September 16, 2024: Places29-North group gets an update on High School Center II, new elementary school for southern Albemarle
Plus: Planning continues for AC44 and the Planning Commission Chair asks staff to update the county website
In a Commonwealth of over eight million people, there are bound to be many items worth celebrating and remaking upon. For the week that began yesterday, The General Assembly has designated six official periods. Three of them are Fall Prevention Awareness Week, Healthy Virginians / Healthy Students Week, and Silence Empowers Violence Break the Code Awareness-to-Action Week. I’m Sean Tubbs and I’ll list the other three in tomorrow’s Charlottesville Community Engagement but for now its the one for September 16, 2024.
In today’s installment:
An update on planning for two future schools in Albemarle County
Albemarle staff continue to work on the update of the county’s Comprehensive Plan
Visitors to Albemarle and Charlottesville spent nearly $1 billion in 2023
The public comment period is open for proposed changes that would reduce the time home-based child daycares need to conduct background checks on residents over the age of 14
First-shout: Friends of Charlottesville shed a Downtown Spotlight
In today’s first subscriber-supported shout-out: Friends of Cville have launched a new web show called the Downtown Spotlight that brings conversations from local business owners, community leaders, and more who make up the Downtown Mall. Each episode will feature in-depth interviews, behind-the-scenes looks at beloved local establishments, and stories that highlight the spirit of our community. The most recent show show featured Charlottesville’s Assistant Director of Economic Development and a look at the upcoming Cville Sabroso Festival. Watch here!
The Downtown Spotlight will air the second Thursday of each month, at 2:30pm. View all of the all episodes through the organization’s Facebook page.
Places29-North group gets updates on High School Center II, new elementary school
Members of Albemarle County’s Places29-North Community Advisory Committee got an update earlier this month on two school construction projects that will get underway in the next few months.
One of them is the second alternative high school project that will be built at the Lambs Lane Campus off of Hydraulic Road.
“High School Center II is a new facility that will be approximately 60,000 square feet, two stories, and when it first opens it will serve 400 students per day,” said Matt Wertman, director of building services for Albemarle County Public Schools.
Students from the other three high schools will alternate use of the school just as they do at the first existing Center I which is located at Seminole Place on Seminole Trail. Wertman said the space at Center II will be flexible and can be increased to accommodate as many as 600 students a day.
“It’s being designed in a way to where the space can be adaptable to changing curriculum as time goes by but to start the initial programs there will be a hospitality program which includes a culinary program,” Wertman said. “There will also be advanced STEM courses, so science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The third program that will be housed there will be a business, entrepreneurship and innovation program.”
The Albemarle School Board chose the pathway toward the Center model several years ago because they are cheaper to build and allow more flexibility. A decision has not been made yet whether to proceed with a third center or to move forward with a full-fledged high school.
Another project moving forward is a new elementary school to be built near Mountain View Elementary School on land donated to the county as part of a rezoning for the Galaxie Farm subdivision.
“This is a 500-student elementary school,” Wertman said. “It’s approximately 73,500 square feet and will be a really good benefit for that part of the county.”
Wertman said locating the school so close to Mountain View Elementary will mean students will have to attend two different facilities before moving on to middle school.
“The existing Mountain View Elementary School will serve grades pre-K through 2nd grade and the new elementary school will serve grades 3 through 5,” Wertman said.
Wertman added that will allow students to attend both the new school and the old school, satisfying an equity concern.
Both projects will be advertised for construction in the early fall and Wertman said construction of both schools will get underway this winter with the goal of having both available for the beginning of the 2026 academic year.
Design for a new elementary school for the northern feeder pattern is underway and construction is expected to begin in 2027 after a site has been finalized. The goal is to have this second new elementary school open by 2029.
The firm VMDO has been hired to conduct a study to determine the future needs for a new middle school. A first step will be to enhance capacity at the existing Community Lab School that is within the city of Charlottesville. A second step would be to conduct a redistricting study to relocate some students to Walton Middle School after it goes through its own renovations.
“The third phase and there is no timeline to this, it’s really based on how enrollment progresses and it’s not even in the next ten year plan and probably somewhere in the ten to twenty year range, but phase three would be a new middle school,” Wertman said. “The exact location of that is up in the air based on where development may occur.”
A fourth phase will be upgrading all of the existing middle schools that were built in the mid-20th century.
Albemarle staff continues work on Comprehensive Plan update
On Wednesday, the Fluvanna County Board of Supervisors will readopt the 2015 Comprehensive Plan with minor adjustments in order to comply with state law requiring a review every ten years.
Luke Fluvanna, Albemarle County last adopted a Comprehensive Plan in 2015 but staff in their Department of Community Development still continue work on what’s called AC44.
“We are in the thick of it at the staff level and we are getting ready to roll out a fair amount of stuff in October,” said Michael Barnes, Albemarle’s planning director, at the September 10 meeting of the Albemarle Planning Commission.
The AC44 update process kicked off in late 2021 and a third phase was sent to begin this summer but staff decided to take a pause and reframe some of the document. Barnes said the public will see new material soon on development and land use policies.
“Hopefully over the next several months you’ll be seeing several chapter, topic chapters, dealing with both the policy of land use and rural land use and transportation in the rural and development area is where we’re going to start,” Barnes said. “We’ll be working toward the environmental chapters after that.”
Barnes said there will be multiple meetings throughout the end of the year and he’s excited to being the information to the public.
Commissioner Karen Firehock said she hopes the review can be timed in a way that Supervisors get the chance to see the input of the Planning Commission, the advisory body specifically charged with creating and updating the Comprehensive Plan.
“My Supervisor complained to me about having to do one of the reviews without the benefits of the minutes of the Planning Commission for the comp plan specifically,” Firehock said.
Barnes said the intent would be to bring both bodies the same material but they will try to turn the meeting minutes around fast enough for the Supervisors to have the benefit of reading them.
Commission Chair Fred Missel said one suggestion might be to frame their conversations to be more intentional about giving direction to Supervisors. He also urged staff to update the AC44 website to reflect the new schedule. As of this afternoon, the AC44 website still states the document is to be completed this fall but that is no longer the case.
“If we know that we’re going to have work sessions during the fall and winter of 2024, it seems that should be on the website so that others know it’s going to be coming before the Planning Commission,” Missel said.
Earlier in the meeting, Commissioner Julian Bivins requested that the body get an update on progress being made toward the strategic plan adopted by the Board of Supervisors.
“The county has a Strategic Plan Execution and Analysis Reporting and many of us have wondered what are the ways in which things are being measured and will be measured,” Bivins said.
Bivins said AC44’s development might be assisted if the report can be presented to the Planning Commission. Bivins also wanted the Planning Commission to get a report from the county’s assistant director of housing on what’s happened in the last 38 months since the Housing Albemarle plan was adopted in July 2021.
For more coverage of AC44, visit Information Charlottesville.
Second-shout: Five Things ReLeaf Cville Has Done This Year
In today’s second subscriber-supported shout-out: ReLeaf Cville seeks to help restore the amount of the city that’s covered by trees. This summer they accomplished five things they want people to know about:
Worked in partnership with the Rivanna Conservation Alliance on the third cycle of the Green Team, which teaches young people about the value of trees and the importance of their role in area water quality
Clean Virginia awarded the group $15,000 to enhance education programs to expand the Green Team
The Virginia Department of Forestry awarded the group $21,410 through the Virginia Trees for Clean Water Program to plant trees in the Woolen Mills neighborhood
The group was featured on VPM in late June to discuss their work to date (read the report)
ReLeaf collected $180.75 in lemonade sales from a stand in Peacock Hill
Visitors spent nearly $1 billion in Albemarle and Charlottesville in 2023
The agency charged with promoting tourism in Albemarle and Charlottesville has reported that visitors to both localities spent $956 million in 2023, up nearly six percent from the previous year.
“From an internationally renowned wine scene, to outdoor recreation experiences, a wealth of culinary options, historic attractions, and a robust selection of lodging, visitors continue to choose our area to spend their coveted vacation time,” said Courtney Cacatian, the director of the Charlottesville-Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau. That agency is funded through a portion of the transient lodging tax in both localities and sent out a press release on September 10.
The statewide data comes from the firm Tourism Economics which was commissioned by the Virginia Tourism Corporation to calculate the impact of people coming to the state and spending money. They found total spending of $33.3 billion in Virginia in 2023, up ten percent since 2022.
Visitor spending in Albemarle County was measured at $551.3 million generating $26.3 million in tax revenue. Charlottesville had $405.9 million in visitor spending which translates to $20.8 million in tax revenue. That’s about three percent of the state’s total.
Earlier this summer, the CACVB adopted a tourism master plan to try to further increase visitor spending. There are recommendations for improving outdoor recreation trails, improving transportation infrastructure, and encouraging more mid-week travel. The latter includes trying to establish a convention center that could handle more than a thousand attendees.
Public comment period underway for changes to DOE standards
The Commonwealth of Virginia is currently taking public comments on proposed changes to the regulations for child day care centers. Specifically, the Board of Education has been reviewing the chapter on license renewals and denials as well as enforcement proceedings.
"The Board has determined that a comprehensive revision of the chapter is necessary in order to implement statutory requirements, clarify existing regulatory requirements, and update practices and procedures,” reads the background document on Virginia’s Regulatory Town Hall.
The regulations have not been updated for nearly thirty years and much of the language does match standing operating procedures. The stated goal is to be more clear and 42 pages have been condensed into 14. (review all the documents)
“State policy requires a licensing scheme that imposes minimum qualifications upon [a] child care provider to ensure the safety of children,” the background document continues.
One change is that provisions for background checks would not be embedded in these standards rather than a different section.
One new rule is that the Department of Education may be able to order a new background check if there is suspicion that someone who may have gone through one may have been disqualified for applying for the job in the first place.
Additionally, residents of a home where a day care is provided must complete a background check if they are over the age of 14. These checks also have to be conducted much sooner.
“As the Central Registry is the record of founded complaints of child abuse and neglect maintained by [the Department of Social Services], shortening from one month to one week the time within which checks of the Registry must occur for residents of a home where child day programs occur may help reduce the likelihood and/or time length with which child day programs are allowed to operate with a resident with a history of child abuse,” reads an economic impact analysis of the regulations conducted by the Virginia Department of Planning and Budget.
According to the documents, there are 1,418 licensed child day centers in Virginia and 1,356 licensed family day homes.
The public input period ends on November 8, 2024 and currently there are five comments.
Reading material for #730
UVA misinformation study shows surprising differences among age groups, Kate Nuechterlein, 29NBC WVIR, September 12, 2024
Prolific Black metal sculptor’s work exhibited in Charlottesville, Gabby Womack, 29NBC WVIR, September 14, 2024
Butterfly effect: Gloria Witt says she has secret to turn Virginia's 5th District blue, Jason Armesto, Charlottesville Daily Progress (paywall), September 15, 2024
Amid internal GOP feud in the 5th District, Democrat Gloria Witt sees her chance, Markus Schmidt, Virginia Mercury, September 16, 2024
Things to say as #730 turns into the night
I’ve been back from Chicago for a week and every day I’m putting something new into effect. The main goal right now is to make sure Town Crier Productions operates as a business, which is why some former paid subscribers got notes today to remind them that their credit cards had lapsed.
Another person also called to express anger at their credit card being charged for another year, so I’ll have to go through Substack to make sure there’s a provision where someone can clearly state they’re only buying a year.
These are the details that will make or break this operation as I continue into a fifth year. The reporting also comes together more clearly as I continue to build systems to make it all function in a way that keeps me employed with health insurance. But the real goal is to be able to hire people to help me write the information.
Both shout-outs today are for people who pay $200 a year through Substack. The first person also pays through Patreon. The system that’s been in place is not incredibly efficient and does not have the clarity it needs for the growth of Town Crier Productions but already I’m beginning to see what changes I can make.
A paid subscription through Substack will allow me to unlock a match from Ting, a provider of fast internet services. That can be at $5 a month, $50 a year, or $200 a year. The latter comes with shout-outs! If you want more information on any of that, please drop me a line.
This is an incredibly generous sponsorship, and 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
