Time for the first of two Patreon-fueled shout-outs:
Do you suffer from Classical Music Insecurity Complex? That is, you like classical music you hear, but you feel intimidated by all the stuffy etiquette and specialized knowledge? Suffer no more!
WTJU is hosting Classical Listening Parties, a series of four free, casual events on Tuesdays in November. These four events are led by Chelsea Holt, pianist, teacher, and one of WTJU’s newest and youngest classical announcers. She’ll guide you through all the eras of classical music beginning Tuesday, Nov 9th, 7 p.m.: Early & Baroque. For a list of the others, visit wtju.net to learn more and sign up!
On today’s program:
Development updates from Albemarle’s Pantops Community Advisory Committee including an update on transit expansion
Home sales were down slightly in the third quarter of 2021 according to the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors
Statistics on early voting in the Charlottesville area
The Charlottesville Fire Department will deploy drones
And the 5th and Avon CAC gets an update on Albemarle’s future Biscuit Run Park
Early voting results
Election Day is tomorrow, and the time for early voting is over. While the result aren’t in, there are some significant numbers to review.
In Charlottesville, 6,241 ballots were recorded in early voting. That’s according to data made available by the Virginia Public Access Project. There are 33,549 registered voters.
And the rest of the area:
Albemarle has 18,545 early votes recorded. There are 81,738 registered voters.
Louisa has 5,170 early votes recorded. There are 28,177 registered voters.
Fluvanna has 5,790 early votes recorded. There are 20,282 registered voters.
Greene County has 3,442 early votes recorded. There are 14,394 registered voters.
Check out the Virginia Public Access Project for a comparison of how that compares with early voting in 2017.
Resources:
CAAR report
Home sales were down slightly in the region in the third quarter of 2021, but sales prices continued to increase with a median increase of 12 percent. That’s according to a report out this morning from the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors, which covers Albemarle, Charlottesville as well as Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, and Nelson counties.
There were 1,393 homes sold between July 1 and September 30, a four percent decrease from the same period in 2020. The median sales price was $365,000, $38,000 more than in 2020. The report notes inventory is limited.
“There were 643 active listings across the CAAR footprint at the end of the third quarter, 30
percent fewer listings than this time last year,” reads the report.
When looked at by jurisdiction, transactions in Charlottesville were up 28 percent with 187 residential transactions. Albemarle saw 598 sales, or a three percent increase. Sales in Louisa were down 18 percent and sales in Nelson were down 28 percent.
I’ll have an anecdotal summary of Charlottesville’s transactions coming up in a future edition for paid subscribers to this newsletter. Check out September’s here.
More municipal drones
The Charlottesville Fire Department will begin to use drone aircraft in their responses to public safety calls. In a release today, the department announced that several of its employees have completed a three-day drone pilot certificate at the Piedmont Virginia Community College.
“As a 21st-century all-hazards department, CFD is now prepared to implement [Unmanned Aerial Vehicles] to support building inspections, firefighting operations, swift-water rescue, response to trails, and other emergencies,” reads the announcement.
The next step will be to update procedures to incorporate the drones into operational policies. The department will be using DJI Mavic 2 drones which including thermal imaging cameras.
You’re listening to Charlottesville Community Engagement. Time for a second Patreon-supporter shout-out.
In today’s subscriber-supported Public Service Announcement, the Charlottesville Area Tree Stewards continues to offer classes and events this fall and winter to increase your awareness of our wooden neighbors and to prepare for the future. This week there is a three part class on Winter Invasive Plant Identification and Treatment. The first begins tomorrow virtually with identification. A field session will be held at Azalea Park this Saturday. Learn more at charlottesvilleareatreestewards.org. (register for Tuesday’s session)
For the rest of today’s newsletter, development updates from Albemarle County.
We start first with the October 25 meeting of the Pantops Community Advisory Committee. Supervisor Bea LaPisto Kirtley had the task of providing the new information, such as the next tenant for the former Malloy Ford building on the north side of U.S. 250. (Watch the CAC meeting)
“The old Malloy Ford site, that is being renovated and there are permits for signs for Flow Automotive, Flow Volkswagen,” LaPisto Kirtley said.
Plans for a new hotel to be built in the parking lot of the Rivanna Ridge Shopping Center have been through two sets of review.
“There is an associated special use permit to remove a previous condition for a landscaped buffer where the hotel is planned for,” LaPisto Kirley said.
An additional community meeting will be held on the Overlook Hotel project in the future.
Albemarle transit expansion
Discover Transit Month may be over, but the input period for Albemarle County’s Transit Expansion Study is still underway. Boris Palchik is with Foursquare ITP, one of the companies hired to conduct the work.
“The expansion study is meant to identify short-range opportunities to expand transit service in key population employments in the county,” Palchik said.
These are the U.S. 29 north corridor, Pantops, and Monticello. The study comes at a time when Charlottesville Area Transit is also reviewing its opportunities in the U.S. 29 north area.
“While there are a lot of different ways to provide transit service and to improve transit service, each of those ways that we are considering has its own ideal operating environment and when we look at fixed-route transit service which is what CAT operates today, fixed route transit service is really dependent on density,” Palchik said.
Another key factor is a functional sidewalk system that allows people to get to and from stops.
Palchik said initial work in the study has reviewed existing land use patterns. Fixed-route service is recommended when there is a density of five people or five jobs per acre. Currently the north side of U.S. 250 on Pantops falls short of that threshold, but that could change in the future. The preliminary study recommends an additional fixed-route service in this area.
“This additional route, additional fixed-route would serve the growing residential population up there as well as some of the key destinations like the Social Security office,” Palchik said
Charlottesville Area Transit has prepared route changes which would eliminate Route 10 service on Stony Point Road. However, there is no date set for when those changes would be made.
The preliminary study does not indicate who would run that service but it would require at least one additional vehicle.
Another recommendation is study a demand-response service.
“Demand-response-service is buses that can come to a passenger wherever they are, sort of a a point to point service that can take them to their home,” Palchik said.
This can also be provided by the private sector but micro transit technology is seeking to extend that convenience with public transportation.
“The main difference between Uber and Lyft and what we call micro transit in the transit industry is that micro transit has a dedicated fleet of vehicles so you have purpose-built vehicles that are designed for transit service, designed for share rides,” Palchik said.
Fares on micro transit would be regulated and more predictable than the cost of private sector rides.
The study recommends two vehicles to be operating at any one time.
A survey to get additional input is open through November 18. There’s an English and a Spanish version. (take the survey)
Biscuit Run Park
Let’s go back in time for a bit further back to the October 21, 2021 meeting of the 5th and Avon Community Advisory Committee. They got an update on planning for the county’s Biscuit Run Park from the Albemarle planners. The county has a long-term ground lease with the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation to operate and build what had been expected to be a state park. Tim Padalino is the county’s parks planner. (download his presentation)
“In 2018, the final park master plan was reviewed by the Board of Supervisors at a public hearing and adopted with DCR’s endorsement and blessing,” Padalino said.
Currently, the park is not open to the general public. Padalino said that’s because the county does not have the staff to do the necessary maintenance.
“And in terms of public safety, there’s no signage and there are no maps for a large, relatively wild and undeveloped landscape, and there’s incomplete cell phone coverage,” Padalino said.
The land is mostly undeveloped, which means its serving as a piece of green infrastructure almost entirely covered by forest.
“And that’s effectively a carbon sink that’s purifying the air and sequestering carbon dioxide in a way that is supporting the climate action plan,” Padalino said.
Work to open the first phase is underway. That includes an entrance into a parking area off of Route 20 about 500 feet south of the southern end of Avon Street Extended. There will be a parking area and bathrooms.
“It is one of the county’s top strategic plan goals as identified by the Board of Supervisors, and that’s apparent in that this is a fully-funded project through the county’s Capital Improvement Program,” Padalino said. “The budget is about $2.1 million.”
Padalino said if all approvals are granted, construction of this could be completed by the end of next summer.
Planning for trails is also underway. There are about nine to ten miles of existing trails. Tucker Rollins is the county’s trail maintenance supervisor.
“What we’re hoping to create is a trail system that will make lots of different users happy,” Rollins said. “We’re expecting lots of hikers, trail-runners, mountain-bikers, bird-watchers, lot of native plant folks. So we’re trying to create something that will allow all of these different types of people to get in there and spread out and be happy.”
Rollins said the park’s size can accommodate about 35 miles of trails while leaving lots of space to be left untouched. Parks staff has been working with the Charlottesville Area Mountain Bike Club on a multi-use loop that would be open around the same time the parking lot opens. Planning is also under way for dedicated mountain bike trails, one of which will be funded by CAMBC.
Watch the whole 5th and Avon CAC meeting to review the whole presentation. (watch)
Special announcement of a continuing promo with Ting! Are you interested in fast internet? Visit this site and enter your address to see if you can get service through Ting. If you decide to proceed to make the switch, you’ll get:
Free installation
Second month of Ting service for free
A $75 gift card to the Downtown Mall
Additionally, Ting will match your Substack subscription to support Town Crier Productions, the company that produces this newsletter and other community offerings.
November 1, 2021: CAAR reports lower home sales in third quarter; Early voting statistics from across the region