January 16, 2025: Property assessments in Albemarle up 5.1 percent in 2025
Plus: The Greene County Board of Supervisors splits the vote on selection of a chair and vice chair for 2025
In Virginia, January 16 is recognized by the General Assembly as Religious Freedom Day for it marks the day that body passed the Virginia Act for Religious Freedom. This entire week is marked for that purpose, too. Originally drafted by Thomas Jefferson several years earlier and there’s a write-up on Monticello’s website that may be worth reviewing. This is Charlottesville Community Engagement for this particular day. I’m Sean Tubbs, and I’m hopeful a few of you do take a look.
In today’s installment:
A Charlottesville Circuit Court Judge has ruled City Council acted within its power when it approved an apartment building on Jefferson Park Avenue in September 2022
Nelson County Supervisors select Ernie Reed as chair and acknowledge frequent absences by another member of the body
Greene County’s Board of Supervisors split over the election of a chair and vice chair
Property assessments are up an average of 5 percent in Albemarle County
Nelson Supervisors are warned that VDOT is running lean with maintenance funds in FY2025
First-shout: Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration on January 26 at Mount Zion First African Baptist Church
Mark your calendar for January 26 at 5 p.m. when the Mount Zion First African Baptist Church will host the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Celebration. Since 1985, the Celebration has been held to honor people who have served the community starting with Drewary Brown who received the first award that year.
Since then, the event has honored 35 other members of the Charlottesville area for their commitment to Dr. King's ideals. During its anniversary year, the program will honor 40 years of past award winners. With leaders from Piedmont Virginia Community College, UVA, local government, and the community, the group will look forward to the future!
The program will feature musical selections from the MLK, Jr. Community Choir, a Children's Choir, and Youth and Young Adults Choir. Leaders from a variety of faith traditions will participate in the event, which will feature former Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney.
Prior to the program beginning at 5, a special musical and reading prelude will occur at 4 in the church. Parking for the event is at Mt Zion, 105 Lankford Ave.
Judge Worrell rules Council had authority to approve apartment building at 2005 JPA
Charlottesville Circuit Court Judge Claude Worrell has ruled that a group of property owners in the Jefferson Park Avenue neighborhood were entitled to bring a lawsuit against Charlottesville City Council, but also that the elected body had the authority to grant a special use permit for a 119-unit apartment complex on JPA.
“The fact that the plaintiffs disagree and wish a different decision was reached does not render that decision void,” Worrell wrote in an opinion letter dated January 14.
The project at 2005 Jefferson Park Avenue was approved under the old rules, which required Council to grant a special use permit for additional density. Council approved that request on September 19, 2022, as I wrote at the time.
A month later, over a dozen nearby residents and property owners filed a suit seeking to overturn Council’s action.
“City Council’s authorization of the SUPs permits the construction of a building that will diminish the quality of life of all the Observatory Avenue and Washington Avenue plaintiffs in ways not shared by the general public and compromises their health, safety, and general welfare in a variety of ways,” reads paragraph 27 of that complaint.
The city responded with a legal motion called a demurrer that argued the plaintiffs lacked standing to bring the case and that they failed to demonstrate how they would be harmed by Council’s action.
“The Complaint fails to allege facts demonstrating particularized harm from the City’s zoning decision to any of the Plaintiffs,” reads the demurrer.
On Tuesday, Judge Worrell issued his written opinion which first ruled that the plaintiffs did have standing but that Council had authority to act under the older zoning code.
“The City Council is entitled to a presumption of legislative validity that attached to the Board’s approval of the Special Use Permit for 2005 JPA,” reads the ruling. “The court’s review of the legislative record reveals the City’s zoning plan reflects a change in priorities regarding density.”
Worrell said the issuance of the permit is consistent with the policy in place at the time.
“Some if not all of the plaintiff’s participated in the zoning process through their letters and public statements,” the opinion continues. “The City considered their questions and comments and issued the requested special use permit.”
The project is now making its way through the administrative review process with permits filed today for plumbing and electrical work. The estimated cost for Breeden Construction to run power to and through the building is listed at $2.157 million.
Nelson Supervisors select Reed for chair, Ligon as vice chair
At the beginning of their first meeting of 2025, the Nelson County Board of Supervisors chose new leadership to preside over the next 12 months.
Central District Supervisor Ernie Reed was elected as the chair and South District Supervisors Jessica Ligon was voted in as vice chair. Reed was first elected in 2017 in a contested race and then again in 2021 when he won with 51 percent of the vote. He served as chair in 2020 and chair in 2021.
Ligon was elected in 2021 with 62.9 percent of the vote and has so far not been part of the leadership. She will serve as the Board’s representative to the Planning Commission.
Reed thanked J. David Parr for serving as chair for the previous year and then addressed the fact that North District Supervisor Tommy Harvey is frequently absent from meetings.
“The absence of Mr. Harvey is something that we all take very seriously and very sympathetically as well,” Reed said. “We know how much he would love to be able to be more active in what’s going on and we also know what he’s dealing with in trying to keep himself above water much less be able to actively serve out his term.”
Harvey has been a member of the Board of Supervisors since at least 2001 according to available records from the Virginia Department of Elections. He ran unopposed that year and again in 2005, 2009 and 2013 but faced opposition in 2017 and 2021.
While Reed did not give further details, Harvey missed a lot of meetings in 2024.
“I think I’ve kind of found that in his absence it's really necessitated that we work a little bit more as a team being more tighter as a board then we would otherwise,” Reed added.
The North District seat is up for election this year as are the seats held by Reed and Parr.
More from Nelson County in future editions of the newsletter.
Catalano selected as Greene Supervisor chair for 2025 in divided vote
Two of the five members of the Greene County Board of Supervisors received nominations to be chair in the body’s opening meeting of 2025.
At-Large Supervisor Francis McGuigan nominated Davis Lamb of the Ruckersville District. Lamb had served as the vice chair in 2024.
Midway Supervisor Marie Durrer nominated Steve Catalano of the Stanardsville District.
When the vote was taken, the vote was 3-2 for Catalano with the new chair voting for himself.
The vote for vice chair was also split. Monroe District Supervisor Tim Goolsby nominated Durrer for the position and McGuigan once again nominated Lamb. Durrer was selected on a 3-2 vote and had been chair in 2024.
Second shout-out: Alliance Française de Charlottesville
The Alliance Française de Charlottesville promotes the French language and francophone culture through educational and cultural programs. Visit the Alliance Française website to learn more about group classes, private lessons, cultural events, and social activities for both kids and adults.
Property assessments in Albemarle up an average of 5.1 percent in 2025
The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors now has more information on a key factor in the development of the budget for fiscal year 2025. On January 15, County Assessor Peter Lynch revealed the results of the 2025 assessment of real property.
“The tax basis has gone up 5.09 percent, or about 5.1 percent,” Lynch said. “The values haven't gone up as much as they did in ‘22 and ‘23, but they are still climbing.
Lynch said sales prices values have continued to increase despite higher interest rates for mortgages as some people who can live anywhere continue to choose Albemarle.
Individual assessments will be mailed to property owners on January 24 and the data should be in the county’s Geographical Information System on January 26. Until then the county has offered averages by property classification:
Urban Residential (County Water & Sewer): +6.9%
Residential up to 20 acres: +7.3%
Rural (20 to 99.99 acres): +5.2%
Rural (100 acres and over): +3.8%
Commercial Properties: -1.8%
Multi-Family: -4.0%
“This year, the commercial properties have had some challenges in their valuations,” Lynch said. “A little more stress due to the economic conditions than the residential because they have different stressors on or influences on their valuations.”
The county also breaks down the information via magisterial district.
• Rio: +3.3%
• Jack Jouett: +4.8%
• Rivanna: +5.8%
• Samuel Miller: +7.8%
• Scottsville: +3.4%
• Town of Scottsville: +6.1%
• White Hall: +5.1%
The appeals process comes in two stages. After the assessments are mailed, property owners who wish to challenge the assessment can fill out a form for an administrative review and turn it in by February 28. If that does not yield results, a property owner can file for an appeal through the Board of Equalization.
“We expect to start having their hearings in April of this year,” Lynch said. “It's a little bit sooner than we have in the past.”
These assessments will now be officially entered into something called the Land Book. In 2024 the total value of all real property in Albemarle was $34,141,771,800 yielding $238,497,503 in real property tax. Compare that to 2020 when the total value was $20,044,053,419 generating $171,176.263.33 in tax revenue.
Nelson Supervisors warned VDOT running low on maintenance funds
On Tuesday morning, the Commonwealth Transportation Board learned that the Virginia Department of Transportation’s maintenance and repair budget for the current fiscal year is running low due to Hurricane Helene as well as the winter storm earlier this month.
A few hours later, the Nelson County Board of Supervisors were told the same thing.
“We’re going to be lean the rest of this year until the end of June,” said VDOT engineer Robert Brown. “We are having to cover all of our extra costs from the tropical storm damages and Nelson County was hit pretty hard.”
Brown said that may cause delays in some scheduled maintenance as his department is forced to be frugal with its money. He said there is still flood damage to be repaired including a slope on Route 151 that could cost as much as $800,000.
“That cannot wait until I get a new bunch of money so we are going to do that,” Brown said.
Brown did not mention that one of Nelson County’s Smart Scale projects has been recommended for funding in the initial results from Round 6. Nelson County is within VDOT’s Lynchburg District and a project to create a roundabout at Route 151 and Tanbark Drive is slated to receive nearly $12.7 million.
The scores will next go before the CTB in April for another review before a vote in June.
Reading material for #794:
U.Va. Health launches mobile care unit to bring healthcare to low-income communities, Grace Little, Cavalier Daily, January 14, 2025
City manager, Salvation Army break down shelter proposal, Sarah Allen, CBS19 News, January 14, 2025
Reasons why a locally owned grocery store was forced to close, Andrew Hollins, C-Ville Weekly, January 15, 2025
#794 is neither a Star Wars or a Star Wars Minute reference
The phone call with Broadstreet was a good one and I’m excited to get going! The first thing I need to do is create a media kit, and I’ve been sent several examples. I’m going to write up the content over the weekend and then figure out how to make it look pretty.
I’m excited to experiment with advertising because I believe in the work I do, and I believe there is a value to selling space within the body of stories on Information Charlottesville and I’m looking forward to identifying one or two businesses that are willing to experiment. I do know that anyone who purchases an ad will receive some sort of recognition through Substack, but I won’t be able to track that.
There are days I want to spend totally on the business end, because I know there’s a lot of potential in what I’m doing. In 2005, I started my first business to try to do this, but gave it up when I had a job offer in April 2007. In doing so, I lost managerial experience that I’m still trying to learn.
It keeps me young.
So this section of the newsletter will continue to be a place where I can talk up the advertising. I want to do something exciting and interesting, creating ads that drive business to those who invest in this one. Perhaps you have an idea? We can get going as early as next week!
If you’re interested in following along on social media, BlueSky is the best for now. There is an Instagram account and a Facebook page, as well as Substack Notes. I’m finding BlueSky to be the most comfortable so follow there if you want to get notifications of stories.
To end this edition, here’s a video of the Albemarle County Planning Commission from the other day.