Albemarle Economic Development Authority to review agreement with Supervisors to give them more power

Imagine there’s a time traveler from 2004 who gets zapped from a public hearing in Lane Auditorium to the November 19, 2024 meeting of the Albemarle Economic Development Authority’s Board of Directors.

In 2004, a majority of the Board of Supervisors were opposed to the county actively seeking business opportunities. There was no office of economic development. Instead, there was a business facilitator. Opponents of economic development argued that deliberately attracting more industry would attract more residents, putting pressure on efforts to stop urban sprawl and preserve the rural area.

In the years to follow, the Board began to shift with the late Ken Boyd leading a call for economic vitality after the 2009 election brought two Republican allies to the Board. Democrats had taken body back over by 2013 and a majority continued to support economic development as a way of increasing the portion of county revenues that came from business. 

As 2024 draws to a close, Albemarle has worked on a number of projects over the years including the Rivanna Futures project to keep the defense sector in the county and to expand the industry on county-owned land. There are also projects such as the expansion of Afton Scientific that was announced in October. 

There were websites in 2004 so it’s fathomable our time traveling friend would know how to find the calendar item on the county’s website. That’s here, by the way. This meeting will be in Room 241 of the county’s office building at Room 241. (meeting info)

This is the agenda. The main item on the agenda is continued discussion of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Economic Development Authority and the Board of Supervisors. Here’s a section of the minutes from the October 15 meeting. 

“[Chairman Don] Long suggested that the EDA should be more aggressive in how it used its authorized powers to acquire and sell land. He said that the old MOU had implied a hesitance to allow the EDA to use its full power, and they wanted to make it clear that the Board was not restricting the EDA in using its powers in support of the strategic plan and Project ENABLE.” 

A vote on the new MOU is scheduled for this meeting. This is a link to that document. In years past, there were organizations that were actively involved in reviewing these documents. They don’t really do that kind of work anymore. 

The minutes also state that there is to be a new entity at the University of Virginia called The National Security Data and Policy Institute. The federal government will invest $20 million over two years. Here’s more information.

“[Economic Development Director Emily] Kilroy said that the institute would facilitate connections with the intelligence industry and direct and pull resources for research,” reads the minutes. 

There will be a closed meeting at which two economic development deals will be discussed. They might be the same one. Members of the public won’t know until the deal is announced. There are two exemptions requested under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. 

• The location of a prospective industry in the Rio Magisterial District where no previous announcement has been made of the industry’s interest in locating its facilities in the community (subsection 5)
• The investment of public funds for the location of an industry in the Rio Magisterial District, where bargaining is involved and where, if made public initially, would adversely affect the financial interest of the EDA and the County. (subsection 6) 

Note there is no code name associated with this one either one in the agenda in the closed session motion. Has Albemarle moved away from such things? 

Maybe the time traveler knows. 

Before you go: The time to write and research of this article is covered by paid subscribers to Charlottesville Community Engagement. In fact, this particular installment is from the November 18, 2024 Week Ahead edition of the newsletter.