Charlottesville City Council briefed on upcoming spending on housing and infrastructure

It’s beginning to look a lot like budget season.

This past Tuesday, the Charlottesville Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on the Capital Improvement Program. I’ll write about that within the next week.

As I hit publish on this post, Charlottesville City Manager Sam Sanders is holding hold a budget work session. And on December 2, the City Council had the second of three budget briefings.

This one dealt with housing and Sanders reviewed the status of several potential initiatives that are under the umbrella HEAT which stands for Housing Equity and Anti-Displacement Toolkit. (view the city’s website)

At the outset Sanders said there will be no more additional funding for formation of a land bank until an ordinance is adopted. The current fiscal year put aside $500,000 to that line item but the money was reappropriated.

“That $500,000 was used in the acquisition of the Mobile Carleton Mobile Home Park,” Sanders said. “So at this time there is no money dedicated to the Land bank as it stands today.”

Back in August, Council agreed to an $8.7 million forgivable loan to a coalition made up of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville and the Piedmont Housing Alliance, two groups whose executive directors sit on the Housing Advisory Committee. That group has been charged with assisting with the formation of the land bank ordinance. Now those two agencies are in the early stages of planning to redevelop the 6.5 acres site but can’t make any changes for three years.

Sanders said further work needs to be done to determine if there should be funding that goes toward an augmented real property tax abatement program.

“We have heard it from different people suggesting that it should be a priority for us to,” Sanders said. “I labelled it to be determined because it’s an expensive venture and it’s one that requires.” some study.”

On the anti-displacement front, the Department of Neighborhood Development Services will conduct a study of one or two neighborhoods that could be factored into an abatement program intended to incentivize development of units whose rent or sale price are income-restricted.

A major component of the Affordable Housing Plan adopted by Council in March 2021 is a moral commitment to spend a minimum of $10 million a year on affordable housing initiatives.

“To date, over $35 million has been identified,” Sanders said. “We’re still finishing up the work on that and would have a presentation that we would make that has now become an annual event in April.”

The first of those updates was in April 2022 when Sanders reviewed an audit of the Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund. Take a look at the story I wrote at the time.

Sanders said the five year capital improvement program anticipates another $52 million toward affordable housing projects.

“So if you add all that up, that’s $99 million in less than 10 years,” Sanders said. “That’s pretty good. That’s really what I wanted to say to you.”

Part of the funding so far has been $5 million to the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority for half of the cost to purchase the 74 units known as the Dogwood Housing portfolio.

The December 2, 2024 briefing also touched upon the Parks Master Plan that is currently in development. Council will get an update on that on December 16 at the 4 p.m. work session. There’s also a community meeting on December 17.

“When I look at the Parks Master Plan and how we’ve had the conversation about how do we implement that plan aside from having the plan, the first thing you have to do is then put some money behind it,” Sanders said.

Sanders said at least $500,000 in FY26 will come from the $2 million he has set aside to implement a transition plan to become compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. He said the U.S. Department of Justice could wind up enforcing penalties given the long amount of time that has passed since the ADA.

“When the DOJ comes and they end up with settlement agreements with communities, it’s because they have not been able to demonstrate best effort,” Sanders said. “And that’s really what they’re looking for. They’re not looking for perfection, they are looking for best effort.”

For more information on the city’s work toward creating a transition plan, visit the city’s website.

Sanders took the opportunity to identify several current assumptions in the Capital Improvement Program and others that don’t yet have price tag estimates.

• $4.7 million is intended to implement projects on the sidewalk priorities.
• $7 million to replace traffic signals across the city with new equipment, as Sanders said what is in place is obsolete.
• There’s $4 million or so in initiatives to address items in a recent report on the Downtown Mall including $315,000 to implement a tree plan. Sanders said creation of a “business improvement district” might be one way to cover those costs, but that’s just one of many ideas at this time.
• There is no total identified for “urgent infrastructure” such as something to address safety on the stretch of Elliott Avenue where a woman died in October. Sanders said the source of funding from this will come from the anticipated FY24 surplus that Council will soon hear about.

Sanders again stated he hopes to bring Council a balanced budget for FY26 but admitted that the list of initiatives Council wants to fund is a long one.

The third budget briefing will be delivered at Council’s work session on December 16. This one will be on public safety and transportation and Sanders described it as a “doozy.”

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 December 10, 2024 edition of the newsletter. To ensure this research can be sustained, please consider becoming a paid subscriber or contributing monthly through Patreon. There will be new options in 2025 if you’d like to wait. Just please know I’m glad you’re reading!