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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In brief: Keeping the pressure, breaking the law, and more

Defunders keep fighting

“Does abolition really mean ending the police? Yes.”

So said community organizer Ang Conn, as she spearheaded last Wednesday’s Zoom conversation on policing, hosted by Defund Cville Police. Over 80 community members joined in on the call.

The group hopes to keep the pressure on as the summer of protests moves into autumn. Though Charlottesville City Council has proposed a mental health crisis response task force, it has yet to take any action toward reducing CPD’s budget.

Defund Cville Police wants City Council to cut the police budget by 60 percent and invest those funds in housing, education, mental health and substance abuse treatment, and other low-barrier community services.

The group has also called for a freeze on police hiring, and the creation of a community crisis hotline, which would dispatch responders trained in de-escalation, trauma-informed care, and transformative and restorative justice.

According to Conn, defunding will help the community work toward police abolition. “We’ll take that budget yearly until it’s zero,” she said.

Several other activists—including UVA students—joined Conn in leading a presentation on policing, starting with its racist origins. While slave patrols surveilled and captured enslaved Black people in the South, police forces emerged to maintain race and class hierarchy in the North.

The activists discussed how Black and brown communities—along with other marginalized groups, like organized labor and houseless people—have been systemically harmed by law enforcement at every level.

UVA student Donavon Lea described police reforms, like body cameras and additional training, as a “band-aid for a bigger issue”—they only feed more money into the prison industrial complex, and away from communities.

“Society has the idea of hiding folks away in prisons…when we have the ability and resources to address these issues in society,” added Conn.

Pumping funding into police departments has not helped victims, particularly those of sexual and interpersonal violence, the activists emphasized. About 99 percent of sexual assault perpetrators walk free, while more than 90 percent of domestic violence cases reported to the police do not result in jail time, and may cause more problems for the victim.

The activists will continue to pressure the city, but in the meantime, Conn encouraged all the event attendees to get involved in mutual aid and support, which she said will help to build a police-free community.

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Quote of the week

“The majority of the rallies, demonstrations, and marches here are primarily people [who] don’t look very diverse.”

—Charlottesville Police Chief RaShall Brackney, implying that this year’s Black Lives Matter protests have included too many white people

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In brief

Bar none

A quick drive around the Corner on a weekend night reveals that some UVA students are partying on, undeterred by the virus or the school’s 10-person limit on gatherings. Lines to get into bars often wrap around the block. Under Virginia’s Phase 3 guidelines, restaurants are allowed to open for indoor dining but “bar seats and congregating areas of restaurants must be closed to patrons except for through-traffic.”

Shelter skelter

Last year, Hinton Avenue Methodist Church was shocked to find that a group of Belmont residents opposed the church’s plan to set up Rachel’s Haven, a 15-unit apartment building including several units reserved for those with intellectual disabilities. Now, the group that started a petition against the project is trying to abandon its own cause, scared off by “an outright attack on our group” on social media, reports The Daily Progress.

Safety first

Albemarle teachers—along with parents, students, and other supporters—gathered in front of the Albemarle County Office Building on Fifth Street last week to protest the district’s move to Stage 3, which will put up to 5,000 preschoolers through third graders in the classroom.

Dining out

After months of pandemic losses, Charlottesville restaurants will no longer have to pay the city’s deferred outdoor space rental fee for the months of March and April, and only need to cover half of the fee for the following months, according to an ordinance passed by City Council on Monday. Restaurants seeking to rent more outdoor space will also get a 50 percent discount.