Council to consider sidewalk waiver for rare mixed-use development on Ivy Road

The regular meeting of the Charlottesville City Council begins at 6:30 p.m. with three recognitions and proclamations. (meeting info) (agenda overview)

• The Charlottesville High School Varsity Boys Tennis and Soccer Teams will be recognized as will Elaina Pierce for her track and field career. 
• International Day of Democracy is September 15, 2024 (read the proclamation)
• This year is the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Sister City Besançon, France, by the combined Forces françaises de l’intérieur and the United States Army 3rd Infantry Division. (read the proclamation)

After the public comment period, Councilors will adopt the consent agenda which includes:

• Second reading of a $452,704 grant from the Virginia Juvenile Community Crime Control Act that supports the Community Attention programs for youth offenders. (staff report)
• Second reading of the CAPER, an acronym that stands for the report the city must send to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to show how Community Development Block Grant funds are spent. There’s also a resolution to set spending priorities for the 2025 program year. (staff report)
• Second reading of a resolution to formally eliminate biking as an allowed recreational activity at the Ragged Mountain Natural Area. Two people spoke at the public hearing on August 19, a public hearing that was not clearly identified in the agenda for that meeting. (staff report) 
• First of two readings for an appropriation of $76,480 from the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program offered by the U.S. Department of Energy. The funding goes to support the nonprofit Local Energy Alliance Program and their energy audits. This will allow for 160 such audits of low- and moderate-income households. (staff report)
• First of two readings for a $250,000 pass-through in funds from the Virginia Department of Social Services to the private Tonsler League, a basketball association run by former City Councilor Wes Bellamy. The funding was requested by Delegate Katrina Callsen in the biennial budget. There are terms by which the funding will be transferred. In the section on “Budgetary Impact”, the staff report does not note the additional $10,000 City Council appropriate to the league earlier this year. (staff report)
• First of two readings of the appropriation of $238,581 from the Virginia Fire Program Fund that comes from a levy the State Corporation Commission charges to insurance companies. (staff report)
• First of two readings on an ordinance that will allow the developers of the Belmont Point subdivision to build a retaining wall into the city’s right of way. (staff report)

One item on the consent agenda is worth breaking out into a longer section. 

There is the first of two readings on $470,805 in funding from the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development that will go to the Blue Ridge Area Coalition for the Homeless. Just over a quarter of the funds are from the category State Rapid-Rehousing. The money goes to eight specific categories but there’s no specific break-down in the packet.  (staff report) (resolution) (grant agreement with Virginia Homeless Solutions Program)

• Coordinated Assessment: Funding goes to The Haven which “serves as the physical front door to the homelessness system of care.”
• Emergency Low Barrier Shelter: This funding goes PACEM for their cold-weather emergency shelters that operate at a rotating series of churches. 
• Rapid Rehousing and Housing Navigation: This funding goes to The Haven 
• Case Management: This fund goes to The Haven for “supportive services, including crisis intervention, case management, and service referrals.” 
• Targeted Prevention: The Haven runs this program which assists households that are two weeks or less from losing their home.
• Homelessness Management Information System: This goes to the Blue Ridge Area Coalition for the Homeless to run their database of people who are experiencing homelessness. Other agencies also use this data, which goes by the acronym HMIS.
• Continuum of Care: The Blue Ridge Area Coalition for the Homeless gets funding for providing leadership of the overall system.
• The City of Charlottesville is eligible for an administrative fee, but will pass that through to BRACH and the Haven. I originally reported this incorrectly but corrected the error on September 15, 2024.

Under action items, Council will take a second reading to make Ranked Choice Voting the method by which people will select candidates in the June 2025 City Council primary. The seats held by Brian Pinkston and Juandiego Wade are up for election. There’s also a resolution to allocate $26,460 toward additional software as well as a voter education campaign. (learn more)

Two-thirds of Albemarle County’s Electoral Board are not in support of ranked choice voting in that locality, as I reported in August.

There is also the first of two readings that would extend all departmental benefits that firefighters currently receive to professional staff who only perform emergency medical services (EMS). The staff report cannot give an amount that this will cost “due to ongoing negotiations with the union that are parallel to this process.” (staff report)

Next up is a resolution to approve, for the seventh time, an agreement between the city government and the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority for a supplemental amount of funds the city gives for housing rental assistance.

“To date, the City Council has approved a total funding of $5,295,000 for [the Charlottesville Supplemental Rental Assistance Program], distributed across various fiscal years,” reads the staff report. “The most recent analysis indicates that, despite a slight decrease in the total number of participants in FY24 due to the successful transition of several households to self-sufficiency, the program has overall achieved its goals of stabilizing housing for low-income residents.”

The staff report does not mention that CRHA has tapped into the fund to purchase property such as the purchase in September 2022 of two duplexes on Coleman Street in the Locust Grove neighborhood. As with the Dogwood properties also purchased by CRHA, the city owns a share of those properties. This is a significant piece of information to keep in mind as the Housing Advisory Committee continues to have a “hearty conversation” about what shape a city land bank should take. 

Finally, the developers of a student apartment building planned for 2117 Ivy Road seek a waiver from a requirement to build a sidewalk on a portion of Copeley Road. This project was approved by City Council in January under the old zoning rules, which means Council still has a role to play as opposed to leaving it up to staff to decide. 

“Additional sidewalk installation along Copley Road is not advisable or consistent with good engineering practice due to the lack of current or future sidewalk connectivity,” reads the narrative for the application written by the Timmons Group. 

The narrative goes on to list other upgrades for pedestrians and bicyclists that the project will provide. This is one if not the only private projects on Ivy Road in city limits. The others are either owned by the University of Virginia Foundation or have been transferred to the University of Virginia for the construction of their new campus. That includes the Karsh Institute of Democracy. 

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 September 2, 2024 Week Ahead edition of the newsletter.