City Council Meeting   4/18/2011

Dr. Brown?

Here.

Ms. Edwards?

Here.

Mr. Huja?

Yes.

Ms. Szakos?

We're going to start with a few proclamations tonight and the first is on a subject that we usually discuss this time of year regarding fair housing because April is Fair Housing Month.

Whereas April is Fair Housing Month and marks the 43rd anniversary of the passage of the Federal Fair Housing Act, Title 8 of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 as amended by the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988,

and whereas the Fair Housing Act provides that no person shall be subjected to discrimination because of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability, or familial status in the rental sale, financing, or advertising of housing.

And the Virginia Fair Housing Law also prohibits housing discrimination based on elderliness.

and whereas the Fair Housing Act supports equal housing opportunity throughout the United States and whereas fair housing creates healthy communities and housing discrimination harms us all, therefore the city of Charlottesville supports equal housing opportunity and seeks to affirmatively further fair housing not only during the fair housing month of April but throughout the year.

Hi, I'm Karen Reifenberger with Piedmont Housing Alliance.

Thank you for your support of fair housing with today's Fair Housing Month resolution and for your support throughout the year of fair housing services.

Every April we recognize Fair Housing Month and the passage of this important civil rights legislation, the Federal Fair Housing Act, that was passed just days after the assassination of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

and today this law protects us from discrimination in housing based on race, color, religion, national origin, gender, families with children, people with disabilities and although we've made great progress we still need to be vigilant and protect the ideals that we believe in because this law impacts the lives of people in our city and our area from the woman who was told that she couldn't have African American visitors or she and her children would be evicted

to the couple who was faced with eviction a month before their first baby arrived, to the elderly disabled man who speaks no English and was denied his right to have a live-in aid assist him.

And so PHA, with your support, works throughout the year to educate the community about fair housing, and our goal is to promote compliance and awareness with the law.

Next we have a proclamation in honor of Women and Girls Wellness Month.

Whereas the good health and wellness of Charlottesville's women and girls are vital to the well-being of Charlottesville families, businesses, and this community as a whole,

and whereas developing healthy lifestyles and undertaking enjoyable activities enable women and girls to acquire and maintain a sense of wellness and to live full and active lives and whereas being knowledgeable about health and the diverse medical and non-medical issues that affect them is important to their wellness and whereas being aware of programs and services that can address their health and well-being is vital to their benefiting from such programs and services whereas during Women and Girls Wellness Month

Community health women and girls organizations cooperate with Women's Health Virginia to increase public knowledge about comprehensive wellness, to enhance understanding about women and girls' health and wellness, and to raise awareness of the many outstanding programs and services offered to women and girls throughout our community and the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Now, therefore, the Charlottesville City Council hereby recognizes the celebration of Women and Girls Wellness Month in April 2011 and proclaims it as a time to publicize, promote, and celebrate wellness for women and girls and to call attention to activities during that month that promote women and girls' health and well-being.

And do we have anybody from Women's Health Virginia?

Oh, okay, great.

I'm Kiana Meafell, a volunteer with Women's Health Virginia and I am Women and Girls' Alumnus Month Coordinator.

And I would just like to say thank you for recognizing our efforts and collaborating with nonprofits and other universities and colleges across the state of Virginia too.

promote education and information services that are available to our women and girls in Virginia because information is power and we want our women to be powerful.

Great.

Thanks.

Keep up the great work.

Alright, this one's fun.

I mean the others are fun too, but this one is really fun.

We have some special guests you may have seen in the back corner of the room tonight.

From the Charlottesville Derby Dames.

Whereas in 2007, the Charlottesville Derby Dames became the first all-female roller derby team to form in Charlottesville, and whereas the Charlottesville Derby Dames is a player-owned and operated organization whose skaters and support staff are all volunteers, and whereas the Charlottesville Derby Dames provide the opportunity for health and fitness in keeping with the goals of the city while instilling self-esteem and confidence in women,

and whereas the Charlottesville Derby Dames have proven time and again that they have a sense of civic responsibility in the community by donating funds and volunteering their time to local not-for-profit organizations and whereas the sports-loving residents of Charlottesville and the Charlottesville Derby Dames have publicly pledged their mutual loyalty over two home seasons of play and whereas on the 30th of April the Derby Dames will begin hosting their home bouts in downtown Charlottesville

and whereas the Charlottesville Derby Dames have created yet another way that Charlottesville is unique and have given much to the city through blood, sweat and tears, literally and whereas we exhibit pride in our skater-owned team who are known for their athleticism and showmanship and encourage Charlottesville residents to support them and embrace them for the positive image they represent

Good evening, everyone.

I'm Maisie Osteen, also known as Roxanne Stones, and we would really like to thank you all for allowing us to represent you in this way and the community because we feel so tied to this community.

A lot of us grew up here, went to school here, and are very much a part of the fabric of this place and love it and feel very lucky that we can represent

you all and everyone in Charlottesville.

And we really feel that we want to give back at any opportunity we can.

And that's why we'll be lucky this year to be able to give thousands to local organizations that are doing the great work that we really support.

Thank you very much.

Let's give a round of applause to JR as well for all his work.

All right.

We do have a few more serious announcements.

Sure.

We're ready now that we've had our most recent town meeting to announce our next one.

We'll be having our town, Charlottesville, in the Fry's Spring Johnson Village neighborhood at Johnson Elementary School, 1645 Cherry Avenue on May 12th, it's a Thursday, and it's a chance for people from that neighborhood, in those neighborhoods, to come and talk to all the counselors who will be there.

It'll be all public comment, so it's a chance to really sort of tell us what you think we need to know about what's going on in the neighborhood, what folks in the neighborhood think

Thank you.

Mr. Huja?

This Saturday, the 23rd of April, there is an Easter egg hunt at Charlottesville High School in Melbourne Road.

So all the young people and young at heart should show up.

You should come there around 10 o'clock, but the actual hunt will be at 11 o'clock.

It will be a lot of fun, candy, prizes, balloons, drinks, and there will be of course a very special visit from Easter Bunny, and I hope you will be looking forward to that.

So again, Saturday, 23rd of April, at Charlottesville High School.

On a more serious note, and a positive note,

there is a new spring job fair at John Paul Jones Arena there will be 1000 new jobs available by 80 different employers so if you will note down the date, Wednesday April 27th from 10am to 3pm and there will be many workshops there to help you get started, bring your resume, bring your interest and you can learn new things so I will again remind you the date

Spring job fair, Wednesday 27th of April, 10am to 3pm at St. John Paul Jones Arena.

Thank you.

One other announcement from May 2nd through 6th is Building Safety Week here in Charlottesville and in conjunction with Building Safety Week our City Department of Neighborhood Development Services is offering free deck and pool inspections to city residents.

So if you would like to have a free inspection, a safety inspection of your outdoor deck or pool, please contact Neighborhood Development Services

and the phone number is 970-3182.

Again, 970-3182.

Any other announcements?

Okay, we're now going to move forward to matters by the public and as is our custom, when you come forward, please state your name and address and we ask you to keep your comments to three minutes.

My name is Rich Collins.

I live at 108 Wilson Court in the city of Charlottesville.

City Council members and Mayor Morris.

This is more for the public, actually, than for you all, but I happen to be playing tennis with a guy that was at the same tennis rank as I am, and he called me up and said, let's play tennis.

He'd been here two years.

And as you would guess, at one point, between points, he said, you know, I think this road is crazy.

We were out at Penn Park.

I said, well good, I do too.

And he said, well that's crazy.

He says you've got a major expressway out here on viral road being built and it's going to cut down to two lanes to go through the park?

That makes no sense.

And I said, well, you have to know a little history.

But it exemplified, it seemed to me, his view that this looks like it's inevitable and it's going to happen.

And I was trying to persuade him that if you look at this, it's not at all inevitable.

which brings me to the point why I'm here this evening apart from if he's watching I'm here that we have made some progress signing a memorandum of agreement to make a much better deal to protect the historic properties than we might have had without the opposition but the more important thing I think is that the City Council had took a very wise position years ago saying that the whole road through the park

will make no sense if it ends with an intersection at 250 Bypass and we will not allow a road to go through our Central Park if there is no bypass or something at that end to handle that increased traffic.

That's a great position and I'm glad we're still holding it.

Now the reason this is relevant is because the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, as you all know, has refused to process a permit for a segment of the road from Melbourne to wherever.

And they say, well, we can't give you a permit until we know where the road is ending.

We know where the road is ending.

It's going to end at an interchange that is planned, at least, for that 250 bypass interchange.

Now the problem is, as you know, the Coalition to Preserve McIntyre Park has said, yes, we know that that's the southern terminus.

We also know that it's federal funds.

We also know that the Congress of the United States has said, if cities want to build roads to their parks, that's their business.

If states want to do it with their money, that's their business.

But you can't use federal money to do it because it's destroying our cities and it's destroying our parkland.

So I think that the city should continue to hold its wise position that no road should go through this park unless there was an interchange.

But if the interchange is illegal, then the whole road is illogical and should be stopped.

Thank you, Mr. Collins.

Ma'am, gentlemen, Mayor Norris.

I'm Bob Fenwick, 901 East Jefferson Street, and first I have two questions for the city manager.

One is, what is the status of the RFP, the request for proposal for dredging the Rivanna Reservoir?

And the second one is, what is the total preliminary cost of the new dam, the new reservoir, and the new pipeline?

Now some people would say the dredging and damming issue has been decided.

So why do we continue to advocate for dredging first?

Well, about seven years ago, dredging was an integral part of the community water plan.

That changed and dredging evaporated.

Recently, the cost of dredging the Rivanna Reservoir was pegged at $223 million, an astounding figure.

That changed and has now been estimated at less than $33 million.

In 2009, a reinforced concrete dam was designated as the smartest choice.

That changed.

And now we hear that an earthen dam is the smallest, is the smartest choice.

So there's nothing special about this project changing this way or that.

Changes are the rule, not the exception.

The design changes, the cost changes.

The road level changes, the route of the pipeline changes, the footprint changes, and on and on.

You have an opportunity to change it one more time.

Dredge first, repair the spillway at Ragged Mountain, and dam later if necessary.

The dam is not the first step.

The dam is the last step, and by far the most expensive step.

The overwhelming sentiment in the community, both city and county, is to dredge first, and you know that.

If you really support dredging, then surely you understand you have to keep the pressure on.

After all, it has been almost eight years since the call for dredging first went out.

The same thing will happen this time as well.

Without strong concerted action on your part, dredging will just go blowing in the wind.

Some people say there are two sides to every issue.

Well, that's probably true.

A speeding car heading for a cliff has two possible outcomes.

But one of them is rather dramatic and final, and personally, I wouldn't want that to be the one I would choose.

Final decisions should await final information, like the new community water demand study that's coming.

especially decisions that involve enormous amounts of money from citizens and businesses.

Dredge now, damn later.

Thank you, Mr. Fenwick.

Good evening.

Thanks a lot for the opportunity to speak in front of Council.

My name is John Morrison.

I live in Charlottesville on 707 Alta Vista Avenue.

with my wife and two daughters since 2001.

Charlottesville is a very special place and I appreciate everything that you all do collectively to keep it that way.

I've been watching the ongoing debate about the proposed expansion of the Ragged Mountain Reservoir for several years primarily through articles in The Hook and Seaville but also via some online resources and I will be representing, Bob Benwick mentioned some community sentiment, here is some community sentiment and that

In particular, in my case, is that I disagree with the council's recent decision to move ahead with a 30-foot earthen dam.

This is for a variety of reasons, and these reasons, I think, have been very eloquently stated at this podium and in print and online in many areas, many places, many times.

I don't think I can improve on that, but I wanted to state the most compelling reason to me, and that is that we just don't need the water.

The demand-use study, the 2004 report, has been just shown to be wrong, just blatantly incorrect.

The study itself is interesting to read.

They show some linear projection and they show exponential projection without really any discussion as to why one model or the other might be the way to go.

It's hard to imagine an exponential increase in water use without an exponential increase in population, but they don't really speculate as to why they even put that

on the curve out there.

Because it just really could cause somebody to be concerned about the future.

And there's just no basis to make that kind of an assumption.

And then the linear assumption has been shown to be wrong by an average of 22%.

So over predicting our real water use.

Now this is stuff that's out there in the public, has been in the public debate.

But this is clearly to me the most compelling reason why we don't need to

to destroy our community resources.

So abandoning the reservoir at South Fork of the Rivanna and Flooding Ragged Mountain to me are extraordinary measures, robbing the community of vital natural resources, and drastic actions like this require extraordinary circumstances and extraordinary reasons, and they're just not there.

To me, even with a cursory overview, just a very brief review of the data that's out there, it's just a no-brainer.

I have not heard anybody, and, you know, in particular,

with the position that it is the right thing to do articulated in a way that's convincing that we need it.

I don't see the thought process to come to that conclusion.

I'm really open to hearing your perspective on that.

We might need the water is certainly a powerful argument, but not by itself.

I think we need to have some factual basis for that kind of a reason.

I wanted also to give an update about an online petition that you all have heard about.

already tell City Council to dredge first for the water supply.

So far, 412 other people, in addition to myself, have signed.

This debate is of broad interest to the community.

Please don't neglect to think about that.

Upcoming election cycles, this is, for me, it's an election issue, not necessarily, Counselor Kennedy's particular position, but the rationale, articulating the rationale for your position will be extremely important.

Thank you, Mr. Morrison.

Rebecca Quinn, 104 Fourth Street, here in Charlottesville.

Good evening.

The Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority submitted permit modification requests for the new dam at Ragged Mountain on March 22, the same day as its board of directors meeting.

The executive director did not deliver a report that day, nor did he think it worthy to tell the board in public that the modification had been submitted, which of course meant that bit of news was hidden from the public.

Yes, we all knew a modification was expected at some point, but the fact of its submission was kept under wraps.

A full week later,

Rivanna provided your representatives on that board with a copy of the permit request.

They also did not deem it worthy to report to the full council at the council's public meeting on April 4th.

The general public didn't know until the executive director was generous enough to report in his

April 6th quarterly report to the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors.

You should carefully read how that request is worded.

It is clear to me that Rivanna expects you to change your mind again.

I quote, the authority seeks the permits be modified to provide a dam to be built or a reservoir to be filled in two phases.

All I can say is watch your back on that one.

As you know, Citizens for a Sustainable Water Plan submitted letters to the Corps of Engineers and the state requesting that they suspend, terminate, re-evaluate, modify, or revoke the permits to build a new dam and uphill pipeline.

I cite all of those verbs because they are all called out in the regulations that provide that a third party or another person

can request and that such a reevaluation can take place.

Oh, and by the way, we didn't hide it from anyone.

We provided everyone a copy.

And the public can view these letters at www.seavillewater.info.

Our letters are about making decisions based on new information and new studies that show the original information was wrong.

We were prompted, also prompted by the unfortunate vote of this council, despite the data and facts you had, to side with the county on an unnecessary earthen dam,

rather than incrementally raise the concrete dam.

Our request is about a better solution to provide abundant water for anticipated development in a manner that does not necessarily, unnecessarily raise water rates and will not destroy more than two miles of stream, acres of wetlands, and thousands of mature hardwoods at Ragged Mountain.

The regulators are charged not with approving whatever an applicant wants, but with protecting our streams and wetlands.

Therefore, we have asked that they suspend the permit pending reevaluation of new information based on new studies, the new demand analysis due within a few months, and the dredging feasibility study or the results of an RFP.

Those new studies call into question, or will call into question, the fundamental public need for the project.

At the very least, dredging should be back on the table.

Thank you, Ms. Quinn.

Good evening, Council.

My name is James Halfaday, and how about those from Charlottesville or Derby Dames?

How about them?

I'm glad that they were down here this evening.

They tie into what I'm down here on.

What I'm down here to speak to you guys about is childhood obesity.

School is going to be coming out, letting out here in the next month or so.

And, you know, during that time, majority of the students here in Charlottesville are going to be taken back and kicking back, relaxing and all that.

having a good time, however they're not going to be active.

So letsmove.org is something that Michelle Obama started and back in February they just celebrated their first year anniversary of letsmove.org of success.

Now since school is going to be letting out I encourage the parents, teenagers, residents to take part in President Obama's

President's Challenge and that's located at www.presidentschallenge.org.

Michelle Obama is a very active supporter of this, also as I am as well.

As a committee member on the letsmove.org, I encourage every Charlottesville resident to take a look at it and take part in the six-week challenge to set an active lifestyle and goals.

I also want to make reference to the City of Charlottesville's website for charlesville.org, Park and Recs.

There's a lot of summer camps that are coming available.

I would also encourage parents to look at the charlesville.org website at Parks and Recreation because each camp has a sliding scale fee and I would highly encourage everybody to take a look at that.

Also, you know, Council, I used to weigh 377 pounds.

and then I got down to 171 pounds by eliminating sugar out of my diet.

I have a website, it's halfadaystrong.com and on my website you'll see my before and after photos of when I weighed 377 pounds and it will also take you on my journey and my successful steps of when I lost my weight.

So you'll see my before and after photos on there.

So I want children in this area to know that if I can lose

201 pounds that they can do it to in the summertime.

And I'd also highly recommend parents check out the letsmove.org.

So I encourage it and I encourage parents to check out my website for the before and after photos as well.

Thank you, Mr. Haffney.

Well, I'm Stroud Salidas and I live at 74 B. Graves.

Thanks for the opportunity to speak tonight.

I just wanted to encourage council to take a very holistic view with some of the decisions that are going to be facing you in the upcoming months.

And by holistic, I mean looking at the local global connection and also taking a long view of how decisions affect this area.

There have been a lot of traumatic global events lately.

For instance, the BP oil spill in the Gulf and lately the Fukushima nuclear incident.

And I think to me these things point that we need to

take a new direction than we have been.

And here in the US, we use five times more oil per capita than the average citizen in the world.

And I think we really need to look at a local level at why that is and why we're being compelled globally to make these choices that are ultimately impacting us in very negative ways.

My answer to that, while we use so many more resources per capita, is sprawl, which is auto-centric development.

We've created a situation where in order to have a life, you need to have a car, and that is more and less true in some places.

It's much harder to walk around than say near the downtown mall in the northern city area.

And the reason for that has a lot to do with infrastructure.

I would say that is the number one factor as to whether you're creating a place for people or for automobiles.

And the consequences of those two different types of development are very wide ranging both globally

and in terms of our local citizens.

Obesity was just mentioned.

I think that that is a key factor.

The fact that kids in a lot of places can't walk to places they would like to go to go play or something.

Maybe they have to wait for their mom to even drive them to where they could do something

Active or something like that, or their dad of course.

And when we talk about water quality and air quality and when we talk about people having enough money to get by, if you need to have a car in order to have a life, that's a huge burden.

And if you don't have a large income and then your car fails to operate, that can be incredibly life disrupting.

I think the number one step we can do

to work on all of these problems is to promote a more pedestrian oriented development.

And the number one way to do that is to think about our infrastructure choices.

So in that vein, I'm asking you again to, right now, this council can put an end to the Meadow Creek Parkway and save McIntire Park

and move us in the direction of a more sustainable future.

So I hope you'll do that rather than dumping extra traffic through the city in order to make the way for more sprawl.

Thank you, Mr. Salidas.

Hi, I'm Brandon Collins, 536 Meade Avenue.

I've lived in Charlottesville all my life.

I have a 14-year-old daughter here who's also lived here all her life.

I've got a couple things to go over, but first, you know, wanted to thank you about the Derby Dame proclamation.

My honey bunny is also a Derby Dame player.

She's Matilda Mollish.

She was thrilled to hear the news.

and also to thank you for all the hard work on the music hall zoning change.

I think that means a lot to a lot of folks and I think everybody's done the right thing and I assume you'll make the right vote on that.

And to quickly also thank you for this revisiting the noise ordinance as far as the subjective language about 125 feet distance.

just no real objective way to make those kinds of decisions and I know some people have been personally affected by that, played music downtown on the mall.

But the larger thanks I wanted to say was thanks to our mayor, Dave Norris, who signed on to the Mayors for Peace pledge calling to bring our war dollars home.

This is a really big step and I hope that the rest of council

considers that a worthy thing and could consider also giving their support to peace and ending wars.

I think you can do this in a lot of different ways besides just proclaiming that you're in favor of peace.

I think you can take a truly active role on a local level to make some real changes and to not participate in the war machine and not buy into the military industrial complex here.

One easy thing you can do is pass a resolution.

I think the political climate right now allows a large group of Democrats to go ahead and be critical of the government that is waging war on a massive scale.

And I would urge you to do that as soon as possible.

Another quick and easy thing is the cost of war counter.

We're spending tons and tons of money

I looked at the cost of war total today for our area since 2001.

It's $135 million since 2001.

That's a lot of money that could be used for education or a green economy, all kinds of things.

Nationally, it's over $1 trillion spent.

I hope that that means a lot to local government because you can put a stop to this.

You can resist the war here in local government by taking a look at the massive amount of contractors we have in Charlottesville, seeing what role the city plays with those folks and eliminating that role altogether.

You can look at the schools and present alternatives to military service.

We've got recruiters in the schools.

That's a pretty lucrative deal.

People talk about we don't have a draft here in the United States.

We do have a draft.

We have a poverty draft.

If you don't make a lot of money, the military is a good way to make money and to go to college.

It's the same thing in Afghanistan with the Taliban.

And then there's also our culture of consumption.

And I really hope you consider stopping the Meadow Creek Parkway and putting an end for these needs for war over resources.

No amount of time.

I also just wanted to mention there's a rally for a living wage, also a good way to get people out of poverty and avoid military service.

This Wednesday at 4 o'clock at Madison Hall, I hope all of you will attend.

Thank you Mr. Collins.

Jacob Wolf, 614 Monticello Avenue.

You've heard from me a couple of times now so I'll be brief.

I'm really pleased with the zoning amendment here before you as well as to see the sound ordinance alteration.

Both I think are really positive steps forward and I hope that you will pass both of them.

After that, into the future, I would really like to see an effort to make music, if not buy right, at least provisional use in a wider variety of areas.

If you agree with the principle of this amendment, which is that we have other ways to regulate music, sound ordinance and a variety of other things, if you agree with that, then there's really not much reason not to extend that to a broader variety of areas.

Thanks.

Thank you, Mr. Wolf.

Is there anybody else who would like to speak?

Alright, we'll now conclude matters by the public.

We'll open the meeting up to council member responses to matters by the public.

Who would like to get us started?

We always start on this side, so...

I guess we will again.

I'll give it a little shot.

I feel like if people make the effort to be here, we should at least say something.

And I think I've kind of responded to the water and parkway things before, although I will say that when Mr. Collins was talking about, no was it?

I'm sorry, I need to look here real quickly.

Oh, when Mr. Salidas was talking about sprawl and how that's something we definitely want to avoid in order to not have an auto-centric culture.

That is actually part, and not all, but the part that I'll mention tonight, part of the reason I actually supported the 30-foot dam because I think that without an adequate supply of guaranteed water into the future,

especially in the county because the city can't really sprawl.

We're constrained by our 10-mile limits.

But the water plan and having that adequate water is intended in part to avoid sprawl so that people aren't building development out in the rural parts of the county.

And I support that.

So I think that it is a way to kind of try to densify development that does happen.

and I don't think that we in the city are going to be able to or would be advised to try to stop private developers in the county from doing what they do but I think that what governments can do is try to put infrastructure in place to make sure that that happens in a way that's the most positive for society so I think that that's an actual benefit of the water plan.

I will say that I actually spoke to the regional director for the Department of Health who was here recently for the administration, the Obama administration, about the Let's Move program.

I think, personally, I think it's great and I too hope that we can sign on as a city to that.

To Mr. Collins, I'm always ready to sign on for any resolution for peace.

I'm a long-time peace activist, and I think that it is a drain on our economy.

It's something that we really need to look at.

Your cost of war counter, I've seen as well, the $135 million since 2001, that's a lot of resources that are pouring out to killing people in other lands and also our own people.

I would, however, just mention that a lot of the military contractors that we have in this area are involved in military intelligence, which actually can often be something that prevents war.

It's a way of finding ways that we can work together and try to head off things before they get to an explosive point.

So I'm not sure I would be ready quite to condemn our whole local economy on that.

I want to start with comments to Mr. Sletos, and I quite agree with his initial remarks, but I quite can't see the logic of your conclusions from those remarks, including global and local fraud.

You started right, but I think your conclusions to my mind are not that clear.

I can't agree with them.

I'll also reply to Mr. Stellides.

I think he makes a lot of good points and I think he'll agree that the city, I think beginning really with the leadership of Maurice Cox in making it kind of leading our zoning ordinance to encourage density and infill development has gone a long way to trying to get more people to live

in a walkable radius of businesses and mixed use.

Also by creating the density that one day we can actually have a thriving public transportation system.

The place where I disagree is the impact of, say, not building the Meadow Creek Parkway.

Does that actually get people out of cars?

I actually don't think it does.

I think people are too far down the path to make a quick change from

having chosen to live or been forced to live outside of the city limits for economic reasons and having to commute on a daily basis.

I don't think they leave their car.

They just have a more difficult commute if the infrastructure isn't there for cars.

I'd like to see us create the infrastructure where everyone can actually have really good choices for transit and transportation.

I don't have any specific comments other than to thank everyone for coming out to speak this evening.

I guess the idea that stayed with me during the comments was by Brandon and the culture of consumption.

I like that in terms of the, where you're talking about making us strike a balance and that balance should be with our roads, with our environment, with our health, even with our noise, and even with our water supply.

There was

Just a radio show earlier about people that gave up things during Lent to see whether or not they want to go back to what they gave up once Lent season is over with.

And so actually the Lent season gives us an opportunity to think about our own culture of consumption, what we all need to do as individuals as well as a community.

I agree Mr. Salinas with not only your facts but your conclusions.

I want to thank Mr. Morrison for coming to speak tonight and I also agree with your statements and I think it's important that we base these kinds of decisions on facts and on the best and most up-to-date information.

I want to sort of briefly touch on Ms. Szakos' remark that the water supply alternative or various alternatives that were offered up were not about constraining growth.

in Albemarle County.

In fact, all of the alternatives that were on the table would have provided plenty of water.

It's just a matter of what's the best, most environmentally friendly, most fiscally responsible way of getting there.

Sure.

The Rivanna board has talked about dredging for the last couple of meetings.

We are getting closer to having an RFP and approving an RFP that will go out.

It will be what's called a PPEA RFP, which will give us some flexibility in terms of having responses come back from potential companies.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Before I go through our current appointments, I would like to point out that we're constantly looking for people to serve on our boards and commissions.

Currently we're looking for members to serve on the

Community Development Block Grant, both the General Committee and the Fifeville Task Force.

We're looking for people for the Chart Committee, for the CRHA, for the Commission on Children and Families Youth Position, for the Dialogue on Race, for the Housing Advisory Committee, for the Region 10 Community Service Board, for the Vendors' Appeals Board.

So there are lots of ways in which members of the community could apply.

You can apply online and give us a hand.

and having said that, Mr. Mayor, I'd like to move that we make the following appointments to the Community Development Block Grant Fifeville Task Force Josephine Conover and Katarina Krzanich to the Charlottesville Economic Development Authority, Carolyn Shears and Reed Young

Is there a second to those nominations?

Second.

Any discussion?

If not, please indicate your vote.

And it carries unanimously.

Thank you, Dr. Brown.

And thank you to all who applied, and I agree with

the exhortation to consider serving on one of these boards and commissions.

These are excellent opportunities to play a leadership role in our community and I hope some of you watching at home or in the room will pursue an appointment.

We'll now move on to our consent agenda.

On the consent agenda tonight we have item A which is minutes of April 4th.

Item B is an appropriation of $595,584.45 funds for 2011-2012 community development block grant, second of two readings.

Item C, an appropriation of $215,419.83 2011-2012 home funds, second of two readings.

Item D, an appropriation of $41,884.67, Aquatic Facility Rental Revenue, Crow Indoor Pool, first of two readings.

Item E, an appropriation of Fiscal Year 2011 Additional Transit Revenues, first of two readings.

Item F, appropriation, $1500, donation towards purchase of Azure sculpture, first of two readings.

Item G, an ordinance, overlay zoning restriction for 233 4th Street Northwest, individually protected property designation for the Jefferson School, second of two readings.

Item H, an Ordinance Telecommunications Franchise Windstream, second of two readings.

Item I, an Ordinance Zoning Text Changes for Music Hall, second of two readings.

And Item J, Ordinance Amendment of Noise Ordinance, first of two readings.

Second.

I move and second.

Any discussion?

If not, please indicate your vote.

and carries unanimously.

Thank you very much.

Next item on our agenda is a public hearing and resolution regarding the Silvercrest lease.

It's before us tonight on first and one reading, Mr. Lance Stewart.

Good evening.

I'm Lance Stewart with the Charlottesville Public Works Department.

I'm here this evening to ask you to consider approving a lease between Silvercrest Asset Management and the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County as lessors

for the property located at 614 East High Street, also known as the Jessup House.

Briefly, this building was purchased in 2004 jointly by the city and county along with the Levy Opera House and a parking lot on the corner of Market Street and 7th Street in order to help create swing space for the renovation of the Juvenile Domestic Relations Court.

At that time we sort of inherited a lease that was in place at that time.

We have renewed that once in 2005 and are here to do that again.

And I will take any questions you have.

Thank you, Mr. Stewart.

We'll now open the public hearing.

Is nobody signed up to speak?

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

Seeing none, we'll close the public hearing.

So it's been moved.

Is there a second?

I'm sorry.

I'll second it.

If not, please indicate your vote.

It carries unanimously.

Thank you, Mr. Stewart.

Next item, public hearing and resolution.

Virginia Discovery Museum lease, first of one reading.

It was really my night.

Similarly, I'm here to ask you to consider approving the lease.

for the property at 524 East Main Street.

This has been leased for 20 years now to the Virginia Discovery Museum.

It's certainly one of the jewels of the downtown mall and something we prize very much.

This lease is very much in keeping with the spirit of past leases and the fact that the rental rate is set to essentially cover the cost of city-provided maintenance to make sure that the building is safe and secure.

Questions for Mr. Stewart?

All right, thank you.

We'll open the public hearing now.

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

Seeing none, we'll close the public hearing.

I think this is a major asset to our community and I think the good uses of it brings a lot of people and children to our downtown community.

Is that a motion, Mr. Huja?

Yes.

Is there a second to Mr. Huja's motion?

I'll second.

Been moved and seconded.

Any discussion?

If not, please indicate your vote.

And carries unanimously.

Thank you again, Mr. Stewart.

Next, we have a report on the Sustainability Grant and Charlottesville Comprehensive Plan update from Missy Creasey from Neighborhood Development Services.

Good evening, everyone.

This is an opportunity we felt was a good time to talk about the Sustainable Communities Planning Grant that we received as a region, as well as the beginnings of our next comprehensive plan update.

Just to give you all some highlights, we received a 900

This is a $99,000, $100,000 grant from HUD.

It's something that we applied for.

The Planning District Commission applied for it on the behalf of the City, County and UVA and we're all major partners in this grant.

There are a number of

Smaller technical partners that we have that relate to the different sustainability initiatives that are occurring.

And we're in the process of setting up another committee that will allow anybody who has any interest in the process to be at the table as well.

So trying to make it a very global, regional opportunity for our community.

And it's an opportunity, the grant has provided us with the opportunity to have additional funding to move forward with our comprehensive planning processes.

The city and the county at the same time are embarking on our updates and so the timing worked out well in order to do that as well as

the long range transportation planning process is occurring at the same time.

So we've been able to use this grant to get some additional technical resources including staff to assist us in moving forward with all of our different planning processes that are occurring.

That's a little complicated, so let me break it down just a bit.

We have a working group that's been meeting since fall of last year when we received notice that we were going to get the grant.

We didn't actually get all the papers signed until this February, so we've been doing a lot of preliminary work on that.

and a lot of the work that's been done is to get things geared up for our first event which is to occur in April.

The staff has been hired at the PDC to work on the grant aspects and the funding that the city received has been used to hire a short-term planner to assist us through this process as well.

The grant products generally are a performance system for sustainability as well as in the end we're going to end up with a map of the urban area of our community

That is a joint map of the future land use and the first product will be our current land use in the urban ring and in the city of Charlottesville put together and then as we progress through our comprehensive planning processes the end result will be a map that will show both of those areas together.

We'll also have recommendations and ordinance recommendations from this process that it's hoped that both the city and county will put into their comprehensive plans and uses their considerations.

We'll see how far we get with that, but we're pretty excited about the different conversations that are occurring.

Well, that is a really good question.

Likely we'll have something to do with

Environmental as well as livability kinds of principles.

One that comes to mind right off is visitability and development codes.

My guess, and this is just speculation on my part, that a lot of the recommendations that will come out of this process may require some changes from Richmond to assist us in that process.

But I think it will be a lot of different things that will help bring us forward in

being a more livable, sustainable community.

So not as detailed at this point, but yeah, a lot of different things to come out of that.

Activities that we've had to date.

The city planning commission has held two work sessions independently on the comprehensive planning process, and this has been an opportunity for them to

narrow down where they want to focus our major efforts.

And one area is land use.

We haven't had a big focus on land use in the last couple of reviews, and we'll take this opportunity to update the future land use map.

And we've started that through a window survey that's going on that we're working with the Planning District Commission to get done.

Where they're driving by and getting the land use as well as the housing conditions of all the properties within the city.

So we will have an up-to-date conditions and land use map that will assist us in looking forward to the future land use map.

Another thing that they've agreed upon at this point is that they would like to see a shorter, user-friendly comprehensive plan.

And there's been talk about perhaps a poster-type format that will include a lot of visuals, but keep it a little, keep it not as heavy on text, but be a very visual type of document.

Of course, we know that there are a lot of things that we do have to cover in the comprehensive plan, so we'll have appendix

with those, but to make it a more visual plan that anyone would be able to get a lot more information from.

We've also had our first joint work session with the county planning commission.

We had that in March.

And that was an opportunity to provide an overview of the grant to both commissions together, as well as talk about our kickoff event and be the first conversation that both planning commissions had

about potential regional issues that they'd want to talk about throughout this process.

So that brings us to the kickoff event.

And hopefully you all have seen in your email inboxes and many people in the community as well a save the date that we sent out last month for that.

And our event is on April 27th, which is next Wednesday, from 3 to 7.

It's going to be at the county office building in the second floor atrium.

This is the first of our joint public participation events and we're expecting to move those around the community and different places, but we're starting there and it's an opportunity for anyone to come out

and look at our initial steps in these comprehensive plan processes.

And generally what's going to be there is information on this grant so that folks can find out more information about that as well as our city and county and long range transportation themes which are looking at where we were 10 years ago, where we are now, and then where we want to go into the future.

and there'll be an area where, well, lots of areas where folks can put forward public comments so that we can get more information from the community as we start.

The flyer has gone out and this was probably in your inbox today and there have been many listservs that have gone out and we're making this available to everyone.

The theme for the grant is Many Plans, One Community.

As we're moving forward with this, there are going to be a number of plans still because each community and each jurisdiction has their documents that they need to have, but we want to focus on the fact that we are.

a greater community and that there's some great conversations that we can all have together.

We're going to have a website that's up and running now.

It has the flyer on it at this point, but after the event lots more will go on there.

What's the web address?

Web address is 1, the number 1, dash community dot org.

The comprehensive plan timeline generally is in your packet.

I want to highlight a few things and then I'll stop.

One being the general schedule for joint public participation events, which will kick off in September and go through February.

Looking to have a different topic each month, and those are going to be joint sessions with

for anyone to attend, as well as joint Planning Commission meetings.

We'll have a couple of work sessions with the County Planning Commission along the way so that we can continuously check in and keep that dialogue going.

So that is our basic overview.

This was an opportunity to let you guys know what we were doing and an opportunity if you all have comments, want to share with us, provide some additional direction.

There will be many opportunities.

We definitely want you all to attend on the 27th if you're able to.

If not, if anyone out there isn't able to, all of the documentation will be online and we're going to have a number of digital resources for collecting comments as well as your average regular ways of getting comments.

Just a comment.

I think it's a really great step towards community cooperation.

and working together in one community plan and regional planning is also joining in.

I have one quick question.

We're in the process of doing that.

That's our next step after our kickoff event is linking up those websites.

We want the community to not have to go to many, many places to find where they can put public comment.

So we're going to house all of the public comment for all

plan reviews on that one community site and link our other sites to that.

So it's all going to one place, but if you go to the city website, you'll be able to get there.

If you go to the county website, you can get there.

I was just going to say that I'm really pleased with the emphasis on public participation and kind of giving the word out, not just because I'm always about public participation, but because I think that one of the things that often comes before this Council is concerns about kind of the greater region and some of the environmental policies that were, you know, whether it's extra roads or water or

development or all of those things.

And I think that as this process goes forward in a very public and open way, I think it really helps to kind of beat the drum for sustainability in the greater community.

So thank you for doing that.

Oh yeah.

Kind of the poster format and the size maybe, but something that is readable at like 11 by 17 and very visual.

So it's instead of, one thought is instead of having someone have to go through a large document that if they're interested in what the community's values are, what the visions are, that it'll be in something that's very simple to find and linked to

things that would have additional detail.

Well, I'd just say I like the idea of having a format that's less text-driven and puts the dense stuff somewhere else where people can read through it but makes it accessible because I think people, you know, not that many people actually look at the comprehensive plan but it's a really fundamental document.

And then secondly, I also like the idea that through this grant that environmental issues are going to be kind of front and center and considered because, you know,

I mean, you know, land use planning as an example is a great phrase, but what it really has meaning is if it incorporates specific policy issues that involve, you know, setbacks or buffers or, you know, ways of encouraging drainage or whatever.

I want to echo all the comments of my fellow counselors.

It sounds like a great process that you've laid out here, but it's still not entirely clear to me, and I'm sure to some people listening to this discussion, why any of this would cost upwards of a million dollars.

We do.

There are budget outlines.

The majority of it is going towards the staffing aspect of things and it's a planning grant.

That's one question we've gotten along the way is what exactly is supposed to come out of this and ultimately it was a planning grant.

It's not for bricks and sticks with hopes that

You know, that would be the next phase.

Now we've had a lot of federal government funding issues occur, and so who knows if that next phase will be there, but that was the intent of the grant is to have this one.

The staff at the planning district commission to facilitate the grant aspects of things and there was a stipend that came from it for both the city and the county.

which the city has put towards staffing for a planner to assist in that and the county has done that as well.

So the majority of the funding is for that.

There's some for travel costs and costs that come along with administration type things.

Is the budget available online?

Yes, I think.

It would be great if it were, if it's not.

I think it'd be a good idea, because if I don't know where the money's going, then I doubt most people know where the money's going.

And I'm not suggesting anything improper has been done.

I just want to, it's not clear to me, that's a lot of money, and I'm just curious to know how it's being spent.

Well, thank you so much.

Will do.

Hopefully, if you're able, come out on the 27th.

Thank you.

Last item on our regular agenda today is a report from the 250th anniversary committee.

And I believe we have all three of the co-chairs of this committee, Nancy Damon, Steven Meeks, and Mark Beliles here.

And I don't know if you've... We're coming forward.

We're all coming.

You're all coming, okay.

I'll start off with Mark Beliles.

It's an honor to be able to give you a report and invite your questions.

And as we tell you just so far, the work that we've begun is tonight.

We each have something to share, so maybe you have more questions after each of us speak.

But we're calling our 250th anniversary celebration.

We just are calling it Celebrate 250.

It's not going to be just one event, but really it's a whole year of celebration.

We're looking at a series of programs.

I want to tell you just basically how we've organized ourselves so far.

Besides the three co-chairs here, we also have a steering committee of 25 individuals who you've appointed.

Great people, a lot of talent.

We're excited about working together and seeing what

may emerge from that and then besides what, and I'll tell you in a minute how we have broken down the steering committee but it is something that we are also, the co-chairs are working on at the moment developing a budget and a fundraising plan which is still not totally complete but we're working on that.

We've really broken down our work of our committee and others.

We've invited for the work group purpose about seven work groups.

But we have some people working on, certainly that will tie into the celebration, opening

the time capsule from 50 years ago and perhaps plan a way to putting a new one for the next 50.

But that will also develop later into a legacy project.

That work group is even beyond the time capsule.

Just what can we leave for the future generations as after this celebration year.

But there's a few other work groups I'll tell you about.

One is just our story content work group.

people are developing just the idea of what is the story we want to tell and from a world-class city we have a lot to tell 250 years of comprehensive diverse history and stories and that work group is really going to be trying to make sure we we get all of those stories told as much as we possibly can throughout the year in 2012

But besides the story content, we also have then a work group just focused on tying in to existing organizations in our community.

How can we contact them, invite them to be participants in this year-long celebration?

And things that perhaps they already do or ways in which maybe this celebration gives them an opportunity to tie in and partner together and tell their stories and things that they express representing our cultural

History, and as well as we have a work group just tying into the existing established events, the major festivals that are already here.

We're going to be asking them to consider

being somehow orient their festivals all next year to be a part of this whole year-long celebration.

Are they pretty accommodating so far?

It's just starting.

We're actually having our first big meeting with all of them next week, two weeks from now.

I hear that the woman who runs the festival book, she's kind of hard headed so you might want to work on her.

Yes.

We've got great talent here, it's really exciting.

We also have a work group just on what we're calling the signature event, which would be the culminating more official event at the end of the year.

It was of course 250 years ago

In November, December is when the city was actually created.

And so we're going to have an event.

We're looking at November being the sort of the culminating event of the whole year of the year celebration.

So there's a work group just developing a celebration week or something like that, that that would take place then.

Then we had a work group on public relations and marketing, just creating a brand that's almost complete and just a whole promotional plan.

and I believe that's it.

So that's what we've done so far and once we get all of this into place we want to put together, this is like the program from 50 years ago and what they did and we want to get all of these events, activities all year long into a program that will kick off beginning January 1, 2012 that people can find out about and connect in and be a part of.

I'm one of those festivals.

I'm Nancy Damon and I'm actually going to sort of review what Mark has just said but in a different way.

If you take a look at that program you will see

It's a wonderful historic document, but you will see that our city is a very, very different place than it was represented in the 200th anniversary.

And we look forward very much to representing in this celebration the diversity of what our city has become in the last 50 years.

If I could see, I'd be even better off.

Okay, I think I might have to take my glasses off.

So, using these different committees that Mark mentioned, we're going to have a series of events over the year, hopefully starting right at the beginning of 2012.

which may or may not involve the time capsule because we're still talking about that, it's a pretty exciting thing and we do plan to dig up the time capsule and we hope to bury a new one so we'll be talking about what to put in the new one and we'll be interested to see what's in the one that will be dug up.

Another group is working a lot on getting printed and virtual displays of historic photos that will be available all around town at businesses and other places and online as well.

and this may involve being printed in a commemorative program but we're still talking about that as well.

We're also talking about doing something like a story core thing where we go to the different festivals and events that are being held during the year and take down people's stories or their stories about how they've grown up or are just new to Charlottesville and a way to preserve them for the future.

We are planning to embed a lot of the activities and festivals that already take place.

And as Mark said, we're going to be meeting with festival heads next week.

And this is everything from the Vegetarian Festival to the African American Cultural Festival to the Festival of the Book, the Film Festival, and a number of other regular, yearly occurring events and working with them on how they can present.

during their own festivals part of the celebration.

And we do hope to have a signature event in November at the very end of the year or close to the end of the year.

So that's sort of what we're working on now.

Hi, I'm Steven Meeks.

You heard what everybody's working on.

We do have some goals for the committee to work toward and right now the main goal is between now and the middle of the year is to finalize what each one of these work groups are doing, get the details ironed out and what they would like to see happen in 2012 as well as develop the budgetary needs for each one of those groups so that we can build sort of a comprehensive

income and revenue picture for 2012.

We hope to be able to leverage the $75,000 that you all have set aside for this event and leverage it to the best of our ability in the community in additional fundraising efforts.

We also hope by the middle of the year to have launched an official logo for the celebration as well as to inaugurate a website which will be called Celebrate250.com We're also working on trying to acquire the exhibit space and the city space area for ongoing exhibits throughout the year

Those are some of the main goals we have between now and the middle of the year.

We would like to come back and give you an update in a couple months as to what we have nailed down.

We do appreciate the support and connection with city council to Mr. Huja's efforts and I hope he'll be able to continue with us in our efforts to

Thank you, Mr. Meeks.

I just wanted to make a couple of comments, and I don't know which way to direct it to the committee or maybe to staff to follow up on a couple of things.

And one was a note that we received from

Case Slaughter and that may fit under the story content work group in terms of the jewelry brown bridge and how the people have been recognized over the years and some of the stories that are surrounding those individuals.

and from the town hall meeting we had at Mount Zion First African Baptist Church last week, there was an interest in having a connection of Charlottesville with Liberia as part of the 250th anniversary and to explore the immigration of people from Virginia to Liberia and how there was some connection with Charlottesville as well in that migration.

Other comments or questions?

Well, thank you for your work.

Thank you to the members of the committee, Mr. Berrick and others, for moving this forward.

It's very exciting.

I agree.

Thank you.

That was the last regular item on our agenda tonight.

Is there any other business for us to consider, Mr. Jones?

Yes, sir.

We'll now reopen the meeting to one more session of Matters by the Public.

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

Good evening, I'm Peter Kleeman.

I live at 407 Head Street in the city.

We're in the middle of a political season and there's an election coming up in November and city council elections were recently changed from being in May to being in November and in years like this current year I feel that there's a real liability to having our elections in November and not in May in that we don't actually have any

districts designated for our delegates or our senate candidates, etc.

And I believe there's going to be a fair bit of discussion about other than city council elections in the upcoming election cycle.

I feel that city council elections are really key.

We have city school board election and a city council election and we have clerk of court and on some years we have other elections as well and I would like to recommend to council that there be some consideration of whether the move

to November is a successful move or whether this has been an error in terms of getting people involved with the issues of the city and bringing people forward to run for council or to become involved with those party

nominations or whatever they may be because the calendars are all confused and intermingled with other high profile elections.

I think there's more to be considered than just turnout so I think that this would be a great opportunity for council or through the election commission or some other group to investigate whether there are significant benefits to moving this back to a May election and whether that could be done.

So I would encourage you to take some steps in that direction and perhaps to schedule some evaluation criteria and after the election cycle is over to determine whether there's any indication that this is a good move or a bad move and to move on forward collecting data as necessary to make a firm decision as to what the appropriate time for a city council election might be.

Didi Smith, 2652 Jefferson Park Circle.

Thank you for this opportunity to speak to some interesting things that are happening.

in terms of the water supply.

You heard earlier about the permit modification that just went out.

There's also two very important studies that, and if you considered the judging PPEA a study, but some new information that will be coming forward.

But there's also been some interesting documents that have come to light in terms of these recent events.

The permit modification had

not only the modification itself but a report from Hydrologics which does the computer modeling and there was just some interesting information that I just wanted to share with you.

I'm also on this little handout is some information from reports that the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority

now must submit to DEQ as part of the current permit.

So this has been the last two years, I thought two and a half years, but I've included 2009, 2010, and these are really interesting reports.

They have to report stream flow for both the Sugar Hollow Reservoir and the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir.

So they have to report stream flow for both of those rivers, Mormons and Rivanna.

They have to report the reservoir level, how much water they withdraw,

from those rivers and how much they release back into them.

So this is really interesting in terms of the decisions that need to be made, particularly about protecting the Mormons in the Rivanna.

And so I'm just giving you this information.

Let me just explain the very top table.

Just kind of a follow along comes from those permit modification reports and what really jumped out at me is that the safe yield, which is our ability to survive a drought, basically, in terms of the demand,

for the various options that you either voted on or didn't vote on, as it were.

Currently, we have a safe yield of 12.9.

That comes from that DEQ letter that was sent last August to Mayor Norris and Ann Malik.

But in this permit modification, the hydrologics report, we found out that the 30-foot dam that it built without the pipeline only gives us a 12.5.

million gallon per day safe field.

It's actually a lower, although pretty comparable, but it really doesn't increase our ability to survive a drought.

And the reason that is, is because it can't fill very fast.

It's being filled from the Mormons.

Once you have that pipeline,

where it can fill faster, which impacts a safe yield, then it goes up to 15.3.

But that's still not all that high.

In fact, that's not even as high as Rivanna said we would get from just dredging alone.

No dams, no pipelines.

Dredging alone, getting 80% of our capacity back, which is what Janet Fleming estimated, and as did HDR, gets us more safe yield than any other option that's on the table right now.

So I just thought that was a really interesting observation from these reports.

So in terms of, it's interesting, some of the comments you had, guaranteed supply of water, I mean this really isn't.

Remember this is really just about how much, having water to survive a drought.

and it really doesn't get us there.

And what would really get us there much faster and much better is dredging.

Also, just note on the 9th, then I'll be done.

On this table, under the Withdraw, Release, the Grayed Out column,

Another really interesting thing is that we take actually very little water out of the Mormons these days.

This has changed in the last few years.

This is just better management practices.

What you've heard from other people is really what we needed for the Mormons.

Wasn't so much that we needed to add lots of water back into it, we just need to manage it better.

And they have managed it better.

We are taking not even two million gallons a day anymore.

What's really interesting is we're releasing more than half that amount back into it.

So in fact, in 2009 we effectively only took 70% of the stream flow.

I mean that's incredibly low.

And in 2010 it was 4.

4% after you consider how much you take out and how much you put back in below the dam.

So anyway, I just wanted to share this information with you because I think

There is a lot of decisions you're still going to have to make and there are a lot of interesting information that's going to come out about demand and dredging and particularly about dredging costs.

So I appreciate you listening and thinking about new information.

Thank you, Ms. Smith.

Ivy McCall, 2232 Banbury Street

Well I just, this is my first city council meeting that I've ever attended so I'm still getting used to how the process works but I just I want to say something about the allocation of funds that I've noticed and like I said this is the first one I've ever attended but to me it seems like I think that the sustainability grant and the celebration committee are really great ideas as long as you know for instance

for the Celebration Committee.

We really make a concerted effort to recognize all of the history of Charlottesville and not just the parts that we like, you know, not just the good parts.

We have to go hand in hand with the good and the bad.

And then in terms of this $100,000 grant that's just for planning, I mean, I understand if that actually sets a comprehensive plan in motion so that we could use our land better and become a more environmentally sustainable community.

To me, that sounds like two-thirds of the cost of my college education.

And I'm just wondering why, you know, when Charlottesville High School has to lose six-tenths of a position in every department, you know, I feel like we, as a community, really need to prioritize our education and prioritize giving money to our schools.

Because, just from what I've seen, I think it's the most important issue that we can possibly face as a community.

Thank you for coming tonight.

It's great to have you here.

Anybody else like to speak?

I was just going to make a comment replying to the conclusion since I'm the only member I think on city council now who was around when we voted to change the election date from May to November and we did it for basically two reasons.

One is our concern for the very low turnout in the May elections and secondly was the fact that as a standalone election it cost at least $30,000 to run our election which we pay for.

You know, I think we benefit by having a look at

what's good about having moved it, what's not good about having moved it.

I mean, I think that's a good discussion to have.

For me, I saw a benefit that I hadn't anticipated, which is that I thought it was healthy in the last election cycle to have a discussion of both

city issues by virtue of a city campaign and county issues by virtue of a county campaign kind of running at the same time in the newspaper.

I thought it kind of gave a sense of both the differences in the communities and similarities in communities as opposed to having these two things occur six months apart.

So the city people aren't really paying attention to the county issues and vice versa.

They're all on the same page.

They're all on the same page.

Sometimes they read in the same forum.

So I think a discussion is healthy.

although I tend to think it's been a good thing that we moved it to the fall.

I'd just like to thank Ms. McCall for coming.

Thank you for being here.

And also, just to clarify on the grant for the sustainability planning process, it's a federal grant, so it doesn't take money, I mean, I suppose at a larger level, but not at a level we can control, take money out of education funding.

I too want to thank you for coming and speaking tonight and come back often.