April 15, 2025: Charlottesville City Council adopts $265.2M budget after another conversation about hiring more transit drivers
Plus: 17 single family homes planned for Rio Road East in Albemarle on Charlottesville’s border
April 15 is the day where federal taxes are due in most of the United States of America, but there’s so much else to report from the time machine from points outside 2025. What to select?
On this day in 1947, Jackie Robinson debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Today all Major League Baseball players will wear #42 to commemorate Robinson’s role in the Civil Rights movement. Learn more at a page on the U.S. Defense Department’s website that is now part of their archive after recent executive orders from the current president. I’m Sean Tubbs, and more about April 15 can be learned here.
In today’s installment:
Charlottesville City Council adopts $265.2 million budget at special meeting after another conversation about hiring more transit drivers
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin encourages people to turn off their screens this week, but please don’t do so until you get to the end of this newsletter
A look at recent land use filings in Albemarle County including 17 residential units planned for East Rio Road at the Charlottesville border right across from another project that anticipates 75 units
First shout out: Charlottesville E-bike Lending Library
The rolling topography of the Charlottesville area keeps some people away from choosing cycling as an option to get around. Perhaps an e-bike is in order?
That’s where Charlottesville’s eBike Lending Library comes in! E-bikes are a great way to get around the community but there are many brands and styles to choose from. Because many e-bikes are sold online, it can be a challenge to try an e-bike before buying one.
The Charlottesville E-bike Lending Library is a free, not-for-profit service working to expand access to e-bikes in the area. They have a small collection of e-bikes that they lend out to community members for up to a week, for free. You can experience your daily commute, go grocery shopping, or even bike your kids to school, and decide whether e-bikes are right for you. Check out this service at https://www.ebikelibrarycville.org!
Council adopts $265.2 million budget after another conversation about transit funding
Charlottesville City Council adopted a $265.2 million budget for the fiscal year that begins on July 1 at a special meeting on April 14 but not before another review and summary from City Manager Sam Sanders. He had introduced a $264,474,183 budget on March 4.
“Things have changed a little bit, as it always does, from the proposed date to your adoption date,” Sander said
There have been five budget work sessions and two public hearings on the document itself, but yet to come is a public hearing on the tax rates for 2025.
“What I'll point out to you just in basic highlights, is that the revenue expenditure at this time has now risen to $265,248,446,” Sanders said.
The tax rates have not changed for 2025, but another year of growth in assessments has resulted in more revenue. The assessor’s office reported an average of a 7.74 percent increase in late January.
One spending change in the budget is an additional $600,000 for Charlottesville Area Transit which partially came out of a push for local advocates.
“We added a transit mechanic to help with operations,” Sanders said. “We are also maintaining fare free service across the system and absorbing the absence of the flexible federal funds because those funds are now not available to us as they have been.”
Other highlights:
There’s $5.4 million over the next five years for sidewalk repair and construction
There’s $12.7 million in spending on affordable housing initiatives in FY26
The FY26 budget is the first to apply to a fourth collective bargaining unit
City Councilor Michael Payne asked about the status of a $22.4 million surplus from FY2024. Sanders made the decision to keep the amount in reserve and Council has so far agreed. The idea is to keep the money available while a new era for the federal government continues to settle in. He also said he has been meeting with nonprofit groups who have been making presentations on funding they have lost from the federal government.
“So they are first trying to recoup what they've spent and hope that they might actually get some continuation,” Sanders said. “So that is beginning to build. We're beginning to see that finally the city organization itself has not incurred a loss. But we still continue to monitor just believing that it's just a matter of time. It's not a matter of if, it is actually a matter of when.”
A generally-held practice in municipal budgeting is to not use one-time money such as surpluses to hire staffing.
“Something like staffing is not ideal because we can't guarantee that funding to occur year to year,” said City Councilor Natalie Oschrin.
The conversation went back to transit. The City of Charlottesville owns Charlottesville Area Transit and has full control of its operations. Albemarle County and Charlottesville have entered into an entity called the Charlottesville Albemarle Regional Transit Authority but so far that is entirely about planning for transit operations.
Albemarle Supervisors vote to join Regional Transit Authority, December 15, 2024
Charlottesville joins regional transit authority; Council holds first reading on federal transit allocations, December 28, 2024
Charlottesville Area Transit has no independent board of directors which makes Council the sole authority over its operations. There had once been an advisory body made up of citizens but that was eliminated sometime during the pandemic.
An advocacy group called IMPACT made up of various churches has been pressuring Albemarle and Charlottesville to increase the amount they spent on transit to hire additional drivers. Their specific number has been 82, a number believed to enable Charlottesville Area Transit to increase service.
“The solution to long wait times is very straightforward: we need more bus drivers,” reads their website. “Right now, Charlottesville Area Transit (CAT) has budgeted 67 drivers. Getting to wait times of half an hour will require at least 80
In Virginia, cities and counties are completely independent of each other. There are regional services such as that provided by the Rivanna Water and Service Authority, but localities have to adopt budgets independently.
IMPACT’s public event was held on April 8, over a month into the budget process for Charlottesville and about six weeks after Albemarle County Executive Jeffrey Richardson introduced that locality’s budget.
At their work session on April 10, City Council indicated they wanted to support IMPACT’s request but the timing is not right for the existing budget. They agreed to hold conversations about how to get there shortly after the budget is adopted.
Vice Mayor Brian Pinkston and Charlottesville City Council were the two members of Council who went to hear from IMPACT at what they call the Nehemiah Action.
“The commitment that the two of us made was to try to get something for this coming the fiscal year that we're working on now, which means some sort of amendment or whatever,” said City Councilor Brian Pinkston.
Several members of the group were in attendance at the meeting and Pinkston addressed them directly from the dais and encouraged them to get involved earlier in the budget process.
“I want people to know that this is not the end,” Pinkston said. “We heard you last week, we're working on it. And what you're hearing now is the sort of public outworking of the conversations that need to happen.”
For over four years of reporting on transit issues, take a look at this tab on Information Charlottesville.
Council adopted the budget after a final explanation of last minute changes such as $30,000 for the Tonsler League to help keep it going after Governor Youngkin vetoed an anticipated $250,000 from Virginia’s budget.
Council will hold a public hearing on the tax rate for 2025 on April 21 and then will hold a special meeting on April 24.
Second-shout out: Cville Village?
Can you drive a neighbor to a doctor’s appointment? Change an overhead lightbulb, plant a flower, walk a dog for someone who is sick, visit someone who is lonely? If so, Cville Village needs you!
Cville Village is a local 501c3 nonprofit organization loosely affiliated with a national network of Villages whose goals are to help seniors stay in their own homes as long as possible, and to build connections among them that diminish social isolation. Volunteers do small chores for, and have gatherings of, professors and schoolteachers, nurses and lawyers, aides and housekeepers. Time and chance come to all – a fall, an order not to drive, failing eyesight, a sudden stroke. They assist folks continue living at home, with a little help from their friends.
Cville Village volunteers consult software that shows them who has requested a service and where they are located. Volunteers accept only the requests that fit their schedule and their skills.
Volunteering for Cville Village will expand your circle of friends and shower you with thanks.
To learn more, visit cvillevillage.org or attend one of their monthly Village “meet-ups” and see for yourself. To find out where and when the next meetup is, or to get more information and a volunteer application, email us at info@cvillevillage.org, or call us at (434) 218-3727.
Governor Youngkin declares this as Virginia Screen-Free Week
This newsletter is entirely digital which means you have to have a screen in order to read the content. So it’s quite possible that some of you won’t read this until April 20. That’s when Virginia Screen-Free Week will be over.
“Virginia Screen-Free Week is a call to action — to hit pause on the noise of digital distractions and say ‘yes’ to deeper connection, stronger mental health, and a brighter future for our youth,” said Governor Glenn Youngkin in a press release sent out on Monday.
Youngkin said the initiative is intended to be a complement to his Executive Order 43 which created the Reclaiming Childhood Task Force as well as Executive Order 33 which directed school systems to institute policies to disallow mobile phones in schools during the day.
One suggested activity is for people to spend time outside. The Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation has a list of activities on the Virginia State Parks website.
Virginia’s celebration is outside of a national recognition of screen-free week scheduled for the first week of May. That’s put together by the International Play Association.
“Whatever you do, make it work for you,” said Screen-Free Week Coordinator Deb Lawrence. “Virginia Screen-Free Week is about what happens when you take small or large steps to reconnect without screens—the possibilities are open to your imagination.”
For more information if you’re interested, take a look at a website put together on the website of Virginia’s Secretary of Health and Human Services.
If you do go screen-free the week, but would like to see some of my articles anyway, pick C-Ville Weekly. I am now up to two stories in each print edition! It’ll still be on the newstands this upcoming Sunday!
Albemarle Land Use: 17 units planned for Rio Road East at Charlottesville border
One of the reasons this newsletters exists is to provide a way for me to get information about what’s happening in the built environment in Albemarle and Charlottesville. This is the kind of work I’ve been doing for a long time and this is all produced out of my curiosity about the world around me.
Earlier this year, Albemarle County moved to a new system for how land use applications are made available for the public to review. Another reason I do this is to encourage others to learn these systems. The information is out there for all of us and you can check it out at the Civic Access website. Go to the attachments tab for materials like site plans.
A site development plan has been filed for 17 single-family attached houses at 535 Rio Road East. This would replace a single family home on a 4.16 acre parcel. The property is zoned R-4 and this is a by-right development. The property is on the eastern side of the road and abuts land in the City of Charlottesville. The land is also directly across the street from a property where a rezoning has been sought for 75 units. I wrote about that earlier this month. (SDP-2025-00025 on Civic Access)
That 75-unit development is called Lochlyn Hills and has the project name Lochlyn Commons. (ZMA-2025-00002 on Civic Access)
There’s also a site development plan for a 21-unit residential development at 1906-1920 Avon Street Extended. Albemarle Supervisors approved a rezoning on February 7, 2024. (SDP-2025-00038 on Civic Access)
A site development plan has been filed for Kappa Sigma’s addition to the eastern wing of their headquarters and the construction of a new building. A special use permit has been approved for this purpose. (SDP-2025-00004 on Civic Access)
There is a site development plan for a project called Northside Drive Industrial building to be located at the intersection of Northside Drive and Seminole Trail (U.S. 29). The plans are for a 72,000 square foot industrial building and infrastructure to support it. This a by-right development under the Heavy Industrial zoning. (SDP-2025-00029 on Civic Access)
There’s a site development file for a project with the name Knight Berkshire Mixed Use that embodies the spirit of the county’s new urbanism initiatives from the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. An existing dentist’s office on Woodbrook Drive will be demolished to make way for a four-story building that will have 15 units on the upper stories with a replacement office below. I wrote about this project for C-Ville Weekly back in May 2024. I also wrote about when the Board of Supervisors approved the permit back in November. (SDP-2025-00031 on Civic Access)
Stay tuned for more! Paid subscriptions keep me paying attention and I’m grateful for those who have done so!
Reading material for 424 + 424
U.Va. med school faculty, clinical leaders defend those who backed CEO’s resignation, Kate Andrews, Virginia Business, April 11, 2025
Charlottesville looking for community feedback on new ADA plan, Gabby Womack, WVIR 29News, April 13, 2025
Adams, Williams downplay proposed changes to FY26 budget; PC oks proposal requiring CUP for retail sales of controlled substances; Homeless Coalition pushes for church-based winter shelter program, Tammy Purcell, Engage Louisa, April 13, 2025
Charlottesville toy store navigating tariffs ‘one day at a time’, Avery Davis, WVIR 29News, April 13, 2025
ReadyKids loses federal funding to support counseling for traumatized youthstor, Anastasiia Carrier, Charlottesville Tomorrow, April 14, 2025
Republicans in swing districts unite in ‘Purple Caucus’ ahead of Va. House races, Markus Schmidt, Virginia Mercury, April 14, 2025
Housekeeping note for #848
What does it mean to be alive? I suppose that question would be answered differently by everyone. For me it means I get to work doing what I love, which is writing this newsletter. But to write this newsletter, I have to try to be aware of some greater purpose.
What is that purpose? I don’t know. I know that this is the work I want to do above all, and I’ve put a lot of time into being able to write about these topics and be able to provide more context than most journalists. I don’t have many contemporaries but rather than despair I’m determined to forge ahead.
People want to know what’s happening. They want to know how processes work. I have to be careful that I do not critique my colleagues and other journalists, because I don’t work for them. They do what they do, and I have to figure out grow what I’m doing.
We’re all in this together. I said this in the introduction to today’s Fifth District Community Engagement newsletter. That’s the feeling I have always had about being alive. Being alive to me should be a celebration where we look around and see those around us and hopefully find a way to share our existence together.
That’s not always how it turns out.
All of our lives are filled with disappointment, but there’s always another flip of the coin, another sunrise, another chance to write about government meetings and hope that the rest of you will fall in love with civics the way I do. To me, local journalism is the gateway to feeling like maybe I belong.
I also believe in coyotes and time as an abstract, but that’s a whole other story. For now, we end with Jackie Robinson’s story.