City Council Meeting   7/1/2019

So I apologize for the delay.

We had a really busy closed session that I was late to and so I'm the reason that we're getting started late and was rushing doing that meeting too.

So my apologies.

So I hope you all are doing well this evening.

Ms. Thomas, roll call please.

Ms. Hill?

Here.

Ms. Walker?

Present.

Mr. Signer?

Here.

Ms. Galvin?

Here.

I have an announcement here.

American Idol 2019 contestant Shay highlights the 11th annual summer think shop.

Author award winner Alexander presents the 11th annual summer think shop with this year's theme, just close your mouth and listen, CYM and listen.

The purpose of the event is to provide a fun, creative, educational, and positive experience for area children, particularly summer campers.

The event will be held on Thursday, July 18th at 1030 AM to noon at Burley Middle School at 901 Rose Hill Drive in Charlottesville.

The main highlight is American Idol 2019 Top 40 contestant Shay, an 18 year old high school graduate from Midlothian, Virginia who suddenly lost her sight due to a brain tumor.

Other highlights include.

Zania, an eight-year-old praise dancer, talented youth musician Devin Goodwin, presentations by the Thomas Jefferson Health Department and Jefferson Madison Regional Library.

The event is free and handouts, prizes and more will be available.

All right.

Shout out to Alexander.

I have a couple of announcements.

Good evening, everyone.

This is a funeral, or?

I knew the Grandma Granny's was going to hold it down.

So I have a couple of announcements, excuse me, one announcement and one proclamation.

But before I really want to thank everyone, many of you in addition to the city as a whole, much respect and much love for everybody coming out to the Runney Streets four miler.

This past Saturday we had 206 participants and we ran all through the community.

It was a really, really good sight to see.

Even had Mayor Walker out there cheering people on and

Thank y'all for coming and we really appreciate you.

courtesy of Ms. Myra Anderson as well as the Unity Day Seaville.

A minority mental health month and Unity Day's event, Black Mental Health, Racism, Stigma, and the Impact on Health.

This is going to be July 24th from 6 to 8 PM.

Again, that's July 24th from 6 to 8 PM.

A moderated panel discussion at the auditorium at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, co-sponsored by Brave Souls on Fire.

The Clinicians of Color Network, Community Mental Health and Wellness Coalition, and several others.

But again, please be sure to come on out.

Again, Black Mental Health, Racism, Stigma, and the Impact on Health, July 24th from 6 to 8 PM at the Jefferson School.

To register, you can call 434-422-4563 or look online at Eventbrite.

blackmentalhealthseaville.eventbrite.com.

Again, phone number 434-422-4563 or on Eventbrite, you can look up www.blackmentalhealthseaville.eventbrite.com.

If anyone didn't get that, I'm sure you can contact Ms. Myra Anderson or anyone from the Unity Day Seaville's Committee and they can get you more information.

Mayor Walker, I also have a proclamation in which I thought was several, but there's one for, huh?

We just have more announcements.

See, I was off, but that's why we should talk before this.

All right, got a proclamation.

National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, July 2019.

Whereas July has been designated as National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, a time to increase public awareness of mental illness among diverse communities.

Whereas according to the Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health, African Americans have been found to experience more severe forms of psychological distress at a higher rate than the general population.

Whereas historically, African Americans have been and continue to be negatively affected.

Our prejudice and discrimination in the healthcare system, misdiagnosis, inadequate treatment, and lack of cultural competence by health professionals cause distress and prevent many African Americans from seeking or staying in treatment.

Whereas it is essential to eliminate racial disparities in mental health,

by promoting well-being for all regardless of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, language, place of residence or age, and to ensure access to quality care and services that respect cultural experiences leading to improved outcomes.

Whereas to ensure equity in mental health services, minority adults, children, and families should have adequate access to culturally competent treatments, services, supports, and environments that will lead to wellness.

Whereas through public and private partnership, we should develop and implement policies which reduces barriers to access, improve community outreach and engagement, and ensure culturally and linguistically competent care to diverse populations.

Whereas organizations such as Brave Souls on Fire and CVCCN, Central Virginia Clinicians of Color Network, remain committed to reaching out to minority community members and working to decrease stigma that too often prevents minority individuals and families from seeking much needed mental health care.

Now therefore be it resolved that our illustrious mayor, Mayor Nikuyah Walker of the city of Charlottesville and the rest of city council hereby proclaims July as Minority Mental Health Awareness Month in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Snap snap.

Thereby encouraging citizens to better educate themselves about mental illness

It could be hell too.

Undergo vital mental health and depression screenings and if necessary in all seriousness seek treatment for themselves and their family members.

I can say personally go get help.

My life has been a lot better since I started going and getting mental assistance and visiting my therapist so if you need help out there go get you some.

Well, I hadn't really prepared to say anything but I just will very quickly say that black mental health and having services that are culturally competent are very, very, very

imperative for minorities to be able to not only recover but have an environment that is conducive to do so.

So I'm so very glad that we have the Central Virginia Clinicians of Color Network and my organization Brave Souls on Fire working to create a space so that minorities can feel

able to seek the help that they need.

We have one more proclamation then one more announcement.

This is a proclamation for John Henry James Day for July 12th, 2019.

Whereas following reconstruction, the crime of lynching succeeded slavery in the United States and it was an expression of racism and racial terror and a vicious tool of rights supremacy until the middle of the 20th century.

And whereas the lynching of Mr. John Henry James on July 12th, 1898, was determined to have taken place a few miles west of Charlottesville in the county of Albemarle.

His body shot dozens of times and his corpse hanging for hours.

And whereas 99% of all perpetrators, including those who murdered Mr. John Henry James, escaped punishment by state or local officials.

And whereas the Council of the City of Charlottesville recognizes that a history of racial injustice must be acknowledged, recognized, and most especially remembered in order for a community that it may heal.

And whereas July 12th, 2019 marks the 121st anniversary of the lynching of Mr. John Henry James.

Therefore, our mayor, Nikuyah Walker, and the city council hereby recognize this tragic anniversary and proclaim July 12th, 2019 as John Henry James Day, in remembrance of our shared community history and as a demonstration of our commitment that this tragedy will neither be forgotten nor repeated, signed on this first day of July by our mayor, Nikuyah Walker.

The Environmental Protection Agency, EPA's Local Food, Local Places Award for food system technical assistance will enable our local community to galvanize our collective expertise as we create solutions to advance equity in our local food economy.

With support from federal and state agents, we look forward to creating affordable food markets while protecting resident-led urban agriculture as an environmental, social, and economic asset.

The Charlottesville Food Justice Network, CFJN, and the City of Charlottesville invite you to take part in a two-day workshop, July 16, 2019, Day 1,

for a community presentation and dinner about food justice in Charlottesville.

At the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center from 5.30 to 8 p.m. meals will be provided and it's open to the public for free.

July 17, 2019.

Day 2 of the Local Food, Local Places workshop in the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center.

9 to 5, meals provided.

It's open to the public.

So please visit CFJN's website, SevilleFoodJustice.org to RSVP to events or call Jeanette Avinator

at 434-260-3274.

This opportunity is made possible by coordinated support from CFJN organizations and partners.

Those partners are worth mentioning.

The City Schoolyard Garden, Urban Agriculture

Collective of Charlottesville, IRC New Roots, Local Food Hub, Public Housing Association of Residence, Charlottesville Redevelopment Housing Authority, Piedmont Housing Alliance, Thomas Jefferson Health District, Piedmont Environmental Council, City of Charlottesville Human Services, Charlottesville Parks and Rec, and the City of Charlottesville Public Works.

We thank the Environmental Protection Agency, the US Department of Agriculture, and Northern Border Regional Commission for their guidance and support.

So remember July 16 and 17.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

Finally my turn.

She's replacing Rosanna Benkoch who served for four years in that capacity and Ms. Morton, she brings 13 years of experience to this position ranging from election officer, precinct chief and project assistant for the Registrar's Office.

Welcome.

My name is Anne Hemingway.

I'm the President of the Board of Elections and I'm here with not only Melissa but John Bright and Jim Nix who are also on the board.

And we also want to present Melissa Morton and we're thrilled to have her as the new registrar.

for the city of Charlottesville, and I think it's important to emphasize what an incredibly active election year we're about to enter.

In the next 16 months, we are going to have four elections here.

November 5th will be the general election for the local offices, House of Delegates.

The presidential primary in Virginia is March 3rd, 2020.

We know there will be a

Democratic primary, there may be a Republican primary.

On June 9th, 2020 is the primary for the House of Representatives, and then the presidential election is November 3rd.

To that end, we have a couple of goals that we want everybody to understand and appreciate, the first being that we, with Melissa,

As our chief now, we're going to have safe, secure, active elections in the city of Charlottesville.

We are looking for officers of election, which anybody can apply for at the city.

We're going to use our CIP money to purchase new electronic poll books to ensure an accurate and safe election.

Do you want to say anything more?

Oh, she's already said it.

Thank you, Mayor Walker.

This is a proclamation about welcoming week, September 13 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 resolved that the Charlottesville City Council

strongly supports those residents in our community who have come here from other countries and be it further resolved that the Charlottesville City Council proclaim September 13th to 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, I, Nikuyah Walker, Mayor of the City of Charlottesville, Virginia, do hereby proclaim

that week, our welcoming week, and call on our residents to attend these events in support and celebration of these immigrants and refugees.

Oh great, okay.

Alright, next we have the, are there any other announcements?

Okay, next we have the consent agenda.

Please bear with me.

Ms. Thomas.

Consent Agenda 1A, Minutes, still in progress.

1B, Appropriation, Highway Safety Improvement Program, Appropriation of Funds for Pedestrian Connections within Hillcrest Birdwood Neighborhood, $708,932, second of two readings.

C, Appropriation, Virginia Department of Education, Special Nutrition Program, Summer Food Service Program, $100,000, second of two readings D, Appropriation, Study of Disproportionate Minority Contact in the Adult Criminal Justice System, $55,400, first of two readings

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

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

G, Resolution, Regional Transit Partnership Memorandum of Understanding, first of one reading.

H. Resolution adopting a new greenhouse gas reduction goal, first of one reading.

I.

Resolution accepting Hillsdale Drive project into the city street system for maintenance, first of one reading.

J.

Resolution, Virginia Department of Transportation revenue sharing, first of one reading.

K, Resolution Agreement for Shared Staffing at Circuit Court, City of Charlottesville, Albemarle and Green Counties, first of one reading.

L, Resolution Capital Funding Transfer for the Purchase and Installation of City Hall Security Cameras, $26,000, first of one reading.

Thank you.

Okay.

All right.

Any further questions or comments?

Is there anyone else who would like to speak on any item on the consent agenda?

Can we speak on the items you just removed?

Well, next.

OK. All right.

All right.

All right, please vote.

All right, that carries 5-0.

We're going to do that.

Special events, okay.

That was the one that was added, okay.

Okay.

So I move that we adopt items L and M. Is that what we're asking for?

Is there a motion for those?

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Second.

I'm sorry, Mayor Walker, I thought you weren't the individual.

One at a time or together?

I'm just not supporting those two and that's why I supported you.

I'm here to urge you not only not to reenact that ordinance, but to repeal it.

Good evening.

My name is Jeffrey Fogel.

I live in Belmont.

I'm a lawyer.

I'm 74 years old.

What else would you like to know?

So I'm here to oppose it.

It was a mistake when it was first enacted.

It was enacted in response to what happened on August 12th.

It has not had an impact on Nazis.

It's only had an impact on us.

Just what we predicted was that when you restrict the First Amendment because of your fear of outsiders, you're restricting it for those of us inside as well.

There is no reason to do so.

And of course this was well pointed out as to why this is happening now by the arrest of John Miska for possessing those prohibited items on the downtown mall on August 12th, even though many people were sitting in restaurants possessing the same items.

It was a silly provision, one of which we argued against, and it was a silly enforcement.

But I can tell you, because I don't think the city attorney's going to tell you, this looks like the settlement of the MSCA case.

What they're going to do is make it not applicable to people like Mr. MSCA who claim not to be participating in the event.

But why don't we just tell everybody?

We've settled the MSCA case.

That's part of the settlement.

The other part is money.

Isn't it worthwhile knowing how much money the council gave or the city gave to Mr. Miska?

And isn't anybody going to be held responsible for the poor wording, for the bad enactment, for the stupid enforcement, and for the refusal to even tell us that that's what's going on?

Now, the way this is drafted is just a joke.

And that's quite disturbing.

Let me read this quickly to you.

Demonstration means anything.

Special event means any activity.

An event refers to any activity that is a special demonstration, a demonstration or a special event.

A special demonstration consists of a rally, protest, et cetera, conducted on public property at which one

or more individuals are engaged in non-commercial expression protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

Now, not only is that stupid, it violates what you already adopted, which was a 50-person limit, and it's unconstitutional.

You cannot restrict one person from doing so.

And of course, the ridiculousness of this is so obvious as to anybody on this body read it, they would have recognized it.

And so it's a little shocking that this is what came out of the law department.

So there is no reason to reenact this ordinance.

It has only been a problem.

And I will also tell you the city doesn't seem to be enforcing the ordinance.

I personally know of at least two events that constituted demonstrations and events within the definition of our current ordinance and our current administrative code that nobody applied for a permit for.

No permit was given.

I foiled that information and received it.

So why?

reenact this if you're not enforcing it.

And I believe you shouldn't enforce it.

I wasn't going to speak on it.

I ain't introducing myself because everybody knows me.

But what

What I don't understand is you know that the federal judge gave them permission to come here.

And then you're going to restrict people from doing protests to protect their city.

And then you allow your police officers that, I ain't going to point to all of y'all, because I want all of y'all up here.

So the ones of y'all that wasn't up here can slide on back.

But the ones of y'all that was up here when it happened move on forward.

Y'all let the police do nothing.

like literally they weren't standing on the side of nobody at the time typically but the side of the mob so they were on the side of the people that came here to disrespect us and then we got to do all these dumb permits we got to do permits for the Unity Day events we got to do all these dumb permits to have anything here I was at a cookout just a couple of weeks ago and your police rolled up talk about a noise ordinance but they don't do that shit to the tom-tom people

It's one damn black event for these people to do in the summertime because y'all took the damn camps away from kids you built all these camps on parks and rec ground and they're not even occupied by children and then it's one event in the summertime and y'all keep the Parks and Rec Department keep stressing them about parking

Like, if you're gonna do some type of permit and you got people paying, because they're paying for space, need I say more, they're paying to be down in Tulsa, they're cleaning up their own damn trash, and your city facilities and maintenance, the city facilities and maintenance clean up the trash for every other public permitted event that have to do this special events permit thing.

Like, y'all just don't, y'all don't get it.

Like, I guess everybody got freedom of speech rights for black people in this town, right?

We can't come together and unify and do nothing in our own neighborhood without your police rolling and strolling by or without having to come down here and file for a permit.

Cameras in City Hall, man y'all should have had cameras when Kessler was coming down here.

Y'all didn't even have cameras when them people was coming in here threatening people and people having to walk people outside to protect one another in case they would have did something to somebody.

Like yo, y'all have got to be the most backwards.

I all need the grease sitting up here, right?

Like I said, if you weren't here before, slide back, I ain't talking to you.

But all of these degrees up here making these decisions, and y'all have not one ounce of common sense.

None.

Cameras in City Hall, we already passed the danger.

Somebody wait, gone.

Other people injured.

and y'all wanna put cameras up in there?

What was the cameras that showed the accident on 4th Street when there was a hundred people in body armor walking on a downtown mall when a car went down the street?

Where was those cameras at?

Cause the FBI has surveillance in a million stores.

Where's that stuff at?

Thank you.

You want to answer that, city of Toronto?

Thank you.

Is there anyone else who would like to speak on the special event amending the city code chapter 18 or the city hall security cameras?

OK. All right.

Any other questions here?

All right.

Mayor Walker, with regards to the special events ordinance, I would like to get staff's response on that with regards to the issues raised.

Not tonight.

Thank you very much.

I would appreciate that.

Yes.

Okay.

Any other questions?

All right, please vote.

Okay.

And if you'd like I could just give you the brief description as well.

And that would be a resolution to appropriate $468,000 to the Charlottesville City Schools.

And we want to discuss it.

I'm in favor of that amendment, despite that it will be at 2 a.m., but.

All right, that carries five to zero.

Thank you Madam Mayor and members of council.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you.

So next we have community matters.

Before we get started with community matters, just a reminder for the individuals who signed up for the climate action environmental greenhouse gas that was just passed on the consent agenda and then for the Hinton Avenue

There is a public hearing sheet for that item on the agenda and you can sign up during the public hearing also.

Alright.

Hello.

Hi, my name is Gudrun Campbell and I live in Woolen Mills.

I'm 11 years old and I've co-organized two school strikes for climate.

I'm here to thank you for approving the resolution to become carbon neutral by the year 2050.

According to a recent report by the UN, there are 11 years to stop the climate crisis.

My future and the futures of every youth depend on the actions like the one you took here today.

This resolution gives me hope that our voices and calls for action are being heard, hope that we won't raise our children in a crisis, and hope that there is still time.

As Wangaria Maathai said in her Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, in the course of history, there comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness, to reach a higher moral ground.

A time when we have to shed our fear and give hope to each other.

That time is now.

We have Claire Hable.

Hello, I'm Claire Habel.

I'd like to defer my time to Mr. Martin Chapman, who should be here this evening.

Good evening.

My name is Martin Chapman.

I own Indoor Biotechnologies, which is a biotech firm in town.

I'm also a co-founder of the Sevo Biohub, which is an organization of 60 biotech companies that employ about 2,000 people in Charlottesville.

And I really thank the council for approving this resolution.

It's of vital importance to the city.

I think one of the things I want to thank you for is there's a couple of things.

One is the incentive programs that you provide to small businesses, like the Virginia Jobs Improvement Program, for which a number of biotech companies have benefited.

And the other is the LEAP program, which has been instrumental in actually developing solar energy and renewable energy in the city.

Our company particularly benefited from this program.

We installed 450 panels on our roof at the Silt Mills building.

That is actually saving, so far has saved 350,000 pounds of CO2 emissions in the past 18 months.

And we're currently generating 20 megabytes of power per month, which is, according to Terry Kent, our energy guru, is enough to serve 30 homes for the entire year.

So you can imagine that this is actually a huge power generator.

And the city should really look at other incentives.

If you can proactively identify all the flat roofs in the city and put solar panels on them, that would be a huge step forward if we're going to get 45% reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

The other thing about this program, the Citi program, is it's returning money.

The Citi is basically getting $3 for every dollar that invests in this program.

So it's very valuable.

I know the program's morphed now into the clean energy loan program.

But it's very valuable for companies.

Because what it does is it says, if you're looking at this program, you look at the incentives, and you say, well, why not?

And then that gets you closer as a business to actually saying, yeah, we can do that.

And so I know some of you recently were at the C3 awards event.

93 businesses working together to improve the climate in this city.

And that's really a phenomenal event.

Now, most of the awards are won by the Peabody School, as everybody knows, but if you look at that as the next generation of people who are actually going to carry forward and implement these policies in the coming years to get to carbon neutrality in 2050, this is actually vital for the city.

It's a big

My name is Eugenio Scatini.

I am a longtime resident of Charlottesville.

Lived here for about 35 years.

Maybe that's not a long time, but in my book, I've been here a long time.

And I'd like to thank you for letting me talk tonight.

And I just have a few thoughts in regards to happening around here in terms of zoning.

I'll come to you tonight to what I see as a troubling manipulation and misappropriation of zoning.

Lately requests by applicants for zoning changes have been granted upon the listing of proffers.

These proffers are promises by the applicant and are binding to appease the concerns that are developed during the development of the zoning change.

It's also massaging the zoning or the prime zoning that they're looking for to fit the needs of the project's objectives.

However, proffers are promises that can be broken either immediately or years from now.

They can also be petitioned and reactivated because they are still an element of the broader scope of the zoning in which the designation was initially enacted.

The consequence of these accumulated zoning changes creates a zoning map that is weird and complicated with spots that contain different characteristics and characters and ultimately impossible to enforce or even to organize or comprehend.

If the city

fields compelled to continue to pursue this patchwork of zoning requests, then it should also provide the funding and the resources to various departments for oversight, compliance, and enforcement of these onerous tasks.

If not, well,

We'll work this out.

The groundwork to eventually sweep away our neighborhoods are being laid piece by piece and will eventually devour our sense of place and our home.

The charm of our city is slowly being erased.

You can't bring back the charm once it's gone.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So I'm Joni Freeman and the Green Grannies have been singing for over five years in our community talking about the issues that are now being acknowledged both by the university, the county, and our lovely city by thanking you

for accepting the plan that is now in place.

The Grannies have created a song for you.

And we have the support of all of the organizations that have been around doing work for us and our community.

And we hope you can appreciate it as always.

We also have the chorus that we would love

for the audience here to join in.

And basically it is solidarity with the world three times and so the Climate Action Plan includes all of us.

It's to the tune of the Battle Hymn of the Republic.

We back our cities to reduce our greenhouse gases Down by 45% before more time passes

So here we go Peter

Lazy, daisy, bicycling's good for you.

Tragic, crazy, cars give us CO2.

We know we should not disparage an elegant motor carriage But take a hike or ride a bike and try until we'll love you Maybe someday we'll have computer trains

cats, more and more bicycle lanes.

What can they do with our way?

All right.

Only in Charlottesville, that is.

Hello, good evening.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight.

My name is Caetano de Campos Lopez.

I'm a resident of Charlottesville and director of climate policy of the Charlottesville Climate Collaborative.

and I'm also a foreigner.

Thank you very much for welcoming me.

Tonight we celebrate the climate goals approved by the City Council.

They position our community in a necessary path to avoid the worst consequences of climate change.

Why is that important?

According to recent studies, under current emissions trends, shallots could face summers that are seven degrees warmer on average.

Today was a very hot day, imagine like 7 degrees, warm on average.

That coupled with increased occurrence of heat waves and floods could harshly affect our community members without the necessary means to prepare themselves to extreme weather events.

A few degrees would make a big difference for many.

The good news is that when well crafted, climate policies can help reduce our community's average energy bills, making our business more competitive and our houses more affordable.

By promoting an emissions-free transportation system, climate policies can help the city ensure and increase the future quality of our air, diminishing the number of health problems related to air pollution, and providing a great place to live for all of our citizens.

At C3, we are confident that by working together to implement renewable energy efficiency projects, promote renewable energy, transition to a carbon-free transportation system, and biennially measure its emissions levels, our community will be able to achieve its climate goals and ensure a healthier and prosperous place for all of us.

I'm grateful for your decision to become climate leaders.

We are proud to be a part of this community and look forward to being a part of the solution.

Thank you.

Thank you for allowing me to speak.

You pull the mic down.

I want to thank you all for voting for the initiative this evening and taking on tackling climate change.

I want to also encourage you to think about adding a CO2 inventory every two years in that climate plan.

It's very important for us to know where we are in the process.

We can celebrate our accomplishments and refocus our energies as need be if we knew every two years that we had an update.

I also want you to focus on energy efficiency, especially to reduce the energy burden for low income people by continuing to fund LEAP and also encourage you to, wherever possible, to fund bike and walking paths as a safe way for people to use alternative means of transportation.

So this is in reference to the Hinton Avenue.

I can speak now as well.

I'm not going to speak later.

I just want one time.

I didn't know if you were asking people to wait till then or

Okay, great.

So I am here representing neighbors of mine who live in Section 8 housing and they were unable to be here and they are long-term residents of Belmont and so this is

what they would like me to present.

And they brought me back to, it was actually 10 years ago interestingly, July of 2009.

And what I'm referring to is the changing of the zoning of Hinton Avenue.

And so this focus is on the zoning and not on the project.

So they reminded me that ten years ago when you changed the zoning, when the council at that time changed the zoning, the Planning Commission had voted against it because of the response of the neighborhood.

And there were two councilors who voted against it.

And at the time these residents were at the meeting.

And one councilor said he was impressed by the sincerity of the applications, but did not think he could support the rezoning for several reasons.

First, he said the rezoning was against the spirit of the city's comprehensive plan.

Second, he said rezoning would contradict the reason why NCC zone was created.

And then he said rezoning would not benefit the neighborhood.

And then the second councilor who voted against it said he could not support the rezoning because the precedent it would set would make it harder for future councils to deny requests to rezone

residential land to commercials.

And one other thing that's really invisible and why these voices really need to be heard is the whole reason of trying to hold on to houses is that many of these houses are Section 8.

And these are rentals.

These are where a lot of disabled, a lot of elderly, this is a really invisible part of the neighborhood.

This isn't just the whole gentrification process.

So Mayor Norris at that time asked if the proffers being made by the applicant would be in place if the property changes hands.

Brian Holuska said future owners are bound by the proffers.

And what the proffers were for this particular place was not to expand past the footprint and not to offer amplified music.

So the section eight folks that asked me to come here are adjacent.

to this place that has amplified music and I really want to thank Brian because he has really been responsive in emails and I've been trying to learn a little bit more about zoning and is there any other application and he said R3 has setbacks that would force the building into the parking lot and add other requirements so really what we're asking for is to go slow and be super creative

on this rezoning, because once it goes commercial, there really is no turning back on this.

So what we're trying to do is preserve some of the houses that are already there.

Terry Kent.

Terry Kent.

I'm John Hall from Fry's Spring.

Charlottesville area transit provides service to Walmart in the county along Berkmar Drive, bus 5, and bus 12 on Sunday.

Why not continue along Berkmar Drive to Hollymee Town Center, which could then naturally connect to the airport road for airport service and parking problem alleviation there.

Bus 7 could travel direct to the airport road along 29 from Fashion Square Mall.

If resolution G on the consent agenda is approved, it will reduce by approximately $122,000 what Albemarle pays to Charlottesville this fiscal year as reported in today's daily progress.

This money could be used to further Charlottesville area transit service into the county this way.

I mentioned this last fall on WINA on the shilling show.

I would be happy to work on procedures for changing current Charlottesville area transit services if authorized to do so.

I think so.

All right.

Mason Pickett, Albemarle County.

Three semi-quick subjects.

Today I was holding a sign in front of the police station.

I had to call the police.

These are people that want to tell the police what to do?

I don't think so.

You shouldn't either.

Number two, I'm going to say something that you never thought you'd hear me say.

I support everything you do.

I wish you do more.

Well, why would I change and say something like that?

Because people in the city can't outvote you, but you can financially ruin the city, and it can be rebuilt.

I wish you success.

Number three, Trump.

Trump can be a jackass from time to time.

There's no doubt about it.

But he's getting stuff done.

lost my place here.

Now, when he wins the election, should he win the election?

And it will probably be the same way.

He'll probably lose a popular vote, and he'll probably get the electoral vote.

And when you're running around with chickens with your heads cut off, and you're wondering how it happened, go look in a mirror.

Good evening.

My name is Ben Doherty.

I live in Charlottesville, Johnson Village.

I'm here to express support for Mayor Walker's proposal to eliminate Jefferson's birthday as a city holiday and to instead replace it with an official city holiday on March 3 to celebrate Freedom and Liberation Day.

Having March 3rd be a designated holiday in the city would be a big step towards more accurately presenting the history of Charlottesville and recognizing the importance and value of the lives of the black residents who made up the majority of the population of the city.

and county at the time of the Civil War.

I know that some councilors have raised the idea of replacing Jefferson's birthday with a floating holiday and that according to the council agenda, many of the city employees that manager Richardson spoke with like the idea of a floating holiday.

However, a floating holiday does not go far enough.

As the city seeks to change the narrative on race, it is important that the former city holiday for Jefferson's birthday be replaced by a designated March 3rd holiday celebrating Freedom and Liberation Day.

Doing so will allow for continued, robust celebrations of Liberation Day, as have happened over the last few years, on a day that city employees get off.

Having a designated holiday on March 3rd is an important acknowledgement of the people who actually built Monticello, the people who actually built the university.

Having a designated holiday on March 3rd is an important acknowledgement that in the story of Charlottesville, black lives matter.

I would also like to address the idea raised by counselor Galvin that we should not eliminate a holiday for Jefferson's birthday because we cannot change history.

That is exactly the point.

Deciding not to celebrate Jefferson's birthday is not going to change his place in history.

He'll still be a founder.

He'll still have written many of the documents and concepts at the center of our democracy.

Monticello will still watch over the town and the university will continue to be a major force in our city.

However, eliminating a city holiday to celebrate his birthday would acknowledge, as UVA President Jim Ryan might say, that Jefferson may have been a great man, but he was not a good one.

He was a slave holder.

He was a rapist.

Not having his birthday as a city holiday will not change his place in history, but it will acknowledge that Jefferson's story is not one that everyone feels like celebrating.

Good evening.

My name is Lisa Woolfork.

I, too, live in Johnson Village.

Thomas Jefferson is the R. Kelly of the American Enlightenment.

He met Sally Hemings when she was a toddler and he was a newlywed.

Their nonconsensual sexual relationship was normalized by the brutality of the age.

Charlottesville purports to be a city with its eye trained on healing the present.

We cannot change the past, it is true, nor can we erase history, but we can make better choices for its future.

Mayor Walker's plan to eliminate celebration of Jefferson's birthday is one such choice.

We must stop venerating racists.

Jefferson deserves neither a statue nor holiday.

Instead, as we head toward July 4th, Jefferson's death day, I encourage all assembled to read Frederick Douglass's speech, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July.

In this speech, Douglass reminds us that the paradoxes of American democracy are rooted in Jefferson.

Rather than celebrate him, let's celebrate our city's true liberation by designating March 3rd as Freedom and Liberation Day and make a new holiday for the city.

Thank you.

My name is Scott Warner, and I grew up in the Fry Springs area of Charlottesville, now presiding Albemarle County.

I never thought that I would have to appear before any governmental body to defend the honor of the greatest statesman ever to come from this area, and especially on our nation's Independence Day week, of which he was the author of the Declaration of Independence.

But sadly, here I am.

Thomas Jefferson was born in Shadwell, Virginia, located in Albemarle County in 1743.

After graduating from William and Mary College, he served in the House of Burgesses as one of the youngest members.

He built Monticello, which has become an incredible asset for tourism in our area.

He became one of our founding fathers of our great country.

He was the draftsman of the Declaration of Independence upon which our country is founded and allows us to hold meetings like this in which we have the right to freedom of speech.

He was the nation's first Secretary of State.

He was the second Vice President of the United States.

He was the third President of the United States, during which he was responsible for the Louisiana Purchase.

He wrote the Religious Freedom Act that was passed by the Virginia General Assembly in 1786, which was the forerunner for the First Amendment protections for religious freedoms in America.

He built the University of Virginia,

He built the University of Virginia upon which Charlottesville and Albemarle County thrive.

With all of these incredible accomplishments, it's inconceivable for our area not to honor his birthday as a holiday.

I urge this council to reconsider not honoring this American's birthday, even if you choose to make it a floating holiday.

Let's be creative in ideas on how to make the city and the county better for its citizens and still hold the greatest statesman in high esteem that he deserves.

Good evening, I'm Peter Krebs from Piedmont Environmental Council.

Thanks grannies for the introduction and it's true I did ask them to come and I'm so glad they did.

For the past two years I've been working with the staff from the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission on a

A regional bicycle pedestrian plan known as the Thomas Jefferson, the Jefferson area bike ped plan.

Chip Boyles is here and he'll present about that later this evening.

And I can talk about the community process that led to the plan later as well if you wish.

Now I'm here to talk about what's happening next.

PC got involved with the project because we want to see real change.

So although we have a good plan, that doesn't mean anything without implementation.

This is not the end, but a beginning.

The city already has a solid bike-ped plan, and clearly leaders who are deeply committed to family health and fitness, and also excellent projects underway, like what we're seeing along the Route 250 bypass, the pedestrian bridge at McIntyre Park, and so forth.

The regional plan emphasizes ways for the city and the county and the university to all work together for common goals.

For their part, Albemarle County plans to attach the regional document to their comprehensive plan later this week.

Their next budget also reflects a multi-million dollar commitment to bicycle, pedestrian quality of life improvements.

The plan identifies several projects of mutual interest, especially along the border between the city and the county where barriers and obstacles accumulate.

Some of those include, for example, connecting Pantops to Riverview Park with the pedestrian bridge over the Rivanna, linking Biscuit Run Park to surrounding neighborhoods and to the city core,

Reconnecting Charlottesville to PVCC and the Saunders Monticello Trail.

Safe movement along and across many arteries including Emmett, Fontaine, 29, 250, 5th Street and others.

As well as the Morris Creek Watershed.

I've heard a lot of talk for example about fixing the Sunset Avenue Bridge and also connectivity along Old Lynchburg Road.

We're also looking at multiple connections within the city as well as making existing resources more inclusive.

None of this can happen without your support, backed by a broad coalition and long-term community mobilization.

I have postcards to pass out talking about the Jefferson area plan as well as links to a petition which you can sign to support it and ways to get involved.

Good evening.

Strange City Council Meet.

I'm actually here to say that something amazing happened this morning.

The CRB voted on their bylaws.

It was a lot of non-believers that they couldn't do it, right?

But they did something that's amazing.

What I'm asking city council is please do something amazing.

Thank you.

All right, we have a few people.

We have one more slot.

So we have Deborah Jackson, Christine Palazzo, Judy Johnson, Lewis Newman,

If you only had one left I can't imagine you'd get to me.

I'm Donna Chauncey, I live in the city and I'm just here to congratulate you on voting for the excellent greenhouse gas plan and we are ready to move forward to help you implement that.

and let's not let the grass grow under our feet because the time is of the essence.

I'm the chair of the local Sierra Club and we'll be happy to do whatever we can to help you move this forward.

We have some resources we can bring to bear and we would also urge you to do the inventory every two years so we'll know where we're going quickly and know if we need to take more action.

Alright, thank you.

All right, any comments?

Newman?

Okay, come on up.

How are you?

How are you doing?

All right.

Sorry.

Conspiracy.

What is it?

Conspiracy.

Judges, lawyers, prosecutors.

They sell children here in Charlottesville.

And I can prove it.

100%.

And it's wrong.

18 years, I've seen my kids.

18 years, I've seen my kids.

The program I went through, do not exist.

Family Treatment Court.

General Court.

The courthouse.

Look it up.

2004.

It's 2019 right now.

It's 18 years from now.

That's sad.

I haven't seen my kids.

My mother ain't seen her grandkids in 18 years.

That's not fair.

To our family.

Conspiracy.

It's all to prove.

But give me a chance to prove conspiracy to all of you all.

Please.

But I can prove it backwards.

I promise.

I can prove it backwards.

Just to say to myself, and my family, and my kids, I'll fight for my babies, I'll fight for myself, through a council, thank you for your time.

To hear this, please, one way or another, I will fight for my babies and get them all back.

I'm Jen.

I'm not playing.

I will get my babies back.

You don't take something from a Jen that a Jen can't get back.

I promise.

Thank you for your time.

Appreciate it.

Now I got to go see the chief of police next.

Thank you for your time.

Are there any comments, counsel?

Alright, let's break and start back up.

All right call this meeting back to order.

All right next we have the

Mayor, City Council, tonight you'll be holding a public hearing requesting a rezoning of 750 Hinton Avenue.

Sue Woodson of Hinton Avenue United Methodist Church is requesting a zoning map amendment to reclassify 750 Hinton Avenue from the existing R1S residential to NCC mixed use corridor with proffered development conditions.

The rezoning is being requested to facilitate an addition to the existing Methodist Church on site.

The addition would accommodate up to 15 dwelling units.

In addition, the following is being proffered.

Residential density, no more than 15 dwelling units, shall be permitted on the subject property.

Affordable housing.

A minimum of four residential units within multifamily dwelling buildings on the subject property shall be restricted to residents with income at 80% or less of area median income, AMI, as defined by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development for the Charlottesville, Virginia metro area.

Resident safety.

Access to all interior common areas serving residential units shall be controlled through the use of entry locks.

All non-residential uses other than educational facilities and daycare facilities which are not associated to house of worship or residential use located on the subject property shall not be permitted on the subject property.

Access.

Permanent vehicular ingress and egress to the subject property shall be restricted to Rialto Street, provided that the restriction on vehicle access shall not take effect until such time as building permit is issued for construction of any multifamily building.

The city may require any site plan for multifamily building proposed on the subject property to adhere to vehicular ingress and egress limited under these conditions.

Height restrictions, maximum height of 38 feet, street wall regulations as follows.

Primary street frontage, 6 feet minimum required, 10 feet maximum.

On June 11, 2019, the Planning Commission held a public hearing where 26 members of the public spoke.

Ongoing problems with the residents in the area with businesses operating in the NCC zone, especially the impact of noise and traffic.

Concerns about the city's ability to enforce proffers.

The expansion of NCC zoning beyond its current boundaries.

Concerns about noise from the HVAC equipment on the new facility.

Concern about traffic impacts.

Concerned about applicants' vision of serving the developmentally disabled not being guaranteed and the city's need for overall housing, especially housing for underserved populations, were all discussed at that meeting.

The Planning Commission voted six to zero to recommend City Council approve the rezoning application.

With that, I'm free to answer any questions or refer you to a staff member that can.

All right.

I do have one, Mayor Walker.

So with regards to the issue of the enforcement of proffers,

When I wrote a question to Brian Haluska last week, he made a distinction between two different kinds of proffers.

Those are the proffers that were going to be kind of memorialized in a site plan and were part of the physical character of the project itself.

And then there were proffers that were more dealing with operations, for example, noise ordinance issues.

Can you speak to that at all?

My feeling was that most of the proffers in this particular project were all going to be handled in the site plan level so that they would be part of the physical build out.

Correct.

You have proffers that are very visible, think buffers, things that you would see on a site plan that you can definitely review prior to issuing approval of a site plan.

So one's physical form, the other one's going to be an enforcement question that we handle through management.

Correct.

That's all I need to know.

Thank you.

Good evening.

I'm Kim Crater.

I'm with the Charlottesville District of the United Methodist Church.

We want to build a 15-unit apartment building called Rachel's Haven where four to six of the units will be set aside for people with developmental disabilities.

You are receiving

A letter now, two letters actually from nonprofits that we are exploring partnerships with and I share these letters as evidence that we are indeed sincere in our intention to provide housing for people with developmental disabilities despite our lack of a proffer to that effect.

Now I would like to invite people in the audience who are in support of the rezoning for Rachel's Haven to please stand.

We have proffered that four of our apartments will be affordable units, but we will apply for low income housing tax credits.

And if we receive these tax credits, we intend to offer all 15 of the apartments as affordable units.

It is our hope to have 100% affordable housing.

No zoning designation fits our project perfectly.

We feel that NCC is the closest fit, but we understand that NCC hasn't been welcome in Belmont.

So in response to neighborhood concerns, we have proffered all non-residential commercial activity except for daycare and educational uses.

We have waived all rights for other commercial uses because our goal is to serve people with developmental disabilities.

It is ministry.

Even with our proffers though, at least a few people are still concerned that commercial uses could occur on the property should the church ever close its doors.

Two points about this are that first, should the church close, the property would revert to the Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church, which is essentially our statewide organization.

The Virginia Conference would then be required to look for another ministry use for the property or find a nonprofit or organization that has values and a mission consistent with the churches.

Although I cannot say that there is no possibility that this property would ever leave the denomination, I can say that I believe that possibility to be very remote.

And second, should that somehow ever happen, the proffers that we have written apply not only to ourselves, but also to any future owners.

Regardless of who owns the property, commercial uses will not be an option.

We intend for Rachel's Haven to be managed in a way that allows it to be a blessing not only for our neighbors with developmental disabilities and our low-income neighbors, but also for our Belmont neighbors.

These may seem like hollow words until I remind you that Rachel's Haven's closest neighbor is the church.

Just as our Belmont neighbors don't want amplified music or at all hours of the night or crazy HVAC noise, neither does the congregation.

and as a matter of fact, I anticipate that neither do our future residents.

I will close by saying that our ministry aligns perfectly with a comprehensive plan which has goals for increasing affordable housing and housing for underserved populations.

Meeting any goal, however, whether it is affordable housing or weight loss requires hard choices.

We have done everything we can to address the neighborhood's concerns and take the frightening aspects out of NCC.

After you consider our proffers, if any concerns remain, please ask yourself whether they are significant enough to trump the concerns of our low income neighbors and people with developmental disabilities.

Thank you, Kim.

I'm Andy Thomas, an architect here in Charlottesville.

I am here to speak on behalf of the vision team for the Rachel's Haven project and its rezoning petition.

I wanted to say how honored I am to be included as a helper on this project.

The vision team is a group of volunteers who continually demonstrate to me how committed they are to helping this population and their families find a home.

The project site is the Hinton Avenue United Methodist Church.

The team wants to add the residential use by renovating and adding to the existing education wing of the building.

The architectural concept adds to the residential character of this context.

Some of the planned features include a building addition that will enhance the existing pedestrian experience and with a separate entrance and identity from the church.

Also included is a residential scaled courtyard, a landscaped and screened parking area, and a building that mediates between the scale of the church and the surrounding neighborhood.

While the parking concept follows the city zoning code standards for church and residence parking, it is likely many of the residents will not be high users of single occupancy cars.

The Hinton Avenue Church site is well placed for transportation, jobs, and services.

It is important to note that the church plans to be part of and continue to serve the community as it has done historically.

The requested rezoning to NCC Zone best accomplishes the goals of this project because it provides a mixed use of the multi-family housing and the church uses

and a setback envelope that best mirrors the existing church building and context.

For this request, the NCC zone has been modified to tailor the zone for this project as follows.

Number one, a provision for limited residential density.

No more than 15 dwelling units shall be permitted on the property.

Number two provides for affordable housing, providing a minimum of four residential units within the multi-family dwelling building.

During several open meetings we hosted for the neighborhood, we heard concern expressed by the neighbors that any commercial use is unwanted.

The church wanted to be responsive to its neighbors and includes a revised proffer that removes commercial use.

Proffers 6 and 7 further restrict the new building envelope, including a maximum height of 38 feet and includes both a minimum 6 foot and maximum 10 foot setback from the primary street.

These revisions are in line with the residential scale concept for the project and support the contextual design vision.

The housing chapter of the Charlottesville comp plan 2013 sets goals

that include to accommodate the housing needs of low income households, seniors, and those with disabilities.

And it supports those with challenges that would otherwise prevent independent living.

The main goal of this project, providing independent living for those with developmental disabilities, puts it squarely in line with these goals of the Charlottesville Comp Plan.

The NCC zone as modified to exclude commercial uses is a good match for the church and residential mixed use for this site.

This modified NCC zone makes a good model for institutional properties seeking to incorporate some residential space.

I encourage you to consider the goals of the comp plan and approve the rezoning of this property.

Thank you.

I did have a question around the LIHTC timing question.

So is my understanding that you are going to be applying for that in this next cycle if this is approved?

I'm sorry, Kim.

We hope to apply at the next cycle, March,

So it's my understanding that once you do submit, there's a certain timeline then that automatically is in place if you're going to be pursuing it through a LIHTC supported project.

And so then there is a timeline.

Because I know right now the timeline seems uncertain.

Yeah, if it gets approved, yeah, we're on course.

And we can't stop the train at that point.

Yeah, I believe the intention, although 80% is the proffer, the intention is to serve lower than that.

And the nonprofit that we've been talking to who knows all about LIHTC and is managing affordable housing currently, they're in the 40 to 60%.

Two questions specifically for me.

It's great to hear you say that you all are exploring and looking towards the 40 to 60 percent.

I would love to see that in writing in some regards so that it is an official kind of plan.

We have developers not putting you in or lumping you in with others, but we have individuals who come forth before us all the time.

who say, yeah, we want to do 30%, we want to look at 50%, but then in all actuality they look at going at 80 or they don't even have affordable housing units at all.

So saying that in writing would be prudent for me.

Yes, because we haven't been given the low income housing tax credits yet.

So if we don't have that, we have to look at other ways to fund this project.

And we put the four affordable units in there because we know that this whole project is for people with developmental disabilities.

And we are absolutely sure that those folks in those apartments

But then forgive my ignorance because I'm just drawing a blank.

And just, I'm aware of the LIHTC unit requirements, but I think it would be still good for the public to hear that.

So if they weren't your partner,

We come up with a plan B.

The reality is that we need a partner who is an expert in housing.

We also need a partner who is an expert in working with people with developmental disabilities.

We have this amazing vision and this dream, but we don't have the expertise, which is why we've been starting these partnerships.

Just again to clarify though, if you don't get the LIHTC,

It's not your vision that then the 11 units that's the balance of the total units once you have reserved the four, your vision is not that those are market rate units?

I'm not going to say that's not an option because that has been an option for us in the past, back when we didn't understand how much LIHTC could bring to the table.

Now that we see what it can do, I really feel like that's the best way to get this project to the finish line.

And but as it is, four units, which is almost 25%, 20 to 25% of your units you are going to be reserving in some way, somehow, as a minimum, will be affordable units.

And that's in a profit.

Why did you have a?

All right, thank you.

So we're going to open the public hearing and we're going to limit the time to two minutes.

We understand that

We have 25 people signed up, it looks like.

If you need to speak longer, just be aware that we have, I was at the planning commission meeting, so I heard a lot of you.

The other counselors have watched the meeting, and we understand it wasn't announced at two minutes, but because there are a lot, we're asking you if you can speak in the two minute time frame to please do so.

and if not, three minutes will be allowed.

Hi, I'm with Impact, our local interfaith group of 27 faith congregations of different faiths who work on solving community problems.

We've been working on affordable housing for the last two years in the city.

We all know the data.

We all know that we need housing, we need affordable housing, and we need housing that will enable people with developmental disabilities to live independently and with dignity.

A lot of those people are in our 27 congregations.

IMPACT supports this proposal and we also want to recognize and thank

The Methodist Church for standing up as citizens, seeing a need and doing something to meet it.

Putting in the work, giving the land, offering to build the apartments.

It's a real gift to Charlottesville and we think it's a wonderful example of Charlottesville at its best.

Thank you.

Good evening.

My name is Mike Dunn.

In 1997, my son was born just a few blocks from here in what used to be Martha Jefferson Hospital.

As I held him in my arms that first night, I dreamed the dreams that all parents dreamed for their children.

I dreamed of music lessons in his future, maybe sports, maybe a college scholarship.

And the biggest dream of all

Raising a child who could make his way confidently through the world and be a force for good.

The autism diagnosis that he received when he was about six years old upended those dreams.

Our lives became an endless series of appointments with specialists, psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists, and on and on for years.

and it's 22 years on now.

He's an adult and he's one with a paradoxical constellation of gifts and deficits.

He can write beautiful short stories and he can't tie his shoeglasses.

He wants to travel the world and he can't drive a car.

He wants to set up housekeeping on his own and he fears boiling a pot of cooking water.

Nonetheless, my wife and I walk the walk with him each and every day of our lives.

We take him where he needs to go.

We do his grocery shopping for him.

We see to his grooming.

And this is a walk that scores a parent in this area walk with their adult children each and every day of their lives.

The mirror tells us that we're getting older each and every day of our lives.

And the day is going to come when first one and then the other of us can't walk this walk anymore.

And what then?

That's why the idea of Rachel's Haven has reignited dreams for families like ours.

Dreams where adults with developmental disabilities are in a supportive community.

Dreams where they're integrated into the life of Charlottesville.

Dreams where families like ours can rest a little easier knowing that maybe in the long run things will be okay for our loved ones.

I'm Lucius Bracey.

I live at 724 Northwood Avenue, Charlottesville, Virginia.

Together with Elaine Okie as trustee, we own 759 Belmont Avenue.

This is going to be a very surprising opening, but we wish the church the best in this venture.

It's not really fair to say it's a venture.

We are not opposed to housing.

We're not opposed to housing for the disabled.

We're not opposed to affordable housing, and we wish the church very well and hope that they succeed in all their efforts.

Indeed, all of our

Their markers for success and our markers for success line up perfectly with one exception.

We don't want the fallback in case they're not successful.

We don't want the fallback to be neighborhood commercial corridor zoning.

We want it to be R4.

I think any of us would not want to subject ourselves to constant worry about profits not working or this facility not working financially.

We understand there is some concern about setbacks and waivers of setbacks, but those concerns are probably no greater than the validity of profits and enforceability of profits and the ability of the city to enforce the profits anyway.

So we ask simply that we all support the church, all support the church and its objectives, but

We can fix this so if it's not successful, we won't have a spot of commercial usage in the midst of the houses that are so treasured by the people who have built them and live there now.

And all of their objectives are consistent with the comp plan as is the churches.

No problem.

Good evening, Mayor Walker and City Council.

My name is Susan Manasian.

I'm the pastor of Sojourners United Church of Christ that is a neighbor of Hinton Avenue United Methodist Church.

The Neighborhood Connections section of the Planning Commission section on the city website states its vision and two goals specifically relevant here.

To make Charlottesville a city where every neighborhood has the opportunity to succeed in realizing its full potential for contributing to a quality community, to foster independent problem solving and sharing of assets within and among neighborhoods, to involve all community assets in expanding and sustaining safe and healthy neighborhoods.

Your own City Council vision statement speaks of quality housing opportunities for all our neighborhoods to retain, yes, the historic fabric, but offering housing that is affordable and attainable for people of all income levels, racial backgrounds, life stages, and abilities.

If all of this is true, and if these statements describing their community values, purpose, and intention are true, then I don't see how you cannot affirm with gratitude the Rachel's Haven of Hinton Avenue United Methodist Church proposal.

At the first hearing with the Planning Commission, I listened to the concerns of our other neighbors.

It is disappointing that the only comments reported this evening about that meeting were comments that were made by neighbors that had difficulty with the project and not those of us that were in support of it.

The concerns I heard about issues are things that are already problematic which have not been addressed and to me sound like old news before I moved here two years ago.

So I would like to suggest that the neighborhood organization and residents collaborate with you to creatively come up with solutions to those issues and move forward so that the long lasting issues will not continue to be confused with this proposal.

and then those concerns can be removed as a barrier for the project.

The welfare of the city and underserved residents who desperately need this housing should be your priority.

I ask as one of their neighbors that the City Council promote the values you support on record and employ those values in your unanimous affirmative vote.

I will add, not to embarrass my congregation, but just to make a statement of reality,

that half of my net income goes to housing and I live in Albemarle County instead of the city because I can't afford to live in the city.

I would love to live in the city of Charlottesville, but it is extremely expensive and I'm somebody of tremendous privilege, tremendous agency and a lot of tenacity.

I hope you will pass this unanimously.

I'm Pastor of Hinton Avenue and I live on Melbourne Road.

Counselors, I know all of you.

I have talked with you, worshipped with you, walked with you, learned with you, stood in the streets and protected this city with you.

And you know that I am someone who has heard the cries of our neighbors, has understood the injustices, the wrongs, the efforts to do all that we can to make things right.

And frankly, I know that everybody in this room is here because they care so very much and want to make things right.

We so often have so much difficulty figuring out how to do that together.

But we all want to do that.

I'm here to share with you that this is not a ministry of Hinton Avenue United Methodist Church, at least not yet.

It is a ministry of more than 75 United Methodist churches in the Charlottesville district.

Hinton Avenue is the one congregation that said we have a building that we're not good stewards of.

and that thing that they're trying to do, why couldn't it happen here?

We have been trying to make this project go for the last three or four years and we are not developers.

We don't know what we're doing.

We are scrabbling and scraping in every way to figure out how to take this vision of ministry that God has given us and to make it real.

We're not trying to build an apartment building.

If we don't get the funding, if we don't get the zoning, we are not going to build an apartment building.

We are trying to provide housing and support for people with intellectual disabilities and as much as it is a financially viable model for as many other people who need affordable housing as we can.

And if we can't do that, we won't do anything.

It's easy to be an armchair quarterback and to say that the way that you put the proposal together and the zoning codes and the this and the that are not the way I would want to see it but frankly we're working within the model that we've got and until we can change that model we have to pull together to do what we can.

I would ask you tonight if you can't vote in support of this proposal what plan will you put forward?

I'm Kate Fincham.

I live at 906 Monticello Avenue.

I've been in the city only four years, came here after retirement and absolutely love it.

And I certainly applaud this endeavor to provide much needed affordable housing for our community.

The one thing I would ask the council to do is your due diligence to make sure that the residents already living in the area

don't suffer too much from things like the parking.

When you talk of perhaps 10 units in that building being marketplace value, they could have as many as four people in a two bedroom.

Could be four cars per unit.

I mean, where do they go?

So I don't know how much those issues

are addressed in the practical side of their proposal.

But I think the council needs to raise those issues.

And the same with the zoning.

Would it be possible to consider the R4 zoning?

My concern with that is would other locations in that vicinity start applying for NCC status to redo their properties?

So that's it.

Thank you.

Good evening, Nancy Carpenter, city resident.

I'm here speaking on behalf of supporting the rezoning for this piece of property.

It took us many decades to get into this position of where people who want to live in the city can't.

People who are living in the city can barely live in the city.

And those who have a lot of money seem to run the city.

So it would be nice to be able to start

at some point to try and rectify the issues with people having affordability and the gentleman's story about his son resonates with me because there are a lot of people out there that I hear they want to know what's going to happen to their adult children and they can no longer help and to have at least four, maybe ten, CSH is well known for their work

with getting LIHTC approved for properties.

This is not their first rodeo, so I have confidence that they could carry through and perhaps get that for this development.

But we do need to start doing it, and it's like ripping a Band-Aid off.

I guess it might hurt a little bit, but once you do it and things begin to heal, it's not so bad.

And this is certainly a population that

does need to have everybody's care and concern about.

And if it's some of the market rate, well, you know, a lot of people aren't buying cars anymore.

That's why this is summertime.

You see all these car sales.

People don't buy cars and trucks like they used to.

So parking and cars and traffic will exist, maybe not there.

Thank you.

Good evening.

My name is Sue Woodson.

My name is on the application, but it is my privilege to represent the United Methodist Church in this endeavor.

My husband and I joined Hinton Avenue Church 25 years ago and we were attracted to this church because at that time I was working as the Community Health Outreach Coordinator for Women's Health Services at the University of Virginia.

The minister of the church at that time came to the organizational meeting and said, I have a very large church in the center of Charlottesville and it is half empty.

I want to open it to the use of the community.

Let's have a health fair there.

And we did.

It was huge.

Many of you may have attended.

At that time, my husband and I thought, we want to be part of people who are concerned for their fellow man, for their neighbors.

And since that time, in this small congregation, we're reminded many times of what Jesus accomplished with only 12 disciples.

We're small but mighty.

Our church currently provides facilities for AA meetings, NA meetings, a closed closet, a soup kitchen for families every Sunday, a food pantry, the Boy Scouts,

Meeting spaces for the local Liberian church.

We are participants in the community ID program.

We are not wealthy.

We find ways to support these programs, not only through our offering, but several members of our community church, of our church organization, join together and purchase the house adjacent to the church.

We use income from that rental to help support.

We also leave space to the International School to help support our church endeavors.

The proud stewards of a wonderful spot of land here in the center of Charlottesville.

We would like to offer it to our community to use for Rachel's Haven to help offer housing for the disadvantaged in our community.

We didn't wake up last night and decide we wanted to put up an apartment project.

We are answering the call that has been placed before us.

We ask that you help us reach that vision.

Everybody that's come out tonight to speak about this church and this apartment have come for the same reason.

All of us have the same reason for being here.

We all love Belmont.

We all want to keep Belmont beautiful, safe, and walkable.

We want the same thing.

The people who are residents want to maintain the peace, quiet and calm that draws them there.

Those people who have disabilities or love people with disabilities want a place that is calm, quiet and safe too.

I know that because I love someone with a developmental disability.

The word developmental disability is not synonymous with intellectual disability.

It's an umbrella word.

It accomplishes a variety of abilities, but a variety of challenges as well.

My son is able to maintain a 3.0 at Piedmont and work in the community, but he's afraid to cross the street.

He is afraid to be alone.

I don't really have to look at my notes.

I know what I want to say.

He needs quiet.

He needs safety, security, and walkability.

Belmont needs that.

We're on the same team.

The best Charlottesville and Belmont can be is all those things and affordable and inclusive and welcoming.

Good evening.

Thank you.

My name's Bob Kreps.

My wife and I are parents of a young adult daughter with autism.

Autism is one of many developmental disabilities representative of the population that the Hinton Avenue Project is planning to serve.

I'm also the leadership chair of the Charlottesville Region Autism Advocacy Group, representing scores of parents and individuals with developmental disabilities, self-advocates, and providers.

Our focus is on finding lifespan solutions to enable individuals with developmental disabilities to lead fulfilling lives in a safe and supportive environment while maximizing their independence and their contribution to society to the best of their ability.

Over the past year, affordable housing advocates have done an excellent job of raising awareness in the community.

Missing from the conversation, however, are the unique needs of individuals with developmental disabilities.

In addition to having low or no income, these individuals are in need of services in a supportive environment where they can lead fulfilling lives safely, side by side, integrated with regular people in the community not having disabilities.

The Hinton Avenue project represents a perfect solution to this challenge.

If approved and replicated by other developer-provider partnerships, it can materially change the lives of many individuals who, through no fault of their own, are in need of supportive services through life's journey.

Over 300 individuals in Charlottesville and the surrounding area are on the wait list for state-supported waiver services.

In addition, there are those who have services that do not have adequate housing and supports due to capacity and affordability issues.

As our parents, our job is to position our children to thrive in life to the best of their ability.

We all strive to do this the best we can until we can't.

And at that point, we wonder what's going to happen when we're gone.

Hidden Avenue Project is a breath of fresh air.

It meets the goals of the comprehensive plan to create more affordable housing and housing for underserved populations.

Developmental disabilities are one such underserved population.

The city is serious about meeting the goals you have set forth.

This project and hopefully others like it in the future must be approved.

Hi.

I live 759 Belmont Avenue.

Good evening.

I am here to read a letter from Shirley Shotwell, a neighbor who's lived in Belmont since 1972.

She's been an advocate for over 15 years and she's seen what happens when this NCC comes in.

She's been there since the beginning NCC was passed.

um she said that um

We had stated that the 815 Hinton Avenue would be a logical endpoint for the NCC, but we in Belmont do not want NCC to grow.

The effect of the NCC here on Douglas Avenue has been terrible.

I've been a resident of Charlottesville since 1972, and the family has a long history of personal financial investment, as many do in the neighborhood, and they've seen it grow, and they've seen their families grow there.

They've also seen the effects of the NCC corridor, mainly because

The companies, the restaurants that have come in have proffered certain things and they are not keeping their word on it.

We've got none of these restaurants offer any parking whatsoever.

We have mostly on-street parking in our neighborhood and this really makes a problem for all of us.

and then, excuse me, and of course there's, I'm not going to go into all the things that they did necessarily.

I will send this around to everyone, their letter from Ms. Shirley.

She's been dealing with the noise in the neighborhood that makes it very difficult for her and other people with children to live in, you know,

Do their homework, get some sleep.

She talks about the other ones, the La Taza Bell Rio, other ones that restaurants, some that are gone now, that have broken all these rules, been very unruly and noisy.

The parking is not only is it a problem, we don't have any handicap parking whatsoever.

And then some of these restaurants have vans that instead of putting in behind their lot,

or like for instance the Junction who built a parking lot, tore down a bunch of trees, built a parking lot, doesn't even use it and parks on Douglas Street.

They also park in front of hydrants.

They never get ticketed.

They come and they ask people in the restaurant to please move their car so they're not getting any kind of fines or

Being punished for it, same thing goes whenever there's a noise problem.

Call the police, they call the restaurant, immediately the noise goes down and by the time they get there, nothing is fine.

All we want, we are for this church, we're for the disabled, we're for these apartments.

We just want it to be an R3, no more NCC.

Allison, it looks like Puffman.

Ma'am, would you like some water?

Got your own water.

It's a long night.

You're calling me Allison Ruffner.

OK. Couldn't read that.

Yeah, sorry.

So my name is Allison Ruffner.

And I actually do now live in the county.

I live in the county because I lived in Belmont for almost 20 years and I had two houses there.

The first one on Douglas and the second house was on Grave Street.

And I left predominantly because of the NCC district.

I am also the daughter of a disabled woman.

She too, while my grandparents faced a lot of the challenges that you heard spoken tonight and I totally understand the concerns of parents with disabled children.

My mother just had two very willful parents and very capable parents and way outperformed and was a school teacher for over 40 years, had three children and is now retired.

And so now we as her children are worried about her.

So I think tonight as I think about what I'd like the council to consider are the goals

and what it is we're actually trying to achieve because while I absolutely support what this church is trying to do, Four Houses seems rather shy, Four Houses.

for residential properties for what is quite a large undertaking and places at risk a community that has suffered a negative impact from a particular districting.

And I think what's really in question here is the districting and why the city uses that and that is the city's goal because the city proffered that or suggested that to achieve their goal

and we have their goal of peace being affected by it.

Now as the daughter of a disabled person, I can tell you my mother did not visit me anymore because it became so unnavigable for anybody that was a disabled.

For her to get there, to do anything, forget it.

So I had to leave so my mom can now visit me.

She can come to my house for dinner.

I can take care of her.

So when you're thinking about what your goals are here, it's not saying don't have something like this.

It's saying how you do it and what you choose to do it has a much wider impact.

And if your goal is to help disabled people, in this case we're talking about

My name is Charles Gendreau.

I'm living at 709 Millivant Avenue.

To begin, please find a better date in the future for this important reasoning matter.

This is the third time important reasoning matters have been rescheduled around July 4.

A little high 814 Hinton NCC flip that NDS and the city assured us was the logical endpoint for the NCC environment.

The failed process reflects a failing system.

It is the same system that the Planning Commission threw up in their hands and decided to trust.

Even through they admitted that zoning was clumsy and stated that they had to work with the tools they had.

However, we all learn in first grade that such diffused and laissez-faire attitude doesn't work.

When your tools don't work, you find better ones, and you work smarter.

As the city assistant stated publicly on April 9th, the city doesn't like to enforce SAPs or zoning.

So how can an advisory or government body sit back and use the excuse of trusting profiles and trusting an NCC system that has failed us for 15 years and more?

Such deconstructural thinking leaves one dumbfardened.

If you had a hammer with no heads, would you keep walking away with the wooden handle?

The NCC only serves the money interest of the restaurants and the city.

It certainly has not served the residents as families.

have their families that have left because of it, and the elderly and neighbors with a disability have suffered as Shirley Sholletta proves.

As you know, there is a clear non-enforcement of profiles by police and certainly by NDS.

We have even been told that profiles in and of themselves may be not enforceable in our states.

That's why we simply cannot want trust, proffers and NCC.

Neighborhood Commercial Corridor Code Definition This is our local law.

The intent of the Neighborhood Commercial Corridor District is to establish a zoning classification for the Fontaine and Belmont commercial areas that recognize their compact nature, their pedestrian orientation, and the small neighborhood nature of the businesses.

All right, thank you.

Kimber Hockey, and we live together at 709 Belmont.

First of all, everything that, again, we don't approve of the project.

It's the zoning.

We want the disabilities put clearly in black and white, as well as all the affordability.

There's been mention of 100% affordability.

Put it in.

Put it in black and white.

We've also suggested people with physical.

problems or elderly be added.

We would love the whole thing to be that way.

But this NCZ zoning that's being pushed, it shows that we're being confronted by outside forces of money in the city.

One thing about speaking up, despite all of this, you know, Mrs. Walker, you recently said that a community member was being sued for defamation and that that defamation apparently equates to asking critical questions.

and being willing to challenge systems.

And you told us, please ask questions of your neighbors and refuse to be silenced.

We are questioning this system.

This system is not working and it hasn't worked for 15 years for people in Belmont.

And if in fact the church cares about neighbors, then do the zoning correctly.

There are alternatives.

Modified R3, R4, I don't know what that is, but do something different that is not going to threaten us and our way of life.

It's that simple.

as far as, for example, parking concern.

There's 27 parking spaces, but there's 15 units.

15 units is not 15 people.

15 units at a minimum is 30 people at one person per bedroom.

It could be 60 people for two people per bedroom or 90 people at three per bedroom.

If you put UVA students in there, they're going to put three people in a bedroom just to be in downtown.

But 27 parking spaces.

When we asked about this kind of thing,

To the applicant, they said there was no way they could control how many people were in a unit.

So there's problems like that that exist.

And so these things have to be addressed.

The application itself, as you read the NCC code, goes against it.

It is not a small lot, it is not compact, and it will have a significant impact.

We are willing to absorb that impact, because again we want housing for disabled.

However, you cannot ask us to take this NCC zoning, especially after the

15 year history that we've gone through with promises.

We've heard all the same things.

Go back and listen to the Planning Commission meeting for the Southern Crescent.

Go back and listen to what the council said to us.

All the promises, Dave Norris, nothing will happen without neighbor input.

They're going to be a model, blah, blah, blah.

Just do it.

And this has not worked.

So we cannot accept the NCC.

Profers haven't worked.

They violated their proffers since day one.

NDS does nothing.

The only reason they started to do something recently is because we caused such an outcry.

The police will not enforce proffers.

There's no one to call at NDS after five o'clock at night.

We've asked them for their personal phone numbers.

They won't give them to us.

So this has to stop here.

We hired a lot of you here specifically, Natalie or you specifically as well, to change this paradigm.

Thank you.

Gary Bibb from Albemarle County.

I'd like to welcome all you new people to Belmont.

Dang, it's good to have you here.

I was raised in Belmont.

I was born, 1950, on Little Grave Street.

I took papers, most to the houses you guys live in, but I don't remember any of you living there then.

The reality is, Belmont hadn't really changed.

Monticello Road is still packed with cars.

Downtown Belmont has expanded by one house, Southern Crescent.

It was always a commercial district right there.

And it's really nicer now than it was back in the 60s.

No, I don't.

It was my choice.

And in the 70s,

Most of the people who went to Hinton Avenue United Methodist Church decided it was their choice to leave as well.

It was not a great place to live.

And I am so happy to see that things that have happened in our city, downtown, the vibrance of Belmont, which makes all y'all's real estate increase in value,

You know, it's been good, and we do appreciate your concerns.

It comes from proffers that are not being profitably enforced.

That's not our problem.

You know, that's you guys' jobs.

So we ask you to take the opportunity that is now before you.

that you can take real estate that's free, we're giving the real estate away, we're giving it for a purpose where there's a huge need for a great reason and it's a ministry.

This is not driven by money at all.

So I hope that you'll make the right decision, and I appreciate your concerns with the zoning, but I don't honestly understand all that.

I just know that Charlottesville has rules that makes it very difficult to do certain things, and you don't mean to make it that way.

You try to make the rules right, try to make the laws right, it's just that not everything fits.

and nice little cubby holes.

So we ask you, take this opportunity to fill this need for housing for disabled people, affordable housing.

Good evening.

I'm Eleanor Biasioli.

I live at 622 Evergreen Avenue, and I'm a joint owner of a rental property at 813 Belmont Avenue since 1992.

I attended the meeting at Hinton Church.

It was the Thursday before the planning commission meeting that we had this month.

I was there to find out more information and two questions I had when I heard they were applying for some kind of tax credits or some way of being able to finance this.

So I said, who is going to own the apartments after they're built?

Will they be owned by the church?

Will they be owned by the nonprofit?

Or are they going to be jointly owned?

And I was told that they didn't know at that point.

So the whole question of, I'm bringing this up because I think we need to ask those kind of questions rather than find out about it down the road.

So that was one issue I had.

Who's the owner, because we were hearing that the Methodist Church will be guarantee of this property down the roads.

Is it just the church that they guarantee or is there something in this financing that's going on?

that doesn't give them control over the apartments, that they have the right to do, that something else is not going to get in the way.

The second question I asked was, because the woman from the nonprofit was there that night, and she's going to be handling the application process and getting people for the apartments.

And I asked her, I said, well, how are you going to go about selecting them?

How will you know what their disability is?

Because there's so many different disabilities and the vision is to have the developmentally disabled there.

So I was shocked when she said, I'm not going to be asking them what their disability is.

They don't write it down what their disability is.

It's not part of the application process.

Well, I have two nephews that are in assisted housing.

One's in his late 40s, the other's in his 50s.

They'll be living in housing for the rest of their lives.

And so I've sat in on their IEP meeting.

So I know a lot of you know that an IEP stands for an Individual Education Plan.

And I thought, wow, you need to have an Individual Education Plan on all of these people that you're admitting to know how you're going to deal with.

What are their needs in here?

I'm not going to ask what their disability is.

So I asked Kim Crater, I said, so it possibly could happen that there's not going to be any developmentally disabled people.

That's a possibility in these four.

And she said that might happen.

So the next morning, that was Friday, I called the phase on residents.

That's the model that they're using for this housing project.

It's down in Richmond, it's 45.

An extensive application process.

They require the IEP.

They require tons of information.

They know it all.

They have a committee that sits down and evaluates who gets into the housing.

Thank you.

Thank you.

My name is Frank Biasioli.

I live at 622 Evergreen Avenue and I'm a part owner of a property in Belmont as well.

I would like to say that I also, as so many people, I believe everybody here tonight is in favor of the vision that Hinton Avenue Methodist Church has.

But there are serious problems with the zoning that's in there and I think that's a problem that needs to be addressed by the Councillors, the Planning Department and the Zoning Department.

Why, the real serious question is why was so much effort pushed into using a zoning option

and not just simply a zoning option but comprised with proffers that were given under duress.

Brian Haluska said that he would not have voted in favor of the project if they had not surrendered commercial activity there.

I really think that, and my wife has raised other issues about how there's still issues still to be resolved that they're being promised but can't be promised because the sufficient information is not yet available.

So I think that the best thing to do, I'm recommending strongly that you step back and have the church step back, help you work through a zoning that's appropriate for the Hinton Avenue project, and realize that church attendance in this country has gone down significantly in the last 50 years, 30 years particularly, but it was likely to continue.

The viability of churches is likely to go down.

They're going to need to do something.

They're changing their vision to probably something like going on in Hinton Avenue.

I don't think we want to sprinkle

Commercial zoning for churches throughout the city because we have not developed appropriate residential zoning for properties like this or for projects like this.

And the church has made promises that they will, even if they failed, that their director or the conference will take over and commit to that.

All I can say about promises, you get promises if you see what's happened in the prior zoning area on Hinton Avenue.

Lots of promises were made.

My perspective on promises is that promises are to be forgotten and that proffers are to be gained.

The proffers that have been given down in the other place on Hinton Avenue have been violated so repeatedly.

Directly and it's so hard to get them address the proffers that I have real questions that proffers is well to go.

I think a new purchaser of this property will look at it and say these proffers were so restricted my ability as a commercial owner to do anything here that and they would

Thank you.

Good evening.

My name is Kristin Sakus.

I live on Otter Street in the city and I'm here as a parent of an adult child with developmental disabilities who lives in Chesterfield County two hours away because there's so little affordable supported housing in Charlottesville.

I'm here as a former city councilor who served on the housing advisory committee and helped to craft the city's strategic plan and comprehensive plan.

particularly the parts around affordability.

And I'm here as a neighbor, a person who cares about this community and what we believe in.

I know that this community believes in and our comprehensive plan specifically calls for housing affordability at all income levels, including for underserved populations.

And we believe in being and our strategic plan specifically calls us to be an inclusive, self-sufficient community.

This project embodies those values, and I hope that you will support it, as the Planning Commission has recommended, because in the words of the ordinance before you, public necessity, convenience, general welfare, and good zoning practice require it.

This project will provide at least four units of housing for adults with developmental disabilities, a population that is woefully under-housed in our community.

And with the addition of low-income housing tax credits, it's likely to provide even more.

Disability payments don't provide enough to rent an unsubsidized apartment in Charlottesville.

And so people are forced to live in other parts of the state, far from the supports of family and friends.

We all live in this community.

We are all neighbors.

The people who will be able to live in these apartments and won't have to leave town and all their support systems in order to find a place to live.

are our neighbors.

Their families and friends who will be able to provide supports for their loved ones close to home are our neighbors.

And the people who care about affordable housing for people with developmental disabilities are our neighbors.

What happens in one neighborhood affects us all, and what's being proposed in this neighborhood could make this a better community for everyone.

Hinton Avenue United Methodist Church doesn't just serve the people who live within a quarter mile of the church building.

With this project, they are asking, along with the lawyer in the Bible, who is my neighbor?

And like that lawyer, they have discovered that the correct answer is the one who had mercy on the person in need.

Hi, good evening.

My name is Josh Karp and I am pretty afraid of public speaking, so forgive me for being nervous.

I've lived in town about six years and I'd like to continue living here if we can afford to do that.

I think you've already heard enough good reasons to support the proposal unanimously, but I'd like to add one more.

which is that housing policy is also climate policy.

I believe you all care sincerely about reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.

And if we don't build more multi-family dwellings that are walkable, that are central to downtown, we cannot possibly achieve the kinds of goals that you all supported earlier tonight.

If my family is priced out of town, for example, we'll move into the county, we'll buy another car, we'll drive every day.

and will live in a bigger place than we would otherwise.

So I don't think it is possible both to support the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and to oppose the development of more dense multi-family dwellings.

And I'd like to just comment, I've heard a lot of criticism.

I've heard a lot of fear, uncertainty, and doubt tonight about this project.

What I haven't heard is alternatives.

And if you claim to support the development of more affordable housing, supportive housing,

Hi, my name is Matthew Gillican, I live at 726 Orange Dale, and I'd like to go on the record as saying I'd prefer for Kawhi Leonard to go to the Lakers.

My man.

It's a one year option.

You're a good graces.

A little more serious.

I've worked for the last 13 years with people with developmental disabilities in different capacities.

I worked at a group home in North Carolina for two years.

I worked doing respite care for people with autism.

And I've worked for the last five plus years as a speech therapist.

I currently work at UVA Hospital.

And something I've observed over the years working with these folks is that it takes usually three things to make it so that someone with a person with a developmental disability does well.

It takes parents who advocate for them.

It takes community members who partner with the parents in that advocacy.

And it takes people in position of power to move the levers to make their lives better.

We've already got a group of people who've come together to support parents and people with developmental disabilities.

Now the ball's in your court.

You're the people who are holding the levers of power right now.

NCC zoning is not great.

It doesn't fit well.

Our zoning code in general is kind of a piece of trash.

We've got to make the best we can with what we've got, though.

This seems to be, for this property at this time, the only way to move forward.

These parents, people with developmental disabilities, this is a situation they find themselves in all the time.

Our society is not set up for them.

They do not have health care options.

that work out well for them.

They don't have housing options that work out well for them.

They don't have transportation options that work out well for them.

This is an opportunity to provide housing for them in a way that's meaningful with a supportive community and a great location.

I hope that you all support it.

Thank you.

Timothy, maybe Morton.

Can't really read the last name.

Timothy, Morton, Martin.

No?

OK. Deb Jackson?

Deb Jackson?

Mark Cabot.

I want to be sure everyone understands that opposition to this project is not about the intended use.

It's about the NCC zoning and an impact it can cause to neighbors.

One only needs to look at last week's NDS report on the zoning violations of Southern Crescent to understand the neighbors' concern of NCC.

I'm also going to make sure that everyone on this council as well as the media gets a copy of that report in case you haven't seen it yet.

At that meeting, it was decided that the restaurant was in violation of proffers, probably been for many, many years.

What action did NDC take?

Southern Crescent was told to do a new application that they may be charged double what the application normally is as a penalty.

This amounts to a slap on the wrist.

and you wonder why the neighborhood is upset.

My mother was a real estate broker.

One of the things I remember her teaching me is that when it involves real estate, make sure your I's are dotted and your T's are crossed and that it's in writing.

This is being left to good intentions.

You must remember that the zoning stays with the property and no matter who the owner is in the future.

There are developers who are currently challenging profits on the land that they have purchased.

This notably is in Northern Virginia and even Albemarle County by Window Wood.

The General Assembly of Virginia is aware of the need for change and actively considering making changes.

These changes will have no effect on the current profits already in place, only future ones.

Moss from Quality Pie recommended that a letter of ethical intent may help in solving some, but not all, of these concerns.

Items that could be addressed as intended use of the property while under control of the church.

Quality, quiet HVAC system, dumpsters, lighting, number of people living per unit, just to name a few, and also maybe a review by BAR.

Planning Commissioner Mr. Alejandro at the Planning Commission mentioned that the NCC zoning, I'm quoting him now, was the best that they had to deal with with this request.

What was needed was a different zoning for Hinton Church plus others that will probably follow in the quotes.

Let's give him the tools to work with.

Let's give the board the tools to work with.

We have been spending too many years with the zoning that we all know needs to be redone.

It's time to stop shuffling our feet on this.

Lately we've been waiting for the new city manager to come here.

Well, we have the new city manager and we need to get the comprehensive plan done.

It's time to get this done.

Neighborhood Development has known about this issue for about three years for this church and nothing has been brought forward to kind of meet their needs.

You all have the power to do this.

You could have it done by the next meeting that you all have.

All right, that's the last person who's signed up.

Hi, my name is Sarah Williamson.

I will be brief.

I live at 338 Monticello Road.

I am a property owner and resident of Belmont.

I live with my family in sight of the church.

And I am here tonight in support of this proposal.

I wrote a short email to the planning commission before they also brought it forward approving it.

I was also personally in support of this project when it did have some previously submitted limited commercial use proffers.

I'm hopeful now that city council and my neighborhood will be supportive of this project moving forward with the more restrictive proffers in place for non-residential use.

I would like to see that there have been a number of other people speaking for my neighborhood who do not speak for me.

I grew up in Charlottesville.

When I moved back with my family, I moved to Belmont partly because of its character, which is not that of grandiose single family houses.

I moved because of the Belmont market.

I moved because there are already pre-existing small apartment buildings and mixed density

Situations, that is the character of the neighborhood as I see it.

I see this project very much in line with that.

I also am very much in support of an increased density of neighbors at low and extremely low income and also with developmental disabilities.

Ang Khan, City of Charlottesville, Belmont, homeowner.

I am here in favor of the Hinton project.

One, what I've seen here today by the people who are opposing is that they're executing their privilege.

They're seeing this project as an inconvenience to them, which is not the case, right?

We cannot have parking, right?

I don't care.

You can just not talk to me.

How about that?

Parking.

The church has ample parking, correct?

Correct.

Right.

And so with the parking that the church has, that can be utilized, right, during various times of day.

I don't see an issue with that.

The idea about what type of complexities the folks who are going to be living there have is not

relevant, right?

If you're going to help somebody, you're just going to help them, right?

You don't have to know the degree of their complexities to help.

So I am in favor of the project, and I just want you all to also be in favor of that project as a Belmont homeowner.

I think the reason we're here tonight is because

And what's your name again?

Eugenio Scatini.

I am a property owner in Belmont and I've been living in the city for over 35 years.

And I think the reason we're here tonight is because of the complete failure of our own zoning.

That the church wants to do something very noble and honorable with their property and the best they can do is to take the nearest zoning NCC and totally butcher it

in a good way to suit their needs and creating, in fact, a whole new zoning of an R4 since I think an R3 already exists.

So there is no R4.

So they're creating a new zoning to suit their needs out of the NCC, out of the carcass of the NCC.

So I assume that the city council, their authority can work some kind of

agreement ordeal with the church and with the Belmont people that you can create a new zoning that will affect that they can build their property or their project and also takes the commercial aspect of the NCC out.

That is what we're mostly concerned about is the commercial aspect about future development in the area and turning Hinton Avenue and possibly a commercial corridor.

I like to think of it as a Doppler effect.

that once you drop the coin in a pool of water the ripples start coming out and then all the adjacent properties will be forced or pressured into converting into NCC.

Until the new comprehensive plan comes out and maybe shed some new direction, right now it's an open game as to

developers coming in and seizing that opportunity and creating other NCC zones.

So that's what we're fear of is the expansion of the NCC to include all of Hinton Avenue.

So that's all I have to say.

I'm Julia Williams.

I live on 751 Belmont Avenue, right behind the church.

And I do think many people in the community who are supporting the church are not understanding the neighbor's issue.

It is not with the church's mission.

It is with what the city has available as tools that, as Eugene said, would just be butchered to make this project happen.

So I support previous statements about that.

Also, using the Planning Commission and their vote as a justification to me is a little faulty.

They are not professional planners.

In fact, they themselves said they didn't have the right tools.

So it isn't a compelling argument to then go ahead and pass it because, again, they're

Well, they're not professionals, and that kind of leads me to this.

I think the city needs to be compelled to move as quickly as you can to get a long range planner on board, to get consultants you need to give you professional criticism of options, to gather community input, get this comprehensive plan working, get, what's the other piece of it, the housing strategy going, and let's get this 2003 zoning ordinance updated.

It is ridiculous and it's embarrassing.

One specific point about the proffers.

Well, maybe two.

Proffer five says the city may require any site plan for any multifamily building proposed on the site to adhere to the vehicle ingress and egress.

Two things.

What does legal language mean when it says the city may require?

It seems a little bit ambivalent.

Also, why would we limit this right now?

Wouldn't ingress on Hinton help with traffic flow and also help with traffic calming?

So I think there's some things about the proffers that might need to be more seriously considered and maybe it's, I don't know how you deal with that because if you're going to proffer it, it's now

I'm quiet and you don't have the opportunity in site plan review to change it, so I'm a little skeptical with that.

And proffer seven, it says the 10 foot maximum, but isn't that already part of the zoning?

Why do you need to say 10 foot maximum?

It's already in there.

And then is there a way for the city, if we only have this tool and we can't move forward otherwise, and it is done under duress and possibly makes the proffers vulnerable, can the city do something, can the attorney do something to support the community

so that we know NCC will not become this, you know, to spread all throughout the neighborhood because it is definitely, we lose housing stock from that.

Good evening.

God bless you all for what you're trying to do.

God bless you all.

I have a question about the shelf life of the offer of affordable housing.

I have heard it brought up in meeting after meeting

that there is a lifespan of an offer of affordable housing.

Sometimes it's six years, sometimes it's 10 years.

Is this offer of affordable housing in perpetuity or is there a shelf life?

Good evening Councilman and Chair Walker.

I am Lois Sandy.

I live in Albemarle County and have lived in the Charlottesville area since 1970.

So I'm one of the very senior members of this room, I'm sure.

I lived in Charlottesville City off JPJ for the first three years we were in Charlottesville.

Moved to the county because that was affordable housing to us.

Raised our children there and worked for the city schools for 25 years.

I'm moved to speak because

During those first three years in Charlottesville, I was a CNY nurse.

I had the Belmont area.

I had a hundred families that I followed in Orange Dale, which was supposed to be a nice new integrated community that turned out to be 90% black, 10% white.

The Belmont area that I followed, patients, families that I visited in the Belmont area were in housing that was rather dilapidated even then.

Along Garrett Street, just south of the city proper, there were outdoor toilets.

So over the years, I've seen enormous improvement in the Charlottesville City appearance.

We have a long way to go in relationships.

One thing I am is an optimist.

I have seen good things happen in the Belmont area and the best thing that could happen would be for this council to approve housing for people who can't speak for themselves.

And the positive outlook I have is that people in the neighborhood will be surprised and proud when the project is complete.

Last I want to say is

This Rachel's Haven effort initiative is asking for rezoning.

It's not asking for millions of dollars.

In fact, it's not asking council for a penny, as I understand it.

Am I correct?

I think I am.

So it's to me, to the benefit of all, for the city council to approve the zoning.

Is there anyone else who would like to speak?

All right, council.

Mayor Walker, can I ask the city attorney some questions?

Could you please, Mr. Blair,

And with the surrounding properties, being able to use the NCC designation.

The difference between R4 and NCC, yes.

Okay.

A few things to go over.

First, concerning proffer five, I know somebody mentioned that the language includes the word may.

The reason that's in there is that it is possible once the site review is complete that that proffer may not

You know, depending on the site plan, it's possible there may be another vehicular ingress and egress rather than the one spelled out in Chapter 5 that would be legally required.

Again, that's more site specific that we can't address right now, but the reason the word may is there is to provide some latitude in case there are issues during the site plan process.

Counselor Galvin, you raise a question that's been asked and commented on a lot tonight.

Zoning is the properties are found within a zone and then there are uses within each zone and each specific property has a zoning classification and they are also pointed out in the comprehensive plan land use map.

The zoning classification is the actual law and I know there's been a lot of questions tonight about that in terms of enforceability.

There's a Virginia Supreme Court case from 2001 called Jefferson Green Unit Owners Association v. Quinn.

That's the first time the Virginia Supreme Court said in black and white, proffers are in fact part of the zoning ordinance.

It makes that exact statement.

Proffers become part of the zoning ordinance.

So proffers do carry the effect of law.

to the mayor's question about other properties around this.

Let's say there's a rezoning tonight to NCC rather than its current zoning designation.

That does not affect the other property's zoning designation around that property.

What would have to occur for those properties to be rezoned is the applicant, just like Rachel's Haven, would need to file a zoning map amendment and then they would come before the Planning Commission and the Council.

I think, you know, practicing land use law, understanding the process, it is worth noting

to some of the concerns.

While each property comes before you for a rezoning, one element that can be used in a rezoning as far as argument or persuasion is to say, well, you rezoned this property on Hinton Avenue to NCC.

I'm right next door.

Why won't you rezone my property to NCC?

and the council simply has to have a rational basis to say we rezoned Hinton United Methodist Church to NCC, but we're not going to rezone your property to NCC.

And as long as there's some reason that's rational and the Virginia Supreme Court calls that fairly debatable, you're on solid legal ground not to rezone to NCC.

Concerning, R4 zoning does not exist in our city code.

R3 is what exists for possible multifamily rezonings.

Mr. Holuska wrote a memo that was included in your packet.

It's worth noting that R3 zoning, if a property is rezoned that it does, educational facilities and daycare facilities are by right in an R3.

zoning.

So you take a piece of property, you rezone it to R3, daycare facility can come there and legally buy right established business there without any further special use permit.

I do want to go over, I know there's been some talk about, well, these proffers state proffer number four

All nonresidential uses, other than educational facilities and daycare facilities, which are not accessory to a house of worship or to residential uses located on the subject property, shall be prohibited on the subject property.

and you've heard tonight some individuals who have concerns about the enforcement of the zoning ordinance in the Belmont neighborhood.

But it is worth pointing out that in addition to zoning administrator enforcing the proffer, if the concern is well

These proffers aren't being enforced.

Any business in NCC could just pop up on the church property.

Well, Section 14-11 of the City Code talks about business licenses.

And in fact, the Commissioner of the Revenue, when they are

When they are approving business licenses, they have to in fact check the zoning classification.

So I think in that instance, let's say this was rezoned to NCC and somebody wanted to open up a business on this particular property.

I think the Commissioner of Revenue would check with the zoning administrator to say, hey, are there any issues with zoning?

And if there's a proffer that says all non-commercial uses are prohibited, then in fact, they wouldn't get a business license from the Commissioner of Revenue.

So that's an additional aspect to this beyond the zoning administrator enforcement.

Thank you.

Well, that's

Typically, I think, well, you know, in terms of legally can it be included, there are two different aspects to that.

I think there's the enforcement aspect to disability and that was a concern as to, yes, at that point, once you start to inquire under the Fair Housing Act, that then can become

illegal once you start to inquire about an individual's status, whether it's disability, an arresting case out of Loudoun County last week about the size of a family.

I know the Virginia Attorney General is now trying, because somebody was trying to move in a large family in a parcel in Loudoun County, they're trying to enforce the Virginia Fair Housing Act to say you can't ask about the size of a family.

in terms of the Fair Housing Act.

And I will just say briefly that I hear the concerns about parking.

That's an issue that we are struggling with across the city.

Also recently, I sent an email to Dr. Richardson

from a question I've asked in the past but recently was asked to me by Ms. Teresa Price about where has all the affordable housing money gone in the past and wanting to know where those units were and how we were monitoring.

whether developers were actually keeping in line with what they submitted during these requests.

So know that is something that we are working on overall for developments and understanding that it's going to have to be a key to make sure that the strategy new comprehensive plan that once they are in

in effect that we are holding people accountable to the best of our ability.

Madam Mayor, I guess I have questions for the church or it might be for the representatives from there about the finances of the project.

OK. And thank you.

And thank you, everybody.

This is going to be a few things that have had this many people show up.

So I want to understand, because there's a moral argument that's being made to us, which is that there's

There's a moral push behind this whole project and I've been to impact meetings and we've heard this kind of thing in the past.

So I just want to, and we've acted on a lot of this, so I just want to understand a little bit more.

So the part of the project that is the four units for developmentally disabled folks, I totally understand.

Then there's the part that will be four to six units that will be affordable 80% or maybe lower depending on whether there's LIHTC credits that you successfully get.

And those are different blocks.

Well, no.

So we intend to have four to six units for people with developmental disabilities and if

as we've proffered four units that are affordable.

Okay.

So then there will be, what I want to understand is the 11 market rate units.

So if this were

Well, our intention is to apply for low income housing tax credits and not have to apply for a loan.

If we apply for low-income housing tax credits, we're hoping, as I said in my presentation, that all of the units will be affordable, all 15, even though we're only proffering four.

But that depends on the low-income housing tax credits.

And because we haven't applied and we haven't received them, we feel like we couldn't guarantee anything.

Yeah.

I mean, what I want to understand is what's the goal?

So if you look at the finances, the pro forma of this entire project, is there a scenario where there's income on top of it balancing out so that you can do the units for the development of disabled folks where there's extra revenue that's going into the church's

on top of what is supporting the development of disabled, or is it intended to be affordable housing forever?

And is that really, is that the goal?

Or is part of what it's doing supporting the church's mission through revenue, which would be understandable.

Churches do this all the time.

They do developments, but they're two different things.

If what we're being asked to do is support

The church's ability to finance lots of other things the church does, which would be perfectly fine.

Okay, now I understand what you're asking.

Yes, this would not be an income stream for the church.

The only financial benefit that the church is looking to get from this project

So are the finance, I mean this is why sometimes you would look at a pro forma of this and you would see the finances to try to understand like what, why couldn't irrespective of LIHTC, why couldn't those just be low income apartments forever?

Like all, all 15 or.

Yeah.

Um, we haven't figured out how to financially make that possible.

And let me add, as Pastor Robert has said, that we are a church.

We've never done this before.

So I may have to call on my helper here.

I'm a social worker by background.

So some of these words, I don't even understand what you're saying.

But I do understand mortgages and that

We can't have them all be affordable if we don't get the low-income housing tax credits.

But if they're affordable rents, I'm not sure.

These are pretty normal questions to ask.

It would say, at the very worst, if the revenue that was coming in to pay for the project was just low income rents.

It was 15 low-income housing units that the church wanted to build, which is awesome.

That would be the revenue that would pay for the construction costs on land that's vacant right now.

Maybe it would work.

So I think that's an important question because we're being asked to get involved in a project that not only is doing the four units for developing disabled folks, which everybody agrees should happen.

There's a whole other piece here, which is are they – anyway, I think I've been clear.

That's a piece of information that I would like to have, but I may not be –

I guess I have a question, too, to follow up on Councilor Signer.

Yes.

And we saw the letters, they came in, so thank you very much.

And that was my understanding that that was your developer partner.

And I did meet with Kim and another member of her congregation, and I did ask for these kinds of letters so that we had something to go on.

So that's just full disclosure.

Who is going to be, now this application puts the church as the owner of the property.

Is this going to continue to be the owner of this project?

I may need to get Pastor Robert to help me with that question, if it gets complicated.

And if I can, I'll get my district superintendent to speak.

OK.

Yeah.

My understanding is that all Methodist Church property is held by the local congregation in trust for the entire denomination.

with the intent that, say, we have a theological dispute, get angry.