Look Back for December 24, 2023: The beginning of a recap of an eventful year in local government
There are no meetings this week, so now for something completely different
The Sunday newsletter is known as the Week Ahead, but this is not an active week in local government. Yet, my job is to go through and check all of my sources all the same to make sure I don’t miss anything. In 2011, the Board of Directors of the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority had a divided vote that took place on December 27. So, it can happen and I’m here to report as I was then.
The Sunday edition always differs from the other editions that go out in this Substack feed and in the holiday spirit, this one differs from those!
My brother-in-law is an executive at a chemical company and he’s busy this week doing annual performance reviews for his employees. When you’re the boss, there’s a lot you have to do to make sure business keeps going.
In a way, this edition presents an annual performance evaluation of this year through the lens of what I’ve been able to write in this newsletter. In order to prepare for 2024, I must know what I covered this year. This edition begins with a section on what is happening this week. After the personal commentary, I move on to what I’d call The Look Back but that may be too on the nose. I’d go with Week Ahead and 51 Weeks Behind but The Look Back is easier to remember.
I think this edition is sponsored by the Piedmont Environmental Council, but I’m not sure because except for a brief look ahead, it’s more about what’s coming up in 2024. I’ll have to ask them. I’m grateful for their support for the past three and a half years. So I’ll just go ahead and put their logo here because I could use the usual amount I get for each week.
All of the work I do is made possible through Substack supporters, Patreon members, Ting, and miscellaneous sources of revenue. I’m very grateful that this is my life, sharing my passion for knowing what’s happening with as many people as possible.
In any case, let’s go!
Monday, December 25, 2023
There are no meetings today. Albemarle County has no meetings this week. Neither does Charlottesville. Same thing for Fluvanna County. What about Greene County and Nelson County? Read on!
I hope everyone who celebrates Christmas has the best possible day. I also know that it can be a very difficult day for many people. I sincerely hope people can find joy, comfort, solace, and peace today. There are so many in pain and my thoughts are with anyone suffering today.
I also share the joys, too. I am finally at a point in my life where the holidays bring me hope. I feel all of the sadness from my past, but by doing this work for years I’m much more capable of seeing how that sadness fits into the overall story of my own life.
For me, It was a difficult and challenging year, and I’m grateful that the ending has turned out okay. I’m celebrating my third consecutive Christmas with my parents and sister in Pennsylvania, something I don’t think I ever expected. Then again, I’m not sure I ever expected being known for being obsessed about bringing people details of local government meetings.
Tuesday, December 26, 2023
This is Boxing Day which to me is one of the best days of the year for no apparent reason other than it’s a holiday that serves no real purpose. I always imagine I’ll throw a big party on this day but I’m not the type to throw parties.
I’ll be watching a lot of English Premiership football and will be rooting for Luton Town to defeat Sheffield United. Luton is a club that climbed up out of the bottom of the English football leagues and earned promotion to the top flight in May. My cousins in nearby Dunstable have been huge supporters and I saw a match at Kenilworth Road in 1988 or so. It’s a remarkable story of perseverance.
As a first generation American born to a couple that left Liverpool in 1964, I’ve always felt out of place in this country, which is why I spend so much time trying to understand it. I’m sure I’d feel out of place there, too. For so many years, Boxing Day has been the day where Christmas is over and I can go back to work.
Wednesday, December 27, 2023
For weeks, I have been planning on writing up the Nelson County Planning Commission meeting that had been scheduled for this evening. But as I did the research for this edition, I learned the meeting had been canceled.
But if you want a quick preview of the January 24, 2024 edition of the Week Ahead newsletter, the two public hearings scheduled for this Day After Boxing Day were:
A property owner on Rockfish Valley Highway in Nellysford seeks a special use permit for three campground sites on land zoned A-1 Agricultural.
Elsewhere on Rockfish Valley Highway, there’s a request to amend a previous special use permit for a multi-family dwelling.
The full details for both are not available because there is no packet for the canceled meeting. If there were details, I’d likely write them up just to stay in the habit. My biggest fear when there’s a break is that I won’t want to get back to the work.
And I think that’s why we end the Week Ahead and transition to the Look Back.
A quick look back at 2023: January through early March
The following is based on a review of stories I posted to Information Charlottesville and ones I wrote for C-Ville Weekly. Because I burned out a little on writing about the Development Code and still have to produce the podcast version, I’m skipping those stories. Likewise, I’m skipping over elections for the most part.
This will take a few more editions to complete, and as always I am improvising as I sort through all of this. The next one after this will come in the newsletter that will also contain the podcast for the December 22 edition on the Development Code’s adoption.
January 2023
Charlottesville began the year without a city attorney, as Lisa Robertson had resigned in December. The city hired two law firms to help fill the gap until a replacement would be named. One of them continued to work with the city throughout the adoption of the zoning code in December.
Council also faced something that had not happened since 1967. Councilor Sena Magill announced at the end of the first meeting of the year that she would resign from office for family reasons. Robert S. Johnson had been the last person to do so shortly before the end of his first year in office. Council moved quickly to put out applications for someone to fill the seat.
Twenty people applied for Magill’s vacancy, and Council announced a short-list of six candidates in early February. They would eventually select former School Board member Leah Puryear. Only one of the six decided to run for a four-year term, and Natalie Oschrin will attend her first meeting on January 2, 2024.
Council was asked in early January if they would allow a technical change to the existing zoning code that would allow for them to consider a rezoning at 2117 Ivy Road on a one acre property not owned by the University of Virginia or the UVA Foundation. The previous limit for “planned unit development” was a minimum of two acres and Council was persuaded to make the change. Council would approve 2117 Ivy Road the project in December much to the chagrin of UVA.
Albemarle Supervisors were briefed on the beginning of the second phase of the AC44 project, which is the name given to the update of the county’s Comprehensive Plan. The first phase was the creation of something called the Framework for an Equitable and Resilient Community. None of this has been written about by anyone else whose name doesn’t rhyme with Tawn Subbs. I really hope that changes in 2024. More on that in future versions of this Look Back.
Other items in January:
Council re-adopted its Comprehensive Plan to address open legal concerns, rendering parts of a lawsuit moot. This is a story from the first reading.
Real estate assessments in Albemarle County were up an average of 13.46 percent
The Albemarle Planning Commission found that the Botanical Garden of the Piedmont’s planned facilities in a portion of land in the county was consistent with the Comprehensive Plan.
Albemarle County got a $3 million grant to help prepare a site in the North Fork Research Park to be a more attractive site for economic development. Louisa County got $11.6 million for Shannon Hill Regional Business Park.
Charlottesville began the process of updating its precinct boundaries which would see two precincts moved to city schools. This would later create a concern that one of those schools might be renamed in the future, creating confusion among voters. More on that in a future edition.
Charlottesville’s new police chief, Michael Kochis, was sworn in. A federal judge threw out a lawsuit against the city filed by previous chief RaShall Brackney who had been fired by a previous city manager.
City Council was told there would be a $5 million surplus for fiscal year 2022. The number would climb to nearly $23 million. Charlottesville real assessments were up an average of 12.33 percent for 2023. The number for FY23 is similar.
The Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia reported that the population of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District grew 2.5 percent from 2020 to 2022.
February
As soon as I read in February that Council would hire a firm to appraise floodplain land on the Rivanna River, I had a large hunch that the city would end up paying for the property. Of course, that would take a lot of steps including several site plan denials and a Comprehensive Plan determination by the Planning Commission. The $5.9 million purchase closed on November 30 and came with an agreement that neither Seven Development nor United Land Corporation of America would pursue a legal claim.
I learned in February that five nonprofit housing developers had been asked by the University of Virginia to submit proposals for two of three sites identified for affordable housing developments. Piedmont Housing Alliance was asked to submit to both, but was only awarded one of the contracts. Which one? Stay tuned.
Albemarle County Executive Jeffrey Richardson unveiled a recommendation for a nearly $551.5 million budget for FY24, the one we’re in now. More on this in future editions of this Look Back as well.
March
In early March, the Board of Supervisors approved a rezoning on Old Ivy Road to allow 525 units on about 35 acres. Many who live in the area were concerned about the additional traffic this would bring to a roadway constrained by a one-way railroad underpass to the east and an antiquated highway intersection design to the west. This led to the creation of a “pipeline study” for potential solutions, which Supervisors learned more about in April. What will become of this? One thing to note is that the Virginia Department of Transportation official who had been leading the study will begin 2024 as the new Albemarle County Planning Director.
The Buildings and Grounds Committee would spend a lot of time this year on reviewing new buildings at the Fontaine Research Park. In March, they had an introduction to the Institute of Biotechnology. They also learned that the renovation of the site of the UVA Center for Politics would involve a vehicular connection to Leonard Sandridge Road. UVA or the UVA Foundation owns much of the land to the northeast of the Old Ivy Road project mentioned above.
Stay tuned for more this week as the Look Back continues.
End of part one
And that’s the end of part one of this Look Back. I am a one-person media outlet covering a community that continues to grow and change. As I work for just myself, this one’s a little more personal as I’m publishing on Christmas Eve and this is my holiday party.
If you notice typos in these, please tell me. This year I’ve experimented with hiring a copy editor but a problem I have is that I never know when the mood will strike me and I’ll feel the need to write. Sometimes when I begin, I don’t stop until whatever I’ve written is published. The experiment will continue into 2024.
In any case, there will be another one out on Boxing Day. Merry Christmas and may all of your days be bright and not just the holidays.