Tag: charlottesville parking center

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Truce: City and Mark Brown settle parking garage dispute

The city will be in charge of the Water Street Parking Garage starting August 1, and Mark Brown will collect rent. Staff photo

Two years ago, before Nazis came to Charlottesville in 2017, the big story was the contretemps between Mark Brown, co-owner of the Water Street Parking Garage, and then-mayor Mike Signer and the city.

The escalating parking wars led to suits and countersuits, panicked meetings of downtown business owners, threats of closing the garage and of eminent domain, challenges to the hiring of a former mayor and whopping legal bills on both sides.

At the July 16 City Council meeting, as the clock approached midnight, councilors approved a settlement that gives them most of what they wanted, but the full cost is not known at the present.

“I wasn’t sure until 11:58 last night this would get approved,” said Charlottesville Parking Center general manager Dave Norris, who has seen seemingly solid deals with the city fall apart before, the day after the meeting.

In the settlement hammered out over the past two years, Charlottesville Parking Center, which Brown owns and which manages the garage, agreed to sell 73 spaces to the city for $413,000. The spaces, previously owned by Wells Fargo, have been a sore point for the city, which sued Brown for buying them from the bank when the city had a right of first refusal should any parties want to unload their spaces.

“We’re selling them at the same price we paid for them,” says Norris, a former Charlottesville mayor whose own hiring was a point of contention when the city, through Chris Engel, director of economic development, questioned Norris’ qualifications to run a parking garage.

Charlottesville Parking Center was founded in 1959 by business owners who feared the emergence of shopping malls with ample parking would be a threat to getting people to shop downtown. The Water Street Parking Garage is a jointly owned public/private entity, and CPC owns the ground underneath the garage, as well as the surface lot across the street.

Although the city had the opportunity to buy Charlottesville Parking Center when it went on the market in 2008, it didn’t. Brown bought CPC in 2014 for $13.8 million and an uneasy alliance with the city began. In March 2016, Brown sued the city, alleging it forced him to offer parking below market rate—and below what was charged at the city-owned Market Street Garage.

In the settlement, the parking center will lease its remaining 317 spaces to the city for $50,000 a month for 16 years—with a 2.5 percent annual increase after the first year. The city believes it will make more than $900,000 in net revenue during the first year of the lease, according to a city document.

“It’s really a good thing for all parties after two years of contentiousness,” says Norris. “As of August 1, they’ll have full control and can set whatever hours and rates they want.”

CPC used to manage the Market Street Garage, but during the heat of battle, the city fired CPC and hired Lanier Parking to manage that garage. Most CPC employees who run the Water Street Garage will go to work for Lanier, which will take over the management of Water Street, city parking manager Rick Siebert told City Council.

When questioned by Mayor Nikuyah Walker, Siebert said none of the Water Street Garage employees will make less than the city’s minimum wage and that they have benefits.

For Charlottesville Parking Center administrators like Norris, it’s time to dust off those resumes. “This is the end of our role as a parking management company,” he says. “I’m exploring my own options.”

Brown continues to own the land underneath the garage. He was traveling in Greece, and in an email says the settlement is a “very slightly modified version” of a proposal CPC made to the city in January 2016 before any litigation was filed, “so we eventually succeeded in achieving our preferred resolution to the problem.”

At one point, Brown tried to buy the city’s portion of the garage—and the city did likewise. He also threatened to close the garage, which totally freaked out downtown business owners. The Downtown Business Association of Charlottesville made clear to the city that it believed the garage should remain publicly owned.

“I think we’ve gained significant efficiencies,” Siebert told City Council, as well as gaining control of the garage’s operation, “which I think is so important to the public.”

At the July 16 council meeting, Signer noted that “Ms. Galvin and I have some scar tissue and war wounds from this.”

Councilor Kathy Galvin recalled “all-day long mediation sessions.”

The city hired Richmond attorney Tom Wolf with LeClairRyan, who charged the city a discounted rate of $425 an hour. At press time, the city had not provided what those legal fees added up to over two years.

“We really decided to stick to our guns and stick up for this being a public good, a public asset,” said Signer. “And it was very difficult and there was a lot of fighting from the other side, a lot of scaremongering from some of the local journalistic outlets.”

He added, “This settlement a couple of years later is a good result for the public on all fronts.”

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In brief: Local Park Place, park monikers, parking suit and more

Edgemont Farm is listed for $27 million and is believed to have been designed by Thomas Jefferson. submitted photo

Mansion sweet mansion

Wondering what to do with the extra millions you’ve got lying around the house? Buy a new one!

Edgemont, a Palladian-inspired pad built in 1796 and surrounded by 570 acres of farmland, “is a home whose design is reputed to be the only remaining private residence attributed to Thomas Jefferson,” according to a McLean Faulconer listing on Nest Realty’s website—and it could be yours for the low, low price of $27 million.

The North Garden mansion, which has been on the market for 70 days, also comes with a pool, pool house, guest house and tennis court. In total, it houses eight bedrooms and seven-and-a-half bathrooms.

And while the price tag may be shocking for some, it really isn’t that unusual. The most expensive local sale on record was 1,582-acre historic Castle Hill on Gordonsville Road in Keswick, which sold for $24 million in 2005, according to Bob Headrick, an associate broker with Nest. (While others have been listed for more than $20 million—Patricia Kluge put Albemarle House on the market for $100 million in 2009, which her pal Donald Trump bought for $6.5 million in 2012—none have sold for quite that much moolah, he says.)

Quote of the week

“When you all think about policy changes like this, you need to make sure that in any way you’re not being bamboozled to believe that it’s a change that will be beneficial.”—Mayor Nikuyah Walker at the July 16 City Council meeting about discussions on changing the form of city government to a ward system or a strong mayor

In brief

Renaming the renamed

City Council voted 4-1 at its July 16 meeting to rename two parks for the second time in a year. Emancipation Park—the former Lee Park—will now be known as Market Street Park, and Justice Park—the former Jackson Park—will henceforth be called Court Square Park. Got all that?

Parking wars end

A two-year dispute between Charlottesville Parking Center owner Mark Brown and the city over the Water Street Parking Garage was resolved at the July 16 City Council meeting. The city will buy 73 CPC spaces and lease the center’s remaining 317 spaces, giving the city full control of the garage for 16 years.

Toscano challenger

photo Ellie Williams

Democrats gained 15 seats in the House of Delegates in 2017, narrowing its minority to 49-51, but some of the newly elected Dem delegates want to oust House Democratic Leader David Toscano, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Critics say more seats could have been won with more party support. Fairfax Delegate Jennifer Boysko wants the leadership post, but it’s unclear if she has the votes to call a vote.

One lawsuit moves forward

A federal judge has ruled that a suit filed against about two dozen white supremacist individuals and groups on behalf of the victims of last summer’s Unite the Right rally can move forward.

One lawsuit gets settled

Rally organizer Jason Kessler and anti-racist activist group Redneck Revolt are the last defendants to enter consent decrees in the Georgetown Law Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection suit filed on behalf of the city, downtown businesses and neighborhood associations, to prevent paramilitary groups from organizing in Charlottesville.

Unlock your doors

Well, you probably shouldn’t do that. But, according to government data supplied by online electric supply company Elite Figures, it might be ok if you did. When measuring the number of burglaries per capita in each state, they found that Virginia comes in as the third lowest in the country with 238 burglaries per 100,000 people each year—that’s 47 percent less than the national average.

By the numbers

Booze cruising

Those imbibing while driving through the Old Dominion on the Fourth of July likely didn’t enjoy their ensuing arrest. Virginia State Police say they caught approximately one drunk driver every hour during a 48-hour period on July 3 and 4.

  • 42 DUI arrests
  • 4,911 speeders
  • 1,251 reckless drivers
  • 429 safety belt violations
  • 114 child restraint violations
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In brief: A city of lawyers, the point of no return and a quote that still stings

Case study

Cities are always involved in one sort of minor litigation or another, typically for unpaid taxes, but over the past two years, Charlottesville has been embroiled in a lot of high-profile cases, mostly as a defendant. Having a hard time keeping up? We are, too. Let’s review.

Militias

  • The city, downtown businesses and neighborhood associations sue armed militias and Unite the Right participants for militaristic violence August 12.

Charlottesville Parking Center

  • Mark Brown’s suit over Water Street Parking Garage rates filed in 2016.
  • Charlottesville filed a counterclaim.
  • Current status: In mediation

Fred Payne, Monument Fund et. al.

  • Suit to prevent removal of Confederate statues, motion to remove tarps.
  • Current status: Next hearing is December 6

Albemarle County

  • Objects to city overriding county law at Ragged Mountain Natural Area to allow biking.
  • Charlottesville has filed a counterclaim.
  • Current status: Motions hearing is December 6

Joy Johnson et. al. [filed by Jeff Fogel]

  • Demands that the city fire Hunton & Williams, claims City Manager Maurice Jones had no authority to hire Tim Heaphy’s law firm to do a review of city actions August 12.

Natalie Jacobsen and Jackson Landers

  • FOIA suit to force city to produce August 12 safety plans.
  • Current status: The reporter plaintiffs had to amend the complaint naming the city rather than the police department, and no new hearing date has been set.

Granted bond

Chris Cantwell. Staff photo

“Crying Nazi” Chris Cantwell—whose name comes from a tearful video he posted to the web before turning himself in to police for allegedly using pepper spray at the August 11 tiki-torch march at UVA—literally cried when he was granted a $25,000 bond December 4. He won’t be released from jail until he can find a place to stay, according to the judge.

More sick animals

On the heels of Peaceable Farm owner Anne Shumate Williams being convicted of 25 counts of animal cruelty in Orange County, the Louisa County Sheriff’s Office is hoping to save about 500 animals in what appears to be a similar case. This time, goats, emus, sheep and a peacock are among the neglected critters. Charges are pending for the 77-year-old and her two adult sons who run the farm.

Quote of the Week

Nikuyah Walker. Photo by Eze Amos

“Systemic racism does not fall on the backs of two black men.” —Councilor-elect Nikuyah Walker at the December 4 City Council meeting

Point of no return

John Casey. Courtesy Cramer Photo

Former University of Virginia professor and award-winning author John Casey will not return to teaching creative writing at the school this spring. UVA is currently investigating at least three Title IX complaints from former students who claim he sexually harassed them.

Better than a 9-5

Airbnb announced last week that homestay hosts in Charlottesville and Blacksburg have earned $2.3 million during the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech football seasons since 2016.

Rights waived

Daniel Borden, charged with malicious wounding for his part in the August 12 Market Street Parking Garage beatdown of Deandre Harris, waived his right to a preliminary hearing in Charlottesville General District Court December 4. He’ll go before the grand jury in December.

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Insurance denied: City footing Lee statue, parking garage legal bills

Water Street Parking Garage

Since 2016, Charlottesville has faced a larger-than-usual number of high-profile lawsuits, and in at least two cases, its insurance carrier won’t be picking up the tab. And while the carrier hasn’t seen the most recent suit, filed by Albemarle County over the Ragged Mountain Natural Area April 20, that litigation could join the Lee statue coverage denial as a “willful violation” of state law.

The city’s insurer, the Virginia Municipal League, covered Joe Draego’s federal lawsuit after he was dragged out of City Council for calling Muslims “monstrous maniacs,” and a judge ruled the city’s public comment policy banning group defamation was unconstitutional.

But VML is not covering the lawsuit filed against the city for its 3-2 vote to remove the statue of General Robert E. Lee, nor is it covering Mark Brown’s Charlottesville Parking Center litigation against the city, which heads to mediation May 31.

In that case, the city is paying Richmond LeClairRyan attorney Tom Wolf $425 an hour. At press time, City Attorney Craig Brown was unable to come up with costs of that suit, but a year ago, as of April 30, 2016, before the city had gone to court on Brown’s emergency receivership petition, it had spent $11,593.

Craig Brown says the suits on the statue, parking garage and the dispute with Albemarle have “all generated a large amount of public interest, whereas someone tripping on a sidewalk doesn’t.”

“It’s unusual to be involved in as much high-profile litigation as it is now,” agrees former mayor and CPC general manager Dave Norris.

“There’s only a certain amount of appetite taxpayers have to paying high-priced lawyers,” he says.

The litigation with Albemarle stems from the city’s December 19 vote to allow biking at Ragged Mountain, which is located in the county, despite county regulations that prohibit biking at the reservoir. Before the vote, Liz Palmer, then chair of the Albemarle Board of Supervisors, sent a December 15 letter to City Council asking it to defer action and citing state code that prohibits a landowner locality from adopting regulations in conflict with the jurisdiction where the property is located.

And while the city held a year’s worth of public meetings about uses at Ragged Mountain, conspicuously absent from that process was the county. “We were not involved in that,” says Board of Supervisors chair Diantha McKeel. “It’s unfortunate it got as far as it did without recognizing that.”

McKeel stresses that the city and county are not at odds on most issues, but says, “Both of our localities have agreed this is a legal question that has to be settled in the courts.”

After the City Council voted April 3 to adopt a new trails plan that would allow biking, the city offered binding arbitration, “precisely because we wanted to resolve the underlying legal issues without having to go to court,” says Mayor Mike Signer.

That was an offer the county declined. “The question goes back to state code,” says McKeel. “We can’t mediate our way out of that.”

Attorney Buddy Weber, a plaintiff in the Lee statue suit, sees a pattern with the city’s decision to proceed at Ragged Mountain over the county’s objections—and state statutes. “What you really have to ask is where they’re getting their legal advice,” he says. “Are they doing this to invite litigation?”

An injunction hearing is scheduled for May 2 to halt the city from moving the statue—or selling it, as council voted to do April 17. “We thought it was reckless for them to do what they did to remove the statue,” says Weber.  “Selling it falls in line with that. That’s why we need an injunction.”

But when Councilor Bob Fenwick changed his vote to remove the statue February 6, he said it was an issue that would have to be decided by the courts.

For activist Walt Heinecke, that fight embodies the city’s values on the Civil War statue, and he also applauds council’s funding of $10,000 to Legal Aid Justice Center to support immigrants. “I do think it’s important,” he says.

Other legal battles, like the city’s defense of its 2011 panhandling ordinance or the Draego lawsuit, “seem like a complete waste of money,” he says. Heinecke hasn’t followed the Ragged Mountain debate, but says, “It certainly seems there would be better ways to work this through rather than bull-dogging it.”

Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy, who had his own day in court recently to fend off a petition to remove him from office, says when he was campaigning, he frequently heard comments that prior councils were “paralyzed” and that citizens wanted City Council to make decisions.

“This council is committed to making a difference and to making bold choices,” he says. “We’re not going to be paralyzed.”

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Hell no: City responds to parking center proposals

Mark Brown says he’s not angry the city rebuffed scenarios to settle the Water Street Garage litigation, but he is selling the Main Street Arena and looking for more hospitable municipalities. Photo Jackson Smith

In the ongoing melodrama between the city and Charlottesville Parking Center owner Mark Brown, a letter from City Manager Maurice Jones says there’s no way the city will sell its Water Street Parking Garage shares to or even work with Brown, who, perhaps not coincidentally, announced plans to sell the Main Street Arena and take at least part of his investments elsewhere.

The latest barrage was in response to an August 8 letter from CPC general manager Dave Norris outlining three scenarios in which CPC would sell its parking spaces in the garage to the city or vice versa, complete with an optimistic plan that CPC would build a parking garage on a Market Street lot jointly owned by the city and county to appease the county, which has threatened to take its general district court out of the city because of the dismal parking situation.

Jones writes that former mayor Norris’ statements that the scenarios represent an opportunity to end the dispute “quickly” and “in the city’s favor” represent a “fundamental misunderstanding” of the city’s position.

He scoffs at the idea that the city would buy Brown’s interest in the Water Street Garage, which includes 390 spaces, the land underneath and commercial spaces, for $8,995,400, the amount CPC contends the city would have to pay if it goes through with its eminent domain threat. Brown bought CPC, including a surface lot across from the garage, for $13.8 million in 2013.

A major sticking point for the city is that while Brown offers to sell his spaces for $18,232 each, his offer to buy the city’s 629 spaces was at a much lower $7,822 each. “That huge discrepancy suggests that CPC either has no interest in seriously negotiating the sale” of its garage spaces or that it “continues to mistakenly believe” the fair market value of its spaces is far greater than the city’s because it owns the land upon which the Water Street Garage sits.

That, says Jones, is like the city arguing its spaces are more valuable because they’re exempt from real estate taxes. Neither “advantage” would be passed on to a purchaser, he says.

And in case there’s any doubt about the city’s position, using both bold text and underlining, Jones says, “City Council has no interest in selling its spaces in the WSPG to CPC.”

As for working together to build a garage on Seventh and Market streets after Brown’s attempts to force the city to sell its Water Street shares, says Jones, “I can unequivocally respond that no one on City Council can imagine any scenario where this type of partnership would be of interest to the city.”

On page three of the four-page letter, Jones lists Brown’s, er, CPC’s misdeeds, including suing the city, secretly negotiating with Albemarle to build a garage on Market Street, allowing downtown businesses to believe he was contemplating closing the garage because the association that runs it had not approved a budget and filing a second lawsuit seeking the emergency appointment of a receiver.

Norris declined to comment on the city’s letter, but Brown had something to say about it: “It seemed like the ramblings of a lunatic. Maurice Jones didn’t write a word of that.” Brown says he believes Mayor Mike Signer and the city’s Richmond attorney, Tom Wolf, wrote the letter.

“Not true,” says Wolf. He also downplays the tone of the letter. “I think it’s just responding to their letter. I don’t think it’s a go-to-hell letter.”

In a September 14 statement, Wolf says, “I would think that after a while people would get tired of Mark Brown’s constant whining and his relentless efforts to twist everything to benefit himself at the expense of others.”

Jones’ letter says, “This dispute is not, however, about parking rates and never has been,” and alleges that Brown’s scheme all along has been to force the city to sell its interest in the garage to him.

“That was an outright lie,” declares Brown. He contends the only time CPC ever made an offer was when the city requested one in writing.

As for an amicable settlement of the increasingly hostile dispute, says legal expert Dave Heilberg, “As of today it doesn’t look like it. It’s hard to tell how much [of the city’s letter] is posturing.”

Heilberg calls such communications in civil litigation “nastygrams.” And if the parties really want to settle, he says, “They’ll come in with offers a lot closer.”

City Attorney Craig Brown says, “Yes, there is a possibility for the case to settle. …CPC just needs to offer to sell its spaces in the Water Street Parking Garage for their fair market value.”

While Mark Brown, who also owns Yellow Cab, has listed the Main Street Arena for sale before as what he calls a “teaser,” this time he says he’s serious and has ordered a for sale sign. The arena is listed at $6.5 million.

“I don’t have any confidence in [city leadership’s] ability to function in a rational way,” he says, as Charlottesville transforms from a town to a small city. He sees “signs of dysfunction” in how the city is run. “You can’t put out patio chairs in the wrong color but they let the Landmark sit for eight years,” he says, referring to the hotel skeleton on the Downtown Mall.

“I’m not angry,” he says, while expressing concerns about the Belmont Bridge (“How long has that dragged on?”), the Strategic Investment Area and the West Main streetscape. “I don’t see any leadership from City Hall,” he says.

Brown believes money invested in municipalities that have “real leadership” will result in a higher return.

As for the fate of the only ice rink in the area, says Brown, “That’s going to be up to the owners of the building. I’m going to be investing elsewhere.”

CPC Response Letter 9-12-16

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Parliamentary push-back: Benford reinstated, Fenton nearly ousted

Ousted chair George Benford watches the drama play out that results in his new job as co-chair on the DBAC with the woman who wanted him gone. Staff photo

 

Chaps owner Tony LaBua spoke for those not in the thick of last week’s Downtown Business Association of Charlottesville coup: “I’m confused. Is George not president?”

George Benford wasn’t chair at that point early in an August 17 DBAC board meeting, but within 45 minutes, he was elected co-chair, and Joan Fenton, who had prompted his August 8 resignation when she told him his election in March may not have been legal, survived a vote to remove her from the board because her opponents couldn’t muster a two-thirds majority.

The feud between the city and Charlottesville Parking Center owner Mark Brown over the Water Street Garage seeped into the DBAC, with factions forming and accusations from Fenton that Benford and other DBAC board members were in Brown’s pocket.

After last week’s public airing of DBAC grievances, Fenton took charge of Wednesday’s board meeting and explained her discovery that a decision to amend the bylaws and move the membership year to begin January 1 had never been made official, and therefore Benford’s election after former chair and former CPC general manager Bob Stroh resigned was invalid.

“I didn’t do this easily,” said Fenton. She said she’d consulted Tuel Jewelers’ Mary Loose DeViney, who in fact is a professional registered parliamentarian. DeViney agreed the elections held at the March meeting were not in accordance with the bylaws. Fenton waited to break the news until after an August 5 meeting of the bylaws committee, she said, because “I didn’t want it to look like I was doing anything improper.”

An angry board challenged Fenton when she passed out the bylaws and an e-mail with DeViney’s opinion. “Why are we just receiving this?” asked Will Van der Linde, manager of the Main Street Arena, which is owned by Brown.

Attorney David Pettit, who represents Violet Crown Cinema, which has lobbied the DBAC to tell the city it wants the Water Street Garage to be a public utility, said he came to the August 17 because Fenton asked him to weigh in on the bylaws situation, not on behalf of Violet Crown, which is also a DBAC member.

The calendar year could be changed in the bylaws by a two-thirds vote of the board, he said, but he found no evidence that occurred in the minutes. And if the board doesn’t follow its bylaws, the result is “chaos,” he said.

Fenton wanted to have an election in September at the annual members meeting, 90 days after the June 30 end of the membership year under the old bylaws. It didn’t work out like that.

Van der Linde proposed a motion to change the membership year to January 1 and make it retroactively effective January 1, 2016.

“I will question the validity of that motion because we do not know who our board was,” said Fenton.

That brought up another issue. Some of the board’s 17 members had been elected, like Benford, under the unofficial new bylaws. In a vote of only those who had been on the board before the contested election,  a 9-1 decision was made to change the membership year in the bylaws, with Fenton the sole “no” vote.

Van der Linde made another motion: “I move to fill the vacancy of [co-chair] Bob Stroh with George Benford.” That passed 8-2, with Fenton and Spring Street owner Cynthia Schroeder, who had been in the ax-Benford faction and who has plans to start a new business association, voting no.

Van der Linde had yet another motion, the most dramatic yet. “I make a motion to remove Joan Fenton from the board,” he said. That 6-2 vote, with two abstaining and two absent, failed to get the two-thirds necessary to oust Fenton.

“I think I really upset a lot of people by publicly stating my issues and by refusing to have an emergency meeting,” said Fenton, who remains co-chair, after the meeting. “I think there was a lot of anger at me and I hope we can move past that and work together.”

In a final motion, Van der Linde moved to reinstate the nine people who had been elected to the board earlier in the year.

George Benford and Joan Fenton kiss and makeup after last week's nastiness. Staff photo
George Benford and Joan Fenton kiss and makeup after last week’s ugly business. Staff photo

Several members seemed shaken by the events of the past week. David Posner, an investor with Davenport & Company and a board member whose election was questioned, said everyone had been “very happy” with how things were going at the DBAC, and that he found it alarming “all of a sudden to see this coup go down.”

“What we’re trying to do is bring this ship back to port,” said Amy Wicks-Horn, whose membership and allegiances Fenton had questioned. Although COO for the Piedmont Family YMCA, Wicks-Horn says she’s not a DBAC member in her work capacity. Fenton had pointed out that neither Wicks-Horn nor Benford owned businesses on the Downtown Mall.

“In the past week, our reputation has suffered,” when it was “only one or two individuals” leading the charge to oust Benford, said Wicks-Horn.

“It’s been very disturbing,” said Roy Van Doorn, a partner at City Select. “It’s been very personal. When motives get questioned in a public way, it’s really out of place. I ask the leaders of DBAC to temper their comments. It’s been very disturbing to the board. It’s been very disturbing to the members. [The DBAC] has to be focused on its members and its issues.”

And with that, Van der Linde moved on to talk about DBAC plans to put lighting in trees for the mall’s 40th anniversary.

Afterward, Fenton said, “Sometimes the best thing is to have an open and honest discussion. When you clear the air, you can move past that and work together.”

The issues that had been “festering” were not discussed at the meeting, she said, but people did get to express their displeasure.

She added, “I do sincerely think [Benford] and I can work together.”

 

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DBAC meltdown: Downtown business org in disarray; chair resigns

Joan Fenton ousted George Benford as chair of the Downtown Business Association of Charlottesville. Photo Eze Amos

Simmering undercurrents from the parking war between the city and Charlottesville Parking Center over the Water Street Garage have splintered the Downtown Business Association of Charlottesville, whose chairman abruptly resigned August 8 after being told he was illegally elected. The move leaves some members confused about who’s in charge and one who is working to start a new downtown business alliance.

George Benford was elected DBAC chairman in March after former chair Bob Stroh retired from both the business association and CPC, where, as general manager, he’d helped found the DBAC.

Benford says he was in New York on business August 8 when he got an e-mail from DBAC vice-chair Joan Fenton, who owns Quilts Unlimited & J. Fenton Gifts. According to Benford, Fenton said his election was illegal because the bylaws had never been officially approved to allow an election in March, and that she would take over in the interim.

“I said I’d just make this simple and resign,” says Benford. “There’s been a lot of dissent from one or two people. This is a volunteer job. Nobody gets paid.” He adds, “I don’t have energy for this.”

In his resignation letter, Benford listed his accomplishments during the five months he was chair, including DBAC membership being at an all-time high. What he didn’t mention was the parking dispute between CPC owner Mark Brown and the city that has roiled the organization and had it sending conflicting messages to City Council.

Benford came under fire from Fenton and others for an April 17 letter to City Council that said the DBAC would not take sides in the dispute between Brown and the city. It urged a quick resolution and for the city to come up with a long-term plan to deal with parking.

At a May 25 DBAC meeting, Violet Crown Cinema’s Robert Crane called for a petition to City Council that it not sell the Water Street Parking Garage to Brown. Violet Crown, which had hired DBAC member Susan Payne’s public relations firm to represent it, held a June 2 meeting on parking and attendees unanimously agreed that the garage should be a public utility. Days later, council passed a resolution to make an offer to buy Brown’s shares of the garage.

That was followed by a June 23 letter from downtown association board member Mary Beth Schellhammer on DBAC letterhead asking both the city and CPC to knock off the heated rhetoric—the city threatened eminent domain and CPC to close the garage—and come to a quick resolution.

Fenton contends that Benford went to the city and said the DBAC was in favor of it selling its shares of the garage to Brown. She also accused him of not being transparent, and of stalling a DBAC vote on a resolution to keep the garage a public utility.

“From my perspective, [Benford] has done so much damage to the organization and now he’s continuing to damage it,” says Fenton.

“He has a large group of people beholden to Mark Brown,” she says. “There’s a perception CPC is running DBAC.”

Certainly the two organizations have always been intertwined, with downtown booster Stroh holding leadership positions in both. CPC has provided office space and support to DBAC, says Benford, and CPC employee Sarah Mallan is DBAC’s secretary and treasurer.

“DBAC records are kept at the parking garage,” says Fenton. “I think that’s a conflict.”

Brown says that two people out of 17 on the DBAC board work for him. “Didn’t the DBAC encourage the city to fight me and not settle with me?” he asks.

Fenton also questions board members who don’t own businesses downtown, such as Benford, who used to own the restaurant Siips on the mall, and Amy Wicks-Horn, who joined DBAC when she was director of the Virginia Discovery Museum.

Benford says he offered to resign when he sold the restaurant. “Everyone, including Joan, asked me to stay on,” he says.

And Fenton questions the link between Wicks-Horn, who currently works for the Piedmont Family YMCA, which received funding for the new Y from the Jessup family, a member of which also sold Brown his shares in the Water Street Garage Condominium Association.

“I categorically deny that,” says Wicks-Horn. She says she’s not representing the Y with her DBAC membership, and she volunteers because of her passion to support downtown.

“DBAC is a strong partner with CPC and it’s also a strong partner with the city,” she says, and both entities are concerned about the issue of parking downtown. “That doesn’t mean we’re in the city’s pocket and it doesn’t mean we’re in CPC’s pocket.”

Spring Street owner Cynthia Schroeder sees the need for a new business group, an idea she’s had plans for since 2012. “I’m starting a new, honest, open organization to increase business on the Downtown Mall,” she says. “It’s fresh, it’s going to be very active.”

Schroeder doesn’t believe Benford should be chair of DBAC. “It’s unraveling,” she says. “I’m going to put my energy into my effort,” which she says she’d like to have in place by January.

After submitting a resignation not only as chair, but as a member of the DBAC executive committee, board and association itself, Benford reconsidered August 10. “I have received numerous requests to rescind my resignation letter,” he says, and he will remain on a member of the DBAC and its board of directors.

The legality of Benford’s chairmanship was raised at a bylaws committee meeting August 5, says Fenton. Some have questioned whether her interpretation of the bylaws, which the board had talked about updating but she believes never did, is correct.

“I can’t swear to one or the other,” she says. “But if he resigned, it doesn’t matter. He’s got copies of the bylaws, and he could have said, ‘I think you’re reading this wrong.’”

Fenton says she’s been asked to hold an emergency meeting, but with a regular DBAC meeting scheduled for August 17 and the annual meeting in September, she wants the entire membership to vote on who leads the group. “We can start with a clean slate,” she says.

Resignation letter (1)

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CPC floats four parking scenarios

Former mayor Dave Norris urges the city to stop kicking the can forward and resolve the Water Street Parking Garage morass once and for all. Staff photo

The parking wars have quieted since a judge rejected the Charlottesville Parking Center’s petition for an emergency receiver June 27 and CPC owner Mark Brown decamped to Greece.

But here in the dog days of August, CPC general manager Dave Norris, whose June 24 proposal was rebuffed by the city, offers four scenarios for settling the dispute over the Water Street Parking Garage that has smouldered since the city nixed Brown’s parking rate increase last fall.

That led to a suit and countersuit, with the city threatening eminent domain on the jointly owned garage.

What’s different this time?

“These are new options that we feel have been responsive to the concerns expressed in the previous settlements,” says Norris. “More importantly, it addresses the bigger issue of the lack of parking downtown.”

And that’s an issue that has Albemarle ready to jump ship with its general district court. The county is studying a move from historic Court Square to the County Office Building on McIntire Road with its ample lots.

“The real news is that we’re proposing to build a new garage that would keep Albemarle courts downtown that we’d pay for 100 percent,” says Norris.

That’s scenario No. 3, in which the city sells its spaces in the Water Street Garage to CPC, which builds a 300-space, state-of-the-art garage on the lot owned by the city and county at Market and Seventh streets. Upon completion, CPC would guarantee 100 spaces for county court use at no charge for 30 years.

“That could be a significant win-win-win scenario for everyone,” says Norris. “If people are concerned about parking rates, the best thing is to increase the supply.”

He also offers to sell CPC’s spaces in Water Street Garage to the city at a rate it would have to pay under eminent domain, which CPC believes is considerably higher than the $2.8 million the city offered in June. Another scenario is the city sells to CPC and takes its earnings to build another garage. During that time, CPC pledges it will not charge more than the city-owned Market Street Garage.

“One of the concerns that’s been expressed is that we’d jack up rates to the roof,” says Norris. “We’d give them two to three years to build a replacement with rates not to exceed Market Street, and honor current validation and long-term parking leases.”

The fourth scenario is for the city to continue to pursue eminent domain, which will be a lengthy and costly proposition, says Norris.

His latest August 8 proposal came hours before City Council was to meet in a closed session to discuss parking.

And his predictions on how well received his latest proposal will be?

“My sense is there is a strong desire in some quarters to litigate this out under eminent domain,” says Norris. “That’s a lose-lose. The city has already incurred $60,000 in legal bills. It hinders expanding parking downtown.” That, he says, would be on hold until the Water Street litigation is settled.

City spokesperson Miriam Dickler declines to speculate on the latest CPC proposals. “Council hasn’t discussed these yet, so I really don’t know,” she says.

CPC to city 8-8-16

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Parking Garage Primer

The city didn’t tell Mark Brown it was passing a resolution to buy him out of the Water Street Garage. Staff photo

Who owns what at Water Street Garage?

Water Street Parking Garage Condo Association owns the structure

Charlottesville Parking Center

Has four seats on the condo association board

Owns 390 spaces

Owner: Mark Brown

Runs the garage operations

The city

Has four seats on the condo association board

Owns 629 spaces

Charlottesville Parking Center owns the land underneath the garage

Pooled Parking Unit Owners (city majority with CPC members) set the parking rates

City wants: $125 monthly, $2/hour  CPC wants: $145 monthly, $2.50/hour

Market Street Garage: Owned by the city, charges $135 monthly, $2.50/hour

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Management issue(s): Mark Brown says city in default on Water Street Garage

Mark Brown says he’s not angry the city rebuffed scenarios to settle the Water Street Garage litigation, but he is selling the Main Street Arena and looking for more hospitable municipalities. Photo Jackson Smith

 

The battle between Charlottesville Parking Center owner Mark Brown and the city got more heated with an April 6 letter from Brown that said the entity that runs the Water Street Garage is in default and one of his remedies is to terminate the complicated agreement between the parking center and the city and to stop running the garage.

Relations between Brown and the city were already tense, thanks to Brown’s March 14 lawsuit that alleges the city is forcing him to run the garage below market rate.

It probably didn’t help that Mayor Mike Signer publicly reprimanded former CPC general manager/Downtown Business Association of Charlottesville co-chair Bob Stroh for his grammar, according to a Newsplex report. Within weeks, 40-year parking veteran and respected downtown booster Stroh decided to retire.

Brown announced March 28 he was hiring former mayor Dave Norris to succeed Stroh. Besides serving eight years on City Council, Norris has been the executive director of a couple of local nonprofits, including Big Brothers/Big Sisters of the Central Blue Ridge, and most recently worked as the director of community impact for the United Way of Greater Richmond & Petersburg.

In the next volley, Chris Engel, Charlottesville director of economic development, sent a letter April 4 to Brown questioning the qualifications of Norris to run the CPC, a move pretty much unprecedented in recent city history, at least officially.

Engel’s letter noted that the contract between the city and CPC requires that the general manager must have a minimum of six months successful parking management experience and three years service management experience. He requested Brown send a statement of Norris’ qualifications.

Brown declined to comment on the letter, and Norris says he hopes the differences between the city and CPC can be resolved before he starts the job.

“I am not going to get in the mud with Mike Signer and [City Manager] Maurice Jones,” says Norris. ”I am looking forward to starting this new job in June and working with all the key stakeholders to make the downtown a good place to live, work, play and run a business.”

Ironically, Jones faced some skepticism about his own qualifications when he applied for the city manager’s job in 2010. A former sports reporter for NBC29 who started work with the city as director of communications, Jones did not have the master’s degree the city job posting said it preferred, nor did he live in the city. Norris, who was mayor at that time, was an advocate for Jones getting the job.

City Council regular Louis Schultz says he finds the issue “hysterical,” and that Engel would not have sent the letter without Jones’ approval. “If the city manager doesn’t understand that being mayor is working in the ‘service industry,’ it’s no wonder we have such an unresponsive city government,” he says.

Brown replied to the city April 7 with a letter detailing Norris’ experience with parking issues, including serving on the Metropolitan Planning Organization, which deals with long-term transportation and parking issues for the region. He also notes that Stroh assembled a strong team to run the parking garages and will continue to serve as a consultant.

Should that not suffice for the city, says Brown, Norris will be named president of the Charlottesville Parking Center and Brown will assume the job of general manager at the higher salary commanded by the more experienced Stroh, resulting in higher operating costs for the management of the city’s Market Street Garage.

In a related move, Brown’s April 6 letter serves notice to the Water Street Parking Garage Condominium Association, which owns the structure, that it is in default of its agreement with the parking center by not having a 2016 annual budget.

To further complicate matters, the eight-member condo association is made up of four city employees and four CPC seats, including Brown, which means he also is a member of the association he says is in default. Six association members have to agree to pass the budget, and that didn’t happen because the city refused to approve the rates Brown wants.

Miriam Dickler, city spokesperson, declined to comment on the letter announcing the condo association is in default and to respond to the allegation Signer and Jones were “in the mud.”

The agreement between the condo association and CPC gives the city 30 days to come up with a budget. If that doesn’t happen, CPC can terminate the relationship and doesn’t have to assure an orderly transition, according to the agreement.

“The gist here is that clearly Mark Brown is in the midst of a chess game with the City where he has a legal strategy mapped out moves ahead,” writes former Charlottesville Parking Center shareholder Richard  Spurzem from a beach in Antigua. “The City, as usual, thinks they are in a checkers game.”

Spurzem has criticized the city in past for not buying the parking garage in 2008 when the CPC was for sale. Brown bought the parking center, which owns the land and some spaces in the Water Street Garage and the surface lot across the street, for $13.8 million in 2014. CPC also runs the city-owned Market Street Garage,.

The city, according to Spurzem, also should have corrected the “horrible” land lease and management agreement with the more city-friendly former CPC management.

A subset of the condo association is the Pooled Parking Unit Owners—the city and CPC—which are the only ones who can set parking rates for the Water Street Garage. The city owns approximately 629 parking spaces—65 percent—and CPC owns 344, according to Brown’s lawsuit.

The rates must be approved by two-thirds of the pooled parking owners, which put Brown at a disadvantage when he wanted to increase the Water Street rates to what he says in his suit are market value.

Last October, Brown proposed upping the rates to $145 a month, $180 for reserved spaces and $2.50 an hour. The city countered with monthly rates of $125 and $140 for reserved spaces and an hourly rate of $2, “significantly below the market rate,” and less than what the city-owned Market Street Garage charges, alleges the lawsuit. Market Street charges $135 a month and $2.50 an hour.

As a result of the city and Brown being unable to agree on what the suit calls the city’s “unlawful and oppressive demands for below-market rates,” the condo association was unable to get its city/CPC factions to approve a budget, and that now puts the association in default, claims Brown.

He has offered to sell the city CPC’s parking spaces or to buy the city’s spaces, both of which have been rejected by the city.

Spurzem predicts the city will either buy Brown’s ground lease and management agreement for “many times” what it could have bought CPC for earlier, or it will hand over its interests in the Water Street Garage “for next to nothing just to get out of the legal noose that Mark Brown will have them in.”