This odd week begins with the final day of September, a fifth Monday. In Charlottesville, that gives the Youth Council a chance to be the main event. The big meetings this week are on Wednesday.  The new month begins on Tuesday as does the beginning of the fourth quarter of the year. This is also the beginning of the fiscal year 2025’s second quarter, and the beginning of the federal fiscal year. That comes up at the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission meeting on Thursday! 

There are so many ways to organize information, and the only way I can make sense of my beat in order to figure out what stories to write is to go through all of the meetings and share with you what’s coming up. No matter the position on the calendar, there’s always something happening.

Some highlights this week:

• The Albemarle County Supervisors will spend a lot of time going over transportation issues Wednesday afternoon, including what potential projects are coming out of a recent Virginia Department of Transportation “pipeline study” of the Ivy Road and Old Ivy Road corridor. 
• Supervisors will also have a public hearing Wednesday on a rezoning to put 165 units on the site of what is now a specialty foods store that sells Asian groceries
• The Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission will adopt a budget for the FY26 and get an update on local cigarette tax revenue and a new initiative to connect seniors with available transportation 
• Fluvanna Supervisors will discuss a work plan that’s led to a new mission and vision statement that puts a focus on rural area protection
• There are no meetings in Greene County 
• There are no meetings in Louisa County 
• There are no meetings in Nelson County, though the Sheriff’s Office is holding an event for seniors 

Thanks as always to the Piedmont Environmental Council for their sponsorship of this weekly look at what’s coming up in meetings of local and regional governance. 

Monday, September 30, 2024

Charlottesville Youth Council to meet for orientation 

The purpose of the Charlottesville Youth Council is to “advise City Council, inform the community about issues that affect the youth, and make recommendations for how Charlottesville can be a better city.” 

The latest cohort begins their work on Monday with a meeting in City Space at 5:30 p.m. (meeting info)

After introductions and an icebreaker, there will be a review of City Council’s strategic priorities.  The five members adopted a framework for the plan at their meeting on September 5, 2023, as I wrote about at the time.  This framework is how City Manager Sam Sanders developed his work plan. Here’s his latest report. 

One item on the agenda is an “Intro to YPAR process” but that acronym is not defined. A purpose of journalism is to explain when jargon is used. 

YPAR stands for Youth Participatory Action Research.

“YPAR is an innovative approach to positive youth and community/organization development that recognizes the important role youth can and should play in the research process,” reads a YPAR website for the University of Virginia’s School of Education and Human Development. “By moving away from longstanding adult-centered research traditions, YPAR creates the space and facilitates the ability of youth to examine and address social issues within their own community or organization.”

The last Youth Council presented their report to City Council on May 20 of this year. Take a look at that video here. 

Tuesday, October 1, 2024

Wednesday is the big day this week. Do you note a trend in this list of today’s meetings?

In other meetings: 

• The Albemarle County Electoral Board will meet at 1 p.m. The information online does not specifically indicate where they meet, but the voter registration office is located at the Albemarle County Office Building at 1600 5th St Extended. (meeting materials) (meeting info)
• At 4:30 p.m., the Nelson County Sheriff’s Office has the first of several events called Senior Safeguard Sessions. These are “weekly meetings designed to empower our community” and they take place at the Calvary Baptist Church at 8408 Thomas Nelson Highway in Lovingston. (meeting info)
• The Charlottesville Sister Cities Commission meets at 4:30 p.m. in City Space. There’s no agenda posted at publication time. (meeting info)
• The Charlottesville Tree Commission meets at 5 p.m. in the Charlottesville Parks & Recreation Administration Office at 501 East Main Street. An agenda is not posted as of publication time. (meeting info)
• The Charlottesville Board of Architectural Review will hold a work session in the Neighborhood Development Services conference room. There’s no agenda at publication time. (meeting info)

Wednesday, October 2, 2024

Transportation is afternoon topic at Albemarle Supervisors meeting

One of the largest impacts the government can have on people’s lives is the provision of infrastructure for people to get around the community. The six members of the Albemarle Board of Supervisors will learn the latest on transportation projects on Wednesday afternoon for their first meeting of October. 

They meet at 1 p.m. in Lane Auditorium at the county’s office building at 401 McIntire Road in Charlottesville. (meeting info) (agenda)

The first item of business is a proclamation recognizing National 4-H Week. 

“More than 1,800 students aged 5 to 19 are involved in 4-H in Albemarle County and Charlottesville City,” reads the proclamation. It’s worth it to take a look at a big quote. 

“4-H addresses issues facing youth wherever they live – in inner cities, suburbs, and rural communities and helps break barriers by focusing on learning-by-doing, building self-esteem, leadership, and citizenship skills, and focuses on critical issues such as protecting the environment; and, provide programs on food and nutrition, science and technology, natural resources, substance abuse prevention, animal and plant sciences, career education, community pride, citizenship, and leadership.”

After that there will be consideration of two special exception requests related to home stays. One is at 1234 Carter Street in Crozet and the other is at 4975 Blue Fox Farm. Albemarle’s homestay ordinance requires a lot of active discussion by the Board of Supervisors. 

Then an afternoon of transportation begins with the return of a specific conversation. What plans are in place for new infrastructure on and around the Old Ivy Road corridor to accommodate the pending construction of 525 units of currently undeveloped land? 

Supervisors unanimously approved a rezoning for that level of intensity for the Old Ivy Residences community on March 1, 2023 as I wrote about at the time. Around the same time, the Virginia Department of Transportation began a “pipeline study” to evaluate potential infrastructure to address concerns of area residents. 

“County staff will present the recommended package of improvements for the Ivy Road Corridor to the Board of Supervisors for feedback,” reads the staff report. “The improvements included in this package were identified by the study and are expected to work synergistically to achieve the study’s goals of improving safety, reducing congestion, improving access, and enhancing multimodal accessibility/connectivity.” 

None of the projects were far enough along to be considered in this year’s round of Smart Scale funding from the Virginia Department of Transportation, so there’s no action item for Supervisors to vote on. Here are some of the ideas:

• Convert Ivy Road and Boars Head Road signalized intersection into a roundabout
• Convert Ivy Road and Canterbury Road signalized intersection into a roundabout
• Close the median in sections of Ivy Road to limit access 
• Add bike and pedestrian infrastructure and a two-way signal at the railroad underpass at the eastern end of Old Ivy Road
• Remove left turns from Ivy Road onto Old Ivy Road
• Add a shared-use path on Old Ivy Road. There is a proffer related to this for the Old Ivy Residences development.
• Additional acceleration and deceleration lanes onto U.S. 250 bypass 

After that discussion, there will be a presentation on the quarterly transportation planning report put together by Albemarle staff. (read the reports)

In the past two months, I’ve not had a chance to write a whole lot of stories related to transportation so this report is a good chance to catch up with a lot of things. Some of this may spill over into Charlottesville as well. 

Classification changes suggested for area roadways

Among those unreported stories is a statewide update of how the Virginia Department of Transportation classifies roadways. This happens after every U.S. Census. In August, the Metropolitan Planning Organization voted to approve a resolution signing off suggested changes. The current set of definitions date back to 2014 and you can take a look at a guide on VDOT’s website.

“Functional classification outlines how travel can be channelized within the network in a logical and efficient manner by defining the part that any particular road or street should play in serving the flow of trips through a highway network,” reads the guide.

As part of this update, Charlottesville has made several requests. For instance, Hillsdale Drive would be upgraded from a “local road” to a “major collector.” 

“Major Collectors in Urban Areas provide land access and traffic circulation within residential neighborhoods, commercial, and industrial areas,” VDOT’s guide continues. “These collectors distribute trips from the arterials through the aforementioned areas to their ultimate destination, collect traffic from local streets, and channel it to the arterial system.”

The portion of Cherry Avenue from Ridge Street to Roosevelt Brown Boulevard would be upgrade from a major collector road to a “minor arterial” 

“In urban areas, Minor Arterials interconnect with principal arterials, augment the urban principal arterial system, and provide service to trips of moderate length at a lower level of travel mobility than principal arterials,” reads another definition in the guide. 

Charlottesville also requested several other local roads to be promoted to minor collector. These include:

• Chesapeake Street in the Woolen Mills neighborhood
• East Market Street 
• Franklin Street
• Water Street Extended
• Prospect Street from 9th Street to Bailey Road in the Fifeville neighborhood
• Bailey Road in the Fifeville neighborhood

Before Monday I will have listened to the MPO meeting from August 28 to see if there were any objections. Do the people who live in these neighborhoods know their roadway is being reclassified? Why did Charlottesville make these requests? Will this bring in additional funding for improvements? 

A look at the next round of Smart Scale projects

If the conversion of the intersection of Hillsdale Drive and Hydraulic Road to a roundabout is any indication, there is a fundamental disconnect between the number of people who drive on area roads and those who pay attention to the planning process. That project was funded by Smart Scale, one of the Virginia Department of Transportation’s pathways to infrastructure money.  

Applications for the sixth round have now been filed and Albemarle’s submissions are:

• A double roundabout at the complicated intersections of Rio Rio Road, Hillsdale Drive, Northfield, and Old Brook
• Convert the intersection of U.S. 29 and Plank Road into a “restricted crossing u-turn” otherwise known as an R-cut
• Convert the intersection of U.S. 250 and Old Trail Drive in Crozet into a roundabout with signals for pedestrian crossings
• A series of projects that came out of a “pipeline” study of Barrack Road between Emmet Street and Georgetown Road
• Convert the intersection of Fifth Street and Interstate-64 into a diverging diamond (technically a submission of the MPO)
• Several improvements on Pantops (also MPO)
• Additional projects on Barracks road to complement the ones listed above (also MPO)

Other items from the transportation report:

• Albemarle continues to negotiate on hiring a consultant to do the work related to the Three Notched Trail Shared Use Path. The county was a $2 million planning grant for this purpose in August 2022 as I wrote at the time. 
• The conversion of Free Bridge Lane into a pedestrian-bike promenade will take place before the end of the year. Supervisors approved $15,000 at their meeting on August 21 to pay for gates and signage for a one-year pilot program. They approved the idea in March 2023 as I wrote at the time.
• A through truck restriction is in place on Plank Road between U.S. 250 and U.S. 29. Supervisors asked for this earlier in the year and the public process resulted in approval by VDOT’s commissioner.
• Albemarle County has finally updated the AC44 page with new information about phase 3, though no dates are given. This paragraph is the result of seeing an update on AC44 in the report on page 7.  For all of the stories I’ve written on AC44, check out Information Charlottesville. 

Details on funded transportation projects

• Conversion of the intersection of Rio Roadway and the John Warner Parkway into a roundabout is expected to start construction in the Fall of 2025. This is part of one design-build contract known as Bundle #2. 
• Also expected in late 2025 is construction on improvements at the intersection Belvedere Boulevard and Rio Road. This is also part of Bundle #2. 
• The intersection of Route 20 and Route 53 will be converted into a roundabout as part of Bundle #2. Construction on this is currently anticipated for late 2026.
• Another proposed roundabout is at Old Lynchburg Road and 5th Street Extended, also part of Bundle #2. Construction is expected in late 2025. 
• Another Bundle #2 project that was funded with a different revenue source is the intersection of of U.S. 250, Route 240, and Route 680 into a roundabout. This project is scheduled for spring 2025. 
• Another project funded through Smart Scale is a park and ride lot at Exit 107 in Crozet to be served by transit lines. 
• Construction of a shared use path on U.S. 29 from Seminole Lane to Carrsbrook Drive funded through Smart Scale is expected to begin in the fall of 2025.
• Changes to the Fontaine Avenue and U.S. 29 bypass are still being considered and a design public hearing has not yet been held. I have written about this extensively including a vote in February by the MPO to proceed with signalized intersections. The report notes that this project is being bundled with two other projects. One is the District Avenue roundabout that Charlottesville City Council wants to fully access the Meadows neighborhood, as I wrote about in August. Also of significance is that this project will be bundled with the Fontaine Avenue Streetscape, a project Charlottesville received funding for in 2016. The city’s website is very outdated. The report notes construction is expected in early 2026, but that design changes may delay. Keep in mind the Manning Institute of Biotechnology is expected to be occupied in late 2026. 

There’s more in the report. I’m already at 1,500 words and we’re only on the second item for the Board of Supervisors! After the report from Albemarle’s transportation staff, the Virginia Department of Transportation will give its report. (quarterly report) (monthly report)

Charlottesville Community Engagement is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Subscribed

Four public hearings in Albemarle Board’s evening session including Cville Oriental site

The Albemarle Board of Supervisors hold their public hearings in the evening like most elected bodies in our area. These begin shortly after County Executive Jeffrey Richardson will be asked to give a report on items not listed on the agenda. 

The first public hearing is for a public hearing on an ordinance to give a one-time $1,000 bonus to eligible employees. The FY2025 budget did not include a salary increase, and this bonus is intended to offset rising healthcare costs and other increases in the cost of living. (item materials)

The second is for a rezoning of 1193 Seminole Trail for a maximum of 165 residential units and up to 10,000 square feet. This is the current site of Cville Oriental, a long-standing grocery store that rents from the site and will be displaced. Two other businesses have already closed in anticipation of redevelopment. 

The Albemarle County Planning Commission recommended approval on July 23, 2024, but some members expressed disappointment the project was not a taller one with more residential density. The developer, Up Campus Properties, said that was partially due to constraints that come from a lack of a second vehicular access point. For more details, take a look at the story I wrote in late July. 

The third public hearing is for a Solar Power Purchase Agreement to lease a portion of the roof of the county’s office building at 5th Street which is often referred to as COB-5. 

“Under such an agreement, the system is designed, installed, financed, owned, operated, and maintained by the solar development company for the life of the agreement,” reads the staff report. “Throughout the life of the system, the property owner pays the solar development company for the energy, just as an owner would pay for energy from electric utilities.”

The materials state that the county could install 1,500 solar panels and generate 660 killowatt/hours of electricity each day and an estimated 900,000 each year. That’s enough to generate half of the energy currently used at COB-5. 

Under this arrangement, the county would work with Sun Tribe Solar. The deed is here if you want to take a look at it. Additional information is available here in a three-page report. 

The fourth public hearing relates to a new lease with the United States Army for a utility easement underneath Boulders Road next to Rivanna Station. (item materials)

Fluvanna Supervisors to review work plan for county’s next two years

The five members of the Fluvanna County Board of Supervisors will meet at 5 p.m. in the Circuit Courtroom in the Fluvanna Courts Building. (meeting package)

Parks and Recreation Director Aaron Spitzer will give a presentation on how the 2024 Fluvanna County Fair went this year. There are no advance materials but the organizers posted a comment on the fair’s Facebook page on August 20. 

“As we reflect on the success of this year’s county fair, we want to express our deepest gratitude to everyone who played a part in making it exceptional,” reads the post. 

Under action matters, Spitzer will ask for a resolution related to a special hunting program planned for Pleasant Grove Park on December 27, 2024. 

“The Sheriff’s Office continues to believe that it is necessary to reduce the numbers of deer on Pleasant Grove and that the best means of such control is through a managed hunt under the auspices of Wheelin’ Sportsmen, a group affiliated with the National Wild Turkey Federation,” reads the staff report. “The proposal is to permit a small (7-10) group of hunters to take deer during the current hunting season.”

These have occurred every winter since 2013. 

There are two resolutions to authorize public hearings. 

One is for changes to the county’s erosion and sediment control ordinance, a section of code that has not been updated since 2015. Since then there have been several regulatory changes at the state level. Charlottesville has already updated their ordinance as I reported in June. 

The actual public hearing for the ordinance change would be held on November 20, 2024. 

The other public hearing would also be scheduled for November 24 and would be for a lease agreement with the Fluvanna Christian Services Society to lease property at the Carysbrook Complex. The FCSS has run a food pantry out of a storage building they rent from Fluvanna County. This has since moved to a different site but they want to continue to use the buildings for other storage purposes. (learn more)

There will also be a review of a recent retreat and development of a work plan. 

“Following the 2024 Board of Supervisors Planning Retreat, retreat facilitator Kimball Payne of the Berkley Group, and County Staff, refined the goals established at the retreat into a work plan with due dates,” reads the staff report from County Administrator Eric Dahl. 

The notes from the retreat include both an updated mission and vision. 

Going in to the retreat, the mission statement read: 

Fluvanna County is committed to providing an excellent quality of life for our citizens and businesses through the delivery of competitive public services and programs in an efficient and effective manner. 

After the retreat, a new draft mission statement read:

Fluvanna County provides an excellent quality of life through the efficient delivery of core services and programs, while preserving the unique identity and rural character of the county.

The original vision statement read:

Fluvanna County…The heart of Virginia and your gateway to the future. A great place to live, learn, work, and play

And the new draft:

A thriving community in the heart of Virginia and your gateway to the future

The notes contain a lot of details about specific elements to build that future. 

There are a couple of interesting items on the consent agenda:

• There is a resolution to renew the lease for the Registrar’s Office in the Jefferson Centre Shopping Center for a monthly rent of $4,087.81 beginning on July 1, 2025. This location has been used since 2020 because the physical location was not set up to accommodate voting reform enacted that year due to the pandemic. (learn more)
• Fluvanna County Public Schools has received over $3.21 million in additional grants for fiscal year 2025 and Supervisors have to approve the appropriation. (learn more)
• Fluvanna County does not yet have a deputy county attorney and is still contracting with the firm Deloria & Hoffman. (learn more)
• Supervisors will enter into a project agreement with TRC Engineers for monitoring and reporting services required by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality at the now-closed Fluvanna County landfill. The cost is not to exceed $38,350. (learn more)

There are no public meetings scheduled and the only thing under “unfinished business” is TBD. 

Charlottesville holding workshop on affordable housing funding opportunities

Long-time readers of my work know that I document a lot of details. One of them is how the City of Charlottesville is meeting City Council’s moral commitment to spend $10 million a year on affordable housing initiatives. 

For this segment of the newsletter, go back and take a look at a story from late August on a recent Notice of Funding Availability for four separate pools of money. At 10 a.m. on this day, the city will hold a workshop with details on the Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund (CAHF) as well as the Housing Operations and Program Services (HOPS) grant program. 

“This event is designed for nonprofit organizations, service providers, housing developers, and community stakeholders interested in applying for grant funding to support housing-related programs and services in Charlottesville,” reads the item on one of Charlottesville’s two event calendars. 

Thursday, October 3, 2024

TJPDC to review FY26 budget, cigarette tax income, PATH program

The Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission is one of around two dozen such entities around Virginia. These were created around fifty years ago in order to encourage regional cooperation in areas experiencing growth. Every month, Commissioners appointed by the six localities in the TJPDC gather at 407 East Water Street for a meeting. (agenda packet) (meeting materials)

There will be two presentations. The first is a six-month update from the Blue Ridge Cigarette Tax Board. The entity was created after the General Assembly granted counties the ability to levy a tax on tobacco products and includes localities outside of the TJPDC. 

In FY2024, just under 8.5 million packs of cigarettes were sold in an area that consists of the counties of Albemarle, Augusta, Fluvanna, Greene, Madison, and Orange as well as the Town of Madison and the City of Charlottesville. That brought in around $2.9 million in revenue with administration costs of about $157,000. 

There will also be a presentation on the PATH Mobility Management Program which was created to help older residents find transportation connections. The program begins its second fiscal year on October 1, 2024. PATH stands for “Partnership for Accessible Transportation Help” and they can be reached at 888-879-7379. 

“PATH is a free informational hub for all transportation options in the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle, Nelson, Greene, Louisa, and Fluvanna counties,” reads a slide in the presentation. “By centralizing assistance through an accessible and user friendly platform, PATH aims to ensure that every individual can navigate their journey with confidence and ease.”

Under new business, there will be a discussion on contributions from the various localities. A total of $452,584 is expected in FY2026 but staff argue that these need to be adjusted to take inflation and other cost of living increases into account. Staff are recommending a seven percent increase for all services except for legislative services which is suggested at five percent. 

Different jurisdictions pay for different services. For instance, Louisa County and Nelson County do not pay for solid waste services, and do not participate in the Rivanna River Basin Commission. Only Albemarle and Charlottesville pay for work to keep the Regional Transit Partnership. 

“The FY26 Operating Budget is balanced and includes revenues of $44,650,411 and expenses of $44,650,411,” reads the staff report. 

That conversation tees up a discussion on the draft budget for TJPDC for FY26. 

In other meetings:

• Charlottesville’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee will meet at 5 p.m. in the Neighborhood Development Services Conference Room in City Hall. An agenda was not available at publication time. This item is not visible on calendar #2. (calendar #1) 
• Albemarle County’s Natural Heritage Committee will meet at 5:45 p.m. in Room 235 of the county’s office building at 401 McIntire Road. (meeting info)
• Charlottesville’s Human Rights Commission will hold a work session in CitySpace on policy recommendations, their annual work plan, and new business. (agenda)

---

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.