May 29, 2024: Design panel gets first look at six-story apartment to be built as part of UVA affordable housing initiative
Plus: The owner of a historic and iconic restaurant on West Main Street has died
We have hit the fifth Wednesday of May and blame might not be possible if someone were to want to completely stop thinking about all of the elements that contribute to a dynamic community. Charlottesville Community Engagement must at least maintain a trickle of information as both the good parts and bad parts of summer descend upon us. I’m Sean Tubbs, ready to go again with another set of stories.
In today’s installment:
The owner of an iconic diner on West Main Street in Charlottesville has died
Louisa County’s Parks and Recreation department seeks input on future infrastructure and activities
The Charlottesville Chamber of Commerce is scheduled to dedicate a new memorial in McIntire Park tomorrow
Charlottesville’s Board of Architectural Review gets a first look at a six-story building planned at the intersection of Tenth and Wertland in the core of the city
A brief update from the Charlottesville department responsible for implementing the Development Code
First shout-out: Black Business Expo coming up on June 15
In today’s first Patreon-fueled shout-out, the 8th annual Charlottesville-Albemarle Black Business Expo is back for 2024 with a new date and location. This year's Expo will take place on Saturday, June 15, 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. The event is co-located with Charlottesville's Juneteenth celebration at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center. The event is free and open to everyone.
This year’s Black Business Expo includes an exhibition of dozens of booths operated by Black-owned businesses, three panel discussions by leading professionals, a business pitch competition with cash prizes, live music entertainment, a kids play area, and more. The Black Business Expo is co-organized by WTJU 91.1 FM.
Community mourns the passing of Mel Walker of Mel’s Cafe
The owner of an iconic and historic restaurant on West Main Street has died, leaving a tear in the culinary fabric of Charlottesville.
Before noon on Tuesday, Charlottesville public safety officers responded to a call of an unresponsive man in a parked vehicle in the Willoughby Shopping Center.
“The male was identified as 69-year-old Charlottesville resident, Melvin Eugene Walker,” said Afton Schneider, the city’s director of communications and public engagement.
Schneider said there was no evidence of foul play and that Walker’s next of kin had been notified.
Several bouquets of flowers were left on the front door of the Mel’s Cafe at 719 West Main this morning which is closed indefinitely according to the restaurant’s Facebook page. There were dozens and dozens of comments lamenting Walker’s sudden death.
The legacy and history of Walker and Mel’s Cafe were recently profiled by Channing Matthews in Vinegar Hill Magazine. I’ll be posting tributes in “Reading Material” in subsequence newsletters.
The building Mel’s Cafe operated from was put up for sale on February 1 and remains on the market. The Board of Architectural Review saw a preliminary plan at their meeting in January as I reported at the time.
Louisa County seeks input on future parks
Louisa County is the fastest growing jurisdiction in the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission with an estimated 7.5 percent growth between 2020 and 2023 according to the Weldon Cooper Center at the University of Virginia.
Demographers at Weldon Cooper project that number growing to 52,706 by 2050 and Louisa County now wants to know what current residents want out of the parks and recreation department.
“Over the past several years, the community has expressed interest in an indoor pool, a sports complex and park restrooms,” reads a press release for a new community survey sent out today. “However, the Board of Supervisors recognizes that needs change over time and should be reassessed before tax dollars are allocated for new projects”
The survey gives respondents the opportunity to give their thoughts and rankings on the current park infrastructure and to ask what might be desired in the future.
“Alternately, the survey also allows citizens to indicate if the park system is meeting their needs and no changes are needed,” the release continues.
Louisa’s Capital Improvement Program for the fiscal year that begins on July 1 had $1,131,500 allocated for parks and recreation, with $1 million for “long term capital reserves” along with $94,000 for a tennis court replacement and $37,500 for replacement mowers. The five-year program shows a request for nearly $13 million in long term capital reserves for FY25.
As for the operating budget, the amount of expenditures designated as “parks, recreation, and capital” has increased from $1,765,018 in FY23 to $2,959,244 in the budget adopted for FY2025. A projection in the budget document shows that increasing to just over $3.2 million in FY2029.
In 2018, Albemarle County hired the firm Pros Consulting to conduct a needs assessment for that locality but parks planning has been incorporated into the update of the Comprehensive Plan update that is now underway. (draft needs assessment)
Last year, Charlottesville hired Pros Consulting to develop a new master plan for its process. The survey phase ended this spring.
“And now we’re beginning to go through just doing the analysis of the feedback we’ve gotten from you guys and going through the data,” said Hosea Mitchell of the city’s planning commission. “The objective is to get this thing approved by Council in January of next year.” (learn more about that process)
What’s the status of parks planning in Fluvanna County, Greene County, and Nelson County? Hopefully I can have information in future editions of the newsletter.
Chamber to dedicate the Grove at McIntire Park tomorrow morning
(republished from the May 13, 2024 edition)
For years, Charlottesville’s McIntire Park has been home to the Dogwood Vietnam Memorial, a site that was recently rededicated for the 58th time in an annual event.
Tomorrow morning, the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce will formally dedicate a new memorial to business and other leaders from the past 49 years.
“The Grove is a stone terrace and monument inscribed with names of recipients of the Chamber's annual business leadership award, first established in 1975,” reads a press release sent out by the Chamber. “The monument honors past, present, and future leaders, who have been recognized by the Chamber for their outstanding contributions to our Greater Charlottesville communities.”
The Grove is on the eastern side of McIntire Park underneath a stand of oak trees believed to be at least 150 years old.
Charlottesville Mayor Juandiego Wade won the award in 2019 and will make brief remarks. The first winner in 1975 was Mitchell Van Yahres. Visit the Chamber’s website for a full list of winners.
Second shout-out: League of Women Voters seek entries for poster contest
In today’s second Patreon-fueled shout-out: Every election is important and every vote matters. To get out the word and increase voter registrations, the League of Women Voters of Virginia is holding a poster contest for middle and high school students on one of four themes;
1. Voting is Important in Our Democracy
2. Voting Requires Following Specific Laws
3. Voting and a Vote Should Depend on True Not False Information
4. Every Vote will be Handled Legally, Carefully and Counted Correctly
The deadline is June 30, 2024.
Entries must be non-partisan and support no campaigns or political parties. Entries must also look visible when blown up to 22 by 28 inches. For more detailed information on the themes and how to submit, visit the League of Women Voters website at lwv.org.
BAR gets first look at UVA affordable housing at 10th and Wertland
Charlottesville’s new development code has only been in effect for three months and so far not a lot of large housing projects have come through an amended system that puts a priority on affordable housing.
So far, the Board of Architectural Review has been the only public forum to observe appointed officials as they weigh in on the details on new projects. In April, the panel reviewed the potential conversion of a planned apartment building to a hotel instead.
On May 21, they took a look at a 100 percent affordable housing project initiated by the University of Virginia as part of President Jim Ryan’s initiative to give back to the community.
“This project is very unique,” says Jeffrey Werner, the city’s preservation planner. “This is a project being pursued by the University’s real estate foundation. It’s at the northeast corner of 10th Street and Wertland.”
The project is in the southwest corner of 10th Street and Wertland.
That’s one of three sites selected by UVA that will be leased to a development partner for the purpose of building units to be restricted to households with annual incomes less than 60 percent of the area median income.
To develop this two acre site in between the Downtown Mall and the central UVA campus, UVA selected a team led by Preservation of Affordable Housing and represented at the recent Board of Architectural Review meeting by the director of real estate called the National Housing Trust.
“We co-own and are co-developing Kindlewood, formerly known as Friendship Court, with Piedmont Housing Alliance,” says J.T. Engelhardt. “Our goal is to design this in context and collaboratively with the University of Virginia with the surrounding community.
Engelhardt said the project also has to be financially feasible. This site and the two others in the UVA initiative will provide a glimpse into the high cost of subsidizing places for people to live in communities where it has become quite expensive to build. In all three cases, the cost of land has been taken out of the equation.
In all, UVA has pledged to build between 1,000 and 1,500 units with the other sites being off of Fontaine Avenue and the North Fork Research Park near the Charlottesville Regional Airport.
In this case, an existing apartment building will be demolished to make way for the new housing. The rest of the site consists of parking lots.
Under the Development Code that became effective on February 19, special use permits are no longer needed for density or height. Each zoning district contains height limits that allow bonus floors if the city’s affordable housing requirements will be met.
The developer could have gone as high as 11 stories under the Commercial Mixed Use zoning but has chosen to only build a six story building.
“That makes life a little easier in regards to we’re not getting into a very, very tall building and getting into that discussion,” Werner said.
The development team also involves the architectural firm Grimm + Parker which has an office in Charlottesville. The exact number of units is not known yet but 100 percent will be income-restricted.
“We’re assuming somewhere between 150 and 190 affordable rental units and that large range is largely driven by wanting to work with community stakeholders to understand the types of residential units these should be and whether they’re more geared towards single individuals or more families,” Liz Chapman said.
Affordability itself is not under the purview of the Board of Architectural Review which has jurisdiction over this project because a very small portion of the property is within the West Main Architectural Design Control (ADC) District.
Werner said the building won’t need to take cues from other large buildings nearby because the bulk of the space is not within a historic district. The Coca-Cola Building across the street is an individually protected property.
“I think that there are some opportunities here for architectural creativity,” Werner said.
The design shown to the BAR was preliminary and was intended to give a sense of the massing of a six-story structure that would feature an internal courtyard to provide the necessary outdoor amenity space required by the new zoning ordinance.
Chapman said the preliminary idea is to build the structure as a concrete podium with wood construction because that’s the most feasible way to cover the costs.
“There is no density limit for us on this site,” said Liz Chapman. “There is no building coverage limit for us on this site although we are required to have ten percent outdoor amenity space.”
An internal courtyard would provide the outdoor amenity space in something referred to as a doughnut.
Under the preliminary design, vehicles would enter the 80-space parking garage on 10th Street NW, a street upon which between 10,000 and 16,000 square feet of retail space will face.
The sliver of eligible property is in the West Main ADC and the bulk of the property is adjacent to but not part of the Wertland Street ADC. Chapman asked the BAR to identify what architectural cues the project should take
“Personally I think this wants to be more part of West Main because of the massing and size of some of the buildings up there but we need to respect there’s a much more residential neighborhood behind it,” said BAR member James Zehmer.
Planning Commissioner Carl Schwarz says he understands the reason for the design, but doesn’t like that it looks like a fortress.
“It does seem like a little bit of a shame,” Schwarz said. “I understand the financial reasons for the donut. It just does feel like it’s walled itself off a little bit. I guess it does makes a very safe public space for the residents, but it’s not very welcoming to the neighborhood.”
Architect and BAR member David Timmerman asked the designers to find ways to break up the doughnut.
“Show us that there’s a way to do this that’s not the fortress,” Timmerman said
Another BAR member suggested the building could be taller.
“I think the massing makes some sense and in some ways I’m wondering if we know why not go higher?” asked Breck Gastinger said.
Chapman did not offer an explanation. That’s the sort of question that members of the city’s Planning Commission have asked in the past, but will not get the opportunity now that their input is no longer routine.
Chapman also asked if there were nearby examples of good public infrastructure for pedestrians.
BAR member Cheri Lewis encouraged the designers to create some sort of lane for vehicles to drop people at the new building.
“You can’t stop on 10th Street,” Lewis said. “There’s no way. And I don’t think you can turn very easily without being backended anyway, so maybe there’s an opportunity there.”
Zehmer said 10th Street is a very busy road and he asked the designers to move the garage entrance to Wertland.
Gastinger said there are not many good examples of nearby pedestrian design in part because the city spent millions on a West Main Streetscape that was later canceled.
“There has been almost zero design of the pedestrian environment,” Gastiner said. “This segment of this street that we’re looking at is a really critical corridor for Charlottesville, not just from a transportation perspective but what Charlottesville is as a city. That road cuts across all socioeconomic lines.”
In the near future, the redevelopment of Westhaven could mean additional units in the area. City Council has morally committed at least $15 million to the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority.
During the discussion, BAR member Tyler Whitney had to recuse himself from the discussion because he works for Grimm + Parker.
An update on the development code from Neighborhood Development Services
Earlier this month, the Charlottesville Planning Commission met and got an update from staff in the Department of Neighborhood Development Services.
“Since the end of March we have had 15 pre-application meetings with folks who are interested in working with our new ordinance,” said Missy Creasy, the deputy director of NDS. “And that’s just the formal ones. There are all sorts of informal discussions that are occurring.”
Creasy said NDS staff are learning about about potential hurdles under the code and are learning a lot what developers are suggesting as viable projects. She said there are at least two development plans in for city review.
“There was a lot of concern that there would be an overrun of activity with this new code but it’s actually very much followed the path that we anticipated that folks would start to learn about it, folks would begin to see how it may work for them, and that it would be a very incremental change and that is definitely what we are seeing,” Creasy said.
Creasy said staff has been working to finalize several projects that are still eligible for review under the old zoning code. Those include the Belmont Condominiums project that broke ground earlier this month.
Reading material:
$1.1B budgeted for Virginia early childhood education, Jacob Phillips, WVIR 29NBC, May 26, 2024
Bettering lives, bettering community: 100 Black Men of Central Virginia awards 48 scholarships, Emily Hemphill, Charlottesville Daily Progress (paywall), May 27, 2024
Construction begins on 328 unit apartment project in Albemarle, Maggie Glass, 29NBC, May 28, 2024
What’s in a Room? Research Looks at Building Materials and Mood, Bryan McKenzie, UVA Today, May 28, 2024
Advocates see missed opportunities as Virginia lags its neighbors in clean energy manufacturing, Elizabeth McGowan, Energy News Network, May 28, 2024
A blow to Bob: Trump endorsement could tilt 5th District GOP primary in John McGuire's favor, Jason Armesto, Charlottesville Daily Progress (paywall)
Filling in: Charlottesville’s BAR gets first look at 10th and Wertland tower, Sean Tubbs, C-Ville Weekly, May 29, 2024
It’s hard to say goodbye to #682
It’s hard to say goodbye to anyone.
I didn’t know Mel Walker and must admit I never ate at his café. Then again I’m a pretty shy person who is afraid to go out a lot of times. I do know that the loss of Mr. Walker is keenly felt by many in this community, and I encourage anyone with the hesitation to try new spaces to try to find a way through. It would be much better if more people who live in this community knew each other.
The logo for Ting is still there because they sponsor the newsletter as many of you know. I’m going to keep the rest of this edition promotion-free because I just want to sit and think for a moment.
This story originally went out with a quote identifying the wrong location for the development, a wrong location that fits my own tendency to mix up geographical locations. I regret the error and appreciate the reader who brought it to my attention. As per the corrections policy, this goes out as a note, too.