Charlottesville City Council approves transfer of federal funds for Pollocks Branch bridge

In many cases, Virginia Code requires a local elected body to hold two readings of a resolution before it can become an official decision. Charlottesville City Council has increasingly been waiving that rule in order to speed up various processes.

Such was the case on November 4 when the five Councilors voted unanimously to reallocate over $55,000 in federal funds from two unidentified projects toward a shortfall for a project to build a bridge across Pollocks Branch in southern Charlottesville. 

“The idea came from the [Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s] redevelopment committee when we were first starting to work on the planning for Phase One at South First Street,” said Brenda Kelley, the city’s redevelopment manager. 

Phase one of that project is now complete and there are 62 new units in three buildings on what used to be a recreational field. 

Pollocks Branch flows south from Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall in an underground pipe until opening up to the air south of Elliot Avenue. The tributary of Moores Creek runs parallel to South First Street.

Kelley said there were various reasons why the bridge has been delayed until after completion of the new CRHA units. The design proceeded and the plans call for a prefabricated steel bridge to be placed across the waterway. However, cost estimates more than doubled after the pandemic putting the project above the $250,000 originally allocated by Council to the bridge. 

“The City Manager’s office was very concerned about the increase in price and coming back to you to ask for city money so we looked for grants to be able to help with this,” Kelley said.

That yielded another $314,000 for the project, still not enough to cover the cost. That led staff to see if there was unspent Community Development Block Grant funds and an additional $55,527.91 was found from two different accounts. The resolution lists them as P-00001-05-19 and 3914001000 but does not identify how they were to be used. 

To make the adjustment, Council had to amend the annual plan that tells the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development how their money will be used.  That requires a public hearing at which Peter Krebs with the Piedmont Environmental Council was the sole person to speak. 

“This is a great project and let’s get it built and funded and under construction really quickly because one of the reasons we keep coming back to Council is because it’s been delayed over and over and over and those escalations are a real problem,” Krebs said.

Kelley said the city will seek to get a construction bid out as soon as possible and it will take at least eight months for the prefabricated bridge to arrive.  The same process was used to build a bridge to tie the two sides of McIntire Park together. 

“It took about 20 seconds to set the bridge over the skatepark at the railroad,” said trail planner Chris Gensic. “It took about three years to get it ready. But it’s amazing to see this thing show up on a crane and go, boop, there’s your bridge.” 

The project was due for a second reading on November 18 but Councilor Natalie Oschrin suggested waiving the requirement which takes a supermajority of four out of five Councilors. 

Councilor Michael Payne expressed doubt about breaking the process.  

“Process-wise I always favor two just in case the public has a little bit more time for anything,” Payne said. “I’m sure it won’t matter in this case.”  

Payne joined the other four Councilors in waiving the second reading. There is a public notice in the November 9   telling people they have an opportunity to make comment at Council’s November 18 meeting. 

Council also waived second reading on September 16 when they agreed to reallocate another $25,000 from CDBG funds to cover a cost overrun for a pedestrian bridge at Jordan Park. Later on in that meeting, they waived second reading of an ordinance authorizing an $8.7 million forgivable loan to Habitat for Humanity and the Piedmont Housing Alliance to purchase the Carlton Mobile Home Park. 

City Council does not have a permanent City Attorney who can give advice on matters of process.  

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