Charlottesville's old woolen mill is now occupied in part by a selection of trendy dining options. Photo: The Wool Factory
Charlottesville’s old woolen mill, peering over the Rivanna River on the town’s eastern edge, had been gathering dust for years. Now, the rubble has been cleared, and it’s time to drink beer.
In 2018, app development company WillowTree began a $25 million overhaul of the building. WillowTree’s employees will move into their 85,000-square-foot offices next year. The Wool Factory, an adjacent 12,000-square-foot hybrid space that includes a brewery, restaurant, and coffee shop, has just opened.
The symbiosis between the two outfits is obvious—The Wool Factory is a selling point for WillowTree, as the tech company tries to tempt employees into town, says Claire Macfarlan, The Wool Factory’s director of operations and sales, while The Wool Factory benefits from a “built-in [customer] base on top of the neighborhood.”
The mill itself was originally built in the 1790s, and has “a mixed history,” says Bill Emory, a longtime Woolen Mills neighborhood resident who’s conducted extensive research into the area’s past.
During the Civil War, the mill produced uniforms for Confederate soldiers. Union troops burned down the building, and its associated railroad bridge, when they occupied Charlottesville in 1865, according to the Encyclopedia Virginia.
In the 20th century, the mill grew into Albemarle County’s most productive industry, and the surrounding area became a steady, white working-class neighborhood.
“They had a large, over 50 percent female workforce,” says Emory. “The people who worked at the mill were able to afford housing in the neighborhood. Of course, it was sharply segregated. There was one African American employee in 1920.”
The woolen mill circa 1920. Photo: Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
The mill closed in the 1960s, and has since served a variety of purposes. Most recently, it was a storage facility.
“There wasn’t a lot of community interaction with the mill site,” says Emory. “It might have been under-used, but it was never a piece of crap. The previous owners were storing stuff in it so they always took care of the roof.”
Selvedge Brewery, one of The Wool Factory’s three dining options, leans into the setting. It’s full-on urban-industrial brewery chic: The walls are rough brick, the stools are spare metal, and an ancient Remington typewriter sits on a side table. Yellow exposed light bulbs glow from strings above the courtyard.
The Wool Factory comes by some of this character honestly. The green metal lamps that hang from the ceiling are refurbished but original. The gray and white paint—sparse enough to reveal the bricks beneath it—dates back to the building’s industrial days. An original wooden wall separates the kitchen from the dining room in Broadcloth, the Wool Factory’s sit-down restaurant.
“We try to keep it a little bit raw,” says Brandon Wooten, the project’s creative director and a co-founder of Grit Coffee, another tenant. “Normally you have to create the character. We didn’t have to create the character.”
“From the point of view of the historic repurposing and renovation, I’m in awe of the place,” Emory says.
The county’s Architectural Review Board oversees the renovation of historic properties, and the board’s influence can be felt on the property in a few places. An elevated metal chute cuts through the air across the courtyard. “This chute up here that doesn’t do anything had to stay,” says Wooten.
The renovators replaced all the windows in the mill, but had to install window frames that matched the originals. And the lettering on the side of the building—“Charlottesville Woolen Mill,” in squarish white sans-serif—was freshened up but couldn’t be moved, even though the words are spaced oddly, says Lizzy Reid, a public relations manager working with The Wool Factory.
The Wool Factory team says it wants to communicate the history of the building to visitors, but doesn’t have concrete plans in place.
“We’re trying to figure out where that stuff will actually go,” Wooten says. They might put historical information on the menus at Broadcloth, he says, and they “have talked about having something you can scan.”
Macfarlan says they don’t want to install a permanent plaque with historical information, because they wouldn’t be able to remove it during events.
“The names of the beers are very intentional,” says Reid, when asked about the mill’s history. In homage to the space’s original purpose, Selvedge Brewery’s beers are named after fabrics. Patrons can suck down a pint of Seersucker, Herringbone, or even Flannel No. 1.
Now, Emory says, the onus is on the city and county to make the building accessible. Broadway Street, which leads through the Woolen Mills neighborhood to the mill, is a “super-wide street with no pedestrian facilities, no bike facilities,” says Emory. “Totally uninviting place to get to if you’re doing anything other than driving a car.”
WillowTree has said it will offer kayaks to those employees ambitious enough to commute to work via the Rivanna. That’s a creative solution, but it won’t be enough to insulate the neighborhood from hundreds of new commuters. (And brewery-goers beware: Kayaking under the influence is illegal in Virginia.)
“It’s potentially a keystone for recreation and a lot of good things happening,” says Emory. “If the county and the city figure out how they’re going to get people to and fro without destroying all the city neighborhoods around the mill.”
This story was corrected 7/9 to reflect that the Albemarle County Architectural Review Board, not the Charlottesville Board of Architectural Review, oversaw the renovation of the woolen mill property.
Damien Jurado performs at Woolen Mills Chapel on Monday. Publicity image.
Far afield: Folk singer-songwriter Damien Jurado began his solo career in 1995, self-releasing cassettes and performing intimate acoustic shows around his hometown of Seattle. Aptly described as experimental, Jurado’s work includes forays into found and field recordings—in 2000 he released a collection of fragments that he had found from sources such as thrift store tape players and answering machines—while his indie-rock efforts center around lyrically powerful, dark musings that veer from alien life and human death to loves gained and lost. Wes Swing and Corrina Repp also perform.
Monday6/24. $15, 7pm. Woolen Mills Chapel, 1819 E. Market St.
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.
The Albemarle County Police Department released its annual crime report for 2017 in June, and while we already published some of the most striking statistics, here’s what else caught our eye.
Between the years of 2016 and 2017, crimes rates increased in all but one category. The largest increases were in homicide and forcible rape, whose rates increased by a whopping 500 percent and 93 percent, respectively. The exception was robbery, which decreased by more than 50 percent.
1,805 larcenies, 1.4 percent increase
1,305 property crimes, 2.3 percent increase
146 breaking and enterings, 0.7 percent increase
74 stolen motor vehicles, 21.3 percent increase
37 aggravated assaults, 9 percent increase
27 forcible rapes, 93 percent increase
10 robberies, 52 percent decrease
6 homicides, 500 percent increase
Disorderly conduct was the most common call for service.
Disorderly Conduct: 1,223 calls
Mental Health: 575 calls
Noise Complaint: 560 calls
Drug Offenses: 529 calls
Trespassing: 427 calls
Vandalism: 403 calls
Domestic Assault: 321 calls
Shots Fired: 273 calls
DUI: 174 calls
DIP: 163 calls
Littering: 12 calls
The report’s demographic breakdown found that whites make up two-thirds of the arrests in the county.
White: 66.2 percent
Black: 32.3 percent
Asian or Pacific Islander: 0.8 percent
Unknown: 0.7 percent
American Indian or Alaskan Native: 0.1 percent
Suicide stats
The county crime report included a new section for mental health. In 2017, Albemarle County Police received 575 mental-health-related calls, a 7 percent increase from the previous year. In 2015, there was a record 24 percent increase from the previous year. Deaths by suicide have decreased slightly over the past half-decade.
2013
Attempted: 18
Completed: 12
2014
Attempted: 17
Completed: 13
2015
Attempted: 10
Completed: 15
2016
Attempted: 18
Completed: 6
2017
Attempted: 11
Completed: 11
We’ve been duped
A human figure wrapped in cloth, tightly bound at the neck and feet and dumped at the McIntire Recycling Center over the weekend gave recyclers a scare—until police responded to the scene and cut the cloth to reveal a mannequin. Police are still investigating the body bamboozle.
WillowTree makes moves
Governor Ralph Northam dropped by August 27 to announce that WillowTree will invest approximately $20 million in an expansion and relocation to the old Woolen Mills factory, which will create more than 200 jobs. The new location will allow the 276-employee company to grow to 500, and the move is expected to be completed by the end of next year.
Coach gets caught
A Monticello High School assistant football and girls’ basketball coach has been placed on administrative leave following his August 24 arrest for allegedly sending “inappropriate electronic communications” to a juvenile. George “Trae” Payne III is also a teacher’s aide at the school.
Change of venue
Attorneys for James Fields say he won’t be able to get a fair trial this November in the same town where he allegedly rammed his Dodge Challenger into a crowd of anti-racist activists, killing one of them and injuring many. They’ve asked to move his three-week, first-degree murder trial elsewhere, or bring in out-of-town jurors. A judge is expected to rule on the motion August 30.
Like a high school paper
Liberty University now requires its student newspaper, the Liberty Champion, to get approval from two to three administrators before publishing a story. Bruce Kirk, the school’s communications dean, told student reporters their job was to protect Liberty’s reputation and image, according to a story in the World magazine.
Heaphy’s new job
Tim Heaphy. Photo by Eze Amos
Former U.S. Attorney Tim Heaphy, a current Hunton & Williams partner who was hired to conduct the controversial independent review of how the city managed last year’s white supremacist events, will now have another notch on his resume. When UVA Counsel Roscoe Roberts retires at the end of the month, Heaphy, a UVA School of Law alumni, will take his place.
Quote of the week:
“We ain’t mad at you Spike Lee. We just want you to do the right thing.” —Unnamed young people in an open letter to Spike Lee, saying he used their images from the August 12 attack in his movie, BlacKkKlansman, without permission. They want him to donate $219,000 to fight white supremacy.
Jeff Bloem used 17 years of experience in supply chain analysis to research and form the Woolen Mills-based Murphy & Rude Malting Co. He now supplies local brewers with Virginia-sourced malts. Photo by Eze Amos
Beer has been made with malt for hundreds —if not thousands—of years, but a Charlottesville entrepreneur only recently thought to exploit the steeped, germinated and dried grains to find a unique way into the craft beverage world.
Jeff Bloem opened Murphy & Rude Malting Co. in Woolen Mills in February. He intended to focus on delivering local craft brewers and liquor makers specialty malts—prepared grains (i.e. base malts) that have been further processed to give beverages roasted, caramel or other unique flavors. But in the last several months, Bloem has found his niche providing his standard, all-Virginia grown malts to those same small-scale brew and booze producers.
“I thought I was this wise young buck and what I could do to differentiate myself would be to focus on the specialty malts,” Bloem says. “But everybody wants base malt. You set your thinking through this very small piece of a business, then the customers dictate what you are going to do.”
While small craft breweries, and to a lesser extent small craft spirit distillers, have banked on the buy-local movement to capture consumers’ attention, the only thing local about the drink that ends up in folks’ hands is typically the production facility address. Craft breweries by and large rely on the same hulking, national malt houses as macrobrewers like Anheuser-Busch InBev and MillerCoors.
Bloem admits he can’t compete with the big maltsters on price. His grains are always going to be more expensive than what craft brewers can get from Cargill or Rahr. That’s why he figured he would settle in the specialty malt niche, where the value he adds through extra processing can justify the higher cost. And he hasn’t given up on that model.
But for now, Bloem’s found the higher price tag is worth it for certain beverages, specifically for brewers and spirit makers who don’t widely distribute their products and have lower capacities.
“As a smaller brewery, we can experiment a bit more and are okay with the product varying a little batch-to-batch,” says Kevin McElroy of Random Row Brewing Co., which uses Bloem’s malts in its taproom staple Mosaic Pale Ale. “Something new and local is exciting for us to try out, and having that personal relationship with the maltster is a benefit down the road.”
So how did Bloem, an avid craft beer and spirit fan, end up working upstream from the beverage production lines? He’d spent his career analyzing supply chains for a large government consulting firm. After 17 years figuring out how to break into new markets and find new revenue streams for other people, he wanted to strike out on his own and he took a look at the artisan beverage space.
Hops, Bloem says, were on lots of folk’s radar, from both a production and agricultural standpoint. But malt was nowhere to be found.
“I dug in and got addicted,” he says. “Five years later, here I am.”
Bloem’s new 6,300-square-foot malt house on Broadway offers 200 tons of annual capacity. He’s processing three tons of raw grain per week in his 400-pound drum roaster and sourcing 100 percent of his grains, including two-row barley, wheat, rye and triticale, from Virginia farmers.
Bloem would like to be cranking out five tons of grain per week within five years. In addition to moving more of his production to specialty malting, he wants to break into the raw grain market. His malts should be available to homebrewers at his facility and Fifth Season Gardening in the next two to three months.
“I am trying to change the relationship model between the brewer and the ingredient maker,” Bloem says. “This is really bringing an entirely new, individual perspective to craft beer and spirits production.”
Home base
In addition to Random Row’s Mosaic Pale and Apple Sour, Murphy & Rude has supplied malt for South Street’s May Day Mild, Fine Creek Brewing’s Kentucky Common, 1781 Brewing’s Virginia Hefeweizen, Spencer Devon Brewing’s third anniversary Saison du Local, and Spirit Lab Distilling’s whiskey, among other bevvies.
While small craft breweries, and to a lesser extent small craft spirit distillers, have banked on the buy-local movement to capture consumers’ attention, the only thing local about the drink that ends up in folks’ hands is typically the production facility address.
Todd Divers’ job is to find taxable property for the city. File photo
Personal property taxes are due June 5, and the city has stepped up its efforts to locate vehicles that reside in Charlottesville, even if their owners don’t.
Woolen Mills Storage received a request from Commissioner of the Revenue Todd Divers to provide a list of vehicles stored there.
“If a vehicle is parked here on January 1, it’s taxed here,” says Divers.
“It has been a nightmare,” says Woolen Mills Storage general manager Eddie Griffin, who was charged with collecting the name, address, vehicle description and VIN—vehicle identification number—from the 47 rented spaces, including some that are rented by construction companies that switch multiple vehicles in and out of the spaces.
He says 22 tenants had not turned in their paperwork. “It has been a pain in the butt,” he says, and he wonders why the city can’t collect the information from the Department of Motor Vehicles.
“It’s a request for information,” says Divers, who says the city routinely asks landlords for lists of tenants to make sure businesses have licenses or have paid tangible business taxes. And while he hasn’t gone after apartment complexes for lists of renters, “I think the code allows that.”
That’s something Albemarle County is already doing, according to spokesperson Jody Saunders. Owners of apartments, office buildings, shopping centers,
trailer camps, trailer courts, self-service storage facilities, marinas and airports are all required to file lists of tenants with the county, she says.
What the city’s request is not, assures Divers, is double taxation for someone who may live in Albemarle and store a vehicle in Charlottesville. If that’s the case, “you’d probably get a refund from Albemarle,” he says.
And nonresidents who rent a monthly parking space in the city are exempt from paying personal property tax, as are full-time students who pay taxes on their vehicles in another domicile, says Divers.
Tracking down stored boats or RVs to collect the city’s $4.20 per $100 of value is just part of the commissioner of the revenue job. “We have to find taxable property and tax it,” says Divers. “That’s what they hire us for.”
Correction 12:08pm: Woolen Mills Storage is not the only storage facility in the city, as previously reported, but it does seem to be the only one that stores vehicles, boats and RVs.
City Councilor Kathy Galvin (left) gave kudos to longtime Woolen Mills resident Bill Emory (right) for “sound[ing] the alarm” on the sewage stink in 2008, and not letting up. Photo by Martyn Kyle
The stench of sewage wafting throughthe Woolen Mills neighborhood hassickened residents since the early 1900s. But after the completion of a 10-year and $10 million odor reduction project at the local wastewater treatment facility, project pioneers and neighbors came together to celebrate the fact that they can finally breathe easy again.
“I haven’t noticed the smell for a while now,” says longtime Woolen Mills resident and former city planning commissioner Bill Emory. “It’s a big deal.”
Emory got a shout-out from City Councilor Kathy Galvin, who doubles as a member of the Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority board, at the May 23 celebratory picnic in the city’s Riverside Park. They were just stepsaway from the wastewater treatment facility when she gave the longtime resident kudos for “sound[ing] the alarm” on the stench in 2008, and refusing to back down.
In a July 2016 interview with C-VILLE, however, Emory said that when residents called the RWSA to complain about the sewagestink in the mid-1970s, “They would tell us smell was subjective.”
Even RWSA’s director of engineering and maintenance, Jennifer Whitaker, admitted that the organization’s initial response to residents 30 and 40 years ago was that living near pollution was a fact of life. She alluded to a former unnamed utility employee who—a “long, long time ago”—famously made light of the stink by saying, “We’re not baking cookies here.”
That wasn’t the only stomach-turning illusion of food during remarks made at the picnic.
Galvin also commented on RWSA board chairman Mike Gaffney’s mention of the treatment facility’s “gravity thickeners” that condense the biosolids into a concentrated solids product.
“Mike, I can’t get the phrase ‘gravity thickeners’ out of my head,” she said. “It sounds like [they’re used to make] a powdermilkshake, but then I think that through and I get really sick.”
The Moores Creek Advanced Water Resource Recovery Facility treats nearly 10 million gallons of wastewater each day, and while there are lots of technical terms to describe what went down during the project to stop the stink, Emory doesn’t mince words: They did it by “covering the cat box.”
Aside from installing those primary clarifier covers that put an end to open-air waste composting, the utility also installed air scrubber and grit removal facilities.
“It really is pretty amazing,” Emory said, while he and his dog waited near the Mouth Wide Open food truck that RWSA provided for their picnic celebration. He commended Gaffney’s leadership of the board during the “long, tortured” process of crushing the odors.
About 40 people ambled over to the truck to claim their buffalo chicken bites and pimento cheeseburgers as Whitaker hung back to exchange words with attendees who continued to approach her.
Surprisingly, her crew hasn’t received too much other feedback on the project, she said.
“It used to be something we spent lots of time responding to,” Whitaker said, and added that she feels as though the community has already accepted this stink-free reality as the new norm.
Laughing, she was sure to put a positive spin on the lack of public reaction: “We’re not hearing from people about how it’s not working.”
A recent poll of Woolen Mills residents who live in the proposed historic district showed that 57 percent of survey respondents were not in favor of the change. Photo by Skycladap.com
City Council is expected to vote next month on a proposed Woolen Mills historic conservation district that would impose new regulations on about 85 residences and that continues to divide homeowners in the neighborhood.
“It’s pretty cut and dry that people don’t want it,” says Eric Hurt, a resident who will live in the historic overlay if it passes. “When a neighborhood association divides a neighborhood and steps onto private property, it’s bound to get heated,” he says in an email to a couple of other Woolen Mills residents.
Though the Woolen Mills Neighborhood Association originally was in favor of implementing the historic conservation district, a recent poll by the city showed that 57 percent of poll respondents living in the proposed area weren’t in favor of it, and that’s why the board pulled its support, according to chair John Frazee.
The initial poll done by the neighborhood association in May 2016 showed that 94 percent of Woolen Mills affected property owners who responded supported the conservation district. Opponents have long argued that those originally in favor weren’t given enough information to make a proper decision, thus paving the way for the second poll.
The text for the new zoning was rewritten for clarity in February, because there were questions about what would be allowed in the historic conservation district and whether homeowners would need Board of Architectural Review approval before building structures as insignificant as birdhouses and mailboxes, Frazee says.
As it’s written now, a certificate of appropriateness will be required for all new buildings that require a building permit unless they aren’t visible from any abutting streets. Additions located to the side or front of principal structures will require approval, as will additions that are equal to or greater than 50 percent of the total gross floor area of the existing building, or additions located on the rear of the existing structure that exceed its height or width.
Painting any previously unpainted brick or masonry will also require a certificate of appropriateness, but repainting a material other than unpainted brick or masonry is exempt. Ordinary maintenance and repairs are also exempt.
“It’s very important to note that I feel that offering the neighborhood an opportunity for the historic district was the right thing to do. I believe that the trade-off of regulation and potential cost is well offset by the protection the neighborhood gets when it comes to things like new construction and demolition,” says Frazee, who has lived in Woolen Mills for about 12 years and spent six of them on the neighborhood association board. He lives two houses outside of the proposed conservation district that namely protects properties on Chesapeake, Riverside, Steephill, Franklin and East Market streets.
“He’s willing to put rules and regulations on the people, but not follow them himself,” says Hurt. And in his message to neighbors, he says, “This situation is very, very, very simple. These homes and properties are owned not by [Neighborhood Development Services] or the [Woolen Mills Neighborhood Association], but by the people who have worked hard, saved money, taken out a mortgage and purchased them. Shame on anyone who is attempting to place restrictions and costs onto their own neighbors.”
Longtime Woolen Mills resident Bill Emory, who is a former member of the City Planning Commission, advocated for passing the ordinance at the City Council meeting, and said historic conservation districts were created to protect the character of “modest, historic neighborhoods without imposing harsh requirements on residents who want to remodel their homes.”
He said there have been no homeowner appeals to council regarding the ordinance since two conservation districts were implemented in the Martha Jefferson and Venable neighborhoods in 2010 and 2014, respectively.
City Councilor Kathy Galvin, an architect, has been vocal in supporting the proposed zoning regulations. She says the Board of Architectural Review voted 9-0 and the Planning Commission voted 6-0 to approve them based on resident input and physical surveys. She also says this historic district is an explicit goal of the city’s comprehensive plan.
“Allowing a second opinion poll to overturn these votes made little sense when resident input is supposed to inform the PC and BAR, not undermine their legal authority,” Galvin says. “If you don’t like the law, change it. Don’t sabotage it.”
The Martha Jefferson and Venable neighborhood associations obtained conservation district status after submitting letters of support and poll results before any BAR or Planning Commission votes, Galvin says.
“No other neighborhood association had a second poll taken after the BAR and PC had voted in favor of their conservation district designation,” she says. “To suddenly make this second poll a condition of council’s approval therefore struck me as being inconsistent and unfair. City Councilors take an oath to govern fairly and in accordance with the law.”
Updated August 1 at 9:00am to clarify poll numbers.
Though a number of residents want to preserve the historic character of their neighborhood, Woolen Mills is already home to many modern houses. Matteus Frankovich / Skyclad AP
A proposed historic conservation district in Woolen Mills has the neighborhood divided. While some residents are pushing for a neighborhood association-requested ordinance that would promise protection of their historic assets, others say the drafted rules concerning additional construction in the area—for both big and small projects—would require them to jump through too many hoops.
The neighborhood, named after the Woolen Mills factory that produced a combination of wool, cotton, flour and lumber from 1830 to 1962, is home to an array of millhouses dating back to that era. Today, about 475-500 homes exist in the neighborhood, and 82 properties owned by 68 residents are located within the proposed conservation district, according to John Frazee, chair of the Woolen Mills Neighborhood Association.
Frazee has lived in the neighborhood for 12 years and spent five years on the neighborhood association board. He lives two houses outside of the proposed conservation district that namely protects properties on Chesapeake, Riverside, Steephill, Franklin and East Market streets.
“Personally, I feel that the concept of a conservation district is a positive one for a neighborhood like ours,” he says. “I feel it affords a reasonable amount of protection for the integrity of what comprises our neighborhood, even though it is very mixed in terms of architecture and history.”
He says the largest point of contention for some residents is the proposed ordinance, which as currently written, and if interpreted strictly, would require them to receive approval from the Board of Architectural Review before building anything onto their properties. And doing so comes with a price tag.
“This has been a working-class neighborhood since its inception,” says Barry Umberger, a Woolen Mills resident of 35 years who lives in the proposed conservation district. He says building any type of addition is already costly—and if the ordinance passes, hiring an architect to draw plans and having them reviewed and approved by the BAR, a step that would cost from $125 to $375, are an added burden.
Additionally, he says the overlay of the proposed district is arbitrary—his house, and those surrounding it, are nearly identical, though both he and his neighbor are included in the proposed perimeter and the four houses behind him are not.
“I think we should have the right to opt out,” he says.
Eric Hurt, who also resides in the proposed district, agrees. “The only real compromise is for people to do what they want with their own property,” he says. “I just don’t think neighbors should be vying for rules on other neighbors. The city does that and we don’t need more of it.”
Mary Joy Scala, the city’s preservation and design planner within the Department of Neighborhood Development Services, is aware of neighborhood concerns. She is currently rewriting the ordinance to make it more specific before City Council votes on whether to adopt it.
“It was ready to go to City Council for adoption in December and then some of the residents took a closer look at it and became concerned about exactly what was required or not required,” Scala says. “One of their big concerns, which I agree with, is that the ordinance was a little bit vague about precisely what required approval and what didn’t.”
For example, neighbors raised questions about whether they’d need approval for structures like birdhouses or chicken coops, and the answer, some residents say, seemed up to interpretation.
Louis Schultz lives in the proposed perimeter and is concerned that the city may not be operating legally in other historic districts because some property owners have been permitted to build without the required approval. He says, “It’s fine, in some ways, if [the ordinance] doesn’t really affect you because someone doesn’t enforce the law, but that’s not good government at all. Ignoring the law for my benefit is really not something that’s reliable in the long run.”
The proposed historic conservation district is intended to prevent the demolition of current structures and to review proposed new buildings and structures to “make sure they fit the character of the district,” Scala says.
Historic conservation districts—two of which already exist in the Martha Jefferson and Rugby Road neighborhoods—are similar to, but less intensely regulated than, architectural design control districts, of which there are eight, including North Downtown, West Main Street and the Corner.
Within the next five months, the proposed ordinance, which requires a zoning text amendment, will go to the BAR for recommendation. It will then be sent to the planning commission for a recommendation and City Council for the final vote.
“I think historic conservation districts are really useful and important because there are a lot of historic neighborhoods in Charlottesville where you would not want to see buildings demolished without any kind of review,” Scala says. “It’s a mechanism to protect a lot of neighborhoods without getting in there too much.”
Updated January 19 at 9:15am to clarify Louis Schultz’s remarks.
Lonnie Wood, the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority’s interim executive director, says components number four and five on the map are the “main culprits” for the stink. Courtesy of RWSA
The smell of sewage has wafted through the east side of Charlottesville for decades, driving out some residents, nauseating the ones who have stayed and even leaching into the surgical suites at Sentara Martha Jefferson Hospital, according to complaints by the hospital’s director at a Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority board meeting in 2014. But there’s good news: On July 15 the RWSA kicked off the final phase of a $9.33 million odor control project, which should finally stop the stink.
The odor comes from the RWSA’s wastewater treatment facility, Moores Creek Advanced Water Resource Recovery Facility, located near the Belmont-Carlton and Woolen Mills neighborhoods.
Though the first half of the treatment plant wasn’t built until the 1950s, signs of the smell can be traced back to the early 1900s. In the summer of 1916, the city’s main sewer pipe—then a straight pipe running from town into the Rivanna River—broke.
“Foul odors wafted across the mill village from the leak,” wrote Andrew Myers in The Charlottesville Woolen Mills: Working Life, Wartime and the Walkout of 1918. “The stench ended only with the arrival of the coldest winter in twenty years.”
The sewage smell has intermittently passed through town ever since.
In 2008, water engineering firm Hazen and Sawyer evaluated the issue and recommended a five-phase odor control project that would set the RWSA back almost $34 million. The authority stuck with a two-phase, long-term master plan it created in 2007, and the first phase of that was completed by mid-2012. In January 2014, RWSA was allotted $2 million from a capital improvement plan, and $9 million from the organization will initiate the final phase when construction begins next month.
“This project, as well as previous efforts starting in 2006, definitely had engineering, scientific, financial and community challenges to solve,” said Lonnie Wood, RWSA’s interim executive director, in a press release. “The [Albemarle County Service Authority,] city and county have worked well together to bring solutions to these odor problems for our neighbors through the RWSA.”
“I’m cautiously optimistic,” says Bill Emory, a former planning commissioner who purchased his Woolen Mills house in 1987 and who has lived in town since 1971. He adds that though the smell has always persisted, the RWSA has only worked diligently to eliminate the foul odors for the past decade or so. When residents would call on a regular basis in the mid-1970s, Emory says, “They would tell us smell was subjective.”
But the stench is real, and comes from the 10 million gallons of wastewater that RWSA treats each day at its facility. Last December, then-RWSA executive director Tom Frederick said it best: “We receive and have to treat what gets flushed from the toilets of 120,000 homes.”
The final phase of the project is on track to be completed by the end of 2017. Improvements include the installation of covers over key wastewater treatment systems and construction of a biological scrubber, which will vacuum the air above the systems to remove odor compounds. A sewage containment pipe and grit removal facilities will be installed, making it possible to eliminate the daily use of outdoor basins, such as post-digestion solids settling basins and the outdoor biosolids storage and handling area. RWSA will also purchase custom-covered trailers for transporting the biosolids.
Emory says it “feels good” that the project Frederick eventually got his board to approve is near completion, though the RWSA board, he says, has always been sensitive to the wants of ratepayers—most of whom do not want to pay increased rates to fund a project that doesn’t affect them.
“When you’re in Crozet and you flush the toilet, you don’t think about the smell it makes on the east side of Charlottesville,” Emory says.
But in light of the celebration, and quoting The Disagreeable Man at the July 15 kickoff, Albemarle County Supervisor Rick Randolph said, “The good are better made by ill, as odors crushed are sweeter still.”
