Month: September 2024

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News

Big changes in the works at Dairy Market

Jonathan Wright’s stall at Dairy Market is closing, but 434th Street will continue its catering services in Charlottesville. Photo by Tristan Williams.

A new parking policy is coming to Dairy Market, following years of pushback from patrons and vendors about paying for parking. Inside the food hall, things are also changing, with several businesses and attractions arriving at the Grady Avenue spot after a wave of restaurant closures.

While Citizen Burger Stand, 434th Street, and South and Central have closed, Michael Rosen, director of hospitality assets for Tiger Lily Capital, says a certain amount of turnover is normal for a food hall.

“Food halls are interesting,” he says. “You’ve got to keep people on their toes.” The end of several three-year leases has led to a number of restaurants exiting around the same time, but another reason for the closures has been ownership fine-tuning its selection of vendors.

Some restaurants, like South and Central, decided Dairy Market wasn’t the best location for their concept. Tiger Lily Capital, the parent company of Stony Point Development Group (the developer behind Dairy Market), owns both South and Central and Milkman’s Bar, but it ultimately decided the upscale Latin American restaurant didn’t fit at the food hall, which opened in late 2020.

“South and Central from the beginning was an awesome concept, and it was just kind of an unfortunate location,” says Ashleigh Gorry, managing director of South and Central and Milkman’s Bar. “A concept like this would have thrived somewhere on Main Street, where people are going out in fancy clothes, looking for a nice place to eat.”

According to Gorry, South and Central chef Kelvino Barrera is looking to open another restaurant in Charlottesville sometime in the next six months to a year.

Other factors that contributed to the August 31 closure of South and Central include the restaurant’s location in the market, price of seasonal menu items, and cost of renting the large space, says Gorry.

Current and outgoing vendors, along with Rosen, confirmed that rents at Dairy Market have not increased since businesses signed their original leases—though there has been some adjustment in the structuring of stall agreements. Rent rates also vary dramatically from location to location, from $1,000 to “possibly into double digits.”

New restaurants coming to the market include an Americana burger concept, Sizzle Shack, a Nepalese and Indian street food restaurant, Currylicious, and two unnamed-but-known concepts—a smoothie place and a coffee-shop-and-bakery combo. The businesses are set to open soon, although Rosen could not give an exact timeline.

Other additions include a kids room, yoga studio, and lobby renovation, though the most intriguing and untested concept is slated to be, as of press time, an unnamed diner-tainment venue in the South and Central space.

“There’s something very exciting coming over there that I think will benefit everybody at the Dairy Market,” says Rosen. “You need something more than just food to draw people in.”

Currently, the average visitor spends roughly 68 minutes at the food hall. With the addition of the diner-tainment concept later this winter, and events like the University of Virginia Coaches’ Corner, Rosen hopes to increase the average time spent at Dairy Market to between 90 minutes and two hours.

“Here in Charlottesville, you’ve got a couple places you can shoot pool. Darts, not really, there’s not really any place in Charlottesville. If you want to go bowling, you’ve got to go all the way out to 29,” says Rosen. “We’re going to have something over here that will benefit all ages.”

Several restaurants and bars in the Charlottesville area host darts, including Decipher Brewing, Belmont Pizza, and Lazy Parrot, and there is also the Charlottes­ville Dart League.

One of the most exciting changes coming to Dairy Market for vendors and visitors alike is the move to free parking.

“We’ve heard people loud and clear,” says Rosen. “In the very near future [we’re] going to a free parking structure here.”

Restaurateurs like Dino Hoxhaj have been pushing for free parking at Dairy Market for a while and are excited for the change.

“The only reason why the landlord wanted to have paid parking was because we were worried that neighboring businesses will park here,” says the Dino’s Pizza owner. “We have one hour of parking now anyways, and then on Monday, it’s two hours of parking.”

Milkman’s Bar Manager Addison Philpott says free parking has been a priority for a long time, with the topic coming up frequently at monthly vendor meetings. Rosen could not give an exact date for when the parking policy will change, but confirmed it is in the works.

Categories
Arts Culture

September Exhibitions

Cate West Zahl at Chroma Projects.

The Center at Belvedere 540 Belvedere Blvd. “Americans Who Tell the Truth,” 20 portraits by Robert Shetterly of Americans who have courageously stood up for social justice, environmental stewardship, and the preservation of democratic ideals. September 3–21. “Landscapes and More,” featuring paintings and pastel works by artists Matalie Deane, Joan Dreicer, and Julia Kindred. September 3–October 31. Reception October 9, 4–6pm.

Chroma Projects Inside Vault Virginia, Third St. SE. “Meridian Drift,” explorations of land-mapping processes by Giselle Gautreau and “The Culture of the Earth,” interpretations of gardens and landscapes by Isabelle Abbot, Fenella Belle, Lee Halstead, and Cate West Zahl. Through September. First Fridays reception 5–7pm.

Create Gallery at InBio 700 Harris St. “Et in Arcadia Ego,” acrylic paintings referencing Christian Mysticism, Sufism, and Buddhism by Will Grover. September 4–27. First Fridays opening reception 5–7pm.

Will Grover at Create Gallery at InBio.

Crozet Artisan Depot 5791 Three Notch’d Rd., Crozet. “Whimseys,” paintings by Judith Anderson and “Simple, Graceful and Purposeful Pottery,” ceramic works by Becky Garrity. Through September 30. Meet the artists event September 14, 11am–1pm.

C’ville Arts Cooperative Gallery 118 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. “Living On A Whim,” silhouette jewelry by Dana Masters. Through September. First Fridays opening reception 5–7pm.

The Fralin Museum of Art at UVA 155 Rugby Rd. “Barbara Hammer: Evidentiary Bodies,” features an immersive multichannel video installation. Through January 26, 2025. “Celebration” features works by five African American artists highlighting the ways these artists honor history, culture, and heritage through various media. Through January 5, 2025. “Structures,” a selection of 20th- and 21st-century works exploring the ways that art can speak to or question the formal, physical, environmental, social, and institutional structures of our world. Through July 20, 2025.

Armando Mariño at The Fralin Museum of Art at UVA.

Ix Art Park 522 Second St. SE. “The Looking Glass,” an immersive art space featuring a whimsical enchanted forest and kaleidoscopic cave. Ongoing. “Art Mix at Ix,” a night of painting, music, and cocktails at the outdoor art park. Workshops by Art by Blossoms and Paint It Orange. First Fridays, 6pm. 

Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of UVA 400 Worrell Dr. “Shifting Ground: Prints by Indigenous Australian Artists from the Basil Hall Editions Workshop Proofs Collection,” curated by Jessyca Hutchens, featuring work by 22 Indigenous Australian artists. Part I through October 6. Part II October 12, 2024–March 2, 2025. “Our Unbroken Line: The Griffiths Family,” screenprints on textiles, ceramic works, and paintings curated by Dora Griffiths. Through December 8.  

Jefferson School African American Heritage Center 233 Fourth St. NW. “Toward a Lineage of Self,” a map-based exhibition presenting origin stories of historically Black Charlottesville neighborhoods using the JSAAHC’s extensive property and oral history archive. Opens September 21 and is ongoing.

Les Yeux du Monde 841 Wolf Trap Rd. “Picasso, Lydia & Friends, Vol. V,” organized to honor the memory of acclaimed Picasso scholar Lydia Csato Gasman. Featuring works by Pablo Picasso, Lydia Gasman, William Bennett, Anne Chesnut, Dean Dass, Rosemarie Fiore, Sanda Iliescu, Megan Marlatt, David Summers, and Russ Warren. September 13–October 27. Opening reception September 13, 5–7pm.

Lydia Gasman at Les Yeux du Monde.

The Local 824 Hinton Ave. Paper collages made from vintage books by Campbell Bright. Through September. Reception September 8, 2:30–4pm.

McGuffey Art Center 201 Second St. NW. In the Smith Gallery, three concurrent shows entitled “Aaron Farrington: Wet Plate Portraits,” “Charlene Cross: Enamel Glass Artist,” and “Charles Peale: Collage.” In the First Floor Gallery, “Sugah: Black Love Endures,” presented by the Charlottesville Black Arts Collective. In the Second Floor Gallery North, “Gallery Wizardry Behind the Scenes—The Art of the Cast that Makes it Happen,” a group exhibition featuring Gallery Committee members from 2023-2025. In the Second Floor Gallery South, “Ann Cheeks and Friends,” a group exhibition featuring Ann Cheeks and artists from The Center at Belvedere. In the Associate Gallery, “Portraits,” a group show of works from MAC associate art members. All shows run September 5–29. First Friday reception 5:30–7:30pm.

Jill Kerttula at McGuffey Art Center.

Mudhouse 213 W. Main Street, Downtown Mall. “The Willowers,” paintings, sculpture, and mixed media works by Tim Burgess. Through October. First Fridays opening reception 6–8pm.

New City Arts 114 Third St. NE. In the Welcome Gallery, “fallow,” A group exhibition featuring work by 2024 New City Arts Fellows Eboni Bugg, Brielle DuFlon, Elena Yu, and M. Pittman. September 6–25. First Fridays reception 5–7:30pm. 

Northside Library 705 Rio Rd. W. “BozART in the Library,” a group show featuring works by the BozART Fine Art Collective. Through September.

The Paramount Theater 215 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. The Third Street Box Office Project. “Ascending Light,” an exhibition by Nick Brinen. Through September 17.

Phaeton Gallery 114 Old Preston Ave. “Soundings,” an exploration of the intersection of creativity and spirituality, featuring paintings by Donna Ernest and Daniel Tucker alongside photography by Blakeney Sanford. September 6–October 6. First Fridays opening reception 5–7pm.

Donna Ernest at Phaeton Gallery.

The PVCC Gallery V. Earl Dickinson Building, 501 College Dr. The 2024 Student Art Exhibition, celebrating the accomplishments of student artists from the latest academic year. Through September 7. 

Quirk Gallery 499 W. Main St. “Funny Money,” an exhibition of Stacy Lee Webber’s found-object based works, including hand-stitched paper currency and hand-sawn coins, curated by Diana Nelson. Through September 29.

Ruffin Gallery UVA Grounds, Ruffin Hall, 179 Culbreth Rd. “The Threat, The             ,” an indoor and outdoor exhibition that examines and rewrites spatial, material, sonic, and performative languages of
security, sovereignty, and revivalism in the Global North by The Institute for Improvisational Infrastructures. Through October 4.

Second Street Gallery 115 Second St. SE. In the Main Gallery, “Teeny Tiny Trifecta 7,” featuring over 181 artists and 543 works of art. September 6–27. VIP presale party and fundraiser September 5 from 5–8pm. In the Dové Gallery, “Curiouser and Curiouser: A Dialogue in Abstraction with William Bennett and Carol Barber,” showcasing sculpture by William Bennett and painting by Carol Barber. September 6–27. Artists in Conversation and gallery tour with William Bennett and Carol Barber September 25, 5:30–6:30pm. First Fridays opening reception 5:30pm.

Carol Barber at Second Street Gallery.

Studio Ix 969 Second St. SE. “Part of the Process,” prints and objects examining the intersection of tactility, memory, nostalgia, and relationships in an embodiment of soul and self by Catherine Stack. September 6–29. First Fridays opening reception 5–7pm. Artist talk September 26, 5–6pm.

The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Charlottesville 717 Rugby Rd. “Lighting the Darkness,” sculpted paper artwork and evocative paintings by Flame Bilyué. September 4–October 31.

Visible Records 1740 Broadway St. “Aesthetics of Care,” fiber-based and mixed-media works by Vibha Vijay and Virginia Gibson. September 6–October 25. First Fridays opening reception 6–10pm. 

Images courtesy of the galleries and/or artists

Categories
Arts Culture

Contemporary musician Dan Tepfer converses with the past, present, and future

Contemporary musician Dan Tepfer follows unexpected paths through jazz and classical work. He performs on September 8 and 9 at The Paramount Theater during the 25th Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival. Supplied photo.

By Ella Powell

Pianist/composer Dan Tepfer says his earliest memories on the keys are of improvising as a toddler. “It seemed like a very natural thing for me to do, to just make up music,” he says. “My classical piano teachers would say, ‘don’t do that,’ but I knew it was okay because granddad did.” 

During the early days, when Tepfer was creating his own alternate versions of “Jingle Bells,” his jazz pianist grandfather served as a musical inspiration. Now, Tepfer collaborates with icons of the form like Lee Konitz, and composes for musicians such as the highly accomplished French-American vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvantl.

An artistic force, Tepfer goes beyond jazz, creating compositions for symphony orchestras and performing with them on occasion. “One of my favorite performances was recently, at the end of June,” he says. “I did two concerts in the U.K. where I performed the Ravel Piano Concerto in G with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. As a jazz pianist, that was a big growing experience for me.”

When Tepfer makes his first of two appearances at The Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival on September 8 at The Paramount Theater, he will take the stage with his multimedia improvisational composition Natural Machines, released in 2019 as a video album. 

In Natural Machines, Tepfer’s acoustic Disklavier piano plays all on its own in a phantasmic experience. The magical sounds and visuals accompanying the album are a direct response to the pianist’s computer programming and his live freestyle on the keys. In the song “Tremolo,” for example, Tepfer’s chosen algorithm allows otherwise impossible musical techniques to be accomplished in real time.

He describes music as “the intersection of the algorithmic and the spiritual,” which speaks to his obsession with achieving harmony between concrete rules and whimsical expression. His discography of 12 studio albums is deeply explorative and honest, and connects to the senses. After 29 years of playing, the pianist continues to defy conventions and bend genres in solo projects like his 2011 performance and improvisation of Bach’s masterpiece, Goldberg Variations/Variations that won him international acclaim. 

On September 9, also at the Paramount, Tepfer performs Inventions/Reinventions, another improvisation on Bach. He goes into it without any premeditated melodies, just a creative process to develop ideas. “It kind of feels like I’m both a child who just has crazy ideas and can run around freely, and the parent who’s supervising the child and who is going to keep the child from falling off the cliff,” says Tepfer. The piece converses with Bach in a way that brings the prodigy back to life as Tepfer fills in the nine “missing” keys not included in Bach’s 15 original inventions. 

Always looking to connect with audiences, he hopes a project that revitalizes a 300-year-old composition will build an affinity for his style of music. With each improvisation, he shares a meaningful story just as Bach intended to do through his own compositions. “Bach’s music is a magnet for me that never seems to lose its allure, which isn’t uncommon for jazz musicians,” says Tepfer. “There’s a lot of kinship between the musical approach we take in jazz and how Bach was thinking about music.”

Categories
Arts Culture

Poet CAConrad falls in love with a new world

CAConrad will read from Listen to the Golden Boomerang Return on September 7 at New Dominion Bookshop. Supplied photo.

As a poet, CAConrad is cosmic, their work unrestrained by the page, poems existing as art objects, ecological elegies, ancient technologies. In 2022, they received the PEN Josephine Miles Award for Poetry as well as the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. We recently interviewed them about their new collection of poems, Listen to the Golden Boomerang Return.

C-VILLE Weekly: This collection is more hopeful when compared to your previous. Given the fact that you began writing this book during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, describe how you cultivate hope in your work and how this has changed over the course of your career. 

CAConrad: My previous book focused on extinct animals, and when I finished writing it, I realized that I needed to fall in love with the world all over again, but as it is, not as it was. I began writing my new book, Listen to the Golden Boomerang Return, in Seattle, working with crows, who visited me daily during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown for nuts, fruit, and crackers. One of the crows started to bring me gifts, and the new book has a photo of the gifts. 

I also worked with coyotes in Joshua Tree, rats and pigeons in Rome, Italy, and squirrels and woodchucks in Massachusetts; animals thriving in our very polluted human world. COVID-19 made me think of the many loved ones who died of AIDS, and those memories find their way into the poems, but yes, there is much love in this new book. It is a beautiful world, and with whatever time I have left, I want to immerse myself in its beauty.

What went into your decisions about the form and structure of the poems in this new collection?

I don’t decide; I surrender. For thousands of years, poets and other artists have told us how they worked with spirits and ghosts, also known as muses. I believe they are real, and they whisper my lines of poetry into my ears. Whenever we think we are being ‘intuitive,’ it is because we are listening to our spirit guides. 

From 1975 to 2005, my poems were almost exclusively on the left margin, but when I began using (Soma)tic poetry rituals in 2005, I would feel like throwing up when finishing the poem on the page. I would walk away from it and feel better, but when I returned, I felt like vomiting again. Soon enough, I began “intuitively” moving the lines off of the left margin, and I no longer felt sick, and from that day forward, I surrendered to the process. We work together better with our spirits when we acknowledge their presence. Frankly, I love not knowing what the poems will look like.

You write that the title of the new book “comes from a poem, and the poem comes from a dream.” Describe the role of dreams and other mysterious forces—like numerology—in your life and your writing.

If we look at the number 9, we see its force moving up the stem and circulating in the crown. 9 represents realization or epiphany. All numbers multiplied into 9 heal back into 9, for instance, 2×9=18, and 1+8=9. 3×9=27, and 2+7=9, so it goes: 45, 54, 63, 72, etc. I always write with the number 9, and Listen to the Golden Boomerang was supposed to have 72 poems. Before handing in the manuscript to my publisher, I discovered that I had accidentally written 73 poems, so I tore one and fed its pieces to other poems. The night after doing this, I had a dream that I came home to find some of my new poems having sex on my bed, and when they saw me, they were angry and began shooting letters at me like bullets or arrows. The following day, when I woke, I realized that the poems having sex on my bed were the ones I fed the pieces of the extra poem to. This message was upsetting as if the torn poem was angry, but there are 72 poems in the book.

You’ve also had your poetry shared through public art installations in Greece as well as in galleries and museums around the world. When you think of the multiple ways that people might engage with your work, is there a shared aspect of what you hope they’ll experience through it?

I’m very grateful to have my poems published and also to have them installed in galleries as art. After my event for the New Dominion Bookshop, I will drive to Tucson, where I will install my newest show at [the Museum of Contemporary Art]. I trust the audience, so I never think about their experience. I overwrote my poems when I was younger because I wanted to be sure the reader understood exactly what I meant, and I’m grateful that I soon realized how impossible that was. 

Each human being is unique because our experiences cultivate us and shape the lens through which we view the world, meaning no one will ever understand exactly what I mean in my poems. Once I realized this, it was liberating! I no longer had to think about the audience because I could trust them to understand my poems on their terms. A thousand different people reading one of my poems will translate it into a thousand new poems, which is a beautiful gift back to the poet.

Categories
Arts Culture

King Buzzo & Trevor Dunn with JD Pinkus

Supplied photo.

Monday 9/9 at The Southern Café & Music Hall

King Buzzo Osborne, lead vocalist of heavy and heavily influential sludge-rock band The Melvins, teams up with bassist Trevor Dunn of Mr. Bungle and Tomahawk fame. Over recent decades, the two have also worked together in Fantômas, and at one point Dunn was part of an incarnation of The Melvins. Currently billing themselves under the King Dunn moniker, the duo are eschewing the thick feedback that defines a great deal of Buzzo’s recorded oeuvre in favor of an acoustic guitar and double bass setup. Word on the street is that the performances veer instrumentally, letting Buzzo’s trademark growl-and-bark vocals serve in a smaller part-time role. Dunn plays stand-up bass with a variety of approaches and effects (bowed, synthesized), choices that deepen the sonic palate. The less purist inclination propels tracks that include selections from the I’m Afraid of Everything EP (2022) and Buzzo’s Gift of Sacrifice (2020) record. Envision a musically exploratory evening without the pitfalls of glum navel-gazing.—CM Gorey

Categories
Arts Culture

Gogol Bordello with Puzzled Panther, Crazy & The Brains 

Supplied photo.

Friday 9/6 at The Jefferson Theater

Bear witness to Gogol Bordello as the band fills the stage with its latest incarnation of members from across the world to support the evolving vision of Ukrainian vocalist Eugene Hütz. Heavy road dogs since rocketing out of New York City’s Lower East Side in 1999, GB has speed, bravado, and grit that girds its sound, which makes regular use of the snare drum and guitar tone of what most have come to know as the foundational punk elements. But it’s the Eastern European verve—accordion and violin pumping with polka—that gives the group its singular flavor. At their worst, GB’s songs can come across like the audio equivalent of frenzied Soviet TV stereotypes fumbling their way through a neverending bar mitzvah Klezmer loop. At its best, the band reflects a global good-time cacophony and a heartfelt soul-bearing that speaks to intense struggle and honest longing—all belted out in the group’s preferred harmonic minor.—CM Gorey

Categories
Arts Culture

Teeny Tiny Trifecta 7

Supplied photo.

Art collectors big and small cheer Teeny Tiny Trifecta 7, an exhibition and fundraiser to launch the 51st season of Second Street Gallery. The show features more than 181 artists who contribute three works each that do not exceed 8 inches x 8 inches. With hundreds of choices, and each piece priced at $100, SSG broadens access by allowing more collectors to take home a bite-sized work of contemporary art. Outreach programming, a family studio day, and artist-led workshops accompany the annual celebration.

Friday 9/6-9/27. Free, 5:30pm. Second Street Gallery, 115 Second St. SE. secondstreetgallery.org

Categories
Arts Culture

Native Sun

Supplied photo.

New York-based Native Sun has a head-on initiative to champion social change, whether it’s activism around the climate crisis, national political unrest, or public health concerns. Colombian-American singer-songwriter Danny Gomez, along with Nico Espinosa (drums), Justin Barry (bass), and Jack Hiltabidle (lead guitar), play punk songs that explore the complexities of our time. The new single “Too Late” is a “rallying cry for the downtrodden who choose to persevere in spite of an uncertain future,” Gomez told Grand Jury Music.

Wednesday 9/4. $18, 8pm. The Southern Café & Music Hall, 103 S. First St. thesoutherncville.com

Categories
Arts Culture

Waxahatchee

Supplied photo.

In her indie-alt country band Waxahatchee, Katie Crutchfield’s lo-fi folk embraces her Alabama upbringing while breaking away from the quaint Waxahatchee Creek into the mainstream. Across six critically acclaimed albums, the group has won audiences over through Americana storytelling, explorations of sobriety, and lessons learned along the way. The new album, Tigers Blood, is another collection of tracks true to the heart and full of grit. Opener Snail Mail features the soul-stirring songs of Lindsey Jordan, and kicking off the evening is Tim Heidecker, a musician best known for his work as a comedian, writer, and actor who has played in bands of various genres including ’70s soft rock and vintage pop.

Wednesday 9/4. $34-69, 7:15pm. Ting Pavilion, 700 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. tingpavilion.com

Categories
News Real Estate

Closing arguments filed in challenge to city’s new zoning code

The developer of 303 Alderman Rd. will be among the first to take advantage of the new zoning, if and when this single family house is demolished to make way for six townhomes. Photo by Sean Tubbs.

The waiting game continues for a lawsuit filed earlier this year that seeks to nullify Charlottesville’s new zoning code. 

A group of residents filed suit against Charlottesville in January alleging that city officials failed to follow state guidelines to study the impacts higher residential density allowed in the Development Code would have on transportation infrastructure. The land-use rules were rewritten shortly after City Council adopted a new Comprehensive Plan on November 21 that called for more housing across the entire city. 

“A comprehensive plan and zoning ordinance must be submitted to [the Virginia Department of Transportation] for review when [they] will ‘substantially affect’ transportation on state-controlled highways,” wrote attorneys with the firm Flora Pettit in a filing with Charlottesville Circuit Court in late August. 

This spring, Charlottesville responded with a motion seeking to dismiss the case arguing that the plaintiffs do not have the right to sue, and added they cannot prove they will be harmed by the new rules. 

After a 90-minute hearing in late June, both sides filed written closing statements to inform Circuit Court Judge Claude Worrell’s eventual opinion. Lawyers with the firm Gentry Locke argue the suit should not proceed to trial.

“Plaintiffs do not like the policy choices in the new zoning ordinance,” the Gentry Locke attorneys wrote in their recent filing. “The City followed the process in enacting the NZO. The Plaintiffs, therefore, rely on strained legal theories and ignore facts in their effort.” 

Attorneys for the city also argue that Charlottesville followed the rules when submitting the mobility chapter of the Comprehensive Plan to VDOT, a key claim made by the defendants. 

“Plaintiffs cannot now—more than two years after the fact—fault the City for failing to double-check VDOT’s work product,” the closing argument continues. 

Flora Pettit attorney Michael Derdeyn represents those plaintiffs, as well an anonymous group that previously sought to overturn the Comprehensive Plan based on many of the same arguments. He argues that VDOT review should have been based on the theoretical maximum of new housing units that could be built under the new code. 

“There can be no question that the City failed to comply with its obligation,” Derdeyn wrote.

That will be up to Judge Worrell to decide, and a ruling will be issued at some point in the near future. 

Meanwhile, developers have slowly begun taking advantage of the provisions in the new code that allow more density without asking City Council for permission. That includes six units planned to be built at 303 Alderman Rd., a property that had been zoned for single-family residential but is now in the Residential B district. 

Another plan, submitted for land behind the Meadowbrook Shopping Center, will be the first to take advantage of bonus rules if units meet the city’s affordability guidelines. 

A firm called Greenshire Holdings has filed a major development plan to build 24 units on what is now an 0.83-acre lot at 2030 Barracks Rd. The materials sent to the city include a request to subdivide the property into two lots with 12 units to be built on each. 

No traffic management plan would be required because the total amount of construction is under the 50,000 square-foot threshold that would trigger one.