City Council Meeting   8/5/2019

Good evening.

Ms. Thomas, roll call, please.

Ms. Hill?

Here.

Ms. Walker?

Present.

Mr. Signer?

Here.

Ms. Galvin?

Mayor Walker, I'd like to request that we have a moment of silence for the latest white supremacy attacks.

Yes, Mayor Walker, I would like to have a moment of silence for Kareem Wood.

Ms. Wood died July 21 at her home in Kent's store with Lavanna County after a long illness.

She led Virginia through efforts to interpret a Virginia Indian history and cultures accurately,

and accessibly, and she helped her own tribe, the Monacan Indian Nation, receive federal recognition.

She worked to increase the indigenous visibility of public events, and she actually was the person who offered the blessing to open UVA's bicentennial celebration in 2017.

So I ask for a moment of silence to remember her.

Could we have a moment of silence for Miss Woods, please?

All right, thank you.

Are there any announcements?

No announcements?

Okay, I guess I'll start at this end.

We have a resolution in support of ratification by Virginia of the Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Whereas equality under the law is a fundamental value of Americans and the people of the city of Charlottesville, and whereas the United States Constitution does not explicitly guarantee equal rights and equal protection for the sexes, and the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and state constitutional statements of equality generally do not provide the strict scrutiny for sex-based classifications that is provided for classifications based on race, religion, and national origin, and whereas state laws are not uniform and federal laws are not comprehensive,

legislation can be repealed and the Supreme Court may invalidate legislation or retreat from its own precedent and whereas the people

of lack of political parity between men and women, workplace discrimination, health care inequities, disparate rates of poverty, rape, and domestic violence assaults, and whereas the Equal Rights Amendment, ERA, provides that equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex, and the amendment would help ensure women and men have the same constitutional protections

and whereas the ERA was passed by Congress in 1972 and has been ratified by 37 states, the most recent being Nevada in 2017 and Illinois in 2018, requiring just one more state to ratify to satisfy the constitutional requirement that an amendment be ratified by three-fourths of the state to become valid.

and whereas the time limit for the ERA appears only in the Preamble and Congress presently is considering a bill that removes the time limit for ratification of the ERA and whereas for 48 years the Virginia State Constitution has sought to protect Virginians from discrimination by the Commonwealth on the basis of sex and whereas the City of Charlottesville enforces principles of fair treatment in accordance with the Charlottesville Human Rights Ordinance Article 15 of the City Code

which prohibits gender discrimination now therefore be resolved that the City of Charlottesville supports the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment and be it further resolved that the City Council of Charlottesville urges the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia to ratify the ERA to the United States Constitution as proposed by Congress on March 22, 1972

during the 2020 legislative session signed and sealed this fifth day of August 2019 by Mayor Nikuyah Walker.

First, I would like to thank the Council for your support ever since Mayor Charles Barber in, I think, 1976.

You have supported women's equality and that is a very significant thing because we don't have it in this country, but we have our best chance yet.

We've had it six times through the Virginia Legislature for the Senate.

And last year we came within one vote in the House, and if this election brings in more legislators who are equality minded, then we will put women

and the entire country is looking at us.

We will put women in the U.S. Constitution with more than just the vote and not be discriminated against and be able to have equal pay and work on a lot of other things and for that I thank you very much for your support and I am very excited.

Mayor Walker, this is a proclamation in support of Welcoming Week, which is from December 13th to the 22nd, 2019, whereas Charlottesville is a community that strives to welcome people from all backgrounds and cultures, and whereas the Charlottesville City Council is committed to respecting the dignity of each person,

and opposes discrimination of any kind and whereas the energy, creativity and traditions that immigrants and refugees bring to our community have enhanced our quality of life and economy and have enriched our understanding of other cultures and whereas the annual welcoming week events help our residents appreciate the many contributions of our immigrants and refugees, be it resolved that the Charlottesville City Council strongly supports those residents in our community who've come here from other countries.

and be it further resolved that the Charlottesville City Council proclaim September 13th to the 22nd, 2019 as Welcoming Week and calls on our residents to attend the Welcoming Week events in order to support and celebrate the immigrants and refugees who now call Charlottesville their home.

Now, therefore, Nikuyah Walker, the mayor of Charlottesville, does hereby proclaim September 13th to the 22nd, 2019 as Welcoming Week and calls on our residents to attend these events in support and celebration of the immigrants and refugees

for whom where they're home.

Signed and sealed the fifth day of August.

Is there anybody here to receive this?

Is Russell in here?

Welcoming week is a joyous time, and we're very excited about it.

Having said that, it's so ironic and sad and poignant that here we are just 48 hours since somebody drove several hundred miles to El Paso to kill people because they were from some other country.

So it just reminds all of us that this is an issue that we all have to take seriously, which I know the council does.

Thank you.

And next we're moving to the consent agenda.

I would like something removed from the consent agenda.

You can come up.

So we'd like item K removed from the consent agenda.

I'm Cat Mabrian from Charlottesville and I'm speaking on behalf of Indivisible Charlottesville.

I would like to address the proposed amendment to Chapter 18, Article 3 of the Code of the City of Charlottesville.

Indivisible Charlottesville is one of thousands of Indivisible groups around the country.

We're dedicated to defeating the Trump agenda by empowering people in our community to be engaged participants in our democracy.

We've worked in collaboration with many other grassroots organizations in Charlottesville and beyond to hold our elected officials accountable by holding public demonstrations on issues of local, state, and national importance.

The proposed amendment to the city code would make much of the work that we and other organizations in this city are doing impossible by imposing permitting and insurance requirements for demonstrations that grassroots organizations cannot possibly meet.

These requirements are so burdensome that demonstrations in response to events like the white supremacist shooting in Texas this past weekend would be prohibited.

And I'm just departing from my comments for a minute.

Moms Demand, many of you know Moms Demand, the organization held a meeting.

A lot of people felt a lot of grief and anger, and so there was a spontaneous, almost spontaneous

or a group of people that met at Preston and McIntyre just yesterday in response to that shooting.

That would have been impossible if this would have been in place, so to continue.

As such, the amended ordinance is clearly unconstitutional and any attempt by the city to enforce it would result in unnecessary and expensive lawsuit that the city would lose.

Moreover, this amendment would do nothing to make our city safer.

So long as the state, the state of Virginia, refuses to permit cities to combat the threat of armed fascists in our streets, the ordinance can only serve to silence free expression without reducing the risk of violence like we saw two years ago.

And so the ordinance is already in place.

It's being modified and that's what's on the current agenda, just those modifications.

But my understanding was that if it was in the consent agenda, it couldn't, you know, it was just in this big blob and it couldn't be

It needed to be taken out of the consent agenda to have a separate discussion and vote.

So by now, I mean, we're going, council is going to vote.

We've already had discussions on it.

It was in the consent agenda and it still looks like it's in the consent agenda.

It's item K in the consent agenda.

It was removed from the consent agenda last week and then it moved forward for this week, yes.

So there's not like a public discussion at this point.

Correct.

No, ma'am.

And the insurance requirement can be waived.

It's just a $25 fee.

You don't need to apply.

And you don't need to apply for the insurance waiver and all that.

I just want to be clear that any little you think of them as small bureaucratic hurdles, but anything in the way of this can be difficult for small organizations.

A $25 fee can be difficult for really small organizations to pull something off.

I have some serious concerns about this amendment to the special events permitting.

It redefines an event as any demonstration, rally, protest, counter-protest, picket, or other similar public assembly conducted on public property at which one or more individuals express their first amendment rights.

This is so vague as to encompass literally everything.

And it includes prohibition on prohibited items for permitted or non-permitted events.

So an event is one person exercising their first amendment right, and you can't have certain prohibited items if you're doing that.

That effectively bans those items within city limits.

So give me your glass water bottle, you can't have that anymore.

Like, there are items that we all have on our person here in this room that would be illegal under this ordinance.

When you write a law this vague and then tell us, no, no, it's OK, we'll enforce it in a way that makes sense.

We'll enforce it in a way that makes fair.

You put the power in the hands of the police to decide when it gets enforced.

I talked to John Blair at the last meeting when this was on the agenda.

And he said, you know, my friend Goodrin, who's 12 years old, led a school climate trike.

They didn't get a permit.

They're kids.

Good evening.

My name is Jeff Fogel.

I live on Spruce Street in Belmont.

I want to support what Molly just said.

The previous ordinance had an event.

An event was defined as the conduct of which has the effect, intent, or propensity to draw a crowd or upon lookers.

Now it is one person exercising their free speech rights.

If I say an offensive word to a police officer, I'm exercising my free speech rights.

If I do that at the time that I'm drinking a bottle of Coca-Cola, I'm guilty.

Now there have been several demonstrations here which were clearly required permits for and the city did nothing about.

So that if you believe,

and apparently you all do, that the women who organized the demonstration at the free speech wall in support of choice should be prosecuted.

Vote for this ordinance.

If you think the young people who came out of school to protest the lack of action on climate should be prosecuted, vote for this ordinance because that's what you're doing.

Now I know you're going to have some problems enforcing this ordinance for precisely the same reason Molly said.

You haven't been enforcing it.

You don't even know what it means.

How many of you can actually define some of the items that are in here?

And I'll make it easy for you.

People realize here that it's also an offense to advertise before a permit is issued.

So that those of you who may have advertised for your events, not only are you guilty of not getting a permit, you're also guilty of having advertised in advance.

We cannot tolerate a limited ordinance like this.

And of course I think people will be interested, but the ordinance defines person to include corporations.

That's a wonderful idea and one we should suggest the Supreme Court take up so that we can have everything clear and that corporations can have the same rights that the rest of us have.

That's very important.

I will be happy to challenge the ordinance to be by myself, drink a bottle of Coca-Cola, and express my opinion.

And let's see whether you're going to come and arrest me for that, okay?

I'll even make it easy.

I will call the police department and ask them when is a convenient time for me to do that so they can be there, okay?

And we can maybe resolve it in certain respects in that way.

Secondly, I want to mention about your request for 50% additional funding for the DMC.

Do any of you know what that 50% is for?

Certainly can't glean it from the memo that was presented to you.

We need more money because we need to do more studies.

But the most ridiculous thing I've heard is that the DMC consultant is not studying the police department.

Only other aspects of the criminal justice system.

Now why would they want to study the police department?

Perhaps because it's the place where most people come into contact with the criminal justice system that would argue for studying the police department.

We also have six years of statistics suggesting that there's a problem with enforcement of the law here in Virginia, in Charlottesville, when it comes to black people.

Good evening, Don Gathers.

How are you, brother?

Maybe, and I too am in the opposition of Ordinance K, so maybe because we had so many people who weren't here last week or last month, Mr. Blair, if you can explain what the Ordinance reads now and what the amendment reads because, I mean, this doesn't tell us anything as to what it is.

Well, to speak to some of the concerns tonight, I know Ms. Conger asked sort of where the

The definition of demonstration came from, you can take a look at 36 Code of Federal Regulation 2.51.

The National Park Service does use the following definition.

The term demonstration includes demonstrations, picketing, speech making, marching, holding vigils or religious services, and all other like forms of conduct that involve the communication or expression of views or grievances engaged in by one or more persons, the conduct of which is reasonably likely to attract a crowd of onlookers.

Mr. Gathers was asking to maybe go over some of the changes and how the ordinance is being changed.

Just to start at a very high level, we're calling these events, but there are special events, which are things more like pageants or sports contests that occur not so much as a First Amendment expression, and then we also have demonstrations.

And these are the two type of events that are now being defined in the amendments.

concerning the actual changes to the ordinance itself.

I know there's been a lot of talk about permits.

Actually, the permit section itself is, there have been a few minor changes, but really what's being changed more than anything is changing right now,

Section 18-25 of the city code makes it a class 4 misdemeanor to have sponsor hold or conduct an event for which a permit is required without first obtaining a permit.

So it's a criminal offense as the ordinance currently stands.

The proposed amendment in 18-23 makes it a civil penalty instead of a class 4 misdemeanor.

And absolutely, we'll get there.

But again, when we talk about the permit requirements, actually those events are no longer going to be class four misdemeanors.

Instead, they're coming into civil penalties.

I know during the last council meeting, Ms. Conger had asked me about this and as it relates to children.

Both the current ordinance as well as the proposed amendment make, it's now a civil penalty to advertise, promote or conduct an event for which a permit is required without first obtaining a permit.

It is fair to say obviously as with most ordinances there is some level of discretion.

But concerning advertising, promoting or conducting the event, a child that was just happened to be there during the event

I don't believe they're advertising, promoting, or conducting the event.

I think that conducting the event would be more about who would be leading the event.

Certainly.

Concerning the question about, again Mr. Gathers, prohibition on carrying or possessing specified items, right now

The ordinance itself talks about if you are, and let me get this, holding, carrying, displaying or using any prohibited item as defined herein within an area where an event is taking place with a permit, that right now, as the ordinance is currently written, is a violation.

This proposed ordinance says it shall be unlawful for any person to carry or possess any of the following items or articles while attending or participating in an event.

Difference being currently if you're in the area where the event is taking place and you have one of the prohibited items currently as the ordinance is written that would be a criminal offense.

The ordinance change says you have to be attending or participating in the event.

I'm answering the question.

Yeah.

OK.

You can come up to the mic.

I'm sorry for not stopping it in advance.

Thank you.

I'm Johnny Hall and Mr. Brian Daley of Parks and Recreation has a form that you must fill out so that everything can be anticipated as to what a person would have to present.

at a rally or some kind of an event before the public and a gathering.

So there would be no problem understanding exactly what items are going to be presented and the participant that's going to do it.

That information is put out before so that there's no surprise.

and Mr. Daley and his staff review that information.

And I'm sure they could share it with Mr. Blair here.

All right.

Council I think there's a lot of uncertainty about this particular cleanup for your code because we do see throughout this country there's a lot of attempt to squelch free speech for everybody for everybody and I really think that you need to if Mr. Blair I'm sitting there too and if Mr. Blair can't demonstrate to me what participation is, is it I'm just watching you know people beat up on each other or I'm

in there standing face to face with somebody.

I mean, I don't understand where the levels, the gray areas of participation are.

And I really think that, you know, whether you pass this ordinance tonight on your consent agenda or bring it back, it's not going to make any difference.

It didn't make any difference to the people of Hong Kong about a permit, didn't make any difference for the people of Paris about a permit, doesn't make any difference for people at Standing Rock for a permit, doesn't hopefully make any difference to the people in Hawaii about a permit, and sure as hell didn't make any difference to the people of Puerto Rico about a permit.

Thank you.

Mr. Hall, Mr. Hall, Mr. Hall, no, you have to, no, you have already used your time.

No, you have used your time.

Could you please have a seat?

Could you please have a seat?

You have already used your time.

Would you please have a seat, please?

Would you have a seat?

I just heard Mr. Gathers not come up.

Could you have a seat, please?

Certainly.

In the insurance requirement in section 18-24 of the city code, we aren't proposing any changes from the current ordinance.

Thank you.

All right, so are there any questions?

1A minutes, May 20 regular meeting, June 3 regular meeting, June 6 joint meeting with the board of supervisors.

B, appropriation, highway safety improvement program, appropriation of funds for pedestrian connections within Hillcrest Birdwood neighborhood, $708,932, second of two readings.

C, Appropriation, Virginia Juvenile Community Crime Control Act Grant, $452,704, first of two readings D, Appropriation, Study of Disproportionate Minority Contact in the Adult Criminal Justice System, $55,400, second of two readings

E, Appropriation, Charlottesville Student Victim Outreach Program, Department of Criminal Justice, Services Victim of Crimes Act Grant, $245,428, second of two readings.

F. Appropriation, Virginia Department of Transportation Grants for Water Street Trail, $115,257.

Second of two readings.

G. Appropriation, Virginia Department of Transportation Primary Extension Paving Project Fund, $633,442.

First of two readings.

Item H has a correction.

It was posted as an appropriation and it is a resolution.

Welcoming Greater Charlottesville Funding Request, $4,100, first of one reading.

I, Appropriation, Thomas Jefferson Area Crisis Intervention Team Training Grant, $20,708, first of two readings.

J, Appropriation, Moving from Foster Care to Adulthood Rental Assistance Grant, $300,000, first of two readings.

K, Ordinance, Amending and Re-enacting City Code Chapter 18, Article 3, Special Events, second of two readings L, Ordinance, Renewing LUMOS Networks Incorporated, Telecommunications Franchise, second of two readings M, Ordinance, 750 Hinton Avenue Re-zoning,

Second of two readings.

N, Ordinance, Amending and Reenacting City Code, Chapter 11, Article 4, Director of Finance.

And so is there a motion for items A through J, L, and M?

So moved.

OK.

Second.

And just quickly, I did have some, I'm going to vote for the appropriation now resolution from welcoming Greater Charlottesville, but I did have some questions about the methods of

All right, please vote.

All right, that carries five to zero.

All right, so next up we have item K. Are there any further questions or comments?

Just to address

Mr. Fogel, the council can certainly, right now it's stating one or more individuals.

Thank you, Mr. Blair, for the work you put into this for me.

I think some of the argument that we've heard from some of the members of the public tonight makes a great deal of sense, specifically from what we heard from Molly.

And I will say personally, I didn't quite think about it in that capacity.

So what is the balance in regards to as she's describing?

Obviously, we put a lot of these rules in place based off of what's transpired in our community in times before.

However, I think her example specifically of the kids, because my wife and I were out that day when they were marching on the mall.

And I mean, there was maybe 50 of them, and it wasn't necessarily

An event that led them to doing something that was kind of spontaneous and by this rule they would I mean technically if the rule is enforced they could be locked up so where is the balance in that regards?

I'm wondering is this something that we maybe need the table so that we can get more

It's something that we need to table and find a happy medium.

I know you don't make the voting decision.

I'm just saying.

Go ahead, Mayor Walker.

That's one thing.

I mean, the council is free if it wishes to amend now.

Right now, again, the current ordinance talks about, you know, in terms of what is a criminal penalty, and that's sponsoring, holding, or conducting an event for which a permit is required.

And in terms of the

Prohibition on the prohibited items.

Currently that is holding, carrying, displaying or using any prohibited item as defined herein within an area where an event is taking place with a permit.

And I'm happy if the council wishes we can come back on August the 19th.

Your question is more kind of following up on

Yeah that and I mean to Mr. Fogel's point who he articulates it in a very nice way sometimes.

But I do think his point is taken to a certain extent.

If he and two other persons were to come out, I mean, is that an offense?

And I know you said it's civil, which is not necessarily a criminal offense.

But I do think that there's merit there.

So I wonder if we could table, one thing that I'm interested in, just to be clear, if we could table this for some time.

And maybe could we have a meeting with some of our community members to see where the happy medium is?

because I don't want it to feel like a top-down approach or so.

Sure, sure.

If my colleagues are open to it.

A couple things to that point.

I did meet with Mr. Fogel about this but happy to meet again.

One thing we can look at in terms of the definition of event if the council wishes is again the National Park Service talks about

Engaged by one or more persons, the conduct of which is reasonably likely to attract a crowd or onlookers.

Right, so I do, and I understand wholeheartedly, I do agree though that it's rather vague and because of what's transpired here specifically, I think using definitions per se from the National Park Service, like we are going to have to develop this to make it fit specifically for us because

We're a very unique city and I think these are very unique situations and unique times and I think that we could have more community buy-in if we were to discuss this maybe with a few more people and then we can say that there was a holistic approach.

I understand you met with Mr. Fogel.

and maybe with a couple other community members so that we could clearly move forward together.

Because the last thing I want is for this to continue to bring about heartburn in someone, you know, get arrested or get a civil suit for something that's trivial.

Because we don't know how other police officers or how other individuals may enforce this moving forward.

if we move in this direction even now even if it's just for two weeks just to ensure that like right now it is he is saying it's a criminal there's a different way actually it's getting better and in favor of the folks that are attending so we're trying to take to try to de-escalate it a bit like make it less of an offense right and so I'm saying that I mean any of these ordinances we can always go back to I'm just saying that right now don't we do we want to like take care of us take this one step forward with what we have written here with a commitment that we can revisit it but I'm seeing that what way it's written right now and what's actually

Active seems more stringent in some areas than where we're looking to go just tonight.

I hear you.

But what she's saying, Wes, is that there's something already in place, all the stuff that's not been modified.

And one other option would be to pass it tonight but not enact

You know the things that I've talked about tonight that number one are decriminalizing and also in terms of the prohibited items also I think they are less strict than current.

You could in effect move tonight to approve sections 18-23

Well not only that, I think with section 1823 on section D specifically when it discusses the amount of the fine, the following conduct is declared to be unlawful.

Any person who engages in such conduct shall be subject to a civil penalty of up to $500.

I mean we have that kind of monetary amount.

Well, I mean, again, my request is that we take what I understand who are to live.

My colleagues choose not to do so.

I'm just letting you guys know kind of where I stand.

And there's no disrespect, Mr. Brown, that you put a ton of work into it.

I just think there's a couple of things that we could do.

I just want to make it clear in my own mind.

So what's on the table right now is whether we pass this ordinance as written before us.

The amendment.

Whether we have the second option, which is to have the existing ordinance on the books but amend it so that section 8.23 to 18.27 is approved.

And then the third option is to table it.

And there could be a fourth option and it says effective date.

This ordinance shall become effective upon adoption by City Council.

But I guess my question for this would be, I haven't voted on any variation of this, and I

Well, understanding that, but I'd also say that

We could again, maybe the council could look at passing again, the more lenient provisions, right?

Well, I think there's a question about the one or more, the definition, right?

Well, Mayor Walker, just getting back to some of the things that we discussed at our retreat and that one idea in our new protocols that we were talking about is that councilors should not hesitate to say when they need more time.

And if they have questions and are somewhat confused, after tonight's discussion, I don't have clarity on what I'm voting on.

So I do want to have more time.

And I agree with Councillor Bellamy that we should table it to another time.

I'm wondering if this should be a work session because it's much more complicated.

But that I'm willing to have just come back for another meeting.

But I don't feel like I know what I would be voting on tonight.

Mine changes.

Are there motions?

Excuse me.

Because this current ordinance is in effect.

I think that everyone's forgetting.

This is just an amendment to something that's already out there and it's already active.

So is there a motion?

We've already had discussion.

And I'll say again, I mean, I probably would have clicked no for this one too, because I don't think there's going to be any agreement on what the terms are, even if there is a work session.

So again, I haven't voted on this.

I wasn't going to vote on it favorably today.

The fact that anything that would be enforced that we think that there is going to be agreement on, that is not probably going to happen.

So I'll just leave that for my colleagues.

Okay, now we're on M. All right, so that's the 750 Hinton Avenue zoning, the second of two readings.

Good evening.

Madam Mayor, Councillors.

Good evening.

By and large, this particular proposal, the 15 units, the developer is providing four units out of the 15 units for affordable housing and also special needs population.

The proposal, or the applicant rather,

provided analysis of the importance of affordable housing related to the development and the staff in reviewing that analysis reaffirms the applicant's presentation and statements in the application that

The proposal complies with the housing provisions in the comprehensive plan and it does because for instance the housing section of the comprehensive plan goal number three it talks about growing a city's housing stock for residents of all income levels.

The objective, one of the objectives under this particular goal number three also indicated

the need to continue to work toward the city's housing goal of 15% supported affordable housing by the year 2025.

Under the same goal, 3.4, the states encourage creation of new onsite affordable housing as part of the rezoning of residential special use application.

And this particular application reflects

these goals that I've just mentioned.

The other goal, couple of goals, statement in the comprehensive plan that the proposal furthers its interest includes a goal number four for which states that the plan should promote an assortment of

initiatives to meet the needs of homeowners, renters, and homeless people with varying levels of income.

And as indicated earlier, this proposal proposes to set aside four out of 15 units for affordable housing.

and in terms of the benefits of this particular project to the city, I'm gonna outline a few statistics that will give the city council some kind of overview of the chronic challenges the city faces in terms of affordable housing.

In the year 2000,

The home value was $117,000 and in 2017 the same home value rose from $117,000 to $310,000.

That's about 116%.

And simultaneously the income is not growing at the same rate with the housing value.

And in 2000, the number of households in the city of Charlottesville was 16,838 households.

And in 2017, that number rose from 16,838 to 19,915.

If you translate that, that's 18% increase.

If you translate that into the number of residents, you multiply it by about 2.64, which is the number of households.

this household size in the city and that would give you about 52,000 people in the city of Charlottesville dating back to 2017 now between 2017 and 2019 that number may have risen we don't have the accurate information right now from the census or what have you but that tells you the importance of affordable housing and to also add

For the first time since I've been in Charlottesville, I think this is the first time a faith-based organization is actually stepping up to the path of creation of affordable housing.

And I think the city should support this particular effort to encourage other faith-based organizations to participate in terms of providing affordable housing.

All in all, this project for that affordable housing interest in the city of Charlottesville.

The current plan.

Any other questions?

Thank you.

I move that we adopt the rezoning of 750 Hinton Avenue, second of two readings.

All right.

And it carries five to zero.

So next we have the city manager response to the community matters.

Dr. Richardson.

Oh, go ahead.

You can do that now.

This is related to boards and commissions.

Just really quickly, I want to move for the recommendation of appointing Jay James to the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail Authority Board.

This is a joint appointment with the county.

All right.

Please vote.

All right, it carries five to zero.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, members of the city council.

I only have one community matter to respond to tonight, and that's for Mrs. Chapman pertaining to her ask.

And that was, is it possible for us to conduct a CO2 inventory every two years?

And my answer to that is yes.

Currently we're in the process of implementing a new software program that takes raw data and puts it into a more understandable format.

And from that, ultimately our goal is to ensure that we do place this data into an interactive dashboard on our website so folks can go to it and see exactly what we're doing in our reduction of our carbon footprint.

All right, next we have the community matters.

and just keep in mind the three minutes per speaker.

Good afternoon, City Councilor, Charlottesville.

I love Charlottesville.

First of all, I would like to say thank you to the initial CRB members.

Are you here CRB members?

Please stand.

So the CRB members was charged to do something and they got it done.

The community has some concerns regarding the PRCB.

What we don't want city council to do is water down the process.

Some things that we hope that city council can not change is the membership for the new board members, limiting the scope of PRCV and what they can review as far as data, and independence.

Independence from the Charlottesville Police Department.

regarding the auditor.

And finally, but very important, fun to see on the PCRB fully.

Hello, I'm Marissa Turner Harris.

I reside in Garrett and I'm a part of the People's Coalition and we need the City Council support with the CRB.

We need, it's time we hold these police accountable for any and everything.

The previous people have done their job and that led work.

Now it's time for you guys to support us, get us the funding that we need.

because it's too many children, too many people being killed and not being held responsible by the cops because me as a mother, I can't do it.

My son does not play with guns since Tamar Rice was killed and that cop got off.

Anytime we live in Charlottesville, us people of color, we are discriminated so badly that it's, I taught my son that if you're pulled over, put your hands up.

because you never know which cop you got, a good cop, a bad cop.

You have Brackney.

who don't do shit.

And I'm gonna be honest.

Yeah, community life matters, but yeah, I see you at big functions.

I don't see you patrolling the neighborhoods, talking to the citizens that you're supposed to be protected.

So it's our time that y'all respect us and y'all help us because this CRB, if city council doesn't support it, we don't have anything.

Katie Zhang Hi everyone, I'm Katie Zhang.

So one of the reasons why we both really love Charlottesville is its commitment to sustainability.

I remember going to the farmer's market and going to the recycling place, and I was just like, wow, a place that really loves our planet.

So I'm so grateful to be here.

But something that really surprises me is the continued use of styrofoam.

It's everywhere and that plastic is really harmful.

It doesn't degrade and it really has no place to go.

Once styrofoam comes off the factory, it goes straight into landfills because the recycling plant that I go to doesn't accept it, the one in McIntire.

It does not accept it.

It has a sign that says, no styrofoam.

And so it all goes into the landfill.

And once it's in the landfill, it has to stay there for centuries because it does not degrade.

And so while it's in the landfill, all it does is leach chemicals into the soil.

And also it goes into our waterways and into our ecosystem.

It's getting into our local fauna.

It gets into us.

We believe that the city of Charlottesville should consider establishing a ban or some kind of way of regulating the use of styrofoam food containers because its continued use, as Katie mentioned, poses a risk in our community and our waterways, our ecosystem.

And Charlottesville would not be the first

City or locality that would establish this ban.

Actually there have been over 100 different ordinances throughout the United States that have established this ban of polystyrene food containers.

Also the entire state of Maine just this year has established that ban.

So that goes to show that there are alternatives and that this can happen in Charlottesville.

Currently, we're in the process of drafting a policy memo for both local and statewide legislators summarizing why this ban is so essential for the greater movement of sustainability.

Even on the city of Charlottesville's website, it says a sustainable community means to work together within our community to create an attractive, clean area in which to live and to protect the natural resources upon which all life is dependent.

And our initiative aligns perfectly with this goal.

We hope that we can work together to address this issue of outstanding styrofoam waste accumulation and build a cleaner and safer starts bill.

Thank you very much.

Ms. Robertson is working on that.

But just to explain to the students, in Virginia there's something called Dylan's Rule that prevents a city or a county from doing anything that the state has not.

passed a law to allow them to do so.

We're not allowed even to regulate plastic bags in Charlottesville because of this very restrictive state rule.

So that's another question from the floor.

All right, Louis Newman.

Ms. Carpenter?

Thank you Mr. Long, appreciate that.

Thank you for allowing me to come speak this evening.

My name is Nancy Carpenter and I'm a city resident.

I'm here as one of many speakers in support of the Citizens Review Board that you're looking at the bylaws tonight and hopefully we'll be adopting them as they have been written.

You've had a lot of blood, sweat, and tears put into these bylaws by a lot of good people here in the community that

This need has been here for decades but certainly I think the impetus after August 2017 the community spoke and said finally we need to do this and to bring Charlottesville forward to look at how we dismantle, I mean if we're talking about

dismantling ways that people are oppressed in this city.

I think your citizens review board for actions that current police employees or future police employees or even past police employees have taken against citizens of this city is paramount to starting that conversation and moving forward beyond what we have experienced in this city

for however long this city's been around, 250 years, however long, 400 years, it doesn't matter, way too long.

So I hope that as the discussion goes forward, the presentation goes forward later tonight, that you do do a robust decision that will benefit

All the citizens of this community, they may not realize it yet, they may want to send you emails about why are you doing this as a waste of time and effort and money, but in the long run it does provide a better quality of life, a better quantity of life if we have the Citizens Review Board.

I just hope that, you know, I'm not going to belabor a lot of points, a lot of good people will bring up some more points, but you have an option to act on the tragedies, the trauma,

and the emotions, especially of this week.

I thought that I was, you know, getting over some emotions, but over the weekend, I'm now feeling the same type of emotions that I felt building up to August of 2017.

And you have a chance.

I have two points.

One is that the skate park, which is amazing and I'm very happy it's open and I get to work there, it needs lights.

We have some of the infrastructure in place, but there needs to be some funding secured to get lights because as light wanes during the seasons, teenagers aren't going to have much to do at night.

And if we want a clean, safe place for teenagers to go,

And if you haven't seen the skate park in public, you should go see it.

It's beautiful and amazing.

Probably a top 20 on the East Coast.

That's point one.

Point two is that there's a commercial development that is being proposed in my neighborhood, Rose Hill and Amherst Street, a $1.5 million subterranean parking and business park that butts directly up against residential housing.

and I thought like the EPA banned subterranean parking, but maybe I'm wrong.

Maybe that's just in LA.

But when you dig a hole and you park a car in it that runs on gas, the oil and everything ends up in the earth.

So as an environmentalist, I think that this proposed real estate deal that somebody with all the money is proposing needs to be looked at and that's the Rose Hill

Center, I believe is what it's called.

Anyway, that's my time.

Thank you.

Hi, I'm Kate Fraley, I'm a resident of Charlottesville and I'm here to speak on behalf of the PCRB.

Thank you very much to all of you who were a part of it for so long and worked so hard.

I'd like to address the comments of Chief of Police Brackney in relation to the CRB in the July 24th article of Seville by

Lisa Provance, I'm glad you were here.

And I realized that there may be some things that you said that weren't included in the article.

Chief Bragney said she doesn't think a CRB is needed and that she doesn't know why the community thinks one is needed.

And I quote, so this board could really be an expensive board and I'm asking

I'm asking to solve what problem?

This comment reveals a limited understanding of the long-standing distrust of and unequal policing in Charlottesville.

There are many problems that need to be solved.

One problem is transparency and I agree as the Chief, Chief Bragney has

produced documents that show disproportionate minority contact and results from citizens' complaints.

But without a civilian review board, some people might know of errors in or be suspicious of the data the department is providing, especially around complaints.

The CRB would help allay suspicion and potentially help

with any inaccuracies.

The National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement says in its letter to you all, true independence from the police department allows an oversight body to address a wide range of concerns without any actual or perceived bias and ensures that policing is responsive to the needs of the community.

The biggest problem is disproportionate minority contact at all levels.

A strong independent PCRB will have the capability, especially with paid staff, to analyze the data deeply, review complaints, follow responses to complaints, see trends, assess policies, and make recommendations.

A strong independent PCRB can get to the bottom of the root causes of disproportionate minority contact and help fix it.

Something must be done about the disparities.

This has been a problem well before Chief Brackney's tenure, and I hope it ends during her tenure.

It is time for city council to do something bold to change the outcome.

As the executive director of the Legal Aid Justice Center said in the letter they sent to you all, it's time for sharp quotes.

It's time for Charlottesville to counter its history of glaring, disproportionate policing of black and brown residents with bold action.

The People's Coalition letter said, quote, the CRB represents the living promise from the city to openly acknowledge the suffering that its institutions have inflicted upon communities of color and to meaningfully address longstanding failures of the Charlottesville Police Department.

Hi everyone, my name is Luis Oyola.

I'm a county resident and I am an organizer with the Legal Aid Justice Center.

I'm here to speak on my support for a strong PCRB that is independent and focused on police activity in Charlottesville.

I want to speak to one angle that I feel has been relatively unspoken until this point, which is the immigrant rights angle to this board.

Civilian review board is there to make sure that the stated goals of the police department and what is said about the police department is what's actually going on.

Now we've heard leadership in the police department and leadership in the city government talk about how they don't want to cooperate with ICE and how they stand.

against the mass raids and we even had a resolution just earlier today about standing with the immigrant community.

But in my work I have heard many anecdotes of immigrant residents of the city and immigrant residents of the county or residents of the area who are driving through either of them.

Individual police officers asking them questions related to their immigrant status or making remarks related to their immigrant status.

One of which going so far as saying when you go to jail, we're going to turn you in to ICE.

And these are people who, for that exact experience, would never dream of going to the police department directly to make a complaint about it.

In light of the statements of leadership.

So where do these go?

Who will determine if there was any policy violation?

Who will independently determine if there even is a policy for enforcing this stated non-cooperation with ICE?

And who will have the money and resources to do that?

It is my understanding and the standing of many in this community that it would be a strong and independent police civilian review board who would have the money and the resources to do that if you go by the proposed bylaws.

The Human Rights Commission

It's great for general concerns about the city government, but we really need a committee that is dedicated to the police activity because as far as the immigrant community is concerned in this area, they are the most dangerous interface between immigrants and the government.

So we need to pay very, very specific attention to those concerns and make sure that we're passing the bylaws for a strong and independent police civilian review board.

I have a question for you briefly.

Thanks for those comments.

In particular, I know we've spoken it as a council as well as at the ACRJ, the Jail Authority Board, about the city's position specifically about us not dealing with ICE.

So to hear that is rather alarming.

But I do know that there's always multiple

things that go on and different accounts and so forth.

Is it possible, and Chief Brackney here, is it possible maybe for us to have a further discussion about our police department and specifically how we're interacting with our

our friends who are here because I think it's important for them to know that we support them.

And it's my understanding, I've spoken with Chief Bragney about this several times, we don't cooperate with ICE.

I mean, she's been very clear about that.

I've seen her say that to officers.

I think regarding a meeting that I will have to bring that back to Legal Aid Justice Center.

But I mean, I think we'll be happy to bring concerns and ideas for policy changes.

But I think that the specific to this comment is to speak to why we need a board to hold that accountability from the shift down to the beat.

officers.

And then another thing that I want to point out that there's a particular thing here about what's going on between this city and the county together.

I don't think there's like something specific to address tonight about that, but that's just something to put out there.

So I agree with you hardly, I mean specifically in the immediate because even tonight we're supposed to just be listening to the report like we're not passing anything tonight as for listening so then you have at the very minimum another two weeks before we could even potentially vote on bylaws and it probably won't even be on because I think that agenda is already packed so then you're looking at roughly a month

before we get to even hear from it.

So then that's a month of our friends potentially being exposed to something or having these philosophies.

I think we can make that happen quickly.

I'm just saying that I want to make sure that I'm speaking to the concerns of the community and what they've been telling me that I'm being responsive to that.

I don't want to just agree to a meeting right now.

Right.

All right.

So I sent you guys a request.

Hey, how you doing?

I have a couple requests.

So I sent you guys a request via email from my Unity Day event that I'm doing downtown Park on August 18th with the lovely help from Charlottesville Unity Days and I requested some additional funding.

And in my request, I also pointed out that there shouldn't be any problem with this funding coming out of the equity fund.

Being that, Charlottesville voted to give $80,000 to marketing for the Downtown Business Association.

So, I will hope to have an answer for that.

Tonight, y'all can tell me tonight or in private or you can let Brian know.

However, that's going to work out.

That's number one.

Number two, when I went to go do my actual meeting for my permit to have my event and toss the part, I noticed how there were all white men in the room.

The only woman that was in the room was Michelle Christian, which is a regular because

It's just obvious that that's the power structure of Charlottesville, that there's a lot of white men in these high positions and there's no women in the room to even represent women.

So I can only imagine me being, somebody not like me being the type of woman that I am that would feel intimidated by being in a room full of white men.

I mean, the only person of color was, um, Reon.

from Parks and Rec, and Michelle and myself, and Damian Banks, but even if...

and Tito, I forgot Tito.

And then what's the other one named from transportation?

He, what, Asian?

Yeah, him.

But y'all get my point.

Like, we gotta do, that's that Thomas Jefferson effect, we gotta do something about that.

Another thing is this hiring process at the City of Charlottesville.

I applied for a job just to do it, cause y'all know I love catching y'all up, okay?

So I applied for a job, doesn't matter like what the initial request was, I just did it just to do it anyway.

But the fact that you could be doing this work for free as an activist in the community, you could be doing some type of work pertaining to housing for them to tell you that you're not qualified goes to show that you guys are literally looking for white people, possibly.

to come in and do these jobs and then try to help people that they don't even understand.

And in order to help somebody like myself that's black, that comes from Charlottesville, that's lived in public housing, you need one of us in the room.

And I think you guys get carried away with thinking that the city in itself, not

All of y'all, but y'all get what I'm saying.

Thinking that people can make conscious decisions for people of color in this city and we're nowhere in the room when those decisions are being made.

And even when you bring us in the room to make those decisions with you all, you're getting the people who basically are sitting on the same level as you.

You know what I'm saying?

So it's like you pick and choose the right black people to kind of use to get

these policies push and then like zoning like look at Hinton Avenue like they got what they wanted but you guys go and do stuff everywhere else in Charlottesville and and these communities just have to deal with it you know but when it's a white community of course they come down here they come deep it's 30 40 50 of them and they all sign up to speak and they take the slots for about two months

Thank you.

So Ms. Hudson's request in regards to the additional funds for the Unity Day event, I know that we've had some discussion specifically in regards to whether or not we would be able to assist off-budget cycle requests, quote unquote, but I think this would fall under the Unity Day.

and Ms. Green has stated essentially that they've exasperated the funds.

I read your email in regards to bringing in an act and I do think there's some validity there in regards to specifically bringing in acts that will attract specifically African Americans and communities of color because it's not often in which we have such.

I would be open to entertaining such.

Hi, I'm Johnny Hall.

David Dylan Hunt asked me to put this out here like this, this CAT bus, with a fold out stop sign.

We can do this for our children.

In our school buses, why not do it for our adults in our CAT buses?

Thank you.

Judge Richard Moore concluded at the recent sentencing of James Fields regarding Fields' character.

He said, I believe he was trying to run over as many people as he could

What then came to my mind was a legal definition of what I believe showed psychotic intent to murder.

That term is malice aforethought.

I expressed it in a question to Nina Alice Anthony after the long court session outside.

I said, do you feel, Miss Anthony, that James Field throwing his Dodge Challenger in reverse indicates malice aforethought?

Nina Alice Anthony responded, I believe

Concurred with my judgment.

Joe Platania seemed to be in deep thought regarding this.

I later the next day met Mr. Platania outside his city hall.

Hall, I said, remember that James Alex Fields was only 20 years old on 8-12-2017.

Please consider him acting as just a deranged soldier.

The real puzzle to solve is to answer the question, who gave him his marching orders?

James Field is now incarcerated.

He can be questioned by some of the best criminal psychologists and psychiatrists.

and perhaps neurologists our criminal justice system has to offer.

Once the head of the snake, i.e.

Hitler in his mind or a neo-nazi, whoever gave him his marching orders, whatever that leader who was behind him is the one to identify and bring to justice for just monetary remedy of that whole organization that he runs.

By his or her organization for the seven victims who have been

Through so much as chosen to testify by our Commonwealth Attorney Joe Platani's office, the day of sentencing so well done by Judge Richard Moore, I suggest three to seven million dollars per each victim chosen to be heard by Judge Moore.

No need to put them through yet another trial.

I say let it be by determination of our city council as counsel.

Mary Curtis, City resident.

I came up here to talk about one thing, but CRB

today should have been back there when I was president of Girls Square slash Friendship Court.

Because the police was running around there kicking their doors and things.

And talking about the task force, oh my God.

I used to have to go over there with a metal bat to tell the police they got to get out of there.

And then y'all want to push these CRB people around.

I mean when you call for a CRB board and you in there telling them what to say and what to do, it's not a board.

It's something that you put up.

And Charlottesville is too much doing that stuff.

Because every time I walk down that hall down there trying to go out to Market Street and during the day and I look in the room and there's a bunch of people in there and all of those meetings are numbered white people.

And like Tanisha said, they're mostly men.

I grew up with city council with a bunch of white men on city council turned down Vinegar Hill and everything else in Charlottesville so they could get rich.

And nothing has really changed.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

And it's about time for a change to come.

So when you start talking about the CRB and stuff and the police and all this stuff, you don't need the police to be in control no more.

They need to have somebody to control them because they're getting out of hand.

They're getting these blue cars and they're flying up and down the street and they got the little doo doo doo doo doo doo.

I think that's going to their heads too.

So if the CRB, you can get that to hold them accountable.

I'm not saying all police officers are bad.

I'm not saying all of them are good because there's not really no good cop.

It's a paid cop that want to go home to his family.

So if we can get things going where Charlottesville can be on the same page with the police and the people, what a wonderful world that'll be.

because I've been living in chaos all my life.

And I think I'm tired of it now.

I might have to get my mail back out again.

But I think that right now, Charlottesville is at a point where the whole country is at a point.

Everybody's sticking out their chests.

And I'd like to say to Chief Brackney, would you get those policemen some shirts?

Can you hear me?

Hi.

So my name is Adrienne Dent.

I live at 104 Todd Avenue, and I'm here to speak about the resolution item regarding 209 Maury Avenue, the Comprehensive Plan Amendment.

A month ago, I spoke before you about the rezoning application for this subject property.

Your vote to deny rezoning noted the applicant's lack of site plan and your reluctance to engage in piecemeal rezoning.

It has been explained to me that amending the land use map subsequent to rezoning is good housekeeping.

Since the rezoning application was denied, I find the ongoing discussion of amending the land use map perplexing.

Subsequent to your denial of rezoning, the Planning Commission discussed the amendment to the land use map for this property.

Despite Commission's vote in favor of the

amendment with two clear dissenting voices, almost every commissioner acknowledged that such changes should ideally be made under the guidance of a comprehensive plan.

As I stated last month, residents await comprehensively planned increased density.

I ask you in discussing amendments to the land use map to be led by comprehensive planning.

As good housekeepers of the city and stewards of your constituents, you initiated a process to address demands for increased density and affordable housing.

The city's RFP demonstrates a commitment to all elements and aspects of planning.

Essential components of this effort must be developing a housing strategy, considering infrastructure and adequacy of natural resources, as well as establishing a position on staff to work alongside hired consultants.

Staff must be equipped to update zoning in accordance with the new comprehensive plan and to address issues of compliance.

In your discussion of this matter, I ask you to clarify your position on current piecemeal attempts to rezone and amend the land use map.

I ask that you explicitly renew your commitment to comprehensive planning, including development of a housing strategy, preparations for oversight of rezoning based on the new comprehensive plan, and adequate resources among staff to uphold compliance with the comprehensive plan.

Thank you.

I'd also like to say that before the meeting there were four

Youth, I think from Venable, they were wearing t-shirts.

And they were here to speak to extending the schedule for the city pool's Honesty Family Center in Washington Park pool.

And their chaperone decided that it was time to leave because there was some language that she felt was inappropriate for them to hear.

Thank you.

Larry Scott, Charlottesville, Virginia.

Most of you have heard my story before of BNR.

Homeowner, Habitat Homeowner and the blessings and what it meant to me and my family but tonight I'm here for different reasons and I've been in my home since 2004 in about three years and be paid for.

But I want to be a voice tonight for our future habitat homeowners and especially five that hopefully will be considered.

I understand y'all are going to be deciding on Flint Hill tonight.

And I hope that y'all will consider what I'm asking and that the five future homeowners will enjoy the opportunity that I have and the blessing that came along with being a homeowner.

and something that they have that they can pass down to their kids and they can realize that we can own, not just rent all the time, with some help at times.

Katrina Turner.

I'm back again about, I'm not even going to call it my son's complaint because now it's become my complaint because I've been called a liar by the chief of police.

I ask how did I lie on this officer and I still haven't gotten that answer.

I've asked for

An investigation into these complaints that I have filed against the chief of police because Mike Murphy has exonerated her in these complaints saying he's seen nothing wrong.

In one of the decision letters he said, I have determined that the police department complied

with their policies in an August 17, 2016 letter by offering you a meeting that you elected not to attend without your lawyer present.

When I emailed him this response from Mr. Fogel that me and my son wanted a meeting, not me, my son, and Jeff Fogel.

I got nothing from Mike Murphy.

I have not heard from Mike Murphy.

I have not gotten any meetings that I've asked for for all these complaints I've signed, I've filed.

I want to know if my complaint against the police chief is the only complaint.

That's been filed on her.

I do want to know if she has any more.

If she does, have they been resolved as far as exonerated the way they've been exonerated on my complaint?

One of the officers in my complaint, which is pleasant, his father was then acting chief of police.

When this happened to my son, but no one will get it through their head that when I say records were changed, that they were changed because his father was in charge when it happened.

Literally everybody who has looked at my complaint seen something wrong, but it was explained over by either Chief Thomas or someone else.

Maurice Jones had questions on this.

Brian Shifflett had questions on this, but they were all explained down.

I'm asking you, Mr. Richardson, if you could help me into looking into this.

because there's too many things that are mistakes in here.

And with the position of the chief of police, she shouldn't be making this many mistakes.

And really quick, there was a comment made that she's really not going to look at what happened before she came here.

But in order to fix the present and in order to fix the future, you got to go back and fix what happened in the past.

And that is what's going on in this city right here.

The past is what needs to be fixed.

And I'm asking you, you would sit down with me and look at everything I have.

I even have a video recording from Chief Thomas that I'd like for you to sit down and talk to me about.

This woman has lied on me, Mike Murphy, everybody has just thrown it out the door.

The complaint when she did, what she did out there, I have how many, five or six people who saw what she did to me that night.

Mike Murphy exonerated her.

He did not even look at what the, he did not even look at what the investigator did.

He said he just signed it and forgot about it.

Okay, thank you.

Colette Blount, Gordonsville.

I still have a house in the city though and I have surveys for you.

I am speaking about the Greenleaf Center project.

Residents of Kellytown, Mayor Walker, surveyed residents and neighboring community around the proposed Greenleaf Center at the corner of Rose Hill and Amherst.

and in reviewing the city ordinances, the city code, I found outdated sections.

The charter on the school board on which I was a member for eight years, the school board of the city shall consist of seven members to be appointed by the council and two members to serve for a term of one year from July 1, 1948.

Under definitions, under the term gender, a word importing the masculine gender only shall extend and be applied to females and to firms, partnerships and corporations as well as to males.

That language needs to be updated.

We are in 2019 now.

Vague language, the purpose of the city's commercial districts is to regulate the use of land that are both harmonious with surrounding areas.

How do you quantify harmonious?

The intent of the B1 regulations is to provide a transitional district between residential areas and other commercial areas of the city.

The uses permitted are those which will have only minimal traffic impacts.

How do you gauge minimal?

I and some community members of Kellytown surveyed over 100 people.

As of now, I think there's about 109 surveys.

Of that, 87 were against the proposed Greenleaf Center.

You have these results there in front of you.

And I will hold up a graphic for that to show of the views.

In January 2011, you all hosted a planning commission and city council joint planning meeting.

The project planner was Nick Rogers.

He is no longer here with the city.

I will quote, read what he had written.

Quote, staff remains concerned with the health clinic above 10,000 square feet at this location.

The clinic size creates too great of an impact on traffic.

and parking at the Rose Hill-Amherst intersection, which would cause some spillover of parking into the neighborhood and overly congest this section of Rose Hill Drive with traffic.

He had said anywhere of an increase of 300 to 900 cars for this facility.

In the eight years since the Planning Commission's recommendation, traffic has only increased.

In the survey, 90% of those surveyed cited cut-through traffic as being a problem.

In continuation in this Joint Planning Commission report, quote, a Bi-Rite clinic below 10,000 square feet would be appropriate for the site, but a clinic with no maximum, is that the time already?

What's proposed there now is a 40,000 square foot facility.

And I think that this facility which is zoned as B1 is actually masquerading as a B3, a B2.

And for that reason, I think it warrants a public meeting for rezoning.

Yes.

Thank you.

I, Sena Magill, I just want to encourage a strong CRB and also please if you have a chance, Ms. Myrna Houchins was here earlier with some students requesting that the pool stayed open.

They had a petition with over 400 signatures but did not feel comfortable in staying due to some things that were going on before council

began.

So I will make that quick and I don't need to say any more.

Abby Guskin.

Just wanted to ask all of the community members, anybody here wishing to see a strong CRB, please stand up and show your support now.

Thank you very much.

I hope that after this presentation this evening we do have a lot of community support here and I really hope since this was asked by the community to gather council and they've done the work that is necessary to complete it and this evening it's going to be at the end of the evening which is which is really sad because it would have been nice to have

everyone heard hear what they had to say but there's a lot of people that have left because they got to hear what they wanted and they're gone.

So I really, really hope that you encourage the hard work that Sarah Guillermo, Josh, we have Katrina, we have Gloria, we have Brizia.

Please, please just hear this community out and we really need your vote on this.

We have a slot for one more person.

Is there anyone else who would like to speak that didn't sign up?

Okay, you must have been on the waitlist, Ms.

Beard.

Sorry, I forgot all about that.

I'm Gloria Beard and I'm from the city of Charlottesville.

Now this has come up.

John Gaines was here wasn't too long ago about the stoplight at the crossing of 10th and Page.

We definitely need a stoplight there.

Not that caution light.

It's really dangerous.

I can't even get out.

It's five o'clock.

and the school children in the morning, they have to go across the street to catch the bus.

And you know, with that construction, getting ready to start up there at the old dairy, I don't know, I think the traffic's gonna be directed down 10th Street then.

So we need a stoplight, seriously.

I've been there 26 years now and never had a stoplight.

We have that caution light and you know.

And I don't know if you are aware, you have to call your resident or vice or whatever you want to call the person that will help the seniors and the disabled fire snow removal.

Well, has anybody ever considered maybe in the school system, especially the children at high risk of quitting school or to help seniors and it goes for their PE, like cutting grass?

Have y'all heard about that?

Have you heard, Mayor?

Yes.

So, when I come back here next week, I'm bringing all the

information about that because it will help the seniors in this town.

We are the forgotten people.

I mean, I'm a senior.

I'll be 70 years old my birthday.

And you know, you can't get nobody to cut your grass.

If they do come, then they stop coming and it looks raggedy.

And I don't have but four people cut my grass since I've been in my neighborhood.

This winter, when I called my neighborhood person, they didn't even have anybody come shovel the snow.

Well, they're here, yes.

Maybe I can get the...

Okay, and has anybody thought of a place, and another thing, one more thing.

It's a place for seniors to go for entertainment.

They got all these building joints on every corner.

Y'all know that.

I live on 10th and Page.

Ms.

Beard, Ms.

Beard

They had this jazz group when they had the Daughters of Zion.

That was the most wonderful jazz called Kool Bling.

That's the name of the group.

It's really nice.

And we like to have a place to go.

Yes.

All right, thank you.

Do y'all have any comments?

All right, so we can come back at 8.35.

Are you longer than that?

All right.

835.

That's too soon.

Thank you Madam Mayor.

I wanted to give an update and I think Mr. Alfley has a point of clarification but on this particular item

At your last meeting there was a rezoning before the council and that rezoning did not have any proffers nor any plan associated with it.

Since then the applicant Mr. Armstrong has submitted proffers and pursuant to the city code 34-65

Since there were no proffers considered at the last council hearing or by the Planning Commission when this item was before them the resolution before you would remand and refer back both the rezoning application as well as there was a comprehensive plan amendment with this and these would both go back to the Planning Commission but I do think

Yes, thank you, Madame Mayor, City Council, Madame Alfoli, City Planner, Neighborhood Development Services.

As legal counsel was saying on, so on July 1st,

This body had a public hearing on the rezoning.

And then the following week planning commission did take up the comprehensive plan amendment portion of this.

Then on the 23rd, after both bodies had heard the information, additional information was submitted.

A conceptual plan and a proposed proffer.

And as staff understanding that city council would like to send that back to Planning Commission to be reviewed, staff is just asking for a little, just some guidance and clarification, how far back you're wanting the applicant to go.

So as part of a rezoning or special use,

An applicant holds a community engagement meeting where the community gets to see the information being presented.

That's usually fairly early in the process.

This original application, again, was just a straight rezoning, no conceptual plan, no proffers.

So what we're asking is if you're wanting the applicant to go back further in the process

to engage the public so that they're aware of the conceptual drawing and the proffer or if you're just sending this straight back to the information that you received from the applicant, straight back to Planning Commission to make a recommendation on the new information.

So I think since the public is unaware of the new plan that they should.

I agree.

Yes.

It's just a logistics thing.

I mean, that would probably place it more likely on October or November's Planning Commission agenda.

Okay.

Any other?

All right.

Thank you.

All right, I didn't know if we need it.

Wait, what is a resolution?

Oh, I move to adopt the resolution to

that the rezoning application and the conference of plan amendment pertaining to the property located at 209 Maury Avenue in the city and designated on 2019 Charlottesville City tax map 17 as parcels of 180, 181.1, 180.2, 184, 185, and 186 are hereby referred back to the Charlottesville Planning Commission for reconsideration in light of new properties presented by the applicant.

Thank you, Ms.

All right, now we have the appropriation for the city schools hiring of teachers for the push-in gifted program for $468,000, second of two readings.

Good evening Mayor Walker, Councilpersons and Dr. Richardson.

Thank you for having us tonight.

What we'd like to do is very recently we came before council to ask that council appropriate funding to add eight additional teachers to our teaching staff in the city school system for the specific purpose of

changing our gifted model delivery, instructional delivery model in our schools.

It was a very unusual request because it came outside of a normal budget cycle.

We want to thank council for entertaining that request and what we'd like to do is present to council now the gifted model that we are proposing to put in our schools and give you an update as to where we are with those positions.

So I'd like to invite Bev Catlin to go over that gifted model with you and answer any questions that you might have.

Good evening, Mayor Walker and council members, Dr. Richardson.

I am pleased to be here to share a snapshot of Charlottesville's new pathways

for gifted education.

Our goal is to support high quality curriculum and instruction for all students while offering gifted students educational experiences that meet their needs.

Gifted education, like all things in education, continually looks at what it is doing, evaluates the effects of its procedures, and makes the changes necessary to address the current needs of students.

Throughout this process, Charlottesville has and will continue to review its work through a lens of equity.

With the new pathways, gifted resource teachers will provide all students with high quality services in general education classes on a regular basis.

Students will receive differentiated experiences that enrich and extend the standard curriculum.

As both the classroom teacher and the gifted resource teacher tap into students' interests and talents, all children will be asked to stretch their thinking as critical and creative problem solvers.

Classroom teachers and gifted resource teachers will collaborate in planning curriculum, identifying resources, and differentiating instruction to address the needs of all learners.

Through shared decision making, they will monitor student progress and address individual needs.

Together, they can put together a plan that has a gifted resource teacher working with all students in a multitude of ways.

At all times, they will communicate and collaborate while focusing on each student's academic growth.

Last year, our specialists did extensive research on current best practices in gifted education and talked with experts in the field.

A resource that was highly recommended was the National Association for Gifted Children.

Its site studies have found that the challenge and complexity of curriculum and instruction is what matters, not how program services are designed.

NAGC has developed guidelines for the effective components of a gifted program.

Their research shows that curriculum and instruction should provide opportunities for enrichment, acceleration, and differentiation.

The next slides will show how Charlottesville's new pathways move us from a traditional framework for gifted education to an inclusive programming framework.

This year, students in first through third grade will participate in higher order thinking activities to add to their student portfolios.

So this will be a new piece for us with student portfolios.

And teachers will also document the thinking that they observe when students are working through these portfolio activities and communicating about the kinds of learning, the kinds of thinking that they're doing with those activities.

In addition, the division will expand its universal screening of all students to two grade levels.

All second graders will take a nonverbal ability test and all third graders will take a nationally normed ability test and an achievement test.

For identification, moving forward, our identification for gifted services will take place during third grade.

In addition, the division will establish a process for collecting and evaluating student portfolios and the notes that teachers took in their observations.

At all times, we will examine our work through the lens of equity, paying special attention to students from historically underrepresented populations.

For this coming year, gifted resource teachers will provide direct services in general education classrooms.

The in-class clustering of students will allow every child to participate in lessons that emphasize critical and creative thinking skills.

Again, work samples from these and other lessons will be gathered for student portfolios.

Together, classroom and gifted resource teachers will cultivate the talents of every student and monitor their academic growth.

Working collaboratively, classroom teachers and gifted research teachers will work to develop differentiated lessons and identify instructional materials that meet the needs of every learner.

We will use components from four high quality curriculum models to develop differentiated resources.

These materials will be posted electronically on the division curriculum site and shared regularly with classroom teachers, as well as lent to the division's curriculum frameworks for everyone to use.

In our inclusive framework, professional learning has classroom teachers and gifted resource teachers sharing their expertise with each other.

We will move from an awareness of differentiation to ongoing practice, reflection, and refinement.

Staff will receive training in the four curriculum models that have us embed differentiation strategies in our lessons and provide challenging experiences to all.

To support this professional learning, classroom teachers will participate in ongoing training on strategies that support differentiation and academic growth.

Some of this work, as you may have heard and read in the media, is being led by Dr. Carol Tomlinson at the University of Virginia.

In addition, gifted resource teachers will work with another expert at UVA as they implement innovative curricular and instructional practices in all classrooms.

Working together, our school and division cultures will support improved practice and student growth.

I share this quote from Michael Fullen as it describes the process ahead.

As a division, we are beginning a journey.

So as we look at this new model, our request for the eight additional teachers is so that we can put one additional teacher in each of our six elementary schools and then have an additional teacher in our upper elementary and our middle school, at our middle school level.

Having two teachers at each of our elementary schools will give us the opportunity to have the push-in model

separated kindergarten through second grade and then third and fourth grade so that we can have a comprehensive program in each of those classrooms to be able to meet the needs of all of the students.

Currently, of the eight teachers, our staff have been successful in hiring five

of those eight teachers.

So we have one elementary school that we're still in the process of reviewing applications and we hope very soon to hire that additional teacher for the elementary school.

The next slide, I'd like to just give you an update of some of the other equity work that's going on.

I'll be glad to answer any questions that you have.

There are four major areas that we're working on in equity.

One is supported and supported

supported and supportive staff.

We are in the process of recruiting highly qualified individuals in the teacher rank and in the admin rank and specifically highly qualified individuals of color.

Today we had an equity workshop and we introduced our five new assistant principals and the presenter commented

I said, wow, all five of those new administrators are black, African American.

And it was just, those were the individuals who rose to the top, highly qualified, very, very astute individuals who will be joining our admin team.

So we're pleased with that and tomorrow we will welcome our new teachers and we've been quite successful in hiring teachers of color to add to our compliment.

We're also redesigning the support that we have for our new teachers and for our teachers of color to make sure that they have an identifiable network that they can connect with.

We have also continued the professional learning.

As I said, we had equity training today.

It was the second of a series of workshops that we will be having with our staff.

We're having those workshops with our administrators first and when our new teachers come back we will start having some of the same workshops with new teachers and then our veteran teachers.

We intend also our school board will be involved in the equity training also.

Growing relationships.

We've expanded our family engagement positions.

We now have two positions that are working out in the community to connect the community and the school to make sure that we have seamless transitions.

We also are building Bring Back the Village, where we have members of the community.

that we will empower to mentor our students, not only mentor them in the community, but also mentor them in our schools.

We're making progress towards better communication between our families, making sure that our families have the information and the tools that are necessary to make wise decisions about the courses that their students are involved in and questions and taking advantage of opportunities that are available to their students.

We also have the Diverse, Inclusive and Rigorous Learning.

You've just heard about our gifted program, the redesign of our gifted program.

We have extended the honors option selection not only now at Charlottesville High School but will be at Walker and Buford and our teachers and our staff are quite excited about that option.

We will continue to diversify our history curricula.

We will be working with staff members from Monticello and the Jefferson School in order to continue to diversify that history curriculum and to codify that and align it with the SOLs.

Not only our history, our black history, but also our local history.

Equity Foundation, we've hired an equity supervisor and she came in, hit the ground running, many of you may know her, Denise Johnson, already doing a fabulous job for us.

We also have

Currently we have a division level equity committee and we are starting to establish school level equity councils that will be in place to help us with the equity work.

We also are aligning the work that we're doing now with Brian Williams who is a professor at the University of Virginia.

He's working with us on some of the workshops.

We also are a member of the Racial Equity Leadership Network and the National Equity Project.

Outstanding work, Dr. Atkins.

I'm going to say I'm very pleased with the commitment that we're making in our school towards equity and the new hires, the recent hires, not only from the assistant principals but also from the equity perspective, specifically Ms. Johnson.

I've heard tremendous things in the community from parents about the work.

Major kudos to you all and the school board, specifically revolving around Quest.

There's some people who may have had some questions or whatnot, but I think it is a great idea for you all to expand this program and this will be an opportunity for more students to take advantage.

One of my daughters, my youngest daughter is in Quest and she absolutely loves it.

So I think having more kids have the opportunity to take advantage is only going to be a benefit.

And I thought about this a little bit, and Ms. Houchins was here earlier, but it's sort of like the science camp that she used to be a part of at Venable.

I don't know if they're still doing it, but when my son was there, they were.

And it just gives you those extra kind of enrichment activities around a subject and brings children in in a way that is not just the standard teaching method.

And I know that the kids in that program really enjoyed the concepts around science that they were doing versus.

So I think I'm not an expert on what the push-in model is, but I understand from having

Two kids who've been in Quest and one who's still in the high school that's in Quest.

I think the major part about our redesign is that all students will receive a curricula that helps them to develop a stronger cognitive processes to be able to process more complex language and more complex problem solving.

And that's an important part of their development so that all of our students will be involved in that level of rigor.

I do have some questions.

And thank you, Dr. Atkins.

This is a very wonderful presentation.

And I have to say, though, I'm having a little deja vu.

And I was just counting the years.

It was 23 years ago when my older son just started in the school division.

So that was in Johnson Elementary School.

And I don't think I'm misremembering, but the inclusion model was very strong at Johnson.

and I've had the experience of a child identified for Quest and why not.

So I didn't see any pull-outs at that time.

Now, I don't know if that changed or was different between schools, but I don't remember seeing that so pronounced, if at all.

And second, when I got onto the school board, and that was in 2008,

We were talking differentiated instruction every school board meeting and I feel bad that Ms. Blount's not here because

We were together and talking about that.

Was there a change in state policy that somehow things got slowed down in your forward trajectory?

Because this was what we were all pushing for 12 years ago.

I don't know the answer from the school, but I would like to answer just from a community perspective.

I remember a few years back when we were having conversations.

just around the unleveling.

And parents who, if you attended some of those meetings, parents who did not want that to happen, how forceful they were.

I mean, what I'm seeing as the changes now is that since August 2017, we have a community who says we want a different community.

And instead of just giving lip service to stuff, they're actually maybe

possibly moving out the way so that some of the leaders in this community can actually create the environments that we have claimed or professed to have always had.

And so even though they have been giving lip service to the diversity and inclusion, I haven't seen it as, I mean, I was in the school system 23 years ago.

That's the very one we're talking about.

Having kids go through it and being a part of some of these meetings when you're talking about having kids in Quest program or a fine arts program that is

And, Mayor Walker, and I, that's a point well taken, I'm just saying that, you know, because we have talked already about how this is an unusual request in mid-budget cycle.

and as this has been always a priority of the school division, I just would have liked to have seen these requests for this particular kind of direction as a city councilor earlier and within our budget cycle and I suspect moving forward we will see that and I'm just speaking that when I left the school board, I thought that you were getting the resources, you were on this trajectory and now we realize you weren't.

and so I'm glad we're getting caught up.

But please just make sure, you know, let us, let the future council know that you've got to have these resources to do that within the fiscal year.

And that way you won't be caught without, you know, scrambling and maybe not even having the resources to hire the teachers you need.

I have to commend our staff.

They've done our principals and HR staff.

They've done a remarkable job getting the staff in place.

And I will say to you that it's not that we were not doing differentiated instruction.

Nor did we turn our backs on providing gifted services.

We have some of the best teachers for gifted education that you can find anywhere in this region.

And they've done a very good job in providing instruction.

What was flawed about what we were doing is the model that we were using to provide that instruction.

A pull out model will always leave some students in the classroom.

And by sheer nature that we were not identifying

are very many African American students.

That meant when we pull students out of the classroom to provide the services for the students as good as the services are and were during last year and previous years, it always left students in the classroom.

And when you leave students in a classroom, they're wondering, there must be something wrong with me because I'm not going out with everyone else.

So that separation continued year after year

and we were adding some African American students but not a large percentage of students to those cohorts that were receiving those services.

So now our community is in a place that we can make those changes and we can make them swiftly.

We've been working on this model in the fall coming forward and we got to the place that we could make the request.

We could have waited for another budget cycle but that would have meant going into the 19-20 school year

and leaving some of that old model in place.

And we chose to come before council outside of that cycle and to ask for forgiveness for having to come outside of that cycle.

Again, I'm just glad that the inclusion model, which is not called the push-in, is now kind of the course that you're following completely Division I.

I totally agree and we just had a conversation about moving forward with the RFP for the renovation of Buford and Walker as we continue to talk about the reorganization of our grade levels.

So we'll be talking with council about that also in the fall.

And just one more point to that I think we all just from a council standpoint and members and who might be future council members when you're talking about issues related to equity they're not just that cut and dry to where things may come up after the budget cycle is over so I'm encouraging us to just be you know a little bit more flexible when these type of

items come before us because if it's wait another year for some kids that'll be there last year in school for some kids it may be those critical and there are so many critical years depending on who you talk to that and this is not your

I think we all talk this very seriously.

We appreciate it.

All right.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Can we just go?

All right.

Let's go.

For the school, for the kids, I so move for the appropriation of $468 million.

No, I'm just kidding.

They're going to like that.

Any further discussion?

Please vote.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

This is somewhat similar to the 209 Maury Avenue item that we just discussed.

After your July 1st meeting when you first considered the Flint Hill rezoning as well as the critical slopes waiver and the street vacation, the applicant, Mr. Armstrong, has submitted a revised proffer statement which you have before you.

Now it's a little different from 209 Maury because since there was a previous proffer statement,

There are three options you have.

You can decline to consider the modifications and go ahead as it was presented.

You can continue the application to a subsequent meeting and there would be a new public hearing based on the new proffer.

Or you can refer it back to the planning commission.

I did want to alert you though that procedurally there are three items on the table.

One is this rezoning, which has the proffer amendment.

One is the critical slopes waiver.

And the final item would be the street vacation.

Mr. Armstrong's here tonight.

And one option could be the following.

You could hear tonight about the new proffer

Language and you could at least vote on the other two items if you want to have a new public hearing on the proffer and rezoning.

So that means that you could say let's go ahead tonight and hear the street vacation and the critical slopes waiver and that would probably give the applicant a good idea

of whether if those passed or failed that would give the applicant a good idea of whether the next meeting he wants to have you have a new public hearing on the rezoning or whether he would just say let's just vote on it tonight.

I mean I think it would be probably clear to the applicant that if both of those items failed more than likely I would assume he would not want to go forward with a public hearing on the other item because procedurally and legally they couldn't go forward.

Even if you approve the rezoning without the critical slopes waiver and the street vacation, I don't think the project would be possible for him to complete.

I know he's here.

Do you want to come forward, Mr. Armstrong?

Good evening, I'm Charlie Armstrong with Southern Development.

I would be fine with that procedurally, however you all want to handle it.

All right, so the Planning Commission heard this before with...

a slightly different affordable housing proffer.

They voted unanimously to recommend approval with that proffer.

Since your last meeting, when you heard it, we have gone back and made that proffer more restrictive.

And I'll describe those things.

So the old proffer had an 80% AMI limit, meaning that people who made up to 80% AMI could qualify for those.

The new proffer has a max of 60% AMI.

That's in accordance with Habitat for Humanities.

procedures, they generally qualify people between 25 and 60 percent AMI.

And I'll note that somebody from Habitat is here tonight as well if you'd like some clarification on how their program works or anything about how they operate.

The old proffer also had a 10 year minimum guaranteed affordability period.

The new proffer that you have before you tonight is 40 years.

30 years was the goal we

have been talking about before.

We've gone well beyond that now to 40.

Habitat also wants me to emphasize to you

Something that's really important to them is that currently 37 out of the 52 families that are doing sweat equity toward the purchase of their Habitat home either live in CRHA properties or have a CRHA voucher.

We expect and hope that some of those families will have the opportunity to purchase a home from Habitat in Flint Hill as well.

That's all I have.

That's the extent of the changes to that proffer.

And if you have questions, I'm happy to help answer those as well.

Can you clarify the parking?

Because Ms. Galvin raised some issues comparing it to another development in the city where because of the proximity of driveways that it makes it nearly impossible for there to be street parking in that location.

Sure.

I believe that's probably Brookwood, but there are several places like that.

Brookwood is one of our previous projects and was a learning experience for us and for the city too, I hope.

One of the biggest things with Brookwood is it has no on-street parking on the steep part of the road that comes up the hill from 5th Street extended and the driveways to those houses are 8 to 10 feet long in most cases.

So a typical car, if it doesn't park in a garage, would try to park in the driveway and hang over the sidewalk.

That has created some pedestrian issues.

It can be challenging to walk up and down that street.

So the difference here is that Flint Hill, if you have the PD plan in front of you, does have some street parking to alleviate that problem and also has minimum 18 foot long driveways.

So that a car can park in the driveway without causing any interruption of the pedestrian experience.

One other feature that this project has that I'll highlight is instead of having individual curb cuts for driveways where if you're walking or biking or in a wheelchair,

You kind of go up and down through the driveway curb cuts as you traverse the sidewalk.

This uses roll top curb, which is a seamless transition.

And the sidewalk doesn't have those undulations.

It stays in a level field as it goes.

Yeah, except parking was a concern.

Are there any other questions?

Well, again, there are a few options based on the new proffer language.

One could be to set this for a public hearing at your next meeting, consider the PUD rezoning as well as the critical slopes waiver and the street vacation.

Another option you could have is to refer the rezoning back to the Planning Commission to consider the new proffer language.

The third option is tonight you could take votes on the critical slopes waiver and the street vacation and depending on how those votes go we'd probably ask Mr. Armstrong to come up and ask if he wants to have a public hearing on the rezoning

based on the new proffer language depending on those votes.

Meaning that that gives him an idea that if this isn't going to pass, if the other two items don't pass, I would assume he probably does not want to pay for advertising and go forward again with another public hearing on a PUD rezoning that would

So are we going to move to do any of these components?

I'm pretty neutral to this project.

I feel like the planning commission was a 6-0 vote.

I do feel that some of the questions around affordability that you had, I'm curious what your thoughts are on.

Mr. Armstrong, to his credit, made several attempts to try and connect with me.

My schedule's been hectic.

Reading the report specifically in regards to the new update for Habitat, I think it's a step forward.

But for me, it still doesn't get us to where we need to be in terms of affordable housing.

And I think, from your perspective, you're like, this is the furthest extent in which we can do.

And you try to be as creative as possible.

Is that accurate?

Yeah, so for me it's just tough.

That's kind of my philosophy.

Mayor Walker, I still have serious reservations about it because of the kind of rezoning it is.

It's called the plan unit development.

That's supposed to be the most innovative kind of zoning that we allow.

It gives the most latitude to a developer and it expects kind of a lot of innovation and it's not defined.

It's up to us to insist on good

High quality design both in terms of the layout as well as the buildings themselves.

And this is what I call a suburban townhouse development that's still very car oriented with, even though the arrangements of the driveways and the leveling of the sidewalks is an improvement, it's still conflict points between pedestrians and cars as cars back out.

and it doesn't have a multiple variety of housing types which is specifically required in a PUD.

It's all one type that can also just generate kind of a degree of income mixing by the market needs as well and I appreciate the addition of affordable housing and the depth of affordable housing as it mitigates it but in and of itself it is not

and also the park itself is kind of like not very big and I understand most of the public space is a trail network that's on critical slope.

I still don't think it's the kind of development that is meant to be done under a PUD, planning and development.

It could have been a rezoning to an R3.

It doesn't meet the bar for me in terms of

No, I mean I spoke to Mr. Armstrong earlier today and I appreciate the working with me on the affordable housing piece.

I think when we talk about how equitable communities are created and

This one is like most of the developments that have been before us.

This is still a struggle for me to see, even though you all did make the effort to work on that, the affordable housing piece.

And I appreciate that.

I'm still stuck with the number of units, also the location.

what is being called a park space.

I've had just a lot of concerns with this.

We had the conversation earlier about Burnett Commons and it being similar and the Habitat partnership and construction of not knowing what was Habitat property and what was your development.

So making that effort to, I have some questions about how to make just the Habitat model more sustainable, which is the outside of this conversation.

Can someone explain to me, so by doing the zoning change from R1S to PUD, what does that enable that would not happen with R1S, with the existing zoning?

Thank you.

Matt Alfoli, City Planner and Neighborhood Development Services.

So the R1S is our smallest single-family zone lots in the city.

They're 6,000 square feet.

This location has already been platted.

Keene Court and Flint Drive were platted years ago with existing lots.

So someone could come in and just build and grab it, I want to say 13 single family homes.

They could build both roads as platted and build 13 single family homes that would meet our current ordinance.

You maybe even, I'm not sure the size of each lot, they maybe could be reconfigured to be a little smaller so maybe you could get one or two more homes if you kept the road layout the same.

The rezoning to PUD.

PUD is a higher standard.

It is supposed to be for innovative design to get more density and more green space in an area.

The density, actually the density calculation comes out to be less than actually a single family area because you set aside green spaces where you're clustering in townhomes.

And how much more goes to 50 from 13?

Correct.

So setting aside the two questions, very important ones that have been raised about aesthetic quality and design, which Councilor Galvin has raised, and then the affordable housing discussion about those separate units, how would the cities study about housing generally?

So we put a lot of

We have a couple of questions.

looked at that or evaluated this in light of our strategy that we're supposed to be enacting about supply because there was a lot of stuff that we were given.

That, unfortunately, I couldn't speak to.

But the point, what I remember was the point of that study was that it's like the counterintuitive thing was you, housing being so expensive for everybody because the median rate keeps on going higher and higher when you have less supplies.

So that's what, so like the only way to decrease it is to increase more

supply at that expensive rate.

Yes, but when we had this discussion at the Water Street Center about this very topic, that's sort of the trickle-down thought process that

I don't see how that'll ever happen here.

The more housing you create, the more people who can afford the housing at that level will move into it.

That's not what our study said, though.

Our study said you can do both.

So it said increased market rate, density, and this is why we voted for the 10th and Jefferson project, because we needed

We needed rentals at the market rate to decrease the scarcity problem that was making them more expensive per unit because there's not enough.

So the cost is going up and we need to do more affordable.

So we needed both.

But the market rate is getting much more expensive because there's not enough supply.

So I understand what the study's saying.

That's why I think it's important to note.

This is a time who's at the table and who's a part of those discussions because in reality that hasn't been what the study is saying hasn't happened here and where has it happened in the country.

So when you're talking about a community like Charlottesville or any other community, the intention to displace people, to gentrify, to push people out, there was an intent to do that and that has occurred to remedy that, which

is not, I guess, necessarily the vote that we have at this point, but you have to be strategic about what's created.

There is, if people can purchase property, we know who can purchase property and who can build on it, and what they can do by right, I know that is often, you know, part of the conversation.

when individuals are trying to get us to do these rezonings.

But if you're coming in, you have a developer who can build maybe 13 or 15 homes on a property that now can go to 50.

And out of that additional increase of 35 potential homes, there are five affordable units that is never going to create an equitable community.

And so the acts there and the win on the developer's side is much greater than the benefit to the community.

Now if you have individuals come in and say well there are people who won't have homes, there's a waiting list at CRHA, there's an argument at every angle for this, but I think we have to decide what is our ultimate outcome and how we interpret those studies.

is one key factor in how this will happen.

I'm sorry, I want to apologize to that.

So I think that it's not your, what I'll say is that interpretation of the market study which is what is the question that's being asked here is

The RCLCO study really didn't have more details to it.

However, the study we did just last year by PES, in conjunction with Smart Growth America, or Farm Based Code Institute, has more specific data.

For instance, they indicated that at this point in time that the city needs about 3,318 residential units in order to meet our demand right now.

And by 2040,

That number will increase from 318 to 4,000 plus.

So that's their findings.

But the LCLC, the findings that they came up with wasn't very specific.

It was more general.

in terms of the data they have.

So when I'm looking at the study it says raise minimum residential business building densities in mixed use districts and it says

Basically it just talks about density, density bonuses.

It says we need, if staff has nothing to say to council about this project that would evaluate it in light of our goals, then it sounds like there's no advice.

So then I would not.

supported either.

I mean, our goal is to deal with the housing problem that I've heard a lot about, which is a supply and demand problem.

That's like why I voted.

There was very strong advice a couple years ago about the 10th and Jefferson, which was really controversial because the neighborhood didn't want it, but we voted for it because we wanted to get more density near the downtown mall so that costs would go down.

That was the whole goal, market rate, rental.

I think every production, you know,

In terms of development, the most critical things that developers look at is the pro forma.

Regardless of whether they have to dedicate x number of units as affordable units, they have to look at whether the development makes sense to them financially.

They have to take that into consideration.

However, if we have to exert or require developers to increase the number of affordable units, this is a practical fact, then there has to be a certain amount of subsidy.

provided by the local government in form of incentives or density bonus that you talked about a few minutes ago in order to make the development cost effective for the developer.

However, I think given the situation we have here in Charlottesville,

Every little bit of housing produced, I think, increases the supply of affordable housing or market-rate housing in the city.

I'm not trying to be an advocate for the development community, however,

I mean, I think it's pretty clear, even if you're talking about what, I mean, this conversation came up with West 2nd Street.

How many units, how many market rate families would move into it?

What is the potential revenue from the real estate tax, new members in the community and the economic impact on them being in the community, eating, purchasing, I mean,

We have this conversation, every conversation.

I just think when, and this is not, again, my area of expertise.

I haven't built anything out of popsicle sticks, so I'm still working on this.

But I just think if you ask for the rezoning, which ends up getting you a boost of 35 units,

There has to be a more equitable conversation in this mix if you're talking about just from the affordable housing piece for you to request that rezoning.

Somewhere in the discussions about your return on investment,

I think that it would include, but that's just how my world works, what the give back is.

And I'm just trying to understand it, so Mayor Walker's, the question is, is this the right percentage, is this the right number?

And Councilor Signer is saying, how do we know what that right number is?

And that's what I'm hearing, and that's why we wanted to see if there's, and we desperately need this housing strategy.

And it's not here in our hands yet because that would answer your question, I think, you know, Mr. Signer, is that we need to know what those strategies are, when, where, how much, when do we use what tool, how much can the private sector really do on its own, how much can we then

afford to die for land trusts to really be deeply, deeply affordable.

And that's what I'm hearing is that right now it's just shooting in the dark.

Just build more units, build more units.

And I share Mayor Walker's concern.

You could just be inflating land value.

You could just be inflating the market.

And so we don't have all the information we need yet, but we have to still keep moving and we still have to still make decisions.

And so I've made my decision based on quality of life and livability criteria as well as affordable housing.

But I think there's density alone doesn't provide us with affordable housing.

And density alone certainly doesn't give us with highly livable communities.

I think if you'd like to make a motion to deny both the street closing and critical slopes waiver.

and then that would inform what to do with the rezoning application with the new proffers.

Okay.

If I could ask Mr. Armstrong to come forward.

In light of that, would you just prefer the council now just vote on the original proffers?

That'd be fine.

Okay.

Which are associated with the rezoning to a PUD.

Yes.

All right, carries five to zero.

Madam Mayor, I don't see Mr. Warner.

I'm happy to present, if that's your preference, to keep this moving.

OK, that's fine.

OK.

Before you now is a resolution to authorize a submittal for what's called a preliminary information form for the Riverview Farm and the Cargreer Farmhouse, which is colloquially known as the Ivy Creek Natural Area.

Concerning this proposal what this really does is it's a letter that this council and the Board of Supervisors is being asked to approve and it would ask the Virginia Department of Human of Historic Resources to start a study to see whether this should be placed on either the state's register of historical places or possibly include the net include there's Mr. Warner.

My apologies.

Mayor Walker, I would like to move to adopt the resolution in support of nominating Riverview Farm in the Carr Greer Farmhouse, Ivy Creek natural area of the listing on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places.

All right.

Any further discussion?

Please vote.

All right, now we have a report from the Police Civilian Review Board.

Okay, we're going to take a quick break.

All right, I call this meeting back to order.

Good evening.

We are Guillermo Bia, Josh Bowers, Katrina Turner,

Rosea Parker, and Miss Gloria Beard, who we will kindly wait for.

Okay, first of all we we want to thank all of you for we're not getting you these slides for a little bit Mayor Walker if you do want to sit we're not going to get to this for a little bit so I want to make you stand for longer than you have to

We wanted to extend our thanks and gratitude for passing this resolution in the first place, for recognizing the need, and for entrusting civilians to do this work.

I actually spoke with one of the trainers from NACOL on the phone today and she told me that three other cities have followed the lead of Charlottesville in passing resolutions in a way

passing resolutions in the way that our city council did to ask civilians to do this work and to do it quickly and to address the need in a way that takes care and takes the time that it needs but does so efficiently and doesn't drag on.

Some of these processes can take 7, 10, 15, 20 years to create.

So I'm just going to do a sort of brief introduction.

On July 2nd, we delivered our final proposal materials to city council, to the chief of police, to the city attorney, and to the city manager.

The materials are available for the public on our website, which is through the city's webpage.

If anybody's available, or if anybody has not read those materials, we invite you to do that.

What we presented to city council last month was our cover letter, which we will be reading to you all tonight.

Some proposed ordinance language which would empower both the Civilian Review Board and oversight staff to do its work.

Proposed bylaws under which we believe the CRB portion of this oversight model should operate.

We attached the original resolution from city council to make part of the record that the city has acknowledged the need for this oversight and has asked us to do this work of developing this model.

We also included our recommendations for what we could see the next steps to be.

We recognize this is in your hands.

Our board is no longer functioning.

And while we're all here to continue to assist in whatever ways you need, we are not a functioning board at this time.

And there is no current CRB.

So we wanted to give you all some recommendations of next steps, because we recognize you all will be having to take this under your wings in a way that

We're sort of passing it off.

We also included an overview of our police oversight model, which Guillermo will be addressing a little bit tonight.

And a memo about the importance of creating a memorandum of understanding with the police department, which helps the CRB and the police department understand the parameters under which they are operating and working.

We included some memos about the staff positions that we're recommending.

So we are recommending an auditor and an executive director.

to be the professionalized side of this as well as a seven-person CRB to serve three-year terms each.

We've also included some data in there about the importance of these staff positions being independent of the police department.

We've made a budgetary request and presented our budget research.

We've provided with some other CRBs to review.

I think that was a counselor's suggestion from our joint session was to give some other models and some other CRBs across the country so that you all can have a little bit of a sense of some of the other models that are out there.

And we received some letters of support from community members, from community agencies, and from the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement.

So this evening, we are not going to spend a lot of time rehashing those materials.

They're lengthy.

We submitted 60 pages.

I'm sure you all have had a chance to read those.

And so we want to leave as much time as we can.

for you all to ask questions of us and give us whatever feedback or information you think would be valuable and we'd be happy to assist you as you all are making these decisions.

So we plan to read our cover letter to you which describes our efforts over the past year and probably more importantly describes sort of what we see as being the next steps toward building permanent and effective oversight of the Charlottesville Police Department.

Dear city councilors, thank you for entrusting us with the important work of developing a permanent police civilian review board.

The community called for increased transparency and accountability within the Charlottesville Police Department.

And your commitment to a CRB is one important step towards meeting that demand.

In this packet you will find a proposal for the next steps of establishing a permanent CRB.

The initial CRB envisions that this will be an

iterative process that will change and grow to meet the needs of the community and the CPD.

Our work has been only the first step in that evolution.

Here's our bottom line conclusion, to demonstrate a long term and comprehensive commitment to transparent police oversight.

We've spent the last year researching boards around the country, learning about different models of oversight, seeking and obtaining personalized training, talking to police oversight practitioners all around the country, securing presentations from the Legal Aid Justice Center, the People's Coalition and the Charlottesville Police Department, engaging in communications with city council, meeting with

Mr. Blair, our city attorney, meeting with Mr. Platania, our Commonwealth's attorney, requesting police information and data directly relevant to our charge, determining how an oversight body could best address the problematic police practices that were identified in your 2017 resolution.

and meeting with Chief of Police Brackney, engaging with the community, developing a model and mission statement, initiating the process of negotiating a memorandum of understanding with the CPD and drafting the attached documents for your review and vote.

We've listened to the community from activists to officers and we've appreciated input from everyone.

And we've not accepted every suggestion or demand.

Some of them were not legally tenable or politically practical, and others were inconsistent with genuine independent oversight.

We began our work as a group of seven civilian volunteers.

City Council added an eighth member to our board, and over the course of the year, two more board members resigned their post.

Most of us did not know each other prior to our terms, but we came to learn that each one of us has unique skills, abilities, and perspective that served us well throughout the year.

We were proud of the working relationship we developed and of the work product we generated.

After our first meeting, we hit the ground running by dividing into subspecialties.

Board members focused efforts on one, research, two, drafting, three, community engagement, four, liaisoning with the CPD, and five, liaisoning with the city.

We rotated chairperson and secretary in an effort to ensure that all members were involved, engaged, and had an opportunity to lead.

We rotated which board members spoke with the media.

We developed interim bylaws that were intended to one, define the parameters of how the initial CRB would operate, and two, provide us access to the data and documents necessary for a CRB to meaningfully serve an oversight role.

We were also fortunate to receive a one-day tailored training session from NACOL, the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement, and we appreciate the City's financial support to make that training a reality.

With NACOL's guidance and our own research, we began the work of tailoring bylaws and an ordinance for a permanent CRV that could meet the specific needs of the City of Charlottesville and its community.

We have shared our drafts and proposals with the public and the city throughout our drafting process just as we share our final work product with you all today.

As you know, the past year has not always been a smooth road, yet we would all willingly do it over again because this work is larger than this board or any individual member.

Through this process, we have identified the following elements as critical to successful oversight.

Number one, the need for a CRB with independent authority to review any and all complaints about police misconduct.

Number two, the need for a CRB with independent authority to conduct a parallel investigation into a complaint, at least under limited circumstances.

Number three, the need for a CRB with independent authority to assess fully relevant CPD documents and data.

Number four, the need for professional experience, support staff and an appropriate corresponding budget.

We have recommended 1% of the CPD's budget.

And number five, the need for public engagement and public reporting.

What follows are our suggestions for next steps.

First, the initial CRB has requested an opportunity to present our proposal to City Council at your earliest convenience.

After our presentation, we expect that at least one member of the City Council will need to take this project under their wing, given that our turns end on July 2, 2019.

But please note that all of us are available in the future to answer questions and provide assistance, even after our terms officially end.

Second, part of this packet is a draft ordinance designed to authorize the CRB and professional staff to conduct their work.

We understand that the City Attorney will draft a final ordinance at Council's request, but we hope and expect that the City Attorney will use our draft as a template.

In acting the ordinance, the City Council will need to approve and pass CRB bylaws, a draft of which are also included in this package, and ensure that adequate monies are provided for in the next budget allocation cycle.

Fourth, the City Council will need to appoint a new CRB, and the City Manager will need to hire an experienced, skilled staff.

Although it may be difficult for the new CRB to start its work prior to the hiring of oversight staff,

It is critical that the City Council first appoint the new CRB so its members may participate in the hiring of the oversight staff.

Fifth, each new class of CRB members will need to receive adequate training by support staff, city staff, and the CPD and the outside antennas.

Sixth,

The first iteration of the permanent CRB must be empowered to negotiate a memorandum of understanding with the CPD as soon as possible in an effort to develop the perimeters under which all stakeholders can operate.

Additional steps and sub-steps are described in this packet.

And of course, these last steps and sub-steps must be completed consistent with the CRB bylaws and the city's enabling ordinance.

So as Sarah said, the document that we delivered to you all is about 60 pages, and it's really pretty dense.

And in the course of the past year, we've created close to 700 different documents that led to the final work product that we're presenting.

So instead of sort of getting into the weeds of all of that tonight, we wanted to start off with a little overview of what we see as independent and effective police oversight for Charlottesville.

So the way we see it or kind of break it out into sort of three different arms.

The first arm is the Civilian Review Board supported by the Executive Director, which is a staffed position.

That's the arm that will intake civilian complaints.

That's the arm that will give people someplace to go outside of the police department to lodge a complaint.

That's the part that the review board will meet regularly, will decide to, if it wants to hold a hearing based on the complaint, will listen to the complaint to make sure the complaint feels heard, and would also direct the executive director to perform an independent investigation if it feels it's necessary.

So if that's the trees part, we don't want to miss out on the forest and that's sort of arm two for the police auditor.

Because the problems that we're facing aren't just individuals, it's systemic, so we need to be able to look at overall trends.

And that's what the police auditor or staff position would do, would receive data, look at data, analyze the data, and look for overall patterns and make policy recommendations.

and then put all of that together.

We want this to be a collaborative effort.

So outreach and engagement is an important part of what we're presenting.

That's arm three.

So we see the civilian review board, the executive director, the police auditor, along with the police in the community coming together on a regular basis to be able to talk to each other, to be able to hear what people are saying, for everyone to be able to meet regularly to discuss what's happening.

And then reporting is an important part of that.

One of the things that we found during the course of the past year is that having year after year reports is important to sort of see what's happening with the success of the review board, of the police, of the community engagement.

So reporting is sort of a part of the outreach and engagement.

So we know that this is a marathon and not a sprint, and we wanted to sort of emphasize what we saw were the next steps to get to where we are today, to get to what we believe is effective police oversight for Charlottesville.

So by the end of the calendar year this year,

Steps to be completed would be to work on the enabling ordinance and pass the ordinance for the city to pass the board bylaws and for the city council to publicly recruit and start selecting board members consistent with the process required by the enabling ordinance.

It's important for monetary funds to be a part of this process.

So in the 2020 budget cycle, the city to allocate funds and what we heard from NACOL was 1% of the police department is becoming sort of a standard trend.

So we would hope to see that in next year's budget cycle.

For the city to create job descriptions for the professional oversight staff and to recruit and hire oversight staff consistent with the processes in the ordinance and then for the board members to complete training.

So that's it.

So first, I would just like to say thank you.

It's been a really rocky year, but this is a lot of work.

And it's difficult work, and anything that's different and kind of a change agent is hard.

So thank you.

for the effort that you all put into this.

I'll just talk briefly, you know, to start about what the timeline, I think, on our part would look like and you all can

can weigh in.

I think over the next two months, we'll probably have a series of 221s with council and city manager, city attorney, and chief of police, and also some individual meetings with the city attorney in September.

OK.

And so that will be by September and I think by that point we should have between the draft that you all have given us and those additional meetings that we should have something to present by the first meeting in October.

to the community.

I would like to say that over, since we received, we've been able to review it individually, but our retreat last week was the first time that we had been together since the first meeting in July, and a lot, I think all the counselors besides, except myself, had been in and out of town, you know, most of the month, so we hadn't

had the opportunity to meet to discuss the draft that you all gave us.

So this is the first time for that.

I will volunteer in terms of the capacity for a council member to take it on.

I am interested, but if there's someone else that is interested in that, then that's fine too.

Let me say thank you guys for your hard work.

It's been a long year, but again, as Mayor Walker echoed, or excuse me, stated, you guys put a great deal of work into this and I'm looking forward to us discussing it further.

I think that the

The depth here involving Nicole I think is really terrific.

Again, I just want to thank you.

It definitely is an awful lot of work you've done.

And you met every single part of the charge from the original resolution, so thank you so much.

You've given us an awful lot to work with, so now it is our job to work hard and understand the depth of your strategy and your components of every bit of your work as well as you do.

And it's good that Mr. Blair and Dr. Richardson

and with the police chief, we'll all be working together because I do agree with you, the goal is to improve community police relations through understanding the implications of a systemic racist society.

So I appreciate what you've done and this is to make us all be on the same page, that's

We need a good, well-functioning police department.

We have a very good police department.

Who do you go to when something happens?

And you look at what happened in other parts of the country this weekend.

We absolutely must be working together.

And I want to thank the police chief for being in the room with us tonight.

And we will be working together with the community to make this happen.

I don't want to be remiss to say it's clear the tremendous work that's gone into it and as Nikuyah indicated, it's been a process and we've seen you kind of go through your own growing pains to get to this but the output here is more than a template for us to work from.

I'm not saying that we don't have questions and that we're going to go through a lot of conversations but

I've learned a lot just through the process of watching you all work through this as well as just obviously the amount of output that's come from this group so thank you very much for your commitment and we will certainly continue to lean on you in the weeks ahead as we continue to kind of wrestle through this.

That was all I was going to say.

In the next month, as you're going through this, there is a lot of strategy and a lot of thought being put into it.

Well, I wanted to bring something to you.

The microphone.

Oh.

I'm sorry.

Well, as you know, we had our last meeting on June 1, 2019 to finish our CRB bylaws.

Our term has come to a close.

It has been an exciting and rewarding experience for us.

as we work diligently to compose and create the bylaws in which we hope that are accepted and in order to create a working and transparent relationship with the CPD and the Charlottesville community.

I'm asking for each CRB member to be considered for a small stipend if there is any funds left in our budget.

We would greatly appreciate your consideration.

Are there any further questions?

We have one more item and then it'll be other comments.

Good evening.

Good evening.

My name is Brian Wheeler, Director of Communications, and along with Charlene Green, who runs our Human Rights Office.

We've been the two lead staff working on the program portion of this first ever Unity Days.

We have some friends and members of the action committee in the audience and we're glad they're here to support this.

Tonight our goal is to give you some information and the public some information about the program and also invite Chief Brackney to talk about the public safety process.

So first I'll go into some of the events that have been scheduled and just see if you have any questions about that and Charlene Green and I will be happy to vet those questions.

So, as you know, Unity Days was approved by City Council in February as a city-sponsored but community-driven series of events.

And we've scheduled more than 80 events in the course of the four months of Unity Days this year.

the goal to educate and inspire and honor people in our community to move towards economic and racial justice.

So the Action Committee, 19 citizen members, has been meeting every two weeks since March when they volunteered to be part of this process.