east jefferson street – C-VILLE Weekly

Density issue: Big apartments near Little High chafe residents

While official Charlottesville has embraced greater density and infill, some residents aren’t loving it, particularly when the density is happening in their neighborhood.

That’s the case for plans for 124 units in the East Jefferson Apartments between 10th and 11th streets on a site that currently houses doctors offices. Developers are seeking a special permit to up the density from 21 units per acre to 87.

“That’s four times the density it’s zoned for in B-1,” says Little High resident Greg Jackson. “Twenty-one units per acre would be big enough. This proposal goes way too far.”

The application filed with the city has a four-and-a-half story building that’s 45′ tall with a total 283,000 square feet.

“The architects state that the massing shown is by-right,” acknowledges Jackson. “The stickler is the increased density.” And that’s what requires a special use permit.

“The city is set up for this urban experience,” says architect Mark Kestner, whose firm did the design. “We’re asking for the increase in density to allow people to live close to downtown.”

Kestner says the city has enough large, luxury apartments, and that people want smaller one- and two-bedroom units. The apartments will range in size from between 900 and 1,000 square feet to between 1,300 and 1,400 square feet. He did not have estimates available on how much the rentals will cost, but says there will be some affordable units.

The project is being developed by Jefferson Medical Building LLC and Great Eastern Management. An additional 20 limited partnerships “must be kept in confidence,” according to the plans filed with the city.

Some residents are concerned that the architectural firm listed on the application is Atwood, Henningsen & Kestner. Architect Bill Atwood has riled residents in the Starr Hill neighborhood with his plans for the Atlantic on West Main, but he is no longer connected with the firm now known as Henningsen & Kestner.

“I’ve had a lot of calls,” says Atwood. “I will not be able to support any building that goes above the tree line in that neighborhood.” He questions the B-1 zoning, which is a transitional designation between residential and commercial. “This building is huge,” he says. “I think our building on West Main is smaller. I do not support it.”

East Jefferson neighbors are also concerned about traffic. The complex plans project 846 vehicles a day, up from the current average of 720.

“I suspect that the traffic projection is too low,” says Jackson. He says the Little High area gets a lot of cut-through and speeding traffic.

But Kestner thinks there will be less traffic because more people will be walking. “There’s some benefit to being this close to downtown where people can actually walk to work,” he says.

He also notes that his office is in the neighborhood, so his firm will be living with what they design. “We’re excited,” he says. “We’ve been doing this a long time.”

Jackson is not convinced. He bought his house knowing what the zoning was and says B-1 is right for the area. He objects to any increased density, and says this special use permit is unfair to those who live there. “Sometimes a special use permit is appropriate,” he says. “In this case, it’s grossly inappropriate.”

The project goes before the planning commission April 12.

Condemned house: City prepares to take next step

A house on East Jefferson Street, flanked by doors that could hardly be opened, was deemed unfit for human occupancy for being littered with items that made it “impossible to safely travel through the house in the event of an emergency,” just weeks before the emergency responders evacuated a man through a window of the home.

Neighborhood Development Services issued homeowner C. W. Rogers Jr. an order of correction on January 1, which required him and any additional occupants to leave his home at 1108 E. Jefferson St. until he or his power of attorney fixes the four safety, health and sanitation violations to the Virginia maintenance code.

Joe Phillips, a current Charlottesville Fire Department captain and member of more than 17 years, says books and other household items were scattered on the floor of the home when Rogers’ brother arrived to retrieve some paperwork and heard a man moaning from inside a bedroom. After the brother called the fire department for help, Phillips’ crew managed to enter through the front door, but was unable to take the man out that way because of the clutter, according to Phillips.

The man was lying in bed, next to an accessible window when Rogers’ brother called for help. “It was easier to slide him out [a] window than it was to carry him across items in the house,” Phillips says. The crew hitched a ladder slide up to the open window and strapped him into a stokes basket, which is designed to slide down the rails of the ladder.

The man’s relationship to Rogers is unknown, but a neighbor speculates that it was a roommate still living in the home after Rogers relocated. Refusing to give her name, she said Rogers is the street’s oldest inhabitant and that neighbors are fond of him.

Alexander Ikefuna, director of NDS, says the East Jefferson house has already been condemned and a February 15 deadline has been set to institute a plan of action for the structure. In the January notice, the home was cited for unsanitary conditions and, though utilities were activated, records showed they hadn’t been used in several months.

“It is hard to tell what is trash and what might be salvageable household belongings,” the notice reads. “There is trash, rubbish and debris amongst all the accumulation of belongings.”

The home, sold to Rogers in August 1962, was up for a re-inspection on February 5, but Ikefuna says the items in the house had not been removed, so the home was not re-inspected. It is unclear whether the home will require demolition, but in 2011, the city did demolish a structure that wasn’t maintained at 704 Montrose Ave.

According to city records, Rogers also owned that home.

Year to date, Ikefuna says 12 city properties were deemed unfit for human occupancy for various reasons. In some cases, repairs were made immediately and that designation was lifted. For example, he says that after a roof collapse on Market Street just weeks ago, the structure was deemed unsafe and owners immediately had a portion of the building demolished, making the building stable enough to allow workers inside to continue construction.

To condemn a structure, the city follows the Virginia maintenance code “to adjudge unfit for occupancy,” which Ikefuna says has two meanings.

An unsafe structure could be one with conditions causing at least a portion of the building to collapse and endanger the safety of occupants or the surrounding public—such as the Market Street roof collapse—or a structure could have conditions that are dangerous to the occupants or public by disrepair or lack of maintenance, sanitary conditions, lack of utilities or required plumbing facilities—such as the East Jefferson and Montrose Avenue homes.

“If owners make repairs then all is well,” he says. “If owners are neglectful then we can take them to court.”