Author: Scott Weaver

On July 17, the city Board of Architectural Review (BAR) will get a look—its third, in fact—at Bill Atwood’s plans for a new mixed-use building on W. Main Street. The new building would sit on the corner of West Main and 10 1/2 streets, the current site of the Under the Roof furniture store. That roof, if Atwood Architects sticks with its current design, is going up. Way up. But only if the city cooperates.

Last week the Downtown Design Committee finalized its rezoning recommendations, including one that would raise the neighborhood’s height limit to 70′ from 50′. With a six-story building that clocks in right at 70′, Atwood is betting that City Council will approve the recommended vertical growth for Downtown.

If a rezoning goes through for W. Main Street, this six-story structure could rise on the site of Under the Roof.

Mary Joy Scala, city preservation planner, says Neighborhood Development Services staff is “expecting [the Committee’s] recommendations will go forward.” That means Atwood’s new structure, which he’s calling the Studio Arts Building, will look down on the surrounding W. Main Street buildings. This comes at a time when five nine-story, mixed-use buildings—one of the them designed by Atwood—are in the works for Downtown. It’s also a time when the city is rethinking the benefits of such massive buildings.

According to Scala, Atwood’s firm initially talked about saving the existing building. But the latest preliminary plan calls for a new building that would considerably change the site’s look and feel. The first floor would include four retail bays, two with openings facing W. Main Street. The other two would face 10 1/2 Street, creating new retail fronts on the small side street, where before had only been the side of a warehouse. Second and third floors would house office space, the third, fourth and fifth residential space. The new building would also include an underground parking garage.

Atwood’s plans for the building fit a trend of redevelopment in the 10th and Page neighborhood, creating a quasi-extension of the Corner. Several projects, many with student housing, are either finished or in the works on Wertland Street and 10th Street (one of those projects, the Ten Center, was developed and sold by Bill Chapman, who owns C-VILLE’s parent company).

Atwood submitted the third preliminary plan to the BAR for comments on June 26. Scala says that while Atwood isn’t required to submit plans for comments, “he likes to take things early, so [his firm] can actually have more input.”

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As far as parking, the six curb-side spaces on the 200 block of Ninth Street SW aren’t much. But soon all six will be off limits to nonresidents, including employees of the nearby UVA Hospital who’ve been snagging those precious parking spaces. And while it may be only six spaces, Ninth Street’s move to permit parking is a small example of a larger UVA problem.

Local residents—not medical residents—will soon be the only ones allowed to use these parking spaces on the 200 block of Ninth Street SW.

Rebecca White, the director of parking and transportation at UVA, confirms that on-grounds parking for University staff is getting harder and harder to find. White also says that the hike from parked car to building is increasing, “especially as the South Lawn project has gotten underway.” With construction and the number of University parking spaces static, White’s department faces a looming question: Where to put all these cars?

The answer? Get rid of some, a solution that of course goes by a more professional-sounding name, Transportation Demand Management (TDM).

TDM—or as it’s referred to in the minutes of the Transportation and Parking Committee, “The art of influencing travel behavior for the purpose of reducing demand for single occupant vehicle use”—is already in effect, says White. Open Ridership began on April 2, a program that allows anyone with a UVA ID to ride all Charlottesville Transit System buses on the University’s dime. White also points to UVA’s “Smart Transportation Map” that shows bike routes around the University grounds. UVA is also creating a position in the parking and transportation department to focus on TDM. White says she can’t comment on any others plans.

Same goes for the data from a commissioned study on TDM. Where are the majority of commuters coming from? Where are they parking? “I don’t have hard numbers,” says White. “We do have that data, but we haven’t fully interpreted it.”

As University spaces grow more scarce, more staffers will inevitably hunt for spots on city streets, though the six spaces on Ninth Street SW will be off limits as soon as the city gets the restricted-parking signs up.

Chris Mertz walks up Ninth Street after work, white lab coat in hand, passing a brown Honda Accord with a “Virginia Medicine” sticker on the rear window. Mertz, who lives within walking distance of his hospital job, says some of the hospital staff who park on city streets aren’t getting the option to park in hospital parking garages, which cost $840 a year. Many are left with difficult options. “I’ve heard about some people parking illegally at Walker Square.”

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With the additional density afforded by the 2003 city rezoning, several nine-story buildings have moved from a twinkle in a developer’s eye to actual…well, plans. None are yet completed, but with these five projects striving for nine stories, the city is rethinking whether that height on the Downtown Mall is such a hot idea after all. Here’s an update on the five tallest additions to the skyline, ranked from nearest to completion to the vaguest of notions.

This is a year-old rendering of Bill Atwood’s Waterhouse Tower at 218 W. Water St., which seems to be leading the five-project race—or should we say crawl—to nine stories.

Waterhouse Tower
Developer: Bill Atwood
South of Mall, 218 W. Water St.

Atwood’s 65-unit Waterhouse tower is first up in the big-building pipeline. With the site plan for the nine-story project signed and approved, it’s the furthest along. The city is waiting for Atwood to apply for the building permit necessary to begin construction.

The Coal Tower
Developer: Coran Capshaw
East of Mall, Water Street Extended

Capshaw’s group of buildings includes one with nine stories of condos as well as other mixed-use buildings, 315 residential units in all and 250,000 square feet of commercial space. The Planning Commission has approved the site plan, and all that stands in the way is a resubmitted site plan for Neighborhood Development Services to approve. According to Brian Haluska of NDS, the unseen revised plan is “ready to go.”

201 Avon St.
Developer: Ideal Ventures, with architect Randolph Croxton
South of Mall, surrounding Beck-Cohen building

The Board of Architectural Review (BAR) conditionally approved the design for this nine-story, 100-unit building with a spa and a six-room boutique hotel. A preliminary site plan has been approved by Council, and Croxton has until October to submit the final site plan.

The Landmark Hotel
Developer: Lee Danielson
Downtown Mall, 200 E. Main St.

A new site plan for this 86,000-square-foot, 100-room boutique hotel in the former Boxer Learning building hasn’t been submitted, though Haluska says he anticipates it coming soon. The original plan was ready for approval but never got signed. The developer didn’t submit bonds for the site plan, the “show me the money” part of the process—a fairly common hiccup, according to Haluska. He says the new plan is very similar and he doesn’t anticipate a lot of review time for it.

Woodard Project
Developer: Keith Woodard
Downtown Mall, 101-111 E. Main St.

According to Haluska, Woodard’s half-acre project for a mixed-use building on the Downtown Mall with 80 residential units is in a “holding pattern.” Woodard submitted a preliminary site plan for comments, then asked for a deferral of the 60-day deadline to resubmit the plan. Time has passed, and with the deferral’s early July deadline creeping, the city’s still waiting to hear back.

C-VILLE welcomes news tips from readers. Send them to news@c-ville.com.

City Council will hear recommendations about the Route 250 Bypass interchange at McIntire Road during its July 2 meeting. The interchange would facilitate the traffic flow between 250 and the elusive Meadowcreek Parkway (MCP).

Peter Kleeman warns that if the Meadowcreek Parkway and the 250 interchange are approved and built as separate projects, it might be grounds for a lawsuit.

But when and if that fabled parkway is built, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) could be vulnerable to a lawsuit. Currently, the MCP and the interchange are being considered as two separate projects. Because of that, the MCP as a whole may be in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). At least that’s the view of Peter Kleeman, a longtime critic of the city’s planning process (and current Council candidate). But he isn’t alone.

City Councilor Kevin Lynch, who’s also a member of the 250/McIntire Interchange Steering Committee, agrees that the larger project could be challenged in court once it’s completed. He’s argued for Council to consider both the interchange and the parkway as the same project.

While the interchange is federally funded, the roadway that will connect it to Melbourne Road through McIntire Park is sponsored by VDOT. The difference in funding, says Lynch, means a higher degree of environmental review for a federally funded project. But dividing what seems like a single project could be considered by those with law degrees and litigious intent to be what NEPA calls “illegal segmentation.”

“If it’s logically one project, it would be inappropriate to divide it into segments purely for the purpose of dodging NEPA,” says Kleeman. Because the roadway is a state-funded project independent of the interchange and its federal dollars, it conveniently skirts NEPA’s tougher federal environmental reviews, instead only undergoing VDOT’s State Environmental Review Process.

Who might file a lawsuit is unclear. Kleeman says anyone directly affected by the construction could go to court but admits that “[legal] standing is always tricky.” And unlike other city parks that might have a parkway run through them, McIntire has no one group of people that would be affected. “There’s no clear constituency for McIntire Park,” says Lynch.

C-VILLE welcomes news tips from readers. Send them to news@c-ville.com.

The Meadowcreek Parkway moved one step closer to reality at the June 12 city Planning Commission meeting but not without resistance. The Commission approved the McIntire Road-Route 250 Bypass Interchange as consistent with the city’s Comprehensive Plan. But things quickly got hazy.

A steering committee for the Meadowcreek Parkway interchange liked this design. The Planning Commission approved the “character and extent” of an interchange, though not a specific design.

The interchange is just one piece of the two-mile, $39 million parkway that would connect the Route 250 Bypass and McIntire Road with Rio Road—a project that’s been in various stages of planning for 40 years. After a slide-show presentation of design options, Jim Tolbert, director of Neighborhood Development Services, reminded the Commission that it only needed to decide if the interchange—not the parkway—met the 6-year-old Comprehensive Plan.

Although there is a draft of a 2007 plan, it hasn’t been approved. The Commission used the 2001 plan, a document soon for the trash bin.

Even before discussion began, Vice Chair Bill Lucy called on City Attorney Craig Brown to clarify exactly what the Commission was deciding, asking how one might assess “character and extent” of an interchange as the agenda specified. Lucy also asked if this was the last time the Commission would review the interchange. Brown said yes. A look of frustration rolled down Lucy’s face.

While the actual discussion of the interchange included your everyday civic concerns—pedestrian safety, noise levels—such talk was overshadowed by concerns from Lucy about the meeting itself. Lucy noted that the Commission had been given no direction on the review process and no reports on the impact of the proposed interchange. He also noted “major differences” between the 2001 and 2007 comprehensive plans.

“This feels like a rush,” Lucy said before voting against it. Jason Pearson abstained. Cheri Lewis, Mike Farruggio (both members of the Interchange Steering Committee) and Hosea Mitchell voted for approval.

City Councilor Kevin Lynch, who’s also on the Steering Committee, says the rush was due to the interchange design running behind schedule, but that he’d like the Commission to look at the interchange again. The Steering Committee will present interchange designs at the July 2 City Council meeting.

C-VILLE welcomes news tips from readers. Send them to news@c-ville.com.

Construction continues on the Watson Manor project, but the dust has settled from a neighborhood/developer dispute about the life (and death) of a 150-year-old beech tree. The project was halted last August after the manager for UVA’s Institute for Advanced Studies and Culture, David Turner, violated the site plan by cutting down the 48" caliper beech.

Residents of University Circle were, in neighborhood association President Karen Dougald’s words, “very angry.” The city issued a stop-work order. Turner—the focus of residents’ ire—lost a challenge of the order before the Board of Zoning Appeals and resigned.
Joseph Davis stepped in as project manager for the Institute, offering upset residents multiple mea culpas.

Construction’s back on track at Watson Manor, where renovations by UVA’s Institute for Advanced Studies and Culture were halted when developers chopped down an aging beech tree.

“We were embarrassed to be in this situation, of having been called a bad neighbor,” says Davis nearly a year after the beech was axed.

Construction resumed after the Institute was fined $200 by the city, then paid the neighborhood $5,000 for new trees and posts on the circle. The neighbors negotiated an 8" caliper beech tree to replace the original, though Davis promises to do them a half-inch better—the Institute will plant an 8.5" caliper beech when construction is completed.

The neighborhood and the Institute have settled into a peaceful coexistence. Davis, who edited the book Stories of Change: Narrative and Social Movements, says he saw the ordeal take three narrative shapes: 1) The Rogue Developer, 2) UVA-Related Organization as Rogue Developer, and finally 3) the Institute as Restorer and Protector of Watson Manor.

Dougald sounds like she’s come around to the final narrative. “We hope the poor little Queen Anne house will come to life again,” she says. “The building itself was falling apart.”

So what does a 150-year old beech cost these days? In addition to the $5,200 in fines and neighborhood reparations, the Institute received a $15,000 bill to clean, prune, reinforce, cut down, and eventually haul away the tree. As for the beech, no one seems to know what’s become of it. “We were so mad,” Dougald says, “we didn’t even ask.”

C-VILLE welcomes news tips from readers. Send them to news@c-ville.com.

The City Council is staring down a June 30 deadline to decide whether Charlottesville wants a $14 million YMCA in the city. The Piedmont Family YMCA’s proposal to build a new facility at McIntire Park hinges on getting a ground lease by September 30. It already has a site approved on the Piedmont Virginia Community College campus, but Kurt Krueger, Piedmont YMCA Board of Directors president, says that a city site is the “ideal way to serve the less fortunate.”

City Councilor Dave Norris calls the YMCA’s proposal a “no-brainer.” While the city faces much-needed and expensive repairs to its two indoor pools (Crow and Smith, both 32 years old), the proposed YMCA would include two indoor pools, along with other facilities. If the proposal is approved, the city would lose land in McIntire Park as well as spend $2-4 million for the YMCA facility. In contrast, renovations of the indoor pools would run $9-14 million.

Last fiscal year, the city spent $280,000 on Smith Pool. Now Council has to decide whether or not to approve a Piedmont Family YMCA proposal to build a new facility in Charlottesville. The new YMCA would include two indoor pools.

But the YMCA has stepped into a thorny city issue: what to do with the park system. City Councilor Kevin Lynch says he sees a new YMCA facility as a consolidation of the Parks & Recreation Department, something Council doesn’t want to do. He argues a new YMCA facility will divert attention (and dollars) from programming the city sorely needs.

“We’ve got neighborhood centers open just 20 hours a week,” Lynch says. “That’s embarrassing.” Improving neighborhood centers, he says, should be the city’s priority.

Norris agrees but argues a YMCA would free up money to do precisely that. Instead of sinking money into two indoor pools, the city could concentrate on other facilities and programs. “The money that we’ll save with the Y we can use to beef up our neighborhood Parks and Rec programs,” he says.

Mike Svetz, Parks and Recreation director, says of the proposal: “It’s a good partnership that provides additional recreation opportunities that meet community needs that, on our own, we don’t have the financial resources to provide.”

Lynch says what he’s seen so far hasn’t convinced him development will help programming. “They don’t have to be mutually exclusive,” he says. “But in my experience that has been the case.”

The debate is also about accessibility: How does the city best serve all residents, especially those without vehicles? Lynch objects to the McIntire site’s lack of access to public transportation. Although the site, adjacent to the park’s softball fields, is within walking distance of Charlottesville High School, it doesn’t have a bus stop. “A McIntire Park solution is a more suburban solution,” he says, “chiefly available to those with cars.”

Norris points out that the Y is willing to run a bus that picks up kids from their neighborhoods. As for public transportation? “That’s easy to address,” says Norris. “Adding or changing a bus route, in the grand scheme of things…that’s small.” With the addition of bike and walking trails, McIntire Park will be “much more accessible” in four or five years, says Svetz. Accessibility will also improve if the Meadowcreek Parkway is built—the YMCA site is next to the proposed alignment for the road.

Lynch remains unconvinced. “To a kid without a car,” he says, “PVCC and McIntire are almost equivalent.”

C-VILLE welcomes news tips from readers. Send them to news@c-ville.com.

It’s just after 5pm, and cars are beginning to roll into Darden Towe Park.
Already groups of men—some young, others smack-dab in middle age—gather around pick-up trucks, passing out cans of Bud Light, the butt ends of softball bats sticking out of bags. They’ve got under four hours of sun left and a game to play,
but first things first—it’s the beer league after all.

The city and county approved a new agreement on Darden Towe Park, a.k.a. Charlottesville’s “heart of softball.” The agreement saves both the city and county money, but will the softball fields get lights?

Last week, both City Council and the Board of Supervisors approved a new agreement for the park on the city-county line, updating an original that hadn’t been reviewed since 1986. The new agreement changes the funding formula so that each locality pays based on its population, replacing a current system where a staff member counts cars daily and tallies which are city and which are county. That drops the city’s funding to 30.3 percent from 35.8 percent and will save the city approximately $25,000 next fiscal year. Because the car-counting staff member is no longer necessary, the county saves too, roughly $11,000.

The agreement also opens the possibility of lighting the softball fields, something the original prohibited because of the proximity of the Key West neighborhood. But Mike Svetz, director of Parks and Recreation, says he’s beginning to see the need for more night games: “We’re starting to have demand run a little hotter than supply.”

Back to the beer league. Derek Lam, who’s on the mound for his team tonight, calls Darden Towe “the heart of softball” in Charlottesville. “Best park and it don’t have lights? It needs them.” Two teammates nod between sips.

“I ain’t going to lie,” says Ryan Morris, “if it was me I wouldn’t want to have lights here.” Morris looks west past green terraces of grass to the soccer fields. Behind them, and just across Route 20, are stacks of townhomes.

Morris looks away from the houses. “But I don’t live around here, so I’m all for it.”

C-VILLE welcomes news tips from readers. Send them to news@c-ville.com.

Photo returns minus penis-shaped spot of spray paint

There’s no nice way to say this: The boner is back. A new print of Nick Nichols’ photograph of a Congo chimp clearly enjoying the up-tick of testosterone washing through his body is back on the Downtown Mall, sans the spray paint Nichols used the cover its erect penis. Last Friday, after unhappy parents complained and city officials “suggested” that he “defuse” the photo or take it down, Nichols covered the chimp’s excited crotch with a spritz of Krylon [see photo-gallery at right, video at end of article, or slide show here]. Nichols says that he initially understood the city’s suggestion as a request. “They came back and said, ‘No, that was just a suggestion,’” he says.

Now the chimp is back without its spray-on jockstrap. This Tuesday, as C-VILLE first ran the story below, Nichols replaced 10 prints on the Mall due to color issues. The chimp was one of the 10, and Nichols didn’t amend it this time. “If I get another outcry, I’ll do the same thing,” Nichols says about his paint job. So far there have been no more complaints, and Nichols doesn’t anticipate any after Friday’s temper tantrum. “I’ve got a feeling people will be too embarrassed to say anything.”

A boner-fied disturbance
Parents look to government to protect their kids from nature

By Cathy Harding

Is there no stopping the power of local government? Apparently some parents think not, turning to local law enforcement, and by extension city government, to shield them and their children from the realities of wildlife. Faced with the difficult question, “Daddy, why is that monkey’s penis so engorged and why is he so happy about it?” some parents raised objections to Nick Nichols’ photograph of a Congo chimp that leads off his exhibit of jungle pictures hanging throughout the Downtown Mall in connection with this week’s Festival of the Photograph.

In the name of the children: Images from the Festival of the Photograph, an effort funded in large part by Apple and National Geographic and which runs throughout Downtown this weekend, offended some vocal parents. Top, the displaying chimp in all his hormonal glory. Bottom, the chimp in another state altogether, courtesy of Nick Nichols who shot the original picture in Africa.

The city dutifully made Nichols aware of the issue, though city spokesman Ric Barrick stresses that the city did not demand any particular action from the much-lauded National Geographic photographer. Still, simply seeking three days of undisturbed peace, love and photography, as the festival’s slogan says, Nichols “diffused,” as he puts it, the offending member, using a can of Krylon spray paint.

See the video below or photo gallery shots at right for a look at the "diffusion" in progress.

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