The city of Charlottesville is in the early stages of updating a plan that seeks to ensure compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The federal legislation became effective in 1990 and requires localities to make sure public facilities can be accessed by anyone. In Charlottesville, that means the update of a Transition Plan with…
For the past two years, the city of Charlottesville has been working on an update of the city’s pay scale for non-union employees as an effort to modernize and stay competitive with other localities. “For too long our employees have been in what I would consider to be a free-fall environment where the best battle…
“Several new affordable housing construction projects are either underway or in the planning stages but making significant progress has been challenging due to a tight real estate market in the city and in the wider region and the space constraints the city faces, along with the challenges posed by the lingering effects of the COVID pandemic,”
For over three and a half years, the city of Charlottesville has been conducting an overhaul of its land use policies in order to increase density. On Monday, City Council took another step towards completing the process by officially directing the Planning Commission to make up with a formal recommendation on how to proceed. “This…
The firm Stony Point Development Group is rethinking their plans to proceed with a land use application for the third phase of their Dairy Market development. I reported the basic details in the July 12 edition of this newsletter and followed up in a C-Ville Weekly article the following week. Stony Point Development group held a community meeting…
The empty seat for Deputy City Manager for Operations in Charlottesville did not stay vacant long. City Manager Sam Sanders has appointed Steven Hicks as the replacement for the position he held for two years before getting the top position. Sanders has also named interim chief Michael Thomas as the permanent head of the Charlottesville…
There are aspirational plans in government and there are work plans that actually tell staff members what to do. Last week, the City of Charlottesville unveiled details on what’s being done to meet a goal to first reduce greenhouse gas emissions and then eliminate them completely by 2050. “This is a high-level list of the…
One of the tasks that outgoing City Manager Michael C. Rogers set out to perform has been the creation of a new strategic plan. Preparation of the last one broke down due to the pandemic and a series of departures by the city’s top executive. In January, the city hired North Carolina firm Raftelis Financial Consultants…
On Monday, City Council formally elevated Deputy City Manager Sam Sanders to a position that’s been held on an interim basis by Michael C. Rogers. Rogers works for the Robert Bobb Group, a company hired by the city in January 2022 to provide managerial services. “My assignment was to stabilize government operations, present the budget,…
An initiative to help combat gun violence will move forward. Charlottesville City Council has approved an ordinance that will allow the Police Department to create a buyback program for firearms. Charlottesville Police Chief Michael Kochis told Council that the city will partner with another entity to conduct the transactions. “We would be reaching to a…