City Council Meeting   9/8/2015

Dede Smith,

Dede Smith

and William F. Kennedy.

I call to order the city council meeting of the secretary of affairs.

We will pledge allegiance please.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Mr. Fenwick?

Here.

Ms. Smith?

Here.

Mr. Huja?

Here.

Ms. Szakos?

Here.

Ms. Galvin?

First of all, welcome to all of you to the city council meeting.

There's a number of announcements and recognitions.

And I'll start first by informing you that the week of September 7th through 11th is a national payroll week.

in other countries.

So we are making a proclamation for that.

There's nobody here to receive it, but I just want to acknowledge that there is a proclamation for that.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor Huja, city councilors, Mr. Jones.

I'm here on behalf of the Board of Elections.

I'm the registrar of the city of Charlottesville to number one, thank you for

on behalf of the voters for buying us the new voting equipment that we'll use for the first time this November.

This will replace the system we've had since 2002, so November 2002, the electronic, direct record electronic devices we had.

As you may or may not be aware, that kind of voting equipment is no longer acceptable since 2007 when the legislature passed a law saying that

The only kind of acceptable voting machines would be those which optically scanned paper ballots.

So for most of our voters, there'd be a big change.

Now, a minority of our voters has been voting.

They've had the option of voting on paper ballots.

They've been doing it for quite a while, since 2008.

But now everyone in Charlottesville will vote on a paper ballot.

The handouts that we've circulated show you what the equipment looks like.

You come into the polling place,

And as before, you'll go to the poll book, state your name, show your ID, and be checked in.

And then you'll go to a table where you'll get a paper ballot.

The paper ballot, then you'll go to a place where there will be privacy screens around tables.

Mark the paper ballot.

And there's a sample of what one of the paper ballots will look like at the back of the packet.

These are the ones we used for accuracy and for acceptance testing equipment.

And then once you've marked the ballot, you take it to a scanner.

which is similar to the scanners we've been using for paper ballots for the last eight years.

And the only difference will come with those who are visually impaired or need some other assistance in voting.

They will have the option of using the system you'll see on I think the third page of the handout which is a ballot writer.

So on this, the controls are similar to what we used on the old system for visually impaired voters.

and they'll make their selections.

They can use an audio cues if they need them.

And then when they're all finished, they press a button and the ballot will be printed.

And then they take that ballot, it goes into the same scanner that everyone else will use.

So for every vote cast, for every ballot cast, there will be a piece of paper that will be available for recount later.

I think that's why they did this.

So we'll use it for the first time in the November 3rd election.

Thursday morning, we'll be doing the logic and accuracy testing of the machines that'll be used for absentee in-person voting, which starts on the 18th of September.

So it's coming up in just a couple of weeks.

There'll be an opportunity for the students at Buford to vote using these machines on the 16th of September.

So they'll actually use them before any of the adult voters in Charlottesville do.

We'll take the machines over there for them

They'll use them in their student government elections.

We've been doing this for years.

And so this time, they actually get to use the machines first.

This will be a mock election.

It's a real election for them.

They really will be selecting their student government leaders.

But for us, it's a mock election that is actually part of the acceptance testing for the equipment.

And so this is at no cost to the city.

The vendor pays for it.

Oh yes, of course.

Representative Ben Koch is the new registrar of the City of Charlottesville.

She's been on board actually since last spring.

Pleasure to see you.

I guess you've not appeared before City Council?

I have.

That's quite a ballot.

We're still checking eligibility, but it's on the ballot.

Being alive might count.

Okay, thank you.

I do.

My first announcement is that you will soon be seeing a lot of extra bicycles on the roads.

Some fun and exciting events are planned for when the USA Cycling Team USA arrives on September 9th to begin their training for the UCI World Cycling Championships, which will be held in Richmond later this month.

There will be a public event and screening of the film Ride the Divide at the Paramount on Monday, September 14th from 5 to 7.30.

The public is invited to a meet-and-greet with the USA Cycling with a short on-stage presentation of endurance training by local pro cyclist Andrea Dvorak, a Crozet resident who will compete in the UCI, and Miller School endurance training coach Andy Guptill.

Afterwards, guests will enjoy the iconic cycling classic Ride the Divide, a race that begins on the Canadian border and ends at the southernmost border of the United States.

And then on Thursday, the seventeenth

From 3 to 6.30, local cycling enthusiasts, athletes, school kids, and the public will enjoy everything bike related at the Intellis Wireless Pavilion, where local bike shops will be there to share the latest and greatest with bike clubs, local community groups, and more.

We're also planning for several open panel discussions on cycling that will include public safety, public education, best cycling in the area, and training.

And this is appropriate, since we're considering our bicycle pedestrian plan this evening.

The next announcement I have is that on Thursday the 10th at 3 o'clock the City Council and the Board of Supervisors will be meeting together.

We had a joint meeting a couple of years ago.

It brought up all sorts of good ways that we could work together and really work through some things about the way that we share our space.

And this is a follow-up on that and going forward.

So that meeting will be at City Space and

at 3 p.m. this Thursday, day after tomorrow.

And then next weekend, so Saturday the 19th of September, we have two festivals, two wonderful festivals.

The first is the Charlottesville Pride Festival, which will be held at Lee Park from 11 to 6.

It's always a wonderful festival.

I hope you'll manage to come out.

And while you're downtown, head on down to the ICS Art Park for the Cívil Sobroso Festival, a celebration of Latin American culture and music and food, food at both places.

And just a little further out, the following weekend, we'll also have two festivals.

It's the season of festivals in Charlottesville.

The Vegetarian Festival at Lee Park on the 26th, as well as the TomTom Fall Block Party at ICS Art Park.

Now we have two festival locations.

My announcement has to deal with the Streets That Work open house.

The public is invited to an open house on Tuesday, September 15 from 7 to 9 at City Space to provide input on the Streets That Work plan.

The Streets That Work plan will guide the development of a fully functional, comprehensive, multi-modal street design guide

for Charlottesville to improve the transportation network for all users and create vibrant and sustainable public spaces along streets.

And it's also my understanding that the day, that day of Tuesday, September 15, all day long, there's gonna be, and kind of walking towards, I believe, at Preston Avenue, and then looking at the intersection of Preston and Ridge McIntyre, and then followed up the next day, September 16 in the morning,

there's gonna be a lot of observation and study of the transit station.

So anybody is welcome to participate in those tours and to really get kind of a hands-on understanding of what our staff and tool design are working on and how they make sense out of complexity.

So that's very exciting.

Yes, I have two announcements.

Segueing from the transit audit, which is next Thursday, we have some CAT route changes to announce.

On September 12th, Charlottesville Area Transit, otherwise known as CAT, will implement a new service schedule.

Route 3, Route 7 and Route 10 will see several changes.

These changes will result in some altered departure times and some routing alignment modifications.

These changes should better meet rider needs.

That's why they're changing.

And then transfers will be better.

Digital copies of the new rider's guide, which contain route maps and schedules, are currently available online at www.catchthecat.org.

Hard copies will be available at the downtown transit station when you go to the transit.

and on buses beginning tomorrow, September 9th.

And just one other, after you come to our City Council Board of Supervisors joint meeting, you can come on back here for the second of a series, I guess, that Councilor Fenwick is sponsoring on municipal development, fact and fiction.

Dave Shreve will be the

presenter, and it's from 5.30 to 7.

And just to clarify, that's not a council event, but it is an event held by a councilor.

September 8th, Downtown Job Center Anniversary Open House.

On Thursday, September 10, 2015, the City of Charlottesville will hold an open house to celebrate the one-year anniversary of its downtown job center.

Located at 201 East Market Street in the lower level of the Jefferson Madison Regional Library, the open house will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Since opening its doors one year ago,

The downtown job center has had 1,203 intake questionnaires completed by 683 unique job seekers.

Additionally, the downtown job center has served another 972 walk-in visitors.

Approximately 85% of the job seekers who have visited the downtown job center have been residents of the city of Charlottesville.

and the majority of the job seekers who are not city residents reside in Albemarle County.

Are there any other announcements?

If not, thank you.

Next item on the agenda is matters by the public.

We welcome public comments.

This is an important part of our meeting.

We reserved two times in the start of the meeting, the end of the meeting, three minutes.

Each speaker, you can identify yourself and your address and count any topic you like.

Please do not interrupt other speakers and follow the rules of participation.

If you cannot follow the guidelines, you need to, you'll have to leave.

I hope that will not be necessary.

Hi, my name is Kerri Smith and I reside at 1005 Cherry Avenue, and I'm also one of the 2015 FAR interns.

We would like to start by saying thank you for the funding of the program and the support of the city staff.

During the six month program, we learned a lot on policies and also planning and organizing and doing two major projects on redevelopment safety and following our FAR's work by educating and empowering low income residents to protect and improve our own communities through collective action.

Hi.

Hi, I'm Michelle Jones.

I'm a fall intern.

One of my projects is to address a major issue in popular housing, which is safety.

There are major problems with outsiders causing problems.

and we have concerns about safety for our children.

We saw opportunities in the resident service community to address concerns in a meaningful way.

So we made a list of recommendations.

We hope you will support us.

Hi, my name is Cindy Irie.

I reside at 814 F Hardy Drive.

I am a 2015 FAR intern.

One of the projects that was chosen by the FAR interns is redevelopment.

We chose redevelopment because redevelopment is going to happen.

And as FAR interns, we received input from residents about what are some current positive visions with living in public housing, such as being affordable.

We also received input from residents about what the future of redevelopment should look like through the eyes of the residents.

Thank you.

Thank you, I'm Brandon Collins, I work for FAR and you've met half of our intern group and they've done an amazing amount of work over the past six months and I just wanted to follow through on our redevelopment project.

One of the things they did was hold workshops, they crafted workshops, mobilized for them and implemented five workshops over the course of three days.

met with a ton of residents and we'll be doing some door knocking and the idea was to have that inform our positive vision for redevelopment of resident directed redevelopment which we find to be extremely important and which we hope you all will embrace.

We'll be coming public with that positive vision very soon and we really hope you'll embrace the idea that residents really should be the ones making the decisions about the futures of their neighborhoods and their communities.

and these folks have done just an amazing job with it.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thanks so much.

My name is Gordon Hare.

I represent the Ben Hare Just Swim for Life Foundation.

We fund probably 600 to 1,000 free and reduced lunch children each year.

in the Charlottesville area.

We do an after school program for all six of the elementary schools each year and we fund the summer camp, Learn to Swim, that the city puts on.

I use all four of the indoor pools during the winter and I

I have donated money to the YMCA.

I think it would be quite an asset to have more access in the Charlottesville area for our children, since more than half of our children do not know how to swim in the city of Charlottesville.

Could you give your address, please?

Thank you.

Jessica Masley.

Hello.

My name is Jessica Maslany.

I live in Crozet.

I'm the executive director for the Piedmont Family YMCA.

I'm honored tonight to introduce some supporters who have come out to support the YMCA project.

First, I'd like to announce our lead donors for the project who also have named the facility.

Robin Suzanne Brooks could be not acknowledged.

Thank you.

Next, Gordon just spoke, but he's also one of our lead donors for the project, naming the recreation pool in honor of his son, Benjamin Hare, Just Swim for Life pool.

The other thing I'd like to introduce is all of our board members, if you could stand up and be acknowledged.

Thank you.

I'd also like everyone else who's wearing a Y button to support the YMCA tonight if they would stand up.

We have people represented here from all of our program areas, which is very exciting.

We have people here from our kayak swim program.

We have people here from our crozet location.

We have people here from our Jefferson School child care location.

And we have members here from our summer camps and youth sports programs.

It's exciting to have a lot of support here tonight.

Thank you.

Hello, it's so nice to see all of you this evening.

First, I'd like to say thank you for your service.

I am always amazed by the amount of hours, the number of events, and the amazing things you make happen for the city, so thank you.

I'm here tonight to let you know what happens at the Y while you're here.

So tonight, while we were here getting ready for this important meeting, over 200 children in our community were learning how to play flag football, how to cooperate with a team,

rules, how to be a buddy.

38 volunteers were helping to make that a reality and anyone who needed a scholarship to make that program happen had access to that scholarship.

Today at our wonderful childcare center in the Jefferson School, we were able to help throughout the year around 80 children.

50% of those children are on some level of need, whether it's DSS, whether it's USDA, whether it's United Way, or whether it's our very own scholarship programs.

We have an amazing array of programs that happen in this town and in this county every single week.

Perhaps you didn't know that this year in our summer camps over 150 children were safe each day and had educational fun activities with caring staff members and over 50% of those children were scholarships at the Y.

We also have karate, yoga, you name it, we're trying to provide it for families.

We have things for older adults.

perhaps like myself, water aerobics out at Crozet, and all of these things are meant to serve the very people who simply wouldn't have access without the why.

I would love to be in a world where we just didn't need a why, where all the private

Different places would allow people who didn't have the resources to come in.

But that's not where we live and that's understandable.

That's why we need a Y in our community.

We have the opportunity with no building to serve 10,000 people a year in this community.

That is not sustainable without a facility.

With a facility, we will be able to serve 40,000 people.

And I look forward to the day when I can come back to this meeting and share with you what's happening at the Y that night with much higher numbers, with much higher scholarship figures, and with a city and a county behind us that show us just what this community deserves.

And that's a Y.

I'm sorry.

Donna Gasafo, I live in the 10th and Page neighborhood.

There was a call for a national day of action for black trans lives on August 25, 2015 by people working with the National Black Lives Matter movement in response

To that call to action, Ms. Cookie Smith with the assistance of friends and family members created an image reminding the community and the nation as well as the world that we are coming up on the three year anniversary of the disappearance of Sage Smith, a young black trans woman in this community.

and that while the families of Hannah Graham and Morgan Harrington can rest a tiny bit easier knowing that their daughter's bodies have been found, Sage's family continues to gravely suffer the continued neglect of Sage's case.

That image was shared over 1100 times on social media including Facebook and Twitter and Instagram.

Many of those shares were from people

in the black community here in Charlottesville who are family and friends and just supportive community members.

But this was also shared by the National Organization for Women, Black Lives Matter, and other national and world organizations.

So the world is paying attention to what's happening with this case or what continues to not happen with this case.

And the only thing I have to add to all of this today is in relation to the Black Lives Matter movement that has been strong here in your very happy city, how long will you continue

to invest in development plans that disproportionately threaten low-income black families and completely and irrevocably leave their needs out.

How long will you continue to do nothing that effectively tackles the glaring statistics about the disproportionate stops and frisks of black youth and adults, the disproportionate number of black children in foster care, the disproportionate number of black students dropping out of our public schools, the disproportionate number of predominantly white

neighborhoods versus the gentrification of black and immigrant neighborhoods.

How long will you continue to privilege the desires of your white constituents like bike lanes and bridges over the dire needs of your black constituents like effective, sustainable access to education, safe housing, employment, and healthcare?

in other words, for how much longer were you all sit idly by proving day after day to us that black lives and especially black trans lives do not matter in the city of Charlottesville.

I'm watching as members of FAR's intern program are speaking to you about all of the good work they've done and all the fighting that they have to continue to do on behalf of their community and people up here are smiling.

knowing that just a couple of years ago there were particular people on this city council who were calling for an end to funding for that very program.

Hello, my name is Lolita.

Kochis Smith.

I am the grandmother of Sage Smith.

It's coming up on three years that my grandchild has been missing.

I have been here a couple of times, but for the last year I have suffered a lot with triple bypass surgery.

Everything, my health has went down, the stress has

Literally got me down, so my voice has been silent.

But I'm getting back up on my feet, and I just want to put your own warning.

I'm coming back.

I'm gonna be in your face every time you look around.

You're gonna see me until something is done.

Give me some answers I can't understand for the life of me.

why other people cases can be solved.

But my grandchild case can't be solved.

Fabia Tinsley's case can't be solved.

But these white girl cases can't.

But two black people cases can't be.

And I just want somebody to explain that to me.

I don't understand it.

What's the problem?

Do we need a complete overhaul of city council?

of the Charlottesville Police Department.

What is it that we need to get the job done?

It's not fair to us.

What makes one life more valuable than another?

Can I get some answers from somebody?

Can somebody explain that to me?

Because I don't understand.

That's my grandbaby out there.

I need some answers.

It's killing me.

But God done brought me through.

And evidently, he brought me through for a reason.

So I'm asking y'all, please help me find my baby.

I just need some answers one way or the other.

I'm just asking y'all, please do something.

Help me.

You have the other families, just people that's missing and that's not a good feeling and I pray that nothing ever happens to any of y'all that has happened to me and my family because it's a hard pill to swallow when your child is out there and you don't know what's happening to them.

They've been mistreated, somebody hurting them.

If they cold, they hungry, whatever.

But that's my baby out there.

And I'm asking y'all, please do something.

Let me know something.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and members of council.

My name is Michael Barnes.

I'm a local citizen and activist in the community of 1411 Lester Drive here in Charlottesville.

I'm here to speak to you all tonight in regards to the bike pedestrian plan that's before you this evening.

Earlier, a group that I'm affiliated with, the Charlottesville Albemarle Trail Network Advocacy Coalition, passed around

I think one of the things that we would like to try and say as an organization, as a group, is that we wholeheartedly support your efforts and the endeavors that both Amanda Poncey and Chris Kinzig and the rest of your staff have done for this program.

this plan, it's a very good plan and it does a lot of great things.

I think what we're really trying to draw attention to is two major points.

One that off-street trails where possible are preferable as we try and reach out to a larger community and transform the city into a sustainable place that I think we all want to see.

The opportunity to provide these trails off-road or a safer

I think it's an alternative that open up the possibility for a wide range of users, whether they be economically disadvantaged, young, old, what have you, as well as commuters to access both our city and the center of our city, as well as the centers that are in the surrounding areas in the county.

I think that really brings us to the second point, which is that bicycle planning needs to be taken at a sort of regional level.

And by regional, I think we're mostly focused on the city and the seven urbanized neighborhoods around the county that surround the city.

We've been reaching out to county staff and the county board supervisor members to try and make the same point.

And so

It's, with this plan that's before you tonight, again, I think we want to really stress our support for it, and it represents a great step forward.

And I think that many aspects of it have done well, but I think it can be made stronger if you, A,

work to try and help prioritize some of the off-street trails that are shown in this plan and use those to inform where you may do your on-street road improvements and if those things together we can create a stronger plan for the city and more importantly that if you work over the next several years and keep this as sort of a living document if you will so that you work with the county

Good evening, Council.

Good to see everybody.

My name is Ravi Raspetto.

I'm at 988 Amber Ridge Road in Charlottesville, Virginia, and I'm here in support of the Y Leasehold Deed of Trust that's on the amendment for tonight.

I want to speak about my experience of the Y and the fact that the time has come for us to build our Y here in Charlottesville, Virginia.

So I've been a member out in Crozet since April 2012.

I actually was there the first day that they offered memberships.

and I participated in raising money to help get that facility going for about three or four years.

We worked really hard in the community to make that happen in the county.

But the need is great and the need is here in the city as well.

And one of the wonderful things about the Y is you see such a wonderful variety of people coming to enjoy that facility.

It's a little facility, it's already outgrown itself actually.

But we have our seniors that come out in the morning and do water aerobics and it's a community, they get together, they're doing something healthy, it's camaraderie, it's wonderful to see.

We have small children that come into the playroom and spend time together.

We have so many different members that are able to enjoy that small program.

The swim families, children that have never had attempts to swim to come out and watch them learn to swim and have a successful experience.

It's pretty magical.

So like I said, it's time to build a Y here in the city.

And I will say personally, I have three children and my twins started playing basketball with a Y when they were six or seven years old.

And they started in the rec program and they're 17 now.

And one of the boys went on to play Excel with a Y.

and was actually able to now play varsity for Miller School of Albemarle because of his experience with the Y.

He had that opportunity.

He is now looking at going to college to play basketball as a direct result of all his years with the YMCA.

So it really does change lives for children.

It really does provide leadership for children.

And it's something that's so necessary.

So I do hope you'll consider our request tonight.

As you know, I have for several years now been calling for arrest data to be disclosed.

So I would like to join with Mr. Turner and Mr. Fogel in asking for not only stop and frisk data to be released, but all the crime data.

But I would caution them, be careful what you wish for.

I have a hard time believing that this police chief would condone or conceal anything

that would show any misconduct.

So I too would like the data to be released.

So if your intent is to shine the light on misconduct, to make those persons who commit what you might consider a racial injustice against a person of another color, then I say release the data.

Only let's apply the same standards not only to those who enforce the law, but those who break the law.

Much has been made of the statistics that 70% of the stop and frisks were made of 20% of the population.

But no one will acknowledge what percent of all of the crime is committed by that 20%.

Isn't that a fair question to ask?

Stop being hypocrites.

and have an honest discussion about race instead of foisting this black victimhood BS on us.

I believe we should hold our police officers to a higher standard and only expect the best of the best and weed out the bad ones.

But we should also respect and appreciate that they are willing to risk their lives every day to keep all of us safe.

Without the police,

we would have anarchy.

Decades ago we condemned those racists in white hoods who called for the deaths of others and who killed out of pure evil.

Yet the very next day after the execution of a white police officer, I hear no condemnation for the Black Lives Matter movement who chant, pigs in a blanket, fry them like bacon.

Couldn't you consider them

My name is Lewis Schultz.

I live at 1809 East Market Street.

Council is meeting today because yesterday, the first Monday of the month, was a holiday.

By law, council is required to meet on the first and third Mondays of every month except in the case of a holiday when the meeting must be on the Tuesday after.

The section of Charlottesville's code that requires these meetings does not allow cancellation of meetings for any reason.

They must be held on the appointed day.

The code makes that obligation explicitly clear and makes failure to do so a class one misdemeanor

punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine.

Yet on August 3rd, all five councilors chose to violate the oaths they swore to faithfully and impartially discharge all the duties that come upon them.

On that day, they simply walked away from their duty to meet as though the election to this council has made them and their whims superior to the law.

That is not the way democracy is supposed to work.

Disregard for the law and contempt for the rights of citizens have become defining characteristics of our city government.

There was the unconstitutional panhandling ordinance approved by Councillors Szakos and Huja.

The ongoing urban renewal project now rebranded as the SIA.

Further in the past, the closure of city schools to avoid integration.

This council refuses to provide stop and frisk data to FAR and the NAACP, necessitating yet another lawsuit against the city, and there is much more.

This is the 44th time since October 3, 2013 that I have come to Kathy Galvin and the rest of Council to say that I have evidence that City Manager Maurice Jones, Director of Public Works Judith Mueller, and Utilities Director Lauren Hildebrand, by unlawfully taking my private property for a public use and by denying me my lawful rights to it, have violated Charlottesville Code

the city's charter and the code of Virginia and in doing so have violated federal civil rights statutes.

That property is on Steep Hill Street, a private street in the Woollen Mills neighborhood.

For 23 months now I have repeatedly told council that my rights as a U.S. citizen were illegally taken from me by force with no due process and no compensation by people acting in their official capacities as employees of the city of Charlottesville and under the direct supervision of the city manager.

I've made serious, credible accusations of wrongdoing on the part of three and possibly more high-ranking city officials.

I have named those involved the time, the place, and the laws which were broken.

I provided counsel documentary evidence to prove my assertions and I have repeatedly asked for a hearing into the matter where I might give sworn testimony and present any additional evidence counsel might request of me so that justice may be served and those who have broken the law might be held accountable.

Kathy Galvin recently responded to a citizen's comment by saying it was frightening that someone would call her integrity into question.

She went on to say that it was unfortunate that we have gotten to a point where people and their reputations are being smeared.

Well, Ms. Galvin, frightening or not, I'm calling your integrity into question right now.

You're a candidate for re-election who has held your office for years.

You presumably know what your duties entail and how to change the law if you think those duties are too burdensome, but you chose instead to break the law.

Explain your actions then.

While you are at it, explain why you refuse to even discuss the civil rights violations I have brought to your attention, even though the evidence is overwhelming.

If you are concerned about the reputations of anyone I have named, including yourself, the answer is simple.

Hold a hearing and let the public see the facts.

Prove me wrong, and I'll come here 44 times to apologize.

No, same three minutes.

Same three minutes.

Very different standard for other speakers.

Same three minutes.

Good evening.

I'm Charlene Green.

in the Office of Human Rights, and I just came here to inform you all about the Community Bridge Builders Program.

That is a program that, or an honor, I should say, that started back in 2000.

It went from 2001 to 2006, where city council appointed a group of people who selected nominations from the community, folks who embodied

the spirit of Drury Brown.

Drury Brown is the gentleman who the West Main Bridge is named for.

He was a pillar in the community with regards to civil rights, worked very hard to ensure employment opportunities for low-income folks, was concerned about civil rights for everyone no matter what the color of your skin.

And so

That honor, the Community Bridge Builders program honor is in his name.

And so we are soliciting the Human Rights Commission is soliciting members of the community who would like to be on the selection committee.

If you are interested in being a member of the selection committee, you will have maybe three meetings.

The first meeting is to understand what your responsibilities will be.

The second meeting will be

to go through the nominations that we receive in order to make those recommendations to the commission.

And then that third meeting will be the actual reception for the honor.

And we are looking to do that in December.

December 10th is the National Day for Human Rights.

And so that is the day that the Human Rights Commission chose to bestow that honor.

If anyone is interested in being a part of the selection committee, I will leave a copy of the information sheet up here and speak it up.

The deadline to be on the selection committee is this Friday.

Contact, my contact information, Olivia Boykin is also on the Human Rights Commission.

She is also the contact person.

Thank you.

I'd like to allow one more person to speak.

Anybody would like to speak?

If not, we'll close this part of our meeting.

Before we go to city council, I'd like to make an announcement.

On our agenda, there is item number seven, YMCA financial plan update.

That item has been postponed to next meeting.

Number seven.

Let me go back this way since we came here.

To the members of FAR, Carrie, Michelle and Cindy, you did a heck of a job.

I know it's difficult, but I thought you did really well.

So congratulations on what you've done so far and best of luck.

And to the folks from the YMCA, I was a member probably 35 years ago.

My wife and I took Lamaze classes when YMCA was over at the MACA property in that old gymnasium that they have since torn down.

I'll go next.

Yes, thank you to the FAR interns.

It's a great program, and we're really looking forward to your graduation.

And it's always wonderful to see the FAR interns and the graduates come back and apply for boards and commissions.

We really encourage that, and it's a nice thing on the resume.

and thank you all to the Y supporters.

I particularly want to thank Mr. Hare for everything you've done for Swim for Life.

I mean this has come up a number of times this year.

We went through a little process and Parks and Rec was great in providing scholarships for kids to go to Washington Pool this summer based on swimming as a survival skill and how we've lost that.

We've lost it in our schools as a part of

of our instruction.

And I cannot agree more that it is just an essential skill to have.

So in particular, thank you for everything you've done in our community.

And I didn't really plan to say, most of this stuff is on our agenda.

And actually, I think it's great to, well, the screen is gone, restart the bridge builders.

There are three people who have been working on

I too wanted to thank the far interns and congratulate you on your graduation and thank you especially for bringing such a detailed list because this is really helpful.

I think you all have done the groundwork and the footwork and brought people together and thank you for sharing that with us because these are things that we need to see and we'll certainly

you know, not necessarily tonight, but look through these and really kind of make a work plan for some of that stuff, so thanks.

I know that they've left, but Ms. Gusapo and Ms. Smith, I could feel Ms. Smith's pain, and I know that there can be nothing worse than losing a child and having no idea where they are, so I don't know.

I appreciate her coming down here and making the effort to keep that in front of all of us.

I do, though, want to say that our police department has put in as many hours on this case as they have on the other cases that were solved.

And I am convinced that it's not for lack of trying and not for lack of police effort that the case has not been solved.

It's heartbreaking.

but not every case is solved and I know that they'll continue to keep it as an open case and continue to investigate any leads that come.

If anyone knows anything, please say something so that we can move forward on it.

I know that the national media and the volunteers who came in from all over the country were very different for the UVA students and that's gotta be really painful to watch when it's your child and that doesn't happen.

But our police department and the city resources

have been put for this case as strongly as any other.

And also just the development that we're working on in this council, a lot of what we do, and I think probably some of the things that I talk about a lot probably make Mr. Hayden frustrated, and he said so, and that's fine, but we really are working for

ways to make this a city that is inclusive of everyone.

We have a horrible history.

We have a history of slavery.

We have a history of massive resistance.

We have a history of a lot of prejudice and racism, and it's certainly still here.

But this council has worked very hard and will continue to work hard to try to make development that benefits, especially low income and families who've been here for a long time, especially African American families, close gaps in our educational system,

in access to jobs.

We're celebrating the year anniversary of the Job Center downtown, largely because we felt that the Job Center out in the county wasn't really serving our residents well.

And so we've been doing a lot of things, never enough, and I'll acknowledge it.

We're not going to solve the problems that took 400 years to create, but we are working steadily, and I am convinced that we need to continue working steadily.

And actually bike lanes are one of those things.

Bike lanes are not just for the spandex bikers, because they're biking now.

Bike lanes are for regular people who need to get to work.

And one of the things that the bike plan that we'll talk about later really talks about is commuters, people who need to be able to get from one place to another for transportation, not just the recreational riders.

And bikes are available to people who can't necessarily afford a car and insurance and parking.

And so these are things that we look at when we make these decisions.

Yes, I am not going to reiterate what my colleagues have said, but I do want to acknowledge Ms. Smith's pain and anguish.

I cannot fathom the loss of one of my children and not knowing where they are.

And I just want to say from the bottom of my heart, I am very sorry that this child is still missing.

And it is important that we remain diligent

and ever, ever persistent in finding the young child, the young adult.

And so, again, my heart goes out to Ms. Smith.

She came here pleading for help.

And that is a very powerful, powerful thing to hear and see.

And we know that our police department is working on this.

A very reason to believe that if any police department can figure this one out, ours can.

It does not lessen the pain.

And it is a very, very moving

accounting that Ms. Smith just gave us tonight and I want to acknowledge that.

Saying prayers to whatever you believe in is a very important thing to do.

And the rest I think we'll be talking about tonight.

Thank you for the comments of my colleagues.

Next item on the agenda is Consent Agenda.

Consent Agenda, minutes for August 17th.

Appropriation, Urban and Community Forestry Grant, $20,000.

Appropriation, Safe Routes to School Program Grant for Jackson Viya School, $249,959.

Appropriation Victim Witness Assistance Program Grant, $178,551 Appropriation Adoptions Through Collaborative Partnerships Grant Renewal, $84,000 Appropriation Donation to Market Central, $500 Appropriation Enhanced Police Coverage Donation, $84,194

Appropriation, fire to programs A to localities, $137,789.

Appropriation, grant for Belmont Historic Survey, $33,000.

Resolution, accept McIntyre Road extended John W. Warner Parkway into city street system.

Resolution, accept portion of McIntyre Road into city street system.

Resolution, approve grant application for Meadow Creek Trail Bridge.

Mr. Mayor, I don't want to remove anything.

I just want to make a comment on the acceptance of McIntire Road.

because I've gotten a lot of complaints about the lights up on Park Street.

Students on Park Street?

They can call us.

Yeah, we are overseeing the lights on Park Street.

They can call us at 970-311.

I'm trying to think of the best number to call.

They can call the 9703101.

Okay, so VDOT is out of the picture then?

Well, not completely out of the picture.

I just want to make a comment about the entire consent agenda.

When I came on council, I noticed that we often got grants and things for the city and really

encouraged staff, and Maurice Jones has also encouraged staff to really kind of seek out grant opportunities for funding of city programs.

It's often a way to pilot something new, to keep something going that maybe tax money doesn't pay for, and to keep taxes lower.

And I just want people to notice that in this particular agenda, we have three quarters of a million dollars in grants and allocations from other sources, and applications for another half million.

And I'd just like to make one comment about the Jackson-Bias Safe Routes to School grant, which is a wonderfully rich grant that will do really good things.

But I just wanted to call out that there's a couple things in that grant that apply to the bike ped plan that we'll be talking about later.

One is the trail along the creek.

that I think speaks to what Mr. Barnes was talking about.

And the other is that a third of the children at that school don't live within a mile of the school because of the way the district is drawn.

And so it's just an incredibly simple idea about fixing and about enhancing our bike pad that doesn't cost any money.

And I just wanted to call it out now.

Next item in the public hearing for House Bill 2, Transportation Funding.

The Governor signed House Bill 2, HB2 into law in 2014 with implementation set for July 2016.

This outlines the funding process for state transportation funding and submitted projects are reviewed by the state to determine if they qualify to be scored and those that are scored will be based on a statewide system scoring.

There are two ways to apply for funding through this.

One being the construction district grant program and the high priority projects program.

The construction district grant program is open only to localities and that replaces the old system that VDOT used for funding.

A project model using funding from the system will prioritize projects within the same district.

So there is a pool

of 30 million dollars that is allocated and eligible for localities within the Culpeper Transportation District.

The other source of funding, the High Priority Projects Program is prioritized based on a statewide system.

and ultimately the Commonwealth Transportation Board makes the determinations, but we've got these two different routes to send projects.

So the city is eligible for both and the way they've set up the applications we can check box for both and so any of our applications can be considered in both pools of money.

We anticipate though that they're likely

Hopefully are competitive in the more local pool of funds, but we don't really know because this is a brand new system and we're all learning as we go.

But we're going to put in for both, for whichever projects it's determined that we need to move forward with.

Staff has identified a number of projects that are eligible for funding and could be competitive based on the criteria that have been set up by HUD.

We're here this evening to gather input from the community as well as from council on the projects to move forward.

We were put on a very, very tight timeline.

and our applications will be due September 30th so we received this notice so about beginning of August and we've been trying to work through this in a very very short time frame.

The three priority projects in order of priority that

staff and through the various meetings that we've had with the PDC in discussing these are our first priority being the East High Street streetscape improvements.

The project limits will be a valuable multimodal improvement in connection to the existing downtown pedestrian mall.

to the recently developed area where the old Martha Jefferson Hospital is.

So it would connect essentially from Locust Avenue intersection all the way down to 7th Street and Market.

That plan would include such things as widening the sidewalks, landscaping, intersection improvements for ADA and pedestrian access, bike lanes, storm water quality features, improved wayfinding signage and signal upgrades,

and better access to our mass transit facility.

The second priority project that was identified by staff is the Fontaine Avenue streetscape.

Being around and taking many variations over the years, this would currently be looked at as a project that would provide expanded sidewalks and bike facilities, improved access management,

will be dedicated left turn lanes in select locations and landscape median, street trees, improved pedestrian crossings, and transit improvements.

The third and last project that was identified is the Emmett intersection improvements.

And in this project, the area extends from the intersection of University and Ivy Road to Arlington Boulevard and includes a shared use path,

improved bike lanes, consolidated bus stops, optimized bus shelters, and landscaping, as well as improved pedestrian crossings at the intersections within that study area.

We'll go to discussion.

Any clarification question?

I do have a clarifying question.

On the first priority for East High Street, in contrast to the other two priorities, I didn't hear you mention landscaping or street trees.

I'm sorry for not mentioning that.

Because it wasn't written down that way either.

And I have a couple questions.

Clarifying or not, I don't know.

Are we limited to three streets?

We're not.

The way that it's been described to us in the program, the evaluation will be such that they'll take our top priority project and compare that in competition with the other number one priority projects by other localities.

But we're not limited to three.

make these applications.

So you mentioned that you're kind of gathering ideas almost at the last minute.

If the public had any input, who would they call?

The public would say, like, I want JPA or something there.

Yeah, they could certainly contact us.

I would say to you, the students who are hearing, so after this, the city council will decide.

I don't think there will be a choice to change the decision.

Okay, well I guess that answers the third question.

What kind of timeline are we?

Is that a requirement?

Okay, my question.

Why did you not go

on High Street all the way to the free bridge.

Right.

Free bridge.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Yeah, that would be a different project to take it from Prebridge up to that point.

And I think both Mr. Huja and I are on the MPO, and there has been a fair amount of public engagement over these issues.

These are all issues that are already in our plan.

as priority projects.

So that process didn't happen just in the last few weeks.

Well, actually, no.

It's not a clarification question.

It's more of a clarification.

I see, please.

I see.

OK.

I open public hearing.

Anybody here to speak on this topic?

I'm Stephen Bach.

I live at 1208 Maryweather Street.

I like the choice of projects, briefly.

I especially like the project on Emmett Street, improvements on which I've been arguing for for years.

And I just want to say that

To the extent that that segment of the road, our local road, is improved for bicyclists and pedestrians, we may see an economic benefit insofar as students especially will get on a bike, maybe a U-bike,

and go to the Barracks Road Shopping Center and spend their money there rather than hop in a car and go further out to spend their money.

So I think it's a very important corridor for that economic connection.

And so I would like to see, I would really like to see those improvements made.

And not just for that reason.

because it is an unsafe corridor right now for bicyclists especially.

But anyway, I wanted to make that point, and I like the choice of project.

Thank you.

Anybody else would like to speak?

It was a public hearing.

I have a clarifying question for the mayor.

On our agenda, this is not marked as for action.

I think given the time

We would be fine if you all are able to take an action tonight.

I think that these are very

and very needed projects.

And the explanation as to the criteria, it does sound like a lot of that is out of our hands.

It's kind of coming down from the state.

But at the same time, I mean, I remember the Fontaine Ave streetscape.

I worked on that project 15 years ago or 10 years ago.

And that was pretty amazing that it's taken that long to even have some action on that.

I was part of the consultant team.

So yeah, I just think I would like to know moving forward what was the kind of the public input process to get some idea from the public as to what the priorities would be.

And maybe moving forward next cycle, next year, we really do have much more of an engagement or information session so people could weigh in.

These were at the top, right?

From what I understood from what I heard on MPO is the MPO, this HB2 has different criteria, so environmental impact, reducing congestion, increasing connectivity, various things like that.

Each one has a score, and different parts of the state have different categories that weigh higher.

And from what I understood, what you all were looking at is our top priority projects that could actually get funded.

So that met those criteria well so that they'd be competitive in the district.

Is that a fair evaluation?

We felt that these were a clear choice based on the data that we already had and that we could easily put together to build the case for each.

And how often do we get to go back for this funding?

Every year.

Every year?

Every year?

OK.

That's the hope.

I mean, it's a new program.

Well, the folks from VDOT who came and talked to us at the MPO, because we helped actually to draft what these should look like.

They came to our local MPO and asked, all of the MPOs, and asked us, so what do you think is important?

What do you think, in your area, what should be weighted most heavily?

And we had a fair bit of input on it.

Well, if waiting until the next meeting does not jeopardize anything, I think I would rather wait.

I would think if we're going to go against the policy of, if we're going to bring up a subject and not vote on it as policy until the next meeting, we ought to adhere to that unless there's a compelling reason to do otherwise.

I understand but so it's the urgency that It is because that essentially would give us nine days to put together a complete package depending on which one was chosen as the priorities If it's not something that we're already working on we're starting from scratch basically

So there is an urgency.

There is an urgency.

I'd like to weigh in on this.

I think it's actually bad governance to do it.

That's not necessarily your problem right now, but as a council, because it encourages people to come at the last minute.

Quite frankly, we see it all the time.

Quite frankly, we might see it again tonight.

if you just can't anticipate it, not you, but staff in general to come to meetings before to give some input.

There's a lot of people who watch these meetings and who aren't here who would depend, once we vote over, they won't have an opportunity.

In this case, given the circumstances, I don't think it's as bad as some other cases that we've seen.

And I really appreciate that.

But I also want to just clarify that it's not our policy that we don't vote when we have a public hearing.

It was a preference that a couple of counselors had and others didn't have a whole lot of objection.

We've never voted on it.

And I'd like to just make the point that this is

Is there a second?

Second.

Discussion?

Let me say one more comment.

I won't be here next year, but I have two projects for you right now.

one of them is High Street from Freebridge to this one is West Main Street.

I just say that this conversation really wasn't about this issue.

Mr. Mayor, can I just respond to Councillor Galvin raise the issue of community engagement.

Excellent, thank you.

Next is a resolution.

Bicycle Projection Master Plan.

There is.

Good evening.

How are you tonight?

Yeah, I was going to do them as you requested.

Okay.

Well, my name is Amanda Ponce.

I'm the Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator with the City and Chris Gensick, the Trails Planner, is also here tonight to answer any additional questions about the Trail Network.

But I am here again at your request to present the highlights of our Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan and ask for your support of this resolution approving

the 2015 Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan update.

I'd like to thank Steven Bach who's here tonight representing the members of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee and the Master Plan Steering Committee.

I know it is a lot to ask for continued support so I appreciate you being here.

We couldn't have done it without the help of dedicated volunteers like Steven and of course Tool Design Group, the consulting firm who was hired to lead the project.

The city has a lot to celebrate since the adoption of the 2003 plan.

In the past decade, we've hired two staff people dedicated to plan and implementation.

We've adopted an Americans with Disabilities Act transition plan and have conducted a city-wide curb ramp inventory.

We have a bicycle and pedestrian advisory committee that meets monthly in an expanding network of trails and on-road bicycle facilities.

and we also have received silver and gold level awards from the League of American Bicyclists and walk-friendly communities.

We've also seen a lot of new and innovative treatments as well.

But despite all this, over the past decade there have been significant changes in the field of bicycle and pedestrian planning and these changes include a greater awareness of different types of bicyclists and changing design standards for

for facilities that can be used by people of all ages.

We certainly recognize that off-road trails are the gold standard for safe and comfortable networks and in fact trails are the backbone of this plan.

We're building on the 2003 plan, the 2013

Long Range Transportation Plan, but we do have a need for additional tools and creating a time frame for implementation that will create complete walking and bicycling networks.

This plan update also addresses the needs of pedestrians using sidewalks on the street and includes a variety of new

bicycle facility types that improve comfort for all and appeal to those who are interested in riding a bicycle but concerned about safety.

Lastly, it further supports some of the recent initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the Climate Action Plan and reliance on signal occupancy vehicle travel, which is one of the goals in

our comprehensive plan.

We also have our complete streets resolution and our healthy eating and active living resolutions.

And this plan really is a nice implementable tool to be able to achieve some of the goals outlined in those plans.

So just to describe some of the highlights of the plan.

It has seven chapters.

It describes the reasons for the update, which I've outlined, the vision and goals for the plan, the plan update process, as well as some of the specific network recommendations, policy and program recommendations that are needed to support the infrastructure changes, as well as an implementation plan and metrics for measuring progress over time.

The plan vision, which is shown here, is to make walking and biking practical, convenient, safe, and pleasant ways to travel to destinations both within and adjacent to the city.

There are seven project goals that are related to creating connected networks that appeal to a range of users fostering a culture that encourages walking and biking, educating road users, evaluating our progress over time, and supporting a healthy community and vibrant economy.

We employed a number of different outreach strategies over the last year and a half that we've been undertaking this plan.

We had an advisory committee that met regularly throughout the project.

We had focus group meetings with different groups.

Staff attended neighborhood events and neighborhood meetings to gather input.

We also had an online interactive map, which you can see in the bottom left-hand corner

there where people were asked where they currently walked or biked, where they would like to walk or bike, and what are some of the barriers.

And to date we've heard from over 400 people throughout that process.

The consultant conducted an analysis of bicycle and pedestrian demand.

And the map on the left shows those areas that are high demand.

So those areas that are red and yellow kind of have the highest demand for biking and walking facilities.

And as it goes to the blue, the cooler colors are less demand.

They also looked at the level of traffic stress.

And so that's the map on the right.

And you can see in green those routes that are considered low stress routes.

something that would be relatively comfortable for most people to ride throughout the city.

But the red shows where those routes are considered high stress and so it's no surprise that the main arterials are the highest stress routes and create some of the biggest barriers to biking and walking.

So this is our existing bike network.

The blue lines are the on-road bike lanes or shared lane markings or sign routes, and the green are our charials.

And you can see that our network is currently disconnected.

The plan proposes this vision network which represents kind of our primary transportation corridors, both trails and on street facilities.

Again, the thick green lines are the trail facilities and the blue lines are the on road facilities.

The photos on the right kind of show the types of facilities that we'll use to build the

transportation system that connects the city together and links to the county to create seamless low stress transportation corridors.

Again, the trail system being our gold standard and moving on down to designated bike lanes that are separated from the roadway.

So feeding into the primary bike network are collector and local roads that connect neighborhoods to destinations and create connections within neighborhoods.

and it's important to note that the city's vision network was overlaid on the regional long-range transportation plan that was adopted in 2014 and the county greenway map to show how our city network connects to important destination in the urban areas of the county.

This is a bicycle facility map which is included in the plan and shows how over time we can achieve some of the recommendations

in the plan through incremental projects.

The plan also talks about the other types of supporting infrastructure that's needed, such as bike racks and fix-it stations to make our networks more comfortable and accessible to all.

Our pedestrian plan, excuse me,

builds on more recent work.

So in 2011, we had our sidewalk prioritization criteria that went through Planning Commission and City Council, which attempted to evaluate requests for new sidewalks.

We also updated our Americans with Disabilities Act transition plan.

which talks about things like access to pedestrian push buttons and curb ramps and some of the other parts of the network that are needed to facilitate safe travel throughout the city.

Again, the existing condition, this is the existing sidewalk network and what you see here, the green lines are existing sidewalks, the purple are the gaps in our network.

And so you can see from the maps that the sidewalk network is fairly complete in the downtown area, but the neighborhoods farther out, the network is pretty incomplete.

But connectivity really is only one aspect of pedestrian travel, many of the most heavily traveled routes.

Pedestrian corridors lack the features that make it pleasant and comfortable to walk.

So things like adequate width to accommodate two people walking side by side or street trees for shade or buffers from high volume and high speed traffic.

These are other features that are talked about in the plan.

contribute to the quality of the pedestrian environment.

The red lines, the corridors that are highlighted there, Emmett Street, 10th, West Main, and 5th Street were some of the corridors that our steering committee identified as being areas that had sidewalks but that really lacked some of the features that made it comfortable for walking and biking.

The consultant team reviewed a number of, I'm sorry, intersections, excuse me, are another part of creating safe transportation networks.

The intersections shown on this map are those that were highlighted as needing some sort of improvement through the Wikimap, and the plan includes a toolbox of treatments that could be used to make these intersections safer and more comfortable, so things like marking crosswalks or having

Pedestrian signals with countdown timers, median refuges, bike boxes, things like that.

These are not tools that are currently adopted as any part of our standards.

The consultant team reviewed a number of our city's plans and policies to assess the regulatory tools that we have in place to achieve the goals set forth in the plan.

Of the 94 plans and policies that they reviewed, they had recommendations for improvement for approximately a third of those, and you can see more details about that in the appendix of the plan.

Some of the things that they were noted as policy recommendations were context-sensitive design guidelines for both bike and pedestrian facilities, improved bike parking standards, changes to sidewalk closure, and snow clearing policies, just to name a few.

The plan also recommends some programmatic improvements that would help to create a culture that encourages biking and walking.

So these include city-wide road safety campaigns that can help remind people driving, biking, and walking how to do so safely and to be courteous to one another.

Encouragement programs like safe routes to school or bike walk play, JPA, and ride share incentives can help get people out and walking and biking.

This is a snapshot of the implementation plan which provides a guide for the city to build our bicycle and pedestrian projects, conduct new programs, and propose new policies to improve walking and biking in the city.

This process is designed to incorporate multiple strategies to achieve plan update goals within a reasonable time frame.

And so it's divided into three different time frames, kind of the near-term phase, the first one to five years, mid-term phase, five to ten years, and a long-term phase, ten or plus more years.

Sorry, this is a map which is difficult to read on the screen, but the sidewalk prioritization and those maps are those

Sidewalk gaps that ranked highly in our using the approved prioritization criteria and building on that so that we had kind of a very transparent way to evaluate and rank citizen requests.

So in addition to the capital improvements program there are multiple opportunities to find state and federal funding for active transportation projects and programs and Chris and I and

Missy and Jeanette and Tony and everyone in our departments are actively seeking those programs out.

And these are just some of those that we could continue to look into.

And last but not least, the plan provides some metrics, some ways for us to measure progress over time and this is just a snapshot of some of those.

So is part of what we were talking about with the Safe Routes to Schools grant, is that trail along Moore's Creek, would that accommodate bicycles?

It would.

Yes.

sort of ecological reason why we wouldn't develop trails along our streams such as Mr. Barnes group has been advocating for bikes and pedestrians but

I would worry more about bikes and damage than pedestrians and damage.

Well, I might invite Chris to come up to talk on that.

I can speak to what I know about that, which some of the ecological concerns, for example, the Rivanna River, I know there are concerns about lights.

And so as far as having facilities that are available throughout the day and evening time for people to use for commuting purposes,

So one benefit of the coincidence of sewer lines being along waterways is there's typically a cleared corridor so there's no need to clear any more trees than have already been cleared by the sewer folks and they're typically along the creeks.

We do try to strike a balance on the amount of pavement we use with sediment being the primary contributor in our area

Paving an eight-foot trail not right at the creek but near it is sometimes better than using gravel or stone dust because that stuff washes down into the river part of it so we try to strike a balance on that.

I just wondered if I mean it really occurred to me that they'd have to

which does have its own inherent problem with streams.

We've got some of that along some of our creeks.

If it's a hard-packed surface, it meets ADA and bikeable use, yes.

If it turns into mud, your average commuter won't use it.

We try stone dust in areas, but if we watch over time and it keeps flooding into the river, we would probably step up, so we sort of tear it up as we go and see how it works.

Sure, sure, sure.

And the only other point I wanted to make about that, Safe Routes to School, and we have school folks here, just coincidentally,

is that an incredibly simple, kind of elegant addition to a PED plan would be to work with the schools to enable any child who lives within that one mile radius of an elementary school, because that's all it would apply in this case, be given the choice to go to that school if they don't happen to already be districted into it.

Because we are leaving out, you know,

we just saw probably a hundred or so children in Jackson Bayou alone who could walk to Clark if they so chose and it's really sort of a choice thing in that point you're not really asking for any money to do anything but it's free and it would also solve a little bit of a civil rights issue of denying some children this wonderful investment that we're making in walking to school

who are denied that right.

Yeah, I mean, I've got, it seems like a lot, but it really just focuses on a couple of chapters.

But in, in first and foremost, I want to say that this is an excellent achievement.

Thank you so much.

It is,

It's taken us 12 years to get this, so I guess it's worth the wait.

But picking up on something that Mr. Barnes said, I hope this is a living document that actually gets refreshed every time we do a comp plan update.

And with that in mind, my comments are looking at this as more into the future, that what are the other criteria that we might look at that would form our ways and our means of prioritizing future projects.

So even though I understand, for example, that you've got some challenges with the trail network that's off-road that could be in the stream beds, that doesn't mean that you don't keep looking into doing that, correct?

So that's not saying that any of the priorities that you've established for this year I'm not even discussing.

I just wanted to look forward into what are the other things that we might do well to do

by way of identifying goals and factors and variables for the future.

So in my, the point of departure was the vision statement itself from the latest comprehensive plan.

It says the vision of the comp plan for 2013 says walking and biking will be practical, convenient, safe and pleasant

Walking and biking will be practically convenient, safe and pleasant ways to travel to destinations within and adjacent to the city.

That's what the comp plan states.

So what I found was a little bit not punched out was the word pleasant and then adjacent to the city.

The pleasant piece, even though you mentioned in your presentation the street trees I saw in the wordle that

Shade and Enjoyable were on there.

I didn't see very much by way of integrating street trees in the variables to be monitored in the sidewalk, for example, the sidewalk assessments.

And in the goals, I know the goals came from 2003.

Some of them?

So I would like to just elaborate on some of those goals, and I did send this ahead of time to all councilors, but for example, with the first goal, connect important destinations and neighborhoods, I simply would say within the city and adjacent county through on-road and off-road facilities.

And that, just to clarify, those ones on that very first page came directly from the 2003 plan, so that particular one and the next four or five that are on that page were taken verbatim from the 2003 plan.

They were one word

And that's where I mentioned health on table 2.1 if we added comfort and attractiveness and then elaborate to create an attractive, comfortable environment for biking and walking that promotes and supports a healthy community and a vibrant economy.

It's essentially the same, but it gets in that notion of pleasant and comfortable.

Yeah and I think that that's definitely something that we could incorporate in.

I think the other point to make that addresses some of your concerns as well related to pleasant and comfortable, I mean I think this bike ped plan is supposed to work hand in hand with the Streets That Work plan and so we're really identifying the network here in this effort and really thinking about the

But again, I just want to say that when you get into the Chapter 6, I believe, where you have the tables that are tied to

the factors and the variables, they in turn are tied to funding.

And there's almost like a tentative quality in some ways with chapter five as it's talking about it in a narrative form, but when you get into the chapter six, it's tied to funding.

And I just wanna make sure that we're tying these things to funding.

Okay, they're more intended to look at this as a comp plan document and it's not to undermine or but it's just to make sure that we're not, excuse the pun, missing the forest through the trees.

And the other thing that was

With regards to the off-road, more regional network, I don't think any one of us is saying that you start working on that right away, but we wanted to make sure that in the future that we would start tying the building of the local city roads to those other roads that have greater regional connectivity.

And that's where that was coming from.

So that it starts feeding into the prioritization

that you've got going here.

And then one other big point was this idea that we currently don't have a way to prioritize or fund sidewalk retrofits when sidewalks exist but are undersized for volume.

That was the big problem on West Main Street, and we currently face that today.

So that's why an appropriate sidewalk with relative to adjacent intensity development

Yeah, I mean I think again going back to streets that work, I think that some of that aspect of streetscape and existing facilities and existing networks that are

maybe are in need of improvement that streets that work would help kind of prioritize kind of the whole picture of the streetscape.

Whereas this is really identifying the network and to go back to the point about incorporating street trees into newer projects in our cost estimates for these projects, we've really taken into account the need for street trees and green infrastructure and

additional features rather than just a strip of concrete.

So that is included as part of the budget, yes.

Okay, I just want to make, I just when I don't see the language in the document, I get very nervous.

And it's nice when it's said that, you know, in a public narrative that we're going to be doing that and that we're going to get another document that's going to be saying that we're going to do that.

That's why I just wanted to see if there was some way to tie the language together.

A couple quick comments.

First of all, a great plan.

It's a great planning document.

And it's especially heartening to see citizens like Stephen Bock get in there and do his part of it.

So congratulations on that.

If you could pull up one picture, how long would it take you to pull up one certain slide?

The ADA compliance that we're on the bottom right hand side.

Oh, sorry.

I've got it here on my screen, but I don't know how to get it back up there.

While Amanda is looking, this is not just about new facilities we're talking about.

It's almost retrofit at some point.

because there was a slide on here where a gentleman was in a wheelchair and the punch button was over a curb far enough away that he couldn't access the punch button for the stoplight.

And those kinds of things are being found out and we have to retrofit to make sure everybody, if it's going to be ADA compliant, it should be ADA compliant.

And we've gotten a couple emails about situations around town.

I actually, I really, it took me longer to get through it than I expected because there

all these kind of cul-de-sacs and it was a little bit like our system.

It's complicated and there's a lot of it.

Actually, I'll just call out a couple of the numbers that were in the report that we have almost 10 miles of off-road paved trail, 30 miles of bike lane, 175 miles of sidewalk.

You can go pretty far in 175 miles and so it helps to explain why it is complicated and we all hope for more sidewalk, more bike lanes, more off-road infrastructure.

The other piece, the little statistic that you had in your thing that really struck me was that 70% of people polled described themselves as either interested and concerned or enthusiastic and confident, not as timid and I'll never get on a bike, not as no matter what it looks like I'll be out there, probably in spandex without my helmet.

And so 70% of the people in the city probably aren't riding

on areas like those red corridors, places where it looked kind of scary, where it feels awkward, but might well if we do this.

So I think it's really an investment worth making.

So I just wanted to call that out as why it's so important that you all are going through the minutiae of making this happen.

So thank you.

Two quick things similar I guess in tone to Kathy's and so one was that I guess kind of responding and if the language that she had is acceptable that's fine too but I was just thinking that we might put something in the policy section in chapter five just that noting that the city should continue to look for opportunities to create off-road bike and pedestrian commuter trails particularly on level paths such as stream banks

of Stream Valleys to increase the ability of people to live and work in the city and the county car free.

Just kind of a little more kind of policy overview rather than changing anything here, because I think the priorities you have are fine, but that is something that is out there.

And the other is that while in Chapter 5 there was a lot of talk about the need for increased bicycle education, both for kids and for adults, in the grids in Chapter 6 of near-term and long-term recommendations, those weren't there.

You have three sets of comments now.

Kathy, Mr. Fenwick, and Ms. Szakos.

You can incorporate that in the part of the plan right now.

One other thing I wanted to pop out was the idea of the mid-block pedestrian infrastructure, because that is an issue, especially like on JPA, and I didn't see that in the plan.

Should we just...

I have the one from the staff just to say, you know, modifications as noted in the council meeting.

I'm just actually curious if you've seen how the multi-use trails are working with having pedestrians and bikes in the same space.

We're going to add some bike seal to pedestrians but compared to the George Washington

bike expressway in DC where you can't walk on it because there's thousands of bikes every hour.

Well that's great and I think we should take, you know, really take a lesson from that because I am totally with

with Mr. Barnes and with what I'm hearing is that if we really, really want to get people on bikes, they have to be off-road.

They just can't be in the roads with them.

And which brings me just to one other comment as we look to the Preston Avenue walk coming up on September 15th is to have you entertained this idea that we would put temporary, you know, temporarily try out

Yeah, I mean, we are not going into that with any sort of preconceived notion.

You know, I think that we want to hear from the businesses that are surrounding the corridor and the people that participate to hear kind of what they envision for the future there.

But I think testing demonstration projects are certainly one tool for us to use to see if some of these things are viable.

The other thing, just plug for the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission is doing their annual, well, their biannual

bike and pedestrian counts and so those will be coming up again in the fall and they'll be looking at some of the trail corridors and counting bikes and pedestrians so we did that in the spring.

Mayor Huja, one last real quick.

How about conflicts because I'm gonna be speaking to a couple people specifically about bird watching

and opening up these off-road trails to dogs and bikes and this kind of stuff.

That's like the ragged mountain proposition.

With the changes as we outlined in our meeting.

Okay.

Is there a second?

Second.

Can I ask Mr. Gunzig one more question?

The Meade Avenue Trail construction is complete.

We need to put some signage up.

The coal tower section on Water Street Extended is physically in place and people are walking on it.

I don't believe it's been legally accepted.

Even the trail?

Even the trail, I believe, is technically still the developers for another month or so.

We hope to have a ribbon cutting on that in October.

And then we are applying for funding to build from where the Coal Tower Trail stops to the tunnel at the Belmont Bridge.

Thank you.

I want to make a change in agenda for a second.

I'd like to move, I don't know, five to four, which is CATEC, because I see people sitting here in the audience.

And we're going to take some time with item four probably.

How long do you think it's going to take?

Maybe 10 minutes.

Mayor, Councillors, I'm glad to be here this evening.

My name is Catherine Lee and I'm the Strategic

Planning and Workforce Development Officer for CATEC.

I've been here for about four months and I'm very glad to be in an organization that can, aspires to fill some of the needs for Albemarle County and the city workforce development and career training.

Very excited about that.

There's been a rigorous strategic planning effort in the past through a period where there was an interim director

and I was brought on to actually put feet to that strategic plan and to start on those first steps.

So one of the things that CATEC has been around for decades is really good at providing training at the high school level.

We have three programs, a high school program, we have an adult ed program and we have an adult apprenticeship program.

And our high school program is an elective program

with base schools in the city and in the county feeding those programs.

Right now we offer cosmetology, firefighting, pharmaceutical tech.

We have CNA.

We have a dental technician program.

We have a culinary program and we have a music program.

Then we have our construction arts and trades program.

Then we have automotive tech and auto body.

Those are the current programs

We're really interested in working with the business community to identify what are the real workforce needs currently and what they look like in the future for the businesses that are here.

Also looking at what we may anticipate as there are economic advancements in this region so that we're training our young people and our adults to fill those needs.

to make sure that that middle tier of workforce is supported and trained so that people can make a good living here in this area.

In order to do that, there are a couple of things.

One is to be able to promote and identify those career paths for students themselves and their parents as an alternative to or an addition to going to college and getting a degree.

The other one is to be able to identify employers that can participate in curriculum development and planning with our organization so that we are best meeting their needs and they actively engage with us in training, internships, soft skills identification and other types of things.

And the third one is to be able to engage and work with the schools to make sure that the students can actually enroll well.

that they're supported, that it's in line with all of the academics that they're doing at the high school level, recruiting students more at the middle school level and teaching them about what those career paths look like.

So my job has been to work on these first steps.

I have done outreach with the Chamber of Commerce.

I have attended round table meetings with industry representatives and businesses.

I've done one-on-ones and site visits.

I have been working with the school personnel, the principals, counselors in our base schools, reaffirming their commitment to send students who are academically strong, as well as others that are looking for alternative experiences in high school, all of those, making sure that they have opportunities to attend CATEC part time.

We have been working with PVCC to make sure that our curriculum is in alignment with PVCC curriculum, maximizing the amount of dual credit or high school college credit that you can take when you're in the high school program, and that we're on the same page about what are the industry credentials that are most important to develop programming for.

So in the four months, I've been able to do internal audits and understand what we've been doing well.

We're committed to taking the programs that are strong that we're providing right now and make sure that they're strengthened and we recruit for those.

And then to move forward in some other areas that CATEC really hasn't been providing instruction in.

So we're looking to identify coursework curriculum,

dual enrollment credit with PVCC in several areas for next year.

Those would be in information and engineering technologies.

We're identifying curriculum for an academy in that area.

Also for advanced manufacturing.

And also in health and medicine, although we have some health-related and medicine-related

of coursework and credentialing.

We'd like to be able to expand that and make it a little bit more agile and to recruit more students into that area.

So we're in the process now of convening industry-wide councils with businesses and PVCC and curriculum development credentialing institutions to do exactly that.

You'll see those course offerings in those academies

launch for next year this time.

I'm very excited about it.

I'm glad to be here.

I'm glad to work in this capacity and to help CATEC be all that it can be.

That was really super.

And I'm going to ask you at least one or two reinforcing questions.

So does CATEC want to have more kids come down there?

Do they want to boost their enrollment?

Absolutely.

How do you do this with the kids and does it go out as far as Western Albemarle?

We bring in kids from all over and I think that one of the issues is making sure that the students and the parents understand what resource CATEC is.

One is an interest level and having them feel secure and comfortable that they are going to enjoy the experience, that the education is a high quality education,

that it's not in lieu of going to college, but it is an opportunity to have a different type of hands-on experience in high school and to really market that.

It's an elective program, so students need to actually elect to come to CATEC.

And there's a logistical issue with moving students around on a day-to-day basis.

All right, so you've been thrilled at more

Thank you.

That was a good presentation.

You said that you did sort of an audit of what you've done well.

One way is to track the ease in which students hear about CATEC and are able to enroll and choose that as an elective and to make sure that we're using all of our staff resources and other resources

And have you seen any problem with a certain demographics sort of

One of the things that we might be able to do is to look at scheduling.

The access that CATEC can provide to students earlier in their high school career would give us an opportunity to touch more students, to do more outreach in middle school.

to identify those career paths or the educational pathways to career choices that don't necessarily require college education.

And that could go for students who intend to go to college as well as ones that don't.

It's not exclusive.

And just one last question.

And that has to do with the IT.

And the reason I ask that is because it sounds like you're getting into some arenas that

are being offered in the main school or that would reach a population that might not have historically gone to CATEC.

And so just being sure it's not unintended scheduling conflicts.

Well, one of the areas that we'd like to, that we see a need

for workforce training is in switching and routing, networking skills where you actually have equipment, you know how to make it work, you know how to troubleshoot.

It's not just book learning and it's not just computer programming, for example.

Those are credential programs that we'd like to bring on board where the student is going to walk away in high school with industry recognized credentials.

We'll be making announcements about that.

also by getting college credit for that activity.

Those types of programs are not being offered in that capacity in those high schools.

And I ask that because my son, who went to all his

City Schools, and he learned something in Charlottesville High School that he says has been absolutely invaluable to him in his career in journalism.

He's in online journalism and that's programming.

And he said there are three jobs for everybody and every programmer.

It's just in all different fields because the computer online just infiltrates

so many different fields.

So I just sort of pass that on as right now there's an incredible need.

And we can fill that niche.

I really appreciate the kind of 21st century approach that CATEC has been taking, that the board has been really looking at.

So we're not just looking at these are the kids who are going to go to college and those are the kids who are not.

And we have to find something for them to do.

but it really is about education at all levels and I think that whether it's brick masonry which is an incredibly exacting skill or whether it's something like a credential that then you can go to college but still have these other skills along the way and prepare yourself for ladder so you're not always at the bottom.

I have a question.

And again, thank you so much for your presentation.

I just want to kind of get a better picture of how you're kind of complementing the work of PVCC.

And because you still have an adult apprenticeship program at CATEC, is there any redundancy there with what PVCC is doing?

Or are you envisioning that you're going to be moving more in the direction of this is secondary level education, and you're going to be doing these

kind of industry certification programs just like PVCC does but for the adult population.

PVCC's mission is much different than CATEC's mission.

There's going to be some overlap and it makes sense to have alignment of the kind of training and credentialing that allows students to be able to get college credit and also get an industry credential which is not college credit.

So we're focusing on the credentialing piece and looking to maximize the ability for the student to get a jump into the college credit arena.

Yes, we have three programs.

We have a high school program.

We have an adult ed program, which is not college credit.

But in many cases, the adult students

Okay, so you're asking about the PVCC programs that are non-academic, right?

Okay, thank you very much for your presentation.

You're welcome.

I appreciate it.

We're going to take five minutes break.

I kept looking up there and only seeing the guts of it.

you

Dede Smith

you

Dede Smith

you

Next item on the agenda is a transient lodging to stand for.

We had this discussion for almost one year.

We had some discussion last time, so we can move forward.

Go ahead.

I'm Matt Ofley, City Planner, Neighborhood Development Services.

Mayor, Councillors, City Manager, City Attorney, this ordinance updating the City's Bed and Breakfast Homestay to Homestay was presented to City Council on August 17th.

City Council made alterations to the proposal.

Thank you.

They were the removal of light fare from Homestay for no food beverage service.

I wish I had my edited one.

I had one that had the old and the new.

I apologize.

Thank you for, yes, there was change so that all the property could be used and not just the dwelling.

The revocation clause was updated to reflect a more

Correct, that three or more substantial complaints are received.

My apologies.

There was one other change.

Correct.

The more than six months for to be in the home, but you could allow to do this right away.

Any comments?

The only feedback I got from folks who have been impacted by this was concern that they

Might be good if we just kind of make that number known so that if people wanted, because I too understood why the planning commission didn't want to just go out and do that but if

And I don't know if that maybe would be something in just the

Any other comments or questions?

I have a little discussion, but I'm happy to make a motion.

I'm going to make a motion.

Actually, we've already had a motion.

You already had a one.

Oh, oh.

Any other comments or discussions?

I actually have two.

I am planning to vote for this, I think,

that we've come up with a way, we've kind of grabbed victory from the jaws of defeat.

We've found something that we can agree on.

I think a couple of us feel that there is another whole section of transient lodging that we're not dealing with here, but I have been assured that this ordinance doesn't have any impact on that other one and the status of that.

I'm content to go forward with what we do agree on and kind of worry about another time.

But I do remain concerned about the possible effects of kind of an over popularity of this model that home stay properties could have on housing availability and on housing prices in some neighborhoods.

If it really got to be too thick on the ground

and I understood the attorney's concern about how you would restrict uses like this by number in an area.

So I'm content to leave it the way it is.

But I would like the minutes to reflect and staff to note that concern and to just really keep an eye on where we're seeing concentrations of this use with the idea that at some point we might have to revisit the issue for its effect on affordable housing and housing availability.

I've thought about this a lot, we all have.

I appreciated the conversations with my fellow counselors as well about this, but I've always seen this as having, the best analogy is like three legs to a three-legged stool and we've got one leg which is regulating the owner-occupied short-term rental.

The other two legs were regulating the non-owner-occupied short-term rental and then as Ms. Szakos was talking about, monitoring both.

so that we have an idea of what's happening in each of the neighborhoods and how it's impacting both affordability as well as the stability of the neighborhood.

I'm also concerned that there's still this unknown about whether it's legal or not legal with this piece that hasn't been regulated yet.

I think it's an industry that is something that we need to regulate.

So having said that, I still feel that this is an incomplete model.

I think staff, you've been responding to what you've been charged to do by planning commission.

I understand that.

want to do more.

And I feel, however, that we already have a lot of zoning ordinances that we all know we want to change.

They need to change.

They're not servicing this community the way we want them to.

So we have a lot of work to do with the existing codes that we have in place.

That's why we put the code audit in place.

That's why we've got streets that work in place.

I really feel uncomfortable putting another, what I view,

as an incomplete ordinance on top of what all the other ordinances that we still have to review, audit, and change.

So when we come back to this, that's the other piece, there's no date certain that we're gonna come back to revisit the regulation of the non-owner-occupied short-term rental or how we're gonna monitor it, be it caps per census tract or geographic distances,

We need to study other places.

I mentioned Nashville.

I mentioned Austin, Savannah.

I don't see that yet.

I don't see it a timeline.

I don't see it on the horizon.

And I'd just like to say that I don't consider this incomplete and I don't consider

that this doesn't address non-owner occupied home occupations.

I mean, home occupation doesn't have to be owner occupied, does it, for the general home occupation category?

Is that required to be a permanent resident who does that home occupation, whether it's a business or whatever?

The fact that HomeStays and the provisional use permit to do this is in that setting that it still does preclude an investor coming in and buying a whole house and only air being it.

So this does cover that.

Whether or not you have to be the owner of the home

One comment and then I'm gonna call the question.

I believe also it's a reasonable measured first step.

So I appreciate the work you've done

and this will give us something to build on.

Okay.

Please vote.

Thank you very much.

I want to thank the staff also for your good work.

We appreciate that it took some time.

It will help our community.

Thank you.

Next item on the agenda is the

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Graham Slayton, Executive Director, Piedmont Council for the Arts.

And I really do intend for this just to be a quick check in.

The city very generously has supported PCA for the next year and past years as well.

And we just want to be able to check in with you and let you know how things are progressing with the cultural plant

Before I get started though, because there's been some nice articles, Daily Progress, yesterday or the day before about development.

There was a great article out of Chicago that appeared online today about why theater companies are so valuable for developers that I'd like to leave for you.

As you'll remember,

If I'm wrong in my facts, please straighten me out, because I'm still new on a lot of this.

City Council charged PCA with the development of a cultural plan for Charlottesville and Albemarle County in 2012-2013.

And the ensuing document, which was the product of more than 1,000 community voices, was collected and processed over a year's time, presented publicly in January 14.

And then it kind of went dormant until I appeared

in January of 15.

So we had a year where things were percolating along.

It wasn't like it disappeared, but it wasn't terribly activated.

So as I understand it, this is the first report that you've gotten on the cultural plan since its launch.

For me, in order to take a plan with over 100 action points and to put them into some kind of manageable shape,

I spent a lot of this past spring building this Excel sheet that you have the first report from, so I think you've got all the detail in the world on every line item that's in that cultural plan based on a basic red, yellow, green color scheme as we move towards satisfaction of each point.

And I also found there were a number of points that needed additional clarification or input or outside participation.

So those cold points are marked in either blue or purple and ones that I found no longer germane or relevant were marked in black.

Overall, I'd say the cultural plan is well under the way and well in process and just a few high points from it.

I would say PCA is working closely with Aaron Eichhorst from the city schools system as well as Doug Granger from the county schools.

on satisfying the education goals.

We're working extremely well together and it's an exciting process for us.

Some of the diversity and inclusion goal points are progressing very nicely thanks to PCA's inclusion in Play the City with the Bridge PAI and members of the city staff.

We've had numerous conversations with art partners as diverse as McGuffey Arts Center, New City Arts, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts about the needs of artists and creative workers.

We've expanded our own community reach to the formation of a junior board, which we call the 2030 board, which is composed of young people in their 20s and 30s, a lot of which are arts practitioners, the rest are arts enthusiasts, and represents that generation that we could lose just as we lost the previous generation when rents got to be too high.

And we're very excited to be inheriting Art in Place.

We're doing a slow transition now, which will open us to a public art program.

that we think can answer a lot of the individual points, particularly as we start to slowly expand it into being more than just sculpture for the city.

However, the heart of the cultural plan, as I read it, still centers around the goal points in Goal 6, which is about cultural infrastructure.

And that speaks to building capacities, streamlining government's funding process, and identifying and enacting a dedicated funding stream for the arts.

My assessment of the Charlottesville Albemarle arts ecosystem is that we enjoy a greater than average number of arts assets that are funded below average for the kind of town that we have.

So I'm afraid that we're starting to move towards a crisis of sustainability for a lot of our arts assets and that is the primary thing that I think PCA and I would say the city needs to be working towards satisfying.

PCA believes that the future of the arts in our area may require a larger vision for the cultural plan.

I think the cultural plan document that was published in 2013, presented in 2014, is a great first step.

It identified a lot of the issues, but it needs a larger framework and a context to truly be actionable and ultimately sustainable.

because we see the arts as the third leg of the stool, not to use Ms. Galvin's metaphor that you just used ahead of me, that goes hand in glove with our education assets and our historic assets for being the real cultural driver, tourism driver for our area.

I would hope in the coming weeks and months that I'll be able to meet with each of you individually and talk about ways that we can expand that cultural plan that I think is gonna work

benefit the city tremendously as well as the arts assets in the town.

So that's about as short of presentation as I can make and I really do appreciate everything that you're doing.

I've heard a lot of things tonight, a lot of which feed back to the cultural plan that I think we can help you with and PCA is always willing and able to do that, particularly with the increase in staff we just

Quick comment and it's just a small piece of what you do and I'm kind of harkening back to the haven and that thing you had last year.

I was at a function yesterday at Tonster Park.

They have the most beautiful little amphitheater there, but I've never seen anybody performing.

I've never seen Music Resource Center, I've never seen Lighthouse, never seen Shakespeare on the Lawn.

It's just a perfect little venue that I've never seen anybody there.

So in the back of your head as you go around, if you could just remind people, because it's these kinds of things that we can take these arts events and take them to people who don't normally see them or can't go out of their neighborhood, you know, up into Albemarle County or even Standardville where they have Shakespeare, that kind of thing.

That's all I have, but this is great.

Thanks.

I heard the not entirely unspoken piece of what you said, which is we're going to need more money.

And I think that that's been part of this plan all along.

And I support that in principle.

But one of the things that I've been talking to various kind of arts folks around the community recently about is sort of the approach that we've taken to after school programing, the approach that we've taken to issues of homelessness and housing, of trying to facilitate and be a convener

and you being a convener on our behalf of the arts community in looking at collaborative things, ways that you all can work together for collective impact, not necessarily merging because I don't think that's necessarily healthy, but figuring out ways that each organization can be part of the whole in ways that we can fund without having to fund, fund, fund in

You know, lots of repetitive ways.

And I agree with you wholeheartedly.

Having grown up here, gone away and come back, I can tell you that the arts ecosystem that we're enjoying now is really

a benefit of the last 20 years of development in town.

Oh, it's not for lack of willingness.

I just want to thank you for laboring over these spreadsheets.

This makes it very, very easy to see where you are in your own trajectory.

So thanks a lot for that, and I'll keep studying it so that I'm very informed when you and I get together to talk.

playing up on some things that some of the councils have said.

Yeah, just getting us all more efficient and also helping us to understand the physical plant that we have, the buildings that we have that could be put to better use to support a more efficient arts community.

You know, be it McGuffey, where the Bridge PAI is right now, which I guess is temporary, I know that there are

artists in the Beck Cohen building.

I mean, so where all these places are, where all these potential places are would be really good to get a handle on as well.

So it's a physical dimension to this as well as programmatic.

Yeah, I'd just like to, and we can't forget the African American Heritage Center, which is our newest and really one of the most important cultural centers we have, and we're just realizing its potential.

Now, I just want to say, and I won't be on council to decide this, but I am intrigued by, Graham, something that we've talked about, which is that the arts, as in PCA being an umbrella organization, be funded through a dedicated portion of a tax, whether it's lodging tax or whatever, that is tied to tourism and to the benefit that the arts bring.

and kind of that feedback loop that as you get more stable and predictable funding that it will then feed even more funding because of that.

Thank you.

Do we have one or two comments?

First of all, thank you for the good presentation and being brief.

But we are at a stage in our city where we have good, quite a bit of good infrastructure, good resources, and the city has created quite a bit of money in terms of being a good organization.

I've been a good supporter of this, not because

for any special interest and knowledge because great cities are great art.

And I think great cultural facilities are important for our great cities.

And I think we have a great city and I'm sure hope that our council will continue to support arts and cultural activities so we will take out the baton.

And I hope that you also follow some of the suggestions made by our colleagues in the coming year.

Next item has been deferred to the next meeting.

The next item is Ordinance.

Reminding YMCA ground lease.

I'll make a few precatory remarks.

My name is Kirk Krueger.

I'm the chairman of the Piedmont Family YMCA.

I thought maybe Mr. Brown was going to present this, but I'll

I'll give it a summary statement.

I do believe that the staff report that was written by Mr. Brown very adequately goes to this issue.

What you have before you is an amendment number one to the ground lease that we entered into between the city and the YMCA back in 2008.

It really does, it has three purposes.

One is the fact that the

When we entered into the ground lease in January of 2008, the actual identification of the borders of the leased property were left to a master planning plan for McIntyre Park that was completed in May, some five months after we entered into the lease.

You can't, and Ms. Smith had raised this issue before, you can't really look at the lease by itself, figure out what the lease borders are,

So what we have done is taken amendment number one as the opportunity to say in fact the leased borders are what was set at your May 19, 2008 council meeting so that in fact you can look at the lease and it will stand alone in terms of defining where the leased area is.

The second item that it does, and this was also driven by a comment that

that Ms. Smith made was that there was some ambiguity because of cross references to a section in the lease that talked about when you have to buy the building back from us, which was really supposed to be limited to the situation where we come to the end of the ground lease and you don't renew my ground lease.

I'm still ready, willing, and able to perform, but you take the building away from me.

And under that circumstance, you would have to pay the Y 90% of the fair market value of the building at that time, whatever it is in 40 years.

But because that section was also cross-referenced by two other sections that talked about if I default or if I fail to commence construction, what we've done is cleaned up those things and made sure that under those two scenarios,

The city does not have to pay the YMCA 90% of the fair market value of the building.

It's only under the circumstance where you do not renew the ground lease and we're still ready, willing, and able to perform for another 40 years, which will be beyond my lifetime probably.

The most important part of Amendment No.

1, however, is our lender.

We have a commitment letter from Sona Bank for a $12 million loan, a $12 million loan to finance construction, and the lender is requiring us to give a leasehold deed of trust to it.

We can all listen.

That's all right.

The purpose of the Leasehold Deed of Trust for the lender is really twofold.

One is the bank regulators realize that—the bank realizes that this is an unsecured loan.

It will have guarantees, but it has no other security.

It's collateral, except revenues that we don't generate until after the loan funds are dispersed and we've built the building, because we don't have members until we've built the building.

So what they would like is the ability to be able to say to the regulators that in fact they have some collateral for this.

And that collateral will be the YMCA's interest in the lease.

It is not the city's fee interest in the land.

I cannot pledge that.

It is not mine to pledge.

I don't have it under the lease.

All I can pledge are my rights that have obligations tied to them under the ground lease as a tenant.

The subject to all the requirements of how I have to operate that building under the ground lease and use agreement.

So it's not, they can't take the building, for instance, and turn it into an office building or a McDonald's.

They have to operate it as a nonprofit recreation center, open to all, subject to scholarships.

Anybody from the city and the county can come, all of the requirements that I have to operate a loose use agreement.

And if they don't, they are subject to the same exact default provisions that I'm subject to if I didn't do it.

More importantly, though, as a practical matter, I think the bank realizes that

monetary value of having a leasehold deed of trust is probably not that great because, as you might imagine, the number of bidders that would come to a foreclosure sale under a leasehold deed of trust and would actually bid to in fact operate a nonprofit recreation center and therefore get no profit is probably pretty small in the world.

What it does do, however, is allow the bank to come to me and to come to, if I'm still on the board at that time,

or to come to Jessica if she is still my executive director at the time and say we don't think you're about to not make a payment and we think that's because you are managing this thing in the wrong way.

You are making poor choices.

I think you better change your mind about some of those choices you've made or we have the ability

to foreclose under this lease.

It's a leverage mechanism for them to make us do the right thing, if we were not doing the right thing.

Frankly, we would hope it never would come to that.

Also, under the ground lease, you are, I believe it might be under the use agreement, the city and the county also have the right to put two members that they select on my board.

So four members of the board will be from the city and the county.

also preventing us from doing the wrong thing hopefully.

If I could, Mr. Mayor, just to add a word about the process.

We received the request from the YMCA relatively recently.

and I felt it would be a real challenge to give adequate notice of a public hearing in time for tonight's hearing.

And given that this is a significant step for the city and one in which the public has previously shown a great deal of interest, it was our thought that one week of notice

especially over a holiday weekend was not the best way to proceed but rather to recommend that this have a public hearing before the second reading and therefore any interested members of the public would have three weeks to consider these amendments so that's the recommendation of staff that if council is so inclined to have a first reading of the ordinance tonight

And just for clarification, if we did that we would probably vote on the same day as the public hearing.

Well I'd just like to

Well, okay.

No, I think it's instructive for anybody watching to know what some of the issues might be.

And I want to thank you, Mr. Krueger, for clarifying.

You know how concerned I was about the city's risk in having to come up with $20 million under confusing situations.

So having clarified it, I very much appreciate

By definition, whoever does this has to live within every one of the restrictions I have under the ground lease and use grant.

Well, I disagree with that.

I appreciate your vote of confidence.

But at the same time, every turn in this ground lease

The Y has to get city approval to sublet, and then there was another condition, and I sent them all to Mr. Brown, except for the bank.

But the bank is the one who would end up owning the building.

Tell me if I'm wrong, Mr. Brown.

Tell me if I'm wrong, Mr. Krueger, that if the bank ended up with the building and the lease,

and they're going to, if they're following their fiduciary duty, find the best, highest, most profitable, get our money back buyer that is not subject, whoever that is, is not subject to city approval.

Such that we might be concerned if it's a religious, a fanatical religious group or something that would conflict with our, you might want to call it separation of church and state, you can call it anything you want.

If I could just respond in part because you and I exchanged a number of emails about it and I didn't get a chance to respond to your last one.

One of the things that I probably should have pointed out earlier is the leasehold deed of trust as a part for the city to sign.

We're called the master landlord and

by signing that, we acknowledge that the bank, we acknowledge the rights of the lender, of the bank to choose some, a new lessee and that's at the bank's discretion.

Assuming as you said and Mr. Crewe said, it's someone that follows the lease and use agreement.

Right, which is what I'm, exactly what I'm referring to is that

After we sign this, we no longer have a say about who is in the building when it's at the bank level.

If the Y should default, and you're putting yourself at an increased risk by taking out this loan, by taking on 700 and three-quarters of a million dollars in extra annual debt, so if the Y should default, the first stop is the bank.

and if we have already signed away any right to have a say about who that is then transferred to, that is the risk we are signing.

That's the risk we're giving away at this point.

We didn't have that risk under the 2008 ground lease.

The YMCA did not have the ability to assign the ground lease without the city's consent.

Exactly.

by granting the leasehold deed of trust, you are consenting to the bank doing the typical foreclosure process that lenders would have to do under a deed of trust where they would either be the highest bidder—if it went to a foreclosure sale, they would either be the highest bidder or if there were outside bidders there,

that highest bidder would win or they would call off the sale.

But yes, you will not have the right to pick who their person is.

Yes.

But, again, that would be a situation under which the YMCA is unable to be operating that building in a way that does this.

And what the opportunity it gives you is

that the bank may be able to find someone who in fact can operate that building and repay that debt.

Without this mechanism in place, the only other alternative is basically we walk away, you get the building, and you have to staff it with your city parks and recs folk.

This allows you at least the opportunity, I view it as an opportunity, for the bank to step in and find a

a person that or entity that can run it obviously better than we are or we wouldn't have been in default.

Right.

It's if you go into default, which you've now just put yourself into a higher risk for with the loan, and we are exactly giving up our right of approval.

That is written everywhere else in this lease that we had up in the 2008 lease.

We had that upon city approval and I think we just have to recognize that risk.

That is, we're giving up, we're putting ourselves in a very, very different position.

Because the example that I cited was a foundation, I'm sure it's a lovely foundation, it's a non-profit charitable foundation called the Christian Heritage Foundation.

whose mission it is to teach the blessings of Jesus Christ.

If a foundation like that, who could come in, who might want a recreation center, they're someplace else, but who has cash, and a lot of these places have cash.

They've got cash.

They don't have the same operational obligations you do.

They have to operate the facility, but they don't have $750,000 in debt on top of that.

So it's not that

They have to, yes.

They absolutely have to.

But they can do what they want in, they can portray what they want in that building.

It could be a religious theme under those same ground lease.

There's nothing in the ground lease that says you can't do that.

So I'm just saying, this is just the risk that we're taking on.

What could we, under this lease, what I'm asking for is upon city approval, like it says, everywhere else in the lease

upon city approval, or I think that is, whatever those words are.

The other thing I think we need, so that is my concern, you know my concern here.

I would like to put that out.

The other concern, the other thing I think we need to verify, and we've also had this conversation, there is a

There's a place in this ground lease that says that the Y has the right to use McIntyre Park parking.

But it doesn't say that the patrons of McIntyre Park have the right to use Y parking.

Yes, in order for us to get enough spaces to service the Y during our peak hours we have to build I think it's 158 additional spaces and those are going to be available to

None of these spaces are dedicated to the Y, although I think we will have a couple of handicap mark spaces that are probably dedicated to folks that are using the Y because they'll be connected to a ramp sidewalk that will go into the Y.

But there is no rule one way or the other that we get to use all of your spaces any time we want or you get to use all of our spaces any time we want.

In fact, it's parking

for anyone who's visiting the park, whether they're there for softball, Little League baseball, visiting the Y, Fourth of July fireworks, whatever.

Okay, I think that would be really important as we're amending, as long as we're amending things, to make that really clear.

That will all be part of a joint use and maintenance agreement that the police contemplates that we will negotiate with Mr. Daley in Parks and Recreation.

We haven't done that yet.

Okay, well it should be put in right next to where in parking, and it's 10G, I believe.

If it's in the ground lease saying that the Y has the use of back and tire parking, we need it also to say that the patrons of the park have the use

the ground lease requires it to be open to all citizens within there's no problem putting it in the lease as long as it's in the lease in one direction it needs it just needs to be clarified I think we have to understand Mr. Huja that if we have opened up the possibility that's a different entity

that we do not have the right to approve will be in this building.

We need to make it really, really clear in this ground lease.

We are no longer dealing with our friend, the YMCA, who we trust.

Well, then it shouldn't be in the ground lease in the first place saying that the Y can use the parking

I think the provision that Councillor Smith is speaking about is actually in the use agreement.

Oh, I'm sorry, it's in the use agreement.

It is in the use agreement.

Yes, excuse me.

It says the city agrees to permit users of the facility, meaning the YMCA facility.

to use the existing parking spaces in McIntyre Park.

The only reason I point that out is that's not subject to just the city and the YMCA, the county of Albemarle, also a party to that use agreement.

I have to say, I'm a little uncomfortable with the kind of,

I don't feel like I'm overstating it to call it fear mongering.

In the email that you sent, you didn't just mention the Christian Heritage Foundation, but a Muslim foundation that might want to run it and be awful.

I would refer to gender to the need for gender segregated facilities.

I'm embarrassed that either of them were things that were concerns because we do have this ironclad document

that protects us in the case of anything like that.

So I would like to at this point make a motion