City Council Meeting   2/5/2007

I'm sorry to put you to sleep.

Maybe it'll wake you up actually.

I mean whether the question of proffers actually is covered by the agenda item, which I read old Lynchburg Road period.

But why don't you make the rest of your comments now?

Thank you.

Yes, sir.

I appreciate it.

Any other public comment?

and other council wants to give direction to our staff on that issue.

if this situation was reversed and I think that they would take that response and hopefully putting themselves in our shoes, they'll understand that we've got to work together to get this thing done, that our neighborhoods are just as important as their neighborhoods and we've got to get a substantial percent of the biscuit run proffers onto that Sunset Fontaine connector and we've got to get those commitments and we do have to get those done soon because the developers push in to get that project through.

Other comments?

And then five, as an ancillary issue, I think it's very important that we move forward with the improvements at that Cherry and Wellard intersection as well.

So that's what I think.

That's kind of where I am.

I just want you to be assured that we're listening.

If anything's going to get built though, our immediate experience ought to tell us no road's going to get built unless we push awfully hard for it.

I heard several people refer to it as the last resort, which makes me think we might not be ready to do that today.

The Granger and the Biscuit Run.

Fonte and expansion Granger and Biscuit Run or Biscuit Run and Granger?

Biscuit Run and Granger, but it's two different developers.

and I'm sorry, could you just go over our decision points?

Is that, Mr. Tolbert, sum up what you need from us?

I think so.

But beyond that, I think what we really need as a city, we need to see substantial monies set aside for the building of the Fontaine Sunset Connector.

If that means the county, it can escrow some of that money.

I would agree with that too.

I think we need to discuss it.

So, you know, if you want to follow that logic, you know, based on what's been submitted, maybe it's, you know, it's to go with the one and a half million, the 150,000 and then whatever number we can talk about for

That's correct.

Let me address what I think Mr. Moody might be really getting at is this issue of proffers in our discussion of proffers and whether or not they were noticed and I could ask if the...

I mean couldn't we simply as a fact of the matter bring that up if we decide that this is out of order on this agenda item we can bring it up under other business at the end of the meeting tonight?

Okay, thank you.

Nor has there been any discussion about it.

They come to the Planning Commission.

It's the County Planning Commission that was pushing to get those from us.

That's all fine, but again, I'm a little concerned that here we are a good three months after the proffers were initially put forward by the developer.

items based on the traffic study.

And to be fair, if you hadn't written that letter, would it be safe to say that there might be no discussion among the county planning commissioners as to giving proffers to the city?

I don't think they think of that on their own.

Why don't we give some to the city?

They've never come to us before and asked them.

I think the other thing is, I mean, when we have proffers, do we ever have a public hearing so the public can weigh in on to the proffers?

Again, that's when they're done at the Planning Commission public hearing.

But that's after they've already been offered.

There's some adjustment in the law that we haven't had to use yet, but we can do that.

Has the developer agreed to a certain amount of money?

I've had conversations with them where I've been led to believe that there would be some on the table for us but nothing specific.

I just don't agree with the conclusions that you came to in the solution.

You have a clear direction on that?

Yes, sir.

Also reflect.

I'd like to see if there's some consensus around the idea of maybe not tonight, but, you know, passing a resolution to that effect, making it very clear, you know, to the county where this isn't just lip service.

you know we have the PAC meeting February 15th where on the agenda is the area B road and so hopefully we can start getting some clear indication from their policymakers on exactly what their desires are and their intents are.

Hopefully we'll be in a better spot to deal with this in a month from now.

is something that's real, so if that's the principle, we'll.

I think we could roll through these pretty quickly, actually, at least the next two.

I think there are the next two or one minute discussions.

Yeah, let's just go.

Okay, Ms. Mueller, I'm sorry.

And I hope that you will agree with this easement so we can help the day trails solve their problems.

Any questions?

You answered the only question I had, which is why this is even in front of us, because it crosses our land by the reservoir.

We have the property open.

Next item is to abandon the water line easement in Huntley subdivision.

It does require a public hearing and it's before you tonight for a first reading.

Is there a motion?

Approval of abandonment of the easement.

Ms. Scala.

Band is here.

Discussion?

Okay, just checking.

I think that enough due diligence has been done here that the applicant has a good case for the removal of the tree.

Am I correct, sir?

They didn't respond to it at that time.

I move that we permit the applicant to remove the tree.

Was that the suggestion Ms. Gallo, that we include that in the motion?

Are you offering that Mr. Lynch?

And then I'll second your motion.

Alrighty.

And the next is a special use permit for the homeless day shelter, Ms. Cooper.

I'm happy to answer any questions you might have or any of the applicant's representatives.

I only have one question which is one that I asked when we put City Money into Compass in the first place and that is what is the group going to be able to do to measure outcomes and how will we know that the center is in effect functioning successfully as we hope it will be?

There's no question that will be necessary, not only for fundraising, but also for communicating and letting people know what's happening at complex.

the people in Charlottesville are again concerned that we don't become too much of an attractor for the region.

to recovery and to where their home aborts and if they are traveling.

You're welcome.

And we're going to do as much as we can to keep that professional and out in the open and direct contact with the police force, with the city and with other other agencies as well.

Sure.

but there is some erratic behavior with these people of course and so we can't measure that exactly but we're assuming a 30 to 125 monthly and over the course of the year anywhere from 125 to 250 clients.

And can you discuss your process for screening?

no weapons, no drugs, no alcohol and several other things which have come into play and we're going to also have a strict intake and another door once you come into the main door there will be a room where a case assessment will be possible and then there will be another door into campus so there will be several staging areas for our protection.

What type of insurance are you required to carry for your licensure procedures?

I'll be happy to forward that information to you or to anyone who would like to know.

Are there licensure requirements?

No.

No licensure?

Any case management will be happening in another part of the building or another agency.

Are there no state requirements in terms of how much staff you have or how many people you can serve at a time or anything like that, other than like building code issues?

No, building code will be one, but other than that, no.

And so you'll be keeping metrics on that, right?

and in relation to the HMIS system, the homeless management intake system, which is up and coming, and we hope to be a big part of that as time goes, which will make it much easier.

So just to talk for a second about your business plan, you're anticipating a $155,000 annual budget.

Yes, for operating.

It's possible.

We have many grants out at this point.

And so is that, that's not city related CDBG funding, is that something that would be competing with what the city does or you would be getting through the city?

No, there's two different revenue streams as far as I understand it.

Are you commenting on that?

I know there's state and federal shelter grants, I'm not sure if that's referring to the state and federal shelter grants which are a separate revenue stream that do fund day centers for the homeless.

And how much can those grants be?

I believe AIDS Services Group gets some.

Do you anticipate asking us for some ongoing?

All that's been, everything that's appropriate in there that says City of Charlottesville is directly from the $25,000 grant.

So this is just from that one-time grant?

Yes.

We hope not to.

We are in the process of applying for long-term grants, and in my estimation, we won't need to.

because they have to have a sense that, and I would encourage that that discussion be sooner rather than later that the county have a feeling like this is a homeless shelter that's benefiting the bigger community including Albemarle County and it's not just the city's program, the city's shelter and if there's any financial issues, well that's a city problem because I think that would be, and I would bet if we look on your board of directors that we'd find a substantial number of county residents and county people.

And so, you know, there needs to be, I think, a thoroughgoing airing of all the issues and also some attempt to deal with the concerns that have been raised.

And the third thing I throw out there is what will happen if we don't do this.

In fact, there is someone who would like to set up a temporary library, rotating books in there.

We'll have recreation.

I love being in the library and that people are going to find there's certain amenities that the shelter offers but there's lots of other things that the downtown still offers that people would rather be hanging out in the park or hanging out on the benches in the mall or hanging out in the library instead of being in the shelter.

The food bank might be in their region 10 on their own, path programs, coming into the building, meeting people where they are at the crossroads rather than trying to find people who are wandering around.

I mean, any contingency plans that you have to deal with the emergencies, that sort of thing?

So with those two goals in mind, we hope to find and create the best place we possibly can.

Will you be getting any information about where your clients are from?

Once they come in, we hope to have a very clear, very simple, but very clear intake system so we can get as much information as possible and start to create some responses so we know who's coming, where they're coming from, what they need, and how we can best serve them.

But the reality is that people are already here.

In other words, we have to be able to take care of our own without making it too easy.

If you could sort of talk about that a little bit.

That would be the ultimate success is to no longer have the means.

Because you have found homes or because you have found these situations or counseling or whatever.

We can only hope that won't happen.

What would be evidence that things were not working or not working as you had desired?

Are we considering that failure?

Discussion?

I move approval of the special use permit and thank you for spending this time with us.

Thank you.

Is there a second?

Call for the vote.

Is this?

It's one reading.

One reading.

Resolution.

If things don't work out at the center, then...

You can revoke that.

Could the owner of the line come and ask for a change?

The subsequent owner could come and have it and take it backwards if they wanted to ask us to do it.

Your authority to revoke it is dependent upon a violation of any of the conditions or failure.

So the shelter itself can only be in the basement and that the entrance will be on Market Street and not on the side street.

Could you please just, yes.

They're rebuilding efforts.

Another condition is to require continued outreach to the community and continued dialogue with the community, which is something that the applicants already committed to doing.

knocked himself out to talk to people.

Particularly, you know, parents at the school who may not necessarily even be city residents.

psychological oppressed.

No, I'm not going to college, just measuring success.

I mean, this situation will offer much more than the library does.

Jim, do you have a feeling for how the numbers in the library have changed over the last year or two years or three years?

The census was done last week.

And that census, did it indicate where people were from?

I don't know the figures on that, I just thought for life for the first time.

Someone want to?

We do have a copy on the note.

This is a survey from last week, January 24th, so… Forty percent are outside of our… No, thirty-nine percent call Charlottesville home that says sixty-one percent are from the, within the planning district.

which I guess is including Charlottesville too and then there's another group outside of that.

There's a 40% that have come to this region from West Virginia or from groundwater or Richmond.

But anyway, I rushed up because I wanted to clarify something about informing the public and particularly the downtown public because it's really, Eric particularly,

You don't really know exactly where all your monies can come from after the initial three years, but you have a lot of good people on your board and that means a lot, but I think it's, you know, that's where my concerns come from is kind of just saying, you know, I want to see an organization that's going to do a good job and I hope that it's not going to, you know, we're not going to find ourselves with a growing homeless problem because we are making it an attractive place to be homeless.

A way to get people to their home of origin if they do come from another state.

We have meals daily and we have

I think, like Mayor Culprit, is the fact that it's becoming increasingly hard to afford housing here and so people who are working the minimum wage jobs and low wage jobs are ending up out on the streets.

I don't disagree and I'm prepared to support it.

Yeah, 61% were within the planning district.

They may not be.

Okay.

Then I'll call for the vote again.

And I'm standing.

Jim Tolbert.

Good morning, Mr. Tolbert.

When we started working with the free clinic, we discovered in going over the site plan...

Could you... We'll pause a moment so you can get outside.

Those under would be allowed by right.

And I think we make no distinction between public and private health clinics below 10,000 square feet.

Right, right.

Or over 10,000 square feet.

straight whether or not there's ever one added or which clinic was added.

Is there a motion?

I move that health clinics up to 10,000 square feet be allowed by right in B-1 districts and that health clinics over 10,000 square feet be allowed by special use permit in B-1 districts.

Second.

I would just consider health clinics generally public or private.

Okay, thank you.

Matters by the public.

And let's give Ms. Roberts a hand.

She said she was coming back and she came back.

Thank you very much.

Is there other business for City Council?

Be in front of that instead of reacting to it once the pavilion reopens and if staff can pull together a meeting with some of the key stakeholders in the next couple months, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Gary, do you have any comments on that?

I think they've made a lot of changes to try to address the issues that have been in concern.

I was just wondering what everybody else thought.

No?

I think this is outside the budget, I mean this is just more of a tournament the thing's putting on.

Yeah, I'll move the $2,000 to help them out.

Further discussion?

It'll probably bring a lot of people and a lot of business into the city.

I think I've covered it.

Did we vote?

I'm calling for the vote now.

I need to find out what's going on with AHIP and why this roof situation cannot be resolved.

I think you're getting one side of the story.

Oh yeah, I know that.

And there's more to the story I'm not going to talk about publicly.

All right, Mr. O'Connor.

Sounds like you need to meet with the city manager.

myself as well.

Well, I know that you've been to the property.

Any other business?

Anything else?

We're adjourned.

I've been waiting for you.

The End

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