Council to appropriate $21M surplus, consider purchase of land from CRHA at Avon/Levy

UPDATE: After publication of this article, the City Council meeting for January 16, 2024 was postponed until January 22, 2024.

Charlottesville City Manager Sam Sanders is moving forward with efforts to increase the community’s capacity to address the needs of unhouses individuals. He will ask Council tonight to consider purchasing land from the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority for a permanent shelter.

That’s one of several items on the agenda for Charlottesville City Council’s regular meeting beginning at 6:30 p.m. tonight. Council will also be briefed on upcoming work on trees on the Downtown Mall and hold a public hearing on a $21 million surplus for fiscal year 2023.

The regular session begins with a proclamation declaring the day after Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a Day of Racial Healing. Here’s the last paragraph. 

“Community members in the City of Charlottesville have a unique responsibility to work earnestly and collaboratively to create courageous and supportive environments that acknowledge the traumatic past; promote the healing of the wounds created by racial, ethnic, and religious, and other social biases; and build an equitable and just society so that all people of the City of Charlottesville’s community can thrive.”

Before the public comment period, Sheriff James Brown will give his budget presentation as that did not occur when other constitutional officers gave their pitches on January 2. (view Sheriff Brown’s presentation)

Also before the public comment period, the Parks and Recreation Department will provide an update on the tree management plan for the Downtown Mall that’s been put together by the firm Wolf Josey Landscape Architects. One issue identified is a conflict between heaters used to allow restaurants to operate patios in cold weather. One corrective action is that these will no longer be allowed without approval from the city. (view the presentation)

After that, Council will once again consider rezonings for the Verve Charlottesville and 2117 Ivy Road projects. There’s a technical reason why that isn’t adequately explained in the staff report, but I’ve made inquiries.

“At the very end of the Dec 18 meeting Council voted to reconsider their votes on both items and then deferred both to Jan 16,” wrote Neighborhood Development Services Director James Freas. “The deferral was to allow the applicants in both cases to provide those proffers offered verbally in the meeting in writing.”

This vote to reconsider is not reflected in the staff report for tonight’s meeting. It also is a separate matter from the Planning Commission’s public hearing last week on a mailing error related to their discussion.

Two years of large budget surpluses in two consecutive fiscal years which have washed any talk of austerity that may have come with the COVID-19 pandemic. The amount for FY22 was $22,917,915.01 and the resolution for how that money was used can be viewed here. 

“The economic rebound from COVID 19 that began in FY22 continued in FY23,” reads the staff report. “Despite record high interest rates and inflation, the City’s largest revenues performed above projected budget amounts.”

Older readers may recall that the maximum interest rate for mortgages hit 18.63 percent in the fall of 1981, much higher than anything seen this century. In any case, the city has another large surplus of $21,739,731 for FY23. 

This time around, the majority of funds will be translated to the Capital Improvement Program’s contingency fund. That’s an additional $15.8 million of cash for the city to use towards infrastructure. 

There are $5.9 million in recommended general fund expenditures. This includes: 

• $2.6 million for a cost of living adjustment for city retirees
• $1.5 million for an upgrade of the city’s financial management system
• $400,000 for cost increases associated with the city’s refuse contract 
• $300,000 toward a project to build bathrooms at Riverview Park 
• $92,500 toward increasing capacity in the City Attorney’s office. 
• $47,000 for an upfit of a new police substation in the Downtown Transit Station 

Next, the city will consider purchasing two parcels of land at 405 Levy and 405 Avon Street for a combined price of up to $4.2 million. The proposed source is remaining funds from the American Rescue Plan Act. 

“This acquisition supports the City Manager’s commitment to homelessness intervention as it could become the site of a facility that serves to meet that need among others,” reads the staff report. 

The staff report states that the city would work with the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority to purchase the properties, but CRHA already owns both 405 Levy Avenue and 405 Avon Street and has done since September 24, 2010. The Levy property consists of 0.84 acres and is currently used as a surface parking lot for city employees. The Avon property is .249 acres and is currently used by CRHA for its maintenance crews. 

“The City and CRHA have an opportunity at this point to acquire and indefinitely preserve this property as an affordable unit,” the staff report continues.

A sustainability study produced last year by Northern Real Estate Urban Ventures listed other scenarios in mind in their report such as selling the asset to a private developer to fund other CRHA efforts. 

“Small site, but high value in terms of the ability for an outside developer to come and build say a market rate development that it could be worth selling that property and yielding a significant value for the sale of the land and being able to create a reserve for CRHA for the future,” said Gina Merritt of NREUV at Council’s September 18, 2023 meeting. (read the story)

Merritt suggested the land could sell for as high as $11 million. The 1.2 acre site is now zoned Node Mixed-Use 10. 

If the city were to purchase the property from CRHA for $4 million, the transaction would be just under 51 percent of the 2023 assessment and would preclude the city receiving and tax revenue from the property. 

The last two items are an amendment to the city’s procurement rules and quarterly reports from both the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority and the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority.

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 January 15, 2024 Week Ahead. To ensure this research can be sustained, please consider becoming a paid subscriber or contributing monthly through Patreon.