Tag: parking

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No free lunch: Paid parking comes to Belmont

New signage sprang up in two private Belmont lots directing parkers to pay using a mobile app or risk getting towed. Staff photo

When the ParkMobile signs went up June 15, the paid parking designation caught Belmonters by surprise. Parking can be a challenge in the neighborhood, and customers at two new restaurants, Belle Coffee & Wine and No Limits Smokehouse, had been using the adjacent lots for free. Now, they’ll have to pay.

Belle Coffee & Wine is in the building that formerly housed La Taza, which was purchased by real estate investor Murry Pitts’ MELCP LLC September 24 for $3.65 million. The sale included property across the street that used to house Belmont BBQ, and both sites have lots that now warn parkers to pay with the mobile app or risk getting towed.

No Limits Smokehouse occupies the former Belmont BBQ space, and its owner, who declined to provide his name, says, “People are pissed.” He says he’s watched people pull into the lot beside his restaurant, look at the signs, and leave.

He was aware the landlord was going to put in paid parking when he signed the lease two months ago, he says, but he didn’t realize it would happen this soon.

Thirty percent of No Limits’ business is takeout, he says, and Friday and Saturday nights have been “super busy.”

Across the street, Belle Coffee & Wine has been open fewer than two months, and some customers have been “very upset,” says manager Bailey Laing. “We do get a lot of people asking about it.”

Not everyone is bothered by the paid parking. A woman sitting outside Belle says it was her second time there and paying to park didn’t keep her from coming.

“I never mind paying for parking,” says her friend “It’s not as big a deal as people make it.”

Restaurateur Andy McClure owns Belle, along with the Virginian and Citizen Burger, and he sees the paid parking as a plus. “I think it’s good for all of Belmont. There’s nowhere to park.”

People pay to park on the Corner and downtown, he points out. The Belmont lots are private, and now anyone can park there. “People weren’t allowed to park there before,” he says. “I think everyone wants more parking.”

Resident Kimber Hawkey was “astounded” to see the newly installed parking signs, and she does not believe the paid lots will ease the neighborhood’s parking crunch.

‘Why would it help?” she asks. “Why would someone choose to pay when they can go down the street and take a free space in front of someone’s house? That makes no sense.”

Matt Shields, who has lived in Belmont for 20 years, was having a brisket sandwich at No Limits. He says he stopped for coffee at Belle’s last week. “I didn’t pay because I thought it was crazy. I was only going to be in there a minute.”

He acknowledges that parking in Belmont can get “bonkers,” and can see the paid parking hurting both new restaurants, particularly for customers making a quick stop who have to pause and download an app or risk getting towed.

Pitts, who also bought the former Gleason feed store property at 126 Garrett Street for $5 million in 2016, did not respond to messages left with his registered agent in Staunton.

However, Ben Wilson with Nest Realty, which manages the properties, says Pitts “is trying to expand the parking rather than have it exclusive to the properties he owns. He wants to create an opportunity to anyone who wants to park.”

Correction June 28: Pitts does not own the Gleason condo building as stated in the original story.

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In brief: New monikers, old murder case, hot market and more

The former Lee-Jackson House at Washington and Lee in Lexington is now called Simpson Hall. GettyImages

Goodbye, Robert E. Lee

The statue remains in the former Lee Park, but the park’s name has changed—twice—in the past year. That trend is happening across the state, most recently last week in Staunton and Lexington.

By name

  • Lee Park is now Market Street Park.
  • Robert E. Lee High School in Staunton will be renamed, pending the results of a survey of city residents.
  • Lee-Jackson House at Washington and Lee will be known as Simpson Hall in honor of Pamela Simpson, a dean who helped make W&L coed.
  • Robert E. Lee Elementary in Petersburg is now Lakemont Elementary. (J.E.B Stuart and A.P. Hill elementaries there became known as Pleasants Lane and Cool Springs elementaries, respectively, July 1.)

In brief

Johnny Reb petition

Generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson are not the only Confederates being asked to leave Charlottesville. Activist Matthew Christensen is collecting signatures on a petition that demands the removal of the Johnny Reb statue in front of the Albemarle County Circuit Court. Despite a City Council vote to remove the generals, current state law does not allow localities to make such decisions.

 

 

 

 

 

Father/son murder charges

Richard Spradlin, 56, and his son Kevin Moore, 34, have been arrested in the 2004 unsolved murder of Jesse Hicks, who was reported missing in Fluvanna 14 years ago, and whose remains were found in Albemarle County a decade later. The two are charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and using a firearm during the commission of a felony.

R.I.P. Mr. Putt-Putt

Former Albemarle supervisor L.F. Wood, 82, died October 11. Wood owned and operated the Putt-Putt golf course for 58 years and chaired the Board of Zoning Appeals, as well as the Seminole Trail Volunteer Fire Department board and the Albemarle County Police Foundation.

Stay out late

The Market Street and Water Street parking garages will now be open 24 hours, which means parkers no longer have to get to the garage before midnight to avoid turning into pumpkins. The first hour is free and then it costs $2 an hour in both garages.

Fewer boozin’ students violations

The number of UVA students committing liquor law violations dropped by 43 percent last year, according to a recent report by the Cavalier Daily. While alcohol violations referred for disciplinary action totalled 599 in 2016, and dropped to 416 the following year, the number of alcohol-related arrests have been consistent. Police made 54 and 52 of those in 2016 and 2017, respectively.

Quote of the week

“I feel that we made a huge leap forward at the most recent rally in terms of presentation, messaging, and holding a high expectation for what conduct should be like at a public demonstration.—Jason Kessler, referring to the Washington Unite the Right2 rally in an email “Seeking White Rights Activists in Washington, D.C.”

Heated market

Folks at the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors say the local home market is hot. In a comparison of the third quarter of this year to that of 2017, fewer houses may have gone up for sale, but more of them were purchased, for more money, and faster. Here are the bricks that built that conclusion.

  • Sales climbed by 4.4 percent, with 1,051 homes sold this quarter compared to 1,007 bought this time last year.
  • Those homes were more expensive, too. The median sales price soared past $294,007 to $309,000.
  • They were also snatched up quicker. The median number of days on the market was 56, or six lower than the third quarter of 2017.
  • Perhaps that’s because there were fewer homes to be bought—the inventory of residences for sale declined 9 percent, with 1,297 for sale in the third quarter of this year, compared to 31 more the previous year.

–Numbers provided by CAAR

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In brief: Bad prank, bad parking, bad practices and more

Staff photo

Meter’s not running

Crews are set to start ripping meters out of the ground this week after City Council voted at its January 2 meeting to indefinitely suspend the parking meter pilot that began on streets surrounding the Downtown Mall in September.

“It seemed pointless to try to convince the manufacturer to continue to loan us this equipment,” says parking manager Rick Siebert, who was initially hired to implement the program. “We obviously didn’t want to pay rent with no revenue coming in.”

With no reimplementation date in sight, Siebert says he’s disappointed that the city seems to have permanently pumped the brakes on the pilot, and he’ll continue to work toward a solution to Charlottesville’s well-documented parking problem.

“We had some issues with parking before that led to hiring Nelson\Nygaard to do the study, which led to the initiation of the meter pilot,” he says. “Those issues haven’t just evaporated.”

By the numbers

  • 28 meters
  • 13 pay stations
  • 71 days in service
  • $51,490 generated in revenue
  • $42,995 paid in rent
  • $20,000 for a 2016 parking meter pilot implementation plan by Nelson\Nygaard
  • $500,000 for startup funds allocated by City Council in 2016 for personnel and initial equipment costs, including a $73,000 salary for hiring a parking manager

“Voting is the civic sacrament of democracy.”—James Alcorn, chair of Virginia Board of Elections, before a random drawing to determine the winner of House District 94 and control of the House of Delegates

Not funny

A teen hoaxer who on social media advised Monticello High students to not go to school January 8 underneath a photo of guns was charged with a Class 5 felony for making threats to harm people on school property. The post alarmed other schools around the country with MHS initials, and at least one in Pennsylvania canceled classes.

Malpractice

Mark Hormuz Dean. Photo Albemarle County Police

Police arrested Mark Hormuz Dean, 50, a physician at the Albemarle Pain Management Associates Clinic, on January 5 for two counts of rape, two counts of object sexual penetration and one count of forcible sodomy, which he has allegedly committed on the job since 2011. Dean has worked in pain management in Charlottesville since 2003, and performed more than 10,000 interventional pain procedures, according to the clinic’s website.

 

 

It’s about time

At the January 4 Board of Supervisors meeting, Governor Terry McAuliffe signed a 99-year lease that gives Albemarle County control of the 1,200-acre Biscuit Run Park, which the state has owned since 2010 and agreed to help open to the public.

Town crier

Photo Eze Amos

Christopher Cantwell has filed a lawsuit against anti-racist activists Emily Gorcenski and Kristopher Goad, who accused the “Crying Nazi” of spraying them with a caustic substance at UVA on August 11. Cantwell’s complaint claims the activists “framed” him in the alleged attack by spraying themselves with mace.

 

 

 

 

New county leadership

File photo

While perhaps not as monumental as Charlottesville’s election of its first African-American female mayor, Albemarle County’s Board of Supervisors has also picked new leaders. Ann Mallek has been named chair for the fifth nonconsecutive year and Norman Dill will serve as vice chair.

 

 

 

Trial date set

A three-week jury trial is scheduled to begin November 26 for James Alex Fields, the man who plowed his car into a crowd of counterprotesters on August 12. Fields is charged with first-degree murder, five counts of malicious wounding, three counts of aggravated malicious wounding and failing to stop at the scene of a crash.

 

 

 

Another missing person found dead

Three days after missing woman Molly Meghan Miller was found dead in her home on January 1, police found Arthur Mills, the Fluvanna County man who was reported missing January 3, dead on the side of Oliver Creek Road. His cause of death is unknown.

 

Downtown loses some sparkle

Submitted photo

Frances Gibson Loose, longtime owner of Tuel Jewelers, died January 5 at age 86. For 65 years, she showed up for work, always professionally dressed, until about a week before she passed away.

When Loose bought the store in 1975, she was the only female business owner downtown, and according to her daughter, Mary Loose DeViney, she told another woman in a male-dominated field, “I’m going to do it my way and you will, too.”

She was a member of the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce, which named her Small Business Person of the Year in 2009.

Loose was well-known and well-liked and was often called “Mom” by her many friends, says DeViney. “She extended credit to people that others wouldn’t have—and they paid her. She just believed in people.”

People from all walks of life came to the store just to talk to Loose. “I’ve got to talk to Momma,” DeViney heard regularly. “I shared my mom with all kinds of people.”

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Downtown visitors get a parking break

Lynelle Lawrence, co-owner of Mudhouse Coffee Roasters, says business owners hope the holiday parking promotion will welcome patrons back to the Downtown Mall after a stressful summer. Photo by Amy Jackson

Some business owners say the Downtown Mall hasn’t been quite the same since shield-wielding white supremacists and neo-Nazis invaded it over the summer, followed immediately by the onset of a pilot parking meter program that required drivers to pay to park for what was once a free space.

So what better way to welcome back its patrons than offering free holiday parking?

“The timing [of the parking meter pilot] made it so people who perhaps were feeling a little skittish to come down after the summer just kept that feeling,” says Lynelle Lawrence, co-owner of Mudhouse Coffee Roasters, a Downtown Mall institution of 24 years. “The idea is just to allow the downtown area to welcome people back and have nothing be a deterrent.”

The city announced November 14 that the newly metered spaces surrounding the mall would be available at no cost from Friday, November 17, until Monday, January 1, and parking in the Market Street Parking Garage would be free on the weekends for the holiday season, starting at 5pm each Friday.

Lawrence says her coffee sales have certainly declined since the onset of the parking program, and Joan Fenton, chair of the Downtown Business Association of Charlottesville, says that seems to be a trend for other business owners.

“I know that there are a lot of businesses that are very upset by the meters and think it’s a bad idea,” says Fenton, who also owns Quilts Unlimited & J. Fenton Gifts. “We haven’t seen the figures but, anecdotally, people have told us that they don’t want to park because of the meters.”

Local writer and downtown frequenter Elizabeth Howard is one of those people.

“The sun was shining on the meter, so the prompts were a little hard to read and it took me several tries to make it work,” she says, adding that she had to take a few trips back to her car during the parking process, including when the computer system asked for her license plate number, which she doesn’t have memorized. “It was frustrating, plus I was in a hurry.”

Adds Howard, “I would still come downtown, but I would avoid the meter.”

Fenton’s personal qualm is that the rate is too high. “I’m not sure that we’re in a community that will accept a $1.80-per-hour rate,” she says. “At this point, I don’t think it works.”

But Fenton says when the businesses called for help this season, Charlottesville management acted fast.

“The city has been through a great deal since August 12,” says parking manager Rick Siebert. “There have been a lot of hard feelings expressed by a lot of people about what went on, and perhaps what mistakes were made, so I think this is the city partnering with the businesses on the mall to say ‘come on back.’’’

And while the parking meters are a hot topic, he adds, “I don’t think this is all about the meters. I think this is all about the mall and the need for the city to support the efforts of the business community and to remind everybody what a great place it is.”

Siebert says the meter pilot program will likely run through May (the holiday parking promotion ends at the beginning of the new year), and would then go before City Council for recommendations. Despite all the backlash, he says the program has helped improve turnover and create available spaces.

“There are certainly a number of people who are upset, and not happy about the elimination of the free parking, but there are other business owners, property owners and customers that I’ve talked to personally who have talked about how great it is that they can now actually find a place to park on-street without driving in circles, and I think the $1.80 per hour is worth that convenience.”

And he says he’s heard from several satisfied Market Street garage parkers because their rates have decreased since the pilot was implemented—instead of paying $2.50 an hour, it now costs a dollar less with the first hour free.

Lawrence says she expects to see another dip in Mudhouse sales in January, but that happens at the beginning of each year, so she won’t necessarily be able to attribute it to the reinstated meters. For now, she’s enjoying what she calls “this beautiful moment” of business collaboration, where employees are saying, “Let’s see what we can do to create a holiday spirit downtown. This is a lovely place to be and we’ve got you.”

Adds Lawrence, “It’s never been this tight and strong, and the city is right with us. It’s given us energy and focus.”

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Business owners worry as city proceeds with pilot parking meter program

Spring Street owner Cynthia Schroeder started a petition against the city's parking meter pilot program. She says lack of parking will harm her business. Staff photo

While the city is moving ahead with plans to install more than 150 parking meters around the Downtown Mall, some local business owners are expressing their displeasure.

The city intends to contract with IPS Group, a major national parking meter vendor, to install meters for a six-month pilot program and expects to have the program up and running by September, city parking manager Rick Siebert says.

A petition from the Downtown Mall Alliance, which is against the parking meters, recently circulated, garnering about 325 signatures.

Cynthia Schroeder, executive director of the Downtown Mall Alliance and Spring Street owner, says it was easy to get people on board with the petition, but she was unable to speak on its behalf at a City Council meeting because of the lottery process for public comment.

“The people, they just don’t want it, and it’s coming anyway,” Schroeder says. “I would do more, but I don’t know what else to do.”

Since the city has finalized a contract with IPS and is working on the logistics of the pilot program, Schroeder says presenting her petition seems hopeless.

The initiative mainly targets areas directly adjacent to the Downtown Mall between Second and Sixth streets. Of the 157 on-street parking spots included in the program, 97 currently offer free two-hour parking during most times of the day, according to the city’s parking information website.

The metered spots will also have a two-hour parking limit, and will operate Monday through Saturday from 8am to 8pm with a rate of $2 per hour.

The metered parking would make it harder for people to work on the Downtown Mall, Schroeder says, and could also limit the time customers spend in her store for fear of being towed.

“The rotational parking is just not going to work,” Schroeder says. “I think that the metered parking is gonna be the demise of the mall.”

City Council voted 4–1 in favor of the parking meter six-month pilot program in April 2016.

Councilor Bob Fenwick, who called the measure “governance by resolution,” at that time, cast the only dissenting vote.

Siebert says four separate parking studies conducted by the city since 1986 have all recommended the management of on-street parking near the Downtown Mall.

“I recognize that people may have legitimate concerns,” Siebert says, “but we believe that this program will help the businesses and customers of the Downtown Mall, not hurt them.”

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Spaced out: Low-wage earners will feel parking pain

Rick Siebert, Charlottesville’s first parking manager, has experience installing smart meters in Montgomery County, Maryland, where he was in charge of its 20,000 spaces, 19 parking garages and 52 employees. Photo John Robinson

 

The already difficult downtown parking landscape is about to become more challenging in the next couple of years. Major construction projects like West2nd, the Dewberry Hotel and Belmont Bridge promise to further clog streets and decimate an already dwindling parking supply.

And then there’s the pilot meter program coming in August.

Hardest hit will be the minions working on the Downtown Mall whose employers don’t provide parking.

Charlottesville’s new parking manager, Rick Siebert, met March 22 with the Downtown Business Association of Charlottesville, which had an organizational coup and panicked meetings last year at the threat (unfounded, as it turned out) the Water Street Parking Garage might close, to brief the group on the future of downtown parking,

Of particular concern to merchants is the trial run of meters in the immediate mall vicinity for the 157 currently free spaces. The pilot will do away with 97 two-hour free parking spaces and install either meters or kiosks for six months.

At least for now, Siebert reassured the skittish business owners, the validation program will remain unchanged, even as the management of Market Street Garage turns over from Charlottesville Parking Center to Lanier Parking Solutions.

Downtown parking has the “illusion of being free,” says Siebert, but if the spaces are full all the time, that doesn’t help if you can’t find a space.

And for those spaces most in demand—the ones closest to the restaurant or theater or shop—he asks, “Why should we give away our highest value spaces?”

Charging $2 an hour on the street could allow a reduction of rates in the parking garages, where people don’t want to park if free surface spaces are available, says Siebert. If all goes well with the meter pilot, he’d like to make the first hour of parking free in the Market Street Garage and end the validation program entirely.

At present that plan doesn’t include the Water Street Garage because of litigation between co-owners the city and Charlottesville Parking Center. Those parties will head to mediation in late May.

Parking meter bids are due April 5. “We requested equipment to be loaned to us for six months,” says Siebert. The companies likely to provide free equipment “predict the pilot will be successful and that we may expand the program. That’s what those proposers will bet on.”

He says he doesn’t know how much the metered pilot program will cost, but there will be start-up expenses to install the equipment. For the individual meters on the blocks where only one or two spaces are available, new signage won’t be needed, but the blocks that will have pay stations will need new signs to point parkers to the kiosks, he says.

Parking study recommendations suggest paid parking from 8am to 8pm Monday through Saturday.

“I think they came up with a reasonable plan to try it for six months,” says DBAC president Joan Fenton. “If it doesn’t work, it can be adjusted before the busy season begins in October.”

If the pilot is successful, escalating the rate for peak times could be an option. “We can get more sophisticated in the coming years,” says Siebert.

And the parking meter perimeter could be expanded out a couple of more blocks, which would make the streets where many downtown employees park no longer an option.

“The most difficult issue will be to find appropriate parking for people working at minimum wage,” says Siebert. “I don’t think it will be a silver bullet. We’ll try several things.”

Under discussion are park-and-ride lots. Siebert mentioned a city-owned lot on Avon Street that can get bus riders to town in 10 minutes. More problematic is the 20-minute return on a bus that currently runs every 30 minutes.

“When you look at people downtown making little more than minimum wage, to expect them to pay $2 to $3 an hour is not feasible,” says Kirby Hutto, manager of the Sprint Pavilion.

“The metered parking doesn’t bother me,” says Hutto, who says it’s “naive” to expect that spaces will remain free.

What is more worrisome, he says, is that there’s no plan to ease the pain of losing parking in the short term from construction and the uncertainty of the Water Street Garage litigation. “There’s going to be a shortage of parking,” he says. “How are we going to accommodate demand for parking during peak hours?”

The days of the city-owned meter lot on Water Street are numbered with construction of West2nd expected to begin this summer. Also on the chopping block are the 51 spaces under the Belmont Bridge, which City Councilor Bob Fenwick says he’s counted and where many Pavilion employees park.

“We’re already hearing employers say they can’t find people to work downtown because of parking,” says Hutto.

“That is a concern,” says Siebert of the upcoming construction. He’d like to phase projects like the Belmont Bridge so all parking isn’t taken out at once.

Parking is also an issue for people coming from out of town to see a show at the Pavilion. The 75 spaces in the Water Street Garage promised to John Dewberry for his eponymous hotel are “coming out of the inventory I can sell to Pavilion patrons,” says Hutto.

Pavilion-goers need to be able to park, says Hutto, and if all the new parking coming from new developments is for private use, that doesn’t help.

Charlottesville Parking Center owner Mark Brown “actually has some good ideas about how to manage the Water Street space,” says Hutto. “With active management, we should be able to know when there’s open inventory.”

Siebert promises to leave no parking possibility unexamined. He’s ready to talk to churches and the previously uninterested LexisNexis to see if they want to share their lots. He wants to contract parking enforcement. And he’ll work with transit to tailor bus routes for park-and-ride options.

And he’s working on a survey for downtown employers to give to their workers. “We need to find out what time of day they come in and where they’re coming from,” he says.

After a contentious year between the city and Charlottesville Parking Center, and the city and Albemarle County, which threatened to move its courts because of downtown parking issues, everyone seemed to take a deep breath in 2017.

The city is implementing a parking action plan based on recommendations from the four different parking consultants it’s hired since 1986.

That includes hiring a parking manager—Siebert—to report to the department of economic development. “Parking is really a tool for economic development,” he says. “I’m glad this council has acted on the advice it’s consistently received since 1986.”

 

Bye-bye free street parking

The six-month Downtown Mall pilot parking meter program goes into effect in August.

  • Area bounded by Second Street on the west, Market Street on the north, Sixth Street on the east and either South Street or the railroad tracks on the south
  • $2 an hour, 8am to 8pm Monday through Saturday
  • Parking meters or pay stations will take cash or credit
  • The 157 spaces in the area include loading zones and 22 handicapped spaces
  • 97 two-hour spaces will get meters

 

 

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In brief: Basketball hair, parking layoffs and more

Cavaliers Kyle Guy and London Perrantes are Hoos with the 'dos. Photos Matt Riley

What about London Perrantes?

The New York Post said first-year Hoo Kyle Guy has the best hairdo in college basketball for his man bun/top knot hybrid, but Perrantes’ high-top fade is pretty impressive, too.

ACC bummer

The Cavs exited the tournament in the quarterfinals March 9 after losing 58-71 to Notre Dame. But UVA got a nod and a No. 5 seed from the NCAA, and will play No. 12 seed UNC-Wilmington March 16.

“A five-seed is nothing to scoff at.”

—UVA basketball coach Tony Bennett

Kill bills

The General Assembly laid to rest 1,355 of the 2,335 bills introduced in the 2017 session. Of those killed, more than half—777—died with no recorded votes, according to Virginia Public Access Project. That’s better than last year, when 73 percent disappeared without a trace of how legislators voted.

Bell’s run

Photo: Amy Jackson
Rob Bell. Photo Amy Jackson

Republican Delegate Rob Bell said he’ll seek a ninth term in the General Assembly. First-timer Kellen Squire, an ER nurse who lives in Barboursville, quietly announced a run as a Dem and is the first since 2009 to challenge Bell in the 58th District.

Parking war casualties

Charlottesville Parking Center laid off seven employees following the announcement that Atlanta-based Lanier Parking will manage the Market Street Garage. CPC was disqualified from bidding on the contract, says GM Dave Norris. “The city was playing politics with Mark Brown trying to get one up on him.” The laid-off employees could be hired by Lanier, he adds.

Office space

DTMall_StaffPhotoThe Downtown Mall is probably the first place you’d take an out-of-town friend, shop for a quirky gift and snag a bite to eat because it’s a good mix of stores, restaurants and entertainment venues. But, believe it or not, the majority of space on the mall is uncharted territory for the public—offices. C-VILLE’s office is there. Author John Grisham looks out from a second-floor space and, among others, Borrowed & Blue, Silverchair Information Systems, WillowTree and Merkle (formerly RKG) are all on the mall.

Here’s how the business mix breaks down:

31% office

22% retail

18% condo/apartment

7% restaurant

22% other

Happening places

Of the 190 storefronts on the Downtown Mall, only 1.05 percent are vacant, which is lower than the peak vacancy rate of 9 percent in both July 2009 and January 2010 during the recession, and the current national average of 9.6 percent. As you can see from the list on the right, other shopping centers in town are on par.

Preston Plaza: 0% vacant

Seminole Square: 0% vacant

Downtown Mall: 1.05% vacant

The Corner: 1.61% vacant

McIntire Plaza: 2.17% vacant

Barracks Road Shopping Center: 4.71% vacant

All together, Charlottesville’s January vacancy rate was 1.78 percent, the lowest since the city began its biannual vacancy study almost a decade ago.

—All figures provided by the City of Charlottesville’s Office of Economic Development

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Space invaders: City promises more parking downtown

Mayor Mike Signer announced today the city's acquisition of a half-acre of land, which will be used for public parking. Staff photo

Charlottesville officials held a press conference November 15 to announce their latest step in solving the city’s parking crisis.

“We hear you and we want to help,” Mayor Mike Signer said before announcing the city’s acquisition of a $2.85 million half-acre parcel currently housing Guadalajara and Lucky 7 and located on the northeast end of the Downtown Mall on the corner of Ninth and Market streets, on which they intend to install public parking. Each business has five years left on its lease.

This parcel is adjacent to the surface lot already owned by the city and county at Seventh and Market streets, which has also been studied as a potential parking destination. The two sites together total an acre of downtown real estate.

City Manager Maurice Jones, present at the press conference, gave a rough timeline of three to five years until the project’s completion and said the city hasn’t ruled out buying out each business’ lease, or allowing the Mexican restaurant and convenience store to continue operating in a mixed-use complex similar to the one in the works at Keith Woodard’s West2nd (formerly known as Market Plaza).

City Councilor Bob Fenwick said the deal in question has been brought “back from the dead more than once,” but thanks to Jones and Craig Brown, the city’s attorney, this time, it’s the real McCoy.

And there’s more than just the land acquisition on the horizon. Fenwick described a new smartphone app “on the cusp” of completion, in which drivers will be able to log on and see every empty parking spot available downtown. He says we could see a pilot of the app by next spring, perhaps for just the parking garages.

And in areas where parking isn’t free, he says drivers could potentially pay by linking their bank account or credit card to the app, which would save time when masses of cars are trying to leave parking decks after events on the Downtown Mall. Eventually each parking space will have an indicator that will monitor whether someone is currently inhabiting the spot.

One issue, he says, is that there are still a number of people who don’t use smartphones, but at some point, “Everybody didn’t have a TV, either.”

“There has been a lot of concern this year about parking,” the mayor acknowledged at the conference.

You’re telling us.

The ongoing melodrama between the city and the Charlottesville Parking Center owner Mark Brown, the impending rollout of 157 parking meters surrounding the mall as part of a six-month pilot program and the eventual loss of more than 150 parking spaces due to the reconstruction of the Belmont Bridge and another nearby development have given us a lot to write about.

“It’s going to get better,” Fenwick says. “We’re paying more attention to it.”

To alleviate some of the parking pain, the city opened the Avon Park and Ride on October 1 across from Edgecomb’s Imported Auto Sales and Service on Avon Street Extended. There are 50 free parking spaces at the location, and a bus shuttles people to and from the downtown area every half hour. The shuttle costs .75 cents each way or $1.50 for a day pass, and it takes about 10 minutes to get to downtown and 20 minutes to get back to the park and ride.

Transit Manager John Jones says, eventually, he hopes to make 100 spaces available, but few people have made use of the current 50.

As for the meter rollout scheduled for the coming months, Fenwick says, “It wouldn’t bother me if that were delayed. In fact, I’ll push for that,” adding that meters were once used in spaces surrounding the mall, but were removed to draw more customers.

“It worked like a charm,” he says. “In our zeal to do something new, I want to make sure we don’t do something that isn’t helpful.”

And for those of you fretting about losing the Mexican restaurant famous for its fajitas, at least one person is on your side: “I will say I’ve already lobbied to keep Guadalajara,” Fenwick said at the conference with a grin.

 

Updated from original post below–

Charlottesville officials held a press conference today to announce their latest step in solving the city’s parking crisis.

“We hear you and we want to help,” Mayor Mike Signer said before announcing the city’s acquisition of a $2.85 million half-acre parcel of land located on the northeast end of the Downtown Mall, on which they intend to install public parking.

This parcel is adjacent to the surface lot already owned by the city and county at Seventh and Market streets, which has also been studied as a potential parking destination. The two sites, together, total an acre of downtown real estate.

Guadalajara and Lucky 7 are currently located on the acquired parcel on the corner of Ninth and Market streets. Each has five years left on its lease.

City Manager Maurice Jones, present at the press conference, gave a rough timeline of three to five years until the project’s completion and said the city hasn’t ruled out buying out each business’s lease, or allowing the Mexican restaurant and convenience store to continue operating in a mixed-use complex similar to the one in the works at Keith Woodard’s West2nd (formerly known as Market Plaza).

City Councilor Bob Fenwick said the deal in question has been brought “back from the dead more than once,” but thanks to Jones and Craig Brown, the city’s attorney, this time, it’s the real McCoy. And there’s more than just the land acquisition to be excited for, city officials said—Fenwick described a new smartphone app “on the cusp” of completion, in which drivers will be able to log on and see every empty parking spot available downtown.

“There has been a lot of concern this year about parking,” the mayor acknowledged at the conference.

You’re telling us.

The ongoing melodrama between the city and the Charlottesville Parking Center owner Mark Brown, the impending rollout of 157 parking meters surrounding the mall as part of a six-month pilot program and the eventual loss of more than 150 parking spaces due to the reconstruction of the Belmont Bridge and another nearby development have given us a lot to write about.

And for those of you fretting about losing the Mexican restaurant famous for its fajitas, at least one person is on your side: “I will say I’ve already lobbied to keep Guadalajara,” Fenwick said with a grin.

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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