Tag: Planning & Development

When the Charlottesville City Council denied a live music permit for Matteus Frankovich’s Black Market Moto Saloon property near the Woollen Mills neighborhood on Monday, the move came as something of a surprise to those who had worked to reach a compromise between the bar owner and local residents.

The 4-1 vote—Dave Norris was the lone holdout—went against the recommendations of a nearly unanimous Planning Commission, which had worked extensively with Frankovich to hammer out a proposal that limited the impact of hosting live music events at his bar and restaurant on the corner of Market Street and Meade Avenue. The contentious battle over music at the Moto Saloon had dragged on for months, pitting many nearby residents—who have long fought for a zoning change to quiet their neighborhood—against Frankovich and his patrons.

“We make a recommendation, and it’s always Council’s decision, but I have to say, I thought we worked very hard to craft a compromise,” said Planning Commission member Dan Rosensweig. “We put up the most stringent set of restrictions that we ever have, I think.”

It’s understandable that Council and the Commission could reach different conclusions on the same permit application, said Rosensweig. The Commission works in a sort of “zoning vacuum,” he said, and is completely guided by what’s on the books. The Council can and does weigh other factors.

“They’re not nearly as restricted in terms of rationale for making decisions,” he said.

And some on the dais Monday appeared to weigh other factors. City Councilor Kathy Galvin said the truest test of whether live music was acceptable for the bar happened months ago, when the Moto Saloon was hosting live shows in violation of its certificate of occupancy. The outpouring of frustration from the community at the time was evidence, she said, “that this property use is not harmonious with the existing patterns of use in the neighborhood.”

Fellow councilors Kirstin Szakos and Dede Smith and Mayor Satyendra Huja largely agreed with Galvin, though Szakos emphasized that the decision wasn’t about whether the Moto Saloon itself was a proper place for live music, but rather whether its permanent location could ever be expected to appropriately be home to a music hall.

“It’s almost irrelevant who’s operating it,” Szakos said.

After the vote, Frankovich said he was frustrated at the Councilors’ application of what he felt was a vague Comprehensive Plan that didn’t really represent what’s possible for the neighborhood his restaurant is in.

“A lot of the semantics around the future of Charlottesville—I think that’s still very abstract, and I’m kind of paying the price for an undeveloped vision here.” He had received a lot of support from nearby businesses and dozens of local residents, not to mention hundreds of other city residents who stood behind him. “Basically as a business owner, I’m just trying to cater to the desires of my clientele,” he said.

Frankovich said he appreciated the work that went into hammering out a compromise, even if the end result wasn’t what he’d wanted. “I respect the planning commission’s willingness to get in there in the midst of a back and forth scenario and find some solutions that work for everyone,” he said. “It’s just unfortunate that the city is not in a place to support that right now.”

And somewhat unusual, Rosensweig said. In most cases, the City Council upholds Planning Commission recommendations. Such a strong overturn is fairly rare.

“It doesn’t happen that much, especially not for a pretty decisive vote,” he said. Though it has happened once already with the currently seated Council he said—a few months back they reversed what he said was a fairly non-controversial zoning decision in the Rose Hill neighborhood, so “it will be interesting to see if this is part of a trend.”

Still, he said, everyone on the Commission respects Council’s right to make the final decision. “We understand our role is just as a recommending body,” he said.

Among the things Albemarle County likes to claim it’s known for, its cell tower ordinance is probably the most unlikely point of pride. The county’s long-standing regulations are credited with forcing wireless structures to keep a low profile, and they’ve been duplicated by other jurisdictions. But with greater demand for strong signals even in rural corners of the county, there’s increasing pressure from industry and county staff to adjust the rules to ease infrastructure expansion. Changes are in the works.

The county drew up its wireless regulations in 2000, and passed its current ordinance in 2004. The policy took an unusual step: Where other municipalities approved towers on a case-by-case basis, Albemarle’s rules were designed to incentivize shorter, unobtrusive poles in order to limit visual impact.

Wireless towers fall into one of three categories in Albemarle. Tier I facilities are generally antennas attached to existing structures, like water towers. Tier II towers are wooden monopoles with flush-mounted antennas that reach no more than 10′ higher than the nearest tallest tree. Anything else, from slightly taller monopoles to 200′ lattice towers, falls into Tier III.

To encourage the use of existing structures and smaller poles, the ordinance allowed staff to rubber stamp Tier I uses, and the Planning Commission to approve Tier II applications. Tier III projects need a special use permit, which costs thousands and requires approval by the Board of Supervisors.

And it worked. The tree-top-height wood towers are now regionally known as “Albemarle County poles,” said County Supervisor Duane Snow, because they became so ubiquitous here.

Bill Fritz, chief of special projects for Albemarle County Community Development, said the county’s approach has been incorporated into a model ordinance now used in other Virginia communities. “We used to be able to say ours was unique, but other jurisdictions have adopted significant portions of what we have,” he said.

But many think it’s time for an update to the rules.

“The reality is, since the policy was adopted in 2000, things have evolved,” said Valerie Long, a Williams Mullen attorney who represents AT&T. “Twelve years have gone by. Opinions and attitudes have changed.”

When the county first started considering its wireless policy, people were willing to put up with mediocre service. That’s not the case any more, Long said. Not only do cell users expect good coverage, more people are using their phones for more uses, and that means more infrastructure.

But the race to keep up with consumer demand coupled with Albemarle’s tight rules and a shifting legal landscape has led to some unintended consequences, she said.

The creation of the Southern Albemarle Rural Historic District in 2007 meant a vast swath of the county became an “avoidance area” with a more strict development review process, and any Tier II tower proposed there was automatically treated as a Tier III application. And in January, a Virginia Supreme Court decision stripped planning commissions of their ability to approve Tier II towers altogether.

As a result, many applications that otherwise would have sailed through approval have been landing in front of the Board of Supervisors, bumped up for greater scrutiny not because of any controversial features, but because underlying rules have shifted. Nearly all such towers are ultimately approved, said Fritz. The process is just longer and more expensive for everyone.

“It required an additional review by the Board of Supervisors, and there’s more staff time involved, and thus more cost involved,” he said.

Earlier this year, the Board hired a consultant to look into updating the ordinance, and county staff sat down with industry representatives in June to hash out possible changes. The resulting staff recommendations suggested loosening many regulations, including allowing poles to reach 60′ regardless of nearby tree height, scrapping limitations on the number of antenna arrays allowed on a single tower, and allowing county staff to approve all Tier II towers. The aim was to streamline the review process for applications that would be expected to get approved anyway, said Fritz.

“That’s one of the things we looked at—whether or not we could have the same level of review,” he said. “The answer was yes.”

But some supervisors balked at what they saw as too much backtracking.

Board Chair Ann Mallek said the ordinance has served the county well, and she doesn’t want to see major changes without serious consideration and public input. “I think that the benefit of our ordinance on the county as a whole is huge when it comes to the viewshed and the scenery that bring so many people here, including millions of tourists every year,” she said. “If we take a big galloping step, there are going to be consequences, and we’re going to have to live with them.”

Duane Snow agreed that preserving some limits was important. But he said he’s received scores of e-mails from his rural constituents pleading for better cell coverage in southern Albemarle, and he favors adjusting tower approval rules to speed the expansion process.

“I think it’s important to keep in mind that we’re not talking about the mega towers that are a real eyesore,” he said. “We’re doing things tastefully, but we’re making it so it’s a little smoother, without a lot of coming to the Board.”

Fritz said it will be a while before the county adjusts its ordinance, and in the meantime, staff wants to hear from residents.

“It is obvious to anyone who’d done any work in this industry that the usage of wireless technology has significantly changed,” he said. “Does that change translate into a change in what people are willing to accept as impacts? I don’t know. The question hasn’t been asked. We’ll find out.”

Wayside Chicken didn’t close during the JPA bridge’s lengthy construction, but the just-opened feeling of the chicken joint is palpable now that the bridge is open and customers are once again piling in. The delectable smell of frying chicken wafts across the parking lot just off the bridge.

Wayside is one of five small businesses with an entrance off the bridge that lost significant traffic and revenue during the Virginia Department of Transportation’s 18-month construction project to restore the dilapidated Jefferson Park Avenue bridge over the Norfolk Southern railroad. The bridge reopened last week, and while the owners and patrons are thrilled, residents on the other side of the tracks enjoyed the year-and-a-half with quieter streets, and are hoping to hold on to some of the benefits of quieter streets.

Wayside assistant manager Alex Groff said the restaurant has already seen changes in day-to-day operation. After a year-and-a-half of minimal staff, salary freezes, no vacation time, and slashed profits, he said they couldn’t be happier to see their customers coming across the bridge again.

Groff said the year-and-a-half was rough for him and his coworkers, but everyone came together, from the other businesses sharing the parking lot to regular, sympathetic customers.

Stephanie Hope and Jessica Conley work at the Region Ten office off Cherry Avenue, and happily stood in line at Wayside for chicken platters shortly after the JPA bridge reopened.

“We don’t have much over on Fifth Street,” Hope said. “We used to come here for lunch once or twice a week,” but their visits became few and far between once construction started.

A recent Charlottesville transplant, Conley said she’d had no idea how close Wayside actually is to her office.

“It’s only about four minutes using the bridge,” she said. “But if we’re going away it takes at least 10 minutes. We only have 30-minute lunch breaks.” Now that the restaurant is more accessible, Hope and Conley said they plan to make regular trips back.

“Charlottesville has a strong community, and everybody pitched in the amount that they could,” Groff said.

Durty Nelly’s owner Toby Breeden agreed, adding that the city did what it could to help the businesses. He said he appreciated everyone’s efforts, but the experience was overall a negative one, and he’s ready to move forward.

“I can’t really think of anything positive about having your gross sales cut in half,” Breeden said.

Residents of the nearby Fry’s Spring area sympathized with the businesses’ hardship, but had time to get used to a more peaceful, pedestrian-friendly neighborhood.

“People just came out of their houses more,” City Councilor and Fry’s Spring resident Dede Smith said. Walking or bicycling became the most efficient way to get to the intersection of JPA and Fontaine Avenue, and she said families got used to being outside and interacting with one another.

Bike Walk Play JPA, an August event that blocked off one mile of road for neighborhood activities and games, brought hundreds of families into the street to meet one another and play outside. Organizer Susan Elliot said the closing of the bridge helped inspire the event, and she hoped it would encourage people to frequent the businesses on the other side throughout construction.

Inessa Telefus, who returned to the Fry’s Spring neighborhood in 2005 after 10 years in Albemarle County, said Bike Walk Play JPA was a huge hit, and a good first step for the neighborhood to maintain the positive effects of the bridge closing. She and her family have always been active, and drove minimallyeven before construction began.

“We walk a lot, and walking on JPA was definitely a lot better because there wasn’t so much traffic,” she said.

Telefus’ daughter is in kindergarten at nearby Jackson Via Elementary. She said she’d love to see more neighborhood parents walking their children to school as a group, but the returning traffic makes her wary.

“Maybe if more people walked, drivers would be more mindful of it,” she said. “But then again, it’s a catch 22, because if people don’t feel safe, they won’t walk.”

Now that the bridge is open and traffic has returned to the neighborhood, Elliot said she hopes to see the city implement adaptations to the roads for more controlled speed and increased safety as a way to keep some of the positive changes more permanent. At least one city official agrees; Smith said she wants to see the speed limit in the neighborhood reduced to 25 mph.

“There’s a lot of positive and cooperative energy within our neighborhood,” Elliot said. “People want to work with each other to find the best solution for everyone.”

Matteus Frankovich said all he wants to do is give back to the city he lives in, but intricate zoning laws and unhappy neighbors have made it difficult for him to do so. Woolen Mills residents have complained that his restaurant, the Black Market Moto Saloon, is detrimental to the neighborhood, and the city temporarily shut it down for illegally hosting live music. After months of local debate, at last Tuesday’s meeting, the City Planning Commission approved a special-use permit that will allow Moto Saloon to host limited live music.

Frankovich, who opened the Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar on the Downtown Mall nearly 10 years ago, opened the Moto Saloon, a motorcycle-themed restaurant and bar at the corner of Market Street and Meade Avenue last March. His vision was a lively, welcoming atmosphere with good food and music ranging from hard rock to bluegrass.

“What I am concerned with is just contributing something to Charlottesville that isn’t a cookie cutter model of a club or a restaurant,” he said.

The area is zoned light industrial, and because he had not applied for a permit to host live music, after delivering written warnings about the noise level, the city temporarily shut the restaurant down in July. Nearby restaurant the Lunchbox received the same warnings; the owner ceased hosting live music and did not want to fork out $1,500 for a permit. But if City Council gives Moto Saloon the go-ahead for live music, owner Joseph Young said he may consider applying too.

After anxiously awaiting the meeting, Frankovich showed up last Tuesday with a small army of supporters. Fewer than 10 spoke against it, and after hearing arguments from both sides, the commissioners held a lengthy discussion and came up with a compromise: Live music at the Moto Saloon must stop at 10pm on weeknights, at 12:30am on weekends, and is not permitted on Sundays or Mondays. Outdoor shows must end by 7pm, and a security guard is required to be present during live shows on the weekend.

The Planning Commission voted 5-1 to approve the permit, but the compromise did not seem to satisfy either side entirely.

“I think the weekday restraint is unrealistic,” Frankovich said. “Most shows start at 9pm, so we would hope for [an end time of] 11pm.”

Former Woolen Mills Neighborhood Association President Victoria Dunham said local residents have been active in the debate over zoning issues for years.

“For decades, our goal has been to get away from being continually hamstrung by the results of bad zoning practices,” Dunham said. “Unfortunately, it happened again last [Tuesday].”

Dunham said the city has been beating the neighborhood with the “industrial stick” for years, and the overall message at last week’s meeting was that non-harmonious use should be allowed because “it could be worse.” She did not comment on the specifics of the approved permit, but she called the decision-making process reactionary, and said it’s risky to implement something with so little thought and foresight.

“In the event that things go wrong, their assumption is that the neighborhood will somehow clean up the mess,” she said.

Planning Commissioner Dan Rosensweig said the decision to allow live music at Moto Saloon was not an easy one. He said he hopes the permit will provide enough flexibility for the owner to properly run a business without negatively impacting the community, but wasn’t surprised that neither side was entirely happy.

“Well, that’s the nature of compromise, isn’t it?” Rosensweig said.

The Planning Commission takes public comments from both sides very seriously, he said, and the public opinion is woven in with other information, like the city’s Comprehensive Plan and specifications of the location itself.

“Can the impacts be mitigated? If the answer is no, then we likely wouldn’t recommend approval of the special-use permit,” Rosensweig said.

Planning Commissioner Lisa Green, a Belmont resident who witnessed a similar debate over live music at Bel Rio two years ago, said putting aside personal opinions was difficult in this case. But as great as it is to hear emotional testimonies from both sides, she said, ultimately the Commission’s task was to evaluate the land and potential negative impacts on the community.

“We tried to create a balance, and create the best situation for the neighborhood based off of land use and not necessarily the emotions and personalities,” Green said.

Green ultimately voted to approve the special-use permit, and said the fact that Frankovich broke the rules didn’t play into the Commission’s decision. That will be an issue for City Council to address when it casts final votes on the permit October 1.

“Sometimes it makes it appear that someone who’s snubbing the law gets away with something,” Green said. “But if he can stay within the boundaries, time will tell if he wants to remain a law abiding citizen.”