What qualifications are necessary for a week to be considered busy? After five years of this newsletter (which predates the formation of Town Crier Productions), I would say any that includes meetings of both the Albemarle Board of Supervisors and the Charlottesville City Council. 

However, there are no meetings for any other elected body as Louisa Supervisors will skip their second meeting and at around 3,900 words, this is far from the longest entry of the Week Ahead. So, I’ll leave it up to you to determine what level of activity you think is happening this week. For now, some highlights: 

• Charlottesville City Council has a full meeting with an update on the city’s climate action plan, resolutions supporting $6.75 million in funds for affordable housing construction, and an agreement with the Virginia Department of Transportation on how the city will work to correct its current status as “deficient” in delivering projects. 
• The Charlottesville Albemarle Rescue Squad will become an official part of the city’s fire and rescue services per a new agreement. 
• Albemarle’s Architectural Review Board on Monday will take up the UVA Credit Union’s proposed new headquarters on Fifth Street Extended. 
• Albemarle’s economic development authority on Tuesday will consider two secret projects as well as a proposal to request higher pay for federal employees to make working at Rivanna Station more attractive. 
• Albemarle Supervisors will hold a public hearing Wednesday evening on a plan to allow cell towers to be 30 feet taller than the current rules allow, as well as other policy changes to boost signal reliability. They’ll also take up a “refinement” to the way the county is going through the Comprehensive Plan process.
• Greene County’s Planning Commission will have a work session Wednesday on the Comprehensive Plan for the Town of Stanardsville.  
• Charlottesville’s Human Rights Commission will have a legislative session Thursday with two members of the area’s General Assembly delegation. 

Thanks to the Piedmont Environmental Council for their sponsorship of the work that goes into creation of this newsletter each week. 

Monday, July 15, 2024

Council to get updates on climate action, Vibrant Community Fund 

The current era of Charlottesville City Council features long work sessions held usually on Monday afternoons before regular meetings. These are usually long presentations and conversations with a focus on big topics like homelessness, sidewalk construction, and the future of transit. These are held in City Council Chambers beginning at 4 p.m.  (meeting overview)

Today there are two items on the work session agenda. The first is an update on the city’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the overall climate action workplan. This is first ever annual report on what the Office of Sustainability has been doing following adoption of a climate action plan in January 2023. 

“In 2024, we have a dedicated, three-person team climate team and we have expanded and dedicated capital funding to support this work. We are committed to using this funding to lead by example as a government organization, to support climate actions in the community, and to leverage outside funding where possible,” writes director Kristel Riddervold. 

The report includes numbers from the 2022 greenhouse gas emissions inventory for both the municipal sector and the rest of the community. 

“The 2022 emissions inventory demonstrated continued progress toward meeting Charlottesville’s GHG reduction targets, with emissions down 42% relative to the 2011 baseline,” reads page 7 of the report.

The report documents a series of initiatives and describes whether they are complete, in-progress, on-going, or are bonus programs not included in the work plan. One of the bonuses is the creation of a new connection fee for natural gas installation. 

There’s also a draft plan for FY2025.

Next up at the work session is an update on the Vibrant Community Fund, the program Charlottesville created when a decision was made to no longer work with Albemarle County to decide what nonprofit agencies would be funded. Planning for the FY26 process is getting underway. There was tension this spring as some Councilors questioned some of the large payouts being envisioned through the fund. (read my story)

This work session is intended as a way to provide direction to staff and to set parameters now before the next cycle begins. 

“Honoring the practice of continuous process improvement, the Vibrant Community Fund staff intends to incorporate upgrades to implementation, communication and training for the FY 26 budget cycle,” reads the staff report. 

Will the meeting end with a closed session? There’s no indication but Council has gone into closed session at its last two meetings to discuss “probable litigation regarding the Water Street Parking Garage.” 

Will there be a third? 

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City Council to consider financial support for four affordable housing projects

Charlottesville’s regular meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. There are a lot of items of business and in this era of city government, these items tend to go fast. So, in the spirit of brevity, I’ll try to write them fast, too! (meeting info)

On the consent agenda is the second reading of a $3 million appropriation to the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority for the second phase of South First Street. This will see the construction of 113 townhomes on the site of several structures from 1981 that are being demolished now. Another $3 million from the city will be granted in FY2026. (staff report)

There will also be first reading of an amendment and reenactment of the Emergency Medical Services Agreement between the city and the Charlottesville Albemarle Rescue Squad. You may recall there had been confusion about who was eligible to answer certain calls, as I wrote about back in September 2021. Now it appears there is a way forward. 

“A new agreement has been established allowing CARS to continue providing emergency medical services for the City of Charlottesville as a designated component of the Charlottesville Fire Department,” reads the staff report. “The volunteer Charlottesville Fire Company will also come under the umbrella of the CFD.” 

The new agreement comes with a $450,000 payment from the city to CARS to have access to some of their vehicles. 

Next is a resolution to amend the Human Rights ordinance to give more ability to Human Rights investigators. Specifically, city staff want to enter into a workshare agreement with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to conduct fair housing investigations. (staff report)

CRHA redevelopment comes back up again with the first of two readings on city funds toward their $31 million project to build 47 affordable rental units at the Sixth Street site. This is for another $3 million. Other sources of funding include low-income housing tax credits. There would be nine one-bedroom units, 26 with two bedrooms, and another twelve with three bedrooms. (staff report)

Next, the city will formally approve the appropriation of $750,000 in a loan to Virginia Supportive Housing for their redevelopment of a hotel into 80 units reserved for people making between 0 and 50 percent of the area median income. The staff report states construction will get underway in May. I don’t visit that area very often. Has that happened or is that a line in the staff report that didn’t get updated? (staff report)

So far at this meeting we’re up to $6,750,000 in funding from the current fiscal year to support construction of housing at one meeting. Is there more?

Yes, but the dollar amount is not specified for a “resolution of financial support for 501 Cherry Avenue Redevelopment Project.” For background, Council approved a rezoning for Woodard Properties at that location that will see construction of two buildings totaling 71 affordable rental apartments. 

“PHA is now requesting that the city commit to pursue a performance agreement or similar tool that shares a portion of the incremental increase in real estate tax created by the improvements contemplated for this site in the form of an annual grant for a specified period of years,” reads the staff report.

Council to consider agreement with VDOT on project management

Charlottesville took over management of transportation projects from the Virginia Department of Transportation in the mid 2000’s but failed to delivery any of those projects on time. VDOT has previously taken over administration of the so-called Best Buy Ramp as well as Hillsdale Drive Extended. Yet, the city kept on receiving funding for projects and has already canceled two of them. 

“The City is designated as DEFICIENT for not being able to deliver projects on-time and on-budget,” reads the staff report for memorandum of agreement with VDOT to determine how to proceed. 

VDOT may take over some of the local projects but there is no inventory of ones under consideration. For more information, take a look at a story I wrote back in May.

One area where the city consistently failed is in right of way negotiations. Council will also get a memo describing how VDOT performs the work. (staff report)

Council to take input on Court Square and Market Street parks

The Charlottesville City Council meeting continues with a public comment opportunity on framework plans for the two parks where Confederate statues were removed This is part of the creation of a new Parks and Recreation master plan. 

“PROS Consulting and their partners Kimley-Horn, who was hired to develop the Master Plan is utilizing a variety of community engagement tactics and this public comment session at Council is an opportunity for the public to provide their thoughts and comments on the parks and future usage,” reads the staff report. 

Because “framework plan” reads like jargon, I asked for a clarification of the term last week.

“A park framework plan is a strategic document that guides the development, management, and enhancement of a park or a system of parks,” said Afton Schneider, the city’s director of communications and public engagement. “It serves as a blueprint for the future, outlining goals, priorities, and specific actions to improve and maintain park spaces.”

Finally at this meeting, Council will get a presentation from the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority. 

Albemarle design panel to take up UVA Credit Union’s new headquarters 

Since 1954, the University of Virginia Community Credit Union has been part of the financial landscape in this area. In recent years, they’ve expanded to cover a much wider geographic area and expect to be in the community well into the future. 

In 2021, the UVA Credit Union purchased an office building on a six-acre property off of Fifth Street Extended from the Christian Aid Mission. They have plans to demolish the existing structure and build a new one to serve as their new headquarters. For more information, take a look at a recent story I wrote for C-Ville Weekly.

The Architectural Review Board will take a look at the plans at their meeting in Lane Auditorium that begins at 1 p.m. (meeting info)

In other meetings:

• The Albemarle County Board of Equalization has a meeting scheduled from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Room 241 of the county’s office building at 401 McIntire Road. (agenda)

Tuesday, July 16, 2024

Albemarle EDA to consider support county request for higher pay for federal employees

The Albemarle County Economic Development Authority’s Board of Directors will have a virtual meeting at 4 p.m. on Tuesday.  (Zoom link) (agenda) (meeting materials)

There are several items under new business. 

The first will be a resolution to approve the state grant recently awarded to Siller Pollinator. The funding comes from the Agricultural and Forestal Industry Development program of the Virginia Department of Consumer and Agricultural Services. The $26,000 will help the company purchase a honey-processing trailer. Both Albemarle and Fluvanna County are each providing a $6,500 local match. (read my story)

“The purchase and operation of the equipment will allow the Company to expand its product line and offerings to the public, which will generate additional tax revenue and economic activity for Virginia and Albemarle and Fluvanna Counties,” reads a resolution. 

If you’re interested in the details, take a look at the memorandum of agreement. 

The second is a resolution called “locality pay letter of support” which relates to the pay band for federal employees. There is something called a “Locality Pay Area” where salaries are adjusted upwards to be compatible with jobs in the private sector. Currently there is no adjustment for the Charlottesville metropolitan statistical area and Albemarle wants to change that to attract more people to work for the intelligence sector. 

“The effect of the LPAs is that employees working in the intelligence and national security sector in Northern Virginia, less than 100 miles from Charlottesville MSA, receive an adjustment more than twice that of Charlottesville MSA, while the cost of living in Charlottesville MSA is estimated to be only 12.9% lower than the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria MSA,” reads a briefing from Emily Kilroy, the county’s interim director of economic development. 

The EDA’s Board will be asked to consider a letter to support a request to ask the Federal Salary Council to make an adjustment.

This third is an update on the process to update Albemarle’s economic development strategic plan as well as a preparation for the joint meeting with the Albemarle Board of Supervisors scheduled for August 14 at 5:30 p.m. in Room 241. There’s no information on this in the packet.

Then there will be an update on the Rivanna Futures project. There’s no information on this in the packet but Albemarle Supervisors rezoned land for the future defense and intelligence campus. 

Then there will be a closed session for two projects that have the code names Olympian and Julius. Olympian was discussed at a closed session on June 18 and two of the members had to recuse themselves. They were Don Long and David Storm according to the minutes. There does not appear to be a list of all of these so I am tracking them on cvillepedia.

From the closed meeting motion we learn that Project Olympian is related to expansion of an existing business in the county and that Project Julius involves the discussion of proprietary information provided by an unnamed company “pursuant to a promise of confidentiality, to be used by the EDA for the development of business and trade.”

Any guesses? 

In other meetings:

• The City of Charlottesville will hold a second virtual meeting regarding the decarbonization study that is currently underway. This meeting from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. is not on either of the city’s calendars. You have to register to attend.
• The Fluvanna Parks and Recreation Advisory Board will meet at 4:30 p.m. Where? What will they talk about? There’s no information about either on the calendar.
• The Fluvanna Solar Ordinance Committee will meet at 5 p.m. in the Morris Room at the county administration building at 132 Main Street? What will they talk about? There’s no information about either on the calendar.

Wednesday, July 17, 2024

Albemarle Supervisors to hold public hearing on policy change for taller cell towers

The Albemarle Board of Supervisors will resume their work after taking off the first week of the money. The six elected officials will meet in Lane Auditorium at 401 McIntire Road beginning at 1 p.m. (meeting info)

On the consent agenda are a few items of note:

• Albemarle County wants to pursue the ability to recoup costs associated with “emergency response to terrorism hoax incident, bomb threat, or malicious activitation of a fire alarm.” A public hearing would need to be held first and this is a resolution to begin that process. (proposed ordinance)
• There would also need to be a public hearing to increase the salary of Planning Commissioners from $7,534 a year to $7,685 a year. Members of several other boards are paid per meeting and the proposal would be to increase that from $83 to $85 per attendance. (proposed ordinance)
• The Class of 1974 will be honored with a proclamation. (read it)
• Reports from the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority and the Albemarle County Service Authority are both in writing and not presentations. (RWSA) (ACSA)
• The report from the Virginia Department of Transportation is also in writing.

There are two work sessions and the first is a “review of proposed changes to the outside agency funding process.” There are no materials available in advance but currently Albemarle has something called the Agency Budget Review Team that scores applications from nonprofit agencies. Albemarle and Charlottesville used to do this together but that ended a few years ago. 

Next Supervisors will be asked to consider changes to the Comprehensive Plan process. The Planning Commission had their discussion on July 9 and I will write up that story before Wednesday. (materials)

The afternoon continues with an update on the county’s litter collection program which is funded in part by the recently levied tax on plastic bags.

“Based on revenue generation rates, staff projects total revenues in FY24 of $120,000 and a similar amount in FY25,” reads a staff report for a request to use the proceeds to create a program to remove materials from county roadways. Staff recommends creation of a one-year pilot program to hire a contractor to do the work. There’s a list of routes in the materials. 

There are four public hearings that begin after 6 p.m. 

• The first is on Tandem Friends School’s request to increase their enrollment to a maximum of 400, up from 250. The Planning Commission voted unanimously on May 28 to approve the amendment to the special use permit they hold for educational use. (materials)
• The second is on Olivet Preschool’s request to increase their maximum enrollment from 24 to 48. This one also had a 7 to 0 vote in favor at the May 28 Planning Commission meeting. (materials)
• The third is on further easements for the developer of 999 Rio Road across a piece of land owned by the county. (materials)
• The fourth is on changes to the county’s policy on siting of towers for wireless communications. Under the proposed changes, towers could now be visible thirty feet over nearby trees and antennas can extend much further out from the pole. The Berkley Group and Cityscape were both hired to help revise the policies. The Planning Commission voted 5-1 to approve the changes with one member absent. 

Greene PC to hold work session on Stanardsville Comprehensive Plan

In this area of Virginia, towns are relatively rare with only Scottsville and Stanardsville in the Thomas Jefferson Planning District. Like cities and counties, towns are also required to create a Comprehensive Plan and the last one for Stanardsville was adopted in 2017. 

“A Comprehensive Plan sets the framework for how land is used, identifies improvements to transportation networks, and provides a useful guide for many other programs and needs,” reads a staff report from Greene County which is not directly involved with the update. 

The Greene County Planning Commission will review the project at a work session. The overall meeting begins at 6 p.m. (agenda)

One of the items to be added to the plan is a 2022 assessment from TJPDC staff on bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure in Stanardsville. 

“Stanardsville holds Greene County’s educational and governmental services and is a gateway to Shenandoah National Park, making it one of the key destinations within Greene County,” reads that plan. “The US Census Bureau estimates the population to be 493 as of 2020, however due to its location and attractiveness, many people from the surrounding areas utilize the town’s facilities.”

The Planning Commission will also have two public hearings. 

• One is on changes to the zoning ordinance related to requirements for performance bonds. (staff report)
• The second is on changes to the water and sewer ordinance related to who can be required to connect to the system (staff report)

Charlottesville Housing Advisory Committee to further discuss land bank 

This year, City Council named a few people to the Housing Advisory Committee that do not run nonprofit organizations that receive funding from the city. The HAC makes no recommendations on how the city should spend its money, but they are charged with recommending policies about affordable housing. (agenda)

One of those policies is whether the city should create a land bank to assemble property to build subsidized units. The Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority has already been working with Council to purchase land and some HAC members have expressed a desire for this to continue.

The meeting at noon in CitySpace will feature an update from staff on the HAC’s recommendation. That’s not available in the packet. 

What is in the packet are the minutes from the June 20 HAC meeting which states at the outset that there will be a discussion of the land bank at the July 15 Council meeting. If you look above, you can see that’s not actually happening. 

There is also a mention of a letter from several non-profits as well as an email from Emily Dreyfus of the Legal Aid Justice Center. These are both in the packet. 

One item both groups appear to want is for any land used to be made available only for people and households that make less than 30 percent of the area median income. There was a discussion of unintended consequences of this given the high cost to subsidize that level of rent.  No one appears to have written any accounts of these meetings for the public to go through.

In other meetings:

• The Albemarle Board of Equalization is scheduled to meet from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Room 241 of the county’s office building at 401 McIntire Road. (learn more)

Thursday, July 18, 2024

Charlottesville Human Rights Commission to hold legislative review panel

None of the members of Charlottesville’s Human Rights Commission are elected, but they will get the ear of two area legislators at their meeting at 6:30 p.m. in City Space.

Delegate Katrina Callsen (D-54) and Senator Creigh Deeds (D-11) will be on hand for a legislative recommendations panel for the 2025 General Assembly. 

“The Human Rights Commission (HRC) will host state legislators and representatives from Human Rights Commissions in other Virginia localities to gather additional legislative priority recommendations from subject-area experts,” reads a press release sent out on Wednesday.

They’ll hear from members of Human Rights Commissions from Alexandria, Fairfax County, and Virginia Beach. Alexandria has a population of 158,591 according to the Weldon Cooper Center at the University of Virginia. Fairfax County has 1.14 million people and Virginia Beach has 453,605. 

In other meetings: 

• The Charlottesville Board of Zoning Appeals will meet at 4 p.m. in CitySpace. There’s no agenda at this time. Will I remember to check as the week progresses? (where the agenda will go)
• There will be a neighborhood meeting for the development of a master plan for Tonsler Park. This will be held at 6 p.m. at the Tonsler Recreation Center at 500 Cherry Avenue. (meeting info)

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This post was contributed by Sean Tubbs. Sean is a journalist working to build a new information and news outlet centered around Charlottesville and Virginia. In 2020, he launched a daily newscast and newsletter and also created a semi-regular podcast on the pandemic.

Support for Sean’s “Week Ahead” update comes from The Piedmont Environmental Council.