City Council Meeting   7/2/2012

Mr. Norris?

Ms. Smith?

Here.

Ms. Szakos?

Here.

Here.

We have a number of awards and recommendations and announcements which we'd like to share with you.

Yes, thank you, Mayor Huja.

I have actually a couple to read.

The first will be for Parks and Recreation, yes.

This is going to be July as Parks and Recreation Month.

I'm honored to read this.

Whereas parks and recreation programs are an integral part of communities throughout the United States, including the city of Charlottesville, and whereas our parks and recreation experiences are vitally important to establishing and maintaining the quality of life in our communities, ensuring the healthy lifestyle of all citizens,

and contributing to the economic and environmental well-being of community and region and whereas parks and recreation programs build healthy, active communities that aid in the prevention of chronic disease, provide therapeutic recreation services for those who are mentally or physically disabled

And whereas parks and recreation programs

and retention of businesses, families and retirees and whereas parks and recreation areas are fundamental to the environmental well-being of our community, improve water quality, protect groundwater, improve the quality of the air we breathe, provide habitat for wildlife,

and whereas our parks and natural recreation areas ensure the geological beauty of our community and provide new learning opportunities and memorable experiences for children and adults by connecting with nature and the outdoors

and whereas United States House of Representatives has designated July as Parks and Recreation Month and whereas the City of Charlottesville recognizes the benefits derived from Parks and Recreation resources, therefore, Mr. Mayor, be it resolved, do you want me to continue?

Yes.

Thank you Mr. Mayor, Members of Council.

Thank you for joining us and celebrating July as Parks and Recreation Month and I'd encourage all of you as well as everyone in our community to get out there and enjoy their parks and their recreation system.

Thank you.

We certainly do.

I have a couple other announcements.

Fourth of July is Wednesday and we will have our annual fireworks at McIntire Park.

The festivities begin at 6 p.m. and you can get to McIntire Park

with bus service from the Albemarle County Office Building on McIntire Road from the Kmart parking lot and handicap service will be available from Walker Upper Elementary School.

Look for special Celebrate 250 glow stick giveaways at our, I guess the city's tent and self-guided park and

Trail Guides of McIntire Park.

Those would be special things.

So 6 to 10 p.m.

I believe I read it was about 9.15 that the fireworks will begin at McIntire.

We also, as part of Celebrate250, we have a couple other events.

Broadcasters for Blood Drive, all day on, what date?

Monday, July 9th, I believe.

No, Monday, July 9th, from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the DoubleTree Hotel, the first 25 people get the new Celebrate250 commemorative book

that will be coming out by the end of the year.

There's a goal of 250 units.

I'd like to say I did this at the last 250 blood drive just about a month ago and it's a really great way to celebrate 250.

and then the other Celebrate 250 event will be on July 13th, that's Friday the 13th.

There will be an exhibition at City Space from 5 to 8 p.m. on Roseberry's Charlottesville, a special exhibit of Ed Roseberry's lifetime of photography in Charlottesville.

I have also an announcement of an award, which I have an email about, so I'll read it to you from my phone.

This is from the Virginia Supportive Housing, who are the people who are operating the crossings, the single room occupancy apartments over on 4th Street and Preston.

Dear Virginia Supporting Housing friends, I am pleased to announce that VSH won the 2012 Innovation Award for Best Green Multifamily Residential Project from the Virginia Sustainable Building Network for the crossings in Charlottesville.

Allison Bogdanovich, our Director of Housing Development, picked up the award yesterday, as you can see from the picture, which you can't see from there.

I'd like to give special thanks to Carl Bren, the founder of the agency and Council of Advocates member who nominated VSH for this award, and I would like to offer the City of Charlottesville's concurrence with that.

Congratulations to Virginia Supportive Housing and to the design of our wonderful crossings here in Charlottesville.

I also have a couple of 4th of July announcements.

I have the closings and the non-closings for the 4th of July.

City Hall and the Annex will be closed on Wednesday in observation of Independence Day.

Charlottesville area transportation's Route 7 and the free trolley will offer the Sunday service schedule on that day and the downtown transit station will be open from 9 to 5.

Trash and recycling services will not be done on Wednesday, July 4th, but collection will be offered on Thursday, July 5th.

Collections for the remainder of the week will take place a day later than the typical schedule.

The normal collection schedule will resume on Monday.

The Hermann Key Recreation and Cooling Center will be open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Tonsil Recreation Cooling Center will be open from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Farmers in the Park, Meade Park, will be closed on Wednesday.

Honesty Family Aquatic Center will extend hours of operation from 1030 a.m. to 8 p.m.

There will be no half-price admission since the pool is open all day.

And Smith Aquatic and Fitness Center will be open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

I have a few announcements.

First one, free storm debris collection.

The city's public works department will conduct a free storm debris collection from last Friday's storm beginning Monday, July 8th.

The free collection is being offered in the areas of the city that were most affected by the storm.

It says pink shaded areas on the zoning map available in the back of the chambers.

Okay.

There's a map in the back so that it can identify those areas, those pink areas.

Collection includes tree debris from the June 29th storm only.

Debris must be moved to the street edge for collection.

Construction material does not qualify for collection.

Contractors are responsible for the removal of any tree debris they handle.

Residents who live outside of the free collection areas may request an onsite evaluation to determine if their home qualifies.

Contact 970-3895 to schedule an evaluation.

Residents who do not qualify may schedule a special collection through the city's large item pickup program.

The program allows citizens to schedule a debris collection for $25.

Appointments may be scheduled online at www.Charlottesville.org slash public service or in person at the city treasurer's office in City Hall.

Second announcement, the chloramines four boards meeting.

A four boards meeting on chloramines will be held Wednesday, July 25th at 7 p.m. Albemarle County Office Building Lane Auditorium.

And the third and last announcement is that there will be a council work session this Thursday

in city space from five to seven on the topic of economics and expanding opportunity, expanding growth track employment and workforce readiness.

Thank you.

I have a few announcements of information.

First of all, election officials are being recruited on Monday 9th July 5 to 7 in city space.

If you have any interest in being, taking part as election officer in November presidential election, you can go there on Monday July 9th 5 to 7 p.m. in city space.

We hope that you will take part in that.

On first Friday, this coming Friday, July the 6th, from 5.30 to 7.30, there will be an exhibit at Historical Society called Charlottesville Street Railways.

It should be very interesting and we hope that you will take advantage of that.

Those are the other announcements I have.

I'd like to express a little gratitude to the maintenance staff of the building.

We also say that we have asked the city manager to give a brief report on the storm and its artifacts.

I also want to add that 4th of July has a very

Anything else?

Okay.

Now the next item on the agenda is matters by the public and I have signed up a list.

Please come forward, identify your name and limit your comments to three minutes.

Thank you.

Mayor Huja and members of the City Council, my name is Paul Long and I live at 1410 Grady Avenue here in the city and I'm coming here tonight to mention two items that interest me greatly.

One was a meeting last week of business leaders in the city of Charlottesville and Lynchburg where the Virginia Secretary of Transportation made some comments

One comment being that in the next six years, the Virginia Department of Transportation will be spending $11 billion on transportation projects.

And I have a tendency to believe that very little of that funding will go towards public transportation.

The second item that vastly disappointed me was the fact that the city of Charlottesville is not having full service tomorrow on its public transportation system.

There's many, many people who go to work that depend on the public transit system to get to work.

The University of Virginia Medical Center and our many hotels and other businesses are operating full scale tomorrow.

It's not a holiday for them and people need a way to get to work.

Since City Council has been adopting many resolutions recently on a variety of topics, some of which I agree with, I would like to submit a proposed resolution for the consideration of Charlottesville City Council and I'll read it.

Whereas the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County have a great need to improve their public transportation system, whereas the Commonwealth of Virginia spends hundreds of millions of dollars on new highway construction and road maintenance, and whereas the Commonwealth spends a minimal amount of its budget on the maintenance and improvement of public transportation system in the state,

We hereby ask State Senator Craig Deeds, delegates David Tosano and Rob Bell, who represent the Charlottesville City and Albemarle County in the General Assembly, to introduce resolutions in the General Assembly to obtain a $5 million grant for the Charlottesville Area Transit Service so that we may begin

the process of expanding a public transportation system and I would also like to announce with everybody and anybody within the hearing range of my voice that the Transit Riders Association of Charlottesville will be having their third meeting this coming Saturday, July 7th from noon to 2 p.m. in the Jefferson Room of the Main Library right across the street from Lee Park and I would sincerely invite everybody and anybody who has an interest in

and Public Transit in the area to attend that meeting.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Carol Saliba and I live at 802 Cynthia Avenue number 4 in Charlottesville and I'm here on behalf of my neighbors in the Rose Hill neighborhood.

We're opposed to the rezoning of the lots at Rose Hill and Cynthia Avenue.

It will increase the density of the neighborhood and we already have more than our share of apartments in this neighborhood.

It will increase the amount of traffic and noise on these streets.

and in the neighborhood.

Thank you.

Good evening, everyone.

My name is Michelle Gaeth Bates.

I'm the founder and executive director of The Female Perspective.

I'm going to quote Nat Turner.

I would never be of any service to anyone as a slave.

The Female Perspective is a nonprofit community development and social management organization that provides prevention and intervention strategies through intensive coaching, mentorship and program development.

We utilize a collaborative approach to efficiently and holistically empower youth, individuals and families within the city of Charlottesville, Virginia and surrounding counties.

This organization arose from the essential need to improve communication,

coordination and collaboration within the community and its stakeholders.

I am here to announce an awareness campaign titled, Breaking the Chains of Silence, Racism, Internalized Racism, Privilege, Classism, and Disparities.

In a 2008 retreat, the city of Charlottesville identified priority areas for city government, including the issue of race relations.

As a result, City Council initiated an action to determine if race matters within our city's current culture.

This effort is being spearheaded by the City of Charlottesville's Dialogue on Race, known as DOR.

In a December 2011 report, I quote, addressing the legacy of slavery, segregation, and discrimination, end quote, the University Community Action for Racial Equity, known as UCARE, cites there are community concerns about what is perceived to be an existing and current

quote plantation unquote culture within the overall local community.

To continue raising awareness about racial barriers in the plantation culture, the Female Perspective is announcing an awareness campaign in partnership with local black and white leaders.

This campaign is working to recommend culturally relevant solutions to break the chains of systemic and cyclical inequity and injustice through empowerment.

We will address issues of both racism and internalized racism with regard to privilege, classism, and disparities that have undermined the work of trailblazing activists who have made significant sacrifices on behalf of African Americans and others.

Collaboratively, we will highlight issues that build barriers to effective alternative and culturally relevant solutions for progressive change within the African American community, illustrate limited access to avenues of influence and power, and speak to disparities that historically incapacitate current

and future African American leaders thereby causing many of these leaders to either accept the status quo or relocate outside of Central Virginia.

Laurie Delahanty Hi, I'm Laurie Delahanty, I'm a resident in town here on Evergreen Avenue and I'm here to continue the conversation on chloramines and on June 21st there was a panel on chloramines and I was very pleased to attend that June 21st panel on it

and just want to say that in the public information session on chloramine there were several broad areas of agreement from both sides and the audience was obviously in favor of avoiding chloramines and even more surprisingly there was a consensus on the panel on even both sides that granular activated carbon was actually the best available technology because it takes impurities out of the water rather than adding chemicals to the water.

In fact, Dr. Mark Edwards even called it holistic technology.

The World Health Organization, EPA, find that precursor removal is preferable than chloramine, which brings up several points that need to be made.

The RWSA seems to make a point of talking about the high cost of carbon filtration.

However, when you break it down, it's still only 91 cents per person per month.

And secondly, finally, since nobody was able to answer this question that I asked on panel, I'm going to ask you.

And this question only requires a simple yes or no answer.

Since the four boards are weighing in on this decision on chloramine

In addition to the water, I wanted to ask, is there any segment of local government willing to take on the financial and legal responsibility of potential medical harm and property damage mediated by chloramination of the water?

And is there a fund being set aside to cover the health and property damages of future claims?

This only requires a simple yes or no answer.

Sorry for skipping.

Hi, my name is Fabian Kuttner and I manage some property on the downtown mall.

We manage real estate on the downtown mall as well as in the city, county and throughout the world.

Our group has seen many real estate markets rise and fall.

We do not want this to happen again in Charlottesville.

The feedback from our tenants on the downtown mall has become overwhelmingly negative.

City Council must act now to rebalance the needs of the different groups in public space.

Otherwise, we and many others, renters, shoppers, and diners, will spend their money elsewhere.

In 1984, the city was trying to give away land in the hopes that someone would spend some money and at least rebuild a small part of the downtown mall.

Charlottesville was giving away land on the downtown mall.

Now we have an incredible tax base with excellent income for the city.

The public and private sector have spent tens or even hundreds of millions on the mall, and the mall produces many millions of dollars in tax revenue every year.

We want to be a liberal city and have the funds to do programs we find important.

If we want to share, we must ensure that we have something to share.

We must protect this tax base.

It is the source of so much good for this city.

And now, today, many hundred thousand square feet of retail are going up in the county.

In the last downturn of the mall, the county added Fashion Square Mall, and its boom absolutely killed the downtown mall.

Are we repeating history?

Mr. Huja?

and others had the foresight to invest.

We must act now to protect this core community asset.

More practically, the mall is dirty.

We need more cleaning during times of heavy use and littering.

We believe this may attract others to not litter.

Could the city train several individuals to be peaceful stewards of cleanliness?

Their hours and locations would be determined by the times and areas of highest litter production.

The charge of these stewards would be to gently remind by simple, non-aggressive actions, sweeping up the trash as it hits the ground.

It will show tourists, shoppers, taxpayers, and citizenry that we have a valuable mall that is worth attending and protecting.

and this program is already funded within the city's existing infrastructure and therefore much cheaper than giving away land in the future.

The side effect of having someone seemingly always there to clean up could be a leverage point for a shift in how the mall is utilized and seen by its public.

We'd like to urge city council to increase police presence, not just kiosks, but also more walking patrols.

Though the kiosks and bikes are great, officers sitting in chairs and whizzing by on bikes sometimes seems counterproductive.

A walking presence would seem fiscally justified given that the mall is such a great city asset.

I plead with the city and its departments to tackle the many issues the mall presents.

Please explore sound and creative responses and legislation to a potentially disastrous scenario we may be facing.

If we don't, we'll be wishing for the problems we face now.

To quote the late billionaire John Kluge, who just gave the vast majority of his fortune to scholarships for people in marginalized groups, quote, I've always been socially liberal and fiscally conservative because I know we must be able to fund the programs.

Mr. Mayor, Council, George Benford.

I live in Charlottesville, 608 Rainier Road.

As you know, I was a past business owner on the downtown mall.

My heart is still on the downtown mall.

I come down here all the time.

I have a real concern about where the downtown mall is going.

In the four years that I owned my business down there, I saw the mall deteriorate in many areas.

Each of you sitting up here had lunch with me at SIPs before and saw some of those same actions I pointed out to you that were happening.

There is a genuine concern.

What really hurts is when I listened to a radio host the other day talking about taking his children to dinner, and he said, of course, I wouldn't take them on the downtown mall.

I had two friends from London in this last week to do some business down here.

We came down on Monday at 2 o'clock, and there were more people begging, loitering, and homeless on the mall than there were people buying and walking.

They looked at me and I kept trying to do everything I could so they wouldn't see this, which is very hard to do, pointing out Millers and all these other places that all these things that happen on the Mall.

She turned and looked at me and she said, you know, we have this problem in England too, but it's just not so noticeable.

Hello, my name is Andrew Silver.

Council members, thank you for the opportunity to address you this evening.

I spoke with you at the last city council meeting about my frustrations with the growing problem of vagrancy and public disturbance that has had an undeniable negative impact on the downtown businesses and neighborhoods.

Since that time, the city has removed benches in front of Central Place and has stationed a police officer in front of the Paramount during the week.

I want to express to you my sincere gratitude for listening.

These appear to be effective first steps for the short term, but they are only a band-aid to the underlying bigger problems that we face downtown.

Organizations such as the Downtown Business Association of Charlottesville and the North Downtown Residence Association have been lobbying council members on these matters for quite some time now, and your response has been slow.

You have been presented with hard statistical evidence that patrons of the downtown mall feel less safe than before and are less likely to return to shop and dine.

We are here to assist you, to provide you with a blueprint for the solutions, and to remind you that it is tax revenue that pays not only for social programs, but new astroturf and decorative bridges.

We require more police presence downtown.

I believe that you are fearful that an increased police presence might make people think that the mall is unsafe, but nothing could be further than the truth.

Police, men and women are in fact the ideal ambassadors for our city.

The problem is that the police force currently feels frustrated because they have not been empowered by City Hall to effectively do their jobs, which is first and foremost to protect and serve the public.

It is my understanding that the officers feel that the city, at the behest of the city's attorney, has encouraged the police to be soft on the people who have been a detriment to downtown businesses and residents.

It is my further understanding that the city takes this position for fear of litigious action against the city in the name of constitutional rights.

Perhaps an even larger issue is that the police are not enforcing the ordinances that are currently in place.

Last Wednesday, a friend of mine witnessed a man holding a cardboard sign, which I am confident was not BAR approved, panhandling within 15 feet of an ATM at Wells Fargo, which is in clear violation of Section 28-13 pertaining to solicitation.

He found a police officer and asked for this person to abide the law.

The officer told him he was not aware of the aggressive panhandling ordinance and would look into it.

We need for you to understand that this is not about a group of people.

It is about behavior.

The issue is not homelessness.

The issue is lawlessness.

When the shops at Stonefield open, patrons will have a choice to spend their money in a clean and safe environment where vagrancy, loitering, and public nuisance will not be tolerated.

I'm sure that I need not remind you that the tax revenues from the shops at Stonefield go to the county and not to the city.

Mary Rekosh Hi, I'm Mary Rekosh.

When my husband Ivan and I moved here to Charlottesville in 2002, we had what we called our five-year plan in place.

This included my completing my graduate work in teaching at the Curry School and Ivan's opening up his first business, which he planned to sell to his partner when the time came for us to move to the West Coast to be closer to my family.

However, after five years came and went, our perspective changed dramatically because we'd become parents.

As a mom, I liked what I'd seen in our local public schools here, where I'd spent a lot of time through the Curry School.

I also liked all the city parks, the many family-oriented events and towns, and I loved the unique feature of the downtown mall.

I spent a lot of time there, taking my kids to the Discovery Museum, McGuffey Park, and to local restaurants where they occasionally behaved themselves.

When Ivan and I sat down at the end of that first five years to determine what to do in the long term, we decided that in fact we'd found our home here in Charlottesville, and we scrapped our plans to relocate.

Instead of moving to be near my parents, I tried to convince them to spend their retirement here.

I figured I'd point out to them that I'd heard people like to expand their horizons during retirement and try new things, and since they'd never had the opportunity to participate in a Civil War reenactment over there in Seattle, clearly Charlottesville had a lot to offer them.

Anyway, fast forward five years from that decision and here we are today.

I'm a mom of three, I teach kids yoga at Bend, and I still love the downtown mall.

However, the climate there has deteriorated over the last couple of years.

I hear from my clients at Bend, young families who bring their children to classes, about their witnessing and trying to avoid behaviors such as loud cursing,

excessive smoking and obvious inebriation just on their way from the parking garage to the studio.

My boss Kelly has had to walk out of the studio in front of clientele and plead with unruly individuals to lower their volume and watch their language because there are children present.

These unacceptable behaviors have a direct impact on her business and my job.

As a parent, when I've taken my kids to the downtown mall recently, I've witnessed disturbing behaviors including adults yelling obscenities at their children and engaging in confrontational and profane interactions in front of their children and in front of mine.

I've had to have difficult conversations with my kids about the kinds of language and behavior that they're witnessing.

Also, I'm very aware, as are many other parents and concerned citizens, that a few individuals who loiter on the mall are convicted sex offenders, some of whom have been convicted of violent crimes or crimes involving children.

When I think about where I want to spend my family's time and money, I'm greatly affected by the negative and growing aspects of the downtown mall.

If I know that we're likely to encounter disorderly conduct on our outing there, I'm going to seriously consider revising our plan.

But here's the catch.

My own family's livelihood depends on people like me continuing to patronize local businesses on the downtown mall.

Because believe it or not, the three weekly yoga classes that I teach at Bend don't pay my mortgage or for my kids' parks and rec classes.

Revenue from my husband's restaurant, Zocalo, does that.

If people like me stop patronizing businesses like ours, the downtown mall businesses and the city of Charlottesville will suffer irreparable fiscal damages and Ivan and I will have to take another good hard look at our next five-year plan.

Council members, I'm here to humbly ask for your help.

Please work diligently and purposefully to manage this problem.

City Council members, I thank you for your time today as we address the difficult issues currently facing the downtown mall.

The removal of the benches and presence of a stationed officer have helped alleviate the public disorder and are a step in the right direction.

However, long-term solutions are the key to restoring the mall to its former glory.

Last week, a family from Mobile, Alabama related their love of New Orleans shopping, dining, street performers and rich, diverse culture, not unlike Charlottesville.

The key difference, he said, in New Orleans, they don't see the public fighting or general aggressiveness.

They declined to dine on them all, feeling uncomfortable and not entirely safe.

If large, diverse cities such as New Orleans can effectively manage these problems, then we can certainly do the same.

Today, a couple well known for their public fighting set up camp in Central Place.

The man barked at my employee while she was setting up for business.

The woman sprawled out, passed out on the ground.

The same man was arrested Saturday.

I overheard the police had already received four prior calls about him.

The police can only do so much without ordinance changes, which allow them to effectively manage these situations.

An interdiction program which bumps up the level of restraint for repeat offenders is a possible solution.

Moreover, isn't there a way we can leverage our city's resources so that we can assist those with chronic addiction problems get the help they need?

The stone pillars and their petty paw are still a gathering spot for large-sized groups, and I have seen a few people pass down top of them these past two weeks.

I urge you to make haste in capping the pillars with planters or some other means to deter people from sitting atop them.

If you go to the Charlotte Police Department's website and look up 2011-12 year-to-date comparisons, you'll notice the city's aggravated assault has increased by 106 percent,

burglary and breaking and entering by 45%.

Although we do not know the police department's boundaries for these, the numbers are startling.

Our police department does not have the resources they need to appropriately manage these issues.

We ask the city to allocate more funding to the police department for more patrolling officers and other needs.

A permanent police kiosk in Central Place would not only be a crime deterrent, but a welcome site for citizens and tourists alike.

Video cameras strategically stationed would enable the police department to identify and apprehend criminal activity.

Changes in our civil ordinance coach should address an interdiction program for repeat offenders as well as draw the distinction between personal liberties and public disorder.

Public safety and cleanliness for the whole should not be jeopardized by the actions of a few.

Please note some key values of our city's police department.

The community it serves determines the role of the police.

Through a partnership with the citizens, the department improves the quality of life through control and reduction of crime.

The police and the community share in responsibility for crime control and public safety.

By working with the police department, the city, and social services, I believe we can craft a solution agreeable to the community as a whole.

We are also researching clean and safe programs in other cities that leverage the community to work together to create harmony and balance in society.

Council members, business owners and employees, patrons and citizens of Charlottesville, the time for solutions and a call to action is here.

Recall the great motto of this nation, a reminder of our civic pride.

United we stand, divided we fall.

Good evening.

Brandon Collins, 536 Meade Avenue.

I've lived in Charlottesville my entire life.

I have a 15-year-old daughter who's also lived here her entire life.

I was originally planning on speaking about transit and the Transit Riders Association of Charlottesville.

It's a recently formed group to advocate for a much better public transportation system.

And I will just say we're very excited to see the study this evening and a couple of other things.

And you'll be hearing

In great detail some of the short term and long term goals that we think our group would have for the city.

But I really just can't let this go.

You know there's a lot of cheering in here for clearing poor people off the streets and I think it's sickening and I think there's one thing that people in this town need to realize

is that dealing with the problem is not clearing benches away.

It's not arresting people or locking them up or giving them a hard time.

It's making a societal change that's going to address the situation.

I think it's just sickening that our business leaders that act like they're community members don't see that they play some part in this community to do something about it.

When you're clearing those seats off the mall, you're not just clearing a seat.

In this instance, it's kind of symbolic.

You're taking away a seat on the mall for poor people, but you've also taken away a seat for poor people inside this chamber by making a decision based on three or four people coming to council two weeks ago.

You know, I'm kind of upset about this, so what I would like to do is maybe hear from one of our sisters or brothers who have shown up tonight to see what's going on in the City Council who weren't able to get on this list and they can fill up the rest of my time.

You can be part of the same thing, if you like, this board.

How much time does this person have, please?

And my thing is that I guess I'm one of the homeless people that sleep on the downtown mall.

As far as the chairs go, you've got to realize

Me or any other homeless person is not the only people sitting down there.

I was down there this weekend when it's a hundred some degrees outside.

An old lady had to hold on to the fountain's cement block coming out because she could not breathe.

You got to realize it's not just us who sits in them seats.

Good evening, City Council.

My name is Andrew Evans.

and I'm also one of those people that be downtown.

I can understand the part of the profanity and I'm one to kind of, if we can get a group together or some kind of council where we can get the homeless and city council or business leaders together

and we can kind of come to an agreement of we will curtail the profanity, we will curtail the horseplay and things of this sort.

But I also seen someone from, I didn't think they were from Charlottesville or it was an older person who also had to stand and lean up against the poles right there at the water fountain right there in the city, I call it right in the middle of the

the mall there.

Mr. Mayor, city council, city staff, thanks for your time tonight.

I'd like to read a portion of a letter which I've presented to the clerk and she'll pass it along to you if you don't mind.

Dear city council and city staff, recently our downtown has seen a dramatic decrease in the wonderful ambiance that has given rise to the incredible success of the adventure that has become our downtown historic mall.

That ambiance was based on a welcoming, family-friendly atmosphere where the entire community could gather to shop, dine, and enjoy the variety of entertainment venues that have located here over these past 36 years.

That same ambiance led to folks wanting to live in the area, which has given rise to the development of new condominiums and apartments, along with a renovation of residential stock all around the downtown.

that attractive ambiance led businesses big and small to locate their operations here because they wanted to be part of this community and our downtown area is truly the heart of our community.

More events than we can count have located their activities in and around the mall for that same reason.

Although I truly wish that I had a different message to share with you this evening.

I must tell you that we are in serious danger of losing that ambiance and with it the character of the mall that has allowed this vibrant community to grow and flourish.

We have seen increases in all sorts of activity that have been driving away our customers and visitors and with them the basic reason that we locate our businesses and residences in and near downtown.

You've heard from a number of people regarding the specifics of this activity.

In most cases, the activity we are reporting is criminal, either as misdemeanors or felonies.

And let me be clear, we do not consider homelessness or panhandling crimes.

These activities we would like

The activities we would like addressed are specific in certain cases.

They include public drunkenness, verbal and physical threats, fighting and assault, drug dealing, breaking terms of probation, and other types of activities that demand immediate and firm response.

The rest you'll see in my letter, but let me finish up by saying our goal

is to ensure that all our patrons and visitors are treated with respect and compassion and are allowed to conduct business and social activities in a clean and safe environment.

Clean and safe is the most simple way to define and address these basic needs.

Clean and safe programs exist throughout our country and in particular in almost every successful downtown.

We are happy to provide examples of programs that could be borrowed and introduced to our historic downtown from all over the country.

Joan Fenton, 3705 Country Lane, Charlottesville

I think you can tell by the outpouring of the group that came to support our point from the business community that we have a great concern.

I think the outpouring of people that have come saying that I don't think there's anybody here that any of us have had issue with.

We support their right to be out and to be on the street and to have a place to sit and be.

That said, under y'all's watch in the last two years, we have daily in front of every one of our stores drug dealing, prostitution, domestic violence.

I have an employee who watched a gentleman beat up on a woman, which he does every day.

This woman came out to try to stop the fight at the risk of her life.

Had she been injured or killed because somebody next to him had a knife, that would have been on your watch.

We have repeatedly asked for funding for the police.

We have asked for cameras downtown.

The concern is not people being out there.

It's the crime that's going on there.

You all responded to a request last week that something be done.

There's a kiosk out there right now.

All of a sudden, every person that works for me says, I can walk by Central Place now and not feel threatened.

And if you have been out there, you see that there is a difference.

Now, you all have refused to support us, and we're saying, do something now while we can do something to make this be

The incredible place that this downtown mall can be, that you all want it to be, that they want it to be, that we want it to be, we all want it to be there.

I don't want to see him hurt and I don't want to see her hurt and none of us want to see that happen.

And we are at a tipping point and y'all can either take some action

and you've shown that you can take action and what you did made a huge change which means that if you all decide this is a priority and we believe this is a priority because if we pay two million dollars in taxes and you lose even ten percent of that then you can't fund those things that are on your agenda tonight and if we no longer are a place where people want to come and feel safe

Why are they coming to Charlottesville?

People move to the area because they love being on this downtown mall.

And you all, this is your turn.

We're calling you to act and we need it right away.

It can't wait.

We've been trying, we've been trying.

George and I have met with every one of you behind the scenes.

We've had no real response.

I think the, what we're all saying is you gotta act now.

So please, please do something.

Now it's time for council members to respond.

I just want to make a general comment about downtown.

City, council and the administration is very much interested in dealing with some of the issues you have raised and they need to be addressed but it is not that simple to do overnight.

Thank you all for coming in and clearly downtown mall was the main topic of public comment tonight and I thought we had a great evolution of discussion and I think we came to a really good place which is a great suggestion and I apologize I can't remember who made it but to bring everybody together let's talk and we've really talked about that as we've discussed really how to approach the

the issues that are coming before us about the downtown mall.

And that's really, let's talk to folks who are involved on all sides.

And I think it's a really, it's really sort of vital that we do that.

Secondarily, I absolutely agree that we cannot tolerate illegal activity.

Things that are clearly illegal, clearly things that are illegal are happening.

It's just always a matter of not becoming a police state, not really trying to find that balance.

It's ironic that we hear, on one hand we hear the police aren't doing anything and on the other hand we need more police.

So I really think it's a matter of finding the right balance and I apologize if things haven't happened fast enough.

It is very, very important to all of us.

that we maintain the downtown mall as a place where everybody wants to come and that's to maintain its very organic feel too, not as a sterile place where only one kind of person is there.

I'd like to start with what Mr. Long was talking about, about transportation.

We do ask our legislators, we send up a legislative agenda every year,

and I think that we should absolutely add increased transit to that.

I had a chance to talk to the woman who is the director for the State Department of Transportation for non-road transportation buses and bikes and I think that we really need to try to figure out how to change the formulas of funding at the state level so that we incentivize communities to be able to put in more transit.

At this point, what happens if you do put in more transit, you increase

your local spending year after year after year and so we have to be able to figure out how to make that sustainable.

We're very committed to transportation.

You'll hear in the report today the ways that we're trying to increase that and I urge you to keep honest about it because it's really important.

Also to Ms. Sliba about the Rose Hill neighborhood, I actually

was thinking about having that removed from our consent agenda today.

But today is the first of two readings on that.

And I would encourage us to

talk with the developer and to do some things between now and the next meeting.

I'm not ready to pull it yet, but I think we should be really alert to that.

And it would be really helpful, I think, if the developer got up with the people in the neighborhood to look at your concerns and see what we can do, maybe with some city staff in between then and now.

Just for public information and your information.

Yes.

And to Ms. Beth Bates.

Oh, okay.

All right.

As far as the mall, I heard a couple of things that concern me.

One is that I am, and as George and Joan can say when they've talked to me before about removing benches, I am a huge fan of benches on the mall.

I want more benches on the mall.

and I think what happens is when we have too few, they do get monopolized by a certain few people and then other people like the old lady who couldn't sit down.

Even sometimes when there are benches, they can't sit and so that's a frustration.

However, because of the immediate issue that we were having around the Zocalo area, I did support the taking out of these benches as a temporary measure and I think it can't be a permanent measure.

It has to be part of a longer process of figuring this out.

We don't have the police chief here and we don't have the police officers who work them all here and so I don't want to make any assumptions.

I was a little distressed to hear one of the folks tell us that a police officer didn't know about the panhandling ordinance and another saying a police officer had told them that they didn't feel like they had permission to enforce the laws of the city.

I hope that that's not true and if it is true I think maybe police training and

A little education might be in order because I think that none of us here, despite our range of feelings about people who are homeless, people who are in distress, people who are jobless and need a place to be, and just people who need a place to sit down on a hot day,

I think none of us condone drug dealing on our streets.

None of us condone wife beating on our streets.

None of us condone prostitution or any of the things that you have talked about.

So I think part of that is perhaps better communication with our police.

I also am hoping we can discuss later the possibility of a civilian volunteer corps of people.

In some cities they have the people in the bright orange vest who walk up and down the

the kind of business area.

They're available if people want directions.

They'll walk you to your car if you don't feel safe.

They can call the police.

They've got them on speed dial.

They're just people who are out in the street who people know they can look to for safety.

And so that's something else we can look at.

So I think there's a whole broad range of things we can do.

And I think your idea of working together is really key to that.

Yes, with regards to the Rose Hill neighborhood, I do think it's really wonderful that we're going to have this other meeting going on between the community and hopefully the developer.

And there's a neighborhood association meeting, I believe, next Tuesday, which would be a great opportunity to begin the discussion.

Because this is a rezoning.

It is really important that staff and community and developer come together on that.

about what Ms. Bates was talking about.

I would like to know the schedule.

She talked about a series of events and dialogues.

If we could follow up on that, Mr. Jones, to know when those are going to happen.

It's another opportunity to exchange ideas and to get a better sense of what we need to do to move forward as a community together.

With regards to transit, we're going to have a lot of information tonight and I think you should be really thrilled, Mr. Collins and Mr. Long

that finally your wish is being answered.

It will be a major part of the evening's discussion, so please stay with us.

Again, with the mall, I concur with my fellow councilors.

We did insist that we have an internal meeting last week, or Friday, and there was a lot of great thinking, brainstorming done.

There are three departments that are involved with the mall, Parks and Rec, Police Department, and Department of Neighborhood Services.

So we are well aware that we've got to coordinate our own departments to get at the exact needs that you all have so that we create a wonderful public place.

I do not tolerate illegal activity any more than my fellow councilors or you.

And I think we're all in agreement on that.

And we also do understand that people will love their community when it's lovely.

It has to be claimed.

I pointed out the fountain has got green mold in it, okay?

We need to get a better handle on that, to that level of detail.

And Mr. Jones, if you want to add any more details, fine.

But the programming is also important.

We could use this as an opportunity to showcase what's going to happen at the Paramount, what's going to happen at the Live Arts, have free performances on that part of the Mall, to bring more people together to enjoy the arts, to enjoy that public place.

and bring color, bring more amenities, not less.

So we have to strike that balance.

Would you like to add any comments?

You know, I think that these are issues that we've been talking about for a little while and there actually have been some steps that have been taken over the last couple of years to address those.

One issue that was brought up several years ago was the issue of

kind of a buffer zone around certain areas where we saw a number of folks who were soliciting.

We were concerned about safety issues.

And this council, city council, enacted laws to help address some of those issues around the vehicular crossings.

In addition, we also put more police officers out on the street in the spring, summer, and fall to address concerns that folks had in our community about some of the issues that were raised.

I would also remind folks that the problems that we're experiencing are really from a handful of people.

I mean, if you go out on the downtown mall on any particular day, any particular time, you're going to see lots of people from lots of different backgrounds who are on the mall.

Last Tuesday I came out of the mall, or out of lunch, and there were tons of people out and about from different backgrounds enjoying the downtown mall.

So we need to be very careful when we're talking about the impact that some of these folks are having, as legitimate as those concerns are, that we're really talking about a handful of folks who are causing the problems here.

So that makes these issues issues that I believe that we as a community can address, and address assertively and proactively, but also take into consideration the constitutional bounds and limitations that we have to work with.

There have been calls for us to ban loitering, for instance.

Constitutionally, we think that's a tough thing to do.

There have been calls to ban profanity, which I wish we could do, quite frankly, because I don't think it's great for folks to bring their families downtown and have to hear the types of things that we hear in this downtown mall occasionally.

Unfortunately, that is protected by free speech.

We can't ban profanity.

We can do things to encourage folks not to curse on our downtown mall.

We're trying to take some steps to do that.

We mentioned the Clean and Safe Program.

That's one of the things that we are kind of looking at as a possibility and where that would be housed and how you would pay for it are things that we need to figure out.

having some ambassadors downtown who could help direct people to where they're going.

It's one, it's welcoming to the downtown.

But two, you do have another set of eyes and ears who could talk to the police if they see something brewing.

So that's something that we're taking a look at.

We have taken

some steps to address some of the specific issues that were brought up tonight, especially in Central Place.

I think we moved pretty quickly to try to address some of those concerns.

And we're still working on that.

We've talked about the possibility of adding some entertainment programming for Central Place to encourage folks to come there to enjoy a performance, for instance, instead of at times where it is kind of a void.

There's not a whole lot happening there.

So can we do more programming?

And I think that's one of the things that we're looking into.

trying to encourage folks to behave.

I mean, I know it sounds pretty simple, and you wonder why you have to do something like this in today's world, but folks are rude at times, and you can't ban rude behavior.

But we can try to encourage people not to behave badly, to say that this is a mall for people from all kinds of different backgrounds, and we want you here.

But just behave.

And I think that's going to be an important message that we try to send to people.

We have increased, as I mentioned before, police presence downtown in the past.

We've put the kiosk up there at Central Place.

It is, I think, producing so far.

And I think that's a positive thing that we'll continue to do.

But I also think that we do need to work on working with our police department on some of the issues that are out there.

We are taking steps, investigative steps, to ensure that some of the illegal behavior that

that's been mentioned tonight, was mentioned two weeks ago, that we will try to nip that in the bud before it becomes an even larger issue.

So we are taking some steps to address that.

But once again, we need to be very careful as we're doing this to protect the constitutional rights of folks.

And we'll continue to do that.

So we're taking a lot of steps to address some of these concerns.

We can't change things overnight.

And I think, as I said before, I think we're really talking about a handful of folks.

So we're trying to also, one thing I forgot to mention, is that we're trying to work with organizations in the community that address some of the social problems and issues that some of these folks are having, whether it's addiction issues or other issues.

We're proactively trying to work with groups in our community to address that as well.

So we're trying to take a very holistic approach to the issues that have been raised downtown.

But once again, I mean, if you go out on a nice day, you're going to see a lot of people enjoying downtown.

We want that to continue.

Thank you.

Next on our agenda is consent agenda.

Item A minutes for June 18th.

Item B an appropriation amendments to FY 2013 adapted city schools general fund and other governmental funds budget $10,460 second of two readings.

Item C an appropriation housing rehabilitation loan payment repayment $18,884.36 second of two readings.

Item D an appropriation 2012 Charlottesville Police Department Foundation donation $500 first of one reading.

Item E, an appropriation of Jordan Park playground equipment insurance recovery funds, $43,828, first of two readings.

Item F, an appropriation of the Pavilion at North Grounds affordable housing contribution, $278,095, first of two readings.

Item G in appropriation, historic facade settlement, $16,000, first of two readings.

Item H, a resolution in addition of MACA to Housing Advisory Committee, first of one reading.

Item A, an ordinance on Rose Hill-Santiana rezoning, first of two readings.

I have a question.

On B, Amendments to FY 2013 Adopted City Schools General Fund and other governmental funds budget $10,000.

If we look down at the thing itself, it's $615,000.

The second item in the consent agenda after the minutes.

I asked the same question actually.

The correct amount is the $615,000 amount.

It was adjusted on the first reading of the agenda.

The second reading of the agenda, I did not make that correction, but I can make it in the final appropriation.

It is that amount in the $615,000.

Yes.

It was the $615,000 amount that you voted on.

It was $615,000?

So it hasn't changed between one and the other?

It has not.

Sure, that was the VRS mandate that came after the city school board had voted on their budget.

So is the school, so what was the school, who get, the schools get the money in a sense.

That's correct.

That's correct.

It is not.

Right.

No, I understand that.

Okay.

Right, but we'll vote next time, so that doesn't actually leave a lot of opportunity for the public to come.

I don't think we've had those concerns brought before us yet, and I'm not sure that, you know, I think

I understand that, but anyway, I would like to have more information too on any environmental concerns of that piece of property because looking at it, it's an undeveloped piece of property and if you look at it, there appears to be a reason why it's undeveloped.

May I also add Mr. Huja that I think it's important that

that staff explained to the public exactly what the rental structure is for this building and what that translates into in terms of income levels.

I heard in the neighborhood meeting that I went to over the weekend that there was a concern that it was like $1100 a month in rent and that that was going to be extremely high for that area.

But when you do the calculations and you bring it back to what that would be as an annual salary for someone,

at paying 33% of their income in rent, that's a $39,000 a year salary, which is workforce housing, that's a teacher, that's a first year police officer.

So I think it's important that staff explain again what kind of rental apartment this is because that is also a major need in our community.

Well, there are a couple of options.

We could pull off the agenda for discussion later on this evening or we can put it on the regular agenda for our next meeting for discussion.

I would take that as a compromise.

Just be sure that the

The neighborhood understands what is happening because that's an important point.

That's not the point that was made tonight about what the impact will be on the R1 neighborhood and particularly why this neighborhood and other neighborhoods.

And get in touch with us, too.

Be sure.

Council at Charlottesville.org be talking to us in the next two weeks so we don't get it the night that we're going to vote.

I find that upsetting.

Is there a motion for the consent agenda?

I move the passage of the consent agenda.

Okay, let me take action on that.

Next item on the agenda is the trials study.

Earlier this year you requested that we take a look at our overall transit service that we take a fresh look with fresh eyes I think is the way it was requested and we're very pleased this evening

to have the nationally known firm of Nelson Nygaard with us.

They've been here today.

Some of you have met with them and some will be meeting tomorrow.

But they're going to give you an overview of what's in the study, what you can consider to get out of the study, give you some time frames.

There are public meetings built into the schedule.

and then give you the opportunity if there's something else you want, something you've heard that you can give us feedback, that would be extremely helpful.

So at this point, I'd like to ask Jeff Slater who's a principal with Nelson Nygaard to come up and you're gonna start with your PowerPoint.

Okay, forward and back, okay.

All right.

Well, thank you.

It looks like you're all leaving, but I know you're not.

OK.

So I did meet with three of you today, and we learned a lot from that.

And really, this study is about trying to address what Charlottesville's concerns and issues are.

And so I'll give you a quick run through of what we'll be doing and how we'll do that.

And really, just a little bit of background.

I think that for a city this size, you really do have a very strong transit system.

It really is unique.

We've been out riding some of the routes today, and we're on Route 7 in the middle of the day, and the bus is really crowded.

And a lot of times when we go to cities that size and ride a bus in the middle of the day, they're not very crowded.

So you have a lot of good things here.

You've got a great transit station here, a really strong relationship with UVA, the free trolley service, and Jaunt provides dial-a-ride service.

So we know that there are some concerns and things you would like to do a lot better, but there really is a lot of... We've got a lot to start with here, and that always really helps.

Some of our goals is really to determine the most effective way to organize transit and to run transit in Charlottesville.

You recently had a transit development plan that was done by VDOT that we understand that you weren't completely satisfied with and thought that that, in some of your words, addressed the state's issues more than the city's issues.

But for us, it gives us something really good to work off of.

They did a lot of work as part of that study.

A lot of the background work we would have had to do, they did do.

So we can build off that, and that really helps us, and we will build off that.

And that will help us get our work done quite a bit more quickly than otherwise.

We've also heard a lot about how you'd like to look at alternatives to the way that the existing system works, where everyone I think is pretty much, I think all routes but one come into downtown here, and that as the city and the region has grown, the demands, downtown is still a very strong place, as we heard a lot about tonight, but people are doing other types of travel, and you want to look at how we can serve those markets better, so we'll look at ways to do that.

Some of that is a trunk and feeder system or some outlying hubs, not have everything come in here, have some hubs elsewhere that people can get to and make transfers there.

And so if you are traveling in the outer areas, you don't have to come back in downtown and go back out again.

And we'll also look at, we're going to look at how to make the system run better within the existing budget, but also what other potential improvements would go beyond that to build on the system and expand it and do some things that you probably can't do within the existing budget.

Some of the things we've done elsewhere and that we will do here is a lot of things we like to do is reduce overlap.

Most systems, just as they evolve over time, develop overlap and that's the case here, especially with all the routes that are coming into downtown.

to the extent that we can reduce overlap or duplication that provides us with resources that we can use elsewhere to expand service.

A lot of things we try to do is straighten routes.

People like to get from one place to another the most direct way possible.

A lot of things that happens with transit systems over time is they get pulled this way and that way to take me to front of my front door, take me to

The other person's front door.

And sometimes while that seems like you're taking more people to where they want to go, it's a bit counterintuitive that that often reduces ridership rather than increases ridership.

If we can do things faster and more directly, ridership will usually go up.

A lot of your routes really are circuitous and that's one of the things we'll be looking at here.

Provide service in two directions.

It sounds kind of obvious, but we really mean provide it in two directions on the same street rather than running big loops where to get, I think we heard, I think it was from you about how it takes you five minutes to go one direction and 20 minutes to go the other direction.

So if we can run things bi-directionally, it can take a lot less time to make the round trip.

We also want to make the most of the limited of existing service hours.

As I said, one of the things we'll be looking at is how to improve service within the existing budget.

We also will look at other improvements, but a lot of this is really how to use the resources you have more effectively.

And what we're really trying to do at the end of the day is we want to increase ridership, we want to attract new riders to the system, we also want to provide better service to existing riders in the system.

So we're working at both of those angles.

Downtown circulation is also a major focus.

We've heard a lot about that and the buses, what the buses have to do to get downtown and because of the way the traffic patterns work, some of that duplication.

In terms of the actual steps that we go through in doing the study, we do do a market analysis.

A lot of the work that we would do from that was done in the previous transportation development plan.

We'll take their data and go beyond and do some additional things that they didn't do, but really look for where the demand for transit

in the city and in the surrounding county is the strongest.

Try to focus the strongest efforts there but also make sure there's coverage in all areas where service warrants.

In terms of how we'll do that, we'll look at, once we examine the existing service, we'll put together alternatives and we'll do that by developing service scenarios.

We've been talking in terms of three.

Looking at different ways to reconfigure the system.

We've talked about ideas like flex service that have been done in other places.

It works kind of like super shuttle from an airport where it would leave from a transit hub at a certain time and arrive there a certain time but within a certain zone take you right to your curb.

That's a way we could serve

some lower density areas.

As I also mentioned we're looking at developing some outlying hubs where there's more direct service that's not coming to downtown.

But we'll be looking at a lot of different types of changes for every route in the system and packaging those into service scenarios, which really

We actually represent different ways of providing service.

We'll then present that to the public and to the stakeholders and all of you get your reactions to that.

The things that are most favorably received are the things that we would then finally incorporate into our final recommendations.

Part of that we would develop operating plans, schedules, how it would work.

what the ridership impacts would be, what the operating costs would be, what the capital costs would be and other impacts such as whether it would have an impact on economic development and other community impacts.

From that we select and then take that out to the public again, the final recommendations, get the comments on that and then finally develop a preferred alternative

and then put together an implementation plan and a financial plan.

Our work scope is actually a lot thicker than that, but in one slide that kind of gives you an idea of what we'll be doing.

Public outreach, based on our meetings today, we've made some changes to this.

Initially we were going to have a public meeting pretty quickly.

pretty much to just get people's ideas.

You know, here's where we are, here we are, this is what we're doing, what do you think, give us your ideas.

What we were talking about today is putting that off until really the end of October, did I get that right, end of October I believe?

Where we will have developed the service scenarios and be able to present to the public more concrete ideas on what we could be doing and then I think we can get some more constructive

input that way.

And then there'd be two additional public forums where we'd present refinements to those scenarios and the final recommendations.

The project also has an advisory committee we're calling a steering committee actually now.

We'll meet with the steering committee about every other month on the project.

There will be a project website that will keep people up to date on what we're doing and then I expect we'll be back here before you to give you updates on the project as well.

And then a little bit about who our team is.

It's really three firms.

It's Nilsen Nygaard.

I'm from Nilsen Nygaard.

We've got Randy Farwell, Tara Gallon back there who are on our team from Nilsen Nygaard.

And transit studies like this are really what we do.

It's about 70% of our work.

We do it from small rural systems to very big urban systems.

And we like working in great cities, which is one of the reasons we're here.

We like Charlottesville, and that's why we're here and not Gary, Indiana.

So I hope no one's from Gary, Indiana.

But our project, it's scheduled to run about nine months.

We started today.

So that gets us done around March, around the beginning of next year.

We should actually have some, have recommendations near the end of the year, the beginning of next year.

As I said, five advisory committee meetings and then public meetings that, as I said, we just changed September to October today.

and that's it.

While we reconvene, I just have one quick question before we get into kind of the meat of it, which is when you were mentioning the meeting wouldn't be till October to kind of gather ideas.

Yes.

OK. Lance, did you want to say something?

And we have to work out the website but it'll be a page on the city's website and we can put an email link on that also so that people don't have to remember what they just heard.

I have actually a similar concern about the public not having an opportunity.

I don't know if I misunderstood.

We heard tonight from the transit riders of Charlottesville, which are part of the community and have been talking to us for actually a long time.

So how can folks who really

I mean, we can also have individual meetings with different groups.

And one of the things we found is that when we do kick off a project, when we just start out and have a meeting, the turnout's really low.

And then once we have concrete things, then the interest is a lot higher and we get more people.

So that's why we tried to move it back was so that there's actually

I guess I would just worry that at the end of October there would be so much that you'd already kind of distilled from things that seemed

Well, that's the idea of putting together three service scenarios, because those three service scenarios could have completely different types of approaches.

And so that's like our first cut at what those would be, and then based on what we hear from the public process, we would then modify those.

And then once we've modified them, those are the things we would evaluate in detail.

The three service concepts tries to get at the whole range of things that there's interest in.

It's all like a big puzzle that fits together.

You've got a lot of routes, and if we make a change to this route, we may have to change this route.

Right.

It just seems odd.

If you want to know where the interest is, how are you going to get that?

I would, at a minimum, suggest meeting with a focus group of folks that really have historically given us a lot of input.

And we know right.

Public transit.

You know, that's why they have.

Certainly.

It was wonderful meeting you all today and I think you've got a really good breadth of knowledge and a good understanding of the interface between land use and transportation planning.

Sure, I think that it's really that

transit works best where densities are higher and transit can't work well in all scenarios and the type of transit that we have to put together has to reflect the type of environment that it's operating in and places

You know, I think it's obvious to everyone if you have New York or Boston and there are lots of people packed together, you can have subways and they work really well and they're packed all the time.

And if you have a small farming community that running buses isn't that effective.

And most places are in between.

Most places aren't at those extremes.

is in between and you have some areas where there are enough people, population, employment densities that will support very effective transit and you see that already in the system you have.

But there are also some areas of the city

that are low density residential areas.

And it doesn't mean that they shouldn't have transit service, but it means that the transit services that are provided there need to be different than the higher volume routes that are coming downtown.

That's what I talked earlier about

Flex Service, and that's one of the ways to provide service to some of the lower density areas.

On Route 29, there's the idea of bus rapid transit.

That's a much higher volume corridor where we can do a lot more with transit.

One of the things in my meeting with you all earlier that encourages me about this process is the willingness to look at things that are

not just tweaking that are really kind of taking it all apart and looking around the country and the world and saying, oh, there's this idea of dynamic routing and technology that can give us things that we've never heard of about ways of looking at how we produce public transportation that is sustainable by our population.

So I really appreciate the kind of creativity and breadth of what you all bring to this process.

So I have high hopes for you.

And I have another question.

I look forward to meeting with you tomorrow.

I was out of town.

I just wondered how much you, and maybe you don't know the answer to this and that would be fine at this point, but the university, UTS, transit service, how much you'll take into account where they already go?

because we have this sort of odd marriage with them whereby it's not clear whether we can ride their buses.

Yeah, and I don't, we will take that into account.

I don't know the specific answer.

I mean, you have a great

a great relationship here where the general public can ride their routes for free and they can ride your routes for free so that from that respect it can operate as a single system so that if they are operating somewhere that means that they can serve your riders just like you serve theirs so it's really important I don't know how much of that how much overlap there is as I said wherever there is overlap and we can reduce that that's places we can get resources to put somewhere else that's really important

I think also jaunt is a really important part of the puzzle.

It's Eagles Landing and various ones and it's odd because they go through

some of our major corridors, but they don't stop.

So I just say that as yet another potential partner in just making a more comprehensive and therefore more frequent service.

Thanks.

I wanted to go away.

Oh.

I had a good meeting with consultants, but I have shared a number of ideas.

I want to just highlight a few of those today because you saw an idea of at least what I am thinking.

as somebody said we need some radical change 30 years ago I did this standard system root structure and it was a great system then but it's 30 years now this has been changed over the years and it needs to be changed radically in my mind it needs to be more frequent I would say no less than 30 minutes or less if you can simplify the system you can have more frequency

I would definitely like to consider transit to be a public utility

like water, snow and gas.

And it is a mode of transportation as a public utility and we have to be accessible to all residents of this community, not just some area.

For example, northern part of the city does not get any transit.

It gets very little.

And I think there is really more.

We did hear that today.

I think the other Judy Mueller is going to start here.

We're going to have three of us talk to you.

I'm going to start.

I don't know.

Temptation.

You want to sing us a song?

Alright, well what I'm going to do is start with a little bit of the background and make sure you kind of know where we are and how we got here.

The city has for the last several years been evaluating strategies to try to figure out how to deal with storm water.

And we've looked at our water resources goals, challenges facing funding, regulatory compliance, our infrastructure, drainage, flooding, water quality, and environmental stewardship.

One of your council priorities is to cultivate healthy streams and rivers through effective stormwater management.

And we've realized that the world of stormwater is changing and there's a lot of things that we need to address and we need dedicated funding of some sort to do that.

The problem is not going away.

It's there, so how we pay for maintenance, how we pay for compliance, how we pay for capital needs are critical questions.

Several years ago we started studying the issue of a stormwater fee through a water resources protection program.

It was actually a proposal presented to council in 2007 and there was a work session in 2008.

In 2008 there was a lot of work that went on and included a citizens advisory committee that helped to develop the program.

They actually concurred with the recommendation that there be a user fee to fund portions of the program adopted and that fee proposal was submitted to council in November of 2008.

It included recommendations to adopt a utility ordinance and rate resolution by January 2009 with billing in May 2009.

However, as you may recall, that was not the best time in our economy and for that reason and others, essentially it was decided that we would delay any implementation of that fee or any further consideration and

And so what we did look at, the fee looked at the possibility of including a stormwater utility designed to generate enough revenue through property owner fees for the bulk of new and expanded program components that it not be implemented until a future time when economic conditions improve.

and that compliance requirements in education and construction concur with an existing budget that we had to the best extent possible and that we might consider a possible budget supplement and the FY10 budget was considered at that time.

In 2009, City Council decided not to pursue the program at that time but that it was part of the long-range strategy

and asked that it be revisited in two to three years.

Our council also agreed to consider the need to designate funds to deal with infrastructure issues then and actually supplemented the CIP to include funds at that time and those funds have been included in the past several CIPs.

We're here tonight because we feel like, again, that two to three years is up and that we need to revisit the stormwater fee and the whole idea of a stormwater utility.

Several of the reasons of that is that we continue to have limited funding available to maintain the aging infrastructure that we have.

The current five-year CIP projects a significant reduction in funding for stormwater rehab from 2014 forward and our rehabilitation efforts that we've been undergoing in the last few years just simply confirm the need to have significant amounts of money and additional resources to be able to maintain our very aging system.

On top of that we have increasing environmental regulations.

First and foremost those are the Chesapeake Bay rules with the TMDL requirements that we still don't know what those are going to be, but there are other mandates including our compliance with our next MS4 permit which is expected for July 2013.

I might add that we just recently had an EPA team in here doing an audit of what we were doing and they made it exceedingly clear that there was going to be more and more oversight and review of our practices and we've got to have the manpower of the people and the systems and make the improvements to be able to address those issues.

We also need to have an updated master plan

to chart the most efficient way to address these issues for local stream protection, flood control, retrofits, BMP retrofits, and other water quality initiatives that can meet basic requirements plus help us meet our TMDL goals.

and we need additional staff to help meet these things.

When we did this three and a half years ago, we were not having to inspect on a regular basis BMPs that were put in by private developers.

We have to do that annually now and that takes a lot of time to do and we didn't anticipate that.

Right, that are for drainage quality rather than quantity control and every private development that goes in now essentially has to put those and there are about, there are over a hundred of them already in place and so they have to be inspected every year, they have to be, the owners have to be notified, they have to be given

Corrective measures, they have to be inspected.

Again, we didn't anticipate those.

So there are issues like that that are out there that we have to make sure that we're enforcing.

So we feel like there's a great need to take a look again at a stormwater utility.

What we would do in this is look at how do we fund our needs and several alternatives.

We can continue the present level of funding and the present level of service that we have.

We can increase taxes to raise the revenue needed to address increasing stormwater needs or we can look at a more comprehensive program that addresses the trends and needs and final additional needed activities with a dedicated equitable fee that's adopted.

Again, our needs are going to be dictated by the regulatory requirements and the utility will help us determine the best way to do that.

It's a complicated process.

Again, we're not asking you tonight to adopt a stormwater utility.

We're just saying that the study that we did in 2008, 2009, we believe needs to be updated.

We need to look at those issues again because the sea has changed completely and come back with a recommendation to you.

Thank you.

I'm going to hand out, this information was in your background but I think it's easier if you just

If you just see it together, a proposed timeline, if we were to consider instituting the fee in adopting in FY14, this gives you some idea of what we would need to do.

We'd be city staff, the treasurer's office that we'd be working with.

Again, as Jim said, I think one of the emphasis needs to be that these requirements are not going away.

It's a matter of how you as council choose to fund them, the federal requirements, the state requirements.

The stormwater utility is one way to do it in an equitable manner.

And I know some of you were here when we looked at that before.

And we did have the engineering firm of AMAC that worked with us and did a very extensive report.

We have reengaged them at least to get through this decision time on your part.

and what we would need to do, as Jim said, to update that.

Our additional steps would include public outreach.

We did have an advisory committee.

We would want to bring that advisory committee

back and start to work with them again, holding community open houses and talking to the public because it's been a few years since we talked about this concept.

I'd like to introduce Jean Haggerty from AMAC.

Some of you may remember Jean.

She's been here before.

Good evening everyone.

I am Jean Hagedy from AMIC and thank you for allowing us to be back here again.

I had the pleasure of working here in 2008 and early 2009 working with your staff and with your local citizens advisory committee to really dig into your storm water issues and community.

really look at what your drivers are, compare your needs to a lot of your neighboring communities and really think through the level of service that was appropriate for Charlottesville.

We spent about six to eight months working both with an internal group that would first look at all the issues and the process was to make sure your internal staff from across different divisions came up with recommendations that we would then bring to advisory committee that they basically played devil's advocate for us.

So we had folks from your business community, people from downtown mall, nonprofits,

School groups, UVA, quite a diverse group of your community that was at these meetings.

Some came to the table initially, didn't think that was a very good idea, but after really thinking through what the options were, that you need to start putting some money into your stormwater management program,

They really thought the idea of a stormwater utility was maybe the fairest way to go.

So one of the things we spent some time talking about was what you're spending now on stormwater and why you need to enhance your program.

And I think both Jim and Judy covered a little bit, but one of the things you need to remember is you have over 50 miles of storm sewer already in the ground.

So your investment as a community, and I would say if you were going to replace that now, is a $500 million dollar asset.

So how much money do you put into managing that asset?

And so part of the program is not just the regulatory mandate piece, which is on managing your system and water quality, but also just good stewardship of your existing infrastructure.

So we built a program of services that you supported that was rehabbing what you have, really taking maintenance, putting maintenance first and being pretty efficient with your maintenance, and then doing an actual assessment of what your system looks like now.

And what you haven't been able to accomplish yet is doing a really detailed conditions assessment.

So one of the first things we talked about is let's figure out where to put our money.

Where do you get the biggest bang for your couple bucks?

And until you do some of that upfront work and get your arms around it, you really can't solve so many problems.

So the level of service we came up with was

Maintain what you can, be a little more proactive instead of as reactive, unfortunately, as your funding is somewhat limited.

Think about getting that assessment done and start really doing some capital projects that would really benefit large parts of the community.

So that was a big part of the work that we did in 2008.

Things have changed somewhat.

You've put a little bit more into rehabbing your system, but as you heard Jim say, your maintenance requirements have actually gone up.

with the new regulations, inspecting the best management practices, all the redevelopment I see as I drive around town, all the design review, all the stormwater design management that's going in the ground all has to be inspected now as part of your compliance program.

So the idea of utility is not new.

Obviously in Virginia there are, I think, 12 others right now.

Eight of those were in place before 2008 when we were here, mostly Virginia Beach coastal areas, but there's four that have been adopted in the last couple of years, Richmond, Stanton, Colonial Heights, and just effective as of yesterday, Lynchburg.

So these are communities that are having the same kind of issues, aging systems, deteriorating systems, increased regulatory requirements, and real concerns about water quality and meeting TMDL compliance, both Ches Bay, Rivanna River, and other local issues.

The reason the Achilles have caught on, I think, is because it is very similar to your water and wastewater issues.

You're looking for long-term, sustainable management of your infrastructure.

And you can now look at how you provide service to these different parts of the community by looking at what the demand on the system and different properties put on it.

So the user fee would look at how much impervious area is on a parcel, and then you get charged based on your imperviousness, which is basically a relative way to measure your demand on the system.

Everybody pays their fair share, and because Charlottesville has excellent GIS data, I don't know if you've got a chance to look at what you have, you know how much impervious data is on every land parcel in your community.

So something different than if you hear some of the other communities talk about ERUs, equivalent residential units and things,

you can actually charge people based on a straight 1000 square foot per per various area per parcel basis which is the most equitable way you can go about doing this so it has nothing to do with actual land use or who owns the land it's all about what you demand on the system is so that was these are the kind of recommendations come out the first time we went through the process we'd like to evaluate reevaluate those issues see if they still make sense for you and look at things like credits what we hear a lot is a lot of these new developments going in

They're going to have to manage their system in place, make sure they get the maintenance done.

Yes, Jim's group can go and inspect them, but they're still responsible for maintenance.

So what kind of credit would they get under this policy?

Could we do something that is incentive for one, making sure they do maintain the system, but also maybe doing something creative, low impact development, green infrastructure, how do we incentivize people so long term we're getting some improvements to your system?

I think finally, really, I don't want to go through this in too much detail.

We gave you the report that we had from 2008, which I think is pretty comprehensive.

The folks that we had on that advisory committee would love to have back again.

We talked about maybe having three more meetings with them to kind of see where we are.

Walk through that one more time and make sure we have the same consensus of the community behind us to do this.

But pretty reasonable approach.

I say it's not new.

It's public policy change.

It's not an easy decision for communities to do this, and it is charging a fee for a service.

But I think what we have to do is make sure we have a reasonable fee for a reasonable service.

So I'm here with staff to answer any questions.

I'm glad to talk about it.

I love doing this.

I have some questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

That's good.

That's a good thing.

In terms of your consulting, you talked a lot about repair and replace.

If we were putting a new system in,

We probably wouldn't put this system in, would we?

A lot of your system is corrugated metal pipe and bit-fried clay, and that was what was available 50, 60, 70 years ago.

Right, so I was just wondering if we're going to go to expense to repair and replace, should we really be retrofitting how we do our system, particularly since a lot of the TMDLs are, you know, are impacts on our streams and the way we do it is quite frankly really, really injurious to our streams because of the volume of water.

So do you also do retrofit?

What, consulting?

Yes, we're a multinational firm, we do everything.

Yeah, what I do is the planning side and up front, but exactly to your point that the paradigm around Stalmar has changed immensely.

You know, we tried to get it in a pipe and get it to the inner stream as quickly as possible.

That was the solution.

That is no longer the solution as you see biostreams being degraded by erosion and other issues.

So yeah, the new system, you know, green infrastructure, you hear the words, low impact development,

Making sure we keep more stormwater on site is our goal.

So how do you now have design issues in place?

How do you incentivize people to do that?

And having a user fee that bases your fee on how much impervious you have, the less impervious they have, the less their fee, so you're incentivizing people to put in swales, bioswales, use infiltration trenches, other things on the site, so they're keeping the water on the site, not putting it into the public system.

where you have to continue to build bigger and bigger pipes.

And yeah, you'd open the pipes where you could, your daylight more of your pipe system.

And again, I think we don't have the assessment right now of what the condition of your whole system is in.

You know bits and pieces of it.

I mean, your maintenance guys know where your issues are, but you haven't really cleaned and TV'd the whole section.

Now, if we have a point and, you know,

I could name a few, but where you really do have such a large volume of water collecting and going into the stream.

You're doing everything upstream at that point.

But what if you can't do that?

So are there weirs?

I would have to see where the issue is and I don't know the technical answer, but there's some real creative engineering firms out there that can help you solve those problems for you.

What we found is we are trying to put too much water into the pipes that we have in the ground.

We continue to build and build and build upstream.

Well, if you look at the Chesapeake Bay TMDL in particular, they're telling you that you have to monitor for sediment and nitrogen and phosphorous.

That means you have to monitor for those things.

The Chesapeake Bay model has modeled the segments of your different systems that release in and they're going to give you targets for each of your segments.

So discharge from the community will have a target

where you have to reduce by 5% or 10% or 20%.

So you'll have to know the baseline and you'll have to know what you're doing annually.

And now you haven't done that yet.

That's part of, we talk about what's gonna come with this new set of regulations coming along.

That's gonna be what they're looking for.

How do you tell us that you're managing your system and meeting those targets that they're gonna set for you?

Okay, and then I have a funding question.

Thank you, that was really interesting.

In this material that we have, it talks about the code of Virginia and user fees, and it also talks about those properties that are non-taxable.

In our system, that's 15 to 20 percent, somewhere in that range.

It's like a billion something of non-taxable property.

Are there actually legal reasons why, I mean, can we charge

legally non-tax, those organizations that don't pay real estate taxes.

Yes, and that's one of the keys of the user fee is that it's a fee for services.

So just like you would charge those property owners for their water, it's a user fee of service.

So you charge non-profits or non-tax exempt properties, they can get a bill for a user fee.

In terms of waiving the fee as opposed to imposing the fee.

Yes.

We can impose the fees.

There's an Attorney General opinion even addressing imposing the fee on the United States Navy.

They've got to pay.

In your package, just put some information in, but for example, Lynchburg, whose utilities are getting started,

their average single-family home is going to pay $4 a month.

That's the fee that they've set up.

When we looked at yours back in 2008, and I don't want to say this is exactly where it's going to be now, but it was about $4.20 an average home a month.

So you're pretty close to where Lynchburg was.

Again, Virginia Beach and some of the Hampton Roads communities are up to $8 to $9 a month.

They have phase one permits, much more highly densely populated area, a lot of water quality issues, and their fees are higher.

I have a couple.

Let's see if I can find them, though.

Actually, two questions were just about the report that we got here, so do I ask you or do I ask Ms. Mueller?

You can ask me and I'll turn if I don't know.

three of four in the October 2008 report, which is from you.

And it's really just a kind of a specific question so I can understand the chart of amounts there.

They've got

The first year is 18 months, and the rest are presumably only 12.

Okay.

You're spending about, again, $2,800, about $900,000 a year.

Be a little bit more.

Yeah, you're right.

And another was that at the very beginning under discussion, which was kind of in our memo, I guess, at the beginning, it talks about limited funding available to maintain aging.

Stormwater infrastructure is the first bullet under discussion.

The current five-year CIP projects a significant reduction in funding for stormwater infrastructure rehabilitation from 2014 forward.

So that's just as far out as we planned.

It's not that we're planning to spend less.

Well, that's when we thought this option would have kicked in.

All right.

Okay.

So that's not so much a precipitating crisis.

That's more planning choice.

Yeah.

Okay.

One other question I had is all of the other kind of utility authorities that we have are with other localities, the jail, the airport, the water, the sewer, landfill.

Is there any

I think it's great.

I did look at it regionally.

I think jurisdictionally it's difficult to do.

So you're responsible under your permit for your jurisdiction.

So under your MPGS permits everything in the boundaries of the city of Charlottesville.

You're not responsible for Albemarle, so your county neighbors have their own permits and so the requirements are different.

So some communities, and I go to North Carolina, Charlotte-Mecklenburg has a comprehensive utility that does both, that has the city and the county that work together to do that.

It's a great long-term plan.

It's hard, jurisdictionally, to get approval from both groups that they're all for this at the same time.

Would you, I mean, just from your professional position, recommend to Albemarle County that they do their own?

Yes.

Okay, so it's not an inefficient thing necessarily to have two.

Yeah, and if you have both, you can share resources.

You can both buy

This might be somewhat building on what Miss Smith said about

not just simply rehabbing our existing system but thinking about this in a different way.

I'm reminded particularly about the green infrastructure plan that the university has.

For example, it has the Dell as more of a small district-based stormwater facility.

JPJ Arena has a similar kind of device.

I know Fauquier County, for example, has been looking at its growth areas, its service districts, as dividing them up into utility districts that then all developments, not just the per parcel approach, but that there's a sub-district facility that

that takes into account multiple parcels needs.

And I'm interested in that because it is something that we've just had a presentation by transportation consultants who have been telling us that there are going to be moments where we're having nodes of increased density, for example, might facilitate transportation, increase ridership.

if we somehow were able to creatively think about where we put our stormwater facilities, they could act as separations, as green spaces like the beauty of the Dell between our different nodes that are of higher density.

So you're not compromising the urban form for the sake of maintaining your compliance with stormwater.

Sure, and I think

A lot of the communities that are just developing, this makes more sense for them because they're putting in their transport modes or their growth corridors and things like that, and they're planning in those kinds of stormwater facilities on a larger scale.

Because you're so built out, your limitation's going to be where you have redevelopment.

But there's no reason that you can't work with those redevelopment areas to do just that.

And I think that comes under your stormwater design regulations.

if you're all in kind of a holistic program that that's what you're trying to support, that your idea is to make sure that you have as much green infrastructure in place and then you're asking developers to do their fair share to put that in the ground.

and then they get a credit on their user fee.

It works to incentivize those but you have to have those, you know, your planning group and Jim's group of services will have to work with the developers to make sure you promote those things.

But it does suggest to me too that since you know where our drainage patterns are that we would need your assistance in helping to map out where those

Yeah, and I think that's, you know, I'll call it watershed, playing for lack of a better term right now, but for each of those drainage areas that you're looking at now, that are part of your MS4 service area, as you're looking at your TMDL compliance plan, that's what you should be looking at.

Each of those drainage areas, what are the retrofit projects for each of those areas?

Where are you going to get the biggest bang for your buck?

It doesn't make a lot of sense to put something in that's going to do a very

very little to meet your TMDL requirements and targets and MS4 compliance issues.

So you're going to have to get a set of criteria that the community can agree upon that this is where we're going to put projects, this is why we're going to put them there.

So you need to do that background first.

Again, you don't have the money right now to do those studies.

That's part of this conversation with the Republicans.

Are you willing to put that money aside and pay for these kinds of studies so you can start making those decisions?

Because you're going to have to implement the TMDL plan.

I did have a couple and that's interesting Kathy that you mentioned that because earlier we were talking about a piece of property that I was saying had not been developed because it actually is a ravine it's it's down and I've wondered we have several of those just that are in the midst of it's all built out around them

if they could be retrofitted to be used, if the system around them could be retrofitted to use that natural feature, and thus it could, as you say, lend itself to then an amenity.

I think that's exactly the kind of thinking we need to be doing, so that it's doing double duty, but it's also not

It's meeting our TMDL, giving us public open space, but it's also letting us know where the density can go.

And that's what we're missing.

It's a little bit in the distance.

It's getting a little clearer, but I think you're all on the right track that it needs to be, the background and the baseline needs to be established.

And then your goals need to be set.

And then you need to look at each of those drainage areas and those projects.

You know, your planning group and engineering groups are more than capable of putting that stuff together and prioritizing those.

But it really does need to be a public process.

As we've heard tonight, your community is very active and they have really pretty good ideas about what should be the priorities for your community.

And so you want to make sure you're spending the money as wisely as you can so you need good information to get there.

And you've got a really good start.

I do have one other funding question.

Currently, we spend about a million dollars a year.

Did I read that?

About 900,000.

900,000?

Okay.

General funds?

Maintenance of?

Is that part of this $900,000?

the work we've been doing in some of the properties, it's the compliance reporting, it's some of the stream restoration, some of that kind of work.

So it's funding some of those environmental programs associated with stormwater and the rest of the funds are all coming from either the general fund or the CIP dollars in the last several years.

So my question is the $265,000, I think that's what it is, that comes from the gas fund, is that part of the $900,000?

It is?

And I think one clarification is, every time a community thinks about how it's going to put together funding,

there's the flexibility of considering a hybrid approach of general fund, CIP funding, bonding, et cetera.

I mean there's and revenue base or fee generated.

So we're not locked into any prescriptive kind of equation of how to do that and the approach with the last committee and the last go around did offer or suggest that hybrid approach.

and the other clarification I think it's important you asked about FY14 and in the CIP those dollars going to zero.

It would supplement, it could, in the last go around the recommendation was to supplement general funds but it would then no longer have that dollar amount that you see in the current CIP budget that's called storm water and I think this last go around was $600,000 and that's what's currently projected

to be eliminated from the CIP planning in FY14.

Because it would have its own title.

It would remain, it would be in addition.

One of the things that was done was called a program gap analysis to really say, these are the dollars you have and these are the programs you provide.

And the question is, are the current programs satisfactory to the community?

And the answer from this committee was, not exactly.

We want more.

We know that there are going to be enhanced regulatory requirements.

We know that we want some more environmental retrofits and stewardship and green projects and frankly we understand that the rehabilitation piece of it has been underfunded and we want to see that funded at a higher level so that's not coming from the general fund, that's not coming from the gas utility.

And I would just like to say that I really appreciated in the recommendations that there was an emphasis on it being equitable.

But the fact is that getting storm water utilities from the gas fund is anything but equitable.

No, no, it's not equitable because not everybody pays a gas

Bill.

And I appreciate that.

The initial version a couple years ago was to keep the way you were paying for things the same and only fund the enhanced program.

But we can certainly go back in.

I mean that's the thing about opening up again.

What's new now?

How do you want to spend your money?

Where does it go to and what are your priorities?

And I think that's critical.

And the flexibility, as Crystal said,

I do have another funding question.

Did that take into account a user fee for non-taxable properties?

Because in here it sounded like maybe it didn't.

Are we worried at all about businesses?

They were?

We need to engage them.

Again, I mean, okay.

Well I think this is a good proposal.

I would be concerned that either the largest user would also

people who are on a lower end of the scale, who can't afford to do it.

I hear you and I think a lot of communities are having that same issue and one of the things that they're looking at is hardship policies.

Similar to a Shear the Warmth program under your electric program or your gas program.

What they'll tend to do is set aside a fund to help people pay their bill.

A lot of communities have set up an application that if you're below the poverty level, if you have certain criteria, that they would apply to the city to have their bill paid for them.

So if it's an important enough piece, you can pull it outside the utility and have a fund that helps that, or you can ask people in the utility to volunteer money to pay on a volunteer basis.

So the different communities do deal with that issue.

I would be also interested in finding out

Yes, there are lots of different methods and we did look at lots of different ways to do it and the most direct, I'd say keep it simple, and equitable way to do it is do it just on your impervious area.

and not look at those land uses because you start to make some assumptions about land uses and it does build in some equity over time.

I think you can, Dallas, Texas just comes to mind that they did something very similar and they got sued over the inequity because they presumed all industrial facilities were 30%.

62% impervious or something.

Other questions from staff?

I was just thinking, I actually did come up with my other question, which I'll ask, but it also brings in incentives in that, I mean not that you would do it for $4 a month, but if you were a company who had a big parking lot and you decided that you really wanted to do something green and you could make it

out of pavers and green spaces and the parts that you don't use very often, keeping grass, then you would get

And the other question I did have from before was actually I think Kathy sort of did kind of a similar question but

It's really kind of finding that balance if we do want density and if we do want people to be you know to not be afraid to take underutilized properties and you know create housing or create jobs or whatever it is that or you know density for transit or whatever it is that our plan calls for and that we really want we don't want to

Yeah, it's the balance on your own design standards on what you're going to allow and what you'll have waivers for.

And it does, one of the issues around green infrastructure, sometimes it takes more land.

And so your issue there, you may not have a road downtown, but maybe you have a stormwater pond there instead.

We need the utility.

So when are we to decide on utility?

Yeah, I think the idea was the end of the year.

You had the count.

And so it'll be a time when we can then fold it into the next year's budget.

That's right.

Okay.

All right.

If y'all are okay with us moving forward, then we'd like to... That is bringing all the stakeholders, re-resurrecting this process.

Process, come back to you for work session.

One quick technical question.

I noticed on the committee a couple of those folks have moved away.

Let me say this, I did not expect that we were going to make any decision tonight.

But you want to know if we're interested.

I'm interested.

Yeah.

I'm very interested in exploring this.

OK.

Okay.

Thank you Mr. Mayor, Council.

This is an item before you tonight regarding 204 8th Street Northwest.

You may recall, some of you, because we did it last year, the city gave funds to Habitat to purchase 204 and 210 8th Street with the hope that we might consolidate the whole block and eventually do a housing development there.

Unfortunately two of the property owners have no interest at this point in selling and long term have said, one of them, that they have no interest in selling.

They like their property and like their rental income so they don't want to sell it.

So we just took another look at those properties and as you know we're in the midst of a Promise neighborhood project and have received grant funding to

to move that forward.

Well Promise needs a place in the community to meet, to have community gatherings, and to have all sorts of events.

And so our idea is to take 204 and actually build a house on it

that can be

so that it would be built as a house.

It may be that there are some interior walls, especially on, we're thinking a two-story building on the first floor that we wouldn't put in at this time, that we would be able to come back later and maybe add a wall or two, but we'll get into that as we go through the architecture.

and then we would let Habitat go ahead and build on 210, the other lot.

Since we've given money to Habitat, the two houses have been demolished and the sites are in the process of being cleaned up.

They were both very poor structures and needed to come down.

The resolution that you have before you tonight would do three things.

First, it would allocate $20,000 from the housing fund

for architectural services.

I'm not sure that's going to cost that much, but I didn't want to come back multiple times.

We would do an RFP for an architect, hire an architect to design this property.

We would then authorize the city attorney to accept on behalf of the city title to the property at 204 so that Habitat could deed it back to the city so that we could then do this construction and then authorize

After we get the plans done, the use of our economic development strategic investment funds dedicated for housing.

Make sure that you all know that there is a million dollars set aside in the economic development strategic investment fund for housing opportunities where the money will flow back to the city.

It's not money we would give away.

those funds would be used to construct it and then again that house would be sold and the dollars would come back into that fund.

We're not asking you to approve the construction tonight.

We're asking you only to approve the hiring the architect.

Once we get the plans and a cost estimate we would come back to you for final approval to move forward with the construction.

We just wanted to go ahead and set up that that fund is where we anticipate the dollars would come from.

Yeah, I have several questions.

The grant, how long is the grant?

I give it four years.

Well, I would anticipate it will take us 45 days to get an architect in place.

The City of Promise is not a four-year project, it's ongoing.

If you get the implementation grant?

Even without.

There's a full-time development director.

I'm just having a bit of a hard time understanding why the City of Promise needs us to

I don't do this for them because being a planning grant, and we got the presentation.

I don't understand where having events and things is part of the mission of the City of Promise, other than what we've heard in terms of getting input.

We heard there's a lot of listening, but in terms of the four years, there's needs surveys, there's gap analysis, there's the planning, the database.

This doesn't, it just doesn't make sense to me that we would do this.

Sorry.

I don't get any sort of monetary thing.

I am on the steering committee and can answer some questions just from conversations that I've heard, but I'm not trying to lobby you.

I think that one of the key components ongoing is community engagement.

One of the models that it's based on in the Promise Neighborhood is

that if communities and families aren't involved in the education of their kids and then kind of being part of that process, it doesn't work.

And so I know that they had, I wasn't there, but there was a community dinner that was part of the City of Promise a couple of weeks ago at the West Haven Community Center, which is so small that it can only hold 50 people legally.

And people left because there wasn't room for all the people who came.

And so I think that it's also something that we're

I think it would benefit that community because it's almost an extension of the West Haven Community Center then.

You can have public meetings there, you can have suppers there.

I don't know if you've ever been to the Thanksgiving dinner at West Haven, but you can't jam people in.

And so it could be also used for that.

It's for the whole community, for both West Haven, 10th and Page, and Starr Hill.

Well that's a different mission.

and that's one of the reasons we like this location is it does have a lot of

potential for those type things for the redevelopment process of West Haven to have a place for meetings and an opportunity to do the process that we need to do there.

I didn't articulate that very well.

We've done something similarly for LEAP program a few years back, where we leased the house to them for a short time.

Am I thinking of the same house?

You don't want to make a commitment forever.

But this sounds like a commitment forever.

It sounds like the city is committing to build a house or a building for West Haven, but West Haven is going to be redeveloped.

I wish we were further along with redevelopment to be able to wrap it all in.

It is only one lot though when it comes to that.

I would suggest based on what you've said that there's no reason that we can't say when we get down to the next time we come before you that we can't say that this is for a period of X number of years and then it will be revisited and can be extended by council or not extended by council.

I would personally be happy to see something like this happen for the limit of four years, which is the term of the promise right now.

Well, I see just as a rebuilding project in this block, I think it's going to be in keeping with the neighborhood itself in terms of the scale of the housing and that it's going to be able to be a single family home or

maybe split two families, could be live-work in the beginning.

So in terms of building there and the city's involvement, I see it's a good use of the Housing Foundation funds.

And whether Promise Neighborhood is the sole user of it or not, I think it has enhanced value because it's not going to be the sole user.

I mean it really could be an extension of the West Haven Community Center and it will be a base of operations for many things.

I've been involved with tutoring in the West Haven Community Center.

I know how tight that is.

and what we heard last time with Mr. Davenport, the Promise neighborhood effort is really doing everything it can to engage the community.

I would think that it would be really important to engage the community in the design of the building.

So to make it a public activity and that there is some say in the programming of it too.

So that would be an important piece to address.

Not for West Haven Redevelopment.

It was bought to be redeveloped with the idea being that the block would be

See, I don't see this block being in jeopardy of being redeveloped again.

It would actually be good if we do begin the process that it's like the field house for redevelopment.

I agree with it.

Are you ready to make a motion?

I second.

I think that Mr. Tolbert mentioned that we can do the time limit at the point when we're talking about construction.

What I'm saying is that I am not willing to move, at least today, on the unlimited time as it is specified here.

So this is going to be within a three month time frame or so.

Concerning the construction, and at that point we could put that kind of a time constraint on it.

A separate appropriation or resolution will be submitted to council approval when the amount of funds for construction is determined upon the completion of the promised project or in this case the term of the lease the house will be sold as an affordable single-family home.

So can you say on completion of the lease agreement to be determined?

I'm not sure I'm ready to go for four years tonight but I think that's a different discussion that we need to have with different information.

to say what that limit is.

Is it common for us to be approving for architectural services?

We put that number up there because we're just not sure.

Like I say, we would put an RFP.

If we got them for $5,000, that would be great.

We do allocate dollars for housing projects.

But normally we wouldn't do this.

We always sell it.

And are there funds in the Promise Grant for rent?

is Plan B, you know, that's...

But I mean in the current grant.

In the current grant for rent?

Because I don't think we can do this on the assumption that we'll get an implementation.

The rent that they are getting now is in kind contributed.

Well the city is the recipient of a grant from the Justice Department.

The director of the City of Promise is paid for by the city.

No, the proposal is these come from the housing fund.

And again, our suggestion is that we intended to get into more detail of that when we came back and knew the cost was for a period of time, whatever it is, that we have a minimal rent with a responsibility for maintenance, upkeep and all, being a responsibility, paying utilities of promise.

They can get

If the grant does come in, it's a $4 million a year grant that will be primarily going for local salaries and projects for kids.

The implementation grant.

They're extremely difficult to get.

But we are in probably a pool of about 20 organizations who are eligible to apply.

And there will be five of them.

So it's not that long odds.

Mr. Mayor, I don't know if this would satisfy your concern but there's currently in the resolution a phrase that says the structure will be designed for office space but which ultimately will be converted to a single-family home and so is affordable housing.

Then we can authorize for 20,000 hours for a home to be built for a home, and I can live with that, but not saying that we are going to do it to get to Promise.

We need to take selection of the motion or we need to amend the motion.

Would you be comfortable with that as an amendment?

And that would be in the same be it further resolved section that Mr. Brown pointed out.

Yes, that's it.

So the architectural fund, this $20,000, potentially $20,000, will come out of our housing fund.

Out of our strategic investment fund that's earmarked for housing.

and that's for housing where the money is returned eventually to the fund.

No.

No.

Okay.

So any questions?

More on the motion on the floor?

So the motion is amended to

Would you just talk?

So all those in favor or opposed say vote.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor Huja and Councillors.

My name is Kurt Burkhardt and I am the Executive Director of the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau.

I want to thank you for extending me this time and for the next few minutes I will share with you some information about who we are, why tourism is important, some of our noteworthy accomplishments, and what we see as the next steps moving forward in this fiscal year.

Our mission is about actively promoting the greater Charlottesville region so that our local economy can realize the direct economic benefits of tourism, both in the jobs it helps to create and sustain, as well as the dollars spent at our local businesses.

Tourism is pretty straightforward.

Visitors come in here, they spend their money, then they go home.

And the cycle repeats itself day in and day out, 365 days a year.

It's important to note that for $1 spent on marketing, $75 is spent by tourists and $5 is returned in local taxes.

Is that the locally determined amount or is that national?

That is an amount that we got from Virginia Tourism Corporation.

with more than $174 million in direct visitor spending, a 10.8% increase from the prior year.

This represents purchasing power for goods and services within our community, along with jobs that tourism supports.

I'd love to give you a copy.

Page has it.

and you have the hard copy as well.

The joint operations agreement between the city and the county provides the bureau with 30% of the TOT collected to be used for administration and operation of the CACVB.

The other 70% of TOT goes into Charlottesville's general fund to help fund other communities' needs and the delivery of essential services.

and our other visitor center, you know, our one here, the main one is in the visitor transit building, the first floor.

We're over the McIntire County Office Building, first floor in the visitor entrance as well.

Here's how we're organized as a bureau.

We're fully staffed with the Visitor Information Center operational seven days a week, closing only for Christmas and Easter.

Our 11-member board provides for five statutory seats.

City manager and county executive both have a seat, and they provide a designated representative to sit if they don't.

Chamber of Commerce, Monticello, and the University, with six remaining seats appointed equally between the city and county.

The bolded names are the city's representatives, and our chairman, who will soon be departing after two fabulous and very productive years, is Chris Engel, back here.

I've provided the names of all who work at the Bureau, whether they are full-time, part-time, volunteer, or intern.

I'd like to say that our interns have provided tremendous support to the CACVB and I would encourage any college student who might be watching this evening to consider applying for an internship in the fall.