Signs like the one above have popped up on Dick Woods Road, as residents register their discontent with the opening of a new vineyard nearby. PC: Supplied photo.
By Danny O’Dea
All along Route 151, breweries and wineries dot the sides of the road. This beautiful, hilly stretch of Nelson County highway is known around the state for its picturesque watering holes.
Take a turn down the more residential Dick Woods Road, however, and you’ll see signs with bold letters that read “NO MORE ALCOHOL, EVENT VENUES, AMPLIFIED MUSIC, INCREASED TRAFFIC IN OUR RURAL AREAS. KEEP ALBEMARLE BEAUTIFUL.” Something has ruffled the feathers of nearly every homeowner on the narrow, windy road, and they want you to know it.
The object of residents’ ire is a new vineyard and event space called Hazy Mountain Vineyards & Brewery, which has been under construction for the last two years and finally opened its doors this month. Neighbors say the property poses traffic, noise, and congestion concerns for their quiet rural street, and that the developers pushed the limits on their construction permits when planning their facility.
“Part of the reason the community got upset is how they went about it,” says Dick Woods Road resident Don Fender. From a seat on Fender’s porch, the newly planted grapevines can be seen covering the mountain. A narrow, winding driveway cuts its way up to the peak through the rows.
Hazy Mountain’s developers bought the 167-acre property for $5 million in 2018. It didn’t take long for them to fell the mountaintop’s trees to make room for grapevines, and set up two event barns, each over 7,000 square feet. The property also has a parking lot with the capacity to hold multiple 200-person events simultaneously.
“We had no idea what was going on up there,” Fender continues.
Hazy Mountain was allowed to construct such a large spread because the project is classified as a farm winery, a designation with looser rules than a standard commercial business. The idea is to make life easier for small farmers looking to sell their products.
“The things they’ve done on the property regarding sight lines, traffic, and building limitations are things that residential developments would never be allowed to do,” Fender says.
“My husband and I live directly across the road from Hazy Mountain Vineyard and have had serious concerns about it since [they] began clearcutting in March of 2018,” says Cathy Robb, another Dick Woods resident.
Robb feels the developers took advantage of a loophole and that the county should have intervened. “Despite our requests for intervention and oversight, every single person in authority in Albemarle County has turned a blind eye to what is clearly a commercial operation,” she says.
Residents are also concerned about the traffic issues the new vineyard could bring. According to Bruce Snerling, who can see the exit from his front porch, the turn onto Dick Woods has already been the site of a handful of fender benders. In the past, the bulk of the traffic on the road was the Western Albemarle cross country team doing weekend runs.
Ann Mallek, who represents the White Hall District on the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, has heard plenty of complaints about the project.
“A lot of times it feels like we on the local government side of things end up playing defense when we wish we could play offense,” she says. Traffic is one of those issues: She says Albemarle County had the most highway deaths of any county in Virginia in 2017.
“We tried to get [the Virginia Department of Transportation] to approve signs at a four-way intersection in Earlysville for years,” Mallek continues. “The day after a fatal car accident is the day they finally were put in place. …We don’t want to be put in the spot of waiting for a tragedy again.”
With the vineyard now open, angry Dick Woods Road residents are hoping to see the rules change going forward.
“There were many issues and concerns from the start of this project but…it is somewhat of a moot point since they are now open for business,” Fender says. “I think people in the rural areas should be concerned if such large enterprises as Hazy Mountain can be developed under the zoning rules and regulations of agricultural zoning.”
Mallek says the Board of Supervisors is looking into the situation.
“Just last week we had a meeting to discuss our priorities for the next year, and we moved to the top of the list looking into changing the legal definitions of what constitutes an agricultural enterprise,” she says. “Starting to separate out things like cows and corn from things like wineries.”
“The people who live here have already made an investment in the land and in themselves,” Mallek says. “We need to be smart about the land. Our quality of life depends on others.”
Updated 7/23: Comment from Hazy Mountain is pending.
In the Thomas Jefferson Planning District, most people own their homes, and most people live in single-family dwellings.
PC: Central Virginia Regional Housing Partnership
It’s no secret that Charlottesville has an ongoing affordable housing crisis, in part due to the city’s long racist history of segregation, redlining, and racial covenants. Behind a huge push from local activists, the city has set aside millions of dollars in recent years to build more affordable housing units. And after releasing an affordable housing plan this year, Cville Plans Together—a team of consultants hired to rewrite the city’s zoning code—is now working with the community to create a Future Land Use Map that could further address the issues.
But Charlottesville isn’t the only place in our area struggling with affordable housing. In the Thomas Jefferson Planning District—including the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle, Nelson, Fluvanna, Louisa, and Greene counties—around 10,400 households spend more than 50 percent of their income on housing costs. Over the past four years, the Central Virginia Regional Housing Partnership has studied the specific conditions and issues facing each jurisdiction, and developed dozens of recommendations for local government leaders to meet affordable rental and homeownership needs.
Earlier this month, the partnership published a draft of a regional affordable housing plan.
“Rising rents, increased development pressure and displacement concerns, [and] inequity brought on by a history of segregationist land use policies…have eroded access to wealth-building for many communities of color, and an imbalance of supply and demand have come together to exacerbate the problem,” reads the report.
“Cross collaboration between localities can enable a pooling of resources, increase access, and improve communication to better address the needs of the region as a whole,” the report continues. “A broadened approach also reduces the need for one locality to shoulder the burden of providing affordable housing.”
From 2018 to 2019, the planning district solicited feedback from residents across the region, before working with the RHP to analyze responses last year and this year. The majority of survey takers were from Albemarle County and Charlottesville, and identified higher land density as the best way to provide more affordable housing. Residents say single-family homes and less-expensive apartments are the types of housing most needed in our area.
While the commission’s recommendations differ for each jurisdiction, common threads include updating zoning to allow for more soft density in single-family neighborhoods, investing in building permanent affordable housing communities, and providing incentives for developers to build multiple types of affordable “missing middle” housing, such as two-family dwellings, duplexes and triplexes, and modular homes.
The plan also emphasizes the racial disparity in homeownership in the region. To boost homeownership among residents of color, localities should partner with community nonprofits and large stakeholders, such as the University of Virginia, to provide affordable homeownership education, programs, and opportunities, the partnership suggests.
The planning district will continue to review and revise the draft plan, as well as work with the RHP to present it to individual jurisdictions and gather their feedback in the coming weeks.
The Montpelier Foundation voted last week to share governance of the historic property with the Montpelier Descendants Committee, an organization comprised of descendants of the enslaved laborers who once lived and worked on the plantation.
Montpelier is widely known as the estate of James Madison, the fourth U.S. president, but the Orange County property was also home to more than 300 enslaved laborers. In recent years, the organization has sought to bring their history to the fore. The move to formally share control of the property with the descendants community is “unprecedented,” says the foundation.
James French, the chair of the Descendants Committee, praised the decision in a statement. “This vote to grant equal co-stewardship authority to the Descendants of those who were enslaved is groundbreaking,” said French, who’s a financial technology entrepreneur by day. “The decision moves the perspectives of the Descendants of the enslaved from the periphery to the center, and offers an important, innovative step for Montpelier to share broader, richer and more truthful interpretations of history with wider audiences.”
COVID cases remain steady—and low—in the Charlottesville area
From June 7 to June 21, Charlottesville and Albemarle combined reported 20 new cases of coronavirus. That’s the smallest number of new cases in a two-week stretch since the early days of the virus in the spring of 2020. The Blue Ridge Health District, which includes Charlottesville, Albemarle, and four neighboring counties, reported just two new cases on Monday and two new cases over the weekend. Sixty-eight percent of Albemarle adults and 57 percent of Charlottesville adults are fully vaccinated. Statewide, 60 percent of adults have had both shots.
I hate losing at pretty much anything. My girlfriend hates playing Mario Kart with me due to this fact.
UVA closer Stephen Schoch, discussing his competitive mentality ahead of the baseball team’s College World Series appearance this week
In brief:
Masks won’t be prosecuted
Virginia state law says it’s illegal to wear a mask in order to conceal your identity. For obvious reasons, that law was put on hold during the pandemic, but it’ll go back into effect on June 30, when the state government’s COVID-inspired state of emergency ends. Locally, however, people who plan to continue masking shouldn’t worry—the Charlottesville and Albemarle Commonwealth’s Attorney’s offices released a joint statement this week saying, “Those who wish to continue to wear masks in public to mitigate the risks of COVID-19 spread and exposure may do so without fear of prosecution.”
Affordable Albemarle
The Albemarle Planning Commission voted 6-1 in favor of a proposed development that will see 190 affordable units, and 332 total units, constructed near the Forest Lakes community off Route 29, reports The Daily Progress. Since the proposal’s debut in March, some Forest Lakes residents have voiced their opposition to the construction, but the planning commission cited the high cost of living in the county as a key reason for allowing the project to move ahead.
Sue me? Will do, said hospitals
A study from Johns Hopkins University highlights just how aggressive UVA and VCU hospitals were in suing patients for unpaid medical bills, reports the Virginia Mercury. Both facilities stopped suing patients in 2020 after facing public pressure over the practice, but the study reports that the two hospitals were the most litigious of 100 hospitals analyzed. From 2018 to 2020, VCU initiated legal action 17,806 times. UVA finished second at 7,107.
The Murray Family hopes to open a 20-acre natural burial ground at Panorama Farms, their property in Albemarle County. PC: Supplied photo
In 2009, Dr. Latham Murray of Earlysville passed away at age 59 at his childhood home, Panorama Farms. His family decided to take care of the funeral themselves, building him a homemade coffin and burying him in their family cemetery. Without knowing it, they had given him a natural burial, free of toxic embalming chemicals, exotic wood caskets, concrete burial vaults, and other elements of traditional funerals known to harm the environment.
After performing more natural burials for their parents, Jean and James Murray, the next generation of Murrays now hopes to add a natural burial ground to their Albemarle farm, giving other members of the community the option to say good-bye to their loved ones in a greener way.
“This is a profoundly meaningful way to care for and respect the dead,” says Chris Murray. “This would be a wonderful thing for the community.”
During a green burial, the deceased are typically placed in a simple wicker or woven casket, or covered with cotton shroud or blanket, all of which are biodegradable and allow for natural decomposition. After they are lowered into the ground and buried under several feet of soil, their graves are marked with a flat stone marker or native plants, in lieu of concrete or plastic memorials. Some natural cemeteries even offer organic burial pods, which turn decaying bodies (or ashes) into trees.
“My parents were enthusiastic environmentalists. This is a way to maintain their legacy of environmental stewardship,” adds Murray, whose family has owned Panorama Farms for nearly 70 years.
According to the Green Burial Council, there are currently around 250 green cemeteries in the U.S., including three in Virginia. With the approval of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, Panorama Farms could become the first green cemetery in the Charlottesville area.
The 20-acre burial ground would also help raise revenue to sustain and preserve the family farm.
This is a profoundly meaningful way to care for and respect the dead.
Chris Murray
Natural burials have been the norm in Jewish and Muslim communities for thousands of years, and were common in the United States until the Civil War, when wealthy Northerners started paying for their deceased soldiers to be embalmed and shipped home. After he was assassinated in 1865, Abraham Lincoln was embalmed and paraded across the country, leading to the birth of the modern American funeral industry, reports the Smithsonian.
“We’re essentially going back to that principle in Judeo-Christian tradition, which is literally ‘dust to dust,’” explains Murray. “The current conventional funeral and burial practices, the body basically never turns to dust.”
Natural burials cut out dangerous embalming fluid—a known carcinogen. And they’re greener than cremation, which releases nearly 600 pounds of carbon dioxide into the air and can vaporize harmful metals from dental fillings or surgical implants. They also save money, costing an average of $2,000 to $3,000, compared to the average $9,000 traditional American funeral.
According to Murray, the board of supervisors has until March 2022 to rule on the special use permit application, but the family hopes to hear back by late summer.
“We love the idea—but it’s not a slam dunk until we actually get the special use permit,” says Murray.
Thanks to activism and leadership from the residents of Crescent Halls, long-overdue renovations will begin this month on the public housing apartments.
PC: Skyclad Aerial
For more than 20 years, Crescent Halls residents have been speaking out about the intolerable living conditions in the public housing apartments, including leaky laundry machines, broken air conditioners, sweltering heat, sewage flooding, busted elevators, bed bugs, and cockroaches. Charlottesville leaders vowed in 2010 to redevelop the 45-year-old complex for seniors and disabled residents—along with other public housing communities across the city—but plans repeatedly fell through.
Thanks to persistent activism and leadership from the people who live in those communities, change is on the way. Last Wednesday, Crescent Halls residents broke ground for long-overdue renovations, which are expected to be completed by October 2022.
“Everybody deserves not just housing to go to, but housing that has been created with intention and with love,” said Mayor Nikuyah Walker at the ceremony, where she was joined by several other local and state leaders. “Once we understand that and act on that, then we start the process of showing people that we honor them…[and that] promises that have been broken for decades are finally being fulfilled.”
Over the next 18 months, the 105-unit building will be fully revamped with new heating, cooling, electrical, lighting, plumbing, sprinkler, elevator, and security systems. Appliances, cabinets, bathrooms, windows, common areas, outdoor spaces, and the parking lot will also be upgraded.
Renovations on the eight-story structure will begin April 30, and it will be conducted two floors at a time. While their floor is under construction, residents will be relocated to temporary housing, paid for by the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority. The renovations will cost $18 million.
Crescent Halls isn’t Charlottesville’s only major public housing project currently underway. In March, the city kicked off the redevelopment of the South First Street complex, which will see more than a hundred new units and various amenities added to the neighborhood over the next few years.
Last week’s ceremony began in front of Crescent Halls with a moment of silence for more than a dozen residents, including Richard Shackelford, Eve Snowden, Edith Durette, and Curtis Gilmore, who fought for the building’s renovations but passed away before they came to fruition.
“The most precious time for me was just being able to sit in the community room here with the gentlemen who really worked hard to get this done,” said resident Audrey Oliver.
“They knew painting, carpentry, plumbing—they knew all of that,” she added. “They never even got to see this stage of it. That’s heartbreaking for me.”
Brandon Collins, lead organizer for the Public Housing Association of Residents, reflected on Charlottesville’s painful legacy of urban renewal, which resulted in the destruction of several thriving Black communities, and forced many Black residents to move into public housing in the ’60s and ’70s.
“We hear a lot about Vinegar Hill—but it also happened here on Garrett Street, and that was the birth of this building,” explained Collins. “[Crescent Halls] was sold to the community as this grand, amazing thing that was going to happen for seniors in our community. And I think for a short time it was that. But federal and local divestment, and the challenges of systemic racism and disrespect in this community has led to a really hard slog at Crescent Halls.”
People shouldn’t have to wait for decades for their basic needs to be met
Mayor Nikuyah Walker
In response to the city’s failures to upgrade its public housing communities, PHAR worked with hundreds of residents to create a positive vision statement in 2016, stressing residents’ desire to lead the redevelopment process. In 2019, the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority approved a partnership between PHAR and several developers, getting the ball rolling on the redevelopment of Crescent Halls and South First Street.
At the ceremony, state Delegate Sally Hudson lauded Charlottesville’s leadership in resident-led public housing redevelopment, not just in the state but nationwide.
“Across the country, there are communities that are disinvesting from public housing [and] shifting more and more control out of the hands of the community and into private hands,” she said. “You really are not just leading our community—you are leading Virginia.”
“It was hard [and] painful work because there’re so many decisions that seem like obstacles,” said Collins to the residents who spearheaded the redevelopment process. “But y’all were reasonable about it and had a vision and here we are today—getting ready to break ground on something that many people in this community said would never happen.”
“[The renovations] are going to be noisy. The housing authority’s got earplugs for you,” added Collins. “We’re here to help you through this difficult process.”
Walker criticized the city for not listening to residents’ calls for help sooner.
“People shouldn’t have to wait for decades for their basic needs to be met. That happens when a community doesn’t own its responsibility,” she said. However, “I’m thankful to be a part of a community who, even though we did not get it right for a long time, finally has come together to get it right and make the commitment.”
The mayor also encouraged residents to voice any needs and concerns throughout the renovation period.
“Pick up the phone and call,” she said. “It’s not a pressure. It’s not us doing you a favor. It’s not charity. It is our responsibility.”
Last month, Governor Ralph Northam signed agreements with CSX railroad and other entities to complete a $3.7 billion investment in passenger rail in Virginia. The agreement will eventually add more train service to and from Charlottesville, but it will be at least a couple of years before passenger rail becomes available.
The city’s three currently offered train routes are the daily Northeast Regional from Roanoke to D.C. and points north, the Crescent from New Orleans to New York, and the Cardinal from Chicago to New York. The latter two only run three days a week.
The Charlottesville area was promised a second daily train to D.C. in 2014 after a western bypass of U.S. 29 was canceled and other projects received the funds, but the new route never materialized because the only railroad bridge that crosses the Potomac is at 98 percent capacity. The new rail package could remedy that issue, adding a two-track bridge dedicated to passenger and commuter service next to the existing Long Bridge—though it might not be ready for a decade.
The Commonwealth of Virginia will also soon own tracks between Doswell and Clifton Forge, allowing Charlottesvillians to take the train east. This will form part of the proposed east-west Commonwealth Corridor, but there’s no timetable yet for when service might begin. Details may be forthcoming in the next year as Virginia works on an update to its statewide rail plan.
Amtrak ridership has taken a hit due to the pandemic, but the American Rescue Plan has allowed the company to hire back more than 1,200 furloughed employees. The Crescent will return to daily service in July.
Feeling special on Harris Street
Another development vote divided City Council at its April 5 meeting. Developers C-ville Business Park LLC, which already has a permit to destroy one house and a small commercial building on Harris street and construct 105 new apartment units, asked at Monday’s meeting for a new permit to kick that up to 120. Both the initial permit and the new one promise the building will contain five designated affordable units and also five units available for those paying with housing vouchers.
The Planning Commission unanimously approved the new permit in March. On Monday, City Council voted 4-1 to approve the new permit, with the majority of council arguing that all new housing is good housing. Mayor Nikuyah Walker was the lone dissenter, saying the project didn’t provide for enough affordable units.
__________________
Quote of the week
“Displaying these statues in the public is like displaying the burned remains of a cross from a Ku Klux Klan rally.”
—UVA professor John Edwin Mason at Monday’s City Council meeting, asking the city to cover the Lee and Jackson statues with tarps until they can be removed
_________________
Oh say can you 1C
On April 12, phase 2 of vaccinations will begin in the Blue Ridge Health District, which makes all residents age 16 and older eligible for a shot. As of last week, the district is in phase 1C, meaning higher education employees, members of the media, construction workers, lawyers, hairdressers, and a variety of other professions are now able to register. Demand for shots remains high in the area, and many who showed up to the JC Penney for vaccination appointments last week reported waiting for hours before getting the jab.
School’s in
Townies, say goodbye to any peace and quiet you might have enjoyed during the pandemic. UVA announced on Thursday that it will resume a regular, fully in-person education plan for the fall 2021 semester. “These plans are based on our expectation that vaccines will be widely available by the beginning of the fall term, and the prevalence of the coronavirus will be much lower than it is today,” wrote the administration in a community-wide email.
PC: Karen Blaha
Carp’s out
Software engineer Josh Carp declared his candidacy for City Council 48 hours before the deadline to make the ballot. Eight days later, he dropped out, citing concerns about his own mental health and anxiety. Carp says he hopes to continue advocating for the issues that spurred him to get involved in the first place, like climate and housing policy. Dropping out is an understandable decision—the thought of sitting on Charlottesville City Council should be enough to make anyone uneasy.
On Sunday, Charlottesville officially kicked off the first phase of the resident-led redevelopment of South First Street. PC: Eze Amos
“For more than 25 years, redevelopment and public housing in the City of Charlottesville have been conversations and promises to residents,” said Audrey Oliver, standing on a dirt lot near Oakwood Cemetery downtown. “The promises became broken, and residents became discouraged, because the promises were never delivered.”
That string of broken promises will soon be interrupted. Oliver, a public housing resident, was one of the planners who helped design what will become the South First Street public housing complex. On Sunday, Oliver and others gathered at the site of the development to break ground on the 175-plus-unit project.
“I want us all to remember that what we are doing today will last longer than any of us will be alive,” said Shelby Marie Edwards, the executive director of Charlottesville’s Public Housing Association of Residents, at the ceremony. “The only thing we know for sure is that we’re going to die, so what are we going to do with our lives while we have it? Are we going to build systems? Are we going to break down systems? Are we going to do both?”
For Edwards, the moment held particular weight. Her mother, Holly Edwards, was Charlottesville’s vice mayor and a PHAR program coordinator who pushed for reinvestment in public housing throughout her career. Sunday would have been Holly Edwards’ 62nd birthday.
Mayor Nikuyah Walker, Delegate Sally Hudson, and PHAR board of directors chair Joy Johnson were among the ceremony attendees, joined by several South First Street residents who played an instrumental role in designing the redevelopment.
During this first phase, three new apartment buildings will be constructed on the vacant land at the intersection of South First Street at Hartmans Mill Road. They will contain 63 one-, two-, and three-bedroom units, featuring dishwashers, laundry machines, high-speed internet, and other requested amenities. Solar panels will be installed on top of each building.
The first phase will cost an estimated $13 million, and is expected to be completed by spring 2022. In phase two, set to begin next year, 58 existing public housing units will be demolished and replaced with 113 multi-family units, including townhouses and apartments with one to five bedrooms.
The brand-new site will feature a community center, basketball court, play areas, and office space. It will be backed by low-income tax credits, city and state funds, and philanthropy.
After destroying Black neighborhoods like Vinegar Hill during urban renewal, Charlottesville built its first public housing sites for displaced residents in the 1960s.
“There was no intention behind the building of these spaces that honored people and their families,” said Walker during the ceremony. “Oftentimes we want to blame the individuals for not being able to persevere out of an environment that was built and intended to destroy them. If you walk into some of these units, you see cinder block walls and floors.”
“Today we understand that not just some people, but all people deserve to have homes that they can feel and see the love in,” she added. “That’s what we’ve been attempting to do with this redevelopment.”
According to Edwards, attempts to revitalize public housing go as far back as 2009, but have consistently failed to get off the ground. In 2016, PHAR finally got the ball rolling when it released a vision statement, providing insight on residents’ priorities and desire to spearhead the redevelopment process.
Today we understand that not just some people, but all people deserve to have homes that they can feel and see the love in.
Mayor Nikuyah Walker
From 2019 to 2020, a dozen South First Street residents met with architects on a weekly basis. After receiving training on land use and site planning, they helped to design all aspects of the second redevelopment phase.
“Not only did [the residents] present at City Council [and] the Planning Commission, but they presented at the governor’s conference and did an awesome job,” said Johnson. “To say that public housing or low-income residents don’t know what kind of community they want to build—they proved them wrong.”
Hudson emphasized the need for similar resident-led housing projects not just in Charlottesville, but nationwide.
“Across the country we are seeing more communities prioritize their public housing…instead of putting community leaders in the driver seat,” she said. “This is one of those places where Charlottesville is really being a leader nationally.”
Once the new apartments are constructed, current South First Street residents will have the option to move in, transfer to another public housing site, or receive a housing voucher before redevelopment continues in summer 2022.
The final phase of redevelopment is still in the works, but it will involve the land across the street from the original units.
All three phases are expected to cost a combined total of $38 million, and be completed by the end of 2024.
In the meantime, resident planner workshops and meetings will continue throughout this year and next year, allowing even more residents to have a say in the future of their community.
“There’s still lots of work that needs to be done to get all of our families new homes,” said Oliver. “Let’s work together and make it happen.”
Decision time approaches on a long-discussed and controversial proposed parking garage.
PC: Skyclad Aerial
By Sean Tubbs
The fate of a proposed 300-space city-owned parking garage at Seventh and Market streets—in the space currently occupied by Lucky 7 and Guadalajara—hangs in the balance. Charlottesville City Council has to decide whether or not to include $8 million in next year’s capital budget plan for the project. The proposed garage has drawn opposition from some community members in the years since it was announced, and one city councilor who previously supported the structure has recently changed his position.
“It would be a mistake to go ahead build the parking garage at this time,” said City Councilor Lloyd Snook at council’s February 16 meeting.
Snook’s reversal is consequential—in the past, he was part of a 3-2 majority of councilors to voice informal support for the project.
A December 2018 agreement between the city and Albemarle County to locate a joint general district court downtown calls for the structure to be built. The county had explored moving its courts out of the city in part because of a perceived lack of parking.
The proposed garage would have 90 spots reserved for county court employees and visitors during regular court hours. The rest of the garage will be open to the public. The agreement doesn’t specify whether the public spots will be free or paid but says details would be worked out during the design process.
The agreement also required Albemarle to convey to the city its share of a jointly-owned surface lot between Seventh and Eighth Street NE that the two localities jointly purchased in 2005. That occurred last April and cleared the way for the city to proceed with a plan for a structure that would use both the surface lot and an adjoining property the city purchased in January 2017 for $2.85 million.
The agreement states construction of the garage must begin by May 1, 2022, and must be available for county use by November 30, 2023. If this does not occur, the county would have the temporary alternative of being guaranteed 100 spaces in the existing Market Street garage. The start date deadline is approaching fast.
If the city fails to construct the new garage, Albemarle has two options. It can either have those 100 spaces permanently dedicated to the county’s use when courts are open, or have the right to repurchase its share of the surface lot for exclusive use.
Albemarle is aware of the city’s ongoing discussion.
“The courts agreement signed by the city and county in December 2018 included several alternatives to meet the county’s articulated need for convenient parking for courts users,” says Emily Kilroy, the county’s communications director. “The agreement will be satisfied through any of those alternatives, at the option of the county.”
I think it’s absolutely worth trying to evaluate if COVID has changed the parking situation more permanently
City Councilor Michael Payne
Soon after taking over as city manager, Chip Boyles met with county officials on the subject.
“The bottom line is that they did say that they’re just looking for those 90 to 100 spaces that are identified in the agreement,” Boyles says, adding the courts project is on schedule. “We know we have to accommodate that.”
Opponents of the project have urged council to abandon the project or at least delay capital funding for one year, given concerns about the city’s ability to afford taking on more debt.
Council did not make a final decision about the garage on February 16. The current fiscal year budget includes $2 million for the project, and city staff are currently sifting through responses to a request for firms to demonstrate their qualifications to design and build the structure.
“If we are going to continue this process, we will need the additional programmed $8 million in fiscal year 22 approved by council,” says city Parking Manager Rick Siebert says. “If council doesn’t approve those funds, we are going to be unable to proceed with a contract for a design-build entity.”
Siebert says if the county chooses the guaranteed spaces in the Market Street Parking Garage, the city would lose the use of the ground floor and most of the first level.
“As a parking professional, I am unaware of any way to allow the public to use the remainder of the garage and yet effectively prohibit them from parking in the first 100 spaces of the garage that they would have to drive through to get to the remaining 377 spaces,” Siebert says.
Siebert says one remedy would possibly be to halt hourly parking by the general public during the day. Later in the day, Boyles told council another could be to delay or reduce the $8 million while further study is conducted.
Councilor Michael Payne says he would like to see the city abandon the garage but still find a way to provide the county with the spaces allotted in the agreement.
“I think it’s absolutely worth trying to evaluate if COVID has changed the parking situation more permanently, how many of these office spaces that have come online will now remain unutilized,” Payne says.
“There are a number of other parking spaces within the downtown area that are going away because of construction projects,” Boyles says. “The other thing we would want to take a look at are what kinds of transit possibilities may help fulfill some of those needs as well.”
The public hearing for the city’s budget, including the capital improvement program, is March 15. The budget will be presented to council next Monday. Council will approve the budget by April 15.
Updated 2/25. The 90 required parking spots would be for county court visitors too, not only employees.
City Council denied a special use permit for construction of a Belmont apartment complex, which would have included five affordable units.
PC: City of Charlottesville
Nothing special
Charlottesville’s fraught debates over how to address the city’s affordable housing crisis continue. At Monday night’s meeting, in a 3-2 vote, City Council denied a special use permit that would have allowed a modest number of new affordable units to be constructed in Belmont.
The proposed apartment complex at 1000 Monticello Rd. would have contained 11 apartments, with five priced for those making 65 percent or less than the area median income. The land is currently a vacant parking lot.
The permit is required in order to construct new units on the site—as things currently stand, without the permit, the only development allowed by-right would be commercial.
Last month, the city planning commission recommended the project move forward in a 4-3 vote. Those in favor of the proposal argued that some affordable housing was better than none, while those opposed pointed out that half-measures wouldn’t be enough to dig the city out of its housing hole.
Those same philosophical fault lines appeared at the council meeting.
“The five units that are affordable offer a significant subsidy to folks that are trying to get into affordable housing,” said developer Justin Shimp. “It’s very difficult to get affordable housing into developer projects.”
Councilor Michael Payne cited community feedback against the project. “There’s a lot of history here,” he said, referring to a 2019 renovation of the Belmont Apartments, directly next door and owned by the same developer, that had displaced several long-time tenants.
“I think there’s a strong case to be made that there are adverse impacts on the surrounding neighborhood, including displacement of existing residents and businesses,” said Payne, before moving to deny the permit. He was joined by Mayor Nikuyah Walker and Vice- Mayor Sena Magill, with Councilors Lloyd Snook and Heather Hill in support of the project.
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Quote of the week
“Playing baseball games will help kids have the fun we all missed—and we really missed having fun this past year.”
—Walker Upper Elementary student Abraham Jaspen asking City Council to allow little league baseball to play games again
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In brief
Big shot
Another long-vacant store has finally been put to good use. The Blue Ridge Health District—in partnership with UVA Medical Center—opened a second COVID-19 vaccine clinic inside the former Big Lots in Seminole Square Shopping Center on Sunday. CAT and JAUNT are providing free transportation to the site, which also has ample parking. As the district receives a lot more vaccines over the next few months, the large facility will help to vaccinate people more quickly and efficiently.
Face off
Charlottesville Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania is officially vying for reelection. In a video announcement last week, the prosecutor, who was elected in 2017, touted his progressive track record, including the establishment of a therapeutic docket and a drop in incarceration rates. Platania will face off against public defender Ray Szwabowski in a Democratic primary on June 8. In an interview with C-VILLE in January, Szwabowski said, “It seems like criminal justice reform is happening far too slowly here in Charlottesville.”
Joe Platania PC: File photo
Crowded room
Just like the other side of the aisle, the race for the Republican nomination for governor is getting more and more crowded. Millionaire investor Glenn Youngkin threw his hat in the ring last week, describing himself in an announcement video as a conservative businessman from a humble background—with no mention of his Washington-based private equity firm The Carlyle Group, and its $230 billion in assets. Retired Army officer Sergio de la Peña, entrepreneur and former Fox News contributor Pete Snyder, Virginia state Senator Amanda Chase, and state Delegate Kirk Cox are also competing to be the GOP nominee.
It’s 10am on the Downtown Mall, and already the sounds of demolition floodthe area. Pedestrians stream past Mudhouse Coffee and The Whiskey Jar, and a few glance at the tall fence erected recently across the walkway, and the signs that read, “Do not trespass. Construction site.” Machinery looms over the area and a loud boom echoes across the mall, making a few restaurant patrons jump in their seats. If you look closely, through a crack between the fence posts, you’ll see a giant dirt pit, 10 feet away from the bustling crowd of people, on a plot of land that used to hold the downtown ice rink.
The construction is literally remaking the west end of the Downtown Mall, displacing not only the ice rink (a new one is being built up Route 29 North), but also adjacent small businesses like The Ante Room, a beloved music venue, and Escafé, a longtime center of the local LGBTQ scene. What will rise in their place is the Center of Developing Entrepreneurs, a 167,000-square-foot office building dreamed up by millionaire hedge fund manager Jaffray Woodriff, that aims to be ”the nexus of entrepreneurial activity in central Virginia,” according to the building’s website.
The multi-million dollar project, which will include a green roof, podcast recording space, electric car charging, and ample bike parking, will bring a decidedly new look (and more than 600 tech workers) to the low-rise, red brick pedestrian mall. And it’s a not-so-subtle metaphor for the way a rising tech boom may reshape Charlottesville—for better or worse.
The CODE building, which will include a green roof, podcast recording space, electric car charging, and ample bike parking, will bring a decidedly new look (and more than 600 tech workers) to the Downtown Mall. (Rendering courtesy developer).
Tech businesses have flourished in Charlottesville since at least 2008, when companies like WillowTree, the mobile app development start-up, and ChartIQ, a “fintech” start-up that provides software solutions to financial institutions, were founded. An extensive network of “angel investors” and various initiatives at UVA aimed at nurturing entrepreneurship have helped other local start-ups get off the ground.
In recent years, however, what began as a gradual shift has gained momentum. In 2016, the National Venture Capital Association named Charlottesville the fastest-growing venture capital ecosystem in the United States. That same year, UVA launched its Seed Fund, a $10 million investment in UVA-based tech ventures. Start-ups, especially in biotech, have proliferated. WillowTree is reportedly one of the fastest-growing digital companies in the nation, and is expanding into a new, 85,000-square-foot headquarters currently being built at the site of the old Woolen Mills, just outside the city limits. (The company, for which former mayor and current City Council member Mike Signer serves as vice president and general counsel, did not reply to requests for comment.)
The city’s small-town vibe, pipeline of talent and resources from the university, and access to capital make it attractive to start-up businesses. “If you had a company, you’d bet that Charlottesville is the place to grow it,” says Paul Beyer, who founded the now-annual Tom Tom Festival in 2012 to celebrate and encourage innovation.
Woodriff (who declined to be interviewed for this story) is the latest tech leader who wants to see Charlottesville become a center for digital innovation. He’s offering a subsidized rate to start-up companies that rent space in the CODE building, and wants it to become a collision of creative minds. “You need to be able to get up from your desk and randomly bump into a wide variety of people who are bright and motivated,” Jaffray told Bloomberg’s Joe Nocera earlier this year. “Palo Alto has that. Bell Labs had that. And I’m trying to facilitate that in Charlottesville.”
In addition to CODE, Woodriff, a UVA alum, has given $120 million to establish a School of Data Science at his alma mater. He hopes that graduates will see the appeal of Charlottesville, and build their companies here. “I want people to come here and say, ‘I aspire to this,’ and not interviewing with Google,” he told Nocera.
Boosters say growing the tech industry will transform the economy, bringing in new jobs and revenue that could translate to better infrastructure and a higher quality of life.
But cities like Austin, Texas; Boulder, Colorado; and Palo Alto, California, all home to explosions in tech, tell a more complicated story. In those communities, tech has brought new jobs, new revenue, and new facilities, but it’s also come with increased traffic, gentrifying neighborhoods, and a loss of longtime residents and culture.Austin, for example, repeatedly makes lists for the worst traffic in America and has massive shortages of affordable housing. These new tech cities, while bringing in wealthy residents and vibrant cultures, have struggled to provide the same opportunities for their working classes.
”I think in the last 10 years, it’s been a real struggle for Austin to keep its identity and keep its soul, as downtown is being razed and converted into condos and high-rises, and you have people like Google and Facebook and Apple taking over the town with these buildings,” Austin reporter Omar Gallaga told The New York Times. “If you have all the artists and the creative people that make it interesting move away because they can’t afford to live there, then it becomes a different place.”
Jeyon Falsini’s Ante Room provided a space for little-booked music genres like hip-hop, metal, and garage rock. Photo: Eze Amos
Jeyon Falsini, former owner of alternative music venue The Ante Room, is sitting at The Southern Café & Music Hall on a Tuesday morning. He leans back in his creaking bar chair, running a hand through his floppy hair. “This town has a way of making the news a lot,” he says, tapping the counter. “Charlottesville on the outside is all sunshine, sandals, and daydreams, but on the inside it’s as red in tooth and claw as the Amazon itself.” He laughs. “It’s cutthroat.”
Falsini has experienced the downside of the tech boom first-hand. As owner of The Ante Room for almost six years, he oversaw the most diverse range of music bookings in Charlottesville’s modern history. The venue was known for up-and-coming artists as well as genres—metal, garage rock, and hip-hop—that weren’t catered to at other area venues. Falsini likened the wide variety of artists to his own passion for music. “If you’re open-minded enough,” he says, “You can work with any genre of music.”
The dark, low-ceilinged space, with its trademark bathroom doors painted to resemble playing cards, quickly became a favorite community hang out. Since The Ante Room closed its doors in 2018 for the CODE building’s construction, music fans have felt the loss.
The demolition of Escafé, the similarly beloved restaurant/bar next door, has also hit hard. “The obvious thing Escafé added to Charlottesville was an openly gay bar, though that liberality spread to include a range of people who felt more at home there than anywhere else,” says songwriter Brady Earnhart, who hosted a monthly showcase and open mic there, and talked to C-VILLE shortly before the bar closed for good. “It was a broadly and effortlessly diverse crowd.” Owner Todd Howard said he’d initially hoped to move Escafé to a new location, but couldn’t find the right spot.
Falsini, who is now the assistant manager at the Southern, says he, too, has been unable to find a new space for a sequel to The Ante Room. “How am I going to stop it?” he says, referring to the influx of tech companies. “I’m just trying to swim above water. You can’t stop them, they’re already here.”
The closing of these two venues is one example of the kind of culture shift that can accompany the arrival of a tech boom in a small city like Charlottesville. At only 10.5 square miles, we have a fundamentally limited infrastructure, with many businesses fighting for a coveted spot on the historic Downtown Mall. The price of commercial real estate has been rapidly increasing over the last few years, and developers have expressed concerns over inventory shortages in the city. This won’t stop when the tech industry moves in—rather, it’s likely to get worse, says housing advocate and Democratic City Council candidate Michael Payne.
“If the tech industry moves in and you see land speculation, and rents and land prices start to skyrocket, soon you can’t afford your rent,” says Payne, talking about commercial real estate on the Downtown Mall. “Then you’re going to have a business that can afford [it], which is oftentimes an expensive chain, or a business owned by a wealthy entrepreneur. It’s a risk to our small businesses, too. It’s not just an affordable housing thing, it’s a small business thing.”
And it’s more than a physical space or cost issue. Wealthy individuals want businesses and buildings that cater to their interests, and that can change the culture of a neighborhood. “Think about restaurants like Mel’s or Riverside,” Payne says. “You know, these are staples of the local community that had been here for decades, that people love, but I can perfectly envision people in the tech industry moving here, and being like, ‘What is this? We want something where we can get an $8 coffee.’”
In a contentious thread on Twitter last August, some locals complained about a new luxury apartment building, Six Hundred West Main, whose “neighborhood guide” for future residents included gourmet food store Feast! and the cycling studio Purvelo, but left out local black-owned businesses, including Mel’s. “That map is basically the cheat code for gentrification 2.0,” wrote Niya Bates, director of African American history at Monticello.
“The danger is that Charlottesville itself just sort of becomes this playground for rich people working in the tech industry,” says City Council candidate Michael Payne. Photo: Eze Amos.
Charlottesville is bracing for a population boom. By 2040, the area is projected to add an additional 6,000 people in the city and 33,500 in the county, according to the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, bringing our total population to more than 196,000. That poses a challenge for housing and other infrastructure, like transportation.
At the same time, the city is also grappling with an affordable housing crisis that’s been building for years. Since 2011, rents in Charlottesville have risen from an average of $931 per month for a two-bedroom apartment to $1,325 per month. In August, The Daily Progress reported that of 895 full-time city employees, 338 cannot afford a one-bedroom apartment without being cost-burdened.
A number of luxury housing developments, like C&O Row, 550 Water, and Six Hundred West Main, have sprung up near downtown, as the city grows increasingly wealthier. According to the Orange Dot Report released last year, the number of Charlottesville families earning more than $150,000 jumped by 96 percent between 2011 and 2018.
An influx of highly-paid tech workers could exacerbate the problem. “Wealthy people and people graduating from college in the tech industry, they will want to live on a Charlottesville property. They will want to live as close to the Downtown Mall as possible,” says Payne. “The danger is that Charlottesville itself just sort of becomes this playground for rich people working in the tech industry.”
That could push middle-class and low-income residents into surrounding counties to find housing. It’s a phenomenon that’s happened in cities like Austin, where the majority of the city’s working class has been priced out to the edges of the city.
In Charlottesville, says Payne, “This is already happening, where there’s a lot of people living in Buckingham and Greene and Nelson, who commute into the city because nothing else is affordable.”
Elaine Poon has noticed this housing change intimately. The managing attorney for the Legal Aid Justice Center, she says that residents, especially in traditionally black neighborhoods, have been noticing changes for the past 10-15 years. “There is an uproar, but it’s coming from a historically silenced community,” she says.
“Provision of affordable housing and protection for existing housing most of all, if it’s affordable, is the most powerful weapon against gentrification,” she says. “But it can take a long time and we’re so behind the curve already. It’s going to be really hard”
UVA alum Jaffray Woodriff wants to help make Charlottesville an innovation hub. Photo: Eze Amos
With all the fears that an impending tech boom comes with, there’s no denying some of the obvious benefits: New, well-paying jobs and a healthy boost to the economy would bring revenue to the city and could improve residents’ quality of life across the board. WillowTree alone is expected to generate 1,412 area jobs between 2019 and 2025, according to a study by the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, and spur $70.5 million of value-added economic activity for the Charlottesville metro area in 2019.
Julia Farill, director of human resources and brand strategy at the data science company CCRi, points out that growth involves jobs beyond those in tech itself. “As a tech company grows, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re hiring all really wealthy people…you’re opening up positions that are providing jobs not just for external tech-type people but also other people in the community,” she says.
Charlottesville Vice Mayor Heather Hill believes that developing and hiring local talent for these industries could also curtail some fears. She stresses education, like an emphasis on STEM in public schools, and programs at CATEC and Piedmont Virginia Community College that train community members for tech jobs. “We need our local job-seekers to be able to earn their ways to these jobs to afford to live here,” Hill says. “I don’t think we’re valuing our local resources enough.”
Hill says growth, if properly managed, could be good for the city. “I see that there could be a lot of benefits about this. There’s an opportunity for this type of growth to be a big success if we work together.”
In addition, she points to groups like Smart Cville, a newly formed nonprofit that seeks to use technology to improve local communities. In 2016, Smart Cville launched Civic Innovation Day, an annual event focused on gathering community members to brainstorm how technology can improve Charlottesville and address its current challenges. And just last month, the organization opened its Center for Civic Innovation, a space on Fourth Street that focuses on bringing people together to focus on common community problems, like transportation development and localized flooding.
“We need to be open to the fact that the community will change,” says Tom Tom founder Paul Beyer. Photo: Ryan Jones
The growth of the tech industry remains a polarizing topic, especially in Charlottesville. “Cities are really complicated,” says Tom Tom’s Beyer on a recent afternoon in his downtown office. “You have legacies of discrimination, lack of affordable housing, and criminal injustices. Those are the cities that we live in as Americans.”
Tom Tom’s offices are located in the Pink Warehouse, a local landmark on Water Street that has been home to dozens of artists over the years (Dave Matthews Band famously played its first official gig on the rooftop there in 1991). Posters of Tom Tom festival events line the walls of his office.
Beyer was born and raised in Charlottesville, and he recognizes the problems of growth in a city that has a history of displacing its African American residents. But he sees the construction of new buildings and commercial real estate as a benefit for a city that needs to expand, and argues that tech companies will bring the revenue and means to make it happen. He and others seeking to make the city an innovation hub also believe that the influx of tech companies could improve upon the city’s existing culture. “We need to be open to the fact that the community will change,” he says. “Creativity, architecture, and the population could flourish with growth.”
Chip Ransler, the executive director of HackCville, also sees the CODE building and new companies moving into Charlottesville as an opportunity for the city to change. If you love the city that you live in, he says, you’re going to want it to evolve. “It’s a transformative gift.” Ransler says. ”We like this area, there’s good and bad, it’s a great place to be. Anybody who is somewhat invested in this town is going to want to see this town fleshed out.”
But what that looks like on the ground, and how welcome it is, depends a lot on who you talk to. It could mean upheaval for residents of neighborhoods like 10th and Page, Starr Hill, Fifeville, Belmont, and Woolen Mills, all of which are within walking distance of either the CODE building or the new WillowTree headquarters, and have seen the effects of rapid gentrification over the past 15 years.
In historically black neighborhoods in particular, “If you walk around some of these neighborhoods, a lot of them do not look the same way that they looked three to five years ago,” says Legal Aid’s Poon.
Walking around 10th and Page, it’s clear that black residents are being forced out of one of the city’s largest continuous African American neighborhoods. More affluent white families have been tearing down houses and adding expensive additions, driving up property values (and taxes) and driving residents out. The community feels in flux—modest houses with lawn decorations and rocking chairs next to new, modern homes with fenced-in yards.
Advocates like Poon are not optimistic about the impact of an incoming tech population on these neighborhoods.
“When I ask the activists that I work with,” she says, “I think a lot of them think that it’s too late.”
Tech companies are not a monolith, and the potentially negative consequences of becoming an innovation hub are not inevitable. CCRi, which started out with just three employees in 1989, and now has 140, has tried to grow mindfully and sustainably, Farill says. The company was co-founded by her father, a longtime professor at UVA, and its leadership is committed to staying in the community.
But individual tech companies may not be thinking about the big picture impact of their industry on the city, she says. “The incentives of a company change, depending on what’s happening for that company.”
That may be where local government needs to step in, to protect whatever we don’t want to lose. As Farill puts it, “The doomsday scenario for having a lot of wealthy people only becomes that if you let it.”
