The third act of 2022 is now underway as summer informally ends and this four-day work week begins. There’s no time like this present day of September 6 to get going, which is fitting given this is National Fight Procrastination Day, a made-up holiday but certain an occasion the detail-oriented can get behind, above, below, under, or from whatever vantage point one feels most appropriate to push or pull. Whatever adjective, whatever verb, I’m Sean Tubbs, and this is Charlottesville Community Engagement.
On today’s show:
The Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority details a $675,000 purchase of two duplexes in the Locust Grove neighborhood
Congressional elections are two months away but there’s still not campaign forum scheduled for the two candidates in the Fifth District
A South Boston developer will appear before the Scottsville Planning Commission tonight for a rezoning for 205 units in the former Scottsville Tire Factory
Today is the last day to comment on the latest document in the Cville Plans Together initiative
First shout-out is for LEAP’s new Thermalize Virginia program
In today’s first Patreon-fueled shout-out: Have you been thinking of converting your fossil-fuel appliances and furnaces into something that will help the community reduce its greenhouse gas emissions? Your local energy nonprofit, LEAP, has launched a new program to guide you through the steps toward electrifying your home. Thermalize Virginia will help you understand electrification and connect you with vetted contractors to get the work done and help you find any rebates or discounts. Visit thermalizeva.org to learn more and to sign up!
CRHA purchases two duplexes on Coleman Street
The entity that operates the city’s public housing sites has acquired its first new property in many years. The Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority has paid $675,000 for two parcels on Coleman Street.
“They’re two duplex, brick duplex units, currently renting for between $650 and $850 a month,” said John Sales, the CRHA’s executive director. “They are two bedroom, one bath units, so they are already affordable units.”
Sales said market-rate units are renting for about $1,500. He said CRHA learned of these properties about a month ago and put an offer in soon afterward.
“This all came about two months ago when we lost out on a property on 7 ½ Street and we talked to the city about how we could purchase it and they started looking through some of the accounts that CHRA is already authorized and granted such as the Charlottesville Supplemental Rental Assistance Program.”
That program was created in October 2017 to augment the CRHA’s ability to distribute federal housing vouchers. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development authorizes a certain amount per year but does not fund all of them. The account had a balance of $2 million and the money could be used for this purpose.
Charlottesville City Council has to sign off on the matter and will do so at their meeting tonight. In the meantime, the CRHA borrowed money from the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation to cover the cost in the meantime.
“Our development partner for the redevelopment has agreed to fund it as a loan through the CACF that we pay back zero interest and we have 90 days to pay it back,” Sales said.
Sales said there is a potential to redevelop the site, but for now the units will remain for rent. Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville owns two adjacent parcels next door. Sales said there is still $700,000 left in the account and he wants to use it to purchase more property.
“We are still constantly looking to see what our opportunities may be out there where we can preserve affordable housing or take some units that aren’t currently affordable and make them affordable,” Sales said.
More on those units at 7 ½ Street in the forthcoming August property transactions report which will be out this week for paid subscribers of Charlottesville Community Engagement.
In other CRHA news, City Council is also expected to appoint two vacant positions to the CRHA Board of Commissioners at tonight’s meeting according to City Councilor Michael Payne.
No forum or debate scheduled yet for Fifth District Congressional race
Election Day is 63 days away and time is running out for the two candidates in Virginia Fifth Congressional District to have a debate, candidate forum, or other public interaction.
In August, Democratic candidate Joshua Throneburg challenged Republican incumbent Bob Good to some form of a debate, but so far none has been scheduled. Good’s campaign manager told Charlottesville Community Engagement over the weekend that there are no plans but said we’ll be notified when one is scheduled.
Throneburg’s communication director said that six groups have offered to host a forum, and one has already canceled due to a lack of communication from the Good campaign.
On August 8, Good issued a statement that he looked forward to scheduling a debate.
“The voters of the 5th District are with me on the issues, and my campaign message resonates with them as they suffer under Democrat extreme policies,” Good wrote.
On Labor Day, both candidates offered messages to the public on Twitter.
Scottsville PC to hold first reading on rezoning to redevelop former tire factory
A company called Echelon Resources wants to convert a portion of a former tire factory in Scottsville to apartments as their latest effort to redevelop a historic property.
“The redevelopment of such sites reinvigorate the surrounding neighborhoods, and doing so transforms what were once financial negatives to become healthy financial contributors to their communities,” reads the application for a rezoning and a special use permit.
The project has the title Scottsville Lofts and Echelon Resources is seeking to create 205 units. As part of the rezoning, they are conditioning the payment of $200,000 to the Town of Scottsville for the creation of a sidewalk on Bird Street or some other future project. They’re also willing to set aside 20 percent of apartment units to be affordable to people or households with an annual income below the 60 percent median for a ten year period.
The Scottsville Planning Commission will hold first reading of the item tonight but the public hearing won’t be held until October 3.
Staff is recommending approval, though they note the potential for traffic congestion and a lack of non-residential uses.
“The building has a history of intensive use (and traffic) and was the town’s economic engine for decades,” reads the staff report. “The renovation plan appears sound and brings massive new investment and vitality to the community.”
The land is currently zoned for Heavy Industrial. The factory was built in 1944 and was for many years the main economic engine in Scottsville but closed in 2009. Attempts were made to find a new industry to take over the space, but the site’s distance from major highways made it a poor candidate.
Second shout-out: Piedmont Master Gardeners want to help you rethink your lawn
In today’s second subscriber supported public service announcement: Want to change up your lawn to something more sustainable for pollinators and other creatures? The Piedmont Master Gardeners wants you to know about a program called Healthy Virginia Lawns which can assist you in your transition. The program is a joint venture of Virginia Cooperative Extension and the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation. If interested, the first step will be for a Piedmont Master Gardener to come for a visit for an assessment and soil tests.
Healthy Virginia Lawns will give you a customized, science-based roadmap to a greener landscape that protects water quality, wildlife and other resources along the way. Visit piedmontmastergardeners.org to learn more!
Final day to comment on city’s approach to the zoning process
Today is the final day to submit an online comment on the latest round of public input for the current step of the Cville Plans Together initiative. People can comment on the Zoning Diagnostic and Approach Report either in English or in Spanish.
The report states basic themes that will be included in a new zoning code that is being written to implement the spirit of the Affordable Housing Plan adopted in March 2021 and the Comprehensive Plan adopted in November 2021. The goal is to make it easier for developers to build more housing by allowing more residential density.
Last week, the steering committee for the Cville Plans Together initiative met and got an update on where things are. That group last met in March and learned the details of an Inclusionary Zoning program intended to encourage, incentivize, or require more new units to be rented or sold below-market to those who can demonstrate lower incomes.
“Over the course of the last couple of months we’ve been collecting comments and questions about this report,” said James Freas, the city’s director of Neighborhood Development Services.
City Council and the Planning Commission will have a work session on September 27, but last week the steering committee had the chance to weigh in. Before they did, Jenny Koch with the firm Rhodeside & Harwell stressed that nothing is final.
“In this document as you probably have seen we are not proposing a new zoning map yet or draft zoning text,” Koch said. “What this does is show how some of the residential land use categories will be translated potentially from the Comprehensive Plan to the zoning ordinance and starts thinking about some of the other changes to be made.”
Staff with the firm Code Studio performed what they called “residential testing” to as a way of modeling what potential new housing types could be built on existing lots. That’s a first step to writing the rules for how new structures can be built in a city where there’s not much undeveloped land.
“For the most part, Charlottesville is pretty built out and a lot of these housing types that are going to exist are going to be infill,” said Christy Dodson with Code Studio. “That means it’s going to happen sort of in and around where you have existing development.”
Dodson said this level of review assumed the highest maximum level of density on each lot as a planning exercise. Actual results may vary.
“So it doesn’t necessarily think about the financial feasibility,” Dodson said. “There are financial and physical tradeoffs and constraints that would very likely limit and probably drastically reduce the amount of housing that we can fit on these lots.”
There are at least two examples of this Council’s willingness to support additional density even without the new zoning in place. In April, Council approved a rezoning in Fifeville that will see 28 units on about two thirds of an acre. The Future Land Use Map adopted by Council shows that land on Valley Road Extended as General Residential.
Council also approved 170 units on Stribling Avenue on about 12 acres in April. That land has been designated as Medium Intensity Residential. Council’s approval was contingent on a public-private partnership where Southern Development agrees to cover the upfront costs of building a sidewalk on Stribling. They’ll be paid back through breaks on the property taxes as the property increases in value.
But both of those properties are currently undeveloped. Infill development will have to be on existing lots. Dodson said many of these in older residential neighborhoods are narrow, and may have issues getting access to the rear of the property. Wide lots have different constraints.
“They’re not necessarily located in as walkable areas,” Dodson said. “You’d need to probably put in more parking because its a little bit more vehicle-centric in those areas and there are areas with topography.”
There are a lot of details in the report about housing types and what might fit where. There are a lot of potential variables but the process is seeking a way to eliminate the role that Council and the Planning Commission plays in approving additional density.
As a start, Code Studio is recommending the creation of two zoning categories. One would be for “house-scale” districts for General Residential and General Residential Sensitive Communities. The other would be “medium-scale” for Medium Intensity Residential. The “sensitive areas” would have additional criteria.
“So we want to make sure that the reduction of risk of displacement is something we’re thinking about,” Dodson said. “We know that zoning is a really limited tool for that but we want to make sure that we get it right with what we can do with zoning. So we’re setting the framework so that other policies can come along and support it.”
Various members of the steering committee had the change to make recommendations, including the representative from Preservation Piedmont.
“We’d like to see on your map indications of the overlay districts which are our architectural design control districts, our historic conservation districts, and our entrance corridors,” said Jean Hiatt of Preservation Piedmont.
Diane Dale represents the Neighborhood Leaders Group and said she was concerned about the use of incentives such as reducing parking requirements in exchange for providing below market units.
“The need for the parking doesn’t go away,” Dale said. “It’s basically externalized onto the streets.”
Dale said some streets will be able to handle the additional parking but others will not. Freas acknowledged the issue.
“There’s a lot of different topics that have come up in zoning that we’re recognizing that the solution lies in just the zoning ordinance itself and parking, and really on-street parking, is one of those key ones. The other tool the city has in its toolbox is parking regulations on a given street.”
Council currently has to approve the extension of parking zones in residential neighborhoods.
Carl Schwarz is one of the city’s new Planning Commissioners but he was on this call to represent the Bike and Pedestrian Advisory Committee.
“I think it it is definitely a concern when residents can’t find a place to park their car because neighbors have taken your spot but at the same time I think as a city we need to make a decision at some point,” Schwarz said. “If we continue to require parking for every development— two cars per family, one car per family, whatever it ends up being—we’re still making it easier for everybody to have a car in the city and as long as its easy for everybody to have a car in this city, it’s going to be harder to improve our transit capabilities and improve our bicycle and pedestrian capabilities.”
A representative of the city’s Tree Commission had this to say.
“The Tree Commission supports affordable housing and in-fill development and access to dense housing but we also need liable communities and livable neighborhoods,” said Tim Padalino. “We need environmentally sustainable and resilient residential neighborhoods especially with the effects of climate change and the increase of hotter temperatures and longer summers and longer stretches between precipitation.”
The representative from the development community said she appreciates the work that went into the residential district testing.
“As you look through our existing zoning code it’s so clear that we don’t have any allowances for the missing middle housing types and what you have shown in this analysis I think really proves that there is a lot of room to carefully add smaller housing types throughout the city,” said Ashley Davies of Riverbend Development, representing the Charlottesville Area Development Roundtable.
That’s just a small sample from the comments at that meeting. There’s been a lot of discussions and a lot of opinions. That includes a letter from a group of residents concerned that the plan will not result in additional affordable housing units.
“Development will be left to developers’ priorities that have catered to more market-rate and upscale buyers with nominal addition of affordable units,” reads the letter. “After all, they are in business to make a profit. This has been the pattern with multi-unit projects for years, and it will do little for affordable units, but it will increase development.”
There’s three weeks until the City Council’s joint meeting with the Planning Commission on this topic and plenty of time to get up to speed. I’m hoping to write more about this topic, but there’s the theoretical and the actual. My goal with Charlottesville Community Engagement is to keep track of both. I’m not sure other information outlets are covering this topic, but I’ll continue to do so.
Housekeeping for #427
And thus begins another week and I’m already raring to get going on writing the next one. It was an interesting Labor Day weekend, and I spent most of the time writing and researching. This is what I do for a living and I have a very demanding boss. Coming up soon will be the August property transactions. It’s a busy week!
If you would like to support this work and ensure it continues, please consider signing up for a paid subscription through Substack. At $5 a month or $50 a year you’ll get a first look at content such as the property transaction and whatever else I can come up with. At $200 a year, you get a couple of shout-outs each month!
Either way, Ting will match your initial payment, which is an extra boost of fuel for this venture. I’m glad they are supporting my style of community reporting, which intends to point out where and when the decisions will be made as well as provide some context as to what’s happened for. Thank you to Ting!
And if you sign up for Ting through this link in this newsletter, you’ll get a free standard install, your 2nd month free, and a $75 Downtown Mall gift card! Enter the promo code COMMUNITY for full effect.
Music in the podcast version comes from a musical entity known as Wraki, a musical entity you can sample more of if you purchase the album Regret Everything on Bandcamp. I come up with the interstitials you’ll hear in the podcast and hope to make more music. Want to contribute something? Let me know!
September 6, 2022: Final day to submit comment on city's zoning rewrite process; Developer seeks rezoning of former Scottsville tire factory for 205 loft units