Tag: west main street

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How to spend $162 million: The city’s budget increases 3.5 percent

Over the next three fiscal years, City Manager Maurice Jones is proposing $10 million for improvements to West Main Street. Photo by Jack Looney

Charlottesville City Manager Maurice Jones presented his proposed budget for fiscal year 2017 to City Council on March 7.

The $161,871,784 budget is a 3.5 percent increase over 2016’s fiscal year budget, which was approved at $156,391,435. The latest budget is Jones’ sixth version.

“The biggest chunk is going to the schools,” he says, and overall, he is proposing an additional $1.9 million for city schools, along with a 1 percent increase in the lodging tax rate to help offset the cost of school funding. The increase will add $566,000 in revenue.

The tax rate will stay the same at 95 cents per $100 of assessed value; because property values increased by 2.56 percent in 2015, the city made an extra $3.1 million in property tax revenue.

In just two words, Jones says he can summarize next year’s budget as allocating money for “quality services” in the city. And, in his opinion, one of the most significant capital improvement projects in the works is the development of a $1.7 million skate park at McIntire Park.

Renovations to Charlottesville’s circuit and general district courts are also a priority, with $4.5 million projected for circuit court renovations over a five-year span and $500,000 in the current budget for design. An additional $500,000 is proposed for general district court renovations, which will require more than $7 million over the five years.

Over the next three fiscal years, Jones is proposing $10 million for improvements to West Main Street. In five years, $1 million will be used to install new sidewalks and almost $500,000 will go toward maintaining underground utilities.

By 2025, City Council’s vision for Charlottesville is for it to be “America’s healthiest city,” and Jones says the budget supports that by allocating money for keeping up with parks and recreation “to help ensure that people have opportunities to exercise.” Over the next two fiscal years, $1.5 million will go toward implementing the McIntire Park master plan.

Minor changes to some services will save almost $400,000, Jones says. Those include reducing pool hours at the Washington Park Pool and a change to the Charlottesville Area Transit route 7, which will reduce the number of operating buses to six per hour, instead of seven. Wait times between buses on that route will increase to 20 minutes, up from 15 minutes.

Council will meet March 10 for a budget work session.

BUDGET BREAKDOWN

$161,871,784: Total budget is a 3.5 increase over 2016 fiscal year budget

No change: Tax rate stays the same, 95 cents per $100 of assessed value

$63,569,933: City schools get the biggest piece of the general fund budget pie, with an increase of $1.9 million

$3.1 million: The additional revenue from property values, which increased 2.56 percent in 2015

$10 million: Amount slated for West Main improvements

$1.5 million: for the McIntire Park
master plan

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Controversy resurfaces: Should the statue stand?

Local resident David Stackpole is calling to remove or replace the Lewis and Clark statue because it represents Sacagawea unfairly. Rammelkamp foto

The Lewis and Clark statue at the intersection of West Main Street has been the center of controversy for some time—last month, police removed a mysterious, red-stained, human-shaped figure made of masking tape from the base of the statue that was aiming a makeshift bow and arrow up at the explorers. One local says it’s finally time to remove or replace the landmark that so many have complained about.

Controversy surrounding the statue often stems from the third figure present in the memorial: Sacagawea. Documented in history as the explorers’ guide in their 1803 to 1806 expedition up the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean, many believe the monument embodies an ethnic and gender bias that doesn’t depict the Native American woman fairly.

The statue was made by Charles Keck and dedicated in 1921, but not until 2009 was a plaque commemorating Sacagawea’s contributions to the expedition placed on the monument.

David Stackpole, a Charlottesville resident of 18 years, calls the “simple plaque” the “perfect remedy if you’re standing no more than two feet away from it in the middle of traffic and on the right side [of the sculpture] to see it.”

He takes note of Sacagawea’s crouched stance in comparison with the towering explorers above her. She has a “concave, self-protected frame,” with her hands pulled close to her body, which contrasts, Stackpole says, with the “flared chests” and open postures of Meriwether Lewis—an Albemarle native—and William Clark. As the Native American gazes downward, the men stare off into the horizon, and while Sacagawea’s bent knees suggest exhaustion and the need for rest, Stackpole says the explorers stand with a “readied, strongly erect stance.”

Many have spoken out against the statue, including performance artist Jennifer Hoyt Tidwell, who organized the 2007 Columbus Day protest in which she and several other women gathered near the statue in support of Sacagawea and dressed in evening gowns, donning sashes with names such as “Miss Representation” and “Miss Informed.” She collected 500 signatures to correct the portrayal of the Native American, and as a result, the 2009 plaque was mounted.

Recalling the unveiling of the plaque, Hoyt Tidwell says City Council invited Sacagawea’s Shoshone descendants. She was disappointed when Council didn’t mention the protest or introduce her to the Native Americans and, instead, accepted intricately beaded purses and garments from the descendants on their own behalf.

“It reminded me of how Sacagawea in that statute was not given credit for her role and neither was I,” she says.

Stackpole says the plaque isn’t enough. And he thinks Lewis and Clark might agree.

“If you were to read how these two great men adored and respected her, you would be convinced they, too, would take issue with this,” Stackpole says, adding that he wants the statue removed, replaced or counterbalanced by a sibling statue that depicts the woman’s contributions. He is currently gathering signatures on a petition that he will submit to Council.

Andre Cavalcante, an assistant professor at UVA, says he and his students support Stackpole’s efforts. Raising the question to his Gender Nonconformity in Media class, Cavalcante says students agreed almost universally that the statue is historically inaccurate and offensive.

“The class agreed that this kind of representation belongs in a museum,” he says, “a place where it can exist as a part of history and be critiqued for its misrepresentation.” Noting that the statue would not be erased from history, he says, “preserving the story of both monuments and highlighting that social change and progress are indeed possible.”

But those at the Lewis & Clark Exploratory Center in Darden Towe Park think the statue should stay as it is.

“I understand the gender and racial issues of these historical statues,” says Executive Director Alexandria Searls. “But I also think that history on some level has to be understood from a more evolved viewpoint.”

Searls wrote a letter to City Council February 9 saying if the statue had to be moved, she would accept it at the exploratory center where it could be contextualized. Many historical figures are imperfect, she says, speaking generally of the past, “to remove whatever has any guilt associated with it is to remove everything.”

Charlottesville police removed this figure, which appears to be shooting a bow and arrow up at the explorers, away from the Lewis and Clark statue in February. Photo courtesy of the Charlottesville Police Department
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West Main story: Councilor calls streetscape plan ‘emperor’s new clothes’

Rammelkamp Foto

A year ago, then-mayor Satyendra Huja announced his dislike of a plan for the West Main streetscape that had been in the works since 2013—the third such study on the corridor that connects the University of Virginia and the Downtown Mall since the 1990s, according to his recollection. Thus the West Main Street Action Plan, estimated to cost around $30 million, was on hold for much of 2015.

On January 14, Alexandria-based consultant Rhodeside & Harwell, hired in 2013 for $335,000, was back with three plan alternatives. In the aftermath, City Councilor Bob Fenwick has gone to his blog to denounce consultant costs that have ballooned to $475,000, and some West Main Steering Committee members say for much of the two years they’ve met, their concerns were brushed aside in favor of those who want bike lanes.

“I got the feeling it was the emperor’s new clothes,” says Fenwick, who sat in on the recent steering committee meeting. He posted on cvillecitizen.com so “people could critique” the plan, and he’s made videos with his own comments about current and proposed development on West Main.

The action plan says, “The design for West Main Street will encourage cars to move more slowly,” and that raised a red flag for Fenwick, who observes that the fire department, emergency responders and the University of Virginia were not represented on the steering committee until last year.

“Seconds count in an emergency,” he says. With the plan’s emphasis on slowing traffic, “that’s when I really became concerned about emergency vehicles.”

So did UVA. The university undertook its own traffic study, and on June 8 last year, Chief Operating Officer Patrick Hogan wrote Huja and City Manager Maurice Jones to express concerns about “potential negative impacts to vehicular traffic flow, including emergency medical transportation, which is vital to the operation of our Medical Center.”

The UVA review noted the removal of turn lanes and bus pullouts, the latter of which would create a “bottleneck along West Main Street,” and the lack of traffic analysis to support the plan’s assertion that the corridor’s performance would not change significantly from what it is today.

In August, UVA joined the steering committee in working on revisions and is “optimistic” about the outcome, says UVA spokesperson Anthony de Bruyn.

Rhodeside & Harwell’s latest three options include a plan with parking spaces on alternate sides of the street, one that eliminates bike lanes for shared lanes on a four-block stretch east of the Drewary Brown Bridge and a third that eliminates street parking for wider sidewalks and bike lanes.

No one on the steering committee favored the no-parking option, says Starr Hill resident Pat Edwards, who was on the West Main task force in 2004. She says no parking would cause problems for the historic First Baptist Church, where she is a member.

Her initial concern with slowing traffic on West Main is that it would send vehicles on the narrow neighborhood side streets.

She also was concerned about emergency vehicles being able to navigate a reconfigured West Main. “The consultants said they had checked” with first-responders, she recalls from early meetings. “Basically they brushed me off.”

She’s not sure that pedestrians and bikes should be the priority on West Main. “I’m not against people riding bikes,” she says. “I just don’t think we should jeopardize safety. I don’t want to slow down fire trucks.”

Maya owner Peter Castiglione wants some of the taxpayer money put into the Downtown Mall to be shared with West Main. He lists the bakery, brewery, butcher and pawnshop on the east end of the corridor as “transactional businesses” that need parking. And he says, “The sidewalks are the worst in Charlottesville. You can’t navigate them in a wheelchair.”

Castiglione was on the steering committee from the beginning and says, “We realized after three or four meetings no one was listening to a word we had to say.”

He says he favors bike lanes, but “you can’t implement them until parking needs have been dealt with.”

All of the latest streetscape options move the Lewis and Clark statue at the intersection of Ridge-McIntire and get rid of the right turn lane there. “How much is that going to cost?” asks Castiglione.

“Pointless,” says Fenwick.

Bitsy Waters, a former mayor and now on the city’s tree commission, says the plan “has a great many ideas and suggestions to improve West Main. One of the challenges is trying to fit everything in. It’s a narrow right of way.”

City Council is considering rezoning West Main Street after the Flats and the Marriott on the corner of Ridge-McIntire have made people question the desirability of 101 feet tall, high-density structures on a historic thoroughfare with mostly one- or two-story buildings. Waters thinks the city should rezone first before putting money into the streetscape, which includes a costly undergrounding of utilities.

Fenwick says West Main is becoming a “hotel alley,” and he objects to hulking buildings with brick facades and cheaper stucco exteriors a half mile from the Rotunda, a UNESCO World Heritage site. “We’re losing the character of our city,” he says.

And he echoes some of the steering committee members. “It’s time we start listening to the citizens of Charlottesville,” he says. “We’d be much better off if the city trusted its staff and trusted its citizens. We’ve wasted so much money.”

The Planning Commission will consider West Main rezoning February 9. And the steering committee is working on a memo that outlines for City Council two of the alternative designs for consideration, according to Carrie Rainey in Neighborhood Development Services.

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Old and new: West Main complex keeps Blue Moon Diner

A new apartment complex will wend between two hidden historic houses behind Blue Moon Diner. Photo courtesy of Neighborhood Development Services

A new apartment complex is in the works for West Main, but the Board of Architectural Review has already ruled out tearing down some of the street’s oldest buildings to accommodate the building.

Developer Jeff Levien says he would prefer to demolish Blue Moon Diner and the next-door convenience store and rebuild them, adding that Blue Moon tenant Laura Galgano has publicly supported the plan, and the diner and store are not historical by nature or registered landmarks.

Blue Moon, built in 1951 at 512 West Main and originally operated as the Waffle Shop, is an addition on the facade of a two-story duplex called the Hartnagle-Witt House, which was built in 1884.

Beside the Hartnagle-Witt House sits the Hawkins-Perry House, which was built in 1873 by Ridge Street resident James Hawkins. Cecil Perry added a store, called Midway Cash Grocery, to the front of the house in 1931 and operated it for 30 years while his family lived above the store. That space at 600 West Main is now a convenience store.

“They’ve seen their better days,” Levien says about the old buildings, but the Board of Architectural Review insists that the structures remain standing, citing that the properties are the only two remaining dwellings built along West Main in the last half of the 19th century. Levien calls the BAR’s November decision to preserve them putting “history over function.”

In its reasoning for not permitting demolition, the BAR also says, “Both houses could be reproduced, but would not be old” and “the public purpose is to save tangible evidence and reminders of the people of Charlottesville, their stories and their buildings.”

Blue Moon2
Photo courtesy of Neighborhood Development Services

Staff requested both houses be incorporated into the new development proposal, so that’s what Levien and his architect Jeff Dreyfus, are planning to do.

In preliminary site plans, the four-story mixed-use building can be seen to the left of and behind both historic houses, which include the diner and convenience store. Levien says the ground floor will be used for retail and higher levels will include rental apartments.

“It won’t be like The Flats,” Levien says. The Flats @ West Village was highly criticized for its height, which required a 101-foot special use permit and “turned everyone off to these big-box buildings,” he says. Levien has addressed height by planning for a 35-foot-tall street wall along West Main and setting the remaining three stories of the complex back.

Proposed zoning plans for West Main will eventually allow four-story buildings, so Levien says he isn’t asking to add any extra height. He also says he hopes to rent to young professionals, hospital employees, professors or even graduate students rather than undergrads.

Design-wise, Levien looks to Oakhart Social, a restaurant across the street from his complex’s proposed site that has taken over a renovated building, but used its historic character in its aesthetic by featuring the space’s original exposed brick walls and showcasing “old and new,” he says.

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A city divided: Should West Main be rezoned?

The Flats required a 101-foot special use permit. Staff photo

Locals voiced concerns about a potential zoning amendment in the plans for West Main Street at a public forum in front of the City Planning Commission and City Council December 8.

Amendments to the current zoning laws could include dividing West Main into east and west sections with the bridge by the Amtrak station being the dividing line, rather than the current division of north and south sides of the street. Building height west of the bridge would be limited to 75 feet, and on the east side, where most historic buildings still exist, the limit would be 52 feet. No special use permits permitting additional height would be allowed for either side.

For some, preserving the historic aesthetic of West Main is a family matter.

Scott Peyton, a lifelong Charlottesville and Albemarle County resident and partial owner of West Main’s Hampton Inn & Suites, says he’s okay with new developments popping up on the street, “but only to the extent that [they do] not compromise the integrity of the context” in which they are built and, for him, that context goes a long way back.

Born in 1848, Peyton’s great-grandfather, Francis Bradley Peyton, was the station master for the city of Charlottesville for several decades. He worked for Southern Railway from about 1874 to 1929 and lived on three acres of land across from the current Amtrak station. Though Peyton never knew his great-grandfather, the land and mid-19th century home were passed down for generations. Peyton remembers many Sundays after church spent visiting family in that home.

His father, Francis Peyton III, operated Peyton Pontiac Cadillac, an automobile business on West Main for 40 years. Sitting now in its place is The Flats @ West Village, a 101-foot-tall apartment complex that required a special use permit and became the center of much controversy once it was built and locals saw how tall 101 feet actually is. The Flats had trouble leasing its 622 bedrooms before it opened in summer 2014, according to a previous report by C-VILLE, which said the complex had leased about 9 percent of its space, or 56 bedrooms, in January. Flats manager Gina Sacco says 99 percent of the rooms are currently leased.

“I realize that times change,” Peyton says, and “I certainly appreciate and respect the right that people have to develop their property according to what they’re entitled to do,” but he remains in favor of proposed zoning changes, especially height restrictions, that would preserve the character of everything West Main used to be.

However, a number of others hope the zoning on West Main will stay the way it is. Earlier this fall, the Planning Commission recommended the amendment for approval, but City Council deferred the decision for further discussion of the zone in which Midway Manor would fit.

Midway Manor, an affordable housing community for seniors, is located on Ridge Street and has been zoned with downtown properties since the mid-’70s to have 101-foot use. Speaking on behalf of Midway Manor Associates, Valerie Long, the chair of Williams Mullen’s land use practice, says the complex is currently 48 feet tall, and if it were to be zoned with West Main East, which only allows for a 52-foot height, “not even a single story could be added,” which would throw a wrench in any plans for expansion.

Planning commissioners voted 4-2 to have the property included in zoning plans for West Main East.

Keith Woodard, a prominent figure in Charlottesville’s sustainability community and owner of Woodard Properties, says the current proposal for rezoning could disallow the growing trend of rooftop gardens, which are heavily desired by urban dwellers. Greg Powe of Powe Studio Architects in Charlottesville agrees, adding “Roofs should not be viewed as only a functional cap to the building.” He encourages developers to use rooftops and valuable real estate for the good of the community.

Part of the amendment requires bicycle parking at new developments, and the front wall of all buildings would have to be at least 10 feet from the front of the property line to provide more room for plants and trees. It would also close the loophole that currently allows penthouses to be built above maximum height limits.

The Planning Commission has recommended that City Council approve the rezoning, and council will take the final vote December 21.