Author: brendan-fitzgerald

An August 24 press release from the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority urged Charlottesville-area citizens to restrict their use of water, following a record demand of 14.1 million gallons on Wednesday, August 23. At the time of the release, the RWSA measured the usable water supply storage at 84 percent of capacity, and advised citizens to restrict unnecessary water use in general, and outdoor use in particular.
    A brush with the rain-dumping storm named Ernesto (which was classified as a tropical depression at press time), however, could rehydrate the area’s reservoirs. According to research coordinator Jerry Stenger of UVA’s Virginia State Climatology Office, “the moisture situation in the Charlottesville area could have changed rather dramatically” by press time.
City Water Conservation Coordinator Todd Morris concurred with Stenger’s statement. “As of midnight, September 1, the useable water level was at 88 percent,” Morris told C-VILLE Friday morning. “We look to be at 100 percent capacity at the end of the storm.”
    Despite the winds of change, however, Morris maintains that water conservation ought not to depend on the whims of a storm.
    In a previous conversation, a few days before Ernesto’s impact was felt here, Morris explained that RWSA uses “OASIS,” a program designed by the water resource management firm Hydrologics, Inc., to anticipate the probability of drought based on historical weather records and estimates of public demand for water. The system provides data that factors into RWSA’s decision to declare a “Drought Watch,” the first of a three-stage Drought Management Plan for Albemarle County and Charlottesville.
    “Once we get to 80 percent of our capacity,” he said, in reference to the total reservoir storage capacity, “we go to a Drought Watch.”
    Morris stresses that the solution of conservation requires year-round discipline from citizens. “Winter moisture is what replenishes ground water,” says Morris. But “summer gets more attention…when [people] notice how brown the grass is.”
    The Charlottesville Public Utilities Office offers water-conservation tips on their website, accessible through www.charlottesville.org, and distributes both indoor and outdoor conservation kits at the Department of Public Works.
    Stenger explains that the summer’s peculiar storm season explains the diminished reservoirs. “A year with little tropical activity tends to be a year with dry conditions late in the growing season,” Stenger says. “This is precisely what occurred in July and August: scattered storms, and no tropical passages to bring large amounts of moisture at one time.”

Following the Charlottesville Board of Architectural Review’s June approval of “Waterhouse”—the nine-storey tower to be built between Water and South streets—Charlottesville Tomorrow Executive Director Brian Wheeler was a signatory on a letter written to Mayor David Brown to try and persuade him to preserve two adjoining Water Street parking lots. One is the current location of the City Market.
The Charlottesville City Market has operated from the metered Water Street lot since 1993. The City of Charlottesville owns that, and the adjacent lot, and the right to option both for development.
In Wheeler’s July 14 letter to Mayor Brown, he mentions a desire for the “continuation of a vibrant City Market” in the face of Water Street’s vertical growth.
Mayor Brown responded by describing the delicate nature of Downtown development on his blog, www.onecityblog.blogspot.com, on August 6. Brown wrote that development conflicts in the city stem from residential demand, as well as a 2003 zoning ordinance that allowed more vertical growth.
City Councilor Kevin Lynch says both the Water Street lots are business opportunities that may work best together. “We certainly have identified that parcel as an opportunity—and a desired spot—for economic development,” he says.
Were the Water Street lots to be developed (and zoning allows for a nine-storey tower there), it could mean more attractions, less parking, and the relocation of the market.
Should the market need to move, Lynch mentioned public and private spaces alike, including the Jefferson School, that would suit its needs.
“It has always been clear that finding a viable spot for the market is a requirement” of developing that part of Water Street, says Lynch. Whether the City or the developer is responsible for finding the market’s new home depends, he says, on future proposals.
The Charlottesville City Market “experienced record customer attendance and vendor participation each of the last three years,” according to Department of Parks and Recreation director Mike Svetz. This year some 100 vendors used the facility.
The market’s 2006 season will end in October.—Brendan Fitzgerald

The recent approval of the preliminary site plan for Albemarle Place leaves developers Landonomics eager to make themselves at home in Charlottesville. Roll out the welcome wagon, Charlottesville, it’s time to meet the new neighbors.
    Senior Vice President Steve Lucas says that he hopes Albemarle Place will be a successful follower to the company’s first endeavour, Suffolk’s Harbour View area.
    Landonomics will distribute its land allotment at the corner of Hydraulic Road and Route 29N into an estimated 700 residential units and 40 retail locations across 65 acres.
    Landonomics will work with design firms skilled in similar projects and familiar with the Charlottesville area. The development group joined forces with CMSS Architects, a Virginia Beach-based planning and design firm that teamed up with Landonomics previously on the Harbour View project. Also collaborating with Landonomics is Charlottesville’s Cox Company.
    Though Landonomics began in Chicago, Illinois, the developer has been known in Virginia during the past 20 years. Harbour View, the firm’s first project in Virginia, now has two branches—a retail center, and a town center where residences, restaurants and a multiplex can comfortably rub shoulders—and covers more than 2,000 acres of land.
    When asked about the Landonomics penchant for mixing homes with entertainment and shopping, a combo sometimes referred to as “New Urbanism,” Senior Vice President Steve Lucas responds that “there is a desire for people to have the ability to live, work, shop and play within a very attractive, convenient community.” Albemarle Place residents (and everyone else around here) will have immediate access to a 14-screen multiplex and a 120-room hotel.
    Traffic is an ongoing concern with any new development but Lucas has a ready answer: The mixed-use nature of Albemarle Place will generate less traffic than typical shopping centers, he claims. The project’s location at the often congested intersection of Hydraulic Road and Route 29 may ease congestion through its design.
    “The main connector through our project has been designed to provide some relief to the Route 29/Hydraulic Road intersection,” Lucas says.
    In July of last year Albemarle Place financing was estimated at $100 million. Though he declined to specifically update that number, Lucas said: “Let’s just say we are ready to start as soon as the County gives the last of the approvals.”—Brendan Fitzgerald

In spite of a uniquely thriving culture, Charlottesville’s population tallies run closer to those of the rest of Virginia than expected.
    Charlottesville met the requirements for study by the U.S. Census Bureau thanks to the agency’s decision to publish findings for populations of 65,000 or more. 
A few unique academic, family, and language statistics, culled from a 2005 population survey, set the area apart.
    The academic culture of Charlottesville is paying off with big numbers. Forty-five percent of Charlottesville residents over the age of 25 attained an associate’s degree or higher academic ranking, comparable to less than 40 percent statewide.
    Stats from birth rates to numbers of households speak well of the thriving Charlottesville family dynamic.
    In the past year, 2.7 percent of Charlottesville women over the age of 15 gave birth. Of those, only 11 percent of these new mothers were unwed, however. Statewide, 3.5 percent of women over the age of 15 gave birth, and nearly one in four was unwed.
    Florida, take notice: Folks aged 65 years or more make up more than 13 percent of the Charlottesville population. The state’s elderly population percentage lags behind at 11    percent.
    The number of residents that primarily speak a language other than English is smaller in Charlottesville than in the rest of the state, a comparison of 7 percent to nearly 13 percent, respectively. But Spanish is as prevalent in Charlottesville as throughout the state­—more than 40 percent of dual-language speakers here and in the rest of Virginia.
    It is in the other languages that Charlottesville sports a peculiarity. Twenty-three percent of Virginians that speak a language besides English claim to speak an “Asian and Pacific Islander” language. The percentage of Charlottesville residents that speak such languages jumps to nearly 29 percent.
    The Census Bureau plans to release data for smaller localities in 2007, which will allow for a more meticulous study of the broadly titled “Charlottesville Metropolitan Statistical Area.”
The next round of Charlottesville statistics, documenting economic statistics, will be released on August 29.

Though the experience of course enrollment at UVA may never become less frustrating, the University’s new student information system should ensure that the process will be more secure during the next few years.
    PeopleSoft—a recently selected administrative program that houses and monitors student records—utilizes seven-digit identification codes to differentiate student records. These codes will, if all goes as planned, eventually abolish the University’s use of Social Security numbers as identifiers, says Student System Project Director Charles Grisham.
    “We imagine that it will take three to four years to make this conversion,” Grisham says. “As newly admitted students come online—to register for courses, pay bills—that identifier will stay with them.”
    Currently, students use their Social Security numbers for verification when enrolling in classes, at the dining hall, at the library and in financial transactions. PeopleSoft’s system will temper the visibility of Social Security numbers in sensitive online exchanges.
    Oracle (PeopleSoft’s parent company since January 2005) is currently used in the financial and human resources divisions of UVA. Grisham hopes that the implementation of the new system will pave the way for a single access point for both students and faculty.
    “There’s a product on the horizon called ‘Fusion,’” Grisham explains, “that Oracle says will combine the functionality of their human resources and finance modules with PeopleSoft’s information systems.” Rather than inscribe their SSN on a number of forms, Grisham’s plan funnels all sensitive information through a single entrance. This means the identities of UVA’s student body pass through far fewer hands, and thus avoid the attention of online mischief makers.
    University Relations Director Jeffery G. Hanna says that UVA has measures in place to ease the transition. “Students use keypads to self-enter their ID number in places such as the library… We’re not waiting patiently for this to come—we want to take the steps that we can take.”
    Both Hanna and Grisham emphasize the deliberate and democratic process that selected PeopleSoft. “We looked at more than 2,600 individual requirements for a student system, and collected more than 48,000 votes on those requirements.” 
Recent identity theft cases—notably, the recent heist of sensitive information from the Veteran’s Affairs organization—have put new emphasis on information security, a trend UVA is wise to get in on.