City Council Meeting   8/2/2010

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and David Brown

Ms. Barfield, if you'd call the roll please.

Thank you very much.

We're going to start with a couple of words and recognitions and I first want to start with a quiz.

The question is, the four states, or the answer to the question is, the four states that border Mexico

How many of you know the question?

The question is, yes sir, what's the question?

The answer to that very question put a local girl over the top on jeopardy earlier last month, guaranteeing her $15,000 and a trip to an exotic location for her family.

This smart and courageous young woman handily defeated two other contestants during Kids' Week on the popular television show.

Question, what Charlottesville girl loves social studies and science but wants to be a pediatrician and was the winner of Jeopardy on July the 7th?

The answer is, who is Jolie Milner, age 11 years old, of Charlottesville, Virginia?

and we are very proud to consider Jolie one of our own.

Jolie goes to Jackson Burley Elementary.

Our next recognition, we have a very special guest here from the local recruiting office from the United States Army who would like to recognize some members of our community who were instrumental with the recent birthday celebration for the United States Army on the downtown mall.

Good evening, everybody.

My name is Sergeant First Class Hartzell.

I'm the station commander at the Army Office in Charlottesville.

Let's take a few minutes.

First of all, I'd like to thank Mr. Mayor and the city council for letting me come here and present some awards.

The Army birthday was 235 years old on June 14th, and we had a celebration in the city of Charlottesville.

And I've never been to a city like this before where they embraced what I wanted to do.

I made a few phone calls, and the city of Charlottesville just completely

Immerse Themselves, and the Downtown Business Association.

Am I allowed to set something on this?

Okay.

It's my first city council meeting, so.

I might be the mayor next week.

I'm going to call everybody's name and I'd like them to come forward as I present this, the certificate to them.

The people that aren't here, I will get them to them at another time.

And there are other people that I really would have loved to recognize, but there were so many people that I just couldn't do it.

It would have been a three hour meeting and I know you probably wouldn't like that too much.

Is Lisa Allen present?

All right, I'm presenting this.

It's a certificate of appreciation for everyone's tremendous support for the United States Army Birthday Celebration, the pavilion.

And first of all, Mr. George Benford, thank you.

He was actually one of the original founders of the sacred Army Birthday Celebration Committee.

Mr. Rick Farris.

There you go.

Thank you very much.

She was very instrumental in everything that went on behind the scenes.

Mr. Robert Stroh.

Ms. Andrea Copeland, she's part of National College.

National College donated 4,000 water bottles, so we appreciate it.

Thank you very much.

And Monticello Media, Mrs. Lisa Allen, thank you for the promotion.

They actually had me on the radio the day of the event to promote everything.

Once again, please thank everyone.

Give them a round of applause.

They did an outstanding job.

Thank you, Sergeant Harsall.

We look forward to your candidacy.

You will note on the agenda, originally we're going to have a moment with the Winneba delegation.

We've consolidated that now.

That will be coming on our agenda when we do the report and resolution with the memorandum of understanding.

So we're now going to move forward with other announcements.

I have a couple of announcements.

First of all,

I want to make sure everybody is aware that the City of Charlottesville is giving away free water conservation kits to city residents every Friday on City Hall Plaza from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. well supplies last.

These are small kits that make a big difference in your household water consumption.

I have an announcement.

I don't know if you can get a picture of this.

This is announcing our first of the summer series of neighborhood city council meetings.

We're going to be meeting at

Tonsler Park on Cherry Avenue on Thursday, August 12th.

That's a week from this Thursday, isn't it?

Yes.

From 6 p.m. until 8 p.m.

There'll be dinner provided, childcare available, fun activities for the kids, plus a great opportunity to talk with city council and city staff about issues important to your neighborhood.

So I would encourage anyone who lives in that neighborhood to come.

We will be having them in other neighborhoods as well.

Anyone is welcome, but specifically about this neighborhood this time.

Thank you, Ms. Szakos.

Any other announcements?

If not, we will move on to matters by the public, and as is our custom, when you come forward, please state your name and address and keep your comments to three minutes.

Hello, my name is Kevin Cox, I have some pictures for you to look at.

Pass them among yourselves.

Those are pictures of piles of snow on curb ramps and sidewalks, piles that were put there by publicly owned and privately owned snow plows and snow shovels.

I'm here to talk about the snow removal ordinance that's before you for the second reading tonight.

The first part of that ordinance controls the removal of snow that has fallen naturally from the sky onto the sidewalks.

And the revisions and changes to that are good and I think it'll create a more effective ordinance and might actually help get that job done.

It's the second part of the ordinance that concerns me.

I think a lot of people are unaware that the second part of the ordinance hasn't been changed and that it

contributed significantly, the problem that it was supposed to address contributed significantly to problems on the sidewalks.

That is the pushing of snow by city snow plows, private snow plows, and by people clearing out driveways, etc.

onto the sidewalks.

And then that snow got left there for very long periods, longer than a month in some cases, creating serious obstructions.

People in wheelchairs had to go out into the street, everybody had to go out into the street.

It was a big problem and it wasn't solved.

The piles weren't moved.

They melted finally.

Long after the sidewalks were dry, there were places that you had to walk out into the street.

Those pictures show that.

and I know that you got a memo today guiding you through the process of changing the penalty for this from a class 1 misdemeanor to a class 4 misdemeanor.

I believe that the police had a problem enforcing it last time because it was felt that a class 1 misdemeanor was

Too serious an offense.

It's a criminal offense with a maximum penalty of $2,500 or a year in jail.

Now it's been suggested you make it a Class 4 misdemeanor.

That's a good idea, but I don't think it's going to be very effective in really resolving the problem because, first of all, how are you going to prove that somebody put the snow there?

They're going to have to be caught in the act.

There was a lot of that that happened last year.

You're going to have to have somebody out there watching people to prove that that snow came from your driveway and you did it.

It's going to be very tricky.

Um.

Secondly, it's a complex thing with a lot of different factors.

The fact is some of us have no other place to put the snow if we're going to clear our sidewalks than in the street.

And there are places in the streets where it's appropriate to put snow, where there isn't traffic.

I cleared my sidewalk and two parking spaces in front of my house and I put it in the street.

I put a huge pile of snow in the street where cars don't go.

Didn't bother anybody.

This flexibility has to be in your policy.

and it would create a policy that was more effective at making the sidewalks usable.

So I ask you to step back and take a look at these complexities before you adopt this ordinance and declare this done.

There are a lot of issues regarding the second part of this ordinance that have not been thoroughly addressed.

The bottom line, though, is that the city owns the sidewalks.

It's ultimately the city's responsibility to get the sidewalks clean.

The city has met that responsibility by calling upon city residents to do part of the work.

That's understandable.

A lot of us did it.

But the federal ADA, the Americans with Disability Act, mandates that government owned property be made accessible.

Those sidewalks are owned by the government.

It's the city's responsibility to see that the snow is removed.

Thank you, Mr. Cox.

Good evening.

Thank you.

My name's Jack Brown.

I live at 1505 Dairy Road in the city.

I'd like to speak about preserving a city asset.

In recent years, leaders and residents of the area have been caught up in a debate over the area water supply plan.

Whatever its real merits or limitations, the plan is now entirely structuring all conversation about the area's water resources.

but the plan totally ignores one key area which is maintenance costs.

Pause on that.

We need this expensive plan for two reasons.

Overall population growth in Albemarle County but not in Charlottesville and lack of maintenance in the past for 50 years.

The Sugar Hollow pipeline has leaks and breaks.

The Ragged Mountain Dam is flawed.

The South Fork Reservoir needs maintenance because it's behaving exactly as its designers intended, slowly filling with silt over the past 40 years so that the silt will fall out in the reservoir rather than in an expensive treatment process or in your water glass.

Now, after all of this heritage of not maintaining our infrastructure, our new $200 million plan still does not include funding for maintenance of its new infrastructure.

Nothing to maintain the new pumping stations or the new pipeline, nothing to preserve South Fork, nothing to pay for the electricity to pump its water uphill to the enlarged Ragged Mountain Reservoir.

The plan clearly envisions totally abandoning South Fork, putting a marshy wetland there in 50 years with a narrow creek.

Leaders in the city and the county should insist that any plan start out with realistic maintenance costs.

And before building a massive new infrastructure, our political leaders should insist that RWSA offer realistic budgets to maintain what it has.

The right starting point to tell that organization to maintain would be for council to call now for proposals to dredge South Fork back to its original capacity.

Plan advocates want you to be afraid of dredging.

They say it could cause the regulators to throw out the water supply plan.

That's not true.

The call for dredging can and should be placed as an issue entirely apart from the community water supply plan, although complementary to it.

Why should we do this?

There's three reasons.

As a matter of broad policy, which is your business to establish and the business of the supervisors, you, the city council, should signal you promote a culture of sustainability.

That we start by maintaining what we have before we build anew.

The second reason, the new plan will take decades to build.

According to RWA says own plans, the new pipeline won't begin to be constructed until 2021.

Where do we get our water in the meantime?

Especially if we have another drought like we had in 2002.

And finally, the third reason to dredge now, given environmental law, we may not be able to do it in the future as environmental law becomes increasingly restrictive.

So a plan is only a document.

I urge you all to hold on to the actual physical asset that we have, the South Fork Reservoir, request proposals now please.

Thank you, Mr. Brown.

My name is James Nix.

I live at 2402 Kerry Lane in the city of Charlottesville.

I'm here this evening, Mr. Mayor and city council members, to urge you to move forward on the approved water plan without further delay.

Now the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality letter that was published last week in Charlottesville Tomorrow

showed convincingly that the alternative plan that you have proposed will not provide adequate water for our future needs, our long-term needs.

And furthermore, it showed that that plan entails environmental consequences that would render the permitting process for it extremely difficult, if not impossible.

Since that draft letter was written, it's about a year ago, the dredging study by HDR Engineering has shown that the storage capacity to be restored in the South Fork Reservoir by dredging would be markedly less than was earlier thought possible.

As a consequence, the shortfall in safe yield of the Norris plan, if I might call it that, is even greater than that described in the DEQ letter, which you've seen in draft form.

No doubt you are hoping, Mayor Norris, that the revised demand analysis, shortly to be released, will significantly alter that equation.

However, growth projections for the university and other major users of water have actually increased since that original plan was written, since that letter was written.

And don't forget the community already, this community already is one of the most efficient in terms of water consumption per capita in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

So while some further savings from conservation may be possible, I really seriously doubt that serious conservation measures can actually have an impact since we're already at very low consumption rates.

For these reasons I'm confident that the study will conclude that the original demand projection cannot significantly be reduced and in fact the new demand analysis might actually show that we need more water than the previous analysis showed.

Now should you decide to go forward with your plan in spite of the concerns raised in the DEQ letter, rest assured that the adverse impact on stream flows in both the Mormons River and the Rivanna

will weigh heavily on DEQ's decision to approve or deny an amended permit or a new permit.

Any plan that continues to draw from the headwaters of the Mormons River for community water supply will be difficult, if not impossible, to justify now that a viable alternative exists.

Charlottesville has earned a reputation as a city that cannot make a decision and continued dithering over the water plan reinforces that unfortunate assessment.

I urge you to act without delay to implement the approved water plan.

The health of our rivers depends on it and so does the economic health of our community.

The approved plan will provide a reliable supply of water for our citizens even in times of drought and reassure business owners that job creating business expansion in this community will be supported

by an adequate, reliable supply of water.

Thank you Mr. Nix.

Good evening Mr. Mayor and Councillors, Colette Hall, 101 Robertson Lane.

On a consent agenda item O, which is the ordinance density regulations for townhouse development, quote, applicable city code provision section 34-41 amendments to the zoning ordinance and section 34-389 density regulations for townhouse development.

The Executive Summary This is a proposed zoning text amendment which would eliminate the density regulation for townhouse developments.

The zoning districts that permit townhouse development have density restrictions that apply to all developments regardless of housing type.

Therefore, removing the density regulations will merely force townhouse developments to comply with the less strict.

regulations of the underlying zoning district."

Strict is good.

This is a slippery slope.

It was at least two or three councils ago, by that I mean different councillors, where the idea of increased density was introduced.

It has led to the springing up of multiple PUDs of all types of housing and destruction of forests and green spaces throughout the city.

It has led to the vagueness and the inability of enforcing a truly hearty steep slope ordinance.

These are the exact reasons people move to Charlottesville.

Charlottesville is rapidly losing its identity as a green city regarding its natural beauty and space.

and then my second item, which is item Q, ordinance, truck restrictions on Alta Vista Avenue and Shamrock Road.

As president of the North Downtown Residents Association, the neighborhood association for North Downtown, I ask that you include the streets, Lyons Avenue, Cargill Lane, and Lyons Court Lane to this list.

In the past year we have had incidences between midnight and 3am of tractor-trailers trying to negotiate these residential, very narrow and steep streets.

The police seem to think that these drivers are following a GPS program and that drivers have no idea until they are literally stuck on these streets, the physical structure of the street, not to mention the residential nature.

Former city manager Mr. O'Connell, traffic engineer Ms. Alexander and NDS director Mr. Tolbert and the police were all informed of these events.

Lyons Avenue, that's L-Y-I-N-S, Cargill, C-A-R-G-I-L-L Lane, and Lyons Court Lane.

Great, thank you very much.

Hi, Liz Palmer, Albemarle County.

I'm talking about the water supply plan also.

As most of you already know, at the last RWSA board meeting, there was much discussion about what city council needed to know in order to move forward with the approved water supply plan.

Also discussed were significant financial reasons for making that decision in August.

Mayor Norris asked Mr. Frederick to write a matrix of outcomes of the studies that the

City Council has requested.

I assume that he was asking for some sort of decision tree.

I'm concerned that Council will not have time to get together as a body to go over this before the next RWSA meeting.

Don't know, but I have two requests related to that decision-making process and the distribution of information to the public.

The first, I'd like to ask that counselors write down their concerns and questions that they personally need addressed before they can move forward with the plan.

Get these questions to Rivanna as soon as possible so that each counselor can make sure

that their questions get answered to their satisfaction.

If possible, arrange a meeting with Rivanna staff and Schnabel if you need it, either one-on-one or two at a time.

The second request I have

When Ms. Edwards joined the RWSA board, she asked Rivanna staff to address matters from the public brought before the board in writing or orally by the next Rivanna board meeting.

This was to help answer questions and disseminate information to the public.

Many concerns and accusations have been voiced in matters from the public in city council meetings.

I'd like to ask that council do the same here that they've asked Rivanna to do with respect to statements made by the public concerning projects and procedures of the RWSA.

Information sharing is an important aspect of city council meetings and because more people see council meetings than RWSA meetings, it's a good forum for councilors to get accurate information to the public and correct some of the misconceptions that are out there now.

Thank you, Ms. Palmer.

Mr. Mayor, Councillors, City Manager, my name is Bob Stroh, 1412 Kenwood Lane.

I came to you tonight to support the Panhandling Ordinance Memo that you received earlier.

There are, as you know, two documents related to panhandling that are in your package.

One is a memo and one is a draft ordinance.

We would hope that you would find a way to support the memo that you received, which is the work that was done with city staff and the Downtown Business Association, which actually set out three outcomes of the ordinance that we'd hoped for.

The first and the one that has survived the ordinance draft is the 50 foot buffer around the side streets which we believe to be absolutely crucial for the safety and security of our patrons.

You just don't want to mix vehicles and pedestrians and then have them being distracted by panhandlers.

The other two that did not survive the draft ordinance but we believe are equally important

and we really would stress that we would ask these respectfully to give it a shot I guess we'd have to say because I know they're going to be challenged or they may be challenged but they are very important to allow our patrons the privacy to enjoy their evening and their time on the mall in safety and security.

And these are the 15-foot buffers around our cafes and the 15-foot buffers around our vendors.

Very similar to the 15-foot buffer around the ATMs which have been approved and in place for many years to provide safety and security for those patrons.

We would ask you to extend the ordinance to allow that for our customers also.

Thank you, Mr. Stroh.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor and Council.

I stand, I'm George Benford, 608 Rainier Road, also I'm Vice Chair of the Connected Business Bureau and also a downtown business owner.

I stand here asking you to also support the memo as originally came out.

with reference to the panhandling.

As a business owner, I see this on a constant basis, especially my location on the downtown mall.

And it has become a problem that I hear from not only my customers, but I also hear this in the words that we get back from the visitor's bureau saying they're feeling unsafe sometimes in the downtown mall.

And the panhandling has become a problem.

I have some of my customers that say they walk four blocks and they'll have five or six panhandlers within that period of time.

It's not what Charlottesville and the historic downtown mall is all about.

It's not that we don't care for our people down there, but there is a safety issue that is involved here and I think we ought to definitely consider the memo as originally put out and look at that 15-foot buffer from cafes, from vendors, as is from the ATM machines.

I thank you for considering that.

Thank you, Mr. Benford.

Rebecca Quinn, 104 4th Street here in the city.

I, like many of you, feel Charlottesville is unique in many ways.

But one of the ways we're not unique is successful water conservation.

It's happening all over the place.

and yet it seems to be something that many water authorities just can't grasp the success of conservation.

A friend of mine pointed me to a recent article in the Hampton newspaper that mentioned the Newport News Water Works.

This is the water authority that includes Hampton, Newport News, York County, Poquoson, and parts of James City County.

That area has seen a 17% increase in population in the last 20 years, and yet they've also experienced a 10% decrease in water consumption, in their average daily water consumption.

A spokesperson for the Water Authority there was quoted as saying, if there's that much decrease in demand, people are conserving somehow, some way.

This should not be a mystery.

You know, we've all, I mean, Charlottesville has taken a leadership role in many ways in your biweekly inviting people to come in for their conservation kits and other things, so we know it's happening.

I hope you'll have a chance to see a brief presentation one of our colleagues has put together to estimate the long-term effects of anticipated conservation, something that we are convinced will most assuredly continue to show savings.

simply as things that we don't even know are going to take place.

Things like we don't plan for, changing out a toilet, buying that wonderful front-loading washing machine, all of these things that have dramatic water savings without changing any behavior.

And yet we do know people do change their behavior when it comes time to conserve water.

Plus there are many other innovative approaches and Charlottesville, again, has been recognized in many ways for the ways

for buildings that conserve water.

We've got fire stations conserving water.

So it's not an anomaly, and we hope that you will recognize the success of your efforts and the success of the city's citizens' efforts to conserve water, not just one time, but every day and from now and into the future.

Thank you, Ms. Quinn.

Betty Mooney, the City of Charlottesville.

I'd like to thank you all again for your years of patience now.

It's not just weeks and months, it's years of patience.

But there's probably a reason that you've had so much input on this and it's because it's such a huge decision for the city and the county.

And it's been in the works for years, 20 years probably.

and in 2002 we thought there was a decision but that plan was dropped and it was never implemented and that plan was dredging so now we're coming close perhaps to a decision but I just have to address tonight this article that appeared in the Daily Progress and many of you saw it has caused a great deal of concern in the community

and a great deal of confusion.

And in all the reporting that we've seen in two and a half years, and we've seen a lot, hundreds and hundreds of articles, podcasts have been written and spoken about this.

This is the worst yet that I've ever seen to mislead the public.

I mean, this said DEQ, NORA's plan fails to meet needs.

There is nothing accurate about this.

I have sent you the letter from the DEQ.

If you read it yourselves, I encourage the public and the media, other than this newspaper and this organization, to read that letter because they've already interpreted it and see for themselves what it says.

I don't want to tell you.

I want you to read for yourself.

I think what you'll find is there's nothing in that letter

about the Norris plan.

There's nothing in that letter that talks about the needs that we need for our community water plan.

There's nothing in that letter that says we need an expensive new permit.

The word expensive is never used.

There's nothing that says the water proposal won't provide a sufficient supply.

What that letter says is that if we change the plan, if the community determines the new information we have, means that we would need to change the plan like a business would.

If you had faulty information for your business plan and you were a business, what would you do?

You would change your plan to better accurately look at the information you had.

All the DEQ says in the letter is if we need to change our plan,

We need to modify our permit.

That's all it says.

It doesn't say that we can't do it.

It doesn't say it would be expensive.

It says we would need to change our permit and it says we can do that.

There's nothing stopping us.

So this is very sad because it has confused a lot of people.

It doesn't mean we can't dredge.

They never say that in the letter.

Please read the letter.

The letter says that yes, if we have different information and if we need a different plan, we may need to modify our permit.

That's perfectly acceptable for the DEQ.

So I just hope, I know you all probably understand that, because you're smart people and you've been following this.

But I'm afraid that the public has been confused by this very misleading, and we don't need this.

You're getting lots of lobbying from different groups.

Just look at the facts.

That's all you need to do.

And please listen to Dee Dee Smith's presentation.

It will show you absolutely the demand of 18.7 per day is wrong.

Thank you, Ms. Mooney.

Ma'am, gentlemen.

I'm Bob Fenwick, 901 East Jefferson Street.

On the dredging and damming issue, one of the hard parts of decision making is when you are being told two different things about the same issue.

And it gets worse when you get detail after detail thrown at you to support one side or the other.

Sometimes you can't help but think it shouldn't have to be this difficult.

Well, about two months ago, one of the members of this council mentioned the word phasing when talking about the dredging, damming issue.

and that might be a way to approach the issue without foreclosing any of the options.

We now know we have enough water for our community and for future growth farther into the future than we previously thought.

At the very least, that gives us time to make a decision.

Phasing might be a path through this clutter.

If we dredge now, we will have ample time to see how that affects our supply and we will have more time to see how conservation will play out.

Dredging now does not close the door on a new dam sometime in the future, nor does the repair of the spillway of the Ragged Mountain Reservoir.

Dredging now will not take money from wastewater repairs or Belmont Bridge repairs or old Lynchburg Road repairs.

whether it's a tax or a bond or paying higher water or sewer charges, it all comes out of our pocket.

Besides, there are only so many bonds the city can float.

Dredging would be phase one of the community's actions to ensure clean water.

Thank you, Mr. Fenwick.

I'm Dan Beaker, I'm a county resident but I own a home in the city which I pay a water bill on so I hope that gives me the right to speak about the water issue.

A couple points about the environmental aspects of the plan.

Much of the force behind the water plan from its inception has been from

residents and organizations that want to improve stream flows in the Mormon's River.

It's a noble goal and it should be commended for it.

However, I believe that the pipeline coming from Sugar Hollow has taken an unfair amount of blame for decreased flows in the Mormon's River.

I'm not a hydrologist, but I've hiked up there for almost 30 years and I've noticed in times of drought, if you look at the stream above the dam, above the reservoir, there's barely a trickle flowing into the reservoir itself.

If that dam was not there,

If that pipeline was not there, the Mormon's River would still be running dry at certain times of the year as it has for millennia.

I don't think the plan is going to fix that.

The natural cycles of things, it's natural for that river to be dry at certain times of the year.

Also, the impacts on the Reagan Mountain Natural Area, if this plan is adopted, I think have not been given due consideration.

One of the most threatened biological resources in this county are contiguous blocks of mature forest.

And the Reagan Mountain area is one of the largest tracts of that type of habitat in this county.

To lose the acreage that will be lost will be tragic to trees but even more importantly the fragmentation of the forest that will take place from the roads that will have to be constructed to get to do the interstate improvements will have dramatic impacts on that area.

Now you could make the argument that this might be necessary for water supply and if that's true you could make that argument.

You only undertake this kind of drastic environmental degradations if it is absolutely necessary.

And I think a strong argument can be made that there are alternatives.

I commend council for demanding objective studies in this regard.

We have not done near enough with conservation as some of the other speakers have mentioned.

Just because our locality uses less water than most others in the states does not mean that we're energy or water efficient.

Our consumption of oil, our consumption of water are all excessive.

We need as a society to change this and we need to take proactive, aggressive measures into the 21st century.

I think Charlottesville has a golden opportunity to enact conservation measures

that could meet these goals.

It does not have to be a gamble.

Other localities do it.

The federal government has initiated conservation measures in their military facilities that are achieving over 40% reductions in water usage.

Toilets, shower heads, washing machines, irrigation, those four things, if they're addressed, can reduce water dramatically.

And we can do that.

It can happen without sacrifice.

If we get used to having brown lawns in the summer,

The grass does not die, it comes back.

We don't have to irrigate to the degree we do.

Thank you, Mr. Baker.

Mr. Mayor, Councillors.

Kevin Lynch, 609 Locust Avenue.

First I'd like to nominate Charlottesville Tomorrow for the Andrew Breitberg Award for Creative Journalism for this headline right here because this would really lead you to believe that there's a serious problem with the ideas that were put forth by our mayor and other folks for how we can have a sustainable water plan that is sustainable not just ecologically but sustainable to residents' pocketbooks

because reading the DEQ letter, and I'm sure you've already done that, but for the public, what the DEQ said is modeling the proposal for dredging the reservoir and 13 foot addition to Ragging Mountain Dam actually adds 4 million gallons a day of capacity to our system while preserving the stream flows that were

under the existing permit.

They do say, yes, you'd have to modify those permits because they'd have a different set of triggers, but nothing to indicate that that would be difficult.

Right now we are using about 10 million gallons a day in this community of water.

We have a current safe yield in our system of about 12.8.

So we have about 28% more water than we need right now, certainly gives us some expansion for the future, and taking these measures would not only protect the resources that we have, sustain the resources that we have, but increase our cushion to about 68% for future growth.

Now, but this question, this need, so there's this assertion that we have this need, so what is this need?

Well, according to Charlottesville Tomorrow, our need is 18.7 million gallons, which is actually

Nine MGD more, slightly more than what dredging and the dam alone would provide.

But what's that need, what's the evidence for that need?

And the proponents of the dam would point to, well, in 1999 we were using a lot of water and we thought we'd continue to use a lot of water.

Okay, well that was 11 years ago.

So what's the evidence that that's happened?

In fact, from 1999, we've dropped our water usage.

We haven't been increasing it.

We've actually reduced it for a number of reasons.

Conservation among them, probably chiefly among them.

So this need, in 1999 people thought they had a lot of needs.

A lot of people thought they needed a Humvee in 1999.

A lot of people thought what we really needed was more financial deregulation in 1999.

And some people thought we needed a whole lot more water.

than we have now.

But is that need real?

And I submit that it's plainly obvious that it's not.

We're using less water now.

It's not something that just Charlottesville is doing.

Communities across the state, across the country, as laws mandating lower flow appliances,

Go into effect.

We use less water.

We're not the only responsible people in this country, but we do seem to be the only people that still want to spend money like it's 1999.

Please don't let that happen.

Thank you.

Oh, I do want to give you this one graph.

Well, I'll just point out that when you read the DEQ report, you'll see that they based the safe yield on a number that Frederick gave you for volume, which is 791 million gallons.

The real number which you can see is 971.

That's a little serious bit of dyslexia there.

It's a 200 million gallon dyslexia.

Thank you, Mr. Lynch.

That will conclude matters by the public.

We are now going to open up the meeting to council member responses to matters by the public.

I guess I'd just like to offer a general response is that I'm really delighted that people are engaged and come forward and I would encourage people watching from home to sometimes come to city council meetings and come up and participate in public comment.

We have a wide mix of opinions here tonight.

I'm not going to respond to all of them.

I do think that, you know, I was interested to hear about the perspective of Mr. Kochis on the snow.

I think that those are important things to consider as we're doing this.

And I think we'll be talking more about some of these other issues later, so I'll just leave it at that.

A lot of interesting comments.

There's a wide range of opinions on the water supply.

I too was intrigued by the comments from Mr. Kochs and I'd like to get, maybe when we get down to the consent agenda, get the sense of counsel as to whether or not we want to do as he suggested and put that off until we can come up with a more effective policy or should we go ahead and adopt it tonight and then work on

and some other measures or just adopt it as is.

We'll get to that in a minute, but thank you Mr. Kochis for coming forward.

I'd like to get staff's recommendation.

I'm not necessarily suggesting

Nor do I think Ms. Hall was suggesting that we pull the ordinance on truck restrictions, but I'd like to get staff's input on the specific request relating to the addition of Cargill, Lyons Avenue, and Lyons Court to that list.

So we can get some input from staff on that.

and I too appreciate all the comments on the water supply issue.

This is an issue that is coming to a head.

We have been talking about it for many years, but it's going to be time very soon to make a decision and I look forward to having some

some good data.

We're still awaiting the results on a couple of studies and then we'll be able to pull all this information together hopefully in a relatively easily digestible form.

It's a very complicated issue but we're going to try to simplify it as much as possible, lay out the alternatives as best we can lay them out and then present them for public consumption, for feedback from the public and for

the illumination of our discussion and decision making process.

So thank you all for your contributions to that.

We will now move on to the next item on our agenda which is appointment to boards and commissions.

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to move the following appointments to our boards and commissions to the Albemarle, Charlottesville Regional Jail Authority, Don Byers and Kathy Johnson Harris, to the Charlottesville Albemarle Commission on Children and Families, Sheetil Yarni and Jackie Bright.

Is there a second?

I'll second.

Any discussion?

If not please indicate your vote.

And the motion carries unanimously.

Thank you very much, Dr. Brown.

We will now move forward to our consent agenda.

Items on our consent agenda tonight include item A, minutes of July 19th, item B, an appropriation of $5,000 Virginia Commission of the Arts Challenge Grant, second of two readings.

Item C is an appropriation of $88,522 fiscal year 2011 Friendship Court sponsorship agreement, second of two readings.

Item D, an appropriation of $15,000, 2009 State Homeland Security Grant grant, hazmat, second of two readings.

Item E, an appropriation of $30,000, contribution to stormwater management improvement, second of two readings.

Item F, an appropriation of $65,000, CASA, START, truancy prevention program, second of two readings.

Item G, an appropriation of $316,957, fiscal year 2011 transit grant, second of two readings.

Item H, and this item has been corrected from the original agenda, item H is an appropriation of $1,089,000 from wastewater fund balance to the wastewater utility expense budget, second of two readings.

Item I, an appropriation of $1,500, Charlottesville Sheriff's Office calendar sales.

Item J, a resolution appointment to James River ASAP, first to one reading.

Item K is a resolution recommendation for SUP at 1204 West Main Street, the Battle Building, first to one reading.

Item L is an ordinance, snow removal enforcement ordinance, second of two readings.

Item M is an ordinance renewing CenturyLink franchise agreement, second of two readings.

Item N is an ordinance granting FiberRoads franchise agreement, second of two readings.

Item O is an ordinance density regulations for townhouse developments, first of two readings.

Item P, an ordinance amendment to mixed-use districts, first of two readings.

I have just a clarification question and this is partly Ms. Hall's question as well.

The density regulations for townhouse developments, I understand that those are just a recommendation to the Planning Commission to consider it.

I may have misunderstood that.

I actually have nothing against it.

You're right, you're right.

I thought we got a memo that the Planning Commission voted 5 to 0 in favor of that.

We initiated it earlier this year.

I'd like to suggest that we, since we have a, the part of the ordinance we're amending is not, there's no controversy regarding it that we move ahead with that but we specifically ask staff to address for us the comments that Mr. Kochs made so that we could consider further amending the ordinance.

That's fine with me.

Is there a second?

Second.

Any further discussion?

If not, please indicate your vote.

Thank you very much and we will take up, we will ask staff to follow up on the second portion of the snow removal ordinance to address the concerns that Mr. Kochis raised tonight.

Okay, now we have the fun part.

Some of you may have noticed that in the front row of our chambers this evening we have an assembled group of some very special guests who have come from very far away to be with us tonight and to experience our community over the last week and for the next couple of days.

This is a delegation from our newest sister city of Winneba in Ghana in West Africa.

and as many of you may recall in November of 2009 we officially adopted Winneba as our fourth sister city.

The action item coming out of that meeting was a commitment to develop a memorandum of understanding that would spell out sort of the expectations for this new sister city partnership.

So we invited a group from Winneba to come to visit Charlottesville to get to know our community, get to know different businesses, organizations, individuals, community leaders, and really immerse themselves in Charlottesville.

During the time that they've been here over the past week, and we've really enjoyed having all of you here, during the time that they've been here this past week, Karen Waters with the Quality Community Council was kind enough to facilitate a series of meetings to lay out the terms of this, the proposed terms for this memorandum of understanding.

and I think we've got it to a point now where everybody is in agreement with the memorandum of understanding.

Before I actually read the memorandum and before we have the chairman of their sister city commission introduce the delegation, we have some very special guests, other very special guests with us tonight who are going to share with us renditions of both the

American National Anthem and the National Anthem of Ghana.

Here tonight to sing the American National Anthem is Will Iaccetto, who is a fourth grade student at Greenbrier Elementary.

And here to sing the National Anthem of Ghana is Sherry Iaccetta.

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight O'er the ramparts we watched

were so gallantly streaming.

And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.

Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave

God bless our homeland, Ghana And make our nation great and strong Bold to defend forever The cause of freedom and of right

Fill our hearts with true humility Make us cherish fearless honesty And help us to resist a precious rule With all our will and might forevermore And help us to resist a precious rule With all our will and might

Thank you so much, Will and Sherry.

We want to kick this off to a good start, Maurice.

But thank you, that was delightful.

I would like to now invite the chairman of the Winneba Sister City Commission to come forward and please introduce the special guests.

This is John J. Biden Amisa, otherwise known as Joe Bami.

I'm delighted to be here and to introduce my colleagues to you.

I will start from the extreme right and walk through to the left.

We have Professor Francois Joppa.

He is the Director for International Relations, University of Education in Winneba.

We have Mrs. Anastina

and George Johnson, who is the Executive Secretary of the Winnibaster City Commission.

Then we have the leader of the delegation in the person of Mr. Mike Hammer, who is our Congressman.

We call him Member of Parliament, but he is the Congressman for the Winneba constituency.

And he is also a Minister of State, Minister for Transport, Mr. Mike Hammer.

Sitting next to him is his assistant, the public relations officer of Mr. Mike Harmer, Mr. Kweku Sasa-Johnson.

Next to him is the head of the warrior group.

We have two warrior groups in Uniba, number one and number two.

Sitting next to Mr. Johnson is Abarton Joseph Beighton,

head of the number two warrior group.

Then we have a sub-chief who is in the person of Osagieffo Koyaberu the fifth.

Next is

Obatan Amasekum.

He is the head of the number one warrior group.

Next is a representative of the municipal chief executive, our equivalent of the mayor of Winneba, in the person of Godfrey Kwame Nkuma.

Last but not the least we have Miss Beatrice Acumia who is representing the head of the royal family of Winneba.

Mr. Mayor, let me take this opportunity to apologize on behalf of the Mayor or the Chief Executive of Winneba who is unable to be here with us because of some pressing issues at home.

And also there were two more members of the delegation who couldn't come with us because they were not able to get their travel documents in order.

We hope next time we'll do better and bring all of them on board.

What has brought us here this evening and what we're about to sign is a memorandum of understanding between the cities of Charlottesville, Virginia and the Efutu Municipal Assembly in Winneba, Ghana.

This is an aspirational document.

This basically spells out in very broad terms the kinds of exchanges, the kinds of partnerships that can evolve from this sister city relationship.

I don't want everybody to think that we're going to get all this stuff done in the first year.

But over the course of this relationship, there's a number of things that the Winneba community and the Charlottesville community have identified as opportunities for partnership and collaboration.

And I'm going to just read this memorandum of understanding.

Again, thank you to Ms.

Waters for taking the lead role in drafting this.

The James Madison of the Winneba Charlottesville.

The Africa Global Sister Cities Foundation representing the Sister Cities International Movement worldwide has supported discussion of the formation of city to city relations between the cities of Charlottesville, Virginia and the United States of America and Winneba in the central region of Ghana facilitated by the Charlottesville Quality Community Council Incorporated.

The sister city relationship between Winneba and Charlottesville will be one of the most important in their network of global partnerships as it strives to one, promote investment and economic opportunities including trade and tourism by developing links with organizations through exchange programs between local institutions and businesses including but not limited to enterprises, media, hospitals, places of worship, etc.

2.

Encourage and deepen existing relations and exchanges between Charlottesville and Winneba to promote key local government and community priorities relevant to both Charlottesville and Winneba so they can flourish to benefit a wider cross sections of the citizens of both cities.

3.

Undertake exchange programs for the promotion of lifelong education and research inclusive of all students and teachers from primary through university levels, developing libraries and other educational facilities to support quality learning, teaching and research.

4.

Improve public health through the exchange of information and or resources for higher quality of life for the citizens of Winneba and Charlottesville, inclusive of the aged, the mentally and physically challenged, and vulnerable women and children.

5.

Promote environmental sustainability through exchanges resulting in the transfer of technologies relating to renewable energy resources, recycling, manufacturing, water supply, sanitation, reforestation, environmental education, composting, sustainable agricultural practices, preservation and restoration of coasts and wetlands, and development of safe affordable housing.

Promote improved local mass transportation through exchanges involving local transportation management pertaining to terminals and fleet renewal, pedestrian, and safety education.

Promote sports through exchanges related to equipment, teams, and coaching, gymnasium development, health and physical education, and programs related to Winneba's National Sports College.

And finally, promote social relationships and sharing of traditions, history, arts, and culture through improved communications, including internet access and visitation.

In pursuance of the above, the mayor of the city of Charlottesville and the municipal chief executive of Winneba solemnly confirm that these two cities are united by an official partnership by the protocol of this memorandum of understanding as stated the second day of August 2010.

And as signatories, we have Dave Norris, mayor of the city of Charlottesville, Virginia, and John J. Baden,

Joe Biden, for the Municipal Chief Executive in Winnebun, Ghana.

And this document is to be witnessed by the Honorable Mike Hama, Member of Parliament from the Ifutu Winnebun constituency and Minister of Transport for Ghana.

And so I'd like to invite Joe Bami and Mike Hama to come forward and we'll sign the document.

We have two copies, one for our visitors to take home with them.

Thank you so much.

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, good evening to you all.

In the first place, let me use this opportunity to thank the city of Charlottesville and then the mayor of Charlottesville, Dave Norris,

and all the wonderful people in Charlottesville for the warm reception that has been accorded since we arrived here barely a week ago.

We're actually here on an exploratory promotional visit as a prelude to sign in of this wonderful memorandum of understanding.

And then today history has been made.

Today

History as far as really is concerned has been made in Charlottesville.

This document is a well-crafted document which has been put together by great minds and this is going to provide the framework for a very comprehensive, long-standing, balanced and mutually beneficial relationship.

between our two great cities.

We are going to break out of the walls that suppresses two great cities, and then construct a bridge that will link our two great cities together, through culture, through tradition, through education, through health.

And I can see a number of businessmen from Charlottesville moving into Woodeback to establish value-added job creation facilities.

so that we can put back the smile on the faces of our young people, the teeming unemployed youth who are the future generation of our motherland.

On behalf of the President of the Republic of Ghana and then on behalf of the people and the chiefs of Winneba, I want to say a very big thank you to the city of Charlottesville and then to the council members for this historic event.

I want to pledge that whatever has been captured in this world crafted pioneering document will ensure that when we go back we will begin, we will hit the ground running and begin the process of ensuring that this comprehensive

relationship that has been captured in this document is started as soon as practicable.

On this note, I want to say a very big thank you to you and may God bless you all.

When the balance sheet is drawn, I hope that physically I know that it's going to weigh heavily in the favor of Charlottesville.

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, at this moment,

The Sister City Commission of Winneba would want to do a presentation to a couple of people who have helped us over the period that we are here and over the period that we've been negotiating with this memorandum of finance.

Would you please help me?

The first parcel goes to the city of Charlottesville, the city of Charlottesville.

So I believe the mayor will come forward and take it.

From the mayor of Winnibot to Mayor Dave Morris,

another one to the municipal assembly, from the municipal assembly to Mayor Dave Norris.

From the state to the congressman, Tom Pollero.

Tom Pollero?

Okay, yes, I know.

We have been helped tremendously by two young ladies and we cannot help being grateful for their assistance to us day and night.

We've been here for about 12 days and it's been wonderful and we really, really are indebted to these two young ladies

They are in the office of the mayor and they have been wonderful.

Page and Emily, will you please come forward?

I deserve a hug.

Before you leave, I believe the delegation is going back to the city space.

Is that right, Ms.

Waters?

Okay, because they had a reception right before this and I believe they're going to continue with a chance to further discussion with the delegations.

But before you leave, you're welcome to stay for as much of the meeting as you like, but we have a small token.

Every year in Winneba they have a festival, it's around the time of New Year's, called the Fancy Dress Festival.

We thought on behalf of the Charlottesville community that we wanted to offer a trophy that each year could be awarded to the winner of the Fancy Dress Festival.

Thank you.

Actually, we were bringing somebody in that group.

We have a still that is about seven, eight feet tall and he was going to demonstrate that at the festival.

But as I said, we failed to secure all the necessary travel documentation and therefore he wasn't able to come.

We hope next time

All of you will come to Venable to see him demonstrate his skills.

I hope all of you also notice the beautiful carved statue which was presented last year as a gift to Charlottesville, the community of Charlottesville, from the good people of Winneba.

This will be displayed in City Hall, but it's just a lovely item.

This entire trip, I'll conclude by saying, this entire trip, this entire

This budding partnership was made possible from our end by an organizing committee that worked just diligently to pull all the pieces together, to organize the itinerary, to solicit donors and in-kind contributions.

private individuals, companies that have contributed financially to the success of this experience.

And it was the organizing committee that made that all possible.

Mr. Mayor, as a member of the organizing committee, I just wanted to ask if we could give a special thank you to Danielle Fitzhugh, who has worked tirelessly on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce, driving and back and forth.

I'm stealing my thunder here.

But we also want to thank Courtyard by Marriott for contributing very discounted rates on hotel rooms for our delegation.

We want to thank a big thanks to Bama Works Foundation, Red Light Management, private individuals, many others, Omni Hotel, I could go down the list, a lot of people in organizations and businesses.

There's one person more than anybody who deserves our thanks and appreciation and acknowledgement whose name for some bizarre reason has not come up tonight, who's the one person who made this all possible.

It was his dream going back many years to bring these two cities together.

Please give a round of applause to Nana Archambarche

And thank you all again.

And we're appreciative of the fact we still have you for a couple more days.

So I hope you enjoy the rest of your stay.

And we are now going to move on to the next item.

Yes.

I just want to thank everybody who has made this possible, who has made this dream a reality, and may God richly bless you for all what you've done for my people back home in Greenbrier.

We are very grateful.

As a matter of fact, I don't know how to thank Ms. Daniel

Fichu, who is the Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce and a very beautiful lady back there, Lauren, who was behind the scenes hitting all the remote buttons for us to get financials going and all those things.

Yes, and all the people of Charlottesville and the city council members for making this possible and especially

Osagene, David Norris.

This title, unfortunately people keep forgetting, this title was bestowed on him when he came to Geneva.

All the warrior groups and the chiefs gathered and gave him the title of Osagene, which means the failed mashup.

Yes, he gathers all the troops, the militia, and when he sneezes, there's war.

Yes.

And I'm hoping all mayors in Charlottesville will bear that title because he's done a very great job for us.

Thank you again.

That might take two.

All right, we're going to move forward with the next item on our agenda.

It's not quite as exciting, but it's still important, which is the Neighborhood Development Services Fee Schedule Additions.

It's a tough act to follow, Mr. Tolbert.

This is the first of two readings.

I'm going to have Jim Tolbert, Director of NDS, introduce this.

There will be a public hearing tonight.

and first the two readings on an ordinance.

Thank you very much.

This is really just some small fee changes that we feel like are necessary that would adopt some fees that we haven't had in the past.

Just very quickly, we have a Building Code Board of Appeals and currently there is no fee to apply to that to challenge the building officials ruling.

I think in my 11 years they may have met twice, but when they meet there's some staff work that has to be done in Colston

and all, and we'd like to set a fee of $100 to cover that.

The others are a little more important.

for the past several years, issued temporary certificates of occupancy, trying to work with the development community to get them in buildings and get projects, get homeowners sometimes when they get a promise by a developer and they show up with a moving van and the project's not quite finished, we feel bad for folks that have moved all the way down here and so we've given TCOs but one of the things that happens is the developers sometimes

say, oh, they're in.

I don't have to be very motivated to finish the project.

And so we feel like in doing research, every other city that we can find charges a temporary CO fee.

And so we've recommended that we charge a temporary certificate of occupancy fee of $400 for each 30 day period.

and that will encourage the folks to finish their project but we can still let them get in.

We've had some disasters by trying to work with folks with that.

The other is one that I've never worked in the community that doesn't have a working without a permit fee.

The building code recommends double permit fees if you do not get your permit before you start working.

start working and the builders know this but because we're nice folks sometimes they take advantage of us and when they're caught they come in and get their fees and their permits and we would like to adopt a working without a permit fee of double the building permit whatever it would have been which is what's common but we would like to exempt homeowners working on their own homes because sometimes they truly don't know but licensed contractors know they have to have a building permit.

revision to be approved building plans where there's not a new permit required.

again it takes staff time and review and we have to distribute them and we'd like a nominal fee for that of $30 and that's in line with what other communities charge just to cover the cost when somebody changes their mind halfway through or they bring us a plan then they take it away and then they they want to substitute a new one and so that we do have to do reviews we'd like to have a little bit of cost to cover that and then the other is a temporary the final is a temporary use permit fee

The General Assembly in the last session adopted a provision that requires us to allow temporary family health care structures on single family properties and we're working on a code change that would specify how that happens in the zoning ordinance but we'd also like to have a fee because again that's a lot of work that we would have to do and the state sets the maximum fee at $100 for that type of structure.

Our current code for any temporary structure is 250, so we've got to have a separate item for that one particular thing because the state limits what can be raised on that and what can be charged.

So we'd like to recommend all these fees to you.

Questions for Ms. Filbert before we open the public hearing?

Thank you, Mr. Tolbert.

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

We will now close the public hearing.

Or a motion to approve?

It's been moved and seconded.

Carry forward to our next meeting.

Thank you, Mr. Tolbert.

Next is Mr. Jim Tolbert.

This is a report in ordinance relating to amendments to the panhandling code, which I believe is being renamed soliciting.

Is that correct?

Correct.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

The ordinance before you tonight is one that we've had a great deal of study and discussion over.

We've been approached by particularly businesses in the downtown area concerned about the degree to which it appears that panhandling or solicitation has

increased on the downtown mall and concern regarding the manner and nature of that panhandling.

And so we've put together an ordinance that would provide additional regulation regarding

where and how that solicitation can occur and currently in the downtown solicitation is not allowed if it's in an aggressive manner or if it's within 15 feet of a bank entrance or an ATM or if it's from someone within an outdoor, seated within an outdoor cafe.

What we would propose to you in the ordinance that you have before you

is that we add two additional restrictions.

The first of those would be to restrict solicitation from any person who is conducting business at any vendor table or cart.

So in keeping with the same theory of the ATM where money is being exchanged and folks can feel threatened or intimidated by a person soliciting while they have their money in their hands,

then we would say that it would be inappropriate to solicit from those areas while that transaction is taking place.

The second is that we've had several reports from our police department about concerns about solicitation occurring at our mall, Cross Streets, 4th Street East and 2nd Street West that a person may stop their car

and be actually handing money to someone soliciting, start back up and not turn around in time to look and there's somebody that's walked in front of them or somebody putting money in a bucket and turning immediately into the lane of travel.

So our current ordinance restricts solicitation at four intersections for very similar reasons and we'd like to add the intersections of the mall and 4th Street East

and Second Street West and restrict solicitation within 50 feet in either direction of those intersections, again for those public safety reasons.

So those are the two recommendations.

Right.

When we had the discussion, and I'd like the city attorney to join in when I'm through if he wants to add anything, please, but we had discussed restricting within 15 feet of an outdoor cafe

or within 15 feet of the vendor tables or carts.

And when you look at the reason that we can do the prohibition, it's the concern about someone feeling threatened by someone soliciting.

We already prohibit soliciting from people seated in a cafe.

And so the concern was, you know, does the restriction on 15 feet add anything to that particular concern?

What if they're 10 feet away with their back turned?

Does that have anything to do with soliciting from the person in the cafe?

And the same sort of concern about the vendor table, that it might be overreaching to go that route on both of those.

Well, as Mr. Tolbert said, there is already a prohibition on panhandling from someone within an outdoor cafe which is

a physical, unlike the entrance to a bank or an ATM, it is a physically defined area where there is at least some separation.

I'm not sure what

But we don't prohibit panhandlers from

soliciting money from people at ATM machines per se, we prohibit panhandlers from doing any panhandling within 15 feet of an ATM machine.

So to me it's just, it's consistent.

We were approached about the problem of pan, so-called panhandling or solicitation on the downtown mall and

a possible regulatory response to it in 2003.

And at that point, as Mr. Tolbert has alluded to, we came up with an ordinance.

And we did I think a pretty thorough national search of other ordinances that attempted to deal with this problem.

and our focus was on aggressive panhandling although there were specific rules that dealt with a buffer zone around ATMs or bank interest which were not uncommon.

We found one court case, a federal court case from Indianapolis, which upheld an ordinance that prohibited solicitation from someone within an outdoor cafe.

And so we did include that in our ordinance, and it has not been challenged, I should say.

and I think we felt at that time that was about as far as we could go given the legal limitations on our ability to regulate this type of conduct because courts I think have pretty uniformly held that it is expressive activity that is and there is a constitutionally protected right to solicit money in a public place.

That does not mean it's free from all regulation.

You can adopt reasonable time, manner, and place regulations.

They have to be content neutral, which means whatever restriction you put in this ordinance

It's going to apply to charitable organizations, 501c3 organizations that solicit funds on the mall.

And I believe our current practice is to assign them vendor space rather than to keep them 15 feet away from vendor tables.

It applies to students who play instruments on the mall and have an open instrument case in front of them for donations.

It would have to apply to the person dressed as Santa Claus who's ringing the bell and collecting donations and a kettle at Christmas time.

In other words, it has to be content neutral.

It has to apply to all of these types of solicitations.

It must be narrowly tailored to serve a significant government interest.

I understand and can appreciate that it makes people uncomfortable.

On the other hand, I think

Expressive activity or First Amendment rights that don't make us uncomfortable don't need to be regulated.

The First Amendment exists to protect speech or conduct that has a tendency to make us uncomfortable.

I think there has to be

a stronger justification, a public safety justification that underlies our restriction.

I'm not sure what that 15 foot buffer does in terms of public safety.

I don't think there's anything we can put in this ordinance that's going to prohibit people from committing crimes.

A final consideration I think is

If you do regulate expressive activity on the basis of time, manner, or place, you have to leave alternative venues for that activity.

I think you know the mall as well as I do.

If you put a buffer around every outdoor cafe and every vending stand,

You're doing a couple of things.

Number one, you're coming close to an absolute ban.

And number two, the areas where you are leaving open are right up next to buildings, right outside the doors of businesses on the mall.

We tend to think about people soliciting funds as being in a fixed location, and the few that I've seen have been.

but the type of prohibition that's been or restriction that has been selected or suggested tonight if you were to enact that, someone could not walk the length of the mall with a sign soliciting donations because it's several points along the mall there within 15 feet of one of the protected locations.

to walk the mall, I think you would commit multiple violations of the ordinance.

I don't even think you can wind your way down.

So those are my concerns about it.

I understand

that there is some analogy between an area where people are doing financial transactions such as an ATM.

I will say that I find your defense of the First Amendment very compelling and I think that we live in a city that values individual rights as well as community rights.

I would like to see

this ordinance enforced.

I think that, you know, it is a problem when people are aggressively panhandling and I think it does make people uncomfortable and I actually spend a lot of time in the mall and I have never been panhandled.

I must not look like a very good mark.

But I know that there are people who have been aggressively panhandled and, you know, people grabbing their arms and walking along with them and talking to them and that could be really scary and I think it's also illegal.

It was already illegal but I think that if people understand that

that they can call the police, that they can dial 911 on their cell phone at that moment and that there's some response that will be forthcoming.

I think that that's important.

But I too believe that the First Amendment is

really important and I appreciate the fact that now people will not be able to approach people at vendor tables.

I think that that's a good addition because it's like a cafe when you're doing business.

I think one difference that I do see in the automatic teller machines is that

When somebody's standing too close to you, whether they're soliciting or not, you're worried that they're looking at your PIN number, which is also, I think, a real danger that sets it apart from these other things.

Well, I mean, I kind of agreed with the tone of questions that Mr. Norris was asking.

I mean, I'd like to see us be able to regulate this a little more strictly, but I've learned to listen to our lawyers, so I think we should just move the ordinance as it's drafted.

In fact, I'd be prepared to do so.

I'll second it.

It's been moved and seconded.

Carried for our next meeting.

Just for the record, I tend to be one to...

I'd like to push it further, but I get a sense from other counselors that they feel like this is a good start and we don't want to defy the advice of our esteemed city attorney.

Sometimes I think we need to

Mr. Mayor, Members of Council, this is a resolution authorizing the name change of Nunley Street between the block of, between Spring Street and Hanover Street in the Forest Hills section of the city.

This section, this section of road was previously known as Moore Street and was renamed when Habitat for Humanity requested that this stretch be renamed to Nunley Street in honor of the Nunley family who had helped them in the

Builders Blitz site, which those houses, those six houses that were built within a week, front on a section of the street.

This request is not for the section that was by the Builders Blitz.

It's for the next section over that is currently unbuilt.

The request comes from Deborah Shifflett of 1138 Locust Avenue.

Her request is that it be renamed to Bingler.

She really doesn't care if it's street, path, trail.

But to honor the Bingler family who settled in that area.

When staff is reviewing a request for a name change, we have a pretty narrow scope of review, which is we consult with the city's 911 coordinator about the need for the change.

In the case of Moore Street 2, not only we have another Moore Street off of High Street, another very similar road name and

the recommendation was that that road be changed in that situation.

In this case, section 29-181A1 of the city code, which is the subdivision ordinance, mentions that where a street is planned as a continuation of an existing street, the name should bear the same, it should be the same name.

So that is what we base our recommendation on.

You do have a copy of the letter requesting this.

And you did receive some correspondence from Dan Rosenzweig, the executive director of Habitat for Humanity, in support of this request.

They don't feel that it will detract from their development over there.

He also mentioned the likelihood of that road being constructed.

It can't be closed right now because there are two lots that front on that right of way.

But based on Dan's experience as a planning commissioner and also some in development with Habitat, he feels it's very unlikely that road would ever be constructed.

I tend to agree because the number of lots that are on it are probably not sufficient to offset the cost that a developer would have to undertake to build it.

So I just want to

say that that makes sense, that his comment to that regard makes sense from our standpoint but we have to evaluate it like it might be built and so that's where our item comes from.

Ms. Shifflett, would you like to, are you Ms. Shifflett?

Would you like to come forward and offer a

I've been working on this actually since February of 2009.

It's the first contact that I made with the city.

I've requested that it be put before council since the middle of May.

So, you know, I keep hitting delays.

My original, this puts it into a box

because the streets in the neighborhood were actually named by my ancestors for the section of Dutch Germany that the family's from.

So thus Spring Street, King Street and Hanover Street is sprang from the kingdom of Hanover.

And I'd like the Bingler name connected to those streets.

I had suggested Roy Street, I had suggested this

link between Hanover and Spring and the other day it dawned on me that there's a section coming off of Cherry Avenue where the triangle is that my grandmother lived on that's addressed as Cherry Avenue but is actually just a block between Spring and Cherry Avenue.

It, you know, has gotten narrowed as I've worked with it.

but you know and I do have what 50 family signatures supporting but you know it's been a long journey and now you know Jenny Kopps before she left told me she says I don't know that council will ever do that for you but you know it's something that's very important it's the

We've been told we're from Fry Springs, Forest Hill neighborhood, Fifeville, which is kind of what we call Binglerville.

I was, let me just say before we approve this, I was swayed by Mr. Rosenzweig's letter and the fact that this is an unfinished street.

It really is more of a walking path right now and I think if it were a finished street

We might have some issues with 911 and not wanting to change streets midsection, even though every other street in Charlottesville seems to do that.

It's been moved and seconded.

This is first reading, first of one reading, so any further discussion?

If not, please indicate your vote.

And it carries unanimously.

Congratulations.

There you go.

Just don't say Bingler Parkway, because that gets...

It's now Bingler Street.

All right, thank you very much.

Is there any other business before council tonight?

Hearing none, we will open it up to our second round of matters by the public.

Anybody from the public like to speak?

Dede Smith, 2652 Jefferson Park Circle.

Sorry, you probably thought you got away without hearing from me this week.

Anyway, I would just like to comment on a couple things that were said in the beginning of the meeting that I watched on TV when I came on down.

I think there's one factor that has been seriously missed

in this debate.

It hasn't been missed so much, it's not identified, and it has to do with whether or not we, dredging roads, provide adequate water supply.

It's about adequate water supply and about our demand analysis.

In 1992, the Department of Energy successfully passed a law, actually it was in the Department of Energy, the Energy Policy Act, which established

National water efficiency, I'm going to read a little bit of this because I'm not really that prepared.

Water efficiency requirements for plumbing fixtures.

And this is the 1.6 gallon toilets, the urinals, the shower heads, the faucets.

These are the maximum flow, high efficiency that mandated them.

And it was anything that was manufactured after 94 for residences and 97 for commercial.

They recognized at the time that this would have a dramatic impact on water use, but that it would take a while because there's a natural cycle of replacement.

Anything new after that point was going to have to have it, but other than that it was going to have to wait until things were naturally replaced, and that's where rebates come in, etc.

etc.

At the time, they said, and this is comes, and I'm going to email this article to you, which I have with me.

This is a really amazing article by one of the authors of the act.

It was in the American Water Works Association Journal.

It's a peer-reviewed paper, and it's got amazing information in it.

And one of the things that the author says is in terms of just toilets, faucets, and shower heads, which constitute well over 60% of residential use, you would see a 50% water reduction.

By 2026 was her prediction.

That's how long it would take until it was fully realized.

Even by the turn of the century, they really weren't seeing, because there's articles after this point, seeing the change.

But it was really kind of around 2000, because there were droughts around the country, for one thing, and that kick-started a lot of replacements, that they started to see it.

And that's exactly when we started to see it.

That's exactly when Dan Beaker referred, or somebody referred to, I think it was actually Kevin Lynch, who referred to that 1999, we haven't partied since

since 1999 it really started to come down.

And what's really important to realize is that this was not factored in.

to the 2004 demand analysis.

It should have been, in theory, because of the date, but the 2004 demand analysis was really a revisiting of an earlier demand analysis.

There was actually in itself a revisiting of another earlier demand analysis.

Their 5% was actually all the consideration they gave, and I will finish.

But I think what's, I just wanted to say, and so when you hear that our community, the other thing to realize is that

because the impact is on residences and anything else that has very heavily plumbing fixture, hotels, hospitals, things like that.

That is what our community is.

In the Rivanna publishes the top 10 users in the county, every single one is residential.

It's a heavily residential.

So when you hear that we're the lowest around the state, it's because we're so heavily residential.

I appreciate it very much.

Anybody else like to speak?

Good evening.

I'm Peter Kleeman.

I live at 407 Head Street in the city.

I'm delighted that I was able to be here today to watch the signing of the memorandum of agreement or understanding with our sister city in Winneba.

And one thing I would like to see more of now that we have this arrangement is information about what goes on in Winneba, that although we've had guests here for over a week,

speaking with some friends and say, well, what is life like in Winneba?

What do they do there?

And what kind of houses do they live in?

What kind of community activities do they have?

And I think that we do have an opportunity to, through the

to prepare some information and get people who are watching these things or coming to events that they can actually understand and become more intimately associated with the agreement that has just been signed.

and then perhaps we can do the same kind of thing and swap videotapes or whatever it might be.

But I think for people to become really aware of how they can plug into this exchange, what kind of things they can establish, whether it's

exchanging technical information on things that are challenges in Winneba that people are working on in Charlottesville.

I think it would be great to have all of those entry points made more available, and I think that would be something worth doing.

Hit the road running, as we said, and that might be one of the great things that could be done.

Thank you, Mr. Kleeman.

Anybody else like to speak?

If not, meeting's adjourned.