Week Ahead for January 1, 2024: A new year begins with additional city funding for Premier Circle project
Another busy year begins with a relatively light week in local government meetings
Happy New Year!
It is possible this is the first edition of this newsletter to come out on New Year’s Day, but that fact may not be very relevant. What does matter is that this year will get off to a steady start as the lights begin to shine on 2024.
This is the fifth calendar year for this version of the newsletter. I created the Week Ahead in May 2019 to help keep track of what’s happening in local government. My hope with each edition is that someone who has never been interested in public affairs before will suddenly get involved. Please ask questions in the comments if you don’t understand something.
If you are new to Charlottesville Community Engagement, this is a good week to begin paying attention as a whole new set of storylines will begin with new members of elected bodies. Here are some of the highlights in this introductory week of 2024:
New chairs will be selected in Albemarle, Fluvanna, and Nelson, while Charlottesville City Council will select a Mayor.
City Council will consider a $750,000 payment to Virginia Supportive Housing to cover half of a funding shortfall for the Premier Circle project.
Fluvanna Supervisors will consider changes to a planning leadership position
Louisa County Supervisors will hold a public hearing on whether a new civic building is consistent with the Comprehensive Plan.
The Albemarle Architectural Review Board will take a look at exterior renovations of an existing building for a climbing gym proposed on Old Ivy Road near a key intersection.
There are no meetings in Greene County or Nelson County this week.
This version of the newsletter is sponsored by the Piedmont Environmental Council.
Monday, January 1, 2024
All local governments are closed today. Judging from my morning walk, a lot of things are closed today. I’m out of groceries and went for a walk just after sunrise to see what I could find, and nothing was open in my neighborhood! I just watched the Charlottesville High School Marching Knights in Rome’s New Years Day parade. After I hit send I have to write up a story for C-Ville Weekly. Time to get on with the year and put the holidays behind us.
Tuesday, January 2, 2023
Charlottesville City Council to consider supplement for Premier Circle project
The Charlottesville City Council will welcome Natalie Oschrin to the dais at a meeting that begins at 4 p.m. for a work session before the main event begins at 6:30 p.m. (meeting info) (meeting overview)
My reading of the agenda is uncertain. Will Council elect a chair at the 4 p.m. work session, or will they wait until 6:30 p.m. A strict reading would indicate the chair appointment happens at the very top. Will it be Vice Mayor Juandiego Wade or some other Councilor? Councilor Lloyd Snook has indicated previously he will not seek the position in 2024.
Anyway, there will be a series of budget presentations at 4 p.m. Council will hear from constitutional officers and the voter registration office. The Constitutional officers are Commissioner of Revenue Todd Divers, Treasurer Jason Vandever, Clerk of Court Llezelle Dugger, and Sheriff James Brown.
Divers will explain to Council about a request for new software to help track compliance with the city’s rules on short term rentals.
The regular session begins at 6:30 p.m. The first item will be Council’s appointments to city and regional Boards and Commissions.
After the consent agenda and the public comment period, there are two action items. The first will set meeting dates for 2024. The second follows up on a commitment City Manager Sam Sanders made in the fall to add additional support to a project on U.S. 29 intended to provide more places for unhoused individuals to live
“[Premier Circle] is a mixed income project and would provide 80 permanent affordable housing units for very low-income households,” reads the staff report. “[Twelve] units at less than 40 percent [Area Median Income] and 68 units at incomes between 40 percent and 50 percent AMI.”
The $24 million project is being developed by Virginia Supportive Housing using Low-Income Housing Tax Credits on land owned by the Piedmont Housing Alliance. There is a $1.5 million funding gap, and Sander is proposing a transfer of $750,000 from the capital improvement program’s contingency fund. Construction is expected to start in May barring any additional shortfalls.
Louisa Supervisors to select chair, hold Comprehensive Plan review on future civic building
There are two new members of the Louisa County Board of Supervisors as 2024’s first meeting gets underway at 5 p.m. in the Louisa County public meeting room in Louisa. (meeting overview)
Christopher McCotter was the only candidate in the race for the Cuckoo District. H. Manning Woodward won election to the Louisa District in a three way race. Toni Williams won re-election to the Jackson District.
The first action of the open session at 6 p.m. will be appointment of chair and vice chair, as well as adoption of bylaws and the times and dates of meetings.
On the consent agenda is a transfer of $3,912,229 from the county’s general fund balance to the Long Term School Capital Projects Reserve Fund for future projects. (learn more)
There are also resolutions for outgoing Supervisors Willie Gentry and Eric Purcell.
There are four items under information items:
There will be a presentation from the Louisa County Water Authority.
There will be a presentation on the Small Business Development Center.
There will be an update from Dominion Energy on their Belcher solar project.
There will be a discussion of an amendment to the county code on litter as a public nuisance.
There will be a public hearing on a Comprehensive Plan review of a proposed civic building. (staff report)
The next meeting in Louisa County that I’ll summarize is the January 11 meeting of the Planning Commission.
ARB to review climbing gym near Old Ivy Road underpass
The Architectural Review Board will be first meeting in Albemarle County for 2024 with a 1 p.m. meeting in Lane Auditorium. (meeting info)
The first item is an advisory review of a planned expansion of the building at 2200 Old Ivy Road to accommodate a climbing gym. This building was the former home of Hospice of the Piedmont, but they’ve moved to a location on Pantops off of Peter Jefferson Place.
The proposed Charlottesville Climbing Gym requires a special use permit, which triggers review by the ARB. This property is located immediately to the west of the railroad one-lane underpass on Old Ivy Road. It is within the geographic scope of a “pipeline study” that the Virginia Department of Transportation is conducting to suggest improvements to the roadway.
The developers are proposing increasing the height of the building.
“Given its location on the edge of the University of Virginia’s primary athletic precinct, the proposed design takes as precedents the nearby Disharoon Park (UVa’s baseball stadium), and Memorial Gym, also nearby with a strong relationship to the entrance corridor,” reads the applicants’ narrative.
The ARB will also review the final site development plan and preliminary architectural drawings for a 70-unit apartment complex to be built at the southwest corner of Profitt Road and Worth Crossing. This would be built on 3.41 acres of undeveloped property behind the Walgreen’s just north of Forest Lakes Shopping Center.
Charlottesville Tree Commission to meet
The Charlottesville Tree Commission will gather at 5 p.m. in the Parks and Recreation Office in the Market Street parking garage for their first meeting of the year. (meeting info)
According to the staff report from urban forester Steve Gaines, the city has been awarded a $300,000 grant from the Inflation Reduction Act that will be used to update the urban forest management plan, conduct an inventory of vegetation, and conduct another assessment of the city’s tree canopy.
The city is also about two-thirds of the way through planting 182 trees with a contract with Jarmena Landscapes. ReLeaf Cville will begin planting throughout the city this week through the spring. Shenandoah Habitats will plant 800 seedlings in city parks.
Wednesday, January 3, 2023
Albemarle Supervisors to hold organizational meeting
New Scottsville District representative Michael Pruitt will join the five returning members of the Albemarle Board of Supervisors when they meet for an organizational meeting at 1 p.m. in Lane Auditorium. (meeting info) (agenda)
There is no business on the agenda except for the election of a chair and vice chair as well as the adoption of a calendar and rules of procedure for 2024. There is an opportunity for the public to make comments before a closed session for appointments.
Who will be the chair? The vice chair for 2023 was Samuel Miller District Supervisor Jim Andrews. Rivanna District Bea LaPisto-Kirtley has not yet been chair, but that position has been held already by White Hall Supervisor Ann Mallek, Jack Jouett Supervisor Diantha McKeel, and Rio District Supervisor Ned Gallaway.
Albemarle Supervisors will meet again on January 10 and January 17.
In other meetings:
Charlottesville’s Sister City Commission will meet at 4:30 p.m. in CitySpace and will welcome a new member. Mark your calendar for April 12 through April 17 when a delegation from Besançon will make a visit. Or will a delegation from here go there? The phrase used is “visit by delegation” which could be either. (meeting info)
Fluvanna County Supervisors to consider changes to planning position
The five member Fluvanna County Board of Supervisors will begin 2024 with two new members. Mike Goad won election to the Fork Union District with 59.48 percent of the vote, and Timothy Hodge won election to the Palmyra District with 52.14 percent of the vote.
Supervisors meet at 5 p.m. in the Carysbrook Performing Arts Center in Fork Union and will begin with election of officers followed by adoption of the calendar, bylaws, and other matters intended to get the year off to its start. (agenda)
There will be a discussion of funding for a project to expand a waterline to Zion Crossroads to supply several properties with public water.
“In February 2020, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) approached the County about extending the Zion Crossroads waterline on U.S. Route 250 1.1 miles west of where it currently terminates on Memory Lane, to properties contaminated by an old petroleum release,” reads the staff report (page 49). “Four petroleum impacted properties currently have water treatment systems until a permanent solution is provided.”
That’s one of the only major items on the agenda, but there are several items on the consent agenda including the appointment of an acting director of planning. Douglas Miles has resigned from the position effective January 4 and the idea is to reorient the position.
“Decreasing the responsibilities from Director of Community Development to Director of Planning will allow for a more specific focus on professional planning including land use and long-range planning, as well as the preparation and implementation of the Comprehensive Plan,” reads the staff report (page 101). “The main change will eliminate the Building Inspection department oversight from the Director of Planning and will move that oversight to the Asst. County Administrator.”
Kelly Harris is expected to serve as the acting director of planning.
There’s also a resolution to change the name of one of the voting districts. The Palmyra District no longer includes the Village of Palmyra.
After the dinner break, the only item on the agenda is an informational discussion on solar projects which appears to be a joint meeting with the Planning Commission. That group will meet first at 6:30 p.m. for an organizational meeting to select new officers.
Thursday, January 4, 2023
Albemarle Natural Heritage Committee to meet
Who will be the new chair of Albemarle’s Natural Heritage Committee? That will be among the first things answered at their meeting of 2024 which begins at 5:45 p.m. in Room 235 of the county’s office building at 401 McIntire Road. (meeting info)
But what is the Natural Heritage Committee and what does it do?
“The mission of the NHC is to maintain and restore the County's native biological diversity and provide a healthy environment for the citizens of Albemarle County,” reads the website for the advisory body. “Members include local landowners and citizens with interests in biodiversity conservation, farming and forestry, and conservation-oriented rural and urban development.”
On the agenda is a discussion of Biscuit Run Park and a discussion of Dark Sky Week. There will also be a review of the work plan for the committee.
In other meetings:
The Charlottesville Bike and Pedestrian Advisory Committee will meet virtually at 5 p.m. They’ll get an update on the creation of a new bike and pedestrian master plan, as well as 2024 priorities. (meeting info)
The Charlottesville Human Rights Commission will meet in CitySpace at 6:30 p.m. for a work session. There’s no agenda published as of today.
