July 8, 2025: City Manager Sanders says he will not talk publicly about next steps for zoning code

Plus: Several speakers draw City Council’s attention to what they see as federal overreach

By now you should have put away your decorations that commemorated Fiscal New Year. But what would we celebrate for July 8? Today in 1776, John Nixon read the Declaration of Independence publicly for the first time ever, triggering church bells across Philadelphia. Thirty-five years earlier in Enfield, Connecticut, Pastor Jonathan Edwards delivered his Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God sermon, an example of the Great Awakening. Those two I know from public school.

What I didn’t know when putting together this introduction for Charlottesville Community Engagement was that on this day in 1876, there was something called the Hamburg massacre in which the democratic rule of law was challenged with force. I’m Sean Tubbs, and I really do hope you’ll go view that last on Wikipedia.

In today’s installment:

• Charlottesville City Manager said he will not discuss publicly the next steps related to the city’s now-discarded Development Code

• Charlottesville is seeking applicants for board and commissions

• The city’s ANCHOR team turns one

• Several speakers speak to Council about what they decry as federal overreach by the second administration of Donald Trump

First shout-out: Charlottesville E-bike Lending Library

The rolling topography of the Charlottesville area might keep some people away from choosing cycling as an option to get around. Perhaps an e-bike is in order?

That’s where Charlottesville’s eBike Lending Library comes in! 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!

Speakers seek answers on next steps for zoning in Charlottesville

Eight days have passed since Charlottesville Circuit Court Judge Claude Worrell voided the city’s Development Code after a law firm working on a defense of the rules failed to file an important document.

That has left some believing that the city has no zoning code, with others arguing that the old rules were instantly put back in place when the motion for a default judgment was granted. Plaintiffs in White v. Charlottesville sought to have the rules thrown out ab initio as if they were never in place at all.

City Manager Sam Sanders had little to say at City Council’s meeting on July 7.

“We are not going to discuss matters of negotiation, even including disciplinary action for those that we hire to work for us and do different things,” Sanders said.

Others did have something to say.

Scott Collins is a civil engineer in the community who called for Council to officially put the old rules back in place given the uncertainty of an appeal of Judge Worrell’s judgement.

“It’s really hard for any project to sort of move forward with a brand new project with that lawsuit hanging out there, knowing that within 12 months this could happen again,” Collins said. “And talking with my clients, they've gotten to witness what it could really be like if the city does lose this lawsuit a year from now.”

Collins pointed to the many projects that are still being reviewed under the old code as an example of how this might work until the new code can be restored. For instance, the Charlottesville Planning Commission tonight will review the design of a 267-unit project at 1185 Seminole Trail in their capacity as the Entrance Corridor Review Board.

One of my readers has contacted me to remind me of a Virginia Supreme Court decision in May 2023 that voided the zoning ordinance in Fairfax County.

The case of Berry v. Board of Supervisors of Fairfax County case hinged on whether adopting a new zoning ordinance was something allowed at a time when the COVID-19 emergency prevented in-person meetings. (read the ruling)

• Virginia Supreme Court rules Fairfax Supervisors erred in amending zoning code at electronic meeting, March 23, 2023

The ruling voided the code ab initio, meaning from the beginning.

A member of the group Livable Cville critiqued the system of checks and balances that allows for people to seek legal relief.

“We were not surprised when comfortably housed people sued to prevent the city from addressing its affordable housing goals,” said Michael Crenshaw. “Now, after failing to succeed through democratic processes, the plaintiffs declined to argue their case on its merits, instead using a procedural misstep to avoid a substantive debate through the courts.”

The White v. Charlottesville case had been scheduled to go to trial in June 2026 to allow both sides to argue whether the city followed Virginia regulations and code over the coordination of land use planning and transportation. The plaintiffs specifically argued that the city did not comply with §15.2-2222.1 and §15.2-2284.

In Virginia, the judicial system is enshrined in Article VI of the Constitution, a document that follows the model of the United States Constitution.

“The legislative, executive, and judicial departments shall be separate and distinct, so that none exercise the powers properly belonging to the others, nor any person exercise the power of more than one of them at the same time,” reads Article III of the Virginia Constitution.

Chris Meyer is one of several property owners who had taken advantage of the new code to submit a plan to build 14 units on Harris Road in the Fry’s Spring neighborhood. Several weeks ago he appeared before Council to ask what would happen if the new rules were thrown out.

“I asked a couple weeks ago, what is plan B?” Meyer said. “And unfortunately I haven't seen the Plan B yet and I know there are folks working on it, but I was a little surprised that I think the Plan B hadn't been kind of worked out and that we were caught a little off guard from Judge Worrell's response.”

Meyer called for the city to hold the law firm Gentry Locke accountable for their error and to seek financial damages.

The city has paid the firm $51,000 for their work and are still currently retained according to Afton Schneider, Charlottesville’s director of communications and public engagement.

When it was time for him to present his report to Council, Charlottesville City Manager Sam Sanders said he would not be discussing the future of zoning publicly.

“But do believe that this organization is working hard to make sure that we address the individuals that made mistakes in representing the city in its recent legal case,” Sanders said. “And we will make sure that we bring forward what is a reasonable resolution as quickly as we possibly can.”

The June 2026 trial date is no longer listed in the case file for White v. Charlottesville in the records of the Charlottesville Circuit Court. An appeal does not yet appear to have been filed with the Virginia Court of Appeals.

Council has a legal briefing in a closed session that took place after the 4 p.m. work session. The Charlottesville Planning Commission will have one this afternoon at 5 p.m. before their regular meeting.

Sanders also gave an update on his work plan, and I’ll have that story in a future edition of the newsletter.

The Circuit Court record for White v. Charlottesville, also known as CL24000025-00 (Credit: Virginia Courts Case Information)

Applications being taken for Charlottesville Boards and Commissions

If you have ever wanted to become more involved in local government, now is your chance if you are a city resident.

City Councilor Michael Payne on July 7 said there is another round of applications for Boards and Commissions.

“The applications for this round are due on August 1,” Payne said. “Some of the Boards and Commissions with vacancies include the Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund, the Housing Advisory Committee, the Minority Business Commission, the Planning Commission, and the Police Civilian Oversight Review Board.

The term of Planning Commissioner Danny Yoder expires on August 31.

To find out more, visit the city's page for Boards and Commissions.

For the third time in a row, Council discussed potential appointments to the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority in closed session but did not fill two vacancies. The terms of Laura Goldblatt and Wes Bellamy expired on June 30.

Mayor Juandiego Wade was absent for the meeting and Vice Mayor Brian Pinkston presided.

Charlottesville City Council gets update on ANCHOR program

The mood of the nation was very different five years ago in the wake of several high-profile deaths of Black individuals at the hands of law enforcement officers in the preceding decade.

In addition to the second-degree murder of George Floyd in May 2020 by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, Virginia public policy has been shaped by the May 14, 2018 killing of Marcus-David Peters while he was having a mental health crisis.

Peters’ death led to calls for new ways to respond to such situations with a less than lethal response. The General Assembly convened a special session in the late summer of 2020 to address both the COVID-19 pandemic as well as other issues. One bill that passed established a system to be known as Marcus Alerts.

Albemarle County launched a program called the Human Services Alternative Response Team in July 2023.

“HART's purpose is to respond and follow up on emergency calls that are mental health and/or substance use related through a collaborative, trauma-informed, human-centered approach,” reads a section of the Albemarle website.

Charlottesville’s version of the team is called ANCHOR, which stands for Assisting with Navigation, Crisis Help, and Outreach Resources. Council got an update at their meeting on July 7, 2025 from Human Services Director Misty Graves.

“We just had our first birthday,” Graves said. “We hit the ground running on July 1st of last year. So last week we celebrated our first birthday and that's given us an opportunity to look back on how we've grown and developed and built this year.”

Graves said ANCHOR activities have been divided into “live calls” and “follow-ups.”

“Follow-ups are folks that had a contact with ANCHOR and need some additional time to follow up, touch base, make resources available for long term support since ANCHOR is really just a crisis response team,” Graves said.

In the first year, there were 395 encounters serving 250 individuals. The cases are also sorts into whether they’re caused by a mental health issue, a substance abuse issue, or a combination.

“About 64 percent of our calls are related as primary to mental health,” Graves said. “Then we have 13 percent as substance use as the primary concern. We have 14 percent that are both simultaneous.”

The remaining nine percent are other calls where ANCHOR assists in providing a death notification, a trespassing call, or some other issue.

Graves said everyone is a human being with a real story and she invited the mental health navigator to share more information. Norman Dorise said one case involved a family where one of the individuals was in a mental health crisis.

“The individual ended up needing to be placed under emergency custody order that the spouse had gotten,” Dorise said. “And during that process, it was a very scary process for both the individual who was experiencing that crisis as well as the spouse herself having to deal with it. But through Anchor's response, we were able to help get that individual to the hospital where he was evaluated and unfortunately had to be sent for further hospitalization.”

Dorise said ANCHOR kept in contact with the spouse during that hospitalization, and the response helped connect the family to mental health resources they might not know were available.

A goal for the second year is to get software up and running that will allow real-time information on what ANCHOR is doing. Another is to work with the Emergency Communications Center to become eligible to be dispatched to cases.

With a team of six, the ANCHOR service only operates from 8 a.m to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Second-shout out: Camp Albemarle

Today’s second subscriber-supported public service announcement goes out to Camp Albemarle, which has for over eighty years been a “wholesome rural, rustic and restful site for youth activities, church groups, civic events and occasional private programs.”

Located on 14 acres on the banks of the Moorman’s River near Free Union, Camp Albemarle continues as a legacy of being a Civilian Conservation Corps project that sought to promote the importance of rural activities. Rebuilt in the early 1980’s, a legacy of 4-H programming thrives along with a wide range of additional activities. Educational initiatives from schools across the region spark environmental learning moments at every turn.

Are you looking to escape and reconnect with nature? Consider holding an event where the natural beauty of the grounds will provide a venue to suit your needs. Visit their website to view the gallery and learn more!

Speakers tell Charlottesville City Council of Trump administration’s threats to U.S. Constitution

Democracy in America has many layers and a Constitutional crisis has been going on since January 20 when the second presidency of Donald Trump began with a series of executive orders intended to secure power in the hands of the White House.

A series of 6-3 rulings by the United States Supreme Court appear to have given a green light for that executive authority. One ruling issued on June 27 effectively stopped a commonly used legal practice.

“The issue the Court decides is whether, under the Judiciary Act of 1789, federal courts have equitable authority to issue universal injunctions,” reads the first page of the ruling in Trump v. CASA.

The six Justices appointed by Republicans ruled that federal courts cannot place nationwide injunctions while the three appointed by Democrats dissented. While the case itself pertained to the issue of birthright citizenship, the ruling has removed a judicial check on executive power for all manner of topics.

Several people appeared before Charlottesville City Council on July 7 to protest what they see as federal overreach.

Alicia Lenahan, an Albemarle County resident, said injunctions imposed by lower federal courts kept other branches of government within the law. She paraphrased the dissenting opinion from Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

“Today it is birthright citizenship,” Lenahan said. “Tomorrow an executive order may do away with our right to free speech, freedom of assembly. Perhaps the administration will target the 10th Amendment in order to limit the powers vested in state, local and local governments and the people who live here. No right is safe in the new legal regime created by the Supreme Court.”

Other speakers expressed concern about how the budget bill adopted on July 3 will provide dozens of billions of dollars to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“It provides $45 billion for detention facilities for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an increase of 265 percent in ICE's annual detention budget,” said Susan McCulley, another Albemarle resident. “It provides $29.9 billion for ICE enforcement, a threefold increase in ICE's annual budget.”

McCulley urged Council to pass a resolution to condemn the use of unmasked agents and unmarked cars in immigration enforcement pointing to a resolution adopted in Huntington Park, California. (read a June 28 article on CALÓ News)

Sage Bradburn, another Albemarle resident, drew attention to a U.S. Department of Justice memo from June 11 from Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate entitled Civil Division Enforcement Priorities that announces the department will seek to enforce action against any entity in the private sector that employs diversity, equity, and inclusion practices. (read the memo)

“Instead of pursuing actual criminals defrauding the government, the DoJ will use the False Claims Act to prosecute entities receiving federal funds for knowingly violating civil rights laws if they have illegal DEI programs, cities, schools, nonprofits. The list of potential targets is endless. They will seek treble damages, putting many out of business and forcing those opposing their hateful policies into compliance.”

Bradburn said this is likely why University of Virginia President Jim Ryan was resigned. According to the Cavalier Daily, the Department of Justice sent a series of letters insisting that the UVA had not done enough to remove policies related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Mary Stewart, another county resident, said the June 11 memo can be interpreted to allow the Department of Justice broad discretion to denaturalize the more than 25 million citizens who were born in other countries and later swore an oath. She said the Trump administration’s contempt for due process means many are vulnerable for political persecution.

“It could be exercising First Amendment rights or encouraging diversity in hiring, now recast as fraud against the United States,” Stewart said. “Or troublesome journalists who are naturalized citizens or students or university professors or infectious disease doctors who try to reveal the truth about epidemics or lawyers.”

Another county resident, Tom Dale, referred to a July 5 article in the New York Times that noted Virginia under Governor Glenn Youngkin has become a willing partner in the push to deport more people.

“The pace of immigration arrests has shot up across the country under the second Trump term, but few places have seen a spike quite as sharp as Virginia,” Dale said. “Arrests in the state by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are up more than 350 percent since 2024, one of the steepest increases in the country. Nearly 3,000 people were arrested by ICE in Virginia in the first five months of 2025, on par with numbers in a much larger state like New York.”

City Councilor Michael Payne said Charlottesville has made decisions to try to place limits on surveillance including a recent move to block other public safety agencies in Virginia from using footage from the Flock surveillance system. However, he said it will take more than just local government.

“With the tripling of ICE's budget, the situation is going to change and it's going to be a whole community effort required to respond to it,” Payne said.

All of the speakers asked that local media pay attention to the ongoing issue.

Reading material:

• Candidates for Supervisor Seat Share Views, Lisa Martin, Crozet Gazette, July 5, 2025

• CASPCA nearing animal capacity, seeks community support, Kyndall Hanson, WVIR 29 News, July 7, 2025

• Virginia agencies assist Texas flood recovery, share how state prepares for dangerous weather events, Shannon Heckt, Virginia Mercury, July 8, 2025

#893 has the following conclusion

I was born to immigrants who moved to the United States in the late 1960’s. I was born in Virginia in 1973 and was a citizen from birth. My parents drove from Lynchburg to Charlottesville in 1996 during horrible weather to be naturalized. My sister followed suit a few years later.

If my reporting were to offend the Trump administration, could I find myself removed from the country with due process?

I chose to be a reporter in 1992 and immediately knew I could never be a member of a political party or express any political views. I knew I wanted to report on government and I’ve spent much of my life doing so.

My view of how I do my job requires me to see multiple perspectives. There was a brief time where I was employed to tell people what should happen, and this was not a good fit. My skills are more useful doing this, so I want back to journalism as an independent.

I hope to remain a reporter and journalist in these times, because this is a very critical period in American history and I want to continue to document what happens

I purposely have very few friends because I do not want to discuss political matters with many people. I want to be very clear that I am no expert, I am no influencer, I am no partisan.

I simply love the country where my parents brought me and have learned much as a journalist. I learned things I didn’t learn in school, such as when several Virginia localities shut their school systems down rather than comply with a Supreme Court decision requiring desegregation of schools.

One day I’m going to go through my records and find the audio I have of the graduation ceremony in Prince Edward County for those who were never given the opportunity to complete their public school education.

As with the Hamburg Massacre, I didn’t learn about this chapter in our history until much later.

I leave you today with a documentary VPM News did on the importance of Barbara Johns.