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On today’s show:
Governor Northam announces the easing of some COVID restrictions
The Albemarle Architectural Review takes a look at the I-64 corridor west of Charlottesville
Greene County takes a look at their Comprehensive Plan
Vaccinations are up in Virginia, and new COVD cases are down. Yesterday, Governor Ralph Northam announced the easing of some restrictions in a YouTube video on posted yesterday.
“Starting May 15, social gatherings can have a few more people,” Northam said. “More people can go to theaters and entertainment venues, and more people at sporting events. But we all need to keep spreading out.”
Last night, the owners of many Virginia restaurants posted pictures showing they immediately jumped on the ability to return customers to one kind of area that has been banned.
“Restaurants can go back to seating patrons in their bar areas, but we all need to spread out there, too,” Northam said.
But back to the amendments that go into effect on May 15. Private bookings at restaurants and event venues can increase to 100 people in doors, and 250 people outdoors. Gyms and fitness centers can open to 75 percent of capacity, though people must stay ten feet apart. Pools can also increase to three-quarter’s capacity. Capacity at entertainment venues will be at 50 percent.
Northam said if the numbers continue along these trends, more restrictions will be eased in June.
“We’re aiming to significantly ramp up vaccinations even further and aim to reduce mitigation measures in June, hopefully all the way,” Northam said.
Northam said vaccinations may be able to children over the age of 12 this summer. Until then, Northam said everyone needs to keep wearing masks and keeping distance.
No word yet on whether karaoke will happen ever again.
Greene County is slowly reviewing their Comprehensive Plan, which was last updated in 2016. This past week, the Greene Planning Commission discussed the Natural Resources Chapter as well as the Agriculture and Forestry Chapter. During a conversation about riparian buffers, Deputy Planning Director Stephanie Golon suggested one area for the commissioners to think about.
“In the world we’re in today, a climate action plan might be something that we’d want to include as one of the goals,” Golon said.
The Agriculture chapter from 2016 acknowledges that farming in Greene faces challenges as the community grows.
“Greene County is facing the prospect of gradually losing farmland and forests,” reads the plan. “Each year a portion of land in the county is converted from growing food or harvesting timber to other uses, such as residential or commercial development. At the same time, some individual farmers are finding it more difficult to sustain a viable business or recruit the next generation to carry on their role of providing food.”
Commissioner Jay Willer suggested that Greene should measure the level of farming in the county through acreage and not the number of farms.
“We’ve talked later in this document we talk about encouraging small farming, niche farming, etc,” Willer said. “We could hang on to the same number of farms and increase the number of farms but lose acreage, or lose production, if our only marker is the number of farms.”
Willer said the document should also be more specific about the kind of agriculture practiced in Greene County.
“The other part of it is a question of what’s a farm,” Willer said. “We don’t have a lot of acreage in Greene County dedicated to row crops or wheat and beans just because we don’t have the soil and terrain to do that. Most of our agricultural land is cattle or forestry.”
To learn more about the Greene County Comprehensive Plan process, there’s a five minute video on YouTube that’s worth a look. (watch )
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The agendas of the Albemarle Architectural Review Board include proposals for all kinds of developments whose detailed site plans might not otherwise go before the Planning Commission or the Board of Supervisors. On April 5, 2021, the group took a look at the I-64 corridor heading west from the 5th Street interchange to the county line with Nelson. ARB member Frank Stoner led the presentation.
“It’s about a 20 mile stretch, most of which is rural,” Stoner said. “Most of the commercial development, really most of all the development along the corridor is pretty effectively screened and I know that’s generally been a priority for us in evaluating anything along that corridor.”
One prominent landmark is the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail.
“Probably one of the more dominant architectural features of the corridor, slightly east of where we’re starting, but I thought I’d share it anyway,” Stone said.
In the past few years, new residential complexes have been constructed and are highly visible from I-64.
“Buildings in the urban area are generally oriented away from the corridor,” Stoner said. “In the case of these two multifamily projects that got built on the south side, they do in fact sort of front not directly but they do front the corridor in that they are forward facing or have a significant architectural presence on the corridor.”
A principle of development all across America has been the location of easily visible commercial destinations from highways and highway interchanges. That’s not the case for so much of I-64 in Virginia, including Exit 118 at U.S. 29.
“When you’re at this interchange, you actually can’t see any of the surrounding development, and that pattern persists as you head west,” Stoner said.
If you’re driving west, you can briefly see the reservoir to the north, but don’t blink. There’s very little development along the route, and even the Yancey Mills lumberyard can’t been seen from I-64. When you get to the top of Afton Mountain, though, that changes.
“When you get to the Afton interchange, which is a little beyond the scope of what we’re technically responsible for, but it’s close enough and I figured I would include it,” Stoner said. “You have some commercial development on 250 kind of at the interchange with the Blue Ridge Parkway. You’ve got the abandoned motel up there and a couple of other smaller commercial buildings that are generally not in good condition.”
In a future update, we’ll hear information about the U.S. 29 / U.S. 250 area covered by the ARB.
April 23, 2021: Bars are back as more restrictions ease; Farming in Greene