I am now on vacation which means that I will be mixing things up a little. You may note that this edition is coming out earlier than usual. Perhaps this is the time I transition from an afternoon publication to a morning one. Or maybe this is just what I do when I’m on a journey. Either way, this is Charlottesville Community Engagement and I am Sean Tubbs. Expecting anyone else?
In this edition:
The University of Virginia Health System has purchased a 5.2 acre historic property in Fifeville for $3.5 million
A small grocery store on Preston Avenue said it’s working to stock empty shelves and will stay open
Albemarle Supervisors review the way the next transportation priority list is being developed
First shout out: Botanical Garden of the Piedmont’s Fall Festival
The organization creating a new life in a corner of McIntire Park in the heart of Charlottesville wants you to mark your calendar for October 28 and their Fall Festival! The Botanical Garden of the Piedmont has planned a free day of autumn play from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. with arts and crafts, storytelling, yoga for adults and children, and tours of the Garden.
Some events require registration in advance such as the Befriend Bluebirds Workshop with the Virginia Bluebird Society, a flower arranging workshop, and the yoga. There’s no registration required for other events such as Explore to Read, artist Robin Hoffman’s caricatures, and children’s nature crafts.
For all of the details, visit the Botanical Garden of the Piedmont’s website.
UVA now owns the Oak Lawn property in Fifeville
The University of Virginia has made a major property acquisition in the Fifeville neighborhood by purchasing the historic Oak Lawn estate at the corner of 9th Street SE and Cherry Avenue.
"UVA Health will partner with the Fifeville Neighborhood Association and other community groups to explore how to best use the historic home to support community needs," reads a press release sent out this afternoon.
UVA paid $3.5 million for the property, which is 60.9 percent over the 2023 assessment of $2,175,300. The asking price had been $4.3 million.
The seller is former Charlottesville Mayor Nancy O'Brien who lived in the house for many years with her late husband Francis Fife. He was also once Mayor.
The 5.207 acre property is currently zoned R-1 and would have the Residential-C category under the . However, that would be irrelevant because the University of Virginia outright as the institution does not have to comply with local land use rules or pay real property tax.
The purchase stems from efforts by UVA President Jim Ryan to build connections to Charlottesville neighborhoods.
"UVA Health will work with the neighborhood association and other community groups to consider potential services at Oak Lawn," the press release continues. "There are no current plans to tear down the historic house; it will be used to help provide services to the community."
The rest of the fenced-in property is currently undeveloped but one possibility could be new construction of childcare services, but further study would be required.
Immediate neighbors include Buford Middle School, the Smith Aquatic Center, and a branch of the Boys and Girls Club.
"With UVA Health University Medical Center situated in close proximity to the Fifeville community, our commitment to the Fifeville community and our role as responsible neighbors compels us to further our efforts," the release quotes Wendy Horton, the chief executive officer of UVA Health University Medical Center.
O'Brien has been preparing for an eventual sale. On July 5, 2017, Council granted an easement to a family burial site on the property.
"The purpose of the easement will be to allow access through the Buford site to the Fife family cemetery, which is located at the rear of Ms. O’Brien’s property," reads the agenda for the June 5, 2017 City Council agenda. "If approved the easement would only be available for use after Ms. O’Brien no longer owns 501 9th Street."
This is the second parcel that the University of Virginia has purchased south of the Norfolk Southern railroad tracks. In August 2016, UVA paid $8.73 million to buy a total of 2.63 acres on seven properties on Grove Street and King Street as I reported for Charlottesville Tomorrow at the time.
A draft of the University of Virginia’s master plan depicts housing as a primary use for the land with administration and “community life” for that property. (Grounds Framework Plan points way to future of UVA’s built environment, June 18, 2023)
As for Oak Lawn, the president of the Fifeville Neighborhood Association supports the purchase.
“We look forward to our continued partnership with UVA Health, and to coming together to envision how Oak Lawn can serve the Fifeville community,” said Carmelita Wood.
The purchase comes at a time when work to expand and renovate Buford Middle School to add 6th grade students is underway. Construction of what will eventually be called Charlottesville Middle School.
Independent supermarket on Preston Avenue plans to stay open
A notice has been placed on the inside of the Reid Super-Save Market on Preston Avenue that states the community institution plans to stick around.
“We are NOT closing,” reads the sign written by owner Sue Clements. “Please hang in there with us.”
At least one person has contacted me to express concern that many shelves have been empty. The notice acknowledges this is the case.
“We have seen increases in all our expenses, not just in the cost of product,” reads the note. “With low profit margins in the grocery business, it makes it extremely hard for independent grocery stores like us to operate and make ends meet.”
The store is focusing on keeping its meat and produce shelves stocked and is working on the rest.
In May 2014, two of Charlottesville’s smaller markets closed on the same day, as I reported at the time.
Thanks to Kevin Cox for providing the photo on Facebook. This is an issue that deserves a real deep dive.
Second shout-out: JackFest coming up on October 22
In today’s second subscriber-supported shout-out: Looking for a free fall event for your family that will help raise money for cancer treatments for patients at UVA’s Children’s Hospital? Mark your calendar for October 22 and JackFest at Foxfield in Albemarle County. That will be from noon to 4 p.m. at Foxfield.
The free event is named for Jack Callahan, a boy who beat back metastatic cancer after a 13-month course of intensive treatments in 2019 and 2020. JackFest raises funds for Ronald McDonald House to support families who need assistance while other treatments are underway as well as. Events include:
Kid’s running races and family relays including a Superhero Dash, Kids’ Mighty 1-Mile Run, and a Child-Parent Relay Race
Family activities such as an inflatable obstacle course, bounce house, and slides; a petting zoo, and a truck touch with emergency vehicles
Adult and kid food options - including food trucks - and local beer & wine
While the event is free, people can sign up for the races and the Team Fundraising Challenge at the JackFest website at www.jackfest.net.
Albemarle Supervisors briefed on methodology for county’s new transportation priority list
In a locality of over 115,000 people and growing, there are a lot of demands, desires, needs, requests, and more needs for new transportation projects to help people get around in their vehicle, on a bike, or on foot.
For many years, Albemarle County was focused on saving up secondary road funds for what had been called the Meadowcreek Parkway, as well as improvements to both Georgetown Road and Jarmans Gap Road in Crozet. Looming over all of that was the 6.2 mile Western Bypass, a project funded in 2011 that had its money flow to other projects upon its cancellation.
Around this time, Albemarle filled the long vacant position of transportation planner, and that meant there was capacity on staff for someone to work with the Virginia Department of Transportation to secure funding for the next round of projects. A list of transportation projects was developed and is in the process of being updated for 2024.
Kevin McDermott is the deputy director of planning for Albemarle County. On October 4, he asked Supervisors to focus on the process rather than the individual scores for projects as the new list is created.
“I think we could all recognize that the scores are going to change between now and when we have a final list based on this discussion we’re going to have today,” McDermott said.
Resources:
Albemarle last reordered the priority list in 2019. With funding for projects limited and staff time finite, the prioritization process is intended to provide some sense of order to the 130 current project ideas.
“Our transportation projects are identified through Comprehensive Plans, master plans, small area plans, corridor plans, etcetera, etcetera,” McDermott said. “With all of the plans, it’s difficult for the staff and the Board to know what we should be focusing on.”
The process also gives a chance to document progress. Of the ten projects from the 2019 list, half are fully funded, three are partially funded, and the other two will receive new ranks.
“That trend doesn’t stop after the top ten,” McDermott said. “A lot of our top projects up 20 have all been funded so we did really good work on those priorities from last time.”
Albemarle’s prioritization list uses the same methodology for the Smart Scale process used by the Virginia Department of Transportation. Different scores are calculated for how each projects addresses congestion, fulfills land use and economic development goals, improves safety, equity, and environmental factors.
The draft list only contains the top 50 projects out of those 130.
However, this system is not absolute.
“There are a lot of other considerations when deciding to advance the projects that may not be reflected in this ranking,” McDermott said. “We often did go after projects that were further down the list in 2019. This is usually as opportunities present themselves. Certain development may offer an opportunity for us to work with a developer to move forward on a project.”
Under the draft ranking, the top project is one to reconfigure the junction of Fifth Street Extended and Interstate 64. That had been #19 in the previous list.
“This project is really looking to rebuild that interchange,” McDermott said. “It was listed in the Southern and Western Areas Master Plan and then it was also a high priority in the Fifth Street Corridor STARS Study which was completed recently.”
McDermott explained that this project got an 8 for land use and an 8 for economic development because of the construction of many housing units including Southwood as well as many employment opportunities. The project would also add bike and pedestrian facilities.
“It is located within the federally identified Opportunity Zone and there’s a high level of existing employment already in the area with Covenant School, the county office building, Fifth Street Station, and other uses along Fifth Street,” McDermott said.
McDermott said projects that create better situations for non-motorized transport are favored in the county’s prioritization process.
“Bike and pedestrian facilities adds a lot of points in almost every category,” McDermott said. “That’s reflective of the county’s desire to address climate change and to improve land uses.”
Another intersection project is at the nexus of hundreds if not thousands of planned housing units. Improvements to U.S. 29 and Airport Road had been ranked 41 on the 2019 list but has climbed up to number 2 in the current draft.
“With the continued development of the North Fork Research Park and [the University of Virginia’s] proposals for residential development up there, Hollymead Town Center, North Pointe, everything going on in that area rose that priority up quite a bit,” McDermott said.
The third priority under the draft list would be to build a roundabout at the intersection of U.S. 250 and Old Trail Drive. That project was called for in the recent update of the Crozet Master Plan as scores high because of identified safety concerns.
The fourth priority is a shared use path on Old Lynchburg Road that was called for in the Fifth Street study. The fifth priority is an extension of the Berkmar Drive shared use path from Rio Road to Hilton Heights Road. This was identified as a “Catalyst” project in the Rio 29 Small Area Plan.
“We have a lot of new residential development going on along Berkmar and also non-residential development on the east side of Berkmar,” McDermott said.
McDermott asked Supervisors if they had any feedback. The Supervisor for Jack Jouett said her district may not have any high scoring projects due to one factor.
“Part of the issue that I have in the Jouett District is that we’re so developed that we don’t have very many development projects going on,” McKeel said.
McKeel pointed out that a new apartment complex is under construction on Hydraulic Road and she wanted to know how that could factor into efforts for transportation projects. She also made a pitch for putting an emphasis on the accessibility and equity category.
“Obviously with my high, dense, diverse area in the urban ring I’m really interested in getting people to jobs, to grocery stores, to the drug stores and kids walking to school,” McKeel said.
McDermott said the Office of Equity and Inclusion would be consulted during the process and Director Jesse Brookins would review the list. He said the county has identified underserved parts of the community and that is also taken into consideration.
Supervisor Ann Mallek represents the White Hall District which includes Crozet. She expressed concern that the prioritization list is pushing older projects to the bottom.
“Projects which have been in the process for 15 or 20 years and finally get to the top of the sidewalk list for example and are now off entirely,” Mallek said. “Where does any of that earlier evaluation that ‘yes, this is needed, yes this is an older neighborhood full of naturally occurring affordable housing with no sidewalks, etc. How does that get reflected in here going forward?”
McDermott said the county is also seeking to expand existing sidewalk networks.
“For example, one of the projects in the Crozet area is the Tabor/High Street/Park sidewalks and the fact that that is sort of the first step I think in building out that network because that’s where you get from downtown and the park and the existing sidewalk network to try and get into those neighborhoods, I think that’s why that one came out higher than others,” McDermott said.
“But it’s number 51,” Mallek said, adding that funding for that project had recently been reallocated elsewhere in the county.
McDermott said the county will continue to work on the project even with the lower ranking.
“That’s a project that we have had some discussions with some of the developers in the area on helping us with to reduce the costs so I think there is still a lot of feasibility in moving forward with that one,” McDermott said.
Supervisor Jim Andrews is in his second year as a member of the Board and observed that the priority list is more of an organizational device than a strict set of rules for what will be done.
“I think it’s misplaced for us to look at this too much as a ranking but more as a recognition of where the strengths are for these and where the weaknesses might be,” Andrews said.
Andrews supported a comment McDermott had made during the presentation that some of the 130 projects might be combined over time. For instance, a project to upgrade the intersection of Hydraulic Road, Lambs Road, and Whitewood Road near Albemarle High School has the draft designation of 6a because it tied with several other projects with the same score.
There’s also 20a which would make it easier to walk to AHS and the rest of the Lambs Lane campus as well as a “second-tier” project to build a new loop road to support the campus.
Supervisor Ned Gallaway said he saw all of those as one project.
“There’s no way we do that intersection without that loop road,” Gallaway said. “There’s no solving that section without that loop road so we just have to build that loop road. There’s no solving that intersection without that loop road. So we just have to to build that part of the project and I think you need to rescore that one or start thinking of other things project wise that aren’t so much itemized or so dissected into smaller projects.”
Gallaway said several projects on Rio Road could also be assembled to make one project.
This latest reordering comes at a time when the Commonwealth Transportation Board is considering changes to the Smart Scale process that had been created in the mid 2010’s.
“Since February, the CTB has been engaged in a holistic review of our nationally recognized,
data-driven process for prioritizing multimodal transportation investments to determine if
SMART SCALE is meeting its goal,” reads an October 17, 2023 presentation to the CTB.
Changes could include increasing the weight that economic development plays and reducing the number of applications localities could submit. A virtual town hall will be held on October 31.
Gallaway said the changes to Smart Scale don’t really affect Albemarle’s internal process.
“Our transportation priorities are going to remain the same no matter what the hell they do with Smart Scale,” Gallaway said. “Smart Scale is a funding system, a funding stream. We just have to know how best to get that funding through Smart Scale.”
Reading material:
Architecture graduate students collaborate on Booker T. Washington Park project, Ella Scandura, October 17, 2023
Charlottesville City Council suspends virtual public comment after deluge of racist Zoomers, Jason Armesto, Charlottesville Daily Progress (paywall), October 18, 2023
Wells Fargo to close Charlottesville branch, Reynolds Hutchins, Charlottesville Daily Progress (paywall), October 18, 2023
People who live in tents in Market Street Park explain their ‘Open House’ signs, Erin O’Hare, Charlottesville Tomorrow, October 18, 2023
Parents decry “offensive’ books at School Board meeting, Heather Michon, Fluvanna Review, October 18, 2023
Democracy Isn’t Guaranteed, UVA Experts Say. They’re Planning To Shore It Up, Mike Mather, UVA Today, October 18, 2023
Less Dairy Market? Planning Commission set to vote on new zoning code recommendations, Sean Tubbs, C-Ville Weekly, October 18, 2023
Virginia municipalities crack down on short-term rentals, Sam Brown, Capital News Services, October 19, 2023
Supervisors hire statistician to investigate re-assessment, Amelia Bulletin-Monitor, October 19, 2023
Charlottesville City Council grants preliminary approval to JPA student housing development, Finn Trainer, Cavalier Daily, October 19, 2023
Concluding #592
This edition did not make it out as early as I would have liked. Perhaps the goal on this vacation is to release it earlier in the day? In any case, I’m grateful to have this work as my calling and to seem to not have anything else happening in my life that this work gets my full attention.
This literally is my living, and I’m grateful to the many new subscribers from the past few months. Support through the Substack subscription or Patreon membership really helps me keep going as independent support means that there is not a very wealthy person directing the agenda. Instead there are hundreds of people contributing smaller sums, like you might imagine people paying for a newspaper subscription.
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