Mark Kavit – C-VILLE Weekly

Drop it: Belmont residents call it quits on petition against church rezoning

Last fall, a band of city residents stirred up controversy when they filed a petition against City Council, demanding that it overturn its decision to allow a Methodist church in Belmont to build a 15-unit apartment complex, with four to six units set aside for adults with developmental disabilities

After a lot of backlash on social media, some residents removed their names from the petition. Now, even those who didn’t initially back down have stopped fighting the structure.

The residents opposed the philanthropic development effort because they had concerns about a large, commercially zoned building in a residential neighborhood, says Mark Kavit, a petition leader.

“The way the media handled it…they really vilified the neighborhood, and made them look like they are against housing for the disabled and affordable housing, when that wasn’t the case,” says Kavit, who lives in North Downtown. “Residents’ concerns have been first and foremost about the zoning, and then the size and scope of the development.”

Over the past year, the petition has been a “bit of a headache” for Hinton Avenue United Methodist Church, but not a big problem, explains Kim Crater, who’s leading the planning of the apartment complex. The structure will be called Rachel’s Haven, in honor of the church’s pastor’s wife, who died of breast cancer in 2016.

“We’ve had to adjust the order that we do things in,” says Crater. “We don’t want to spend the money until we are 100 percent sure that the zoning is going to stay in place, so we’ve delayed [certain] tasks and done other ones instead.”

“We also have been hands off with the petition, because [it] wasn’t against us. It involved them and City Council. We weren’t even a party to it,” she says.

Before the petition was filed, Crater and her team worked to address neighbors’ reservations about the church’s rezoning application. Some feared the property would eventually be sold, and turned into a business, which they believed could cause problems for the neighborhood, explains Crater.

“Initially, we put in a proffer that we won’t build any restaurants, since that seemed to be the big thing they were worried about,” Crater says. “But then they [worried] we could put in a store, so we put in a proffer that said no commercial enterprise—this is only residential.”

The church also hosted public meetings to explain why the zoning change was necessary to build Rachel’s Haven, which will also include several affordable units, rented out at rates accessible for those making 80 percent of the area’s median income.

Last month, the petitioners finally abandoned their effort. “We decided to non-suit without prejudice, due to the complications of organization, and health in the pandemic,” says Belmont resident Kimber Hawkey, another petition leader. “It’s also a question of trying to fight this in the courts. The cost of hiring lawyers to take this on is prohibitive.”

“We had heard [that] many, many of them had dropped off,” says Crater. “We had hoped this was coming.”

Despite dropping the petition, Kavit and Hawkey remain concerned about the church’s commercial zoning, pointing to issues Belmont has already experienced with properties being rezoned from residential to commercial. Southern Crescent Galley & Bar drew ire from neighbors last year for playing loud music and adding two cabanas. The bar was later fined by the city.

Petitioners also worry that, should the church change hands, future property owners wouldn’t be legally required to abide by the church’s proffers, which aren’t binding. They hope the city will create a new zoning category allowing the church to build the apartments without permitting future commercial use.

Because the petition was dismissed “without prejudice,” the group could pursue it again in the future. While they’re not sure if they’ll ever take it back up, Kavit says he will lobby the city planning commission for a new zoning category for projects like Rachel’s Haven.

Meanwhile, Crater and her team continue to look for ways to fund the apartments, specifically through the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program. They also plan to partner with an affordable housing nonprofit.

Though Crater does not expect the petitioners to file again, she hopes their concerns will be properly addressed.

“If they feel that the city did not respect their rights in this rezoning process…then I almost hope that they will file it again,” she says. “I never want people to feel like their rights are trampled, and that their voices aren’t heard.”

Legal action: Belmont residents file petition against church rezoning plan

A dispute over the rezoning of a Methodist church that wants to add affordable housing units reached Charlottesville Circuit Court on September 5, when a group of city residents filed a petition for the plan to be thrown out.

Thirty-one people, including Belmont/Carlton Neighborhood Association president Kimber Hawkey and Quality Pie owner Tomas Rahal, are requesting that a judge overturn City Council’s August 5 decision to unanimously approve the project, citing a lack of sufficient notice for public discussion and violations of the city’s Comprehensive Plan. But at least one of them, local filmmaker Brian Wimer, says he never signed the petition.

“It was a misunderstanding,” Wimer said in an email. “My wife was involved in the petition. I really know very little about the petition and the project.”

Petition organizer Mark Kavit submitted an amended version of the document Monday, adding eight new names to the list and removing five, including Wimer. Kavit says names were originally listed on the petition based on responses to an email distributed by Hawkey. Some of the individuals who asked to be removed, he says, did so because of public “shaming by people that don’t understand what this is about” on social media.

Hinton Avenue United Methodist Church is hoping to build a 15-unit apartment complex, with several rented out at 80 percent of the area’s median income, along with four to six units reserved for intellectually disabled occupants. The project is named Rachel’s Haven after pastor Robert Lewis’ wife, who died in 2016 from breast cancer.

“The…neighborhood is not against the concepts that Hinton Church wants to provide,” Kavit said in an email. “[Their] concern is with the commercial zoning place on the property instead of residential. Zoning stays with the property. The neighborhood wishes success to the church for what they would like to accomplish.”

Originally scheduled to be heard by the Charlottesville Planning Commission on May 14, the rezoning proposal was at first put on hold for the church to address neighborhood concerns by including restrictions of all nonresidential uses of the property outside of its daycare facilities and educational efforts. While it’s still seeking a neighborhood commercial zoning designation–the only zoning available that would allow for apartments to be built–the church’s proposal is written with the intention of preventing potential future owners of the property from using it as such.

But the proposal still received pushback after the amendments were made. Twenty-eight Belmont residents co-signed a letter requesting that commissioners Rory Stolzenberg and Gary Heaton recuse themselves from voting on the proposal when it was presented June 11. Neither commissioner did, and the plan was approved unanimously—albeit without the presence of commission chair Lisa Green.

“It was a unanimous vote with everyone acknowledging it was a less-perfect proposal, but it was one of those situations where perfect is the enemy of good,” says Heaton, who’s the minister at First United Methodist Church on East Jefferson Street. As for the petition, “I don’t think we have to get volatile…I think it’s [part of] the process we have, and the process is good.”

Kavit notes that there’s a nationwide trend of churches closing down, and says he still fears another business assuming the property and ignoring its proffers. Violations of proffers aren’t monitored by the city and, for the most part, aren’t addressed unless local residents submit a complaint.

He points to other Belmont businesses like Southern Crescent Galley & Bar, which met with Neighborhood Development Services in June to discuss proffer violations—playing amplified music and installing two cabanas without a permit—but received what he says was “a slap on the wrist.” NDS prohibited Southern Crescent from playing amplified music moving forward and assessed “a penalty fee for the [cabana] violation which could require double payment of the permit fee,” according to meeting notes compiled by NDS Director Alex Ikefuna.

The court has yet to establish a date for the hearing. Although the plaintiffs aren’t seeking any compensation other than the plan being overturned, all five members of City Council, as well as the council itself, are listed as defendants.