November 13, 2024: Charlottesville’s transportation staff provides updates on delayed projects, many of which have been reduced in scope to save costs
Plus: Developer Jeffrey Levien wants the Board of Architectural Review to weigh in with replacement of Violet Crown with 18-story residential tower
Why is the number 13 unlucky? Why does Wednesday the 13th not sound as frightening? What is the power of a number and why is 761 so interesting? For one, that’s the correct position for this edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement in whatever ends up being the complete set. 761 is also a prime number. What percentage of the population knows what that means? I’m Sean Tubbs, and I want more people to know.
In today’s installment:
Albemarle County Police arrested a woman yesterday after being asked by Fluvanna County to be on the lookout for her vehicle
The latest figures from the Consumer Price Index are out with energy costs lower but the cost of food going up slightly
The Board of Architectural Review will take a look at two downtown projects next week including a possible renovation of the Violet Crown theater
Charlottesville City Council gets an update on several transportation projects, some of which have been scaled back in scope
First-shout: Charlottesville Jazz Society
One thing about Charlottesville is that there are a lot of places to go out and see live music. The Charlottesville Jazz Society helps get the word out about performers who are advancing the artform in our area. This upcoming weekend is a great time to get out there and hear what it’s all about and the Charlottesville Jazz Society can help you with their calendar. Here’s a sample of what’s coming up to plan accordingly.
Friday November 15: Charles Owens Trio with Charles Owens/sax, Dhara Goradia/bass, Kofi Shepsu/drums, Miller’s Downtown, 10 pm, 434-971-8511
Saturday November 16: The Michael Elswick Gathering with Michael Elswick/sax, Bill Edmonds/guitar, Eric Franzen/keys, David Drubin/drums, Glass House Winery, 2-5 pm, 434-975-0094
Saturday November 16: The K Mac Quartet with Philly musicians Kevin Maconnell/bass, Bob Howell/sax, Dave Posmontier/keys and Virginia’s own Emre Kartari/drums, Possum’s Store, 6:30-8:30 pm, [tickets]
Sunday November 17: John D’earth & Friends, Merrie Mill Farm & Vineyard, 1-4 pm, 434-365-3006
Sunday November 17: The Trio with Bill Edmonds/guitar, Eric Franzen/keys, Danny Barrale/drums, Chisholm Vineyard heated tent, 1-4 pm, 434-971-8796
Sunday November 17: Gina Sobel Duo, Potter’s Craft Cider, 2 pm, 434-244-2767
Sunday November 17: UVA Jazz Chamber Ensembles directed by Pete Spaar, Calvin Brown, Mike Rosensky, UVA Old Cabell Hall, 7 pm, Free, 434-924-3052
Consider calling ahead before traveling as events can sometimes be canceled or postponed last-minute.
Albemarle County Police Department arrests woman after pursuit
A portion of Seminole Trail in Albemarle County was briefly closed yesterday as police officers responded to a public safety alert out of Fluvanna County.
According to Albemarle County public information officer Logan Bogert, the Albemarle County Police Department received a BOLO from the Fluvanna County’s Sheriff’s office reporting a vehicle traveling toward Albemarle.
“ACPD officers located the vehicle and initiated a traffic stop,” Bogert said in an email. “The vehicle failed to yield and a pursuit ensued on Seminole Trail. The vehicle ultimately came to a stop at approximately 2:29 pm.”
Images on social media seem to depict some sort of a stand-off and the incident ended around 3:10 p.m. when an adult female was taken into custody.
“ACPD charged her with obstruction (18.2-460), felony eluding (46.2-817), and felony hit and run (46.2-894),” Bogert wrote.
Linda Jean Eckert of Palmyra was scheduled to appear in Albemarle General District Court this morning for a bond hearing. That has been continued to January 25, 2025.
A request for additional information from the Fluvanna County Sheriff’s office has not been responded to at publication time.
Consumer Price Index up 0.2 percent in October
The national metric used to measure the cost of goods and services went up 0.2 percent in October according to information released this morning by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“The Consumer Price Index (CPI) measures the change in prices paid by consumers for goods and services,” reads an explanatory note at the bottom of a release published at 8:30 a.m.
The consumer price index has increased 2.6 percent over the past year. This time around, the index for shelter increased 0.4 percent as did the index for food.
“Indexes that increased in October include shelter, used cars and trucks, airline fares, medical care, and recreation,” the release continues. “The indexes for apparel, communication, and household furnishings and operations were among those that decreased over the month.”
Energy prices remained the same after 1.9 percent decrease in September. The price of energy is down 4.9 percent over the year.
The CPI does not take into account spending in rural non-metropolitan areas, farming families, people in the armed forces, and people committed to institutions.
Charlottesville Board of Architectural Review to have preliminary discussion of redevelopment of Violet Crown
Developer Jeffrey Levien has two items on the agenda for next week’s meeting of the Board of Architectural Review, both related to downtown properties.
One of them is for 200 West Main Street, currently owned by Violet Crown Cinema Charlottesville LLC. Levien’s company Heirloom Development is listed as the contract purchaser of the property and the Charlottesville Daily Progress reports behind a paywall that he seeks a rezoning or a change to the Development Code to allow for an 18-story residential tower.
No materials for this project are included yet in the packet for the meeting.
The building used currently by the Violet Crown has a 2024 assessment of $6,089,700. A company called DMTP LLC purchased the building for $2.45 million in June 2002. An entity called Violet Crown Cinema Charlottesville assumed control of the property in December 2013 and the former Regal theater was renovated to be a Violet Crown which opened in the fall of 2015.
A request for comment from Violet Crown has not been received by publication time, but they posted on their Facebook page that they are not closing any time soon.
“While we are aware of a potential sale of the property, it is our understanding that this sale has not closed and no decision is final,” reads the post. “As far as we are concerned, we have years left on our lease term and fully intend to operate through all of them and beyond, if at all possible.”
Levien’s first project in Charlottesville is Six Hundred West Main Street, a luxury apartment building that incorporates two commercial structures protected under one of the city’s architecture design control districts. One of them contains the Blue Moon Diner which is expected to close later this month.
Levien’s second project is next door at the site of a former University Tire franchise. Council approved a special use permit for a four-story building in 2019 and there is an approved site plan that has not yet moved forward.
His third project was to have been a redevelopment of 218 West Market Street as another apartment building, but he sold the building to Cavalier Hospitality LLC in September for $5.75 million. Levien said shortly afterward he would remain involved with the project, but he is not directly listed in the BAR agenda.
Cavalier Hospitality LLC has submitted an application for a Certificate of Appropriateness for the project. A discussion on the structure will be had at the meeting, but no votes are expected.
Council approved a special use permit for additional density in September 2020 but Levien has not moved forward with the project.
Under the city’s development rules, applicants can take a project to the BAR for a preliminary discussion to get their feedback. For instance, Levien took a preliminary concept to the BAR for conversion to a hotel before he sold the property.
In January, representatives from the firm Mitchell Matthews Architects and Planners appeared before the BAR to get that body’s thoughts on demolition of two buildings in the 700 block of West Main Street. Materials at that meeting were not shared in advance. The property was placed on the market on February 1 and is listed at $5.9 million. (take a look)
There are no pending land use applications in the development portal for the three properties and no record of whatever the BAR saw in January.
In 2023, the BAR also held a preliminary discussion for a hotel proposed at 843 West Main Street. That project also never moved forward.
The Violet Crown remains open and the website has events listed as far from now as January 19, 2025 when the film Strangers on a Train will be screened.
This story will be updated on Information Charlottesville as new information comes in.
Second shout-out: ACHS taking orders for book profiling local artist Frances Brand
Frances Brand lived from 1901 to 1990 and in her later life she undertook a series of portraits of individuals from Charlottesville and Albemarle County that would become her Gallery of Firsts.
Brand was a U.S. Army major, a civil rights activist, a world traveler, a devoted churchgoer, and an accomplished artist, among other things. Some remember her as a colorful eccentric who loved to dress in purple, while others knew her as a committed and lifelong social activist.
Behind each of Brand’s portraits of these 20th-century pioneers is a special story. To collect some of them, the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society has created a book that features 51 portraits from the full collection of currently known Firsts portraits and share some of the compelling stories about those depicted.
ACHS is taking pre-sale orders now for shipping in November. To place your order, visit the ACHS store.
Charlottesville continues to move forward with several long-delayed transportation projects
The City of Charlottesville has struggled for many years to deliver transportation projects funded by the Commonwealth of Virginia but City Manager Sam Sanders has pledged to address the issue.
“This is really just being transparent about where things have been and really what we have been working to overcome,” Sanders said. “Not placing blame on anybody at this point because I'm past that.”
City Council got an update at a work session on November 4 led by Deputy City Manager for Operations James Freas.
“Tonight's presentation is really going to be about our overall transportation project portfolio and really is going to, at the end of the day, show how we're improving our performance relative to that portfolio and also demonstrate what has really come to be a strong partnership with [the Virginia Department of Transportation].”
In the late 2010’s, City Council applied for and received millions in funding through VDOT’s Smart Scale program which is intended to rank potential projects against a series of criteria. Despite a rule that projects be completed in six years, the City of Charlottesville has failed to break ground on any of them.
Since then, two projects have been formally canceled and the money turned back to VDOT for use by other localities. The city opted not to make new applications in the past two Smart Scale rounds.
Cost estimates for all of the projects have increased due to rising construction prices as well as rising land values for acquisition of right of way. The Commonwealth Transportation Board will likely not increase funding for the projects which means the city has to take other steps.
“One of those strategies is to reduce project scope,” Freas said. “And then the other strategy is to outright cancel some of those projects, projects that had not yet had any funding spent towards their implementation, but canceling those projects so that funding could be redistributed to those projects that we are carrying forward with.”
Council has already canceled the West Main Street Streetscape and an intersection improvement at Preston Avenue and Grady. A third cancellation is pending before the Commonwealth Transportation Board that would have added a second phase to a project to upgrade Emmet Street.
Freas presented data showing the collective worth of all of the Smart Scale projects came with $55,059,142 in funding. The cost estimates have increased to $71,480,127 leaving a shortfall of $17.7 million. Those figures reflect the reduced scope for projects.
One of the projects funded in 2016 is the Emmet Street Streetscape from the intersection of Ivy Road to Arlington Boulevard. The University of Virginia owns most of the land on both sides of the street and has plans to build new residence halls on the site of the now-razed University Garden apartments.
“This is an incredibly important project because it's in partnership with UVA and is improving our, particularly our pedestrian and bicyclist infrastructure on this critical corridor that is heavily used by students, but also by faculty, staff and so on,” Freas said.
This project has increased in cost from the $17.7 million allocated by the Commonwealth Transportation Board to just over $23 million. The University of Virginia has contributed $5 million to this project as well as another Smart Scale project on Fontaine Avenue.
That project has also been reduced in scope taking the cost estimate from an original figure of nearly $18 million to $7 million.
“The original design for this project included fully protected bike lanes on both sides of the street,” Freas said. “The new design keeps us entirely within the existing right of way, for the most part. Includes a shared use path… on one side of the street, which will require removal of parking on that side of the street.”
Freas said the Virginia Department of Transportation will take over administration of this project and will bundle it with work on the roadway in Albemarle County.
Another project funded in 2016 is the East High Streetscape which Freas said picks up where the new Belmont Bridge left off. That project was also long delayed due to a variety of factors, and take a look at the C-Ville Weekly story I wrote in July.
“So the East High Streetscape project, this picks up where the Belmont Bridge project ends, carries those improvements again, particularly those pedestrian and bicycle facility improvements, all the way around to Locust,” Freas said.
This project also includes a stretch of Market Street from East High to City Hall. This project has increased in cost from $10.2 million to $15.6 million. That project is now estimated to be completed by the winter of 2028.
One of the projects with a reduced scope would see intersection improvements at Barracks Road and Emmet Street as well as a ten-foot shared use path built to the east up to Hilltop Road. That has now been reduced to a standard six-foot wide sidewalk to eliminate the need for retaining walls to be built and land to be obtained for those walls.
“All of the improvements, kind of at the intersection remain,” said Brennan Duncan, the city engineer. “The bus stop improvements remain, the pedestrian improvements, pedestrian islands and rebuilding all of our traffic signals and getting better traffic operation at the signal for all modes is still there.”
City Councilor Natalie Oschrin asked if it were too late to consider a different design for the whole intersection.
“I know we’re so far into the engineering and design of it all but was this ever considered for a roundabout?” Oschrin asked.
“No,” Duncan said. “And a lot of that goes into the proximity of the existing buildings that were there. In order to get a roundabout here, the right of way required, we would have had to take all of those businesses.”
Another project staff recommends for cancellation would have seen improvements made to Ridge Street and 5th Street SW.
“Primarily the improvements were at the intersection with Cherry and Elliott,” Freas said. “We were projecting a significant increase in costs and so this is another project within the portfolio that we're proposing at this time to cancel.”
One of the reasons for cancellation is that scope reduction might have reduced the effectiveness of the improvements. Vice Mayor Brian Pinkston said he supported the idea of delaying.
“That's a pretty intense, ambitious project,” Pinkston said. “So I hope we can come back to that at some point. But it does seem wise to wait.”
Councilor Oschrin said she felt the project was too “car-friendly” and she supported its cancellation.
“To nobody's surprise, I'm going to definitely champion the bike lane and pedestrian improvements as the best way to reduce congestion and not widening roads to accommodate additional cars, which just induces demand,” Oschrin said.
Earlier this year at the end of the budget cycle, Oschrin also championed increasing the personal property tax as a way of discouraging car use.
Freas said there are ten other VDOT-funded projects paid for through other programs such as the Transportation Alternatives initiative and a maintenance program called State of Good Repair. The latter is being tapped to cover some of the costs of the $12 million replacement of Dairy Road over the U.S. 250 bypass.
There is a project to improve bike and pedestrian safety at Monticello Avenue and 2nd Street with a cost estimate of $1,289,760. This is anticipated to be completed in the fall of 2025.
There is a project to upgrade the crosswalks at Preston Avenue and Harris Street with a cost of $656,000. This is expected to be completed in the winter of 2025.
Another project is to add a pedestrian refuge island and other improvements at 10th Street and Grady Avenue to bring the intersection into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. This has a budget of $827,235 and is expected to be completed in the winter of 2025.
There is also a project to add a new sidewalk on the western side of Hillcrest Road to complete the pedestrian network around the Covenant School. This has a budget of $1,040,000 and is expected to be completed in the spring of 2025. This project dates back to 2011 to around the time the John Warner Parkway was constructed.
There is also the Rugby Avenue Shared Use Path that now has a budget of $546,010. Bids for this project are due tomorrow. If they come in under budget, the schedule is to have this constructed in the summer of 2025.
The cost estimate to build a 720 foot new sidewalk from Druid Avenue to Quarry Avenue is at $789,000. This will be built this fall.
The Meadowcreek Valley Trail has a cost estimate of $3.5 million and this work “provides a trail connection from Greenbrier Dr in Albemarle County to Brandywine Drive in the City of Charlottesville and includes 2 pedestrian bridges.” Construction is expected in the winter of 2027.
An eight-foot-wide paved tail between Washington Park and Madison Avenue has a cost estimate of $468,250. This is expected to be completed in the summer of 2025.
Charlottesville’s capital improvement fund anticipates ten projects. One of them is the upgrade of Stribling Avenue with a sidewalk that now has a cost estimate of $5,678,179 and is expected to be completed in the spring of 2027.
Sanders said the presentation was not an easy one to make but he is hopeful the city can begin to build on momentum such as the opening of the Belmont Bridge.
“The goal is for us to get a rhythm going and get work done that we all can appreciate,” Sanders said. “But canceling projects right now is still a part of that reboot.”
The presentation did not include any information about a project Council voted on later that evening to reallocate federal Community Development Block Grant funds to a pedestrian bridge across Pollocks Branch. (read that story)
Reading material:
Trump White House likely to abandon OSHA heat safety rule, Construction Dive, Zachary Phillips, November 8, 2024
Less coal, more oil: Climate pollution trends by state, Global Warming Solutions, November 12, 2024
Morning Digest: Virginia Democrats are hungry to flip the attorney general's post, Davir Nir and Jeff Singer, The DownBallot (Substack), November 13, 2024
Prime or not, #761 is over now
The next prime will be achieved in edition #769. When will that come out? I do not know. This is the 11th straight day of publishing something in this feed, a trend which may or may not continue. I have devoted my entire life to this work. Remember that story about Jack Kerouac going crazy as a fire watchman on top of that mountain? Somehow that is what comes to mind.
The world has always been volatile and we are in a time of great upheaval. This edition was originally supposed to have a different story about the forthcoming presidential transition, but I wanted to get something out today on the Violet Crown. Kudos to Jason Armesto for getting that story, but it is behind a paywall.
Posts on both Reddit and Nextdoor did not share the story. This happens a lot, so when I saw them I had to dig in and that took over much of today’s reporting. What will happen tomorrow?
Well, I have to take my father to a medical appointment, so I’m not sure. It is likely tomorrow will be an “off” day for the newsletter, but I am going to at least try to get the September property transactions out. They’re mostly done and I’ll crank that out tonight.
You know the deal by now. If you pay me, I’ll work harder. This work is how I make sense of an irrational world at a time when civics isn’t taught and people shout at each other a lot. Maybe it was always this way. I know I don’t want to yell and I only want to get stories out. I am grateful for the over 700 people who are paying to keep this going.
It is always a good day to become a paid subscriber. If you would like to pay through an alternative to Substack, drop me a line. That can be arranged!
I am also grateful that the internet company Ting has sponsored this newsletter since April 2021 by matching the initial paid Substack subscription for new subscribers. This has really made a difference and it continues.
If you sign up for service and you are within Ting’s service area, enter the promo code COMMUNITY you’re going to get:
Free installation
A second month for free
A $75 gift card to the Downtown Mall
One of the stories has been updated to reflect that the Violet Crown does not expect to close any time soon. The preliminary discussion at the BAR is still scheduled for Tuesday, November 19, 2024.
Dumb question, but when a project is slated to complete “winter of 2025”, I assume that means “late 2025” and not “early 2025”? Winter being a wraparound month it’s sort of ambiguous