October 24, 2024: Riverbend Development seeks permission for 300 more homes at Brookhill in Albemarle
Plus: Early voting in Virginia remains lower than in 2024
Each of us has songs in our head that repeat over and over again. We live in a world where sometimes it seems only a very small fraction of people get the chance to influence the world by capturing what’s in their soul. We also live in a time where many of the entities that read this introduction to the 749th edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement are not sentient. I’m Sean Tubbs, and perhaps after this October 24, 2024 installment I’ll pick up a guitar to do a Turing Test and get some of mine out.
In today’s installment:
With less than two weeks to go, early voting in Virginia is still at lower levels than in 2020
Riverbend Development wants to build more residential units and less commercial space at Brookhill
The Commonwealth Transportation Board agrees to cancel a project on Emmet Street at Charlottesville’s request
The White Hall Ruritans will hold their annual apple butter festival this Saturday
First-shout: WTJU’s Offbeat Roadhouse features Jeff Massanari Trio this week
Every Friday night at 8 p.m, Offbeat Roadhouse on WTJU invites a different musical group into your home for an hour long concert live from WTJU’s performance space. Each week there will be Blues, Folk, Jazz, and Roots acts from around the globe.
This Friday, the Jeff Massanari Trio will pull into the Offbeat Roadhouse for a concert which will also be broadcast on WTJU. The Jazz guitar master will be joined by Tom Harbeck on bass, and drummer David Drubin.
This is a free event, open to all. You can also listen to Offbeat Roadhouse on the radio (91.1 FM) or on-line, and even video stream it at WTJU’s Facebook page or YouTube channel. But concerts always sound better with you as part of the studio audience. WTJU is located at 2244 Ivy Rd in Charlottesville, right next door to Vivace.
Want to see the live event and plan to see more? Check out more on WTJU’s Events Calendar!
Early voting in 2024 in Virginia still lags behind 2020
There are less than two weeks now until Election Day and so far early voting is down by about a quarter by 2020.
Through Wednesday, 1,275,593 Virginians have cast a ballot either by absentee or in-person early voting, according to data collected by the Virginia Public Access Project. That compares to 1.67 million at the same point in 2020.
Of the six localities that make up the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission, only Louisa County is ahead of where voting was in 2020. There have been 7,479 votes have been cast, over 500 more than at this point in 2020.
Early voting in Albemarle is down a third with 20,403 votes cast so far compared to 30,378 in 2020.
In Charlottesville, there have been 7,312 ballots cast this year compared to 12,686 in 2020.
The gap is not as wide in Fluvanna County where there have been 6,624 votes cast through Wednesday. There were 7,227 votes by this point in 2020.
In Nelson County, there were 3,270 votes cast at this time in 2020 and so far in 2024 there have been 2,845 votes.
Voting in Greene County tracks almost at the same rate as in 2020 with 4,155 this year compared to 4,209 four years ago.
Tomorrow is the last day for Virginia residents to request an mail-in absentee ballot. The form can be downloaded here.
Riverbend Development seeks permission to build more homes at Brookhill
As Albemarle County continues work on a Comprehensive Plan intended to guide where future county residents will live, one developer has filed a request to amend a previous rezoning to allow construction of 300 additional dwelling units.
“Brookhill’s planned residential community surrounds a proposed vibrant village town center while preserving over 100 acres of natural open space,” reads a narrative from Riverbend Development for a rezoning application filed on October 18. “The request is made in recognition of the ongoing housing crisis in our region and the need to construct more units at a variety of price points and especially more units that are affordable to households in the area.
The Board of Supervisors approved a rezoning for Brookhill on November 9, 2016 allowing for a maximum of 1,550 residential units and 130,000 square feet of non-residential space. In all, 277.5 acres were rezoned from Residential-1 to the Neighborhood Model District.
As of July 1, 556 of the units have been built but only 3,663 square feet of the commercial space has been constructed. A site plan for the town center area has been under review.
Large rezonings often contain something called a Code of Development which state what could happen and where. The new version does not change any of the approved parameters and the single change is an increase in the maximum density from 1,550 units to 1,850 units.
According to the narrative for this rezoning, the new units would all be built within the town center, an area slated for commercial development that has not materialized.
Riverbend Development has submitted a new traffic study for the new proposal that contains other information.
The old plan anticipated 550 single-family lots but now the proposal is for 116 single-family lots
The old plan called for 600 apartments and the proposal is now for 958 apartments
The previous proposal said there would be 200 townhomes, but the new total will be for 693 townhouses
The proposal called for 100,000 square feet of general retail space but that will now be reduced to 50,000 square feet
Riverbend Development no longer anticipates building office space but had expected to build 80,000 square feet
Other new elements include a health and fitness club with 30,000 square feet and a brewery and tap room with 20,000 square feet
A congregate care retirement center with 179 units has already been constructed
An elementary school with 400 students is still anticipated
Second shout-out: Supporting the Keswick Heritage Fund’s Love Better Project
The Keswick Heritage Fund is a partnership of several churches in Albemarle County that provides education support and opportunities for professional development. One of their outreach programs is the Love Better Project, which provides scholarships to Black students in the Keswick area. The fund was created soon after the inaugural scholarship was awarded in 2020.
Grace Episcopal Church, Union Grove Baptist, Union Run Baptist, Zion Hill Baptist and St. John Church are united for growth through community partnership and education. To learn more about the fund, the scholarships, and the churches themselves, visit their website at keswickheritagefund.com.
Virginia transportation board briefed on cancellation of Charlottesville project
The Commonwealth Transportation Board has heard the details of what the City of Charlottesville has requested cancellation of a funded project.
The city had been awarded $20.5 million for the second phase of improvements on Emmet Street through the fourth round of the Smart Scale program.
“The original scope of the project included bicycle and pedestrian accommodations along Emmet Street with a shared use path on the east side of Emmet Street and on-road bicycle facilities on both sides of the road,” said Kimberly Pryor with VDOT at the October 22 meeting of the CTB.
Pryor said the city is still trying to complete the first phase of the project which had been awarded funds in 2016. This will not be advertised for construction until 2026.
“As you can tell from that lengthy schedule, they've encountered some significant issues with the development of that project,” Pryor said.
The current administration in the City of Charlottesville has realized a lack of capacity to implement projects and two other Smart Scale funded projects have already been canceled. Pryor said Charlottesville realized they would not be able to deliver this second phase without more cost overruns due to inflation.
The final vote to cancel the project will be held in December.
Apple Butter Festival in White Hall this Saturday
For much of its history, Albemarle County has been known for apples. The industry continues tp this day and even grew from 2017 to 2022 according to the most recent United States Department of Agriculture’s census.
In 2017 there were 65 farms that listed an apple orchard on their property on a total of 2,132 acres. In 2022 that had increased to 97 farms and 3,070 acres. (take a look)
There are many celebrations of the apple harvest each year and the products that can be made with them. One is apple butter, and the White Hall Ruritans will have a festival from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Community Center at 2904 Browns Gap Turnpike.
“The cooking will go on all night, Friday night,” said Supervisor Ann Mallek at the October 16 Board of Supervisors meeting. “The canning will begin for the sugar free [butter] will begin at around 11 a.m. and be ready by 2 p.m. and the sugar-content apple butter will be available in the afternoon.”
According to the Crozet Gazette, proceeds from sales will help fund college scholarships.
Reading material for #749
New Class of 2028 leaders promise community-building initiatives, student outreach, Bennett Galper, Cavalier Daily, October 22, 2024
The buzz on a Buckingham County solar farm, Catie Ratliff, C-Ville Weekly, October 23, 2024
Waynesboro voters sue to block election board’s potential refusal to certify 2024 results, Markus Schmidt, Virginia Mercury, October 23, 2024
Candidate Q&A: Albemarle County School Board Rio District seat, Jason Armesto, Charlottesville Daily Progress (paywall), October 24, 2024
Seven and Seven is #749 (with other factors)
Today’s intro is just wordplay based on this being the 749th edition. “Seven and Seven Is” is a song created in the 60’s by a band called Love that plays through my head a lot. The music holds up but the lyrics are not what I remembered. I would love to cover this sometime but I lack a band. Seven and seven is 49 and… sometimes the introductions are just not going to make sense.
This is the shortest edition of the newsletter in quite a long time. There are several factors for that but I’m not sure if they’re worth writing out. Perhaps more editions should be shorter?
Either way, I wanted to get the second shout-out out there because this one is simply at the request of a member of the community and I felt it was a good thing to draw people’s attention to. An individual’s education is key to their success, and the more successful individuals we have, the greater chance at realizing our potential as a species.
The first shout-out is covered through Patreon and I wanted that to get out early enough for people to listen tomorrow night should they choose.
In a perfect world, there is a regular schedule for the newsletter. But the world may never be perfect. This newsletter certainly is not perfect. It’s the work of one person who is still trying to build a system.
That system depends on all of the people who have made a paid subscription. That’s a lot of people now, and I’m still amazed at how many people are reading. I suppose I should plan to keep making more?
I’d like to thank Ting again for their very generous sponsorship. Ting’s support since April 2021 has been instrumental in me helping get this work off of the ground. All of the revenue that comes in commits me to working harder and to be more efficient with each passing day.
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:
Free installation
A second month for free
A $75 gift card to the Downtown Mall
