Council to review action plan for Downtown Mall

For me, the most interesting parts of the Charlottesville City Council meetings are the work sessions at the beginning. There have been so many this year that I’ve not had a chance to write up in detail, but a recent example is the two part series I recently wrote from the May 6 work session. 

• Charlottesville transportation planners seeking to rebuild public trust, May 16, 2024
• Transportation planning manager updates Charlottesville City Council on existing projects, May 17, 2024

There are two items on the work session agenda for May 20 that begins at 4 p.m. (meeting overview)

The first is on the annual report from the Youth Council, an appointed body supported by the Department of Human Services. This year, the group worked with the Youth Action Lab at the University of Virginia’s School of Education and Human Development. 

“The Youth Council’s interests centered on the state of education in Charlottesville,” reads the staff report. “Specifically, they asked, ‘In Charlottesville, what is the relationship between education access and inequity? How have educational inequities and segregation changed in Charlottesville after the pandemic?’”

The Youth Council will make recommendations.

The second item will review the “Guidelines and Recommendations for the Charlottesville Downtown Mall.” That’s the culmination of a year-long study by a 17-member committee. 

“In considering what is required to maintain the Mall for the next 50 years, it is necessary to understand the successes and failures of the space and its specific elements,” reads the introduction to the report. “With that, it is necessary to evaluate and modify the City’s decision-making and management structure related to the Mall.” 

Before proceeding any further, I recommend reading Carol Diggs’ cover story in C-Ville Weekly.

Of the committee’s many recommendations, the report prioritizes these four: 

• Create a consistent presence of staff on the Mall to enhance cleanliness and safety for all users
• Implement the proposed Tree Management Plan
• Create a plan for safety and aesthetic lighting of the Downtown Mall and create guidelines for current and future lighting
• Re-imagine the outdoor cafe spaces

That last bullet could involve shrinking available space and possibly charging more to businesses who use them.

“The overall concept should be retained, with evaluation of the sizes and configurations considered in order to address access and pedestrian circulation issues,” reads page 14 of the plan. “Café pricing structures should be reevaluated and adjusted to reflect the value of these outdoor areas.”

One of the other suggestions is to create a specific division in city government to manage the Mall and to ensure funding is in place for improvements. 

“Currently responsibility for various aspects of the Mall is held by Parks & Recreation, Neighborhood Development Services, the Department of Public Works, and the Office of Economic Development,” reads page eight of the plan. ”This divided responsibility is not adequate for the caliber of maintenance, updates, and management expected for an area of prime economic and community value.” 

Another is to create a cohesive strategy for parking and delivery to businesses. 

“The parking strategy should consider installing modern parking meters for street parking with the intent of increasing the availability of parking by efficiently guiding users to the most appropriate parking resource,” reads a section of page 12.

The city installed meters as recently as 2017 and abandoned them before a six month pilot had been completed. A month after the pilot ended, then-parking manager Rick Siebert briefed the now defunct PLACE Design Task Force. 

There’s also a suggestion to install more public seating per the original design of the Mall. This is another subject that was actively discussed before the summer of 2017. 

“The existing chairs in storage should be repaired and installed on the Downtown Mall, beginning with Central Place,” reads another portion of page 14. “The Committee voiced strong interest in having more moveable seating on The Mall again.”

This is another area where there was a recent discussion that stalled.

The committee also calls for more funding. There is no mention of creation of a business improvement district, an idea that was floated ten years ago. Here’s another uncategorized story. Another uncategorized story is when the now-defunct Downtown Business Association of Charlottesville pulled their request in March 2015. 

The regular meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. There are three proclamations:

• The Charlottesville Alumnae chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority is celebrating its 55th anniversary (read the proclamation)
• May is Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Awareness Month (read the proclamation)
• May 19 through May 25 is Public Works Week (read the proclamation)

There are two public hearings. 

• The first is another amendment to the new Development Code related to acquisition of property by the city. It’s fairly technical and appears to be a housekeeping item. (staff report)
• The second is on the city’s action plan for spending federal Community Development Block Grant and HOME funding. (staff report)

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 May 13, 2024 Week Ahead edition of the newsletter.