Charlottesville City Council scheduled for final vote on new zoning code 

After nearly four years of work, the land use reform in Charlottesville known as Cville Plans Together Initiative may finally see a vote on its third product. City Council is expected to hold a final vote on the draft zoning code at the very end of its final meeting for 2023.  

But the five-member City Council will begin their work at 4 p.m. with a work session on budget presentations from various departments. 

• Emergency Management and Internal Services
• Communications and Public Engagement 
• Budget and Performance Management
• Department of Finance
• Human Resources

There’s a closed session for Boards and Commissions. Will this be the time a new Planning Commissioner is appointed, ending a vacancy that is now over six  months old? 

There are two proclamations: 

• The Human Rights Commission is celebrating its 10th anniversary having met for the first time on November 21, 2013. (read the resolution) 
• Preservation Piedmont will present an award to the City for the Pen Park Unmarked Graves project. 

There are several items on the consent agenda:

• There are minutes for various meetings, all of which have draft versions available for review before adoption. These are for: October 2, 2023; October 16, 2023; November 1, 2023; Certification of Election Results; November 8, 2023 work session on parking. 
• There is second reading of a resolution to appropriate $49,976 in grant funding from the U.S. Department of Interior through the Chesapeake Bay Networks to hire a consultant to “develop locally specific (hyper-local or neighborhood-scaled),spatially accurate data on underrepresented and underserved populations to enable inclusive initiatives with an equity lens. (staff report)
• There is second reading of a resolution to appropriate $27,486 from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), Bureau of Justice Assistance’ (BJA) Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program. This is for recruitment efforts of the Charlottesville Police Department. (staff report)
• There is second reading of an appropriation of $200,000 in funds from the Virginia Department of Historic Resources to be passed through to the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center. This is for their Center for Local Knowledge. (staff report)

I’m going to race through the rest of the meeting because this is the last item I’m writing this week and I want to get on to the research I need to do. 

But Council will take up two projects deferred at the December 4 meeting that have drawn the concern of the University of Virginia. I am hoping to get through that before the meeting, but I also have to go through Council’s final work session on the Development Code from December 14. I hope to have something out by noon tomorrow. I apologize for not having this more sorted. Here’s my account of the December 13 work session in case you missed it.

The final item on the agenda is a report from the Botanical Garden. Then the ten-month tenure of Councilor Leah Puryear will come to a close. 

Before you go: The time to write and research of this article is covered by paid subscribers to Charlottesville Community Engagement. In fact, this particular installment comes from the December 18, 2023 Week Ahead. To ensure this research can be sustained, please consider becoming a paid subscriber or contributing monthly through Patreon.