Coronavirus case numbers continue to rise in Charlottesville and the surrounding counties.
PC: Blue Ridge Health District
The local vaccine rollout process continues. About a month after the first coronavirus vaccines were shipped to hospitals across the country, Charlottesville’s frontline health care employees who work outside of hospitals are now getting vaccinated.
On Monday, the Blue Ridge Health District (formerly known as the Thomas Jefferson Health District) began offering the first dose of the Moderna vaccine to area emergency service providers, dialysis center staff, and Region Ten residential facility staff at its location on Rose Hill Drive.
To expedite the distribution process, on Wednesday the district will begin hosting at least three appointment-only clinics per week for these select health care workers in a new temporary structure set up in the former Kmart parking lot. Red Light Management and the Bama Works Fund contributed funding to set up the facility.
“There are over 1,000 EMS [workers] that we need to vaccinate. There are folks going in and out of the hospital as well. So we want to get them done first,” says Kathryn Goodman, spokesperson for the health district.
The shots will be administered by public health nurses, who received their own vaccinations (and vaccine training) at the end of December. The district is currently working to vaccinate the rest of its staff.
The health district hopes to vaccinate about 500 to 600 people per week at the pop-up clinic.
Because both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two doses to be fully effective, district staff will use a new state Vaccine Administration Management System to properly track appointments and alert patients when they need to return for their second dose.
As more vaccine shipments arrive in the next few weeks, the clinics will open up to other frontline health care workers (hospice employees, primary care providers, dental practice employees, pharmacy workers, Department of Corrections health care personnel, K-12 school nurses, and more) who have had potential contact with COVID or with high-risk patients.
“We’ll have the information sent out to these groups,” says Goodman. “We have quite a long list already of thousands and thousands of individuals who need to get vaccinated as soon as possible.”
UVA and Martha Jefferson hospitals continue to vaccinate their own employees. Other health care entities in Charlottesville and surrounding counties must fill out a BRHD survey indicating how many of their employees need to be vaccinated. The district plans to host additional clinics for health care employees—and eventually other essential workers and high-risk individuals—down the line.
To date, 89,326 people have received the vaccine in Virginia, including 1,542 in Charlottesville, and 1,615 in Albemarle County. However, none have been administered their second dose, according to the Virginia Department of Health vaccine dashboard.
Meanwhile, the health district has seen a record surge in COVID cases and hospitalizations since Thanksgiving, and expects numbers to worsen in the next few weeks following the holiday season. In December alone, there were 2,181 new cases, 86 hospitalizations and 10 deaths—the worst month of the pandemic.
While new cases in the district have remained low since the start of the new year, the district’s positivity rate is currently at 9.4 percent, the highest it has been since April.
Nearly one year after the first coronavirus cases were reported in the U.S., UVA hospital and Sentara Martha Jefferson have received their first shipments of the Pfizer vaccine, and begun vaccinating employees who come in direct contact with coronavirus patients. PC: Sanjay Suchek
Last Tuesday, UVA hospital’s ICU director Taison Bell became one of the first people in Charlottesville to receive the newly approved coronavirus vaccine. It was a moment of “mixed emotions,” says Bell, who has worked with COVID patients throughout the crisis.
“It was definitely a good feeling to finally have something that can potentially protect you and your family from COVID-19, but also bittersweet,” he says. “In order to get to this point, so many hundreds of thousands of people have died…It was just ironic that the key to getting out of this was in this tiny little vial.”
Nearly one year after the first coronavirus cases were reported in the U.S., the vaccine is finally available. Shortly after the Food and Drug Administration approved the Pfizer vaccine for emergency use on December 11, it was sent to hospitals across the country, including here in Charlottesville.
Last Tuesday, UVA hospital received 3,000 doses of the vaccine. The day before, Sentara, which runs Martha Jefferson, received 11,700 doses to be shared among multiple facilities. Both hospitals immediately began vaccinating doctors, nurses, and other staff who come in direct contact with coronavirus patients in the COVID-19 unit or the emergency department.
Once these high-risk employees are vaccinated—and the two health care systems receive additional shipments—the shot will be available to essential hospital workers, then to the rest of the staff, with priority placed on those who are medically vulnerable.
Local long-term care facilities will be able to receive on-site vaccination services from pharmacies, including Walgreens and CVS.
On Friday, the Moderna vaccine was also approved by the FDA, and shipped to hospitals two days later.
Both vaccines—currently available only to adults—have over 95 percent effective rates, and require two doses in order to be fully effective. Pfizer’s doses must be spaced out by 21 days, while Moderna’s require a 28-day wait.
Bell says he felt fine after receiving the shot, despite the mild discomfort from the needle. However, recipients may experience mild side effects, including fatigue, chills, body aches, or headaches.
While the long-term effects of the vaccine are still unknown, science and safety were not “cut short” in the approval process, explains Bell.
“[It] is based on a platform called messenger RNA technology, which is novel in the sense that it hasn’t been used in a licensed vaccine before—but the actual science and study behind it has been going on for more than a decade,” he says. “I have no doubt [that] it’s safe.”
mRNA ultimately protects recipients from developing symptoms of the virus. It has yet to be determined if either vaccine can completely prevent COVID-19 infections.
The $9 billion government investment into the vaccine also expedited its development and distribution, explains Bell. And as COVID cases continue to spike around the country, researchers had little trouble finding people infected with the virus who were willing to participate in trials, which can be a challenge when developing vaccines for different diseases.
According to the Thomas Jefferson Health District’s Emergency Manager Jessica Coughlin, the next stages of vaccine distribution will likely take several months to get through.
After health care employees, essential workers—including teachers, paramedics, bus drivers, and service workers—will be next in line for the shot, along with high-risk populations. The Centers for Disease Control has released loose guidelines for vaccine distribution priority, but states and hospital systems still have significant control over the specifics of the rollout process.
The vaccine is not expected to be available to the general public until early summer. But with more than 200 coronavirus vaccines still in development across the globe, this timeline may change. Because the development of the vaccine was paid for by the federal government, it will be free to all who decide to get it.
Developing the vaccine is one thing. Convincing people to take it could be a different challenge. America’s long and brutal history of medical racism has left many people in the Black community mistrustful of the coronavirus vaccine, says Bell.
From 1932 to 1972, in the infamous Tuskegee experiment, the U.S. Public Health Service allowed nearly 400 Black men in Alabama with syphilis to go untreated in order to study the full progression of the disease, causing many participants to suffer from blindness, insanity, and other severe health problems. Meanwhile, in Charlottesville, UVA was a hub for eugenic science. Doctors in Virginia sterilized thousands of Black people without their consent from the 1920s to the 1970s.
“The Black community remembers these insults…[They] must be addressed head-on,” says Bell. “It’s not a matter of just saying, ‘Oh, well trust us now.’ Because the same message was given to people back in Tuskegee and the eugenics movement.”
While there is no single solution to this deep-rooted trauma, Bell encourages his colleagues to “recognize these wounds,” and work to heal them by being honest, transparent, and explaining as much as possible. They must also assure concerned patients that Black people have been a part of the research, development, and trials for the vaccine from the very beginning.
Coughlin says primary care physicians will be best-equipped to help people make good choices around the vaccine, and that the health district is encouraging people to “do their research, look at official sources, and speak with their physicians.”
Though UVA Health System’s furloughs ended over the summer, the hospital is still understaffed. PC: Skyclad Aerial
In May, the University of Virginia Health System sparked public outcry when it placed over 500 employees on furlough, citing millions of dollars in pandemic-related financial losses. Affected staff were out of work for up to three months, and were not paid.
Though some feared the staffing cuts would be extended, furloughs—along with pay reductions—finally came to an end on July 25 for the UVA Medical Center, and on August 16 for the School of Medicine.
“Everyone is back,” says Chief Operating Officer Wendy Horton. “Actually, because there was a pent-up…demand, now we’re really busy…we’re actually hiring.”
Hospital staff, which has been stretched thin for months, desperately await those new hires, say multiple employees.
“The whole time of COVID has been a time of staffing crisis at the hospital, because it took such a financial hit when they canceled elective surgeries,” says a nurse aide who works in various units. “Every unit at the hospital is short staffed, more often than not…[We] do not have enough nursing and support staff.”
“Everybody is really experiencing some type of staffing stressor,” says another nurse, who works in the COVID intensive care unit. In recent months, employees have been constantly shuffled around, and even after the shuffling, some units don’t have enough employees with the specific skills required to make things run smoothly.
As the pandemic rages on, even the hospital’s COVID unit has suffered from staffing shortages. At the beginning of the pandemic, employees from units with low patient count were brought into the coronavirus unit as support staff, explains the ICU nurse.
“But when the furlough ended in July, they had to send all of those people back, so that left a lot of holes for where we were having support staff,” the COVID ICU nurse says.
The COVID unit has also seen some staff leave for different posts, due to months of pandemic burnout. “The first three months of, ‘I hope my equipment works. I can’t see my family. The world is shutting down. My patients are dying alone’…That took a huge toll,” says the COVID ICU nurse.
The potential for internal coronavirus outbreaks at the hospital has only exacerbated staffing fears.
Around two weeks ago, a patient with complex medical problems from another facility came into the UVA hospital without any COVID-19 symptoms, but developed them within a few days and tested positive soon after. About a dozen employees who had come in contact with the patient were put into quarantine.
The “unit basically had to shut down,” says the nurse aide. “It wasn’t that patient’s fault. It was that staff had on inadequate PPE because it was not known that they were COVID positive.”
The employees completed their two-week quarantine at the beginning of this week. They were paid during their absence.
“As far as we know, no one has developed symptoms,” Chief Medical Officer Dr. Reid Adams told C-VILLE on November 5. “People are at home finishing their quarantine, and we expect all or most of them will be back over the weekend.”
According to the nurse aide, there’s also been at least one coronavirus outbreak in the hospital that started with a staff member, who contracted it from the community.
“I was alarmed…I hadn’t heard anything about this outbreak among staff from any of the official university communications,” says the nurse aide. “I didn’t learn about it until I was there.”
“We do know that some employees have been exposed at home, and have developed symptoms and tested positive through the community,” says Adams. “The vast majority of our workforce that has tested positive are due to community exposures…not from care in the hospital.”
According to hospital spokesperson Eric Swensen, less than 7 percent of employees who’ve tested positive for COVID contracted it from the hospital.
Though these internal outbreaks have been more or less contained thus far, the constant threat is difficult for employees. They are also worried about the possibility of a dramatic spike in cases during the winter, putting an additional burden on the hospital’s limited staff.
“There’s definitely great anxiety among staff that it could get worse pretty soon,” says the nurse aide. “Our colleagues in Lynchburg are seeing [their] hospital fill up, and things are pretty bad down in Bristol too.”
And while UVA hospital is currently hiring, training new employees puts an additional burden on the current staff, explains the COVID ICU nurse. “That’s kind of a stressor there.”
To both recruit and retain staff, the nurse aide believes the administration needs to pay all of its employees more, and give them more authority.
“To really create stable staffing at this hospital, we just need to be spending more on labor. Also, decision making in the hospital is extremely top-down. Hospital workers need more power in these decision making processes.”
In light of the hospital’s situation, both employees urge the community to continue to wear masks and practice social distancing, and show appreciation to health care workers.
“If you know someone who works for the hospital system, tell them thank you,” says the COVID ICU nurse.
Joslyn Grimes (center) poses for a picture with her family after graduating at Albemarle High School on Saturday, May 23, 2020. Students filtered into the parking lot in five-minute intervals to experience the modified ceremony due to social distancing guidelines. PC: Zack Wajsgras
Rad grads
Charlottesville’s 2020 high school graduates imagined they’d be walking across a grand stage right about now, with “Pomp and Circumstance” blaring as an auditorium applauded. That’s gone, of course, but the virus hasn’t stopped our schools from showing love for their seniors. Districts around town have held variations on the traditional graduation ceremony, providing graduates with a chance to do more than just fling their caps toward the family’s living room ceiling.
Although school was originally scheduled to run through June 5, county schools decided to end “remote learning” on May 22, and held graduation events this week. At Albemarle High, students could make an appointment to walk across a tented, outdoor stage and receive a diploma while families and photographers looked on.
In the city, where lessons are (at least theoretically) continuing for the next two weeks, Charlottesville High put on a “victory lap” event—students donned their caps and gowns and drove around the school with their families, while teachers and staff stood by the roadside hollering congratulations and holding signs. The lap concluded at the front of the school, where graduates walked across the “stage” and received their diplomas. On the originally scheduled graduation day, the school will stream a congratulatory video, featuring footage from the victory laps.
In the past, most of the area’s public high schools have held their ceremonies at the John Paul Jones Arena. This year’s celebrations are far less grand, but they show the creativity, resilience, and sense of humor required in this moment—and they’re certainly as memorable as a valedictory address.
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Quote of the Week
“I’ll tell you what—I think it’s been a spectacular success.”
—Virginia Beach Mayor Bobby Dyer on Memorial Day weekend. According to the city’s police, there were no major social distancing
violations on the area’s jam-packed beaches.
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In brief
Pay up
The neo-Nazis who helped organize Unite the Right have, unsurprisingly, behaved poorly throughout the ensuing court case against them. On Monday, three defendants in Sines v. Kessler were ordered to pay $41,300 as a penalty for violating orders to turn over evidence related to the case, reports Integrity First for America, the organization backing the suit. Earlier this year, defendant Elliot Kline was charged with contempt of court and faced jail time as a result. The case is ongoing.
In the hole
After furloughing more than 600 employees with little notice, UVA Health System executives provided staff with more information on the institution’s deficit of $85 million per month. In a virtual meeting between School of Medicine faculty and Executive Vice President for Health Affairs Dr. Craig Kent earlier this month, Kent explained that the health system had a budget margin for this past year “of essentially zero” and had low reserves compared to other institutions, reported The Daily Progress. Naming several other money troubles, Kent admitted the institution hasn’t “run very efficiently over the years,” and promised it would make major financial changes.
Goodbye generals?
Years of debate (and violence) over the city’s infamous Confederate statues could soon come to an end. Four days after Governor Ralph Northam signed bills allowing localities to remove or alter Confederate monuments last month, Charlottesville City Manager Tarron Richardson told City Council via email that he would like to hold 2-2-1 meetings to discuss the removal of the Lee and Jackson statues, reported The Daily Progress. Richardson asked for the meetings, which would not have to be open to the public, to be held after council approves the city’s fiscal 2021 budget, which is expected to happen next month.
Hydroxy hoax
In a Sunday interview with “Full Measure,” President Trump admitted he was no longer taking daily doses of hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug he claimed could prevent or treat coronavirus, despite mounting scientific evidence to the contrary. Just last week, he dismissed the findings of a study funded by the National Institutes of Health and UVA, which concluded that the drug had a higher overall mortality rate for coronavirus patients in Veterans Administration hospitals, calling it “a Trump enemy statement.” Trump has yet to apologize for those remarks, still claiming in the interview that “hydroxy” has had “tremendous, rave reviews.”
Respectful distance
With social-distancing regulations in place, traditional ceremonies were off limits this Memorial Day, but some locals still found ways to commemorate the holiday. An enormous American flag floated over the 250 Bypass, thanks to the fire department, and residents showed up at the Dogwood Vietnam Memorial to pay their respects throughout the day, including a trumpet player who joined in a nationally coordinated playing of “Taps.”
Frozen out
Laid off workers looking for a new position amidst the ongoing coronavirus pandemic won’t have an easy time of it, as several of the city’s major employers—including the City of Charlottesville, the University of Virginia, and Albemarle County Public Schools— have announced hiring freezes. Among the positions on hold in city government are the heads of the departments of Parks & Recreation and Public Works (both currently being run by interim directors), along with traffic supervisor, centralized safety coordinator, and others.
Furloughed patient care assistant Erik Hancock says he is shocked that UVA Health is reducing crucial staff “at a time like this.” PC: Eze Amos
COVID-19 has stripped the pockets of businesses all around Charlottesville, including one of the city’s biggest: The University of Virginia Health System. Since the onset of the pandemic, the health system has lost $85 million per month due to a sharp decrease in surgeries and clinic visits. To offset these losses, it announced April 28 that it would furlough some non-patient care staff for up to three months, among other cost-saving measures.
As of May 8, 561 employees have been placed on full-time unpaid furlough, with the option to apply for unemployment or use their paid time off. Everyone will continue to receive insurance benefits.
But contrary to the health system’s initial statement, furloughed employees include those who provide patient care. One nurse practitioner (who asked that we not use her name) says some physician assistants and nurse practitioners, also known as advanced practice providers, have been furloughed for three months, while others have been placed on “rolling furloughs,” meaning they work a reduced number of weeks.
“This means in some areas that still have a lot of patients, like the COVID unit, [or that] were already short [there was already up to a 50 percent shortage of APPs in places]…we have been reduced to an unsafe skeleton crew while trying to provide patient care,” she says.
These staffing cuts put patient safety at risk, she contends, and they could have been entirely avoided.
“Comparable institutions have successfully managed to implement cost-saving measures without compromising patient safety,” she says. “All of my APP colleagues were prepared to help make sacrifices and fully anticipated salary cuts.”
“To be cutting staff providing critically needed care in a time like this when [Executive Vice President for Health Affairs] Craig Kent is still making $570,000 a year— [after] his much-touted 40 percent salary reduction—is shameful,” she adds.
In an email, spokesman Eric Swensen confirmed that UVA has cut hours for “patient-facing staff” in areas with fewer patients, but that the number of such staff with full-time unpaid furloughs for the next three months remains “very low.”
“We are eager to care for our patients, and as our volume increases so will our staffing,” he added. “We have made staffing decisions at the department level so that we can calibrate the necessary staffing levels to ensure the safest patient care. For that reason, almost all of the full-time furloughs were in non-patient care areas.”
The nurse practitioner says she will have to take multiple weeks off within the next two months. She has enough paid time off to cover it, she says, but if it’s extended past July, she will have to apply for unemployment.
Her APP colleagues on furlough without enough (or any) paid time off are not as lucky. Receiving notifications about the furloughs just a few days before they took effect, they had little time to plan, she says. According to Swensen, affected employees were notified the week of April 28—shortly before the furloughs took effect on May 3.
Some employees took to social media to express their worry and frustration over UVA’s decisions—but declined to speak to C-VILLE about their experiences, fearing they would lose their jobs for good.
“It sucks, but I am hopeful that unemployment will come through and make all this doable. I’m a single-income household with 50/50 shared kids, so it’s nerve-wracking,” shared an inpatient nurse on Reddit. “Nine out of about 25 people in my department were furloughed.”
One outpatient care unit employee, who would only speak to C-VILLE anonymously, says they have been furloughed until July 25, and that their supervisor simply told them “to apply for unemployment.”
“It is really stressful and depressing. I have a number of bills to pay on top of mortgage and medical bills,” the employee says. “The unprofessional attitude of my supervisor was hinting for me to seek other jobs.”
Another anonymous UVA employee, who works as a certified nursing assistant, has been on furlough since April 30. She is not scheduled to go back to work until the end of July, and is unsure if she will return.
“My boss told me on 4/30, so I didn’t have a notice. I wish I did. I did not have enough time to file [for unemployment] that week, so it should start this week,” she says.
Patient care assistant Erik Hancock was also furloughed with just a few days notice, and he’s now applied for unemployment.
“We were expecting furloughs, but we didn’t know how many, or when, or what department,” he says. “Things had been thrown up in the air left and right.”
While Hancock still plans to return to his job part-time after the furlough, he is shocked that UVA is reducing crucial staff “at a time like this.” And with the way it’s handled the situation, the nurse practitioner predicts some workers may decide to not come back at all.
The Thomas Jefferson Health Department conducts investigations of each local case of the coronavirus. PC: CDC
You can’t stop coughing and are running a fever. It’s becoming harder for you to breathe, and you can barely muster the energy to get out of bed. A glance at the CDC’s website confirms your greatest fear: You may have the coronavirus.
What happens from there? We spoke with Ta’Kindra Westbrook, a disease intervention specialist at the Thomas Jefferson Health Department, who explains the process step-by-step. (Her answers have been edited for length and clarity.)
C-VILLE: A person calls TJHD fearing he has the coronavirus. What happens next?
Ta’Kindra Westbrook: We try to provide them with as much information as possible. If they are concerned about their symptoms or think they’ve come in contact with someone with the virus and want to get tested, we refer them to their primary care provider, who can then evaluate their symptoms and order testing, if they feel it’s necessary. If they don’t have a PCP, we ask them to call a local urgent care. Due to CDC guidelines, individuals who’ve been exposed to the virus, but don’t have symptoms, are not prioritized for testing, and are advised to self-isolate for 14 days.
Where is the test sent? How long does it take to get the results?
It all depends on the primary care provider. They can send the test to a commercial lab, such as Labcorp. The results can take up to seven days.
[Editor’s note: UVA has developed its own coronavirus test, which provides results in one to two days. To get it, a patient must be seen at or referred to UVA Health.]
What do people do while they are waiting to be tested, or for their results to come in?
They should continue to self-isolate and monitor their symptoms. If any changes occur, they should consult with their PCP and seek the necessary medical assistance.
What happens if the test comes back positive?
The lab is reported to the health department. Once we receive it, we follow up with the primary care provider and collect any necessary medical information and history. A case investigator will then call the patient and do a thorough interview with them to find out who their contacts were during their time of incubation, and while they were out and about.
Once we get the contacts’ information, we reach out to them and complete a risk assessment, which determines their exposure period to the original patient and if they have any symptoms of COVID-19. If they don’t have any, we ask them to isolate for 14 days from their last moment of contact with that original patient. But if they do have symptoms, or develop them while in isolation, we refer them for testing.
If one of the contacts tests positive for the virus, we will collect additional information from their primary care provider, and re-interview them to learn about their movement and contacts.
How is the person treated for the virus?
Again, it is up to their primary care provider. If they are experiencing mild symptoms, such as a cough or runny nose, they may be quarantined at home for approximately two weeks, during which their provider monitors their symptoms. If they have or develop severe symptoms, such as difficulty breathing, then they may need to be admitted to the hospital.
UVA Hospital System revamped its debt collection system just four days after the Washington Post wrote a story about it. (Photo: Skyclad Aerial)
Kinder, gentler health care
UVA Health System says it will revamp its financial aid guidelines and sue fewer patients after facing a massive backlash from a Washington Post story about the university’s proclivity to go after nonpaying patients.
A Kaiser Health News report revealed that from 2013 to June 2018, the state-owned health system sued former patients more than 36,000 times for over $106 million, seizing wages and bank accounts, putting liens on property and homes, and forcing families into bankruptcy. C-VILLE wrote in 2014 about those practices dating back to 2010.
The new policy prohibits litigation unless patients owe the hospital more than $1,000 and their household makes more than 400 percent of the federal poverty line.
Starting on January 1, UVA will also implement a new sliding scale for financial assistance for patients treated in July 2017 or later who have less than $50,000 in assets. Patients at or below the federal poverty level, as well as those up to 200 percent of the federal poverty line, will have their bills written off entirely.
The health system plans to ask the General Assembly to change the Virginia Debt Collection Act, which requires state agencies to aggressively collect unpaid bills. UVA officials used this act to defend the health system’s practices, claiming that they are legally required.
Though university lawyers dropped 14 medical debt lawsuits September 12, almost 300 cases remain on the Albemarle General District Court docket for this month.
According to spokesperson Eric Swenson, the health system will “review all the pending lawsuits” using the new financial assistance policy.
Quote of the week
“I have more than I need. I’m blessed beyond what I deserve.” —VA men’s basketball coach Tony Bennett, who turned down a raise after leading his team to its first NCAA championship ever in April, and asked that the increase go to his staff and athletic programs instead
In brief
Former Hoo drops suit
A former UVA student who alleged he was denied his degree because of a pending Title IX sexual misconduct investigation dropped his federal lawsuit against university officials September 11, according to court records. The male student, identified as “John Doe,” has since received his degree, and the Title IX investigation has concluded.
Protest regulation
A special events ordinance that inspired uproar at an August City Council meeting passed Monday. The ordinance was amended several times ahead of the 4-1 vote, eliminating a provision that banned the possession of glass bottles during demonstrations and the requirement of a $1 million liability insurance policy unless the event closes a street.
Another Riggleman rebuke
This time it’s the Rappahannock GOP, which censured 5th District Congressman Denver Riggleman for “failure to curb runaway spending and his support for importing foreign workers through the immigration system,” according to a release.
Courtesy of Laura Cooper
Yak on the lam
Meteor was en route to the butcher when he bolted in Lovingston September 10. The yak has been sighted multiple times since, but has eluded capture. A Nelson resident has offered sanctuary, should the animal be recovered.
Meteor was spotted outside the Nelson County Farm Bureau on September 11.
Artist diversity
The Fralin Museum of Art announced September 12 that it will commit to featuring underrepresented artists in at least half its shows. “Underrepresented” is defined as those with diverse racial, ethnic, gender, sexual orientation, indigenous, disabled, socioeconomic, geographic, religious and/or age identities.
Airbnb revenue
Hosts renting their homes made $3.7 million in income on 25,000 guests in Charlottesville, according to Airbnb. The question Todd Divers, the commissioner of revenue, will ask: Did they pay the city’s transient occupancy tax?
This historic Woolen Mills property will become the new headquarters for WillowTree, thanks to developer Brian Roy's four-year dream of restoring the mill. Photo by SkycladAP
What a difference a decade makes. Ten years ago, the housing bubble had burst, the hottest area in real estate was foreclosures, and the Downtown Mall was littered with vacancies. Today, the county development scene is “white hot,” according to Albemarle Director of Community Development Mark Graham, and in the city, Director of Economic Development Chris Engel says the commercial market is “healthy and robust.”
Still, developer Keith Woodard’s washing his hands of his downtown West2nd project has roiled the landscape. City Councilor and architect Kathy Galvin offers a more nuanced description of development in the city in the wake of the West2nd implosion: “Confused: from bad to really good.”
The good news for the Charlottesville area is that people still want to live here. “We’re seeing the continuing trend of people who want to be close to urban centers,” says Nest Realty’s Jim Duncan. And he’s not just talking downtown Charlottesville. People are flocking to Crozet, U.S. 29 North, Pantops, and the 5th Street Station area anchored by Wegmans—the county’s designated growth areas.
“If you live and work on 29 North, there’s no reason to go to Charlottesville,” he says.
More than 150 projects that involve moving more than an acre of dirt are underway in Albemarle, according to Graham, and Crozet alone has eight active construction sites, he says.
Last year, 851 residential units, which include apartments, were permitted. This year, he says, by August the county had issued permits for 900 units.
And unlike the boom in 2005 through 2008, Graham says most building is taking place in the designated development areas. “Before, we saw a lot of McMansions being built in the rural areas.”
Since the 5th Street Station build out, “commercial development has cooled a bit,” says Graham, and 85 percent of what’s being built in the county is residential. “A ton of apartments are being built.”
In the city, Galvin provides a brief history of development this century. In 2003, neighborhood development focused on “expediting development reviews instead of long-range planning.”
During the redevelopment of West Main in 2012—and the construction of the behemoth Flats—“that’s when many of us realized our zoning was out of sync with our vision,” says Galvin in an email. “The public wants new rules of the game that give us more affordable housing, better buildings, and healthy, attractive places. Turn around times for development review must improve, but we have to get these rules right.”
Engel points to the 450,000 square feet of office space that will be available in the next few years in a city that hasn’t seen Class A offices built in the past 10 years. With 39,500 jobs and unemployment low, “We’ve become a regional job center,” he says.
Where those workers will live is another matter. Affordable housing continues to be an issue while luxury condos and rowhouses continue to be built.
The city would like to see more affordable and workforce housing, says Engel.
And there are a few. Galvin lists affordable housing projects that provide “healthy, well-connected neighborhoods” for residents with walkable streets and close-by essential resident services and amenities, like childcare, parks, and community spaces: Friendship Court’s resident-driven master plan for redevelopment without displacement; Sunrise Park on Carlton and Southwood in the county; Burnett Commons III; and Dairy Central on Preston.
West2nd fallout
Realtor Bob Kahn doesn’t see the “robust year” in commercial real estate slowing, despite interest rates ticking up.
The black eye in city development, he says, is Woodard’s “unfortunate cancellation” of West2nd after a Board of Architectural Review rejection that proved to be the “last straw” in Woodard’s five-year quest to break ground on a city parking lot that houses the City Market.
With West2nd’s demise, the city loses the affordable housing units Woodard planned to build on Harris Street, as well as nearly $1 million in real estate taxes, says Kahn. “The city really did a disservice to our community with that. There are no winners.”
He believes it will take years to get another project built on that lot with all the stakeholders involved and city “mismanagement of entitlements” pertaining to height, rezonings, and special use permits.
“It certainly doesn’t send a positive message about the economic vitality of downtown and will certainly hamper development on that lot with all those stakeholders,” says Kahn.
Engel’s perspective is not so dire. “We’ll see,” he says. “Stay tuned.”
With the City Market, residential, retail, and office components, “those types of projects are very complex” and make lenders nervous, he says.
Woodard did everything the city asked for in 2013, but it took five years instead of five months to approve, says Galvin. “In those five years, construction and financing costs rose, and Woodard needed another floor to pay for the increase. This project had to provide structured parking, housing, office space, and a plaza for the market all on a two-acre site, and build affordable housing off site.”
The good news for development in the city, says Galvin: “Most investors will not have that daunting a program or buy land from a public entity whose stewards are subject to staggered, four-year election cycles.”—Lisa Provence
With additional reporting by Samantha Baars, Bill Chapman, and Mary Jane Gore
Old mill, new purpose
Woolen Mills
Brian Roy, Woolen Mills, LLC
About 5 acres
120,000 square feet
Mixed office and commercial use
Approximately $18-20 million
Brian Roy has been nursing his vision of a completely restored mill—the Woolen Mill—for four years. He put in time solving problems with sellers, such as a flood plain difficulty, before his company, Woolen Mills, LLC, purchased the property. His dream is nearing fruition with the recently signed contracts with local tech giant WillowTree, which jumped ship from Charlottesville to Albemarle, to complete the office and commercial space.
Woolen Mills’ Brian Roy’s dream of a completely restored mill is nearing fruition, thanks to recently signed contracts with WillowTree, which will leave its downtown offices and anchor the redeveloped building at the end of East Market Street in Albemarle County. Photo by Amy Jackson
“We held an event for WillowTree employees, and began to work on a plan,” Roy says. “It’s been a work in progress to shape the space that would fit their needs the best. It’s great to have the opportunity to preserve this property.” Better yet, the county and the state are sweetening the pot with over $2 million in incentives to partner with Roy and WillowTree—and its 200 current jobs and 200 projected positions.
The builders, Branch and Associates, want to get started as soon as possible. Branch estimates it will be a 15- to 18-month project that could be completed roughly by the end of 2019 to March 2020, hinging on the start date.
“We’re very excited about this job of restoring a historic building,” says Michael Collins, project manager at the Branch Richmond office.
In early September, the design was about 70 percent complete, Collins says, and he hopes to be clearing space around the site by November.
The space will also house a restaurant, brew pub, and coffee shop, all affiliated with local coffee shop Grit, says Roy.
When asked about any concerns at the site, Roy immediately says,“The windows.” Ten thousand will need to be replaced with modern double-panes for efficiency, but in the original frames, for authenticity.
Rehabbing the rehab center
Musculoskeletal Center
UVA Health System
195,000 square feet
Outpatient care
The site of the former Kluge Children’s Rehab Center on Ivy Road is so discreet that some passersby haven’t noticed that the building John Kluge pledged $500,000 to get his name on, according to UVA Health System spokesman Eric Swensen, has been demolished and a new comprehensive facility that consolidates UVA’s outpatient orthopedic care is set to rise from the ashes.
The new Musculoskeletal Center—sounds like naming rights are available here—broke ground September 10. It will hold six outpatient operating rooms and allow surgical patients to recover for up to 23 hours before they’re shipped home. It will also house imaging services—MRIs, X-rays, CT scans, ultrasound, and fluoroscopy—as well as comprehensive physical and occupational therapy services. Surrounding fields and walking trails will boost that wellness-environment feeling.
The $105-million center is expected to open to patients in February 2022.
Banking on office space
Vault Virginia
James Barton
25,000 square feet
38 offices, event spaces and board room
Perhaps no one is more excited about the unveiling of Vault Virginia than C-VILLE Weekly staffers, who have endured construction overhead for the past year. What seemed to be unending jackhammering in the former Bank of America building has produced an array of office spaces on the Downtown Mall that are part of the latest trend of collaborative workplaces.
James Barton. Photo by John Robinson
The 1916-built structure already houses Sun Tribe Solar, and by the time this issue hits stands, construction mercifully will be complete. “We’re fully ready to occupy,” says James Barton, who hatched the Vault as well as Studio IX.
The new spaces include the marble and stone from former financial tenants, a theme that’s incorporated into a deluxe women’s bathroom with marble countertops and its own soundtrack.
One of the perks of membership, says Barton, is access to conference rooms and event spaces. And those renting the former board room can offer a private meal overlooking the bank’s grand hall that’s now Prime 109, home of the $99 steak.
Barton isn’t worried about the sudden influx of shared office space, especially Jaffray Woodriff’s 140,000-square-foot tech incubator, now dubbed CODE—Center of Developing Entrepreneurs—that will be built on the site of the Main Street Arena.
Creating the Vault hasn’t been without its struggles, and builder CMS filed a $316,000 complaint over an unpaid bill, but Barton and CMS attorney Rachel Horvath say that’s been settled.
“We had great investors come in early and great investors along the way to take this iconic building and give it a purpose for this community,” says Barton.
The influx of office space will make downtown Charlottesville really attractive to businesses that attract top talent and “show Charlottesville has the style and infrastructure,” says Barton.
“This should be the envy of cities trying to create this type of dynamic,” he says, that of a “vibrant, integrated community.”
More incubation
Center of Developing Entrepreneurs
CSH Development
0.99 acres on the Downtown Mall
170,000 square feet
Office, retail
Local angel investor Jaffray Woodriff wanted to build a spot for entrepreneurs and innovators to come together to bounce ideas off one another and scale their startups. And while many in the community wished he’d wanted to build it elsewhere, he bought the buildings that housed the beloved Main Street Arena, the Ante Room, and Escafé to redevelop it and make his vision a reality.
The Center of Developing Entrepreneurs, a 170,000-square-foot tech hub that will replace the Main Street Arena, is at the center of several major transformations on the Downtown Mall.
CODE will allocate 23.5 percent of its square footage for tech/venture space, and 26 percent goes toward a common area for events and presentations. An unnamed anchor-tenant will use 35 percent of the space, with the remaining saved for smaller offices and other retail.
The folks at Brands Hatch LLC, which is owned and controlled by Woodriff, are keeping it green: Look for high efficiency heating and cooling systems and rooftop terraces. Construction is scheduled to be complete by the summer of 2020.
Apex of development
Apex headquarters
Riverbend Development
1.28 acres
130,000 square feet
Office and retail
Wind farm developers Apex Clean Energy have a different kind of development in the works: an office building planned in conjunction with Coran Capshaw’s Riverbend Development and Phil Wendel’s ACAC fitness club.
Apex Clean Energy is developing an office building on the north side of the downtown ACAC, and the new structure will also house rental office space for other companies, and ground-floor retail. Courtesy Riverbend Development
Filling in the semi-improved large parking lot on the north side of ACAC’s downtown location, the building will also house rental office space for other companies, and some ground-floor retail.
Architect for the project is the 1990s-era “Green Dean” of the UVA School of Architecture, Bill McDonough, who now specializes in sustainable corporate HQs around the globe.
Yes, they promise, club members will have access to the parking deck once complete. But during construction? Valet parking is one option being considered.
Behind the Glass Building
3Twenty3
Insite Properties
About .67 acres
120,000 square feet
Office space
Developer Jay Blanton of North Carolina-based Insite Properties probably gets this question a lot: “Where exactly is that office building you’re planning downtown?”
And casual observers should be forgiven because this by-right 120,000- square-foot structure did not need to go through any public entitlement meetings. There were really no vocal neighbors to speak of, and the exact site is hard to describe.
The nine-story building will replace the back half of the Glass Building where Bluegrass Grill has long been a tenant, but the grill and other food-related-tenants along Second Street will still be in place.
The 120,000-square-foot, nine-story 3Twenty3 building will replace the back half of the Glass Building. Courtesy Insite Properties
One prominent tenant (with 17,000 of 110,000 square feet leased) will be white-shoe law firm McGuireWoods, which will vacate what has become known as the McGuireWoods Building in the Court Square area north of the mall.
Expect to see cranes on the skyline soon, says Blanton, who plans to break ground in October and finish by early 2020.
Tarleton didn’t camp here
Tarleton Oak
James B. Murray, Tarleton Oak LLC
2.75 acres
86,000 square feet office space
56 apartments
A longstanding gas station and food mart on East High Street get the boot in this deal from venture capitalist/UVA Vice Rector Jim Murray.
Construction is scheduled to begin on the two-phase downtown project this year. A five-story office building and approximately 300-space parking garage will be built first, with a two-story residential building including nearly 60 apartments coming later atop the parking structure.
This project, called Tarleton Oak, will take the place of the current service station with the same moniker, which is named after the space’s first tenant—a humongous oak tree long gone to the mulch pile. Local myth put Colonel Banastre Tarleton camping there after his failed raid to capture Thomas Jefferson, but a historical marker now points to a spot down East Jefferson Street.
Live, work, eat
Dairy Central
Stony Point Design/Build
4.35 acres
300,000 square feet
Office, residential, and food hall space
The planned multi-phase renovation and expansion of the old Monticello Dairy building at the nexus of Preston and Grady avenues and 10th Street NW is underway, and the battery shop, catering operation, and brewery tenants already have decamped for other sites around town.
Phase 1 of the project promises a complete overhaul of the 37,000-square-foot original dairy space into Dairy Market, a 20-stall food hall (think Chelsea Market in NYC or Atlanta’s Krog Street Market) with around 7,000 square feet of open seating. Developer Chris Henry of Stony Point Design/Build traveled as far as Copenhagen to research best practices for what he hopes will be “the region’s social and culinary centerpiece.”
Behind the dairy, 63,000 square feet of office space on multiple floors will be added. Expect all this to open in January 2020.
A multi-phase renovation and expansion of the old Monticello Dairy building includes a complete overhaul of the 37,000-square-foot original space into Dairy Market, a 20-stall food hall, with about 7,000 square feet of open seating. Courtesy Stony Point Design/Build
Phase 2 is the residential component, featuring 175 apartment units that are a mix of both market-rate (read: expensive) and affordable units aimed at households earning less than 80 percent of the area median income. City planning regulations require five such units as part of the approval here, but the developers plan 20 (or more if certain grants are approved).
Asked how he plans to decide who gets to live in the affordable units, Henry says he doesn’t know yet, as there is little or no precedent for such units ever being built in the city. Most developers opt instead to make cash payments into the city’s affordable housing fund. This residential phase, along with 500 onsite parking spaces, should be complete by 2021.
Not West2nd
925 East Market Street
Guy Blundon, CMB Development
About .25 acres
20,000 square feet
of office space
52 luxury apartments
Originally a preschool, the property at 925 East Market Street inspired Guy Blundon and business partner Keith Woodard to launch new plans for the property.
They envision five stories, and the first level will contain office space, Blundon says.
“It’s downtown, near the Pavilion and the Downtown Mall,” he says. “There are beautiful views from all of the upper floors, in every direction.”
The developers of 925 East Market Street envision five stories, with the first level containing office space, and 52 luxury apartments with “beautiful views from all of the upper floors, says CMB Development’s Guy Blundon. Courtesy DBF Associates Architects
Another amenity will be a covered parking space. “You could live and work in the same building,” he says.
The city has passed a resolution allowing 10th Street to be narrowed to allow for sidewalk and landscape buffers, and specified that the building be open to the public in the commercial use areas, with handicapped entrances on 10th and Market streets.
Construction should begin soon. “I have been focusing on other projects, mainly in Richmond,” says Blundon, and up until recently, business partner Woodard had been busy with the ill-fated West2nd.
Infilling
Paynes Mill
Southern Development
7 acres
25 single family homes
Starting at $400,000
Site work just started off once quiet Hartman’s Mill Road in a historic African American neighborhood.
At about a mile south of the Downtown Mall, Southern Development vice president Charlie Armstrong calls the houses at Paynes Mill “a rare find” because most of them back up to private wooded areas.
Charlie Armstrong. Photo by John Robinson
The U-shaped community offers houses with three to five bedrooms, two-and-a-half to four-and-a-half bathrooms, and 2,147 to 3,764 square feet. Lots range from an eighth of an acre to a half-acre, and the first home is scheduled to be completed this spring.
Straddling the urban ring
Lochlyn Hill
Milestone Partners
35 acres in the city and county
210-unit mix of single family, townhomes, and cottages
8 Habitat for Humanity homes plus affordable accessory dwellings
Low $400,000s to north of $700,000
Located off East Rio Road, Lochlyn Hill will have architecturally diverse homes and a wide variety of lot types and sizes, with the aim of accommodating everyone from couples to families to empty-nesters. Courtesy Milestone Partners
Nest Realty’s Jim Duncan touts the hometown aspects of Lochlyn Hill off East Rio Road, which encompasses both the city and county and borders Pen Park, Meadowcreek Golf Course, and connects with the Rivanna Trails system. Milestone Partners’ Frank Stoner and L.J. Lopez redeveloped the historic Jefferson School, and are working on turning the Barnes Lumber site in downtown Crozet into a town center. Nest is doing the marketing, and all the builders are local, says Duncan.
He notes its location in the popular Greenbrier district, and its diversity of architectural styles. “It’s not just white houses along the street,” he says.
Crozet for rent
The Summit at Old Trail
Denico, part of Denstock
11.51 acres
90 apartments
29 affordable 1-bedroom units
From $1,100 to $1,600 per month
Development firm Denico conducted a market study in western Albemarle and saw a gap in the marketplace for apartments in that part of the county.
“Given the growth, zoning, and access to [Interstate] 64, we felt that building apartments in Old Trail was a good opportunity, says Robert F. Stockhausen Jr., a co-principal at parent company Denstock. “It is a nice alternative for families and others to have.”
While the firm had originally looked in other locations, Old Trail won out with its location and amenities: golf, walking trails, stores, restaurants, the Village Center, views of the mountains, parking behind units, and nearby I-64 access.
The one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments in Summit at Old Trail will feature stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, a private theater, clubroom, a business center, and rooftop sky lounge, says Stockhausen, as well as an amenity that sounds super swanky: valet trash service.
Bald eagles included
Fairhill
Southern Classic
120 acres
2- to 6-acre lots plus 60-acre preservation tract
$400,000 to $450,000 lots
Fairhill off U.S. 250 in Crozet is not a cookie-cutter development. With mountain views from “about every” one of the 13 lots for sale, and half of those near Lickinghole Creek Basin, the custom homes—once built—will be in the $1.2 million to $1.5 million range, according to Southern Classic owner David Mitchell.
“You get the best of both worlds,” he says. “It feels like rural living and it’s five minutes from Crozet.” Roads have been built and paving will take place in September.
Fairhill’s first publicity came more than a year ago, when an anonymous source tipped off the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department—and C-VILLE Weekly—that a pair of bald eagles had made a nest for their two eaglets along the Lickinghole Creek Basin, a popular site for birders and waterfowl.
A storm in February destroyed the nest, says Mitchell, and within a month, the eagles built it back. His permit requires him to keep an eye on the eagles for an hour every two weeks, and it has some restrictions about when work can take place, but those “are not the worst thing in the world,” he says.
Glenmore’s new neighbor
Rivanna Village
Ryan Homes
95 acres
290 units
Starting in upper $300s
Nestled next to Glenmore, Rivanna Village will be a community of nearly 300 villas, townhouses, and single-family homes—and they’re all maintenance-free, so you’ll never have to mow your own lawn.
So far, 27 villas have been approved, and the remaining 263 units are still in the proposal process.
The one-level homes are specifically designed with the bedrooms, a laundry room, kitchen, and family room on the ground floor, and the proposed neighborhood will have its own trails, dog park, sports courts, and picnic shelters.
Ryan Homes reps didn’t respond to multiple requests for information, but according to their website, the ranch-style homes are “intimate, but spacious” and “built to last.” So that’s good.
Urban Pantops
Riverside Village
Stony Point Design/Build
Retail and residential
8 acres
93 units
Four years in the making, Riverside Village on Route 20 north—Stony Point Road—was the coming-out party for development firm Stony Point Design/Build, run by Chris Henry (son-in-law of local baby-formula magnate Paul Manning).
This “village” along the river just south of Darden Towe Park features a little bit of everything: residential condos, detached homes, and side-by-side attached homes.
Riverside Village will feature a little bit of everything: residential condos, detached homes, and side-by-side attached homes. Courtesy Stoney Point Design/Build
Under construction now are The Shops at Riverside Village, where Henry promises wood-fired pizza, craft beer, and a cycling studio. Rental apartments, four of which will be affordable, will occupy the second story above the commercial spaces.
Henry, who originally had 18 acres, but deeded 10 to the county to expand the size of Darden Towe, points to the site’s mix of uses, river access, and residential density as examples of Stony Point’s commitment to “urban planning, placemaking, and walkability,” something his firm is already focusing on at other sites around the county and in the city at Dairy Central.
All tired up
Scottsville Tire Factory
McDowellEspinosa Architect, with the University of Virginia
61.47 acres
185,721 gross square feet
Pricing as of July 2017:
Plant and 41.31-acre lot (along James River): $1,169,600
19.97-acre parcel: $795,000
The tire factory at 800 Bird St. in Scottsville has been empty since early 2010, when Hyosung shuttered its plant there, and the Town of Scottsville is trying to drum up interest in repurposing the nearly 186,000-square-foot space.
Town Administrator Matt Lawless has partnered with architect Seth McDowell and UVA’s Andrew Johnston to imagine what might happen to the site now owned by land magnate Charles Hurt.
While the factory site is for sale as two lots, it does not have a buyer. The town surveyed residents to think ahead 20 years and invited ideas for uses for the old factory building. Among these were residences, health and fitness programs, a go-cart track, and swimming pools. Some of those ideas will make their way into early renderings.
McDowell, who is working with up to three UVA students on the project, says comment and feedback on what town leaders call “a key asset for the town” will begin with a September 27 town meeting.
The marketing survey showed that 75 apartments may be needed in the coming 20 years, and plant plans may include all 75 units, 40 or even 20 units in the space. It’s a question of whether it is possible to rezone for residential purposes in the industrial area.
“There’s not one set vision,” says McDowell.
Whatever happened to…
Blasted plans
Developers of Belmont Point on Quarry Road were excavating away for 26 single family homes starting in the upper $300,000s when they got stuck between a rock and a hard place. Literally.
In June, neighbors got wind that Hurt Construction had hired a company to blast through bedrock, some of which was within 300 feet of neighboring homes.
“There’s no chance the city is going to allow the blast,” says Andrew Baldwin with Core Real Estate and Development, who was developing the site. The subterranean rock affects six lots that will require chipping or homes on slabs without basements.
That decision, says Baldwin, will be made by owner Charles Hurt’s Stonehenge Park LLC and Southern Development. But Southern Development’s Charlie Armstrong says he isn’t buying lots until they’re ready for building. And Hurt did not return a phone call from C-VILLE.
Lawsuit hurdle
One of the few apartment projects in the downtown area that has affordable units is at 1011 E. Jefferson St., but the project has whipped the Little High Neighborhood Association into a lawsuit-filing frenzy because City Council denied the 17 plaintiffs their three-minute right to petition their government when the special use permit was considered during a July 5, 2017, hearing, according to the pro se suit. And one of the plaintiffs suing council is former councilor Bob Fenwick.
The suit, filed one year later, has run into its first hurdle, according to the response from the city. “We missed the deadline,” says Fenwick. “You have to appeal within 21 days.”
He adds, “That might be a big mountain. We figured this would probably be a learning experience.”
Little High neighborhood resident Bob Fenwick is suing the City Council upon which he once sat. Staff photo
Meanwhile, Great Eastern Management’s David Mitchell (who also owns Southern Classic) says the special use permit and the preliminary site plan for the 126-unit building have been approved and the company has submitted a final site plan. But there’s still more work to be done before the current medical offices on the 1.5-acre site come down.
“We have to find a place for the doctors to move and move the doctors before demolition can begin,” says Mitchell.
Dewberry stays dark
Charlottesville’s reigning eyesore, the Landmark, is approaching its ninth birthday. In the ensuing near-decade since construction stalled on the former Halsey Minor/Lee Danielson project, Waynesboro-born John Dewberry bought the property in 2012 and has continued to keep it in its skeletal form.
The Landmark. Photo by Matteus Frankovich/Skyclad AP
In December, City Council quashed plans to give Dewberry a $1 million tax break over 10 years, but Dewberry Capital allegedly is moving forward. In March, the Board of Architectural Review approved additional height and massing. Since then, who knows? Dewberry and his VP Lockie Brown did not return multiple calls.
Rising from the ashes
The owners of the Excel Inn & Suites that burned May 4, 2017, are working on a reincarnation that bears no resemblance to the 1951-built Gallery Court Motor Hotel that hosted Martin Luther King Jr., but which shares a similar name.
Earlier this month, the Planning Commission approved a special use permit to build the Gallery Court Hotel.
The Planning Commission voted 5-2 on September 11 to approve Vipul and Manisha Patel’s special use permit to build a seven-story Gallery Court Hotel replacement on Emmet Street, where the original flamed out. The new hotel will have 72 rooms, including a rooftop snack bar and ground-level cafe.
29 Northtown
Brookhill—located between Polo Grounds Road and Forest Lakes—could be the successful pedestrian friendly urban model of which the county has long dreamed. Its town center sounds like a mini-Downtown Mall with an amphitheater—hello Fridays After 5—a movie theater and restaurants, according to Riverbend Development’s Alan Taylor last year.
Added to the mix this year: A deluxe ice park that’s guaranteed to be a hit with displaced skaters from the soon-to-be demolished Main Street Arena.
Last fall, the county’s Architectural Review Board approved an initial site plan, and Brookhill’s first phase includes four apartment buildings. We’d like to tell you more about when those will be available to lease, but Taylor did not return multiple requests for information.
Correction September 25: The original version misidentified the location of Apex headquarters, which will be in the parking lot on the north side of ACAC.
Clarification September 26 on the Little High Neighborhood Association lawsuit.
For many of us, the relationship we have with our pet is the best one we’ve ever had. He never gets moody, he listens when you talk and he’s still interested in cuddles despite having seen you naked so many thousands of times. This issue takes into account the good, bad and furry side of pet ownership, because, while he’s usually down to eat anything (another plus!), sometimes that includes poop from the litter box. (Hey, every relationship has its compromises.)
ByCaite Hamilton, Jonathan Haynes, Tami Keaveny, Jessica Luck, Erin O’Hare, Sam Padgett and Nancy Staab
A purrdy good life
Carr’s Hill kitty is a commewnal pet
Frat Cat, as she’s known on Grounds, can usually be spotted at her favorite haunt, Carr’s Hill. Photo by Stacy Smith.
University of Virginia groundskeeper John Sauer remembers the first time he saw the cat. It was a cold and rainy February morning, and the fluffy-tailed feline sauntered up to Carr’s Hill from the fraternity houses below.
This was back in 2005 or so, and it wasn’t unusual to see an animal roaming around—Carr’s Hill was a veritable menagerie during John T. Casteen III’s nearly 20-year tenure as UVA president.
There were the dogs, Whiskey, Brady and Alice (a storied wanderer); a parakeet; chickens; and Sebastian the cat, who decided to forsake the house for the garage, though he stood near the front door of the house to greet guests (and, at least once, shake a dead squirrel at some pearl-clutchers).
But this new cat, Sauer hadn’t seen before that morning. He and other folks at Carr’s Hill started calling her Frat Cat, assuming she belonged to one of the many frat houses nearby. Frat Cat soon moved into the garage with a reluctant Sebastian who eventually grew to tolerate her presence.
Sauer kept space heaters going for both cats in the winter, and a variety of folks made sure the cats were fed; Frat Cat and Sebastian both earned their keep by helping Sauer deal with a variety of pests in the garden.
When the Casteens moved out of Carr’s Hill and Teresa Sullivan moved in in 2010, both Sebastian and Frat Cat stayed on, though Sebastian died of old age a few years later.
“Over the years, especially after Sebastian’s death, Frat Cat would let me pat her and [she] would rub against my leg, but she would never sit in my lap like Sebastian,” says Sauer, who is perhaps Frat Cat’s closest friend on the hill, though the cat who tends to play it cool has had plenty of other pals over the years.
Carr’s Hill was recently fenced off for a multi-year renovation project, and the UVA presidential operation—including Sauer’s gardening duties—moved a few blocks away to Sprigg Lane. At the time, Frat Cat was suffering from ear mites, so Sauer took her to the vet. Upon their return to the Carr’s Hill garage, he posted her certificate of vaccination above the old food table in the corner of the garage, where Sauer keeps Frat Cat’s food and water. “The workmen at Carr’s Hill know who she is and have spotted her going in and out of the garage. I go up to Carr’s Hill…regularly to make sure the food and water are okay,” he says.
Frat Cat often ventures to the School of Architecture, and when it snows, she’ll disappear only to come trotting back in good shape. Sauer can’t help but worry about the inadvertent communal pet, but he knows he doesn’t have to, he says: “Her story is one of survival.”—EO
A lush new home for rescued parrots, thanks to Project Perry
Louisa’s parrot paradise provides a safe haven for exotic birds who have been illegally imported into the U.S. Courtesy of Project Perry.
Green-winged macaws, blue crown conures, scarlet macaws…the very names of parrots conjure images of exotic, covetable, brilliantly plumed birds. Combine this with a parrot’s uncanny intelligence, personality and way with language (at least in some cheeky breeds, like the African grey), and you have some of the reasons why the trade in pet parrots has exploded. But keeping parrots as pets is problematic. They can be extremely needy, aggressive, loud and, with an average lifespan of 40 to 80 years, likely to outlive their well-intentioned owners.
This is where Matt Smith, founder and executive director of Project Perry comes in. His lush nonprofit sanctuary in Louisa offers a safe haven for exotic birds that have been captured in the wild and illegally imported to the United States, raised as breeder birds to support the pet trade or simply in need of rescue or rehabilitation. According to Smith, “Most owners are poorly equipped to offer their birds the two things they need most: flight and flock.”
By contrast, Project Perry offers a veritable birds’ paradise—27 acres for spreading their wings (literally), ample opportunities for socializing among the 200-plus parrots, cockatoos and other smaller birds, and six climate-controlled aviaries equipped with closed and open-air atmospheres, playful perches, native vegetation and even spa-like mistings.
Most recently, the vibrantly hued macaws moved into their new home, quickly adapting to the 39,000-square-foot space that allows for impressive flight paths. Their spacious digs were named after and funded with a $200,000 donation from Bob Barker and his animal welfare foundation, DJ&T, in 2015. When Smith received the call informing him of the generous donation, he confesses to being “a little bit starstruck” to be speaking to the TV legend himself, “with that same gameshow voice we watched on ‘The Price is Right.’”
The inspiration for Project Perry (named after Smith’s deceased pet conure) came to Smith while volunteering at a bird sanctuary in New Hampshire. The need for a parrot sanctuary “opened up a whole new world to me,” says Smith. Soon after, he quit his health care job, relocated to his native Virginia and established his own sanctuary in 2006. “It was a completely grassroots movement,” he recalls. He purchased the initial acres of land in rural Louisa “because birds are noisy,” designed and built the aviaries by hand and recruited local volunteers. Twelve years later, the facility boasts four full-time caretakers and an accreditation from the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries.
Though Smith refuses to play favorites among his flock, he admits to a special fondness for Peach, an elderly African grey who was wild-caught in her youth for breeding purposes and is now “retired.” Arthritic, partially blind and deaf, the old bird still displays her “zest for life” via acrobatic displays and a fondness for her playmate Sparky, says Smith.
“They are really like little people,” he says. “They show love and crave attention. There is something very fascinating and exceptional about a bird that you can do that with.”—NS
Doggone it!
Illustration by Mike Gorman
Safe to say Thomas Jefferson wasn’t a huge fan of dogs: “I participate in all your hostility to dogs and would readily join in any plan of exterminating the whole race,” he once wrote in a letter to a friend. “I consider them the most afflicting of all follies for which men tax themselves.”
That is until, during a trip to France, Marquis de Lafayette introduced him to the Briard, a guard dog known to be both excellent at herding and great companions to their owners. Jefferson paid 36 livres (about $6) for a pregnant one before boarding the ship back to America in 1789. She delivered two pups, which watched over his Merino sheep and served as household companions.
They didn’t accompany the third president to the White House, though. That honor went to Dick, one of Jefferson’s prized mockingbirds, whom he let fly around his office.—CH
Chickens, snakes and bees—oh my!
Classroom pets enhance learning
The Covenant School’s pet corn snake, Buttercup, provides a living learning opportunity. Courtesy of The Covenant School.
Pets are an unquestionably important part of our lives. From companionship, to teaching responsibility, there aren’t many lessons that can’t be learned by caring for a feathered, scaly and even chitinous friend. It’s this instructive aspect of pet ownership that has made critters mainstays of classrooms, allowing young students to dip their toes into the seas of responsibility. While the stereotypical idea of a class pet is something like a hamster named Chuckles, or a passively floating beta fish in a small bowl on the teacher’s desk, there are several local class pets that show the variety of ways they can be beneficial to young minds.
First, there is Buttercup, The Covenant School’s resident corn snake. Aside from being a living biblical allegory, Buttercup helps students “shed” their fear of snakes. Buttercup’s current chief caretaker, teacher Corrine Lennard, believes that “our general fear of snakes is a learned behavior.” She notes that Buttercup reminds her of a puppy, evaporating her students’ potential apprehension. “She loves being held and being close,” Lennard says. Most importantly, though, Lennard sees a great educational opportunity in Buttercup.
“Having a classroom pet is experiential learning at its finest,” she says. “Watching Buttercup shed her skin in front of the students was more valuable than any YouTube video.”
Also at Covenant, teacher Betsy Carter has been raising live chickens. Since the chicks are raised in an incubator in the classroom, the students are accordingly interested. Carter describes their hatching as a “zany” experience, but ultimately one that is fulfilling to her class. “For the most part, they all take pride in their roles as parents” she says.
One of the more unexpected local class pets—bees—is at the Waldorf School, which has recently built an apiary on its campus. According to the Waldorf’s gardening teacher, Dana Pauly, the bees are an indispensable teaching tool. While only certain students will directly handle the bees (barring any allergies), the insects’ presence alone on campus helps facilitate learning. “One of the things that a Waldorf education seeks to engender is a sense of wonder,” says Pauly. “For them to understand where their food is coming from and what’s involved in it is essential.”—SP
Recount your chickens
Rugby Hills were cock-a-doodle-bamboozled when a neighboring hen, Darlene, turned out to be a rooster.
The world can easily be divided into those who are morning people and those who are not—and you know who you are. For her part, Mother Nature has endowed us with morning animals. Enter the rooster, whose full-throttle, break-of-day crowing can needle even the cheeriest of early risers.
In April, when Rugby Hills resident Zak Billmeier was awakened by a bird “making a racket early in the morning,” he posted on NextDoor to ask if anyone else heard a rooster in the area, wondering if there was an ordinance: “I know female chickens are allowed in the city for making eggs, but does anyone know if a rooster is allowed?”
C’ville residents on the neighborhood social network dug in on both sides of the debate with tales of pastoral joy (“How lovely to hear farm sounds in town!”) and woe, with some citing the ordinance Sec. 4-8-Fowl at-large, which states it’s “unlawful for any person to permit any chickens, ducks, geese, pigeons or other fowl belonging to him to go at-large in the city,” and most conceding that the feathered noisemakers are a legal part of the local lifestyle.
A few months earlier, another Rugby Hills dweller, Jenn Silber, had purchased two young hens for the production of fresh eggs and named them Darlene and Ethel. Darlene developed beautiful tail feathers and grew larger than Ethel, then sometime around the six-month mark, Darlene let loose at sunrise and the Silber household realized it had a rooster on its hands.
“The first morning that Darlene started crowing, I immediately posted to NextDoor and our neighborhood Facebook group to apologize for the noise and let everyone know we were working on getting him back to the farm,” says Silber. “I had seen Zak’s post on NextDoor regarding a loud rooster in the Westwood/Rose Hill area a month prior.It seemed like people were very divided about that rooster—some enjoyed the farm sounds and others were extremely bothered by the noise.”
Being that Silber wanted the hens for eggs, and roosters were creating an online dust-up, Darlene was exchanged for a hen about a week after his circadian rhythms had activated.
“I’m not a chicken-hater,” says Billmeier who wants to be sure neighbors know he’s supportive. “I was curious to know if they [roosters] were allowed in the city. I think it’s great that people can have chickens and get eggs.” The moral of this story? Keep counting your chickens after they hatch.—TK
Louie the tabby keeps his owners on their toes
That darn cat! Louie, who also appears on the cover of this issue, loves to join his owners on hikes along Rivanna Trail.
Stopping by the DJ booth at Wild Wing Café, chasing teenagers around the Downtown Mall, exploring the Charlottesville Fire Department—Jenn Spofford says it’s hard to know exactly how many people have crossed paths with her cat, Louie, on his travels. But it’s a lot.
“I think the funniest, strangest thing about Louie is his tendency to follow people,” Spofford says. “Even after three years, we get about a call a week from someone who has walked home and found him on their heels and eventually in their apartment.”
She and her partner, James Rutter, adopted Louie and his sister, Nico, from the SPCA in Lovingston at 8 weeks old, and found out pretty quickly after bringing them home that the kittens had an adventurous streak. But whereas Nico would prowl around and mainly keep to herself, Louie was much more friendly.
“He would explore the neighborhood, but if he saw someone walking by, he would start to follow them,” Spofford says.
Then, while housesitting for her family in the country, the couple went for a walk and noticed Louie trailing behind them.
“He would tag along for long hikes, and so in the last couple years we’ve decided to lean in,” Spofford says. “Our favorite place in town to go is Darden Towe Park, where we’ve hiked some portions of the Rivanna Trail and taken breaks by the river.”
And don’t even get her started on how Louie taught himself to use the restroom.
“One morning I walked in the bathroom and found him peeing in the toilet, with absolutely no training,” she says.—CH
Walking the walk
Give yourself—and your dog—a break
Cynthia Elkey started her first pet-sitting and dog-walking business three decades ago. Rover’s Recess has been offering pooches-and their owners-a break as a midday walking service since 1999. Photo by Tristan Williams.
Cynthia Elkey is so dedicated to her work, she’ll wriggle through a dog door to get to her clients. Elkey, owner of dog-walking business Rover’s Recess, had misplaced the key to the house of one of her clients (who were out of town for the week). Elkey didn’t have the housesitter’s number, so she scaled the backyard privacy fence and stuck her head through the door to gauge how big it was. Immediately, a barking Shar Pei came charging toward her—and began licking all over her face. Elkey was laughing as she tried to catch her breath between licks while squeezing through the dog door.
Elkey had wanted to be a veterinarian as a child, and when she was living in Alexandria, a friend mentioned she was doing some part-time pet sitting. In 1985, primo pet care was not the topic du jour—you either knew some neighborhood kids who helped take care of your pet or Fido went to the kennel. Elkey filled a niche and launched a petting-sitting and dog-walking business for the Northern Virginia area; when she sold it in 1998 she had 40 employees.
A year later, Elkey launched Rover’s Recess, a weekday dog-walking business that serves about 70 clients each month in Charlottesvilkle. New customers meet with Elkey in their home, along with the dog walker who is matched with their pooch. The goal is to make sure each canine feels comfortable with its walker—there’s only been one instance where a dog was too afraid to come out from under the bed, Elkey says.
Each Rover’s Recess walker sees four to eight clients a day, and walks them for between 15 and 45 minutes each (on hot or rainy days, walks are kept short or playtime is spent indoors). Elkey requires any new hires to commit to at least a year with the business (most employees are semi-retired and looking for part-time work) because she wants to make sure her clients feel comfortable and build a trusting relationship with their caretaker.
“You’re the highlight of their day,” Elkey. “Dogs wear their heart on their sleeve—they’re just great.”—JL
Walk this way
Cynthia Elkey gives a few tips for dog walking:
• Using a harness like Easy Walk that attaches on a dog’s chest and makes the walking experience easier.
• Walk against traffic, so you can see what’s coming.
• When the dog is outside, know you’re thelast thing on its mind: “All they want to do is sniff the doggy newspaper, see who’s been walking around here,” Elkey says.
The Wildlife Center’s animal rehab
The Wildlife Center of Virginia urges people to not take care of wild animals on their own, instead recommending they contact the center. Courtesy of The Wildlife Center of Virginia
Oftentimes, when people encounter a wounded animal, they take it home and care for it themselves. The Wildlife Center of Virginia says don’t. It’s illegal and it has unintended consequences on the patient.
In some cases, this well-meaning nursing causes a bird to imprint on humans instead of other birds.
Gus, one of the center’s barred owls, imprinted on a human family that raised her during her early phases of development. She came to perceive her human caregivers as her own kind, which triggered behavioral issues, such as repeated attempts to mate with humans and an inability to mate with other owls.
Gus is housed outdoors in a five-acre tract of land that extends into the George Washington and Jefferson national forests, where the center shelters each animal in a custom-built, wooden enclosure screened with wired mesh. Most animals are treated or rehabilitated so they can be released back into the wild.
But some that cannot be released because of medical or behavioral issues—mostly snakes, raptors or opossums—are retained as “educational ambassadors” who assist the staff in teaching visitors about wildlife.
Gus is a popular ambassador.
Alex Wehrung, an outreach coordinator at the Wildlife Center, recommends that when people come across a sick or wounded animal, they contact his staff or the 200 other rehabilitators permitted by the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries to handle wild animals.
Tucked in a niche off the side of the road, the center operates in a lodge-like facility that provides office space for employees in one wing and a laboratory for animal care in the other.
It was founded in 1982 by Ed Clark in Weyers Cave, where it serviced wildlife until it relocated to its current location in Waynesboro in 1995. Relying entirely on donations, the nonprofit employs 20 full-time staff members and admits between 2,000 and 3,000 animals each year.
On its website, the center streams live feeds of some of its bear yards and flight tents, and it posts updates on most of the animals’ health—no matter the outcome. “We let people know that not all of our stories have a happy ending,” Wehrung says. “Sometimes we have to euthanize animals.”
Unlike a nature center, the Wildlife Center is not open to the public because of its obligations as a veterinary hospital. But individuals, businesses and schools can schedule a tour through the website.—JH
Top dog
Get to know the Downtown Mall’s gentle giant
Mozart the mastiff, says his owner, is as sweet as he is big. Photo by Eze Amos.
If Mozart likes you, he leans on you. He’ll take a seat at your feet and lean all 198 pounds of his apricot brindle body into you, a gentle invitation for a scritch on the head.
Not that there’s much Mozart doesn’t like, says his human, Susan Krischel, co-owner of the IX property downtown. The nearly 4-year-old English mastiff loves eating ice cream, sucking on stuffed animals, walking through puddles and playing with his best dog friend (who happens to be an 8-pound Pomeranian). Mozart is as sweet as he is big.
He’s lazy, too, requiring a nap after just a single tennis ball chase, or after four rambunctious laps around the coffee table in Krischel’s Downtown Mall apartment.
On their morning walks, Mozart—“Mozey” for short—stops when he’s tired and lies down spread-eagle, drooling and snoozing until he’s ready to proceed. Because of these rests and greetings from Mozart’s adoring fans, Krischel plans extra time into all of their walks. “He’s the ambassador of the mall,” she says of her pet. “A celebrity.”
At a recent party at IX Art Park, Mozart somehow made it into the MoxBox photo booth and sat there for two hours, getting his photo taken (sometimes wearing big plastic sunglasses) with more than 250 different people. He’s very agreeable, unless you’re a skateboarder—then he’ll bark at you.
Krischel especially loves when tiny kids run full-speed up to Mozart and fling their arms around his neck for a hug while the kids’ parents look on, wide-eyed—and possibly terrified—at what might happen. Mozart always just nuzzles them, she says. “He’s a big love muffin.”—EO
Therapy dogs provide helping paws to those in need
Kristen Bowsher and Kuiper, a Leonberger, make regular visits to UVA Hospital as part of a team with Therapy Dogs International. Courtesy of UVA Health System.
When Kiwi’s owner, Julie Walters, puts on her gentle leader and fluorescent green vest, the Labradoodle knows she’s going to work. Specifically, she’s volunteering as a therapy dog through Green Dogs Unleashed, which is a rescue/rehabilitation/therapy training nonprofit based in Troy. Green Dogs mainly rescues special needs dogs that are deaf, blind or amputees, and its therapy dogs run the gamut: Mr. Magoo is blind, and all ages and breeds have come through the program. Currently the organization has 26 teams of dog/human volunteers who visit schools, nursing homes and hospitals to help spread joy.
Walters started fostering dogs four years ago, first through the Fluvanna SPCA after seeing a photo of a dog-in-need on Facebook, then through Green Dogs (she’s fostered more than 65 dogs). After her children aged out of 4-H, she was looking for another way to volunteer and immediately thought of training a dog to help others. She went through the several-weeks-long training process (each segment takes six weeks) with two of her fosters, but both weren’t suited for the work. Then she got Kiwi when she was surrendered to Green Dogs at 4 months old. The puppy had been given up for “bad behavior,” but Walters says it was more likely a case of the original owners not understanding the breed they had gotten.
“They didn’t give her much of a chance,” she says.
Walters had a hunch Kiwi would make a great therapy dog, and says it was clear during training how much the year-old dog loved it: She was calm, paid attention to commands and—perhaps most important—loved the attention. “You can’t pet this dog enough,” Walters says.
Kiwi, 3, is a “foster fail”—as soon as she graduated from therapy training Walters knew she had to keep her; she had fallen in love with her. And Walters isn’t the only one.
The pair visits Central Elementary every Tuesday during the school year to interact with children who have attention deficit disorder. Starting their day petting or reading to Kiwi calms the students down. And Kiwi has become somewhat of a celebrity: During one of their twice-monthly visits to Mountainside Senior Living in Crozet, Walters said a child shouted across the parking lot, “Is that Kiwi?!”
Anne Gardner and her 18-month-old mixed breed, Chewy, just completed the Green Dogs therapy training program (including basic commands, therapy scenarios such as riding an elevator and walking near wheelchairs and learning nonverbal cues), where they met Walters and Kiwi. Although Chewy is still a puppy, Gardner says she’s eager to continue honing his skills so he can pass his test, and start working in schools and the hospital system. And he’s picking things up on his own. The Gardners have new neighbors with young children, and without being told, Chewy sits and waits for the kids to run up to greet him.
“I’m fortunate I have a home that can accommodate an animal; it’s something I know I get my own sense of joy and relaxation and purpose out of,” Gardner says. “There’s more than enough love to go around with these animals.”—JL
Get involved
For more information on fostering or getting your dog certified to be a therapy animal, go to greendogsunleashed.org.
Dawn Woodford says Fifeville parking suffers because of UVA employees. Staff photo
By Mary Jane Gore
Fifeville is a neighborhood of new avenues and narrow side streets. Some curbs are permit parking only; others are open. The well-positioned neighborhood, near West Main Street and adjacent to the UVA Health System and other university buildings, is now fighting to preserve its streets for resident parking.
“It’s getting worse and worse,” laments Dawn Woodford, who’s lived in Fifeville for 20 years. “Someone visiting a resident can’t find parking space. Sometimes someone parks so you can’t even get in the driveway.”
Empty spaces fill up quickly, mainly in the morning between 7 and 8am as people leave their cars and head to work. There is “no place to park,” says Woodford, and in her view, the expansion of the UVA Emergency Department area will lead to worse congestion.
“The issue of parking in our neighborhoods that surround the university and the university hospital is certainly one that is of concern given the impact it has on the quality of life of our residents,” says City Councilor Heather Hill, who recently became one of two councilors representing the city on the Planning and Coordination Council.
UVA Health System does provide parking options, though employees must pay more for nearby garage slots. “All health system team members have options to park in university-owned parking lots or garages,” says Eric Swensen, public information officer for UVA Health System. “Some of those parking areas are within walking distance of the UVA Medical Center.”
Employees also may park at satellite locations, such as U-Hall/John Paul Jones Arena and Scott Stadium, and then ride a bus. The contractor for the hospital expansion project has rented parking spaces for construction workers, Swensen notes.
Related problems also are evident. “As I observed while visiting a neighborhood off of Cherry Avenue, beyond parking is the issue of individuals walking through private property, crossing the railroad line, and then climbing over the fence to get to their place of work,” Hill says of an early April visit.
One solution would be more UVA employee parking in the area. “There are no park-and-ride locations near the hospital, and no new parking areas are planned at this time,” Swensen says.
UVA Health System is making plans that could help to alleviate the crowding. By realigning and relocating its ambulatory care sector by 2024, the footprint of care near the hospital would shrink from a current 413,000 visits to about 200,000 visits annually. The Fontaine Research Center could double its visits—from 182,000 per year now to about 400,000 in the future.
Permit parking is another idea that could keep nonresidents off the Fifeville streets.
“I would encourage those streets that have not implemented zone permit parking to evaluate it with their neighbors and communicate back to the city what hurdles may be preventing alignment,” Hill suggests. “Is it cost, which we can likely work through some options to address? Is it convenience, as permits make it difficult for guests to visit residents depending on the time of day? Other reasons?”
Woodford says the police don’t always come. Hill agrees that “enforcement can be a challenge given the relatively limited resources.”
Woodford’s bottom line is clear: “Why should we pay to fix UVA’s broken parking situation” as rents rise in Fifeville?
