Construction at the University of Virginia does not depend on getting approvals from the city of Charlottesville or Albemarle County. Instead, the Board of Visitors has to sign off on the budgets and design of major capital projects.
At their meeting on December 5, 2024, the Buildings and Grounds Committee reviewed several projects including new student housing on Ivy Road, a future Center for the Arts, and a new road connection between Copeley Road and Millmont Street.
But first the group approved the schematic design for the North Grounds Parking Garage they last saw in June but stopped short of giving a blessing. Since June, the project has gone out to bid under a design-build contract and University of Virginia Architect Alice Raucher said bids came in under budget.
“The garage is proposed for the intersection of Massey and Copley Roads as shown on the site plan just across the street from Palmer park, our softball stadium and parking for the JPJ arena to the east of it,” Raucher said. “It will provide 1030 parking spaces, spaces much needed for both the events in this area as well as for commuter parking.”
Raucher talked about how the design of the garage seeks to create a multimodal hub and how it has been set back from the roadway to allow the possibility of buildings being constructed to the street as the area becomes more urban.
When it came time to make a motion to approve the schematic design, BOV member Bert Ellis said he would be voting against this design and all other construction projects.
“ I’m going to vote no on any expenditures to be brought to this board until I have seen a 25/26 budget for this university that includes significant cuts in administrative expense,” Ellis said. “I am on record and personally believe that we can take $200 million out of our budget and in the process, we can eliminate a lot of duplicative and counterproductive programs and services that have crept into our organization through, I think, lack of budgetary discipline by this board.”
Ellis said the cuts could allow UVA to reduce tuition and provide more funds for athletic programs.
The budget for this project is $50 million and that will be paid for in a mixture of cash, debt, and auxiliary reserves.
One member of the committee said the appropriate venue to discuss the financial merits for the project would be the Board of Visitors’ Finance Committee.
“This is not about the financing,” said John Nau, the chair of the Buildings and Grounds Committee. “It’s totally about design. Is it needed design? Is it appropriate and location?”
Before taking a vote there was discussion about who the parking garage would serve. The idea is to move some UVA employees who commute to this new garage to free up space in the Lewis Mountain garage for programs in the Emmet Ivy Corridor.
UVA is also in the midst of planning to build a new road connection that would extend Copeley Road to Millmont Street. President Jim Ryan asked for an update.
“We’re actually doing a study, Jim, to determine the actual drawings and what the relative cost would be,” Raucher said. “So the idea is that we would come back to you and to the board with that plan. So I think we just need to know what the cost of that would be. But it would be very helpful in terms of unlocking what is really a large cul-de-sac of North Grounds.”
The UVA Foundation appears to be doing its part as well. Earlier this year, the real estate entity purchased three properties on Arlington Boulevard for $10.5 million. Looking at a map, all three would appear to be in between the northernmost section of Copeley Road and Millmont Street.
When it came time for the vote, Ellis followed through with his no vote.
The next item was to approve an amendment to the major capital plan for new student housing on Ivy Road.
“This has its roots in the 2030 strategic plan,” said Colette Sheehy, senior vice president for operations and state government relations. “The idea being that we should try to house more of our own undergraduate students on grounds, particularly second year students.”
Sheehy said the student experience can be improved if first-years know there is enough space for them to stay on Grounds a second year. This will be the first time UVA will enter into a public-private partnership with Capstone Development Partners taking the lead.
“We’re currently estimating somewhere between 750 and 800 beds on this site in three different buildings,” Sheehy said.
The goal is to bring the buildings online by the summer of 2027 at a cost of between 150 million and 160 million. That’s why the Major Capital Plan has to be amended.
Sheehy said this location is moving ahead before a similar project on Emmet Street because construction is already underway on other projects in the Emmet Ivy Corridor including Hourigan’s work on the Karsh Institute of Democracy. They’ll be part of this project as well.
One member of the Board of Visitors who is not a member of the Buildings and Grounds Committee said UVA should have purchased the site across the street at 2117 Ivy Road which is being developed by the private sector. Sheehy addressed the comment.
“Well, that property, we probably should be talking about this in executive session, but we have tried to purchase that property and it was not available to us,” Sheehy said.
It is not currently mandatory for second year students to live on Grounds, but President Ryan said a goal is to build enough units to make that possible.
“At a certain point, once we have enough inventory, the idea is if you come to UVA, you’ll be living on Grounds for the first and second year,” Ryan said.
After some discussion, the Buildings and Grounds Committee voted to approve the amendment as well as demolition of remaining buildings on the site. Ellis was again the lone vote against.
The panel also had a preliminary discussion on the schematic design of the proposed Center for the Arts. More on that in a future edition of the newsletter.
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