City Council Meeting   2/6/2012

Please call the roll.

Mr. Norris?

Here.

Here.

Kathy, would you give announcements?

Next time she'll have lots of announcements.

That's all I know.

I brought an announcement and I just wanted to thank you very much.

Thank you for coming.

Thank you very much.

I think we have in our community a relatively high rate of infant mortality and a lot of other issues around birth and we really want to make our children as healthy as possible, so thanks for doing that.

It transcended race and class to a certain degree, and I just want to thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

is a partner on, is offering scholarships to high school seniors as well as adults to pursue post high school education and applications are due on March 1st and the information can be found at SeevilleScholarship.com.

Thank you.

Mr. John Gaines.

Good evening.

Thank you.

Naomi Roberts.

Thank you very much for listening to my comments.

I want to thank you all for your time.

Joe Szakos.

Thanks very much for your attention to this matter.

Thank you.

So I just wanted to thank you again for your time.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Ben Fisher.

So again, I can't overemphasize how dangerous that intersection has become for all of us and we don't want something tragic to happen.

I thank you very much for your time.

John Hayden, David Pettit,

Thank you for your attention, Aziz.

Bob Gross.

We are currently conducting another round of study circles with churches.

Thank you for your attention.

Thank you.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment and we're hopeful that you'll move forward tonight.

Thank you.

and operating costs from the same fund.

Do you have a letter for us?

I have copies for each of you and I would like you to support both of those initiatives going on with your thanks.

Thank you.

There's not a lot of time, as you probably know, because the budget committee

Who would like to start?

Mr. Mayor, I know we're going to be talking a little bit later about the Human Rights Commission so I'll hold off on that but I do want to see us tonight under other business take up the suggestion or the request from Mr. Gaines regarding having council go on record as opposing the voter disenfranchisement legislation that's moving its way through the General Assembly.

And thank you all.

So we're working toward it, we need to work faster and I appreciate your continued pressure on that.

But that seems to be the appropriate time to talk about public process with regards to a master plan for the parks.

Mr. Norris, do you have some opponents to suggest?

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to move the nomination following individuals to boards and commissions to the Citizens Advisory Panel for the Charlottesville Police Department at reappointment of David Simmons and to the Thomas Jefferson Water Resources Protection Foundation reappointment of Tara Boyd.

Is there a second on the motion?

Second.

All those in favor say aye.

We have buttons now.

Red button?

If you want to vote yes, it's green, if you want to vote it's red.

Next item will be considered in the, would you please read it, Senator?

Sure.

And item K, an ordinance, closing of temporary turnaround area in Davis Field near Marshall Court, second of two readings.

Does any members of the council wish to remove any agenda from the consent, any item from the consent agenda?

Mr. Mayor, I actually would request that the minutes, approval of the minutes, we got them kind of late and I actually would like to read them before we approve them, I just didn't have a chance to read them.

Is there a motion for the rest of the agenda, consent agenda?

Mr. Mayor, this is a motion to just accept the agenda and then discussion will follow?

No, we do not discuss the consent agenda.

I would like the council to consider taking Jay, the project gateway, off the consent agenda at this point in time.

Okay.

There are other things pending that we should look at.

So is this your motion if we move the rest of the agenda?

Yes.

Is there a second to the motion?

I'll second.

Okay, thank you.

And now I would offer you the opportunity to ask any questions you might have.

Can it be a red light that just flashes yellow most of the day but at those particular hours has an option for a red light?

There are plenty of cases where we have a full functioning signal, not in the city necessarily, but in more rural areas that then at late overnight hours it may go to flash.

On Sunday in downtown, I know sometimes we've had that.

It can create confusion, especially in a corridor with that much traffic.

Other questions?

Would it make a difference if you were on 250 and you were turning right onto hydraulic that you just turned at the light?

Oh, I see.

What would happen if you changed Rugby Road?

You couldn't even come out there at all?

The assumption of the study was that, but we didn't even really pursue.

So there are implications besides the intersections.

Yes, yes.

Other comments?

Just for us to talk.

What she said was the first few things that are painting that can be done for current budget.

Do we have a transportation budget per se that we would like a separate track for transportation funding?

So that's one option to consider.

There are many projects.

So I just wanted to just emphasize that I do think that that's very, very serious.

The other comments or questions?

You know, the community needs lights like that.

I can't say it was temporarily there as part of the construction project.

It was temporary.

Yes.

is it I mean this is on to the way expensive stuff so I'm not really proposing it I'm just asking it to kind of know if it is another thing to add to our kind of quiver of doing a right turn lane that's longer so that if traffic does get caught up there when it stops to let those folks out that then it wouldn't back up onto the moving traffic lanes of

Just kind of wanted it in my head, I don't really know what you're asking.

I think we ought to explore the initial, I guess, cheaper alternatives and see how they work before we can think of large expenditures.

When you were looking at impacts on traffic, was that based on a signal that is sort of synchronized and is on a time, is it possible to do a signal that's pressure activated, you know, that's, I don't know what you call that.

Does that answer your question?

Your idea of work if there is a standard with traffic on hydraulic, but there is a tremendous amount of traffic on hydraulic.

Because I know you explored it.

And the cost was 1 to 1.5 million dollars to do it, so it was quite expensive.

Is that little stretch of 50 feet there impenetrable?

So we didn't go that far down that road, if that makes sense.

And again, I'm not a traffic engineer.

How far along are we in the Hillsdale Drive design process?

It's something that we could look further into if that is the desire.

I'm sure you never thought of it before.

We keep looking at this and thinking that has to work.

Should we proceed with the initial steps right now and work on other ideas?

I mean, let's give some relief as soon as we can.

So can you just clarify exactly what steps you are, I mean, so the straight markings on Mickey, the do not crowd the intersection markings on hydraulic flashing beacon, is that part of your recommendation?

and to continue down through that list and that implementation plan.

I can't remember if your list included shutting off the median or closing the median.

Not to take a look at it while we move ahead with some other things too.

One problem is we do not have a steel drive yet on that part.

And that's why we didn't go that far yet.

So just for clarification, how much does the flashing light cost?

Thank you for letting us talk.

Mr. Jones will be making a presentation.

And with that, I'll leave it up to you to ask any questions.

If not, then the requirements and observations.

But that's, I'm just going to start off with that.

I think we could do a pretty robust public engagement and education and research and do diligence on this in less than 12 months.

So again, I applaud the manager and I appreciate your comments.

It's important, particularly for those individuals who are affected directly by it, but I think the Commission can do so much more, and I'd like to see us move forward.

I think that's what the request is and I think that's one reason that that wasn't really emphasized because a lot of that is already part of what that's for so we've already sort of

We have a wonderful coordinator, but I don't know that we can expect...

I was seeing that as part of this whole proposal was all of what you're talking about.

That's my point.

They said that they weren't talking about that.

And my point is that this commission can be doing so much more

Okay.

Within the proposal that Mr. Heineken always came forward.

I saw a lot of that in their proposal, so that's...

In the public arena.

In the public arena, you're right, that's not what people have left on.

So my suggestion would be that we proceed on that, as Srinivas said, in 10 months.

See, otherwise it's over here and over there and you lose it too easily.

that would at least have purview over some of these other issues, continue the work of the dialogue on race, address issues of civil rights and equal opportunity in our community and allow the commission to flesh out whether or not a more aggressive approach to enforcement and investigations makes sense.

But they are two separate things, and I think that's been part of the confusion.

So I would encourage you to follow the direction of the city manager in this case.

Can I- Can we get clarification on what that actually means, the recommendation versus the commission in terms of-

Come up with that.

But I do object to prejudging it in terms of what it will be doing.

I agree with Mr. Huja.

It wasn't an arbitrary number for the months, for the year.

That would be obvious.

And that way we begin having the one stop that one of our speakers referred to right away because people can bring their complaints to that person, to the commission, right away.

As a way of collecting data.

I move that we accept Mr. Jones' proposal with the modification that it be a 10-month process as opposed to a 12-month process.

With a very specific interim report.

Is there a discussion on the motion?

How much input will City Council, I mean obviously we're giving a lot of input now and if we're going to do this all over again it seems prudent to get City Council's input on it along the way.

At that time we will have time to have input into that process I would say.

So there's an opportunity for input at that point as well.

I'm surprised that you voted against Mr. Norris because it is your idea to try to carry out.

I appreciate the intent behind it.

SRO update, Jim Tallabur.

We have back about a year and a half ago.

Please close the door if you don't mind.

So I'll turn it over to Allison and I think, are you ready for them to come down?

That's okay.

I'm going to try to find it.

Nice and close.

We can just look at these.

This is like, you know, a function of something.

You can just hold it like this.

Oh, there we go.

And Erin is here local in Charlottesville on the ground and has been involved in the lease up process and that means getting folks ready to move in when the units are ready and so she's going to update us all on how that's all going.

So that's just one of many stories that are going to just keep coming forward.

So again we thank the city very very much for its support and we hope that you'll come and visit us and if not for the grand opening celebration but you'll come and take a look and see what permanent supportive housing looks like, meet our residents and our staff and again thank you for making this possible.

And do you have a waiting list?

Folks can stay, and they can move on.

What are some of the things a volunteer might be able to do if they were to volunteer?

Sometimes we even have some fundraisers and event planners too.

Questions on that end?

What kind of heat, I saw the individual units, is it electric?

And it is, it is, and the photovoltaic panels will help offset that.

Do they pay them separately?

And the non-subsidized units that are $525 a month, utilities are all included as well.

Mr. Lewis?

Are they going back out on the streets?

and even if they have to leave us, we're making sure that where they go next is a good place.

And Councilor Norris, I imagine you're feeling pretty good about this because of your efforts, a lot of why this is happening.

and you guys are really to be commended for not going the easy route but actually working to house the people that this was designed to house so thank you.

So that means we accomplished what the group tried to do.

And secondly, there's projects like this being on the city council fund.

They're all from this community.

Every single person on that list are people that are homeless right now on the streets of Charlottesville or Albemarle County.

I think it's going to pay off in being a better community for many of our residents.

I just wanted to say that last.

What's the process to sign up to apply for one of those?

That's the income range.

Where are they coming from?

Well, we really focused the efforts on filling the first 31st, so I really can't say we've seen a volume enough to notice any trends on the balance of the 30.

I just wonder if they were coming from within Charlottesville or...

There was a deliberate return to the policy to achieve that goal of mixed income.

I didn't realize that.

We just always are interested to uplift our residents of Charlottesville.

Salvation Army, gosh I forgot something.

Let me also take this opportunity to thank you as a group who's tried to help us in this process and we look forward to working with you.

And I'm sorry to stick in another question, but it occurred to me, can it be people with kids or is it only one person per apartment?

One bed, okay.

And that's where I'm not at right now.

I think that was one of the proposals that was brought forward.

We never said that that's what you told us.

I don't want to hurt their feelings, but they're not the biggest project.

Charlottesville High School is going to be the biggest project.

My idea is to promote alternative energy use in the commercial properties at least.

Would you want a limit on the amount loan that could go to any one building?

I would say the commercial building would need to be high.

Thank you.

Well, that's assuming that bigger buildings have more employees.

Yes, that's why I said it could be.

Give us some of those criteria.

This is a lot to think about.

Just first of all, just as a process sort of point, the original intention, and I appreciate all the thought that you and your staff have put into this, but just sort of taking a step back, the original intention was that this would just be a grant to LEAP and that LEAP would be the one administering and setting up the loan criteria and their board would be having this discussion about what the program would look like.

And so LEAP wants to hear from you of what you want in this program.

and Mr. Noether Pardelbur-Leibau.

and then the remainder be set aside for this pool and go through all the questions and the due diligence that you're talking about here.

Not as the only deadline that will ever come, but certainly a way to further leverage some...

I'll keep it simple as far as possible, because I think we have tried, previously, when we make complicated remaining criteria, it becomes harder and harder to implement it.

We'd like it simple.

One thing that I'd like to see, you know, I don't think it should be tied necessarily because some of the need for speed and simplicity, but I also know that, you know, we've talked at various points about when the high school project goes in and various things like that, having a kind of a workforce training program or people working either as apprentices or as beginning kind of workers in that field and learning those skills to make sure that we let folks doing these projects know that we have that resource that they can access.

But yes, we want to work with PVCC, we want to work with our workforce development folks.

I'm sorry?

I know.

I think they will benefit other public buildings also.

The next building we're going to do is actually remodel Lance's office which was the old CTS building at our 4th Street at the City Yard and he's going to be putting solar panels on that building also.

How do I make it as efficient as possible and as quickly as possible?

And again, even if it's just sort of pre-allocating it but not actually getting the money.

So it's a pretty open and transparent process.

But I do want to kind of protect these funds for.

Are you looking at these funds being commercial only?

We have the residential program.

Are there any dollars for renewable energy systems for residential in our community?

How do you know that?

I'll say commercial.

I'd like to get some feedback on really how effective these systems are.

So if you went into our program, there would be a reporting responsibility that you would have.

I'm doing the energy audit now with LEAP and there's a before and after that.

I don't, I assume that's more of a budget question than a tonight question, but I certainly would support that because ultimately it's not money that we're spending so much as we're investing, because presumably it will come back.

And that would be really important to know what that threshold will be.

At Charlottesville High School, at this point, we anticipate that the solar panels will generate 12% of their energy, which accounts for 3% of the entire school system energy.

Wow.

It lowers the school's budget for utilities, so it's a real payback to all our taxpayers.

So Ms. Bullard, do you have guidance now to proceed forward?

Thank you.

McEntire Park, East Side, Ben Daly Do you have a PowerPoint?

There were 11 of these that we took back as a planning team to try to figure where there might be commonality and how these notions can then begin to be narrowed into some concept diagrams.

Next slide please.

It was designed to allow folks in the community to see the breadth of comment that has come in regarding the park, not necessarily to be used as a strict guideline for a certain percentage of the park should be for a certain use.

Next slide, please.

The one that's shown here and on the next slide, what was concept diagram three with a lot of interest in the golf, the skate park, and the mixed use.

Next please.

and myself and John and Chris Gensic, our parking trail planner, is here also to answer your question.

So the idea was to bring this up to date to the process that has been so far.

I have a question for the, I'm sorry, I missed your name.

John Schmidt.

John Schmidt.

So are you now working on a comparable drawing of the flip chart version?

We even had some discussion of maybe having a variation of that third concept, because we are some, again, these are land uses which have variability, so we may end up with two, but there could be a variation of one of them.

Other comments or questions?

Other comments?

First Tee in particular, which is what we've been hearing a lot about somewhere else in the system, and allow First Tee to continue to thrive while dedicating the East Side of the Park to passive garden uses.

So I'm not sure if we could give you any hard answers right now about that, but there is obviously, there would be a cost associated with that in addition to whatever we end up doing with McIntyre.

I think we have a larger conversation too when you say first teeth continue to thrive because right now they're running at a $60,000 deficit and we're filling it without any sort of process about like we do with nonprofits and other programs that we have so I'm not sure it's thriving really.

And that kind of thing, such that some of the historic interest in it maybe is not affected.

Those would guide those decisions at the time.

So again, it's a delicate thing.

You talk about millions of dollars of investment.

For year, 800 per year.

I think it's less than that actually.

and I know that we're getting to the next level design but getting some idea of those kinds of facts might be helpful from other places because that's all we have to go from but I was just really struck by those.

If all things were equal, could they work?

I mean, that's what your skill sets give us.