December 4, 2024: Louisa Supervisors support continued funding of hazardous household waste amnesty days
Plus: Application filed to remove the Public Lands façade from 5th Street Station
On this day in 1791, the Observer launched as the first ever Sunday newspaper and founder W.S. Bourne thought he would become a man of wealth! He did not, and at one point the British government subsidized the paper in exchange for some editorial influence. Now the paper is owned by the Guardian and at this moment, National Public Radio reports that journalists at both publications are on strike due to a pending sale to an online start-up.
This is the December 4, 2024 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement, an online start-up created during a time when the way people information appears to be in constant shift. I’m Sean Tubbs, and let’s see if we can find the next gear.
In today’s edition:
The Louisa Board of Supervisors expresses support for continued funding of hazardous household waste amnesty days
The Virginia Department of Transportation is taking public comment on a categorical exclusion for a park and ride lot slated for Crozet
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality is taking public comment on a permit request to add new infrastructure at Beaver Creek Reservoir
An application has been filed with Albemarle County to remove the Public Lands façade at 5th Street Station
The Commonwealth Transportation Board officially cancels one of Charlottesville’s Smart Scale projects and supports the end of two others
First-shout: Magic on the Mall has begun!
In today’s first shout-out, the winter holidays are here and Friends of Downtown Cville want you to come and experience Magic on the Mall now through January 7. They’ve invested in a new light display that shows off the mall, and there are events like the Peppermint Trail, Elves in Cville, the Downtown Express, plus a host of new activities. You can see all of the details online at friendsofcville.org/magic!
The group is also looking for people to help with Magic on the Mall. They are looking for volunteers to help run the Downtown Express as well as pass out Elves in Cville booklets and stamps, and Peppermint Trail brochures.
Louisa Supervisors support county’s continued funding of Household Hazardous Waste Day
Louisa Administrator Christian Goodwin told the Board of Supervisors Monday that a program at the county landfill to accept household hazardous waste has been a success, but the cost of the two-day a year program is increasing.
Louisa County spent just over $60,000 to hire a contractor to dispose of the material in 2019 with the cost per vehicle around $80. That has increased in 2024 to nearly $160,000 in total cost and $258 per vehicle.
“People are either bringing more things or more expensive things and really just wanted to draw the board's attention to this because the cost has increased over the years,” Goodwin said.
Materials accepted include paints, bleaches, and other liquid products as well as electronic waste. For more details, visit the Louisa County website.
Goodwin said covering the cost for the citizens could be seen as a cost of doing business as materials might otherwise be disposed of incorrectly. Many materials can damage landfills if they end up there, or they can cause environmental harm if they’re just dumped.
“Certainly another school of thought would be that, you know, the Board might wish to control these costs by putting some type of, you know, limit and say, well, you can only bring this number of things and that number, this weight of those things,” Goodwin said.
Currently Louisa participates in a state contract but wants to put out a bid for a firm to provide the services based on the county’s specifications. He wanted to know if Supervisors had any direction.
Supervisor Rachel Jones of the Green Spring District said the county should continue to invest in the service.
“In a district that has the historic district, I routinely see large items that probably would be accepted on these days. I think I would see more of them,” Jones said.
Supervisor Tommy Barlow of the Mountain Road District agreed and supported the idea of putting the service out to bid to see if another vendor could bring in lower costs. Cuckoo District Supervisor Christopher McCotter noted that there are long lines when the events are held in April and October.
Goodwin said in addition to putting the project out to bid, the county will continue to look for grants to offset costs.
“The landfill, while some may not look at it in such a way, is definitely an asset to the citizens and one that we very carefully manage,” Goodwin said.
For more information on solid waste in Louisa County, visit the appropriate website.
Public notice: Comment period open for Beaver Creek Reservoir water withdrawal permit
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality is taking comment on a draft permit submitted by the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority for additional water withdrawal for Crozet’s water supply.
“The permit will allow the applicant to upgrade and expand the existing water supply system through construction of a new water intake in the Beaver Creek Reservoir, a pumping station, spillway, principal spillway modifications, a permanent road crossing, and a raw water transmission main from the pumping station to the Crozet water treatment plant,” reads a public notice published in a recent edition of the Charlottesville Daily Progress.
The DEQ’s preliminary decision is to issue the permit which will affect a quarter acre of open water and 310 linear feet of a stream channel.
The comment period is open through December 19. According to the notice, an appointment can be made to inspect the documents. The public is asked to contact Kathy Dobbie with the DEQ at the Blue Ridge Office at 901 Russell Drive, Salem, Virginia 24153.
Or you can take a look at them online from the DEQ website.
According to the permit, the Beaver Creek Reservoir was built in 1963 and the water treatment plant was built in 1966. Ninety percent of the treated water is sold to the Albemarle County Service Authority, the entity responsible for the distribution lines to homes and businesses.
The RWSA conducted a demand analysis in 2019 that projected demand through 2075. An infrastructure plan was developed to accommodate a projected population of 16,279 people for 2075.
According to the permit request issued by RWSA, the agency cannot exceed 2.2 millions of gallons of water a day, 66 million gallons per month, or 420 million gallons per year.
The demand in 2019 was 0.513 million gallons per day. The analysis projects the average water withdrawal in 2075 at 1.65 million gallons per day with a maximum of 2.8 MGD.
There has been growth over the years with an average of 137.612 million gallons a year in 2007 growing to 261.754 in 2022.
There are more details to sort through as I still have a meeting of the RWSA from late November to go through. This report mostly services as a notice to the public notice.
Public notice: Environmental documents for available for review for Crozet Park and Ride
There are many steps to getting a transportation approved and even more if there are any federal dollars associated with a project.
Earlier this year, the Virginia Department of Public Transportation held a design public hearing for a project to add a park and ride lot at Exit 107 off of Patterson Mill Road.
“This SMART SCALE project will include two dozen parking spaces with a bus pull-through, bike racks, and a shelter for bus passengers,” reads a public notice published in the December 3 print version of the Charlottesville Daily Progress. (go view)
At the time of the January 24 public hearing, staff had not completed environmental paperwork to justify a claim that there would be no impact to the surrounding area. This document is called a Categorical Exclusion and the public notice is a statement that it is available for review in-person.
“Paper copies of the document will be available at VDOT’s Culpeper District Office located at 1801 Orange Road, Culpeper, VA, 22701,” the notice continues.
The public has ten days from the notice to send a public comment via mail to the address above.
The work for the park and ride is expected to begin in the spring with construction expected to be complete in the fall of 2026.
Application filed to remove Public Lands façade at 5th Street Station
A Public Lands franchise opened in 5th Street Station in June 2022 but an application filed with Albemarle County’s Community Development Department indicates the store may soon be absorbed into the Dick’s Sporting Goods co-located next door.
“It is our intent to renovate the existing tenant façade of the Public Lands, which includes removing the entry feature in its entirety, removal of the decorative show windows and the existing wood/stone veneer throughout,” reads an application for the Albemarle Architectural Review Board to review the change.
The cost for this review is $728.
The front of the store is currently comprised of wooden planks on the exterior with entrance with rock-lined columns on either side of sliding door.
The entry to Public Lands will be converted to a second entrance for Dick’s Sporting Goods, a franchise owned by the same parent company. An entrance in the middle of the two will be closed and filled in. A new Exterior Insulation Finish System will cover the space where materials will be removed.
A trade publication called The Daily Outdoor Retailer reported in October that the Dick’s Sporting Goods would close five of its eight Public Lands stores
Public Lands opened in June 2022 according to an article on 29NBC WVIR written by Dryden Quigley.
A request for comment or clarification has not been responded to at publication time.
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Commonwealth Transportation Board supports cancellation of two Charlottesville projects, formally cancels Emmet Street Phase Two
The appointed body that has the final say on funding of transportation projects in Virginia has formally canceled two more projects that had been awarded to the City of Charlottesville.
The Commonwealth Transportation Board took action just two days after the City formally voted to cancel two projects that had gone through the Virginia Department of Transportation’s Smart Scale process.
“The question today is the 5th Street Southwest and Ridge Street project in the City of Charlottesville,” said Kimberly Pryor of VDOT’s infrastructure investment division. “These were actually two separate projects submitted in rounds three and four.”
The two projects had a combined cost of $14.8 million. The scope would have safety, congestion, and accessibility improvements along Ridge Street, Cherry Avenue, and Elliott Avenue with multimodal improvements on Ridge Street between West Main Street and Cherry Avenue.
“To date, the project hasn't started and we've incurred no expenditures,” Pryor said. “Current estimate is severely underfunded due to inflation. Unit costs higher than anticipated, right of way costs.”
Council has previously agreed to cancel three other Smart Scale projects including a second phase of a project on Emmet Street that the CTB formally canceled this afternoon. They will formally take up a vote to cancel the Ridge/Cherry projects at their next meeting in January.
The others are the West Main Streetscape and a project at Preston Avenue, Grady Avenue, and 10th Street.
Charlottesville officials have decided to cancel projects to clear up a backlog after VDOT found the city to be deficient. The cancellation is a corrective action.
“I want to note staff has been working very, very closely with our local VDOT district office to arrive at this recommendation,” said Deputy City Manager James Freas at Council’s meeting on December 2.
In May, Council agreed to a memorandum with VDOT that laid out how the city could get back in the agency’s favor. That includes the transfer of authority to VDOT to manage the Fontaine Avenue Streetscape.
For some details, go back and read these stories:
Charlottesville transportation planners seeking to rebuild public trust, May 16, 2024
Transportation planning manager updates Charlottesville City Council on existing projects, May 17, 2024
Charlottesville continues to move forward with several long-delayed transportation projects, November 16, 2024
City Manager Sam Sanders said he did not want to place blame on whoever was running transportation in the city before he arrived, but told Council he was summoned to VDOT’s offices soon after he began work for the city in the summer of 2021.
“I was told that the city of Charlottesville was not performing as it related to the management of our locally administered program,” Sanders said. “And that started what has been a three year saga.”
Sanders said the portfolio was too large for the city to manage and cancellation is not taken lightly. He said he understands the disappointment some have expressed, but the city has needed a structure to proceed.
“I think the team has really embraced the notion that it's no one's fault,” Sanders said. “It is where we are and we need to move forward. And the best way to do that is to right size this portfolio for our ability to deliver it.”
During today’s CTB discussion, Pryor noted that Charlottesville did not apply for a project in the current cycle, nor did the city do so in Round 5.
One member of the CTB asked a relevant question.
“It seems like we're dropping a lot of projects in Charlottesville,” said Thomas Lawson, a rural at-large member. “As you said, they're right-sizing. How many are still outstanding, what's left?”
VDOT’s Commissioner responded.
“Mr. Lawson, to answer your question directly, that this is the last one that they have to cancel,,” said Stephen Brich. “Everything else is moving forward at this point in time. So this is right-sizing their program. The board took a final act. Their board of Supervisors or City council took an action Monday.”
Virginia Transportation Secretary Shep Miller said that Charlottesville has been challenged to deliver road projects over the years.
“We have dug into those kinds of situations and pushed and brought us in to help them get their situation over the projects that they have and do it in cooperation in concert with our help,” Miller said. “And so I think they're making great progress there and we're glad to see that.”
The final vote on the cancellation of the Ridge and Cherry Avenue projects will be taken in January. The CTB officially voted to end the second phase of Emmet Street at their action meeting today.
Reading material for #773
ACPD fines over 2,400 people for school zone speeding, Sarah Allen, CBS19 News, December 3, 2024
UVA Foundation moving forward with North Fork residential development, Sean Tubbs, C-Ville Weekly, December 3, 3024
City Council talks budget and everything road-related, Sean Tubbs, C-Ville Weekly, December 3, 3024
For 20 years, RGGI has ‘weathered the political winds’, Sarah Shemkus, Energy News Network, December 3, 2024
#773 is another prime number
This is the 773rd edition of this newsletter and that number happens to be prime. This means absolutely nothing, but yet it means absolutely everything. This newsletter is not the product of a large newsroom but is instead the work of one person and these observations are how I amuse myself. In another community and in another lifetime, I would be doing this work for a large organization. For now, I share the in-jokes with you, the reader who makes it to the end.
Maybe in this lifetime I’ll be able to grow the business and continue to report in a way I think is important. There is a role for journalism to play to keep a close eye on what is happening and to do so over a prolonged period of time. I’ve been putting this work out for four and a half years thanks to the financial support from subscribers who pay for the work.
In the future I hope to have some news about other ways to fund the work but for now the best bet is through Substack. If you do that, Ting will match your first contribution. That’s been a very generous offer they’ve been doing for over three and a half years.
If you sign up for service and you are within Ting’s service area, enter the promo code COMMUNITY you’re going to get:
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A second month for free
A $75 gift card to the Downtown Mall
