Charlottesville Planning Commission seeks more funding for sidewalks in CIP

The Charlottesville Planning Commission has held its public hearing for the planning document that lays out what infrastructure the city plans to build within the next five years. 

At the beginning of the their meeting on January 9, Planning Commissioner Karim Habbab read a statement indicating he would recuse himself from discussions or votes on affordable housing projects because the architectural firm he works for is helping to design projects to be built by Piedmont Housing Alliance. 

“I have conferred with the City Attorney’s office and it is their legal opinion that my voluntary disqualification is consistent with the State and Local Conflicts of Interest Act,” Habbab said. 

The Planning Commission’s role is to make recommendations for changes to the CIP before City Manager Sam Sanders unveils his proposed budget in early March. The group also had a work session on the draft document in late November. (review the January 9, 2024 presentation)

“This is the same plan that you saw back in November,” Hammill said. “We’ve not made any changes at this point.” said Krisy Hammill, Charlottesville’s director of budget and performance management. “With the CIP, everything that we intend to spend needs to balance with any available revenues.”

Those revenues mostly come from the sale of bonds which are then paid back through debt service payments each year. The city’s AAA bond rating keeps interest rates low. 

“Over the five year plan, we’re planning on spending just a little over $136 million dollars,” Hammill said. “Just a little over $81 million of that is intended to be funded with bonds.”

City Manager Sam Sanders said the CIP at this point assumes no increase in the real property tax rate. 

Other revenues include state and federal funding for various projects. Another line item is a $4.217 million loan from Southern Development to help cover the costs of upgrading Stribling Avenue. That was a condition of the Planning Commission’s recommendation for approval of a rezoning for up to 170 units between the Fontaine Research Park and Jefferson Park Avenue Extended.

The largest category for spending is in affordable housing with $48,295,000 projected over the next five years. That includes $15 million for the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s pending redevelopment of Westhaven. The government agency requested that amount last September. That figure also includes $3.15 million for the Piedmont Housing Alliance for their partnership with Woodard Properties at 501 Cherry Avenue. 

Transportation is second with $29,262,681. Always keep in mind that Council will only approve the first year’s funding in the CIP when they adopt a budget in April. The out years are for planning purposes. 

One item absent from the five-year plan at this time is between $25 million and $30 million for a Pre-K Center at Walker Upper Elementary School. I’ll have more details on that in a future edition of the newsletter from City Council’s joint meeting with the School Board. 

Another item not yet funded is the city’s share for renovations at the Jefferson Madison Regional Library’s Central Branch on East Market Street. The partnership agreement for the library system calls for Albemarle and Charlottesville to split the costs for capital improvement for both Central Library and the Gordon Avenue Library. 

“We have not proposed it in the FY25 CIP because we don’t have that commitment from the county that they too can do it,” said City Manager Sam Sanders. “We know it is something that both bodies are interested in making happen.” 

Sanders estimated it may be FY27 before the city can make that outlay. City Councilor Brian Pinkston said he’d like to see the renovations done in the next five years. 

“The library in addition to being full of books which I love is also a social component of the city,” Pinkston said. 

The first speaker at the public hearing was David Plunkett, the director of JMRL, who said the renovation has been in the works for many years. He requested funding in two different years.

“One year would be architecture and engineering and then the construction itself could begin immediately following,” Plunkett said. “The Central Library has served as the main branch of the Jefferson Madison Regional Library since 1981. The building is co-owned by Charlottesville and Albemarle County and it is the most public building in Charlottesville, I guarantee. It serves this community with doors wide open 68 hours a week.”

Plunkett said the building is over a hundred years old and he thanked the city for helping to make repairs such as renovation of restrooms and the replacement of heating, cooling, and ventilation systems. A current cost estimate is $15.8 million based on a 2015 design created by Train Architects. (view the study)

Two other speakers called on the city to create a land bank so that affordable housing funds could be used to buy property for construction of new units. 

Commissioner Rory Stolzenberg said there was not enough funding being put into sidewalk and bike projects. 

“As part of the Comprehensive Plan and during our zoning rewrite process, I think we made a process, we the city made a promise to the city, that we would invest in the infrastructure to make the city a more walkable place to help people get out of their cars and a $100,000 a year is just not an investment in that,” Stolzenberg said. 

Stolzenberg said the city was setting aside more than that pre-pandemic and he suggested $500,000 for this year working up to $1 million a year in anticipation of the city’s creation this year of a sidewalk priority list. 

Commissioner Lyle Solla-Yates said he wants to fund the library, sidewalks, and trails, but said the city has to learn to be more financially sustainable. 

“I’m uncomfortable voting for increased spending at this time unless we can figure out a way to fund it,” Solla-Yates said. “That is my concern.” 

Commission Chair Hosea Mitchell said this was the seventh capital improvement program he’s reviewed. He agreed with Solla-Yates, and suggested that the Planning Commission’s recommendation to Council would be to morally support projects and leave it up to elected officials to secure funding. 

“Not necessarily lend an amount to what we’re asking but to ask Council as they begin deliberating to finding money for things like sidewalks, and finding money for the library, and begin finding money for land banks and land trusts,” Mitchell said. 

The Commission voted 6-0 on a motion to recommend the CIP budget with amendments similar to what Mitchel had said as well as two requests. One is to restore new sidewalk levels to pre-pandemic levels and the other is to fund at least the design of the Central Library renovations. 

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 16, 2024 edition of the newsletter and podcast. To ensure this research can be sustained, please consider becoming a paid subscriber or contributing monthly through Patreon.