Tuesday, January 17
Senators keeping an eye on liberal wackos
Today senators gave grudging approval to a bill that would give Charlottesville more power to help low- and moderate-income residents buy a house. The bill, introduced by Sen. Creigh Deeds (D-Bath County), is similar to one already at work in Alexandria, prompting suspicion from Sen. Emmett Hanger (R-Mount Solon). He and other state Republicans view Charlottesville and Alexandria as “small urban hotbeds of liberalism… that should be neither encouraged nor enhanced,” according to Bob Gibson in The Daily Progress.
Wednesday, January 18
60,000 acres in Albemarle undereasement
Today The Nature Conservancy announced two major conservation easements that put 1,600 acres of rolling county countryside known as Castle Hill into permanent protection from development. The land has links to Revolutionary War history and the easement includes 378 acres where The Nature Conservancy will perform a restoration program for old-growth forests. The easements make for a total of 60,000 non-parkland acres forever off-limits to development in Albemarle.
Thursday, January 19
Major grant for UVA mental health research
Today UVA announced it had received a $4.5 million grant from the MacArthur Foundation to study legally mandated treatment for people with mental disorders. The study, conducted by UVA law professor John Monahan, seeks evidence to help decide whether, and how, courts should require involuntary treatment for the mentally ill.
Enviros appeal to City Hall
Today leaders from local environmental groups delivered a list of ecological priorities including air quality and renewable energy to Charlottesville Mayor David Brown. The list, which was also mailed to State leaders, recommends reducing energy consumption and investing in alternative transportation. The environmentalists also addressed specific matters, such as concern over the Meadowcreek Parkway and new nuclear reactors that Dominion plans to build in Louisa County. The fact that Virginia ranks last in the nation in environmental spending also prompted the display.
Teachers to get what’s coming to them?
Acting Charlottesville Superintendent Bobby Thompson tonight proposed a $61.5 million budget for 2006-07, which includes raises for teachers that average 5.72 percent. Thompson’s budget stands in stark contrast to last year’s proposal, authored by then-Supe Scottie Griffin, who gave teachers far less consideration than administrators. Teacher retention is an issue throughout the region—and some school leaders think it can be addressed through pay incentives. Indeed, last night Pam Moran, Albemarle’s new superintendent, proposed a $157 million budget that includes salary increases for teachers ranging from 3.6 percent to 11.5 percent.
Friday, January 20
Warner whips Allen in poll
According to a survey recently commissioned by the UVA Center for Politics, if Virginians were asked to choose the next U.S. President today, given a choice between former Governor Mark Warner (D) and U.S. Senator George Allen (R), nearly half would lend Warner their support. Close to one-third said they would vote for Allen, himself a former governor, and all of the 1,181 polled are said to have voted last fall. “It’s rare that there are two significant candidates from the same state, especially from a medium-sized state like Virginia,” says Center Director Larry Sabato of the results released today. “The question that naturally arises is, ‘which one is the king of the hill? Which one has more support in the state?’” Characterizing them as “an absolute runaway” for Warner, Sabato says he was surprised by the results. “Of course, it’s very early; anything can happen,” Sabato says. “How much influence [a poll] has is anybody’s guess.”
Saturday, January 21
Free expression monument to get a conscience
The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, the people who will bring you the Free Expression Monument in front of City Hall, today announced the winning quote that will be inscribed on one side of the wall, scheduled to be completed by March 21. More than 850 Charlottesville-area high school students participated in the vote that pitted four highbrow quotes against each other. The winner is by John “Paradise Lost” Milton: “Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.” The other side of the chalkboard will reproduce the full text of the First Amendment.
Sunday, January 22
Everybody knows Wladek Minor—do you?
This week we learned that a 1997 paper co-authored by UVA molecular physiology and biological physics professor Wladek Minor is currently the world’s second-most cited scientific paper, according to The Scientist magazine. The paper, “Processing of X-ray Differentiation Data Collected in Oscillation Mode,” describes a software program that creates a 3-D image, or map, of human proteins. In providing a program that creates maps of specific proteins, Minor and his colleagues give those developing treatments for viruses and cancer the tools they need to design better drugs. “When people take a designed drug, 99 percent of the time it’s targeting a protein,” says Matt Zimmerman, a graduate student who works in Minor’s UVA lab.
Monday, January 23
Saga turns both left and right
Left-leaning talk radio fans have something to crow about as the Charlottesville Radio Group has launched a new station featuring liberal figures like Al Franken, Randi Rhodes and Ed Schultz. The station, WVAX 1450, begins its first full week of programming today. The new station complements the slew of right-wing chatterboxes like Michael Savage and Rush Limbaugh who appear on WINA, also owned by Charlottesville Radio Group and its parent company, Saga Communications.
Written by John Borgmeyer from staff and news reports
How many are coming to Crozet?
County tries to soothe uproar over conflicting population predictions
After Albemarle County designated Crozet as a growth area, planners began a yearlong public process in March 2002, with the goal of creating a “master plan” for the town. Master planning included nearly a dozen public events, the formation of seven task force groups and the hiring of Renaissance Planning Group as consultants to complete the process. The whole shebang cost $215,000, and in December 2004 the County approved the Crozet Master Plan. Surely there would be no public outcry after such an exhaustive process, right?
Au contraire. Cro-zet activists want to know why County planners seem to have nearly doubled their original estimate to 24,000 from 12,500 residents as the area is built out. Currently, Crozet has a population of about 3,600 living in 4.5 square miles.
“What the document I have and what the residents made clear was a master plan calling for 1,240 units,” says Crozet resident and activist Tom Loach, referring to the Development Areas Initiatives Steering Committee’s final report dated March 22, 2000. “Ask them how the final plan called for 12,000 people but now they’re saying 24,000. That’s half the size of Charlottesville and would destroy the area,” he says.
On Thursday, January 12, about 300 residents met to demand an explanation for this apparent turnabout from Albemarle County Board Chairman Dennis Rooker and White Hall District Su-pervisor David Wyant. An-other Crozet resident, Mary Rice, explained that as a growth area, the allowable 20-year build-out could reach an upper limit of 24,000. The Wickham Pond development was used as an example since the 20-acre parcel was just rezoned from five units to allow for 107 housing units.
“I didn’t support the Wickham Pond rezoning to 107 units because it did not contribute to infrastructure,” said Rooker, alluding to a common complaint that the County allows more development than public facilities such as roads and schools can support. Rooker said that Old Trail Village, with an approved 2,200 homes, includes infrastructure like sidewalks, street trees, a park and the upgrading of Western Avenue. Rooker thinks the 24,000 total is simply a 20-year maximum if every single acre were to be developed on a by-right basis. “The uppermost limit is unlikely,” said Rooker. But more than once he re-ferred to the original Com-prehensive Plan that included a Piedmont Environmental Council estimate that Crozet’s maximum build-out could be as high as 34,000 residents.
Rice later called that figure totally irrelevant. “It’s an inane number that means absolutely nothing,” she said. She thinks the County should agree to having the entire promised infrastructure—including a new library and the upgrading of roads and bridges—in place before any developments are approved that would take the total over the 12,000 limit.—Jay Neelley
More development on Old Lynchburg Road?
Breeden confirms another major land sale near Biscuit Run
Just when you thought Old Lynchburg Road couldn’t possibly soak up any more new suburban housing, last week C-VILLE received confirmation that more than 200 acres of land ripe for development will soon be on the market.
Two parcels of land totaling more than 200 acres are directly across Old Lynchburg Road from David Bree-den’s Biscuit Run property, which the sculptor sold to developer Hunter Craig for $46.2 million in November. The sale created quite a stir among those concerned about new county development. Those concerns are likely to mount with Breeden’s confirmation that he has secured the 200 acres with a contract that he hopes to sell to another buyer. “We have a contract to purchase both parcels,” says Breeden. “We’re going to sell the contract.”
The land in question includes two parcels—one is 167 acres and one is 50 acres—at the northeast corner of Old Lynchburg and Forest Lodge roads, just across Old Lynchburg from Biscuit Run. The 167-acre parcel is zoned R-4, and County plans call for “neighborhood density” there. According to County records, the Jennie Sue Minor Trust owns both parcels. Minor, who owns the nearby Southwood trailer park, did not return calls by press time.—John Borgmeyer
Whole Foods to relocate
Nine-dollar arugula to move to Albemarle Place
Charlottesville’s Whole Foods is not long for its current location at Shoppers World on Route 29 North. While the moving date has not yet been announced, according to the Whole Foods website, the organic foods giant will be relocating to a 55,000-square-foot space on the corner of U.S. Route 29 and Hydraulic Road. This corner is the site of Albemarle Place, a 1.8 million-square-foot mixed-use development where plans include up to 800 residential units, a two-storey department store, hotel, cinema, retail outlets and, of course, a grocery store.
While representatives from Whole Foods’ current property managers did not return phone calls, via e-mail Shoppers World property manager Chuck Lebo did say that while the shopping center is currently fully leased, “we may have some smaller shop spaces come available in the next few years.” He added, “We cannot accommodate tenants above 6,000 square feet for the foreseeable future.” He declined to comment either on how large the current Whole Foods space is or how much rent Whole Foods currently pays Shoppers World.
The Lebo-Whole Foods team made headlines last spring when Lebo had Democratic General Assembly candidate Rich Collins arrested for campaigning in the Whole Foods parking lot. The ensuing legal battle has raised the question in the courts of whether shopping centers are private property or whether they are the latter-day equivalent of town squares and thus areas where constitutional rights apply. Collins was convicted of trespassing in General District Court, but the case has been appealed.
Representatives from Whole Foods could not be reached by press time.—Nell Boeschenstein
Council approves Rugby historic district
Student-housing developers question vote
Attention local developers! City Councilors want big apartment buildings near UVA!
No, wait…they don’t. Well, maybe. O.K.—just a few, but they’ll be watching you developers very, very carefully.
What’s all the confusion about? Last week, City Councilors voted to place new restrictions on development in the neighborhoods around Rugby Road, University Circle and 14th Street near the Corner. On Tuesday, January 17, Councilors voted 3 to 1 to create a new historic design control district in that area. (Republican Rob Schilling abstained from the vote).
“It baffles me,” says Rick Jones, president of Management Services Group, which builds and owns student housing around UVA. Jones is upset because two years ago the City rezoned that area, allowing developers to build up to 87 units per acre. The 2003 rezoning came after extensive planning and public meetings on how to keep students living near UVA and out of residential neighborhoods.
“There was a lot of support for that concept,” says Jones. “[Council] took 85 percent of the existing buildings in that neighborhood and said ‘This property is not going to be developed.’ [With this new decision] the Council took any certainty away from the property owners.”
The new Rugby historic district means developers—who own much of the property in the district already—will need approval from the Board of Architectural Review to demolish old houses. Council rejected proposals that gave developers more freedom in the district, and embraced the plan endorsed by historic preservation groups.
Councilor Kevin Lynch, who successfully pushed for the most restrictive historic district, says the City is not sending mixed messages to developers. “I’m not looking at every property over 40 years old and saying we have to keep it.” However, Lynch says, “we don’t want 14th and 15th streets to look like Jefferson Park Avenue.”
Councilor Kendra Hamilton initially sided with Councilor Blake Caravati and favored fewer restrictions on developers, but says she was eventually swayed by Lynch and Mayor David Brown.
“It was probably the most difficult decision I have ever had to make,” says Hamilton. “Everybody wants sticks to beat the development community over the head. Nobody wants to get carrots to encourage them to do the things we want to do.”
In the two years between the rezoning and last week’s decision, Jones and other developers have already started to build some high-density apartments in the Rugby area. That should meet the demand of UVA’s growing student body for the next five years, Jones says. Beyond that, the City’s cave-in to preservation interests could thwart plans to contain student sprawl.
“A great idea got trashed,” says Jones. “It was all politics.”—John Borgmeyer
Wahoo law student gets props from Ebony
Read this and get depressed about how little you’ve accomplished
Is UVA, like, a good school
or something? It sure seems like they’ve got some bright students.
At least, that’s what Ebony magazine tells us. The February issue of the seminal African-American monthly features UVA law student Raqiyyah Pippins in the article “Young Leaders: 30 for 2006.” The 24-year-old Pip-pins stands alongside news anchors, scholars, pastors and executives in Ebony’s profile of 30 African-American leaders under 30 years old.
Pippins is a J.D. candidate and national chair of the National Black Law Stu-dents Association as well as a former student-faculty relations committee co-chair for the Student Bar Association. Pippins is also articles editor for the Virginia Sports and Enter-tainment Law Journal. —John Borgmeyer
Hamilton disses Jefferson in Harper’s magazine
Jesus is just all right…TJ, not so much
As a City Councilor, Kendra Hamilton is no doubt accustomed to appearing in, ahem…distinguished publications. Yet last week her name entered even higher stratospheres of journalistic panache as the February issue of Harper’s hit the
C-VILLE’s newsstand featuring her backslap on ol’ TJ.
A letter from the politician/UVA English scholar ap-pears in the February issue of the 150-year-old Harper’s, the leading magazine for progressive contrariness and ass-kicking journalism.
An essay in the December Harper’s prompted Hamilton’s ire. In “Jesus Without the Miracles,” writer Erik Reece argues for a version of Christianity that emphasizes good works instead of miracles and heaven. In his essay Reece discusses a version of the Bible compiled by Thomas Jefferson, in which he cut out all references to miracles.
Jesus is just all right with Hamilton, but not TJ. She learned about the former President’s not-so-nice side while interning at Monticello while she was a graduate student at UVA in the mid-1990s. Had Jesus ever met Jefferson, Hamilton writes, “the Nazarene would have faulted Jefferson’s hypocrisy in extolling the glories of ‘liberty’ while denying it to the 200-odd humans whom he owned.” Hamilton writes, “I enjoyed the religious portions of ‘Jesus Without the Miracles’—but I would have liked it much better if I could have gotten Jesus without the Thomas Jefferson too.” Oh, snap!
“When [Reece] started to get Thomas Jefferson in the mix, I just couldn’t go there,” Hamilton tells C-VILLE.—John Borgmeyer
A facelift for Lane Auditorium
County meetings will soon be more exciting than UVA basketball
Work is already underway on renovations to Lane Auditorium in the Albemarle County Office Building. On Wednesday, January 18, Albemarle County officials held a pre-bid meeting on the renovation of Lane Auditorium—the future site for all Albemarle County meetings.
The renovation calls for new seating and flooring, improved ventilation and en-hanced audio/visual capabilities. The auditorium will be the future meeting spot for the various County meetings, including those of the Board of Supervisors and the School Board.
The new renovations should make the auditorium a far more accessible and enjoyable place for civic-minded citizens. A large screen behind board members will be clearly visible to all audience members and the audio system will be up to date—all great improvements over the current meeting area.
Lane Auditorium was closed on January 3 and workers have already started gutting the auditorium in preparation for its renovation.
The deadline for submitting a bid for construction is February 9, and assuming there are no hold-ups in the process—such as staying within the $1.2 million budget—construction is scheduled to begin March 1 and be completed in September.
Although only two contractors showed up to a pre-bid meeting Wednesday, at least four contractors have requested the architectural plans necessary before making a bid.—Dan Pabst
GENERAL ASSEMBLY WATCH
Virginia is for (straight) lovers—and Rob Bell likes it that way
Thank goodness the Virginia House of Delegates is protecting us from all those scary gay people.
On Friday, January 13, the House voted 73-22 in favor of a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage in the Commonwealth. The legislation, known as House Joint Resolution 41, overwhelmingly passed both the Senate and the House last year. Amending the Constitution requires two votes by both chambers, with an election in between. If the Senate supports HJ 41, it will go before Virginia voters in November.
The amendment, sponsored by Del. Bob Marshall (R-Manassas), declares that “only a union between one man and one woman may be recognized by this Commonwealth.” The law would also prohibit the State from recognizing “a legal status for relationships of unmarried individuals that intends to approximate the design, qualities, significance, or effects of marriage.”
Marshall designed the law to prevent Virginia from recognizing gay marriages or civil unions that may be legal in other states—partnerships that amendment supporters such as Del. Kathy Byron (R-Lynchburg) say could “destroy” what she calls “traditional families.” Critics, however, say the bill is too vague and could interfere with health care decisions and property ownerships.
Charlottesville Delegate David Toscano voted against the amendment, while Albemarle Delegate Rob Bell voted for it.
Developers protest Kaine’s plan to link roads and zoning—apparently his fundraising days are over
Virginia’s real estate moneymakers have their tool belts in a bunch over Governor Tim Kaine’s plan to curb traffic. Kaine wants to give local governments the power to deny rezoning if nearby roads are not adequate to handle the traffic that new projects would bring. Cur-rently, elected officials have almost no say over what an individual builds on a piece of land, even though planning experts have long advocated for more coordination between land use and transportation.
If Kaine can get his proposal through the Gen-eral Assembly, it could have a big effect locally. County supervisors could, for example, deny rezoning for big subdivisions on narrow country roads such as Route 20 South or Highway 53.
Developers, however, are fighting back. Last week the Virginia Home Builder’s Association brought more than 100 people to Richmond to lobby against Kaine’s plan. Although Kaine’s plan has been endorsed by The Washington Post (in a January 18 editorial the Post denounced as “hysterical” the VHBA’s claim that the plan would be death for the industry), don’t underestimate the power of real estate interests—developers donate more money to Virginia politicians than any other industry.—John Borgmeyer
Las Vegas man turns himself in on 21-year-old rape charge
Beebe’s bond set at $30,000 in Charlottesville juvenile court
William Beebe, handcuffed in his black and white jumpsuit, sat silently between defense law-yers Rhonda Quagliana and Fran Law-rence at his bond hearing on Tuesday, January 17, at Charlottesville Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court. The 40-year-old Beebe had turned himself in to Char-lottesville police earlier that morning to face a rape charge stemming from an incident that allegedly occurred a little more than 21 years ago when Beebe was a student at UVA.
After hearing arguments from both Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Claude Worrell and Quagliana, Judge Edward Berry set bond at $30,000 with the conditions that Beebe surrender his passport, not have any contact with the victim, attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and submit to drug testing. The hearing took place in Juvenile Court because the victim, Connecticut resident Elizabeth Seccuro, was 17 at the time of the alleged rape.
Beebe, a Las Vegas real estate agent and massage therapist, had been going through the 12-step AA re-covery process. As part of Step 9—which involves making amends with people the recovering alcoholic may have harmed in the past—he contacted Seccuro in Sep-tember to seek forgiveness for a sexual encounter that had occurred between the two at a 1984 UVA fraternity party. In the ensuing contact between Beebe and Seccuro, it became clear that they had differing perceptions of what had happened. As a result, in late December Seccuro filed rape charges against Beebe with the Charlottesville Po-lice Department.
In one of his e-mails Beebe referred to the incident as a “rape.” At the bond hearing, Quagliana characterized the situation differently, saying that Seccuro was too intoxicated to either consent to or reject the sexual encounter. While Worrell argued that Beebe should not be granted bond on the grounds that he still poses a threat to Seccuro, Quagliana countered with the facts that Beebe had turned himself in voluntarily, cooperated with authorities and had ceased contact with Seccuro once it became clear he was not helping the situation.
Once he has turned in his passport and posted bond, Beebe will be staying with a longtime friend who lives in Richmond. His preliminary hearing date has been set for March 24 at 2pm.—Nell Boeschenstein
DNA testing confirms Coleman’s guilt
New evidence comes as a blow to death penalty activists
Posthumous DNA testing ordered by Governor Warner has confirmed the guilt of Roger Keith Coleman. Coleman was executed in 1992 for the rape and murder of his 19-year-old sister-in-law, Wanda McCoy.
Coleman’s case had received significant public attention since he was sentenced to death 24 years ago, partly because he firmly maintained his innocence until his execution. In May 1992, he appeared on the cover of Time magazine with the headline “This man might be innocent; this man is due to die.”
As one of his final acts before leaving office two weeks ago, Governor Mark Warner ordered new DNA testing on the remaining evidence from Coleman’s case. Among other things, Coleman’s conviction rested on circumstantial forensic evidence that did not significantly rule out the possibility of another killer. Better DNA testing—not available during Coleman’s trial—had left open the possibility that Virginia had executed an innocent man.
However, results came back confirming Coleman’s guilt, with the new DNA results placing the chances of Coleman’s innocence at 1 in 19 million.
In pushing for a retest, death penalty opponents pointed to the fact that Cole-man, who could not afford his own de-fense, received two inexperienced court-appointed attorneys who had never tried a murder case—let alone one involving capital punishment. Furthermore, there was significant evidence of the prosecution mishandling the case, including withholding evidence from the defense during trial. Moreover, early attempts to appeal Coleman’s case came to a halt after attorneys for Coleman missed a filing deadline by one day.
Jack Payden-Travers, director of Virginians Against the Death Penalty, said his group was “obviously discouraged by the initial outcome of the Coleman case, but overall encouraged that the precedent has been set for further posthumous DNA testing, as well as for retaining evidence beyond the outcome of the trial.”—Dan Pabst
Lawmakers want to up penalty for petty pot smokers
New bill raises maximum sentence to one year in jail
According to Charlottesville Common-wealth’s Attorney Dave Chapman, the annual volume of pot cases that passes through his office is so high that the office doesn’t even bother keeping a database of them. Most of the cases, says Chapman, involve first-time offenders and are overwhelmingly resolved with a guilty plea, some drug assessment, a revoked license and one year of probation. Delegate Sal Iaquinto (R-Virginia Beach), however, wants to crack down on these first-time (and small-time) stoners.
Iaquinto is sponsoring a bill in the Virginia General Assembly that would jack up the punishment for first-time pot offenders from the possibility of one month in jail to a full year in the slammer, and raise the maximum fine to $2,500 from $500. The license suspension would remain the same.
According to Chapman, the new bill would not affect his office or the way the majority of such cases are prosecuted, since the majority of cases will continue to be guilty pleas resulting in a year of probation and that, says Chapman, is “a good and appropriate way to resolve these cases.” The ex-ception to this rule would be in the rare case when a person had such a bad record that a judge would choose to take advantage of the harsher punishment options proposed by the current bill.
“In the rare and appropriate case,” says Chapman about the bill, “it does give the judge more tools.”
Where the bill could have an impact, though, is at the already capacity-strained Regional Jail. While the jail’s rate of capacity is 329, some “wiggle room” is allowed with an actual bed count of 500. According to jail superintendent Col. Ronald Matthews, the facility currently houses around 460 inmates.
While Matthews allows that a potential influx of petty pot smokers could strain the jail’s resources, “we would have to make accommodations. We can’t just say we’re not going to do it,” he says.
Looks like “tough on crime” could be toughest on the local jail.—Nell Boeschenstein