By Heather Michon
Correspondent
The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the re-adoption of Fluvanna’s 2015 Comprehensive Plan at its meeting Wednesday night (Sept. 18 ).
The Comprehensive Plan is a master document that guides a county’s physical development. It is required under the Code of Virginia and must be renewed at least once every five years.
Fluvanna had planned to develop an updated Comp Plan in 2020, but COVID and other issues made it impossible to complete within that time frame.
With the county now out of compliance with the State code, the plan is to renew the 2015 Comp Plan with minor modifications to chapters on land use, economic development, and historic preservation – and immediately restart the process.
Planning Director Todd Fortune said it will likely take 12-18 months to complete.
Dangerous dogs
County Attorney Dan Whitten introduced potential amendments to the County Code related to controlling “dangerous and vicious dogs.”
Many measures are designed to bring the county into compliance with the State Code, which has changed considerably since Fluvanna’s ordinances were last updated in 2015.
Among other provisions guiding how the courts treat cases, the new amendments could require dogs declared dangerous by the courts to be chipped, spayed or neutered, and require owners to carry up to $100,000 in liability insurance in case of dog bites or attacks.
A public hearing is scheduled for October 16.
School funding
The meeting started with a lengthy discussion over school appropriations.
County Administrator Eric Dahl gave a presentation on the two major ways money can be allocated to the schools each budget year: total funding and funding by major category classifications.
Total funding, the county’s long-used method, means that the schools are given a lump sum at the start of the fiscal year, and the School Board then allocates those funds to cover operations, capital outlays, and debt service.
As the name implies, funding by major category would allow the supervisors to allocate funding by specific, defined budget categories rather than a lump sum. While the supervisors would not be able to control line items within the school budget, it would give them more oversight, as the School Board would need the Board of Supervisors’ approval to shift funds between major categories.
According to the Virginia Association of Counties (VACO), about 56 percent of counties use “total only,” and 44 percent use major categories.
Asked about the impact of changing to a major categories process, Superintendent Peter Gretz said, “It would do very little to impact my job… It would probably have even less impact on school operations. There would be some added administrative work to about four folks in the finance office.”
In his estimation, the schools made a couple of category transfers each year, usually in small amounts, to cover unexpected costs like increases in insurance or fuel.
He did believe there were some potential downsides to moving to categorical funding, a move that, in other districts, often stems from distrust between the two boards.
The supervisors said they had trust in Gretz, his administration, and the School Board.
At the same time, they were clearly interested in the concept of having more oversight over the school budget.
Chris Fairchild (Cunningham) said it was odd to him that the county does things one way with the schools and a different way with the county departments, especially given that school expenditures make up around half the county’s annual budget.
He pushed back on the argument that the School Board is the same as the Board of Supervisors. “One group asks for the funding. The group they ask for the funding from is the one that tells all the shareholders—the taxpayers—here’s what we’re going to take out of your paycheck,” he said. “We have accountability to the taxpayer that the school board doesn’t.”
“If we’re talking $50,000 or $100,000 on an $80 million budget, why are we putting in additional levels of work?” Tony O’Brien (Rivanna) argued. “We’ve got enough stuff to do.”
Gretz encouraged the supervisors to reach out to school districts that have changed methods and ask them about their experiences.
“I think right now we have a great working relationship between the two boards, and there’s great communication,” he said. “I would hate for something to be communicated to the public that schools are doing something they shouldn’t do with their money.”
Fairchild later stressed that their responsibility was to focus on best practices and accountability.
“We can’t control how it’s interpreted,” he said. “That would be on whoever puts that message out there.”
There was no motion for a vote, and supervisors didn’t explicitly indicate they wanted to move forward with exploring a shift to categorical funding. Mike Goad (Fork Union) asked Gretz for data on categorical shifts in the past 3-5 years to better understand the issue.
Rural cluster developments
The final issue of the evening was discussion about rural cluster subdivisions.
These housing areas permit one dwelling unit per two acres and require 75 percent of the property to be held as open space.
One example of this is Island Hill on South Boston Road, a 114-acre property where 50 homes run along a central street on small plots and more than 80 acres are undeveloped open space.
Under state law, localities have been required to allow rural cluster development as a by-right use in areas where population growth is 10 percent or higher.
Under by-right use, rural cluster developments do not have to be approved by the Board of Supervisors and don’t have to agree to proffers or conditions. There is little ability to enforce standards for private roads or conservation of the open space.
As of the 2020 Census, Fluvanna’s population growth has fallen below that level, and the county does have the option to remove rural cluster developments as a by-right use and move to a more regulated process.
Supervisors voted 5-0 to request the Planning Commission to look at potential changes to the zoning rules regarding rural clusters and report back sometime in November.
