Albemarle Supervisors to review road paving funds, consider contractor’s request for $238K 

The six-member Albemarle Board of Supervisors will meet at 1 p.m. in Lane Auditorium which is located in the county office building at 401 McIntire Road. (meeting info)

After the usual start to a meeting, Supervisors will take up the consideration of a claim from S.L. Williamson for $238,207.29 in cost overruns associated with their work to build a sidewalk on Ivy Road just to the west of the city. Staff is recommending denial. The company made their pitch on March 6, 2024, an item that’s on a long list of items that no one seems to have reported. (staff report)

Next up is a work session on Albemarle County’s draft six-year plan for how to use secondary roads funds provided by the Virginia Department of Transportation. 

“The Albemarle County Priority List for Secondary Road Improvements, Unpaved Roads is a listing of all Secondary Roads that either the public, a county department, or the Board of Supervisors has requested be paved,” reads the staff report. 

The Board won’t take action to approve this list until May. 

The afternoon session will also feature another work session on the Comprehensive Plan, this time on the draft goals and objectives in the Community Facilities chapter. The Planning Commission had their review in February and a summary is provided in the packet. This is the final involvement from the Board of Supervisors before staff moves the AC44 process into Phase 3. 

Why is this relevant? “Community facilities” includes water and sewer and there’s a draft objective to direct the Albemarle County Service Authority and the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority to provide public water and sewer to “legacy zoning areas in the Rural Area that are near or adjacent to the Development Area where public health and safety needs generated by the existing uses and potential by-right development permitted by existing zoning may be addressed.” 

In the evening session, there are two public hearings.

• Service Dogs of Virginia seek a special use permit for a private school and a commercial kennel, with the school being to teach people how to train service dogs. The Planning Commission unanimously recommended approval on February 13. (staff report)
• The Kenridge development opposite Birdwood Manor on Ivy Road seeks an amendment to a special use permit related to landscaping including a request to eliminate the need for an underground sprinkler system. (staff report)

In the final item of the agenda is a discussion of whether Albemarle wants to revisit rules that prohibit cycling on trails at the Ragged Mountain Natural Area. There’s no advance material except these words:

“Discussion and consideration of possible action directing the County Attorney, with input from County staff as appropriate, to develop revisions to Chapter 11, Section 11-303 of the County Code and/or other code sections, if appropriate, for the Board of Supervisors’ Review.”

In March, both Albemarle Supervisors and Charlottesville City Council agreed to a settlement in the long-running legal battle over the issue, with the city agreeing that the county has the right to set the rules. (read the story)

Charlottesville City Manager Sam Sanders addressed the issue further at a City Council meeting on March 18, 2024. 

“There was conflict between the city ordinance and the county ordinance,” Sanders said. “The county ended up filing a lawsuit against the city. We defend all lawsuits no matter if it’s from a friend or now and in that matter we lost. We tried to appeal as well but our chances were not looking very good in that sense.”

Sanders said Council agreed to settle in closed session. He said cycling is available at the city owned Heyward Community Forest which is adjacent to the Ragged Mountain Natural Area. 

Some items on the consent agenda are worth noting:

• Minutes for four Supervisors meetings in June 2022 are up for approval. Unlike many other localities in Virginia, Albemarle does not allow the public to review minutes until they are approved. (staff report)
• There are several appropriations of revenue for the current fiscal year including $65,000 in revenues from rent from parking lots that are part of the county’s new Rivanna Futures properties. There’s also another $20,000 from the Dick’s Sporting Goods Public Lands Fund for creation of interpretative signage at Biscuit Run Park. (staff report)
• There are over 350 changes to the Administrative Plan for the Albemarle County Office of Housing, which administers 435 housing choice vouchers, 105 mainstream vouchers, and 34 moderate rehabilitation vouchers. (staff report)
• There’s a resolution of intent to amend the Rio 29 Form Based Code zoning ordinance after two applications received and reviewed in 2022 “revealed some problematic ordinance revisions.” (staff report)
• There’s a proclamation recognizing April as Arab American Heritage Month. (proclamation)
• The April 10, 2024 budget work session is canceled (staff report)

More from the consent agenda in a future edition of the newsletter. 

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 is from the April 1, 2024 Week Ahead edition of the newsletter.