When the City of Charlottesville served a stop-work order at 521 Park Plaza, it discovered that this one-and-a-half-story home had already been demolished.
Supplied photo.
The City of Charlottesville issued a stop-work order on Friday, April 26, at 521 Park Plaza in the North Downtown neighborhood. When it served the document, the city discovered the three-bedroom house had been demolished.
At some point late last week, a yellow excavator smashed the one-and-a-half-story structure into pieces. City records listed the home, built in 1979, in excellent condition and without a basement.
The demolition took place despite the new owners having an approved building permit to proceed with a remodeling.
Carrie and Benjamin Yorker bought the property last August for $705,000. The house had been assessed in 2023 at $459,800, and that climbed to $677,700 this January. The home first sold in April 1980 for $59,000.
Benjamin Yorker is a development partner with the Charlotte-based firm Northwood Ravin, and focuses on markets in the southern United States. He has two degrees from the University of Virginia, including a master of business administration from the Darden School of Business.
The city issued a building permit for “interior renovations” on March 19 at what documents describe as Yorker Cottage. Sage Homes LLC is named as the contractor, and “remodel” was listed as the description of the work, with an estimated cost of $550,000. The plans clearly show the structure was to be remodeled, and there is no hint that demolition was pending.
The property is within the Residential-A zoning district, which means three new units can be built on the 0.11 acre lot under the new zoning.
City code defines demolition “as the razing of any structure above the existing grade, or the demolition of any structure below the existing grade.”
Neighborhood Development Services requires a permit for partial or full residential demolition, but it is unclear from the code what the penalty is if someone does not submit one. The cost to apply for a permit ranges from $75 to $1,500, depending on the permit.
The home at 521 Park Plaza is not within the jurisdiction of an architectural design control district, so permission from the Board of Architectural Review was not required. Penalties are much more severe for removing such a structure without the city’s consent.
The city has issued demolition permits this year for 710 Lexington Ave. and 600 Altavista Ave. Requests to take down 1105 Grove St. in Fifeville and 612 Harris Rd. in Willoughby are still pending, while another, 1003 Carlton Ave., is listed as “closed,” meaning the permit was rejected. (The demolition of this structure would allow Riverbend Development to construct a 130-unit condominium complex.)
“The demolition permit informs utilities and other service providers that all services must be disconnected,” says Afton Schneider, the city’s director of communications and public engagement. “The permit is not issued until those groups sign off that it is complete.”
Schneider also says the permit ensures that any hazardous materials, such as asbestos or lead paint, will be mitigated in the removal process. Coordination with erosion and sediment control takes place at this stage.
Anyone who takes down a building outside a historic district without permission must pay the $150 stop-work fee (this is charged per day that work continues without permit), pay double the demolition fee, and resolve any other site issues before new applications can be processed.
At press time, the Yorkers had not responded to a request for comment.
According to Sunshine Mathon, “Permanent supportive housing is intended to be a permanent housing solution for folks seeking a permanent home.” Supplied photo.
Construction is on the horizon at Premier Circle. The former Red Carpet Inn was transformed into an emergency shelter during the COVID-19 pandemic, and helped nearly 100 people exit homelessness. The facility closed in June of 2023, leaving a gap in Charlottesville’s network of shelter services, but construction on the next phase of the project is expected to begin by the end of September.
Virginia Supportive Housing will start work on 80 units of permanent supportive housing at the site this year, followed by 40 to 50 units of low-income housing constructed by Piedmont Housing Alliance. The 80 housing units are slated to open in the first half of 2026, with the low-income housing expected to open two years after, in 2028.
The housing project has taken the combined effort of a number of cooperating partners. Piedmont Housing Alliance purchased the property in 2021 with a $4.25 million grant from the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation. A commitment of $700,000 from Albemarle County and $750,000 from the City of Charlottesville allowed Virginia Supportive Housing to begin construction this year.
Although Premier Circle initially was a low-barrier overnight shelter, the long-term goal has always been to transition the site into permanent housing.
“So the operative word is permanent,” says Sunshine Mathon, executive director of Piedmont Housing Alliance. “Emergency shelters really are that, they’re for emergencies. Permanent supportive housing is intended to be a permanent housing solution for folks seeking a permanent home.”
Permanent supportive housing is an approach to alleviating homelessness that falls under the housing-first model. The idea is that stable housing is the first requirement and foundation from which individuals can address other causes that may have led to a period of homelessness.
“It’s not a panacea for every person,” Mathon explains. “There are people for whom the PSH [permanent supportive housing] model won’t be the perfect fit, but it is widely regarded across the nation as the primary tool to provide that stepping stone for people to transition from being in an emergency context into longer term permanent housing.”
In its strategic plan to end homelessness, the Blue Ridge Area Coalition for the Homeless says a lack of affordable housing is one of the primary problems in the community, and recommends new permanent supportive housing units as a solution.
As a long-term approach, permanent supportive housing is geared toward those for whom homelessness has been persistent, long-lasting, or recurring. Last year, on January 25, 2023, the area’s point-in-time count recorded 191 people experiencing homelessness in Charlottesville and the surrounding counties. About a quarter of them (53) met the criteria to be counted as chronically homeless.
On its website, Virginia Supportive Housing says Premier Circle aims to functionally end chronic homelessness in the community. That means there would be enough housing units available for all of those who need one.
Numerically, while that goal seems within reach, things can be more complicated, and the need is often more than predicted. However, Virginia Supportive Housing does have a model to demonstrate the kind of impact this project can have. The organization also manages The Crossings on Preston Avenue. That 60-unit facility opened in 2012 and for the next four years there was a downward trend in the number of people experiencing homelessness in the area. The region’s PIT count reached a low point in 2016, with many pointing to The Crossings as a key factor.
Premier Circle hopes to repeat that success. The 80 units of permanent supportive housing will be studio apartments supported by a voucher system. People with vouchers pay 30 percent of their income in rent, allowing a sliding scale based on what individuals can afford.
“Our preference would be to lease to chronically homeless individuals first, those most likely to die on the streets,” says Julie Anderson, director of real estate development with Virginia Supportive Housing. “But also, we can lease to individuals who are experiencing sporadic homelessness as well as low-income individuals.”
Low-income apartments, both in the 80-unit development and the subsequent project, are separated into income brackets based on the area median income. There will be apartments reserved for incomes that are 30 percent of AMI and below, some for 50 percent, and some for 60 percent, with the aim that each of those brackets would pay no more than 30 percent of their income in rent. In Albemarle County, the median income for households is $97,708, according to data collected by the U.S. census.
The model also includes wraparound services for accessing other supports that residents may need, whether it’s acquiring disability benefits, medical support, substance abuse counseling, or reconnecting with family and friends. The building will have two case managers that residents can go to for help navigating the supportive services available.
“One thing that’s important is that our average length of stay is four to six years for everybody, although we don’t have a timeline, [and] residents can stay as long as they need to.” Anderson says. “Ninety-five percent of our residents don’t return to homelessness.”
Permanent supportive housing projects demonstrate a real and lasting impact, not just for those experiencing homelessness, but also for those at risk of entering homelessness. It’s a long-term safety net.
“This might seem obvious,” Mathon says, “but I think it’s important to state it. The solution to homelessness is homes. And sometimes we struggle, in our society and in our communities, to really make that direct line of association.”
Following accusations of hazing, the University of Virginia suspended the fraternal organization agreements of the Theta Chi and Sigma Alpha Mu fraternities and terminated the FOA of Pi Kappa Alpha (pictured).
Staff photo.
On April 18, 10 days after the termination of its fraternal order agreement with the University of Virginia, the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity posted an unlisted video to its YouTube channel.
In the video, Justin Buck, the national organization’s executive vice president, sternly addresses his fraternity brothers.
“For the first time since March 1, 1868, Pi Kappa Alpha is without its Alpha chapter,” Buck says, referencing the organization’s founding at 47 West Range on the edge of Jefferson’s historic Academical Village, marking the UVA chapter Pi Kappa Alpha’s first (or “Alpha”) chapter. “The chapter [was] expelled from the University of Virginia for a minimum of 4 years … following the confirmed, detestable, and abhorrent hazing activities by individuals.”
Pi Kappa Alpha representatives did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
“The University found that Pi Kappa Alpha engaged in serious hazing behavior and decided to terminate the chapter’s fraternal organization agreement with the University,” says UVA Deputy Spokesperson Bethany Glover via email. “In addition, the Policy, Accountability, and Critical Events (PACE) unit in Student Affairs initiated disciplinary action against individual students for their alleged involvement in hazing.”
Aside from Pi Kappa Alpha’s termination, two other fraternities had their FOAs suspended pending an investigation: Theta Chi and Sigma Alpha Mu. If the charges are validated and confirmed, it would be the first time both organizations have had their FOAs revoked.
It is, however, far from Pi Kappa Alpha’s first time in trouble, and that includes its Alpha chapter. The Cavalier Daily reported in 2022 that the university had terminated the FOA of both Pi Kappa Alpha and Sigma Nu in 2014, but they appealed the decision, and both frats were accepting new members in 2015. Glover did not provide a comment on the 2014 incident by press time.
The fraternity’s history of controversy goes back much further nationwide with over a dozen incidents reported in the last 20 years. As early as 1976, when a pledge at Texas Tech was killed by a train during a hazing activity described as a “scavenger hunt,” the fraternity has fought to keep itself on the straight and narrow—and not just for hazing. In 1988, a sexual assault was alleged to have occurred at the fraternity’s house on the campus of Florida State University. More recently, in March of 2021, the fraternity was again the subject of nationwide outrage when Stone Foltz, a pledge at Bowling Green State University, died due to alcohol-induced heart arrhythmia.
Details about the recent incident at UVA have yet to be released publicly, but thanks to Adam’s Law, named for Adam Oakes, a VCU student who died in a hazing incident in 2021, the university is legally required to post the details on its school website.
“Thanks to the transparency laws in Virginia, you’ll be able to read about [the incident] for the next 10 years on the University of Virginia’s website,” Buck says. “We will have a constant reminder of the embarrassment that these men have caused our fraternity. However, it will not be the names of these individuals who will be listed on this website, although they should be. It will be the name of our fraternity.”
Buck says the national Pi Kappa Alpha organization will seek civil litigation against the president and the leadership of its Alpha chapter for the “financial and reputational damages” caused by the incident.
Glover says the timeline for the release of the details in all three fraternity actions is in “the coming weeks.”
“The university does not tolerate hazing activity,” she says, “and we act quickly to investigate and pursue necessary disciplinary action when reports are made.”
Heather Rose teaches English and journalism at Lugo-McGinness Academy. Photo by Tristan Williams.
Nestled at the edge of the 10th and Page neighborhood, Lugo-McGinness Academy looks like a miniature version of a typical American high school. The alternative school is sandwiched between houses, standing out with its parking lot, two-building campus, solar panel-covered tin roof, and cyan columns that frame the main entrance.
Compared to Charlottesville High School, LMA is tiny—which is what makes it so special.
“It’s unique because it allows us to build a foundation for student relationships, being able to connect with our parents on an intimate level to address the academic, behavior, and social needs,” says Program Director and Principal Lamont Trotter. “Students have the opportunity to have a smaller academic environment where they can see success and feel success.”
Principal Lamont Trotter started with CCS in July 2023. Photo by Tristan Williams.
In addition to the Lugo-McGinness day program, the campus also hosts Charlottesville City Schools’ newest alternative program, Knight School, in the evenings.
Alternative education came into the local spotlight last fall, when student fights at Charlottesville High School prompted unexpected closures and the launch of Knight School. The new program is the first nighttime offering from Charlottesville City Schools, and joins LMA and Charlottesville-Albemarle Technical Education Center as major alternative programs available through the district. CCS also offers a program for patients at the University of Virginia Children’s Hospital.
Each alternative education program has different offerings and enrollment methods, including referral and self-selection.
Along with sharing a building, Knight School and LMA have other commonalities aimed at helping students improve their relationship with school, academics, and attendance. Trotter and other faculty members pick up students in both programs to make sure transportation isn’t an obstacle.
“We’re dashing through the streets of Charlottesville picking up our young people for school,” says Trotter. “We want to make sure students are attending school. We want to minimize any barriers that may be provided. And so that’s something that we share at our orientation about transportation: if it’s needed, we can help provide that.”
Walking into LMA’s main building, students pass a reception desk and conference room before heading into a single hallway filled with classrooms. Situated on the back right is English and journalism teacher Heather Rose, who has been an instructor at LMA since February 2023.
Before starting at LMA, Heather Rose had never worked in alternative education. Photo by Tristan Williams.
Prior to coming to Charlottesville, Rose experienced burnout and contemplated quitting teaching. The tight-knit community at LMA convinced her she was in the right place and the right field.
“When you think of alternative education, you think of it as a punitive thing, and I think that sometimes alt-ed is used for that,” she says. “[But] the school culture here is really powerful in a positive way.”
Beyond her role as an educator, Rose says she and the rest of the LMA faculty “kind of all wear all the hats at times.” The small nature of the alternative school and its community—less than 40 students are enrolled in the day program—allows for not only individualized instruction, but closer relationships between students, their families, and faculty members.
Students are often already hanging out in Rose’s room when she walks in, working in comfy chairs and catching up with their classmates. One student, Tay, is sitting by the wall working on his Chromebook. After attending CHS for three years, the senior switched to LMA, and is now working toward graduation.
“Teachers [here] care about the students. They really care about you and they want you to learn. … Everybody just wants you to be great,” he says. “Before we get to work, [they] make sure you’re good.”
Rose’s class is informal, with students congregating around the room, chatting and mostly working at their own pace. Despite the laid-back atmosphere, coming to LMA has been a complete game changer for many students’ academic futures.
“I’m passing all of my classes, which is very surprising, because when I was at CHS, I was at risk of not passing all of my classes, I was at risk of failing,” says Jaylyn. “People here, they’re kind of friendly. They’re open about almost anything and they’re willing to sit down and help you.”
The small community at LMA has also helped students socially by removing some of the pressures and challenges of a bigger school.
In Heather Rose’s classroom, the cozy yellow chair next to her desk is a highly sought after seat. Photo by Tristan Williams.
As students mill around the cozy classroom, they talk to not only each other, but Rose and her student teacher, Laura Boyle. Classes average around eight to 10 students, with attendance ranging from two to six students, according to Rose. For many of the teens at LMA, the relationships with their peers and teachers are what keep them coming to class.
“I have people I can talk to … And places I can go when I’m not feeling comfortable here,” says Tam-Rah. “We don’t have to worry about walking around here, starting problems with anyone, cause no one here is rude and everyone here has good communication.”
While some of the students at LMA are at the program due to self-selection, others have been referred because of academic, disciplinary, or behavioral problems. Regardless of why the kids are at the school, every faculty member at LMA emphasizes how much all students benefit from the intimate environment.
“I think because of that we’re able to give so much more grace here,” says Boyle, who is in her final semester of a masters in education and wrapping up her time at LMA. (I know Boyle from a four-person seminar at UVA, but I didn’t know she was a student teacher at LMA prior to visiting.) “That focused attention and just a smaller environment, I think, has been so special and cool to watch.”
“Kids might be sent here because of a poor choice they made or poor behavior, or pattern of behavior. But when they walk through these doors, they’re not bad kids to us and we don’t treat them like that,” says Rose. “We don’t see that side of them for the most part, which is so encouraging.”
When students feel truly comfortable in a space or with a teacher, they occasionally lash out. It can be heavy for educators to process, but at the same time, Rose says she understands that it’s ultimately a sign of trust.
“We’re alternative, we’re [a] different dynamic for students that need it and they’re just able to be their best selves I think, and even when they’re their worst selves, there’s so much grace here,” says Rose. “There’s so much recognition of, ‘we see you where you are, but we are still gonna have expectations for you. And we still want to encourage you to grow. But we’re going to help you and support you to get there.’”
As the school counselor for LMA and Knight School, Aloise Phelps spends a lot of time working one-on-one with students. Part of her job is managing schedules, but an overwhelming majority of her time is spent on direct counseling.
“There’s a tendency to label kids as the ‘bad kids’ … but we have done such a good job at LMA of fundamentally believing that every single child is a good kid, and that they are having a hard time so their behaviors may exemplify that in some way,” says Phelps.
Working through trauma and its effects with students has been a large focus of Phelps’ first year at LMA—something she says is also common in her work with Knight School students.
Visiting Knight School, which launched in November, it’s clear students haven’t yet built the same bonds as their peers in the LMA day program, but the counselor and other faculty members are working to create a welcoming environment.
Three students were in Melvin Grady’s math class when I visited Knight School. Unlike the day program, the students mostly kept to themselves, but they participated when prompted.
“At bigger schools, students can roam around, not go to school, be in class unnoticed,” says Grady. In the intimate setting of LMA and Knight School, the math teacher has more ability to provide individualized instruction and help students when they get stuck.
Across the hall, the kids are more talkative. It’s not immediately clear what subject is being taught or what work each student is doing, but the relationships that have made LMA’s day program so successful are being built.
Students routinely gather outside LMA for lunch and class activities. Photo by Tristan Williams.
“The last thing I do is teach math, first thing is to reach common ground. Still structured though, don’t get it twisted, I do expect certain things,” says Grady, who takes this approach with both his day and night students. “You’re not gonna disrupt the learning environment, then you have to go. But other than that, they recognize the caring and the realness.”
While the program was launched in the wake of the unexpected closure of CHS last fall, Knight School is something Superintendent Royal Gurley was already aiming to bring to CCS. Gurley has a background in alternative education, and was involved in the launch of a night program in his former district. Part of the draw of Knight School is the timing, but similar to LMA, the superintendent and program leaders are working to build community through one-on-one instruction and a smaller environment.
Whether it be LMA, Knight School, or CATEC, Gurley emphasizes the importance of having options for kids other than a traditional learning experience.
“People think that alternative education is where you dump kids, where you leave kids, where you give up on kids, where you just move everything you don’t want to deal with, you just move it to alternative education,” says Gurley. “What we have done as a school system … to say that we are where kids get their hope from, that they can be anything that they want to be, that we will work with any type of student and we will accentuate the best in any student.”
“We do not work from the deficit mindset, when we’re talking about students. We’re only seeking the best, there is good in everyone,” says Gurley. “Students can be successful when they have a space to be successful. And sometimes it’s just that the high school, which is a great high school, is just not the space because it’s too big. It doesn’t work for every child.”
Crowds at previous spring Foxfield races have been around 25,000 people, but turnout was lower this year. Photo by Robert Llewellyn.
Off to the races
Every spring, college students and families flock to the track for the Foxfield Races. While patrons galavant through the fields and watch the occasional horse race, the Charlottesville-Albemarle Rescue Squad makes sure everyone stays safe. This year, C-VILLE tagged along with CARS for the festivities.
The day started early at the McIntire Road CARS station, with everyone in full motion at 6:45am. For Social Events Captain Nicole Post, planning began more than a month before the actual races. “I take inventory of what we used from last year, what’s going on, and make sure we’re doing all of our ordering,” she says. “We have a bunch of cards, a bunch of backpacks, a bunch of walking packs, so all of that has to be updated and stocked, all the expired stuff needs to be thrown out.”
The CARS squad headed out in a fleet of ambulances, trucks, and other EMS vehicles around 7:30am. After a pit stop at Chick-fil-A in the Mass Casualty Incident truck, we arrived at the racetrack, where the squad split up after breakfast briefings that included assignments for interior treatment center, ambulances, walking teams, and the exterior care center. This helps ensure that CARS can access and treat patients at any location.
After meeting up with Chief Virginia Leavell, I was given a highlighter-yellow CARS jacket and joined the gator teams in the interior treatment center. The gators—essentially souped-up golf carts converted into field ambulances—transport patients who can’t easily get to the main medical area on their own.
Despite the early morning rain and chillier-than-normal temps, the gator teams were quickly dispatched. Calls typically end with either no patient located or an intoxicated 20-something loaded onto the stretcher after a basic lookover. Unless something is wrong with a patient’s airway, breathing, or circulation, the person is immediately driven to the interior medical center.
“Those are like the three big things that are our top priority on every patient, the three things that we check first in all cases,” says Jaime Lear, one of the gator drivers who manned the MCI to and from Foxfield.
Once at the medical center, patients are assessed and treated as appropriate. Most people hang out in the tent for at least an hour, and the doctor on site approves each discharge. Anyone brought in for intoxication must pass a quick walking test before leaving.
“A vast majority of patients get treated and released from here,” says CARS medic Michael Chilmaid. “Usually each year a couple end up having to be transported to the hospital.”
“Normally if we’ve treated a patient, given them medications, or put [in] an IV, they would be going to the hospital, but here it’s a little different,” adds paramedic and training officer Jasmyn Powers.
Amid the chilly weather, CARS was less busy than usual this year, with 16 patients in the interior medical center all day and no transports to the hospital.—Catie Ratliff
Money moves
Albemarle County Public Schools adopted its operating budget for the 2024-25 school year on April 25. The budget comes in at $269.4 million, a $9.5 million increase from last year. Highlights include a 3 percent raise for all employees, an increase to the Academic Leadership Compensation Program, and the addition of five full-time equivalent positions to both the English Learner and Special Education program.
The wheel deal
Meals on Wheels Executive Director Hailey Peterson. Supplied photo.
Effective April 29, Hailey Peterson is the new executive director of Meals on Wheels of Charlottesville/Albemarle. Peterson started with MOW in 2021 as a volunteer manager, later serving as the organization’s assistant director and has been the interim executive director since September 2023. “I’m honored to continue my work with Meals on Wheels as the Executive Director,” Peterson said in an April 25 press release. “Having spent the past three years getting to know the volunteers, learning more about the organization, and better understanding the needs of our community, I’m looking forward to deepening our connection to our neighbors in need.”
Fire alarm
The Charlottesville Fire Department is investigating a fire at the University of Virginia Medical Center. The fire started at approximately 11:45am on April 27 in an inpatient room in the Medical Intensive Care Unit. A patient and a visitor were both treated for injuries, and the hospital returned to normal operations by the same afternoon. At press time, the cause of the fire is unknown.
Charges against Patrick McNamara were dropped on April 11. Supplied photo.
After almost three months, Charlottesville police have dropped charges against Patrick McNamara for the January 12 assault of a woman on the Rivanna Trail. The case against McNamara has been dismissed, but the arrest continues to affect his life.
On January 18, McNamara was taking a break outside while working from his apartment when he was approached by a CPD detective and placed under arrest. “It is not wise to talk to the police even if you’re innocent. I’m naive and thought, ‘this is a mistake,’” he says. “I didn’t know what I was being arrested for.”
Court filings indicate McNamara was arrested based on eyewitness identification by the victim, who was assaulted at approximately 9:39am on January 12 less than half a mile from the Rivanna Trail underpass at Free Bridge. The victim described the suspect as a “white male with short brown hair and an athletic build, approximately 6’2″, possibly 20-30 years old … wearing a white puffy jacket with a dark hooded sweatshirt underneath, which was pulled up over his head.”
When shown an image of McNamara by a friend on January 16, the victim identified him as her attacker. She later told law enforcement she was “100 percent positive” it was McNamara who assaulted her, according to court filings.
Following his arraignment and release on bond, McNamara was suspended from his job and given three days to vacate his apartment by his leasing company.
On January 22, investigators obtained surveillance footage from Cosner Brothers Body Shop. The video shows McNamara passing the victim without incident, and later a different individual in a puffy white coat can be seen in the area.
The person who collected the video initially told the case agent there was “nothing of value” on the recording, and “never prepared a supplement documenting its collection.”
The commonwealth’s attorney’s office was not aware of the surveillance footage or its content until April 9, following a letter submitted by McNamara’s attorney—Rhonda Quagliana—on April 8 requesting police obtain surveillance and video footage from 19 locations.
Charlottesville Police are currently conducting an internal investigation into the handling of the footage.
Both the commonwealth’s attorney’s office and Quagliana filed motions to dismiss the charges against McNamara on April 11. While Quagliana’s filing is a complete rebuke of law enforcement’s treatment of McNamara and its handling of the case, the commonwealth called for a dismissal on the grounds that “there is no longer proof beyond a reasonable doubt to support this prosecution.”
The charges against him have been dropped, but McNamara’s trying to piece his life back together: He still hasn’t heard from his job about reentry, he still doesn’t have a place to live, and he still feels isolated.
“The truth of the matter is that there’s permanent damage,” says McNamara. “I’m upset at the presumption of guilt that was levied upon me by all the institutions in my life.”
“I know I’m innocent. It’s hard for me to articulate to somebody what it feels like,” he says. “I have a lot of really good friends and I’m very thankful for that. I know that their assumption was, ‘Patrick couldn’t have done this, this is ridiculous.’ But to what degree of certainty I will never know.”
McNamara says the arrest has impacted all of his personal relationships.
“The commonwealth’s attorney made it sound like … ‘we don’t have enough to prove this beyond a reasonable doubt.’ The police chief has spoken publicly since then and said, ‘we didn’t have enough to go beyond reasonable doubt,’” says McNamara. “That’s embarrassing language. … It’s just, frankly, it’s bullshit. And because of that, people will always doubt maybe I did it.”
Charlottesville Police Department declined to answer questions from C-VILLE about the handling of the investigation and interactions with McNamara. “Chief Kochis has done numerous engagements on various media outlets regarding the case,” wrote Public Safety Information Officer Kyle Ervin in an email. “Please refer to any previous comments made on the matter.”
As he contemplates how to move forward, McNamara says he is speaking to lawyers about potential legal action, but what he wants most is change and a return to normalcy.
“I don’t think it’ll ever be the same as it was on January 17,” he says. “I think there’s gonna be difficulties until the arrest is completely expunged from my record.”
“What happened in the legal process was unacceptable,” McNamara says. “It is scary. It is dangerous. And I am just a random, nameless citizen of this town that was caught up in this system. And if it can happen to me, it can happen to anybody. And that, to me, is very scary until there’s change. What does change look like? I don’t know.”
At press time CPD has not issued a news release about McNamara’s charges being dropped, and has not updated the original release detailing his arrest.
Charlottesville representatives returned to Richmond for the April meeting of the state legislature. The April 17 session was originally intended to address vetoes, amendments, and the state budget, but a jam-packed agenda pushed budget considerations to May.
Though he didn’t outright veto the budget, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin put forward 233 amendments to the bill, and went on a tour of Virginia to rally opposition to what he called a “broken” spending plan.
Rather than try to address the divide on the budget during the one-day session, the House of Delegates voted unanimously to reject Youngkin’s budget amendments—allowing lawmakers to meet for a special session of the legislature on May 13 and, hopefully, pass the final spending plan by May 15. Legislators have completely scrapped the budget, and are now building a new budget with input from Democratic and Republican leadership.
Lawmakers have until July 1 to pass a budget before Virginia goes into a government shutdown. In the interim, the state budget delay is creating uncertainty for local governments, including Charlottesville’s.
The city’s budget was finalized on April 15, but questions about state funding make planning difficult for local school systems and other organizations slated to receive money from the commonwealth.
“The amount of state funding for local school systems is unknown,” said City Councilor Michael Payne in an email. “We have to wait to see how much additional revenue goes to [the] state increasing teacher salaries, funding ESOL positions, etc.”
According to Councilor Lloyd Snook, the state’s pushback of budget deadlines in recent years has added an additional layer of difficulty to the local budget process, resulting in city lawmakers “working in the dark.”
“Because council did not give the schools as much as they wanted, I was hoping that the budget would include at least another $2 million for the schools,” said Snook in an email. “The budget that is now supposed to be adopted in May might help the schools directly, but who knows at this point?”
Charlottesville will also feel the impact of the April legislative session through the failure of multiple bills introduced by local representatives. The legislature did not overturn any of Youngkin’s vetoes, despite bipartisan and popular support for several bills.
Among the legislation struck down were two bills from state Sen. Creigh Deeds, both of which focused on gun control.
In a bill update shared on social media, Deeds addressed the failure of Senate Bill 383, which was inspired by the fatal on-Grounds shooting of three University of Virginia student-athletes in November 2022.
“Purportedly, it was known that the student on trial for their murders was having trouble and had firearms in his room in a University-owned residence hall,” Deeds wrote. “Even though this violated policy, law enforcement was hamstrung in their ability to respond to this information because this was not a criminal violation. SB 383 was about making sure law enforcement can act on reliable intelligence. If this had been law, the University Police would have been able to obtain a search warrant and remove the firearms.”
The 20th-century building that currently houses the UVA Alumni Association will likely be replaced with a new Alumni Hall.
Centerbrook Architects and Planners.
On Tuesday, April 30, representatives from the University of Virginia Alumni Association will publicly present a site plan for “a new Alumni Hall” at the corner of Emmet Street and Lewis Mountain Road.
The Alumni Association is a separate entity from the university, and pays property taxes to the City of Charlottesville. Unlike UVA, it also must comply with the city’s land-use regulations, which means paying $6,565 in fees for a recent application.
A preliminary site plan was filed on August 3, 2023, under the former zoning, and this is one of several projects that is still being considered under the old rules that include site plan conferences. (That conference will be held in the Neighborhood Development Services conference room in City Hall on Tuesday, August 30, 2024, at 9am.)
Under the city’s new Development Code, the zoning for the 3.15 acre property is Residential-A, meaning redevelopment would be difficult. However, the replacement building is allowed due to an existing special use permit for a private club that was first approved in 1980 and last updated in 2016.
“The applicants may redevelop their property for the new building, so long as they comply with all conditions of the existing special use permit,” says Dannan O’Connell, a city planner coordinating the review.
O’Connell says the site plan is preliminary and could change depending on feedback.
The UVA Alumni Association has been in the current building since 1936, when it moved in to what was then Kappa Phi House. For many years, the city used Alumni Hall for a voting precinct, but a new electoral map adopted last year ended that practice. The association uses the building for hundreds of events throughout the year, including home football game parties, and the facility is often rented for private events.
The Alumni Association has hired Centerbrook Architects and Planners to take the project through the planning process. The Connecticut-based firm recently designed the Karsh Alumni and Visitors Center at Duke University.
According to the preliminary site plan, the existing two-story building will be completely removed, but some of the signature trees on the property will be kept. The new building would be a maximum of 35-feet tall, with a max footprint of 29,075 square feet.
If the project proceeds, it will be part of an era of transformation along Emmet Street. Just to the south, construction is nearing completion on the four-story Contemplative Commons, including a new pedestrian bridge to Newcomb Hall. Even further to the south, a private project called Verve Charlottesville has been approved by the city and will see several dozen residential units at Woodrow Apartments be replaced with an apartment with 446 new units.
The project will not include an adjacent property on Lewis Mountain Road that’s owned by the University of Virginia Foundation, upon which two single-family homes currently stand.
The leader of the Alumni Association said the current building does not meet the needs of the organization.
“Our vision is to build a wholly new facility on the same parcel of land that can serve the needs of our ever-evolving alumni, UVA, and Charlottesville community,” said Lily West, the associaiton’s president & CEO “We are calling it “A Home for Every Hoo.”
West said there’s a lot of work to be done to make the project a reality.
Dave Matthews Band has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of the star-studded class of 2024.
Musical acts become eligible for nomination 25 years after the release of their first recording, and are inducted based on voting by more than 1,000 music historians, industry professionals, and current Hall of Fame members. Since 2012, fan voting has been a part of membership consideration, giving the winner of the poll one additional vote toward induction. In its first year of eligibility (2020), DMB was the first and only group to win the popularity poll, but not be inducted into the hall.
Eligibility, nominations, and inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame have been the subject of much national attention since its founding in the 1980s. After decades of snubbing Rock and Roll icons, the hall now balances honoring iconic figures years after they became eligible and inducting newer acts.
Joining DMB in the Class of 2024 are Cher, Ozzy Osbourne, Peter Frampton, Mary J. Blige, Kool & The Gang, Foreigner, and A Tribe Called Quest. While this year marks the largest group of inductees ever, several nominees were snubbed, including Sinéad O’Connor, who died last year.
“Dave Matthews Band is honored to be in the @rockhall Class of 2024,” the band said on X/Twitter. “Congrats to our fellow nominees and thanks so much to all of our fans for the support!”
The Class of 2024 will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on October 19 in Cleveland, Ohio.
Mascot mania
Finalist for new middle school mascot. Charlottesville City Schools.
Along with a new name and building, Charlottesville’s only middle school will soon have a new mascot. Voters have until April 30 to tell Charlottesville City Schools their preference from the list of finalists: the Black Knights, “another type of knight”(e.g. Junior Knights, Orange Knights), the Chargers, and the Monarchs.
The final choices were selected through an earlier survey conducted by the school district, with each potential mascot illustrated through stock photos and AI-generated images to give voters a feel for potential logos. CCS emphasizes that the “images shown are only starting points,” and it will work with a designer once a mascot is selected.
Regardless of which mascot comes out on top, the school’s colors and logo will be orange and black to match Charlottesville High School’s colors.
The district has not given a timeline for the selection of the mascot or revealed a final design, but Buford Middle School will formally be renamed Charlottesville Middle School when the new building is officially opened for the 2025-26 school year.
UVA assault
University of Virginia police responded to an assault April 21 on the 1400 block of University Avenue. The incident, which occurred around 2am, left one adult male victim with serious injuries. He was sent to UVA Medical Center. University police transferred the case to the Charlottesville Police Department, and detectives have begun an investigation. Photos of individuals sought by CPD are available at charlottesville.gov/1741/police. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact CPD at 970-3280 or the Crime Stoppers tip line at 977-4000.
Burn out
One of the tiki torch-bearers from August 11, 2017, has pleaded guilty to participating in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Tyler Bradley Dykes, 26, of Bluffton, South Carolina, who was arrested in Charlottesville last year, took a guilty plea on two felony counts regarding his assault on Capitol police officers. According to the plea agreement, Dykes faces a maximum of eight years in prison, plus a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.
Dog’s day
The Charlottesville-Albemarle SPCA raised more than $100,000 this year during its 11th annual bow-WOW-walk fundraiser, which was held on April 20 at Boar’s Head Resort. The event featured both a competitive 5K race and a leisurely dog walk. Pet owners could also enter their furry friends into competitions for best trick, best costume, and pet-owner look-alike. According to CBS19, more than 250 people attended the fundraiser, whose proceeds will go to homeless animals and programs at CASPCA.
The BAR recently reviewed plans for a proposed downtown hotel that would feature 160 rooms for visitors, rather than more than 100 places for people to live. Image by NBJ Architecture.
The developer of a planned nine-story apartment building at 218 W. Market St. is considering building a hotel there instead.
“It’s a great opportunity to further expose the Downtown Mall to visitors coming into Charlottesville, and increase the vitality of our downtown,” says Jeffrey Levien of Heirloom Development.
In September 2020, City Council granted Levien’s company a special use permit for additional height and residential density for up to 134 apartments. On Tuesday, April 9, the Board of Architectural Review had a preliminary discussion on new plans that would instead see a six-story building with 160 rooms.
The BAR approved a demolition permit for the existing site in November 2021, but that authority runs out next March.
An official application has not yet been filed, and any new proposal will be reviewed under the city’s new zoning code. The Timmons Group developed a preliminary concept plan for a six-story building in which guests would be dropped off on Market Street. There would be 160 rooms in a 139,315 square-foot building. The new zoning does not require any parking spaces, but the structure’s plans include 116 spots in an internal garage.
The property is currently the home of a shopping center that still houses Artful Lodger and The Livery Stable. Last August, the Fluvanna County Board of Supervisors approved a rezoning for a new home for Artful Lodger at 2428 Richmond Rd.
Heirloom Development also created the 57-unit Six Hundred West Main apartment building that’s located behind the Blue Moon Diner. In addition, the company has plans to construct a similar residential structure next door, on the site of a former automotive repair shop.
Levien says that project is on hold while his company evaluates whether it may be better to proceed under the new zoning.
“It will take a considerable amount of design and costing and underwriting to figure that out,” he says.
If 218 W. Market St. does become a hotel, it would be next door to the Omni, which recently completed a $15 million renovation project. Elsewhere in Charlottesville, the 198-room Forum Hotel at the Darden School of Business opened last April, and the University of Virginia is constructing the 217-room Virginia Guesthouse as part of the Emmet-Ivy Corridor.
Last April, the burned-down husk of the Excel Inn was demolished to make way for a replacement seven-story, 72-room hotel. City Council approved a special use permit for that in October 2018, but the project has not moved forward.
There are currently no plans for anything to happen with the abandoned Downtown Mall shell, which is owned by Atlanta-based developer John Dewberry. It has now been more than 15 years since construction halted, and nearly 12 since Dewberry bought the property at auction for $6.25 million, and promised a luxury hotel.
