Places29 Joint Community Advisory Committee Meeting

March 21, 2016 at 6:00 pmJack Jouett Middle School, Cafeteria

Attending

Places29-Rio and North

Places29-Hydraulic

Robyn Bolling, Jane Fogleman, Saunders Midyette, Helene Kaminer, John Neal, Cynthia Neff, Kimberly Swaonson, Scott Vande Pol

Liaisons

Diantha McKeel, Mac Lafferty

Staff

Tom Foley, County Executive; Lee Catlin, Assistant County Executive; Faith McClintic, Director of Economic Development; Emily Kilroy, Community Engagement Specialist

Minutes

Welcome & Call to Order – Chairs Cynthia Neff & Virginia Roy
Approval of Minutes
Places29 Hydraulic (Neff)
Places29 Rio (Roy)
FY17 Budget Discussion – Tom Foley, County Executive

Virginia Roy opened the meeting

Approval of minutes – Hydraulic, Rio as amended

Welcome & introductions – Emily

Who reads minutes? PC, BOS, staff as needed, posted for the public
Can we meet to hear what others are doing? Let’s see if time permits

FY17 Budget - Tom Foley

Five Year Plan, overview of challenges
Neff: are we doing anything about growth? Or just reacting to it.
Foley: great schools, high quality of life; known around the state for our growth management policies, we keep our growth into our development areas, and without those, I think our growth would be higher. Our great rate of growth is considered moderate – not high.
Bright Stars – I thought it was grant-funded.
Majority is not grant-funded.
What is causing the divergence in slope?
In schools, more students with special needs. Real estate growth is growing less quickly than cost for mandates and obligations.
Why does Montgomery County have so much fewer expenses than Albemarle?

They have a much lower tax rate, we’d have to look into why their expenditures are lower.

What’s the median home value in Albemarle today?
$319,000
How does the presence of UVA effect our budget?
Drives our economy, which positively effects our budget. We don’t get revenue off them, but we do get activity. We don’t have any expenditures to UVA. UVA drives our meal tax, lodging tax.
But their families send kids to our schools.
When was the last efficiency study done?
2008
County well-run, well-managed – why are we reluctant to raise the tax rate?
The tax rate has gone up 10 cents in 10 years. The conversation we’re having now is just that. What future do we want and how do we get there? It is one option, but how far we go and how fast has to come from the Board and the community. We need to see what the priorities are for spending. The case can be made that our tax rate is not adequate to support the levels of service people want.
What is the city’s tax rate?
95 cents, ours is just under 82.
The city also has taxing authority we cannot. The city can tax cigarettes, they can tax meals and lodging at higher rates. But the legislature does not allow counties to do those taxes.
60% of revenue goes to real estate, but another says 44%?
60% of local revenues are real estate, 44% is overall revenues pie.
So you’re proposing a 2-year budget for this year?
Starting in CY18.
The will coincide with elections?

Yes, it will.

I support that, because then there’s an election

Our community has 135,000 people and we have two governments, two police departments, etc. I think we may be in a place where we could have efficiencies. Is there any movement there?

We are specifically proposing that with the efficiency study. Details are still not worked out, but CE and CM have spoken about it. It might not be schools, it might be a joint purchasing office. Regional services are where the country is moving, and we think we can do more.

Can you talk about the impact of the change in proffer policy by the General Assembly?

In the future, it will be done on a case-by-case basis. The justification for a proffer is much more stringent now. We’re still assessing the impacts of this. It will severely limit the proffers coming to the county.

How does the rate compare to neighboring counties?

We’re much higher than our neighbors, with the exception of Fluvanna, which is at 94 cents proposed because of the high school. It’s better to look at our peer counties around the state, and we’re in the middle of the pack there.

What about other revenues? How are those coming in and how do they compare to other counties?

Faith will come in.

Your baseline looks at 2007-2008, which was at the peak of real estate values. You should look further back.
What’s our mix of residential/commercial revenues?

Right now we’re around 80/20, we’re looking to change that. Our methods for assessment for real estate and business are somewhat limited by legislation.

Why is the Woodbrook expansion not in the CIP?

There was thought during the CIP process because the School Board was looking at redistricting, which may have alleviated the issue. During budget discussions, the Board has indicated they’d like to do something beyond redistricting, either through an expansion or a new school – neither of which have been in the budget.

Did they say why they didn’t want to do redistricting?

They didn’t think it would be a good long-term solution to growth.

Faith McClintic, Economic Development Director

Expenditure/Revenues slide – includes sales tax and real estate too
75/25 is based on TOTAL revenue split.
Do business revenues include apartments?
yes.
There’s arguments that apartments have a higher impact than business. I don’t think apartments should be in the commercial calculation, it should be in the residential.

It’s how the assessor does it.

Is Albemarle tracking apartments by bedrooms?

I don’t know what most communities are doing. I know some would say in a college town, a 3 BR is three college students, not public school students.

Faith: we compete daily with other localities across the Commonwealth, the US, and abroad. 5% of our development area land is in industrial. 32% is parks/open, 44% residential, 7% mixed use, 8% institutional, 3% is town of Scottsville. 40% of our development area doesn’t pay taxes – parks/open/institutional.
30% of our population is Educational Services, which is primarily UVA. That includes faculty, but also staff – which is not a pay leader. Nor is retail/food services.
Are university students part of the population?
No, unless they live here on a regular basis.
Graduate students will claim this area as a residency, and we have a steady number of those.
Do you look at what the taxable value of businesses is? Two businesses, one that sells vintage barbies and one that makes computer code for cell phones bring in hugely different revenue streams – but they operate in the same building with the same square footage?

Yes, the difference is reflected by BPOL and the gross receipts tax. We’re dealing with this with the road project on 29. So we’re going to be tracking the BPOL tax and sales tax.

Are we making any progress in working out transportation system (transit) between the city and county?

There’s a move to study this more. The City controls transit through the Council, but the County wants to be part of the discussion. TJPDC will be studying this now, which will help.
GO Virginia is a new program that encourages localities to work together on regional issues – transportation, infrastructure – that can be shared. The state is offering grants to communities that bring these types of projects better. We’re hearing that the UVA Research Park is not attractive to businesses because there’s no transit there.

Are you looking at redevelopment, not just development?

Yes, this is our phase 2 analysis – to look at development area properties that are ripe for redevelopment. We’re working with the assessor’s office to identify urban properties valued under 100k, and we’re mapping them.

What fraction of commercial is owner vs. tenants? And do we have a commercial slum lord problem?

I don’t have the numbers, but we have more tenants than owners. We have limited development areas and high property values. That is going to demand a higher lease rate. We are required to use the Marshall and Swift Index to value those parcels.

I would think most people have no interest in any development at all. If that’s the case, you may have trouble convincing the average person that growth is good. Is that a challenge you face?

Yes, it’s growth and what kind of growth. A lot of people in the focus groups said they’re okay with growth, depending on what kind of businesses are here. If we don’t define what we want to be, then we can’t control much. Zoning is one piece of the control.

How can we help?

Help educating and create awareness among your colleagues/peers. Development does not have to be scary or choose between good quality of life and development.

Adjourn