CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Halfway through the FY 2024-2028 Strategic Plan, Albemarle County has released its Fiscal Year 2026 Strategic Plan Execution Analysis Report (SPEAR), tracking objectives of the plan to be accomplished by 2028.

County Executive Jeff Richardson has said on many occasions during Board of Supervisors meetings, budget presentations, and other public gatherings the county can’t improve upon what it doesn’t measure, and that’s exactly what County Performance Measurement Program Manager Gabriel Giacalone does.

“One of the biggest successes we have in this report is a lot of really great economic development achievements,” he told Cville Right Now.

The report evaluates six different core areas in the strategic plan: safety and well-being; resilient equitable and engaged community; infrastructure and placemaking; quality of life; education and learning; and workforce and customer service.

“In FY ’26, we had AstraZeneca, Agrospheres, and Afton Scientific either breaking ground or expanding. That’s really going to help out economic development and the tax base,” Giacalone said. “Our EDO (Economic Development Office) team continues to do business retention, meetings with businesses around the community, and while we have the big three announcements, they work with businesses of all sizes to try and keep good business activity in the county.”

In terms of safety and well-being, the report notes emergency response times are improving, with 96% of rural Fire Rescue calls and over 90% of child and adult protective service referrals met on time.

“It’s an interesting year to be talking about that, too, because our rural service for fire rescue has always been pretty good in hitting the marks there we want to see, but service in the development areas has been an area we’ve been focusing on through this strategic plan and the reporting we do on it,” Giacalone said. “In the last year, we saw some of those resources that we budgeted for in the FY ’25 budget come into play and be deployed in January 2026.”

He noted response times in the development areas have picked up and they’re now responding to 81% of their development area calls in under eight minutes, which is right on goal.

“We should see that continue to improve as it was 72% last fiscal year,” Giacalone said. “That’s thanks to those investments in the new ambulance at Seminole Trail.”

The county strategic plan for education and learning does not take into account student scores of achievements.

“For that goal we really track how we support the schools and their strategic plan and the capital projects there,” Giacalone said. “So, most of the story for this fiscal year mostly centered around construction (of Mountain View Upper Elementary) and near-completion (of Lambs Lane ACE Academy) in FY ’26.”

He said this strategic plan focuses on the local government side while the school system has its own strategic plan they independently evaluate.

County infrastructure improvements included completing over 6,000 feet of new sidewalks and paths, improving public transit, and making the website more accessible.

New parks and recreation projects, like the Darden Towe pickleball courts, are open. 

“We had a good story out of Goal Three for infrastructure and placemaking as well, and that was all the transportation projects that got completed,” Giacalone said. “We had transportation projects like new roundabouts at Route 240 and 250, and Hillsdale Drive and Greenbrier Drive which I drive on quite often and I can say that’s definitely an improvement there.

“I’m sure everyone on 29 has seen the new bicycle and pedestrian bridge that’s gone up near Stonefield, so a lot of big wins and improvements there in the infrastructure realm.”

The SPEAR took into account affordable housing progress as well in the quality-of-life category, which Giacalone described as showing it’s “a work in progress”.

“As we know there have been some big recent investments in housing and it’s definitely a priority focus for us,” he said. “So, we have a lot of units created and we have a lot more in the pipeline to be built in the future.”

The SPEAR enumerated over 2,500 new units since 2019 and nearly 2,900 more in the works, according to a county release.

“I want people to know we’re putting this information out there so they can understand the breadth of everything we’re doing and trying to make sure we’re staying accountable to what we say we’re going to do,” Abbey Stumpf, Albemarle County Director of Communications told Cville Right Now.