City Council Meeting   11/7/2022

Yeah, were you there during the football game?

So are we ready to roll?

The clock on the wall says 5 o'clock, so it must be 4 o'clock.

All right, so we will call to order the November 7, 2022 Charlottesville City Council meeting.

Come to order please.

Ms.

And then, so what's the protocol here?

I have it.

Councillor McGill sent notice to City Council and the Clerk today requesting to participate virtually due to a medical condition that prevents her from attending in person.

She will be participating from her home in Charlottesville.

So moved.

Second?

Second.

Okay.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Yeah, we deserve a simple voice vote.

Say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Is there a second?

I'm sorry.

Any opposed?

I'll get through this.

Any opposed?

Motion passes.

Four to nothing.

Happy to have you join us, Councilor McGill.

So this meeting, as always, will be divided into three main sections.

The first is a work session to hear and discuss presentations that do not require a council vote.

Then there will be a closed meeting, usually around 5.30.

So the first item on our agenda for reports this afternoon is from the Botanical Garden of the Piedmont.

I don't see it up on our screen at this point.

It was sent to the clerk's office last Wednesday, so you should have it.

Okay.

That is correct.

Thank you very much for the introduction and thank you so much Mayor Snook for inviting us here today and thanks also to Vice Mayor Wade who has continuously been guiding us in our efforts to build a garden to serve the entire community.

Members of my board of directors will be joining in a little while.

I know for a fact that both our president, Kanzi Palmer, and our vice president, Diego Anderson, should be joining us at any moment.

The last time that I came before the City Council, which was in October of 2022, you all unanimously approved a land lease with our organization.

And we truly appreciate this opportunity to present you with information about what's been happening at the garden ever since.

So this is the mission for the Botanical Garden that has not changed to invite all community members and visitors to engage in nature, to educate and inspire through the beauty and the importance of plants, to advance sustainability and promote human and environmental wellbeing.

And below that is our vision and our inclusion statement for the garden.

And one line I really like is the bottom line of our inclusion statement, which is,

In nature and in society, diversity matters and we welcome and celebrate it.

The Botanical Garden, for those of you who haven't been there, is located on the north end of the east side of McIntyre Park.

It's easily accessible through the John Warner Parkway, either by car or the trails and walking paths along the parkway.

It's also very easy for students from Charlottesville High School, who are right next door, to walk over to the garden.

We have been investigating the possibility of getting public transportation to the garden through Charlottesville area transit service as well as through Jaunt and that's a work in progress but we hope to be able to report that we're working towards a bus stop sometime in the near future

The land lease almost doubled the size of the botanical garden.

As you can see, the blue line indicates the eight and a half acres of the botanical garden with our MOA agreement.

And then the red line indicates the 14.74 acres that we grew to as a part of this agreement.

As a result, we needed to update our schematic plan.

As you know, it was designed with community feedback, and so we did our best to make sure that we kept as much of that garden intact.

The changes that we incorporated were specifically to

I'm going to go ahead and take a look at some of the changes that are being made to the stream during the stream restoration process.

The addition of the trails and the bridge that will be going over the stream, which is the final leg of the Rivanna Parkway.

I'm sorry, the Rivanna trail that will link the garden to the rest of the community.

What it impacted the most was our children's garden.

It actually almost doubled the size of the children's garden.

And since we did the original schematic plan, we have also

and offering free children programming.

And so we were able to add a lot of the feedback that we've gotten as a part of this programming into the schematic plan.

So the Children's Discovery Garden now includes a reading nook and raised planting beds and other areas for programming, as well as still the areas for free play and discovery and exploration.

The other change to the garden was our parking area.

It had been designed with a separate drop-off area and it took up a lot more area of the botanical garden site.

What we did was we

incorporated the drop-off area into the parking itself and then we put an internal rain garden which will draw all of the surface water from the paved surfaces filter it and then go under the parking area to create a series of waterfalls which will be areas of for fun and exploration but also the sound of the water

will help to mitigate some of the traffic noises that you experience now when you're on the site.

So as I said, the other areas of the garden are still intact.

We have our visitor center, which will house our meeting rooms and offices and library, gift shop, catering facilities, and maybe a small cafe.

and adjacent to that we have a three season event space.

Currently we have no amenities at the site and we've had to cancel a lot of our programs because of the rain, especially in the spring and early summer.

So we're looking forward to being able to offer programming and not have to cancel it because of the weather.

And adjacent to the architecture in the garden, we'll have our amphitheater for seasonal celebrations, classes, and

performances as well as our main event green.

As you all know as part of the land lease agreement we will not be charging admission.

So having events like this in the garden as well as being able to rent out our facilities is how we're going to be sustaining the garden financially.

We'll also have healing and meditation gardens, our tree canopy walk up on the other side of the stream with a bird blind for watching birds feed and nest, as well as a sky viewing platform.

We'll have

flowering meadows, fern, mushroom, and moss gardens, a pineetum, which is a collection of native conifers, flowering groves, and other garden spaces.

So we're really excited about the plans for the future garden.

In the meantime, we have been stewarding the site since 2019.

You all might remember this as the former leaf dump and mulch pile for the city of Charlottesville.

And the photograph you're looking at now is the actual photograph of the site on the first day that we started cleaning it up.

We have a tremendously healthy seed bed of

Invasive plants.

And we got a grant to hire a forestry mulcher in order to be able to penetrate into the invasive vines just to get in to start cleaning up the site.

And we've been very fortunate

with the help of our community partners, grants and our volunteers we've created trails and gathering areas which allowed us to start offering free public programming things like

walks for the identification of trees, butterflies, birds, and native plants.

But in addition, in the past year, we also got three grants, and we've been offering free public programming to children in the arts, literacy, and stream water testing, or STEM.

We've also been reaching out to the other groups in the community and offering our gathering spaces to them so that they have been able to offer their programming in the garden as well for free.

and none of this would be possible without the help of our volunteers.

We have over 470 registered volunteers.

Our volunteers actually doubled during the pandemic.

In addition, we have work days that are sponsored by groups that are outside of the garden.

For example, in September, the United Way Day of Caring, we had groups from State Farm, UVA Library,

and ArcWise Wealth who came into the garden and spent their mornings helping us to clean up the garden and build amenities for the community to use.

All of the improvements that we're doing to the garden right now are low to no cost.

For example, in the upper left-hand side of the screen, our Meadow Garden.

That's been a great success for people driving by on the John Warner Parkway just to be able to see the colors, but it's also been a great learning tool because all of the plants provide habitat for pollinators.

We have a children's lending library for books about gardens and nature that was donated to us by a local book club.

We've had a couple of Eagle Scout projects that were donated to the garden this summer.

In the top center, we have a chalkboard that we're using for children's programming.

We also have an accessible

Picnic chair table as well as benches with arms for the community to use.

And then the amphitheater that you see was one of the elements that with materials that were donated to the garden that was built on our day of caring.

Now we're starting to steward the side of the garden that's south of the stream.

The area you see in red was just, with the help of a grant that we got, we hired a forestry vulture to come back to the garden and we started removing more invasive plants on that side of the garden.

And here we have some before and after photographs of the work that was done in just two days.

Next, we'll be working on creating trails and gathering areas on the south side of the stream so that it's easier for people that are accessing it from the skate park to be able to use that area of the stream.

The other thing that we're looking forward to is the stream restoration that's about to begin, which will follow closely with the bridge construction and will connect the garden to the entire Rivanna Trail.

We are growing our programs, writing grants to incorporate ages beyond what we're offering now, and we're really excited about the possibility.

The idea for how we're expanding our programming comes from feedback from members of the community and other organizations that we're partnering with.

And we're looking forward to getting more groups to the site so they can learn all about what the garden has to offer to them.

So the question is, how are we growing the garden?

I know you're all interested in costs.

We had a cost estimate that was done in 2018 as a part of the original cost estimate.

We added a certain percentage to that cost based on the time that's gone by.

And then we added funds because we know that since the pandemic, the cost for building has gone way up.

We started a year ago our first capital campaign.

We're in the silent phase, and it's to raise $10 million.

And I'm happy to say that in one year, we are a third of the way of raising the funds for the first phase of construction.

And the first elements that we plan to build are our three-season garden pavilion, the Children's Discovery Garden, and a small parking lot.

We in fact just got a grant from the Perry Foundation that will help us towards building the garden pavilion.

So we're really excited about how quickly community support is helping us to fund this first phase of the garden.

Our plans if we are to meet our goals is to have the first phase built in three to five years.

So how is the city benefiting from the botanical garden?

Environmentally, the garden is already starting to strengthen the local ecosystem.

We've seen a great diversity of birds enter the site since we started removing invasive plants.

With this diversity of plants, we're also helping to curb pollution.

Economically, we know that botanical gardens attract tourism and contribute to the commerce of their local region.

Socially, we will support the fabric of our greater community as an education center and as a new social hub that is public, open air and free.

But most significantly, research indicates that physical and mental health outcomes are improved for city dwellers of all ages who have regular access to natural environments.

So that public gardens like the Botanical Garden of the Piedmont play an active role, an important role in sustainable community development.

So on your screen now is our website and I invite you to go to it and check it out and see the other information it has to provide.

I also have my contact information up here.

I would love to give you guys a tour so that you can see for yourself all the improvements that have happened to the garden.

No, that was a very thorough presentation.

I really appreciated the update.

I don't have any questions.

I just have some comments.

And, you know, I've been seeing the signs there for years, Jill, and, you know, we've taken tours of it several times, and one of the things that

I found, you know, exciting about this space is that, you know, for years I just thought it was the plot of land behind the high school and by the railroad tracking you've made into, you know.

The leaf.

Yes, yes, that's where, the leaf, where you get mulched at the end.

But you made it a place for, you can just go for solace and just kind of relax and for peace.

It's a place of beauty if you wanted that.

It's a place to just to explore.

I remember one of the times I was taking a walk there is that someone pointed out a really rare tree that was spotted in there and that it was saved and it's a place where we can now teach it to and talk with other

I'm thinking of one, my undergraduate that the

the Norfolk Botanical Garden in Richmond.

Of course, Lewis Ginter Park.

Lewis Ginter has a wonderful park botanical garden.

But I think one here would be just something that would draw people from central Virginia to the Charlottesville area.

And hopefully they'll stick around and shop and eat and maybe even stay overnight.

It's something else to do.

I'm just glad that you and your board are able to do the work that you're doing.

Yeah.

Likewise, I don't really have anything substantive to add or questions, but like others said, I had a chance a while ago to tour the place, and it's really incredible just the small size of it.

Going through it, you know, when you walk through it and look at everything that you all have planned, it's just really incredible that that much is being fit in there, and especially with the planned pavilion and, like, the future programming for students as it continues to get closer to completion.

I agree.

I mean, I feel like this is really going to be something that is really, like,

at the risk of sounding like a bean counter is the fact that you're raising your own money.

One of the things that I would really like to encourage nonprofits in this area to figure out how they can raise their own funds instead of coming to the city every time they need another

$100,000, $500,000, or whatever.

We have a huge number of nonprofits in Charlottesville.

We have a lot of them doing excellent work.

And unfortunately, in my experience, an awful lot of them tend to figure that Charlottesville, the city government, is the funder at least of first resort rather than perhaps of last resort.

So I just appreciate the fact that you all have clearly gone out and we

Just one quick additional comment was that it was a perception that this was going to be not necessarily for everyone in the community, but

Jill and the leadership and the board really have been very intentional to say that this space is for everyone and have really gone above and beyond I believe in trying to get out the word to different groups that this is an open space and I know a lot of nonprofits this is where they had their meetings during COVID when it was really hard to meet in a building but

wanted to see each other and be in the same space with one another.

And this was one of the places that you could do it outside.

And so I think that once it's done, I think a lot of people will continue to take advantage of that.

Any comments, questions?

Okay, well thank you so much, and I just can't tell you how much I appreciate the fact that you all are doing what you're doing.

I drive by there just about every day on my way into the office, and occasionally I've stopped in and walked around when there was nobody else there, and it's just a nice place to get lost a little bit.

not physically lost perhaps, but psychically lost.

Again, the invitation for a tour of the garden stands and I'm excited to show you what we're doing on the south side of the stream as well.

So please do reach out if you have any questions or if you would like a private tour of the garden.

I would love to also invite other organizations

Good afternoon.

I'm Lisa Robertson, City Attorney.

This presentation will not be as much fun or as happy-feely as the Botanical Garden presentation, but here I am.

David Dillahunt has some talking points that he's agreed to put on the screen at some point here.

There we go.

Thank you, David.

I don't have a PowerPoint or anything, but I thought you might like to

sort of have a look at some of the talking points.

So as I understand it, one of the things you were all interested in having a presentation about was to understand what's been happening inside City Hall and why some people who want to close a street or an alley or even to vacate certain utility easements

are able to be successful and at other times people are not successful.

And you've heard anecdotes including from Councillor McGill where people express frustration at not having been given very good information about where to file an application, who can file an application,

why they might have been told their application couldn't move forward, various reports of people who don't understand why their application can't go forward when some others have gone forward.

One thing that I did to get prepared for this discussion or this report was I tried to find

various versions of a street closing policy that that the city has used and say the last 10 years.

So the current version of procedures for considering these types of applications is it was approved in 2019.

Prior to that, the last procedure that I found was approved by City Council on in February of 2005.

I could not find a policy prior to that, but in 2000 in December of 2004, when the 2005 policy was presented to city council, the then city manager stated that the last time city's procedures had been, um, considered or reviewed was the early 1990s.

I've not at this time been able to locate, uh, the policy from the early 1990s, if it was written.

but simply reviewing the 2005 and the current policies I have not found a reason a policy-based reason why different people might have been told we can't accept your application at all or we can't go forward with one exception so in

2019 at the request of city council, there was a task force or I'm not sure if task force was the proper terminology, but city council asked a group of people to get together and to look at all the paper alleys in the city to determine whether or not there might be opportunities for pedestrian connectivity, bicycle and pedestrian activity, that sort of thing.

and so the committee spent quite a bit of time reviewing subdivision old subdivision plats and the city's tax map tax maps through the years and that committee came up with what they called a scoring rubric and

once an application is presented the current policy which took effect again in 2019 states that if if you can tell from the application that a certain critical mass of points can be assigned to to a particular street or alley then staff is supposed to tell the applicant automatically if you have X number of points your application cannot go forward

because we want to make sure in the future that any opportunities for public projects might be available.

So we can talk at the end of my presentation, and I'm sure Councilor McGill may have some questions, but depending on the timing of when a request came forward, if it came after a certain point in 2019,

If there were a certain number of points assigned to that particular location, then staff was empowered by the current policy to just administratively say to a person, your application can't go anywhere.

Can I ask a quick question?

Do you know if we're actually following that policy now?

I think

I'm not sure about that and I think that the the rubric really works better for some applications than others and so for an alley it might work well for something that was platted as a public street it might not work well but I'm not sure if it's being done consistently with all throughout all the current applications

but let me what I want to talk a little bit about that's in the talking points that are up on the screen at the current point is the reason why it is so difficult to achieve consistency among all applications so basically there are three main types of real estate what I'll call holdings that frequently the City Council is asked to

consider vacating.

So the first one is the vacation of a city street.

It might be a city street that was platted years ago in a particular location and it's never been developed or improved.

And now somebody thinks that the street could be laid out in that section of the subdivision differently.

And so they'd like to vacate

vacate the portion of the subdivision plat that shows that street.

Then there are improved public streets which, you know, have have been paved and constructed, and the city has accept those into the city's street system.

Two categories of public streets.

Clearly, if the city is operating and maintaining a public street, the city, when it chooses to do so, can not only vacate that street but can make a decision about when and under what circumstances it might want to sell that whole area to a third party.

And the situation that

most of you are at least vaguely familiar with was the Brandon Avenue street vacation where UVA acquired the property from the city.

But one thing, then the second category of real estate holdings are alleys.

So whereas almost all of

platted streets within the city, regardless of how old they are, were platted in one way or another to be public streets.

That's not necessarily all of them.

There's variations of that as well, but almost all of them were originally created specifically to be public streets.

Very different situation with alleys.

In Charlottesville, it is rare to run across an alley that, at the time it was originally created,

was clearly intended to be developed and then turned over to the city for operation and maintenance.

So whereas I'll say that 99% of streets that get platted were intended to be public streets, I would say that in Charlottesville about 99% of the alleys that were platted from the 1800s through even the present time were not intended to be public.

They were private alleys.

Sam, you got to turn your audio off.

There are some locations where there might be a platted area.

It might look like an alley.

Maybe it was intended to be some other sort of right of way, but the city may have decided to sort of use it for utilities or something else.

So in that situation, that may be an indication that it was originally created or intended to be a public.

But

For both streets and alleys, the legal rule is that you have to look at any plats or deeds that were recorded at the time the area was created.

And you have to be able to see within the four corners of that deed or the four corners of the plat, you have to be able to see a clear indication of an intent for that area to be dedicated for public use.

and if you can't come up with that intent either by express words or by some sort of inferences that can be drawn about how something's laid out, how wide it is, whether it connects one thing to another.

If you can't find that intent evident on the face of the documents, then the city is not going to have an interest in it.

And then the third category of

of real estate holdings are public utility easements.

And these are generally limited to water, sewer, and stormwater throughout the Commonwealth.

But the city also owns a gas utility.

So we may also on occasion acquire some easements.

Usually utility easements are very specifically created during the development process.

you will have utility plats either or utility easements shown either on a subdivision plat that's presented as part of a development proposal or if if there's no subdivision of land per se you might have as easement plats given to the city in connection with a site plan approval

So we have three different real estate interests.

And one question that comes up frequently when an application comes forward is, are we going to make somebody pay money to the city in return for the city council agreeing to vacate the area?

So the question that then comes to mind is whether or not what's the level of the city's interest in that area?

So clearly, if it's an already improved street that the city has been maintaining, the city is the owner of it and controls the operation of it.

So if the city wants to consider conveying all of its rights and interests in that area to somebody else, the city is allowed and there's a specific state statute that authorizes this.

The city is allowed to consider charging

to sell it for compensation to somebody in return for conveying title.

And title can be to the person acquiring the property.

Since the city owns basically the whole bundle of sticks that are the interest in that area, the city can sell it to whoever the city wants to.

You don't have this issue of title necessarily to the center line.

But there are other areas, particularly all of the alleys that frequently come up where there's no clear indication that the city has any documented

public interest in the area.

So maybe it's an alley that was created in the early 1900s and by all indications that alley was to allow the lot owners themselves access to the rear of their lots or to get trash pickup in and out or to for some other reason.

But to give you some indication of in the grand scheme of things

how many alleys the city actually operates.

The last time we took an inventory, the city only maintains six alleys and there are hundreds of alleys throughout the city.

So only six of them can we document that there's a public interest in.

So when you have an alley, you have to ask a person who's bringing forward an application to give you a lot of information.

You need to ask them to bring you

the deed book references.

You have to collect some information about when it was created, how it's been used, what's going on.

And then you have to figure out whether or not it fits in a category that will allow city council to be involved in closing it.

So David, would you mind going to the next page, please?

So on this this on this page,

There are also three different procedures that are created under state law that allow a particular area to be vacated.

So the first one is the vacation of a particular street or alley as part of a process whereby a subdivision plat that created those areas is actually being vacated.

So basically someone is coming in and asking the different

property lines within a certain area of a subdivision plat to be vacated and basically erased so they can replat it and do things differently.

So that's one process.

That's in Virginia Code 15.2 2272, which is under the enabling statutes that talk about how developments can be approved and how

subdivision plats either entirely or in part can be vacated on occasion to allow somebody to do something different.

But a complicating factor is that this modern subdivision law didn't come into effect until about the mid-1940s.

but when you have an area whether it's a street or alley that falls within this subdivision plat authority it it may be fine for somebody who is an adjacent property owner along an alley to say hey we'd like to erase this alley it's not serving any good purpose we just we it doesn't need to be there none of us use it for access to our lots and the city really doesn't

you have any documentation that suggests it has a present right of way or right to claim that area for for public uses.

So those adjacent property owners can get together and competition the city and ask you to close the alley.

And basically when when that's sort of code for we want to erase it from the plat that created our subdivision.

When you do that, that is one of the situations in which title vests with the adjoining landowners to the center line.

And that is by operation of law under the state code.

There's another provision in the state code that addresses the vacation of streets that were originally created and

conveyed to the city as a condition of a site plan approval.

And there is a process that applies to that.

And one of the main things that you should know is that particular process doesn't apply to alleys because there isn't a place within the city's zoning or subdivision ordinances where dedication of alleys for public uses is required.

and as I said historically most alleys haven't been documented as being within the purview of that section.

So rarely is that code section going to be able to be used as the process for vacating a particular alley but sometimes it'll be available to someone who wants to close a platted street.

And then the third is a catch-all category which is a street vacation process that

that can be applied.

It's a process that is available in addition to anything else.

So if you don't fall into one of the other categories, you might fall into this category.

But you can't use that process for an alley when there's no or even a street if there's no evidence that the area was dedicated for public use and there's no utilities located in it.

So

what I'm trying to explain is that legally and process wise when when someone presents the city with a request to close a particular area there are all sorts of variations and and facts specific circumstances that are going to determine which process they can use whether or not the city has an interest in the area and what factors the city

Council might want to use to consider whether to proceed on that application.

One thing I'll note that is in the 2005 policy that isn't necessarily as prominent in the 2019 policy is that there was a list of the factors that City Council would consider when

considering applications even if those applications didn't necessarily involve property in which the city itself has an interest so even when a group of landowners present the city with a request there are some situations where perhaps not all adjoining landowners are agreeing to that this is a good idea so the city council might need to

evaluate whether or not it wants to approve a request to vacate a portion of the subdivision plat if all of the adjoining owners don't agree.

And so the questions that were identified in the 2005 policy that should be considered are is the subject area part of a street that's shown as a feature on your comprehensive plan?

Does the city have any

current plans to use the subject area for a public street, a sidewalk, or a biking trail, or a hiking trail.

That would be indicated within some sort of master plan, within the list of projects that are funded within your CIP, but you would look to see if there's any immediate plans to use it.

Even if the city doesn't have a current interest in it, if you have a project that is planned

To begin shortly, it may well be that you just simply haven't completed the right-of-way acquisition phase where you would seek to acquire property even if you don't have a current interest in it.

You would look at whether vacating the area would landlock any particular parcel.

You would look at whether if the particular alley or the platted street, if that area was closed, what

How much in the way of additional development rights would the adjoining landowners acquire?

And is there another adjoining landowner who doesn't want that to occur?

So there are all sorts of variations.

So what I will tell you at this point is that it sounds to me as if

Some of the reasons that people have been frustrated is that information about whatever the policy has been at the time they have come in to try and present an application, it sounds as if there hasn't been clear communication or perhaps those people didn't find their way to someone who was familiar with whatever the current policy is.

So there is a need to set up

clear lines of communication, such as when an application comes in, how does it enter the city?

Where does it go after it enters the city?

And one thing that the Office of Community Solutions is working on is identifying whether or not the 2019 policy now gives you enough information about

How the application is going to be handled when it comes in the door?

What sort of analysis is going to take place before it gets to you?

And then once it gets to you, what are the factors that you're allowed to consider or that you may want to consider depending on whether or not the city can demonstrate a present title or right to use that property?

So I can't promise you that

that these applications are going to get easier to sort through because there's so many variables to them.

But the processes that we put people in, depending on what type of area they're trying to close, we should be able to do a better job articulating to people coming in and asking questions.

which category they might fit in which category they don't fit in and help them understand you know whether or not the alley that they want to close might be something the city could ask for compensation for or you know what to expect after the application moves forward so that's basically my presentation I'm happy to answer questions but it's a very

complicated set of legal procedures and I don't know exactly why there needs to be so many different procedures and public hearing requirements and all of these things but what I can tell you is that before the 1940s whether or not the city even acquired title to land if there was a plat that was recorded in the circuit court depended on which

State law was in effect at the time that plaque got recorded.

So it might have been title might have vested in the city at some point at some point title might actually have vested in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

So, I have, I guess, one question that I have been asked a number of times, both in my capacity on counsel and in my capacity as a private lawyer.

And I've never known the answer.

Maybe...

Help me out.

I'm thinking of some places in Belmont, for example, where whatever was platted in 1902 or whenever it was created a system of alleys that seemed fairly obviously to be intended for somebody to be able to access the backyard.

and I was trying to figure out who actually owns that and you've indicated that under some circumstances the city might own it even if there's no deed that says that the city owns it.

So what I will say is that

based on the number of plats I've looked at over the years working here for the city.

So that's about 20 years altogether.

Now I have rarely found a deed or a plat that came right out and said, we are creating these alleys within this subdivision.

Um, and we intend them to be public alleys.

That almost is never the case.

And so when those alleys were created, a number of results could happen.

Sometimes the developer, this happens more often with streets than alleys, but it was possible that somebody could have reserved title to those areas to themselves as the developer, either because they wanted to come along later and perhaps put

utilities in those locations and and then on the surface they wanted they intended them to benefit the adjacent property owners.

Sometimes in the development schemes you will see language in a deed that's that says that this alley is intended for the benefit of the adjacent property owners.

No, it doesn't.

City won't have title.

There could be other circumstances that indicate that the city might have an unperfected right of way, kind of in the nature of an easement if and when it ever determined that there was a use it wanted to place there.

But that doesn't mean the city has title to it.

Right.

interest exists, or even if that interest exists, if those landowners come in and want to close that area, the closing of that area by city council will divest city council of that sort of unperfected right to claim it in the future.

But title with most alleys in the city title is with those adjoining landowners to the center line.

So if you think about title being sort of the base layer on a map and then the city's unperfected interest is kind of an overlay layer that won't come into effect later.

If City Council closes that alley as part of vacating a portion of a subdivision plat, the city will give up its right to claim it in the future if there is such a right.

But the title never left those adjoining landowners.

We had one really interesting case a few years ago where somebody wanted to develop a particular area and they wanted to close a platted street.

But I had I worked with the lawyers for the developers and come to find out there was a

Development Corporation from the early 1900s that have reserved title to all the streets in that subdivision to itself.

So a local law firm actually had to go to circuit court to quiet title and to get the disposition of that area settled.

And before it did that, what we had to tell them is that particular situation didn't fit within

any of these procedures that we could help them with until they went and got the court to get title away from this development corporation that hasn't existed for, you know, 100 years.

So there's all sorts of weird situations that can come up.

But most of the time when there's an alley, the title to the land is with the adjoining property owners to the center line.

There have been times when I've tried to go to the city GIS website and there are places there where if you click there, nothing happens.

Nobody apparently owns that strip.

In some cases, it's a grid that surrounds all of these places.

And I was trying to advise a client one time, but I don't know how you go about figuring out.

The tax map records are good indications, are reasonably good indications of established boundary lines, but they are terrible indications of ownership.

Ms.

McGill has been patiently holding up her hand.

Yeah, I just, I have a, this does clear up a number of things, Lisa.

Thank you very much.

I do understand this is a very complex issue.

I think one thing that shows me that we need to work on is putting up a webpage that at least gives some guidance that constituents can go to, to look at.

I guess another question I have is, if it is an alley that would go to the center line, if one neighbor says, no, I don't wanna close this,

I refuse to sign on to this.

That's right.

So yes.

So even though the adjoining property owners may own title to the center line, in many of those cases, instead of the city having that

So that title, again, is your base layer.

But instead of the city having the right to use the area, it's all of those landowners that abut or adjoin that that have the right to use it.

So you might be on the north end of the alley and you have every right to use that alley to go all the way through and connect over to the street on the other side of the block.

That may be the interest.

if eight out of 10 of those owners want to close it but two out of 10 don't then we have to figure out whether or not that alley was created by a subdivision plat if it that falls within the purview of the plat vacation statute if it was then that those eight persons can force the closure by asking City Council to

approve a vacation of the subdivision plat in that area.

But everybody has to get noticed and there's a public hearing and then city council makes the call as to whether it's closed.

But if that alley wasn't created by a subdivision plat, if it was created or a modern subdivision plat, if it was created many years ago and, you know, all of the interests in the area are actually described in a deed or what have you,

It may be that we don't have a procedure at all.

Usually that is fine until somebody who has a right to use the area decides that they want to use the area.

So if somebody builds a shed that blocks the whole area, if it's the private landowners that have the right to use it and somebody moves in and says, hey, I checked my chain of title and

this alley is supposed to be for all of us to use.

And I want to be able to drive my car from one side of the block to the other using this alley.

Then those landowners could go to court and file an action themselves to ask the building to be removed.

If the city has the right to use it, even if the city doesn't have title, if the city has that overlay

interest and the right to use it.

Yeah, I just, I mean,

There's been so much of the land use that has just been in families for generations or but we are definitely seeing a changing face in Charlottesville where a lot of families it's just switching over and

People are finding that what they assumed was one thing is actually not what they thought it was.

Yeah and we can look at maybe preparing a decision tree

a long ago city attorney by the name of Clyde Goldman hand drew a decision tree on a piece of paper and I still use it and it says if this then that and I can't figure out how to make it into something that looks modern on my computer so I'm still using his hand drawn decision tree but this issue of particularly the alleys it comes up not just in connection with people asking to close them it comes up

every day or very often people the city needs to take this tree down like so many people who have an alley at the back of their lot just assume that it's a public alley when in Charlottesville if you go back and look at our ordinances that you know implement development requirements we have never required people to create alleys and dedicate them for public use so almost all these alleys were created to be private alleys and in

and so in in most of these cases we have to give the bad news to people that title to that land is with you the city doesn't have a planned use for it right now so you're gonna have to work out with your other adjacent landowner who's responsible for cleaning it up remedying the trash problem on it getting rid of the the the tree that fell down or whatever the the issue might be so

Yeah, thank you for this.

Sena, did you have anything else?

Okay.

Yeah, I really appreciate it.

I know a lot of work went into that.

I hope we could get copies of the slides.

It was just kind of two pages of talking notes, but I'm happy to provide those.

And then our office is continuing to work with the Office of Community Solutions, not only to – I think what we're going to have to do because of so many issues we're trying to address, including

standardizing deed lease formats and addressing a number of things.

I think we're going to have to come up with a real estate manual for internal use that includes all of these things and helps everybody understand how they can be tied to each other.

That's an ongoing project, so I can't say I'm going to have that ready for you next week or next month, but we're going to

One question so

When might the city have an unperfected right to something?

Is that basically, so for example, when a property is being developed, if the city says in the future we may want an easement through here for a water line, but we don't take it at that point, but we could later, is that the idea?

So usually when the city has an unperfected right, it

it arises from plats that were recorded many years ago because under the modern subdivision laws including the one that is in effect now if somebody presents a subdivision plat to the city and they they lay out the location of public streets and they lay out areas for utilities once that subdivision plat is approved by the city subdivision agent and recorded over in the land records

it establishes the property boundaries and the land within those areas title to that land immediately passes to the city now just by recording that subdivision plat.

But what we don't get when the subdivision plat is recorded is we don't yet have the improvements in those areas.

So that's why you occasionally have a resolution in front of you where the engineering is saying the

and the public street has been constructed to city standards.

So now it's time for you to adopt this resolution to accept the public.

It usually says accept the public street into the city's system for maintenance.

What that's talking about is the improvements on the public street.

You already have title to land.

But years ago, before these modern subdivision laws, when you recorded a plat in the land records,

even if it was for a street title may not have passed to the city.

And so unless and until you actually constructed that street, you didn't get title to it.

So you had an unperfected right to use it if it was clear from that recorded plat that it was being created to be a public street in the future.

But until you actually either formally accepted the dedication of that area

Got it.

Thank you.

Yeah, I just wanted to add that

that when I did this for the county was a little bit different because it was state right away that we just need a consistent message and protocol that people know that if they ask someone

There are some places where it's been different in some larger cities for, you know, hundreds of years.

Yeah.

I'll just be quick.

But when it comes to the, I guess to me the biggest question is like the alleys, because to me the relevant policy issue is not cutting off bike or pedestrian access somewhere.

And it seems like alleys are that way.

I don't remember in counting

utility easements that seem to have a lot of complications and problems.

And streets, maybe one or two, but rarer.

So when it comes to the alleys, I guess it sounds like if we were always following that 2019 process, that still wouldn't be sufficient

I think it's more about the city's internal processes because the

The applications that give us the most trouble are the ones where we can't find any current public interest.

We can't find one of these previous dedications for public use that just hasn't been perfected.

And so to tell landowners that you don't want to approve a vacation of that alley because the city might want to use it 50 years from now is a difficult thing to navigate.

But I think

One of the ways to address that is to make sure that as you you've got to have a robust pedestrian and bicycle master plan, which we do.

But when you prepare those maps, if you need to make connections, you need to start showing those connections on the maps.

and on your comprehensive plan maps that talk about connectivity and projects and the closer you can get to an actual need to use that or desire to use that even if you're not ready to go right at the moment you can still say to somebody look it's in our master plan we want to make this connection we don't think it's a good idea to close this and we'll be in touch with you you know

not 50 years ago but maybe in the next five years to talk about how can we acquire an interest in easement whatever it might be in this area so we can make that connection.

But it was great that the work of the committee that was formed I think back in 2018, they identified a lot of these locations and so their work is available now to inform the people who update these plans

periodically.

The question that occurs to me is, let's assume, again using the example of the Belmont area where basically most of those blocks have an alley that's in between the two plaited developed streets.

and there's at some point an alley that runs, well I'll say north-south and there's also the alley that runs east-west that should be going into the backyards or allowing access to the backyards of the parcels on either side.

The title to land is is already with the owners unless we can find some different result in a deed that was recorded with that master sort of

subdivision.

Well, usually there's a plat that was recorded in 1902 or whenever it was.

And it will show those reserved spaces, which we'll call alleys for now.

Even though the plat says

When you buy the property next there, you're getting say 50 feet this way and 100 feet that way.

You're not getting 55 feet.

No, that's the that's the weird thing because the plat established a boundary line that is the edge of their lot.

So clearly the alley was intended to be an area that had a different boundary line than your lot.

But

it's because that that group of people has the right to use it so it for example that's why in the assessor's office they they don't separately the plats don't separately say title to these areas is with the adjacent landowners that is really just something that you find out under the the laws that say what happens when you close that area it says title

you know reverts to the adjacent landowners so that the theory is that at some point there was a developer who owned the whole thing no boundary lines on the inside and then as that developer platted it he created those lots and the lots were eventually sold to people but that area you didn't really need to deal with title so there there's not a

a title document that the assessor can use to say half of this should be taxed to this person and half taxed to the other.

You don't really get to that issue until somebody tries to close it.

But the purpose of plotting it is to make it clear that it's an area that some group of people have the right to use as a right of way, whether privately or publicly.

That area is subject to other rights

even though that base layer of legal title may

I guess what I was getting at is this.

Supposing the city were to decide that it was in the public interest to preserve those alleys and to use those alleys for the original purpose for which they were intended, and that we felt strongly enough about it so that at the very least we would say, we're never going to close those alleys.

Forget about it.

I mean, at some point,

Somebody would say, if it's truly a permanent decision like that, then hasn't that affected my title in some way, number one.

Number two, could the city say, we're going to go ahead and take title to all those things, and none of you all actually have title to it, you've got some inchoate right, but it's not clear, and we're going to make it so that these are, for the common good, accesses to people's backyards, so that, for example, if we're getting into a situation where we're not going to allow on-street parking,

with it.

I think there's various ways you can do that.

Yeah.

And I think that it's possible there may be some discussions about that in certain areas of the city with the new zoning ordinance, because it's my understanding that now alleys are it's coming back in vogue to look at alleys as a way of accessing

property that may or may not involve a full blown city street.

So when you have a certain area, maybe somebody wants to, quote, replat it or somebody is redeveloping it and it already has that alley established, that might be one thing you take into account.

If the city doesn't currently have any interest in it, the city doesn't actually need title to the land.

The city would just need

something in the nature of an easement or right of way to use it if they wanted it for a public purpose.

So you don't even need underlying title.

You just need, you know, a portion of that bundle of ownership sticks in the nature of an easement or a right of way to be able to use it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So there's different ways that you can do it.

But yes, it's there are there can be really good reasons to keep them.

I need someone to explain to me at a later point the metaphor of the bundle of sticks.

The 20-second version is that they tell us in law school that the right of ownership consists of a bundle of sticks and one is the right of possession of the property and one is the right to sell the property and

One is the right to use the problem.

So these are all sticks and you can sell one or give away one of those sticks or two of those sticks and retain one.

That's the idea.

Okay.

Well, this is this is fascinating.

Maybe.

I've also got a whole little notebook of materials that you're welcome to come by and read sometime all sorts of articles about particularly pertaining to how cities figure out

what's theirs versus somebody else's and which process do you use to close it.

There are a couple of people who have some amount of fame with the real estate section of the bar.

The adjoining landowners, so if everybody maintains their little area that adjoins their lot, then the whole thing will work.

If somebody's not doing that, then either everybody has to get together and make an agreement collectively to do that, or somebody, if it gets bad enough that people want to use it, it's clear they have the right to use it, but

Okay.

That's because I know there's a lot of these alleys that are part gravel, part concrete, part asphalt, part dirt.

Yep.

And thank you.

Okay.

Any other questions?

We're sneaking up on 530.

Thank you for this.

Thank you very much.

Stay tuned.

That's right.

Okay.

That concludes our 4 o'clock agenda.

I've got it up.

Pursuant to section 2.2-3712 of the Virginia Code, I hereby move that the City Council close this open meeting and convene within a closed meeting as authorized by Virginia Code section 2.2-3711 A7 and A8.

Is there a second to the motion?

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

No opposed.

Motion passes.

Council is now in closed session.

We will return to a different Zoom link for the open meeting and we'll see you all at 6.30.

I assume he'll be here momentarily.

And do we have Councilor McGill on Zoom?

Ms.

Yeah, okay, good.

Okay, so let us call back to order the

Is there a second to that motion?

Second.

Ms.

Yes.

But I don't know about theirs.

Okay.

Councilor McGill?

I should abstain since I was unable to attend due to technical difficulties.

Councilor Payne?

Yes.

Councilor Pinkston?

Yes.

Yes.

Okay.

So that meeting, that motion passes 4-0 with one abstention.

Okay, thank you.

Counselors, are there any announcements?

Let's see, any items for recognition?

We don't have any proclamations this time.

Any other items for recognition?

consent agenda number three minutes September 19th council meeting September 27th joint work session with the Planning Commission for ordinance to amend reordain and reenact chapter 30 article 4 of the city code

Real Estate Tax Relief for Elderly and Disabled Persons, second reading Five, Resolution, a Resolution to Appropriate Funds for the Charlottesville Albemarle Adult Drug Treatment Court, Grant Award, $240,000, second reading Six, Resolution, Virginia Juvenile Community Crime Control Act Grant

$452,704, second reading, seven resolution appropriating $700,000 from the CIP contingency

to Avon Fuel Station Replacement Project, second reading.

Eight, resolution appropriating $107,203.32 for the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center rent agreement, second reading.

Nine, resolution appropriating American Rescue Plan funds, $565,000, second reading.

10, Resolution, Appropriating Funds for Bag Distribution in Connection with Plastic Bag Tax, $20,000, second reading 11, Resolution, Appropriating Insurance Reimbursement in the Amount of $4,650.55 Fire Department Truck Company 9, one of two readings 12, Resolution

appropriating funds for 2022 Bureau of Justice Assistance FY22 Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Grant Program local solicitation $23,459.

One of two readings.

13 Resolution appropriating funds from the Victim Witness Assistance Program Grant $257,024.

One of two readings.

14 Resolution

Extending the Contract for City Management Services with the Robert Bob Group.

All right.

Thank you.

We will now take public comment regarding items on those 12 items on the consent agenda just read by the clerk.

Each speaker will have up to three minutes.

In the Zoom webinar, you may select the raise hand option to be placed in the speaker queue.

if you have joined us by phone and wish to speak on the consent agenda you may press star 9 we will alternate in person and virtual speakers and please note that if you have something to talk about that is not one of those 12 items either because you have pre-signed up to talk about something else or because you've just got something else on your mind entirely now is not the time you will have a moment in a few moments to talk about

other things, but if you have something on those 12 items, now is the time.

Is there anyone in council chambers who would like to speak on one of the consent agenda items?

See nothing, nobody here.

Mayor Snook, I see one raised hand.

All right.

Kat Meyer.

Yes, I just lowered my hand because I'd like to talk about the critical slope waiver instead of these 12 issues.

So I just lowered my hand.

Okay.

Thank you.

We'll get to you later on.

Okay.

All right.

So we'll close that public comment period.

Is there anyone, councilors, have any questions or comments on consent agenda items?

Okay.

Ms.

I've got to get a motion.

Oh, that's true.

We do need a motion.

I move for approval of the consent agenda.

Great.

Now, take the vote, please.

Councillor McGill?

Yes.

Mayor Snook?

Yes.

Yes.

All right.

Yes, we have the written report that is listed.

The agencies have provided a lot of background information on a number of issues, and we will continue to do that the first meeting of each month.

So we'll be available to answer any questions if you have some about these items.

Several meetings back, I observed that there had been a number of shootings in our community.

within a concentrated period of time.

And we all expressed concern about that.

And then a week or so ago, there was a violent incident on the mall at one of our establishments that resulted in the death of someone and two bystanders being hit by stray bullets.

As a result of that incident, I had a meeting, Chief Durrett and I, with the friends of downtown Seville.

And let's just say, as expected, it was a very robust discussion and very much appreciated and understood.

When there is violence in the community in a concentrated period, naturally people are going to be upset and people are going to fear being in the location where those things are occurring.

I thought it would be good tonight for Chief Durrett to walk through the crime statistics in our community and our trend over the last several years to put in perspective where we are.

We do want people to understand

that we recognize that there are concentrations of activity and the Police Department, Charlottesville Police Department is focusing on that.

But by and large when you consider the statistics in our community, it's still safe.

that does not neglect the fact that we still have some things to do in certain areas throughout the city and the chief is going to walk through the statistics and then we will talk about some of the actions that the department has taken and some of our collaborations with other agencies in the community.

Chief, you're a little soft.

Yep.

All right.

Next slide, please.

Going to the growing concerns regarding the shots fired in the city

I've compiled some the following numbers to better understand the efforts that these calls or if actually these calls for service are occurring throughout the city these are raw numbers that reflect the calls for service but does not separate injuries death or confirmed by any kind of evidence base these are just the calls for service

This slide here shows the last from 2017 to October the 23rd when we had the shooting.

In 2017, calls for service were 185 calls for service for shots fired.

18 was 181, a slight decrease in 2019 with 172.

In 2020, we started to see an increase

of 298 and it's a greater increase in 2021 with 322.

October the 23rd of this year we are at 211 calls for services of shots fired.

Next slide please.

The next map will illustrate some of the impacted communities over the last four years.

And I looked at the 19, 20, 21 and 22 of those calls for services where we have the most impacted areas within our city.

Next slide, please.

This is 2019.

The red highlights are the illustrated calls for services in the separate communities.

And that spins from Page Street to Gordon Avenue area, Second Street, a little bit in the Orangedale Prospect area and South First Street.

Next slide.

In 2020,

You can see that there is an increase in the Page Street area, South First Street and First Street.

Next slide, please.

In 2021, it started in a higher increase in the Orangedale Prospect area with South First Street or Second Street and the Page Street communities.

Next.

This year, from January to October the 23rd, the increases are in the 10th Hardy Drive area and the Prospect communities.

So these are the calls for service with the significant gun violence or shots fired calls in the city.

Next slide, please.

The crime statistics starts from 2016 through 2021.

We looked at our major crimes, which are homicides, forcible rates, sodomy, aggravated assaults, robberies, and our weapons law violations.

Next slide, please.

As you can see, our current to date, our homicide rate are 2.

Our forcible rapes are 23, four in our statutory rapes aggravated assaults are up at 118, robberies are 31, and a lot of weapon violations are at our 41.

That was all the slides that I wanted to give you tonight.

These cases are still active.

I know there were some concerns about the downtown area.

I have increased some of the presence of police officers on the downtown mall.

and that's going through overtime and if overtime is not fulfilled then we're going to use our district officers to fill in those gaps in those areas.

Thank you for that.

Thank you for all the work that you're doing, Chief Durrett.

This is one of the things I wanted to speak to from the meeting that was held a week before last that you mentioned, Mr. Rogers.

I think it's a couple of things that I feel like are important to say.

First of all, when we have something, when we had this sort of

intensity of incidents that we had recently.

I think it's important for us to admit it and to talk about it, and I appreciate you all doing it.

The second thing I want to say to make it very clear to anyone who's listening, there was never any intention on my part or anyone else's part to connect the situation that this most recent violence to

the presence of unhoused individuals in the downtown mall.

Those are very different issues.

So I got an email not too long ago about that very topic.

And so I just want to make it clear from my perspective and from the conversations that I've had, we realize that we need to serve the unhoused population downtown.

We're committed to doing that.

I'm going to be meeting, try to meet with some folks from the Haven later this week.

In fact, I think that

We're committed to doing what we can to serve that population and there's no connection or correlation at all with these incidents of gun violence.

And then the last thing I want to say is that

These incidents downtown get, I think, understandably and rightfully attention, but I am just as concerned as what's happening in West Haven and in the other places in the city.

I realize this is

Whenever I talk to folks, people remind me that this is complicated.

It's complicated.

The causes and how we try to effect change is complicated, too, because there's unintended consequences.

So I'm just trying to be as clear as possible where I stand on things and to say thank you for your work, Chief and Mr. Rogers and

My view is that I hope that we can move past false contradictions.

I think that we can have a kind of police force in the city that's responsive, that's respectful, that is doing the right sorts of things.

I was happy to go to the Foundation Ball a few weeks ago.

At the same time, we want police that are accountable.

And so, you know, I firmly believe we can do both.

We can have police that are held accountable, and yet we can also support the police.

Mr. Wade was also at that meeting and as a result you gave a very good summary of what you heard.

Thank you, Mr. Rogers.

Yes, I thought that it was a very good discussion.

I thought it was passionate.

And as I was hearing comments from both sides sitting back with Brian in the audience at first, I was like, this is what democracy looks like.

You hear that slogan.

this what it was people came together from all sides of the community to talk about a very serious issue and I think we had some really good discussion some of those discussion included de-escalation you know and I think it's some understanding when the police arrive at these

scenes, a lot is going on.

They want to kind of preserve the scenes, and so part of it is that, you know, we talked about some de-escalation for some of the police officers training, but we talked a lot about that there needs to be some more mental health counseling and support in the entire community, more help for the unhoused in the community.

We talked about support for the businesses in the downtown mall because without a strong business community, we won't have the resources to support these programs that we want.

And so those were some of the things that I heard from that meeting and that

that we're going to continue to have these discussions.

Another big part of it is that we need more options and opportunities for our youth in the community.

We have a lot that's going on, but I know from working with youth in this community for the last 30 years that

You need, you know, that it's not one or two options that's going to address the kids, you know, almost is for each kid.

There's going to be different things.

I just got an assignment today for my new mentee from Computer for Kids.

And so that is my another way that I can reach out to try to address, you know, that one, at least one youth.

I know that, you know, I'm going to be with weekly that we're going to meet.

And I've been a big passionate person for

mentoring for many years.

And because I know that it's been my observation that doing that, that that person, that young person has someone to turn to when things come up.

So I thought it was real good discussion.

I look forward to hearing these voices in the community.

I'm fortunate that I, you know, with my profession, that I have a voice in working with the businesses and with individuals that are in housing.

and working to move forward in the community.

So I feel like that the pulse that we have on the community will help in our discussion, our deliberation, and ultimately what we pass and support here for the city of Charlottesville.

Thank you.

So our coordination with regional partners is very important.

We had a conversation today with Chief Longo at the University and the Chief Operating Officer at the University and we talked about things that we could do together and how we can share information and address the challenges both in the city and on grounds and the University presence in the community.

So we'll be following up on that and I think that there's

an opportunity for the city, the county, and the university of law enforcement to join forces and approach this as a truly regional issue.

because crime waves don't know boundaries.

That's what I always say.

So you've got to work together and use your resources together in order to approach this.

So we just wanted to share that with you tonight.

All right.

Thank you.

That's our report from the City Manager's Office.

We now come to our first full and by the way thank you Chief Durrett also didn't mean to ignore you there.

I appreciate your paying attention to us and giving us the statistics.

So Community Matters, we have four pre-registered speakers, leaving 12 slots for additional speakers on Community Matters.

Each speaker will have up to three minutes to speak.

We will now open the floor to our pre-registered speakers.

Is our first speaker available?

I have Emily Morrison.

Yes, Mayor Snook, Emily Morrison is joining via Zoom.

Are you Ms.

Yes.

Yes, we can.

Okay.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

I'm Emily Morrison.

I live at 1500 Jamestown Drive.

I'm the founder and executive director of The Front Porch, a nonprofit community music school and concert venue that serves 20,000 people per year.

We're located downtown.

where we teach music lessons to 350 people every week of all ages.

And then we also offer music programs to nearly 400 more people in the community every week through outreach.

We partner with Head Start, the YMCA, Java, the Boys and Girls Club, Hospice of the Piedmont, among many others to bring programming to underserved Charlottesvillians who need it most.

We have made a lot of intentional choices to make sure that our programs are available and accessible to everyone in Charlottesville regardless of their ability to pay.

We treasure our place in the downtown mall neighborhood as we serve people of all ages and all backgrounds through music.

I'm speaking to you today with respect to the ongoing security issues that we have been experiencing downtown, issues that have been increasing since we've gone back in person since the COVID shutdown.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

These include several security breaches in our building as well as numerous people loitering and sleeping on our property and people frequently using the bathroom on our property.

I want to be clear as you have spoken tonight that these are very different issues.

The loitering and bathroom problems are not the same as the security breaches.

And to my untrained eyes, the security issues that we are dealing with

tend to be associated with what looks like addiction and mental health problems.

I want to also just incidentally express gratitude to the City Council for funding bathrooms in York Place, which will offer dignity to those who need to use the facilities.

That is going to make a big difference to us.

I'm speaking to you on behalf of my staff to make several specific requests.

The first one is it would be great.

We attended the meeting last week with the city manager and we're thinking that a moderator at big important meetings and public conversations would be really helpful.

Two, we're wondering if it's possible for the city to install some kind of an emergency alert system or just a way for us to more quickly and efficiently communicate with our neighbors in the downtown district.

I'm currently on an email thread with other business owners but it isn't comprehensive or timely and I just wonder if it would be helpful for others to be able to communicate in a more nimble fashion.

My staff, number three, would benefit from de-escalation trainings in the event of a conflict near our building so that we can know what to do in the event of an emergency.

I imagine other businesses would benefit from that.

Ms Morrison, your three minutes is up.

Yeah, I just want more information about how to handle non-emergency settings.

And then I just would say that we concur with your feelings that more mental health and more, this is from Councillor Wade, that more mental health services are greatly needed.

And then from our part, I'll just say we would love to be able to support whatever creative solutions arise that may

involve the arts and music in helping to bring our community together.

Thank you, Ms.

Morrison.

I'm glad to be here tonight.

I want to give you a little bit of update on efforts to improve pedestrian safety on East High, but first I want to thank you, Mayor Snook, Vice Mayor Wade, and Brennan Duncan, the traffic engineer, for walking with us down East High to experience the disaster that street is for people on foot.

The city has a plan, Streets That Work 2016, that has a priority list of corridors that are to be improved.

East High is hardly mentioned.

And that's because the list is not about safety only, it's about a lot of other things.

It's a politicized list and public comment figures

a lot in determining the criteria.

So I would encourage you to take a look at the prioritization.

I know that the Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee is beginning to talk about this, so that a more rational approach.

I mean, there are streets on that list that are much, much better than East High, and East High is barely there.

It's barely mentioned.

Now, one of the things that needs to be done badly is curbs on that street.

I don't know if you know this or not, but when it rains a lot, water gushes down East High, down Hazel Street, it has actually gone into the Jack and Jill.

It's also undermining the foundation of Charlottesville, Glass & Mirror, which has settled four inches over several decades, because an engineer

verified this because of water, which would be diverted by a curb.

The curb would also keep people from hopping up into the parking lots and cutting through as they have been doing and jeopardizing people's lives.

And people are crazy.

They do this even when I'm standing there.

Last week I ran out in front of a guy and stopped him and he almost hit me.

He kept on coming.

He wouldn't stop.

So curbs are a critical safety element.

And I think the curbs can go down before the sidewalks, actually.

I want to particularly take a little time to thank the Charlottesville Police Department for finding the guy who hit the cyclist at Hazel and East High.

I really do appreciate that.

I appreciate that he's been charged with a felony, and I hope this sends a message to others that you just got to be careful.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Cox.

Next on our list is Fred Schmidt.

Thank you for this time, council members.

My name is Frederick Schmidt.

I live at 312 Chestnut Street in Belmont.

800 feet from the proposed Carleton development going forward.

And I just have really a question regarding the resolution number 18 that's coming up.

There has been a word around our

neighborhood, excuse me, that the city engineers, at least more than one, have not approved this critical slope waiver.

And I wonder how we could go about getting copies, a copy of their reports, if any.

That's it.

You know, I don't know, but I would get, have you called the city manager, the city engineer's office?

My wife had a call in last week.

She hasn't gotten a response yet.

Okay.

And you download the packet online, I think it has all of that information within it.

Ah.

Yeah, so let's just get him a contact person instead of have him to do all that.

That would be Jack Dawson, city engineer.

Jack Dawson, City Engineer.

Thank you.

Mr. Schmidt, if you give me your number, I will call you and give you that information so you don't have to look for it.

You can do it now and slide it to me.

It's fine.

It's good.

Not publicly.

I'm not trying to publicize your telephone number.

Just write it down and hand it to you.

That I can still do.

Okay.

Why don't we just.

Thank you, Fred.

Okay.

So while he's taking care of that, our next speaker would be John Semelhack.

Okay, he's here in the room.

Good evening, Mayor Snook.

Councilors, City Manager Rogers, I'm John Semelhack, 1515 Chesapeake Street.

I'm speaking on behalf of hundreds of people who want protected bike lanes along West Main Street.

A petition started less than a month ago has collected 435 signatures with many folks commenting on their desire for safer biking along West Main, including those who have been discouraged from biking by the unsafe conditions.

Protected bike lanes have been installed in many places throughout the United States.

What better place to start in Charlottesville than West Main Street?

Protected Bike Lanes help meet climate goals by allowing more people to bike.

They increase customer traffic to adjacent businesses.

And most of all, they improve safety for both people biking and people driving.

With the cancellation of the West Main Streetscape project, there are currently no significant improvements related for the corridor.

In the meantime, people continue to rely on this important connection to move from one part of town to another, making do with painted bike lanes that leave them vulnerable to both parked vehicles that encroach or block the lane and passing vehicles with distracted drivers looking for parking.

We request that the City install a pilot project that involves repainting the road and installing a buffer for bike lanes consisting of flex posts and rubber curbs.

Andy Orban shared a concept design with you to show that West Main has the necessary width to provide protected bike lanes while keeping street parking on alternating sides of the street throughout the corridor.

West Main Street is a critical node of our bike network connecting UVA and downtown Charlottesville.

The 2015 Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan ranked protected bike lanes on West Main as the number two priority project for the entire city.

It would be an ideal place for Charlottesville to demonstrate its first protected bike lane.

Please pilot this much needed project.

And finally, please note that when I say bike, I mean it as shorthand for all low speed, small vehicles on wheels, including two, three and four wheeled scooters.

Thank you, Mr. Semelak.

So that is our final pre registered speaker to fill the remaining speaker slots.

Virtual attendees wishing to speak may select the raised hand option.

in the Zoom webinar to be placed in the speaker queue.

If you've joined by phone and wish to speak during community matters, please press star nine.

In-person attendees may raise your hand to be recognized, and we will alternate virtual with in-person back and forth.

There will be an additional public comment section at the end of the meeting.

Is there anyone in council chambers who would like to speak who's not already spoken?

Good evening.

My name is James Groves and I'm a city resident here this evening to highlight an opportunity for action that addresses climate change.

Recently, the city's staff published a well-written climate action plan in which they note that one-fifth of Charlottesville's greenhouse gas emissions originate from our municipal gas utility.

As we pipe natural gas through our community and burn it for heating and cooking, we release methane and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Both are potent greenhouse gases.

During the past year, our municipal gas utility experienced 56 leaks and expanded its customer base with 185 new gas lines.

The leaks and expansion have occurred at the same time that thousands of the world's leading scientists urge us to rapidly reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, not expand them.

Fully addressing gas utility emissions will take time and a city funded study may be completed next summer that provides a roadmap for such efforts.

Yet we don't need to wait before changing the trajectory of our gas emissions.

The new climate action plan tells us where to start now.

Quote, review the gas main extension policy for opportunities to align with climate action commitments, unquote.

Having done that, I see a simple way to begin changing the trajectory of our emissions.

Let's stop installing new gas lines for free as currently allowed in city code.

During the past year, the city installed 127 gas lines for free, absorbing perhaps $2,000 in materials and labor costs with each such installation.

That means that the city accelerated the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure and emissions with more than a quarter million dollars of subsidies.

A change to city code would eliminate these subsidies and any member of city council can initiate such code revision.

My family and numerous friends would be most appreciative if you would quickly sponsor the revision that I provide to you now.

A 2019 city council resolution

asked that climate action be front-loaded sooner rather than later.

Here is an opportunity to follow words with actions.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Groves.

Any questions?

Okay, so next we would look to see if we have anybody online as we do our alternating thing.

Yes, Mayor Snook.

Yeah, thank you.

Okay, great.

Thank you, Council.

Thank you, Mayor, for allowing me these three minutes.

I'm talking about the critical slope waiver on the Carlton project, what Mr. Smith was referring to.

So a couple of points.

One, we were watching the planning session and it was a bit disturbing to see that the city engineer was really had disagreements with a lot of the feasibility studies.

and with the planning commission there really weren't any technical questions there was concern about affordable housing but Missy very clearly said that has nothing to do with the waiver and so what I'm asking the council is to really take a deep deep look at the engineering and the details of this plan

because it's very, very complicated.

The watershed, you know, they said that there were impermeable, it was all asphalt, but there's a lot of green space.

There's a huge ravine up there that is allowing water flow to move more naturally into Mead Creek and then beyond.

So, you know, I'd really ask that you take a look at this, really talk to the engineer to see what his concerns are.

This was like the fifth or sixth design that's been submitted by this engineering firm and they, Peacock Auto, they were even on their property.

So there were a lot of flaws that we found and we're not engineers, we're not architects, but we saw some errors in the design.

So I really think

This deserves a deep look at this.

We know it's coming and that's fine.

We've worked with Ashley.

She's come to us.

She did present us though as though the neighbors did not want rentals when in actuality that's not the truth.

We kind of opposed a PUD because we have two Section 8 houses on our street on Douglas Avenue.

We love renters.

They bring in diversity.

So, you know, we just really want this to be a very successful development.

And we love renters.

It is.

It's not an abandoned lot.

There's fox.

There's a tremendous amount of wildlife.

So the carbon, you know, climate change is the only conversation we should be having.

You know, the periphery, there's some older trees.

Yes, landscapers call them trash trees.

But if there's any way that we can really look at the green space, because there is no

Green Space.

There's one.

It's for the septic in the center of the development, at least with the plans as they're submitting.

And the last thing I want to say is neighbors have not been talked about.

I know my time is up, so I'll end with this.

Like Holly Street, I was listening earlier on.

by right, sharing those access, and we've just never been addressed as far as how are they going to begin this project.

Thank you, Ms.

Meyer.

So is there anyone now in council chambers who would like to speak?

I'm sorry, no.

Yes, ma'am.

Come on up.

I'm sorry for clapping.

I was hit by a car several years ago down in North Carolina on a detour, and no one was held responsible for it.

They just pushed it aside, so I had to clap.

I agree with y'all.

Would you identify yourself, please?

Oh, sorry.

I'm Elizabeth Marshall.

I go by the middle name, Alex.

I live on 619 Preston Place.

I'm from here, born and raised, grandparents from here, family from here.

I'm from here for a very long time.

A lot of my issues that I'd love to touch on have to do with what Mr. Rogers pointed out which I'm very optimistic about is integrating and working with UVA because I think UVA as they grow they are they're growing and Charlottesville is getting the brute of all the growing pains they're putting all everything on Charlottesville the housing

the extra trash the way that students behave in Charlottesville we don't that's really UVA's responsibility they should they need to take responsibility for their growth and we need to work together and instead they're just putting it off on Charlottesville and it's crumbling the whole city and it's also teaching

teaching their students that it's okay.

We're above the law.

We do what we want.

We trample on people.

And that's not a nice thing to be teaching these young kids that their brains haven't even fully formed.

And it starts from the top.

So if the president of UVA and everyone up there gets to just kind of trample over Charlottesville citizens, then it teaches their students that's okay.

And it's not okay.

But first, real quick, I want to thank

Mayor Snook and I want to thank Officer Durrett and Officer Hubert because on Preston Place we've been having a huge issue with noise, trash fraternities taking over and I'm talking not the ones that you can go waddle down in your pajamas and say hey guys my house is shaking please turn your volume down.

The guys that when you do that and your house is physically shaking they look at you and say why do you live here this is the fraternity street.

which is not acceptable.

I'm willing to negotiate and work with them.

We're neighbors.

We've got to work together.

But these guys don't care about anyone.

But Mayor Snook was very kind.

On his Friday evening, he actually came out himself to talk to one of the fraternities I've been having the biggest issue with, Theta Chi.

And he came out there and stood out in the cold with me for an hour until the police officers came.

and Officer Huber finally got them to close the party down.

But today I want to please talk to you about basically I want to beg you please make Preston Place permit parking 24-7.

So because of the way that these fraternities have taken over basically anytime in the evening and all weekend long all of the fraternity brothers and the girls they invite over that are not that don't live on the same area of driving distance to town of these fraternities

flock over, they drive their cars to the street, they leave them.

It's not guests from out of town, it's fraternity boys that happen to live, not want to Uber and they live over there and they take their cars and they dump them on the streets.

That means all weekend long I can't drive my car because if I come home I don't have a place to park.

If my mom wants to come over she can't come over because she doesn't have a place to park.

If I have friends in town, they can't come in town and stay with me because they don't have a place to park.

Even though I have a permit passed and I have these things, there's no spot for me because these fraternity kids from the other side of town who don't live here and who live on several blocks away, they've dumped their car there all weekend long, sometimes longer than that.

University Circle is now permanent parking 24-7 and Burnley Avenue is permanent parking.

every day of the week, at least for some hours a day.

Thank you, Ms.

I should say that that was the first fraternity party I've been to in about 45 years.

All right, Ms.

Good evening.

My name is Deborah Jackson.

I live in the Belmont Carlton neighborhood, and I'd like to thank the city staff who were involved in reviewing this critical slope waiver application for the Belmont condominiums.

Their expert comments were thorough and insightful.

I would also like to say that I welcome new neighbors to Belmont Carlton.

I myself have not been here very long and I recognize the developers right to build on this property.

I do have comments to make related to the City Council vote tonight on this critical slope waiver.

The points that I will make are related to the stormwater management systems that have been proposed.

My comments come directly from the city staff report dated September 13, 2022.

This is pertinent to the fact that Collins Engineering is requesting approval of the critical slope waiver prior to submitting a site plan.

Of critical importance is the fact that city staff cannot, I quote directly from the report now, cannot recommend approval under either finding number one or finding number two

and that city council shall consider the potential negative impacts of the disturbance and regrading of the critical slopes and of resulting new slopes and or retaining walls.

These comments come from the city's experts, people whose responsibility it is to review, comment and recommend, or in this case, recommend against building proposals.

I will also comment on the response letter from Collins Engineering

to the June 9, 2022 city staff technical review of their critical slope waiver proposed plan.

In particular, Collins Engineering has not reached out to the adjacent neighbors, with one exception, to discuss their plans, inquire about neighborhood concerns, or act in a manner which shows concern for the neighborhood.

I have three points.

My first point

It is impossible to review the critical slope waiver application without an approved site plan.

The two go hand in hand as the three stormwater management systems are dependent on the final site plan.

This six acre site is complex and reviewing the waiver request without a site plan is indeed challenging.

I quote from the city report.

It is challenging for city staff to provide insightful engineering concerns or comments without engineered plans at this stage.

My second point, the release outlet dumps into a stream which does not appear to be filtered and which flows into the Ravana River.

Why is there a need for a release outlet?

Why doesn't all the water go through the bio filter that they propose?

Why does this outlet release water onto our adjacent property?

Why is it not directed to the east towards the developer's property?

Again, from the city staff report, it is unlikely that there will be any substantial groundwater recharge to offset the reduction caused by the extensive grading and additional impervious.

And at no time shall concentrated water be directed toward the critical slopes without adequate conveyance and down and beyond the slopes to an acceptable outfall.

Without the site plan, how can you determine this?

Ms.

Will be required for this site will be monstrous, like the walls at a nearby shopping mall, not a neighborhood.

Even if the walls are stepped back, they are 20 to 30 feet high.

They will have a huge impact on the neighborhood, filling in the ravine, regrading the site, adding more impervious surface to the area.

Not only will the walls be ugly, how will these walls be constructed without the use of heavy equipment on adjacent properties?

Please vote no and ask Collins Engineering and this developer to consider other options for this six acre site.

There must be better options than this one.

Thank you, Ms.

Jackson.

Anybody else in person here?

Katrina Turner, Charlottesville.

Last month I read a story about a police officer from Woburn, Massachusetts.

His name is John Donnelly.

He not just attended the Unite the Right rally, but he also was security for Richard Spencer on that day.

Five years later, this man was suspended from his job when the chief of police found out all the allegations against him.

He wasn't just suspended, he then resigned from his job

and he was terminated from his job as a realtor.

This is because he attended the Unite the Right rally in 2017.

What was said and done in Charlottesville is a direct opposition to the core values of the Woburn Police Department to serve all members of our community equally and treat them with dignity and respect.

That came from the Chief of Police of the Woburn Police Department.

Almost two years ago, an employee, Alan Grote, that works for the city of Charlottesville, attended the January 6 insurrection in Washington, DC.

This employee, who was an IT analyst for the police department, fire department, sheriff's office, and rescue squad, was security for Alex Jones and Infowars, alongside the Proud Boys

and Enrique Torrio.

He said he was honored, honored to provide security for white supremacists on that day at the insurrection.

This man also chased the black woman down 29 and brandished the firearm, as you know, because I've mentioned that before.

Why is this behavior acceptable by you all to allow this man to keep his job?

You don't have to have a reason to fire anyone in Charlottesville because you know the chief of police was fired for what?

And I'm going to continue to say that.

What makes this man so special that he can intend an insurrection and not have any consequences for it?

just because the FBI did not charge him does not mean that you all should not do your job and fire this man.

What are the core values of this city council?

Is it to allow an employee who was honored, as I say, to secure white supremacists to continue to have a job working beside black and brown people?

Is this y'all's core value?

Is this how y'all want us to continue seeing you?

If you haven't fired this man, I think you need to fire this man.

Thank you, Ms.

Turner.

Oh, sorry.

Hold on.

Okay.

I cannot hear you.

You all need to do the same thing.

Thank you, Mr. Herring.

We've had this problem before.

Have we ever identified what's going on?

Yes, can you hear me now?

Eugenio, E-U-G-E-N-I-O, S-C-H-E-T-T-I-N-I.

We've got a real problem.

There's about a 30-second delay where it keeps repeating what was said 30 seconds earlier.

Yes, Mayor Snook, this issue cannot be resolved, unfortunately, with our equipment.

Okay.

Is Mr. Schettini still on the line?

Yes.

Is this better?

Go ahead.

Okay, thank you.

I live on Douglas Avenue and I am calling to oppose the vote for this waiver for the critical slope for Calton Avenue.

And I have three very distinct reasons for this.

Reason number one, there has been no communications from the developer.

regarding easement or negotiations for access with adjacent property owners.

And this was a written comment from the initial site plan review back in June by NDS.

This critical slope waiver impacts adjacent property owners and it's so critical that the property owners

adjacent to this development be involved as to what's happening because it will affect their quality of life tremendously.

The second point is that this new stormwater management system relies in draining into an ancient culvert that is under the right of way of the railroad run by Buckingham Branch and the CSX.

This culvert is usually overgrown with vegetation and debris from past rainstorms and is never really ever maintained and very rarely do we see anybody down there to clear this culvert.

So we are very concerned that the culvert as one of the key points to this stormwater management system which is discharging into this system has not really been vetted

and the maintenance of this system or this culvert has been kind of formed by the wayside and no one's really actually looked into it.

So we're deeply concerned about that too.

And my third point is these retaining walls.

These retaining walls are critical features to accomplish and satisfy the design requirements for the critical slope waiver for this new stormwater management facility, which is going to compensate for the granting of the critical slope waiver.

These walls range in height from 5 to 20 feet tall and encompass about three quarters of the perimeter of the site.

When you add the required three foot six inch guardrail for safety reasons because you don't want people tumbling down these walls and killing themselves, this becomes a very high feature and it creates kind of an overall effect that we're concerned of a raised plateau and the appearance of a medieval fortification being plopped down in the heart of Belmont

This is not a very friendly or inclusive development, but it becomes a rather exclusive and a divisive plan.

And we don't think it's very friendly.

And there might be other ways where a developer can achieve his end means by not being so exclusive.

So that's what I have to say.

Thank you.

Yes, it did.

Thank you, Mr. Schettini.

Glad we got it figured out.

Okay, next, back to in person.

Anybody here wishing to speak?

Nobody else in person?

Mayor Snook, our next raised hand is Christine Palazzolo.

Palazzolo, I assume.

Ms.

Palazzola, we're not getting you.

It looks as though she might have just dropped out of the Zoom, so she may rejoin us.

We can go to the next individual here.

All right.

Jean Umaker Seabuck.

Yes, good evening.

Our city's climate action plan calls for reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, yet the city underwrites the growth of greenhouse gas emissions by providing free gas line installations and rebates to customers who convert to a tankless natural gas heater.

I urge you to stop these subsidies so that the city can reach our climate goals and protect our citizens from the worst climate change disasters.

Thank you.

Yes, Mayor Snook.

One additional raised hand.

Good evening, honored council members.

Thank you for your time this evening.

I'm here to speak about natural gas.

It's one of my favorite topics.

I've spent a lot of time over the years in my profession as a professional engineer.

Let me back up for a second.

Again, this is Kirk Bowers.

I live in Albemarle County.

I've lived here for over 35 years.

I serve as the conservation chair.

for the Piedmont Group Virginia Chapter Sierra Club.

I speak unofficially this evening about the elimination and phasing out of natural gas in Charlottesville.

I think it is time to consider a rapid phasing out of natural gas in Charlottesville.

I was reading the savings and comments where it was noted that 56 leaks have occurred in the system the last year and I just wrote actually a

Long document from Pipeline Hazards Materials Safety Administration talking about leakage and natural gas infrastructure.

And actually, the leaks are some of the largest sources of natural gas problems because it directly leaks methane into the atmosphere, which is 86 times more potent than CO2, greenhouse gas emissions.

I don't know how old the system is, but the longer and the more age it gets, the more leaks will occur and it's time to phase out the entire system You're also spending about a quarter of a million dollars in subsidies

to new gas lines in the city.

I would take that money.

I suggest taking those fines and offer rebates for buying electric appliances to replace the natural gas appliances.

And that could be done

by eliminating rebate for gas and putting it into rebates for electric appliances.

Let's see, what else?

Oh, yes, this may seem like a wild idea, but actually a year ago I wrote another document for PHMSA concerning converting natural gas infrastructure to hydrogen infrastructure.

We actually used hydrogen

at the same time as natural gas over 100 years ago.

It could be done.

It just needs to be converted.

And I was reading recently where UVA was under consideration for a grant to study conversion to hydrogen from natural gas.

And so I'm throwing that out as an idea.

Anyway, thanks for your time.

I appreciate it.

I hope you will focus on this.

Thank you, Mr. Bowers.

I'd like to ask anybody else in person.

Okay.

I see one additional hand that is raised, and it's just a first name, Christine.

It may be the individual from earlier.

So try again.

Christine, please state your full name.

Thank you.

My name is Christine Palazzolo.

I live on Douglas Avenue.

Sorry for the technical foul up there.

I'm following up with something that Deb Jackson brought up about paying attention to the experts on your staff.

The engineers sent a 10-page report.

On page four in the middle, they say we cannot recommend approval.

under either finding number one or finding number two.

Please pay attention.

Eventually, the homeowners association will be responsible for the stormwater management system.

It's very complex.

It has to be done right.

Please pay attention.

Please deny this waiver request.

Please ask the developers to take another look at it.

And when the city engineers like what they see, then we will all feel like we have looked out for our future neighbors.

We welcome our neighbors.

We want it done right.

Thank you, Ms.

Palazzolo.

All right.

So we will close this community matters.

That's our final speaker.

There will be another opportunity for public comment at the end of the meeting.

First item is an amendment to Chapter 12 of the City Code to require fire inspection reports.

Michael Thomas to present.

Thank you, Mayor Snug, Vice Mayor Wade, members of City Council, good evening.

Before you is a request to amend City Code Chapter 12, Local Regulations.

The request is to amend and reordain Chapter 12, Article 3 to require reports of the conditions of fire protection and other life safety systems to be submitted to the city's fire official and authorized the fire officials to implement a mandatory web-based reporting system.

The existing ordinance will remain intact and we're requesting to amend the ordinance by adding number 11 for testing and inspection reports

and amending this ordinance would bring Fire Department in alignment with 21st century processes.

Our current system is paper-based and is inadequate, so we'll be moving to a web-based process reporting system.

Yes, thank you for this.

I guess just in general, it would help me to have some context.

So for instance, my home has a number of fire detectors, smoke detectors in it.

Am I supposed to be presenting documentation to you by paper right now and didn't know I was supposed to?

Is that the standard now and then going forward there will be a web-based system to do that or is it only for businesses or is it

I did look through the ordinance, but I can't say that I scanned it closely enough to have all of those answers.

Okay.

No, this is not for residential properties.

This is mainly for businesses.

Okay, so smoke detector and smoke dampers and things like that, would that be included as well?

Okay.

It's the International Fire Prevention Code, yes.

Okay.

And I guess I'm

I do a little bit of this at my day job, but I'm not an expert.

Can you help me understand how Charlottesville, everyone from homeowners like myself to business owners, how we sort of intersect with

mainly focuses on businesses.

There's a different process to address violations inside a residential structure.

So in terms of, you mentioned fire extinguisher, I mean fire alarm systems and carbon dioxide detectives and things of that nature.

We have programs in place where we would come in and inspect and replace those as needed.

based on our supplies.

In terms of businesses, it is required by code to have annual inspections of systems.

So that's what we're focusing on with these web-based processing.

Because currently, when the contractors come in and inspect these systems, they mail them to us, email them to us, and some we don't get at all.

So we can't trust the reliability that the system is being maintained in accordance with the fire code and puts a lot of stress and

Delays on the fire marshals when they go out to do the inspections.

So co-compliance is mainly what we're after and with our current system we're getting paper inspection forms from the contractors and we're having to store all of those paper forms for historical data and that's why we want to move to the web-based system so we can have a

Got it.

Thank you very much.

So this isn't really changing the applicability.

The applicability that preexisted before is what will go forward.

This is essentially to

Correct.

And it's just a standardized

and to reduce some of our storage because we have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of reports that we're receiving on a daily basis and some we're not ever receiving.

Great.

You're welcome.

Any other questions?

I was just going to say thank you.

I appreciate bringing this forward and, again, bringing things up to the 21st century.

This should have been brought forward probably years ago, and I appreciate.

Nobody else has any other questions?

Okay.

I move the ordinance to amend...

Oh, that's right.

So Brian just had all his questions answered.

He was ready to go.

I was ready.

All right.

I almost never get to say anything about building codes ever at my job.

Let's go, consent agenda.

with one reading.

Yeah, put it on the consent agenda and take care of it next time around.

Great.

All right.

This is not something we need to deviate procedure for, so.

Right.

All right.

Next is the Human Rights Ordinance.

Mr. Niemeyer, fire away.

Okay, great.

Well, I did prepare a bit of a presentation tonight per the request of counselors and the mayor during our 221s last week.

Okay, I'll try to be brief with this.

It'll be a pretty high-level overview, not a big detailed presentation, but let's see if this works.

Bear with me while I do the screen share.

Okay, let's make sure I can control it from my...

and here basically what I wanted to do is just give you a real quick overview by answering a few key questions let's see if we can get this rolling okay so I had during our 221s I heard some some basic questions about what the ordinance was what what is the function of the commission and the office of human rights especially maybe just reiterating that for the public as well

what are these changes that we're proposing to the ordinance and why and then how will the work of those changes affect the work of the commission in the office and then we'll talk a little bit about next steps so first of all let's talk about the human rights ordinance so it became part of the city code in 2013

And this was born out of discussions through the Dialogue on Race.

There was a task force for around human rights, which formed this ordinance, the Human Rights Commission, and then the Office of Human Rights to address concerns of discrimination that happened in the city.

The contents of the ordinance are based on federal and state human and civil rights law.

So you can look those up if you want to know more about the origins of what you see in the ordinance.

And what the ordinance does is it provides processes for us to address unlawful discrimination within the city.

And when we talk about within the city, we're talking about the corporate borders of the city.

So if you look at a map, you can kind of see where our limitations lie geographically.

What the ordinance also does is it specifies the duties of the commission and the office.

So it's kind of like the how-to manual, so to speak, for both the commission and the office of human rights.

Specifically the Office of Human Rights is a division of the city manager's office and has three main things that it does.

We are the director of the Office of Human Rights and one of our primary roles is to receive and address individual complaints of discrimination and we get phone calls, text messages, walk-in visitors, emails

We receive those from the public and then attempt to address them with the tools that we have at our disposal per the ordinance.

In addition to that, we do community outreach.

We do community outreach around the services that we provide, helping people be aware of what they can expect from the office and how to connect with us.

In addition, we do education and awareness around issues of discrimination.

and also work with many community partners through collaboration and leadership to advance different projects that help protect human rights and basically make a more equitable community.

The third role that we have is to support the Human Rights Commission and we do that through administrative support and just providing guidance and institutional knowledge for the commission.

So the commission itself is a citizen appointed body by city council and it has several main roles which are outlined in the human rights ordinance as well.

With regard to individual complaints that we receive through the office, the commission serves as an appellate body so they can hear appeals for any complaints that were dismissed

And they can also conduct public hearings when a complaint reaches its conclusion and there's a finding of reasonable cause or probable cause in this case, as the ordinance currently reads.

In addition, they can conduct community outreach on their own or sometimes in partnership with us at the office.

They review city policies and practices and advise counsel on human rights issues that they find within those.

This one's in bold.

Number four is

One of their tasks is to seek federal work share agreements with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Fair Housing Office.

The reason that one's in bold is because it's kind of the meat of what you'll see in terms of the changes to the human rights ordinance that are before you this evening.

And we'll talk a little bit more about what that entails coming up here.

Number five, the commission also makes recommendations to city council regarding its annual legislative recommendations to the General Assembly.

And finally, it makes recommendations to city council regarding its own policies and procedures.

So getting into the point on the agenda here this evening is the changes that are proposed to the Human Rights Ordinance.

And there's four main things that I want to call your attention to.

And for those who haven't checked out the agenda packet, that's where you'll find all the details.

I'm not going to go through all the minute changes this evening because it would take us a very long time to do so.

But if you do, for members of the public and city council,

in the agenda packet there's a detailed memo outlining some a summary of the changes as well as the actual proposed changes to the ordinance that you can look through and if anyone has questions you can feel free to reach out to the office after after this meeting but primarily there are four main things that I want to call your attention to first of all there's a lot of reorganization that happened within the ordinance for a long time

We've looked at certain parts of it and through practice over the years we realized that by reorganizing certain key sections we can make it a little bit more easy to read.

We've added language to specify the role and the duties of the Office of Human Rights where that was lacking before.

We've subdivided the enforcement sections by protected activity and that's a term of art to say

When we talk about discrimination there are certain activities under the law that are protected and I can just give you that real quick because that's not a big complicated thing to say.

Those are employment, housing, public accommodation which means access to spaces and services that are generally determined to be open to the public.

credit and then private education.

So those are the five protected activities under law and under our ordinance.

And then fourth, we added language to make the ordinance substantially equivalent to federal fair housing law.

Again, that's bold because that is the biggest change to the ordinance that you'll look at tonight.

And then there's a specific reason that we've done that.

And we're going to go into that next.

But here again, just a few answers as to the why regarding those changes.

Again, number one, we want to make the ordinance easier to follow.

Number two, we want to clarify how the Human Rights Commission and the Office of Human Rights work both together and independently.

We subdivided number three, we subdivided those enforcement sections so that we could make sure that the processes that are unique to each protected activity are separated out for easier reference.

And then number four, that idea of making our ordinance substantially equivalent to federal fair housing law is part of the process of entering into what we call a

A Fair Housing Assistance Program, or a FAP, we'll call it that probably coming up here, a FAP Workshare Agreement with the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development and Fair Housing Office.

And we'll get into the meat of that because I think that is the thing I really want y'all to think about going forward because it has serious implications for the office and the commission.

So what is a FAP?

What is a Fair Housing Assistance Program?

It is a work share agreement with HUD, the Housing and Urban Development Department of the federal government and their fair housing office to address housing discrimination locally.

And we can do that already under our ordinance.

We can address housing complaints of housing discrimination.

But when we enter that work share with the federal government,

what we what we end up doing is we receive any complaints that originated within Charlottesville but were reported outward either to the State Fair Housing Office which is also a FAP or the Federal Fair Housing Office so those will be referred back to us to address locally

What that also comes with, so that's an additional responsibility, but the Federal Fair Housing Office will support us by providing training and guidance, funds for capacity building when we first start out in that work share agreement, and we also get reimbursement for handling complaints of discrimination, and those reimbursement rates vary upon how the complaint is resolved

Okay, this is probably the most involved slide that I'll put out there, but I wanted to show you this in particular because this is a very general summary of what happens to a complaint once it's received by the office.

The top set of bubbles there is what happens when we currently receive a complaint under the current ordinance.

when a complaint's received we can handle that complaint by initiating an informal dialogue a mediation which is facilitated by a third-party mediator that we contract with or if neither of those is successful we can move to a formal investigation if we move through a formal investigation at the end of that investigation there's an investigative report and and what will happen with that is the director reads the report and says

Do I believe that there's under the current ordinance probable cause to believe there's a violation of our human rights ordinance or no probable cause?

If the determination is that there's no probable cause to believe the ordinance was violated, the complainant has the opportunity to appeal.

And that's, I mentioned earlier, one of the rules of the Human Rights Commission as relates to complaints is that they're an appellate body.

So the complainant has the opportunity to present why they disagree with that determination of no probable cause.

The Commission hears the complainant's position and decides whether to either uphold that determination or send it back to the director or investigator for further work.

Now if there is a determination of probable cause

There's one more opportunity at any point during this complaint process, there's the opportunity to what we call resolve it through a conciliatory process.

In this case, we were referring to mediation or informal dialogue, but at the point at which the investigation concludes,

Formal mediation is usually the path that the parties will choose to pursue a settlement agreement.

If they choose not to do that then it goes to the commission for a vote as to whether or not to hold a public hearing.

That is basically where our process stops because after the commission holds a public hearing

They can either recommend that they go back to mediation or they can recommend to the city attorney that a civil action be filed on behalf of the aggrieved party.

But they can only recommend that they can't grant any relief.

They can't grant monetary relief, injunctive relief, none of that.

That's not within the power of the commission.

So I share that as the current process.

If the changes to this ordinance are passed to include language that is what I call substantially equivalent to federal fair housing law, and that's actually HUD's language, meaning that the language in the ordinance will be very similar, if not, well, in function and practice, similar or identical to federal fair housing law, then our process for housing complaints specifically will change.

So again, we talk about once we receive the complaint, there's an opportunity for mediation.

The federal law doesn't contemplate informal dialogue, but it does talk about mediation or conciliation.

Conciliation is a different type of agreement in which the city itself would be a third party to any settlement agreement that comes out, whereas mediation is just between the two parties that are the complainant and respondent.

So that's a different type of resolution.

If the issue can't be settled through mediation or conciliation, it moves to a formal investigation like it does currently.

Two things then change.

One, the standard changes from probable cause above to reasonable cause because that's how federal law refers to the determinations in a case.

Again, if there's a determination of no reasonable cause after an investigation, the complainant still has the opportunity to appeal with the Human Rights Commission.

If there is a determination of reasonable cause,

Instead of it either going back to mediation or a public hearing by the commission, we do a new thing called issuing a charge.

Once a charge is issued, it's basically a description of the violation and it's a

It's a statement saying that a civil action will be filed by, in this case, the city attorney's office on behalf of the aggrieved person.

Now, there's still an opportunity before that civil action is filed for both parties to mediate or conciliate, but there's also an opportunity within this new ordinance for either party to what they call elect, and that is they can elect to resolve the matters through a civil action.

And if either party chooses that or mediation or conciliation fail,

then the city attorney will file an action on behalf of the aggrieved person in court and that's a big deal because under our current ordinance the city attorney is not obligated to do that if there's a finding of probable cause.

Under this new ordinance if there's a finding of reasonable cause that would be an obligation to the city attorney's office.

So

It's a big thing to contemplate.

We've talked it over with the city attorney's office, but it's one thing I want you to be well aware of in terms of how it changes the function of the office as well as impacts the city attorney's office.

So I'm going to move on from that slide.

We can certainly answer any questions about that if you have them.

I'm sure that's a complex thing to digest, but I wanted to share that with you.

So let's just talk about next steps.

So we've talked about this in 221s and I recognize that this is a heavy thing to digest.

I think even in the 221s we caught a few typos and other things that we may want to consider addressing which I really appreciate because

I've been staring at this thing for so long that I can't see all those errors anymore so I really appreciate the the new eyes on that so I don't think that that's what we're contemplating tonight is this is a first reading of this so what we'll do is go back to the drawing board fix any things that need fixing in this and then present it again but once it's approved by council we can then submit

this ordinance along with any additional required paperwork to HUD for consideration for the FAP work share for the city.

What HUD does is then they conduct a formal review of our application and our ordinance and if we're approved there is a period of interim certification and

they'll work with us to start building capacity to become a FAP and work in partnership with the HUD Fair Housing Office so that is in a very much of a nutshell what we're presenting tonight and if you have any questions now happy to talk with you about that and then if anybody has questions after this meeting feel free to reach out that's the contact number for our office and our in our email and thanks for the time to share this with you

Thank you, Mr. Niemeyer.

Counselors have questions?

So thank you for all this information.

I guess as I'm thinking about it, it seems like what's in front of us tonight relates exclusively to the changes that need to be made for us to submit that application to be an FHAP.

That's true I mean you can consider them jointly in the memo I did try to outline some of the things that were changed in 2021 so that you could see

You could reconsider those because I know that those changes were made fairly quickly.

There was a bit of discussion and uncertainty both among human rights commissioners as well as among counselors at the time.

So it's a thing for you to consider.

None of those sections have been amended, save for a few, I think, just grammatical tweaks.

So that's in there for you to consider.

But yes, you're right.

The primary thing to consider are these sections that we would call are substantially equivalent to federal fair housing law.

And then

Yeah, so for now, yeah, all I'm considering is that language related to what we need to submit to begin the process of becoming an FHAP.

I think the other changes are something we could discuss at a later date, and I'm not trying to

minimize the importance of that conversation, but it seems a little separate.

And I'll say for that FHAP piece of it, the language in this to me seems pretty straightforward.

I don't see anything that I saw that was wrong with it or that I don't support.

The previous city council

I think directed the Human Rights Commission and Human Rights Office to pursue becoming an FHAP.

That's something that I still support and that I still think is important to do.

It'll just give us a little bit more teeth to investigate and make judgments against fair housing law violations in the city.

So I don't have any issues with the text of what's been proposed to be amended.

I guess to me the bigger questions are more

the practical operational impact of this.

Whenever we approve this, you would submit it, and it would be about a year until HUD approves it.

I also understand that we've made ARPA allocations in anticipation of this.

I'm curious, do you have any sense of with that ARPA allocation, do you feel like

The city would need to be making more investments long term once this happens that we haven't yet incorporated into our budget.

Thanks.

That's a great question.

And yes, first of all, let's address the ARPA allocation, which is tremendously helpful.

So thank you for that, because that will allow us to hire an intake counselor as well as an investigator.

Right now, we're a two-person office, which I'm grateful to have a coworker.

We also have two interns who have been with us since the middle of 2021, and we've delegated so many tasks to them that normally a full-time staff person would be handling.

So

What we're doing with hiring that intake counselor and investigator at this point is just managing the current workload.

And I think that in addition to that, I think specifically having the investigator on board will help us sort of separate out the day-to-day tasks that we see with people coming into the office, asking questions, all of those other things and managing the office generally.

It'll separate that investigation piece out and make it much more of an efficient process by having somebody just completely focused on that and not on any of the other things that we're doing.

So what I do think that is important to consider is that the allocation

basically funds those positions for a year and so we're in the middle of FY23 right now right so I'm working on starting that hiring process especially for the intake counselor very soon like within the next month I want to get that stuff finalized get the position advertised and begin the process of hiring and then I would hope that shortly after we could proceed with hiring the investigator I have several cases open right now that that person could could actually take over but you know

I'm also anticipating when we enter into that that FAP agreement that we will probably see an increase in cases I don't know exactly how many that will be not really a way to predict exactly but I think that as you say I don't know how long if a year is actually how long it will take but once we implement

Once we pass the ordinance, the review to interim certification might not be as slow as a year.

I think that full certification may take longer because they want to test us out.

As I understand it from talking with HUD representatives, they sort of

Test that FAP agency out, make sure that they have the capacity to launch into full certification.

And so I think there's a, what I like about the process is it's sort of graduated.

It's not suddenly you jump into the deep water.

There's a little bit of a process there.

So yes, I think you do need to think about if we hire those two positions with the ARPA dollars in FY23,

Assuming at some point in FY24 they're going to run out and there's no general fund allocation currently to keep those positions going and then subsequently from there.

We will get some I think back in 2020 I think the numbers were around $120,000 up to $120,000 in capacity building funds from HUD but that won't cover

All the expenses for staff.

It may sort of supplement that while we're trying to sort that out.

Yeah, so I guess just practically do you think with the ARP allocations for the investigator and intake position do you think that just initially would be sufficient to get through just that first kind of initial test phase of becoming an FHAP and then through that we would find out whether we will need to make investments in additional positions beyond that and then of course no matter what we're going to need to plan for how we're going to fund

Yeah to answer your question directly yes I do believe that that initial allocation is enough to get us started and and again it's it's a little bit unknown but you know that's why we work closely with HUD during that interim period to determine are we are we able to meet the need is there something that we need to do to streamline our efficiency and sort of things like that but but then also looking at what is the caseload that comes once we start receiving cases referred from the state office of fair housing as well as the federal office of fair housing but

Yeah.

Well, that's all I have.

And I will say again, I'm comfortable with the textual changes that have been made.

They make sense to me as just being necessary to go forward with this process.

I'm not saying it needs to happen right now, tonight, but I don't really see a whole lot of reason to delay it.

too much further if we're just focusing on what will allow you to go through with that FHAP application process because I do think that's something that is worth doing and we should stay committed to and not delay if our concerns are the operational side of it.

Yeah, I appreciate all that.

It helps me think through this.

So in terms of these positions, has an application already been made relative to the next year's budget FYE?

24, I guess, or is that in process?

In other words, you've got ARP funds, it sounds like, but okay, all right.

I thought I'd heard that.

February 2021.

What was the substance about that?

If you'd like, I can take a stab at giving you that information.

Yeah, there were some significant changes.

Keep in mind that the General Assembly had passed the Values Act.

I believe that was, oh boy, was that July of 2020?

I hope I'm not getting the year wrong.

I believe so.

Yeah, that would be correct, given the passage of the ordinance in February 2021.

and the Values Act made some significant increases in protection for under human rights and fair housing law in the state and so we wanted to make sure we incorporated those changes into the ordinance and then we made a few other small refinements to process we're constantly learning a little bit more about you know how to how to codify the processes especially the investigative investigative and

of Conciliatory Processes that we have.

So that was the main gist of the changes that were proposed by the Commission.

And then there were some additional changes that were also passed, more structural changes, I would say, for how the Commission operates.

And those are the ones that I said, I just put in the memo as, remember that these were also proposed in addition to the things that the Commission suggested.

if you want to reconsider them the commission did not just to be clear the commission did not propose going back to change any of those things though at the time when those were passed there was some discussion about is this the best uh are these the best changes for the future of the commission so I just make sure you're aware that that discussion happened council also I think talked a little bit about are we ready for these changes in the end they decided to pass them but again take a look at them but that was that was what uh

Councilor McGill, you were really involved with that 2021 change.

I am happy with the stuff Todd's gotten there right now.

I don't think there's

I think there is every reason to always make things living documents and seeing if changes are actually doing what we wanted them to be doing if the changes are working or not working or if they need more time if they need tweaking but I do think that's a further conversation at this time

The only comments I had concerning this, I think everyone else has touched on some of my primary comments, but I just want to note that as you're finalizing your

the report, Todd, that we I know that has to be some legal ease type of language in there, but it has to be accessible to, you know, you know, I think that, you know, try to aim for the fourth, fifth grade kind of comprehension level type of thing.

If someone comes in or goes online that they don't have to read

30, 40 pages to understand this is what I need to do.

Vice Mayor Ward, I really appreciate that.

That has been one of the things that the Human Rights Commission has also wanted to address.

They actually passed a resolution that all of their

resolutions going forward be written what they call in plain language just very very straightforward easy to understand clear language and I agree the the human rights ordinance is not something you sit down and read for entertainment it is it is dense it has lots of references to code and it has a lot of legal language which in fact is required and that's why it has to go through the city's city attorney's office before it even makes it you know to to your agenda packet but

I also agree that I think one of the intents with getting this ordinance finished in its legalese form is to then create a version that is plain language, like maybe a second document, a supplementary document that explains what does this mean?

What does this mean in practical terms?

What does this mean for my life as a community member in Charlottesville?

So I really appreciate that.