Charlottesville City Council voted on September 6, 2016 to authorize city staff to apply for funding for a project to improve the intersection of Barracks Road and Emmet Street that would include a ten-foot wide shared-use path up Barracks Road to Rugby Road.
In June 2017, the Commonwealth Transportation Board awarded $8.6 million in funding to the project through the Smart Scale program. This was the fourth award the city would receive through the program in which localities and planning districts compete for funding through a process in which candidate projects are scored against a series of criteria.
The original idea behind Smart Scale was that projects had to be completed within six years. According to an image on the city’s website, the city’s work on the Barracks / Emmet project did not even begin until the fall of 2021.
The City of Charlottesville has so far not broken ground on any of their projects and have returned funding for several of them in an attempt to get back in the good graces of the Virginia Department of Transportation. In 2024, the agency found Charlottesville “deficient” due to an inability to complete projects.
Since then, Charlottesville has made changes to the way transportation projects are administered and reduced the scope of several projects including Barracks Road. For instance, the shared-use path is now only six feet wide and only goes to Hilltop Road. This reduces the budget for a project that will exceed the original allocation of funding.
In May, Council authorized the general use of eminent domain to acquire right of way for the Barracks/Emmet project as well as another project on East High Street.
On December 1, Council was asked to authorize specific use of eminent domain for the Barracks/Emmet project for 2030 Barracks Road and the Meadowbrook Shopping Center. (view the presentation)
“We to date have acquired nine of the 11 needed easement properties, if you will, right away in easement,” said Lee Cooper with the city’s capital development division. “These two last remaining parcels will clear that project for the process of getting to construction.”
The land is needed for both permanent easements that will become part of the public realm as well as temporary easements for construction.
None of the landowners appeared at the public hearing.
Council voted 5-0 to move forward with the taking. For more details, take a look at the presentation given to the elected officials. Cooper said that negotiations will continue with the hold-outs.
According to the city’s website, the project will go to construction in the fall of 2026 and be complete in the fall of 2027.
Before you go: Paid subscribers cover the cost of conducting research for this article which was originally published in the December 2, 2025 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement. You can either subscribe through Substack, make a monthly contribution through Patreon, or consider becoming a sponsor. The goal of Town Crier Productions is to increase awareness about what is happening at the local, regional, state, and federal government levels. Please share the work with others if you want people to know things.
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