With one quarter down, Charlottesville currently projected for $921K surplus for FY2026

This is the time in Charlottesville’s fiscal cycle when there is active work on three different budgets at once.

Finance Director Chris Cullinan is working to close the books on fiscal year 2025 which ended on June 30. He’ll go before the City Council in December to present the results of the audit which will likely determine the size of a surplus when all the money is tallied up.

Preliminary work is underway on the creation of a budget for the fiscal year that begins on July 1, 2026 and a key milestone coming up is the Planning Commission’s work session on the capital improvement program on November 25.

But at their meeting on November 17, City Council got an update on how the current fiscal year that began on July 1 is shaping up. Budget director Krisy Hammill said revenue projects are looking up.

“We’ve seen some slight upward trends which we have used to revise our projections slightly for FY26, noting that we have for all the revenue adjustments, we are revising our projections to be at 0.35 percent higher than the budget at just over $921,000,” Hammill said.

Deputy City Manager James Freas took an opportunity at the meeting to go through a new process that will produce a report on the capital improvement program every quarter. This is available in the city’s Budget Explorer.

“You can sort by different types of projects and if you click on an individual project, it takes you to a detailed page with information about the project and photos and so on,” Freas said.

There are two parts. The first looks like a spreadsheet and can tell you what’s been spent from FY2026 so far. The second is a list of updates on projects. Below are some highlights.

• The Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority has received a $3 million disbursement for their redevelopment project at Sixth Street Phase 1.
• There’s another line item for CRHA titled “5th Street and Harris Road acquisitions” which has $234,000 which has not been used.
• CRHA has also received all $5.4 million in the city’s contribution to South First Street Phase 2 which is under construction.
• CRHA has not received any of the $5 million available for the redevelopment of Westhaven.
• Funding for the Kindlewood redevelopment has been disbursed. This consists of $402,252 for infrastructure improvements and $3,847,500 for phase 2.
• Charlottesville is contributing $3.77 million to Piedmont Housing Alliance for a housing project at the MACAA site. The money has not yet been disbursed.
• PHA also gets $1 million for the project at 501 Cherry Avenue. That has also not been distributed yet. They also get $2.25 million for a project at Park Street and funding has also not been disbursed.
• The FY26 budget sets aside $250,000 for bus shelter improvements and none of that money has been spent yet.
• There is $2 million set aside for Charlottesville Area Transit for a project called “increase 30 minute routes and other Ops projects” and none of that funding has been spent as of September 30.
• City Manager Sam Sanders has $381,651 in funding for projects and he’s spent $42,518 to date.
• There is $300,000 remaining in funding for a project to do environmental remediation at City Yard in the Starr Hill neighborhood. This is seen as a precursor for any eventual development. In October 2019, the New Hill Development Corporation completed a vision project for such an initiative. Take a look here. Will the remediation ever be done?
• There was nearly $2.4 million available for climate action programs at the beginning of FY26 and about $950,000 of it has been spent.
• There’s still $47,377 remaining in a fund called “Comprehensive Plan 2018” and $53,522 was used from this fund in the first quarter of 2025.
• There is $8,245 remaining in a fund to restore the Daughters of Zion Cemetery.
• The $600,000 available for the Cville Clean Team had not been used as of September 30. A contract has been awarded to Mydatt Services of Louisville, Kentucky for “Ambassador Services” using this category as I reported in September.
• There is a project to convert streetlights to LED lights and $600,000 has been budgeted. So far $3,639 has been spent.
• There is still $43,045 in a fund for implementation for a form-based code for the Strategic Investment Area which was never approved by Council.
• There is also nearly $1.8 million available for small area plan implementation. The city has drawn down $205,899 in the first quarter of FY26. There’s another $748,499 available to make new small area plans.
• The city has spent $180,545 this year to improve air quality at the Smith Aquatic Center.

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