Welcome to the third fifth Tuesday of 2023. There’s one more which you may also know as Halloween. That means you only have nine weeks left to learn the mash… the Monster Mash. Between now and then, how much information can be written about the area in and around Charlottesville? This is a rhetorical wager only.
On today’s show:
The Albemarle County Police Department is investigating a homicide in the area around Cypress Pointe Drive
The developer of 245 apartment units at 0 East High Street maintains the city must accept public roadways that would be built as part of the project
The city of Charlottesville extends a deadline for a grant program for homeowners
The Albemarle County Planning Commission discusses whether or not to map potential areas for growth area expansion
First shout-out: Friends of Downtown Cville
In today’s first Patreon-fueled shout-out: The temperature gauge and humidity still say summer, but increased activity at area schools clearly indicates fall is approaching. Friends of Downtown Cville are thinking ahead to activities on the Downtown Mall as the nights grow longer. Here is some of what to expect:
Mark your calendar for September 8 and the Coca Cola Block Party
There’s a membership drive coming up on September 22 for those who want to get involved with all of the happenings on the Mall this fall
Doggie Howl-o-Ween and Downtown Safe Halloweeen are just over two and a half months away
And it’s not too early to think about the holidays and Magic on the Mall coming up Thanksgiving through Christmas
Stay tuned for more information and thanks to Friends of Downtown CVille for their support of Charlottesville Community Engagement through Patreon.
Fatal stabbing reported this morning in Albemarle
The Albemarle Police Department is investigating a homicide that allegedly took place this morning in the Four Seasons area of the county. Officers responded to a call on Cypress Pointe Drive at around 5 a.m. this morning.
“Officers arrived on scene to discover one deceased female inside the home,” reads a press release sent out at 3:09 p.m. this afternoon. “A second female was detained at the scene without incident.”
The release states that the identify of the victim is being withheld pending notification of next of kin. Police are also classifying the death as a domestic situation with no threat to the rest of the community.
Seven Development submits fifth iteration of plans for 0 East High Street
A developer who seeks to build 245 apartment units on land in the floodplain of the Rivanna River maintains that the City of Charlottesville must accept a site plan for the project that contains public roadways and trails.
“The June 2nd site plan submittal contained a variety of public facilities, included at the request of the parks and recreation department as public amenities to be constructed by the developer and dedicated to the City of Charlottesville,” reads a letter to the city from the firm Shimp Engineering.
That site plan submission was the fourth for the project, which has seen a lot of opposition emerge from both neighbors and those concerned with building within the floodway. All plans submitted to date show that the buildings would be elevated by being constructed on fill dirt.
The fourth submission featured two public roadways that would connect the project to East High Street and Caroline Avenue. This was done to address city comments in earlier versions.
On August 8, the Charlottesville Planning Commission made a recommendation to City Council that the roadways included in the plan are not consistent with the Comprehensive Plan in something known as a 2232 review, referring to the Virginia Code.
However, Shimp Engineering argues the city did not meet the deadline to conduct that review within sixty days.
“The timeline of the review had not been extended by the Governing body prior to August 1,” their letter continues.
The city has until October 5 to make formal comments on the latest submission from Seven Development.
Charlottesville extends deadline for homeowner assistance program
If you’re a Charlottesville property owner who lives in your house and you are struggling to pay some of your bills, you’ve got a few extra days to take advantage of a city program. The deadline to apply for the Charlottesville Homeowner Assistance Program has been extended to Friday, September 8 at 5 p.m.
“You MAY qualify for a grant of $1000, $1500, $2000, or $2500 depending on your household IRS Form 1040 Adjusted Gross Income for Tax Year 2022,” reads the website for the program which is operated out of the office of the Commissioner of the Revenue.
The CHAP program is open to households who lived in their house as of January 1 and have a 2022 household income of less than $60,000. The property itself must be assessed at $460,000 or less.
Be warned that the online application will not be available on August 30 or August 31 due to scheduled maintenance.
The budget for FY24 set aside $1.36 million for the program which had one point been called the Homeowner Assistance Tax Grant program. (See also: City changing mechanism for property tax relief, May 24, 2022)
Second shout-out: Friends of JMRL
In today’s second subscriber supported shout-out: Let’s learn a little about a nonprofit group that plays a major role to keep the Jefferson Madison Regional Library going strong.
Friends of JMRL plays an important role in the slightly Byzantine structure of library budgets. Proceeds from the popular book sale go to pay for children’s, teen and adult programs. The five jurisdictions that make up JMRL pay for facilities, salaries, and operational costs. State aid funds the collection acquisitions for all materials, physical, and digital. The federal e-rate program pays for equipment purchases. And Friends of JMRL raise funds for all sorts of activities.
That includes the Library endowment in conjunction with the Charlottesville Albemarle Community Foundation awards money to special efforts such as the NAACP scholarship as well grants to out-of-area patrons to cover the $30 fee for residents of non-member localities.
Visit jmrlfriends.org to learn more and find out how you can get involved.
Albemarle Planning Commission weighs in on criteria to expand development area
Albemarle County continues to go through a process to review the Comprehensive Plan that is taking a new look at long-held policies that sought to control where intense development happens.
The AC44 process is currently in the second of four phases, and the Planning Commission discussed four specific topics at their meeting on August 8.
I’ve already written about the first toolkit which covers “activity centers” as you can read about here. The second covers potential criteria that may be used to determine where the growth areas would be expanded
“The current plan recommends monitoring development areas’ estimated capacity for future residential and business demand with high-level guidance on when an expansion may need to be considered,” said Tori Kanellopoulos, a principal planner with the county.
The current plan does not talk about the how and where expansion might happen. Kanellopoulos said the AC44 process hopes to add more information for that future decision.
“The updated plan could include factors for how and where to expand including infrastructure considerations, protection of natural resources and water supply watersheds, and expectations of future development patterns,” Kanellopoulos said.
Kanellopoulos said the AC44 process could include mapping out potential areas. The Planning Commission had weighed in with general direction earlier this year.
“During the April commission meeting, the Commission asked the AC44 team to consider locations of high-quality natural resources in the rural area, including resources identified in the Biodiversity Action Plan,” Kanellopoulos said. “At the previous meeting, several commissioners discussed a desire not to expand the growth area if there are remaining developable areas in the current development areas as having more limited land can encourage more efficient use of that land.”
The commission had three options to review:
Make no changes from the current plan in AC44
Continue to develop factors for future expansion as well develop metrics but not make those changes in AC44
Apply the factors to maps depicting future locations for expansion as well as possible time frames, but not actually designating them during AC44
Staff recommends the latter option in order to allow the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority to plan for expansion.
“With any option that is pursued for this topic, staff wants emphasize that efficient use of the development areas should continue to be prioritized over expansion while recognizing that at some point it is likely the development areas will need to be expanded to accommodate future housing and business needs,” Kanellopoulos said.
Kanellopoulos said no matter the option, staff is indicating that some expansions may happen in certain cases such as adding portions of some neighborhoods that are currently divided by the boundary, as well as bringing county-owned land into the growth area.
Commissioner Julian Bivins (Jack Jouett District) said he thought it would be prudent to produce the maps to inform decisions in the future.
“I think right now there’s an agreement that there’s not going to be an expansion of the development area today, but I think it is helpful to say where it could and how the Planning Commission of 2024 and the Supervisors of 2024 suggested that there are the criteria that might be considered,” Bivins said.
Commissioner Corey Clayborne said he thought Albemarle should keep an open mind when it comes to the county’s needs for the future, particularly for economic development. He said he was concerned that Albemarle only has one Tier 4 site as rated by the Virginia Business Ready Sites Program.
“My rhetorical question to that is, what kind of amazing jobs and employment are we sacrificing because of that?” Clayborne asked.
Commissioner Nathan Moore (Rio District) supported the pursuit of option 3 in part because he said much of the remaining land may not be suitable for intense development.
“It makes a lot of sense to me to plan for when we might grow that,” Moore said. “I’m not saying ‘let’s pave the county.’ No one is saying that. But if we want enough land for the people who live here and the people who are going to live here and the people who are going to move here because they need to from all kinds of things, we have to think about when that might happen and what might trigger it.”
Commissioner Fred Missel (Scottsville District) said much of the discussion comes down to timing. He said he would support analyzing potential expansion areas but not until a longer time frame.
“My feeling is generally that the idea of expanding development areas first triggers a reaction which is: ‘Oh no! We want our county to stay the way it is. It’s beautiful. This is the camel’s nose under the tent and if we do this it’s going to be all over.’” Missel said. “And what I would say is that I sort of caution myself to think what this is doing is causing us to be very thoughtful about preservation as it is about development expansion.”
Missel said water and sewer capacity must drive that conversation as well as plans Virginia Department of Transportation. He also said he was concerned about any maps that depicted specific parcels to add to the growth area.
“Somebody starts seeing their parcels identified as the future development area, it’s going to start messing with the market a little bit,” Missel said.
Commissioner Karen Firehock did not support the staff recommendation to begin mapping exercises.
“I don’t support option 3 because I don’t want to see a map,” Firehock said.
Firehock claimed a 51-acre expansion of the development area in September 2015 for a potential brewery just south of the U.S. 29 / I-64 intersection led to a series of speculative sales calls. (Read that story on listed as “uncategorized” on a website I worked for from 2007 to 2018)
“Developers came and gave out slick brochures to people who were even way past that, a mile past that, saying: ‘Hey! I’d like to buy your land because potentially if they’re going to rezone that, well guess what, they’ll probably do this!” Firehock said.
There was also a conversation about how to encourage developers to build at the higher density ranges allowed under the Comprehensive Plan. County staff have cited a figure that rezoned properties are built out at an average of 58 percent of the total capacity allowed.
Bivins said that not everybody in the community is on board with that many people in one place.
“Some of us have been on the Commission long enough to have where somebody wanted to bring a higher density project and that got shouted out of the room basically,” Bivins said. “The issue is not sometimes that the developers have a lack of wanting to do something. It’s that our community goes after them if they suggest something close to 90 percent of the density or 80 percent density.”
By the end of the conversation, the Commission seemed to reach a consensus of somewhere between Option 2 and Option 3. That could involve a generalized map that the Commission will be able to review again as the AC44 process continues.
There are two more toolkits to review. They’ll be in future editions of this newsletter, time permitting. You may be doing the mash by then.
Reading material:
Charlottesville City Council approves new employee pay structure, Dryden Quigley, WVIR, August 22, 2023
News in Brief: New Dean Named for Office of African-American Affairs, Virginia Carter, UVA Today, August 23, 2023
After years of deferrals, supervisors deny approval of zoning amendment, Heather Michon, Fluvanna Review, August 24, 2023
What can we say to sum up #570?
It has now been 37 months since I began this newsletter but you may not know that the Information Charlottesville site slightly predates the existence of these digital periodicals. All of the material is produced by Town Crier Productions, a company that exists in order to write as much as possible about what’s happening.
If you’ve not seen the infocville.com site lately, take a look! Thanks to my Patreon supporters, I was able to give it an interesting upgrade to document more than three years of coverage.
In addition to Patreon, you can also support the work with a paid subscription through Substack. Ting will match your initial payment at either the $5 a month, $50 a year, or $200 a year level! The latter comes with shout-outs, as does the $25 a month tier on Patreon.
All of this may be confusing, but it’s all part of a one-person media operation that really does hope to expand to meet the need, the need of a community speeding toward the future.
Ting’s support for Charlottesville Community Engagement is not an afterthought. The internet company wants to support community knowledge and they will match the initial subscription for every new Substack subscription.
And perhaps you are a UVA student looking for fast Internet service? If you sign up for Ting at this link and enter the promo code COMMUNITY, you’ll get:
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A $75 gift card to the Downtown Mall
August 29, 2023: Albemarle PC appears reluctant to map future growth area expansion areas in detail