For the past two years or so, the Charlottesville City Council has begun their regular meetings with a 4 p.m. work session. This is the time when there are longer discussions without votes but direction is often given. (meeting overview)
On this Monday, there will be updates from the Charlottesville Area Area Alliance as well as how the city is seeking to implement projects funded through the Virginia Department of Transportation.
“The Charlottesville Area Alliance (CAA) is a regional organization whose primary purpose is to provide leadership and development for an age-friendly community through education, advocacy, engagement, planning and evaluation,” reads the staff report for the first item.
The 2023 annual report will be presented and this does not appear to be in the packet. Their blog has a link to a PowerPoint presentation posted in March 2024 if you want to learn more in advance.
After that Council continues the conversation about transportation improvements in the city. Since 2006, Charlottesville has had an agreement with VDOT to operate and maintain roadways in the city and to handle plan for improvements. Results are a mixed bag with VDOT having to take over projects in the past such as Hillsdale Drive Extended. There’s also the matter of Smart Scale projects that have been funded have not yet gone to construction.
There is no information in the packet at publication time so I’m going to save time by providing a link to recent stories for anyone who wants to know more.
- Charlottesville transportation planners seeking to rebuild public trust, May 16, 2024
- Transportation planning manager updates Charlottesville City Council on existing projects, May 17, 2024
- Council wants District Avenue roundabout to offer full access to Charlottesville’s Meadows neighborhood, August 16, 2024
- Procurement update: Charlottesville seeks an Advanced Traffic Management System, September 24, 2024
- City Council discusses pedestrian safety in wake of pedestrian death on Elliott Avenue, October 11, 2024
- CTB considers cancellation of second phase of Charlottesville’s Emmet Street project, October 25, 2024
The regular meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. with a proclamation recognizing Lung Cancer Awareness Month. I’ll have a couple of reports in the next newsletter about some of the items on the agenda.
The first action item is a public hearing on an amendment of the city’s plan for how to spend money from the federal Community Development Block Grant plan. The proposal is to reallocate some funding for a pedestrian bridge to cross Pollocks Branch.
“To cross the creek, residents have for years utilized a makeshift ‘rock hop’ built by moving various sized rocks and boulders into a row,” reads the staff report. “Needless to say, while this ‘rock hop’ pathway has been used for many years, it in no way could be considered safe and/or accessible, especially during rainy weather when the water in the creek can run high.”
Planning for this bridge dates back to 2016 when a previous City Council approved a “walkable watershed” concept for the area and $250,000 was committed to the bridge in 2017.
“Building this bridge over the Pollocks Branch waterway will create a much needed, centrally located east-west bicycle and pedestrian link within the six-block long urban area separated by the waterway between Elliot Avenue and Rougemont Avenue,” the report continues.
The public hearing is on whether $55,000 or so should be reallocated from the CDBG program to fill in a budget shortfall.
While the report notes that future residents of the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s South First Streets will benefit from the bridge, the Public Housing Association of Residents commissioned a group of University of Virginia students to study how CDBG money is spent. Their report delivered at a work session asked for funding to go to support programs and not infrastructure. (See also: UVA student group critiques Charlottesville’s use of federal funds on behalf of PHAR, March 4, 2024)
The second action item is an ordinance to allow the owners of Mas in Belmont to encroach into the public right of way to build a canopy. This is the second reading. (learn more)
The third action item is another in a series that demonstrates the evolution of the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority. Since a redevelopment agreement was signed in 2019, the general idea to renovate involves the creation of a corporate entity for each site.
City Council has to approve these and now it’s time for Westhaven to get two entities. Neither is in existence yet but the proposed names are Westhaven Phase One LLC and Westhaven Phase One Management LLC. Council has also agreed in principle to commit $15 million to redevelopment.
“The CRHA is the ‘lessor’ in a 99-year ground lease to the ‘lessee’ (Westhaven Phase One, LLC) of the improvements being constructed on the property,” reads the staff report. “In exchange for the ground lease, the CRHA holds a promissory note and a subordinate deed of trust in the amount based upon the appraised Fair Market Value of the land.”
There are a lot of details and the write-up in the staff report is the best explanation I’ve seen so far of how this mechanism works. I will write up a story on this with more details sometime in the upcoming week.
After that there is another discussion about the city’s legislative priorities, a document separate from the one provided by the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission.
“We try not to repeat positions that are repetitive of those advocated within the TJPDC Program, but where City Council has a slightly different position than TJPDC as a whole, it’s appropriate to point that out within Council’s position statements,” reads the staff report.
I’ll also write this up but here’s a link to the city’s draft document, which includes a request for Charlottesville to be able to tax improvements on a property separate from the land.
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 November 4, 2024 Week Ahead edition of the newsletter.
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