Week Ahead for March 31, 2025: Albemarle Supervisors to vote on emergency resolution to move Branchlands electoral precinct; CRHA to adopt budget, write-off unpaid rent
Plus: Fluvanna County Supervisors to reallocate money to pay for upgrades to track at middle school
The level of busyness for a newsletter about local and regional government depends on what day of the month the Monday falls upon. March 31 is a fifth Monday which usually means only “special” meetings are held. We do have one of those this week, complicated the metrics.
Tuesday is April Fool’s Day and the beginning of the second quarter of 2025. This is a sleepy week covered in pollen, but because it’s also the first Wednesday, two localities have their Board of Supervisors’ meeting.
Some highlights:
One of Albemarle County’s polling places needs to be changed 90 days within the June 17, 2025, special election and Supervisors will vote on an emergency resolution on Wednesday.
The fiscal year for the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority begins on April 1 so the CRHA Board has a special meeting Monday to adopt a budget by the March 31 deadline. Staff is also asking for approval to write off unpaid rent and transfer it to a collections agency.
Fluvanna County Supervisors will sign off Wednesday on a proposal to reallocate money from the current fiscal year to a project to improve the track at Fluvanna County Middle School.
Albemarle County Supervisors will resume discussion on the development area land use chapter in the Comprehensive Plan and will get a lot of updates on transportation projects.
Nelson County Supervisors continue their review of the FY26 budget
There are no meetings in Louisa County this month and the next on the schedule is the Board of Supervisors on April 7.
There’s only one meeting in Greene County when the Agricultural and Forestal District Committee meets at PVCC’s space in Stanardsville
So, this is a quiet week in local and regional government but there will definitely be items to write up. Thanks as always to the Piedmont Environmental Council for their weekly support.
Monday, March 31, 2025
Albemarle County Electoral Board to hold emergency meeting to discuss new polling place
Each city and county in Virginia has a three-person electoral board charged with overseeing elections in that jurisdiction. The partisan make-up of this board depends on which political party holds the Governor’s mansion.
Albemarle County’s Electoral Board will meet at 9:30 a.m. at Albemarle County’s 5th Street office building for an emergency meeting related to the need to change one of the polling places. One of the precincts for the Rio District is at the Hillsdale Conference Center at 550 Hillsdale Drive. This is precinct number 103 and the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors no longer wants to provide the service.
The June 17 primary election is fast approaching. There’s no staff report for this, but the subject is included on the meeting info page and then I did a little research.
The minutes from the February 6, 2025 meeting indicate that a discussion was had about the polling place on Branchlands and the need to find a new one. Board member Clara Belle Wheeler said she had talked to three churches on Rio Road that would be interested. Board member Jim Heilman met with Jefferson Area Board for Aging, but the board discussed how parking might be an issue.
It turns out a solution has been found. The Board of Supervisors will vote Wednesday on an emergency resolution to designate the Harvest Church of God at 1025 Rio Road East as an emergency polling place. That means the county is bypassing the usual public review process.
“Primary elections will be held on June 17, 2025 and there is inadequate time to provide the notice required by Virginia Code §15.2-1427 before adopting an ordinance changing the polling place,” reads the resolution.
The February 6 electoral board minutes also indicate that there may be a problem with the Baker-Butler precinct in the Rivanna District.
“The Code of Virginia mandates that any precinct which has over 4,000 voters vote in a Presidential election must have the Board of Supervisors revise the precinct boundaries,” reads the February 6 minutes. “In November 2024, that precinct had about 3,960 voters vote.”
There is no resolution of that on the Board of Supervisors’ agenda but definitely an item to track.
CHRA to hold special meeting to adopt budget, write-off unpaid rent
The Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority will hold a special meeting on Monday at 6 p.m. You would not know this is you looked at one calendar of Charlottesville meetings or if you looked at the other.
This one also doesn’t appear to be listed as upcoming on the city’s Boxcast streaming platform. At least it’s not there as of Sunday afternoon.
I hear you asking: Surely this will be on the CRHA website!
Nope.
I’m on an email chain for the CRHA Board of Commissioners which is the only way I find out about meetings. I usually post the agenda to cvillepedia and have done so for this meeting. (read the agenda)
There are two resolutions and both are financial in nature. The first is to adopt the annual budget for FY25/FY26. CRHA’s fiscal year begins on April 1, 2025 and runs through March 31, 2026. (resolution) (budget)
The second is to write off unpaid rent by former tenants who have since left CRHA properties, but there are two numbers given. The resolution states there is a total amount of unpaid rent of $37,537.27.
“It is considered unlikely that any of these accounts will be paid in full over the next 60 to 90 days and therefore their inclusion on the Housing Authority’s ledger as current accounts receivable is inappropriate,” reads the second paragraph of resolution #1489.
The resolution states that efforts will still be made made to collect the amount due. But then the resolution increases the amount being asked to be forgiven to $119,393.86.
None of these documents are on the CRHA’s page of “key documents.” The most resolution posted on that page is #1453.
Tuesday, April 1, 2025
In previous years, I’ve done an April Fool’s version of this newsletter. I promise I won’t do one this year. I may post links to the previous ones. The last one I did confused people, and this is not a time to confuse people.
In three meetings I need to research more:
The Nelson County Board of Supervisors will hold a budget work session at 10 a.m.. There’s no packet available but all of the budget materials are available at this link. I will write up a summary in the next edition of the newsletter.
The Charlottesville Tree Commission meets at 5 p.m. in the Parks and Recreation Office below Cityspace in the Market Street Parking Garage. (agenda)
The Charlottesville Community Development Block Grant (CDBG / HOME) Task Force will meet at 6 p.m. in the S&P Annex in the 2nd Floor Conference Room at 700 East Jefferson Street. There’s no agenda at publication time. (meeting info)
Wednesday, April 2, 2025
Fluvanna County Supervisors to get update on tourism plan, approve funding for middle school track
The five member Board of Supervisors in Fluvanna County meet at the Circuit Courtroom in Fluvanna Courts Building at 5 p.m. for a regular meeting. A budget work session will be held at 7 p.m. in the Morris Room in the Fluvanna County Administration Building. (agenda packet)
There are two presentations at the beginning of the regular meeting. One is a quarterly report from the Virginia Department of Transportation and the written report begins on page 53 of the packet.
The second is an update on the Tourism Strategic Plan. Supervisors approved an update to the on December 6, 2023.
“This presentation will provide an overview of key accomplishments to date, including the successful launch of the Find Fluvanna brand, progress on infrastructure projects, and the implementation of business support initiatives,” reads the agenda packet.
There are two action matters. The first is on a reappropriation of $149,661.25 Capital Improvement Plan funds from FY2025 for specific projects at the Fluvanna Middle School. Look at page 75 for details.
The second is on how to proceed with the next reassessment. Do Supervisors wish to make changes?
“The County at minimum needs to issue a [Request for Proposals] RFP for General Reassessment Services of Real Property for 2027 and 2029,” reads the staff report.
The company Pearson’s Appraisal Service recently completed a full reassessment for 2025 and under the current policy 2027 would be a year when the assessment would be conducted via an administrative review with another full assessment in 2029.
“Any increase in doing a General (Full) Reassessment on a more frequent basis would add additional costs beyond what has been occurring previously,” the report continues. “As a completely different option, the Board could determine it no longer wants to utilize a third-party general reassessment firm and bring those services inhouse with an Assessors office.”
County Administrator Eric Dahl recommends proceeding with the current policy and schedule but a new firm will need to be hired as Pearson’s got out of the business.
There are no public hearings at this meeting.
Then the budget work session.
Albemarle County Supervisors to get several transportation updates
The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors generally meets on the first and third Wednesday of each month with extra meetings around budget time. April 2 is the first Wednesday of the month. The six Supervisors gather in Lane Auditorium at 1 p.m. for the afternoon meeting and come back again at 6 p.m for public hearings.
There are two proclamations. The first is for Dark Sky Week which seeks to raise awareness of light pollution. The second is for Financial Literacy Awareness Month.
There are two work sessions at this meeting. The first is another chance for the elected officials to weigh in on aspects of the county’s Comprehensive Plan update. This time around the subject is “Development Areas Land Use Chapter Revisions and Community Design Guidelines.” One of the items in the packet is a list of revisions that have been made to this section since the Planning Commission had their turn.
The next work session is on Albemarle County’s Secondary Six-Year Improvement Program with the Virginia Department of Transportation. VDOT allocates funds each year to localities for the purpose of paving gravel roads. Albemarle’s expected amount for FY2026 is $1.2 million. There will be a public hearing in May. The materials for this section are listed here.
After that, there will be a report from Carrie Shepherd, resident engineer for VDOT’s Charlottesville residency. This will provide an update on all sorts of transportation projects.
On the consent agenda for this meeting is a 13-page report from Albemarle’s transportation planner. I’ll have a preview of both in time for Wednesday’s meeting.
In the 6 p.m. hour, Supervisors will take up an emergency resolution to change one of the voting precincts in the Rio District.
“The Hillsdale Conference Center has recently declined further service as a polling place,” reads the resolution. “The Harvest Church of God, 1025 Rio Road East has very recently agreed to make its buildings available as a polling place.”
This change is being conducted within 90 days of the June 17, 2025 primary and this emergency change is needed.
“The Board of Supervisors finds that an emergency exists requiring the adoption of this Ordinance without prior public notice pursuant to Virginia Code § 15.2-1427,” reads the resolution.
The Electoral Board knew of this matter in February. Why did it take so long for the public to find out? And why did CAAR withdraw from providing a place?
There are two public hearings. The first is on a periodic review of amendments to several agricultural and forestal districts. (materials)
The second is on a change to the county’s zoning code related to how data centers are regulated in Albemarle County. (materials)
“The current ordinance allows Data Centers of any size by right within all industrial zoning districts (Light Industry, Heavy Industry and Planned Development Industrial Park),” reads the staff report. “It also allows them by right up to 4,000 square feet and by special exception over that size, in Highway Commercial, Planned Development Shopping Center and Planned Development Mixed Commercial districts.”
There are several other regulations to be added such as a requirement that they only be built in areas with access to public water and sewer.
In other meetings:
The Greene County Agricultural and Forestal District Committee will meet at the Piedmont Virginia Community College’s Eugene Giuseppe Center at 222 Main Street in Stanardsville. (agenda packet)
Thursday, April 3, 2025
This is another quiet day. For now!
In other meetings:
The joint Albemarle and Charlottesville Community Policy Management Team meets at 9 a.m. in Albemarle’s county office building in Room 231. (agenda) (meeting info)
The Charlottesville Human Rights Commission will meet in CitySpace at 6:30 p.m. for a work session. There’s no information available at publication time. (meeting info)