Month: December 2006

“It’s a mess up there, I’ll admit that,” said Russell Mooney, a 75-year-old man who once ran an Oldsmobile dealership with his father on the corner of W. Main Street and McIntire Road. An equipment rental company stands there now. “That’s why for 10 years I’ve been trying to find a decent tenant that would go in there and dress up the place a little bit, make it look better.”

What he found was the Rebkee Company, which develops CVS pharmacies throughout Virginia. But the Charlottesville Board of Architectural Review didn’t think a 13,000-square-foot CVS would dress the site up—after a third hearing on the project November 28, they unanimously rejected the design.

“I apologize it’s not up to Charlottesville standards, we’ve done the best we can,” Rob Hargett of Rebkee Co. told the BAR. Frustrated by the process, he forced a vote to know: Did they have issues that he could fix or did they fundamentally dislike his big box coming to the corner near the Downtown Mall (and replacing the CVS currently on the Mall)?

Specific BAR complaints about the building ranged from the materials used to the faux windows designed for the exterior. Several board members brought up the fact that it was designed to be two storeys tall while containing only one floor. But at the core was a distaste for the big-box retail. “I think we’ve changed the wrapping of the box and not the box itself,” said board member Syd Knight.

Some members of the BAR had grown frustrated as well. “We have spent an immense amount of time on this project, and I don’t know when we’ve had an applicant who has been less responsive to some very basic elements in the guidelines that couldn’t be any clearer,” said an animated Lynne Heetderks, a board member. “I’m just concerned by a lack of sensitivity by the applicant to get what we’re trying to do here.”

In its initial draft, the project was more than a box: It had mixed-use elements and was a definite step away from your typical strip-mall CVS. But Hargett ultimately determined that adding office or residential space isn’t economically feasible, largely because of the limited parking on the site.

“It’s a serious invasion of property rights,” Hargett says of the BAR. “We’re going to take another week or so and evaluate our options. If I were the landowner, I’d be in court. If I lived there, I’d be pushing for change.” He says CVS might just give up on the site.

At 69.5 acres, the Granger Property is the last major undeveloped tract of land in the southern Albemarle growth area surrounding UVA, officially known as Area B. On Tuesday night, the Albemarle County Planning Commission wanted to know why.

“It looks like leftover land,” Commissioner Duane Zobrist said, “that we’re forcing ourselves to use.”

“We’re not trying to force anything,” Commission Chair Marcia Joseph interjected, “just developing in a growth area.”

The back and forth followed almost two hours of discussion of the property that sits neatly between Sunset and Fontaine avenues. Previous owners have tried to develop it as strictly residential, but current owner Stribling Holdings LLC (reportedly led by Coran Capshaw) are seeking to have the tract rezoned as mixed-use with an emphasis on office space.

Who’s behind the 70 acre Granger property development near Fontaine Research Park? Coran Capshaw, that ever-industrious Dave Matthews Band manager, Musictoday founder and Charlottesville developer.

As with most properties on the Biscuit Run side of town, traffic concerns led the list. The property is currently accessible only by Sunset Avenue Extended and Stribling Avenue. Five alternatives for a new road were before the commission, with a staff recommendation to build a connector road that would link Sunset to Fontaine. Initially, Commissioner Eric Strucko questioned the effects 500,000 new square feet of office space would have. “I work in the Fontaine Research Park and I get stuck in traffic now,” he said.

Jeanne Chase, a resident of the Fry’s Spring neighborhood in the city, made her way to the lectern. “Just on my way over here, I waited for 27 cars just to get out of my driveway on Old Lynchburg Road,” she said, adding that “the reality is we’re heading toward gridlock.”

After Bill Edgerton made a proposal for a spur to be built, creating additional access to the connector from Fontaine Research Park, focus shifted to whether the 500,000 square feet of office space is appropriate. Some commissioners suggested it was, considering the Granger tract is surrounded by a number of residential communities along Sunset Avenue and Old Lynchburg Road.

Commissioners likely will address the issue next in late December. As the 10pm hour neared, project planner Frank Cox punctuated the meeting: “We’ve spent six years trying to figure out how to make this project work, and we’re still not there.”

The inexorable march to fill all empty city lots continues at the southern edge of Belmont. Dozers are grading in preparation for 29 residential units in the Carter’s View development—single-family detached housing with three-four bedrooms. Southern Development Homes, which bought the completed subdivision plan from Legend Development, expects it to be complete by the end of 2007. It’s not the only new development going into the unpretentious neighborhood: Just a street away, 29 townhouses and 31 single detached are nearing completion near Brookwood, also by Southern Development. They’re priced at $339,000 for the townhomes and $359,000 for the detached.

Wondering about local construction? E-mail us at reddirt@c-ville.com and we’ll get you the dirt.

What happens when you put government officials in the position of students? The scene begins to resemble a high school classroom, with the skeptical kids asking deflating questions and the teacher’s pets answering them.

“I’m thinking about funding capacity,” said County Supervisor Ken Boyd, sitting at one of six tables in the Charlottesville-Albemarle Visitors Center. “Obviously large urban areas would have a much bigger opportunity to fund this type of infrastructure.”

“One of the things required to make the transit system work is density,” responded City Councilor Kevin Lynch, who sat closer to the front. “Charlottesville is the fourth densest locality in Virginia.” As teacher, Harrison Rue, executive director of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission, said he would get to the topic of density later.

Taking a cue from the fab four, Harrison Rue asked if the City, County and UVA can come together on mass transit.

The lesson was on a regional transit system—discussing potential, reviewing existing conditions and identifying key next steps. Rue gave Power Point presentations that highlighted the efficiency of mass transit and various systems in places like Las Vegas, Portland and Los Angeles to his class of County supervisors, City councilors and officials from Charlottesville Transit System (CTS) and the University Transit System (UTS).

“Can your community pass The Beatles test?” asked Rue, flashing the cover of Abbey Road on the projector screen. George, Paul, Ringo and John were photoshopped into various intersections, including Route 29 north of Charlottesville, which decidedly failed The Beatles test. Instructor Rue broke up the lessons with five-minute discussion sessions, on topics such as places where transit worked and the shape of cities where transit worked.

The four-hour lesson was complete with guest lecturers. Corey Hill from the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation told local officials of the need to prioritize clear projects. Ten members of the public got a few minutes each. County resident Montigue MaGruder shared specific suggestions for improving CTS, such as adding a route from Pantops to Barracks Road. City resident Jason Pearson said that though he doesn’t own a car, he’s only used CTS once—a sign that it’s “simply not convenient for me to use.”