City Council Meeting   6/7/2010

Music playing

Music playing...

and John F. Kennedy

Dr. David F. Kennedy

Thank you.

Ms. Barfield, if you could call the roll, please.

Dr. Brown?

Ms. Edwards?

Mr. Huja?

Mr. Norris?

Ms. Zakos?

Thank you all for coming tonight.

We have a couple of awards and recognitions we wanted to share.

And I'm going to start with an honor that

One of our leading lights here in Charlottesville recently received.

Dr. Rosa Adkins is here tonight and many of you know and perhaps not all of you know that Dr. Adkins this past month was named Virginia's Superintendent of the Year.

because of her work here in the city of Charlottesville, specifically in recognition of her efforts to reduce the achievement gap, to elevate academic standards and better position our students and young people for successful employment in a globally competitive economy.

Dr. Atkins has been Superintendent of Schools here in the City of Charlottesville since 2006.

Before that she was Assistant Superintendent of the Caroline County Schools.

Mr. Mayor, Council Persons, Mr. City Manager, I'd like to just thank you all.

You know, it's an honor and a privilege to work in Charlottesville City.

I think that if any superintendent intends to be successful, they need a community and environment like we have in Charlottesville.

I came into the city and I met people, a community, a local government and a school board and parents and students.

who are so committed to education.

Teachers, faculty, and any award that anyone receives, they can't do it alone.

Thank you.

Now while we're talking about jewels of our school system, we are also joined tonight and some of you heard them perform outside by a number of members of our Charlottesville High School music program who traveled together, the band, the orchestra and the chorus, traveled together to Boston, Massachusetts a couple of months ago to compete against 18 schools from 11 states in the Heritage Festival of Music.

and not only did each of the individual programs, the chorus, the band and the orchestra do very well in their own individual competitions but we are delighted to report that the music program as a whole won the festival sweepstakes, the grand championship which is the competition's highest honor for outstanding achievement and the highest overall score

throughout the three groups.

We could not be more proud of the work that Will Cook has done, that Laura Thomas is here, that others have done to champion the music program at Charlottesville High School.

And we are very pleased to congratulate all of you here representing the music program for your accomplishments, not just in Boston, but throughout the year.

So let's give them a big round of applause.

and that's the trophy here.

Thank you very much.

We are really, really proud of this honor.

We took 250 people from the music department.

For the first time ever, the band chorus and orchestra traveled together.

We had a wonderful time and I think that our

Our department represented our city well.

We were probably not one of the largest cities represented, but thankfully music is still thriving in Charlottesville and in Virginia as opposed to many other places throughout the country where programs are being cut back.

But thankfully Charlottesville recognizes the importance of the arts and we continue to be supported and do our work.

What she said.

Thank you again for all your efforts.

We are now going to move on to announcements.

That will be added.

I did have one announcement.

Now that the school year is coming to a close, young people are going to be looking for more activities and hoping that some will have jobs and some will engage in some of the programs that will be available.

But the announcement is for parents, especially as it relates to

being responsible for your children when they are engaging in activities.

And we have been having some concerns specifically with the downtown mall and so I'd ask as parents playing activities with their children and maybe the youth that are here can even contact me about some activities that you'd like to see or even some ideas about

How to talk to your parents about kind of places you want to hang out.

But it's so important for parents to be responsible for children, our youth to be responsible for themselves at all times, at all times.

Thank you, Ms. Edwards, very well said.

I have a few other announcements.

This month, June, we celebrate the 10th annual community Juneteenth celebration dating back to 1865.

Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration of the ending of slavery in the United States and it celebrates African-American freedom while encouraging self-development and respect for all cultures.

Piedmont Virginia Community College once again this year is hosting a series of events on Friday, June 18th and Saturday, June 19th.

For more information on this celebration, please go to www.pvcc.edu.

And also, due to the severe storms that hit the Charlottesville area last Thursday, the City of Charlottesville Public Service Division will assist city residents living in the northeast quadrant of the city with the disposal of tree debris throughout the week of June 7th.

For more information and a map of the collection area, please visit charlesville.org slash news.

Also, the United States Army is celebrating 235 years of service to our country and the City of Charlottesville Communications Office and the Downtown Business Association is putting together a free concert in its honor.

The municipal band will perform at the Downtown Pavilion on Monday the 14th of June at 6.30 p.m., bringing the entire family down for an evening of music giveaways, activities, and of course, birthday cake.

and speaking of the municipal band, their saxophone and horn ensembles will also perform a free concert on Sunday, June 13th at 2.30pm at the Municipal Arts Center on 5th Street SW. Free parking is available.

We have a

Very special group here with us speaking of the Charlottesville High School Music Program to help us segue into the next portion of our meeting.

You all have the great fortune of being entertained tonight by a group that I've seen perform several times this year and they consistently blow me away.

We have with us tonight the Charlottesville High School Nightingales to do a brief performance for us.

The Nightingales is an all-girl ensemble at Charlottesville High School.

It started out as a group that sings and slightly dances, but they sing so well, the dance went by the wayside this year.

Babata tureyata tueyata eyata, babata tureyata eyata, babata tureyata eyata, baba tingyataua, baba tingyataua, baba tingyataua,

Te yada, te yada, da, te yada, da, tue yada, te yada, bah, bah, dah, tue yada, dah, dah, tue yada, te yada, bah, bah, dah, tue yada, te yada,

La da da da da da da da da da da da da

Baba Deya, Baba Deya, Da Dua Ya Ya, Baba Deya, Da Ya Da

Yada, yada, yada, yada, yada

Baba Zinga Baba Zinga Baba Zinga Baba Zinga Baba Zinga Baba Zinga Baba Zinga Baba Zinga

Thank you very much.

That could get ugly.

Okay, we are now going to move on to matters by the public and

As is our custom, when you come forward, please give your name and address and please keep your comments to three minutes.

Well, I'm not going to sing my comments yet or eat the cookies.

I'm Kay Slaughter.

I'm representing the Southern Environmental Law Center and I live at 1501 Short 18th Street.

And just as we have this wonderful culture and education here in Charlottesville,

We also have a beautiful environment to live in and I think what people appreciate in the city is the fact that we can live closely together and yet have really the amenities that we want.

So I'm here tonight

to urge the City Council to meet with the Planning Commission about the steep slopes ordinance.

Now the steep slopes ordinance that we have in place is supposed to protect against building on those most steep slopes so that rainwater won't go in to run off the buildings and the roads.

and into the creeks.

It provides some green space for habitat and it gives us all that amenities that we have.

We live in a city but we have green areas.

The Planning Commission has been looking at amendments.

Usually you only hear about the steep slope ordinance when people come, like from the Huntley project, or in my own neighborhood, River Bluff, or the Cherry Hill project, because a specific project they're concerned with.

And then it's always, well, it's too bad, this is too late, we have these ordinances, they're following the ordinances.

So now the Planning Commission is looking to change the ordinance in some ways.

but it has been dragging on for some six months and I really believe that this council has stood for having sustainability and growth and I believe that your encouragement through having a joint session with the Planning Commission could really help them

to assert some of the goals.

For example, and I'll just go through these very quickly, that we would protect and conserve steep hilltops, green buffers and floodplain areas so that we can absorb rainwater and prevent rapid movement of soil and rock and runoff.

that by protecting steep slopes and moving the building off of slopes that we will be able to have green spaces as I mentioned for habitat.

and to give us the kinds of sound and sight buffers that we need in our dense neighborhoods.

And we propose that you ban building on slopes that are near rivers and streams, ban building on slopes over 40% grade and require the Planning Commission to review and mitigate other important slopes.

And again, I hope you will

have a meeting with the Planning Commission to try to get involved so you're not seeing it at the end of the process but can really have your input up front.

Thank you, Ms.

Butter.

Okay, that was as long as three minutes I've seen in a long time.

But anyway, my name is Al Page, I live at 806 Page Street.

I'm a member of the Charlottesville Association of Black Retired and Elderly, and we are categorically opposed to rate increases in utilities, period.

We feel the city is rich enough and they don't need our money for that.

Next, Mr. Huja, last council meeting you referred to low-income housing people as poor with such a disdain and disrespect and we were asking that you apologize for that and that you resign basically.

You broke our heart.

The guy who was coming here as a foreigner, he lived up, he had the best job in the city, he retired and then you turned around and called us poor.

with such contempt.

This broke our hearts and nobody here checked them at all.

Holly, Maurice, this lady right here is the only one who checked them a little bit and we're asking for an apology on that.

Not necessarily resigned but you should go ahead and resign.

Channel 20 on Comcast is off and we need some people to put that back on again, Trinity Broadcasting.

We ask that you take a good look at that and Comcast Channel 20 and bring that back to the lower tier so my people can get the religious needs that they deserve.

Thank you all very much.

A happier note, I hope.

And I am going to eat one of your cookies and say it goes to when I leave.

A month ago, you all sat up here and nodded sagely at Patricia Napoleon and turned her on to Brian Dailey.

and because of that, beginning this Sunday, all summer, but beginning this Sunday, we're going to have in McIntire Park, something called Second Sundays, a family event.

Mr. Daley and Chris Genzic have worked very hard with Miss Napoleon and David Steinberg and beginning at noon, the golf course side of McIntire Park is going to be closed for a variety of family events.

Now that includes, at this point in time, and it's growing as we speak, strolling, picnicking, music and family activities, but also stuff like cycling and dog walking and frisbee throwing.

Miss Edwards, apparently the SPCA is going to bring a whole bunch of dogs so you can bring a whole bunch of kids and they can get to know dogs in the park and do some walking with that.

This is beginning Sunday on June 13 and there will be at least three very organized family activities.

There's something called Fairy House Building and my grandkids are not old enough and my kids are too old so I don't know what that is but apparently it's very popular amongst the elementary school set right now.

At one o'clock there will be a music making circle which will have a bunch of advanced musicians helping

beginning musicians get going and learning how to pick and grin if you're from the south or do the blues if you're from the city.

So hope you can come to that.

And at four o'clock there's a guided wallflower walk by Miss Ruth Douglas who is one of the master naturalists.

That's Sunday, that's six days and we're hoping all of you all will get your sunscreen and get your hula hoops and anything else.

and Brenger Kites and Instruments and come join Sundays in the Park and then on July 11th and August the 8th.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Salzman.

Hello, my name is Jim Baldy.

I live on Elliott in Belmont and I'm in Bellevue.

I know there's a report on the noise ordinance tonight.

I'm not going to attempt to discuss it until Officer Standridge has that attempt, or excuse me, the opportunity to present it.

But I am asking you again tonight to stop this delay and give firm leadership to the neighborhood on this issue.

We've dealt with this since November and is continuing to drag out.

And I believe that this continual kicking the can down the road is giving all the sides, not just two,

added incentive to continue to log complaints, to push a case in the hopes of getting their side heard.

I believe if you give some firm leadership and set the standard, whatever it is at this point, then we can attempt to reach consensus.

I've left copies of the correspondence with many of the parties involved where one of the neighborhood association meetings scheduled for Bell Rio was canceled because some of the residents did not want to appear weak and work together.

and I honestly understand their fears.

If you're going to make it 55, make it 55 and let us shut our doors.

If you're going to make it 65, make it 65 so we can all get together and work to make that the appropriate, what's your word, the appropriate level we're going to try to implement in good faith.

But right now we need direction from you and I

truly hope that after this report we're not just going to have further, further, further delay and hear another report in three months.

So I understand and I respect your authority, do whatever you wish tonight, but I hope you take into consideration the deteriorating tenor and tone

and other conversations in Belmont as those correspondences indicate.

I've also printed off all the music calendars so you can cross-reference whatever happened by those reports tonight.

Thank you, Mr. Baldy.

Thank you, sir.

Good evening.

I want to speak in support of Mr. Baldy and the Bell Rio Restaurant.

I'm a patron and I'd like to see the process be a due process.

I would happen to be outside Wednesday night and watch a police officer take a sounding, a recording, and I was sort of the back of rear on Douglas Avenue and this is late, I think 11 o'clock, 10.30 at night, and I was with someone else and we could not hear the band which was playing rock and roll.

indoors.

We could hear cars blowing by and the generators from air conditioning, you know, from compressors.

And so I have an abiding concern that in the process the empirical evidence be coherently examined.

In other words, some time and effort be examined and some of the...

In other words, there are a lot of noise factors that

I think are being ignored because the tension has been focused on Bel Rio when there might be some other offenders in the immediate vicinity who have, let's say, a considerable gathering outdoors that the sound travels.

And I personally believe that Bel Rio specifically is an important place because

There's quite a range of, it's a cultural option, there's quite a tremendous range of musical and even musical events, poetry readings and it's an alternative and I think people

forget that I think by some people's barometers, or if that's the appropriate term here, you can really judge a city and a culture by, say, the number and quality of the coffee houses and gathering places, bars, if you will.

So I think it's a very important issue, and I'm mostly concerned with fair play more than anything else.

And Mr.

Page,

Well, I can also, again, I think free speech is, I think counsel takes liberties and they have for years on what people are permitted.

You know, if you're only permitted to say what you're permitted to say is not free speech, sir.

Thank you Mr. Smith.

Good evening.

I'm Rebecca Quinn and I live at 104 4th Street here in the city.

I expect by now you've had a report on the well attended public meeting at which the engineering firm gave an overview of the preliminary design for the new dam at Ragged Mountain.

I have to say if we have a water supply problem it looks like it would be a fine dam.

Although there remain quite a few questions that they will have to resolve if indeed that design goes forward.

But that gets us no closer to answering the real question as to whether we need a dam.

Nor does it help answer do we need a dam that needs a pipeline to fill it.

We're looking forward to the City Council having important results later this summer

the several things we're all waiting for.

The next report on the dredging study, the report on the impact on the I-64 embankment, the results that I understand Rivanna Water and Soar Authority is doing to refresh or somehow update the demand analysis, and then the city's own report on repairing the dam and possibly raising it.

And of course there's the complete water supply plan that's due in 2011,

that is required to look at all sources of water, including groundwater sources.

On a somewhat related matter, the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority Director responded to recent reports on the sorry state, someone else's words, of the sewer system by saying, renewing our broken wastewater system is an imperative.

He went on to say, it's an environmental imperative, it's a public health imperative, we should do it vigorously.

Well, it's obvious that something like that would take a lot of time, attention and money to vigorously implement such an imperative.

The authority, the city and the county should focus on this immediate problem that will have immediate impacts on our health and safety as well as the health of our waterways and the Chesapeake Bay rather than continue to spend time, attention and money on the Reagan Mountain Dam, a solution to a problem that I think we still

Don't know that we'll have, or if we do, it may be 50 years in the future, especially since it's looking like the benefits of dredging South Fork are so promising and may even be quite economically feasible.

Lastly, I know a lot of factors go into setting water and sewer rates an item on your agenda today and I don't know the history of what's being proposed now.

But I think most people could understand paying a little bit more in their sewer bill if they thought that the problems that Mr. Frederick identified or have been identified so vividly in videos and elsewhere to fix today's water and sewer system rather than

Good evening Mr. Mayor and Council and thank you Mr. Mayor for mentioning Juneteenth already that's why I'm here and I want to thank the city for continuing to support this event through the years that we've hosted it at Piedmont

and give a little bit of detail to what's happening this year with the Juneteenth celebration.

So we begin on Friday evening, 530 Lakeside Tribute to the Ancestors.

We've done this every year for the last nine years and it's a beautiful kind of a ritual now, I guess, where we invite the public to wear white or African clothing.

You don't have to, but it looks really nice when we're all spread out there in

around the lake.

There's drumming, we have Darrell Rose drumming, we have local poets reciting original poetry, spoken word tribute to the ancestors as well as a performance by the State Farm Gospel Choir this year.

And following that tribute

We'll move inside for a lecture on the African American presence in the Civil War.

And that lecture is being presented by a Mr. Harold Jones from the African American Civil War Memorial in DC.

He was with us last year for part of the program that took place at First Baptist Church and he's amazing as a lecturer.

I mean lecture doesn't sound that exciting but his

The presentation had us on the edge of our seats for a whole hour so we're bringing them back for the main keynote speaker on Friday evening and that program is followed by a soulful reception.

Because we start at 5.30 we've learned that people are hungry when they come and by the time the program is over so we have a nice reception afterwards and that's the way things end on Friday.

Then on Saturday, the celebration continues all day from 11 until 4.

There are things going on.

This is all at Piedmont in and around the Dickinson Building and we have at 11 a.m.

a puppeteer by the name of Schroeder Cherry.

He's an artist.

He makes the puppets.

They're beautiful, big papier-mâché creations, lifelike, and he does an interactive puppet show with children.

And the show is called The Underground Railroad, Not a Subway.

Also this year we have, this is kind of since our 10th year we're bringing back some of the guests that we've had in the past who were especially well received and one of those is Anthony Browder who does a virtual Middle Passage experience.

This is not for children but it's a moving and empowering recreation of the Middle Passage.

There'll be vendors outside.

There'll be displays of history and reenactments of history ongoing all day.

And then the day ends in the theater again with a gospel performance and a dance performance by a children's group out of DC called Farafina Khan.

And those are some of the highlights.

I gave you more information than that.

but I want to really encourage all of you and many of you have come or do come every year and everybody who's here to please come and enjoy the day and the evening on Friday.

Thank you very much, Victoria.

I have five copies.

Hi, my name is John Sheppard.

I live at 112 Village Court.

I was here last, about more than six months ago, November 2nd, when I presented a neighborhood petition signed by some 130 residents calling for improvements to Shamrock Road, particularly at the railway crossing.

The current conditions present a danger to pedestrian, bike and traffic safety and the anticipated shutting off of traffic on JPA when the JPA bridge comes down.

and the diversion of that traffic to Chimaque Road will aggravate the situation seriously.

In November, the city had done no planning to make improvements on this narrow and winding stretch of road that would enable it to carry any additional traffic flow.

However, since that time I am very pleased and grateful in fact to the city for some positive steps that have been taken to improve the situation.

Most importantly, in response to letters from the city traffic engineer Norfolk Southern

has agreed to add asphalt on the south side of the crossing that would provide a designated pedestrian walkway.

So this will remove the need for pedestrians to enter the road itself and traffic lanes in order to cross the tracks.

Norfolk Southern has submitted a reasonable budget for this work apparently, but the work has yet to be scheduled.

Secondly, on the good news front, the Sidewalk Committee of Neighborhood Development Services has brought out a new Sidewalks 2010 plan that is to be reviewed by the City Planning Commission and ultimately the City Council this summer.

This plan establishes sidewalk construction priorities for the coming year and includes one section of Shamrock Road.

However, and this is the but, we are disappointed to report that the section on the north side of Shamrock Road between Thomas Drive and the railway crossing is not included in the sidewalks priority list and it is this submission that brings me here this evening.

So I and the presidents of the Fry Springs Neighborhood Association and the Johnson Village Neighborhood Associations have sent a letter to the Planning Commission asking that this area be included in the sidewalks priority list.

This section of Sharmark is particularly narrow and winding with poor visibility and roadside conditions on the north side that includes slopes and gravel parking areas with no sidewalks and you'll see that illustrated in the photographs attached to the copies that I presented to you.

So this is a very hazardous area and we have asked the Planning Commission and I'm asking City Council now to take steps to direct city staff to come up with design plans to remedy the hazardous situation on the north side of Shamrock Road.

That would include the building of sidewalks.

Unless and until we have a design proposal on hand,

It is impossible for us, it's impossible for the Commission and the Council to understand what solutions might be possible and their relative costs.

We recognize that there will not be a simple fix, but if there are no plans ever developed, then it's impossible to discuss the alternatives.

and the improvements there will never make it onto any list for sidewalks or capital improvements or whatever.

So I'm here to request the mayor and council to direct city staff to take steps immediately to begin design of possible improvements to that area.

Good evening.

My name is Ben Greenberg.

I live at 704 Grove Avenue, and I'm here tonight to urge your support for your predatory lending resolution on your agenda, and I do so as the legislative director for the Virginia Organizing Project.

If you're not familiar with the Virginia Organizing Project, we're a statewide nonprofit located here in Charlottesville, and we work in helping people throughout the state to become empowered in speaking out on behalf of their needs, whatever they may be.

The issue of predatory lending is an issue that has been a dominant one for our organization for a number of years.

As legislative director, I've spent most of my time in the last four General Assembly sessions alone.

and trying to help bring about some positive change and I want to applaud this council for having supported a resolution in 2007 that addressed the issue of payday lending.

That resolution was drafted, as you may know, by Bruce Elder, city councilman from Stanton, who drafted the resolution that

is similar to the one that's before you tonight.

And I want to really applaud Bruce for his leadership and his efforts in this regard.

This resolution addresses more than just payday lending.

It addresses all of predatory lending in Virginia.

And we have a serious problem because the General Assembly has not chosen to act aggressively and forcefully in helping to protect the citizens of Virginia.

We have lending going on in Virginia with interest rates as high as

approaching 700% if you can imagine that depending upon the type of loans involved.

We work very closely with individuals and organizations from throughout the state.

We have approached the General Assembly repeatedly to try to address these issues and the General Assembly has only chosen to adopt some minor changes, minor protections which do not address the interest rate problems which are at the heart of the issue.

and the Virginia Organizing Project continues to support an interest rate cap of 36% on all loans in Virginia, all consumer loans.

And for this reason we support the predatory lending resolution that's before you.

A 36% interest rate cap

will put an end to payday loan interest rates that currently approach 700% for people who are paid weekly and approach 362% for people who are paid biweekly.

It will put an end to car title loan interest rates that currently are a range from 180 to 264% and this is after legislation was passed by this year's session of the General Assembly.

It'll put an end to open-end loans with unconscionably high interest rates charged by lenders who shouldn't even be able to use that statute, but it's worded so broadly that there are lenders who have been able to use it.

and in a predatory way.

And it also put an end to incredibly high interest rates being charged by tax preparation businesses for individuals who don't choose to wait a few weeks for their refunds to come back from the government.

Thank you.

Thank you Mr. Greenberg.

That's the last person who signed up to speak.

Is there any votes?

We have time for a couple more speakers.

Okay.

I live at 228 Douglas Avenue

I live on Douglas Avenue and I call the police quite a bit because of the noise, the music, and the noise.

It isn't just the Bell Rio that's making all the noise, they're the ones that has the music and the bands.

But the people out in the streets, who've been in Harvin, this past week, four nights, I've been woke since two o'clock in the morning from the music and the noise.

And I think we've been here quite a few times

and I feel we have not had any results.

It's still going on and I think that it's time for something to be done.

No more talking, no more playing around.

Let's get it done because I'm fed up and I'm not the only one on the street.

There are others too.

The one of the couples next door to me is in Canada.

and I did not know about this meeting until a newspaper reporter, a TV reporter told me.

That's how I found out.

I do not have computers, but my next door neighbors on both sides usually let me know.

Well, one's in Canada, she couldn't do it.

But the other one, I called her to find out and she said there was nothing sent to her to let her know that there was anything going on down here tonight concerning Belmont.

And I'm ready for something to get done.

I sit on my, lay in my bed at night and I hear the drums, the bass in my bedroom.

And 65 decimals is not doing the job.

Some nights it's 55 at my driveway, 56.

My bedroom windows are right there.

And thank you for listening.

Thank you Ms. Shotwell.

Anybody else like to speak?

Okay, we want to thank all of you for coming to participate in Matters by the Public and we will now open up to council member responses to Matters by the Public.

First of all, I would like to agree with Ms.

Slaughter's comments.

I think it would be useful to have joint work sessions in this area, protection of the slopes.

This is the first comment I want to make.

Second, I must say I'm really surprised to hear from Mr.

Page.

I'm not sure what I said.

My intent is not to offend people or to denigrate people but to raise people.

So I'm sorry for you if I said something which was not appropriate.

I guess I'll go in reverse order.

I think that we had people today talking about the noise ordinance who have sort of been, I guess, on different sides of the noise ordinance, but I think the one agreement that most people about this ordinance have is that we need to act.

So I would just like to add my voice to that.

I think it's time.

I know we're getting a report today, not acting today, but we need to keep moving on this.

I also would like to, I'm happy to meet with the Planning Commission about the steep slopes.

I think it's a really important thing as we look at development in the city.

I didn't know about Channel 20 Trinity Broadcasting, so I'll

See what it is.

It sounds like an interesting idea.

It's before my time, but I'm always for more communication in the community.

I thought that also, I'll echo that I believe that Kaye Slaughter's request was reasonable.

and maybe other opportunities for us to have meetings with the Planning Commission to talk about other issues that come up.

And since we're going to be talking about the Planning Commission about Steve Sloves, maybe we can throw in a conversation about the sidewalks and maybe figure out how we can integrate some of the concerns that John Shepper had in an appropriate way.

Also, there will be more discussion about Bell Rio when we get the report.

I don't know what we can do about the Channel 20 with TBN but that has been a part of the tradition of Christian religious network in the community and I didn't realize that when it moves from a lower level channel to an upper level channel it leaves people out of being able to have access to that.

I appreciate Mr.

Page coming in and voicing your concern and representing the organization and the community.

And I hope that the members of that organization can take some time to celebrate Juneteenth and to participate.

That is a wonderful program.

I think that's it.

I'm at a loss for words.

The only thing I would add is in response to Ms. Quinn's question or comment about increased utility fees to fund a water supply solution that we may not need, I just want to clarify

There has been no decision made, as you know, about what the water supply solution will be.

Regardless of the solution, there will be costs involved in implementing it, even for the mere fact that we have to upgrade the treatment infrastructure, et cetera.

But I just want everybody to understand that

There has not been a decision to increase water rates to pay for any one aspect of this new plan.

There's a lot of decisions that have yet to be made about the water supply plan and the water supply solution.

And we look forward to a healthy debate about that in the coming months.

So thank you again for coming to speak.

We will now move on to our consent agenda.

We have a very lengthy consent agenda tonight.

and I will read through the items.

Item A are the minutes of May 17th.

Item B is an appropriation of $52,031 in new transit facility rainwater harvest grant, second of two readings.

Item C is an appropriation of $1,999,244 in new fire trucks and related equipment purchase, first of two readings.

Item D, an appropriation of $375.07 travel reimbursement from the Virginia Building Codes Officials Association, first of one reading.

Item E is an appropriation of $77,100, reprogramming of CDBG and home funds, first to two readings.

Item F, an appropriation in workforce development programs carryover funding, first to one reading.

Item G is resolution creation of city community policy management team, CPMT, first to one reading.

Item H is a resolution amendment of fire services agreement with Albemarle County, first to one reading.

Item I, Resolution Amendment to CWG and Home Annual Action Plans, first of one reading.

Item J, Resolution identifying the Local Energy Alliance Program LEAP as the community partner for the Southeast Community Retrofit Ramp-Up Consortium, first of one reading.

Item K, Resolution contribution to the Charlottesville Civic Action 2010 of $550, first of one reading.

Item L, resolution on predatory lending, first to one reading.

Item M, a resolution permit parking 700 block of Ferris Street, first to one reading.

Item N, a resolution approval of $50,000 match commitment for promised neighborhood grant, first to one reading.

Item O is an ordinance changes to the validity of special permits and site plans, second of two readings.

Item P, an ordinance, quick clean gas easement, Innovation Drive, New York Port, Earlwood and Albemarle County to VDOT, second of two readings.

Item Q, an ordinance amending the city code section 15-210C1 to increase parking permits for 510 Valley Road, second of two readings.

Item R is an ordinance, new utility rates and service fees, second of two readings.

Item S, an ordinance, homeowner tax relief grant program, first of two readings.

Item T, an ordinance update to the residential zoning matrix, first of two readings.

Item U, an ordinance petition to rezone property located at 834 Prospect Avenue, first to two readings.

Item V, an ordinance expansion of permit parking zone 7.

This is 9th Street, Southwest and Forest Hills Avenue, permit parking, first to two readings.

Last but not least, item W, an ordinance street wall adjustment for West Main Street, first to one reading.

I'd like to make a comment.

I don't think it's necessary to have it removed, but are ordinance new utility rates and service fees?

I happen to agree with Rebecca Quinn.

I think there are just too many questions.

A lot of decisions haven't been made yet.

Okay, duly noted.

Any other comments, questions, or items to be removed for further discussion?

Second.

Any further discussion?

If not, please indicate your vote.

Motion carries unanimously.

Thank you very much.

Hi, good evening.

I'm Chrissy Hammer with the City Finance Department.

The resolution before you authorizes the city to sell general obligation bonds of seven million dollars through the Virginia Resources Authority as part of the Clean Water State Revolving Fund.

These bonds will provide the city with a lower financing cost than selling bonds directly due to the state and federal subsidies.

that are offered with this program.

The bonds will be used for the stadium sanitary sewer line rehabilitation project, which was previously adopted and approved with the sewer capital improvement program and was also considered a qualified project authorized by the state.

Due to the subsidies involved, our true interest cost with this funding will be 2.93%, which in today's market is an excellent rate.

Any questions for Ms. Hamel before we open the public hearing?

Okay, we will now, thank you Ms. Hamel.

Thank you.

We will now open the public hearing and Ms. Barfield, do we have a sign up sheet for this?

Nobody has signed up to speak.

Is there anybody from the public who would like to speak on this matter?

I would second.

Any discussion?

Just for public purpose, this will save us money.

Motion carries unanimously.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Ms. Hamill.

Next is a report slash resolution.

Good evening.

I think that's exactly what I'll do and let you all take it from there.

We had a request back several months ago that we take a look at finding an appropriate place to honor one of our citizen heroes and staff has done a great deal of research and comes to you tonight with a proposal resolution and proposal to rename the, or actually name the athletic fields at McIntire Park as the, in honor of Carl Chubby Prophet and

This is a resolution to honor, as Mr. Tolbert said, one of our hometown heroes.

And I'm just going to read it as it's written.

Whereas Carl Chubby Prophet is a native of Charlottesville who served in World War II with distinction,

and whereas Mr. Proffitt was decorated with a distinguished service cross, silver star, a bronze star with cluster for valor and two purple hearts for his efforts at Omaha Beach during the invasion of Normandy and during the course of World War II and whereas Mr. Proffitt also received a battlefield commission to Second Lieutenant and whereas Mr. Proffitt was a proud member of the famed Monticello Guard,

Whereas Mr. Proffitt was a star player on the 116th Infantry Regiment's Plymouth Yankees service team, which won the 1943 European Theater of Operations World Series, playing against teams with former major leaguers, and I should note, is honored at Cooperstown for that accomplishment.

Whereas Mr. Proffitt, upon returning to Charlottesville, was active in his community, including service to youth and as a participant in Charlottesville softball leagues after World War II,

Now therefore be it resolved by the City Council of the City of Charlottesville as follows that the softball fields at McIntire Park be named Carl Chubby Prophet Softball Complex, that a sign indicating a new name be erected in a visible location, and that a plaque commemorating the service of Carl Chubby Prophet be erected at the fields.

So that's the resolution before us today and I would note it was 66 years ago yesterday that we honored the sacrifice and dedication and bravery of so many American soldiers who participated in that D-Day invasion and Mr. Proffitt among them and he is in fact our most highly decorated living Charlottesville resident

So I'm just very pleased to have the opportunity to finally give him some long overdue recognition and honor for his valiant efforts at that time and since that time.

I just wanted to thank staff too for doing the research and trying to find an appropriate place because I know that with your love of baseball that this is something that other lovers of baseball will see that and think of you so I think that that's great.

Any further discussion?

If not, please indicate your vote.

I have a lot of blood sweating overseas during the war.

I was able to survive and come back with my creativity on the local and my empathy on the life.

Good evening.

I understand that you all have a copy of the report.

This particular report covers the months of March, April, and May.

I was here at the end of February when the new ordinance was passed, so this is the first quarterly review.

During this period of time, the police department was called to the area of Bell Rio.

Out of 93 days, we responded 24 times.

On 21 nights, some nights had multiple calls.

We took 15 different readings and the total average of those readings was 58 decibels.

In that period of time there was only one violation of 75 decibels and another night where they did hit 65, but beyond that all readings were below the 65 level.

I did go last night, I did not go, I had an officer respond over there last night and take a series of readings of just ambient noise where the restaurant was not playing music.

49, 46, 47, along in those areas.

We have on one other night taken ones that were just slightly higher than that.

So you can see the difference between what the normal noise level is and the noise level when the music is playing.

You'll note that from the report that we did in February that the total average is about five decibels lower than it was at that time when you lowered the actual legal limit.

Do you have a sense of the complaints that you received, whether it's

Noise in general, music noise in general, or is it the volume of the bass, or is it the noise associated with the other activity, you know, people being loud in the neighborhood.

I would say some of each of those things on different nights.

Some nights the music, you can hear the music outside, loud I guess is relative to the people who live there, that's the purpose of the decibel reading, you can hear the music.

There are some nights where depending on what the music is, the base level seems to be stronger, there's no question about that, where you would hear it or feel it, probably more.

Depending on the night, the crowds leaving can be louder.

Last Thursday night, for example, into Friday morning, it was a very loud crowd leaving.

We don't notice that regularly, but it does occur.

So, you know, I think it's some combination of any of those things.

There's very little we can do about the crowd leaving other than to try and quiet them as they leave.

If they're standing out front, conversing, that's a different story.

I have a question.

I'm looking at the first page of the report.

And these are in date order starting with March 11th and going to May 28th.

Oh yes, they are in order.

Yeah, so from March till May it's gotten considerably louder

52, 55, 57, 56, 57, 57, 60, 59, 58, 59, 60.

I know that the business has worked to try to do some insulation and to do some structural things to reduce noise.

Actually, I'm not sure when

when or if he's had additional, the way I understood it the last session, that some things had originally been done to the restaurant to try and quell the music outside.

I understand that some additional measures were going to be taken.

This comes from an email conversation between the police department, Mr. Baldy, and a person from the Belmont Residence Association.

I should note that we have a scheduled meeting next week

When we first did the 65 kind of compromise between the 75 that existed before and the 55 that was proposed, we asked there to be the six month period during which we could see how this was working

Three months, I'm sorry, I misspoke.

That is good to know.

I continue to be concerned about the noise in Belmont neighborhood and if any one of us were living there and had to put up with this every night on a regular basis, I think

you will be upset also.

I had a question.

There was a report in the newspaper last week about different ways of measuring sound, and I am not a sound expert, but I understand there's a different scale or system that's used that's more accurate at picking up the impacts of the bass.

I can explain why we don't use it.

Whether or not it's better, I'll have to be up to someone else to decide.

I also am not the technical person.

What I would say is this.

Research was done when we started purchasing these meters.

The setting that we use measures the largest range of noise.

So it encompasses the most amount of noise.

It may not always measure the bass exactly accurately, but bass doesn't travel exactly the same as the music.

It's a deeper sound and bass can sometimes be felt more than it can be heard and so it can carry for a much longer distance and the measure is different.

If we were to use the C-weighting on the noise meters that we have as I understand it,

That particular weighting is used for measuring noise reduction in hearing protectors and other scientific purposes.

I can, and this is from the manual.

I didn't come up with this on my own.

Generally, the C weighting is used for measuring noise reduction in hearing protectors and for other scientific purposes.

It's a totally different measurement than the A weighting which emulates response of the human ear

and is used for industrial and community noise measurements.

So in terms of what we measure, we're doing that properly.

In terms of measuring the base, I'm not sure there's an entirely accurate way to do that anyway.

I don't know if it's a question for Ms. Sanders, but since you're standing there to answer questions I'll ask you anyway.

I have, I can't speak to the totality of that.

You'll have to ask them.

However, I have been involved in emails from a Mr., I believe it's Sisk, who is the president of this.

We've been meeting for months I guess and overall about all this but we've been trying to establish a plan that would help Jim be able to mitigate sound without having to

complaints and through various scheduling conundrums we finally got to the point where Jim's had some additional curtains installed and he's had the decibel meter purchased and ready to use and we established, picked a loud night, which would be June 11th, to sort of do a test run to see, you know, the ordinance I guess is important if there's nothing happening but our hopes are that he can

Mitigate Sound on His Own to hopefully not cause a complaint to begin with.

And if that means some regulating the bass in a certain way or whatever, but that view

taking readings systematically around while a band's playing pushing the volume up to see where it lands outside where it starts to become offensive, not necessarily where it's spiking at 65 and then, you know, find a compromise there and hopefully, I mean, I think we could as long as, you know, everybody plays by the rules once we establish it there's a we'll have hopefully a little letter of concord that will everybody will be a witness and sign it

to say, hey, we all tried.

Is it just because of the problem with schedules?

Kind of waiting on Jim to get some curtains and some other things, as well as just, you know, personal volunteers, people getting together all at one time and making it happen.

Was there a problem getting them?

I thought...

When we left here last time, speaking with Jesse,

We invited the Neighborhood Association to come to Bell Rio for that March meeting.

We were not wasting any time on this.

To come to the restaurant, review the measures we've already in place, discuss additional measures we could do, and we scheduled the meeting, we set aside space for the meeting, and at that day, the Neighborhood Association meeting, I don't know exactly who's liable, for lack of a better word, right?

But at the last day, there were a number of the complainants that decided they would not come.

So I have to say that if there's this effort to sort of reach a common consensus, and you won't sit at the table, and then you don't make arrangements to come back and just talk,

to then say that we've been somehow remiss or negligent, not in terms of effect, everybody's trying to work here, but to say that we've not been willing to work with the community to me seems, you know, on the face of it, an inappropriate answer.

And I, with regard to your question about the trend, if we brought it down five decibels

I hear your point, but I would say in terms of statistical significance, the pattern here is not statistically significant.

It's 5758.

It's not 5785.

In the statistical sense, it's not a significant trend of increase.

No, no.

After we last met, we put those measures in place and brought it down five decibels and we've been able to stay within this five decibels.

No, no, wait.

One night.

So in that case, somebody would complain one night when there's essentially nothing happening to set a benchmark of low.

And then everything since then, we're going to be judged against that.

We built that vestibule in the front to set up a double baffle of doors.

We worked on sound insulating the kitchen windows because Chief Longo said sometimes sound goes back out that kitchen and the door on the back door.

We had new sound panels- Excuse me, just for- Yep.

After the last meeting when Chief Longo and we said take these additional measures, right?

We built additional sound panels for the windows to go up in front of the windows and then we had the

the lady who does a lot of the drapes for live arts build some baffling drapes to go on that back wall in front of the windows, in front of the brick and we've been taking many measures which we weren't even able to show a little bit of association because they were installed I think at the very end of April they were the last one that took a while to get made right around that I can't exactly know but they were the last one because they took a while to get sewn etc but the rest we had done

Maybe our staff could help out in the meeting.

We'd be willing to work, Mr. Huja, and every time the police come, if you read this report, we're willing to work with the police when they come.

I can speak to that as well because if I'm not mistaken we did have a plan to meet Jim offered his space to show off some of the curtains and whatnot we showed up and it was a it was an open night some people felt uncomfortable discussing amongst the dinner crowd kind of what was going on so we moved next door to La Taza

There were a number of folks who with the animosity that has been going on felt like it was an uncomfortable setting.

So there was a significant lack of attendance from the people who are most often offended by the sound just because of the friction.

So in that meeting we sort of established this plan to have a reading done or a sound test to give them a level to operate at.

We originally had a meeting set up, I can't remember the original date, but Jim hadn't quite yet gotten a decibel meter in this building, which kind of makes the whole idea of setting them at inside to know what's outside kind of impossible to determine and regulate.

But since he's gotten that, we've re-established a date.

But there has been some friction that's made it hard to, we have made, there has been efforts, but it's... Well, this is not enough.

I'd just like to clarify that although it would be lovely to have citizen input and working together with the neighborhood and the business, I think that the neighbors are under no obligation to help create the solution.

I'm not talking about rights, I'm talking about who's responsible for coming up with the solution.

I think that if people are bothered, they're bothered.

I also have to say, you know, one of my disappointments, and I am disappointed that there hasn't been to me a more concerted effort to be a good neighbor on your part, Mr.

Balding.

And the reason I, what I contrast this with is

is the pavilion and in particular what the pavilion has done to address noise is to be very strict with what noise they allow at the soundboard and you know and they do that by monitoring it and and so to learn that that in the three months you just now purchased a meter and haven't actually

To speak to that, that is a step that we've taken and because this is happening amongst the daily lives of a web of people, the amount of time that's passed since that original meeting three months ago, a lot happens in everybody's lives and so we're finally getting to the point where we can do that.

So to say, I just want to give Jim a little credit in fact that, you know, it's happening.

It's nail space, but he has put some efforts in.

I'm not sure about your general point that we haven't been a good neighbor.

I'll give you another example.

I know that another business that got a special use permit from the city to operate musical

No, the place in the Mickey building.

216.

216.

One of the things that they do is they provide, they actually really work hard to make sure as people leave late at night they're quiet.

And I haven't heard anything that describes any attempt, and actually I think that's the part, it's independent of the noise.

I think that

that it becomes extremely disruptive at two in the morning I think as we've had pointed out.

So I just like, you know, I remain concerned that addressing simply the noise meter issue is not the right way to proceed here but I'm disappointed that we don't have a little better sense and truthfully I think it goes to both sides.

I'm also disappointed that the neighbors

didn't feel comfortable trying to get together and work out some ideas and solutions.

There are at least three ways to deal with the problem, at least.

First is to just lower the sound level itself inside.

Second is to do some buffers and sound barriers which you can create.

And third is to pause new ordnance, which I think is the least desirable of all three in my mind.

I agree that the ordinance is at least desirable if I feel I'll just be able to drop things down.

traffic volume of people.

I do believe there were efforts to get a business association together or get some of those folks to sort of work together to figure out something.

But the overall environment amongst the businesses isn't quite coherent enough to get an association together to, for example, hire security as seven restaurants all chip in, pay for a little bit of security to make sure that

there's a guy walking around to make patrons do it and I know there's other communities that have similar systems like that.

That would be a wonderful, very easy and probably in the long run most cost effective way to handle it because then the whole environment can be subdued a little bit.

Mr. Mayor, maybe it would be helpful

Yeah, the June 11th meeting will be the sound test for where hopefully we can find volume where he can operate and have a nice place, which is looking great.

The curtains do, you know, they're very pretty.

He can operate and have a nice

I think I'll take one more meeting to resolve.

This meeting is not a bunch of people sitting around.

This will be a meeting, the band playing, police officer involved, sound test taken, noted, you know, and hopefully Dow gets to a spot where, you know, as long as Jim is keeping it, he knows where he can go with the sound and as long as it's always down below.

The one thing I am concerned about is how, again, how the bass will be, you know,

Regulated, so that's going to have to be something like, oh, I hear the bass now, I don't hear the bass.

I brought it up when this all started a long time ago, and it's sort of just as mysterious to, you know, what does it do?

What does it do?

and I can't claim to make any educated analysis of it, but it definitely is a different, you know, a wavelength from a bass is this long as opposed to tiny, high-end frequencies, so it does that back differently, you know, that's why you can hear a guy's bass in his car going down the interstate, so it'll be curious, you know, I think that's going to have to be something where we find that place

Councilor Huja, we can provide some assistance.

We're trying to bring folks together and convince them to come to the table.

As you've seen in the emails, there has been some reluctance to do that.

I mean if you, you know, it's really just a couple hours, a couple nights of the week.

Right.

It's not, you know, if it was from 11 or midnight to 2, there was some guys walking around saying, he's my new man, he's my new man, who's I think significant.

Absolutely.

We've not resisted any of the measures to work together.

But I have to say, again, this thing of singling out one business, for example, 40 people walking back and forth in their cars.

I agree with that.

But it's not going to go to the heart of the DB reading.

And one of the issues at the beginning of when we started this back in November is some of these specific residents said we don't care about the noise level from the outdoor patios at Moss.

It's not the acoustic volume.

It's the amplified music volume.

That was the change in the ordinance.

But in fact

That's now really what I'm hearing a lot, when our simple seating capacity indicates that we're not the majority contributor to this issue.

Wait a second, but I have to correct, so let me read this from the report.

Police responded to several calls of loud music when there's no music playing upon their arrival.

On any occasion that I'm aware of when I ask to adjust the music, though, we did so.

But that's why I believe that the compliance level is too high.

I think you took levels when there was no music, right?

We did.

What he's referring to is other occasions when we may have responded and there would be no noise.

Now I can't speak to what was occurring before we arrived, but where there was really nothing going on at all.

I did, as I said last night, take some ambient noise readings right around 50, 45 to 50.

I'm sorry, pardon me.

Right.

Those were occasions when there weren't any bands playing?

Sunday.

But the occasions when you replied, responded and there wasn't music, is it because there wasn't music scheduled that night or was it a night where the band might have been taking a break or finished?

Jim and I discussed this and it sounded like that the reading for the C setting is unusable.

and actually in regulating sound.

So unfortunately, it's not a legal way of doing it, as far as I've understood it.

Sure, and the research that was done, we did not find an example, but I've asked to further that research and see if we could find one out there that we could take a look at.

We'll look into that.

I think too that we could use the sea level rating with the meter that they have to see if there's an acceptable outcome.

Just a couple comments I wanted to make.

Beginning with there are other neighborhoods that deal with noise issues that range from gunshots to sirens to helicopters

It seems as though the neighborhoods are able to kind of cope and create a lifestyle around the noise that's part of that community but that doesn't seem to be transferring here.

Also, I just think that having a business is a blessing and there are people here that are born here, lived here, died here that will never experience what it's like to have a business.

So I just think philosophically

to whom much is given, much is required.

I just want to frame that as just a different way of looking at that because there are a lot of people that would just love to be in your position but they'll never have the opportunity of owning a business.

But I do agree with, he may have said it differently, but making a decision either right or wrong is better than living in conflict.

And we talked about the decibel level, I thought the 65 would be a way of

being reasonable, but it didn't do much for the conflict.

I would be willing to discuss lowering it to 55 as a way again of ending that, coming to terms with that conflict.

But even with that in mind, the crowd, the culture, the traffic, it's kind of a cool urban feel when you're over there, but I guess cool isn't cool anymore when it begins to disrupt your life.

But I am so disappointed that on both sides of this argument that there is animosity.

I do not have animosity towards the residents.

I do have a disappointment in letting this process drag out before city council.

I understand the residents have concerns.

I understand that a lot of the residents that want the venues there have concerns.

I understand I have concerns.

I'm not hostile to the residents.

I want to encourage the residents also to take part in this process.

I know this lady who is sitting right there is one of the persons who is being disturbed.

Alright, so what I'm hearing is, I think in general,

There has been some positive change.

Despo levels have gone down.

The noise is still an issue and you're taking some steps and you've got more steps on the way.

There's other issues related to crowds, to noise that are not at question here with Bell Rio specifically.

It's a general issue of crowd control late at night and hopefully we can come up with some good ways to address that working with the businesses in Belmont.

We do not have before us tonight any specific action item.

This really was a report and a status update.

I understand that you're looking for us to lead, but frankly, I think the direction that you all got after the last meeting still stands, which is our preference, frankly, is for the neighborhood to work it out.

And it sounds like

It's taken a while to get to that point, but we're now seeing some efforts to, hopefully on both sides, not just your side or their side, hopefully on both sides, to come together and figure this out so that we don't have to keep coming back.

Because you're right, this isn't a good use of our time, it's not a good use of your time.

It would be much better off if this were able to be resolved.

There are some people, I'm guessing a very small minority,

and living in Belmont who are not going to be happy until Belmont goes back the way it was five years ago.

We have to acknowledge that fact.

There are other people, I think, who are okay with the changes in Belmont.

They just want to be able to sleep at two o'clock at night and I think that's a reasonable request.

Well, we had asked for a six month.

All right.

The last item on our regular business agenda is a report on the Azalea Park Master Plan.

And we have with us our Parks Director and Trails Director, Brian Daley and Chris Guindick.

Chris, I noticed you had a big smile on your face.

Good evening Mr. Mayor, Members of Council.

Tonight before you we have the final draft master plan for Azalea Park.

Tonight represents the culmination of a number of months of work both with the neighborhood and our staff and assistance from a local firm, the LPDA, to come up with the final draft master plan for Azalea.

This tonight also is the culmination of our park master planning process that council adopted last spring, the formal process.

That process was used to develop the plan to work with the community.

It has been through vetting and approval by the Parks and Rec Advisory Board.

and the Planning Commission here several weeks ago.

Each of those bodies adopted the plan unanimously.

Good evening everybody.

I'll give a quick rundown of in discussions with the neighbors and the people who use the park, which we had quite a few discussions with them that was very positive, tell you what sort of changes and improvements will be made to the park and why.

The neighbors would like the park to stay about the same scale.

They want it to be well maintained and they want it to feel secure when you're visiting the park and using it.

So using those three guiding principles, we shifted things around to make the park more secure.

We'll be improving lots of the equipment so that it's easier to maintain.

Some of it's relatively old and it's difficult to maintain stuff that gets that old.

And we also did not add any major new attractions to the park that would lead to traffic.

There's no new pool in the park to that effect.

In basic, everything in the park will get a little nicer and it may move around a little bit.

The park will effectively stay the same in general atmosphere that it has right now.

We noticed part of the security issue was that people can get around behind the hill where the ball courts are now.

Most of them are just taking a lunch break or kind of hanging out but the people using the park felt very uncomfortable with who's this person in a car and I'm here with my child at the playground there's nobody else back here should I be afraid.

That's the reasoning for moving the parking around and you notice that turnaround

is just at the point before you go around the hill.

So you're visible now from Old Lynchburg Road and if you're trying to hide from your boss you're not going to be able to do it and take a break and sit in your car.

So that's the reason for that.

We will be improving the gate and the locking and we've also added a gate in the rear that will be accessible for the gardens but you effectively won't be able to get a vehicle all the way back in the park like you can now.

In doing that we moved the basketball courts towards the front.

We are moving the playgrounds towards the front and we're putting the dog park in the back.

Part of that justification is that if you're there with your dog, A, there's usually a couple other people at the dog park, but people would be less likely to mess with you if you had your dog.

So that was also partly a security thought there.

The neighbors did not seem to mind where the dog park was.

The people who live around the park

were very supportive of the changes.

They didn't mind the view changing from what they can see now.

The ball field's been rotated.

It helps when you're lining up the plate with true north.

It's a little off north so that you don't get the sun in your eyes quite as much.

The playground and the pavilion have been moved to a central location with the idea that if, say, one child's playing ball and one's a toddler, at the playground you consider the pavilion, you can see them both.

The restrooms are going to be put in the current concession stand is the idea.

It has plumbing and electricity.

It's mostly out of the floodplain.

Most of this park is floodplain, so we didn't want to put electricity and things in that shelter that, you know, would make it harder to do with the flooding.

We left the gardens where they are.

People have tended to that soil for quite a while.

We didn't see any reason to really move that around.

They kind of like what they have there.

And then the open space in the middle, there's a bicycle pump track option we have that we may be putting there at the park in this plan.

The trails going into the park will be improved and the trail along the creek will be improved.

What we'd like to see is a

More formal trail in the upland outside of the floodplain area and in the natural buffer that we've allowed to grow back in the past couple years along the creek.

That's the nature RTF type dirt trail that you have.

We've included access to the beach areas as much as we can without making erosion issues and we've, I believe, increased the parking slightly, which is something we feel that there is a need for more parking.

People do park on the grass there a lot when it gets busy.

and that's generally what we have.

We're going to add some biofilters and it is a wet environment but we'd like to make sure the water is where it should be and is being cleaned as much as it can before it goes in the creek rather than just kind of being boggy and muddy everywhere.

We want to formalize those areas that

needs some drainage improvements and allow the water to soak in.

So that's a general rundown of the physical layout of the park.

There are things that won't show up in the drawing would be lighting the dog park up to the time that the park closes, which again, the thought was to keep the people in the park that they like to have in the park that have the dogs.

And again, the neighbors around that area did not mind as long as the lights are not glaring into their houses that we light that park for that use.

We started, the park came up in a sort of a circuit of parks needing a master plan and some improvements.

We immediately worked with the Fry Springs Neighborhood Association and they did internal surveys.

with themselves and they gave us information before we even really got started as to the types of uses they'd like to see in the park.

Once we met with them and really defined these are the types of uses in the park, then you start to talk about, well, where do those uses belong?

How could they be improved or altered so that they are more functional, more safe?

And we've had those conversations as well.

And then we've gone with the Parks and Rec Advisory Board, had a Public Hearing Planning Commission as part of them for public input.

We've had quite a bit of feedback back and forth with the neighborhood and we feel that it's been a really wonderful process working with them.

And also regular park users, we would park post flyers in the park.

Not everybody that uses a park is from that neighborhood or gets their news from that source.

We've done direct mailings to everybody within x feet of the park so that you're not surprised the day the park changes if you're not on the neighborhood board.

I'll have Brian answer that but I believe there are a few minor improvements we can make right away.

Currently the capital improvement program has $375 in FY12 and

Well, we're not going to get far with $375,000 in both FY12 and FY13.

However, there are a number of improvements in the park that we can do in-house with our own staff through other existing funding sources, whether it be playgrounds or trails or the dog park.

Upon adoption of the master plan, we'll work through a phasing of construction.

Some of this work will obviously need to be contracted and paid through the capital program.

However, we don't want to wait another year for any of those improvements to be made.

I have a dog park question.

I noticed in the text here and here, I just

We talked about deciding whether or not to have trees for shade or kind of a pavilion sort of thing for shade.

No, it has not been decided.

It will depend on how we physically need to build the dog park.

It's not very invasive construction.

It's mostly just fencing and surfacing and making sure your gates are correct and so forth.

Absolutely.

There's a few large ones there.

So we may be able to enclose some of the larger trees that wouldn't necessarily get that same damage as a young tree.

And we have, there are two areas there and the intention is that

I think the process as an end product has been very satisfactory, where you've gone about doing the plan, working with the neighbors, listening to them before jumping in with the design, very useful, proper way to do things.

Thank you.

So that people can let their dogs off leash in the dog park but otherwise in the park it's a use a leash area?

That's correct.

And there's been previous discussion about having a bicycle access to Monte Vista Avenue.

That trail may be done by the end of this month.

In fact, that was an existing drainage problem and we would like to

Yes, and part of that idea when we looked at Old Lynchburg Road was that could be built now and allow you to effectively bypass the curvy hilly part of Old Lynchburg and you end up almost a half block from the stop sign at Old Lynchburg and JPA.

So working with neighborhood development on an existing plan that they were going to do drainage work, I think the bid just was released and they may be building that today.

Other comments or questions?

I just want to commend you as well for your responsiveness and just the level of community engagement that's gone into this process.

And I think it's a better outcome as a result.

So thank you for all your efforts.

You are looking for us tonight to officially adopt the master plan.

Please indicate your vote.

And it passes unanimously, thank you very much.

Mr. Mayor, thank you for allowing this new item on the agenda.

There's not so new item as this to the next reincarnation.

We would like the next reincarnation much better than the first one.

Bill Watson was here last time, it was a few months back when we had a signed package for our travel system and some of us raised some questions as to the appropriateness of that design and they have come up with a new design which I think reflects much better our area like Blue Ridge Mountains and Dogwood Flowers instead of

some things which were not related to area.

So I would be very happy to, City Council, to adopt a new sign so that they can go ahead and start doing the signs on the buses.

I think our cameraman is not here right now.

There you go.

As Councillor Huja indicated, what is different from last time is that last time we were talking about the blue as a symbol of the sky.

Well, clearly the blue is now tied into the Blue Ridge skyline.

The green still represents the earth.

We've replaced the cat image with the dogwood flowers.

And you may or may not recall this one.

Catchthecat.org is proposed to be the way that people could access transit information online, yes.

and it would probably be appearing on bus stop signs as well.

Is that something that you're nodding?

Yeah, I mean, I guess originally that was referring to the cat logo.

Well, the name is cat.

Correct.

Alright, it's been moved and seconded.

Any further discussion?

If not, please indicate your vote.

That concludes our business for tonight.

We will now open the meeting up to matters by the public.

Is there anybody from the public?

Mr. Peter Kleeman.

I live at 407 Head Street in the city.

I'm on the downtown mall most every day.

Not every day, but I would like to just point out that the water features on the downtown mall are really important to me and I have been, I guess, the voice of the fountains since they have not had their voices being heard on a regular basis.

This past weekend it was just one of those hot steamy days and the main fountain wasn't running and one of the other up fountains wasn't running and I know that Maurice Jones has spent some time and effort getting these fountains working but I'm just not exactly sure what the situation is and I'd just like to encourage some resolution of whether the fountains are on an odd schedule that they're off on the weekends and on during the week or whether there are some technical difficulties associated with the fountains

I'm not sure what's going on with the fountains, but I would really encourage making those fountains on when there are pedestrians on the downtown mall, particularly on the weekends.

And if there's a scheduling issue, I hope that that can be resolved.

If there's a technical issue, then I hope that whatever efforts need to be put towards solving those technical issues, that effort is put.

So I thank you very much.

I'd also like to mention I did use the city's website to report what I considered to be a very dangerous pedestrian issue in the crosswalk at East Jefferson Street and Park Street.

And there was a lot of erosion and that's where traffic turns.

I just wanted to compliment those who took action and I made a comment about that through the website and I think within five days it was back and rebricked this time so that there won't be continuous erosion.

So my only concern is that when I put it in I got this note saying I would be notified as to what was going to be happening within 48 hours.

I have never been notified but I do walk by there and I saw that the resolution of that issue was done.

So I think the people who are taking care of that, I'd like to give them a little round of applause or a single applause and hope that they will be able to do that for many of the other ones that are in the community.

Thank you very much and now I can take my cookies.

Mr. Kleeman, can I just say that I too have become an advocate for the fountains on the mall.

I was there on Friday evening.

Actually all the fountains were off on Friday evening because of the power outages that we had.

But I did follow up with the Parks and Rec folks and we did have some complications over the weekend that were technical and then also a result of the power failures.

So they had to reset them and they are working on the technical issues.

Good.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

Anybody else from the public like to speak?

Harvey?

Meeting's adjourned.