Yesterday marked the 6th month anniversary of this program, which I launched to help explain various things that happen in and around Charlottesville. That’s hours of podcasts and thousands and thousands of words about this community, and many of them belong to the various people in local government, and the citizens that participate. I thank you for reading and listening, and I want to acknowledge the many people who have provided financial support. At the end of this post, you can find out how you can join them. For now, though, it’s more important to get to the information.
Planned for today’s show:
Charlottesville hires regional administrator Chip Boyles to serve as City Manager
Charlottesville Planning Commission begins its work in 2021
Albemarle County Schools transitioning to all virtual learning
After a tense start to 2021 that included over a dozen hours spent in closed emergency session, Charlottesville City Council has named a city manager. City Councilor Michael Payne read from a prepared statement.
“We would like to announce that Mr. Chip Boyles has agreed to join the organization as City Manager,” Payne said. “After carefully balancing the needs of the city at this current time, we are offering Mr. Boyles the City Manager position with the goal of stabilizing the organization and rebuilding the leadership team within City Hall.”
Boyles came to the area in the spring of 2014 when he was hired to be executive director of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District, a regional agency that provides government services to the city as well as five surrounding counties.
“I look forward to working with all of the city staff and I especially look forward to working with all of the Charlottesville community,” Boyles said. “I know that there are a number of citizens that were looking for a different direction as a City Manager but I’m trusting the City Council and your commitment to the city to lead all of Charlottesville to a much brighter future. I hope that over time I will build the support of all the community for all of us to work together to work toward a more unified community and Charlottesville.”
Boyles will not be known as an interim city manager, though Payne said Council will reopen a search for city manager sometime next year with the goal of getting public input. If successful, Boyles would be able to participate in that process.
The joint statement also acknowledges recent dysfunction and said solutions won’t happen overnight.
“Over the past several months, city government has experienced significant turnover, uncertainty, and instability,” Payne said. “This has occurred at a time when our community is facing historic challenges created by a global pandemic, economic instability, and the need to address long-standing inequities within our community.”
During his tenure, Boyles has helped promote regional cooperation in public transit, affordable housing, and many of the various issues that face our overall community. The TJPDC has overseen the creation of the Cherry Avenue Small Area Plan, created the Ruckersville Area Plan in Greene County, and is currently planning on a similar study for Zion Crossroads.
Boyles received a Master’s in Public Administration from Clemson University and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of South Carolina. He served for five years as city manager in Taneytown, a small town in western Maryland. In 2000 he became assistant city administrator of the city of Clemson in South Carolina, a position that gave him eight years working in a community in a university town not unlike Charlottesville. Other positions include urban development director in the city parish of Baton Rouge, Louisiana and a vice president at the East Baton Rouge Redevelopment Administration.
In April 2014, Boyles succeeded previous TJPDC executive director Stephen Williams. William’s contract was not renewed following fall-out from allegations of financial mismanagement related to a federal grant.
Mayor Nikuyah Walker said she supported Boyles serving in the new position. She’s worked with him from her position as a board member of the Regional Transit Partnership and the TJPDC Board.
“My thoughts here was that we had wanted someone who is neutral,” Walker said. “Chip has been here in the community for a number of years but he hasn’t been in the organization and it will provide us an opportunity to just look at any issues that were brought up through a neutral lens and I thought that was very important.”
Interim City Manager John Blair will leave the city to take a job as city attorney in Staunton. Councilor Heather Hill thanked him for his service.
“Mr. Blair’s departure is a great loss for the organization and the community that we serve,” Hill said. “I would be remiss to not acknowledge the sacrifices that he and his family have made for this organization during his tenure and most notable in his time as acting City Manager.”
Blair took over as interim in September after Dr. Tarron Richardson resigned that month after a brief tenure that lasted little over a year. Councilor Lloyd Snook also thanked Blair for serving as interim manager.
“As Charlottesville goes, so goes our region as well, so it will not be a complete change but just more of a difference in a way to focus on the the city of Charlottesville but keeping the region in mind as well,” Boyles said.
A longer version of this story will be forthcoming in a special edition of this program for premium subscribers. They’ll get to see it first, and then it will be made public.
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Albemarle County reports 48 new cases of COVID today and one of the two core indicators used by the Centers for Disease Control to gauge transmission risk is at the highest level. The total number of cases per 100,000 people over the past 14 days is at 557.4 and the percent positive rate over 14 days is at 8.5 percent.
The higher case counts have led Superintendent Matthew Haas to order county schools to go back to all-virtual instruction beginning Tuesday, January 19. He sent this email to family and staff.
“While schools remain among the safest places in our community in helping to prevent the spread of the virus, given what is occurring around us, now is not the time to be recommending that we continue with or increase the thousands of students now receiving their instruction face-to-face,” Haas wrote in an email addressed to families and staff.
Haas writes that all-virtual will continue through at least February 1. That’s the date for which the school system had been planning to move more students into face-to-face instruction. The day is significant because it marks the beginning of a new grading period. Haas said he will change his planning targets.
“The uncertain and highly volatile nature of this illness requires us to be instantly flexible and proactive in our decision-making,” Haas said. “I no longer will be making recommendations tied to marking periods. I will continue to rely upon the health data in our county, the advice of our health department, and the views of our parents and employees to determine when a change in our instructional plans should be recommended to our School Board.
An announcement about whether they will return to the current tier of stage 3 will be made on January 27. That will occur on the school system’s Stages of Returning webpage.
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Albemarle’s case count of 48 is included within the 5,294 new COVID cases reported by the Virginia Department of Health today. The seven-day average of positive PCR tests has declined slightly to 15.5 percent. There are another 74 deaths reported, bringing the total to 5,626 in the past ten months.
Albemarle is within the Blue Ridge Health District, which reports 112 cases today. That also includes 20 cases in Charlottesville, 19 in Louisa, 11 in Nelson, nine in Fluvanna and five in Greene.
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The tradition of long meetings that Charlottesville City Government is famous for has continued into the new year. The Planning Commission met for four hours Tuesday. Commissioner Gary Heaton said at the beginning of the meeting that he welcomed the work ahead.
“I did want to say to everybody how encouraging it is to show up to a civic meeting at a time where there is a lot of conversation about what government is,” Heaton said. “And here it is right on the computer screen. Thank you everybody for your participation.”
The commission also got an update on the status of a new format for another regional planning body that consists of Charlottesville, Albemarle and the University of Virginia. What was a public body called the Planning and Coordination Council is now something different. Bill Palmer is with the Office of the Architect at the University of Virginia, and sits on the city Planning Commission as a non-voting member.
“What used to be the PACC-Tech or PACC and has now been reiterated as LUEPC,” Palmer said. “Don’t make me say what that acronym is because I don’t remember exactly.”
I don’t blame Palmer, because the Land Use, Environmental and Planning Committee doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. Still, it will provide the same function as what it has replaced.
“That’s kind of the coordination committee for the city, county and University of Virginia to talk about planning issues,” Palmer said.
The group meets for the first time this year on Friday. That event is not subject to open meeting rules because it consists of staff. Currently there is no agenda available online.
Another city committee charged with thinking about planning is the PLACE Design Task Force, upon which City Planning Commissioner Rory Stolzenberg sits. City Council voted last year to stop having PLACE report directly to Council.
“At this point the general idea is to reform as a general sort of think tank or bodies of experts that the city can draw from in order to create ad hoc task forces for any problem it wants to solve,” Stolzenberg said. “Things like lighting plans, or whatever.”
One idea would be for the group to address specific problems in the city. Stolzenberg had one suggestion.
“Since Council is debating the future of the West Main Streetscape which is a very expensive budget item, and we don’t have lots of room in the budget, one thing that we’re trying to brainstorm is kind of tactical urbanist improvements that we could make to the street at very low cost in order to make it a safer better experience in the near term without spending $50 million dollars.”
One possibility for community engagement may come in the form of informal walking tours to gather input, but of course, only when it’s safe to gather again.
Commissioners also got a brief update on the Cville Plans Together initiative, which seeks to update the Comprehensive Plan, create an affordable housing strategy, and update the zoning code. Jennifer Koch is the project manager with the consultant, Rhodeside & Harwell. There will be a work session on January 26 to discuss something known as the Future Land Use map, which signals to developers and property owners desired levels of density and intensity.
“We’re convening several times as a consultant team this week to determine that we have the right program… for that meeting so we can have a really productive and effective discussion,” Koch said. “We will let you know as soon as possible this week if we need to delay that a little bit but right now I am looking forward to speaking with you more about land use on the 26th.”
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After that, the Commission got into the Cherry Avenue Small Area Plan, a document created by the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission. I’ll have a story on that for paid subscribers first later on in the week.
They also recommended approval of a special use permit to add additional density at 1000 Monticello Avenue, a project that drew opposition from many in the neighborhood as well as from housing advocates. For more on that, read Nolan Stout’s account in the Daily Progress.
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