Planning commission forwards FY26 capital‑improvement priorities to board, raises parks and sports facility ranks

The King George County Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend the county’s proposed FY26 capital improvement program (CIP) to the Board of Supervisors after a public hearing and amendments to two project priorities.

The CIP presented by County Administrator Matt Smallnick totaled $13,525,698 in requests for fiscal year 2026 and covered projects across departments: sheriff’s equipment and storage, a replacement mobile command unit, patrol vehicles, communications consoles, fire‑rescue ambulances and tankers, parks improvements, school roofing and window work, server and desktop replacements for IT, and other county facility upgrades.

Why it matters: The CIP is the planning commission’s chance to rank capital needs before the Board of Supervisors sets funding priorities. Commissioners said they expected the board to fund only a fraction of the total requested dollars and urged prioritization for projects that leverage outside grants or mitigate safety risks.

Public comment and staff presentation Hobie Mitchell, managing partner for Green Energy Ventures, used the public‑comment period to highlight one of the county’s large capital asks — a ladder truck estimated around $2 million — and urged the commission to trust staff and the chair to move items forward quickly into the public process when applications are ready. “I think one presentation gets you up to speed,” Mitchell said.

Matt Smallnick reviewed the CIP slides and staff priorities: the sheriff’s storage facility and mobile command unit, replacement patrol vehicles (five replacements and two new vehicles contingent on staffing), communications console replacements, mobile data terminal replacements, fire ambulance replacement and apparatus overhauls, parks and rec requests including Wayside Park work and irrigation and a proposed dog park, and multiple school district capital items (roofing, windows, a school board storage facility, and bus replacement). Smallnick said the county cannot fund every request and that the Board of Supervisors typically adds or adjusts projects before final allocation.

Commission discussion and changes Commissioners discussed prioritization and the effect of scoring on what the Board of Supervisors might fund. Several asked staff to focus on matching funds and revenue‑generating projects. On motions from the commission, members raised the priority scores for two items that had been lower in the averages presented by staff: turf replacement at the King George High School and multimodal pathways (matching funds for pedestrian/sidewalk projects). A motion to raise both items to a priority level of 4 passed unanimously.

Final action After brief additional comments and a clarification that the school‑board storage facility might be better addressed as a joint county–school solution, a commissioner moved to recommend approval of the FY26 CIP as amended. The motion was seconded; the record shows the motion carried by unanimous voice/hand vote. Smallnick told commissioners the board typically funds roughly $3 million in CIP work in a fiscal cycle and that his own preliminary list of likely priorities was in that range.

What happens next: The planning commission’s ranked and amended CIP will be forwarded to the Board of Supervisors for consideration during the county’s budget process.

Limits and context: The transcript indicates staff will continue to refine estimates and that some projects in the packet (for example, Davis Hill and Gibson solar items) will be re‑advertised or adjusted. Final dollar amounts and project timing remain subject to Board of Supervisors action and available funds.