The 295th edition of this Week Ahead newsletter included 1,060 words describing what had been planned as the January 6, 2025 meeting of Charlottesville City Council. When the storm shut down the possibility of that meeting being held safely, Council opted to postpone all business to January 21.
However, some of the items will be postponed even further. Let’s start with a comparison between the 4 p.m. work sessions. On January 6, Council was to get a presentation on a possible extension of MicroCAT to the Meadows neighborhood as well as a presentation on the city’s Capital Improvement Plan. So far the MicroCAT presentation has not yet been rescheduled, but this week I will write up a story from the Albemarle Board of Supervisors discussion last week.
The January 21 work session will instead feature two very different topics. One is on the annual State of the Forest from the Charlottesville Tree Commission and city staff.
“As Charlottesville grows, the importance of trees cannot be overstated,” writes Urban Forester Steven Gaines. “Trees provide cooling shade, improve air quality, reduce stormwater runoff, and create habitat for countless species.” (read the report)
I’ll save reporting on the stormwater fee until after the presentation. Here’s the report, though.
The regular meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. Here are some of the items on the consent agenda worth nothing:
The consent agenda has a few items of note:
- There is a second reading of a resolution to appropriate $393,456.60 in grant funds from the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation for the Pollocks Branch Pedestrian Trail and Bridge. (learn more)
- There is second reading of a supplemental appropriation of $7,571,300 in federal, state, and local funds for Charlottesville Area Transit. I wrote about the first reading and public hearing here. (learn more)
- There’s a resolution to return $10,679.96 to a business for their license tax payment. City policy is not to identify the business, but this one moved to another jurisdiction in March 2023 and didn’t notify the Commissioner of the Revenue. (learn more)
After a report from the city manager and a report from the Charlottesville Regional Airport, action items begin.
The first is a presentation on the capital improvement program for Charlottesville City Schools. The presentation goes through current projects such as the $91 million renovation of Buford Middle School. The latter half of the presentation contends with efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Next up is a public hearing on the draft Capital Improvement Program. For most of the time I’ve covered Charlottesville city government, Council held joint public hearings with the Planning Commission but this practice ended at the beginning of 2024 after the new Development Code stripped the appointed body from its role in the land use process.
The Planning Commission held a public hearing on December 10, 2024 and sought more funding for affordable housing projects. Take a look at the story I wrote later that month.
Next up is one of the items postponed from January 6. This is the first of two readings on proposed amendments to the Charlottesville Human Rights Ordinance to allow city staff to conduct some fair housing investigations on behalf of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. This was to have happened already but HUD wanted some changes and Council will review those changes. Additional staff has already been hired to do the job. A question for the near future will be what changes the Trump administration might want to make. (read the memo)
After that, Council will set meeting dates for 2025. They do not have an organizational meeting because each session lasts for two years and the mayor and vice mayor is selected for that length of time.
But wait, there’s more! The next two items are also held over from the canceled January 6 meeting.
The first of these is a report on the audit of Charlottesville’s books for fiscal year 2024. Unlike in the January 6 report, there is now a specific number to report for the surplus.
“For FY24, the General Fund ended $22,386,718 in excess of the 17 percent fund balance policy,” reads the report. “This amount represents 9.8 percent of the Adopted FY24 Budget.”
Revenues were $12.5 million higher than expected. Spending was $9.2 million below budget.
Staff does not state in this staff report how the money will be spent but Council has spent all of the money from previous surpluses.
The second of these is a report on the work plan for the Department of Neighborhood Development Services. Director Kellie Brown gave a preview to the Planning Commission in December as I wrote about at the time. (read the memo)
A new item will take a look at the process for “urgent infrastructure projects” to address safety issues but there are no details in the staff report.
The meeting concludes with a quarterly update from the executive director of the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority and the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority. (learn more)
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 January 20, 2025 Week Ahead edition of the newsletter.
Discover more from Information Charlottesville
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
