City Council Meeting   10/19/2015

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We 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.

Roll call, please.

Mr. Huja?

Yes.

Ms. Szakos?

Ms. Galvin?

Here.

We will take a minute of silence to recognize him.

And we're very excited to be recognized as the EPA Water Science Partner of the Year

and it recognizes all the hard work that goes into our pretty great water conservation program and we also want to thank the citizens of Charlottesville for taking water conservation so seriously.

the energized Charlottesville campaign to win the Georgetown University Energy Prize, the ongoing partnership with LEAP to improve energy performance in our community through initiatives like Solarize, home energy checkups, and the commercial energy revolving loan program, city solar projects, the streets that work efforts, the recently adopted bike ped master plan, green infrastructure efforts like walkable watershed project, the composting pilot at the farmer's market, the electric vehicle mini grant program, and our award-winning water conservation program.

I just have announcements.

Anyone interested in donating a tree should contact Tim Hughes, our urban forester, at 434-970-3587 or hughes at charlesville.org and Hughes is spelled H-U-G-H-E-S.

And what it is, it's a walking tour of Starr Hill right by Jefferson School and Union Ridge, which is right by the Ivy Creek Natural Area, which is an African American heritage site due to its very rich history with one family for 100 years.

You got the other ones, it's like front and back.

So that's just an illustration of the bridge.

And I think somebody's going to come up and say a few words about that, I hope.

And I don't know if any of the other counselors are, but I know I'm a judge at the canine, or at the Halloween, the dog Halloween.

Would you like to announce appointments for city council?

for the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority, Betsy Reitger and Nicholas Yates, for the Human Rights Commission, Gordon Fields, Sue Lewis, and A. Den Mills, and for the Vendor Appeals Board, Al Elias.

With three minutes to speak, please identify your name and address and do an interpreting of the speakers.

Michael Nally.

Thank you very much for this time to address the council.

Jessica Mazzoli

Thank you for your time.

Downing Smith.

They don't make them like that anymore and I'm going to miss him.

Thank you for the chance to express these views.

At our presentations we ask kids to sign the anti-bullying pledge so I'm going to ask that each of you sign one too and here's your blue ribbon and that's what I have to say about my one stamp for the silent Albemarle we're on Facebook you should see the amazing things that we do I would love to talk forever and ever but

Do you have those?

And every time you take toothpaste out, you think about what my analogy is.

Thank you.

And Ms. Szakos.

David Hash.

Yes.

Do you want to speak?

Stand for the silent Albemarle.

Do you want to give where and when?

Thank you.

Scott Fisley Scott Fisley Scott Fisley Anybody named Scott Fisley here?

Sorry about that.

If you wait a little bit.

John Hayden.

Is there anybody else who would like to speak?

Please go forward.

Thank you very much.

One more question if anybody would like to speak.

I'm looking forward to that in the coming months.

I think I'll leave it at that.

So just thank you for coming out, spending your time that you don't have to spend in here.

And people really need the folks around them to be paying attention and to try to pull them out.

So if we could get a report out on that as well, I think the public would be really appreciative.

And so we certainly can provide an update to council later on this year on what we're finding with the collection of data and things that are going on right now.

So if your name is not called, don't fret that after we've gone through all the names, everybody will have an opportunity to have their three minutes.

Page, please.

And item L, an Ordinance Franchise Agreement with Intellifiber, formerly Dominion Telecom, second of two readings.

Does any member of the council like to remove or have a comment or question on these items?

I would just like to note that there's over $900,000 in grants, money that's being spent locally without it coming out of local taxes.

And actually just my question, and I just wondered this as I read it, Mr. Genzer, could you come up and just tell us where that multi-use pathway is?

We need to wait for that.

We do?

Because Mr. Genzer is not doing your YouTube.

Yeah, I just wondered where it was.

Okay, any other questions or comments?

Not codes.

Is there anybody else with any questions or comments?

I'd like to make a motion that we adopt the consent agenda.

Please, staff.

Mr. Stewart will be presenting.

I'll be brief.

I'm happy to answer any questions or turn it over to the public process.

Any questions of staff before public hearing?

Yeah, I hope I haven't missed it, but how is your fundraising going?

They have partnered with the Piedmont Council for the Arts to do some initial fundraising and that's something that they're pursuing in greater detail.

Thank you very much.

Also questions, comments, motions?

give us kind of how that would fit into this lease process and who would pay for it and who would be responsible and how it would happen.

separately and financially we may be able to partner in that but it would be a very expensive thing to do and certainly would need to have quite a bit of discussion about what the vision is.

It could be within this five years or it couldn't be?

It certainly could be.

Is there any thought that in the next five years there's going to be a need for a new roof for major maintenance?

We have enough that go missing where we get leaks and we go up and do those repairs.

So what do you anticipate is the cost in a year of just general maintenance of that building?

Actually, the amount of the rent is structured to recoup our basic maintenance costs, basic maintenance costs, not major capital investment.

Yes.

All right.

Yeah, sorry.

Thank you, that was it.

And I was at Sobroso.

Yes.

As hot as it was at the X-Park, they're gonna be coming back begging you.

You think so?

And if somebody out there wanted to be a patron, who would they contact?

Just come to the Art Center.

Google's a one-stop shop.

Do you have any plans to become a 501c3?

It would be another

Is the McGuffin climate controlled?

No, we have no air conditioning.

I don't like the air conditioning units hanging out in front of an historic building.

Other questions and comments?

Just so we're sure.

Is there a motion?

Second?

Discussion, then vote.

It's it, okay.

Are we supposed to vote?

Yes, we can.

See, I can't see it from that side.

Five yeses.

Thank you for coming.

I can see it now.

Next public hearing is just on trees in McIntyre Park.

I think I'm just gonna stop right there and see if there are any questions.

Any questions?

I have one.

Yes, ma'am.

Will any of these trees have an impact on the construction of the skate park or any of the other plans?

No, they will not and neither will the skate park construction have an impact on them.

Good, that was my second question, thank you.

I just like to make a comment that

It's the, at least the former chair of the tree commission was the author on all these, but I assume there were a number of people involved with the research and the identification.

It's just a matter of convenience and coincidence.

Because there's some really good history in there.

Yeah, we can make them available.

Does the Tree Commission have a web page?

If not, we can get that done fairly easily.

I learned things just reading the nominations.

Other questions?

Is it an ordinance?

And I, who love trees as well, will second it.

Right.

I'm the city's parks and trails planner.

We are also still awaiting final results of the eco-studies and bayou blitzes, so to speak, so that we know places we would avoid putting any trails no matter what the use decisions are this evening.

Yes, I have a question, Mayor Huja.

Is that correct?

There is no proposal to put any different facilities in the park.

Or how would you proceed with public engagement?

but we could certainly go through that process before any further.

But the fundamentally you needed the ordinance first to know what kind of a direction you're going in.

Who would be allowed to use it, correct.

So what Ms. Galvin is saying would in fact affect the course of...

after tonight's discussion.

Have you already recommended that anybody use it in a different way than it has been used?

We've advised everybody that this is a public process and no decisions have been made and awaiting that decision currently.

Have you had an opportunity to discuss the changes with Ednam Forest?

the public realizes that is a private neighborhood and they're not supposed to be using that back access.

So involving them would be part of a master planning process.

Certainly.

And then you said last meeting that, or at least maybe it was through an email, that you were going to give us a report on the, as much as you were able, given the sensitivity of the information, on what the BioBlitz has found so far, and is that an ongoing, I assume?

He doesn't quite have a report with specific locations yet, but we're working to nail that down and would include it in any planning process in terms of what to avoid or what to showcase if that's the case.

and told me what could be said and what cannot be said.

We want to talk to those naturalists and get more specific and again some of the plants are very rare and special that you wouldn't want the public to know exactly where they are because there's a fear they might be harvested or otherwise inappropriately visited.

And those such plants have been found?

Yes.

or satisfactory to feel like you really have a sense for the ecosystem as a whole, sort of where they are?

Preservation.

Is there any experts looking at those?

Historical Society, Steven Meeks, and another person on the BioBlitz kind of has some of that expertise as well.

What would it be?

We've been laying out the system and pretty much all volunteers have been coming out to build them on volunteer days.

But not all volunteers?

Again, we're not building any soccer fields or buildings so I think it's fair to say it really doesn't increase the cost because I'm on salary and the volunteers are free.

Okay.

Oh, do you want a question?

Point of clarification, we say no budget impact.

existing funding and our existing capabilities and will result in no additional requests for funds.

There will be a budgetary impact and I would like to see it in the documents here.

Okay, I wasn't trying to minimize, I was just trying to explain our process.

to do that for every single item.

Real quick, Mr. Mayor, I'll wait till the public.

And so, we had a little chat about this, but how do you plan to deal with the limited language in the easement?

So we'd revisit the deed, but we looked at that, and it was more of a suggestive language than a restrictive language.

Have you talked with the very nice folks who allowed us an easement across their land?

I don't believe they are still alive.

There are certainly family members.

We're discussing with her acquisition of even more land.

But the family does still live in the area.

I believe you've gotten them all, but if you haven't, this is verbatim every single email you've gotten since two weeks ago about this.

Did you divide them up by pros and cons?

Good evening.

And the fact that it was both, it's up.

Actually, Dean, can you give us your name and address?

I'm sorry, Eugene Filippi.

And just for the purposes of, since you are out of time, do you want mixed use or not?

No.

Thank you.

Have a seat and if you want to see you again, is there another meeting with another chance?

Yes, sir.

Kristin, can I have a little?

Good evening, my name is Christopher Little.

And I'm Ryan Little and we live at 214 Blackthorn Lane.

We are representing the junior cycling community in Charlottesville and we support shared use because it gives us a chance to teach the kids about nature.

and it also gives us an opportunity to share our resources respectfully and as we all know, healthy lifestyles start at an early age and Ragged Mountain is a great place to stay active.

Elizabeth Murray.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Rebecca Quinn.

Thank you.

To summarize, bikes and dogs will degrade the environment and will disturb the peace and tranquility of the trails.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Doug Rogers.

I urge you not to make these rules change.

David from Westwood, 14th and 4th Westwood Drive Road, David.

We want people to get out there.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Sam Lindblom My name is Sam Lindblom.

Thank you very much for your time.

Eric Stavisky.

Thank you very much.

John Anderson.

I know it's great to have that in town, but I think both sides will really live together better than either side thinks.

Thank you very much.

I think that's probably the wrong, you signed up on the wrong sheet.

Dan Beaker.

Thank you.

Will Sanford.

Thank you.

Ken Crawford.

Thank you.

Gretchen?

Thank you.

Please go forward.

Thank you.

So I'm here to speak against the change in the ordinance and I'd like to thank you very much.

Anybody else would like to speak, please go forward.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So I support shared use.

Thank you.

That's fantastic.

So thank you very much.

Anyone else would like to speak?

And thank you.

and joggers should be on the same side on this issue to have shared views.

Thank you.

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Dede Smith, Michael Kochis,

Dede Smith

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Would you like to start?

So I will start that just as that piece, but I have more to say about the trails themselves.

But at your age to still be alerted almost 947 or whatever it is.

Did you do your homework?

And then at this appropriate time, Mr. Merrill, make a proposal.