Tag: Planning & Development

U.S. citizenship meant a new beginning for Tilahun Goshu and his family—one where they would no longer live in fear and they could begin building their dream home, which Goshu envisioned being passed down to his children and his children’s children. But no sooner than he moved into his new place, he learned that a proposed 20-lane open-air firing range could be located just a stone’s throw away from his backyard.

“I was rescued,” Goshu says, “and then I found myself in the middle of a battleground.”

Goshu, an Ethiopian ex-prisoner, businessman, writer and registered nurse fled his country to avoid a third imprisonment and another violent persecution. His crime? Writing books that criticized his country’s culture.

“Right after my first book published, there were protests in every city,” he says. “There were petitions to the government to take action in my life.”

Between 250 and 500 people showed up at Goshu’s various court hearings to protest his publications, which openly criticized the practice of female genital mutilation and encouraged members of his community, who he says are historically not self-sufficient, to work hard and be productive, rather than participating in many non-working religious holidays and relying on aid from developed countries.

Already twice-imprisoned for a total of three years, Goshu faced a third prosecution that would have incarcerated him for another five years when he fled to Kenya. After he left, his wife and kids were targeted. Protesters threw rocks and fired guns at their home, and one flashed a pistol at his wife, Meseret Workelul.

From the time Goshu escaped to Kenya, it took seven months for him to find someone in Nairobi who could rescue his family, the seven most stressful months he can remember. But what happened next changed everything—Goshu was granted U.S. citizenship five years after he resettled in Charlottesville through the International Rescue Committee in 2007.

Now that he’s had some time to adjust, Goshu says he sees no difference between the fear he felt in Ethiopia and the fear he’ll feel in Greene, if the firing range is approved.

He worries for the safety of his four children, who won’t be able to play in their own backyard because of the chance of being shot by a ricocheting bullet. His older children suffer from post traumatic stress disorder from their experiences in Ethiopia, he says,“They are doing well right now,” he says, “but when the gunshots start, the memories kept down in their mind will start working through.”

Lyle Durrer, the owner of Big Iron Outdoors gun shop who wants to open the shooting range, says assessments show that noise from the range will be no louder than ambient noise in the neighborhood.

Though many neighbors aren’t convinced this is the case, Goshu says it’s about so much more than noise. Not just for him, but for the 340 other homes within a mile of the proposed range—165 of them being only half a mile away.

“What are you going to do?” says Carolyn Politis with Greene County Neighbors. “From 10am to 8pm, [stay] out of your homes because there could be a bullet coming in, or do you put flak jackets on your kids?”

The Greene County planning commission meets tonight, August 19, at 6pm in the William Monroe High School auditorium for an open public hearing. The location has been selected to accommodate the mass of people expected to attend, according to Jay Willer, the commission’s chairman.

The preservation of Albemarle County’s rural beauty can directly be attributed to its comprehensive plan, the holy grail of where development can occur and where it may not.

That’s why some are surprised the Board of Supervisors is fast tracking an amendment that moves 223 acres from rural to growth area for a beverage company that wants to locate at the Interstate 64 and U.S. 29 interchange. County officials refuse to identity the company, nor is it clear that the owners of the land in question are interested in selling. But officials are gung-ho to create more light industrial-zoned land and the supes backed a study of the amendment June 10.

“This is really, really unusual,” says former planning commissioner Marcia Joseph. “We’d just gotten through a multi-year review of the comprehensive plan. A month ago, the Board of Supervisors decided to add this entire parcel to the comprehensive plan. People got riled and asked why it was done with no public review.”

Assistant county executive Lee Catlin sees it differently. “We have made every effort to be transparent,” she says. “The compressed timeline is because of the needs of the business. While the process has been compressed, we don’t feel we’ve compromised any of the steps required for a comprehensive plan amendment.”

County staff briefed board members between scheduled meetings in groups of two or fewer to stay legal under the Freedom of Information Act, confirms Catlin, who declines to identify the company.

Joseph says it’s unusual for the county to initiate action. “This is the first time I’ve seen the county act as an applicant,” she says. “The whole process concerns me.”

However, Albemarle economic development director Faith McClintic, who represents the Board of Supervisors in pushing for the amendment, says it’s not unusual for communities to lead in adjusting comprehensive plans. McClintic, too, says she can’t disclose the identity of the company. “We have to protect the competitive market,” she says.

Another oddity in the boundary adjustment is that the landowner—Sweetspot of Albemarle LLC—has not been publicly involved in the county effort to redesignate the property. McClintic says she’s not at liberty to identify the owners. “We’re sure they’re agreeable and we hope they’ll come out and speak publicly,” she says. “The public has a desire to hear from the landowner.”

Sweetspot has an Atlanta address, according to county records, and Atlanta property records  identify that address as belonging to Douglas S. Holladay Jr., who is chair of the Jefferson Scholars Foundation, according to a UVA listing of foundation chairs. Holladay had not responded to a phone call and e-mail at press time.

For McClintic, the more important issue is that the county has been unable to accommodate requests from other Albemarle companies seeking to expand. “That is the bigger concern that keeps me up at night,” she says.

Joseph is not convinced and says the entity just didn’t like any growth-area properties that were available. “Costco brought jobs, too,” she says. “Costco went some place that was zoned properly.”

Planning commissioner Rick Randolph, a Democrat who’s running for the Scottsville District board seat, says he was briefed on the company—and has been asked by staff not to disclose who it is. He points that the unnamed company is looking at two other communities. “Sometimes complete transparency may not serve us well,” he says.

Some believe the company is Deschutes Brewery of Bend, Oregon, because of media accounts in North Carolina and South Carolina in which its president says the company wants to expand to the East Coast and also is considering Virginia and Tennessee for a brewery that will bring around 100 jobs. A call to Deschutes was not immediately returned.

Randolph touts the 104 jobs the unnamed company would bring, and says the company is a good corporate citizen and environmentally conscious.

And to those who want to know more, he says the Board of Supervisors and planning commission are elected and appointed bodies working to protect the best interests of the public. “You’ve got to have some trust and confidence,” he says.

Unlike Randolph, planning commissioner Karen Firehock was not briefed on the identity of the beverage company. She held a forum August 12 with Supervisor Liz Palmer, and says she heard a lot of concern about the way the amendment process has occurred.

“People are concerned about development south of I-64,” she says. “They don’t want 29 south to be like 29 north.” Citizens also want to know how the unknown business will impact traffic at the already dicey I-64 interchange, as well as who will pay for water and sewer, neither of which are connected to the property.

“We’re being asked to revise the comprehensive plan for more light industrial,” she says, but she’s seen several different numbers in the past few months and wants to see an analysis of what’s already here.

Morgan Butler at Southern Environmental Law Center has watched Albemarle and how it develops over the past decade. “The county has historically been very reluctant to expand the development areas at the wishes of a private company, much less carry the water for them during the review process as is happening now,” he says. “And while there may be a fair reason for keeping the company’s name confidential, that makes it even harder for the public to determine whether these significant breaks in precedent are justified.”

Next up in the public process, the planning commission will have a public hearing August 18 before it sends it recommendation the the Board of Supervisors, the BOS has a work session September 2 and a public hearing September 9.

Updated 8/18/15 to add that Deschutes Brewery of Bend, Oregon, is looking for an East Coast location in Virginia, among other states.

The controversial development that puts a Fairfield Inn on the corner of Ridge Street and Cherry Avenue, nixed by the Planning Commission 5-0 and rejected by more than 500 petition-signing residents, got a 3-2 go-ahead from City Council July 21.

The Southern Development project was in front of council a few weeks ago, and a  decision on a rezoning amendment was postponed when the developer said residential wasn’t a necessary component in the mixed-use parcel. Later, Charlie Armstrong admitted he was mistaken about the residential portion being optional.

City Councilor Dede Smith, who was one of the “no” votes along with Bob Fenwick, isn’t reassured. Her concern is that if Marriott buys the entire parcel, it could decide to never build the residential portion on Ridge Street.

For resident Kim Lauter, the decision was disappointing and she says not supportive of the historic neighborhood. “It should be a wonderful gateway to the city,” she says. “Instead it’s a chain hotel that could be on any corner in America.

City Councilor Kathy Galvin, who is running for reelection, called the “insinuation that people can be bought and sold” for accepting donations from the Monticello Business Alliance, a developer-heavy PAC that includes Southern Development, “character assassination.” She noted that the $500 donation she got from the group was public record, and a small portion of the $17,000 she raised. Candidates Wes Bellamy and Mike Signer also received $500 donations from the group.

The darling of 21st-century community design is the “planned unit development,” which typically combines commercial and residential for high-density, pedestrian friendly living. So when the developer of the already controversial William Taylor Plaza PUD told City Council July 6 there was no requirement for a residential component, councilors put the brakes on a rezoning amendment they’d seemed poised to approve

“Eliminating the residential portion was not an option when the PUD was approved in ’09 and no one who sat through the whole excruciating process would think otherwise,” says resident Antoinette Roades.

For more than a decade, Southern Development has been trying to build on the corner of Ridge Street and Cherry Avenue, with opposition from some residents in the historic African-American community and concerns that there may be a 19th-century cemetery on the site. In 2008, the city agreed to sell two parcels it owned on the corner to the company, and in 2009 the entire 2.9-acre lot was rezoned for mixed use, with residential fronting Ridge Street and the commercial on Cherry.

Southern Development now wants to put a Fairfield Inn on Cherry Avenue, and had requested a rezoning amendment for more surface parking, which was rebuffed in May by the Planning Commission 5-0.

“PUDs are usually about residential,” says City Councilor Dede Smith. “The fact this is now focused on commercial, that was the big shocker. I think everyone was shocked.”

After Southern Development’s Charlie Armstrong asserted that the parcel could be all commercial at the council meeting, City Attorney Craig Brown read notes on the development plans. “It says it shall be mixed use—commercial and residential,” he says. “The applicant needs to make revisions to eliminate the contradiction between saying it could be all commercial and notes that say it should have some residential.”

A couple of days after the City Council meeting, Armstrong admits, “We had a different interpretation. We didn’t think it was required in 2009. Craig Brown was right.”

Adds Armstrong, “We’re clarifying the language in the amendment and making it very clear it will include residential.”

Not everyone is reassured. Councilor Smith isn’t pleased that Southern’s plan uses the term “arboretum,” which has a specific definition of trees grown for study or display. “They’re preserving green space, but it is not an arboretum. It’s emblematic of this project that we’re being misled. We believe something is going to happen, and Charlie Armstrong is saying what they want to do is different.”

Even those councilors who don’t think the Fairfield Inn is the best choice agree that under the 2009 PUD rezoning, the type of commercial use allowed isn’t really defined.

“A hotel is already allowed there,” says City Councilor Kristin Szakos.

Residents hate the idea so much they collected more than 500 signatures on a petition presented to City Council July 6.

Former City Council candidate Melvin Grady, who helped gather signatures, acknowledges his NIMBYism. “I don’t want a hotel in my neighborhood, period,” he says. “Do we need more hotels?”

And he calls Szakos’ support of the rezoning amendment because it would provide jobs “condescending.” He describes it as saying, “We know what’s best for you in your own neighborhood.”

Szakos says she’s not supporting the hotel, she supports the zoning amendment, and she says she’s heard two very different things from the people in that neighborhood. “The lack of economic development on Cherry Avenue is hurting people and has hurt the neighborhood,” she says.

Kim Lauter’s backyard butts up to what will be parking at William Taylor Plaza and she says the developer’s plans feel like “a switcheroo.” She lives in an historic, 1895-built house on Ridge. “Putting a Fairfield Inn doesn’t keep with the historic character of the neighborhood,” she says. “It’s very offensive, particularly to the African Americans who grew up here.”

Dede Smith points out that urban renewal altered the neighborhood when Fifth Street Extended was built and a house on that corner was torn down. “I just think we owe it to this neighborhood to be careful about what we allow—if we have a choice.”

Former city councilor Kendra Hamilton signed the petition, and says when the project first came before her, council was looking for a gateway to the city with affordable housing and a “huge public access/public benefit component” with respect for the historic character of the neighborhood. When she looks at the latest proposal, she doesn’t see that, and instead sees a “crappy hotel chain,” she writes in an e-mail. “But people can walk to their minimum wage jobs, so we’re told to be grateful.”

The Fifth Street development project, now known as 5th Street Station, is soon to be a big box retail sanctuary with almost half a million square feet of space, an abundance of parking and a buffet of popular brands—and it only took about two decades to build on this historically sought-after plot of land previously owned by Grand Piano and Coran Capshaw, that once housed a landfill.

Since the ’90s, ideas for the site have been repeatedly pitched, supported, shot down and deferred. Approved in 2008, 5th Street Station is officially underway, promising popular shops like Wegmans, Field & Stream, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Mattress Warehouse, Panera Bread, PetSmart, Sprint, Great Clips, Hair Cuttery, Lee Nails, Jersey Mike’s Subs and the Virginia ABC. Eight other leases are currently in negotiation.

And, as the story goes, many are thrilled to have these big brands within reach.

“Wegmans—that’s the best thing since sliced bread. They make Whole Foods look penny-ante,” says Blake Caravati, owner of Vector Construction and former mayor of Charlottesville.

Though Vector isn’t involved with this project, Caravati stays on top of local construction.

“The only unfortunate part is that it’s in the county,” he says, jokingly, as a city resident acknowledging that a large sum of tax dollars will be pumped back into Albemarle as a result of the shopping center.

However, not everyone is excited about the presence of this big box development.

Mike Meintzschel, nature lover and local resident of over 20 years, is concerned about the project’s negative impact on Moores Creek. And he has photos to back it up.

According to Meintzschel, he and other residents of the Willoughby neighborhood thought they had reached an agreement with the developers, a “small victory” he says that has not been fulfilled. The developers, he says, originally planned for the shopping center to be situated closer to Moores Creek, one of the area’s most polluted water traces which surrounds three sides of the development, but agreed to push the shopping center inland far enough that it would not interfere with the watershed, and to stabilize the floodplain by filling it in with dirt.

“They’re right up against the creek, there’s no denying that,” Meintzschel says, concluding that “the preliminary stuff that we see along the creek bed is not what we expected.”

He doesn’t like the rock that’s been put around a few storm drains, and says the stones are small and one storm could wipe them all away. Meintzschel says the developers “just sort of threw the rocks down,” while the county and city set a better example by meticulously laying larger rocks around storm drains during other restoration efforts on Moores Creek.

“What’s happening doesn’t match the intelligence of the city,” he says.

But the attorney for the developers, Fairburn, Georgia-based S.J. Collins Enterprises, says they have volunteered to go beyond what the county required to carry out a number of site improvement projects. Those efforts include cleaning up the old landfill on the property two years earlier than mandated, implementing stream bank improvements to Moores Creek and removing invasive plant species that are crowding out native species on the riverbank, says Valerie Long of Williams Mullen law firm in an e-mail. The developer also plans to implement a water treatment facility to detain polluted water that runs off the highway and treats it before it reaches the creek.

Richard Randolph, planning commissioner for the Scottsville district where 5th Street Station is located and a Board of Supervisors candidate, says he gives the developers the benefit of the doubt.

“It’s easy for one to take photographs and point fingers, but this is a process of transition and it’s not completed,” he says, noting that the health of Moores Creek actually increased from a very poor rating to a rating of poor in nonprofit StreamWatch’s latest assessment, which was released in June.

According to Randolph, the results of the assessment are “hardly a point where we declare victory,” but he hopes to see the water quality of Moores Creek improve further with the help of S.J. Collins and “there is an expectation that it will.”

The health of Moores Creek isn’t the only concern locals have, and even Caravati, a fan of the project, notes that access to the shopping center could be “a bit strained,” as Fifth Street is already a busy road during rush hour. He says traffic is usually backed up from cars that are headed downtown from I-64, and 5th Street Station will add to that congestion.

On the bright side, folks living on the south side of town won’t have to make the long drive up Route 29 North just to get to an upscale grocery store, says Long. She says this new convenience for southsiders may result in reduced traffic congestion on Route 29, and the long-awaited connector road between Avon and Fifth streets will also significantly improve the transportation network.

And beyond traffic or stream health, there’s the undeniable glee that many people seem to feel from the impending arrival of the beloved grocery chain.

“We are told that shoppers come from up to 90 miles away to shop at Wegmans,” Long says.

The mixed-use residential complex going up on West Main and 10th streets now has an official name: Uncommon. And the developers have a description of the type of people they hope will live there.

“Uncommoners are trendsetters who don’t try too hard,” the development’s website says, but this hip tagline doesn’t describe the planning they’ve put into building such trendy digs.

The city had previously granted a special use permit to build a nine-floor, 101-foot structure, but Erin Hannegan from Mitchell Matthews Architects says the residential building “was reduced for a variety of reasons.”

That’s probably just as well after the outcry following the development of The Flats @ West Village, the sheer bulk of which has caused some city councilors to ask whether such density is appropriate for West Main.

According to the developer, Ryan Doody of CA Student Living in Chicago, a smaller building with fewer units is better suited to fit the needs of the student population and is more in tune with the character of West Main Street.

Charlottesville city planner Brian Haluska says the decision on how high to build a particular site comes from cost of land, construction type, terms of the loan, minimum requirements or formalities of the building and that “there aren’t many sites left for large scale brand new buildings,” on West Main.

The Sycamore House Hotel is a nine-story hotel in review, but beyond that, he doesn’t see many more popping up.

This hotel will be built where the current Sycamore House Studio Art Shop sits at 1108 West Main St.—right down the block from Uncommon. John Bartelt, owner of the art shop, says the development of West Main Street isn’t preferred, but it’s inevitable. He’s noticed more foot traffic past his shop since the opening of The Flats.

“I don’t know if it necessarily translates to more business,” he says, “Probably not.”

Bartelt thinks business on West Main won’t increase until more retail shops are created instead of residential areas. He says the 7,100-square feet of retail provided by Uncommon isn’t enough.

The now six-floor, 66-foot-tall residential complex at Uncommon will house 162 units of 4-bedroom, 3-bedroom, 2-bedroom and studio apartments. Uncommon will include a community room along Roosevelt Brown Boulevard, which will be similar to CitySpace on the Downtown Mall, and scheduling preference will be given to the Fifeville and 10th and Page neighborhoods or residents in the building, according to Hannegan.

Residential and commercial parking will be under the building and the complex will include a fitness room, study lounge, club room, yoga studio and terrace-level swimming pool.

“Uncommoners live on the edge, but just down the street,” the Uncommon website says. As developments in this area continue popping up, more and more people may soon be “living on the edge” in an area that once took pride in staying true to its historic aesthetic.

However, Haluska says the building was approved by the Board of Architectural Review, which ensures that new construction is compatible with existing historic districts. Now that it’s only six floors, it will better fall in line with the UVA Children’s Hospital, which was an original concern, Haluska says.

And the changing of West Main continues across the street from Uncommon, where the former Team Tire building is being renovated for as-yet-undisclosed retail/restaurant use, according to Ecorp Real Estate president Mark Green.

For lovers of independent movies and vino, the construction of the Violet Crown Cinema and wine bar in the former Regal theater space on the Downtown Mall is a sign of good things to come, but for nearby small businesses along the mall and the Second Street crossing, the ongoing street closure and noise brought about by the project are taking a toll.

“Starting in January, the number of guests that have come to Fellini’s has diminished,” said Fellini’s owner Jacie Dunkle, who first voiced her displeasure with the Violet Crown project in February after the general contractor, Martin Horn, didn’t notify nearby businesses of the road closure—a requirement of the permit. Since then, Dunkle and other area business owners complain that the city has not posted signage explaining the change in traffic pattern that makes the one block of Second Street north of the mall two-way on certain days and that the closure of the block south of Second Street has continued far longer than expected.

“I have people that drive around and drive around and then go to another vape shop,” said Tracy Riffel, co-owner of Smoke Brake Vapes, which opened on Second Street across from the Elk’s Lodge last August. In her first six months in business, Riffel said, her monthly sales tripled, but business has dipped precipitously in the past several months and she blames the construction.

“For a business in the baby stages, this is killing me,” Riffel told city representatives who met with her in her store on Monday, June 1.

Currently, the street is closed to traffic Monday through 5pm Thursday, when it reopens through Sunday, a schedule that is currently set by an extension to the permit through June 30. While Dunkle and Riffel had hoped the street would be entirely reopened months ago, according to a city representative, that was never the plan.

“The project is scheduled to be complete before the film festival in November,” wrote neighborhood planner Missy Creasy in an e-mail. “The applicant applied for shorter terms multiple times to give the city time to revisit and revise anything as needed.”

Martin Horn’s superintendent on the project, Michael Castorani, did not return a call for comment.

Creasy explained the lack of signs regarding the two-waying of the street on the days that the block south of the mall is closed.

“We did not want to encourage vehicles to turn [onto Second Street] from Market but we did not want to prohibit it,” she said, noting that the two-waying was necessary to allow drivers to access the private parking lot behind Fellini’s. She also said the businesses affected by the street closure may be eligible for city-funded marketing assistance that has been offered to businesses affected by large-scale capital improvement projects.

Noting she had trouble meeting her payroll this month, Riffel said she wishes there had been more communication not only from the city but from the owners of Violet Crown. “I’m happy the space is filled but at what cost?” she said. “This chain has deep pockets and is already bullying the not-so-deep pockets of the surrounding businesses. I will be hesitant to visit,” she said.

With other massive construction projects looming around downtown including the Market Street Plaza on Water Street, Dunkle said she is particularly concerned that the city communicate more closely with area businesses likely to be affected before work is ever approved.

“That needs to happen on the front end,” said Dunkle.