December 10, 2024: Bill filed in the Virginia General Assembly to create a statewide short-term rental registry
Plus: Barracks Road Shopping Center is planning for a new look and Nelson County Sheriff's work overtime at UVA
December 10 counts us up closer to the end of 2024 and this being a leap year, we are on the 345th day. There are just under two weeks of lengthening nights as the sun rises and sets further and further on the southern horizon. Then there will be a shift and we march back toward spring. Charlottesville Community Engagement is not under the thumb of Big Astronomy and just sincerely appreciates knowing cosmic positioning. I’m Sean Tubbs, pondering the threat heliocentrism played to powerful regimes.
In today’s installment:
The company that owns Barracks Road Shopping Center plans to make some exterior changes in the near future
Charlottesville’s Economic Development Authority will take up their annual report this afternoon
The Nelson County Sheriff’s office has collecting over $10,000 assisting special events at the University of Virginia
A look at a handful of bills filed in the General Assembly including one to create a statewide registry of short-term rentals
Charlottesville City Council gets the second of two budget briefings, this time on housing and infrastructure
First-shout out: Senior Statesmen of Virginia explore Joyful Wellness
What is Joyful Wellness? You can find out at the Senior Statesmen of Virginia’s next forum on Wednesday, December 11, 2024 at 2:30 at the Center at Belvedere. Susan Tate, former Director of Health Promotion and Assistant Professor in the School of Medicine at the University of Virginia, brings a wealth of experience to the realm of holistic wellness.
Come and be rejuvenated, invigorated, and inspired to explore a heart-full path to creating more joyful wellness in your life. This nurturing presentation will offer an all-pleasure/all-gain exploration to mind/body/spirit and sexual wellness. All of this will be presented in a manner that honors individual values and spiritual beliefs.
To attend, register at the Center of Belvedere’s website.
Federal Realty Investment Trust planning on exterior improvements at Barracks Road Shopping Center
In local government speak, a consent agenda contains all of the items that are not likely to be talked about at a particular meeting but the body will take action on them anyway.
That’s the case at today’s meeting of the Charlottesville Planning Commission where that body will sign off on a certificate of appropriateness for the first phase of exterior changes at the nearly 40-acre Barracks Road Shopping Center.
“The Phase 1 enhancements will modify the façades and sidewalks along an approximately 250-foot-long segment in the middle of the strip center and at the northeast corner of an adjacent retail building,” reads the staff report.
These are known in the plans as the Main Street Facade and the Brewery Facade. In the former, an overhanging section will be removed exposing brick walls. New metal and wood columns will be installed to support flat metal canopies.
No brewery is identified in these plans.
Staff supports the changes.
“The alterations will not alter the height of the existing buildings; by removing the large, heavy façade and introducing landscape and streetscape elements will reduce the perceived massing and scale, resulting in a more open and inviting street level at the existing storefronts,” writes Dannon O’Connell.
No public comments have been received.
As the Planning Commission will technically be serving as the Entrance Corridor Review Board, the staff report also includes a section from the Entrance Corridor Design Guidelines.
“Emmet Street has the potential to become more of an urban boulevard, with lively pedestrian activity and a greater mix and integration of uses,” reads the guidelines. “Both Barracks Road Shopping Center and Meadowbrook Shopping Center may redevelop with retail, hotels, housing, and structured parking.”
To that end, the city’s Development Code was amended at this location to make the zoning Node Mixed Use 10, one of the highest intensity districts under the new rules. So far, Federal Realty Investments anticipates to keep the space relatively intact.
What might happen in the future if a connection is made between Millmont Street and Copeley Road? The topic came up at the December 5, 2025 meeting of the University of Virginia Buildings and Grounds Committee.
Charlottesville Economic Development Authority to review annual report for FY2024
Nearly 50 years have passed since the Charlottesville City Council created what is now known as the Charlottesville Economic Development Authority to advance business interests in the city. Today the seven-member body will review the annual report for the fiscal year between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024.
“As of June 30, 2024, the Authority had financed 65 separate projects, issuing debt totaling $345,900,000,” reads a history in the report. “The bonds, notes, and other obligations of the Authority are payable solely from, and secured by, revenues derived from leases and contracts on the lands, buildings, and equipment financed.”
The EDA’s first major project was the purchase of a 10.5 acre parcel in the mid 1980’s that became the Carlton Business Park. Another early initiative was the purchase of a 17 acre site from CSX in downtown Charlottesville had later became the headquarters of the Lexis Law Publishing Company.
In 2003, the authority purchased the former site of the National Ground Intelligence Center for a project that eventually became the headquarters for what’s now known as S&P Global. Other projects include the Charlottesville Pavilion and the Jefferson School Community Partnership.
Highlights from FY2024:
The Authority supports a pool of funds managed by the Community Investment Collaborative related to the GO HIRE, GO-Start-Up and the Cville Match program.
The Authority provided matching grant funds to initiatives such as CvilleBioHub, Venture Central, the United Way Envision Grant, and the Charlottesville Chamber of Commerce’s Defense Affairs Committee.
The Authority entered into a second year of a lease with the owners of York Place for the rental of two public restrooms open 12 hours a day on the Downtown Mall. (story from October 2022)
The Authority entered into a second performance agreement for Piedmont Housing Alliance’s redevelopment of Friendship Court into Kindlewood.
Nelson County Sheriff’s Office to collect over $10K for working UVA events
The largest revenue source for most localities comes from the real property tax, but many local government budgets also include payments for various services.
Today the Nelson County Board of Supervisors is meeting and one of the items on the consent agenda is a budget amendment to collect $10,042.50 from the University of Virginia for the Sheriff’s Department to work special events.
The two entities signed an agreement on August 2, 2024 to govern the provision of assistance. This includes “providing police and traffic control services and when deemed necessary, a representative in unified command for sporting events and major agreements.”
For instance, officers worked the UVA football game against Louisville for a $3,315 payment. That’s based on an hourly rate of $65 an hour for an 8.5 hour shift. Another $1657.50 was earned for the Sabrina Carpenter concert on October 20, $3,672.50 for the football game against the University of North Carolina, $1,137.50 for the Jelly Roll Concert on October 30, and $260 for the men’s basketball game.
The budget amendment also includes the addition of an $11,490 grant from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality for the Nelson County Litter Prevention and Recycling Services and the Extended Polystrene campaign. The latter was mandated by the General Assembly in 2021 according to the DEQ website.
Legislative round-up: Legislation filed to create a statewide registry of short-term rentals
There is now a leap-year February number of days before the next session of the Virginia General Assembly begins. The inflow of new legislation remains a trickle but will accelerate between now and the first fall of the gavel in both the House of Delegates and the Virginia Senate. Here now is a quick review.
Localities all across Virginia have struggled with the appropriate way to regulate short-term rentals. To assist with efforts to enforce rules, Delegate Lee Ware has filed legislation in HB1557 that would create a registry of all of the places that offer short-term rentals and how much they charge.
“The Department shall provide to the commissioner of the revenue or other assessing official for each locality access to the registry and information contained therein for all short-term rentals located within the jurisdiction of the commissioner of the revenue or other assessing official,” reads a section of the bill.
The bill also states that nothing in legislation should be construed to take away a locality’s ability to prohibit short-term rentals.
HB1553 from Delegate Wren Williams (R-47) would remove a requirement that a copy of a notice of an appeal to the Court of Appeals in a criminal case be mailed or delivered to the Virginia Attorney General’s office.
HB1554 from Delegate Williams is related to the amount of funding that must be provided to localities to cover the costs of deputy sheriff’s. Currently the requirement is one deputy per 1,500 per persons and this bill would add that calculation to be one deputy per 25 square miles.
HB1555 also from Delegate Williams would require the Virginia Department of Health to establish a program called the Health Care Regulatory Sandbox Program to allow for the temporary testing of “innovative health products.”
HB1556 from Delegate Williams would give the Attorney General’s office the authority to initiate and conduct criminal prosecutions in cases involving criminal sexual assault or commercial sex trafficking.
HB1558 from Delegate Paul Milde (R-64) would ban possession of tobacco and hemp products by people under the age of 21.
SB748 from Senator Barbara Favola (D-4) would direct a new stakeholder group to study the Uniform Statewide Building Code to require owners and operators of Group R-2 apartment buildings to install devices to allow cooling below 77 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer and above 68 degrees in winter.
SB749 from Senator Tammy Brankley Mulchi (R-9) is related to sports participation in public schools as well as institutions of higher education. Under this bill, a doctor would have to sign a statement affirming the participant’s biological sex and those deemed to be male would be prohibited from being on a woman’s team.
SB750 from Senator J.D. “Danny” Diggs (R-24) would make it a crime to knowingly allow an unlicensed minor from operating a motor vehicle.
SB751 from Senator Diggs would allow a Virginia court to issue a preliminary protective order to someone who is already under a Military Protective Order.
SB752 from Senator Favola would direct the Board of Psychology to convene a work group to study the possibility of allowing clinical psychologists to obtain and utilize the ability to prescribe certain medications. Currently that’s only limited to those with doctorates in medicine.
SB753 from Senator Favola would allow Standards of Learning and Standards of Quality tests to be administered in languages other than English.
SB754 from Senator Favola would amend the Virginia Consumer Protection Act to prohibit sharing of information related to someone’s reproductive health or sexual health information.
There are also three joint resolutions calling for amendments to Virginia’s Constitution:
SJ247 from Senator Jennifer Boysko (D-38) is a constitutional amendment guaranteeing reproductive freedom.
SJ248 from Senator Mamie Locke (D-23) is a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to vote if a person is qualified.
SJ249 from Senator Adam Ebbin (D-39) is a constitutional amendment repealing the provision against same-sex marriage and prohibiting localities from denying a marriage license sought between two adult persons.
Second 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!
Charlottesville City Council briefed on upcoming spending on housing and infrastructure
It’s beginning to look a lot like budget season.
Today the Charlottesville Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on the Capital Improvement Program. On Thursday, Charlottesville City Manager Sam Sanders will hold a budget work session. And last week, the City Council had the second of three budget briefings.
This one dealt with housing and Sanders reviewed the status of several potential initiatives that are under the umbrella HEAT which stands for Housing Equity and Anti-Displacement Toolkit. (view the city’s website)
At the outset Sanders said there will be no more additional funding for formation of a land bank until an ordinance is adopted. The current fiscal year put aside $500,000 to that line item but the money was reappropriated.
“That $500,000 was used in the acquisition of the Mobile Carleton Mobile Home Park,” Sanders said. “So at this time there is no money dedicated to the Land bank as it stands today.”
Back in August, Council agreed to an $8.7 million forgivable loan to a coalition made up of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville and the Piedmont Housing Alliance, two groups whose executive directors sit on the Housing Advisory Committee. That group has been charged with assisting with the formation of the land bank ordinance. Now those two agencies are in the early stages of planning to redevelop the 6.5 acres site but can’t make any changes for three years.
Sanders said further work needs to be done to determine if there should be funding that goes toward an augmented real property tax abatement program.
“We have heard it from different people suggesting that it should be a priority for us to,” Sanders said. “I labelled it to be determined because it's an expensive venture and it's one that requires.” some study.”
On the anti-displacement front, the Department of Neighborhood Development Services will conduct a study of one or two neighborhoods that could be factored into an abatement program intended to incentivize development of units whose rent or sale price are income-restricted.
A major component of the Affordable Housing Plan adopted by Council in March 2021 is a moral commitment to spend a minimum of $10 million a year on affordable housing initiatives.
“To date, over $35 million has been identified,” Sanders said. “We're still finishing up the work on that and would have a presentation that we would make that has now become an annual event in April.”
The first of those updates was in April 2022 when Sanders reviewed an audit of the Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund. Take a look at the story I wrote at the time.
Sanders said the five year capital improvement program anticipates another $52 million toward affordable housing projects.
“So if you add all that up, that's $99 million in less than 10 years,” Sanders said. “That's pretty good. That's really what I wanted to say to you.”
Part of the funding so far has been $5 million to the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority for half of the cost to purchase the 74 units known as the Dogwood Housing portfolio.
The December 2, 2024 briefing also touched upon the Parks Master Plan that is currently in development. Council will get an update on that on December 16 at the 4 p.m. work session. There’s also a community meeting on December 17.
“When I look at the Parks Master Plan and how we've had the conversation about how do we implement that plan aside from having the plan, the first thing you have to do is then put some money behind it,” Sanders said.
Sanders said at least $500,000 in FY26 will come from the $2 million he has set aside to implement a transition plan to become compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. He said the U.S. Department of Justice could wind up enforcing penalties given the long amount of time that has passed since the ADA.
“When the DOJ comes and they end up with settlement agreements with communities, it's because they have not been able to demonstrate best effort,” Sanders said. “And that's really what they're looking for. They're not looking for perfection, they are looking for best effort.”
For more information on the city’s work toward creating a transition plan, visit the city’s website.
Sanders took the opportunity to identify several current assumptions in the Capital Improvement Program and others that don’t yet have price tag estimates.
$4.7 million is intended to implement projects on the sidewalk priorities.
$7 million to replace traffic signals across the city with new equipment, as Sanders said what is in place is obsolete.
There’s $4 million or so in initiatives to address items in a recent report on the Downtown Mall including $315,000 to implement a tree plan. Sanders said creation of a “business improvement district” might be one way to cover those costs, but that’s just one of many ideas at this time.
There is no total identified for “urgent infrastructure” such as something to address safety on the stretch of Elliott Avenue where a woman died in October. Sanders said the source of funding from this will come from the anticipated FY24 surplus that Council will soon hear about.
Sanders again stated he hopes to bring Council a balanced budget for FY26 but admitted that the list of initiatives Council wants to fund is a long one.
The third budget briefing will be delivered at Council’s work session on December 16. This one will be on public safety and transportation and Sanders described it as a “doozy.”
Reading material for #777
Youngkin issues Bay cleanup directive ahead of summit, Patrick Larsen, VPM, December 9, 2024
Legislative report: Development of data centers could triple energy demands if unconstrained, Charlie Paullin, Virginia Mercury, December 9, 2024
Woman files suit against VDOT after husband, son killed at 29-64 intersection, Hawes Spencer, Charlottesville Daily Progress (paywall), December 9, 2024
The look of #777 is an aesthetically pleasing palindrome
A subscriber today wrote to me to ask if there was any way to put navigation into the newsletter. I don’t know how to do to that in what you get in your inbox, but if you click through to the website you will note on the left hand side there is a set of horizontal lines. You can click on these to navigate throughout the newsletter.
I know that not every story is of interest to everyone, but everything I decide to write about is connected in some way. When I said I would launch this work, I said I wanted to be as thorough as possible. And I believe readers understand that and can skip to the next story.
There’s also Information Charlottesville which includes some but not all stories that are in this newsletter. They both work as part of the core product of Town Crier Productions and intricately related. I’m not sure if I intended to do it this way, but after 777 regular newsletters and 292 Week Ahead versions, a method has presented itself.
All of this is paid for through a mix of revenues, but most comes directly from paid subscribers. I’m not a non-profit but I am considering more options for people who want to support the work. I even got a check out of the blue yesterday! This work is my sole vocation at this time, and any attempts at learning cooking are not intended for a commercial venture at this time.
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So, I end today’s edition by thanking those who are helping me to cover my costs. Also to remind people that there is now a BlueSky account that’s up to 149 followers!
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