Charlottesville City Council gets briefing on Downtown Mall action

Much of the work currently going on involving the Downtown Mall stems from a 16-page action plan published in May 2024 by the City of Charlottesville. That document lists 22 steps to take with the first being the creation of a “Downtown Mall Division” in city government and for that staff to “update and expand the existing maintenance plan incorporating the new management structure for the Downtown Mall.” (view the action plan)

Action #18 in the plan is to “include attention to the repair and maintenance of crosswalks and sidewalks around The Mall in the responsibilities of the Downtown Mall division.”

The Downtown Mall Crossings themselves are not acknowledged directly in the plan but are part of the ongoing work of that new Downtown Mall division.

Charlottesville City Council learned more about what’s happening with the Downtown Mall at a work session on March 2. Brenda Kelley, hired as the city’s redevelopment director, now heads up the city’s efforts from her position in the Office of Economic Development.

“That Downtown Mall team is in place,” Kelley said. “It’s primarily the Office of Economic Development, Parks and Recreation Department, but of course, we’ve got Fire Department involved, we’ve got Public Works involved, we’ve got Neighborhood Development Services, we’ve got the communications department, we’ve got all sorts of other departments involved.”

Also involved is the firm Block by Block who have been hired by the city as a second generation of Mall Ambassadors at a cost of roughly $600,000 a year. The first set of ambassadors existed from late 2012 until mid-2016 after Council opted to defund the program. The new group launched in February.

“They touch on hospitality services on the Downtown Mall, as well as light cleaning and picking up with supplemental work where Parks and Rec leaves off,” said Cliff Dooms of the Parks and Recreation Department. “So the heavy lifting is still done by Parks and Recreation in the morning, but these folks are picking up, meeting folks, giving visitor information and being as presentable and out in the forefront to the public as we like.”

Speaking almost a month ago, Kelley said that one area needed for improvement was better communication with the businesses and organizations that have offices on the Downtown Mall. The idea is to have more coordination with the group Friends of Downtown Cville.

“We heard from some of the businesses that they weren’t very aware of some of the special events going on, that there might be walks or runs coming downtown [and] the mall,” Kelley said. “So we’ve worked very closely with Friends. We’ve put together a one page event notice about the event that goes to friends about a week before the event and they send it out to the businesses.”

One of the events planned for the anniversary is a lantern parade with workshops to be held across the city on how to make these for the procession. The Friends of Downtown Cville are collecting stories on the Mall for display during the anniversary.

At that work session, Councilors had various notes for staff. Councilor Michael Payne continued his opposition to the Block by Block program and also asked what the process would be to close the vehicular crossings permanently.

“I would advocate that at a minimum we at least try piloting it,” Payne said. “It’s obviously relatively recent that they were open to vehicular traffic. It’s not like it was designed to always be that way and must be that way in perpetuity.”

Many other communities across the United States created pedestrianized malls in urban areas but many of these failed. In May 2024, Charlottesville Mayor Juandiego Wade was part of a delegation that traveled to an Illinois community to learn more about alternative fuel sources.

“When we went to Champaign-Urbana, they actually had a downtown mall and they opened it back up because the business owners complained it wasn’t working,” Wade said. “It’s happened a lot. And so, you know, what we have here is real special. We need to. But it takes work to keep it that way.”

City Councilor Lloyd Snook said the city has made many investments in the mall over years including the 2009 rebricking. He said the Downtown Mall will not last without continued civic investment.

“If the $600,000 a year is part of the Ambassador program is part of that investment, that’s not to say that I’m committed to the notion that it is the best investment, but it’s an important investment and if it’s not the best investment, let’s find what the best investment is,” Snook said. “But let’s not shy away from it because it involves spending money. It’s important to all of us.”

Payne suggested continued investment might come through the formation of a business improvement district and he asked if anyone had ever studied that possibility.

Let’s let these uncategorized stories I wrote for Charlottesville Tomorrow fill in some of the gaps.

• City Council supports formation of special downtown tax district, August 19, 2014
• Downtown business association withdraws tax district request, March 2, 2015

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