March 3, 2025: VDOT and Virginia Tech Transportation Institute to pilot new technology at four Albemarle intersections
Plus: The Central Virginia Small Business Development Center is seeking applications for a $15,000 entrepreneurial pitch competition
We are within the period of time when the 250th anniversary of the founding of this country is being celebrated. While the Declaration of Independence wasn’t signed until the summer of 1776, the struggle to escape monarchal rule was well underway before then. On March 3, 1776, the United States Marine Corps executed their first amphibious landing at the Battle of Nassau.
Three years later, the Continental Army suffered a large defeat at the Battle of Brier Creek in Georgia. Closer to the now and without bloodshed, Australia became fully independent of the United Kingdom on this day in 1986. However, Charlottesville Community Engagement tells details about now. I’m Sean Tubbs, always wondering who from the future might be back looking at this now.
In today’s installment:
The director of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission clarifies that there has been no pause yet on federal transportation funding that comes through her agency, but documents are being reviewed
This week is National Consumer Protection Week, according to the State Corporation Commission
Would-be entrepreneurs are encouraged to submit applications for the Piedmont Pitch in late May
The Piedmont Housing Alliance is among the recipients of new affordable housing loans announced by Governor Youngkin
Transportation researchers will install new technology at four Albemarle County intersections to help improve safety
A new documentary on the work of Georgia O’Keeffe will screen at the Violet Crown for a week beginning this Friday
First shout-out: JMRL Friends of the Library Book Sale coming up in April
It’s beginning to look a lot like the Spring Book Sale put on by the Friends of the Jefferson Madison Regional Library! In just over a month, the members pre-sale event will take place on Friday April 4 at Albemarle Square
That will be followed by eight days of what’s come to be known as the most exciting time for lovers of books and other items. Friends of the JMRL Library brought in over $166,000 in the Fall Sale, a new record!
You can help now by donating books, games, CDs and other items to Friend of JMRL. You can do so now through March 21.
You’ll help them raise funds for all sorts of ways to support the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library
Children and adults at all branches may enjoy programs to enrich their learning
The various collections of the library system may be enhanced
Library branches may receive donations and funding assistance in emergencies
Book donations will be accepted at the Gordon Avenue branch, lower level lobby entrance during Gordon Avenue branch operating hours!
For more information, visit the Friends of JMRL website!
Local federal transportation funding may be under review but has not been paused
As the second administration of President Trump continues, there is a lot of uncertainty about the future of federal funding. That’s certainly the case in transportation where projects funded by the United States government have to go through additional steps of scrutiny.
Last week, the Charlottesville Albemarle Metropolitan Planning Organization Policy Board met for the first time of the year. Federal law mandates that there be local bodies such as this one that make decisions on transportation projects. One of the items on their agenda was a review of the “Unified Planning Work Program.”
“It really guides the work that MPO staff will be doing for the next fiscal year and identifies all of the transportation planning activities that we would be working on,” said transportation planner Taylor Jenkins.
Jenkins said federal law requires MPOs to address ten planning factors ranging from economic vitality to travel and tourism. Staff are recommending adding four additional factors including equity and climate action. Those were included in the recent Long Range Transportation Plan.
Noting that eight percent of the funding for MPO staff comes from the federal government, City Councilor Natalie Oschrin asked what changes might be expected.
“How much of that is in danger?” Oschrin asked.
That question was fielded by Christine Jacobs, the executive director of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission. She said she’d received correspondence from the U.S. Department of Transportation that sought to clarify recent directives.
“In every transition of leadership there is going to be a review of documentation,” Jacobs said. “They have specifically noted that there is no pause in our funding right now but there is a comprehensive review of all documentation.”
That review would include the Unified Planning Work Program as well as the Long Range Transportation Plan adopted by the MPO in May 2024
Another member of the MPO asked if this were a good time to add equity and climate change to the Unified Planning Work Program. Jacobs responded.
“I have directed my staff that we should continue with business as usual and not preemptively sanitize any of our documentation until we are directed to do so and so since this was a priority of the community through the planning processes we have gone through, we are recommending continuing to include it,” Jacobs said.
However, Jacobs said such an order has not yet come in. The MPO will take a vote on the Unified Planning Work Program in April.
State Corporation Commission reminds Virginians of National Consumer Protection Week
The second presidency of Donald Trump has taken specific aim at the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The agency was created in 2011 to serve as a central source in the federal government to protect individuals from harmful business practices.
In February, employees were ordered to stop work and today Reuters reports that payments to consumers are frozen and may not be made. The agency’s website has not been updated since February 3.
This morning, the State Corporation Commission sent out an email reminding people that this is National Consumer Protection Week.
“A nationwide initiative, NCPW combines the efforts of the Federal Trade Commission and other federal, state, and local agencies and organizations – including the SCC – to promote resources for well-informed consumer decisions,” reads the announcement.
The message encourages Virginians who are not satisfied with answers they get from businesses regulated by the SCC. This includes insurance, energy providers, and financial institutions. One of the consumer resources is the Bureau of Insurance.
“During 2024, the Bureau’s Life and Health and Property and Casualty divisions handled 17,248 calls; more than 5,448 written consumer complaints and inquiries; 192 requests for appeal assistance with managed care health insurance plans, and 360 inquiries related to managed care health insurance plans from consumers, healthcare providers and legislators,” the release continues.
That returned over $20.8 million in benefits and savings to hundreds of thousands of consumers.
There’s also a list of phone numbers for specific agencies:
Bureau of Insurance – 804-371-9741; 1-877-310-6560
Bureau of Financial Institutions – 804-371-9657
Division of Securities and Retail Franchising – 804-371-9051
Division of Public Utility Regulation – 804-371-9611
Health Benefit Exchange – 804-371-1532
Office of the Clerk – 804-371-9733; 1-866-722-2551
Division of Utility and Railroad Safety – 804-371-9980
Division of Information Resources – 804-371-9141
Area business groups seeks entrepreneurs to compete in Piedmont Pitch
In just over three months, the Piedmont Ascent Small Business Conference will take place at Piedmont Virginia Community College. One program scheduled for the May 29 is a business contest known as the Piedmont Pitch and applications are being taken now.
“Entrepreneurs and small business owners in Charlottesville and Albemarle can apply for an opportunity to pitch for up to $15,000 in prize money,” reads a webpage belonging to the Central Virginia Small Business Development Center.
To apply, someone has to be an existing small business or ready to start one. Participants must have an active business license in either Albemarle County or Charlottesville by July 1, 2025.
The Piedmont Pitch program is part of a business training program backed by the economic development departments of both localities. Applicants do not have to submit a complete business plan, but completeness is one of the criteria that will determine the six groups that will compete on stage.
Those selected will have to meet with an advisor with CVSBDC or be a current client of their services.
“All participants will have the opportunity to participate in the Business Essentials Training On Demand and earn the Business Essentials Training Certificate,” the CVSBDC page continues. “This training is offered at no charge, courtesy of the City of Charlottesville Office of Economic Development and Albemarle County Economic Development.”
Applications are due on March 14, 2025.
Second-shout out: Design Develop
In today’s Patreon-fueled shout-out, architectural firm Design Develop is offering a new service aimed at the development community that the rest of us might want to know about , too — 3D point cloud scanning! This technique uses specialized equipment, such as 3D scanner systems, to gather a large amount of data points that represent the surface of the scanned object or scene. This really comes in handy when working with historic structures, as the firm knows from its experience in Baltimore and Charlottesville. Read their blog post for more information!
The applications of 3D point cloud scanning are extensive and cover various fields, including architecture, construction, cultural heritage preservation, virtual reality, industrial design, manufacturing, and more. These applications require accurate 3D spatial information, and Design Develop’s workflow provides precise and comprehensive results, all while being more cost-effective than traditional methods.
Design Develop has expertise in this workflow for their own needs and now has a dedicated team offering this service in the Charlottesville and Albemarle Area. If you're involved in the real estate, design, or construction industry, contact them for more information or a free quote.
Visit their website for an introductory video that captures the 3D point cloud scanning of the Downtown Transit Center and a booklet that will explain more!
Governor Youngkin announces millions in loans to nonprofit housing providers including $18.7 million for Piedmont Housing Alliance
Building housing to be reserved for low-income individuals and households is expensive and takes multiple sources of funding. That includes state and federal funding in the form of grants and loans.
On February 26, Governor Glenn Youngkin announced the award of over $139 million in loans through the Virginia Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Affordable and Special Needs Housing loans.
“When we prioritize housing affordability and availability, we drive economic progress, fortify our communities, and build a stronger, more vibrant Virginia for generations to come,” Youngkin said in an information release.
Funding for the loan programs from three federal sources as well as the Virginia Housing Trust.
The Piedmont Housing Alliance is the only organization that received funding in this award cycle.
$5 million for the project known as 1025-A Park Street
$5 million for the project known as 501-A Cherry Avenue
$4.7 million for the Park Street Christian Church project
$3,906,817 for the project known as 1025-B Park Street
Each of those projects has received or will receive funding from the City of Charlottesville in the capital improvement plan. More specifics on those as time marches on.
New technology to improve safety to be piloted at four Albemarle County intersections
As Albemarle and Charlottesville continue to plan for urban areas where more people walk and bike, that will mean doing more to improve safety at intersections where they might encounter conflict with vehicles.
“When we look at the data that we have in Virginia, what we see is over 25 fatalities and over a third of all serious injuries are at intersections,” said Michael Fontaine with the Virginia Transportation Research Council. “And those numbers are even higher for bicyclists and pedestrians.”
Fontaine is working on a team to test out new technology that allows for intersections to be studied via LIDAR and other techniques to study how they are used in real time.
“Rather than just detecting whether something is stopped waiting to use the intersection or not, we can actually track trajectories of vehicles as they traverse the intersection,” Fontaine said. “”What this does is this new technology kind of opens up a lot of opportunities for us where instead of waiting for a crash to occur, this allows us to look at near misses that are happening in the vicinity of the intersection.”
He said the data can help plan for better intersections and perhaps ones that can warn drivers of impending collisions with people on bikes or on foot. The General Assembly has allocated $1 million to an Innovation and Technology Transportation Fund to fund pilot projects to advance new ideas. A first phase tested out four technologies and tried them out at two intersections in Fairfax County.
Fontaine presented information on the first phase to members of the Charlottesville Albemarle Metropolitan Planning Organization.
“You can foresee a case where, if we have a system like this, perhaps this helps us with emergency response,” Fontaine said. “If there's a way to detect a crash in real time, maybe emergency response could be alerted, send someone to the scene a little bit faster than relying on a 911 call.”
While Fontaine said the technology might not be used for enforcement purposes, public safety officers might determine the most efficient time to be on site to hand out tickets to violators.
The second phase will expand testing including four intersections in Albemarle County which is within the Virginia Department of Transportation’s Culpeper District. Systems will be tested at the intersections of Alderman Road and McCormick Road, Hydraulic Road and Lambs Lane, Ivy Road and Old Ivy Road, and the grade-separated intersection of U.S. 29 and Rio Road.
“It's a combination of looking at locations where we have pedestrian and bicyclist usage, but we also have space in our controller cabinets to house all this additional equipment,” Fontaine said.
The plan is to install the equipment by the end of the fiscal year and operate tests through January 2026.
The second phase will also include four intersections in Montgomery County. The work is being overseen by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute.
The first phase yielded some observations such as RADAR technology overcounting traffic and LIDAR not functioning in inclement weather. So far the video-based systems appears to work most effectively.
Fontaine sought to set expectations.
“This is a technology evaluation, not a site evaluation,” Fontaine said. “I guess I do want to emphasize that we're looking at does the technology work? We're not using this to diagnose safety issues or anything at these intersections. Now, that being said, the data that's being generated is going to be shared with Culpepper District. They're going to be aware of everything that they're seeing.”
Video will not be stored after raw data has been evaluated as VDOT has a policy to not keep recordings. While machine learning and image analytics are both being employed, Fontaine is careful to not use the letters AI.
Sean Nelson, the administrator of Albemarle’s Culpeper District, said data will likely be used to inform future improvements at the eastern intersection of Old Ivy Road and Ivy Road.
“If we implement something out there now to collect information, we would use that information to help us design the best intersection based on the habits that we saw from the data that was collected,” Nelson said.
However, there is not yet identified funding for such a project.
Documentary on Georgia O’Keeffe screening at Violet Crown beginning this Friday
While the long-term future of the Violet Crown Cinema on the Downtown Mall remains in doubt, the short-term future includes having a place for local filmmakers to spotlight their work.
That’s the case this Friday when a documentary on Georgia O’Keeffe begins a theatrical run.
Georgia O’Keeffe: the Brightness of Light is the work of producer Ellen Casey Wagner and writer-director Paul Wagner. The film debuted at the Virginia Film Festival in November and this run is intended to celebrate Women’s History Month.
“Known as the ‘Mother of American Modernism,’ O’Keeffe exploded on the New York art scene in the 1920s with her paintings of flowers, bones, and the beauty of nature,” reads an information release sent out by the filmmakers in early February.
The release includes one quote from Roxana Robinson, a biographer of O’Keeffe.
“A beautiful, thoughtful and thoroughly reliable narrative of the artist’s life and her work,” Robinson said. “It is a joy to watch.”
Tickets can be purchased here. The filmmakers will offer a question and answer period after the 7 p.m. screening on Sunday.
Last week, the Board of Architectural Review voted unanimously to approve a certificate of appropriateness to demolish 200 West Main Street. I’ve not had a chance to write that up yet and am grateful Maggie Glass of WVIR 29News has a story.
O’Keeffe studied at the University of Virginia and lived at 1212 Wertland Street from 1909 to 1916. The property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Paul Wagner said the film covers O’Keeffe’s time in this community.
“O'Keeffe had stopped painting for four years when her sisters urged her to take a course at UVA in the summer of 2012,” Wagner said in an email. “Reluctantly, she attended the class....and it revitalized her passion for making art.”
View the trailer:
Reading material for #823
Amid furor over diversity efforts, VMI board ousts school’s first Black superintendent, Elizabeth Beyer and Lisa Rowan, Cardinal News, February 28, 2025
A ‘perfect storm’ for fire and EMS departments: Costs, calls increase while personnel drops, funding remains stagnant, Elizabeth Beyer, Cardinal News, March 3, 2025
#823 happened after all!
I told readers on Substack Notes this morning that I wasn’t going to do a newsletter today. I often do that on Mondays when I have to turn in the C-Ville Weekly story. Even though I’ve been a reporter for years, I sometimes struggle with believing I can get it all done. I had this idea that maybe I’d clean my house!
But as soon as I turned the story in, I saw stories I wanted to write and I kept going. I also published a Fifth District Community Engagement just to keep that going. I got two stories out of a meeting I recorded last week, and there were four things from email I wanted to get to.
I wish I could explain how much I love to do this work. It’s an odd life, fairly isolated, but I know that each day I produce something, someone is going to learn something. At one point I thought I’d be a teacher, but journalism seemed less stressful to me when I was trying to figure out what to do.
Right now it’s 3:46 p.m. and I’m declaring an end to the information gathering portion for what my records call CCE-823. That means I finish up this paragraph which sets up the final stretch of this epilogue.
This weekend I created two banner ads for Information Charlottesville. I also wrote a story of statewide interest which led to a traffic spike. According to metrics provided by Broad Street, one of the ads got over 6,700 impressions and about 32 clicks. I don’t have a vocabulary for advertising yet, but that seems like it might be a good thing.
But I do know I’m ready to sell ads. I have a special at the moment, but it requires some explanation. For one thing, not all stories get that much traffic yet, but I suspect they will. What I’m doing is something very special and unique. The idea of getting a new revenue category in allows me to think about the future very differently.
The business model remains what it has been since the summer of 2020. I agree to do as much reporting as I can, and point out the places where you can pay. This is the year I begin to move forward with the next phase. What is the next phase? I don’t know, but this Superchunk song from 1994 always makes me feel young. This is the version from Conan O’Brien.