May 14, 2025: One person has died in Albemarle following yesterday’s flash floods

Plus: Charlottesville’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Board will discuss changes to the rules for city garden plots on Thursday

Will you still love Charlottesville Community Engagement when it gets to the 864th edition? We are now at that milestone on this May 14, 2025, and perhaps the opening sentence presumes too much. Perhaps this newsletter is only intended to be a vessel that conveys information in a way that is useful to your understanding of the world? I’m Sean Tubbs, and perhaps I’ve miscounted and we’ll never know how many newsletters there have been so far?

In today’s installment:

• One person has died after being swept away during a flash flood Tuesday in western Albemarle County

• Two candidates have filed to be on the ballot to be the Supervisor representing Nelson County’s North District

• Charlottesville’s Board of Equalization met this week but information is somewhat hard to obtain

• Charlottesville’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Board will take up potential changes to rules for garden plots at their meeting tomorrow

• The first of a two part series on a recent Tom Tom Festival event that features Albemarle County Executive Jeffrey Richardson, City Manager Sam Sanders, and University of Virginia President Jim Ryan.

First shout-out: Get to know ReLeaf!

In today’s first subscriber-supported announcement: ReLeaf Cville seeks to help restore the amount of the city that is covered by trees. Here are some of their efforts since 2022.

• Planted over 300 trees particularly in neighborhoods with low tree cover, including 10^th and Page and Rose Hill. Most recently in the Woolen Mills, working with the Rivanna Conservation Alliance, the group will have planted 140 trees to help keep the Rivanna River clean. Their teenage group, the Green Team, helped with the Woolen Mills plantings

• Started a three-year Tree Preservation Program with a $189.9K grant from Virginia Department of Forestry to provide free tree care to 28 Fifeville homeowners to help preserve 48 mature trees this winter.

• Educated over 540 students about the value of trees and nature in the City and developing a Green Team of 15 teenagers every year. This group is taught about the value of trees and nature in the City. After teaching them how to approach people going door – to- door, they canvas the neighborhoods asking if we can plant trees in homeowners yards. This winter the Green Team, working with the Rivanna Conservation Alliance, is removing invasive plants and plant new tree seedlings to refurbish forested areas.

• Environmental Education Summit. With a grant from Clean Virginia, in March the group held a summit with over 40 organizations involved in environmental education

One dead in Albemarle County after flash flooding Tuesday

Over an inch and a half of rain fell upon Albemarle County on Tuesday, prompting the issuance of a flash flood watch.

At 5:30 p.m. crews with Albemarle County Fire Rescue and the Albemarle Police Department were dispatched to the western portion of the county to an area between Afton and Greenwood.

“A 911 caller reported that a 12-year-old male was walking outside when he was swept away by rushing water that had overtaken the roadway from a nearby creek,” reads an information release sent out that evening.

Search and rescue operations on the water took place for three hours before nightfall caused visibility to diminish. The search resumed this morning and quickly ended when a body was found in the area of Newtown Road.

“At approximately 8:45 a.m. on May 14, search crews in the area of Newtown Road located a deceased individual, believed to be missing 12-year-old Jordan Sims,” reads a release sent out at 10:25 a.m. this morning.

The recovered body will be sent to the Medical Examiner’s office in Richmond for a positive identification.

"This is a heartbreaking outcome, and our hearts are with the Sims' family and loved ones," said Albemarle County Fire Rescue Chief Dan Eggleston.

Other agencies involved in the search and rescue include the Virginia Department of Transportation, the Lynchburg Fire Department, and the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources.

Contested race for Supervisor in Nelson’s North District

Thomas Harvey has represented Nelson County’s North District since 1984 but has not attended a meeting since May of 2024, according to report a from Justin Faulconer of the Nelson County Times (paywall).

Harvey has not yet filed paperwork to run for another term, but there are now two people who have filed statements of organization with the Virginia Department of Elections.

Cameron Lenahan did so in February and reported a total of $1,500 in in-kind donations in the first campaign report of the year. That covered a period from January 1 to March 31. Lenaham has not yet responded via email to a request for comments.

The second candidate, Roy White, filed a statement of organization on May 13, 2025.

In a statement to this newsletter, White said Nelson County is a beautiful place to live.

“I want to preserve the beauty of our community,” White said. “I want to seek improvements in our roads. I am in favor of affordable housing. I want to encourage new and existing businesses who are respectful of the natural environment and the history of Nelson County.”

White also said he wants to find ways to better support Nelson’s Volunteer Fire Department and Emergency Services.

“Nelson residents are warm and generous,” White said. “We do not always agree with each other—about politics or social issues. But we are ready to help a neighbor who needs it.”

Roy White (submitted by the candidate)

Both Lenahan and White are running as independents.

The Supervisor seats in the East District and Central District are also up for elections. So far incumbent Ernie Read (D) is unopposed in the Central and incumbent Jesse Rutherford (R) is unopposed in the East District.

Reed faced a Republican challenger in 2021 and won with 51 percent of the vote. In 2017, he was elected to his first four-year term with 57 percent of the vote against an independent.

Rutherford was first elected in 2017 with 53.6 percent of the vote against a Democratic incumbent. He was unopposed in 2021.

Results from the Virginia Department of Elections for Reed and Rutherford in previous elections

Charlottesville Board of Equalization has met this week to hear a dozen assessment appeals

When localities in Virginia conduct real estate assessments, state code allows for a process for property owners to appeal their case to local officials.

This year in Charlottesville, the average assessment was up 7.74 percent.

In Charlottesville, there were 128 appeals this year that were handled administratively according to Assessor Jeffrey Davis. Of those, a dozen made it to this year’s meeting of the Charlottesville Board of Equalization.

“The Board of Equalization is an independent panel of citizens, appointed to mediate when the property owner does not agree with the assessor’s decision in the first part of the appeals process,” reads one answer to a list of frequently asked questions about the city’s assessment process.

The meetings were held on May 13 and May 14 and were noticed in two separate advertisements in the Charlottesville Daily Progress. There’s a similar message on the city assessor’s website. However, more information about the meetings and previous ones is hard to come by.

The city has two calendars listing upcoming meetings and neither includes this week’s meetings. Charlottesville uses CivicAccess to store agendas and minutes for most meetings but there are no entries for the Board of Equalization.

Additionally, one list of Charlottesville boards and commissions does not include the Board of Equalization. Neither does the other.

In 2022, the Board of Equalization heard 11 appeals and upheld all but one determination. That’s based on a copy of the minutes from that year sent to this reporter.

“In all cases brought before the board, there shall be a presumption that the valuation determined by the assessor is correct,” reads §58.1-3379 of Virginia Code. “The burden of proof on appeal to the board shall be on the taxpayer to rebut the presumption.”

Anyone not satisfied with the process can also appeal to Charlottesville Circuit Court.

Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee to review rules for garden plots

Charlottesville’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Board is appointed by city staff to advise the City Manager on policy matters related to one of the city’s most public facing departments.

Tomorrow night at 5:30 p.m. that body will be asked to continue a discussion about changes to the rules that govern garden plots at four locations in the city. (meeting info)

“As part of the ongoing renovation of the garden plot areas, we have identified that our current Garden Plot Rules and Regulations are outdated and in need of revision,” said Parks and Recreation Director Riaan Anthony in an email. ‘The existing rules—available at Charlottesville Garden Plot Rules and Regulations—were last formally updated many years ago and do not reflect current operations, pricing, or best practices.”

Anthony said the changes have not yet been approved and are intended to modernize the program.

A screenshot of some of the existing rules for garden plots in the City of Charlottesville

The Advisory Board meets at 5:30 p.m. at the Carver Recreation Center and interested parties are encouraged to attend.

“Once the board finalizes its recommendations for updated rules, those changes will be submitted to the City Manager’s Office (CMO) for review and approval before any new rules are formally adopted and posted,” Anthony said.

An email was sent on May 13 to existing users of garden plots.

“The rules being debated will be around registration and specifically potentially term limits,” reads that email. “We encourage everyone to come down to hear the debate and let the board hear your comments.”

According to the minutes of the April 17, 2025 Parks and Recreation Advisory Board meeting, the idea is for a five-year term limit.

A snapshot of the minutes from the April 17, 2025 meeting (Credit: City of Charlottesville)

Second shout-out: Supporting the Keswick Heritage Fund’s Love Better Project

The Keswick Heritage Fund is a partnership of several churches in Albemarle County that provides education support and opportunities for professional development. One of their outreach programs is the Love Better Project, which provides scholarships to Black students in the Keswick area. The fund was created soon after the inaugural scholarship was awarded in 2020.

Grace Episcopal Church, Union Grove Baptist, Union Run Baptist, Zion Hill Baptist and St. John Church are united for growth through community partnership and education. To learn more about the fund, the scholarships, and the churches themselves, visit their website at keswickheritagefund.com.

Local leaders describes the state of the community at Tom Tom Festival

(first of a two-part series)

I avoid the word “news” when I describe what Charlottesville Community Engagement is all about because sometimes it takes a very long time to get to meetings I want to document. For instance, I am still holding out hope I will eventually write about the University of Virginia Board of Visitors’ discussion to end Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs.

To close out today’s newsletter, I wanted to go back through one event that happened at the Tom Tom Festival in April. The leaders of the area’s three major government entities gathered in the CODE Building’s Irving Theater. The title of the April 16 event is “The Innovation Economy: A Coalitional Model for Building the Region’s Future” and the moderator is former Congressman L.F. Payne.

“This session is to look ahead, to look down the road three to five years or more,” Payne said.

“Today we will have an opportunity to hear from our leaders in terms of what are they thinking about tomorrow? Tomorrow, what are they thinking about three to five years down the road? What are they thinking about innovation?”

• Jeffrey Richardson has been Albemarle County Executive since October 2017.

• Sam Sanders has been Charlottesville City Manager since August 2023 and in city government since July 2021.

• Jim Ryan has been President of the University of Virginia since 2018. Ryan has presided over a large capital campaign that has seen the creation of the School of Data Science, the Karsh Institute of Democracy, and the Manning Institute of Biotechnology.

Payne said this area is recognized as a good place to start a business, but his first question asked about regional partnerships.

“So as we think about how this progresses, a question to begin with, and Jim, I'll start with you on this is how are UVA and Albemarle county and Charlottesville looking at innovation as you plan and build this vibrant community for the future?” Payne asked.

Ryan responded that a university that wants to promote innovation has to be within an ecosystem that has three things.

“It's a nice place to live,” Ryan said. “It is near or has in its community a research university, and there is capital to invest. Charlottesville has all three of those things.”

On the first item, Ryan said transportation systems need to be in place and there has to be good schools.

Richardson began by informing the audience that Albemarle’s growth area is about 36 acres square miles compared to the 10.4 acres square miles of Charlottesville. He said the county builds off the city’s imprint and economic development is playing a big role in the 21st century.

“It's a regional economy and we are beginning at the Albemarle county level with our economic development work to lean in hard to that,” Richardson said. “And with our recent purchase of 462 acres in the Rio/29 corridor around Rivanna Station, which employs 3,000 employees, we have gone all in on the fact that Department of Defense intelligence work aligns well with this community, with our economic development growth.”

Richardson said the defense sector is the second biggest industry in the community behind the University of Virginia. He noted that the Batten School has recently launched the National Security Policy Center, another connection. Richardson also said Greene County is part of the conversation.

The three leaders meet at least once every two months and Sanders said kind of engagement is necessary to share information.

“We can have conversations and they can be tough conversations and they'll get tougher as time goes on,” Sanders said. “But I also think that there are strategic discussions that we need to be able to have and in that moment, be free, be open, be honest. We don't need a whole bunch of onlookers because sometimes we need to work some things out and then bring those conversations forward.”

However, Sanders said the public needs to see the results of that engagement and transportation is an area where the three must work together.

“This region is stronger when we are representing ourselves and the worlds that we come from, but also doing it with the sense that Charlottesville, Greater Charlottesville, UVA, we are all in this together,” Sanders said. “When it goes wrong, and it has happened, it goes wrong for all of us.”

Payne, a current member of the Board of Visitors, said he was glad to hear that there is open communication. He asked Richardson to describe any other initiatives that are underway. Richardson said Albemarle needs capital.

“I've talked candidly with our board and said we've got to have more private investment, more private capital investment in Albemarle County,” Richardson said. “When you look at our revenue diversification, we are 72 percent residential. We're 11.3 percent commercial and industry. For a community of our size, that 11.3 percent should be somewhere between 15 and 20 percent for a community of our size.”

At their meeting on May 21, the Board of Supervisors will review the latest Cost of Services report conducted by the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service which tracks those percentages. Here’s the document here.

Richardson said one way the county is seeking to increase the percentage from business sources is the public-private partnership with Home Depot at the site of Fashion Square Mall.

“That property has gone down significantly in tax value over the last nine years,” Richardson said. “And as a new heavyweight anchor tenant, we're going to see that property transform over the next five to 10 years.”

Richardson said there are other redevelopment sites that the city, county, and UVA could possibly work together to begin planning for a new future.

UVA President Jim Ryan and Charlottesville City Manager Sam Sanders (Credit: Charlottesville Office of Communications)

When asked the same question, Sanders said continued investment in the Downtown Mall is one way to encourage innovation and economic development. He also said that unlike UVA, he cannot appeal to donors and philanthropy to solve the city’s issues.

“I do have to help everyone appreciate and recognize that as Jeff mentioned, 10 and a half square miles, we're small and we're limited, but we can still innovate,” Sanders said. “Our zoning ordinance is innovation. We made a decision to do something consciously different to add density in this area so that more people could be here, so that people who live here can stay here.”

Ryan said he lived in Charlottesville for fifteen years before leaving for several years to be Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

“And from the very start of my presidency, I thought that the relationship between the University and the broader Charlottesville community, meaning Charlottesville and the surrounding counties, especially Albemarle, could be stronger than it was,” Ryan said.

Ryan said he started the President’s Council on UVA-Community Partnerships to try to bridge the gap with several subject areas including early childhood education, access to medical care, and affordable housing. The latest newsletter can be reviewed here.

“Figuring out how we can work together to tackle issues from affordable, affordable housing to education to access to medical care, I think is critical,” Ryan said.

There’s another 20 minutes of tape to review and so this will end up with a second part about the future.

Watch the full event here if you’d like to skip to the end:

The descent of #864

This is a somber edition due to the death of a young man during a sudden storm. I was reminded about a couple who were swept away in a similar downpour seven years ago in the Ivy Creek area. At any point, our lives can change. My thoughts are with those who have suffered an unspeakable loss.

I met with someone today for the first time, someone who wanted to know more about why I’m a journalist. I’ve prattled on about that a lot in this end note, but the basic idea is that I’m a curious person and one who grew up in a time of relative peace. I do this work because I want peace and feel information can help get us there.

I also grew up in a time when I was convinced that nuclear war was imminent. My older brother fueled my fear constantly, and I spent a lot of time in therapy. Somewhere I have all of the files for that time, and there’s a note from the child psychologist that covered my self-assessment that I didn’t think I fit in anywhere.

I still don’t, probably something in my family make-up, probably something in being a first generation American in a country so far away from my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins. I turned to writing to try to find an identity. And now I pour my everything into this work because…

Why? I always appreciate the question because I don’t know. Perhaps it is because the death of anyone in a tragedy makes me sad, makes me want to make the world better however I can. Does this work make the world better? I don’t know. Selfishly, this work helps me feel like I’m part of something bigger than myself. And I’m grateful to get to do it, and grateful that many of you understand that errors and typos are correctable and part of the deal. I’m just as human as you.

So I’ll be back for the next one, and the next one, and the next one, always on my beat, trying to work out whatever rhythm there might be in this world that’s always been dangerous and likely always will be. I’m hopeful that my journalism will help whoever needs it, and I’ll keep trying to learn new tricks.

Now, an Archers of Loaf song from over 30 years ago that has always made me push myself even though I never became the singer in a rock and roll band.