Tag: Planning & Development

C-VILLE Weekly’s planning and development coverage features regular stories on Charlottesville and Albemarle County real estate and local government actions.

Categories
News

In brief: Bavarian getaway, creepy clowns and more

photos K. Wyner

City goes Wild West over weekend

Three people were shot early October 1 in a Corner parking lot during a disorder, according to Charlottesville police. The wounds were non-life-threatening, and Lewis Alexander Tyree Jr., 23, was arrested as a felon in possession of a firearm. That same night, shots were reported at Crescent Halls on Monticello Avenue, and police found a bullet hole in the building and shell casings, NBC29 reports.

Finally, a voter fraud case

A JMU student reportedly has confessed to registering 19 people who are dead, including a judge’s prominent father, in Harrisonburg. No charges have been filed and no word on how he planned to obtain 19 fake photo IDs and elderly impersonators to actually cast ballots.

Losing streak broken

Eighteen was the lucky number that broke the away-game record of defeat for the Hoos October 1 with a 34-20 win over Duke in Durham, UVA’s first win there since 2006.

Creepy clown sightings

As reports of unfriendly looking clowns have begun pouring in across Virginia and as close as Waynesboro and Harrisonburg on multiple occasions (a mob of JMU students with baseball bats formed on the night of October 3 to search the college campus for clowns), both Charlottesville and Albemarle County police report no local clown calls.

Urban Outfitters filming scandal

JamersonAdam Jamerson, 25, a Buckingham County man and former member of the Seminole Trail Volunteer Fire Department, allegedly was caught videotaping a nonconsenting girl while she tried on clothes around 1pm September 22. Store management spoke with Jamerson, who was later arrested September 26 and is awaiting his first court appearance.

Adam Jamerson was caught allegedly fliming a female changing clothes at the Downtown Mall's Urban Outfitters. Staff photoScene of the unlawful dressing room filming on the Downtown Mall. staff photo

Oktoberfest getaway

fentoninnWith the scent of autumnal beer in the air, Munich beckons, but a much more convenient scootaway is the recently opened Fenton Inn. Located between the Blue Ridge Parkway and Wintergreen, the  Bavarian village was inspired by Will and Lilia Fenton’s travel to Germany and the realization the mountains there resemble the Blue Ridge. Will Fenton, who has done historic restoration at Monticello, Colonial Williamsburg and Poplar Forest, threw octagons, cobblestone streets and medieval German details into his village design.

  • Five rooms and the two-bedroom
    Wilhelm’s House in the 10,000-
    square-foot village structure
  • $199 to $349 a night
  • swallows nest 2 high
    Swallow’s Nest comes with views.

    Two-person shower with views in  the Swallow’s Nest suite

  • Massage room, movie theater, meeting space, outdoor-patio hot tub
  • 2,000’ elevation
  • 40 minutes from Charlottesville
  • Half a mile from the AppalachianTrail
  • Five miles from Devils Backbone Brewing Company

Quote of the week

1926_7_Warner“Loose lips sink ships. You got that, Trump?”—Virginia’s five-term Republican former U.S. senator John Warner in his endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton September 26 calls up a slogan from World War II.

Categories
News

Night lights: Munitions company shines in Rockfish Valley

More lights are going up at Zenith Quest’s facility on Route 151 in Nelson County. Anna Kariel/SkycladAP

David Connolly used to gaze out the windows of his Afton Mountain home and see twinkling lights and the occasional headlight in the valley below. That was before Zenith Quest International “fired up the lights,” he says, of its already controversial, 84,000-square-foot firearms and ammunition distribution warehouse smack in the middle of Nelson County’s scenic wine and beer byway.

“Although we’re 800′ above them, they shine right in our windows,” says Connolly, who has lived on Stagecoach Road—a couple of miles away from the warehouse—for 13 years. “To me, it’s lit up like a landing strip. You can’t escape.”

The warehouse already stands out in the viewshed as the largest structure visible on Route 151, says Connolly. On September 24, only two of the lights were on, which was “much better,” he says. “Come Monday, they were on full blast.”

And there are more lights to come, according to Zenith Quest project manager Ray Miles. The six lights currently on are to light up the turnaround area for big trucks, he says. Ten more lights are going to be installed in the employee parking lot, and there will be security lights around the perimeter.

“We’re using what was approved in the site plan by the county,” says Miles, a plan that includes “two pages of metrics” on the lighting to be used. “If someone told us they were no longer approved, we’d study it.”

He’s already heard from a local supervisor. “The folks complaining, it’s brand new lighting,” says Miles. “They’re not used to it.”

Tim Padalino is Nelson’s director of planning and zoning, and he says the county’s zoning ordinance and comprehensive plan have requirements that are analogous to dark-sky certifications. Exterior lighting can’t shine onto adjoining properties or the public right of way and it must have full cut-off fixtures.

“Both are designed to prevent light pollution (i.e. light traveling up into the night sky instead of down onto parking areas, sidewalks, patios, etc.), and to preserve dark skies at night,” he writes in an e-mail.

Padalino says he was contacted by Supervisor Tommy Harvey, “who relayed significant concern from Afton residents who are very upset about the lighting at Zenith Quest.” Padalino planned a nighttime visit October 3 to make sure the lights were in compliance with the site plan.

Harvey and Supervisor Allen Hale had not returned calls from C-VILLE at press time, but in an e-mail to Connolly, Hale wrote, “I share your unhappiness over light pollution of the night sky.”

He also says there’s little that can be done about the warehouse, which was a by-right use of the industrial-zoned parcel and did not require Board of Supervisors’ approval.

Connolly, a building professional, acknowledges the building is a done deal. “They have the right to do it, but that doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do,” he says. “They’re not being a good neighbor to Rockfish Valley and Nelson County.”

The warehouse is two-thirds complete—they’re still working on the firing range—and Zenith Quest is waiting for its temporary occupancy permit, says Miles. “We’re getting ready to add landscaping. Trees will cover 80 percent of the front of the building.” That exceeds the 50 percent required on a scenic byway, he says. “When people drive by, they probably won’t see our facility.”

Categories
News

Hell no: City responds to parking center proposals

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CPC Response Letter 9-12-16

Categories
News

Market Plaza gets new name

Mayor Mike Signer and Keith Woodard anoint West2nd, future $50 million home of City Market. Staff photo

To forestall the inevitable confusion of people looking for Market Plaza on Market Street, the future Water Street home of City Market has been renamed West2nd.

Under a broiling sun September 8, developer Keith Woodard announced the $50 million mixed-use project’s new moniker. “We’ll still have a market, we’ll still have a plaza at West2nd,” he says.

5. City_Market_Plaza_West2nd
City Market will have deluxe new digs by 2019. Courtesy Market Plaza LLC

The site that’s now a parking lot will be the permanent home of City Market, and include 262 parking spaces, of which 102 will be public, retail on Water Street, 55,000 square feet of office space, an event space and 68 “very deluxe” condos ranging from $400,000 to $1 million plus, according to Woodard.

“I took a drone and flew it up there and the views are spectacular,” he says. “Every condo will have a view.” And terraces, he says. A sales office will open on the Downtown Mall in October.

As for the city’s goal of providing affordable housing with every development, says Woodard, “We’ll be contributing to the affordable housing fund as part of the project.”

3. Rooftop_Terrace_West2nd
Life looks sweet from the rooftop of West2nd. Courtesy Market Plaza LLC

Mayor Mike Signer says West2nd will “add vibrancy” to the Downtown Mall. And he cites it as an example of “how the city can best leverage the assets it owns,” while facing the Water Street Garage, a partially owned city asset now in litigation.

The project, which has clogged surrounding streets as utility work is done, will have buried lines. Actual construction is expected to begin in about eight months and be completed by 2019.

 

Categories
News

In brief: Heated exchanges, out-of-jurisdiction chase and more

Staff photo

CPD car chase in Waynesboro

An off-duty Charlottesville cop in a squad car spotted an unidentified traffic violation on I-64 the evening of August 13, and pursued the alleged offender to Waynesboro, according to the Newsplex. No arrest was made and no injuries reported.

Sweltering in Crescent Halls

Nearly two dozen residents showed up at the City Council meeting August 15 to let councilors know the air conditioning that’s been broken for weeks has created an intolerable situation, particularly for the elderly. Mayor Mike Signer noted that the public housing facility is run by Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority, not the city, while Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy vowed to take action.

Ex-Hoo charged with fraud

Former UVA and Philadelphia Eagles football player Merrill Robertson Jr., 36, was arrested for allegedly bilking senior citizens, former football coaches and alums of schools he attended out of $10 million with a Ponzi-like scheme promising 10 to 20 percent annual returns through his Cavalier Union Investments LLC in Midlothian, the Times Dispatch reports.

Blue Ribbon resignation

Gordon Fields, a Human Rights Commission representative on Mike Signer’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Race, Memorials and Public Spaces, formally resigned as of August 13. His reasons for resignation are unclear.

UVA Olympians win medals

Leah Smith will return to Charlottesville with a gold medal in the 4x200m freestyle relay and a bronze in the 400m freestyle. And UVA alum Inge Janssen earned a silver medal in the women’s quadruple sculls rowing for the Netherlands.

August 11, 2016 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil - OLYMPICS SWIMMING: Gold medal winners TEAM USA Katie Leckecky, Maya Dirado, Leah Smith and Allison Schmitt (USA) chold their gold medals in Women's 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay finals at Olympics Aquatics Stadium during the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics games. (Credit Image: © Paul Kitagaki Jr. via ZUMA Wire)
Leah Smith, third from left, celebrates gold in the 4x200m freestyle relay with teammates Katie Ledecky, Maya DiRado and Allison Schmitt. Photo Paul Kitagaki Jr. via ZUMA Wire

Second coming

DCIM100MEDIADJI_0190.JPG stonefield
Matteus Frankovich/skycladap

Northrop Grumman is now encircled with phase 2 of The Shops at Stonefield, which is getting ready to open in front of Costco. Along with “an exciting new mix of partners,” according to EDENS senior VP Brad Dumont, new retailers are opening on Bond Street and townhouses are in the works.

  • 36,000 square feet of retail
    in phase 2
  • Q’doba, Jared Jewelers, Mission BBQ, European Wax, Hair Cuttery, Uncle Maddio’s Pizza, Xfinity and BJ’s Brewhouse are the new tenants
  • Burger Bach opened in the former Pasture space, and Kendra Scott and Mezeh are recent Bond Street arrivals
  • Grit Coffee Bar & Cafe and Muse Paint Bar are opening in phase 1 this fall
  • First round of the Townhomes at Stonefield—104 units—will be completed over the next 12 months

By the numbers

In its 25-year existence, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville hit a milestone this month by completing and dedicating 12 homes at once in a new downtown community called Burnet Commons III: The Park, which used to be a city dump and is now a mixed-income neighborhood built around a central park.

2,333

Volunteers in 2015

41,521

Hours volunteered in 2015

$1,026,783

Labor savings in 2015

$1.17 million

Donations and monetary gifts in 2015

180

Homes built since 1991

2,000

People housed since 1991

Quote of the week

“It seems to me that in order for a Gold Star family to be honored and recognized by the current City Council, they must speak at the Democratic National Convention. This is not appropriate, nor is it acceptable. It reeks of choosing to honor specific families or individuals because they fit your narrative.”—Stefanie Marshall addresses City Council after it honors Khizr and Ghazala Khan August 15.

Categories
News

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

Categories
News

Developing their future: Friendship Court residents want more say

Piedmont Housing Alliance CEO Frank Grosch is leading the redevelopment of Friendship Court and says its current level of maintenance service is “not okay.” Photo Jack Looney

A group of Friendship Court residents is pushing back against redevelopment plans, calling for more inclusion as developers move forward with attempts to revamp downtown Charlottesville’s largest subsidized housing neighborhood.

The Piedmont Housing Alliance announced last fall that it was purchasing the property with 150 low-income units in 2018 and was transforming it into a large-scale, mixed-income apartment complex, promising to continue rent subsidization for existing apartments, while constructing hundreds more market-rate units that could cost as much as $2,400 a month.

And last month, using $260,000 from the city, the nonprofit released a 68-page draft version of its master redevelopment plan. But the Friendship Court Residents Association, in a recent letter to PHA chief executive officer Frank Grosch, says residents want more of a say in the planning process. “The plan says that ‘resident input has driven the process,’” wrote the FCRA in its June 30 letter. “We ask that you change that language in the plan and when you talk about this process in the future. We do not feel like we have been in the driver’s seat for any of the most major changes you are planning.”

Specifically, the resident group wants to be part of the team that determines the number of apartments in the eventual neighborhood, the size of the apartment buildings, the design of any through-streets that bisect the community, the details for underground parking areas and the specifics for proposed green spaces and play areas.

Tamara Wright is a member of the FCRA steering committee and one of three residents who signed the letter. She says PHA has made efforts to interview residents and gather input about their concerns and desires—the draft master plan has sections entitled, “What we heard and what that tells us,” detailing the listening sessions with residents. Wright is also one of seven residents on PHA’s 14-person advisory committee.

But, Wright says, residents haven’t been part of crafting the actual plans and solutions around issues that are discussed. Instead, that has been left to developers, and PHA then tells residents what solutions it deems best, which doesn’t foster an environment of inclusion, she says, regardless if those plans actually address the issues raised. It comes across as belittling and demeaning, she says.

“I think Frank really needs to understand the residents more,” says Wright. “I think he’s only looking at it like, ‘We’re just helping, we’re just trying to make it better for you,’ and he’s not really trying to understand what would be better for us. What you think could be better may not be better.”

The resident association letter follows a two-hour June 14 meeting, when Grosch met with members of the FCRA to discuss concerns. There, residents say Grosch committed to a host of issues, ranging from window safety latches and the relocation of the existing community garden to new appliance guarantees and management’s response to maintenance requests.

Wright and several other residents on the FCRA say maintenance requests aren’t addressed in a timely fashion by Edgewood Properties, which did not return requests for comment, taking weeks, sometimes months, to be fulfilled. PHA doesn’t currently have a majority ownership of Friendship Court, which prevents it from directly solving housing issues. But when residents raised these concerns with Grosch, they say they were told that their future wealthier neighbors won’t tolerate delayed requests for service.

“When he says things like that, it rubs me the wrong way, because it makes it seem like we tolerate anything and we accept being treated any type of way,” says Wright. “Why does it take tearing it down and bringing people in with money in order to give us a nice place to live and better units? Why can’t you have enough respect for us and the fact that we’re here and just do those things for us? Because it’s really not for us, it’s for [the wealthier future residents]. And it’s like, ‘You’re just going to reap the benefits in the process, so just suck it up.’”

Grosch says he knew this sentiment was not well-received. “The idea I am trying to express is that levels of service will rise when the property is redeveloped,” says Grosch. “The truth is that the current levels of service are, on their face, less than I have come to expect after 30 years in the apartment business. It is most decidedly not okay.”

He says PHA is working with its current co-owners the National Housing Trust to get responses to management-related questions. Further, he says PHA has tried to include residents every step of the way, hiring a full-time on-site community organizer, chosen by residents, to act as a liaison. And the lead project designer, from the San Francisco Bay area, and her team have conducted hour-long-plus in-home interviews with 16 residents, as well as several teen focus group sessions.

Some of the disagreement may be due to the perception that the lengthy draft plan, which was delivered to every apartment, is the final word on redevelopment ideas. That is not the case, says Grosch, adding that resident feedback on the plan is highly encouraged.

“The response has been overwhelmingly positive, with the most frequent comment being, ‘Don’t wait!’ or words to that effect,” says Grosch. “That said, we are really just at the beginning of the design process. We are eager to work with residents…to develop the specific designs for the site, the buildings and the amenities.”

Categories
News

Parking garage ‘soap opera’ leads city to reject Brown’s offer

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

Mayor Mike Signer and City Councilor Kathy Galvin insist there is nothing personal in the city’s dispute with Mark Brown over control of the Water Street Parking Garage. In meetings with reporters July 6 after the city rejected Charlottesville Parking Center’s June 24 proposed settlement of the escalating controversy over the fate of the garage the city co-owns with Brown, the two said they decided to answer questions about the issue to demonstrate the unanimity of council.

“It’s a very unusual set of circumstances,” says Signer, because the other side at every turn has tried to “create a sense of panic.”

The city’s June 6 resolution to make an offer to buy out Brown’s share of spaces at Charlottesville Parking Center was not a change in course after months of discussions with Brown, says Galvin. His lawsuit against the city over parking rates and his threats to close the garage “make us think that single ownership of the garage should be with the city.”

The parking center’s proposed settlement, says Signer, was not a response to the city’s offer to buy out Brown.

In the CPC settlement proposal that came one day after the Downtown Business Association of Charlottesville sent the city and Brown a letter urging both sides to tone down the “extreme threats” and four days before a judge denied CPC’s petition to appoint a receiver for the garage, general manager Dave Norris basically ceded control of the garage to the city as far as rates, as long as the city paid the difference in fair market rate to CPC.

It was Brown’s insistence on being able to profit from the public/private partnership that was the breaking point. The councilors reiterated that the Water Street Parking Garage Condominium Association agreement “does not contemplate pecuniary gain or profit to the members thereof…”

Throughout the discussions, says Signer, Brown accused the city of “stealing my money.”

That CPC wanted the city to subsidize his share “suggests a sense of entitlement,” says Galvin. “It reinforced the sense we should go our own way.” CPC can still manage the garage for one year, rather than the five years it wanted in its proposal, the city said in its response. “His behavior has destabilized the community,” she says.

“The soap opera has all been on one side,” adds Signer.

And that soap opera includes Brown’s March 14 lawsuit against the city, the city’s April 29 countersuit that claims it didn’t get the right of first refusal on spaces CPC bought from Wells Fargo and the DBAC splintering over the garage, with one faction saying it wasn’t taking sides, while Violet Crown hired Susan Payne, who did PR for Signer’s council campaign, to sway downtown businesses to urge the city not to sell out to Brown.

“We’ve tried to be stabilizing,” says Signer. “The more deliberate we’ve been, the more erratic he’s been.”

And the city is still not ruling out eminent domain as a remedy, “one that we would consider only reluctantly,” says Signer.

The attorney Brown hired to handle any eminent domain moves by the city, John Walk, in a July 11 letter, rebuffed the city’s $2.8 million offer to buy Brown’s shares of the garage, and said it would cost the city at least $9 million, based on the tax assessed value, to buy him out. Not that he’s selling, says Walk, who reminds the city Virginia’s constitution prohibits the use of eminent domain for economic development.

The CPC camp has maintained that it thought an agreement was almost a done deal during negotiations June 2, the same night DBAC held a meeting at Violet Crown. Norris says Signer specifically asked Brown not to send Norris to that meeting, something Norris now says was a mistake.

“We said we weren’t planning on attending,” says Signer. “Ms. Galvin said she wasn’t going to be there. With the ongoing litigation, we said it wasn’t a good idea for us to be there. I think they’re reading way too much into that,” he says, calling the CPC depiction “false theatrics.”

Norris did not immediately return a phone call.

Sitting outside the conference room in City Hall where Signer and Galvin were meeting with reporters, Payne handed out a statement expressing the support of Violet Crown and many downtown businesses for the city holding firm in its decision to pursue affordable parking in the Water Street Garage.

city_letter_CPC_7-6-16

CPC letter to T. Wolf re_ eminent domain 7.11.16 (1)

Updated July 11 with Brown’s eminent domain attorney’s letter to the city.

 

 

 

 

 

Categories
Arts Living News

The Power Issue

Our annual look at Charlottesville's movers and shakers.

Discussions for this year’s list of the most powerful in Charlottesville turned not toward one particular person but an entity that truly affects Charlottesvillians’ daily lives—the Virginia Department of Transportation. Don’t worry, you’ll still see some familiar faces (last year’s power-topper Mark Brown remains embroiled in a battle with the city over the Water Street Parking Garage), as well as newcomers, such as craft beer giant Devils Backbone and Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy. And don’t forget impactful changes, such as the Landmark Hotel finally being transformed into a thing of beauty—hey, one has the power to dream, right?

Categories
News

Elevated space: Inside Oliver’s Treehouse

Ceilings soar and light floods in Ten Flavors’ new digs in the Treehouse, a space designed for designers. STEPHEN BARLING

Oliver Kuttner doesn’t do bland. And he doesn’t like building the same thing over and over. His  latest project, the Treehouse on the corner of Garrett and Second SE streets, is testament to that.

“I wanted to do a small building,” he says. “I wanted to make that corner interesting.”

The result, beside his Glass Building, is a 17,000-square-foot, three-story, light-filled structure that soars into the trees.

“I like playing with elevation,” says Kuttner. “You get more for less.” That was a lesson he learned with the Terraces on the Downtown Mall, which has four stories—and nine levels. The Treehouse is a three-story building with a mezzanine and basement, but inside, with its tall ceilings, it feels larger.

Ten Flavors’ Jim Gibson is a longtime tenant of Kuttner’s, who sold the building the design co-op had occupied for 30 years in 2013. But the designers had gotten used to tall ceilings and being on the mall. “We looked within a one-mile radius and couldn’t find anything,” says Gibson. “Finding open space is hard. Finding open space with tall ceilings is really hard. We were used to soaring ceilings.”

When Kuttner said he was going to build what would become the Treehouse, says Gibson, “We had no idea what this building would look like. It was a leap of faith.”

Keeping the faith paid off with a location two blocks from the mall, 16′ to 18′ ceilings and walls of windows with natural light flooding into a building that is quite unlike anything else in town. “It’s a funny, polarizing design,” says Gibson, and the reaction to it has been mixed.

“Some say it’s the coolest thing in Charlottesville,” he says. “Others said, ‘Who designed that?’” For the designers at Ten Flavors, says Gibson, “We’re all familiar with the shock of the new.”

Gibson describes the “wildly creative way” Kuttner went about building, redoing something if it didn’t work out. Ten Flavors occupies the second floor, and he says the space on the third floor that will hold WillowTree’s 150 or so employees is “even more quixotic.”

Kuttner wanted to prove that there could be height without an intimidating mass at the sidewalk, and he says there was some experimentation, with architect Gate Pratt helping in the early stages.

Initially Kuttner wanted the exterior to be a living surface of plants, but he backed off that idea. “I was opening myself up to a lot of maintenance problems,” he concedes. And with his goal to spend half his time in Europe, says Kuttner, “I need to get away from maintenance.”

As for cost, he says, “I have no idea. It depends on how much you value your time.” One area in which he invested heavily was thermal mass. “I spent a huge amount on insulation,” he says.

The Treehouse and an apartment building—the micro apartments to which the city gave a cold shoulder—will be some of his last projects here, says Kuttner. He’ll do the apartments by right with 80 units. “It’ll be extremely popular,” he predicts. And he’s selling land behind the Treehouse, which will become a nine-story office building.

Speaking of mass, that project, with four floors of parking and five of offices on top of 200 parking spaces, is squeezed in behind the Treehouse and Glass Building, and shaves off the back section of the latter, according to plans from Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer. It also turns the parking spaces in front of The Bluegrass Grill & Bakery and The Bebedero into a plaza for seating.

While the parking/office nine-story combo inevitably will change some of the views from the Treehouse, for those inhabiting what Gibson calls Kuttner’s “strange but beautiful” building, there’s a certain joy in coming to work in something that’s not a low-ceiling cubicle. “The thing I’m most grateful for,” says Gibson, “is the opportunity to get a space this out-of-the-ordinary.”

DCIM100MEDIADJI_0222.JPG
View from above. Matteus Frankovich/SkycladAP