Monthly Archives: April 2023

UVA-commissioned study finds flaws in funded improvements to US 29/250 interchange with Fontaine Avenue

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In late 2019, the Charlottesville City Council and the Albemarle Board of Supervisors agreed to end a public body known as the Planning and Coordination Council that met openly with University of Virginia officials to discuss the infrastructure needed for a growing community. 

This was replaced with the closed-door Land Use and Environmental Planning Committee which meets every month. In its first two meetings of this year, the group has talked privately about some of the potential transportation solutions in areas where the University of Virginia has plans to significantly increase its activities. 

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Parks and Recreation understaffed as pool season approaches but have a plan

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There are 46 days until Memorial Day and the traditional opening of municipal pools, and the warm weather this weekend may have many planning ahead for how they will cool off in the near future. 

The Charlottesville Planning Commission this week got updates on preparations in the city’s Parks and Recreation Department to get ready for the summer. Overall, the department has some vacancies to fill. 

“We are at least twelve full-time equivalents down,” said Planning Commissioner Hosea Mitchell. “We’re working to fill those but it’s been quite the effort.” 

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Planning Commission gets a spoiler on third module of Charlottesville’s draft zoning

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It pays to listen to the pre-meeting of the Charlottesville Planning Commission as there is often material that is discussed that may be relevant to those interested in matters such as the rewrite of the zoning code to allow for significantly more residential density than currently allowed. 

Before I begin, I still want to go through the rest of the March 29 meeting between the Charlottesville Planning Commission and the City Council on the zoning. The first two modules for the draft code are out with a third waiting to be released. Today we learned that the third module will now not be ready until the first week of May.

The Planning Commission had another scheduled discussion of the work to date at the end of their April 11 meeting but they discussed the matter at their pre-meeting which was posted to the video archive. Here’s chair Lyle Solla-Yates. 

“Zoning… another big topic,” Solla-Yates said. “Table of authority, a term I had not heard before.”

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Deadline extended for firms to apply to run microtransit for CAT on behalf of Albemarle County

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Charlottesville Area Transit is seeking a firm to help them run a pilot on-demand program for Albemarle County and have extended the deadline for bids to April 26. That’s one of several items in an addendum put out today to the request for proposals for a company to provide the service. (read the addendum)

The addendum also has answers to 41 questions asked by would-be vendors. Here’s some information that can be learned from this section:

  • Vendors will need to determine how many vehicles they will need to provide the service 
  • Vendors will need to define what they consider to be a service disruption as part of their data reporting requirements
  • Vendors would not need to provide the service on Sundays 
  • Vendors will need to provide a service and operations plan 
  • The vendor will need to provide a call center to book a ride between 6:15 a.m. and 8:45 p.m. 
  • CAT will provide uniforms to drivers under this service 
  • Digital submissions will not be accepted for proposals
  • Albemarle County will decide whether to continue the service after the first year 
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