We are now nine days into 2024 and the question is whether I will be able to get through an entire year without resorting to telling you what item or issue or individual is being honored. The goal of the past few weeks has been to avoid that entirely based on the note of one podcast listener of Charlottesville Community Engagement who felt the bit had played out. Has it? Continue listening throughout the year to find out. I’m Sean Tubbs, a believer that there’s much worth celebrating and honoring each and every day.
In today’s edition:
Nelson County Supervisors pick a chair for 2024
There’s a new owner of the Michie Tavern on Route 53 near Monticello
Charlottesville announces an end to the waitlist for school bus routes, but over a thousand students still have to use their feet or get a ride to class
Another window for affordable housing funding opens up in Charlottesville
Several community members weigh in on whether Albemarle’s Crossroads Communities should provide more services and land for development
First shout-out: ACHS program on Frances Brand
In today’s first subscriber-supported shout-out: The Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society begins programming in 2024 with a topic I’m personally very interested in. In the late 20th century, folk artist Frances Brand captured a slice of Charlottesville in the mid-1970s’ by depicting the likeness of dozens of people she considered to be “Firsts” including first female Mayor Nancy O’Brien and Cornelia Johnson, the city’s first female police officer.
Both O’Brien and Johnson are scheduled to be on a panel discussion at 6 p.m. at the Martin Luther King Jr. Performing Arts Center at Charlottesville. Also on the panel are Teresa Walker Price (first Black female on Charlottesville's electoral board) and Frank Walker (artist and painter of Brand portrait). The panel will be moderated by Virginia Daugherty, another former Mayor of Charlottesville.
RSVP to the event to reserve a space and if you’re interested in helping me update cvillepedia to make sure all of her Firsts portraits are on the community encyclopedia, drop me a line!
Parr becomes chair of the Nelson County Board of Supervisors
Four of five members of the Nelson County Board of Supervisors were present at the General District Courthouse in Lovingston this afternoon when their first meeting of the year began. The first item was a call for nominations from County Administrator Candice McGarry.
Central District Supervisor Ernie Reed nominated J. David Parr of the West District and there were four votes in favor. North District Supervisor Tommy Harvey was absent.
Outgoing chair Jesse Rutherford of the East District had some outgoing words.
“It’s been a great pleasure being Chairman of the board for the last two years,” Rutherford said. “It’s been pretty chaotic at times and one of the things we appreciate the most in being in a small town is being able to communicate with each other and be able to work on problems of this community and what we see in the future and how we decide that.”
Rutherford named Reed as vice chair and again there were four votes in support with one absence.
More from this meeting in future editions of Charlottesville Community Engagement.
Monticello to purchase Michie Tavern on U.S. 43
The organization that owns and operates Monticello in Albemarle County has announced they will purchase Michie Tavern for an undisclosed amount. The Thomas Jefferson Foundation will have a review period on the transaction before the sale closes in the spring.
“This transaction will ensure that Monticello’s principal entrance corridor and the Saunders Trail are protected and preserved, allowing visitors to continue to enjoy a scenic journey to Monticello for generations to come,” said foundation chair Tobias Dengel in a press release.
The tavern itself was built in western Albemarle County in the 1780’s on a road between Earlysville and Free Union and was moved 16 miles to its current location in 1927. That’s only a few years after the Thomas Jefferson Foundation acquired the estate of the third president in 1923.
Michie Tavern was listed on the Virginia Landmark Register in 1993 but is not on the National Register of Historic Places. The property includes a restaurant with items from 18th century recipes as well as a retail component. The release states that all existing reservations will be honored.
“We will also have the ability to present new education and interpretation opportunities, and ensure guests have access to convenient amenities and culinary experiences as part of their visit,” Dengel continued.
The 6.71 acre property has a 2023 assessment of $2,630,000.
Charlottesville announces end to waitlist for pupil transportation
One of the biggest transportation issues of the past two years has been a shortage of people willing to work as drivers for buses that take pupils to public school.
In Charlottesville, City Councilors were told in July 2022 that as many as 750 students might have to walk to their schools, prompting an effort to make pathways from homes to classrooms safer. Throughout that school year, drivers were also given a pay increase, an increase that also applied to Charlottesville Area Transit employees.
Yet as the fall semester of 2023 approached, there was still a long waitlist of about 700 students. This morning, the City of Charlottesville has announced that there are no longer names on that list due to a rerouting of the system that went into place when students went back to school last week.
“As of January 2, the final 250 waitlisted students became bus riders, bringing the total number of Charlottesville students on buses to 1,827,” reads a press release.
There are 17 full-time school bus drivers, two staff members at elementary schools also trained as drivers, and three van drivers. The release states that this means drivers may soon be available for field trips again.
“School transportation is one of the bedrocks of student success, and I am so grateful for the hard work of our team and our partners at the City that got us to this point,” said Kim Powell, Chief Operations Officer for Charlottesville City Schools.
Students who are within walk-zones are not eligible for a ride. The press release also refers to these as “family responsibility zone” which are defined as such:
“Charlottesville City Schools’ walk zones are about 0.75 miles for the elementary schools (up to a 20-minute walk) and 1.25+ miles for grades 5-12 (up to a 30-minute walk). These radiuses are on the short end of regional and national averages. This year, about 1,100 students are in the walk zone for their school.”
There are 4,508 students currently enrolled in city schools.
For more information on the city’s pupil transportation system, take a look at the relevant page on the Charlottesville City Schools’ website.
Charlottesville seeking funds applications for federal funding for housing
Charlottesville City Council adopted an Affordable Housing Plan in March 2021 and one of the recommendations was to provide more clarity on how organizations can apply for funding from a variety of opportunities. That plan made a moral commitment for Council to spend $10 million on affordability initiatives, but that is not mandated by law.
In September, the city issued what’s called a NOFO to inform anyone interested in the process. That’s an acronym for Notice of Funding Opportunity. Two available pools are for Housing Operations and Program Support (HOPS), and the Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund.
On Monday, the month-long application window opened for funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. An application is available on the city’s website which can be accessed here.
The city’s notice does not say how much is available, but I reported back in September that there is $410,468 available from the Community Development Block Grant and $112,248 available through the HOME program.
To check my reporting, I contacted the city and received a response that those amounts will be updated in the spring.
Previous projects funded through the CDBG program include:
Albemarle Housing Improvement Program for their Charlottesville Critical Repair Program
The Charlottesville Investment Collaborative for their Microenterprise Entrepreneur program
The Haven for an initiative called the Coordinated Entry into Homelessness System
Literacy Volunteers of Charlottesville / Albemarle for their Beginning Level Workforce Development program
The Public Housing Association of Residents for Resident Centered Redevelopment
Second shout-out: eBike Lending Library
In today’s second subscriber supported shout-out, one Patreon supporter wants you to know that Charlottesville now has an eBike Lending Library! 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
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Speakers weigh in on Crossroads Communities in AC44
This year much of my focus will switch to planning in Albemarle County now that Charlottesville has a new Development Code in place. To cover this community, it’s important to be able to look at the big picture as well as individual pieces of the puzzle.
There’s been a few surveys and a lot of correspondence from the county itself on AC44, but not a lot of third-party media coverage so far. I’ll try to add to the discussion this year, beginning with this first of several stories from an Albemarle County Planning Commission work session on AC44 from December 19, 2023.
Albemarle County is made up of 726 square miles and since 1980 the Comprehensive Plan has divided the land into a rural area and a growth area, which the growth area being just under five percent. A large theme of the current update of the state-mandated document is how to plan for when and if that number will increase.
One of the questions asked during Phase 2 of the AC44 process was whether land within what the county designates as “Crossroads Communities” could be used for more intense uses in the near future. This builds off an idea that’s included within the current plan, but not well-defined. There are currently seven of these.
“They are intended to ‘provide support services and opportunities to engage in community life’ for Rural Area community members,” reads a AC44 page on the Engage Albemarle website. “The Plan also encourages the adaptive reuse of historic structures in crossroads communities.”
One of these seven areas is Batesville, an unincorporated community on Plank Road in the Samuel Miller District south of Interstate-64. Holmes Brown is a life-long resident who submitted 11 pages of comments on Crossroads Communities.
“The question is what are the advantages of being designates a rural Crossroads Community?” Brown asked. “At this point it is simply meeting a county definition and so far there appear to be no material benefits.”
Brown wanted to know if Albemarle would take a passive approach where any enhancements are paid for by private interests or an active one in which the county would make investments. He also expressed concern about the use of groundwater at these locations.
“I think the county would do well to try and take a survey about water levels and the problem of development,” Brown said.
Disclosure: The Piedmont Environmental Council is a nonprofit advocacy organization for whom I briefly worked and a current sponsor with no input into my editorial process. Their Albemarle representative argues that there should be no more than seven crossroads communities at this time.
“PEC recommends that the county pause the designation of new crossroads community in the comp plan update,” said Rob McGinnis. “The county should include a recommendation in the rural area chapter for the completion of a rural area plan. During the process for completing a rural area plan, the county should engage rural communities regarding the designation of their communities as a crossroads community.”
PEC is working with a new organization that seeks to become a nonprofit to promote traffic calming on Plank Road. More on that story into the future.
Another of the Crossroads Communities is White Hall in the northwest quadrant of Albemarle and one person wants it to remain the same.
“In White Hall we have two country stores with gas stations, a Ruritan building available for community events, a post office, a vineyard, and an Inn” said Peggy Gilges. “White Hall is also very close to Crozet where there are many expanded services. So in the case of White Hall, I don’t think any more is needed and in general I worry that commercialization of crossroads in the rural area is going to be a bad idea.”
For many years, Tom Olivier of the Samuel Miller District has been trying to persuade Albemarle officials to stop economic development efforts and to consider a cap on population growth. He continues to make those arguments during the AC44 process, including a critique of the county’s $58 million purchase of 462 acres of land near Rivanna Station.
“In October, staff suggested the station could anchor the development of an eight mile technology business corridor,” Olivier said. “One day we could be like northern Virginia. There seems to be too much uncritical zeal for development in the corridors of the Albemarle County office building. This zeal is at odds with the value of most county residents as revealed in decades of surveys. And of course, economic growth will elevate the threats we face soon from the climate emergency.”
The current owner of the Batesville Market said the business dates back to 1880 and has gone through many transitions. She said Crossroads Communities can provide benefits for Albemarle.
“We appreciate the county looking at Crossroads Communities not only how can we sort of preserve what’s happening but how can we provide things and services that can make the community thrive and we all know that Crossroads Communities really are important hubs for those community members,” said Kristen Rabourdin. “It’s not just a pass-through to get from point A to point B.”
Rabourdin said the conversation should engage people around Batesville about potential new services. However, she said it is important to find ways to control traffic and create a safe place for residents and visitors.
“In Batesville, we want to make sure that it is walkable and is accessible to everyone,” Rabourdin said. “With that safety and accessibility we also want to address electricity and broadband. The electricity is out all of the time and we don’t have reliable broadband.”
Rabourdin said any zoning changes for Crossroads Communities should be tailored individually to each one.
I’ll have more from this work session in future editions of Charlottesville Community Engagement.
Watch the December 19, 2023 meeting of the Albemarle Planning Commission:
Reading material:
'Time to move on': Croby's Urban Viddles to close, Emily Hemphill, Charlottesville Daily Progress (paywal), January 7, 2024
Bill Sublette Named Piedmont Master Gardener of the Year, Crozet Gazette, January 7, 2024
The Symbiotic Relationship of Housing and Transit, Diana Ionescu, Planetizen, January 7, 2024
HARTS responds to over one hundred calls since July, Gretchen Stenger, CBS19 News, January 8, 2024
Charlottesville is ready to mark the historic site of slave auctions, Sandy Hausman, Radio IQ, January 8, 2024
New battle over skill games looms in Virginia as industry pushes to reverse ban, Graham Moomaw, Virginia Mercury, January 8, 2024
While City Schools leaders were focused on addressing fights, a handful of Charlottesville High School teachers hatched a plan to help students in a different way, Jessie Higgins, Charlottesville Tomorrow, January 8, 2024
Charlottesville-Right Now: InfoCville’s Sean Tubbs, Courteney Stuart, January 8, 2024
Albemarle County prosecutor pushed out of 2017 torch case, Hawes Spencer, Charlottesville Daily Progress (paywal), January 9, 2024
#623 rhymes with the opposite of exit
Another edition is now complete, and that means it’s time to prepare for whatever comes next. The next regular installment will likely not come out until Thursday as I’ll be traveling tomorrow. That means the November 2023 property transactions in Charlottesville may make an appearance. That will go first to the 600 or so paid subscribers before being archived on Information Charlottesville.
The business model for Town Crier Productions is simple. I agree to write as much as I can in the hopes the audience will grow and more people will opt to keep it going. 2024 is off to a great start, and I’m grateful for those who have signed up through Substack for paid subscriptions and those supporting on Patreon.
I’m also grateful to Ting for agreeing to match the initial subscription of each new Substack supporter. They want to support the research, and I’m grateful to be able to do this full-time.
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
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