Week Ahead for September 28, 2020
A quick look at various meetings coming up, with some context about why you might consider paying attention...
There are three months left in the year, and there is much trepidation about how the federal election will turn out. Over 3,500 Albemarle residents have cast a ballot in early voting so far, according to the county registrar.
At the local level, the details of governance are still worked out each and every week at meetings. In some ways, the pandemic has made things more transparent with proceedings recorded on video calls. In other ways, they are perhaps less transparent with everyone in different rooms. Keeping up with every agenda and staff report ensure scrutiny can be applied.
This week is relatively quiet, but as always, there’s something to learn about the community. Please let me know if you have any questions.
I am grateful to support from the Piedmont Environmental Council for me to pursue this work, and to support from over a hundred readers to also let you know what happens each day. If you would like to join them, you would be ensuring this work can continue and expand. Consider a Patreon contribution or a subscription to this newsletter.
Monday, September 28, 2020
The Board of Commissioners for the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority meets at 6 p.m. for their regular meeting. The main topic of Executive Director John Sales’ report is safety and the ongoing changes presented by the pandemic.
“We continue to work with community partners to expand COVID-19 testing opportunities to the people we serve who are most vulnerable,” Sales writes. “Redevelopment activities for Crescent Halls renovations and breaking the ground at South First Street are getting finalized as we focus on protecting residents during the pandemic.”
There’s more detail on both projects in a redevelopment update which describes how federal paperwork is coming along and what financial arrangements will need to be made. A group of South First Street residents who have been working with architects on the design will soon reconvene. (CRHA agenda page)
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The Albemarle Historic Preservation Committee will begin its regular monthly gathering at 4:30 p.m. They will get an update on the Crozet Master Plan and potential conservation easements. There will also be a further discussion of new historical markers in Albemarle as well as potential policy options to increase historical preservation efforts in the county. (meeting info)
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The Pantops Community Advisory Committee will meet at 6:15 p.m. for a virtual meeting that may see new officers elected. Albemarle’s parks planner, Tim Padalino, will give a presentation on parks and greenways in the Pantops area. Then, Jim Heilman of the Albemarle Electoral Board will give another overview of what’s happening with this year’s elections. He’s given the same discussion to the Places29-Hydraulic and Places-29 Rio community advisory committees. (meeting info)
“We have basically a perfect storm of an election this year,” said Jim Heilman, a member of the Albemarle County Electoral Board. “All presidential elections are a storm for sure but this one has a lot of added things to it. We have a whole raft of new election laws.”
These include expanded early voting and no-excuse absentee voting. Heilman said the electoral board is not seeing a spike in new voter registrations.
“Voter registration is something that normally is spiking right now in a presidential year, but it’s not spiking here,” Heilman said. “It’s going up but it’s not spiking, and I think the main reason for that is because the normal ways of getting voter registration up by door-to-door registration drives and registration drives at concerts, Fridays after Five, none of those are happening.”
Heilman and the rest of the electoral board and staff are recommending people vote in advance to avoid large crowds on election day. There is a pandemic after all.
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The Charlottesville Social Services Advisory Board will meet at noon for the first time since the pandemic in an electronic meeting. (meeting info)
Tuesday, September 29, 2020
The Albemarle Economic Development Authority meets at 4 p.m. It is the first meeting for one new members appointed following the resignations of three others this summer. Kat Imhoff, a former president of Montpelier, will represent the Samuel Miller District on the EDA.
On the agenda is a third update of a performance agreement between the EDA and the developer of the Woolen Mills as well as an update on the Albemarle Business Campus. The latter goes before the Albemarle Board of Supervisors on October 7. (meeting info) (Zoom link)
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Charlottesville City Council will hold a six-hour work session on the city’s Strategic Plan, which is a policy document intended to guide city staff in their operations. This meeting was to have taken place two weeks ago, but was delayed following the resignation of City Manager Tarron Richardson. There will be two more six-hour work sessions in late October, but Charlottesville Mayor said at the September 21 meeting that they may need to make further changes in the future.
“Since we’re going through a leadership change, we may have to reconvene after the new city manager is hired and have this discussion as a team,” Walker said.
The facilitator for the event is Selena Cozart of the Institute of Engagement and Negotiation at the University of Virginia. The meeting begins at 11 a.m. and runs until 5 p.m. (meeting info)
Before that meeting, Council will hold a special meeting to discuss a second round of CARES Act Funding. To get an additional $4.1 million in funds, the city had to demonstrate how it used the first round. The second round will use the same categories as the first. A public hearing will be held on October 5. (staff report)
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Charlottesville has four Sister Cities across the world, and there’s a commission that oversees the cultural and economic relationships.
“The City of Charlottesville is an active member of Sister Cities International, a nonprofit citizen diplomacy network that creates and strengthens partnerships between U.S. and international communities,” reads the city’s website. “This network strives to build global cooperation at the municipal level, promote cultural understanding and stimulate economic development.”
There has been recent talk about adding a fifth. The commission will have a retreat beginning at 4 p.m. (meeting info)
Wednesday, September 30, 2020
Charlottesville City Council will hold a work session at 4 p.m. on the West Main Streetscape, a multiphase and multi-million dollar project intended to make the area more attractive and safer for cyclists and pedestrians. There will be an update on the project’s history as well as a discussion of the four phases of the project, which has been in development for since 2013. I will be posting a long story on this tomorrow afternoon for paid subscribers. (agenda)
Thursday, October 1, 2020
The Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission’s Board of Directors meets at 7 p.m. with two items related to pandemic relief. That includes a vote on an agreement with the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development and an update on the Rental and Mortgage Relief Program administered by the TJPDC.
As of September 22, the program had received $664,704 in funds and distributed $565,000 in relief. The TJPDC uses 15 percent of the funding to cover its internal costs. In Albemarle, 165 households have received a cumulative $240,087 in funding with another 291 applications pending. Ten were denied. In Charlottesville, $45,778 has been distributed to 32 households with another 171 pending. Twelve were denied.
You can see the details in the packet. (agenda packet)
Friday, October 2, 2020
So far, I can’t seem to find any meetings for this date. What have I missed? How are you doing, six and a half months into the pandemic?