Traffic study may point to safety solutions on Route 41 in Pittsylvania County; Charlottesville City Council to select replacement member tonight
Plus: Nelson County meets with Amherst County today to talk about joint agricultural complex
Another day, another set of information about what’s happening in local meetings across Virginia’s Fifth Congressional District. This time around, a quick item on Pittsylvania County’s meeting today, followed my material that ran yesterday in the Charlottesville Community Engagement feed. No bulleted list this time because I’m running out of that element!
Comments? Questions? Suggestions? Please let me know.
Pittsylvania County Supervisors to hold public hearing on transfer of land to soccer club
The seven-member Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors will begin their day with a meeting with the Pittsylvania School Board. They’ll meet at 39 Bank Street in Chatham beginning at 3 p.m. The topic will be the presentation of the school system’s requested budget for Fiscal Year 2024 from Superintendent Dr. Mark Jones. (meeting info)
That will be followed by a work session at 4 p.m. There will be an update on broadband installation across the county from Riverstreet Networks as well as a discussion of a traffic study for Virginia Route 41. The latter will feature a presentation from the business community on safety issues. (meeting info)
“There was a fatality in front of the Tuscarora Shopping Center on Saturday, January 21, 2023, where a 66-year old woman died and a 17 year old girl was seriously injured,” wrote Brenda Bowman to the Board of Supervisors. “Within a period of 2-3 hours that same afternoon, there were at least 2 other accidents in the same proximity.”
Bowman contacted the Virginia Department of Transportation to ask for assistance and learned that there was already a study in motion that is intended to find low cost solutions. She’s asking the Supervisors to take action to get work on those solutions in motion.
This work session will also feature a discussion of revisions to the master agreement between the county and the Town of Chatham for the water and sewer system. The Pittsylvania County Service Authority had established agreements in 1982, but was disbanded and functions were absorbed into the county government.
“The consolidated and revised agreement will help to eliminate service territory confusion and will simplify billing between the Town and County,” reads the staff report.
The business meeting begins at 7 p.m. with the usual trappings of a Board of Supervisors meeting. After the call to order and the Pledge of Allegiance, there will be a review of the agenda. That’s followed by the consent agenda which includes a resolution for the county to join the opioid settlement with several corporations. (meeting packet)
There are three public hearings for rezonings.
An individual seeks a rezoning of 0.31 acres of land from agricultural to residential suburban. This is so the parcel can be consolidated with an adjacent one.
A couple seeks a rezoning of 6.59 acres of land from residential suburban to agricultural so the boundary lines can be adjusted.
Another couple seeks to rezone 45.58 acres of land currently designated as agricultural and residential to all agricultural.
There are two other public hearings.
One is for an amendment to the Pittsylvania County Code regarding Virginia’s Conflict of Interest forms. “Virginia § 2.2-3115 was recently updated and now requires Industrial Development Authority Members to file the Statement of Economic Interest Form, instead of the Financial Disclosure Statement. County Staff was also contacted by the Office of Children’s Services stating that all CPMT and FAPT Members, who are Parent Representatives and/or Private Providers, need to complete the Statement of Economic Interest form as well.”
The other is for the disposition of publicly held land that Southside Soccer has an interest in. “Currently, the Soccer Club uses the recreational fields adjacent to the old Blairs School located on East Whitt Road in the Blair’s Magisterial District for soccer games. The Soccer Club has approached the County requesting to have the land transferred to their ownership to pursue grants to upgrade the facilities. “
Charlottesville City Council to announce fifth member
The regular meeting of the Charlottesville City Council will begin with four members but will end with five. According to the agenda for the Tuesday meeting, the fifth Councilor will be announced and sworn in immediately after a closed session. City Council Clerk Kyna Thomas told me last week that technically this person won’t be able to begin work until February 27 due to paperwork with human resources.
There is very little business on the agenda for that person to have voted on. But let’s start with the 4 p.m. work session. There are three items. (meeting info)
The first is a report from the National Community Survey for which data was collected from November 9 to December 22 last year. Here are the key findings straight from the staff report:
Residents generally feel safe in Charlottesville but have some concerns about police services
Residents appreciate Charlottesville's natural environment and recreational opportunities
Charlottesville residents widely use alternative forms of transport and support increasing transportation options
While ratings for utilities are strong overall, Charlottesville residents point to affordable highspeed internet access as an area of opportunity
Next, the city’s Tree Commission will give the State of the Forest for FY2022. They are sounding an alarm that not enough work is being done to retain tree cover in a growing city.
“Rather than robust and flourishing, Charlottesville’s overall tree canopy continues to decline at an accelerating rate,” reads the first page of the report. “Fourteen of the city’s 19 neighborhoods are now below 40% canopy cover, and two of these are extremely low-canopy, below 20 percent.”
That can have all kinds of health effects. I really hope to write about this one.
That report will be followed by a review of the city’s Environmental Standards which illustrates some of the tension in land use issues in Charlottesville. Last month, the Planning Commission had a discussion about critical slopes and floodplain development and this item is a follow-up with Council.
“The focus of our work in the zoning ordinance rewrite has been primarily towards the major goals of the Comprehensive Plan relating to affordable housing, land use equity, and promoting walkability and a high-quality built environment reflective of the culture and history of Charlottesville,” reads the staff report. “The environmental and climate mitigation benefits of directing new growth towards the City are significant, but there is still more that we can do to advance the environmental goals of the Comprehensive Plan.”
Some takeaways from the floodway section of the report are relevant to development issues. One would be to require City Council to approve any proposed changes to the floodplain maps before they are submitted to the Federal Emergency Management Administration. Another would be to require the finished first floor of any building in the floodplain to be two feet above the base flood elevation rather than the one foot requirement today.
Third, special use permits would be required for development in the floodplain overlay district.
There’s a lot in this and I recommend anyone who is planning on going to any of the zoning town hall meetings to watch this section of the Council meeting. That may answer questions. It may raise questions. But you are always better off when you can observe conversations and hear the arguments yourself.
Then the closed session and the Council appointment. Then Council will appoint city staff to the Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund Committee. (staff report)
There are two items under regular business. One is the Board of Architectural Review’s denial of a demolition request to remove an outbuilding at 507 Ridge Street. But is it a cottage or a shed? The landowners want to replace it with an accessory dwelling unit for an aging family member. Before the BAR hearing in December, a nearby resident suggested it may have been constructed by Allen Hawkins, a 19th-century brickmason. (staff report)
In their appeal to Council, the property owned called the BAR’s 4-2 vote against the permit to be “capricious and unreasonable.”
“During conversations with the BAR, several members assumed the intractable position that our ‘historic’ shed must be preserved for preservation’s sake, though it clearly is in rough shape,” wrote Clayt Lauter. “This is a ~12’ by ~14’ shed, in poor repair (the roof is leaking, the windows are damaged, animals are living in it, etc.) on our private property, with no access to the community, which’s value is diminishing daily.”
Next, Council will hold a second reading on the allocation of $500,000 to the New Hill Development Corporation for their BEACON Kitchen Project. First reading was earlier this month and I have not had time to write it out yet. What do the draft minutes say?
“[Economic Development Director Chris] Engel stated staff's recommendation for support of the project and resolution, as a one time investment. Presenters answered questions for Council.”
I hope to get a story out in advance to go through some of the questions. The one I had last time is still there. While perhaps an admirable project, why is this funding request not going through the same process other third-parties are subject to? (staff report)
Let’s conclude this entry with a quick review of the consent agenda:
Second reading of an appropriation of $229,803 for the federal Safe Routes to School grant to fund the city’s program (staff report)
Second reading of an appropriation of $61,500 for the Supreme Court of Virginia’s Behavioral Health Docket (staff report)
Second reading for an appraisal for the market value of 0 East High Street, where a developer has filed plans for 245 apartment buildings. A group has created an entity called the Circus Grounds Preservation Corporation in order to make a bid to buy the property. Is it too early to consider that the city might invoke eminent domain to do so for a park? What’s recent precedent for that in Virginia? How much would that cost? Where would the money come from? (staff report)
There will be second reading of the appropriation of $237,000 to purchase a new set of radios for Charlottesville Area Transit vehicles to communicate with emergency personnel. This is another story I want to have written already. There’s a lot. (staff report)
First reading of a special use permit for Three Notch’d Brewery to expand, which requires a reclassification from microbrewery (15,000 barrels or under a year) to a small brewery (30,000 barrels or under a year). (staff report)
First reading of the extension of an agreement to allow the city to operate its own transportation planning process rather than the Virginia Department of Transportation. (staff report)
The Piedmont Housing Alliance project at the Monticello Area Community Action Alliance site at 1025 Park Street is seeking Low Income Housing Tax Credits from the entity formerly known as the Virginia Housing Development Authority. That requires a resolution of support from the City Council. (staff report)
Nelson County Supervisors to meet with Amherst County Supervisors
The five-member Nelson County Board of Supervisors will meet with the five-member Amherst County Board of Supervisors. They’ll meet at the Amherst County Administration Building at 4 p.m. Anyone seeking the District 11 Senate race in Virginia would do well to pay attention, as those counties are now included along with Albemarle and Charlottesville. (packet)
The topic for this joint meeting is to get more input on the idea of a joint agricultural complex. There’s new information from the firm Architectural Partners. The report itself is from last August when there was a cost estimate of $53 million.
Louisa County Supervisors to hold budget work session
The seven-member Board of Supervisors in Louisa County will begin their day with a 3 p.m. work session on the budget for FY24. The budget was introduced at the Supervisors’ meeting on February 6. You can learn more about that from Tammy Purcell over on Engage Louisa who had a recap in last week’s installment. (meeting info)
You can also learn about that budget from the draft minutes. Keep in mind that Louisa County grew 5.5 percent in population between the U.S. Census in April 2020 and July 1, 2022 according to the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service.
According to finance director Wanda Colvin, operational expenses are up 10.6 percent in the draft FY24 budget. The five-year capital improvement budget has increased $38.6 million. Health insurance costs are up 13.5 percent.
Staff are assuming a five percent increase in employee salaries, as well as increasing all wages to at least $15 an hour. There are requests for three new positions in the Sheriff’s office, eight positions at Fire & Emergency Medical Services, and two animal control positions.
Supervisors will go into closed session at 5 p.m. and begin the open session at 6 p.m. (meeting packet)
The meeting does not have any public hearings. Instead, there are a handful of other items. One is a presentation from the Thomas Jefferson Soil and Water Conservation District.
There are two resolutions related to public safety. One is a resolution to authorize the Fire and Emergency Medical Services Departments to apply for a grant to purchase SBCA’s. What are those? From the actual resolution we learn that stands for Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus and the department is seeking a grant of $194,650.18 to replace all of the existing equipment.
The other is a budget resolution to authorize additional staff positions for the Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services. This is to staff the New Bridge Fire & EMS Station. The annual cost is $550,716 and there’s a $30,000 one-time charge for new uniforms and protective equipment. The specific resolution here is to amend the FY23 budget to bring on the new personnel beginning March 1 at a cost of $213,572.
In another meeting:
The Danville City Council meets tonight with a very light agenda that seems to consist of all consent agenda items. There are no public hearings. The interface for meetings seems to be broken. I’m chalking this one up to needing to get going on the rest of the week, but interested to know if anyone else might have insight into this meeting. Here’s the full 62-page agenda packet.
Reading material:
Numerous seats up for grabs for November election in Pittsylvania County, Diana McFarland, Chatham Star-Tribune, February 10, 2023
$3.4 million grant will expand program started at Danville's Institute for Advanced Learning and Research across state, Danville Register & Bee, February 13, 2023
Gretna begins process to replace water treatment plant, Diana McFarland, Chatham Star-Tribune, February 16, 2023
Zoning in: Will increased density really bring more affordable housing?, Sean Tubbs, C-Ville Weekly, February 16, 2023
Walker's bills on elected school boards fail in Senate, Bryson Gordon, February 17, 2023
New, inclusive playground coming to Forest, Shannon Kelly, Lynchburg News & Advance, February 17, 2023
What is Project Clementine? Prince Edward construction to start, Brian Carlton, Farmville Herald, February 17, 2023
ACFR and Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team find mortar round, conduct controlled disposal, Isabel Cleary, NBC29, February 18, 2023
Norris announces candidacy for HD54, Gretchen Stenger, CBS19, February 19, 2023
