Tag: Rory Stolzenberg

Categories
News

In brief: Flint Hill gets A-OK, Freitas lands primary, and more

Fifteen percent of the housing in the new Flint Hill housing development will be affordable units PC: Roudabush, Gale & Associates, Inc.

Second chance

City Council approves Flint Hill development

After nearly an hour of discussion, and midway through a meeting that lasted until 2:30am, City Council voted July 20 to move forward with the Flint Hill housing development, a set of new homes to be constructed in Fry’s Spring.

Last year, council rejected an initial proposal for the project, but Southern Development has since made substantial changes to its plan. It now wants to build 37 single-family homes and two eight-unit condominium buildings, dumping its original plan for 50 townhouses.

The developers have also boosted the number of affordable units, from 10 percent to at least 15 percent. The units will be affordable for 30 years, and priced to house residents from 25 to 60 percent of area median income.

With a density of six units per acre, there will be some room left for homeowners to add accessory dwelling units, such as a basement apartment or guest house. And there will be almost five acres of green space along Moores Creek, including trails and places to gather.

Last month, the Charlottesville Planning Commission unanimously endorsed the revamped plans.

Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville has partnered with Southern Development, and will build 30 percent of the units. Because the average area median income for Habitat families is 32 percent, Habitat’s president, Dan Rosensweig, said that Flint Hill would be “really good” for them, and for the city.

“It’s the kind of neighborhood our families have told us they’d like to live in,” he added. “This isn’t an answer to all affordable housing issues…[but] we’re really excited to be part of this project.”

Multiple people voiced their support for the development during public comment, including a current Habitat homeowner.

While Mayor Nikuyah Walker had several concerns, including when families would be able to move into the affordable units, she admitted the project was “better than anything” she’s seen regarding affordable housing since she’s been on council.

Two ordinances and a resolution for the development will be put on the consent agenda for council’s next meeting on August 3, and the project will move forward from there.

__________________

Quote of the week

“As you consider defunding the police, my message to you is to fund diversity in crisis responders…[The public mental health system] has just as much systemic bias issues as law enforcement.”

—Black mental health advocate Myra Anderson, speaking to City Council.

__________________

In brief

Military grade

On Monday, City Council voted to ban the Charlottesville Police Department from obtaining weapons from the military and participating in military training. But ahead of the meeting, Planning Commission member Rory Stolzenberg pointed out a variety of loopholes in the resolution—military equipment could still be purchased from private sellers, and the resolution doesn’t address the military-style equipment already in CPD’s arsenal. Stolzenberg, along with other public speakers, urged council to pull the policy from the consent agenda and strengthen it, but council passed the resolution anyway. “Just because it’s not pulled tonight, doesn’t mean we’re not going to work on this,” said Vice-Mayor Sena Magill.

Beer and spirits

Three Notch’d Brewing Company is the latest local business to strip Confederate imagery from its brand. For years, the Charlottesville-based brewers have been selling The Ghost APA, which is named for John S. Mosby, a Charlottesville native and Confederate officer nicknamed the Gray Ghost. The beer will now be called Ghost of the James, a reference to the reserve fleet of U.S. military boats currently stored on the river. The packaging has shifted from gray to blue.

Nick Frietas PC: Gage Skidmore

Freitas tries again

Last week, Nick Freitas won the Republican primary to challenge freshman U.S. Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger for Virginia’s competitive 10th District seat. Freitas lost to far-right statue defender Corey Stewart in the 2018 Republican U.S. Senate primary, and won his current seat in the House of Delegates through a write-in campaign, after failing to file paperwork to get himself on the ballot. He nearly made the same mistake this year, but the Virginia Board of Elections extended the deadline for filing, a move the Democratic Party has contested.

Categories
News

Leaving a mark: Police department out for arrests after protesters spray paint street

Protesters left spray paint outside the police department after a July 21 demonstration. Photo: Eze Amos

Arrest warrants were issued for six people accused of spray painting the street outside the Charlottesville Police Department over the last two weeks. Police say the demonstrators “vandalized the streets and the sidewalks with cruel, threatening, and hate-filled language.”

The first four charges, announced in a June 25 press release, concerned paint on the sidewalk after the June 21 defund the police rally outside the station. The most common spray-painted slogan was “Black Lives Matter;” other comments included “Murderers belong in jail,” “Fund mental health,” and “Fuck 12.”

The tone of the press release suggests the activists got under the department’s skin. “We will continue to prioritize the public’s health and safety, but criminal actions that deface public spaces or put the safety of others at risk cannot be tolerated,” the release said, adding that police have “launched a full investigation” and are “not finished.”

The department also claimed the clean-up price tag would total $20,000, because, according to its estimates, a section of Market Street would need to be repaved, at a cost of $15,000 reports NBC29. (We know the city is capable of removing spray paint without destroying surfaces—it has removed messages from the Market Street Park Robert E. Lee statue plenty of times, including this past weekend, and the statue is still there.)

The department has been inconsistent in its reactions to public speech in front of its offices. On Wednesday, June 24, the police department’s Twitter page posted a photo showing a sign planted outside the office, reading “We appreciate and support you CPD!!!”

“More kind words and support from our community with these signs in front of our lobby,” the tweet reads. No arrest warrants were issued for the people who placed these signs.

According to Charlottesville Planning Commissioner Rory Stolzenberg, who has been active in cataloging the police department’s public messaging in recent weeks, city attorney John Blair ruled that all signs should be removed from the area under Virginia’s unlawful posting rule.

After the June 21 defund the police rally, some protesters marched down the mall, directing chants at diners sitting outside. Though disruptive, this is constitutionally protected speech. The June 25 police press release implied otherwise, saying the protesters “chose to engage in unacceptable and criminal behavior.”

“Is it appropriate for the police to be running this messaging campaign in its own defense against protests that call for defunding the police?” Stolzenberg asked at Monday’s Police Civilian Review Board meeting.

Charlottesville activists have been demonstrating peacefully for weeks, regularly holding marches calling for defunding the police and supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. These are the first arrest warrants issued for activity related to these protests.

Charlottesville Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania will now have to decide whether or not to aggressively prosecute those accused. If the suspects are charged and convicted, they could face a $2,500 fine and up to a year in jail.

 

Categories
News

Staying social: Public officials take different strategies to social media

An argument on Nextdoor led some residents to ask Commissioner Rory Stolzenberg to recuse himself from voting on a rezoning plan. (Photo: Amy and Jackson Smith)

When Rory Stolzenberg accepted an appointment to the Charlottesville Planning Commission last October, he hoped to play a role in how the city government shapes its citizens’ way of life. What he didn’t expect is just how much weight his words would now carry online.

The 27-year-old software developer has an active presence on social media—most notably on Twitter and the neighborhood-based platform Nextdoor—and drew the ire of some local residents after engaging in arguments online.

In a June 11 letter to the Planning Commission, a group of 28 Belmont residents asked that Stolzenberg recuse himself from an upcoming vote, citing his comments on social media about the issue, a proposed rezoning plan for affordable housing units at Hinton Avenue United Methodist Church. Stolzenberg’s comments were “denigrating and filled with sarcasm to neighbors,” the residents complained.

Although the letter (which also requested that Commissioner Gary Heaton recuse himself because he’s a Methodist minister) wasn’t addressed at the meeting, where the Hinton Church proposal was approved in a unanimous vote, it raises the question of where public officials  should draw the line in their online comments.

As a general rule, Stolzenberg says he doesn’t comment on pending applications, but will enter online discussions about them when he believes others are missing or ignoring critical facts. He says he tries to be factual and base his opinions on evidence. “Certainly, there’s times, especially on [Nextdoor], where the quality of the conversation overall has kind of regressed,” he says. “Often there are insults being lobbed at me, or renters.”

In the sometimes-heated thread on Nextdoor about Hinton Avenue, Stolzenberg responded to the rezoning concerns with a photo of a well-kept multi-family home on Belmont Avenue and wrote “SICK FOURPLEX absolutely DESTROYS neighborhood character! Who will save us from this CREEPING THREAT?!”

In the ensuing exchange, Kimber Hawkey, one of the letter’s co-signers and a Belmont resident, accused the commissioner of having “blatantly called out and challenged residents who would dare to speak out against this project.”

Hawkey declined to comment for this story, saying “the documents speak for themselves.”

Kevin Driscoll, an assistant professor in media studies at UVA with a background in political communication, says too little is known about the effects of social media on local politics. But his hope is that local officials use social media to gauge public opinion in a productive way.

“I think there’s a need for public officials to step out and define what leadership looks like in a social media environment,” Driscoll says. “The trick for folks going forward—especially at a local level—is to create the feeling of localness within these massive platforms.”

Stolzenberg is by no means the only public official in Charlottesville to communicate on social media. His fellow Planning Commission member Lyle Solla-Yates is also vocal on Twitter, and all five members of City Council have active profiles on various social media platforms. Mayor Nikuyah Walker, in particular, uses Facebook to communicate with constituents, highlight projects, and vent frustrations. Many of the posts on her personal page center around race, including a photo she shared Thursday that said, “Black women are stereotyped as angry but have you ever told an old white man he couldn’t have something[?]”

Walker drew criticism last July after protesting a candidate for interim city manager on Facebook Live. Her comments played into Sidney C. Zemp’s decision to turn down the offer, citing in a letter that he “would be unable to serve the public needs, instead being mired in petty fights and paralysis.” Walker declined to comment for this story.

According to City Attorney John C. Blair, there’s no state or city policy that restricts how local elected representatives use their social media accounts. The only thing they’re not allowed to do is block users. A case involving a Loudoun County official reached a federal appeals court in January, stipulating that even temporarily blocking an account is a violation of that person’s First Amendment rights.

“If a city council member had a question, they would contact our office and we’d talk about how the law stands [on social media] at that time,” Blair says.

Councilor Wes Bellamy, who came under fire in 2016 for offensive tweets from his early 20s that resurfaced courtesy of Unite the Right organizer Jason Kessler, says he thinks it’s important to post his opinions online to keep people informed, but he doesn’t have to engage with everyone who disagrees with him.

Developing thick skin helps, and “understanding that just because somebody has an opinion doesn’t mean that I have to respond to it or validate something that I know is just completely ridiculous,” Bellamy says.

The reality of local politics in the 21st century is that a significant base of constituents relies on social media for its news and political commentary. So whether or not public officials engaging in arguments is helpful in the long run, most tend to agree it’s important to use social media to inform citizens and initiate important dialogues.

“I think there is a role for public debate on social media, like for important issues that we’re discussing … so that people can see them,” Stolzenberg says. “If we have more discussions about topics publicly, it gives a window into important considerations that we’re discussing on either side.”

Categories
News

Affordable option? Church apartments could be a godsend

Reverend Robert Lewis of the Hinton Avenue United Methodist Church says a decline in membership has left the church with unused space—and the congregation would like to convert it into 15 affordable apartments, with some reserved for people with developmental disabilities. Photo by Eze Amos

When a church in the Belmont neighborhood proposed converting underused space into 15 apartments, with a third of them specifically for people with disabilities, some community members were quick to call it a development idea that they could finally get behind.

Others? Eh, not so much.

“Public feedback has not been supportive,” planning commissioner Lyle Solla-Yates wrote on Twitter May 12.

One of those opposed is Raman Pfaff, who lives less than 100 feet away from Hinton Avenue United Methodist, the church in question. “When I moved here almost 20 years ago, I wanted a neighborhood, not an apartment complex,” he says. “The overall concept for having a few units for [disabled] people is great, but the implementation does not match up very well with a residential community.”

Responding to reported complaints about noise, traffic, parking, and other issues, local resident and New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie tweeted, “this is one of those times when I wish people would just be honest with themselves and say they don’t want to live next to people who are different than they are.”

The church’s pastor, Reverend Robert Lewis, says the project is a response to changing needs. Membership has slowly and steadily declined across all Protestant denominations for the past four or five decades, he adds, and his church is no exception.

Sunday school at the Hinton Avenue house of worship is just one example.

“Our youth had all grown up and gone to college, and we didn’t have younger folks come along to fill those classrooms,” Lewis says. Now, there’s empty space in the educational wing, which is currently being leased by the International School. He’s hoping a rezoning will allow for one- to three-bedroom apartments there, priced “as affordable as possible,” according to the application.

The project was scheduled to go before the Planning Commission May 14, but was rescheduled for June 11 because of last-minute changes to the application. City staff has already recommended that rezoning to neighborhood commercial corridor—the only zoning available that would allow for building apartments—be denied because Southern Crescent, a cajun restaurant situated a few buildings down Hinton Avenue, is “an ideal endpoint to commercial activity,” according to the staff report.

Lewis says the update to the church’s proposal would prohibit any commercial use for now and any future tenant, unless another rezoning is granted.

If approved, they want to have the new housing built within five years, and expect it will cost “millions.” The church has already raised $200,000, and is hoping to offset some of the cost with tax credit vouchers.

“The sense of support for the mission itself has been very encouraging,” says Lewis, because most people recognize the city’s housing crisis, and that there are even fewer affordable options for people with disabilities. “The possibility that they could be supported in living the fullest life they can is just a godsend to them.”

With the international decline in church memberships, holy spaces across the globe have resorted to apartment conversions—or closing their doors. In Chicago, for instance, priests forecast that up to 100 of the city’s 350 Catholic churches will shutter by 2030, according to a 2017 report from now-defunct Windy City news source DNAinfo. Some have already been recycled into everything from a dance studio to a school for circus performers.

And at Chicago’s Grace Church, another Methodist congregation, leaders are similarly proposing an addition of 20 on-site apartments, and hoping that the revenue will allow the house of worship to continue operating.

But some in Charlottesville aren’t sympathetic to the congregational crisis.

“Let them go broke,” says Belmont resident Doug Ross, noting that people have argued that because the plan is being proposed by a church, it must be good.

Historically, that hasn’t always been the case, Ross says. “No, they don’t get a pass just because they have a cross and ring bells on Sunday.”

More criticism flooded a post about the project on community forum Nextdoor, which eventually racked up more than 100 comments, including this one from Rosemary Evans: “Do you honestly think these newcomers will obey speed limits? Not on your life!”

The comments prompted a response from planning commissioner Rory Stolzenberg, who called the thread evidence of “anti-renter prejudice and discrimination.”

That anti-renter sentiment, he wrote, is “reflected in the dark, sordid history of our zoning code…and the bad-faith obstructionism aimed at keeping new neighbors out [that] we see exhibited at every public meeting.”

“People like you would like to see people like me barred from this city,” he wrote to another poster. “And for too long, you’ve succeeded, pushing us into a housing crisis that sees families displaced every single day.”