Readers and listeners of Charlottesville Community Engagement have many choices when it comes to what ersatz holiday to appreciate. Perhaps you are of the National Cabbage Day variety? Or perhaps you want to explore the world around you on this National Public Science Day? Do remember also it is Random Act of Kindness Day. Finally, Who Shall I Be Day? Well, I’ll be Sean Tubbs with yet another edition of a program that shall now move on to the information.
On today’s show:
Nelson County Supervisors are briefed on a study of a section of Route 151 south of Afton
The Virginia Department of Transportation has temporarily closed a roadway in northern Albemarle County
Various updates from members of the Charlottesville Planning Commission, including an explanation of the Board of Architectural Review’s PC r
Albemarle Supervisor Bea LaPisto-Kirtley is running for election and at least one candidate has filed to challenge whoever becomes the Democratic nominee in the fall
First shout-out: Piedmont Master Gardeners seek items for Green Elephant Sale
In today’s first subscriber supported public service announcement: If you are cleaning out your garage, basement or garden shed as spring approaches, the Piedmont Master Gardeners will gladly take any yard and garden equipment you no longer need.
PMG is now accepting donations of new and used tools, hoses, decorative items, outdoor furniture—virtually anything used to create, maintain and enjoy a garden. These “Green Elephants” will be offered for sale to the public during PMG’s Spring Plant Sale. Donated items may be dropped off at 402 Albemarle Square between 10 a.m. and noon on Tuesdays and Saturdays through the end of April. PMG is not able to accept plastic pots or opened chemicals. To arrange a pickup or for more information, contact the Piedmont Master Gardeners at greenelephant@piedmontmastergardeners.org.
As for that sale? Mark your calendar for Saturday, May 6, at Albemarle Square Shopping Center.
VDOT studying 14-mile stretch of Route 151 in Nelson County for potential improvements
Ten years have passed since the Virginia Department of Transportation analyzed the Route 151 corridor in Nelson County and now it’s time for another study to begin. Such work can help identify projects to address safety concerns, and the Nelson County Board of Supervisors got a briefing at their meeting on Tuesday.
“And I’m happy to say that we’ve had success not only through the Highway Safety Improvement Program but also through Smart Scale getting a number of projects vetted and fully funded and constructed along this corridor,” said Rick Youngblood is a planner with the Virginia Department of Transportation’s Lynchburg District.
“There’s still more work to be done and that’s why we’re looking at this study again,” Youngblood said.
The firm RK&K is working with VDOT on the study, which Youngblood said is not a land use study. The land use work will be done separately as part of the county’s Comprehensive Plan review that is under way. That’s not directly related to this study.
“The part of the study aspect is not to define future growth or the possibility for future growth,” Youngblood said. “We’re trying to correct the measures and issues that are on there now in preparation for the future based upon the data that we collect.”
This study will cover a fourteen mile stretch from Afton Mountain Road to about two and a half miles south of Beech Grove Road. They will look at crash data and locations as part of the work.
“Seven intersections total and these are what we call [Potential Safety Improvement] intersections,” Youngblood said. “They meet a certain metric to be identified as a high accident intersection. We are aware that there are other intersections that have come up.”
A stakeholder meeting for the study took place in mid-January and Youngblood said data collection is about three months behind schedule in advance of going to the public for comment. There will eventually be an online survey as part of the public involvement.
“We’re hoping to be able to catch folks that are coming through the area as well and not just those that live in the area,” Youngblood said.
The 2013 study included some recommendations for multimodal improvements such as bike lanes, particularly in the Nellysford area. Currently there are almost none. Youngblood characterized the landscape.
“You’ve got rolling terrain, you’ve got short shoulders, there are crossover accidents, there are road departures, there are no bike-pedestrian facilities throughout the corridor,” Youngblood said. “Mind you, when these recommendations come up they will be pricey. Bike and ped specifically. Bike and ped facilities are pricey and expensive and they are high-maintenance.”
A website will be created for the study and there will be two public meetings that are not yet scheduled.
Additionally a project to convert the intersection of Route 151 and Route 6 has been recommended for funding in the current Smart Scale round.
VDOT closes Watts Passage bridge over Preddy Creek
People who use Watts Passage to get around in northern Albemarle County are going to have to find another way through until further notice. A routine inspection of a bridge over Preddy Creek has led the Virginia Department of Transportation to temporarily close the road.
“Virginia Department of Transportation bridge inspectors found damage to a bridge support that posed safety concerns for the traveling public,” states a VDOT release that went out yesterday afternoon.
A detour has been set up using Route 20 and Route 641. As of the release, there was no timetable to implement a plan that is under development to repair the bridge. Around 500 vehicles a day use the bridge each day according to 2021 traffic data from VDOT.
LaPisto-Kirtley files for reelection for Rivanna seat in Albemarle
There are 263 days left until the general election on November 7, and more candidates are emerging in the community.
This week, Supervisor Bea LaPisto-Kirtley of the Rivanna District filed paperwork with the Virginia Department of Elections to run for re-election. She won election to a first term in 2019 in a race that was technically unopposed but write-in candidate Mike Johnson received nearly a third of the vote.
Johnson raised $99,336 for his write-in campaign, according to data from the Virginia Public Access Project. That’s among the highest amounts ever for a Supervisor race in Albemarle County. That amount compares to $23,476 for LaPisto-Kirtley in 2019. She won the Democratic primary that year against Jerrod Smith.
This year, LaPisto-Kirtley may have an opponent in the General Election.
David Coleman Rhodes filed paperwork to run as an independent. I contacted him to confirm his candidacy and he said he didn’t have much to say yet.
“I am a lifelong resident of Albemarle, don't like the direction this community has taken, and believe the Supervisors need a different voice,” Rhodes said in an email to me on Thursday.
Rhodes said he would not run if another candidate emerges.
So far, the only other candidate to announce for the Albemarle Board of Supervisors is Michael Pruitt, a Democrat who launched his campaign last November. Read that story here.
Other candidates:
A third candidate has filed for the South District seat on the Nelson County Board of Supervisors. Mary Kathryn Allen is running as an independent. Republicans James C. Bibb and Philip Purvis have both filed to run for the seat. The incumbent is Robert Barton. (read story on Information Charlottesville)
David Michael Goad is running for the Fork Union seat on the Fluvanna County Board of Supervisors. He filed as an independent. The seat is currently held by Mozell H. Booker, who was first elected in 2007.
Joe Chambers has filed to run for another term as District 6 representative on the Buckingham County Board of Supervisors. Chambers has been on the Board of Supervisors since at least 2003. The Department of Elections online records for local races only go back to 2000. Chambers ran unopposed in 2003, 2007, 2015, and 2019. In 2011 he ran as a Democrat and won against a write-in candidate who got 29.1 percent of the 581 votes cast.
Daniel Reed has filed to run for the Fork Union Seat on the Fluvanna County School Board. The seat is currently held by Perrie Johnson who was first elected in 2015 with 54.5 percent of the 974 votes cast.
Stephen C. Harris will seek a fifth term representing the Cuckoo District on the Louisa County School Board. He was first elected in 2007 and has never faced opposition.
Patty Coleman Madison will seek another term as Clerk of Court in Louisa County. Madison was elected to the position in 2017 after the retirement of Susan Richardson Hopkins.
Democrat Angela Fortune Hicks has filed to run as re-election as Treasurer in Nelson County. She was first elected in 2011 when she secured 73.7 percent of the 5,418 votes cast that year. Hicks won with 81.4 percent of the vote in 2015 and was unopposed in 2019.
Stacey Coleman Fletcher is running for another term as Commissioner of the Revenue in Louisa County. She won election in 2019 with 46.5 percent of the 11,992 votes cast.
Likewise, Henry Binns Wash has also filed for re-election to run again as Louisa County Treasurer. Wash first won in 2011 in a six-way race in which he won with 24.8 percent of the 8,105 votes cast. In 2015 he won in a two-way race but this time got 62.2 percent of the 7,627 ballots cast. Wash ran unopposed in 2019.
Stephanie D. Love will seek another term as Commissioner of Revenue in Buckingham County. She was first elected in 2011 with 59.8 percent of the 4,985 votes cast.
Democrat Jim Hingeley has filed to run for a second term as Commonwealth’s Attorney in Albemarle County. Hingeley defeated incumbent Republican Robert Tracci in 2019 with 56.27 percent of the vote. Tracci had defeated incumbent Democrat Denise Lunsford in the 2015 race with 51.26 percent of the vote.
Interested in the election news? Sign up for Fifth District Community Engagement where you’re more likely to see these first. Both are products of Town Crier Productions.
Second shout-out: Cvillepedia Edit-A-Thon on February 23, 2023
Any time you do an Internet search about Charlottesville, it’s possible that a result will bring up information that came from Cvillepedia. Cvillepedia is a community resource that contains thousands of articles about all kinds of things that have happened in Albemarle and Charlottesville. Did you know that you can make edits? Do you have something you would like to make sure it written about?
Join the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society in the Jefferson Room at JMRL’s Central Branch for a half-day edit-a-thon from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The goal is to add more information about anything that happened between 1933 and 2023 to help fill in the gaps for an upcoming radio series on WCHV to celebrate that station's 90th anniversary this September.
One on one demonstrations
Opportunity for you to scan in information you'd like to share with the community
Meet with others interested in talking about and researching local history
Informal event with brief presentations on what cvillepedia is on the hour
If you want to know more, drop me a line! I’ll be there at the event, helping you to make history! Sign up on Facebook so we know you’re coming!
Charlottesville Planning Commissioners give committee updates
Church solar panels, tax change legislation fails, and MPO tried again for funding for pedestrian bridge
You can learn a lot about what’s happening in the overall community by reviewing the first several minutes of one of their regular meetings of the Charlottesville Planning Commission. The following all comes from this last Tuesday’s event.
Commissioner Phil d’Oronozio told his colleagues he would be a representative on the new appointed body that will review applications for funding from one of Charlottesville’s affordable housing pools. Applications now go through the Office of Community Solutions, which is headed by Alex Ikefuna.
“Alex expressed to us that if Commissioners wanted to have a participatory role on the CAHF allocations or the Housing Advisory Committee to see if they qualified for a category and apply which I dutifully did,” d’Oronozio said.
Council appointed d’Oronzio to both the funding and the non-funding housing committees in January.
In all, there are four separate pools of funding for affordable housing projects from the city such as the Housing Development Project Investment, Housing Operations and Community Support, and the Community Development Block Grant program. The fourth is for the original Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund, and applications for that closed on January 31. (See also: Charlottesville seeks proposals for affordable housing fund, January 4, 2023)
The Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission is also in the affordable housing realm with their Central Virginia Regional Housing Partnership. They’ve got an event coming up, as we learn from Planning Commissioner Liz Russell.
“In March, Friday March 24, TJPDC hosts the second annual Central Virginia Regional Housing Partnership summit and it’s called Coming Back Home,” Russell said. “It will present a regionally focused summit on affordable housing needs. It’s all day, it’s at the Omni, and registration can be found online.”
Next, Commissioner Carl Schwarz explained why the Board of Architectural Review voted not to approve a plan for United Methodist Church on East Jefferson Street to put a solar panel on their roof. The church is appealing their decision to City Council.
“To put the panels on the roof would have required removing a 100 year old, very good quality slate roof and replace it with asphalt shingles,” Schwarz said. “That was kind of part of the rub. Our guidelines are very vague and our ordinance says to look to the [Virginia] Secretary of the Interior’s standards and their advice in such a situation.”
Schwarz said the guidance was to deny but he also acknowledged anyone who passed by wouldn’t notice either the slate roof or the solar panels.
“It was complicated, it was difficult, and some guidance from Council would be very useful,” Schwarz said.
Schwarz spent two terms on the BAR before being appointed to the Planning Commission last year. He’s now the PC representative on the design review board.
Next, Commissioner Rory Stolzenberg is a member of the technical committee for the Metropolitan Planning Organization which last met on January 18.
“Charlottesville Area Transit is developing a new strategic plan and Jaunt is developing a transit development plan,” Stolzenberg said.
Those plans are required by the Federal Transit Administration and the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation. A governance study currently underway to suggest the future is not.
Transportation staff at the TJPDC are also in the initial stages of putting together a federal grant for preliminary engineering of a pedestrian bridge across the Rivanna River. The project was not recommended for funding during the fifth round of Smart Scale.
There was no update from Bill Palmer of the University of Virginia, a non-voting member of the Charlottesville Planning Commission, despite three major projects being under construction in the Emmet-Ivy Corridor and despite ongoing master planning initiatives. There used to be a public committee that openly discussed such matters, but Charlottesville City Council and the Albemarle County Board Supervisors agreed to turn it into a closed-door private body in late 2019.
Commission Chair Lyle Solla-Yates reported on the fate of legislation in the General Assembly to allow Charlottesville different taxation power than most of the rest of the state. HB2112 from Delegate Sally Hudson would have allowed Charlottesville to tax structures and land separately, with buildings being taxed at a lower rate.
“It’s something that I personally believe is very important strategically and for affordable housing,” Solla-Yates said.
This ability currently exists for the cities of Fairfax, Richmond, and Roanoke. A subcommittee of the House Finance Committee failed to report the bill on a 4-2 party-line vote. Republicans hold a 52 to 48 majority in the House of Delegates.
Later on in their meeting, the Commission had a discussion of the first module of the zoning code. I’ll have that discussion in an upcoming edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement. Until then, take a look at my first report on what’s in that document.
Reading material
Group calls on Charlottesville, Albemarle to investigate allegations at SPCA, Reynolds Hutchins, Charlottesville Daily Progress, February 11, 2023
DivestUVA and community environmental activist panel discusses public transportation and coal consumption at U.Va., Caroline Hagood, Cavalier Daily, February 15, 2023
Albemarle County Public Schools outlines 2023 budget proposal, Madison McNamee, NBC29, February 16, 2023
Albemarle County schools' draft budget funds SRO, 5 percent increase to teacher pay, Alice Berry, Charlottesville Daily Progress, February 16, 2023
499 bottles of newsletter on the wall, 499 bottles of newsletter…
The next edition of the podcast was at one point intended to debut a new music bed from Wraki for the end, but somehow I got to 500 quicker than I thought!
So that may happen, but I do want the readers who make it to this point to know that the podcast version is an experience you may find interesting if you’ve not given it a chance. Almost all of the quotes you hear are from the people in their own voice, except for bits from press releases voiced by the Charlottesville Community Engagement Players. I am grateful for their volunteer contributions!
I’m also grateful for everyone reading and listening. That includes those of you experiencing it for free. The people with paid subscriptions are helping to cover the cost, and they get a few perks here and there. The next will be a first look at a review of the January 2023 property transactions in Charlottesville. When will that come out? Soon.
If you do join hundreds of others who have paid for a Substack subscription, your initial payment will be matched by Ting. Ting supports community journalism like this and others in Charlottesville, and I’m so appreciative of their sponsorship.
Substack subscriptions, though, are matched by Ting, which I think is worth knowing. Maybe that will help you decide? There’s a $5 a month level, a $50 a year level, or a $200 year level. The latter gives you shout-outs!
If you sign up for Ting at this link and enter the promo code COMMUNITY, you’ll get:
Free installation
A second month for free
A $75 gift card to the Downtown Mall
Thanks for Wraki for much of the music and the Fundamental Grang for whatever it is that that entity does. I also keep forgetting to mention that the opening track comes from P.J. Sykes. I commissioned him for a track in 2006 or 2007 or so. And here we are.
February 17, 2023: Nelson County Supervisors briefed on Route 151 study; LaPisto-Kirtley running for re-election but may face an independent candidate in November