Several norms have changed in the City of Charlottesville since City Manager Sam Sanders took over in August 2023. One such change has been the end of a practice where City Council sat in on public hearings held by the Charlottesville Planning Commission.
The appointed body had such an event in December on the draft capital improvement program (CIP) and staff thought it would be good for Council to have one as well. (read the PC story) (read the materials)
“This five year plan is about $185 million,” said Krisy Hammill, the city’s budget director. “$131 million of that is to be funded by bonds.”
The rest is to be direct cash payments as opposed to bonds where the city pays back creditors over time allowing a project’s cost to be borne across multiple years. Any payments to the Piedmont Housing Alliance or Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville are cash payments, because the city will not own whatever those entities build.
Council can only officially authorize spending a year at a time, and FY26 anticipates $31 million in spending.
There have been no significant changes since the Planning Commission saw the draft in December.
Before the presentation was complete, Vice Mayor Brian Pinkston said he would like to increase the amount given to Charlottesville City Schools for their priority improvement projects, such as the work recently conducted at Johnson Elementary School. Currently the amount is set at $1.25 million a year.
The draft CIP anticipated spending $150,000 a year on small area plans. So far the city has one for Cherry Avenue and the Hydraulic Road area, as well as a “vision plan” for Starr Hill that was conducted by the New Hill Development Corporation. (view Cherry Avenue plan)
Councilor Natalie Oschrin asked if those are useful documents or if they just sit on a shelf. City Manager Sam Sanders said they are used.
“I would say that the Cherry Avenue plan is a live document, in our opinion,” Sanders said. “And a lot of the conversation that I’ve been a part of in the past 60 days has been tied to what that document actually says.”
One of Sanders’ initiatives is to work with the Salvation Army to repurpose their thrift store on Cherry Avenue as a low-barrier shelter for the unhoused.
The draft CIP also has a line item of $100,000 a year for bicycle infrastructure. Oschrin asked the city’s transportation planning manager if that was enough.
“I’m going to say yes,” said Ben Chambers. “We also have a built up balance in that account right now. We’ll be spending some of that this year on improvements on West Main and Fifth Street.”
Chambers said those improvements will add protected lanes for bikes. He added that account also gets revenue from the permit fees paid by Veo for scooter and e-bikes that operate on city streets.
The only change to the CIP this time around is the addition of nearly $7.8 million over five years toward Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville and Piedmont Housing Alliance’s redevelopment of the Carlton Mobile Home Park.
The draft CIP currently calls for $5 million a year over three years to go to the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority for the redevelopment of Westhaven. Sanders said CRHA is currently working with residents to come up with a design and that work is not yet complete.
“We will be sitting down with CRHA in the coming month or so to try to get an update on that because we’ve already had some feedback that this split of 5 million over three consecutive years may not necessarily pan out and that there might be a need to adjust those figures outward,” Sanders said.
If that happens, that may create room in the next year for additional projects.
One request from the Planning Commission had been to establish a pool of money to allow Council to act swiftly to guarantee affordability for housing projects that are at the end of their mandated period of income restriction. Sanders said he is hesitant to create a new fund and said that’s what the contingency fund is for in the capital improvement program. He said putting out a number would be premature.
“There is a strategic advantage to it being in the CIP contingency where it’s actually joined by other money that’s for other purposes so that we’re not revealing how much money we have available to buy anything,” Sanders said.
At least one Councilor suggested adding more money to the contingency fund in anticipation of making more purchases.
The only speaker during the public hearing was Emily Dooley, a member of the Charlottesville School Board. She said the school system is in the middle of a redistricting survey referred to as a rezoning to determine what students should go where.
“One request that I’m making tonight is to including is to consider including a member of the School Board on the Planning Commission, even in an ex officio capacity, as the work that this group does directly impacts the population that is attending our schools,” Dooley said.
There will be another joint work session with the Charlottesville School Board on February 10.
For more on the city’s budget, stay tuned to future editions of Charlottesville Community Engagement. You can also take a look at previous stories about the city’s budget at Information Charlottesville. Or take a listen below!
Before you go: This article was originally sent out as part of the Charlottesville Community Engagement newsletter in the January 23, 2025 edition. Both are functions of Town Crier Productions. You can support the work by purchasing a paid subscription or contributing monthly through Patreon. You can also send in a check or send an email, but drop me a line first.
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