April 22, 2025: Lynchburg City Council Finance Committee to get briefing on benefits of potential downtown improvement district
Plus: Links to yesterday’s meetings in Appomattox Count
I had thought today’s edition this would be an easy one to produce that would only focus on Lynchburg and the City Council meeting today. However, there’s a bit more to this edition of the newsletter including links to two meetings from yesterday.
I often wonder what would have happened if I had spent more time there after graduating from high school in the early 90’s. I was glad to leave as I didn’t think Lynchburg had much of a future.
I was wrong about that. I continue to be very impressed at the level of investment in downtown Lynchburg. It took a long while, but I take pride in the area and lament in a way that I didn’t get to move there a couple of years ago. After all, Fifth District Community Engagement was created to explore the possibility of expanding way beyond Charlottesville.
I’ve not been to Lynchburg since September 2023 when I went to pick up some things from the storage unit in Forest. I really need to get down there to get rid of the rest of the stuff, but I seem to have a mental block on doing so.
Well, Howard Jones told us to throw off our mental chains, so maybe I’ll be down soon to do that and to catch a Hillcats game. But for now, I’ve got to write up today’s meeting! This is made more difficult because Lynchburg uses Civic Access to provide access to meeting information and a memory glitch keeps crashing agendas.
Lynchburg City Council’s Finance Committee to discuss downtown improvement districts
There are seven members of the Lynchburg City Council. To help organize business there is a Finance Committee chaired by Councilmember Marty Misjuns. They meet at 3 p.m. in the 2nd Floor Training Center in City Hall at 900 Church Street. (meeting overview)
The first item on the agenda is an overview from the Downtown Lynchburg Association of what a Downtown Improvement District could do for Lynchburg. According to a presentation in the packet, these are public-private partnerships where property owners invest in an overall area through additional assessments.
“Funds are used for marketing, maintenance, beautification, public safety enhancements, business support,” reads the presentation.
There are such districts in Roanoke, Richmond, Staunton, Norfolk, and Winchester. One was proposed in Charlottesville in the mid 2010’s for the Downtown Mall but there was opposition from property owners. Here’s a story I wrote for Charlottesville Tomorrow in March 2015 when the ideas was withdrawn.
Inside of the packet is a map of a 202.5 acre section of Lynchburg that would be included in an improvement district. There is also a range of scenarios of how much revenue would be generated.
Next up will be a discussion of a resolution to accept $125,000 from the Awareness Garden to improve the parking lot at the Ed Page entrance to the Blackwater Creek Trail.
“The Awareness Garden is a public green space for people to gather and reflect on lives impacted by Cancer,” reads the staff report
Then there will be a resolution suggested by Councilmember Misjuns to align the City of Lynchburg with current policies from a president of the United States who is determine to use the office to strip government policies he and his supporters do not favor.
“The City of Charlottesville shall adopt practices of merit-based governance and reject [Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion] programs as defined in this resolution, ensuring no taxpayer funds directly or indirectly support or subsidize the advancement of [Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion] programs,” reads the draft resolution.
Staff does not recommend Council adopt the resolution.
“Federal grant guidelines continue to evolve under President Trump,” reads the staff report. “Once grant guidelines are finalized at the federal level, they flow to the Commonwealth for adoption by the General Assembly.”
The Finance Committee ends with a discussion of cash contingencies and a review of revenue collections.
Lynchburg City Council will hold budget public hearing
The full Lynchburg City Council will meet at 6 p.m. in Council Chambers in City Hall to hold three separate public hearings that are all related all the same. These are:
The real property tax rate
Fees for water, sewer, and stormwater service
The FY26 operating and capital budget
There’s no information in the packet itself about where things stand.
Here is a link the budget proposed by City Manager Wynter Benda, but I don’t have any sense what changes Council might have made. Hopefully next year I’ll be more on top of Lynchburg.
Cumberland County Supervisors to hold budget public hearing
I do not know much about the budget process in Cumberland County but a quick look at the website just now informed me there is a budget public hearing tonight at the Circuit Courtroom at 17 Courthouse Circle in Cumberland. There’s no other information in the agenda. I didn’t have much luck finding more on the Finance website. Better luck next year, maybe? Hopefully more capacity.
Video of Appomattox County Board of Supervisors
I unfortunately will not have time to write up yesterday’s meeting of the Appomattox County Board of Supervisors but I do like the idea of posting videos in case anyone is interested. And I hope people will be interested. Knowing how local government works can unlock a lot of ways to knowing more about the country we live in.
WSET reports that Supervisors have held off on closing two precinct for now Take a look here or below in reading material.
Unfortunately the embed won’t work for Appomattox, but maybe you’ll click through anyway?
Video of Buckingham County Board of Supervisors
While I’m at it, here’s a link to the video from the Buckingham County Board of Supervisors. Substack embeds the videos quite easily so I’ll make this a practice, too.
Reading material:
District 1 polling place change made official by supervisors, Brian Carlton, Kenbridge-Victoria Dispatch, April 20, 2025
School Board seat remains open, due to lack of qualified applicants, Brian Carlton, April 20, 2025
Charlottesville spends $59 million in affordable housing over 4 year period, Maggie Glass, WVIR 29News, April 21, 2025
Hanover County to consider pay raises for appointed boards and commissions, Lyndon German, VPM News, April 21, 2025
Hanover County launches online platform for community engagement, Kendal McAuley, April 21, 2025
Cumberland County Planning Commission votes no to proposed landfill project, Victoria Lucas, April 22, 2025
Appomattox Co. Board of Supervisors holding off on potentially closing two precincts, Hayden Robertson and Kaylee Shipley, WSET, April 22, 2025