroes and had a great time. It was a good turnout, and we had some good Halloween costumes helping. We had Batman and some super folks to help plant the flags. Congressman Whitman was there with some of his staff to help as well. That was a great thing. I did not get to pick them up with them on Veterans Day, I had other commitments.

I also attended the CIP meeting that we had, our first, November 2nd. I attended the VACO Environmental Committee meeting, we did that virtually on the 11th and 12th, and one of our major... A couple of our major rain events. I did ride around some of the neighborhoods in the Dahlgren area that were prone to flooding. I did speak to some residents there about the flooding problems. I did talk to VDOT about it as well, took some pictures and spoke to a couple of neighbors, and they had been complaining about people actually breaking leaves and debris outta their yard, into the ditches so they wouldn't have them in their lawn. But what that does is create plugs in the pipes, which then flood the entire neighborhood. So I just remind people, if everybody cleaned out the ditches in front of their own houses, that the water would flow a whole lot easier. It's like when the snow is on the sidewalks, if everybody shovels their own little sidewalk, the entire sidewalk gets done.

On the morning of Saturday, the 14th, I attended the grand opening of Main Gate Nutrition, which is right there at the traffic light, at Potomac and Dahlgren, across from Potomac Elementary School. It's a health store that does smoothies and coffees and all kinds of stuff, foods, and they had their opening that day. So if anybody is in the area and they wanna stop in, by all means jump in there and go see Wendy and have her hook you up with some food. The 14th, like the rest of us, we attended the closeout fireworks. Great show. Thanking Mr. Gravatt and all the staff that worked on that. Probably one of the best fireworks displays I've ever seen. Probably in the top three. It was really excellent showing, and it was just great to see everybody turn out there. It was a beautiful evening with lots of people there. I was really happy to see all the cars. I did have to walk a long ways, but I was happy to see those cars.

I do have two appointments to two of our boards, if that's okay.

0:25:14 Ms. Binder: Go ahead.

0:25:15 Mr. Stonehill: I would like to nominate Nathan Ackerman to the Parks and Advisory Committee for Dahlgren.

0:25:22 Mr. Granger: Second.

0:25:24 Ms. Binder: Any further discussion? All those in favor, say aye.

0:25:27 All: Aye.

0:25:28 Ms. Binder: Any nays? Chair votes aye, motion carries.

0:25:31 Mr. Stonehill: And then I also have somebody for the Citizens Budget Advisory Committee, which is Cecil Chatman from the Dahlgren area.

0:25:41 Mr. Granger: Second.

0:25:42 Ms. Binder: Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye?

0:25:46 All: Aye.

0:25:47 Ms. Binder: Any nays? Chair votes aye. Motion carries? 0:25:50 Mr. Stonehill: And Mrs. Gump, I see you back there. Thank you so much to you and your staff for everything that you guys did during the whole voting turnout and everything, you guys did a fantastic job. And Dr. Young, the Cigarette Taxation Authority, what's going on with that? I mean, you don't have to get into it right now, but for the next meeting that we have, could you give us a briefing on that?

0:26:15 Dr. Young: Yes, sir certainly I can.

0:26:17 Mr. Stonehill: On the next time around?

0:26:18 Dr. Young: Yes sir!

0:26:19 Mr. Stonehill: Okay, that's all I have, thank you.

0:26:22 Ms. Binder: Thank you, Mr. Stonehill. Ms. Cupka.

0:26:25 Ms. Cupka: Thank you, Madam Chair. Ms. Dodge, thank you very much for coming out tonight. I won't reiterate what my colleague said about tax increases. With regard to solar farms, we did actually... Well, when I say we, the governing body, not myself, because it was prior to my time on the Board of Supervisors, but I do note in municode that a solar farm amendment to the zoning ordinance was enacted on December 20th, 2016. So solar farms are permitted by special exception, so any solar farm that wants to locate here must apply for a special exception permit through the Community Development Office, and it goes through the zoning process, the Planning Commission, and then it comes to the Board of Supervisors. To my knowledge, there has only, to date, been one applicant to receive said special exception permit, and they request to extend their permit from year to year, but have not gone active, to my knowledge. Is that correct Ms. Hall? Thank you very much.

0:27:42 Cupka: Food Trucks, you and I spoke at length about this when you did your civic duty and voted, and I definitely, again, appreciate your concern, and as my colleague said, I feel like we will probably get there, but we do wanna make sure we do it right, and that it's the right thing for our community as well. So thank you again for coming out Ms. Dodge. Ms. Lovell, thank you very much for coming out and sharing your compliments of our Sheriff's office. We appreciate it, thank you. And Ms. Kessler, am I saying your name correctly, ma'am? Kussler? I'm sorry, I completely missed it. Thank you very much.

So I would reiterate what I stated with regard to solar farms to Ms. Dodge. So we already do have an ordinance of a procedure for allowing those here in the county, and we have for almost four years, so what you're gonna hear tonight is a little bit different. With regard to the schools. So this Board of Supervisors has requested an audit of the school board in their expenditures of the CARES Act funds that we allocated to the schools. So we can't really audit any funds that the state directly allocated to King George County schools, but we have requested that information to ensure that those funds were spent according to how it was requested of us. I have two children at the high school. My kids will be okay. But to me, the continued closure magnifies the equity issues that many of the children in our community are experiencing, whether that's you don't have adequate internet access, whether you have a two-parent household or a single-parent household, and all of the parents are working during the day and they can't afford to quit their jobs and they can't stay home and watch their younger children. And I'm hearing stories of older siblings having to watch the younger siblings and walk them through their lessons and make sure they're staying on school, and then perhaps the older students, the middle school and high schoolers are falling behind frankly in their own schoolwork.

There was a presentation in the packet from last night's school board meeting that frankly, I found one of the slides very concerning, and that was the slide with regard to the failure numbers, there weren't rates because there weren't percentages expressed, and there were not the total number of students expressed. But there were numbers for grades seven through twelve, students failing, students failing one class, students failing two classes, three or more classes, high school students failing all four classes, and I really feel it's a problem. So I definitely share your concerns in that regard, but again, we control the purse, I would remind you to continue to share your concerns with the school board as well. And as far as the voting issues and the state- level mandates, there is not a whole lot that we can do with regard to that, but thank you again for coming out and expressing your concerns with us tonight. So I'd like to move on to the rest of my report, I will try to cut some things short. I, as Mr. Stonehill mentioned, attended the flag- planting. I wanna thank the Rotary Club for doing that, that was a great event.

Let's see. Monday, November 9th through Wednesday, November 11th, attended the Virtual VACO annual conference with Chairman Bender. The economic development breakout session was interesting as it had a lengthy discussion about battery storage, and that's something that we will consider later this evening. The budget update was very eye-opening. We can expect an austere state budget the next several years, and likely a recession in education funding from the state. I too attended the fireworks last Saturday night. I wanna thank everyone for that, it was phenomenal. They were, without a doubt, the best fireworks I have ever seen. I hope that maybe in the future, my colleagues and I would entertain a discussion of maybe trying to do it annually for 4th of July, but that's for another night. I wanna give a shout-out to staff. Thank you very much to the Department of General Properties team and the assigned Sealston maintenance staff members that regraded and laid new gravel in the authorized vehicles only parking area between the comfort station and the pavilion at Sealston sports complex. It was a mud pit when I was there a few weeks ago, and last week I returned to see it had been completely transformed.

I have a board appointment. I have a vacancy on the EDA due to a citizen... I'm sorry, and I should spell out, EDA is the Economic Development Authority, due to a citizen having moved outside the county. I moved to appoint Mr. Richard Parker, owner of Creation Steel Fabricators Incorporated, to serve the remainder of the term that expires on May 31st, 2023.

0:33:35 Mr. Bueche: Second.

0:33:38 Ms. Binder: Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye.

0:33:41 All: Aye.

0:33:43 Ms. Binder: Any nays? Chair votes aye. Motion carries. 0:33:47 Ms. Cupka: Thank you. A grant opportunity that I want to bring to everyone's attention, and I had Dr. Young forward this information to all of you last week. So last week, the National Park Service opened its African-American Civil Rights grant fund, which is typically announced every fall. Preservation projects, which includes construction and renovation of buildings, have a floor, so that's the lower limit, of $15,000, and a ceiling of $500,000. And there is no local cost, share, or match required. I am requesting consensus of the board tonight to direct staff to submit a grant application for the Ralph Bunche High School to obtain $500,000 in funding to support renovation of the school. I've spoken to the county engineer, and he believes we could reasonably replace the roof and perform hazard as in mold water damage mitigation for that dollar figure.

I would also note that there are several projects which have been funded for the full ceiling amount a number of recurring times, so perhaps there may be an opportunity after a phase-one award to obtain grant funding in multiple future years as well. I also have spoken to representatives of the Ralph Bunche Alumni Association and the Ralph Bunche Arts and Humanities Center, and both have agreed to submit letters of support for a proposed application.

0:35:20 Ms. Binder: Do I have a vote, or a motion?

0:35:25 Mr. Granger: Was it a motion or was it just concurrence from the board?

0:35:28 Ms. Cupka: I asked for consensus of the board.

0:35:30 Ms. Binder: Okay, consensus. Do we have consensus?

0:35:31 Mr. Bueche: I absolutely give consensus. As long as the county still owns Ralph Bunche, we're responsible for the maintenance of it, and we don't need another... Well, it's in the same situation as the old middle school. So if we have an opportunity to do something outside of the local tax base, I would like to look at that, given that we're facing a recession, given the fact that our TAC's are stretched to the max, we need to take advantage of something like this to address our current infrastructure. I know the Infrastructure Advisory Committee is currently looking at that building to see how that could be utilized. I know we have arrangements with the Arts and Humanities Center, so we need to maintain that building, and I think this is a great avenue to go down. So I thank Ms. Cupka for bringing that to our attention, and I give my consensus.

0:36:32 Ms. Binder: Mr. Granger, Mr. Stonehill?

0:36:33 Mr. Granger: Agreed.

0:36:35 Mr. Stonehill: Yes.

0:36:36 Ms. Binder: I agree with that, too. No matter what we use with the building, we need to show up that roof and do some old mitigation. So I'm in support of that. So Dr. Young, you can get the staff to work on that. Thank you very much. Ms. Cupka. 0:36:51 Ms. Binder: Thank you all... Colleagues. So with your consensus, tomorrow, I will be contacting Representative Rob Whitman, Senator Mark Warner, and Governor Ralph Northam's offices for letters of support that we can attach to the grant application as well.

0:37:03 Ms. Binder: Thank you.

0:37:03 Ms. Cupka: And I have one more thing. I do know this will disappoint some of you, but I'd rather not disappoint myself, because over a year ago, I gave my word. And to me, I have a code, and there are two things no one can take from you unless you let them, your word and your good name. So with that, Madam Chair, in abundance of caution and in order to avoid any impropriety and the appearance of impropriety, I am disqualifying myself from participation in the village's public hearing and all related matters, including discussion and voting. This potential conflict arises as a result of having received and reported in-kind campaign contributions from the applicant. Thank you, Madam Chair. That is all.

0:37:58 Ms. Binder: Thank you, Ms. Cupka. Mr. Bueche.

0:38:02 Mr. Bueche: Thank you, Madam Chair. So to everyone who gave public comment tonight, thank you for coming out, it's great to hear from people, especially with some of the topics that were brought up tonight. So to the tax concerns. For three years, this board has not increased the tax rate. Now, value in homes go up, so people have paid more due to the economy, you've paid more, but the tax increase has not gone up. But this year is gonna be different. I'm not saying that there's gonna be a tax-rate increase, what I'm saying is, in all reality, the county is facing a recession, and elections have consequences, and I've been very vocal, I'm not happy with... I'm not a fan of our general assembly in the direction they have taken, and the results of those elections that gave us our general assembly. There are unfunded mandates, there are mandated services. So there are services that the county has to provide by law with no funding from the state associated with it. So we need to look internal. And what I would say to the public is, you have an opportunity to have your voice heard when the budget is being constructed, when we have budget work sessions.

Rarely anybody shows up to these things. You could even just write an email, but you'll have to engage with your elected officials. Now, I know on my social media, when I see citizens out in public, I tell them, "Look, the budget work session's coming up, please consider attending. If you can't, please submit correspondence." You rarely hear from anyone during these budget work sessions, but that's when your county budget is being discussed. So to the schools, the point about the schools, absolutely, the schools need to open. So first off, I'd like to say thank you to my colleague that serves on the school board for my district, Mr. TC Collins, who has been very vocal about opening up the schools. As soon as the school board pushed back their opening date for K through 2, that night, I sent an email requesting an immediate audit of all CARES Act funding that came from the county under the guise of opening the schools. They said this money is needed so that we can open the schools, and schools still have not opened, which brought us to our CIP work session where the school board was requesting six school buses in their fleet because of mileage. Well, if you look that the schools haven't been open since March, I requested to cut that number in half, right away, saving $300,000 in CIP funds, and we're gonna look at CIP tonight, and there's gonna be further discussion about the three remaining buses.

Last night, I listened to the school board meeting. I didn't put this on my public page, but I feel appropriate to read it tonight. Listening to our school board meeting, absolutely frustrated. Who gives a hoot about athletics right now, when students aren't allowed in the buildings, but as athletes, they are allowed in the gym. Their primary function is education, and they are failing. I understand students want their athletics, but they are students first. There are serious issues, and athletics at this point is not the primary issue. The King George High School senior that gave public comment last evening had my admiration. She displayed logic, rationale, and leadership, which gives me faith in our future. Kudos to you, young lady. It took a high school student to sound more intelligent. I'm sorry if it's demeaning, but she made more sense than our school board. Again, elections have consequences. People need to start looking at when they not only vote for the president or your senator, or when you vote for your local Board of Supervisors, and your school board. So I encourage people to take a look at that. What happens in your locality has more of an impact on your daily lives than anything that's happening in the White House. So with that, Madam Chair, thank you very much. That concludes my report.

0:42:52 Ms. Binder: Thank you, Mr. Bueche, I wanna thank everyone who came out and spoke, I could keep... My colleagues all mentioned all the topics, but I wanna address one topic, and then I'll get to a few other items 'cause I wanna keep it brief 'cause we're gonna be, I think a little late tonight. So concerning the schools, I agree. Let's get them open. I know I have a fifth-grader who is doing okay in classes, but the social aspect, she really needs to be in school, and we have... My husband's tele-working at home. I chair two boards, and the GWRC, and I have a 20- year-old who's doing college at home, and if it's greater, that can be... I had to answer a phone from somebody in the audience who came up and spoke today, and I had to go outside in the cold weather just so I didn't bother everybody else having schooling. And I'm privileged to be home, but there's a lot of people that are not, there's a lot of people that don't have that opportunity, and it's not their fault that their kids might be failing. It's because they just have to work, or other response. I mean, somebody is a grandparent who doesn't have that much patience, I don't know what it is.

0:43:57 Ms. Binder: But I will relate one story that means a lot to me today that has always meant a lot, as a lot of people know, I coached for many years in this community, I substitute- taught, I did long-term subs, I did all of that. But I had a young lady who I monitored SOL testing, how boring, but I loved it because the kids that I monitored in SOL testing were all the kids that needed to graduate, and they had to take these tests over again, probably the second or third time, because they needed them to graduate because of SOL Virginia requirements. And this young lady, I stayed there all day with her, made sure she got some lunch, I had it brought down from the cafeteria because she had to pass to graduate. And so I saw this young lady a couple of years ago, and it had been 10 years since I did this. And she came up to me and she goes, "Do you remember me, Ms. Binder?" And I said, "I remember your face, I'm so sorry. I meet so many kids, and I coach so many kids. I apologize, I know your face. I remember you."

And she goes, "Yeah, I wanna thank you, because, " she said, "I graduated, and I'm helping my mom run a business because you took the time to care and get me lunch, and sit with me and say, 'It's okay, just take your time in your SOL testing.'" And it meant a lot to her to pass and graduate, now she's operating a business with her mom because she graduated. And that means a lot to me, and that's why school should open because if she was sitting at home, she might not have passed her SOL because there was nobody there to see she needed a little encouragement. It wasn't that she was a failure, it was because she needed the encouragement of a teacher or somebody there with her, not a computer screen.

And I just wanna say, that's why, to me, school should open because it's important to every kid, especially to the young folks who have never been in school, have none of that structure. My fifth-grader, she has structure because she's been in a classroom. But K through 2, they haven't been in instruction. What are we setting up for their failure in the future if they've never had that structure at the beginning? I know that's a little long-winded, but I think it needed to be said.

With that, I will move on, and I'll just talk briefly about things I've done. I wanna thank all of our staff for our wonderful fireworks display. As all of my colleagues have said, it was the best that I've ever seen, and I thought the Phillies game I attended a couple of years ago where the fireworks were going right over top of me was amazing, but these were even better than that. And kudos, to Mr. Gravatt and everyone on our staff that helped out with this event. It was wonderful to see about 800 people out there that love King George and wanted something to feel better about, and to make them uplifting, and I didn't see one sad face leaving that place, and I think that's important to mention. I hope it uplifted some spirits. Smoot Library, Friends of the Smoot Library Board, they need some help. A lot of them are older, some of them can't come out and help anymore because of their concern about covid, which I understand, being older. So if there's any young people out there, or anybody in the community who would like to volunteer for the Friends of the Smoot Library, just remember, our Smoot Library has been open this whole time in covid, doing curbside pickup, and CRRL which is the Central Rappahannock Regional Library, which a lot of our surrounding communities use, hasn't been open. Our library's been open.

So if anybody can come out and help them out, they sell books to fund the library with the money that we can't give them, or the state doesn't give. So it's really important. So if anybody can help them out, please come and help out the Friends of the Library, or just donate books. They sell them for the library. Just a minute. [0:47:29] ____ I wanted to mention the state managed, Mr. Bueche brought that up, and the things that Ms. Cupka said. People don't realize, a lot of these laws that are made down the legislature, they pass them on and then they don't fund them, and then who has to come up with this? It's us, and you guys, because you're the taxpayers. So just remember that. Contact your state legislators, tell them that you don't like these mandates. And in these conferences, they told us about a lot of mandates that are gonna be coming down the pike, and Governor Northam doesn't want to fund them. We were gonna end up probably having to fund that. So just remember that, and take a look yourself and become informed citizens. I know a lot of you are, but just take a peek at that.

And the last thing I wanna mention is, as I mentioned earlier, that I'm the chairwoman of the GWRC, which is the George Washington Regional Commission. We had a big Virginia job. I might have got that wrong, but I thought it was great on Friday. But the point is, they're talking about becoming a regional identity. And I know one of the things that I've been pushing is us working as a region, because we succeed as a region. We have two large localities in the City of Fredericksburg. Caroline and King George are small localities. But working together, we can get more grant money because they look at those things, and one of the things GWRC does is they fund surveys and other things that we have to use, like with SmartScale, to be able to apply for these funds to help the community. And so I've been working really hard to get unity amongst the board, and us to not be all separate. To try to all be together as equal so that we can do more greater things for the area. So, that is the end of my board report. I don't wanna keep it too long, and we will move on to a motion from the consent agenda.

Mr. Granger: So moved.

0:49:14 Mr. Bueche: Second.

0:49:14 Ms. Binder: Do I have a second? Alright, any further discussion?

0:49:16 Ms. Cupka: Yes, Madam Chair.

0:49:17 Ms. Binder: Go ahead.

0:49:18 Ms. Cupka: If the clerk could please note when the minutes are recorded, please? There are two sets of minutes that we're voting on in the consent agenda tonight, and I was absent for the October 20th, 2020 meeting. So I choose to abstain from approving those minutes due to my absence. I did review the recording online, but I will abstain. Thank you.

0:49:45 Dr. Young: Roger that.

0:49:45 Mr. Britton: We need two separate motions then, Madam Chair.

0:49:50 Ms. Binder: Alright, so hold on. Can I have a motion on the first... How about everything with... Wait a minute. Which minutes were up?

0:49:58 Mr. Granger: I'll make an amendment to approve the consent agenda assigned for the minutes from the meetings.

0:50:05 Ms. Binder: Alright. Do we have a second?

0:50:09 Mr. Bueche: Second.

0:50:09 Ms. Binder: Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye.

0:50:12 All: Aye.

0:50:13 Ms. Binder: Any nays? Chair votes aye. Motion carries. So let's do the... Mr. Granger, can you help me out since you have it up there?

0:50:19 Mr. Granger: Yes, ma'am. I move to approve the meeting minutes from the Tuesday, October 6th Board of Supervisors meeting. 0:50:25 Mr. Bueche: Second.

0:50:26 Ms. Binder: Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye.

0:50:30 All: Aye.

0:50:31 Ms. Binder: Any nays? Chair votes aye. Motion carries. Mr. Granger.

0:50:34 Mr. Granger: I move to approve the Tuesday, October 20th, meeting minutes for the Board of Supervisors.

0:50:40 Mr. Bueche: Second.

0:50:41 Ms. Binder: Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye.

0:50:46 Mr. Bueche, Mr. Stonehill, Mr. Granger: Aye.

0:50:46 Ms. Cupka: Abstain.

0:50:47 Ms. Binder: Any nays? Chair votes aye. Motion carries. Four, and one abstain. Thank you. Hold on. Now we're up to county officials reports. Sheriff Giles with the King George County Sheriff's Office.

0:51:19 Sheriff Giles: Thank you, Madam Chair. Good evening Madam Chair, members of the board. Many Americans rise and sleep under the very blanket of freedom that the men and women of our military provide. As you all know, there isn't a nobler sacrifice one can make than to give one's life for the freedom of another. On December 21st 2004, one of King George County's own did just that. Nicolas Conan Mason was 20 years old when he gave the ultimate sacrifice while serving with the 276th Engineer Battalion in Iraq. I'm before you this evening to request that you adopt the following resolution. Naming the Port Royal bridge over the Rappahannock River, on route 301, which is at James Madison Parkway, to state that it's the Sergeant Nicholas C. Mason Memorial Bridge for his ultimate sacrifice on December 24th 2004. Deputy Shriver did a lot of research in order to put this resolution together, so I'm gonna go ahead and have him read the resolution.

0:52:18 Deputy Shriver: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Naming the Port Royal bridge over the Rappahannock River on Route 301, James Madison Parkway, adjoining the counties of King George and Caroline, be named as the Sergeant Nicholas C. Mason Memorial Bridge. Whereas army sergeant Nicholas C. Mason of King George Virginia, assigned to the 276 Engineer Battalion, Virginia Army National Guard, West Point, Virginia was killed on December 21st 2004, during an attack in Mosul, Iraq. Whereas section 33.2-213 of the Code of Virginia, authorizes the Commonwealth Transportation Board, CTB, to give suitable names to state highways, bridges, interchanges, and other transportation facilities, and change the names of any highway, bridge, interchanges, or other transportation facilities forming a part of the systems of state highways. And whereas Section 33.2-213 provides that the Virginia Department of Transportation shall place and maintain appropriate signs indicating the names of highways, bridges, interchanges, and other transportation facilities named by the CTB, and requires that the cost of the production, placing, and maintenance of such signs shall be paid by the localities in which they are located. Now therefore, be it resolved that the King George County Board of Supervisors, in accordance with section 33.2-213 of the code of Virginia does hereby request that the CTB name Port Royal Bridge over the Rappahannock River, on route 301, James Madison Parkway, adjoining the counties of King George and Caroline, be named as the Sergeant Nicholas C. Mason Memorial Bridge. Be it therefore, further resolved, that King George County Board of Supervisors agree to pay the cost of production, placing and maintaining the signs, calling attention to this naming. Thank you.

0:54:34 Sheriff Giles: Madam Chair, members of the board, there's two corrections I'd like to make to this resolution, it falls under the fourth paragraph, "Now therefore be it resolved... " In that paragraph, it should strike the word "on" after "Board of Supervisors." And then two more sentences down, add the word "bridge" to name Port Royal bridge over the Rappahannock." If this board adopts this resolution, our next step would be to go in front of Caroline's Board of Supervisors with the same resolution, asking them to adopt it as well, since it's a joint [0:55:15] ____ we have to get their permission and their buy-in.

0:55:16 Mr. Bueche: Madam Chair, I move to adopt resolution naming the Port Royal bridge over the Rappahannock river on route 301, James Madison Parkway, adjoining the counties of King George and Caroline, be named as the Sergeant Nicholas C. Mason Memorial Bridge, as presented with corrections.

0:55:35 Mr. Stonehill: Second.

0:55:37 Ms. Binder: Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye.

0:55:40 All: Aye.

0:55:41 Ms. Binder: Any nays? Chair votes aye. Motion carries. Thank you guys for your work.

0:55:46 Sheriff Giles: Thank you.

0:55:50 Ms. Binder: Alright, next up is Ms. Lorie Gump with the King George Registrar office, giving us our election report.

0:56:14 Lorrie Gump: Good evening, honorable board members, Dr. Young. Mr. Britton. First of all, I'd like to set the record straight. King George County does not use Dominion Voting Systems. We have not used Dominion Voting Systems since 2016. The systems that we use in our county is Hart InterCivic, and they come very highly recommended because they're secure. And thank you for giving me the opportunity to come to speak to you tonight. First of all, I'd like to thank some very important people who helped make this November election, the June primary, and the March primary election a success. First off, thank you to Sheriff Giles and his deputies, not only for the November election, where they stayed at the precincts all day to make sure that everyone was safe, but also for the June primary, where we did our drive-through voting. Sheriff Giles had deployed deputies all day to the high school, to Cilliston and to Potomac in June as well to make sure everything was running smoothly. We appreciate them so much and are so blessed that they continue to watch out for our office.

0:57:34 LG: Thank you to Jimmy and his team for helping with the November and the June primary, they came in and picked up all of our materials for both elections, followed us around, delivered and stayed to help set up the polling locations. They also made sure, and made our precinct protection barriers for the check-in stations for the November election. Thank you to the Parks and Rec staff for getting my envelopes ready for the November election. Thank you to David Moody, Steve Lind and their team for the generators, water and tents for the June election. Thank you to the volunteers from my office, and Ann Lusher, Carol Spable, Howard Nelson, who by the way, is 91 years old. Barbara Wilkes, Cindy Sanchez, Amalia Kennedy, who came to help clean the voting booths, assist the voters, put labels on the loops for absentee ballots, helped with curbside voting, and any other task that they were asked to do.

Thank you to my staff, Jincy, Meredith, and Vicki, their support and amazing endurance of strength and ability to step up when things needed to be done, was truly a blessing. These three ladies worked countless hours, to help when changes had to be made, to make sure we made deadlines, They also made sure, when my stress level was at its peak, not to let me answer the phone, that's an inside joke, 'cause they wouldn't let me answer the phone. My electoral board members, I am so blessed to have Rick, Nancy, and John, their support and trust in my office, for always being available when needed, for believing in the process, and knowing that King George County elections are run with the utmost integrity, without fraud and deceit. As you can see, this is not a one-man show. It takes the whole community to run elections, both big and small. We have run three elections this past year, two of them being in a pandemic, which held their own complications.

The March election was very uneventful, we had 2,531 voting at the polls, and 111 absentee ballots, which brought out a 15% turnout. The June dual primary was a bit more challenging due to the now restrictions on polling places, lack of officers of election, the mandate of wearing masks, etcetera. For this election, we decided to do a drive-through voting in your car, the routes were mapped out again with the help of the sheriff's office, and tents were put up at Sillstan Elementary, Potomac, and three polling places were combined at the high school, Shilo, Courthouse, and Monroe, where three tents were all put up. Not only did we have outside setup voting, we had to make sure that inside was ready in case of bad weather, which meant that voting booths, machines, tables, etcetera, were all set up as well. The night before the election, as we were finishing, a huge storm came and blew down two of our tents in the courthouse parking lot. This was the first time that my stress level just started going up, and hasn't come down until just recently. We're so fortunate in King George to have the officers of elections who step up.

They stayed outside, and weather, that was brutal heat, from 4:30 in the morning till 7:00 O'clock at night. I am so very humbled and proud of the teams that step up to help with the elections. For that election, we had 1,770 R's at the polls, voting, and 245 AB's, and 735 D's at the polls voting, and 467 absentee voters. That was 15% again. The November election proved to be one of the highest turnouts that we've had in King George since I've been Registrar. From June until November 13th. Our office has been inundated with applications for absentee ballots, photo registrations, and directions from the state, changing procedures on what can and cannot be done for the November election, and phone calls about election and voter fraud up until last Friday. We processed from October 1st until the deadline of October 16th, 275 new voter registration applications, and from January 1st until October 1st, 1,275. For the November third election, we had 7,156 early voters come to my office. These were either voters who came in or who stayed in their car for us to bring them a ballot. We mailed out 2,859 ballots. I decided to time the process of mailing an absentee ballot.

It takes anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes for each package to be put together to mail a ballot. That is from start to finish, printing the app, logging in and processing it on our system, to the envelopes and labels that are placed on them. And that's not even taking it down to the Treasurer's Office and getting postage. In person at the polls for this election was 4,417. 2,651 ballots came back from the mail, and as I said, 7,156 early vote. That's a total of 14,244, making our overall turnout at 77%. 54% was early voting, and 23% at the polls. Right now, our registered voter count is 18,567. There's just a few things I wanna go over. Early voting is not gonna go away, it was a bill that the members of the General Assembly wanted for a long time. So moving forward, some changes will need to be made. I do not think we'll see the overwhelming amount of people that we did for this election, but I do feel that people will continue to come in rather than gonna the polls because it was so easy. There were several hurdles that we had to cross for this election. Right before the deadline of September 18th, to have all the ballots out that we have been processing since June, we received guidance from the state stating that envelopes that we used for years, that Parks and Rec had put together for me were not...

We were not allowed to use those, nor were the labels that were already placed on them, we already had them labeled stuffed, and ready to go, and we were just waiting for the ballots. We had to reorder all-new envelopes, relabel them with new labels that had to have an intelligent barcode on them so the public could track their ballots that were mailed. That was over 1,690 envelopes and labels that needed to be changed in a short period of time. The ballot order was ready to go into production when we got a call stating that Kanye West could not be on our ballot, I remember it was a Thursday evening, around 8:00 PM, I had just gotten home and turned around, came back to the office to send an email to stop production of 1,1000 ballots from my vendor, and restart the whole certification process with the states the new ballots could go out and be ordered without Kayne West on them, to get them in time for the September 18th deadline.

We were told we needed drop boxes for each of our polling locations, and that our CAP team, Central Absentee Precinct, had to stay until the ballots that were dropped off in those boxes were brought back to my office the night of the election and run through the voting machine. They had to stay until the ballots were run through the machine or until 11:00 o'clock, whichever came first. There was not a lag time where the ballots did not get counted on the day and night of the election. All ballots were counted on November 3rd, 2020, with the exception of provisional and late post-marked AB's. We had 32 provisional ballots with only three of them not counting because they were not registered. When the special session of the General Assembly met, one of the other pieces of guidance that was given to us was ballot curing. Every ballot that came in, we had to open out the outer envelope that contained the ballot and make sure that that was filled in correctly, that they had their address on correctly, that they had signed it, they did not need to have a witness. And we had to do that within three days of receiving that to give the people time to come in.

This is the first year that we were allowed to accept ballots that were postmarked by election day up until Friday noon after the election. We had 11 post-marked ballots, and all of them were counted. I know there's a lot of talk from the media about voter fraud, that it's not being counted, etcetera. I can only speak for King George County when I say that none of this has taken place in our county. In my opinion, and this is just my opinion, where the fraud or deceit could possibly come into play is if you do not have trust in your front line team. My chiefs and assistant chiefs and each of the precincts are the ears and eyes of the process during the day.

I will not put somebody in a chief or an assistant chief position that has not worked at least a couple of years as a regular officer of election. The chiefs and the assistant chiefs in King George County have been with me in their roles, some for over 20 years. I cannot say enough that King George County is very fortunate to have the volunteers and workers who devote their day to come out and help make the voting process safe each year. I am grateful that my staff, my electoral board members, my officers of election had stayed healthy through all this. We now move on to the next election and redistricting on our heels. Thank you.

1:07:20 Ms. Binder: Thank you, does anybody have any questions for Ms. Gump. We just wanna really thank you and your staff for everything you did. Thank you very much. Alright, a report from the county attorney, Mr. Britton.

1:07:38 Mr. Britton: Yes, Madam Chair, and I just wanted to say that while I was looking through my emails, as Lori was talking, and while all that was happening, she was asking me legal questions along the way, she had to deal with disabilities with the covid, the covid consolidation of polling places. Signs at polling places, the new regulations had to attend the updated regulations and emailing me about the new redistricting, which doesn't even take place until 2021.

So I just wanted to say there's a lot in the background, and I have given advice to Lori for years and her predecessor as well, and this one is the heaviest lift, I think that someone could have had to deal with. So I also wanted to say thank you. Thank you for that. You asked me to file applications for a trademark for the county seal, that has been done and granted, it's a little bit of a snafu. It didn't get into the packet, but it's been sent to you by email now, and we can put that on the website, not much to explain, we filed the applications and they said fine, and there's a little bit more. Also, it was brought to my attention, through our process, which works, that we have some leases coming up, and as those leases come up, they get sent to me, and I do a legal review on them.

One of the things that I take a look at is, are they compliant with the current status of the code, such as drug-free workplace, anti-discrimination clauses and things like that, and oftentimes they're not, because many of these leases are multi-year leases. Two examples of that, or the King George DSS lease, which actually we enter into on behalf of DSS, and get to reimburse, and the Cooperative Extension lease through the same landlord. I don't negotiate the business terms, that's up to Neiman in the county, but he gives me the business terms. I did go through them again through the same email mix-up, you didn't get those, but they've been sent to you now, I have reviewed those. Much to the chagrin of the landlord/

Although he has a lawyer, I think I tripled the length of it and put in all of the required code sections for those leases and put in a bunch of other protections that I felt were beneficial to the county. Neiman agreed, did some negotiation back and forth with the landlord also, he's granted as a right of first refusal, which was requested by the DSS if anything opens up, and he's also offered a small space next to the cooperative extension, if we were to need that and to blow out a wall, but those aren't included in the lease because that hasn't been discussed for their budget, but those are on the table as offers.

So you didn't get them. I don't know if you're gonna read them all, every paragraph anyway, but they are in good form, and all of our changes were included, all of the legal changes and the wording were included, and I think it's more mutual and certainly stronger for the county in that it complies with the law, both of them, there's two. Cooperative Extension and King George DSS is a five-year...

Five-year lease.

1:11:12 Ms. Binder: Do we need to make a motion on this?

1:11:13 Mr. Britton: Yes, you need to make a motion and vote separately on each of them to authorize the County Administrator to enter into the King George DSS. The first one would be to authorize the County Administrator to enter into the King George Department of Social Services' lease extension beginning December 1st 2020 for five years.

1:11:36 Mr. Granger: So moved.

1:11:36 Ms. Binder: Do I have a second.

1:11:40 Mr. Bueche: Second.

1:11:41 Ms. Binder: Any further discussion?

1:11:43 Ms. Cupka: Yes, Madam Chair. So Mr. Britton, can I just ask the only thing I noticed, and maybe this is just a formatting error, but in looking through, there seems to be... It's not a footnote, a footer. A running footer on every page that says "page five" on the... Let's see which one I'm looking at. I wouldn't think that would affect anything materially, but...

1:12:13 Mr. Britton: Thank you! We just sent it to... I haven't seen what has been sent to you, but that wasn't on the original book. We'll... 1:12:19 Ms. Cupka: Yeah, if we could just correct that...

1:12:20 Mr. Britton: What, just keep saying page five, yeah?

1:12:21 Ms. Cupka: Yeah. King George Village office center, center lease.

1:12:25 Mr. Britton: Those are proforma. Thank you for bringing that to my attention. I don't think that [1:12:31] ____ a motion, but if you wanted a friendly amendment correcting formatting?

1:12:33 Ms. Cupka: Thank you. Yes, please. A friendly amendment to correct the... To remove the footer. Correct the formatting, please.

1:12:41 Mr. Britton: Move to amend my motion per the request.

1:12:45 Mr. Bueche: Second.

1:12:47 Ms. Binder: Alright, any further discussion? All those in favor, say aye.

1:12:51 All: Aye.

1:12:52 Ms. Binder: Any nays? Chair votes aye. Motion carries.

1:12:55 Mr. Britton: And Madam Chair, the other motion would be on the King George Cooperative Extension lease authorizing the count administrator to sign the extended lease on the term set forth in the document presented beginning December 1st 2020, with any formatting errors that might need...

1:13:13 Ms. Cupka: It's the same on that one, too. Yes, please.

1:13:15 Mr. Britton: There must have been some sort of PDF transcription, I apologize.

1:13:19 Ms. Binder: You have a motion?

1:13:20 Mr. Granger: Move with the same corrections.

1:13:24 Mr. Bueche: Second.

1:13:26 Ms. Binder: A motion, and properly seconded, any further discussion? All those in favor say aye.

1:13:31 All: Aye.

1:13:32 Ms. Binder: Any nays ? Chair votes aye, motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Britton.

1:13:36 Mr. Britton: Thank you, ma'am. Nothing further. 1:13:38 Ms. Binder: That's the end of your report?

1:13:40 Mr. Britton: Yes, Madam Chair.

1:13:42 Ms. Binder: Alright, we will be moving down to 1104, which is our action items, department of finance professional services agreement for the new courthouse project. Dr. Young, are you doing that one?

1:13:53 Dr. Young: That would be Lavita Cobb, Madam Chair.

1:13:56 Ms. Binder: Okay, Ms. Cobb.

1:13:57 Lavita Cobb: Yes, Madam Chair, I'm here. Good evening to Madam Chair and members of the board. Lavita Cobb on behalf of finance. So this evening, I'm here to discuss the professional services agreement for the new courthouse project. In December 2019, proposals were received from six firms in response to RFP number 1211-2019, where professional design and construction administration services associated with the new courthouse project. The proposals were evaluated by a selection committee consisting of Dr. Young, Vic Mason, and Travis Quesenberry. Based on proposals and interviews with the three highest-ranked firms, the selection committee ranked mostly architects as the most qualified firm for this project, and commenced negotiating the scope of services and fees. Negotiations were completed in March in 2020. The project consists of professional design and construction administration services associated with the design and construction of the new courthouse of approximately 50,000 square feet with provisions for future expansion of up to 65,800 square feet.

The new courthouse would be located on approximately 5.5 acres of county owned land, located across from the Sheriff's Office, and I've attached the two proposals that provide a detailed scope of work and the fee breakdowns in the packet. The packet will be delivered using a construction manager at risk delivery method and constructed under a single stipulated sum construction contract pursuant to solicitation of contractors through the request for proposed competitive negotiation process. Therefore I recommend that the Board of Supervisors authorize a County Administrator to execute a professional services agreement, architectural, engineering and construction administration services associated with the new courthouse project in the amount of $1,379,156, with mostly architects subject to approval [1:16:14] ____ by the county attorney, and this project will be funded by the project bond. And that is all, Madam Chair.

1:16:24 Ms. Binder: Dr. Young, I just wanted to make... This is a different kind of way we're gonna do supervision of this project, could you just explain briefly to the public?

1:16:31 Dr. Young: Yes ma'am, the municipal expansion project was performed in the design, bid, build process for construction, where there's a design that's made by the architectural firm that didn't put out the bid. The construction company then reviews the plans and they bid on how much it's gonna cost to construct it. The difference with the construction manager at risk is the construction company has actually bought in on the front end of the process, so we'll actually be putting out a bid to contract a construction company to participate in the design of the facility. So if a construction manager at the beginning of the process is working hand-in-hand with the architectural firm to do the designs of the courthouse, the construction manager then assumes responsibility for any change orders or subsequent changes to those designs when it goes to construction. So that's why it's called construction manager at risk, because they assume the risk for any change orders that takes place during the build-out of the courthouse.

1:17:32 Ms. Binder: Thank you, Dr. Young. And I know Mr. Bueche and Mr. Granger and I, for the middle school project, really, it was a burr under our bonnet with all the change orders, so I appreciate you researching and doing this. And I know my colleagues probably all and feel the same way, this is a better option. Could I have a motion on this?

1:17:50 Mr. Granger: I move to authorize the County Administrator to execute a professional service agreement with mostly architects in the amount of $1,379,156 for professional, architectural, engineering, and construction administration services associated with the new courthouse project.

1:18:07 Mr. Bueche: Second.

1:18:08 Ms. Cupka: Friendly amendment?

1:18:09 Ms. Binder: Yes.

1:18:10 Ms. Cupka: Subject to approval as to form by the county attorney.

1:18:14 Mr. Granger: I move to amend my motion to include review by the county attorney.

1:18:21 Mr. Bueche: Second.

1:18:21 Ms. Binder: Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye.

1:18:24 All: Aye.

1:18:25 Ms. Binder: Any nays? Chair votes aye. Motion carries. Thank you, Ms. Cobb, for your work too.

1:18:30 Ms. Cobb: Thank you.

1:18:33 Ms. Binder: Alright, then we move on to the Department of Economic Development and tourism TAC application, King George Parks and Recreation, Sydel Brooks Jr. Park baseball field. Mr. Minor and Mr. Clark.

1:18:43 Nicholas Minor: Good evening, Madam Chair and members of the board, I'm here to request TAC funds from the Department of Parks and Recreation, which is requesting $5,000 for Sydel Brooks Jr. Park baseball fields, which is a need of an overhaul, specifically the infield requires to be regraded, reshaped base maps, recut, mound rebuilt, and low spots filled to allow rental and outside tournament promoters. [1:19:11] ____ will lay out and correct infields, correct the grade, and apply new infield mix and groom-area type to improve playability. They will also rebuild the pitcher's mound to the appropriate height, slope and fill. Sand will be added to the infield grass and improve drainage. The TAC recommends that the Board of Supervisors approve $5,000 for improvements to the Sydel Brooks Jr. Baseball fields. Staff agrees with TAC's recommendation.

1:19:36 Ms. Binder: Mr. Clark, you wanna add anything to that or we'll come up for questions... Anybody have any questions before...

1:19:44 Chris Clarke: It's a total of a $10,300 project, and so we're asking for support from the tourism fund to allow us to improve our tourism opportunities. We were approached by Tri County sports, which is the USSSA baseball organization. We've had to turn them away twice this fall when they needed an additional field, they were using Sealston, but they needed an additional field, so we turned them away and they... Because that field's not safe, they ended up playing in either Spotsylvania or Stafford County at the time. In addition, Little League has abandoned use to the field because of the safety concerns, and they play their 95 games at Sealston or when possible at the middle school.

1:20:20 Ms. Binder: Thank you. Mr. Bueche.

1:20:21 Mr. Bueche: Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Clark, for these fields, does Parks and Rec receive any revenues from Little League or the organization you mentioned earlier when they utilize these fields to...

1:20:34 Mr. Clarke: Yes, when a rental comes in for like a tournament organizer, they pay a daily rental fee, which was approved by this group in February of this past year. For Little League, they pay a fee of $10 a child per season, so that's an affiliate of the Parks and Rec department 'cause they operate a program that we do not offer.

1:20:55 Mr. Bueche: Thank you.

1:20:56 Ms. Binder: Does anybody else have any questions? Ms. Cupka.

1:21:01 Ms. Cupka: I guess I'll save it for discussion 'cause it's not really a question.

1:21:06 Ms. Binder: Alright, do I have a motion?

1:21:09 Mr. Granger: I move to approve $5,000 for improvements to the Sydel Brooks Jr. Baseball fields from the tourism funds.

1:21:16 Mr. Bueche: Second.

1:21:17 Ms. Binder: Any further discussion? Miss Cupka?

1:21:18 Ms. Cupka: Yes, Madam Chair. Thank you. I would just like to say I do appreciate... We all appreciate everything that your department does and the general properties department does to maintain the park assets that we have, but sometimes we fall short, and in this particular case at this park, we have my own son, plays travel baseball, he's played for four years. Two years ago, he was playing USSSA, and before that, he was on the intermediate team for King George Little League. And that was their home field that they could practice on, they could get by practicing on it, we couldn't host any games there for the very reasons that you stated. So I am in full support of this. Thank you very much. My son won't be playing there, he's moved on to bigger fields, but I appreciate your efforts. Thank you.

1:22:14 Ms. Binder: I have a motion, properly seconded, any further discussion? Mr. Stonehill? Or just turning out. Alright. All those in favor say aye.

1:22:23 All: Aye.

1:22:23 Ms. Binder: Any nays? Chair votes aye, motion carries, thank you very much. Department of Economic Development and Tourism TAC application Sheetz-to-Sheetz Trail Run with CO Race Fund Ventures LLC. Good morning.

1:22:38 Mr. Minor: Thank you Madam Chair and thank you members of the board. The Race Fund Ventures LLC is requesting $2,000 from the TAC fund in support of the Sheetz-to-Sheetz Trail Run. Sheetz-to-Sheetz Trail Run is a unique and fun 14-mile race between King George High School Sheets and The Dahlgren Sheets along the Dahlgren Railroad Heritage Trail. The application is requesting financial assistance to promote marketing professional services for runners in the event growth. Funds will be utilized to market outside the county on digital platforms, as well as create race banners, finish-line overhead banners that market King George County, additionally, T-shirts and promotional materials will represent the county as well. TAC's recommendation is that the Board of Supervisors approve $2,000 for support of the Sheetz-to- Sheetz Trail Run to the marketing and promotion of this event. Staff agrees with TAC's recommendation.

1:23:30 Ms. Binder: Do we have any questions? Would somebody like to make a motion?

1:23:35 Mr. Stonehill: I'll make a motion to recommend that we approve $2,000 of support of the Sheetz-to-Sheetz Trail Run to the marketing and promotion of the event.

1:23:47 Ms. Binder: Is there a second?

1:23:48 Mr. Granger: Second.

1:23:52 Ms. Binder: Any further discussion?

1:23:53 Ms. Cupka: Yes, Madam Chair. Since the last time this event was held, I believe we have a new county attorney, and my understanding is that this event would be using King George County school buses, so I would just ask that we require this applicant to submit his waiver. I note that he does have, it looks like, his own insurance policy from Farm Bureau, that's listed as an expense in the application. But if we could have him forward a copy of his liability waiver to our county attorney, given that our county school buses are being used, I would appreciate that. 1:24:37 Mr. Britton: I'll wait for that. I have not seen that, so thank you for bringing that up, I haven't seen the participant liability waiver for the school buses, and I guess I'll get the schools involved. Neiman and I can figure out how to get the schools involved so that they're correctly indemnified as a separate body politic.

1:24:58 Ms. Cupka: Please, and thank you very much.

1:25:04 Ms. Binder: Alright, we have a motion. Properly seconded, all those in favor, say aye.

1:25:06 All: Aye.

1:25:10 Ms. Binder: Any nays? Chair votes aye. Motion carries. Thank you once again.

1:25:13 Mr. Bueche: Madam Chair, if I may. So I believe last year, we had some insurance parameters put in place in coordination with the schools to address this run, so we could probably look back into that. And being that there were applying funds, and we've used TAC funds for the 300th anniversary events and stuff. I would like to get a breakdown of what the current balance is at the next meeting, so we could see what our current balances and what future installments we're expecting. TAC fund, I know we use it sporadically, but I'd like to know what real we're looking at, I'd like citizens to know, "Hey, this is the pot of money the Board of Supervisors is pulling from, this is what we've whittled it down to, and this is what we expect coming back in." So if I can get those numbers for the next meeting, I'd greatly appreciate it.

1:26:06 Ms. Binder: Mr. Bueche, I agree with that, because some people in the public don't realize that a lot of like the fireworks display and that, is used with tourism funds and not taxpayer funds, and tourism funds are a little different, they come from the meals and lodging tax, but thank you for that clarification. But you can get that, Dr. Young, for the next meeting?

1:26:27 Dr. Young: Roger, Madam Chair.

1:26:30 Ms. Binder: Then Mr. Minor, thank you. Appreciate all you do, though.

1:26:31 Mr. Minor: Absolutely, thank you.

1:26:34 Ms. Binder: Next up is our County Administrator's report and the County Administration Dominion Power Easement Agreement. You get that first, Dr. Young, and then your report.

1:26:42 Dr. Young: Roger, Madam Chair. King George County is in a regional partnership with Westmoreland, Richmond and Northumberland Counties. This partnership also includes Dominion Power and the Northern Neck Electric Co-op. The purpose of the partnership is to pursue a robust broadband project throughout the Northern Neck region. The essence of this project includes leveraging, established right of way to expand fiber throughout the member localities. The old Dominion Power has already approved easements for the power lines and associated infrastructure. The company is legally required to secure another easement for the fiber. As such, Dominion Power has submitted a request for the Board of Supervisors to approve the attached easement agreement. To accomplish this, the board must first hold a public hearing. Therefore, I'd recommend the King George County Board of Supervisors authorize the county staff to advertise a public hearing to consider Dominion Power's request to approve a utility easement agreement.

1:27:35 Mr. Granger: So moved.

1:27:39 Mr. Bueche: Second.

1:27:39 Ms. Binder: Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye.

1:27:44 All: Aye.

1:27:45 Ms. Binder: Chair votes aye, motion carries. Thank you, Dr. Young.

1:27:49 Dr. Young: I received correspondence from Caroline County. Caroline is pursuing a project to withdraw water from the Rappahannock River. This project is being pursued to reduce the county's reliance on ground reserves and reservoirs to meet their community's drinking water needs. The project will require approval from the Department of Environmental Quality or DEQ. As such, Caroline has requested that King George County Board of Supervisors consider writing a letter of support for the project. So I'm asking if the board will authorize the County Administrator to write a letter of support for the Caroline Rappahannock River Withdraw project.

1:28:26 Ms. Binder: So we have a motion? Are there any questions?

1:28:30 Ms. Cupka: Yes, Madam Chair.

1:28:31 Ms. Binder: Go ahead, sorry about that. Go ahead, Ms. Cupka.

1:28:39 Ms. Cupka: Can you provide us with any more information about the request because to me, it seems a little bit vague.

1:28:45 Dr. Young: Yes, ma'am. So Caroline County, as being a little forward-thinking, they, just like King George County, are in a locality that depends on aquifers to meet their drinking water needs, is going to be facing withdrawal restrictions, as Jonathon Weakley talks about persistently, or reminds us that we do have these withdrawal restrictions. So Caroline County is pursuing an $8 to $12 million project where they're actually gonna reduce their reliance on aquifers by withdrawing water from the Rappahannock River versus utilizing groundwater to meet their drinking water needs. They are going to withdraw water from the Rappahannock to meet the demands of Caroline County, and then they are gonna look at perhaps one day getting into the business of selling water to neighborhood localities that may face restrictions and not be able to meet their drinking-water needs.

1:29:46 Mr. Bueche: Genius. 1:29:47 Dr. Young: It's definitely smart, but obviously, it's also expensive.

1:29:50 Ms. Binder: I had already asked you how this affects any of our permits on the Rappahannock, Dr. Young...

1:29:57 Ms. Cupka: And the Service Authority as well.

1:29:58 Ms. Binder: Yeah, and the Service Authority.

1:29:58 Dr. Young: Roger. Yes, ma'am. And Jonathon is more than open to answer that question.

1:30:06 Ms. Binder: Mr. Weakley.

1:30:11 Jonathon Weakley: Honorable members of the board, I have to schedule an upcoming meeting with the director there in Caroline County, I'm aware of this, I think it was past discussions of this initiative, and I've just had this discussion with the resident engineer, Mr. Meyer, from the Richmond office of BDH, just yesterday. This initiative, it's to quit withdrawing from groundwater, that is the main concern. There is discussions of a reserve, a built-in reserve, that Caroline County would have in commit. So in that case, they would be a wholesaler, I have to be briefed a little more on the project with Caroline County, obviously they are the main person who has filed to move forward with this project, but I'll be bringing the information back to the Service Authority Board of Directors, obviously on the counter side of that to Dr. Young to brief this body of what may be a partnership and what timelines and commitments will look like for King George County. But that is correct, they are looking at building in a certain reserve of their withdrawal initiative for wholesaling, which King George County could potentially opt in.

1:31:31 Dr. Young: Madam Chair, if I may?

1:31:32 Ms. Binder: Mm-hmm.

1:31:32 Dr. Young: Jonathon, but I think the question that the board has is, does the withdrawal of surface water impact King George County's limits on our withdrawal of aquifers and groundwater?

1:31:45 Mr. Weakley: The groundwater withdrawal or this surface water withdrawal?

1:31:48 Dr. Young: Will the surface water project have an impact on our groundwater...

1:31:50 Mr. Weakley: No, sir, the surface water project has no implication or hardships on our groundwater withdrawal. Thank you for restating that.

1:31:58 Ms. Binder: Do we have any other questions? Ms. Cupka? 1:32:01 Ms. Cupka: Thank you.

1:32:05 Ms. Binder: Mr. Bueche.

1:32:08 Mr. Bueche: Thank you, Jonathon. I'm not very familiar with this, so I'm not gonna pretend that I am, so I'm gonna ask you a couple of questions. So King George inevitably is gonna grow with the bridge coming, okay? So eventually we're gonna get to where we're looking at these limitations on our withdrawals, are we able to buy credits? And I bring that up because if we buy credits as we grow, 'cause we don't want to be stunted, would it be more fiscally advantageous for the county to, let's say, do something similar to what they're doing, or maybe even partner with them and make it a joint venture to where eventually we're selling water instead of having to buy credits, or else we're stunted in growth. Do you know how that works? Can you explain that to me, please?

1:32:57 Mr. Weakley: Yes, sir. So on the credit side, that would address any concerns on the wastewater, 'cause there is a limited amount of allocation. As far as the groundwater initiative, the goal behind this project or any similar project is to reduce any withdrawal of the aquifer, so we could partner... But when the DEQ administers this groundwater withdrawal program, what they're looking for is to say, "Okay, you're looking to partner with, participate in surface water, we wanna see reduction in aquifers."

So yes sir, it is a way for us to provide for future development, we know the 301 Corridor, we're looking at massive growth, there is a way for us to provide... The way I understand this project, its current stage, and again, I need to meet with counterparts in Caroline County, is that this asset would be Caroline County's asset, we would be more of a purchaser, they would be the wholesaler. This is a way to handle growth from the water side would be with participating in the surface water initiative, on the wastewater side, which is the credits you mentioned, that would be a way to offset. From the credit standpoint, we're doing fine on that perspective, but it is the drinking water side or the groundwater withdrawal side that they're really pushing. You can apply for permits right now, you wanna expand, there's no guarantee that the DEQ will grant you a withdrawal request, or there may be existing systems, and we're learning this, that they can come back and say, "Look, we wanna see a certain percentage reduction." And you can say, "Well, wait a minute, I have existing development or existing customers, they wanna see reductions." But it is a way for us to participate to meet our water needs, the credits would be a way to address any development that we would need additional sewer allocation.

1:34:58 Mr. Bueche: So to me, it looks like Caroline is pretty forward-thinking, however, we can't be ridiculous and say, "We need to do this, too, with a price tag such as was stated earlier." So with our planning, I say, we look at... We know we got Perkins Corner coming down the pipe, and there's a hefty price tag on that, customers of the Service Authority simply cannot afford any increases right now. But maybe this is something we can plan for from an infrastructure aspect, down the road, for the CIP. Maybe we could look at putting something like this five, six years down the road, and do something similar, 'cause we know our growth is coming in 10, 20 years, we're looking at doubling in population, whether that's projects coming online or through just simple people buying two and 10-acre lots by right and developing, there's gonna be growth in the county, and that's just the fact, so we need to find a way to move forward with that. I like this idea, so maybe in our... Maybe next meeting, we can get a presentation or something, or some kinda way to incorporate this entire CIP down the road.

1:36:12 Mr. Granger: Mr. Bueche, do you mean into the board's CIP, or are you referring to the Service Authority's CIP?

1:36:17 Mr. Bueche: I would actually put this on the board, not the Service Authority, because I would be looking at this from an infrastructure aspect. Because if a regulatory agency, which basically, they can do with it whatever they want, Congress basically gave away any oversight to regulatory agencies, except funding. But I would like to look at this as a way for us to address infrastructure beads and demands that inevitably are coming on us, whether it's 10 or 20 years from now, I like the forward-thinking approach that Caroline's doing. And I think we need to get at a point where we're planning, which I think this board is doing a great job of, planning as opposed to being reactionary, so.

1:37:05 Mr. Granger: I'm amenable to having a report as well. I'd like to see that. I would also ask Mr. Britton if... Not to put him on the spot now, but I know that the Service Authority is separate from the County. And so the question's using county for funding Service Authority activities. I know you can justify it for, like Mr. Bueche was saying, infrastructure and economic development needs. And just to make sure that if this was something that could qualify for that. And I'm not putting you on the spot, my intention is to put you on the spot to give me an answer now, I'm just...

1:37:43 Mr. Britton: I will be able to delineate that. I think as Ms. Cupka said, I don't think there's enough information right now as to what it is that Caroline's asking to sign on to. It'd be great to see what their program is, what the letter is. Perhaps they could draft the letter that they want you to sign or the portions of the letter, what they wanna see, and do it. And that would impact the way who we even would be... Which board even would be signing it, one or either or both.

And what the impact would be. I understand what Mr. Bueche said about that, it's a possible future thing 'cause it has a high price tag. But then you might have a county competing with the Service Authority is what I'm saying.

1:38:24 Ms. Cupka: Madam Chair?

1:38:25 Ms. Binder: Go ahead, Ms Cupka.

1:38:26 Ms. Cupka: So can I just add to that? I do note that there is a draft letter or a suggested letter provided for us, but I'm not comfortable moving forward with this tonight on this board, because I am also, as you know, a member of the Service Authority board of directors. And I would like to give our general manager the time to have the meeting... You said tomorrow, Mr. Weakley?

1:38:52 Mr. Weakley: No, ma'am, no, ma'am. I will have an upcoming meeting, but it's not tomorrow. No, ma'am. 1:38:57 Ms. Cupka: Okay. I just feel it's necessary for the King George County Service Authority board of directors to weigh in on this before we take a formal position and send it to DEQ. Thank you.

1:39:08 Ms. Binder: I would agree with that, too, because I had one question that popped up is, we're gonna give them permission to do this, and then we're talking about buying water back from them. So I would like a little bit more clarification and information, and I know our agenda for the next Service Authority meeting is a little full. So I would like to see maybe a report-back for the second meeting in December. Is it time-sensitive, Dr. Young?

1:39:35 Dr. Young: That I don't know, Madam Chair.

1:39:36 Ms. Binder: Or could you check on that for us, please? But I think Jonathon, I know you're gonna be busy for the next meeting. So second, do you think you'd be able to have a little report for that?

1:39:46 Mr. Weakley: Sure. I'll see if I can get the meeting sooner, but they definitely can send what information they have. It's my understanding. They have a lot of this in draft form. It's trying to understand what would be our point of connection and so forth, whether it's Port Conway coming up 301. So there's just logistical things. But if the time frame is that first December meeting, I'll try my best for that, but we'll get them meeting as soon as possible.

1:40:16 Ms. Binder: Thank you, Mr. Weakley. So do I have a consensus for the board? We'll table it for now and bring it back later with more information.

1:40:25 Mr. Bueche: I agree, Madam Chair, but I don't think the board should be giving consensus on something that is in draft form, which can then be amended, but then already has the board's approval signature on it. So I think if something comes before this board or the Service Authority, that it needs to be finalized, I mean, if they're the ones requesting it, they should be able to finalize it before it goes before another governing body asking for an endorsement. So I would like whatever we or the Service Authority fixes their signature to to be finalized, that way we know exactly what's going on.

1:41:06 Ms. Binder: So, we're good. We'll just table it for now. Okay, I'm gonna table it for now and get back and report.

1:41:14 Dr. Young: Roger, Madam Chair. I'm happy to report the fact Governor Northam has responded to the board's request to support our quest for the Maryland Transportation Authority to leave a portion of the old Harry Nice Bridge to serve as a fishing pier. The governor has asked the Virginia Department of Transportation, or VDOT, to review similar projects, potential maintenance costs and legal considerations. VDOT intends to provide the board a report of those findings next month.

1:41:37 Ms. Binder: Any questions? Thank you Dr. Young, for... 1:41:43 Dr. Young: I received a request from Jane Van Douzer of the National Society of the American Revolution, American Indians committee. The committee is requesting the board adopt the attached resolution and declare the month of November as Native American Heritage Month. And I'll read the resolution as presented.

A resolution proclaiming November 2020 as Native American Heritage Month. Whereas the history and culture of our great nation have been significantly influenced by native Americans and indigenous peoples in, whereas the contributions of American Indians have enhanced the freedom, prosperity, and greatness of America today. And whereas their customs and traditions are respected and celebrated as part of a rich legacy throughout the United States. And whereas Native American Awareness Week began in 1976, and recognition was expanded by Congress and approved by President George Bush in August, 1990, designating the month of November as National American Indian Heritage Month. Now therefore be it resolved with the King George County Board of Supervisors by virtue of the authority vested in us do hereby proclaim November as the Native American Heritage Month in King George County, and urge all our citizens to observe this month with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities adopted by the King George County Board of Supervisors this 17th day of November 2020.

1:43:01 Ms. Binder: Do I have a motion?

1:43:01 Mr. Bueche: So moved.

1:43:08 Ms. Cupka: Second.

1:43:10 Ms. Binder: Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye.

1:43:12 All: Aye.

1:43:16 Ms. Binder: Any nays? Chair votes aye. Motion carries. Thank you, Dr Young.

1:43:18 Dr. Young: Yes, Madam, Chair. I've been asked by members of the board to investigate the staff's ability to host the King George Christmas Tree Lighting for 2021... I'm sorry, December 2020. The staff has inventory and equipment and believe we have the resources necessary to accommodate the event. Details regarding the lighting will be publicized at the board meeting on December 1st 2020.

1:43:42 Ms. Binder: How does everybody feel about that?

1:43:44 Ms. Cupka: I do have a question, Madam Chair.

1:43:45 Ms. Binder: Go ahead, Ms. Cupka.

1:43:48 Ms. Cupka: I know I personally sent you this email, Dr. Young, and called you about this, because I would very much like to see this happen this year. Since then, the new guidelines took effect. So given the gathering limit, I would still like to do it. Can we make accommodations to allow for virtual... Some type of... We put it out on Facebook Live or we put it somewhere so that people can watch from home if they don't feel comfortable coming out. But I don't want to cancel the Christmas tree lighting.

1:44:31 Dr. Young: Roger.

1:44:31 Ms. Cupka: Thank you.

1:44:31 Dr. Young: Roger, ma'am.

1:44:33 Ms. Binder: Do we have a consensus?

1:44:37 Mr. Bueche: I agree with Ms. Cupka, with a virtual option, and we go forward with the Christmas Tree Lighting, and the Governor has a problem with it, we call it a protest. But we need to move forward with this. We need to have a Christmas Tree Lighting, it's gonna be Christmas. And that's what we do.

1:44:57 Ms. Binder: Right, do we have a consensus?

1:44:57 Dr. Young: Pardon me, Madam Chair. As you all know, Wilma Ward is retiring, and she currently serves as the appointee to the Rappahannock Juvenile Commission and Finance Committee. In light of her retirement, I'd like to recommend that the board appoint Ms. Donna Hahn as the representative appointee to the Rappahannock Juvenile Commission and Finance Committee.

1:45:20 Mr. Bueche: So moved.

1:45:21 Mr. Granger: Second.

1:45:21 Ms. Binder: Any further succession? All those in favor say aye.

1:45:25 All: Aye.

1:45:25 Ms. Binder: Any nays? Chair votes aye. Motion carries.

1:45:29 Dr. Young: Madam Chair, that concludes my report.

1:45:30 Ms. Binder: Alright, thank you, Doc.

1:45:32 Dr. Young: Madam Chair, I do have one more topic to discuss. I'm fully aware that on November 11th, the news of the Northern Neck had reported King George County enter into Arifa, which is an economic development agreement, whether I know the neck neighbors, and it was also brought to my attention that Westmoreland amended their ordinance accepting King George County as a viable member that can be enter into Arifa, I wanna make it abundantly clear to not just the board, but also to the general public that that article is a little premature. The only discussion that's been had with, not in the communities, and the Northern Neck Planning District who has taken the lead on the refer that we would potentially bring something to the board to consider. We receive the potential proposed agreement and sometimes it's been reviewed... Currently under review by the administration Economic Development Department and our legal department, just to make sure that we have something that makes sense for King George County and something that is even legally viable that the board can consider.

So I wanna make sure that the record is corrected, King George County is not part of Arifa. I understand that the ordinance in Westmoreland has been amended, however, as always, King George County is going to pursue what is in the best interest of King George County. So we're currently reviewing that proposal, and if we find... If the staff finds that, A, this is a good option for King George County, and it is in our interest, we'll bring it before the board, and of course, the board retains their right to decide if they're gonna enter into the agreement or not, so.

1:47:14 Ms. Binder: Mr. Bueche.

1:47:15 Mr. Bueche: So Dr. Young, thank you very much for giving that clarity. I saw the article in Northern Neck News, and I shared that article on my county Facebook page. So I would like to put that clarity out as soon as possible to attach to that article, so people understand what they're reading. So is there a way you could type something up, and I can put that as an attachment or with that post, I don't want people reading an article that I shared and taking it as "this actually is what's happening," when now we know that article was premature and it's not the actual case.

1:47:56 Dr. Young: Yes, sir.

1:48:00 Mr. Bueche: Thank you.

1:48:01 Ms. Cupka: Madam Chair?

1:48:01 Ms. Binder: Go ahead, Ms. Cupka.

1:48:01 Ms. Cupka: Two things. First, can I recommend that the county attorney draft that language, if you wouldn't mind, Mr. Britton, and then Mr. Bueche, you can just edit your post to include the County Attorney's language.

1:48:14 Mr. Britton: Madam Chair, I'm happy to do that. I'm fully aware of the situation and spoke with all the players, including Neiman. So I'm happy to do it. I can give you a single sentence.

1:48:25 Ms. Cupka: Thank you very much. And Dr. Young, was there another item you were gonna share with us during your report tonight that I think I saw an email about yesterday that you requested consensus regarding a possible grant opportunity?

1:48:43 Dr. Young: That's correct, ma'am. King George county is currently pursuing a portion of the funding that's been set aside by the General Assembly for Cares Act funding. They set this funding aside to allocate Cares funding to address broadband issues across local governments, King George County had said that it identified 11 households that Atlantic Broadband, in partnership with the county, can actually run that last-mile fiber to the household and get broadband to those underserved households. The reason why the number is 11, is because the general assembly put a deadline of December 30th in place for the construction on these projects to be completed. After having multiple discussions between the Economic Development Department and Atlantic Broadband, Atlantic Broadband made it abundantly clear that realistically, that they can only really address those 11 households and get those projects completed by the December 30th timeline and remain in compliance with both state and federal law. So we would like to request the board's authorization to move forward with the grant application. And to move forward with that grant application, it would require the signature of the Treasurer, the County Administrator, and the Chairman of the Board of Supervisors. So I'd like to request that the Board of Supervisors authorize the Chairman and the County Administrator the authority to execute the grant application.

1:50:23 Ms. Binder: Do we have a motion? Go ahead, Mr. Bueche.

1:50:28 Ms. Cupka: Mr. Bueche has a question, and then I do.

1:50:32 Mr. Bueche: Thank you. So did we only reach out to Atlantic Broadband? Did we reach out to, let's say, KGI or some other provider? I know Atlantic Broadband actually runs the fiber, but is there a way we could look into what KGI offers, that might have a further reach than just 11 homes to get more bang for that buck?

1:50:51 Dr. Young: Yes, sir. And Nick, if you'll elaborate on that, please.

1:51:01 Mr. Minor: Yes, sir. So we did reach out to KGI, we did get a proposal from them. The only issue... Well, the biggest issue that came up was that the tower that they were requesting was above the 80-foot limit that's permitted by right in the county. So they were requesting a tower to be constructed of 180 feet, which would require us to essentially put in a special exception permit, and we would be basically streamlining a process that requires a lot of due diligence and engineering work, and we just didn't feel like that would be safe for the public at this time. However, we are still entertaining proposals from them into the next year, so if there is a next round of CARES Act funding, we could go about this and do it the right way in a timely fashion. What Atlantic Broadband was essentially providing to us was, this is a quick construction, it's gonna go underground, they don't have to get permits from Dominion or the Northern Neck Co-op, and all we need is just a permission from the residents. So it's a lot of back-end work that went into this. We had to drop letters off personally, we had to mail them, they could not provide us personal information, only addresses of people who've actually reached out to them and requested the service. And they also looked at the timeline, so that's the background of that.

1:52:20 Mr. Bueche: Thank you very much.

1:52:22 Mr. Minor: Yes, sir.

1:52:23 Ms. Binder: Ms. Cupka? 1:52:23 Ms. Cupka: So, if we receive the funds and the funds come to the locality, Mr. Britton, the mechanism by which we would distribute them as we would allocate them to the political subdivision, the Economic Development Authority, and then they would be able to distribute them to the provider? Am I correct in that?

1:52:48 Mr. Britton: Yes.

1:52:50 Ms. Cupka: Thank you.

1:52:50 Mr. Britton: It wouldn't be direct. That's correct.

1:52:52 Ms. Cupka: Thank you.

1:52:53 Ms. Binder: Do we have any other questions?

1:52:55 Mr. Minor: And if I may just make a comment on that? So I presented this to the EDA at their previous meeting, and they've already voted to approve this, so.

1:53:05 Ms. Binder: Right. Do we have a motion?

1:53:09 Ms. Cupka: I move to approve the request as submitted.

1:53:18 Ms. Binder: So I have a second?

1:53:18 Mr. Bueche: Second.

1:53:18 Ms. Binder: Any further discussion? All those in favor, say aye.

1:53:21 All: Aye.

1:53:23 Ms. Binder: Any nays? Chair votes aye. Motion carries. Thank you for your work and your due diligence.

Alright, now we come to the main part of the program. We have our public hearing. So public hearing... Now, one thing I would like to say before we have the public hearing to those online and those in the public, the public comment, Mr. Bueche is gonna be running the timer. It's a three-minute public comment limit. There are three public hearings, so please come up for the... You can come up for all of them or just for the ones that you're interested in speaking about. So please remember that before you come up.

So public hearing number one, the King George County Board of Supervisors will now hold the public hearing that has been properly advertised to receive public input regarding the FY 2021 to FY 2025 capital improvements projects plan. I will first ask for the staff report, I will then open the floor for public comment. Public comment is limited to three minutes per speaker in order to afford everyone an opportunity to speak. Please state your name and address before you comment. Upon completion of public comment, I will bring the matter back to the Board for consideration. The Board may or may not take action tonight depending on the information received during the public comment. Is there anyone who would like to come up to the podium to speak on this public hearing?

0:01:12 Dr. Young: Madam Chair, I was gonna... Do you want me to do the Board report first?

0:01:15 Ms. Binder: Oh yes, I'm sorry, I apologize. Thank you.

0:01:19 Dr. Young: On October 27th, 2020, the King George County Board of Supervisors approved the attached Capital Improvement Plan or CIP for fiscal year 2021 through 2025. The document is attached in your packet, and I will do a quick review of the approved plan. The Board approved the tennis court reconstruction for parks and recreation, and it's approved and it's on hold. The Board approved the King George Elementary School roof replacement and it's approved with the instructions to move forward with the project. The Board approved the school bus replacement at a reduced rate which was originally recommended $624,000, the Board approved $312,000. The Board also asked that I reach out to the school superintendent and ensure that $312,000 would be able to pay for three buses. He was able to confirm that that was... That money would go long enough to purchase three buses.

The Board then approved the $1 million Fairview Beach Riverbank Stabilization Project with the understanding that... In the amount of $1 million, with the understanding that that is a grant that we'll have to pay for construction costs upfront, but we will be reimbursed by FEMA. The Board also approved the payment of the second year of a three-year contract for IT's Proactive Network Information Management Contract in the amount of $117,104. The Board approved the community development request from Municity software in the amount of $98,635. The Board approved the Courts building in the amount of $1,400,000 that's being paid in the bond. The Board approved the King George County Sheriff's Office microwave radio system and alarm system, year three of five-year purchase contract in the amount of $143,250. And finally, the Board approved the replacement... I'm sorry, the Fire and Rescue Facility, $125,000 in support of the Fire and Rescue Department. I'd recommend that the Board adopt this year's CIP as presented.

0:03:39 Ms. Binder: Alright, one clarification, on the last part, the Fire and Rescue, you just said the $125,000, that was for what again?

0:03:49 Dr. Young: Land acquisition, ma'am.

0:03:50 Ms. Binder: Land acquisition. I just wanted to make clarification on that.

0:03:52 Dr. Young: And I should also state that that brings the total for this year's capital budget to $1,990,885. Again, $1 million of that will be reimbursed to us by FEMA, that will come out of our fund balance, and we'll make sure that that $1 million is also returned to our fund balance.

0:04:14 Ms. Binder: Alright. Before I ask some of my questions, does anybody have any questions, concerns, changes to our CIP before I open it to the public? 0:04:24 Mr. Bueche: We can't make any changes 'til after we hold the public hearing, correct?

0:04:29 Ms. Binder: Just to clarify, Mr Britton...

0:04:29 Dr. Young: You can make changes at the public hearing.

0:04:33 Ms. Binder: Can we have it before? 'cause I just wanted to do it now before we have public comment.

[background conversation]

If I'm doing it wrong, just tell me, Mr. Britton.

0:04:42 Mr. Britton: I just couldn't hear Mr. Bueche's question, sorry.

0:04:46 Mr. Bueche: My question is, I have a suggestion or a request to change the CIP that was just presented by Dr. Young. Being we advertised the CIP that he just read, do we have to hold the public hearing prior to my request to change it?

0:05:05 Ms. Binder: Before the public comment.

0:05:06 Mr. Bueche: Prior to public comment or is it after public comment? After the public hearing? What is the legally appropriate way for me to bring in my request to make a change to the CIP that Dr. Young just read?

0:05:22 Mr. Britton: Either.

0:05:26 Mr. Bueche: Either? Well, I would like the public to be aware of my recommended change before they give public comment.

0:05:31 Ms. Binder: And that's why I...

0:05:32 Mr. Bueche: Thank you. So Madam Chair. I have a recommendation for a change. We at our work session to approve the CIP had a lengthy discussion about the school's request for six school buses, and at the time, we, in discussions with Dr. Vincent, we cumulatively came up with the conclusion that three buses being cut would be sufficient. However, a lot has transpired since then. The schools have then decided not to open up to in-person school, which means requirement for transportation to no sooner than January 15th of 2021. Being the schools were closed since March of 2020, I would say that's nearly a year that school buses haven't been utilized. And the rotation is built around mileage, so we rotate so many buses per year because of mileage that's accumulated and we rotate the older ones out. Given that this year, there wasn't much bus uses, my recommendation would be to strike the three buses that were allocated in the CIP and that $312,000 be returned to the capital fund.

0:06:51 Ms. Binder: Any other... Richard? Mr. Granger? Sorry, apologies. 0:07:00 Mr. Granger: Are you asking me for just about upon Mr. Bueche's recommendation or anything in general?

0:07:04 Ms. Binder: Mr. Bueche's recommendation.

0:07:05 Mr. Granger: Fair enough. At this point, I would agree with Mr. Bueche. It is almost a year, and if there's not a desire for the School Board to have the students go back, then those buses are not gonna be used to the same level, and I would agree, I think we should remove those three buses.

0:07:26 Ms. Binder: [0:07:27] ____ my colleagues like to speak just on this issue and then I'll open up. Mr. Stonehill?

0:07:32 Mr. Stonehill: I would have to agree with the other two, and if the schools are not going back into session and they just can't come up with a plan to work out, I think we should remove those three buses as well.

0:07:43 Ms. Binder: Ms. Cupka?

0:07:45 Ms. Cupka: Thank you, Madam Chair. I too agree. During that budget work session, I specifically asked questions to determine what the true need was for the school bus request given the circumstances, and we were told that the request was not necessarily based on need, rather that the Board of Supervisors, historically has suggested that the School Board come up with a rotation of six buses per year, so that they don't come to us all at once needing 15 buses one year. It was further detailed that the vast majority of the buses have not been running, except for, my understanding is, those students who qualify for special services. I also, specifically, in hopes of helping justify the need for six more buses, I asked, "If you had six more buses, six new buses, and you kept the six that theoretically you would be rotating out, would you have any more ability to get more students back in the classroom?" Because then you can social distance more on these, you have more buses, you can get more students into the classroom. And the answer to that was, "Not necessarily because the bigger problem is that we have a bus driver shortage." So I support my colleague's recommendation as well to strike the $312,000 for school buses.

0:09:24 Ms. Binder: Thank you. Doctor, with that said, is I want the public to understand too, that doing all that we've done with the CIP is really draining that fund balance and by being able to put that back in, we're also helping support the replacement of the roof at King George Elementary School, which was not originally a recommendation that we approved, understanding that whether the school is open or not, we have to make sure the roof doesn't leak and it's already had issues. So with that being said, if there's anybody from the public that would like to come up and speak on our CIP, please come up to the podium.

0:09:57 Mr. Granger: Ms. Binder.

0:09:57 Ms. Binder: Oh sorry. Mr. Granger?

0:09:58 Mr. Granger: Sorry, I just would like to bring up one point. Both the elementary school roof and the tennis courts were put on hold, and at the last CIP meeting, we discussed the roof and said, "We don't wanna put it on hold." And that was approved in FY 2019/2020. And obviously, with COVID, we put it on hold to see where things stood, but that was approved by a previous Board, actually, and so I would... It's still an approved hold state for the tennis courts. Those dollars were from the 2019/2020 fiscal year. I think we should move forth with that project as well.

0:10:35 Ms. Binder: The tennis courts?

0:10:36 Mr. Granger: Yes, ma'am. And move from the hold state and put it as approved, part of the previous decision...

0:10:42 Ms. Binder: Doctor, what was the price tag on that one?

0:10:45 Dr. Young: $250,000.

0:10:49 Ms. Binder: So that would be covered by the... If we remove the bus.

0:10:53 Mr. Granger: Well, so we talked about this a little bit as well, and the reason those were put on hold was the concern about how much money was gonna come into the fund balance from the landfill and so to see how much we would have. At least what I remember is it looked like there was enough dollars that ended up coming in to cover both those projects. And so we banked that money into the fund balance of our Capital Improvement Projects, and so it was being safe, on the safe side saying, "Hey, if this money doesn't come in, we don't wanna cut into our savings." If the rest of the Board says, "Well, hey, we got this year and we wanna hold off," that's perfectly acceptable as well. I was just saying, it was previously approved, those funds did come in, I think we should honor what that previous Board had approved and push forward with that project as well.

0:11:43 Ms. Binder: And I understand that, Mr. Granger, 'cause if for the general public that might not have been aware of our budget work, so in the tennis courts, I've asked about the tennis courts, 'cause I remember when they were resurfaced, it wasn't that long ago, but they are in a state of disrepair. And for those of you that might remember the old cinder track, there was a point that nobody would come to compete at King George, so people didn't have their Senior Night, they didn't have anything because the surface was unsafe for competition. And so from Mr. Clarke, you can clarify or not, the tennis courts are not safe for competition at this time, or just clarify that according to the VHSL and the Battlefield District.

0:12:31 Chris Clarke: In 2019, King George High School did play their home matches on the courts. They did not have a spring tennis season in 2020, so I have not spoken to the tennis coach since then. The cracking has not changed much in that time, but it is there. We talked at the work session about reaching out to Rappahannock Community College. I got in the agreement they have with the Town of Warsaw. I have information back from the County minister of Richmond County, and have not gotten with Rappahannock Community College yet. We had a couple of big projects last week, and I just haven't gotten that information to see if we can work with them about possibly getting a grant to help us with that, but the sooner we can replace these courts, the better. They are the only public tennis courts in King George County.

0:13:16 Ms. Binder: And a lot of the public does use it for their personal use?

0:13:20 Mr. Clarke: They do, and we have folks that... Even travel from outside the County to play. I've met people from Colonial Beach on our courts.

0:13:26 Mr. Granger: You had some photos of the courts, I believe, where you had a quarter and some of the cracks were the size of, the thickness of, or the width of the quarter.

0:13:34 Mr. Clarke: Absolutely. There are actually a couple of cracks that were... You could actually set the quarter inside the crack and on, other pieces of the asphalt that have fallen in.

0:13:44 Ms. Binder: And also you were gonna also add pickleball lines and other things that is very popular with a lot of people.

0:13:49 Mr. Clarke: Correct.

0:13:52 Ms. Binder: I like pickleball. [chuckle] But anyway, so those are... Go ahead, who would else like to speak on this one? Mr. Bueche?

0:14:01 Mr. Bueche: So are we gonna hold the public hearing or are we debating out right now these two items?

0:14:08 Ms. Binder: Those are the two things. Now I was gonna open it up with a public comment, and then we can come back and revisit. What does everybody feel about that?

0:14:14 Mr. Bueche: 'Cause I wanted to debate out the tennis court. Would that be appropriate after the public hearing?

0:14:19 Ms. Binder: Mr. Britton? Yes?

0:14:20 Mr. Britton: Yes, so this is a recommendation, the CIP, through the Commission to you.

So you let it go and then you amend it as you see fit because you're really having a hearing on the recommendation of the CIP from the Commission. That's the better way to do it.

0:14:40 Ms. Binder: Alright. Is everybody okay to open it, finally get people to talk? Alright, now, would anybody like to come speak on this matter? That being said, Mr. Dines, is there any... Oh, sorry, apologize. Took a minute to get...

0:15:07 Howard Thomas: Thank you. Good evening, my name is Howard Thomas. I'm at 14354 Round Hill Road. Just a general observation as we're going through these things in spending money for the various items that are coming up. Earlier in the session, you had mentioned that we're expecting some very austere times coming. So I'm really having a little disconnect when we're taking off item after item after item, and reconciling that with the fact that we're not going... We're gonna try not to raise taxes in spite of the fact that it's gonna be an austere year. So, for instance, tennis courts, I would say sorry, we need to reserve funding for eventualities based on the fact that our revenue projections for the coming year, we don't know and it doesn't look good. So help me, I'd really like to understand how we're crying poor on one hand and then spending all this money on these different projects on the other hand. Thank you.

[applause]

[background conversation]

0:16:24 Ms. Binder: Would anybody else like to comment and talk up to the podium? I'll wait a couple of minutes if anybody would like to come.

[pause]

Mr. Dines, is there anyone online?

0:16:47 Mr. Dines: No, Madam Chair.

0:16:49 Ms. Binder: Does anybody, all of my colleagues have written correspondence?

0:16:54 Mr. Granger: No, ma'am.

0:16:55 Ms. Binder: No? Alright, I will close public comment. Dr. Young, I would ask, maybe we can tick off once again these, so those in the public that are here might understand a little bit more. I really invite people... We have a YouTube channel, King George County Content, where all of our meetings, at least the Board of Supervisors, are on there, including our work sessions. So for those that can't always attend, you could actually watch those meetings and then be... Understand a lot of this information we're already talking about. And I understand you might not have known about that, but it's called King George County Official Content. But I'll ask Dr. Young to go over and explain some of these items to the public, especially since we have a lot of people on our audience, understand what these items are. Dr. Young?

0:17:43 Dr. Young: Yes, Madam Chair. And I'm going to read where we currently stand as a result of current Board discussion. Currently, the Board is discussing the reconstruction of the tennis courts. That was approved in the fiscal year 2019 capital budget. It was put on hold with another large capital project when we started realizing that we were running into the pandemic and potential recession. We then had the School Board, I'm sorry, the King George Elementary School roof replacement, which was approved in the fiscal year '19 capital budget. It was approved last year. And at the work session, the Board decided, "Okay, it's approved, but we're gonna move forward with our project." That's in the amount of $1,260,480.

We did have, the administration, the Fairview Beach Riverbank Stabilization Project. This project is a project that's working in partnership with FEMA to address the deterioration of the Fairview Beach border, erosion of the beach itself. The reason why the County is partnering with FEMA to address this beach is because that beach is the only thing that stands between the river and public water, and utility lines. So if it erodes the beach, then it will erode the streets, our lines will be exposed and it will cause an environmental hazard within the Potomac River. The cost of that project is $1 million, with the understanding that that's to pay... The County is paying that money upfront, with the understanding that the grant that was approved by FEMA will reimburse the County for any expenses that were made or incurred as a result of addressing the Riverbank Stabilization Project. We then have the approved contract. This would be year two of a three-year contract for Proactive Network Information Management that was approved in the fiscal year '19 capital budget. That is already an obligation that we have committed to.

The purpose of this contract is... That's the project that allows for King George County to keep its network in a cloud system, so we're not continuing to rely on ground-based servers. This helps with cyber security, it helps with ensuring that we have information assurance and ensures that we are able to maintain modern technology in order to keep the County's records safe and the County's posture to provide better services to the community. This project came at a cost of $117,104. The Board is approving Municity software at request by Community Development. This software will allow for the Community Development to be able to perform plan reviews online versus just in paper format. In addition, it will allow for the general public to access land records online versus having to come into the Community Development Department and continue to rely on paper. So this will put the Community Development Department in a posture to be able to conduct plan reviews faster, safer, and it would be a more transparent process for the general public.

The Board has already approved the courthouse building. We have a bond for the courthouse in amount of $23 million. The approval in this capital project reflects $1,400,000. This is to pay for the design of the courthouse as was discussed in a previous action item, where we're going to do a Construction Manager at Risk design process to go to move forward with building the courthouse. We then have... The Board is approving the year three of a five-year contract for the King George's Sheriff's Office microwave radio system and alarm system. This is in the amount of $143,250. Again, that was approved in 2018 and we're now asking for the Board to fund the third year of its commitment to this five-year contract in support of radio systems for the Sheriff's Office.

And finally, we have an amount of $125,000, a Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services request for $125,000. This $125,000 is going towards land acquisition for the buildout of fire station number two, which is in Dahlgren. As everybody is fully aware, the current station is no longer fit to run 24... Was never built to run 24-hour operations, is currently on Dahlgren Road. So whenever the fire trucks or ambulances have to come out onto road, they have to fight traffic just to access the major thoroughfare to address emergencies, therefore, adding more time to response times and potentially putting lives at risk. And Madam Chair, again, that branch costs to $1,990,885.

0:23:07 Ms. Binder: And Dr. Young, for one more clarification. The CIP funds come from the landfill revenue?

0:23:12 Dr. Young: That's correct, Madam Chair. There's two major funds that the King George County Government relies on. One being the general fund, which is tax-based to include real estate tax, which is the biggest contributor to the general fund. And then we have the capital fund, which funds the Capital Improvement Plan that we're discussing now. The capital fund is funded by the landfill revenue. Basically, out-of-state trash that comes into the landfill when they use the dump, King George County gets a tipping fee. That tipping fee comes in the form of approximately $6.3 million, up to $7.5 million annually, until we hit this recession. And we utilized that fund to pay our debt service and to fund our capital projects in King George County.

0:23:56 Ms. Binder: Mr. Bueche?

0:23:57 Mr. Bueche: Thank you, Madam Chair. So going back to what I was discussing earlier, the gentleman that gave public comment is absolutely right. We are facing a recession. The revenues from the landfill, we're gonna have a shortfall. But even before this recession is taking place, the majority of our landfill revenues are leveraged against our debt service. I'm very happy with the bond that we got for the courthouse, that was very well-engineered. The interest rate that we got for that was actually a percent better or a percent less than what our best case scenario was for us. So ultimately, over the life of that loan, we're saving the taxpayer money by being responsible and planning that out. With that, to Mr. Granger's point with the tennis courts, I can appreciate where he's coming from on that, and I hate to be the guy that's beating up on the schools by taking away three more school buses from them.

They're the ones that utilize the tennis court the most. But again, schools aren't being opened. I know they're looking at athletics right now and I agree, our kids need something to do, but that's not the priority. When I'm looking at a tennis court that is nice to have versus, I don't know what the hell is gonna happen six months from now, a year from now, with the revenues of the landfill, no telling how long this governor is gonna keep us where we're at. We don't know what our picture is gonna be a year from now. I think that $312,000 is best served in our fund balance. So I would... I guess I'm the cut guy, but I'd still like to cut the three school buses and leave the tennis courts out. Now, what we did do at our last work session by adding in the roof for King George Elementary, we had to do that.

That's an infrastructure issue, and it's only gonna deteriorate. So you can look at it, if you take a holistic view of it, $1.2 million for a roof, we had no funding set aside for it. But now, the $624,000 that we allocated for six buses, now half the roof is paid for by taking something that we don't need right now to address something that we do. So I think we're doing our due diligence financially, but I believe the $312,000 is best served the County sitting in our fund balance.

0:26:45 Ms. Binder: Thank you, Mr. Bueche. Ms. Cupka?

0:26:48 Ms. Cupka: Thank you, Madam Chair. I note that Mr. Clarke, our Director of Parks and Recreation, is still here. Would you be able to return to the podium and advise us how many programs you offer during the summer, or spring, or fall, or whenever? Obviously, probably not winter. Do you offer tennis programs and if so, how many? And how many people might this affect if we decided to put this off for a little while? Please.

0:27:22 Mr. Clarke: We do offer tennis. We do peewee camps. This past summer, we were unable to hold them due to the pandemic. So I have gone back for the one summer of experience that we had... I can't quote an exact number of participants we had, but we do little ones who play what they call QuickStart. We used to call it QuickStart. Now, they call it 10 and Under. 10 is where you actually divide the courts in half, and you play across them. And then moving up to the older kids, we attempted to do a Youth League last fall, didn't have as many takers as we would've liked, but we're trying to work and expand the tennis community.

A lot of it is folks do come to this courts and they look, and they go, "There's cracking all over these courts." When I laid it... I actually added pickleball courts to two of the courts. There are only two half courts of the six courts where there are no cracks and I could lay a pickleball court out safely. So they're on two of the half courts. We have nets that you can come and get from us at Parks and Rec, and borrow to play. But every single half court has... So most of them cracks all the way across the surface, which ranges anywhere from a quarter inch to the size of a quarter in width, so it could be a trip hazard, yes. Unfortunately, the repairs that were done, where they were filled a few years ago, just didn't stick. That land has continued to settle and the recommendation we have from the contractor that we brought out almost a year and a half ago to look at was to start again, afresh. And that's where we got to the quarter million dollar price.

0:29:00 Ms. Cupka: Thank you, and I know when we had this discussion of the work session, I brought forward to you a possible grant opportunity, so you will continue to pursue that and others.

0:29:12 Mr. Clarke: Yes.

0:29:13 Ms. Cupka: Thank you.

0:29:13 Ms. Binder: Mr. Stonehill?

[pause]

0:29:24 Mr. Stonehill: I'm kind of torn with the school buses. I think that obviously we do, like we said, they was going to be moved. But Mr. Granger, did you say that was approved before in the last Board?

0:29:42 Mr. Granger: The tennis courts and the roof were approved in the fiscal year 2019- 2020 CIP process, when COVID hit and tipping landfill and ingress decreased. There was a concern about a gap in the funds, the projected funds. And so those were put on hold as my understanding, Dr. Young, please feel free to correct me wrong, and I agree with that decision. But at the end of that fiscal year, which would have been June 30th, 2020, this past June 30th, the funds did seem... What I remember seeing, it looked like the funds for both the... Enough funds came in to cover the cost of the elementary school replacement and the tennis courts, in order to fulfill that previous approval by the previous Board. And as I said, I can appreciate what Mr. Bueche is saying, and Mr. Thomas out there as well. We do have austere times. I was just making the case it had already been approved, and so I leave it to you if you would like to keep it off, I can appreciate that perspective as well, and I'm not gonna say it's a wrong answer necessarily. 0:30:55 Mr. Stonehill: Dr. Young, the funds did come in the previous year to cover those?

0:31:03 Dr. Young: Yes, sir, that's correct. The capital fund is funded that like the general fund because it's funded via calendar year, because that's how Waste Management, they operate on a calendar year versus a fiscal year, so the funding closed out in December 2019. And we were able to realize those monies, and the Board that approved the tennis courts did, based on approval off of the assessment of the monies that we received in 2019. So Mr. Granger is absolutely correct that we did have the funding. We do have the funding, and that was realized in 2019 to pay for the court house... I'm sorry, to pay forward... To move forward with the tennis courts that the Board so moved.

0:31:56 Ms. Binder: Mr. Stonehill, do you have any further questions?

0:32:01 Mr. Stonehill: No question, none. Not questions, but save my opinion for later.

0:32:07 Ms. Binder: Mr. Granger?

0:32:10 Mr. Granger: I don't have anything else to share. I feel like I've made my point. I appreciate Mr. Bueche and Mr. Thomas' perspectives. I don't think they're wrong. I was just saying, they had been approved, it was put on hold but the monies were realized. That was my motivation for saying I think we should move forward with it. But the rest of the Board, or there's a majority of the Board that wants to hold off, that's the prerogative of this Board.

0:32:34 Ms. Binder: Thank you, Mr. Granger. Mr. Bueche?

0:32:35 Mr. Bueche: So I can appreciate what Mr. Granger had brought up. But I would compare this to, "I had money saved up, 'cause I wanted to build a nice back deck at my house." Money is there, been saving up, but I found out my daughter wants to get married six months from now. So that money, I can't utilize to build that. Now, I gotta save that because I have to pay for a wedding. Same scenario here. We had the money allocated last year, we intended to do the court house, but then COVID hit and we still don't know what's going on. We might have to use that money to pay for something else. And that's my point, why I think that the $312,000 is best served in the fund balance. So with that, I do have a question. Are we at the point to where a motion could be made to approve the capital budget as presented, since we've concluded the public hearing?

0:33:39 Mr. Britton: Yes.

0:33:40 Ms. Binder: I have a question though before that. Dr. Young, I know I have brought up the fact with the school's facilities maintenance agreements and making sure they're properly maintained on a yearly basis, can we put... I asked Mr. Britton and yourself this question. Can we put as part of the approval of the roof that they have to have a maintenance plan for it, or is that not allowed?

0:34:06 Dr. Young: I spoke with Matt about that and I think that he says that we... Didn't you say that we couldn't force? If we were going to appropriate those monies for the School Board, we couldn't force them or put a contingency on the use of those funds. We can only state that, "Hey, this is approved for this specific purpose." But we couldn't put a contingency on, "However, we're gonna dangle the disapproval of the use of this money on, if you agree to put a maintenance contract on the roof." So since it's just on a separate political body, I don't think that we can make that contingency. However, Matt did tell me, and I agree that there is some comfort in the fact that those roofs will come with pretty extensive warranty, so with that warranty in place and with a conversation that I'm happy to have with the school superintendent, I think that they could take a real serious look at putting together a plan to maintain that roof long into the future.

0:35:06 Ms. Binder: Thank you. I know I mentioned that to Dr. Benson during the work session, that we need to have a planning process of when these big ticket items are gonna hit us, so that we can plan. If we know a roof is gonna have to be replaced in 10 years, 15 years, we can plan for that in our CIP, and that hasn't been done before and we need to do that. Mr. Bueche.

0:35:24 Mr. Bueche: So I have a question about something that transpired with the School Board since you brought this up that we can't specify what things are spent on. So we approved the School Board budget. The School Board then turned around, I believe it was their last meeting or meeting before... No, it was Friday. They had a special meeting, they approved the three-quarter of a million dollar project with Honeywell for these air filtration systems that I think they rushed into it. I don't think they know what they're getting. I think they had somebody sell them a product that could sell ice to an Eskimo, but it was mentioned by the superintendent that any shortfall in the CARES Act funding that they were utilizing for this Honeywell project, that they could tap into their operational fund. My question is, when we approved the School Board's budget, did we do it by category?

And if we did approve their budget by category, can they really go into their operational fund? And I bring this up because we got a lot of grief with the School Board budget that we approved this year, and a letter goes out from the schools telling teachers that they're not getting their step increases, and basically, I've got a lot of hate email saying, "I didn't even get my step increase because you cut our budget." But now, we have the superintendent saying that they can go into their operational budget to pay for this Honeywell whacked out system that they're paying for overtime for the people to install this. It's just crazy, but that's their decision, their CARES Act funding, but the operational fund, local funds are utilized for that. If we approved that by category, can they do that?

0:37:11 Dr. Young: I wanna make two statements. I didn't say that we couldn't or the Board couldn't purpose the money. I stated that, in discussions with Matt, the Board couldn't, have contingency on approval. If the Board was gonna make that purpose, you all, of course, just like you stated, by category, you can say, "Hey, this specific amount of money is gonna go to this specific purpose." But you couldn't vote. "But, however, we won't give you the money unless you do a maintenance program." That's [0:37:44] ____.

0:37:45 Mr. Britton: The difference... That's exactly right. The difference there, it's a very fine line, but the budget was for the roof which comes with a warranty, right? The service agreement is a separate thing that you buy or don't buy, so you could budget the money differently, and you could say... Let's say it's a $100, you could say, "We'll give you $80 for a roof and warranty, and then we'll give you $20 for a service program for the roof." But it's similar to what we were talking about in the CARES Act funding, where you're buying phones or hotspots. There, you're only allowed to buy a plan up through January at the latest, but it's supposed to be December 31st, 2020.

0:38:32 Mr. Bueche: And maybe this wasn't the appropriate time to ask this question. I'm not... It doesn't have anything to do with this say, per se. It just, it triggered a thought. If they're going into their operational budget to pay for something, 'cause CARES Act funding isn't gonna cover this whole thing, their funding. So it made me think, and maybe now wasn't the appropriate time, I can revisit it at a later time. But for them to say that they're gonna go into their operational budget to make up the difference, that operational budget that they have was approved by category, I believe.

0:39:07 Dr. Young: That's correct, sir.

0:39:09 Mr. Bueche: And that's what I would like to look into the legitimacy of that statement, and can they really go into their operational budget? So I will not go any further with this, Madam Chair. I'd like to make a motion to approve the CI budget as presented with the amendment to strike $312,000 from the school bus replacement program.

0:39:36 Ms. Binder: Do I have a second? Call again. Do I have a second?

0:39:52 Mr. Granger: Mr. Stonehill, I know you said you're gonna hold off on making a decision about the tennis courts. Not to try to push you. I'm in favor of the tennis courts, but if you're against it, then I would recommend you make a second on this.

0:40:10 Mr. Stonehill: Second.

0:40:12 Ms. Binder: Any further discussion? All those in favor say, "Aye."

0:40:16 Mr. Bueche: Aye.

0:40:17 Ms. Cupka: Aye.

0:40:17 Mr. Stonehill: Aye.

0:40:18 Ms. Binder: Any nays?

0:40:20 Mr. Granger: Nay.

0:40:22 Ms. Binder: Chair votes aye and motion carries. All right, next up is public hearing number two. The King George County Board of Supervisors will now hold a public hearing that has been properly advertised to receive public input regarding Case Number 20-09-Z04 Zoning Ordinance Text Amendment to permit the use of Battery Energy Storage Facility as a use permitted by right in the Industrial District, amendments to Sections 1.9 and 2.12.2, and Article 4. I will first ask the staff for the report and then I will open the floor for public comment. Public comment is limited to three minutes per speaker in order to afford everyone an opportunity to speak. Please state your name and address before you comment. Upon completion of public comment, I will bring the matter back to the Board for consideration. The Board may or may not take action tonight, depending on the information received during the public comment. The floor is yours.

0:41:18 Louis Pancotti: Good evening, Madam Chair, members of the Board of Supervisors. I am Louis Pancotti, Planner, and I will be presenting Case Number 20-09-Z04 Zoning Ordinance Text Amendment to permit the use of Battery Energy Storage Facility as a use permitted by right in the Industrial District I, amendments to Sections 1.9, 2.12.2, and Article 4. Next slide, please. Battery energy storage facilities store electrical energy that can be used for short periods of time to reduce peak power demand and lessen the likelihood of power outages. Currently, the King George County Zoning Ordinance does not permit this use in any zoning district. This proposed amendment would add battery energy storage as a by-right use in the I-Industrial Zoning District. This amendment will also define the term and add supplemental regulations in Article 4 related to this use.

Next slide, please. Here are a couple of examples to give you a better idea of what these facilities look like. On the left is the Beacon Energy Storage System and the Beacon Solar Plant located in California. And on the right is a 20-megawatt energy storage system located in McHenry County, Illinois. Next slide, please. Section 1.9 will be amended to define Battery Energy Storage Facility as one or more battery energy storage systems assembled together, capable of storing energy in order to supply electrical energy at a future time, but not to include standalone 12-volt car battery or electric motor vehicle or consumer products. This use will be added to Section 2.12 as a by-right use in the Industrial I Zoning District.

Next slide. This map shows the parcels that are currently zoned industrial, where this use would be permitted by right. Next slide, please. Section 4.19 will be amended to include additional requirements for battery energy storage facilities. [A] Public water, existing commercial well and fire hydrants must be available to the property. [B] Facilities shall not be visible from any adjacent street, use or building. [C] Access to the property for King George County Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services shall be provided in a manner well acceptable to KGCFRES and approved KNOX Box must be available for fire department access. NFPA 704 placards shall be placed on building entrances along with emergency contact information.

Next slide. [E] Site plans for battery energy storage facilities shall be accompanied by a decommissioning plan to be implemented upon abandonment and/or in conjunction with the removal of the facility to be approved by the Department of Community Development. Decommissioning plan shall include at minimum, the following: A narrative description of the activities to be accomplished, including who will perform that activity and at what point in time, for a complete physical removal of all battery energy sources and component structures, equipment, security barriers and transmission lines from the site. The estimated decommissioning costs and how said estimate was determined. This estimate shall be reevaluated every five years. A letter of credit or bond based on this cost estimate shall be provided before or prior to final approval. The manner in which the site will be restored, including description of how any changes to the surrounding area or other systems adjacent to the battery energy storage system, such as, but not limited to structural elements, building penetrations, means of egress and required fire detection suppression systems will be protected during the decommissioning and confirmed as being acceptable after the facility is removed.

A description of mediation procedures for the release of hazardous materials or other emergency events during the decommissioning process shall also be included. Next slide. [F] Site plans for battery energy storage facilities shall be accompanied by an emergency plan that at minimum, contains the following: One, procedures for safe shutdown, de-energizing and/or isolation of equipment and systems under emergency conditions to reduce the risk of fire, electric shock, release of hazardous materials and personal injuries and for safe start-up following cessation of emergency conditions. Procedures for inspection and testing associated with alarms, interlocks and controls. Procedures to be followed in response to notifications from the Battery Energy Storage Facility Management System when provided that could signify potentially dangerous conditions, including shutting down equipment, summoning service and repair personnel and providing agreed upon notification to the fire department personnel for potentially hazardous condition in the event of a system failure. Emergency procedures to be followed in case of fire explosion, release of liquids or vapors, damage to critical moving parts or other potentially dangerous conditions.

Procedures can include sounding the alarm, notifying the fire department, evacuating personnel, de-energizing equipment and controlling and extinguishing the fire. And five, procedures and schedules for conducting drills of these procedures and for training local first responders on the contents of the plan and appropriate response procedures. Next slide, please.

At the October 13, 2020, Planning Commission meeting, the Commission voted unanimously to forward Case Number 20-09-Z04 to the Board with a recommendation for approval. Therefore, the King George County staff and the Planning Commission recommends that the Board of Supervisors approve Case Number 20-09-Z04.

0:47:23 Ms. Binder: Thank you for that long read. For this one, I'm gonna open up to the floor for public comment, and then I know Louis will be back. I have quite a few questions for you on this. So is there anyone that is sitting in the audience who would like to come up and give public comment on this particular item, battery storage? Ms. Dodge?

0:47:54 Ms. Dodge: Hi, I don't know... What I'm gonna say, I don't know if they have to do the battery because of the solar farm and industrial park. But what I wanna make clear, the second solar farm is gonna be put behind Hopyard and they're already asking Hopyard residents if we want... They want our whole development to agree that we're going to get our power from that, and that was my complaint about having the solar farm and then if the... Do you have to put in all this battery stuff, too? 'Cause I'm assuming that battery is for the industrial park solar park and not the one that's gonna be behind Hopyard. And I resent, as being a Hopyard resident, I didn't want the solar farm to be approved there, and now they're asking me that I have to get electricity from the solar farm. We don't know how much that's gonna cost, and if anything else, I wanna get my power from the electric grid, from coal power plants and from gas power plants, that aren't in my backyard.

And then we also have propane too. We do, we have two kinds, but anyway, they're gonna build all that behind Port Conway, and that picture there, if that's where they store it, that looks awful, and I don't really want that behind in that rural area back down in the farm. So I don't know if that's the battery going with the solar plants or not.

0:49:14 Ms. Binder: Thank you. Would anybody else like to come up and speak on battery storage?

0:49:30 Mr. Thomas: Yes, ma'am. Are we on? I do have one question regarding the item about restricting the visibility, that it not be visible from the street or surrounding area. I kinda questioned that the first time it was brought up, and I was wondering why that would be in place, given that especially with some of the examples that he showed in the pictures, wide out in the open. So if we're gonna have something like that, it doesn't seem like it's any more onerous than some of the other industrial complexes that we have. I was just wondering why.

0:50:12 Ms. Binder: Thank you.

0:50:12 Mr. Thomas: Thank you.

0:50:16 Ms. Binder: I'll hold the floor open for a few more minutes if anybody would like to come up. Mr. Dines, is there anyone online concerning this matter?

0:50:31 Mr. Dines: No, Madam Chair.

0:50:33 Ms. Binder: Do we have any correspondence, members of the Board? Alright, with that being said, I will close public comment. And Louis, can you come back up to the podium? And I'll open it up to my colleagues to ask questions on this. I'll start down the line now. Mr. Granger.

0:50:51 Mr. Granger: Yes, ma'am. To Mrs. Dodge's questions about the battery energy storage, I know when we had the [0:51:00] ____ come and discuss their plans, I know this sounds... It's like a tangent, but I have a reason to come forth. But when they came and discussed their plans for the golf course, they talked about the gun range being an ancillary use, with the battery energy storage associated with the solar plant being ancillary use, which would just be allowed as part of a solar project.

0:51:25 Mr. Pancotti: With this text amendment, it would be allowed standalone.

0:51:29 Mr. Granger: Yes.

0:51:31 Mr. Pancotti: I haven't... We haven't had a... Typically, those sort of determinations come through a zoning administrator determination and whether that is an accessory to a solar farm, that has not been determined by the zoning administrator.

0:51:49 Mr. Granger: Okay. And I recognized that this was for a standalone battery, not to be necessarily associated within any other project. I was just trying to come to the point where Ms. Dodge was saying, I was wondering if it was already allowed as an, as we said, an accessory use. So... Because I know this text amendment isn't necessarily for that solar projects you're speaking to.

0:52:17 Mr. Pancotti: Again, that hasn't necessarily been determined by the zoning initiative, but they are typically found with...

0:52:29 Mr. Granger: Solar plants.

0:52:30 Mr. Pancotti: Well, not necessarily solar, even with wind. I've found in my research, they're also associated with other energy generators.

0:52:39 Dr. Young: And Mr. Granger, if I may add, sir?

0:52:41 Mr. Granger: Yes, sir.

0:52:42 Dr. Young: So I know that there's been a lot of question concerning Port Conway Solar farm, a couple of things. So Port Conway Solar Farm was being put in via special exception permit on agriculturally zoned land. This text amendment is being asked to be approved for industrial land, so any concern about this battery storage, energy storage being placed behind residential homes in... Off of Hopyard is, it couldn't be approved because that's not what this text amendment addresses. So I think that that... I would hope that that put away some concerns regarding that potential. And then, regarding solar farms and electricity, solar farms don't sell electricity directly to customers, they sell the power to the power grid, so there wouldn't be... And I know that's a little bit outside of the discussion, but that wouldn't be a forcing function for neighboring residents to actually be forced on to an electrical grid formed by a solar farm. They're not a customer-based entity, they sell to the power grid.

So maybe that would address any concerns regarding the ancillary use. Right now, what we're seeing for economic development projects coming down the pipeline, I'm sure Nick would be happy to talk to you about it is, requests or coming across his bow, in the King George County Economic Development Department, are standalone projects, where these projects are pursuing energy use as its primary purpose and not ancillary use as to solar farms. And Nick, if you just wanted to probably talk about some of the projects that you've seen or phone calls that you have been receiving.

0:54:29 Nick Minor: Thank you sir. Yes, so I've actively working three prospects that's interested in this text amendment. The industry really range from solar to data centers to just energy storage by itself. So this is also in response to a Dominion RFP where they're requesting 1000 megawatts of solar development. And in conjunction with that, 250 megawatts of battery storage. So for us, we're sort of getting out ahead of the curve, whether it's in response to the Dominion RFP or whether it's just in response to the industry in general. I don't know of any other locality that's really looked at this type of use for this, where it's just standalone, where it's just only battery storage, not in conjunction with another use. However, with this additional text amendment added to the ordinance that we have now, it makes us more competitive in those other industries, whether it's solar or if it's just battery storage or if it's data centers. Yes, sir.

0:55:26 Ms. Binder: Go ahead, Mr. Bueche.

0:55:27 Mr. Bueche: Thank you, Madam Chair. So personally, I'm not interested in the solar farm aspect of this. Okay. But you just mentioned data centers, which I believe would contribute economically to the County. So would they require these battery units to have a data center in our industrial park?

0:55:50 Mr. Minor: The short answer is yes, sir. But what we are currently looking at now, as far as the prospects that I'm looking at, they are looking at it as they can be a stand... They'll have a standalone energy producer in solar, they'll store it on the battery storage side of it, and then the data center will operate there. So they're looking at an off-grid development, is what we're trying to essentially accomplish. Now, this is all just a proposal or it's just a concept, but this is the type of prospects that we're looking at. These are the types of projects that we're trying to compete on.

0:56:27 Ms. Binder: But the amendment has to be done to the ordinance to allow... To facilitate that.

0:56:33 Mr. Minor: Yes, ma'am, yes ma'am. So this is getting ahead of the curve.

0:56:37 Mr. Bueche: What I wanted to make sure is, kinda to what Mr. Granger touched on, by us making this a by-right in the industrial park, okay? This isn't also saying that solar farms are by-right in the industrial park.

0:57:00 Heather Hall: They're already by-right in the industrial park for solar farms.

0:57:03 Mr. Bueche: They are.

0:57:04 Ms. Hall: Where industrial zoning, they are already by-right, agricultural is by special exception.

0:57:10 Mr. Bueche: Thank you for that clarity.

0:57:11 Mr. Minor: And so just to expand on that, it doesn't make a lot of sense for a solar company to put solar panels on industrial zoning as the taxes are high. The purchase of that property is higher. Agricultural makes more sense for them. However, it doesn't stop them from doing so.

0:57:27 Mr. Bueche: They also have a lot of tax exemptions and they're heavily subsidized, too. That's why I'm not a fan of the solar farm, per se. I'm just... In your opinion, as our economic development director, does this enhance the County's overall posture or economic development?

0:57:46 Mr. Minor: Absolutely.

0:57:47 Mr. Bueche: Thank you. 0:57:48 Ms. Binder: Alright. Mr. Granger, did you have any other questions?

0:57:51 Ms. Granger: No, ma'am.

0:57:52 Ms. Binder: Mr. Stonehill?

0:58:00 Mr. Stonehill: I'm just looking at the pictures that you all put up there about the 20 megs and stuff. Is there any kind of limitation about how big of the system? I'm just looking at the sizes of them.

0:58:17 Mr. Minor: So I can't answer that question with accuracy. It is a new technology, it is a new industry by itself, so I believe the state, they're still trying to figure out what the megawattage they can allow on in one site or in one locality or however they're gonna handle it, sir. But there are concepts where it is under a building or it is under a shell building.

0:58:49 Ms. Binder: Miss Cupka, did you have the text?

0:58:50 Mr. Stonehill: Yeah, I got a...

0:58:51 Ms. Cupka: I haven't answered your question. I'll answer it when you're finished.

0:58:56 Mr. Stonehill: I'm just looking at the definitions of terms and stuff, maybe Ms. Hall can help. This one as well, about folks with solar panels on their house and they had to do like a Tesla wall to store that energy. I'm just looking at it and it says, "Does not include a single 12- volt battery."

0:59:17 Ms. Hall: So solar panels for a residential home is considered an accessory use, much like we currently allow that in our ordinance, many homes already have solar panels on their homes, this would not affect that.

0:59:33 Mr. Stonehill: Okay, that's a... Miss Cupka can answer my question then.

0:59:37 Ms. Cupka: So your question about the size or mega-wattage, whatever, one of the things that I did learn from the VACo virtual conference last week when we had the economic development breakout session, as I said in my Board report, there was a lot of information about battery storage in there, and in fact, the State Corporation Commission of Virginia does in fact have draft regulations governing the deployment of energy storage, so... And it's a 20-page document, if anyone wants to take a look at it, it's available online, scc.virginia.gov. So it appears as though there is an intention for this to be highly regulated by the state as well.

1:00:28 Ms. Binder: And Miss Cupka, coming off of that, Sussex County in Virginia already has approved this kind of facility and they're sort of the model. [1:00:41] ____ continue. Miss Cupka.

1:00:44 Ms. Cupka: I had a couple other things. So, a few of the other points that were made during that breakout session were that you need a decommissioning review or plan when you develop this kind of ordinance, and I would note... And I lost my place, sorry. That, that is included here in the ordinance. You need specialized training for fire departments and that is included in here, procedures and schedules for conducting drills of these procedures and for training local first responders on the contents of the plan and appropriate response procedures. May I assume... Is the fire chief here today, tonight?

1:01:28 Ms. Binder: I saw Chief Moody here earlier.

1:01:30 Ms. Cupka: Would you mind coming down, sir? Thank you very much.

1:01:32 Ms. Binder: I know I've asked you this question. Thank you for coming down.

1:01:49 David Moody: Good evening. Yes, ma'am.

1:01:50 Ms. Cupka: Thank you Chief. So, have you been and has your department been consulted in the development of this ordinance?

1:02:00 Chief Moody: We have. We actually have worked very closely with community development in Louis, and so a lot of the language that you read in there is because we've already had that coordination with them.

1:02:10 Ms. Cupka: Thank you. Do you have a pre-fire emergency action plan? It looks to me like you do in here somewhere. And that's part of the emergency procedures to be followed in case of fire, explosion, release of liquids or vapors, damage to critical moving parts or other potentially dangerous conditions. Yes?

1:02:38 Chief Moody: That's correct.

1:02:39 Ms. Cupka: So do you have that plan now or you will... If this ordinance is adopted, you will be prepared to move forward with that?

1:02:49 Chief Moody: Yes, the second part. We would if... So this would just be their legal way to certainly build. I assume that they would probably go through building permits, site plan reviews. We would be pulled in at that time, we would work with the developer, the company that would be coming on board, and then that plan would then be created. So, depending on what type of batteries, there's typically five types of storage cell batteries, these are popping up all across the country, primarily because of renewable energy sources. But we would work specifically with what the target hazard would be and then put the emergency plan in relation to what the target hazard would.

1:03:41 Ms. Cupka: Very good, thank you. I'm satisfied.

1:03:45 Ms. Binder: Alright, Mr. Bueche? I know Chief Moody, we've had discussions about this. I'm on a sub-committee of the VACo community, energy subcommittee, where they talk about renewable energy. And the last meeting that I attended, they made a point with Governor Northam's push for carbon-free by 2050. And I had to ask the question to clarify, to make sure this was right, but they believe that the government, for solar or wind battery storage, will have to acquire 10,000 acres a year to be able to come to that goal of energy... Carbon-free by 2050. So as Mr. Minor pointed out, these are gonna be popping up all over the state. And why I bring that up is I have a big concern. I've heard from Mr. Crozier, who's one of the supervisors in Orange County, that they regret some of their decisions by putting in solar farms and things like that because of... And I'm a big stickler, and Mr. Minor and I disagree over this on solar farms, is what it does to the land that's agriculture. Industrial land, it's already brown land is the term they use in the environmental community. So you're just keeping it the way it is, brown land. But agricultural land, the solar farms haven't been around long enough to really understand their impact. And there are studies from Europe, Germany and in the United States that there possibly is a way that it turns this green land, it can't be brought back to agriculture. It will be permanently brown.

Some people like that because then, "Hey, it's more industrial land." I particularly don't. And there's also concerns of the runoff into the waterways and it hasn't been around long enough to study that. But I did ask Mr. Winer and I talked to Mr. Britton... It would be just for my understanding, Mr. Minor, you can clarify. It's only in the industrial part, correct? For this ordinance, it doesn't go on to agricultural...

1:05:44 Ms. Hall: That's correct. Industrial only.

1:05:47 Ms. Binder: Alright. I just wanted to clarify that. And then, Mr. Moody, why I kept you up here is we talked at length about the different kinds of batteries and your concern that it's not like a normal fire. When it catches on fire, it might burn for a very long time. And so you're okay with that, the way this is? If somebody comes in, you'll have a very deep conversation with them about what kind of plan we need based on the batteries.

1:06:11 Chief Moody: That's correct, there's certainly a risk that comes with these if you... As long as you try to mitigate that risk with planning and emergency evacuation, and emergency preparedness plans, one of the things with this too, is that they would be required to report and also to help develop that emergency action plan, as they would fall under the community Right To Know standards and also working with our Local Emergency Planning Committee. And Supervisor Stonehill is on it. Supervisor Bueche used to be on the LEPC. Certainly, we would work closely with them to help try to mitigate and prevent as much, any kind of potential hazards. So there have been some accidents throughout the country, but for the vast majority, they're a pretty safe type system, so there is some national... NFPA has a national industry standard on the insulation and fire protection model for these types of systems, like I said, they're becoming more commonplace throughout the country.

1:07:23 Ms. Binder: I'm still not a big fan, but I understand this is the wave of the future, especially with our current governor administration, that this is a big push. And so it seems like that's at least on industrial land but I still have it on agriculture, I'm not a big fan of that. But thank you for answering the questions.

1:07:41 Chief Moody: Absolutely. 1:07:43 Ms. Binder: Anybody else have any concerns or would like to make a motion?

1:07:49 Ms. Cupka: I move to approve Case Number 20-09-Z04, Zoning Ordinance Text Amendment to permit the use of Battery Energy Storage Facility as a use permitted by right in the Industrial District, I. Amendments to Sections 1.9 and 2.12.2, and Article 4 as presented.

1:08:12 Mr. Stonehill: Second.

1:08:15 Ms. Binder: Any further discussion? All those in favor say, "Aye."

1:08:18 All: Aye

1:08:19 CB: Any nays? Chair votes aye. Motion carries.

1:08:25 Mr. Granger: Madam Chair.

1:08:25 Ms. Binder: Yes.

1:08:25 Mr. Granger: I apologize. I know we have one more public hearing, I was gonna ask if we could take a five-minute recess, I had a little more coffee than I probably should've, and I could use a quick break.

1:08:34 Ms. Binder: I was gonna make that recommendation, I just have one consideration in our break time understanding that we do have a hard break at midnight that we consider, that would be waived and allowed to go over the midnight deadline, so that we can resolve the last public hearing. So just think about that in our five-minute recess.

1:08:54 Mr. Granger: Yes, ma'am.

1:08:56 Ms. Binder: Right. Or do you think five or 10 would be good?

1:08:57 Mr. Granger: I'll leave it to you. I'm fine with five though.

1:09:01 Ms. Binder: Five minutes? Okay, so we will take... Do we have to make a motion on that, Mr. Britton? Okay, so we will take a five-minute recess. We adjourn for five minutes.

[pause]

Well, it's a hard stop at midnight. Dr. Young, I've asked if you could give a recommendation for that and about our last part of the Board packet agenda?

1:09:30 Dr. Young: Yes. Madam Chair. According to Section 3 of the rules and procedures of the Board of Supervisors of King George County, no business of the King George County Board of Supervisors would be conducted after midnight unless there is a vote of 4/5ths of the Board to approve the waiver of that hard stop. So I'd recommend that the Board of Supervisors vote to waive the restriction that no business of the King George County Board of Supervisors would be conducted after midnight.

1:10:02 Mr. Granger: So moved.

1:10:04 Ms. Binder: No second?

1:10:08 Mr. Stonehill: Second.

1:10:09 Ms. Binder: Any further discussion? All those in favor say, "Aye."

1:10:14 Mr. Granger: Aye.

1:10:14 Mr. Stonehill: Aye.

1:10:14 Mr. Bueche: Aye.

1:10:14 Ms. Binder: Any abstain? Ms. Cupka abstains and I vote... Oh, did I do that wrong? You're not part of it. That's right, I apologize. Apologize, this is different time. And that was correct, right? Mr. Britton?

1:10:29 Mr. Britton: Yes. Madam Chair. She's disqualified herself and because there...

1:10:32 Ms. Binder: Disqualified. Alright. Apologize for that. Thank you for clarification. So we have four votes yea and that's it. Four-zero.

1:10:41 Dr. Young: Madam Chair, one more recommendation. I recommend that the Board amend the agenda to remove the closed session from tonight's agenda.

1:10:50 Mr. Granger: So moved.

1:10:50 Mr. Bueche: Second.

1:10:50 Ms. Binder: Any further discussion? All those in favor, four of us voting?

1:10:54 Mr. Granger: Aye.

1:10:54 Mr. Stonehill: Aye.

1:10:54 Mr. Bueche: Aye.

1:10:58 Ms. Binder: Mr. Bueche?

1:10:58 Mr. Bueche: Aye.

1:11:00 Ms. Binder: Aye? Chair votes aye. Motion carries. Now, public hearing number three, the King George County Board of Supervisors will now hold a public hearing that has been properly advertised to receive public input regarding Case Number 19-03-Z02 request by Darrell Hertenstein, Hertenstein Investment Group on behalf of Beverley C. Coates, David F. Clare and Alyce Jeter Jones, Villages at King George Crossroads, to rezone with proffers Tax Map 33 parcels 74 and Tax Map 33 Parcels 78 and 79 from Rural Agricultural A-2 to General Trade C-2, Total 17.65 acres and Multifamily dwelling District R-3, Total 92.67 acres.

I will first ask for the staff report and then I will open the floor for public comment. Public comment is limited to three minutes per speaker in order to afford everyone an opportunity to speak. Please state your name and address before you comment. Upon completion of public comment, I will bring the matter back to the Board for consideration. The Board may or may not take action tonight depending on information received during public comment. Ms. Hall?

1:12:17 Ms. Hall: Thank you. Mr. Dines, will you queue me up, please?

[pause]

Villages at King George Crossroads, Case Number 19-03-Z02, rezone 17.65 acres from A-2 to C-2 and 92.67 acres from A-2 to R-3, Tax Map 33, Parcels 74, 78 and 79. Next slide. Chairman Binder was so kind to read this very long paragraph, so I will not repeat it again. Next slide. As you are aware, we have heard this project quite a few times over the past several months. This presentation staff report will only discuss the most recent application updates. Next slide. June 16, 2020, the King George County Board of Supervisors held a public hearing regarding this case. After much discussion with applicant, Mr. Brown, with Mary Washington Hospital, Board of Supervisors regarding the Proffer Statement 3A, "Applicant currently has a contract with Mary Washington Healthcare, whereby Mary Washington has agreed to build upto 14,300 square foot medical facility on Land Bay A."

The Board of Supervisors made a motion to remand the project back to the Planning Commission to evaluate the developer's proposal with changes made to address concerns raised by Mr. Granger, second by Mr. Stonehill. Ms. Cupka wrote a statement recusing herself from the discussion and vote. Next slide. October 13, 2020, the King George County Planning Commission held a second public hearing after the Board of Supervisors remanded the project back to them. After review and much discussion regarding the revised proffers, Chairman Parker called for a motion. Vice Chairman Devries motioned to forward the Case 19-03-Z02 with a recommendation for approval, seconded by Mr. Colwell and deemed as a tie vote to failure of 5- 5-0. Next slide. It's the cover page of the GDP. Next slide. So the [1:14:32] ____ existing conditions, as you can see, the property does connect from 3 to 301. Next slide.

The proposal of 150 townhomes, 200 apartments, 48 age-restricted villas and 52 age-restricted apartments for a total of 450 homes. The commercial aspect is along the Route 3 side on this page, as well as the top left-hand corner is the proposed medical facility. And there's also a clubhouse and tot lot on this side. Next slide. This does show the connection, completing of road to Route 301 with the commercial along the front and the continuation of the 200 apartments. Next slide. This is, again, the summary of Land Bay A, Land Bay B, Land Bay C and Land Bay D. Next slide. March 2020, during a teleconference was held [1:15:36] ____ the King George County, Mr. Hertenstein, Brian Jenkins, Vice President, Corporate Counsel & Properties, Mary Washington Healthcare at that time, both applicant and Mary Washington Healthcare advised that there was no contract between the applicant and Mary Washington regarding the Villages.

While Mary Washington and applicant indicated that they were negotiating a potential contract to date, the County had not received during that 2020 statement. The Section 3A Proffer Statement stated that such a contract is in place and that there was information presented to staff and the Planning Commission. May 29, 2020, the Real Estate Transfer Agreement between Hertenstein Investment Group and MediCorp Properties was provided. August 17, 2020, an amendment to the Real Estate Transfer Agreement was received by Community Development. Next slide. October 1st, 2020 revised signed proffers were received by Community Development dated March 22, 2019 and revised August 21st, 2020. The major revisions include Proffer 3A, Development of Commercial Parcels, and 4B, Residential Uses. 3A, Development of Commercial Parcels, West Village, Land Bay A.

Land Bay A, as shown on the GDP, shall be developed under the C-2 zoning regulations as a medical/dental office or a hospital, and no other use or purpose, which may include an urgent care facility and medical laboratory facility, hereinafter a medical facility. Applicant shall build or cause to be built a medical facility, suitable to serve the general medical needs of the residents of the County on Land Bay A, not less than 10,000 square feet, and not more than 14,300 square feet, on or before the date that is five years after approval of the first site plan to be approved with respect to any portion or section of the property. For informational purposes, applicant currently has a land transfer agreement in place with Mary Washington Healthcare, whereby the applicant has agreed to donate the property and $500,000 to Mary Washington in order to induce Mary Washington to build the aforesaid medical facility.

Next slide. Another amendment for the Proffer included 4B, Residential Uses, Updated Language for Consistency in the Current Year. This goes through residential uses as "any residential dwelling units constructed on the property shall be constructed in accordance with the Design Guide as the same may be amended or waived by the Zoning Administrator." The County shall not be required to issue more than 75 occupancy permits for residential dwelling units in Land Bay C during the year in which the rezoning is approved. The County shall not be required to issue more than 50 occupancy permits for residential dwelling units in Land Bay C every year thereafter, until the unit cap is reached as outlined in 4A. The number of unused occupancy permits in any given year may be carried over into subsequent years, such that no more than 75 occupancy permits are permitted in the first year and 50 year thereafter, until the cap is reached in... Outlined in 4A.

For the avoidance of doubt, this is... If this application is approved in October 2020 and the construction of the property does not begin until 2022, the applicant would be permitted to apply for 175 occupancy permits in 2021, 75 from 2020, 50 from 2021, and 50 from 2022, assuming all of the requirements have been met, including water and sewer connections, and would not be permitted to apply for more than 175 occupancy permits.

Next slide. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained herein, upon construction of a new Purkins Corner wastewater treatment plant to expand its capacity and level of service, or in the event the Service Authority elects not to build a new wastewater to Hopyard Farm wastewater treatment plant, then in either even the phasing schedule shall be deemed amended to allow for issuance of not more than 100 occupancy permits per year.

Next slide. November 12, 2020, the Department received a proposed draft of the amended proffers to include the following: King George Sheriff's Office. Applicant shall make a cash payment to the County in the amount of $1000 for each residential unit constructed on the property for the purposes of offsetting the impact this project will have on the services provided by King George County Sheriff's Office. Such payment shall be made at the time of occupancy permit approval for each unit. And we did receive the signed updated proffer on November 16th, 2020.

Next slide. The applicant did include additional documents that were after the Staff Report, which included the development portfolio 2020 of Hertenstein Investment Group LLC, received on November 16, 2020. A letter from F&M bank, including Irrevocable Standby Letter of Credit, beneficiary of King George County Service Authority for $3 million, received November 17, 2020. Next slide. A second amendment to the transfer agreement dated 9/24/2020 received, November 17, 2020 states that if the development of Mary Washington Hospital property has not commenced within four years from the date of said deeds execution, then the Mary Washington Hospital property shall revert to the Hertenstein Investment Group LLC or its designee. This also includes remaining cash donation and work product related to the property.

Next slide. I believe the last addition was the Parrish Snead Franklin Simpson, PLC escrow letter dated 11/12/2020, received 11/17/2020. The firm has received $250,000 wire transfer. The funds have been placed in the firm's trust account for the first payment due of the King George County Service Authority. Next slide. Community Development staff recommend the King George County Board of Supervisors approve Rezoning Application Case Number 19-03-Z02. As noted, the Planning Commission had made a motion with a recommendation for approval, which failed by 5-5 vote. That's all I have.

1:22:30 Ms. Binder: Thank you very much. I know we have a lot of questions, and I know [1:22:36] ____ on behalf of the applicant, be able to come up and speak, but what does the Board feel about... Mr. Britton, to have the public comment first or the applicant can go first? And I'm... Applicant? Okay, thank you. I just wanted to clarify. Go ahead, Mr. Davis.

1:22:50 Ms. Hall: Mr. Dines, will you bring up Mr. Davis's presentation, please?

1:22:54 Mr. Dines: Yes, ma'am.

1:23:12 Landon Davis: Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the Board, my name is Landon Davis, I represent the Hertenstein Investment Group, and we really appreciate the opportunity to come before you today and present this project. This project has been in the works for the last two and a half years or more, it's been scrutinized extensively by the staff, by two separate county attorneys, by the citizens of King George at several... Numerous public hearings, by the members of the Planning Commission on four or five different occasions, and on several occasions, by you, the Board. And while this process has been difficult and somewhat adversarial at times, I think the application before you tonight is proof that this process works.

What we have before you today is an application that my client and I, and the rest of our team is very proud of. And it's very different from the application that you saw for the first time in October of 2019. It still maintains a lot of the things that were good about that application, however, it's been polished and it's been refined and it's been added to, gaps have been filled, words have been changed, loopholes have been closed. And what you have before you today is just, I feel like a really solid, good application. It aligns... This project aligns perfectly with your Comprehensive Plan, it has a positive net impact on the County's fiscal bottom line, it offsets impacts to law enforcement, Fire and Rescue, and schools. It will incentivize and will guarantee the construction of a much needed medical facility on the project's property and it provides much needed cash flow to the Service Authority at a time that it really needs it. So Ms. Hall has done an excellent job and I know everyone's somewhat familiar with this project, so I'm going to try to be relatively brief given the time and everything, but I did want to start. Next slide please. By introducing, which is something we haven't done before, introducing just the core group of people who's on this development team, and I'll start with the guy that I think everybody knows best, which is Darrell Hertenstein. Mr. Hertenstein and just kinda go over a little bit of his background.

Darrell is a long-time member of the King George community, he has several children in the schools. He's very active in the community and runs multiple businesses, including the Cameron Hills Driving Range, which is a reuse of the reuse of the Cameron Hills property, which was a great preservation of a great recreational assets for the community. He's also developing some residential lots out there, state lots from 10 to 40 acres and already has, I believe, five of those lots under contract. He's developing another subdivision at the moment, closer to Dahlgren, I believe, and has 80% of those lots sold to Westbrooke Homes, which is a regional developer, but his real experience lies in commercial development. Darrell has a tremendous amount of experience with commercial construction, he's helped with, to develop the infrastructure on commercial sites for well-known national retailers all over the country, including some of the logos I've put on my presentation up there, and he just has a tremendous amount of experience with that. And Darrell really was the one with the kind of, I guess the vision and the ambition to put this project together.

The second member of the team, if I could get the next slide, please, is Greg Newville, who's here again with us tonight. Mr. Newville's a long time friend and peer of Darrell's and they're 50- 50 partners on this project. Greg's resume really is very impressive and would take up a lot of time if I started reading the whole thing, but Greg started his career in the '90s developing infrastructure and retail locations for a lot of well-known national brands. His first project... His first major project was actually building out the first 50 stores of Mall of America and from there, he kind of expanded and has worked with a lot of notable brands, some of which I've listed up there on projects from Virginia to Hawaii, and everywhere in between. He's really built quite an impressive career and has a very strong financial background as, I think if you all have a chance to look at the letter from this bank, will attest to that, as well as just the fact that he was able to kind of call in to that bank and get that irrevocable letter of credit kind of issued in a relatively short time would attest to that. Next slide, please. The final member of the team is Samer Shalaby, and anybody who's familiar with the kind of Greater Fredericksburg area real estate market will recognize his name. Mr. Shalaby has been hired as a consultant on this project through his company, Development Consulting Services. Prior to starting this company, Mr. Shalaby was the Director of Engineering and Construction for the Silver Companies. He has a tremendous amount of experience with large scale real estate residential developments, which would rival anyone who's in the region. He's developed more than a thousand lots for his own personal projects and dozens of subdivisions.

On the next slide, I've just included a short list of some of his more recent subdivisions in the Fredericksburg Stafford and Spotsylvania area, I think there's something over 850 lots or something up there. I went through and counted at one point, but he's the last member of the team. And kind of on the same note, one thing I wanted to point out, which I took for granted, 'cause I have a fair amount of experience and just knowledge of how the real estate development industry works is, I just wanna make it clear that my clients are not gonna be the ones building the houses, and I think that was something that I took for granted that maybe not everybody in the public or maybe even on the Board appreciated that. My client's a developer, they're going to buy the land to get the land entitled, go through the engineering steps to get it done, and then they'll do the things they're good at, which is putting in the infrastructure, putting in streets, grading the lots, and then they'll sell the lots to a national builder like Ryan or Toll or Pulte or K Hovnanian, or someone like that, many of whom have already expressed a lot of interest in this project.

And so, I did just wanna make that clear that it won't be Darrell Hertenstein designing and out there building the houses that'll be a part of this project. Next slide, please. So that was our development team, the next thing I wanna do is kind of just briefly go over the project. The project's divided up into four land bays, the first is Land Bay A, which is the medical facility, and we have proffered, as Heather went over, there's a proffer that that will be a medical facility, and that if the deal with Mary Washington doesn't work out for whatever reason, that the applicant has a responsibility to build that medical facility, and that's an enforceable proffer by the County. My client will be donating the land and $500,000 to try to incentivize Mary Washington Healthcare, which we think would be an excellent partner and an excellent asset for this region to take on and inhabit that medical facility. However, again, if they don't, for any reason, my client will be there to kind of backstop that... Next slide, please.

The commercial parts of the property or land bays B and D, these will be zoned C-2 commercial. We've proffered that they'll be limited to specific service types, and we've excluded certain uses that we felt were repugnant to the development theme, and what the County is looking for along that Route 3 and 301 corridor in there. Some of the uses that we've excluded are cemeteries, building supply yards, group care facilities, commercial laundries, motels, commercial garages and mini storage facilities, and those were excluded after discussion with County staff. Next slide, please.

Land Bay C is the residential, is the residential aspect of this project, and you may remember way back more than a year ago now, that originally... The original application didn't proffer unit mix and that's been fixed over time. It's one of the issues that's been ironed out. The GDP and unit mix are now proffered. There's 150 townhomes, 200 multifamily and 100 age-restricted units that will be part of this project. And another tremendous benefit of this project is the transportation infrastructure that this project will provide.

You can see that my client has agreed to build the inter-parcel connector, which will connect Route 3 and Route 301, and that's a, I can just say, that's an expensive road. We don't know exactly how much, but the initial estimates we've got is that it will be very expensive. You can see there's a strip of our resource protection area kind of right there in the middle, and that will have to, the impact on that area will have to be mitigated and offset.

However, my client realized the importance of this to the County and agreed to do it, because it really is going to relieve traffic congestion, it's gonna provide another means of ingress and egress from and to... To and from 301 and 3, and it also will be one quarter of that kind of outer loop around the 3 and 301 intersection that's called for in the transportation plan. So, that, in and of itself, is a very big asset for the County. Next slide, please. Next slide.

So, next, I'd like to talk about how this project fits in with your Comprehensive Plan, and the first thing I'd like to note is that your Comprehensive Plan calls for 30,248 new dwelling units being required by the year 2030; 3,248-dwelling units are gonna be needed by 2030. That's in the Comprehensive Plan and I think that's a very important fact. Obviously, a lot of... A tremendous amount of research and thought went into the Comprehensive Plan, and the plan is saying that in less than 10 years, this County will have a need for 3,248 new homes, whether you like it or not, and the comp plan also calls for these new dwelling units to be built in primary settlement areas. They want the development... The comp plan wants the development concentrated in primary settlement areas. Specifically, there's a call for higher density housing in the Route 3 and 301 primary settlement area. Next slide, please. Oh, I'm sorry. Go back for me, please. Thank you.

And I just point out that, of course, our property is pretty much dead center in the Route 3 and 301 primary settlement area there, if you can see the black area, that's generally the location of the property. So, this property in this project is exactly where the comp plan calls for high density development. I'd also note that the comp plan call... Next slide, thank you. Here's some quotes I pulled from the Comprehensive Plan, the first is the intent of this policy is to accommodate population and employment growth in a compact pattern by directing the majority of new development to locate along the major roadways of Route 3 and 301 within the settlement areas.

The comp plan goes on to note that this area is one of the primary locations for future residential development, including the location for potential rezoning to higher density residential and mixed use zoning districts, and in areas with public utilities, which our site has, densities of up to eight dwelling units per acre may be permitted. So, per the comp plan, up to 741 homes could be built on this property, and we have asked for 450. So I would suggest that we're on the conservative end, density-wise, even though as a new project and one of the first large scale rezoning projects to come before the Board, it may not seem like that, but per the Comprehensive Plan, which calls for 741 dwelling units, our 451 dwelling units are somewhat, or is conservative. Further, our commercial development with specific uses proffered out and with the location of those uses along the 3 and 301 sides, that is also similarly in compliance with the comp plan. Next slide. So, next, I'd like to talk about some of the impacts of the projects and the benefits of the projects, because you could be perfectly in compliance with the Comprehensive Plan, but if the impacts are too great, then the project just won't work and that's not the case here. In our case, the fiscal analysis, impact analysis prepared by the Berkeley Group, came up with that this project would actually have a positive net revenue of $21,593 once it was fully built out and that accounts for numerous expenditures that the County may or may not choose to incur over time. So, this is an opportunity for this Board to provide 450 new dwelling units of the 3,248 that will be required within the next 10 years, and to do so with not only no negative fiscal impact on the County, but with a positive fiscal impact on the County, according to the County's own consultants who prepared the report. The report also notes there will be one-time revenue of over $9.7 million and goes on to note that developments that proffer infrastructure improvements have public benefits that can extend well beyond the project. And I think that speaks to some of the things we're doing for the inter-parcel connector and our agreement with the Service Authority. Next slide.

In addition to just the overall net positive impact on the County's fiscal bottom line, my client has also proffered specific cash proffers to offset any one-time impacts that this project may have on County services. The first being the first one I'll talk about, is the schools. My clients proffered $1,000 per non-age-restricted unit, $350,000 to help offset impacts on schools. Next slide. My client has also made several proffers to help offset any impacts that this project may have on the fire and rescue services of the County. First, I'll talk about the non-monetary proffers. My clients proffered that any multi-family and age-restricted units will be equipped with fire suppression sprinkler systems. My clients proffered the use of non-combustible materials and coordination of the road design system, and has also agreed to limit the building height to three stories. And while all those things may not seem quite as appealing as a big cash proffer, I would point out that these are extra expenses that'll have to be incurred by any ultimate builder of this property and this product, and that expense inevitably gets passed down. So these proffers represent real expenses to my clients and real benefits to the County.

In addition to those non-monetary proffers, my client has made a monetary proffer of $500 per unit or $225,000 to help offset any additional impacts. Chief Moody, in a January 2nd, 2020 letter, I think summed it up nicely when he said, "I believe the applicant has addressed our fire and life safety risk reduction concerns and has a proposed means of helping to reduce the fiscal impact with providing our services." Next slide, please. The latest proffer, which Heather was kind enough to go over was to law enforcement and public safety, that's $1,000 per door, regardless of age restriction or not, for a total of $450,000, which is proffered to offset the project's impact on law enforcement and public safety costs. That was important for my client, I think, especially after hearing some of the comments at the last Planning Commission meeting, specifically with regard to the CIP presentation and some of the challenges law enforcement in this community were facing. And he was happy to... My client was happy to make this proffer.

Next slide, please. Finally, the proffer that we're most proud of, I think or that we think might be most beneficial to the County, deals with our agreement with the Service Authority, which has been incorporated into the proffers we provided. As everyone knows, there's a major overhaul at the Purkins Corner wastewater treatment plant that's gonna be required in the very near future. There are only 205 equivalent residential connections remain, and that's going to be... Something needs to be done there, and it needs to be done very quickly. This project will generate over $9 million in tap fees when it's fully built out for the Service Authority. In addition, the agreement my client has entered with the Service Authority has... Will provide much needed cash flow to the project with $3 million worth of tap fees being paid over an approximate three and a half year period.

The first $250,000 will be paid within 90 days of approval and this was all coordinated closely with the Service Authority to try to help them with their cash flow needs as the engineering bills would come due and other things like that would be coming due. The next $500,000 would be due within 90 days of site plan approval, and then there'll be $750,000 annual payments thereafter on the anniversary date of the $500,000 payment, which will be paid until the $3 million mark was reached. And it's important to note that of the last $750,000 payment, $500,000 worth of ERCs that are being purchased would be only... Would be able to be used by my client for the commercial aspect of the property. We thought that would show good faith. Not that my client really needs any extra incentive to build out or sell the commercial aspect of the property, but just some extra incentive that he's serious about getting that property sold and that property developed and not just build the residential side and kind of leave the commercial unbuilt.

Finally, as Heather noted, a recent addition to our application is that this agreement has been secured by an Irrevocable Letter of Credit that Mr. Newville was able to obtain from his bank and that's been provided to you all for your review. Next slide. Finally, I'll talk about the Mary Washington Healthcare facility and we have Vice President of Mary Washington, Eric Fletcher, here to discuss this or to answer any questions the Board may have. If you do have questions for him, I'd invite you to and encourage you to please ask him. He can talk in more detail about this. But according to a 2019 report prepared by Mary Washington Hospital, there are two primary care providers and one urgent care facility in King George County. Next slide. This places King George County in the worst quartile among counties in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Next slide. The leaders of the County realized this deficit and in the Comprehensive Plan, have called out that a major goal for community services and facilities within the County would be to advocate for the availability of medical services to meet the needs of all County residents.

Next slide, please. So that brings us to the proffer for Mary Washington Healthcare, that's the donation of the 8.45-acre site. It's proffered as a medical facility, it cannot be used for anything else without coming back here and getting the Board's permission to amend the proffers or something like that. We have a land transfer agreement in place that where the applicant has agreed to donate the 8.45-acre parcel and an additional $500,000 to incentivize Mary Washington to build the facility there. If Mary Washington doesn't build for any reason, the new proffers provide that the applicant will be obligated to build that facility. In short, a medical facility will be built, and if it isn't, for some reason, the County will have a recourse. And that's something we worked closely with the new County attorney on to make sure that this agreement had teeth for the County and that the County was covered. It also addressed Mr. Granger's concerns from the August meeting. Next slide please.

So, in summary, we feel our project is a good project. It's in perfect alignment with the Comprehensive Plan, it's right in the 3 and 301 corridor, which is where the dense growth that the County is going to need to meet that 3248 dwelling unit number is called for, and you're able to provide these houses out of what's estimated to be a revenue surplus for the County. We've also tried to address the one-time impacts that the County might feel as a result of this project with $350,000 going to schools, $225,000 going to the Fire and Rescue in addition to the non- monetary proffers, and $450,000 to law enforcement. It also provides the critical support to the Service Authority at a time when the Service Authority really needs it, with the upcoming major expenditures for the Purkins Corner Wastewater Treatment Plant.

This project will produce over $9 million in tap fees over its life, and my client is personally gonna be paying $3 million in upfront payments to help with the cash flow crunch that the Service Authority is facing. In addition, we're incentivizing Mary Washington Hospital to come and open that medical facility by the $500,000 cash donation and the donation of the 8.45 acres of what will be commercial land. And in addition, my client's agreed to backstop that agreement in the event that Mary Washington doesn't build for any reason. Next slide, please.

So the last thing I'd like to leave you with is just a couple of what I consider important numbers, the first is that 3,248 number again, again, that's your Comprehensive Plan is going for 3,248 new dwelling... The requirement for 3,248 new dwelling units by 2030. Those are houses that are gonna be needed, whether the residents and whether the leadership like it or not. That's... It's gonna grow. And this is an opportunity to provide 450 of those houses with a $21,593 net benefit to the County's financial bottom line. In addition, my client's proffered now over a million dollars, a $1,025,000 to offset one-time impacts, $450,000 to the law enforcement, $225,000 to fire and rescue, and $350,000 to schools. And again, the $3 million in upfront payments that my client will make to address the cash flow issues currently being faced by the Service Authority.

So with those numbers and that in mind, I think the Board should ask itself, if not this project, if not this project that complies perfectly with the Comprehensive Plan, then what project is gonna work? And I think the answer is, if this project doesn't work in this area, with these proffers, then I'm not sure any project would work. And so, we'd ask you to vote for approval tonight, and I appreciate your time and your consideration, and all the work you do on behalf of the County for the residents and everything like that. So again, I've got Mr. Fletcher from Mary Washington, if anybody would like to speak to him. We've got Mr. [1:48:25] ____ the engineer, if anybody has any technical questions that I can't answer, and happy to answer any questions. Thank you very much.

1:48:35 Ms. Binder: Well, I think so we can get our public comment, we'll have Mr. Davis, we'll bring you back up, and Ms. Hall and then gentleman from... What was his name again? I apologize, from...

1:48:44 Mr. Davis: Eric Fletcher, yup.

1:48:44 Ms. Binder: Eric Fletcher, sorry about that, bring him up also after we get public comment. Thank you very much for your presentation.

1:48:50 Mr. Davis: Yes, ma'am, thank you.

1:48:52 Ms. Binder: Right now, I know we did not have a list, so I will ask everybody to be respectful to let people come up to the microphone and then exit, with proper social distancing so that... So I will try to be very orderly. It is... Will be limited to three minutes, Mr. Bueche has the timer here. One thing I will do to allow for that flow for people back and forth to the mic with social distancing, we have had numerous constituents email us or provide written documentation, and some have asked to be read and some have asked just to enter it into the record. So those that... We will try to go through and the ones that asked us to read it, read them in a timely manner, and I will ask my colleagues first for theirs, and then I will read the ones that were sent to all of us or just to me directly, trying to capture all of them, but all of them have been sent to our Board Secretary to enter in the public record, and she's category... Putting them all together and putting them with the minutes. But with that being said, when somebody comes up to the podium, while they're exiting, another one comes, I will read one of the comments from my colleagues. We'll read one of the comments, just so we get everybody under and we'll see how this goes, and if we might have to cut off public comment after a reasonable amount of time. So with that being said, who would like to be the first person to come? Go ahead, and please state your name and your address, please.

1:50:21 Ana Maria Lovell: My name's Ana Maria Lovell, I live in Presidential Lakes. Well, this is my second time that I hear about this. They offer wonderful things to come into King George. I live in King George 47 or 48 years and I notice that traffic is terrible, in Route 3, 205, 206, and 301. When I wanna go to Maryland, three o'clock, I cannot go to Maryland because the traffic is terrible, especially now that we don't have... With this pandemic, we don't have too much traffic, the people go to the base. Well, it's not as bad as it is, but when next year, the traffic come back to normal, that will be terrible. Also, you're putting more a strain to the police department, to the school system, to the water department. I think I read somewhere where they offered... The gentlemen, they offered $3 million to the water department, because the water department has been in trouble for many, many years, and I can prove it.

And for that reason. And you, all of you moving here not too long ago, I remember you moving here, for being peaceful. For the County is nice, and you don't wanna... When the County is too crowded, too many people, it's not good for the people, for the children you're raising here. This County has been rural and I want it to be rural. And I don't want any of these things, I don't want to be solar. I'm happy with my electricity. I'm happy with everything in King George. If I don't have something, I go to Fredericksburg, I don't have no problem. Thank you, and I don't [1:52:17] ____ want it you please protect the County.

1:52:20 Ms. Binder: Thank you. I will read the first letter as somebody else comes up to the podium. "Good evening, Board. I am currently on the phone waiting for the public hearing for the Villages project, and I'm scheduled to be work at 4:00 AM, so, I'm afraid I will not be able to stay on for the public comment portion." She had submitted this latter at least two hours ago. "I would want to express that I support this project and ask that you please approve this project. My address is 10231 Roosevelt Drive, King George, Virginia. Thank you, Carrie Toman." And if I pronounced that name wrong, I apologize. Yes, sir, you're up.

1:52:55 Rick Wilks: Thank you. I'm Rick Wilks. Live 9269 Whitetail Way, King George. It's off Millbank. I use Gail Road and Mount Rose Road to access most of the County. This would add a tremendous amount of congestion and difficulty to that access. I retired from the Marine Corps and bought property down here about 30 years ago. I came here because of the rural nature. I left Northern Virginia. I don't wanna see King George turn into another Fairfax. Additionally, they talk about the medical facility. Mary Washington, as I understand it, will not build an ER. They're talking about another urgent care. We currently have two urgent cares in the County, we have another one under construction. So, I do not think that the medical facility, which is being so touted, is really that big of a deal. The other and final thing is, we, when we moved out here, tried to leave the congestion. My area of the County, it was zoned rural agriculture. Now we have Hopyard. Now you're trying to give us the Villages. That is not rural agriculture. You're going from a property that would have had maybe 50 homes on it, to 450. Significant difference. My wife is a retired school teacher from this County. She can speak very well to the crowded nature of our schools. Thank you.

1:54:32 Ms. Binder: Thank you. I'll read the next letter. Mr. Stonehill, I'll pick you for the next reading of the letter. So, I know you have one. "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I send this letter in my absence as a current resident of the beautiful County of King George, Virginia. I would like to say that I have read this proposal in its entirety and am in full favor and support of this rezoning. In regards to Mary Washington Hospital, I would be very happy to have a larger urgent care facility closer to my family for emergencies. Currently we have to travel to Fredericksburg for emergency services. Having two young children and a significant other, I would feel much better knowing emergency care is that much closer to the ones I love. I see this as nothing but an improvement and major benefit in our community. Closer help for emergencies can save lives, and I strongly support this part of the proposal for those reasons. In regards to the housing development for age-restricted and non-age-restricted, I've thoroughly reviewed the impact form from VDOT and the environmental impact reports regarding the build of this project. I would like to say that I moved to this County because of its rural beauty and definitely do not want to see it ruined with over-development and overcrowding.

I feel that the increased growth in traffic impact on the County will be very minimal since the project is phased out over 10 years and I'm in support of the additional housing development for seniors and non-seniors. I believe this project will greatly improve and benefit our community as a whole. Some of those major benefits on our annual monetary donations to the water plant, Fire and Rescue squads and to the schools which my kids will attend. I'm in full support of this project and strongly urge all the members of our County Board to vote yes, in favor of the rezoning. Thank you for your time and consideration. Sincerely, Christopher Lane, resident of Monmouth Village, King George, Virginia."

1:56:14 Michael Hayes: Thank you. Good evening. Michael Hayes, 18051 Stoney Point Road, King George, Virginia. Before I go through some of the aspects of tonight's public hearing, I'll be like to go ahead and make a confession tonight that I was the one that called in and requested that Kanye West headed to the ballots. So, I just wanted to get that out there, in case you guys were wondering. All right. But on a serious note. I know I've met with each of you individually, one-on-one. I wanna thank you for taking the time to sit down with me and help me understand the many facets of this project. And before I go into my public comments, I need clarification on a couple of things because I've gotten conflicting answers from some of you. So, for tonight, on the Berkeley Group Fiscal Impact Analysis, who paid for that? 1:57:17 Ms. Binder: Sir, we can't answer questions during this. If you just give me a...

1:57:20 Mr. Hayes: You can't answer questions, whatsoever?

1:57:22 Ms. Binder: Nope. Just, it's public comment.

1:57:24 Mr. Hayes: Very good. Alright, we'll move right on. So, the three questions I asked before you, is King George better off with this approval of this project as proposed? I know we got some last minute changes here tonight in the last 24 hours. That's good. That we haven't had a chance to review and I know that you haven't either. Will this project help the County's budget and the tax payers, will be an additional burden? I know the budget was a big conversation piece for tonight, and is this the best deal that we can make for all parties involved? So, it really... Is it this perfect project that is being touted here this evening? So, I met with you individually. I went through what I thought were the deficiencies in the Berkeley Group Fiscal Impact Report, and I went through those with you in person, and what I've provided to you in those packets is the black and white of where I think those errors are. I emailed you those this weekend, so that you have a chance to review them. I've added a couple of other documents to those that I'm also gonna touch on tonight. So, let's just talk about some of those numbers that we've been going over right here. So, we've talked about...

First and foremost, a net revenue estimate of $21,593. That's less than 1% of the overall revenue that's projected to come out of this project, which is $2,937,000. So, you can see there's very small room for error to say that this project is net positive for the County, okay? And then if it is not net positive, then that means the tax payers have to make up the difference and pay for that. So, the residential real estate taxes estimated to be 927 in revenue, calculated using a price of $294,300 per unit. Now, of all these meetings we've been going back and forth for the last two and a half years, we've heard about affordable housing, affordable housing, Planning Commission. People spoke up, "We need this for the affordable housing." Talking about the Comprehensive Plan, affordable housing is in the Comprehensive Plan. This doesn't address that. There's nothing in here that says that we're gonna get affordable housing.

1:59:26 Ms. Binder: I'm sorry, your time is up. You're at your three minutes.

1:59:31 Mr. Thomas: Can I donate my three minutes to this gentleman?

1:59:36 Mr. Hayes: State your name.

1:59:36 Ms. Binder: Hold on one second. Mr. Britton, is that allowed?

1:59:38 Mr. Britton: That's entirely up to you, Madam Chair.

1:59:46 Ms. Binder: Hold on a second. I will allow that, but you need to come up and state your name, and you will give up your time to Mr. Hayes.

1:59:56 Mr. Thomas: Thank you, ma'am. My name is Howard Thomas. I'm at 14354 Round Hill Road, I oppose this project and I donate the remainder of my time to Mr. Hayes. 2:00:08 Ms. Binder: Yes. Go ahead, Mr. Hayes.

2:00:10 Mr. Hayes: Thank you. So, where is the affordable housing in this project as proposed and advertised since day one? And that's in the second to last page in your packets where that's been advertised to the public and has been completely misleading from the beginning over the last two and a half years. So, if there is affordable housing that is proposed, wouldn't that be less tax revenue, therefore the project would not be taxed positive to the County if we have lower cost in the residential houses? So, that, I think there is one error in the fiscal impact report. And again, I already talked about affordable housing, part of the economic plan, estimated number of new residents is 1160. County data shows that we have 2.8 residents per household. Wouldn't a high density development like this have more residents? Why are we using County data to calculate what a project like this would have, as far as the number of residents when we don't have anything really like this in the County? That we're showing... If we're showing a lower number of residents, then we're showing a lower impact on County resources. Schools, Fire and Rescue, Sheriff, etcetera. The fiscal impact... Let's go back to the school for a second, 'cause I know a lot of people here, spouses are teachers in the schools.

We're talking about, Dr. Benson estimated in August of 2019, 210 students from this project, not the 135 that's being proposed in the fiscal impact report, okay? So, that's 75 more students. And we also projected needing three more school buses, which we talked about today was what, $312,000. We need three more bus drivers and salary and benefits, which is another $60,000. So, we're saying that the school, just the school impact could be off by $650,000 a year. And we get a one-time proffer of $350,000, okay? Public safety, we already talked a little bit about that. Fire and Rescue, law enforcement, social services, all those are gonna be impacted by that. We've got the Service Authority. So, let's talk about that for a few minutes.

In the fiscal impact report, it shows the Service Authority is operating at a loss. A loss of, what did it come out to? $132,000 in the fiscal impact report. The revenue from the Service Authority is 852,000 but the expenses are $984,000. So, I don't understand these proffers and things are really helping the Service Authority when it's already operating a loss in this report. So, how is that helping keeping the rates and things down in that report? There is really no proffer. It's only connection fees, their pre-payment of connection fees. What that means is the developer gets to lock in a price, gives that money upfront...

2:03:08 Ms. Binder: Sir, your three minutes is up. Would somebody just like to state your name and...

2:03:12 Paul Daughtridge: Paul Daughtridge, 14760 Peach Tree Lane. [2:03:19] ____ the remainder of my time.

2:03:22 Ms. Binder: Please try to speed it up though.

2:03:26 MH: I'm trying, ma'am. I'm trying to talk to fast as I can. So, we talked about the Service Authority. Yeah, pre-payment of the tap fees, sorry. So, the $3 million, the developer gets that back when he sells the lot. That is not money that's going to reduce the actual cost and price of the Service Authority, which the new facility is estimated to be between $10 and $15 million, the estimate to decommission the current facility is nine and a half to 11.4. So, we got $26.4 million, connection fees at $9 million, minimum shortfall $10 million. But that money that's gonna be... Those pre-pay connection fees is not a proffer. That's basically a loan that, that developer would get back, locking in those rates, if you guys raise rates in the future, he's gonna turn around and sell those lots with those connection fees at a higher price and make another profit.

2:04:17 Ms. Binder: Is that the end of your statement? 'Cause this is the last one I'm giving you. So...

2:04:21 Mr. Hayes: Last one, I'm getting what?

2:04:23 Ms. Binder: Well, when your three minutes are up.

2:04:26 Mr. Hayes: Okay.

2:04:26 Ms. Binder: Just so other people can speak.

2:04:28 Mr. Hayes: Sure. So, I'll cut to the chase on a couple of things on all of that. We already talked about the Mary [2:04:37] ____. The Land Transfer Agreement came up after no contract was made. Mr. Davis talked about this at the Planning Commission meeting, and we talked about it back and forth at the Planning Commission meeting that Mr. Hertenstein is just a blue collar guy. Now we get a presentation that he's an expert, does all kinds of construction, all kinds of building. So, they're really grasping at straws to try to get the approval after the Planning Commission had a tie vote. And I would argue that the Planning Commission didn't even have a tie vote. It's five to four. So, is it Joseph Decarthy? DaCorta? Who's on the Planning Commission? DaCorta. When you took the vote, not blaming you, Heather, here at all, took the vote, he abstained in February of this year, not to vote on the project. Then when they took the vote at this last Planning Commission meeting, he watched and waited for the count, and then after she took the count, he raised his hand after she counted and asked for his vote to be counted. That is suspect. So, it really wasn't approved. So, at the end of the day, I'm done in 30 seconds.

2:05:38 Ms. Binder: Go ahead.

2:05:40 Mr. Hayes: At the end of the day, we have got to do what we think is best for the County, and we gotta look at this project as a whole. Not by a medical facility, not by affordable housing, not by the Service Authority. Is this is the best deal we can get in this arrangement? I don't think it's perfect. I think more money needs to go in the County. $1 million is what the County gets out of $151 million project? That's not a lot. The last thing I'm gonna talk about is two things...

2:06:17 Ms. Binder: Your time is up. I'm sorry. I think we've given you a lot of time. I would love to have somebody else come up and speak. Thank you very much though. I have read your document and I think all of us have. Mr. Stonehill, would you like to read your constituent? 2:06:31 Mr. Stonehill: I think you read them. Chris Lane?

2:06:33 Ms. Binder: Was that one? Okay, alright. Well, I will read the next one, I'll try to be brief on this one. "I write, request that the plans for the proposed Villages subdivision rezoning application case be disapproved because they do not represent growth that is good or planned for our County, instead this is a planned development by a developer. It is a plan to profit. The developer does not address the needs of our community. This project would change King George from a rural community, an environment that is supported and enjoyed by 85% of the County's residents, according to the results of the Planning Commission's opinion poll, into a suburban dormitory. Further, the County school system could not accommodate the numbers of children projected for this number of houses. Can we afford to build new schools at the cost of what else? The fire department, law enforcement, Service Authority and transport system all are already burdened to near their limits. This additional suburban dormitory for DC would have a negative effect on the safety and quality of life for the current residents of the County. There is no way it would pay for itself in taxes in the long run, and it would cause additional congestion in the schools and on the roads.

How long do you have to wait at the stop light at Route 3 and Route 301 now? What do you think that wait will be like if you add all these houses and people? Furthermore, approval of this application would signal that zoning in King George is a joke, come and get it, the County is now open for suburban sprawl. I urge you to reject Rezoning Application Case Number 19-03- Z02. Sincerely, Gail Williams Wertz, Millbank Farm, 15615 Millbank Road, King George, and Longfield Farm, 15070 Chastine Drive, King George, Virginia 22485. Mr. Granger, I'm gonna come to you next. Would somebody else like to come to the podium please?

2:08:31 Eric O'Neal: Thank you. Eric O'Neal. I live at 9471 Lothian Road. So, I don't have a team of people that are gonna give me some more time. So, I'll try to cover what I need to real quick. First of all, I just noticed that Mr. Hayes referenced 210 students. That was based on all single housing, not the structure that's actually being proposed. So, a lot of his data is off. Obviously, I'm a supporter of rezoning for this project. There are several reasons why. I'm only gonna cover a few of them tonight. First of all, the alignment of this project with the strategic plan is important, and the builder's project supports many of the end state goals. With the mission and vision of preparing for the future growth, I believe the Villages project presented by Mr. Hertenstein supports these goals and much more. Second, the proffers provided are not insignificant, as others make them seem. The school proffer at $350,000, Fire and Rescue proffer of $225,000 and then of course, we just found out about the law enforcement proffer of $450,000 I believe it was, I mean, these all seem to address concerns brought up by the administrators to mitigate the impact. Even the land transfer and the $500,000 incentive to build the medical facility should not be discounted.

Also, the advance payment on the connection fees totaling $3 million, they are significant in plushing up the Service Authority budget toward the necessary Purkins Corner situation. While there's more required to fund that solution for Purkins Corner, it's a solution that must be resolved, whether this rezoning gets approved or not, or do we just wanna raise taxes? 'Cause that's your alternative. People are already paying high water and sewer bills. I don't think we'd wanna go there. With these proffers, advances and incentives offers, the true impact of these dollars need to be looked at and more, just in simply bottom line numbers. The future value of those dollars lowers purchasing power to the County and the Service Authority. In other words, delays cost you. And we're already talking two, two and a half years, $575,000 that was offered lowers the purchasing power by over $11,000 in just one year based on inflation alone. Given some of the funds are likely advanced over a few years before full payment may be received otherwise, the impact is even greater.

With the overall amount of $4 plus million being offered, the purchasing power is lowered by almost $160,000 in just two years, just based on inflation and delays. With the service connection fees, the connections need and timeliness of the payment without the proffers, the future value of the dollars proffered cannot be ignored. It seems logical and clear to me that the money invested into the community by a King George resident is definitely to the benefit of the County. Mr. Watkins on the Planning Commission stated that he supported...

2:11:42 Ms. Binder: Sir, your three minutes are up.

2:11:45 Mr. O’Neal: I understand. Can you give me 30 seconds, please?

2:11:46 Ms. Binder: I will.

2:11:48 Mr. O’Neal: He supported the plan and it fits within the Comprehensive Plan. He also stated, "What did the developer have to put up with? The background, having to change everything to fit within a Comprehensive Plan." The current plan was not in place when the project proposals started...

2:12:04 Ms. Binder: Sir, your 30 seconds are up. I'm sorry.

2:12:05 Mr. O’Neal: However, the Villages...

2:12:06 Ms. Binder: Sir, your 30 seconds are up.

[overlapping conversation]

2:12:06 Dr. Young: Your three minutes are up. We will have you removed by the deputy if you don't abide by the bylaws of the Board of Supervisors.

2:12:11 Mr. O’Neal: Okay. [2:12:11] ____ 30 seconds... Somebody had a train over here, you got [2:12:17] ____.

2:12:18 Dr. Young: Deputy [2:12:18] ____...

2:12:18 Ms. Binder: Sir. Sir.

2:12:18 Dr. Young: Please remove the gentleman. 2:12:19 Ms. Binder: I understand you're very passionate about this project, sir. That's fine. What is your name, sir? And you've sent us an email and you're in support of the project, correct? I thought you did... Maybe it was somebody with the last name. I apologize. Go ahead.

2:12:36 Dr. Young: Sir, I ask that you please abide by the rules and procedures of the Board of Supervisors please.

2:12:43 Mr. O’Neal: I do appreciate that, but you've limited people to three minutes and then you've offered him to plus up every [2:12:48] ____. So...

2:12:48 Ms. Binder: I confirmed with our County Attorney to make sure that was okay. I know this is a very passionate topic, and I know you've all sat here for a very long time and I'm trying to be fair...

2:12:54 Mr. O’Neal: And I understand that too, ma'am, but he also said it was your discretion. So...

2:13:00 Ms. Binder: Right.

2:13:00 Mr. O’Neal: You choose to favor him.

2:13:00 Ms. Binder: I am not...

2:13:00 Dr. Young: Sir.

2:13:00 Ms. Binder: I just... Sir.

2:13:02 Dr. Young: Sir.

2:13:03 Mr. O’Neal: I will finish my 30 seconds.

2:13:04 Ms. Binder: Alright. Go ahead, sir.

2:13:04 Dr. Young: Okay.

2:13:06 Ms. Binder: Go.

2:13:06 Mr. O’Neal: The current plan was not in place... The current Comprehensive Plan was not in place when the project proposal started, however, the Villages team appeared to have followed the development guide pretty well. I'm sure he spent a lot of money and time with the engineers and attorneys, meeting with VDOT, members of the Board, members of the Service Authority, as well as the parties impacted by the... Such as schools, fire, EMS, law enforcement. His risk is high in this project, I'm sure. The Board continues to kick the can down the road for a project that is aligned with the Comprehensive Plan. Yet, here we are, questioning and discussing whether or not we can actually want to implement the plan that we, as taxpayers, paid for and you can't make a decision on rezoning application that's in line with the plan? What are we doing? Approve the rezoning. Let's not be reactive to growth. Let's work with the plan that we've already got in place.

2:14:11 Ms. Binder: All right. Thank you, sir. Mr. Granger, do you have anything to read?

2:14:18 Mr. Granger: Yes, Ma'am. I have one, it's from Christopher Werle. 5754 Coakley Drive, King George, Virginia. "I respectfully request that the Board of Supervisors approve the rezoning request by Darrell Hertenstein, et al., to allow the development of the Villages at King George Crossroads. As a County resident, I believe approval of this project will help to provide balanced residential and commercial development in accordance with the major tenets of our Comprehensive Plan and Economic Development Strategy, while still maintaining the rural characteristics that make our County such an [2:14:47] ____ appealing place to live and work. As a former member of the King George County Service Authority Board of Directors, I also believe approval of this project will be a much needed shot in the arm for the Service Authority and its financially overburdened customers.

The Service Authority needs thousands more commercial and residential connections and customers to help pay for ongoing cost, debt service and needed capital investment. In addition to the more than 10% increase on our customer base, the 450 residential units and the other commercial activities plan for the Villages represent almost 10 million in connection fees that will facilitate the timely upgrade or replacement of the aging Purkins Corner Wastewater Treatment Plant. That, in turn, will provide additional reserve capacity to support future development along Route 3-301 corridor for many years to come.

As I have said before, I realize the challenges inherent with resolving issues like this, that are strongly favored by one half of our residents and strongly opposed by the other; political considerations are and must always be part of the equation and final decision. However, I believe the collective needs of our residents, the ability of the County services agencies to support them and the positioning ourselves to best meet future growth and development challenges, should take precedence.

2:15:53 Ms. Binder: Thank you, Mr. Granger. We will make sure that, [2:15:58] ____ that letter specifically entered into the record. I've just been notified, we have some technology issues online. So, we will have to take a short pause to make sure that those issues are resolved, so everyone that is not able to view this, can actually view it and have their say. So, if you just give us a moment to resolve the issues with the feed live. Thank you.

0:00:06 Dr. Young: Chris Dines, is the audio up or is it down?

0:00:08 Chris Dines: That camera's back up.

0:00:11 Ms. Binder: I appreciate everybody who's in the audience patience.

0:00:14 Dr. Young: Say again?

0:00:14 Mr. Dines: That camera, it's back up because we're tethering with the cell phone because the system, the network kicked us out. So those citizens online said that they can hear us again. And so there won't be the YouTube continuing 'cause Jeff has given that connection up so that we can have GoToMeeting connection.

0:00:41 Dr. Young: Can you give it a test now? Can the people online hear us?

0:00:47 Mr. Dines: They can now, sir.

0:00:52 Dr. Young: Can they comment?

0:00:56 Ms. Binder: Can they comment? We moved them up so they can comment now.

0:01:00 Mr. Dines: I have... Is Christine and Ed Emery still on? Are you available to make your comment?

0:01:07 Ms. Binder: Sir, if you can just... Thank you very much for your patience. Can she make her comment?

0:01:15 Christine Emery: Hi. This is Christine and Ed Emery. I'm here.

0:01:19 Mr. Dines: Thank you, ma'am.

0:01:20 Ms. Binder: Can you please give...

0:01:22 Ms. Emery: Yes. I'm here. My name is Christine and Edward Emery, and we live at 11086 Lee St. And I wanted to start out with saying, Thomas Jefferson said, "Without your health, you have nothing." With that being said, I'm a registered nurse and I've lived in the County for over five years and I currently work at Mary Washington Hospital. My husband and I have a blended family, and we've decided to settle here in King George, with our blended family, that includes having four kids. And as you can imagine, having healthcare is very important to us, and also having affordable healthcare, affordable housing, along with a great sense of community. My aging parents have recently relocated to Presidential Lakes and I too, would love for them to have access to the most up-to-date medical facilities without having to travel a long distance. I like the area noted. I like to call it Central King George and that's where the major roadway areas of Route 3 and 301 are. And I feel like this area does meet the needs of the community. It's 100 acres that's not as a big area that everyone seems to be making this out to be. At the same time, we're also looking to buy a home in the next few years. And we noticed that most of the homes in the area, you can either get a small family home with... For a trailer or you go over $400,000. So I am definitely looking for the opportunity to find something that's more centrally located as well as having something that's affordable.

With the bridge that's coming, the larger bridge, growth is inevitable, regardless of whether the Village project gets approved or not. But this project seems to be a smarter and beneficial option than the alternatives, such as smaller developers coming in, buying properties here and there, and the County not receiving some of the proffers that were listed. I didn't realize the impact that, how much money that was going to be given to the County, and I am actually impressed. So I leave everyone with a question just to think about. Knowing that growth is inevitable, why would the County turn away all the benefits of quality healthcare, new housing, all of the proffers, new jobs that will be created from the commercial sites and tax revenues that will come with this project? My husband and I are in full support of the Village project, and I look forward to hearing what the vote will be tonight. Thank you.

0:04:26 Ms. Binder: Thank you very much. Mr. Dines, is there anybody else online?

0:04:31 Mr. Dines: No, ma'am. That was the only person waiting to talk.

0:04:35 Ms. Binder: Alright. Thank you, Mr. Dines, and thank you to the person who spoke. I couldn't hear all of the name, but thank you for patiently waiting. And our patiently waiter at the podium, please go ahead.

0:04:46 Don Rosier: Thank you. My name is Don Rosier and I live in La Plata, Maryland. I am here on behalf of the King George Builders Association because I'm the vice president and I've been asked to speak on behalf of the association. So our membership is a mix of individuals and businesses who offer services to the residents of a growing and evolving community, builders, electricians, kitchen and bath, flooring, banks, credit unions, glass shop, surveyors, insurance, home improvement, mortgage bankers, realtors, settlement agencies, title, the YMCA and tree service, and more. We support the development plan submitted by the Hertenstein Investment Group. As I sit here and listen to some of the commentary and the thoughts, if we go back 10, 20, 30, 40 years, there were people in roles that were obviously opposed to some of the houses that you may live in, and growth. So change isn't always a bad thing, and how we adapt to it's the thing. And so having a resident of this County, as well as in tune with business, who is in touch with the County's composition, is a positive.

Growth will come from this plan, as one that the County leaders can oversee, and part of what will become one of many projects. I'm hearing now, this is 15% of basically a 3200 home growth in the next 10 years. To think of how elaborate this has been thought through and evolved is quite impressive. And obviously, many adjectives can probably portray to what has been involved, frustrations and benefit of the community. So thank you for everybody and their efforts with this. A couple years back, I invited Dr. Nyman to come and speak to one of our meetings. Two of the things that he advocated right off the bat was the lack of internet and broadband service, and also the lack of affordable housing, which I chuckled, being from Southern Maryland. This is so cheap over here compared to what I'm accustomed to.

When you think of the housing, the way this price has gone up, the gap of affordable housing has spread for many, many people. And with that regard, if it were not for the historically low interest rates, many would be pushed to alternative areas, going into Westmoreland or other counties. If one looks at the impact of 1% rise in interest rates, you'd have your eyes opened quite a bit. People's housing needs vary, based on a myriad of factors: Age, duration of their stay, availability. We have a lot of military that are here, PCSing every four years. This plan addresses those in a positive way. I have faith in you, as leaders, for what you're looking to do as far as doing what's right for this County, and I think this plan will align with many of those. So I wanna thank you for your time for allowing the Builders Association provide some insight. 0:07:30 Ms. Binder: Thank you, made it right in on time. [chuckle] I will read a letter if somebody else would like to come up to the podium. "Good evening, Members of the Board, my name is Derrick Joines. I've been following this project for a while now, and I have to say that I thank Mr. Hertenstein, who has really stepped up for our County and is offering a lot to us with this project: Affordable living, townhouse, senior living 55 plus community, funding for schools, Fire and Rescue and police department, and seriously helping out with a major problem with the Service Authority housed at Purkins Corner. I do not want to see our water rates go up anymore, I don't feel this will affect our congestion level at all since this is located away from the heavily trafficked area of Dahlgren. I say vote yes tonight, I think this has been dragged out long enough and we can see all the benefits. Let's vote for the planned development that we need. Thank you. Derrick Joines, 7280 Passapatanzy, King George, Virginia." Mr. Baird.

0:08:21 Bob Baird: Thank you. Bob Baird, 15316 Kings Highway, King George, Virginia. I'm also a realtor in the County, and I just want to, one, say I'm personally in favor of the project, I'm in favor of cluster zoning, availability of an assortment of housing types, senior living as well as the medical facilities. I just wanna make you aware of one particular topic. Right now, there's a severe shortage of housing inventory in this County. As of Friday, there were four rentals available in the County, and there were 44 total homes available for sale in the County at any price. Only five of those for sale were considered to be affordable, less than $250,000, so we have a severe housing shortage. But I think we've alluded earlier in the day, that there's a couple sources of economic drivers in the County, and landfill, landfill's gonna go away, our major regional economic driver is the base at Dahlgren.

I have to tell you that I got a quote from the Public Affairs department at Dahlgren, where the base is estimating that as opposed to the approximate 12,000 employees they have associated with the base right now, by 2030 they're going to be growing to 20,000 workers, an increase of 8,000 workers, plus 1000 transients a year coming through to six and nine-month stints at the Aegis training school. Okay, where are we gonna put those people? If only 10% of those 8000 workers are heads of household, that's 800 homes. Okay. Here we're talking 450, a little over half of that, not counting any additional growth from other people. We're going to see growth from all kinds of sectors, but we're definitely gonna see projected growth in our major economic engine in this County, and we need to have the housing resources there to support them, so they can support us. Thank you.

0:10:36 Ms. Binder: Thank you, Mr. Baird. Mr. Bueche, do you have any correspondence to be read?

0:10:41 Mr. Bueche: I don't.

0:10:43 Ms. Binder: Okay, I'll just continue on it while someone else comes to the podium. "Good evening, King George Board of Supervisors, my name is Yvonne Richard of 8421 Cedar Lane, and I'm writing to provide public comment on the public hearing regarding the Villages development. I am unable to attend this meeting in person virtually, due to other commitments, but would like my comments to be read into the record. I'm in favor of the Villages Plan as presented multiple times by Mr. Hertenstein and his investment group. I think that the benefits of the plan presented strongly outweigh the negatives of the project. This project will bring much needed housing options to King George that will be affordable to teachers, first responders and other County employees. The Villages also offers at least 100 housing units that are age restrictive.

In addition with the provided proffers, the King George Service Authority will gain much needed revenue to help with the ongoing debt issues. By adding additional customers to the King George Service Authority system, the existing debt will spread out among more customers. While many in our community will argue that we don't need more housing, most real estate agents will tell you the available housing management doesn't offer many choices. Many teachers and first responders cannot afford to live in the County where they work. Yes, it is true that this development won't solve the issues with those salaries, but it'll provide some options for some that otherwise would not exist. While at this time it is still unknown if Mary Washington will follow through on building on the property, it's clear that we need additional medical facilities in King George, and if Mary Washington does not build after the specified time, the land reverts back to King George County. So denying this project for lack of a signed contract with a build date does not seem to be a logical excuse.

There are some people in our community who are against this project simply because of who is backing this project. And I don't know Mr. Hertenstein personally, but I've seen him and his wife offer to assist Mary Melbourne meet the needs of her Village many times with food and monetary donations, and I know that he made and donated insulated tumblers to the KGHS staff two years ago, and I have seen him supplying gasoline to the generators that provide lighting for the Rotary flag display. I also understand from posts I've seen on social media, that he recently got married at a venue in King George County and that adds to the revenue base. Finally, after reviewing the proffers being offered to King George, it seems that if not accepted, we are not likely to have any other developers coming to King George for a long time. Thank you, Yvonne Richard." Mr. Butler.

0:13:00 Gary Butler: Good evening, Gary Butler. I own EXIT Realty Expertise, just up the road here. A few things I'd like to discuss, one is following up on Bob's report on the lack of housing, even greater is the lack of a variety of housing. King George is between 80 and 90% zoned for agricultural two or agricultural one, two acre minimums or 10 acre minimums. This project doesn't change the rural character of something that is already zoned almost 90% for two acre minimums, much less the 10 acres that you find in the Shiloh district. What we do not have are apartments where sailors or new teachers can have a place where they don't have the responsibilities of home ownership. We have very few townhouses in the County, Mallards Landing is about the only one that has nice townhomes. Those properties, they don't even hit the market anymore because investors are looking to buy them even before they hit the market. We have no senior adult housing in the County, so this provides a variety of housing.

Everybody does not want to cut 2 acres of grass and much less 10 acres of grass, so we need to meet the needs of those people who don't fit that mold, and the County for many years, and so many people always speak justly so about retaining the rural nature of the County, but you have to have a mixture of both, and we have more than enough rural areas in the County that aren't gonna change. The second thing is urgent care center. Yes, we have a couple, but Mary Washington Hospital's here, the other ones are here. Having anything, Mary Washington Hospital in this County, is the ultimate. I've had lung surgery recently, and Mary Washington could meet the need where the other local hospital could not. If we don't approve this plan that's gonna provide about a million dollars as an incentive for Mary Washington Hospital to come here, then we can say bye bye forever to Mary Washington Hospital. Who else is gonna step up to the plate and provide them with the land and a half a million dollars and an incentive to be here?

Another thing is, following the Comprehensive Plan, there was no rezoning, so we're forcing any potential development in the County to come here and go through a two-year process plus and invest over a half a million dollars to get to tonight where the answer could be yes or it could be no. Who in their right mind wants to come here if this is turned down when they have met everything in the Comprehensive Plan and in addition to that, they've offered proffers, the likes of which I've never seen? And I've been...

0:16:09 Ms. Binder: Mr. Butler, your time is up. I'm sorry. And your name?

0:16:16 Brandon: [0:16:16] ____.

0:16:17 CB: Thank you, Brandon.

0:16:19 Mr. Brandon: Alright, I've worked in the land development business as a sales manager for 15 years all over the United States, five communities at Lake Anna, and that's just Virginia, but Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, all the way out to Washington State. I've never, ever seen somebody offer up what Darrell Hertenstein is offering up on this. You're talking about the goose that lays a golden egg. To turn this down would be insane, in my opinion. I think that you really have a good plan here, right where you say you want it, and it's just a shame that you have... That there is no by-right development for anything less than 2 acres. So if this gets turned down and it goes back to Alyce Jeter Jones, the owner of the property, what are you gonna get? In an area that you're designating as a high growth area, you're gonna get a handful of 2-acre lots, a handful of 2-acre houses and who does that help? That doesn't help us target growth away from the base the way the base wants it. They don't want it down there, they want it up here.

You know that, that's why you have the Comprehensive Plan the way that it is. So I urge you to approve this, approve it tonight. I've never seen anybody give the County everything that they asked for and more. He's done everything he could possibly do, just meet the needs of the County and the things that the Planning Department and the Planning Commission, and the Board of Supervisors has asked for. So I thank you.

0:18:13 Ms. Binder: Thank you, Mr. Butler. You have your email? Alright, Mr. Bueche.

0:18:21 Mr. Bueche: So, Madam Chair, I'm reading emails that were sent or one that was sent just to me, not the rest of the Board. From Rich Hale, 1679 5th Street, King George, Virginia, 22485. "Jeff, I can't make the meeting but I'm totally support of the Village project. It's financially a gain for the County, as well as a major help to the Service Authority, the commercial business that will come is a major attraction for tax revenue, the affordable housing options that are being offered are a major benefit as well. Thanks, Rich Hale."

0:19:00 Ms. Binder: Thank you, Mr. Bueche. Is that the only one you have?

0:19:03 Mr. Bueche: That's the only one I have...

0:19:03 Ms. Binder: Okay.

0:19:05 Mr. Bueche: That wasn't sent to the entire board.

0:19:07 Ms. Binder: Gotcha, go ahead.

0:19:10 Ryan Gass: Evening. Ryan Gass, 14285 Roundhill Road. I am here tonight as a King George County small business owner, as well as a resident. I am a husband and father of two young daughters. I would live within a few miles of this proposed project. I evacuated Maryland seven years ago to escape the overwhelming taxes and unconstitutional gun laws. I know that many others have already done so as well, as well as many that are seeking to do so, too, but we must also have the services and housing units available for those potential future residents. This will take us in that direction at a gradual controlled rate. I'd like to state that I'm in full favor of this project, and I look forward to all that it has to offer to our community. This opportunity that King George County is being presented with by Mr. Hertenstein is a huge boost to this County, and if disapproved, I can't imagine that anyone else would be willing to work as hard as this man has to bring another project of this caliber to our County. Mr. Hertenstein is a good, hardworking, blue collar man with an admirable professional record. With that, I would like to say that...

0:20:22 Ms. Binder: You have one minute left to the time.

0:20:22 Mr. Gass: Alright, thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to voice my support of this project, and must now go home to be up bright up early tomorrow to take my daughters to in- person learning that we have been so fortunate to find in these times when our local taxpayer- funded public schools have failed our family. Thank you all again.

0:20:41 Ms. Binder: And thank you, thank you for coming up and reading. I appreciate it. Next up, I am gonna read... I think everyone received this one. "I am asking that you read my email in response to my absence for this meeting, I am a lifelong resident of King George and I fully support this project. Please pass this and allow King George to benefit from all that this project and the Hertenstein Group have to offer our community." Thank you, Chris. And I'm probably gonna get this name wrong, Sacra, S-A-C-R-A. Somebody else like to come to the podium?

0:21:22 Dr. Henry Webb: Hi, I'm Dr. Henry Webb, I live over in Blackburn Run on Route 206. So I deal with the Dahlgren traffic twice a day coming in and leaving. Best thing ever happened was a stop light at 218, wonderful. I can actually get out of my driveway right now. I've heard a lot of numbers tonight and a lot of... On both sides, I don't deal with numbers really well, but I deal in images. In 1984, September, I drove over into Waldorf, Maryland, and it reminded me of King George today. That's an image, disappeared 30 years ago. If you go over there today, it's two hours to get through Waldorf to get up to Clinton. Second image, 1987, Garrisonville Road, Stafford, Virginia, about two miles up 610. Beautiful little two-lane road, country road. I drove it for many years. Today, what does it look like? The third image is over near the mall in Fredericksburg. On Sunday afternoon, I would go over in 1987 to teach my wife how to drive my standard truck, it was closed, you could actually get through there. Route 3 today looks like what King George will look like in the future. Waldorf ended up that way in less than 10 years. Thank you, ma'am, that's about all I have to say.

0:23:00 Ms. Binder: Thank you very much. Would somebody else like to come up and speak?

[pause]

0:23:20 Mr. Tolliver: Hello, I'm Ed Toliver. I live at 9277 Spy Hill Road, King George, Virginia. Lifelong resident of King George. Heard some excellent ideas this evening. I looked and I listened and I looked and I listened, and I see some things that I really don't like. First is the growth, just like this gentleman that just said, he's seeing. Being a country boy, I still live on a farm, love it here. Many people have moved to this area to get away from growth, tell me all the time, this is why they're here. I can see what's happening here. We have some people that have come in from out of town coming in here to make a big fortune, put it in a pocket, ride off. King George is gonna be stuck with supporting the sheriff's department, the money that's going in there will soon be gone; school system is gonna be overloaded, fire department and rescue squad... The money that's going in here three or four years, it'll be gone. Where is the money coming from to run these organizations, schools? From us, the taxpayers. I do not like it. I disapprove of this plan completely. Thank you.

0:24:42 Ms. Binder: Thank you, I don't have any more to read, so whoever else would like to come up.

[pause]

0:24:56 Sherman Davis: Good evening, my name is Sherman Davis. I live at 15203 Hall Road in King George, and I'm... For the past 44 years, I've been the pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church on Route 3, 10640 King's Highway. I appreciate y'all tonight. I know you've taken much time to do this for the last two years. I'm not here to make any enemies, I do that without even trying. But anyway, there's a lot of talk tonight about taxes at the beginning of the meetings and higher taxes, I have to admit that I really am excited about higher taxes. I'm so excited about higher taxes when I get my tax bill every year, I just write out a check for a couple of hundred extra more dollars in case they missed something, and I don't think that they miss much. But I am not excited about higher taxes in reality. I'm not excited about what's gonna happen to our sheriff's department, them trying to find, as hard as it is to find qualified people to do law enforcement, and I have seen big changes in the sheriff's department because of that, trying to find people. Thinking about our schools, schools are not even meeting.

I mean, the kids are learning at home, if they're learning anything, and the teachers are stressed out, trying to be able to try to teach children at home. They're working longer hours, many of them than they were when they were actually in school. And so our teachers are stressed, our... I'm not excited about the citizens that's gonna be coming here from our neighboring county, west, whatever, north, from our neighboring state. People come here because they're trying to get away from their higher taxes and congestion and crowded highways, and so they come here and to find out... And if we build east of King George another concrete jungle that's gonna fill our highways with... Going through our little town of King George with 450 more homes, I'm sure that you understand what that's gonna do to our highways, and to the congestion here.

I went to Fredericksburg last night, and when I got off of Route 3, I went to that... Across that bridge to nowhere, as soon as I hit Route 2, it was backed up all the way to Spotsylvania Mall. I'm not looking forward to that in King George County, being backed up from 301 all the way through King George with stop lights and people trying to get off it. We have a school on the 205 and Route 3 corner, a school at... A high school in King George and a middle school in King George, all that traffic going through in the mornings. If kids ever do go back to school...

0:27:48 Ms. Binder: Ten seconds.

0:27:48 Mr. Davis: Trying to... My time up?

0:27:53 Ms. Binder: Yup, you got... You have one more point, one more sentence. I interrupted you.

0:27:57 Mr. Davis: I am... All my motives are selfish. [chuckle] I'm pretty sure that those here that are wanting to see the project go through, they probably have some selfish motives too, I'm sure there are some selfish motives involved in all of that.

0:28:14 Ms. Binder: Thank you.

0:28:14 Mr. Davis: Evening.

[pause]

0:28:15 Ms. Binder: Oh, yes, thank you, Mr. Butler. It's in my paperwork and not in my computer. Thank you for reminding me.

0:28:33 TC Collins: Good evening, Madam Chair, members of the board, Mr. Britton, Dr. Young, Miss Hall. I come before you this evening. I don't speak much in public, except on Mondays, but I've been watching the Board of Supervisors and the Planning Commission for years. I attend most meetings, either in person or virtually, and I've watched the Comprehensive Plan take fold. It was a very complex plan where you had... I'm sorry, TC Collins, 6055 Marineview Road. The plan was brought to every district in King George, and it was town halls explaining the plan. So all that took place and the citizens agreed to this Comprehensive Plan, the Board of Supervisors agreed to this Comprehensive Plan, so I implore you to follow your Comprehensive Plan. We know we're gonna get development, let's make sure that we get the best we can out of that development. I think you have in front of you, that particular plan. I also wanna just go on... So when you have someone come in to the community, you want them to invest in King George. Two, you want them to spend their money in King George, and three, you want them to give back to King George. I think that Mr. Hertenstein does all three of those. When you talk about give to King George, I personally know that every need that is requested, he does. Gives turkeys out to [0:30:12] ____ Circle Services, clothes to people, high school, driving over there... The driving range is free, I can go on and on and on, Flags For Heroes. Every time there's a need, he gives. So I think you have to consider not only your Comprehensive Plan, but you also have to consider the type of people that we want here in our community, which he is a citizen of this community. Thank you very much.

0:30:40 Ms. Binder: Thank you. I'll read this letter. I apologize to Miss Jeter Jones. Alyce Jeter Jones: "Dear supervisors, I enthusiastically support the rezoning request by Mr. Darrell Hertenstein referenced in Case Number 1903-Z02, my family, the Jeters, have been involved tax- paying contributors, as well as residents and business owners in King George County for much of the last century. My grandfather, Mr. Guy M. Jeter and my father, Mr. Harold M. Jeter, chose the County as a location to pursue their dreams, to raise their families, to farm and establish and build their lumber business. In doing so, they supported and contributed greatly to the progress and growth of the County over many years. My brother deceased, and I spent most of our formative years in King George, both having attended King George High School. I personally have been a property owner in the County since 1991 and feel a personal attachment to King George and its future.

That future must include a look forward with carefully planned and executed development to ensure that current and future residents and dreamers have the same opportunities that my family has had in our beautiful County. I believe firmly that this rezoning request, the proposed development associated with it, and the increased revenues that the development will bring directly and positively support that future. I'm confident that my father and grandfather, if they were here today, would agree with my assessment and support. I strongly request your positive consideration of the request. Sincerely, Alyce J. Jones." Go ahead, ma'am.

0:32:11 Barbara Shelby: Good evening. How are you all? My name is Barbara Shelby. I live at 12508 Temple Drive. And I would love to hear the conclusion of Mr. Hayes's presentation. And I'd like to donate him by three minutes.

0:32:27 Ms. Binder: I already gave him his... He's done. If you'd like to make a comment, go right ahead.

0:32:31 Ms. Shelby: Well, contrary to popular belief, I don't think that growth is inevitable. And a gentleman earlier spoke about the golden egg, it might be painted gold, but then you have to wonder what the egg's gonna smell like. Thank you.

0:32:46 Ms. Binder: Anybody else would like to come up to the podium?

0:32:58 Brett Maffett: Brett Maffett, 14776 Peach Tree Lane. I get it. I've watched this play out before. I've watched this play out in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, now here. We chose here for a reason because of how it is. And we can have all the plans we want, they'll never deal according to plan, everybody knows that. We can designate this golden triangle in King George, that's where all the development is supposed to take place. It'll never happen in that way. You open these flood gates, you will never close them, period. This community that we all profess to love, and you can tell by the emotion in this room, will cease to exist the way it is. That is the reality of this situation. You wanna develop this town and develop it responsibly, townhomes and apartment buildings are not the way. They never will be. That's not why we moved here, that's not why we stay here. You don't like this type of living, you shouldn't move to this community.

And Mr. Bueche, I understand we need the revenue, I get it, I have an MBA. This is not the way to raise that revenue. The golden egg, is this the best plan we'll ever get? I don't know. I can't say that, I can't see the future. But why mortgage our future on the first one where all they're doing is coming in and essentially bribing us for years of mismanagement of our services, and saying, "Hey, we'll fix that, we'll sweep it all under the rug if you let us in and let us make our money."

You don't being a team of suits if there's not an absolute crap ton of money on the table. And yeah, he might be a good guy, I don't know. I don't know this man. He looks like someone I'd like to hunt with probably. But it's about money. It always will be. We need it, they want it. It's our land. This process should be hard. We shouldn't spend less than two and a half years to decide how we wanna shape the future of this County. This shouldn't be an easy decision, so to make light of that, which other people have, I think is irresponsible. And I applaud you all for drawing this out. Because again, this is the floodgate, and at some point you need to decide, do you wanna live in a place like Northern Virginia, in Southern Maryland, or do you wanna live here? And that's effectively the choice that you have in front of you. And I get all these proffers and last minute adds to everything. And I get that he's now on the hunt to build a building for a hospital, which will never be a hospital, at best, a high end urgent care.

But is he gonna staff that? We don't... No, absolutely not. Yeah, sure. He's contracted to build a building. I can go build a building in my backyard, it doesn't mean I'm gonna put people in it. It'll never be an emergency room. They've already said that. So I don't know why we keep fooling ourselves that this is gonna be something that it's never gonna be. So that's all I have to say. Obviously, it's in your hands, I wouldn't like for you to do this, but it is what it is.

0:36:11 Ms. Binder: Thank you. Thank you for your time. Podium is free. I'll give it a minute to... If anyone would like to come up and speak. Is there anyone left who would like to speak?

0:36:37 Kim Dodge: I'm Kim Dodge, 6150 McCarthy Drive. And I live in Hopyard, which I realized people, before I moved here, didn't want Hopyard to come. I bought in Hopyard because that was the only home, there was no homes. I needed to buy a home, and actually, I paid too much money for it. It was out of my price range. So there really isn't affordable homes here. And there aren't homes for sale either, when you move here. That was a problem. I had looked in Fredericksburg and everywhere else, but I ended up over here. I know that the zoning is just zoning the residential area. My concern was when they said they aren't the builders, they're gonna just do the infrastructure, the roads, and then they have another builder come in. Hopyard did that too, when we had the housing market crash, we had I think Ryan and I forgot what my builder's name was, they were building quality homes, but they were very overpriced. Now, since the housing market crash 10 years later, Ryan has come over and they have supposedly done affordable homes.

I listen to my new neighbors moving into those sections and their homes are already falling apart. And that was my only concern is, we'd want quality, but I know that's not rezoning for a housing area. But when you say you're gonna do affordable homes and then I heard the name Ryan, I was like, "Oh no," because these new people, young people, they don't want to buy a home and have a mortgage on it and then their roof is already leaking and everything's falling apart and all that. So we need affordable but also quality construction. And as far as affordable, you have to look at what you're paying per square foot because a lot of times, these homes will be cheaper, but they've really crammed those people into a really small space and then on top of each other, and that's more crime. That's always more crime when you do that. So I know it's just zoning for the homes, but it kind of concerned me when... He's just gonna sell it to a builder, and then say, affordable homes make cheap homes. So as somebody here in the development, we want nice homes but affordable. But we don't want them falling apart right away. So that was just my only concern. Thank you.

0:39:04 Ms. Binder: Last calls or anyone who would like to come up and give public comment? Final call. Alright, I will be closing public comment. Alright. Let's see. Let's start with Ms. Hall. I'm gonna go down the line and ask each of my colleagues if they'd like to ask a question, Ms. Hall. And then we'll bring Mr. Davis up and we'll ask him questions. And the gentlemen from Mary Washington Healthcare. Mr. Granger.

0:39:36 Mr. Granger: So, just for Ms. Hall at the moment. Okay.

0:39:40 Ms. Binder: Just for Ms. Hall.

0:39:40 Mr. Granger: I don't have much. I know that we've had this before, before the Board so we've discussed it a number of times. The one thing I'll ask 'cause I know Mr. Hertenstein did provide, and industry provided a development portfolio. And so I appreciate you providing that to help better understand. Ms. Hall, do you have anything you wanna weigh in on what you see in here in regards to the type of development that they're proposing and compared to the kinds of things they've done in the past? I'll just be honest, when I look at it, I know Mr. Hertenstein, I believe is more of a commercial developer, and there was also the gentleman, Shalaby, I apologize if I mispronounced his name, who's done some other construction types, but it looked like those homes were of smaller, or lots were of smaller sizes, so I was just wondering if you had any insights looking at this. Does this have any impact on community development's perspective of the proposal or anything?

0:40:44 Ms. Hall: Mr. Granger, to be clear, are you asking the background in regards to Cameron Hills Links estate, as well as the other King George, Kings Crossing?

0:40:55 Mr. Granger: I'm asking across the board in anything you know about any of these developments and industry take on them, in regards to the proposal. 0:41:11 Ms. Hall: Let's start with the Cameron Hills Links estate. It's noted in here that it's considered mixed-use development. While that definition is, varies, by our ordinance it is not mixed use, it's actually zoned A-1 with a special exception for a golf course that was obtained by the previous owners in 1990. They did make notes in their paragraph that there was a rezoning that was denied. I believe that that is in reference to previously Mr. Weston Holmes had interest to purchase the golf course and build those luxury homes and had asked the Board for financial assistance, expedited permits from the Board in which that was denied. There was not a request for rezoning at that time. We currently do have under review, the minor subdivision for the golf course property, which consist of one 40-acre parcel, five 10-acre parcels and the remainder of the golf course or a driving range of 141 acres. It does make mention of a conservation easement that subdivision plat does not acknowledge that. However, if it's not for storm water use or purpose, it's not required review by my department.

As far as King Crossing, the description states that Hertenstein design had subdivided it into a state lot subdivision. This property was previously subdivided in 2002, 2003 under a previous ordinance that allowed 10-acre lot by an exempt subdivision, which would not require VDOT roads, storm water management, etcetera, other infrastructure facilities. Augustine had attempted a rezone in the past. They inadvertently consolidated those lots. In 2018, they did request to vacate that consolidation plat, and go back to that 2002, 2003 plat. In 2018 Hertenstein had applied for a rezoning for lots 11 and 12 of Kings Crossing for about 50 townhomes. However, he removed his request after the Planning Commission's public hearing. At this time, there are 12 10-acre lots in which Westbrook Homes has built on. Is there anything else I can help you with?

0:43:41 Mr. Granger: No. I appreciate it. Thank you.

0:43:43 Ms. Hall: Thank you.

0:43:47 Ms. Binder: Mr. Stonehill.

0:43:56 Mr. Stonehill: Ms. Hall, to date, is there... To go back to the signed contract for Mary Washington about anything. What's the most recent you have on that?

0:44:13 Ms. Hall: We received today the second amendment to the Land Transfer Agreement. I believe you have a copy at your desk. Would you like me to read it aloud?

0:44:23 Mr. Stonehill: No, I've already read it. I'm just saying, is there... I mean, I saw this, that just came today. Yes, sir. It got to us today.

0:44:33 Ms. Hall: It just came today.

0:44:34 Mr. Stonehill: There's nothing else that's signed. This is a transfer of land, right?

0:44:42 Ms. Hall: That was all that was submitted.

0:44:50 Mr. Stonehill: That's all I have for her. [overlapping conversation]

0:44:53 Ms. Hall: I'm sorry, sir?

0:44:57 Ms. Binder: That's all the questions he had.

0:45:00 Mr. Stonehill: That's all I have for you. Thank you.

0:45:00 Ms. Hall: Thank you.

0:45:01 Ms. Binder: Mr. Bueche?

0:45:04 Mr. Bueche: I have a couple, so the issues that popped up the last time this was presented with the proffers in the absence of a contract. Today, a Land Transfer Agreement came out, but the properties were accepted as well, which Mr. Britton, our County attorney, had worked on. So it looks like that's enforceable, correct? At the end of the day, we're guaranteed that a medical facility will be built, whether it's from the developer or Mary Washington. Is that... I just want clarity on that, is that a fact?

0:45:48 Mr. Britton: As long as the project goes forward, yeah, as long as the site plan's filed, then the developer switched it from having a contract to the developer, which is what the proffer should be is required to build that medical facility between 10 and 14,000 square feet.

0:46:08 Mr. Bueche: And the way it reads now we, as a County, now have the power to enforce that correct, if he doesn't do it, then we can shut it down. Is that correct?

0:46:22 Mr. Britton: Yes, now it's a proffer to the County from the developer and the developer's on the hook as opposed to just having a contract with a third party. Yes, the County can now enforce it.

0:46:31 Mr. Bueche: Thank you. And then, for Ms. Hall. So, for the process, so tonight, a lot of people spoke about this fits in our Comprehensive Plan. It's the rezoning that fits into your Comprehensive Plan, which I tend to agree with, because I was the chairman when we wrote this Comprehensive Plan. What I want to know is if the rezoning fits our Comprehensive Plan, what are the next steps? Like this still have to go through different phases, this still has to go before the Planning Commission multiple times, still has to come before the Board multiple times, even if it were to pass tonight. Is that correct? And can you elaborate on what that process is, please?

0:47:16 Ms. Hall: So, I think your first question was, is it in line with the Comprehensive Plan, staff absolutely agrees with that. The second question was what happens next. So, should the rezoning go through tonight, the developer will come back with division plat's construction plans. Under our current ordinance, that would require at minimum, Planning Commission review during those public meetings, not necessarily a public hearing, but those by... It would become by-right development that would be reviewed by the Planning Commission as well as staff. That also would include VDOT review, Service Authority review, Fire and Rescue review, any other agency that would need to weigh in on that project, the Wetlands Crossing, all that would be reviewed in detail with those construction documents.

0:48:10 Mr. Bueche: And then my last question, so going back in time because this has been evolving over the years. Initially, I believe it was submitted without a inter-parcel connector, and then...

0:48:23 Ms. Hall: That's correct.

0:48:25 Mr. Bueche: It was pointed out, I believe, the project was actually denied a recommendation at the Planning Commission because that inter-parcel connector was not there, in accordance with our subdivision ordinance. And that is in there and proffered, that's locked in, that has to be built, correct?

0:48:42 Ms. Hall: That's correct. Yes, sir.

0:48:44 Mr. Bueche: Thank you very much, Ms. Hall.

0:48:47 Ms. Hall: You're welcome.

0:48:47 Ms. Binder: Ms. Hall, I have several questions. One being, this property, if it was rezoned, I know there has been constituents that have asked once that is rezoned then it opens up all the other properties near it that are currently zoned differently, like agricultural, to be opened up to be R-3. Is that correct or not?

0:49:08 Ms. Hall: This property is the only property that would be rezoned by this application. Any other property in the neighboring areas, preferably in the settlement area as outlined in our Comprehensive Plan, would have to go through the same process as this property.

0:49:24 Ms. Binder: Correct. I just wanted you to clarify that because that had comments from peoples. And then I think it's Mount Rose, how would that affect... So one resident spoke that lived down there tonight about Mount Rose, which is for those in the public, is almost directly across, correct, on Route 3?

0:49:41 Ms. Hall: So, when we... I also believe, if they haven't gone to bed yet, VDOT is on the line as well. But initially, when this project first started, we sat down with the applicant, VDOT, to do what's called a Traffic Impact Analysis Scoping Meeting. And we recognized the areas along Route 3, 301, the intersections at 205, 301, etcetera. However, Mount Rose does not have any... It would not perpetuate a significant increase to that area. It doesn't have a high volume of traffic today, as well as the previous original application was just under the 5,000 trips per day requirement for that traffic impact analysis, so they concentrated on the major intersections, which was agreeable to VDOT.

0:50:35 Ms. Binder: Thank you. And then, with a lot of the documentation, like the second amendment to land transfer, the F&M Bank, the development portfolio, this other, I couldn't even name... All these documents were sent in the... Less than 24 hours, correct, or a little over 24 hours? 0:50:52 Ms. Hall: They were received yesterday and today. Yes, ma'am.

0:50:55 Ms. Binder: Right. And I applaud you and Mr. Britton for actually being able to read all these documents in that amount of time. I mean, is there anything that might have been missed in such a short amount... I know you're very efficient and very thorough, but my concern is, all these documents in a very small amount of time. But one question I had and you mentioned the projects here in the development portfolio... Hold on, I'm going to the end. There's a lot of projects here. Some of them I've been in, some of them were really nice. But one thing that's listed here is Chatham Village, and from my understanding that had some issues in its original inclination, correct? That is listed as a King George project from Mr. Shalaby.

0:51:47 Ms. Hall: Chatham Village was done very early in my career with King George, I believe that all that was approved prior to, however, if memory serves, we did have issues with the developer finishing the roads and getting them into the system.

0:52:00 Ms. Binder: But that was a long time ago. Correct?

0:52:03 Ms. Hall: Yes, ma'am.

0:52:04 Ms. Binder: Alright, thank you, that's all the questions I have. Mr. Davis? I'll go down the line again this time. Mr. Granger, you're up.

0:52:15 Mr. Granger: Yes ma'am. I guess I'll ask, we have the letter of credit, which I appreciate you providing. I'm a little... I guess I'm a little confused about the relationship, Mr. Newville. I apologize if I mispronounced your name. Are you a member of the Hertenstein Investment Group? Or are you a partner with the Hertenstein Investment Group? Partner? Is that a formal arrangement? Is there some kind of documentation? Because I see the letter of credit is... You have an agreement? A formal agreement? Okay. If you were to wanna walk away, and I'm not saying you are, I'm just asking 'cause I know the letter of credit's in your name, what is... How's that work? You can't walk away.

0:53:03 Ms. Binder: Hold on a second. Mr. Granger, could you come up to the microphone? Just so the public and people online can hear you.

0:53:10 Greg Newville: I'm sorry. Yes, there's no walking away, it's irrevocable.

0:53:13 Mr. Granger: Okay, Mr. Britton, and not that I don't believe you, but is there any documentation that we could have seen or have seen that...

0:53:23 Mr. Newville: I believe he was working with our bank. I don't know if you talked to Keith or... No? I've misspoken.

0:53:28 Mr. Granger: Mr. Britton, can you...

0:53:30 Mr. Britton: I'm sorry, I couldn't hear the... 0:53:31 Mr. Granger: Again, not that I don't believe him, but can you corroborate that they have a binding... Some kind of binding relationship that brings the two of them together since I know that the Mr. Newville seems to be the financial backing, and I know it's the Hertenstein Investment Group that's asking for the rezoning?

0:53:49 Mr. Britton: Well, Mr. Davis sent over a letter of credit today or yesterday, I can't remember. It's a fairly standard document, it's from an Iowa bank, which apparently... I forget his...

Greg... I don't need to know his last name. [chuckle] That Greg has a good relationship with, so he obviously used that bank and he's got substantial funds. This is a letter of credit relating to the Service Authority piece of this project. There are two sets of milestones and triggers under this project, one is occupancy permit-based and one is time-based. The Service Authority portion of the project is time-based, and so from... If a rezoning were granted, within a certain period of time, I think it's 90 days or something, there has to be $250,000 given to the Service Authority. Actually, this letter of credit isn't necessary for that because Mr. Davis has that $250,000 in his escrow account. Thereafter, the milestones come year to year to year, but it's essentially a million dollars a year, which is why this is a three-year letter of credit. I think you're asking to corroborate what was just said, it is an irrevocable letter of credit. Okay, however, it is not a revolving irrevocable letter of credit. Mr. Davis... I just haven't had it long, but Mr. Davis can feel free to correct me or contradict me on this, but it is cancelable at the option of the bank on an annual basis, so it's irrevocable during that period of time, but it is not a revolving letter of credit, so in other words, it's not permanent.

0:55:42 Mr. Granger: Does the County have any recourse if the bank wants to cancel, to push back on that?

0:55:48 Mr. Britton: Yes.

0:55:48 Mr. Granger: Okay.

0:55:48 Mr. Britton: So bonds are called, you call a bond, and then, it's like an insurance company, and the bonding company can come in and decide, do we agree with you? Is the developer in default? Can... Is your price for cure good? We'll get another construction company. Letters of credit are not that way. Letters of credit is, Heather says that "the developer's in default and give me this amount of money" and they have to do it unless they dishonor, 'cause it's been too long. So, the issue here, the only issue that I see, and maybe Mr. Davis can address this... When I'm responding, I assume you want me to respond to Greg's statement that he can't walk away, is my understanding of this one is that the bank can revoke it on an annual basis, and if the bank revokes it, then the County can call the remainder if the developer is in default.

0:56:50 Mr. Granger: What if the developer is not default, but they still cancel?

0:56:54 Mr. Britton: So there's a unique provision of bonds and letters of credit, that you have to state exactly what's in the letter of credit, it's called a draft, a bond is called, calling the bond exactly the way it's drafted. This one is drafted that the developer would have to be in default.

0:57:14 Mr. Granger: I'm sorry, that the...

0:57:16 Mr. Britton: The developer would have to be in default.

0:57:18 Mr. Granger: Would have to be?

0:57:20 Mr. Britton: Would have... Yes, it says that you have to set a statement under one and two, and two states requires, "We are drawing against a standby letter of credit... " Which I don't know why it doesn't say irrevocable there, but it should. "We are drawing against a standby letter of credit, number 1396, as Hertenstein Investment Group LLC and co-applicant has failed to comply with the terms and conditions of the water and sewer agreement." So maybe, I know Mr. Davis does a lot of these as well, maybe he can illuminate us on that, but if the bank decided not to renew the letter of credit, typically on a letter of credit, you can call and get the money. But in this case, there is a requirement that Mr. Hertenstein... If he said, "But I'm not in default, I've done everything I was supposed to do," then we couldn't make that affirmative statement. I don't know whether this is a anomaly of Iowa law. I don't know whether they've adopted the Uniform Commissioner Code on commercial paper, that's another sort of anomaly under that. But it is an irrevocable standby letter of credit for the Service Authority piece, which is $3 million. And really, typically, I'm not sure we'd see it at this point.

0:58:44 Mr. Davis: It's fairly early for a letter of credit in my experience.

0:58:47 Mr. Britton: Right.

0:58:47 Mr. Davis: Usually this comes along at the construction phase when we're asked to bond the roads and things like that. So in my estimation and in my experience, not that it means all that much to you all, but this was a pretty extraordinary step for, to bond, essentially, a proffer like this. In my experience, this appears to be just fairly kind of your boilerplate, like you said, irrevocable non-revolving letter of credit. I would note that on the final draft, I have Hertenstein Investment Group is listed as the co-applicant. And again, Mr. Britton can agree or disagree with me on this, but I think the important part is that the beneficiary is the Service Authority. And it provides that if they default in their payment obligations under the Service Authority agreement, the County could just come to the bank and say, "Hey, they've defaulted under their obligations, under the Service Authority agreement, pay us." That's my interpretation of it.

0:59:52 Mr. Britton: The last thing I would say, Mr... If I may, Madam Chair, Mr. Granger, is that the letter of credit would kick in... If nothing happened, if the rezoning were granted and nothing happened, Mr. Davis is duty bound to pay the County, as I understand, the whole proffer, the $250,000 within 90 days of this being granted. This letter of credit kicks in after the site plan approval.

1:00:21 Mr. Davis: Well, for the whole $3 million, the first 250 really becomes kind of a non- issue. We had them issue it for the full three million, but really, I already have the 250 in my firm's trust account. The letter of credit gets reduced every time a payment's made, so three million after the 250 you'll have made, will become 2.75. It gets reduced in that respect.

1:00:48 Mr. Britton: Right. Madam Chair, that's like two lawyers in court, I know this is gonna get tedious. I think the point I was trying to make was that, what the applicant is on the hook for, if nothing else ever happened after a rezoning approval, is 250. The second thing that happens is the applicant will purchase $500,000 worth of ERCs, that's hookups in advance, within 90 days of site plan approval. That's what I was getting at. So if nothing ever happened and they never filed a site plan, they'd still have to pay $250,000, but he has that in an escrow account, so this letter of credit would never kick in.

1:01:24 Mr. Granger: Okay, I also heard you say something along the lines about, you didn't know if it's some nuance of Iowa law. Is there any concern that this is an Iowa bank for any reason? Do we have any knowledge about that or do we need to worry about that in any way?

1:01:40 Mr. Britton: If this zoning were granted, I would go to Mr. Davis and I would say, "Is there any way that you can get this to Virginia, if it is a concern and is there any way that you can remove the default provision?" Those are the two things that I would do. The Iowa issue is, we gotta go to Iowa. So you gotta hire an Iowa lawyer in Iowa, and send Heather to Iowa. We did look back when I got this, and we could find one out-of-state bonding company that we allowed, but they did produce a certificate of which the bank wouldn't need for a letter of credit, but a certificate to do business in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and it was under Virginia law and jurisdiction. So that would be the difference. Typically, the reason that people fight for venue is because they don't wanna go to Iowa, [chuckle] 'cause it just... Then they're not doing their job here. But I think that's something that can be... That's why I was giving you the timing, Mr. Granger.

1:02:45 Mr. Granger: Okay. Thank you.

1:02:46 Mr. Britton: The 250 is the one, but this is a bit cart before the horse on a letter of credit. It's something that you wouldn't see at this point typically, and there wouldn't be a letter of credit on the project because nobody could give it, because it has not been approved.

1:03:01 Mr. Granger: Correct, yeah. Yeah. Is it okay if I ask a question of the Mary Washington representative?

1:03:09 Ms. Binder: Yeah, go on. Mr. Fletcher?

1:03:10 Mr. Granger: I'm not sure which group I'm supposed to be asking about.

1:03:12 Ms. Binder: I got it right this time, right, Mr. Fletcher? [chuckle]

1:03:14 Eric Fletcher: That's right.

1:03:16 Mr. Granger: Sir, I appreciate you coming out here for the late night, thank you for attending. Everyone, actually. So Mary Washington, I know is currently at a facility in King George and serving through an urgent care facility, and so I'm gonna ask... Let's say, for the sake of argument, this proposal gets rejected, is Mary Washington moving out of King George from that facility?

1:03:40 Mr. Fletcher: No, we're currently in an urgent care along Kings Highway. What we are excited about, with this particular project, is the opportunity to expand services. So if you've seen, we just finished a development like this on Stafford Lakes Parkway in Stafford County. That's a good one to look at. That one's 10,000 square feet and in addition to urgent care has physical therapy services and additional lab services and imaging, primary care, specialty care. And that's a 10,000 square foot. This, we envision being larger than that, so we think this is a very significant upgrade to the services that would be available in the County.

1:04:23 Mr. Granger: Could you run through what services you think might be provided that would be beyond the ones that you're currently at in your current facility in King George?

1:04:31 Mr. Fletcher: So the ones I just mentioned, so I think the one that's ripe is outpatient physical therapy would be a must, expanded lab, expanded imaging, potentially; more primary care, which is a big problem in the County access, and access to specialists as well. We would look to rotate specialists through, so that people don't have to travel so far to get those services.

1:04:55 Mr. Granger: Okay. And so I know the proposal's for an urgent care and we talked about, numerous times, about moving on to a satellite ER or a hospital at some point, and I know that has to do with population sizes, and so I won't ask those questions again, but I will ask, I guess, 14,000-square foot, footprint, is that big enough for a satellite ER or would it need to be expanded on, and if it would need to be expanded on, does that site provide enough space in order to expand?

1:05:27 Mr. Fletcher: Yeah. So just like in the County, you have to build your schools for the number of students you anticipate educating. In healthcare, we build facilities for the number of patients we anticipate seeing. And so to answer your question, free-standing EDs are 15-20,000 square feet, but you would need a significant volume of patients that need that emergency level of care. King George currently doesn't have that.

1:05:58 Mr. Granger: Okay. So would a 14,000-square foot facility be big enough for a satellite ER, let me ask that question?

1:06:10 Mr. Fletcher: Yeah, if the whole thing was dedicated to a free-standing ED, that would be enough, right? But I think what we're talking about is building an outpatient facility and leaving ourselves room to grow with the County, as the County grows.

1:06:25 Mr. Granger: Okay, so when you say grow, do you mean like actually increasing the footprint of the building?

1:06:31 Mr. Fletcher: Could be.

1:06:32 Mr. Granger: Could be. 1:06:33 Mr. Fletcher: We're ways out, so...

1:06:34 Mr. Granger: I understand, I'm just asking if, based on the acreage, if that's even a possibility.

1:06:40 Mr. Fletcher: Yeah, yeah, so...

1:06:41 Mr. Granger: Or it's like, no, that 14,000 is the max that we could put on there.

1:06:44 Mr. Fletcher: No, you could... Because the 14,000 is kind of one level, you could add on to a facility like that and you could go up if you needed to.

1:06:55 Mr. Granger: Okay, okay, okay. Thank you.

1:07:01 Ms. Binder: Mr. Granger, do you have... I'll bring Mr. Weakley up, if you have any questions for Service Authority portion, do you have any?

1:07:06 Mr. Granger: Sure, yeah, I'll... Let's run through them all. Mr. Weakley.

1:07:10 Ms. Binder: Poor Mr. Weakley standing there, I really appreciate you staying.

1:07:18 Mr. Granger: Did you want to let everyone run through the questions for Mr. Weakley so he could go?

1:07:22 Ms. Binder: Yeah, that's what...

1:07:23 Mr. Granger: Okay. Mr. Weakley, I appreciate you sticking around for this, I know it's a long night and I'm sure tomorrow will be a fun day too, or this morning, later today. [chuckle]

1:07:38 Mr. Weakley: We got a water leak in Dahlgren right now, so we're doing okay.

1:07:41 Mr. Granger: Oh man. I'll try to be brief. I recognize, I think one of the more attractive parts of this proposal is the dollars that would go to the Service Authority, and I think we've discussed that a fair bit as well, and the value that could provide. I don't know if it's necessarily a silver bullet, but it's something that would help. But let me ask you this, you talked a little bit earlier tonight about drawing from the groundwater and permits and limits, and how much can be drawn. If this development were to be approved, how much more capacity for groundwater... Pulling from the groundwater would we have available to the County?

1:08:21 Mr. Weakley: So I appreciate that question, I appreciate our earlier conversations, you allowed me to go through and do some calculations. So we currently use about 310,000 gallons per month for this, the courthouse system, this development or proposed development with commercial and all, we look at about 135, so it will leave you around 33,400 gallons, which we estimate would leave about a little over 100 ERCs remaining for water service. I don't wanna confuse the sewer side. It's already spoken for in the service agreement. 1:08:58 Mr. Granger: Correct, correct. Okay, and what would 33,000 equate to roughly?

1:09:06 Mr. Weakley: It would provide roughly just a little over 100 ERCs. So that's single- family dwellings, roughly.

1:09:21 Mr. Granger: Okay. Once that limit is hit, what is the process for moving forward with getting expanded accessibility to groundwater permits?

1:09:34 Mr. Weakley: So what happens... And again, for those in the audience and online, the groundwater withdrawal permit 'cause I know we think, water, okay, we're with VDH, no, this is through Department of Environmental Quality. There's an application, there's a check, there's always a check of somewhere, when we looked at Dahlgren, I think it was about $9,000 with the application, and you submit various amount of data, you can't just go in and say, "I want another half a million gallon per day," you gotta show, this is planned development, this is beyond just immediate now. The current withdrawal permits are good for 10 years, now the permits that they're drafting and approving go to 15 years. So for example, Hopyard, we haven't received that one, we have to project year 2034. So, here, you would provide funding, the application, the data that says, "Hey, this is the amount of extra capacity we need," and then you wait. There is no guarantee that they would give you 100% of what you request, there's no guarantee that they would not give you 100%. But it is essentially in their hand. DEQ is very concerned about the Potomac aquifer. But there is an expansion process.

1:10:56 Mr. Granger: Okay, so I guess looking at this, if we were to move forward with this development, it could curtail, at least for the time being, a whole lot of further development in that area, because there's just not a whole lot of ERCs available. And then we'd have to go through DEQ and whether they approve it or not would be not 100%. Is that kind of an accurate sum up?

1:11:23 Mr. Weakley: Somewhat. We don't... 'Cause it is essentially in their hand. I will say that this project, this proposed, or executed service agreement, but it's only valid pending approval, that only equates to 150 purchased ERCs on the sewer side. So just like we would have roughly 70-some remaining ERCs on the sewer side, if this were approved on the water side, you would have just roughly a little over 100 ERCs. So some room, nothing... I know there was a Development Review Committee, I guess, is what we're calling it now, on the 5th, they were looking at another project. Anything of size... We had before us tonight, 450. I think we've heard Founders Hill is somewhere, I think, in the neighborhood of 300 and some units. There's another one out there. It could be 200 and some units, so anything of that size, it would present complications, 'cause we're saying that we would have roughly about 100 ERCs on the water side. If this were to go through, you would be left with about 70 or so remaining on the sewer side to serve any future projects.

1:12:41 Mr. Granger: Okay, and that's dealing with the DEQ portion of it, not necessarily what our wells actually hold?

1:12:47 Mr. Weakley: That is correct, because VDH will give you a certificate to operate your facility, and there's engineering description sheets that say, "This is your capacity." DEQ says, "Hold the phone. This is what we're gonna permit withdrawal on."

1:13:02 Mr. Granger: What would be our capacity, just from the well perspective, taking out of the equation the whole permitting process and just what we could pull? Based on what... Infrastructure we have in place.

1:13:16 Mr. Weakley: So you're talking about the well yield, the actual capacity of that facility. So that one, I apologize. I do not have that in front of me tonight. I just brought the known value of the withdrawal, so I'd have to follow up to you and the Board what the actual...

1:13:30 Mr. Granger: Do you know, do we currently have enough capacity there to meet all the needs for the water from this proposal?

1:13:36 Mr. Weakley: Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

1:13:38 Mr. Granger: Thank you. I don't have any other questions for Mr. Weakley, so I'll leave it to anyone else, if they wanna ask him.

1:13:44 Ms. Binder: Mr. Stonehill, do you have any?

1:13:50 Mr. Stonehill: No, I don't think so. I think if we do run out of water, you can just come put a pump in my yard. I have plenty of it. You can... I'll share.

1:13:56 Mr. Weakley: Dahlgren has a lot. I heard you talking earlier. It's making its way in our sewer systems here.

1:14:01 Ms. Stonehill: Yeah, I'll share. No, just long as the water is there for the development of this size, I believe that's all I have for him.

1:14:11 Ms. Binder: Mr. Bueche?

1:14:13 Mr. Bueche: Thank you, Madam Chair. So Mr. Weakley, this is spread out over 10 years. So my questions would most likely or will look at Purkins Corner. Like I said, I take our Comprehensive Plan very seriously. When we passed it, I wanted to be sure that this wasn't just words, that there was fluff in here, something that sounded good. If it wasn't realistic, I didn't wanna affix my name to it. With that, Purkins Corner was essential to, not only the Comp Plan, but also our Economic Development Strategic Plan. Without Purkins Corner, if we move everything down to Hopyard, I believe what we're looking at is stalling or not seeing any development in our primary settlement area that we described in there. That's pretty much void. So with Purkins Corner and then with the water that Mr. Granger was speaking about earlier, is that... Is your assessments on having to go to DEQ and looking at the withdrawals along with the other projects that are either coming down the pipe or already slated, is that based upon the full buildout 10 years down the road, which we know within 10 years, we have to take care of other infrastructure issues?

Or is that based on right now, at this point at a rezoning, we're in that jeopardy? I just want some kind of clarity on the timeframe that we're looking at, everything that has to take place within that timeframe. What's the reality of the Public Service Authority as it pertains to the rezoning of this area now, versus 10 years from now when this thing's fully built out?

1:16:21 Mr. Weakley: Absolutely. Very, very good question. So water, not a question, there's nothing. We have the capacity to serve the proposed project. It's the sewer that's become the difficulty. So the options that are outlined in the service agreement for handling the sewer service, it gives the Board of, I guess it would be Supervisors and Board of Directors, two options. You either construct a new facility at Purkins, which is somewhere around $12-14 million estimate in our PER or you reroute it. I heard a number here earlier, but that was looking at... That was $10 or $12 million looking at both Oakland Park and Purkins being rerouted, plus the million dollars for the interceptor to Hopyard. You take Purkins over to Hopyard, you're easily around five million. If you build the interceptor, depending on the sizing of the pipe, whether you add Oakland Park or not, you could be at close, anywhere between five and six million. But we have the water capacity now, that's not based on any expansion or waiting on DEQ. The wastewater side, the reason why we ask for a phased approach from the Service Authority side, because we knew we do not currently have enough capacity to serve 450. We say we have 205 ERCs, they're first come, first served.

So if someone wants to stroke a check, assuming you approved the developments in a primary settlement area, all the stones align, that's what we had. If we say we want to serve this project, that's where we said we need a phased approach. The phased approach would give us the time to, A, build a new facility or reroute that flow, which means building a line out to Hopyard to handle this development and any future development.

1:18:11 Mr. Bueche: Thank you very much.

1:18:13 Mr. Weakley: Yes, sir.

1:18:16 Ms. Binder: Thank you very much, Mr. Weakley, for staying here and for our questions, and some of mine have already been answered. But one of the ones that I wanna ask is, and I've asked you this numerous times about many different projects that come in front of us. Since we have, right now, with the current situation of Purkins Corner, groundwater and wastewater, and understand, which a lot of people don't realize, that with the Chesapeake Bay Act and the two rivers, that there is a cap on... In the end, how much development you could have, because we're very much watched because we affect the Chesapeake Bay, everything east of 95. So I guess where I'm coming from, and it is late at night, so really, right now, there's only enough capacity at Purkins Corner and with the well, the groundwater, for one development with the Purkins Corner we have now, the wastewater plant that currently is there.

1:19:12 Mr. Weakley: The current wastewater plant, we only have 205 ERCs, which the current plant, without doing anything to it, expanding, building new facility, rerouting, could not handle any more than 205 Equivalent Residential Connections.

1:19:28 Ms. Binder: Unless we either rerouted or rebuilt. So the rest are only part of the development, and that also we had already considered keeping out enough for the courthouse, correct?

1:19:39 Mr. Weakley: That is correct.

1:19:41 Ms. Binder: Yeah, I don't think I have any more questions. Does as anybody else have any questions for Mr. Weakley? Thank you, Mr. Weakley.

1:19:47 Mr. Weakley: Okay, thank you.

1:19:50 Ms. Binder: Alright, Mr. Granger, did you have any more questions?

1:19:52 Mr. Granger: Yes ma'am, I do. I'll ask... I'm not sure which individual I should be speaking to, but I was gonna ask, at the Planning Commission meeting, I know there was a lot of discussion about the situation with the proffer for the construction. And then it was changed in the Land Transfer Agreement. Can you explain to me how did a proffer that... How did an inaccurate proffer make it through to actually come forth to the Board in the first place?

1:20:30 MD: Yeah, thank you for giving us the opportunity to address that, and ultimately, I'll take responsibility for it and say it was my fault. I came into this midway, mid-stream into... They had already started speaking with the County, had already drafted a first set of proffers, had already had an agreement with Mary Washington, an actual real estate. It was a development agreement that had been signed that talked about the actual construction of the facility and the site work and who's gonna pay for that and where the stormwater ponds were gonna go. And that agreement, they switched the site from the old site, the 107-acre piece off of, I don't know where exactly it was located, to this new site because it was in the primary settlement area. And when I was brought in, said, "Hey, we have an agreement with Mary Washington for this facility." And blame it on my... Just whatever you wanna blame it on, but I wasn't a good enough quarterback, I didn't ask to... I should have said, "Well, let me see that agreement, I'd like to just know every part of this project in as much detail as I possibly could." And I didn't ask for that and I should have. And to put it also, we went to... I've been to four meetings or something, public meetings, and at every meeting we had a representative of Mary Washington with us, and I truthfully never... It did not dawn on me that a written agreement did not exist.

1:22:04 MD: Now, as I said at the Planning Commission, I believe Mary Washington and Darrell did have an agreement that they were gonna do this project together, and I think that Mary Washington has been, at every meeting, has been consistent in what they've said they planned to build this year, and so when Darrell told me that there was an agreement, I don't believe he was lying. I think that it was just either... He's not a lawyer, he maybe didn't appreciate the importance of having it in writing and what the proffer signified and things like that, so. It was a mistake. It was a bad mistake. It's something, probably the thing that I personally regret most about this whole process, it should have been avoided, and I apologize to mostly to the Planning Commission 'cause they're the ones that we had talked to the most about that, so. I was... To be honest with you, I can't say I was glad that you sent us back there, Mr. Granger, but I was glad to have the opportunity to address them and speak to them frankly about what exactly happened, and offer some explanation of that and talk to them transparently about that. 1:23:22 RG: So did I hear that you said at one point there was an agreement for, an actual signed contract for a different location?

1:23:29 MD: That's correct, yes.

1:23:30 RG: Could I ask why Mary Washington chose not to sign a contract at the new location, what made them change their mind, and I'm, yeah, just kinda curious, what...

1:23:40 MD: Yeah, so I think...

1:23:41 RG: They were ready to sign on at one point, and now they're saying, "No, I don't wanna sign"? It's a little concerning.

1:23:45 MD: I wasn't involved at that point. The way I understand it, the site was different and there was just certain... Again, I think... I don't know if... Ryan, were you involved at that point? There was just certain just site issues about what type of work had to be done and who would be responsible for that cost. And again, I don't know exactly... I don't know if the agreement, the Real Estate Development Agreement... Again, I haven't seen that agreement, I don't know exactly if it was for, "we're gonna build a 14,300 square foot facility with this agreement". I just know that it was a more concrete, "we are going to share costs for this project here" and that sort of thing.

1:24:28 RG: Well, it'll be a little confusing because the proffer did actually have a very specific square footage, so I would have thought that previous agreement would have had that in there as well, if it was a carry-over mistake, is that an accurate statement?

1:24:44 Ryan Foroughi: Hello, Ryan Foroughi, engineer of record. The 14,000 square feet, I'm not an attorney, I'm just a dumb engineer, but the 14,300 square foot facility was replicated off the ER facility that is actually in the city of Fredericksburg. We actually, I think for the last 25 years, have done most, if not all of our... My company has done most, if not all, of Mary Washington's work. We did the last ER facility that they did. We replicated that building. It was 14,300 square feet. So that's how we arrived at that very specific square footage.

1:25:22 RG: Okay, I can recognize that, but was that written in that previous contract?

1:25:26 RF: I can't answer that. I just know that the way that the proffer was... The way that the GDP was prepared and the way that the proffer was understood to be, is we were trying to model off of the other one, which was 14,000...

1:25:38 RG: I'm just asking because if the proffer was a carry-over mistake, then I would assume that the previous contract would have said that because that's when it would have been written in the first place and would have been carried over. If there was nothing in there that said it, then it sounds weird to me that you would have that number in there anyways, and why is that a carry-over then if that wasn't originally even in the original contract 'cause it still would be a mistake? I don't know, just some concerns that made me look at it and made me kind of question, what's going on with that proffer and how a mistake happened in there? And then are there any other mistakes that might be existing that we haven't uncovered? I'm assuming you've gone back through your proffers to make sure there's nothing else that might be in there that could be a mistake, or at least, I hope so, or I hope that we would uncover them, but those are concerns when those kinds of things happen on a big project like this from a competence perspective about being able to execute. Ms. Binder, I don't think I have any more questions for the applicants. I had some other questions for other individuals, but if you wanna go down the line and let anyone else ask the applicants.

1:26:55 CB: Okay. Mr. Stonehill.

1:27:03 JS: Maybe Mr. Davis. I was looking through the development portfolio and everything, and I noticed all these Lowe's and Tractor Supply's, and O'Reilly's, Family Dollar, Dollar Tree. Do these... Do they have anything... Did the HIG have anything to do with this in our County here in King George or were they elsewhere?

1:27:33 MD: I believe they're nationwide, just retail locations, yeah, I don't know if any of them were in King George or not, I don't believe so.

1:27:46 JS: Okay, so they could have been anywhere in the country that they put these up or had something to do with them?

1:27:54 MD: Yeah, I wasn't... We weren't trying to say that those were all in King George or anything like that, there's just the experience that they have doing... Working with national brands like that.

1:28:04 JS: Okay, and then going back to the... I know it's always been the talk of the... Also of the Planning Commission as well, about the whole Mary Washington thing, and signed contract or no signed contract and everything. I keep reading, maybe I'm missing it, but I just keep seeing a medical facility, medical facility everywhere. I went back through the notes here, and the notes that we've gotten today or just a little while ago, it's actually... Is there anything written down that this is actually gonna be an urgent care or something? I just keep seeing it just 14,300 square foot medical facility.

1:28:52 MD: Yeah, I worked... Mr. Britton and I worked very closely on that definition and went back and forth multiple times, there's no definition of medical facility in your zoning ordinance, so we kind of had to craft one, I think that's fair to say, and I'll let Mr... I don't wanna put words in Mr. Britton's mouth. But I think the key phrase at least... Again, I'll just let Mr. Britton... I don't wanna speak for Mr. Britton, I'll let him speak to that.

1:29:15 MB: That's true that it's a difficult thing to define and what we tried to do was we got to the language that was in here, but to answer your question, Mr. Stonehill, is no, there's nowhere that it's written down that it says it's going to be an urgent care facility or any other type of facility, it's... I think we limited the language to general use, I don't have it, of widespread use. What we did do, and we worked with Heather as well or I did, and then was working with Mr. Davis... We didn't want a vet, or that wouldn't have... That was kind of a joke, but that is a medical facility... But a Botox center or something like that, that would never... Despite Mr. Bueche saying he would have used it just now... Yeah, the Botox.

1:30:11 MB: That wouldn't meet the definition of what Mary Washington, a not-for-profit hospital, would've come into the community and provided services. But this is as tight as it gets under our current ordinance, and there is no guarantee that it's gonna be an urgent care facility. And there was a concern and we got it as close as we could, that... Let's say, Mr. Hertenstein just didn't build this and he sold it, and the next person said, "Well, I don't know what he intended to do, but I'm gonna put a Botox center in," or, "I'm gonna put a... I don't know, like a dental or orthodontal... " I don't know if that qualifies as a medical care facility, but periodontal. And that would be a risk. But this is as close as we could get and they have the... As Mr. Davis said, they had Mary Washington coming, saying that they intend to do it. And so, that's as close as we could get. But we couldn't put in there an urgent care facility, the zoning doesn't work like that.

1:31:17 JS: Well, the reason I ask is that the folks that have contacted us or myself, are always, "We want an urgent care, we want an urgent care." And then this, with this new transfer that came out today, was that... For some reason, if Mary Washington backed out, it would be up to HIG to create a medical facility. And we've had medical facilities here in the past that went bankrupt or whatever, that failed. So, just trying to get a little clarification and also for folks that are seeking the urgent care or the standalone ER thing.

1:32:00 MD: Yeah, so the purpose of that second amendment you have there was just to make it... Under the first amendment, if Mary Washington didn't build the facility within one year, the land reverted to the County. And with the change to the proffer... With the change to the proffer, that put the responsibility on building the facility on HIG, we needed to amend it so that the land reverted to us if Mary Washington didn't build. And we had to shorten the time period from five years to four years in order to give us sufficient time to begin that process. So, that was the purpose of that. You'd have to read that in the context of the original Land Transfer Agreement, which is five or six pages long. The first amendment, which is again, it's just a page and then that, too, to have a full picture of what the Land Transfer Agreement represents. But again, I mean, I think...

1:33:02 MD: And again, I appreciate the gravity of the error in the proffers and regret it very much. I think what I... Of course, I would like to focus on is the fact that it's been fixed and there is now an enforceable proffer in place, that the County can... That gives the County teeth to push forward if the proffer isn't adhered to. You also have... Again, heard from Mary Washington, which is a billion-dollar healthcare corporation, they're coming to these meetings, they aren't... Have no interest in helping Darrell Hertenstein necessarily to get up here and say something that's not truthful on his behalf. So, I would just ask you to take those things into consideration when you're deciding about this project.

1:33:54 JS: Okay, thank you. That's all I have.

1:33:57 CB: Mr. Bueche?

1:34:00 JB: Thank you, Madam Chair. So, being this is a rezoning application and all the proffers, all the blueprints we saw today, we're gonna call this a worst case situation. So, basically after the rezoning is done, Mr. Hertenstein can't build more than 450 units. He can't build... He can't go outside. So, even though he still has to go to site plan, and every other phase we talked about earlier, he can't go outside this unless he asked for a waiver or whatever, correct? He has to build this at a minimum, is that correct?

1:34:43 HH: The proffer does include the GDP, which specifically says 450 homes, the square footage of the pad site, the general layout of that layout that was provided to you, yes sir.

1:34:56 JB: So, someone mentioned earlier on...

1:34:58 HH: And to further clarify, if they wanted to expand upon that, they would be required to come back and go through the public hearing process again. I think that was part of your question as well.

1:35:09 JB: Okay, 'cause somebody mentioned... And I forget who, I apologize, that actually the rezoning could contain a significant... More number of homes than what's actually being proffered in the GDP, is that correct?

1:35:29 HH: If he had only asked to be rezoned to that specific residential zoning district without proffering the GDP, the max number of homes, etcetera, that would be correct. But he proffered that GDP as well as the specific language that says 450 homes.

1:35:50 JB: So, a couple of things I'd like to hit on. So, in my district in Fairview Beach, there's a trailer park off to the side of Tim's, a lot of people are familiar with it, if you live in King George. That was rezoned for townhouses, but the proffers associated with that are so costly, when they were looking to do that, then the recession hit. Now we have the trailer park and it's basically priced out of being developed because of the proffers that are associated with it, so I take proffers very serious. You're pretty much locked into it. I don't wanna discount the medical aspect, and whether it's urgent care expanded like Mr. Fletcher talked about, whether it's ultimately an ER, for a population of 27,000 with the number of people that we expect coming in by our owned studies that we commissioned as a County over the next 10 years, which also aligns with the phasing of this project, we got two urgent cares in King George County.

1:37:08 JB: I think it's being discounted and we're mincing words, I mean, urgent care medical facility, we need some doctors in King George County. And I recall, prior to me being on the Board, when I ran for office the first time and I lost to Mr. Jim Howard, who was a wonderful supervisor, but the talk was, "Have we looked at a study to get Mary Washington, or Stafford, or Spotsy, or Charles County to look at King George to even look at us. Nothing. We were at a point where we lost the two main medical providers in King George County to where Miss Ruby Brabo at the time, who was on the board, called a roundtable with elected officials to get people to look at expanding medical in King George County. It made the paper. I went through and I looked at numerous news articles about our woes in King George County about lack of medical. I was approached and asked, "What does King George County need?" And I was very honest. I said, "I would roll out the red carpet if I could get medical to come to King George County." I campaigned on it the first time and I lost, I campaigned on it the second time when I ran unopposed and won, but that's what I ran on, medical.

1:38:40 JB: What do we need to bring medical? Then we wrote this Comprehensive Plan that not only addresses medical, but addresses the housing needs, addresses all that. We talk about affordable housing, and it was pointed out again tonight, and it was very correct. Do the numbers match up? If you're saying affordable housing, but in your math, you used higher numbers, well, I would attribute that to, "We're looking at the finished product over 10 years and housing market hopefully is gonna go up." But with proffers, that's not borne by the developer, it's borne by the end user. And the more demands we, as a County, or more stipulations we put on things, that gets passed on to the end user. And we've outlined the drastic need for affordable housing to address the base, to address teachers, tradesmen, young families. We've addressed that in our plans, but are we pricing them out? And no insulting Mr. Hertenstein but he's not gonna pay for these proffers or some of them. The homeowner is gonna pay for that. And I think we really need to consider it. We've talked as a Board for many times about affordable housing, but are we the ones responsible for not having affordable housing? That and medical, I feel, are two big drivers. I don't care if it's an urgent care. I don't care if it's a doctor's office, we are not in a position where we can turn down any medical.

1:40:26 JB: And for the first time, after Ryan Gandy provided numerous contacts for medical providers, only one reached back and it was Mary Washington, we finally got them to the table. I can't believe that we actually have the vice president here telling us we're even having a conversation about the possibility of an ER when four years ago, it was impossible. Impossible. Mr. Jenkins spent his entire term trying to make this happen and we're actually having conversations about the possibility. I don't think it should be discounted, but I do have a question, 'cause Mr. Granger brought up a good point earlier. So there was a talk about the presence or existence of a contract on the initial 301 proposal. Can somebody speak to what that was and why that is no longer in place? What transpired and brought us to this Land Transfer Agreement, and in the proffered contract? I'd like to get an understanding of how that transpired.

1:41:45 MD: Okay, again, I'm hesitant to speak on that 'cause I wasn't involved at the time that the development agreement was signed and I don't wanna misstate anything. I do know the reason that the project was originally slated for the 107-acre piece and it was moved to the property where it's located now, is because the original piece wasn't in the primary settlement area, and I don't believe had access to water and sewer. And that was the reason for the project being moved from its first location to its second location. But that's as far as I guess I would feel comfortable speaking on that.

1:42:33 JB: So maybe this is a question for Mr. Foroughi or somebody that worked on the project prior. Did situation change, so from the initial property that was presented to the Board of Supervisors and asked if we would consider a project of this magnitude and property options were given, was there a difference between requirements of the property on 301 versus the property in the primary settlement area may have not required? Was it a development contract, I believe it was, or something to that nature?

1:43:17 RF: Contract for construction. 1:43:19 JB: Contract for construction, whatever it was called.

1:43:24 RF: So, I'm gonna try and take a stab at this from a non-legal perspective. I think one of the key differences was when Darrell brought the project and had me take a look at it, and there was talk that Mary Washington was gonna be involved. I think the primary focus of the development agreement was the shared cost that would take to get to utilities from 3 and 301 to this site. To the former site, not the current site, but the former site. So Mr. Hertenstein was not going to go say, "Okay, we'll sign a contract that Mary Washington comes," But there was $2, $3, $4 million worth of utilities that needed to be extended to physically get to this site. Aside from any zoning hurdles, outside of settlement areas and Comprehensive Plan, any of these other things, Darrell and Mary Washington... Darrell needed agreement with Mary Washington. Like anybody would need an agreement with an end user to share in some of those costs.

1:44:24 RF: Sure, Mr. Hertenstein would benefit from the sharing of the utilities being extended, but so do Mary Washington, and those costs needed to be shared. So I think when it was determined that the site was to be moved to a primary settlement area, utilities are in, one's on 3 and one's on 301, the sewer and water connection. I think the development agreement, where it wasn't necessarily focused on, "We will build here, right here, 14,300 square feet." That was really more for development costs on how they were going to be shared.

1:44:54 RF: And then we went to 3 and 301 where it was already in a settlement area. And then I think where we're at are now, and then all of the conversations that Landon's had with Mr. Britton is basically cleaning up that proffer language because it was a different site. It was just a different animal. I know that may not seem like it, 'cause you're putting one building here and one building there, but there were different considerations, cross-over spacing, the bus facility that King George has adjacent to it. It was just a different project. And so I think that, if that may answer that question.

1:45:28 JB: It actually does. So there was in fact, a construction... Give me the right terminology.

1:45:34 MB: Well, originally, it said a contract to construct.

1:45:38 JB: A contract to construct on that initial property?

1:45:44 RF: Yeah, there was a development agreement, Mr. Hertenstein is telling me.

1:45:48 JB: Okay, thank you.

1:45:49 RF: You're welcome. I'll stay up here in case somebody else had...

1:45:54 CB: You have any more questions?

1:45:56 JB: No, ma'am.

1:46:00 CB: Right. I'll start with the first one. I guess, Mr. Davis, I don't know, Mr. Foroughi, he didn't ask them, but thank you for clarifying that. We got a lot of documentation in the last 48 hours, and I wish that we got some of this at the beginning, including the nice portfolio and all that information. I think it would have helped with some misunderstandings if it was included at the beginning. Why was this... I wanna know why this information wasn't shared at the beginning. I know you weren't there originally, but in the last year, this nice portfolio and financials, and all those things?

1:46:33 MD: Yeah, that's a good question, and I wish we would have provided it sooner. I guess what prompted it at this point was a meeting we had with Mr. Granger, and he said it would be great to see a development portfolio, and I forget the date of that, but it wasn't too far in advance; maybe three weeks, two weeks in advance of this meeting. So my client was putting it together, just a timing issue really, and just, I guess didn't think of it until Mr. Granger brought it up and it was, I think, a couple days later, Mr. Britton may have sent me an email. Is that my feedback on that?

1:47:21 CB: I'm not sure. Mr. Dines, are we good on feedback? Keep going. We'll see as we go.

1:47:27 CD: Yeah, okay. No problem.

1:47:32 MD: Yeah, and I think a couple of days later, Mr. Britton had sent me an email and said, "Hey, there's a couple more questions. Are you gonna be bonding this project?" And we started looking around and we said... Yeah, honestly, I don't think that was necessarily the question he was asking, but we thought, man, this might be really great and just really show them not only that we are dead serious about our commitments to the Service Authority but we'll also kind of... Let us flex the financial muscle that Mr. Newville has and show them, that hey, we can get a $3 million irrevocable letter of credit within a week or 10 days or something like that, which we managed to do. And so that was as far as we're concerned. That is very unusual in my experience in a rezoning at this stage, and that's just what we looked at as a cherry on top and maybe would give the board some extra comfort of about our ability to perform and things like that. But yeah, it was I guess just a timing issue from when the information was requested, more than anything.

1:48:30 CB: Alright, that explains it. I just wish it was ahead of time because I didn't see some of these names until just when this was sent. So this is new to me, 'cause most of the time I saw Mr. Hertenstein and yourself, and Mr. Foroughi, who would come to the table, but I didn't know about the other players. And that's some concern people in the community have, that they don't know who was all involved. And I bring that up because Hopyard was, from my understanding, Dr. Young, the first major rezoning in King George and this is the second, and it can change the [1:49:04] ____ face. So it's good to know that kind of aspect. With that being said, for... I'm trying to think, I wanted... I've lost my train of thought. I apologize.

1:49:15 MD: It's getting late. [laughter]

1:49:17 CB: It's only 1:30. I got up early this morning... A cup of coffee would have been nice. Oh, I remember. You can speak to this and Ms. Hall could speak to this, is one of the questions I asked Ms. Hall is a lot of the property in the general area is very agricultural. There are a couple that are not, correct, properties, in the area around it? 1:49:46 HH: I believe the property on the other side of Route 3 nearest to Tabernacle Baptist Church is commercial, but the rest of it, I believe, is agricultural.

1:50:00 CB: I did go and visit Stafford Lakes. Someone had mentioned that to me, and I looked and I saw it is, except for UMW Dahlgren and the small school that's in the back, it's similar. And the medical facility, I did not go in it. Probably thought I wouldn't be invited in with COVID and everything, you know, all that stuff, but it looked very nice from the outside and it had different kinds of medical. But one of the things that concerned me, and I ask that question, is what came with it? And I say what came with it was, I'm sure the Home Depot and the... Whatever the different businesses there came because of that development, and that concerned me because I was afraid with this comes all this other development. It was very congested there, and there's a red light and 17 is a congested area, so that was one of my concerns, and that's what I asked about the property and the surrounding area. I can't think of any other questions at this moment. But I will ask my colleagues if they have any other questions for any of our players here.

1:51:03 RG: Yes, ma'am. Well, I have some questions for some of our other departments, but not necessarily for the applicant.

1:51:10 CB: Go ahead.

1:51:10 RG: For either Sheriff Giles or Chief Moody, they're fairly similar questions if either you or both you would like to come up. Leave it up to you guys to decide. Gentlemen, I appreciate you guys coming out and stick around to answer questions. I know it's a late night and... So thank you for being here. We did talk a little bit earlier today, and I appreciate your guys' time to discuss some of my questions, and it has to do with the Fiscal Profile Presentation. So I'm just gonna ask you for the sake of putting the information out there. The Fiscal Profile Presentation used a very linear approach to determining the impact. In my experience, at least, I'll speak with Fire and Rescue, is whenever we've hired, we don't hire one responder at a time, and the reason is because Fire and Rescue and same with the Sheriff's Department, they serve 24/7/365.

1:52:24 RG: And so if you need to have an additional responder, you need to hire enough people in order to provide 24/7/365, which is more than one person. It's probably four people really when you're talking about it. So I guess looking at the impact statement it's saying two people, which to me, I look at it and I think zero, four, eight, it's gonna be in some kind of multiples where you're really gonna see your impact. And so I was wondering if you could speak to that. Am I mistaken in my understanding about providing responder services in that kind of a capacity?

1:53:05 Chief David Moody: So yeah, thank you for the question. The impact statement provided by the Berkeley Group, I think provided 2.29 additional personnel for Fire and Rescue. That model was based on the projected number of residents based on population. However, with the medical facility, the urgent care, there would be additional call volume. You're exactly correct. We do have a three 24-hour shifts to provide seamless 24/7 coverage, probably looking at, certainly, minimum three, possibly four additional personnel, but that is taking into consideration over the entire 10-year buildout.

1:53:53 RG: Correct, and I don't know off the top my head and I don't know if you do, the loaded rate on average for a responder with benefits and salary and everything, because I know it's like a $21,000 in the green that the fiscal profile shows. So if you end up having to do three or four, I feel like that would be eaten away if you start having to go beyond just two responders per Sheriff and fire and EMS departments.

1:54:24 CM: With salary and benefits, we're looking at about 60,000-65,000.

1:54:28 RG: Okay, and then you also brought up some of the challenges in regards to... I know an urgent care is great, and I agree with Mr. Bueche's points about that, but my understanding is that also increases the call volume that your department receives, is that correct, Chief Moody?

1:54:47 CM: That is correct. And the statement I provided... We have... Just speaking specifically on the urgent care facility, we're projecting an additional 183 calls and possibly transports from that facility per year.

1:55:05 RG: Okay. Okay. Thank you, Chief. Sheriff Giles, I kinda have a similar question, at least in regards to the providing the service. Again, it showed two officers that would need to be increased in some linear model, just looking at the number of people and the current number of residents per officer, in order to provide that kind of a 24/7/365 coverage, 'cause obviously, crime doesn't sleep and neither does the Sheriff's Department, you guys are always serving. In order to provide one additional officer all times, how many officers who would really need to be hired in that case?

1:55:47 Sheriff Chris Giles: It would have to be four.

1:55:50 RG: Would have to be four, okay.

1:55:51 SG: To maintain the level that that survey says.

1:55:55 RG: Okay, so again, when I look at it, it would be on the four, zero, I guess it's possible, we could say, "Hey, this doesn't actually have enough of an impact and not hire any new law enforcement." But once you hit one, you're really at four. And then if you need to go to two, you're at eight, and so that adds up fairly quick... And then, is it a similar loaded... Again I don't know the Sheriff's Department rates off top my head, is it a similar loaded rate for benefits and salary as the fire and EMS?

1:56:25 SG: Well, if you're gonna stick with just salary, yeah, it's very similar, but different between us and the Fire department is that we have our own vehicles and our own equipment. And for just one deputy to suit and put on the road for one deputy, it's around $116,000.

1:56:46 RG: And that's the start-up costs to begin with, and I know that vehicles need to be rotated, and I know we just went through the CIP process for more computers, and I know those are pricey for a reason, 'cause they're very specialized. So... But that's... You're saying just to get our new officer on the road, it's 160?

1:57:06 SG: For one.

1:57:07 RG: One, and so when you're doing that shift work, is it... Is an officer... Does each officer have their own vehicle or are they sharing in any way at all that... Okay.

1:57:19 SG: We have take-home vehicles because of the types of calls we may get, we have call-outs and such.

1:57:26 RG: I appreciate it. Thank you very much. Did... I'll leave it to others if they have any questions for...

1:57:35 CB: Mr. Bueche, go ahead.

1:57:35 JB: So I'd like to follow up on Mr. Granger's points, which are very good points. But those costs would be associated based on the population growth. Correct? Regardless in what development, if it's Hopyard or whatever, is that correct? The numbers that went into the study. So we're gonna... And I bring this up because we have these studies that says the population is gonna grow by a certain size over the next 10 years. Is that dependent on where we have these developments at? Or are we gonna have a bunch of by-right, two 10-acre lots that was brought up earlier, and we get nothing for it? Same demand on services, okay. So the same cost that was brought up time after time tonight, based on the population and the growth with new residents, we're gonna have that same cost occurred. But if it's on two 10-acre lots or wherever or existing developments that have no proffers in place, that same demand on services is gonna be there. And the cost that the Sheriff just spoke about, that Chief Moody just spoke about, those costs are still there, 'cause those demands on services are still there. I like the option of having something that can buffer us from that, just something to consider. I mean, ultimately we're not saying, "We want this many new people to just come to the County and let's have a party."

1:59:12 JB: We don't wanna grow, that's why I keep going back to this Comprehensive Plan, we know it's coming, we're just trying to target where it happens and get a return for that. The demand on services, the demand on schools, Fire and Rescue, sheriff's office, Service Authority, all that's happening regardless of this project comes or another project comes, or what's going on in Hopyard Farms, or what's happening off of Eden Estates, that demand on services is coming, and we have to address it because it was... As was stated tonight, you know who's gonna make up those additional costs? Taxpayers. And with what we got going on in the state, more cost coming down to the localities, us facing a recession, we have to start figuring out how are we gonna grow 'cause we can't control it, it's happening; 90% of King George County is agricultural. I love it, that's why I live here. I love my farm. Love it. But 90% of the County is agricultural. We need to stick to this plan or eventually, we're gonna have the highest taxes in the area 'cause we didn't attract any commercial. We didn't grow.

2:00:35 JB: Our only big industry here is the naval base. We need to diversify our economic footprint, stick to the plan, our Economic Development Plan and our Comprehensive Plan, which we signed just last year. We need to stick to this or else 10 years from now, we're gonna be looking back with nothing to show for, and the highest taxes in the area and a Service Authority that you're gonna have people breaking the law and just drilling wells in their yard because they're just not gonna pay those rates anymore. It can't continue to go up. Thank you.

2:01:14 CB: Dr. Young.

2:01:16 DY: Madam Chair, just to provide a little bit of background on our Economic Development Strategic Plan, which states that growth is inevitable for King George County, that was a result of the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service Study that was commissioned, or I'm sorry, published March 2017. I have that pulled up before me right here, and it shows that currently King George County has a population of around 26,000. In 2030, it's expected to grow to 30.4 thousand and then in 2040 expected to grow to 34.9 thousand. And again, that was the trigger to the Board of Supervisors directing the staff to put together an Economic Development Strategic Plan to figure out how we were going to be able to accommodate that growth, but more importantly, how we were going to make sure that that growth was smart for King George County.

2:02:09 DY: There's been a lot of questions regarding the fiscal impact profile, and I'm happy to discuss it as the staff. And when I say the staff, that's myself, Community Development, Economic Development, and the Commission of Revenue, worked very closely with Berkeley Group to put together what we felt was the most comprehensive tool that we could provide the Board to make decisions based off of quantifiable data, 'cause prior to this project coming aboard, King George has traditionally basically made determinations on development with intuition or lick your finger and put your finger in the air, and say, "Hey, this will work or it won't work." There was just no tool that we had to say, "Hey, here are the numbers, this is the facts and let's turn it over to the policy maker so the Board can make decisions."

2:03:00 DY: I know that there had been concerns about the profile. It's not a perfect tool, without a doubt, it's our first one, it's our freshman tool, but I can tell you with assurance that we stand by those numbers, we feel that it's the best representation that the staff could put together to provide to the Board of Supervisors, and I would like to remind the Board that it's static, it's a static number, that $21,957 is a static number. Nationally, as property taxes go up, inflation goes up, and everything around us goes up, you can expect that those numbers and the impact of a project like this goes up, to include the impacts on the costs could go up as well. When you start talking about staffing for the Fire and Rescue Department, for the Sheriff's Office, yes, we expect that that staffing costs are gonna go up as well, but we expect that that's going to be recurring, whether it's through a project like this or if it's just through the natural growth of the County for the 2030 and 2040 estimates.

2:04:05 CB: Thank you, Dr. Young, and that triggered my memory of something that I've read recently, that... And that also came from GWRC's Long Range Rural Transportation Plan, is that with the bridge, there's conceiving in VDOT to extend 301 to six lanes, and Route 3 also, to four lanes, and that would also... Their estimate is bringing almost 70,000 people as residents of King George by 2050, and that's just long-range planning. Might not happen but it is long-range planning. Heather, I did have a question for you. I know you hurt your back, all of us are having issues with these seats, they're not made for a long range sitting. For the housing, and Mr. Britton, I've also spoke to him about this, is for the homes, the 55 and over, those don't have to be restricted to just 55, is it... The rule is, is just one person has to be 55, correct, for the age 55? And this goes back to infrastructure.

2:05:15 MB: Mr. Davis may be able to comment on this better than I can. So under federal... The state...

2:05:24 MD: I'm happy to talk about it a little bit, I did a little research before I came in here, and you can correct me if you disagree with me or something like that.

2:05:31 CB: And I'll tell you, here's my question, Mr. Davis, is... 'Cause with the term affordable housing, a lot of people have different preconceptions of what affordable housing is, it has many different components to it, and part of it is being able to afford a house as a first-time home buyer or a person with a fixed income, it doesn't just mean low cost housing or Section 8 housing, affordable housing has many definitions. But with age 55 housing, people just assume, well, it's only people that are 55 and older can live there, so it means they won't have children with them, so they won't put that extra cost on to the system, and from what I understand, is that that's not always the case, that it just has to be... You can't... Federal guidelines, and I might be wrong, says you can't put caveats that it's only people who are 55.

2:06:21 MD: Yeah, so here's the rule as I understand it, which is actually somewhat intricate, and I'll try not to use too much legalese, but basically, as a developer, as a declarant who's creating a subdivision, you have the ability to put a declaration of protective covenants or a declaration of restrictions on your subdivision, which says you can and can't do these certain things, you can't paint your house pink, you can't have a fence over 10 feet tall just to protect the aesthetics, and you can make those covenants say anything that you want to, basically. However, the federal and state laws have stepped in and said those covenants cannot discriminate housing based on certain protected classes, race, religion, another one is familial status, which means just based on whether or not you don't have... Whether or not you have kids or not, or age is another class. And so, that law by itself, would say you cannot discriminate, so you couldn't have something in your restrictive covenants that says, "You can't live here if you're 55," or, "You can't live here if you're 18," or, "You can't live here unless you're a certain age," or, "You can't live here if you have children," or something like that.

2:07:30 MD: And what the statute in Virginia that allows for the age restricted housing does, is it specifically excludes 55 and older housing from that protected class, from that law that protects that class, and would disallow those types of covenants. So what this law does is says, you can in this particular case, if certain requirements are met, have a restriction based on age or familial status, and the requirements are that the community is designed for people, and there's two different classes of them, one's a over 62, and one's over 55. And the 55 one is, the community is designed and occupied by at least 80% of the dwelling units in the community are designed and occupied by at least one person who's 55 years old or older, and if that... If you meet that qualification, then you can restrict who can live there based on age. So our restrictions says, you can't have children there under the age of 18, and the idea was we're trying to keep the impact on schools, lessen the impact on schools. And that's how that rule works, and I'm sure that was clear as mud, but...

2:08:43 CB: I appreciate that because I've seen studies, well, not even studies, just stories about how COVID has changed a lot. It's getting little... Maybe that's somebody telling us something... That COVID is changing the structure of families and people living together, and that grandparents are inviting in family members who have lost their jobs with their kids, and that's why I asked that question is COVID is... [2:09:12] ____, it's, of course, changing some of the familiar relationships. So, my concern was, what if a grandmother invited in her daughter and her five kids? And then that would impact. I didn't know if there were strict...

2:09:21 MD: Sure, and I think there's a provision in the proffers or in the code that says that they kept it secretly from the Board if they want and someone under 18 to come live there. So, they would have, if there was just an extraordinary circumstance, that person could come and ask the Board for relief from that and plead their case, but barring that, nobody under 18.

2:09:44 CB: Well, I appreciate that, 'cause that goes to that whole infrastructure in schools and all that.

2:09:50 MD: Yep. Yep.

2:09:51 CB: Does anybody else...

2:09:52 MB: They need to have a... The 62 and older is gotta be 62 and older.

2:09:57 CB: Okay.

2:09:57 MB: Then the 55 under the code, and then the administrative code, which is made in accord with it, it states one person, but their proffers have additional restrictions regarding no children can reside there, which means stay there a lot.

2:10:15 CB: And that is allowable, correct?

2:10:17 MB: Under federal guidelines, it is. It's not covered under state law, that's what I don't know. Under federal guidelines, you can restrict it. There's an A and a B to 55 or older, and you can restrict it to adult children.

2:10:30 CB: Okay, thank you.

2:10:32 MB: But I don't...

2:10:33 MD: Yeah, and the statute I was quoting was a state statute. So, I will very much believe that it is enforceable in those... Yeah, those communities are everywhere these days, so...

2:10:42 CB: Thank you.

2:10:43 MD: I'm very comfortable with that proffer. Yeah. 2:10:45 CB: I'm sure we'll see more of them too, with the VA Center coming.

2:10:49 MD: That's right. Thank you.

2:10:50 CB: Anybody else have any other questions?

2:10:54 RG: I don't have any other questions. Just maybe some comments.

2:10:57 CB: Go ahead, Mr. Granger.

2:11:00 RG: So, Dr. Young, I appreciate your feedback on the Fiscal Profile Model, and I appreciate that you stand by it. I think that's the right answer. In my experience, models are wrong, just because that's the way it is. In order to accurately model everything, it's impossible. There's so many variables in play. And so, you look at it and you look at it from the perspective of what kind of fidelity is the model? And so, I think we have some low fidelity pieces in this model, and in particular, I look at the Fire and Rescue and the Sheriff's Department, and I look at those, and I look and think, it's kind of low fidelity. It's looking at it from a very linear perspective. And so, those are my kind of concerns, and so I think those are areas we should continue to develop that model, and I know it's probably very a difficult, after talking with both Sheriff Giles and Chief Moody, it's not... I don't think there's an easy mathematical equation that can really figure it out because there's so many things that go into play and it's possible you could have a new development and maybe you don't need to bring any new officers in because there's just really no crime going on there. And so, it doesn't increase crime in the community, but how do you pull that data in order to understand that? And so, I don't think the model we have right now does that.

2:12:11 RG: And so I guess, that's... I feel like there's maybe some blind spots in the model, and not a criticism necessarily, to say, of the staff, it's just a matter of to increase that fidelity, it's expensive, really expensive to get that high in fidelity. And so I think it's something we should continue to work at and continue to roll, and try to get a better fidelity model to help us have a better understanding for the future. With that all said, I still look at it and I do have some concerns and I think that dollar figure would end up going down into the red. And so in regards to Mr. Bueche's comments about the development continuing without proffers, and he's got a great point. And so, I guess the question is, is there are no... So, the question would be, are there any other possible developments that might come in? Or are you saying, "I'm gonna take anything that comes in now because they're gonna get some proffers?" And so, gotta look at this development that's being proffered or pitched, and is it really to the benefit of the community? And if not, are there other people who might be willing to come in and be able to provide a better deal? And so, I think those are valuable questions as well. And you don't wanna just take anything necessarily. And after hearing Mr. Weakley talk about the availability of the water credits available and the capacity to be hidden, I think those are concerns as well to bring up.

2:13:38 RG: As well as you spoke about a satellite ER not being available four years ago and now it is. I would push back and say it's not available right now. That it comes down to what I think it came down to four years ago, rooftops. We don't have the roof tops. We didn't have the roof tops, we don't have the rooftops. Twenty years, 30,000 people, my understanding, it sounds like about 50,000 people, from what I've heard from Mary Wash, but I don't wanna put words in their mouth, but that's kind of what I've heard. It doesn't sound like 20 years though that we'd have enough for a satellite ER. And so, I know that's not a hard and fast. You can't say anything definitively, but looking at that perspective, it's still not really even a reality even in the near future, and that's still a concern. And Mary Washington is here currently. They would have more services with the new building. So, there's certainly that to look at, and I know we have the new urgent care that is also being developed and built over right by the Food Lion at the, I think it was 6th and Route 3 intersection.

2:14:41 RG: So, I think it is increasing as well, and so I think those are things to look at as well when making a decision. Again, I don't think it's necessarily that we just say, "Grab, grab, grab anything." We should look at the overall impact to the community and the more I look at this, I've been really on the fence. I think there's some valuable things that could be good, Service Authority, and the medical, I think, would improve. But I think there's challenges as well, and I think it has a cost to the community, and I just have concern that the cost is gonna be more than we really have looked at it to be, and it's gonna be a burden to the taxpayer.

2:15:21 CB: Thank you, Mr. Granger. Any other questions? Anyone? Mr. Bueche?

2:15:28 JB: So, I appreciate Mr. Granger's comments, but looking at the population, what... I'm not just looking at King George, when I'm saying the prospect. Yes, four years ago, we were having this conversation and urgent cares were even the hot topic then. I couldn't imagine having the conversation about ERs, but I do think we're closer in that realm of possibility, given that it was spoken to tonight, but I'm not just looking at King George County. Our 3-301 corridor and the way the County is expected to grow with the bridge coming in and the expansion. We're gonna be pulling from Caroline, from Westmoreland County too. So, that's things to consider. And the rooftops are necessary to address the growth this targeted area is what's also gonna bring in that commercial development. So many people have... We've heard people say, "I want Chick- fil-A." We got Chick-fil-A over here for DECA. They're selling it out of a tent. You got people that want Chick-fil-A, but Chick-fil-A's models aren't gonna come here 'cause we don't have the density. It's not about the numbers, it's about, is it in a dense area or are we spread out? And without enforcing this plan, we're simply spread out. I know the concerns. I think by saying, "Is this the best deal we can get?" We don't know what's out there. I know what has been brought to the County and we've gotten nothing. So, are we gonna wait out and then possibly, during this next presidential administration, face another recession?

2:17:13 JB: We're not the ones holding the bag, because if the developer can't make good on the proffers that are in place right now, it doesn't get developed. We're not taking that gamble, that fiscal gamble. And look at Silver, Silver initially wanted to build at 3-301 and that never happened, and we got that reputation. So, we... I mean, I've heard people that served on that Board say they regret that decision, shooting that down. Either we're being looked at right now. I understand we've gotten into everything, Mr. Britton's been a great counsel. Dr. Young's brought up some good points. We went through this thing. Ultimately, this is a rezoning. This isn't a site plan, this isn't a preliminary plat, and I know what we approve, if we approve, is proffered as a GDP, meaning at worst case scenario, this is the most that could be built of anything. I believe we're in a position where we need the most of things built in these targeted areas, because right now, this has taken two and a half years to get to this point for something that is a copy of this. Imagine what an investor on the outside would say, "Well, hell, I wanna bring a business, but I'm not even within this primary settlement area, and it took these guys hundreds of thousands of dollars in lawyers and two and a half years of money tied up, and they couldn't even get a rezoning."

2:19:00 JB: I mean, it's no secret, and this is no slight on Heather. She just took on as director, but over the past decade, our Community Development Office by the Board, previous Board's faults, with regulations and restrictions, is known as an unfriendly County. People really don't wanna do business in King George because of our own roadblocks. We tried to alleviate that reputation with our new policies that we literally just signed last year. If we can't even rezone something that is a perfect fit of our Comp Plan, I think we got bigger problems. I just really do.

2:19:49 CB: Anybody? Mr. Granger?

2:19:51 RG: Again, I can appreciate what you're saying, but as well as looking at some of the challenges we faced with having to go back and forth, you say two and a half years, and I agree with that. It's been, I think, 13 months since that original Planning Commission meeting. So, it was about a year and a half just developing the plan to begin with. We have had COVID as well, which is obviously an issue, but some of these challenges have also been self-inflicted and those are concerns for me, looking from the perspective of making errors in proffer statements and official documents being sent to the County. That's a concern for me. It shakes confidence. For a big development, it calls into question, can this be executed? Will it be executed in an accurate way, and will it be of value to the County? Those are my concerns. So, it's not... You talk about the Comprehensive Plan and I agree with you. There are a lot of good things about this, but some things that also come up that are concerns and challenges and red flags for me looking at it, that make me also question is this gonna get done? And at this point, that's where we're at, but those things just don't go away from me. I just can't let that go.

2:21:10 JB: And I understand. I share some of those concerns. The first product that was submitted was crap. I don't think that's a curse word so I shouldn't be in trouble for that. It was. It looked like proffers were copied and pasted, but this was light years from what that thing was. That's why I asked the questions earlier of Miss Hall. How does this play out? What's the next step? I understand there's insecurities. I mean, the whole contract loophole that came out in our... The last time we heard this case, that was a big deal, and I appreciate that, that was caught. That had to be sorted out, which got us this product that we have now that looks like it's pretty much enforceable, but this isn't the end all, be all. There's still those phases where it has to go before a Planning Commission, where it has to come back before the Board of Supervisors, and if it's not right, I won't be voting on it. Whoever is running for James Monroe's seat next year, that person will probably be the one dealing with it, but all that has to be addressed, and if it's not, it shouldn't move forward. That's why those steps are in place. Not one thing needs to be skipped or fast-tracked, or anything.

2:22:46 RG: My only concern with that would be, once it's rezoned, it's rezoned. It's R-3 then, and I know that GDP is in place, and that would still apply in perpetuity, but it's rezoned. 2:23:00 JB: And it's rezoned to what we want it to be, per our Comp Plan and Economic Development Plan. That's what we wanted that property to be zoned, per our own plans.

2:23:10 RG: We do want more density, and it says, "Maybe up to eight units per acre." And I know they're not doing eight units per acre, they're doing, it's roughly four, I think, because that's where it's at. So our Comp Plan, you're right, it calls for more density. It doesn't hard and fast say, "It's gotta be that much density." And I'm not saying it doesn't have to be, but I feel like you keep looking at it and being like, "It says we can... It says we should do this." And I look at it and says, "These are the areas where we're looking to do this and if we bring in the development that is right for us, this is the right place to do it." And then we should do it. So, the question is, is this the right development for us? And it's not just, "Hey, this is the right spot. Do it."

2:23:51 CB: Alright, I think we can have this debate all night and it's getting close to the witching hour, way past the witching hour. We have numerous options here. So, does anybody wanna make a motion or for either... Whatever. Just, do we have a motion?

2:24:17 JS: I'll make a motion on what the public hearing was for. So, I move to approve Case Number 19-03-02, request by Darrell Hertenstein, Hertenstein Investment Group, on behalf of Beverley C. Coates, David F. Clare and Alyce Jeter Jones, Villages at King George Crossroads, to rezone with proffers Tax Map 33 Parcels 74 and Tax Map 33 Parcels 78 & 79 from Rural Agricultural A-2 to General Trade C-2, Total 17.65 acres and Multifamily dwelling District R-3, Total 92.67 acres.

2:25:13 CB: Do I have a second?

2:25:14 RG: Second.

2:25:18 CB: Any further discussion? All those in favor?

2:25:23 JS: Aye.

2:25:23 CB: All those that say nay.

2:25:26 RG: Nay.

2:25:27 JB: Nay.

2:25:27 CB: The motion, without my vote, already fails. I vote nay, 3-1. Do I have a motion for adjournment?

2:25:41 RG: Madam Chair, we did scratch the closed session, correct?

2:25:45 CB: Correct. That will be our next meeting.

2:25:48 RG: I move to adjourn until December 1st at 6:30 in the King George High School auditorium.

2:25:56 CB: Do I have a second?

2:25:57 JB: Second.

2:26:00 CB: Any further discussion? All those in favor say, "aye."

2:26:01 RG: Aye.

2:26:01 JS: Aye.

2:26:01 CB: Any nays? Chair votes aye. Motion carries. Thank you for everybody staying up with us.