October 21, 2024: Charlottesville to cancel another Smart Scale project; Three Albemarle Supervisors support potential swapping of growth area boundaries
Also: The city reports there are no lead water pipes in Charlottesville
In this Leap Year, October 21 is the 295th day of the year and we are now 80 percent of the way through to next year. For those who would like to skip 2025, there are 437 days until January 1, 2026. For those who love their annual rotations to have an extra daily spin, there are 1,167 days until 2028. But for now it is the present, and your gift is this edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement. I’m Sean Tubbs, and I’m content whenever I am.
In today’s installment:
A Charlottesville man died Saturday night at the scene of what Albemarle Police describe as a gang-related shooting
Charlottesville is giving up funding for another Smart Scale project, the third time money is being returned to Richmond
There’s still no word from a Charlottesville Circuit Court judge about whether a trial will be held for a lawsuit against the city’s zoning code
Charlottesville reports that there are no more lead pipes conveying water in the city
The Albemarle Board of Supervisors weigh in on growth area expansion at their first review of new material in the AC44 Comprehensive Plan update
First-shout: Charlottesville Jazz Society hosts bassist Stephan Crump on October 27
Charlottesville Jazz Society is an organization that seeks to build local audiences for one of this country’s greatest artforms. To that end, the Charlottesville Jazz Society and WTJU will present Grammy-nominated bassist/composer Stephan Crump this Sunday at 4 p.m. at the Front Porch.
This is a rare solo performance for Crump and it will explore his unique musical language through an expansive range of sonorities on the acoustic bass, showcasing decades his of work as a bassist, composer, and improviser.
Tickets to see Stephan Crump on Sunday afternoon October 27th at 4 pm are available online. After the concert, walk across the mall to Miller’s for a free concert by Ivan Orr and Friends, also sponsored by The Charlottesville Jazz Society. For more information call 434-249-6191.
Man killed Saturday night in gang-related shooting at Rio Hill apartments
A Charlottesville man died during a shoot-out Saturday night in Albemarle County near Fashion Square Mall.
Albemarle Police responded to a shots-fired call reported at the 1600 block of Rio Hill Drive after several reports of multiple gunshots.
“Upon arrival, officers found Zerrion Eubanks-Warfield, 23, of Charlottesville, VA, deceased,” reads a press release sent out late Sunday morning.
A second person was taken to the University of Virginia Medical Center for non-life-threatening injuries. Several vehicles and apartments were shot during the incident.
“Investigators believe the shooting is gang-related,” the release continues. “There remains an increased police presence in the area as the Albemarle County Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Division continues its active investigation.”
Police are asking anyone who may have information about the incident to contact the ACPD at 434-269-5807 or Crime Stoppers at 434-977-4000.
CTB to consider cancellation of another Charlottesville transportation project
For many years, the City of Charlottesville accepted funding from the Virginia Department of Transportation’s Smart Scale initiative for a series of projects.
So far, none have proceeded to construction and the city asked the Commonwealth Transportation Board to cancel both the West Main Streetscape as well as funding to reconfigure the intersection of Preston Avenue, 10th Street NW, and Grady Avenue.
On Tuesday, the CTB will consider another cancellation. In the fourth round of Smart Scale, the city requested and received $20,465,490 for a project titled Emmet Street Multimodal Phase 2.
The project scope was for “bicycle and pedestrian accommodations along Emmet Street between Arlington Boulevard and Barracks Road to include a shared use path on the east side of Emmet Street and on-road bicycle facilities along both sides of the road.”
This month, the city formally requested cancellation because a first phase is still in the planning stages despite being in development since 2016.
“The current estimate is severely underfunded due to inflation, unit costs, and higher than anticipated right of way costs,” reads a slide in the presentation for the CTB tomorrow. “The City of Charlottesville reassessed its commitments to transportation improvements and wants to deliver underway projects within their portfolio before undertaking new starts.”
Charlottesville has skipped the last two Smart Scale cycles because the relatively new administration of City Manager Sam Sanders realized the city did not have the capacity to manage projects. Sanders has pledged to improve the system by hiring more staff and the city’s website now lists the status update of various projects.
The Emmet Streetscape project was funded in 2016 and is in the land acquisition phase. This initiative “provides a shared use path, improved bus stops, landscaping, improved pedestrian crossings, and a tunnel under the railroad tracks between Ivy Road and Barracks Road.”
Since the project was funded, the University of Virginia has embarked on development of the Emmet / Ivy corridor where the School of Data Science has recently been completed and other projects such as the Karsh Institute of Development are under construction.
UVA is also seeking to build new residential halls along this stretch of road just to the north of Lambeth Commons. Last June, Council officially accepted $5 million from UVA to cover some of the cost of this streetscape as well as one at Fontaine Avenue that will along other things help for additional traffic between a growing Fontaine Research Center and Maury Avenue.
Tomorrow’s discussion at the CTB is an introduction. The actual vote to cancel the project will come at their meeting in December.
No ruling yet in White V. Charlottesville
It has now been almost four months since Charlottesville Circuit Judge Claude Worrell presided over a 90 minute hearing on whether a lawsuit against Charlottesville’s new zoning code will proceed to trial. That happened on June 27, 2024.
Earlier this year, a group of Charlottesville residents sought legal action to void the new zoning claiming it would harm them personally. A law firm hired by the City of Charlottesville has argued the plaintiffs don’t have standing to bring the case.
Judge Worrell asked both sides to present a closing argument in writing and both sides turned into their briefs by the August 23 deadline.
Both have complied and both sides await a ruling on whether the case will proceed.
“Plaintiffs disagree with a policy decision, made by the elected members of the Charlottesville City Council, carefully designed to address a severe housing shortage in Charlottesville,” reads the introduction to the closing argument in the city’s defense. (read the document on cvillepedia)
“The City failed to follow the process mandated by the General Assembly in adopting the Zoning ordinance by failing to submit the Zoning Ordinance and the Comprehensive Plan on which the Zoning Ordinance is based to VDOT as required by Virginia Code,” read the response from the firm Flora Pettit. (read the document on cvillepedia)
In September, a Fairfax Circuit Court Judge ruled that Arlington County enacted its Expanded Housing Option program without enough consideration of the impacts of additional density. That program allows up to six units on lots that had only been zoned for one. ARLNow reported in early October that Arlington has put all pending permit applications on hold while the county considers an appeal.
Meanwhile, Charlottesville continues to accept applications under a Development Code that is much more expansive and transformative than Arlington’s EHO program.
Charlottesville reports there is no lead in city’s system of water pipes
The City of Charlottesville’s Utilities Department has announced that a federally-mandated inventory of the city’s water distribution system has revealed there are no remaining lead pipes.
“In 2021, the Environmental Protection Agency released revisions to the Lead and Copper Rule, requiring all water providers to identify and create an inventory of all water service lines within their distribution system,” reads an information release sent out this morning.
The city began their review in 2022 using previous inventories, research of city documents and testing water quality. In 2023, they added a tool developed by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) in the wake of the Flint water crisis.
In that case, the City of Flint switched their municipal water supply from the one operated by the City of Detroit. Contaminated water traveling through an inadequate system elevated levels of lead in blood, prompting a national response. Flint and EGLE entered into a consent agreement in 2018 describing how lead pipes would be replaced, and the draft of an update was released this past May.
Charlottesville won’t have to do that work because the report has concluded there are no lead pipes.
“The locations identified by the EGLE method were field verified and no lead service lines were found,” the Charlottesville release continues.
As part of the work, the city has released an ArcGIS dashboard showing their research. (visit the dashboard)
Second-shout out: Design Develop
In today’s Patreon-fueled shout-out, architectural firm Design Develop is offering a new service aimed at the development community that the rest of us might want to know about , too — 3D point cloud scanning! This technique uses specialized equipment, such as 3D scanner systems, to gather a large amount of data points that represent the surface of the scanned object or scene. This really comes in handy when working with historic structures, as the firm knows from its experience in Baltimore and Charlottesville. Read their blog post for more information!
The applications of 3D point cloud scanning are extensive and cover various fields, including architecture, construction, cultural heritage preservation, virtual reality, industrial design, manufacturing, and more. These applications require accurate 3D spatial information, and Design Develop’s workflow provides precise and comprehensive results, all while being more cost-effective than traditional methods.
Design Develop has expertise in this workflow for their own needs and now has a dedicated team offering this service in the Charlottesville and Albemarle Area. If you're involved in the real estate, design, or construction industry, contact them for more information or a free quote.
Visit their website for an introductory video that captures the 3D point cloud scanning of the Downtown Transit Center and a booklet that will explain more!
Albemarle Supervisors discuss growth management policy at AC44 work session
While Albemarle staff may have had the ability to put the county’s Comprehensive Plan process on hold earlier this year to make changes, the final say on how the document will be updated will be up to the six people elected to the Board of Supervisors.
Elected officials got the first chance to review some of the new language staff has introduced as the third of four phases of the AC44 process begins.
Supervisors had their first look at the new structure of the document at their meeting on October 16 and spent two and a half hours discussing a growth management policy that is largely remaining the same as the one first adopted in 1980 and most recently ratified in June 2015 when the Comprehensive Plan was last updated.
The growth area management policy is expected to be largely the same in AC44.
“Currently, the development areas are approximately 37 square miles, or five percent of county land, and the rural area is 95 percent of county land,” said Tonya Swartzendruber, a planning manager in Albemarle.
As they did with the Planning Commission on October 8, county staff described what they’ve been up to since the end of the second phase of the four phase AC44 process. If you’re unfamiliar with some of these terms, take a look at the story linked above for additional background.
“The document had sort of a structure previously, and it's taken several months of internal work to come up with a revised structure,” said Planning Director Michael Barnes. “The new one is going to have these four sections of the introduction, the growth management policy and ten topic area chapters. The real change here is putting the growth management policy front. It's a master policy that really governs everything that we sort of do in the community.”
Another change made by staff is that the “economic development” will now be called “thriving economy.” Anything related to climate change is in the “resilient community” chapter.
Between now and April there will be work sessions on each chapter. The Planning Commission will review the land use chapter on Tuesday, October 22. Barnes said the hope is to have a public hearing on the entire plan in July 2025.
Supervisor Ned Gallaway of the Rio District said he understood why staff was introducing each chapter individually, but he wanted to be clear that he may need to reserve judgment until he’s seen the entire document.
“It's very iterative, it's very disjointed,” Gallaway said. “But I don't want anybody getting unhappy if it seems like you guys are pulling into the parking lot for the final time. And I said, let's go back out for a run.”
Supervisor Ann Mallek of the White Hall District also said all of the ten chapters will need to fit together.
“Philosophically, all ten of them make up our quality of life, and so they live together in the same bucket,” Mallek said. “And we will get there eventually. But I agree with Ned. We're going to have to keep stirring the pot until we get it just right. And I am very happy, as one person, to have extra meetings to make sure we do this right.”
One of the items for review was language in the Growth Management Framework.
Supervisor Ann Mallek said she felt there was language missing from the framework that explained why the rural area was created in the first place. Soon after the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir was created in 1967, officials realized it was silting in quickly and intense development nearby would speed up that process by increasing the amount of stormwater runoff.
“What is missing here is mention of the drinking water, watershed protection for the growth area,” Mallek said. “I think it's really important for the community to understand where their drinking water comes from and to know that it's not just frou frou scenery out there, but it is real survival out there that's being provided.”
Supervisor Mike Pruitt of the Scottsville District, the youngest member of the Board, said he appreciated understanding the historical reasons why the growth area was put into place.
“I did not originally appreciate as a newcomer to this community the role that water quality had made in the formulation of our Comprehensive Plan,” Pruitt said. “I do think that detail is something that is critical and something that when we communicate with, frankly, young people in the urban ring, young people in Charlottesville, people who have arrived in this community and don't quite understand the history of this plan.”
Supervisor Gallaway said the decision on whether to expand the growth area is a political conversation. He added there are many people who want to expand the growth area who also want to protect water quality.
Staff will come back with suggested language on this point at their next meeting with the Board.
Strange bedfellows
Before Supervisors got into their review, two members of the public took advantage of the comment period.
But first, members of the public had the chance to offer their comments.
Crozet resident Tom Loach has been a watchdog on the growth area for many years. He has recently been calling upon Supervisors to end the land use taxation program that allows rural area property owners to pay a lower amount if they are engaged in agricultural activity.
“While I don't often agree with the development community on growth and development issues, I have to agree that the county can no longer kick the can down the road when it comes to growth area expansion,” Loach said. “If in fact a trajectory towards expansion of our growth areas, or conversely, the end of rural preservation, then note there is no further need for land use tax subsidy program.”
Loach said the program has cost residents hundreds of millions of dollars over the years to subsidized rural preservation and it will be up to Supervisors to decide how to proceed.
Neil Williamson of the pro-business Free Enterprise Forum used his public comment to ask a series of rhetorical questions about whether Albemarle is truly a “welcoming” place before giving the position his organization has advocated for for over 20 years.
“While residents and electeds say they wish to be welcoming, their actions say otherwise,” Williamson said. “Our community should be encouraging new residents. It should be encouraging diversity and inclusion. How could Albemarle be more welcoming? By expanding the 1970s era development area boundaries.”
Monitoring how the growth area is used
The next Comprehensive Plan will have clearer language about how the county will measure its progress toward accommodating population growth.
“We need to know where we stand on the actual build out and land capacity of the development areas,” Swartzendruber said. “While the most recent land use build out analysis done in 2022 indicates there is sufficient capacity to accommodate projected growth over the next ten to 20 years, this hinges on projects building at the high end of recommended density and intensity of uses.”
That analysis concluded developments in Albemarle created through rezonings have come in at 58 percent of total capacity. Staff wants to keep a closer eye on that number by performing a new analysis every two years.
Supervisor Pruitt said that recurring analysis also has to come with some sense of how the county might expand should certain targets get hit.
“At some point if our growth patterns do not change, I think the whole board recognises that the development area will have to change,” Pruitt said. “And I'm not saying that's today, I'm not saying this something we have to decide today, but it is something that has to happen.”
Pruitt said that means the county should be identifying where the expansion might be when the time comes and how that might happen. He suggested the county consider creating a new place where development could be focused rather than what he described as “nibbling around the edges.”
Jodie Filardo, Albemarle’s Community Development Director, said that sort of information will come later during the Comprehensive Plan process.
“We're trying to get to the biggest picture tonight and then we'll start the drill down with the subsequent chapters that you'll see,” Filardo said.
Rather than a two-year review, Gallaway suggested that each rezoning application have a narrative explaining what the effect will be on the overall growth area. He said he was opposed to the rezoning for what will be the Rio Point subdivision because he felt there was too much density at that location.
Gallaway brought up a rezoning in the Village of Rivanna growth area near Glenmore that had been sought by Southern Development. The company sought a rezoning of 84 acres in the growth area from Rural Area zoning to R-4, which generally allows four units per acre. After opposition from nearby residents, the request was whittled down to 160 units. Supervisors deadlocked on a vote in January 2021 for that proposal, but later approved an 80 unit development on October 6, 2021.
At the time, Gallaway warned about the lost potential toward the county’s overall Comprehensive Plan goals.
“In that conversation we should have said that's a defined development area and if we only approve one unit per acre there, here's what that means for the rest of the development area,” Gallaway said. “If we're not getting the density out of a Village of Rivanna , that's a defined development area, where can we get that density back at that's reasonable without necessarily changing the 5 percent.”
(This paragraph was updated on October 26, 2024 to clarify LaPisto-Kirtley’s comments)
Supervisor Bea LaPisto-Kirtley said she listened to opponents of the Breezy Hill rezoning who argued for the lowest density range. She now wishes Supervisors had approved more density and said the body has to get better at approving the residential density called for in the Comprehensive Plan.
“I'm not one that wants to see the development area expanded at this time, I think in the future, and I've told people that maybe 10, 20, 30 years down the road, I'm not sure when, but I think we need to make use of what we have,” LaPisto-Kirtley said.
Barnes said the next chapter that will come before the Board is a discussion of the land use chapter that might recommend changes such as allowing additional density by-right. Gallaway said that was an example of how the current process is disjointed.
“In a development utilization review, if we're talking about the capacity, then we need a baseline,” Gallaway said. “It is a policy decision to allow redevelopment from R-2 to R-6 by-right. And if it's going to allow the development area to stay as it is longer, then we need to know what that means.”
Supervisor Ann Mallek said too much has been made about the figure of 58 percent because its based on a theoretical maximum of 36 units per acre, a residential density that hasn’t been built anywhere in Albemarle. For instance, she said the apartment complex at Old Trail is at 19 units per acre.
Supervisor McKeel agreed with Gallaway about the notion of trading out development areas if the Village of Rivanna will not be built out.
“It's been sitting there,” McKeel said. “So if we can look at somehow or another and maybe this is not the right place to talk about it, but trading land without expanding but looking at where there are possibilities to do some trade where it's actually going to happen?”
Supervisor Jim Andrews suggested the county should base decisions based on capacity versus the build-out analysis.
“There's an amount of land here and that land is finite and we can try to keep track of it and we don't have to look at numbers, percentages that don't necessarily mean anything to us, when we could actually have a better sense of what is the capacity, how much acreage is there that's undeveloped and what kind of acreage is it,” Andrews said.
Andrews also cautioned against assuming the development area will ultimately be expanded.
“I guess I want to keep that perspective when I look at it and say, okay, what can we do in the development area?” Andrews said. “I think it may be appropriate, instead of saying expansion of the development areas, talk about changing development area boundaries, because it may be that a shift of development areas may be the more appropriate way in which we handle this initially.”
The Albemarle County Planning Commission will take up the land use chapter at their meeting on Tuesday, October 22. All of the county’s community advisory committees will meet on October 30 for a joint meeting to review the phase 3 work to day.
That includes the Village of Rivanna Community Advisory Committee. This year, Supervisors appointed new members for the first time in two years. The entire VORCAC committee resigned in protest in April 2022.
Reading material for #747
Seeking community help to name project, Sharra Klug, CBS19 News, October 16, 2024
Dozens get speeding tickets on Seminole Trail, Sharra Klug, CBS19 News, October 18, 2024
#747 could have been more jumbo!
Kudos to Charlottesville Daily Progress reporter Jason Armesto for his piece on the city’s increase in the payment it makes to the Charlottesville Parking Garage. It’s behind a paywall here if you want to take a look.
I’ve been meaning to get to this one since the August 5, 2024 meeting when the decision was made. According to my story inventory management system, I covered several other stories from that meeting:
City Hall has reopened for business after major water leak in 2023, August 7, 2024
Council holds first reading on salary increase for future counterparts elected after next November, August 7, 2024
Carlton Mobile Home Park owner accepts Habitat counter-offer day after Council agrees to contribute $8.7M, August 8, 2024
Charlottesville authorizes enhanced role of Office of Human Rights in housing investigations, August 8, 2024
Charlottesville’s Commissioner of the Revenue seeks your cans, August 15, 2024
Since then I’ve written nearly 200 more stories. Some short. Some long. All part of my commitment and passion to do this work.
I kept meaning to get back to the parking story but as a one-person operation, I can’t get to everything. But I will write up my version of the story tomorrow to add to Jason Armesto’s coverage. The more stories on any topic, the more informed the public might be.
Without journalism, how will people find out what’s happening? How can elected officials and government staff be held accountable? I’m a proud subscriber of the Charlottesville Daily Progress and have fond memories of the nine years my work appeared in print.
I’m planning on doing this work in this community for as long as I can because I want to see how these stories turn out. This is the work I’ve always wanted to do, and I’m grateful for the portion of the audience that has opted to contribute.
And I try my best to be humble in how I ask for money. I am not the only resource in town, but I’m one of a handful of journalists in this market with more than 15 years of experience. That’s valuable, and I thank those who have stepped up with a paid subscription.
Your work pays me directly to keep this as my full-time job. And there’s certainly enough to write about each week! And if you do pay through Substack, Ting will match your initial payment.
If you sign up for service and you are within Ting’s service area, enter the promo code COMMUNITY you’re going to get:
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CLARIFICATION: The paragraph describing Supervisor LaPisto-Kirtley's comments has been updated to clarify what she said. I had paraphrased and what's written now better explains her intent.