October 22, 2024: City Manager Sanders lays out plans to address homelessness including thrift store conversion, two staff members, and six micro-shelters
Plus: A look back at City Council's vote in August to increase rent paid to use Water Street Parking Garage
How do you find out what’s happening? What do you want to know? These are two questions I’d like to know but lack the resources to do an official survey. Each day I find out what’s happening by following a series of steps I’ve put together in order to compile each edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement. I’m Sean Tubbs, here to keep listening and writing.
In today’s installment:
There were no injured today in an early morning fire in an abandoned house on Fifth Street SW that shut down traffic for four hours today
Albemarle County is about to move forward with the conversion of Free Bridge Lane near Darden Towe Park into a pedestrian promenade
Charlottesville City Manager Sam Sanders recommends over $5 million in programs to address homelessness including paying the Salvation Army for a plan to convert a Cherry Avenue thrift store into a low-barrier shelter
Another account of the city’s agreement to pay $1.8 million in rent to use the Water Street Parking Garage
First shout out: Charlottesville E-bike Lending Library
The rolling topography of the Charlottesville area keeps some people away from choosing cycling as an option to get around. Perhaps an e-bike is in order?
That’s where Charlottesville’s eBike Lending Library comes in! E-bikes are a great way to get around the community but there are many brands and styles to choose from. Because many e-bikes are sold online, it can be a challenge to try an e-bike before buying one.
The Charlottesville E-bike Lending Library is a free, not-for-profit service working to expand access to e-bikes in the area. They have a small collection of e-bikes that they lend out to community members for up to a week, for free. You can experience your daily commute, go grocery shopping, or even bike your kids to school, and decide whether e-bikes are right for you. Check out this service at https://www.ebikelibrarycville.org!
Early morning residential fire shuts down 5th Street SW during morning rush hour
Crews with the Charlottesville Fire Department responded today to reports of a fire in the 800 block of Fifth Street SW and found a single family house engulfed in flames.
“Upon arrival, crews encountered heavy flames and access issues due to overgrown vegetation,” reads a post on the Charlottesville Fire Department’s Facebook page. “The home appears to be abandoned.”
According to the city’s property records, the three bedroom house at 806 Fifth Street SW was built in 1962 and was last purchased in March 2020 for $195,500.
No injuries were reported in the blaze. The property is zoned Residential-C under the new Development Code.
Were you affected by the road closure? Did you receive sufficient information? What plans are in place for when a major entrance into the city is suddenly closed?
Albemarle moving ahead with conversion of Free Bridge Lane to a pedestrian promenade
Nearly two years after the concept was introduced to members of the Pantops Community Advisory Committee, Albemarle County will close Free Bridge Lane to vehicular traffic on November 1 for a one-year pilot program.
“Located along the Rivanna River between Darden Towe Park and Route 250, the new promenade will allow pedestrians and cyclists to enjoy the area without vehicle traffic,” reads an information release sent out this afternoon.
The idea stems from the Pantops Master Plan, a document last updated in 2019. Members of the community sought more places for walking and biking and this concept was one of several ideas.
During the one year pilot, Albemarle staff will study how people are using the space to inform what amenities might be needed if the pilot is extended.
“We encourage community members to visit the promenade to stroll, bike, and enjoy nature,” the release concludes.
Sanders announces several upcoming “community interventions”
(First of two parts)
Charlottesville City Manager Sam Sanders is recommending spending over $5 million in various programs to address homelessness in the community including the hiring of two new staff members to serve as a street outreach team. The initiatives were announced Monday during a special work session on “community interventions.”
Sanders has been Charlottesville’s City Manager for just under 15 months and has been with the city now for just over three years. On Monday, he had planned to give a quarterly update on his work plan at the 4 p.m. work session.
“I decided to flip that a little bit and mess with you all and what you might expect, and instead use this time to bring some attention to a series of community matters that have come up,” Sanders said.
Sanders organized his presentation into three categories: Community Safety, Homeless Intervention and Quality of Life. He wanted to give a broad overview of much of what the city is planning to do but will need support from Council.
“Everything that is on the list comes at a huge cost, huge in that simply, it means that you have to make this decision over another decision,” Sanders said.
Sanders said the conversation was also meant to set up a decision on how to use remaining federal funds that came through the American Rescue Plan Act for COVID relief.
Sanders’ presentation was unavailable in digital form at publication time. Images will be added later and as this story is archived to Information Charlottesville.
Community safety
Sanders reminded Council of the formation of the Community Safety Working Group by University of Virginia President Jim Ryan in the wake of a series of violent shootings and the murder of three UVA football players. A report was issued in September 2023 and Sanders said Police Chief Michael Kochis and Human Services Director Misty Graves have been charged with implementation in the city. (read the report)
One program is a pre-arrest diversion program intended to help those at risk.
“The goal would be to intervene in moments, keep an individual who find themselves in an arrest situation, not wrecking their lives forever,” Sanders said. “The goal would be to intervene, try to do what we can as an interdiction and then maybe change the course of their lives before they become someone who finds themselves locked up for a long time.”
Another is a further investment in the city’s new ANCHOR program that responds to public safety service calls where someone involved is experiencing a mental health crisis. The program is currently not operating overnight but the police have identified a need. Sanders said he had no specific financial request for additional funding at this time. The current fiscal year includes $720,787 in funding for the program including funding for four full-time officers.
Sanders said his administration is working to improve pedestrian safety by building more sidewalks, a task he said was difficult because there was no organized list until his transportation planning manager Ben Chambers put one together. Now that can inform the city’s capital improvement program (CIP).
“We want to make progress, we want to move forward every single year,” Sanders said. “I've added a category called urgent infrastructure. And it doesn't mean that anything else is not important. But this urgent infrastructure are just the things that we know we can do right now.”
For instance, Sanders said the city has already taken some steps to address safety concerns at the crosswalk on Elliot Avenue at South First Street where a woman was killed by a motorist on October 3.
“Yes, we did that after we had a loss of life and we should not ever wait for that,” Sanders said. “But in that moment, we were able to figure out what we could do and we got out there and did it. That says to me, I have a team that can do the work. It's us just being able to figure out how to prioritize that work and get it done.”
Sanders has also directed staff to study the lowering of the city’s speed limit to 25 miles per hour except the U.S. 250 bypass. Sanders also has directed staff to come up with more places where traffic calming initiatives like speed bumps and speed humps could be installed.
Homeless intervention: Salvation Army offers to turn Cherry Avenue thrift store into a shelter
Sanders also briefed Council on a plan to work with the Salvation Army both at their expanded facility on Ridge Street as well as an additional location at 604 Cherry Avenue.
“The goal has been to shutter the current Cherry Avenue thrift store and convert it to a low barrier shelter,” Sanders said. The question is how much is it going to cost and who's going to run it? And those are the things that we're still working on.”
Sanders is proposing using $1.5 million of the remaining ARPA funds to the Salvation Army’s capital campaign for their new Center of Hope as well as an additional $2.5 million from the city’s expected budget surplus for the fiscal year 2024.
“The new Center of Hope will be a four-story, approximately 47,000 square feet will increase capacity by nearly 15,000 square feet,” reads an overview of their capital campaign.
This will increase the number of homeless beds from 55 to 114 and add seven more two-bedroom apartments used as transitional housing.
In addition, Sanders suggests spending another $1 million to replace the five years of revenue that that would come from the thrift store if it were to remain open.
The Salvation Army’s facility at 207 Ridge Street is considered a high barrier shelter as explained by Major Mark Van Meter. He said more scrutiny is needed at this site because there are children present in transitional housing.
“So individuals who come in, we do a background check, we do sex registry checks to make sure that legally we can have children and guests on site,” Van Meter said.
Those who make it in are enrolled in a program to obtain paperwork and identification followed by other programs to get them ready for their own place to live.
“This last month, we saw eleven individuals leave our shelter stabilized out of homelessness now as productive individuals in our community, so it is a stopgap that we've created to help give an opportunity for individuals to step into productive living in the community,” Van Meter said.
In contrast, a low-barrier shelter is one where people can get off the street overnight. Van Meter said there is space for 100 beds at their building on Cherry Avenue.
Sanders is suggesting spending $250,000 in ARPA funds to help equip the site and will seek the remaining $500,000 necessary from Albemarle County and other partners. The Salvation Army might not operate the facility but that detail has not yet been worked out.
“We need to dedicate an annual contribution towards the operations of the shelter facility as well, and that is at $500,000 a year,” Sanders said.
Sanders is also proposing hiring two city staff members to run a homeless program. Currently those services are outsourced to nonprofits but Sanders said the city wants to understand more about why people find themselves unhoused. Some of those nonprofits do not have the capacity.
“And I am proposing that we do that in the way of a street outreach team,” Sanders said. “So that would be two staff members who would have the job of just constantly being out and about and interacting and engaging and finding out information to bring back that can be processed and synthesized by the city government.”
In the near future, another program will come before City Council as well, but Sanders did not have details but that would have a price tag as well.
Sanders said the city is also investigating purchasing its own micro-shelters.
“We have found communities across the country that are doing micro communities where they are finding a location, and they're adding these units in the form of single and double occupancy spaces,” Sanders said. “It gives you the ability to be inside versus outside. There are some facilities that have a restroom inside, and then there's separate restroom facilities. So that you truly can make the micro community happen.”
Sanders is suggesting the city spend $600,000 in ARPA money to purchase six of the units. He added the City of Birmingham, Alabama is planning on installing a hundred of them and these six would be a test to see if they could be installed near services.
There was no mention of the $4 million in ARPA money the city paid the Charlottesville Redevelopment Housing Authority for their property at 405 Avon Street, a property they still use rent-free from the city.
As for quality of life, that will be a story in the next edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement with the second part of this story.
Second shout-out: JMRL Friends of the Library reports another record Book Sale
Sadly the most recent book sale held by the Friends of the Jefferson Madison Regional Library has come to an end, but the numbers are in! The recent fall sale at Albemarle Square Shopping Center was a success as community members came out and spent $166,367! That’s a new record and the fifth in a row!
Soon the Friends of JMRL will begin taking new items for the spring sale, but it’s important to point out where the proceeds go. The principal purpose of the Friends of the Library is to raise additional funds for the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library so that:
Children and adults at all branches may enjoy programs to enrich their learning
The various collections of the library system may be enhanced
Library branches may receive donations and funding assistance in emergencies
For more information, visit the Friends of JMRL website!
Charlottesville now pays the private Charlottesville Parking Center $1.8 million a year to rent the Water Street Parking Garage
This past weekend, Jason Armesto wrote an article for the Charlottesville Daily Progress that documents City Council’s August 5, 2024 vote on a budget supplement to pay the Charlottesville Parking Center more money to reflect the terms of a 1994 ground lease.
That’s a story I’ve been meaning to get to and the article nudged me to finally go back and write my own.
For much of its history, the Water Street Parking Garage was operated through an amicable public private partnership created to build another place for downtown visitors to park. The Charlottesville Parking Center is the owner of the land underneath the garage.
Both the city and the CPC were among the members of an eight-member condominium organization that sets rates and other policies.
“The condo board, barring any changes, is made of eight members,” said Chris Engel, the city’s director of economic development since February 2012. “The city has five. There are three others. It takes 70 percent or six members to have them take action per the bylaws of that entity as it was established originally in the nineties.”
In August 2014, a property investor named Mark Brown became the single shareholder and the relationship quickly became hostile. He managed to buy enough spaces in the garage to control that sixth seat, allowing the city to lose control.
In 2016, CPC filed suit against the city alleging they were setting prices at the garage artificially low. The city filed a countersuit alleging CPC breach of contract for purchasing 106 spaces from Wells Fargo without giving a right of first refusal.
Charlottesville Parking Center files lawsuit against Charlottesville, Charlottesville Tomorrow, March 16, 2016
City files countersuit against Charlottesville Parking Center, Charlottesville Tomorrow, April 29, 2016
Truce: City and Mark Brown settle parking garage dispute, C-Ville Weekly, July 25, 2018
The two sides settled in 2018 and Brown sold some of the Wells Fargo spaces to the city. The terms allowed the city to operate the garage how they wanted and a firm hired by the city took over day-to-day management.
Engel appeared before City Council on August 5 to give an update on where things stand.
“As you are aware, the city does not own the land under the garage,” Engel said. “We are operating under a 99 year ground lease currently for that. That started in 1994, and that agreement basically resets every ten years based upon the fair market value of the land, as if it were unimproved. That is, no garage on top of it.”
For the first ten years, the condo association paid $131,000 a year, a figure that increased to $167,691 for the next ten years. In year 23 of the lease, the payment to CPC increased to $415,000. These were payments were not based on fair market value.
To come up with a new figure post 2024, both CPC and the city hired firms to conduct appraisals and a new calculation is based on the average payment.
The city hired Noble Value Consulting and their market analysis points to a city that is stable with some signs of trouble downtown. (view the appraisal)
“Supply and demand for property is approaching an oversupply of redevelopment projects,” reads page 16. “Also note that development has stalled in the neighborhood. Across Water Street from the Subject property is an abandoned 10-story concrete frame of a failed hotel development.”
The next page mentions the city-owned parking lot where developer Keith Woodard proposed Market Plaza, a city-commissioned design that the report notes “failed to materialize.”
Noble Value Consulting came up with a fair market rent of $778,080 based on a land value of $12,968,000.
Brown hired Holtzman Appraisal and Consulting Services who came up with a fair market rent of $2.45 million a year based on a land value of $22,260,000. (view the appraisal)
Their market analysis points to three projects within 0.2 miles of the Water Street Parking Garage: Apex Plaza, the CODE Building, and the first phase of Kindlewood.
Engel said there are 67 years left on the ground lease and said attempts were made to negotiate with CPC and the proposed annual payment of $1.8 million is the result.
“The benefits of the negotiated settlement include no interruption to the current parking system, no reduction in inventory,” Engel said. “Obviously, the Water Street Garage is used significantly, although not to its fullest capacity, every day.”
Engel said the rent will increase every year by either three percent or by the consumer price index as well as a 15 percent increase in 2034.
“So we have cost certainty for 20 years,” Engel said. There’s also an option to purchase the land in 2044 based on the fair market value. The city could also choose to sell the spaces it owns in the garage at that time.
“I know none of that is very satisfactory and exciting for you all, but parking is part of what cities do, and this agreement was entered into many years ago,” Engel said.
Engel did not mentioned the fact that the city was planning to build a new municipal parking garage at the corner of East Market and 9th Street. In late 2016, City Council agreed to purchase a 0.4 acre lot for $2.85 million for this purpose as part of an overall parking plan.
“We are pleased to announce today that the city has entered into a purchase agreement for a nearly half acre parcel of property located at the corner of 9th and Market St. in downtown Charlottesville,” reads a four-page hand-out given out to attendees of a November 15, 2016 press conference. “Control of this strategic property will better position the city to address its future parking needs.”
In early 2021, the Charlottesville Planning Commission voted to recommend defunding of a capital project on the land. City Councilors Payne and Snook agreed with the Planning Commission’s recommendations that year which was to reduce funding from a proposed $8 million in FY22 to $1 million. That effectively killed the project. (Charlottesville PC recommends adjustments to FY22 capital budget, including defunding parking garage, February 10, 2021)
The city still owns the property and collects rent from the Lucky 7 Convenience Store and the Guadalajara Restaurant.
City Councilor Brian Pinkston was elected in 2021 and said the additional payment is hard to stomach.
“A deal that was set up back in the nineties that we're sort of stuck with,” Pinkston said. “That kind of in some ways seems like it's taken on a life of its own in terms of the owners and what they're wanting to force the city to pay.”
Brown has not yet responded to a request for comment.
Council received legal advice about the settlement in several closed meetings. The city is currently without an official attorney and is relying on advice from the firm Sands Anderson. City Councilor Lloyd Snook explained why he supported the deal.
“One of my questions, being a lawyer, was, well, surely there is some option to go to a judge or to go to court, basically to make them give us a better deal,” Snook said. “And the advice that we received was, well, there really isn't an option to do that.”
A question moving forward is: What other public-private partnerships might one day turn sour? Will staff members 30 years from now understand what deals are being made today and why?
Reading material for #748
Cville Right Now Live: Jaclyn Piermarini, Marshall LeMert, Sean Tubbs, Cville Right Now, October 21, 2024
22% of Charlottesville families do not make enough money to meet basic needs, report says, Jacob Phillips, WVIR 29News, October 21, 2024
Federal judge orders release of names impacted by voter rolls purge in Virginia, Brad Kuttner, WVTF Radio IQ (via WHRO), October 22, 2024
The conclusion of #748
This morning around 8 a.m. when I was about an hour into my work day, I heard a lot of sirens in the area. I checked Pulse Point and saw a report of a residential fire at the intersection of Cherry and 5th Street. When such things happen, people in the information business want to know what’s happening and to communicate to people about how they might be affected. People want to know if people are safe, and if they should avoid the area.
At about 8:05 a.m. I realized I could see the smoke from my front window and the plume was quite large. I did not get a good picture of it but I did a small video on Facebook live. My inquiry to the city was sent at 8:05 a.m.
I thought I signed up for reports from the city when there’s a public safety emergency. Many people asked on social media why the roadway was shut down, and I did my best to respond. I listened to the reports but a good rule of thumb is not to communicate what you think you hear from the audio of the service calls because the information is not verified.
No one was injured and the house is believed to be abandoned. But I do wonder what the city’s plan is if a major roadway is closed as Fifth Street SW was in both directions today for four hours. How would people find out? How did they find out? Whose responsibility is it to inform the public?
These questions are rhetorical. I do what I can and appreciate those who contribute through Patreon and Substack. Those who do so through Substack for the first time trigger a match from Ting. Ting is a believe in the community and so am I, and I’ve been pleased to have their support now for three and a half years.
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
