May 5, 2025: Proposed "animal exhibition" to go before Halifax Supervisors
Plus: Previews of meetings today in Charlottesville and Louisa County
I write this introductory paragraph aboard an Amtrak Northeast Regional train bound for Roanoke. I got on at Trenton early in the morning. For the first hour or so I just stared out the window and watched the industrial landscape zoom past. There’s no better way to travel, though it’s quite hard to type on a train going as fast as this one!
If you have not taken the train before, I suggest it. Since becoming a frequent rider a year ago, I’ve fallen in love with the country again. There are so many places I want to visit. I want to know what people are like in all of these places and what binds us together. And of course I want to know: What is their local government like?
A man on the platform at Trenton asked me if he was in the right place. He was from somewhere in Britain and mispronounced Roanoke in a way I wish I had on tape. It astounds me how many people take the journey all the way there.
The train pulls into Washington as I’m about to hit send. I’m incredibly grateful to be able to learn about the Fifth District as I travel back home.
Monday, May 5, 2025
Halifax County Board of Supervisors to consider 200-animal zoo
The eight members of the Halifax County Board of Supervisors will meet at 6:30 p.m. in the county administration building at 1050 Mary Bethune Street in Halifax. (agenda packet)
The meeting begins with an invocation, the Pledge of Allegiance, adoption of the agenda, adoption of the minutes, and the consent agenda.
Then there are two public hearings. The first is the $197,837,536 budget for Fiscal Year 2026, a decrease from the FY2025 budget of $241,488,809.
The second public hearing is on the Virginia Department of Transportation’s Six-Year Plan for 2026 through 2031. Halifax will receive $167,937. That’s enough to pave 0.81 miles of road.
Then there will be a presentation from Hitachi Energy and their community engagement efforts. This will include a representative from the YMCA.
Under new business there will be a consideration of a conditional use permit for an animal exhibition and bed and breakfast at Wilde Manor at Tarover. The Planning Commission had their hearing on April 15. Property owners Nick Rich and Molly Waller plan to have a maximum of 200 animals on the site. That breaks down to a maximum of eight giraffes, twenty African penguins, twenty flamingos, ten lemurs, ten birds of prey, an aviary with fifty birds, thirty hoofstock herd, ten ostriches, and thirty “ambassador animals.”
The Planning Commission recommended approval, as Miranda Baines reports in the Gazette-Virginian. Baines has a preview of today’s meeting here.
There will be a discussion of the legal status of a Comprehensive Plan review for a 5 megawatt solar facility on 35 acres at 1150 Jenning Lane. There’s a second solar facility planned at 5013 Stage Coach Road and this one is a 3 megawatt facility on 30 acres.
There is a conditional use permit requested by the owners of 3090 Hunting Creek Road for the sale of hardware, power tools, and garden supplies.
There will also be the acceptance of bids for a burn building as well as a collection center.
Then there is a closed session. Halifax County employs the best practice of citing the full language of the section of Virginia code that allows elected officials to meet behind closed doors. In this case, it is a personnel matter. But Supervisors also post whether there will be action or not.
Supervisors will meet again on May 20 with a joint meeting with the Planning Commission.
United Way seeking funds from Charlottesville City Council to help people PROSPER
The five members of the Charlottesville City Council will gather at 4 p.m. in City Council Chambers for a work session on three topics. (agenda)
The first is a presentation from the United Way. At the very end of the budget development cycle for FY2026, City Council was asked to consider adding $16,000 in funding for their Prosper program. Councilors opted to wait until they could hear more information on a program that had previously been known as the Financial Resiliency Task Force.
“The program, launched in February 2025, works to empower ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, but Employed) households earning 150- 300 percent of FPL to become financially independent long-term by providing support, teaching useful skills, and offering financial incentives,” reads the staff report.
The acronym FPL is not explained in the staff report. Neither is there an entry under the customary “budgetary impact.” Readers of the staff report are also told that community engagement is not applicable.
“This is a presentation for City Council's information and education,” reads the staff report.
From the presentation itself, we do learn that FPL stands for Federal Poverty Level. We also learn that the United Way is asking for $50,000 from the City of Charlottesville to pay for 20 city residents to participate in the program. So why is the budgetary impact section blank in the staff report?
The next report is an update on the regional water supply plan that will have to be created due to recent legislation that recently passed the General Assembly. All localities in a given river basin will have to come up with a regional plan. The Charlottesville area is in the Middle James 1 Regional Planning Unit which includes the city, Albemarle, Buckingham, Fluvanna, Greene, and Louisa. All but one of those are in the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission.
That organization has been tasked with coordinating the river plan and has been awarded $8,884 for their efforts. This comes at a time when there are three localized efforts. Albemarle and Charlottesville participate in the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority, and Fluvanna and Louisa county are in the James River Water Authority. Greene County recently pulled out of the Rapidan Service Authority.
The final presentation is from the Charlottesville Economic Development Authority.
“At a recent City Council Meeting discussion involving potential affordable housing tax abatement strategies, the use of CEDA was mentioned as a way to help facilitate this action,” reads the staff report. “This will also be addressed.”
This staff report also states there is no budgetary impact.
Several public hearings before City Council including one on use of eminent domain
The regular meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. in City Council Chambers and this is a busy one that begins with adoption of three proclamations.
One item in the consent agenda worth noting is the first of two readings on an allocation of $26,210.96 to the Charlottesville-Albemarle Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. That organization is the official animal shelter for both localities to comply with state law.
The new contract is effective March 2025 and costs more. This is a payment to fully cover services rendered in FY2025.
“The City's cost for the first year of the Agreement is $596,219, and is to be paid over five (5) periods, in the amount of $119,243.80 per quarter,” reads the staff report.
Another item in the consent agenda worth noting is the refund of $115,692.88 to a business that is not identified. Is software tangible? This business had listed them in their personal property filings.
“The software costs were significant, and the ensuing tax amounts were paid timely by the entity in question,” reads the staff report. “After subsequent inquiries by the taxpayer beginning in June 2024, the [Commissioner of Revenue] determined that, pursuant to Virginia Code §58.1-1101(A)(8), such software is properly classified as intangible personal property, and therefore not subject to local taxation.”
There is an entry for budgetary impact.
There are many items on the agenda. The first is an appeal of the Board of Architectural Review’s denial of a demolition request for 144 Chancellor Street. The Delta Zeta sorority owns the building which they say has deteriorated past the point of being useful. The BAR disagreed. I refer you to two stories for more.
BAR denies sorority’s tear-down request, C-Ville Weekly, February 5, 2025
Charlottesville City Council to hear appeal for 144 Chancellor Street, Information Charlottesville, April 23, 2025
The next item is a public hearing on the city’s use of eminent domain to take land for two transportation projects. One is for the East High Streetscape and the other is for the Barracks Emmet Streetscape.
“The East High Streetscape Project includes ADA and pedestrian improvements, wider sidewalks, bike lanes, landscaping, along with upgrades to intersections for better accessibility,” reads the staff report. “The Barracks Emmet Streetscape Project will implement bike/pedestrian/vehicular improvements at the intersection of Barracks and Emmett Street.”
The latter project will also build a six foot wide pathway up Barracks Road to the intersection with Buckingham Road.
Eminent domain is used when a government has not successfully negotiated to purchase a property. References to the city’s power is in the resolution. The landowners unwilling to work with the city are not identified.
There is also a public hearing on conveyance of an easement to Dominion Energy on property at 1505 Avon Street Extended for a future charging station for electric school buses. The city will eventually receive two such vehicles through a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency program.
After that is what I believe to be Council’s second land use public hearing under the provisions of the new zoning code. The first was a request from Southern Development to amend the provisions of a previous rezoning.
This time around the owners of 401 Ridge Street are seeking a special use permit to have commercial lodging with up to ten guest rooms. That’s allowed in Residential-C zoning but only after Council grants a special use permit. The Planning Commission recommended approval.
Next up is a resolution to approve “a Grant of Public Funds for housing assistance to low- and moderate-income homeowners within the City.” (staff report)
Another last-minute budget item this year was the decision by Council to give $100,000 to the Dogwood Vietnam Memorial Foundation (DVMF). There’s a resolution on the May 5 agenda for a formal lease agreement between that entity and the city for the space in McIntire Park where the memorial is located.
That $100,000 is intended to go toward a future infrastructure to improve access. That’s addressed in the lease.
“The City will engage with DVMF in good faith and take all reasonable action to allow and assist DVMF in the planning, construction, development, and approval of a pedestrian bridge, multi-use trail, and associated parking lot to provide improved/handicap public access to the Leased Premises (and McIntire Park generally),” reads section 9.b.2.
The penultimate item is a resolution to allocate $41,500 from the FY2026 Housing Operations and Programs Support (HOPS) to the Blue Ridge Coalition for the Homeless (BRACH) to make up for what is described as a “lost grant.”
“This funding would ensure that BRACH, the lead Continuum of Care agency in the City's region, can continue its operations uninterrupted,” reads the staff report. “Due to the potential for interrupted service, this funding request is deemed an emergency.
At their budget work session on March 13, 2025, Council learned that technical errors caused the organization to miss out on a $250,000
Finally, Council will vote on a confidential settlement agreement. Which one? The staff report is totally blank so whatever budgetary impact there might be is not easily known. Is anyone keeping track of these?
Louisa County Supervisors to adopt FY2026 budget
The Louisa County Board of Supervisors meets for the second week in a row, slightly throwing off the balance of those of us who chart the meetings. There’s a story from last week I really want to write. In any case, like usual, the Board meets at 5 p.m. for a closed session before the open session that begins at 6 p.m.
After the invocation, the Pledge of Allegiance, adoption of the agenda, and approval of the minutes, there will be the consent agenda. Some of the items:
May 17 through May 23 will be National Boating Week. On average, 650 people a year die in boating accidents.
There is a resolution to spend up to $35,000 for repairs for a dozer used at the Louisa County landfill.
There is a resolution authorizing the Trevillians Volunteer Fire Department to proceed with several capital projects. (learn more)
There are three information and discussion items but no material for any of them. These are on the Foundation for Lake Anna Emergency Services, an update from the Ag/Forestal and Rural Preservation Committees, and a discussion of the tourism administrative process.
Then adoption of the Operations and Maintenance Budget for FY26 and the Capital Improvement Plan budget. The operations budget is $174,867,600 and the CIP for FY2026 is $12,718,590.
Part of the CIP for FY2026 is $580,000 for replacing vehicles in the Sheriff’s Department. A resolution will be considered to officially proceed with procurement.
The final new business item is a resolution to adopt the Move Safely Blue Ridge study. That has been coordinated by the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission. I have so wanted to write about each locality’s discussion, but time is finite.
Then there are two public hearings. The first is for an amendment of the county’s ordinance related to real estate tax relief for the elderly and totally disabled. This will raise the maximum amount of relief from $2,000 to $3,000.
The second public hearing is on the Virginia Department of Transportation's secondary six-year road plan for Louisa County. Here is the resolution and here is the plan.
Reading material:
Budget set for Prince Edward schools, Brian Carlton, Farmville Herald, Saturday, April 26, 2025
Naming Committee moves forward for Prince Edward school board, Brian Carlton, Farmville Herald, April 29, 2025
AEP picks new route for transmission line through Campbell, Pittsylvania Counties, Thad Randazzo, WFXR, April 29, 2025
Powhatan County approves $124 million budget for fiscal year 2026, Nia McMillan, April 29, 2025
Dominion to build new high voltage lines to supply proposed 900MW data center in Chesterfield County, Virginia, Zachary Skidmore, April 30, 2025, Data Center Dynamics
Powhatan County confirms user for $2.7 billion data center, Allison Williams, WRIC 8News, April 30, 2025