Greene Supervisors to hold six public hearings tonight

What happens if a local government holds a public meeting and no one knows about it because the locality is now using new software?

In this week’s Week Ahead, I originally stated “there does not appear” to be a meeting in Greene County but the Board of Supervisors do meet at 5:30 p.m. tomorrow in the administration building at 40 Celt Road in Stanardsville.  They go into closed session first and then begin the regular session at 6:30 p.m.

Greene County now uses the CivicPlus platform to manage meetings, but not everything was plugged in yesterday. Now it is and we can get back to work. There is a marked improvement in the quality of how the information is presented. Now if only they can install a better recording system to capture what is said more effectively. (meeting overview)

There are six public hearings.

• The first is for a special use permit for a church and private educational institution at 3004 Greene Edge Lane. That’s land slated in the Future Land Use Map as being mixed-use residential. The church would have no more than 400 congregants at a time and there would be no more than 150 students enrolled in the proposed school. This will be the new home of Riverstone Church of Charlottesville. 
• The second is on a proposal to increase the fee to revalidate properties in Land Use taxation from $15 to $60. (staff report)
• The third is on a proposal to raise the eligibility threshold for tax exemptions for disabled and elderly persons from $27,000 a year to $35,000 a year. (staff report)
• The fourth is to carry over a $6.9 million surplus from previous budgets to the current fiscal year. (staff report)
• The fifth will be to appropriate $1.54 million in additional funds from the Commonwealth of Virginia for at-risk students. (staff report)
• The sixth is for a public hearing on increasing connection fees for water and sewer as well as making them mandatory if a property is along a service line. Much of this information has been presented. Greene County took over this service from the Rapidan Service Authority in June 2023 and inherited a bit of a mess. Rates don’t cover the cost to support the system. (presentation)

Under other business, Supervisors will approve the legislative program from the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission. 

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