City Council Meeting   12/7/2015

Music

Dede Smith

Mr. Fenwick.

Here.

Ms. Smith.

Here.

Mr. Huja.

Yes.

Ms. Szakos.

Here.

I want to acknowledge Ms. Galvin

A very good friend of Charlottesville's, Chris Lee, died in a car accident last Friday morning while driving to a meeting of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors meeting in Williamsburg.

There are a few folks I've met that show more commitment to making our community better and better each day.

Not too long ago, I bumped into him on the downtown mall and we talked about ways to use the city's growing opportunity

and his apprenticeship programs to fill the retiring ranks of the construction trades.

And Chris knew the construction industry well.

He was the fourth generation of his family to work in the Ari Lee companies.

He began his career in construction working as a laborer for Ari Lee and Son during summer and winter breaks from college.

Chris actually worked on the original paving of the downtown mall as a student worker in his family firm.

After earning a degree in civil engineering from Cornell,

and working for companies in Pennsylvania and Maryland, Chris returned to R.E.

Lee and Son as a project manager.

He helped lead the effort to reorganize R.E.

Lee and Son into the family of businesses it is today.

He became the CEO in 2003.

He was also a 2001 graduate of the Sorenson Institute Political Leadership Program, a member of the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce and chair of that organization

in 2003 and 2008, and a board member of the Thomas Jefferson area in Ida Way and School Readiness Impact Team.

The list goes on.

As expressed in an email by Tim Halbert, the Executive Director of our Chamber of Commerce, quote, Chris Lee was the definition of Charlottesville, positive, gracious, humble, involved, committed, and 10 more adjectives I cannot find through my tears right now.

His imprint will be deep and lasting.

end of quote.

Chris leaves behind a large, wonderful and loving family, a host of dedicated and loyal employees and clients and a grateful city.

We have some awards and announcements.

The first two awards are with Parks Department.

As you go up, I can give a description of what that's about.

It's a board that recognizes an important community partner.

The annual Distinguished Private Sector Service Award is presented to Bama Works and the Leroy Moore Memorial Fund for their continued support of parks and recreation programs and events.

With the support of Bama Works, a wide variety of programs have been made available to the community, including Sunday Sundowns at Washington Park, the Sounds of Summer Concert Series, and annual Downtown Safe Halloween Festival.

Generous support of BamaWorks has made these programs possible.

Our gratitude and thanks to BamaWorks and Leroy Moore Memorial Fund for their contributions to our community.

I'd like to thank the city and Parks and Rec for helping us put together such great events and

We had an idea a few years ago before LaRoy Moore passed away.

He was a band member in Dave Matthews Band about putting on some events in Washington Park.

And I got together with Parks and Rec, and they've really helped execute it and make it a great event.

So we're looking forward to continuing it.

And as you come up, I'll also say that the app was developed in-house by city staff in Parks and Rec and the Department of Information Technology.

The IT staff did the development and testing work and the app went live in early 2014.

It includes real-time class and pool schedules, which I use.

Ability to register for programs, make a tee time, view the program guide and other features.

To date, it's been downloaded almost a thousand times.

Congratulations to Parks and Rec and especially the IT department where the award will reside.

Sure.

I wanted to thank Parks and Rec for nominating the award.

But these two guys are really responsible for it.

Thank you.

I would like to say that the CAT app also that you all developed, right, also won a big award.

We have talented people working for us.

Very nice.

They make us look good.

Sure, I just have one.

It's Imagine a Day Without Water Art Contest Award Ceremony.

The City of Charlottesville, the Omaha County Service Authority, and Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority are participating in Imagine a Day Without Water, a national campaign to educate and inspire people about the essential value and importance of water in our everyday lives.

As part of the campaign, we hosted an art contest where students from the city and county were asked to creatively convey A Day Without Water.

The contest was a great success with over 570 poster entries and with representation from all Charlottesville City Schools, Grades 1 through 8.

The top 50 are still available to view through tomorrow.

Take a moment and go online to vote for your favorite.

Go to www.scharlinsville.org slash water conservation, all one word, to find out how to vote and for more information on the campaign.

Voting ends December 8th at 1159 p.m.

The four winners from each category and a fan favorite will be announced Friday, December 11th.

These winners, along with four participating teachers randomly selected to receive a prize, will be recognized at the awards ceremony on Tuesday, December 15 from 6.30 to 7.30 p.m. at the Water Street Center located at 407 East Water Street.

The event is open to the public and water-saving giveaways will be available to all attendees.

I have another announcement before we go to.

There's a beautiful book at my desk called Silent Thunder.

Every year you get these books from everybody coming forward to see them.

My name is Jim Mann.

I'm a resident of Charlottesville.

I'm a volunteer with the VSA.

Hi, my name is Enrique Wright.

I am a student

at the Albemarle County Post High Program.

I'm also an author in the VSA Poetry Short Storybook.

And I understand somebody beat us to the punch.

You always already have your books.

That's great.

The 2015 edition includes poems and short stories by three groups, 90 individuals, for a total of 182 poems and short stories about life.

And all the poems and short stories of our writers with...

or disabilities or their caregivers or their family members, their teachers and then instructors.

I write poetry as well and my poetry is in here.

In addition to our poetry book, VSA does, VSA's Charlottesville Albemarle has art-based events for students and adults.

We sponsor annual art exhibits.

We have a music concert.

There are workshops.

We have special events as well.

And our next event is the VSA visual art show opening March the 19th in the evening, and we invite you to attend that.

We're also accepting poems for the 16th

2016 poetry book up to the 20th of May 2016 and Constance Wyatt at Post High.

You can contact the contactor for that.

But we come here this evening just to express our thanks to you and your gratitude for your support

of the VSA programs.

You not only support our programs, you also come to our programs, attend our programs, and you spread the word to others about our programs.

And we thank you.

We would like to say a special thanks, though, to Mayor Huja and to Councilor Smith, who will be retiring from their

Council roles at the end of this year.

And we wish the two of you well, and we hope that you will join us as we go into other events and activities and journeys.

The title of the current edition, as in previous years, is always from

I'm taking one of the titles or short stories from the book.

And this book's title is Silent Thunder.

It's a poem.

And here to read Silent Thunder for you is my friend Enrique from Post High.

Silent Thunder by Jim Manne.

Remember you are a child of creation.

Know you are loved.

Understand you are a part of the earth, of the sky, and of the sun.

Therefore, like the earth, bring forth your harvest.

Like the sky, expand your horizons.

And I'm going to read a poem.

Enrico's going to help me here.

This is a poem by one of the post-high students

And when I read it, I actually cried a bit because it's about the world.

And I thought of the world as it is and the world as it should be.

And this is about the world as it should be.

Enrique Ray is...

He wrote it.

I wrote it.

So we're going to read this poem together.

It's called If I Ruled the World, and this is the way the world should be, folks.

I would be a doer for people who need something.

I would make things for people.

I would feel what other people are feeling.

I will help them back on their feet if they need it.

I will not leave anyone alone.

Jim and Enrique, I think that poem encapsulates the mission of VSA almost better than a written sentence or two.

And VSA used to be Virginia's special arts.

Okay.

I just wanted to announce we got a notification a few days ago from the Campaign for Black Male Achievement, which was originally started by an organization called Open Society Foundations.

They did measurements of cities across the country looking at outcomes and the way that cities work for the benefit and including the leadership of young black men, ages I think 12 to 24.

and we were ranked number seven in that number for the efforts that we're doing.

Yes, I have some information about CAT.

CAT's proposed changes.

CAT is Charlottesville Area Transit and on January 30th,

of this coming 2016, Charlottesville Area Transit, otherwise known as CAT, will implement a new service schedule.

As part of the update, several routes will experience minor routing realignments, time point shifts, and or relocation of select bus stops.

The changes are intended to increase passenger safety and improve system performance.

To help inform passengers about the proposed changes,

CATEC will host two public outreach meetings, one of which was today.

Both meetings will be held at City Space, which is located right on the downtown mall, right down there, 105th Street Northeast.

The first meeting was this morning, but there is another opportunity.

The second will occur this Saturday, December 12th, at 11.35 a.m.

that's how precise CAT is.

Community members will hear a short presentation about the changes and then have the opportunity to ask any questions they may have and of course you can get all of the information about new on the CAT app which our IT department created.

This is the Holiday Market

The city market holiday market returns to downtown Charlottesville Sunday, November 28th, which was a week ago.

The festive outdoor market features over 100 local vendors with a variety of unique gifts, decorations, foods and crafts.

All items are handmade, homegrown or home baked by local farmers, artists or bakers.

The holiday market is every Saturday until December 19th from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 100 East Water Street in downtown Charlottesville, where the farmer's market has been.

For more information, please visit charlottesville.org slash parks and rec or call 970-3371.

And the next announcement is DMV to go Tuesday, December 8th, tomorrow,

9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the 6th Street Alley, which is between City Hall and the Market Street Parking Garage.

This wireless office on wheels offers all the DMV services.

Apply or renew for your ID card, adults, children, veterans.

Apply for or renew, excuse me, your driver's license.

Take road and knowledge tests, get your picture taken, reinstate driving privileges,

Get a copy of your driving record.

Obtain vehicle titles, license plates, decals, transcripts.

Order disabled parking placards or plates.

Purchase hunting and fishing licenses and temporary boat registrations.

Apply for Virginia birth certificates.

Obtain EZ pass transponders.

If you moved, stop in to update your address on your DMV record.

Now you can update your voter registration address and organ donor status.

request a personal identification number, B-I-N-P-I-N, to set up a MyDMV account to receive DMV notices via email or phone or conduct secure transactions on the DMV website.

Search for other state services through a Virginia internet portal and more.

That's DMV to go tomorrow from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sixth Street Alley.

No appointment needed.

This weekend the Charlottesville wheelchair basketball team, the Charlottesville Cardinals competed in the Herman Key Memorial Tournament and they came out of eight teams from around the country.

They came in third.

It's a really great group of men and women and if you want to find out more information, Google.

Charlottesville Cardinals and that's what's going to come up.

So these people are really incredible and I really congratulate them on what they did.

Now for the appointment.

I'd like to move.

Mr. Fenwick, before we do boards and commissions, I have been notified that we have one more award that is going to be announced.

That the Governor's Housing Award was just awarded to AHIP, and I understand that they have somebody here.

Are they here?

Yes.

Would you like to come forward?

Yes, come.

Tell us all about it.

Hi, my name's Jen.

I'm the executive director of AHIP.

I'm so excited to come here.

I couldn't wait to get here and let you know that two weeks ago we went to the Virginia Governor's Housing Conference in Hampton and every year they have this conference as a statewide gathering of housing providers and financers and all kinds of players from the whole state and every year they do a call for awards for several, five different categories.

including green housing, including multifamily, down payment, all sorts of things, including one slot for best revitalization housing preservation effort.

And this year, the Department of Housing and Community Development and Government Housing Award Committee nominated or awarded this award for best housing preservation revitalization effort for Block by Block Charlottesville to AHIP and the City of Charlottesville.

I'm so excited to get this award.

It's a very prestigious award.

It's a statewide.

There was a lot of good stuff happening in Virginia, especially coming back from this conference.

There's a lot going on in all different areas and all different parts of the state.

So to be honored with this award is really something.

Thank you for sharing your notes with us.

What's that?

Yeah.

Anyway, it's an honor.

And I'm going to give this

Kathy you didn't come up with me.

Is there a second to that?

Second.

Thank you.

Next item on the agenda is matters by the public.

Please identify your name and address and take three minutes to share your ideas.

Naomi Roberts, 1140 St. Clair Avenue, extended.

You all received an email from me a couple weeks ago and I'm here about that email.

I was listening to the radio this morning and an official was discussing habitat and stated that they build houses that blend in with the community.

Apparently, neighborhood development does not do that.

It doesn't care about lending in with neighborhood communities.

And that's why I'm here tonight.

The new director stated that he is ready to tackle the concept of a more densely built and populated Charlottesville.

And because this city can't enact any land, so the only way to grow is to grow vertically and encourage high density development.

This causes communities like our street problems with parking, which we already have.

Crime increasing, danger of more fires because of density and also ruins the appearance of our community as it now stands, as it now looks.

All of our houses in the 1100 block of St. Clair Avenue extended have branch type one story houses.

A couple do have basements.

Now comes neighborhood development and right in the smack middle of our block have allowed the two lots after demolishing the house a building permit

for two 14 feet wide two story houses which is actually the size of a single trailer.

All of our houses are built on two lots with 50 foot footage with 200 back lots and I thought that the back lot of our house was the second lot.

As it turns out, my home is actually split down the middle of the two lots.

as are the other houses on our street.

And if it wasn't for eminent domain, we would all be in trouble.

And a developer could come in and force us to give our homes up for high-density, two-story developments.

No consideration was given when this permit was permitted as to how this fit into our community.

Most of our homes are privately owned, with the exception of three that are rental.

This house is going to ruin our neighborhood and it's sad that this city does not care about the rest of us to allow this to happen to us.

Therefore, I am here asking for rezoning of the 1100 block of St. Clair Avenue extended lots to protect our neighborhood.

Some of the house numbers already there are having to have their addresses changed.

This is a mess and the county created and allowed range style homes on all of the lots, but the city could protect us if they cared at all about our street.

The only thing that could permit more of this on St. Clair Avenue extended and that is 1100 block of Locust Avenue is to rezone our lots as single 50 foot lots.

How would you all like, how would you all feel if this was doing to your community, your street?

We are very upset with what the city is doing to our community and it's stated with by right houses built in the 1000 Park of Locust Lane, that happened to us.

We find out about things after the fact which prevents us from trying to prevent this damage to our communities.

We found this out two days before.

The Director of Neighborhood Development has stated that, quote, getting information to the public as early as possible is the key to building trust.

I question that statement because of what has happened to us on St. Clair Avenue extended.

Good evening, Brandon Collins.

I live at 418 Fairway Avenue in Charlottesville.

I've lived here my entire life.

I have a 19-year-old daughter who also lives here and has lived here her entire life, and two young children who will be here for quite some time.

I, too, have concerns about density, and I think around the city you'll find these concerns are popping up in a major way.

And we want to remind you that low-income people

residents, public housing, other low income people are citizens of this city and they deserve equal consideration from this city council and from all aspects of government.

I'm here mainly to talk about and hopefully get an update on the possibility of the housing authority being able to coordinate with the city of Charlottesville on use of lift equipment so that they can repair lighting at public housing sites, specifically South First Street,

South First Street, if you were to visit, and I highly encourage you to do so, you could do so after your meeting tonight as it's nighttime and go over there around 11 o'clock, midnight, and see what the lighting situation is at South First Street and what it might be like to live there in darkness.

Or you could go tomorrow when the sun sets and get the same effect.

I think you will find it intimidating

and I think if you were to ask people who live at South First Street as I've done and have heard from folks who live there for years about the lighting situation there that this is a huge problem.

Now it's not just residents of South First Street who have noted this problem.

The Housing Authority Resident Services Committee has gone through a sort of revitalization and has been somewhat responsive to dealing with resident concerns.

The issue of lighting in public housing has been brought to the attention of the Housing Authority for well over a decade.

Earlier today I was talking to a former resident who was an organizer and said they were dealing with the exact same thing 10 years ago, 12 years ago, and nothing's really happened.

The police have gone through and done a survey of lighting in public housing and have noted at South First Street specifically the extreme lack of lighting there and its impact on safety is huge.

When the police go in and do these kinds of surveys, it's the number one thing they point to as affecting quality of life and safety in neighborhoods and that is lighting.

when over 50% of the lighting isn't working then there is a problem.

Now, we've asked the Housing Authority to do something about this.

Our interns, our previous group of interns came to you with safety recommendations.

Lighting was one of them and they actually didn't push that issue too hard because we had been told by the Housing Authority that they had indeed been able to coordinate with the city on use of lift equipment that HUD will not allow them to use capital funds to purchase

Lift equipment, and that the city was going to do that.

And we were all really thankful because that really is at the top of the list for improving safety.

We've come to learn that that is no longer the case, and this is a very simple matter.

Residents of public housing are citizens of Charlottesville.

They pay taxes.

They deserve equal protection under the law, and I highly encourage you to resolve this matter before the end of the year.

It's an easy fix.

It's something you could figure out this evening if you really wanted to, and I really hope to leave here today knowing that the city council is going to ensure

Good evening, my name is Paige Yannety and I live at 314 Humphreys at the University of Virginia.

I am here today to speak about the intersection at University Avenue and Rugby Road.

That is the intersection right down past the corner.

And as a University of Virginia student, that is at the hub of my classes, especially being the School of Architecture.

And ever since the beginning of this year,

My colleagues and I, we realize that this intersection is extremely dangerous for pedestrians and extremely vehicle friendly.

and not only is it dangerous, but it is also very inconvenient.

There are two primary issues with this intersection.

The first one being time allotment.

I timed the organization of time about a month ago and vehicles had around one minute and 30 seconds, whereas pedestrians only had 25 seconds.

And that's really counterintuitive because vehicles, one, take way less time to pass through the intersection and two, are much less in number than the pedestrians.

The second issue, which is a really huge issue and is probably the biggest issue of all of them, is the fact that the light at University Avenue, which is perpendicular, or the light

with cars coming perpendicular from Rugby Road to University Avenue, so the cars go off Rugby Road, they turn right or left, is green when pedestrians can cross, when pedestrians cross from University of Virginia main grounds across University Avenue to Rugby Road.

and this is extremely dangerous especially at night because when pedestrians are walking and the light it turns green two seconds, I counted it today, two seconds after they get the walk sign.

Cars often don't see the pedestrians and there's many like immediate breaks.

I have not seen anyone hit but people I've been so close to being hit.

and I corresponded with Kristy Fisher from Traffic Engineering and she told me that, because I suggested maybe pedestrian scramble and pedestrian scramble is defined as when pedestrians all have the right of way going in all directions and there's no cars that can come at all and she said that when they first like planned this intersection it wouldn't work out because they're afraid of cars queuing on Rugby Road but I really do think this is feasible because not many cars are coming from Rugby Road from what I've seen

and I pass by the intersection at least two times each day and also walking from the architecture school.

I think it'd be much easier for cars to queue and line up along that road rather than have pedestrians almost get hit every single day.

There's also secondary issues on this intersection which I know is under national study and stuff so I'm not as worried about these issues but these are concerns with the biking infrastructure of the intersection.

And that is when we have the green bike boxes, which are really nice.

It's really difficult, especially coming from McCormick, which kind of intersects with the intersection, to get into the bike boxes because there is no bike lane off to the side.

So bikers have to get off, go on the sidewalk, go around the cars and get to the bike boxes.

And that makes it really inconvenient for the pedestrians because usually bikers don't want to get on the bike.

until they have to go.

And so they end up going with the pedestrians, making it really awkward for the cars to turn right and left with that green light.

So I would really like you to just resolve the issue of the green light.

That's the main thing because it's just, it makes it so hard for pedestrians and bikers.

Thank you.

Jim Mann.

Good evening.

My name is Mary Carey.

I live at 100 Reed Street, which is Midway Manor.

And I'm here for ongoing traffic safety on South Street.

Before I start, I'd like to thank the Honorable Senator Cree Deeds for visiting us on November the 4th.

to kind of evaluate some of the things we were discussing about seniors and Social Security, Medicare, mental health and safety problems.

And Mr. Bob Fenwick who attended that visit.

Mr. Toscano was invited by the Senator but he didn't show.

The Senator walked from his office, which is at Commonwealth

building down on McIntyre Road in Preston.

And he was shocked to see that what we had asked you here in council about those six parking spaces, that crosswalk, bus service, he asked all those questions.

We didn't even ask him.

He asked us, why don't you have bus service?

We asked Mr. John Jones to give us some bus service, even if it's just a shuttle, to get the seniors to the depot, to get to their bus, to get to Kroger, wherever they gotta go, and sit across two busy streets and see some of those seniors, 80, 90 years old, still moving.

Some of y'all need to get that old.

They're still walking.

Now as people die and replace

We got a lot of people that have moved into Midway Manor that are more mobile now.

They're moving more.

You have more people going out.

We talked to Mr. Jones.

We asked him.

I told the senator this.

I asked Mr. Jones, with the people, could we get a shuttle over there?

He said he wasn't going to have his buses drag in the crosswalk.

Oh, please.

Corvettes drive down through there.

They don't drag.

We told him that we could figure out a route where he could get a shuttle to come down South Street, turn on across the track on First Street, and go up Garrett to Avon and be back on his route within two, three minutes.

He said he haven't devised any kind of schedule yet.

Then he goes, he's waiting on Kathy Galvin.

He's waiting on Kathy Galvin to rezone the city so that he can figure out how other communities can get some transit.

I said, well, I'm not talking about other communities.

I'm talking about South Street.

These are senior citizens.

Don't you think they should take priority?

So he never gave me an answer.

All these questions was asked to us by Senator Deeds.

But wait a minute, Ms. Huja, hold on, please.

I mean, the light, don't worry about that light.

Okay, yeah, but the senator said, Ms. Jones, if you could get someone to come over and evaluate again, because things are getting worse.

I mean, he could even see, he could see that there was a

No vision at all anymore.

It used to be.

But since they moved one parking space back up towards Ridge Street, it's gotten worse.

And that day that the federal building had that incident, media trucks and cars were parked on South Street.

You couldn't even get down South Street.

And we called the police.

They didn't come.

So something needs to be done, Mr. Jones, please, because it's getting worse.

And somebody's going to get hurt over there, Mr. Huja.

Anybody else would like to speak?

Who's not signing up?

Councilor has some comments now.

I'd like to start this time myself.

I would like if Mr. Jones could inquire about a lift changing of lights.

Sure, Mr. Mayor.

Let me give you an update on that.

The Housing Authority did rent a lift a while back and address some of the lighting issues that they have.

They do have some lighting issues at Crescent Hall.

They have lights that are on order.

If they were to, there are two issues that we need to resolve.

If they were to utilize one of our lifts, we'd have to man the lift.

We couldn't just allow them to borrow the lift.

We'd have to man it.

And then we are working through some, we would have to work through some liability issues as well.

Well, that's right.

I'm just saying that we take on that liability, so that's something else that we'd have to do.

I'll concur if you need a bulk of counselors to make it so.

I agree.

I have been down at South First Street in the evening, and it is dark.

And I was actually wondering, is it all that lights are out, or are there just not adequate lights?

but I guess those are issues that I'll look at after this meeting but if there are lights that are there that just aren't working I think somehow we need to get them fixed and if the Housing Authority doesn't have the means to do it I think the city should be part of it because there are residents and it's public lighting even though it's not technically under our purview.

I am familiar with the situation Ms. Roberts was talking about.

It's in my neighborhood

It's houses that are built on relatively small lots, which as it turns out are half lots.

So each house is on two lots and they're split down the middle.

But what I think that she was talking about density, those are zoning rules that went into place, what was it, about 15 years ago?

To really try to find where we could have auxiliary units for houses, the grandparent apartments and things like that.

but our neighborhood is not one of those neighborhoods where we're talking about ultimate density so it's not really that's not what this is about so much that these were existing lots and by law a property owner is allowed to build on them and so nobody can come on somebody else's property and say I'm going to take your house to build two houses but that if somebody has two two lots that they are allowed to build two houses and I don't think there's a whole lot that NDS could have done about that

And so I think that the NDS, I talk to folks at NDS and I know that the buildings, the houses that are built there do have to get certificates of occupancy.

They have to meet city code in various ways and so I know that there is some effort to make them fit in with the neighborhood, but they do have a right to build on those lots and there's not much that we can do about that.

and as you said, it's a very old issue and as far as I know, I haven't seen that in any other neighborhood, but it is on that street, on that block, but it doesn't affect your lot unless you sell it in two pieces.

It just affects if somebody wants to do that on their property.

To Missianity, who's gone, I'll just say I'm interested in the idea of the pedestrian, I was amused by the name of it, pedestrian scramble where all the lights are red for a little bit and all the people can get across

it is a confusing intersection and in a way it's made more confusing for the cars because they don't know when they're turning if there's a pedestrian coming and so if the pedestrians had one chance to go and then all the cars kind of took their turns it might make sense I don't know I'm not a traffic engineer and I know our traffic engineers looked at it but I would encourage us to look at that again.

Ms. Kerry I share your enthusiasm for our state senator he is a good man and I'm glad that he came and looked at that

And I know that the bus issue is an issue.

I know that in some areas where there is a place, a private property that has a lot of elderly residents, the property owners have shuttles.

I know like at Westminster Canterbury, places like that.

And so that's another way to look at it is the property owner may be interested since so many people in the community do need public transportation.

It is within technically walking distance, but I understand it is across two busy streets and I know that that's a frustration, so I'll just echo that.

And that's all I've got.

Thanks.

Yes, please fix the lights and if we could possibly have, in fact, it would be great if we could know by the next meeting when that's going to happen.

Or when it has happened.

Yeah, or if it has happened.

But, yeah, fix, just fix the lights.

You've got it.

You've got three right here.

Oh, absolutely.

I mean, use your judgment.

I think it would make sense for council to weigh in on that because if we're responding

for activities at CRHA.

I mean, I think the lights issue, at least as we've been told, they rented a lift to address the issues at South First Street.

We don't have the lift.

Okay, this is what we were told by the executive director.

Okay, I'm just saying that the last thing we heard from them was that they had addressed the issues at South First Street.

The only other thing I'd like to mention, Mayor Huja, is I am interested still in that intersection.

We've got many intersections now that are being studied in the city.

I'm wondering if this is one of them.

It's related to Rugby Road.

So that would be good to just make sure that we're looking at that with Ms. Carey's concern.

If you could please get back to me on that because I've never said that.

Neither do I.

Yeah, I'd like to tell the people here and anybody listening or might be reading the minutes or the podcast, whatever.

We are almost at the end of an open period to find a new traffic engineer for the city.

That position is out for hire, and I think it's going to close this Friday.

And the pay for that position

My figures may be a little off.

It's about from $55,000 up to $112,000 for a experienced, robust traffic engineer.

And we're hoping to get that thing done pretty quickly.

That would, Mary Carey's concern, the young lady from UVA paid Verity, Yannity, I'm sorry, her concern.

the neighborhoods are up in arms, Locust Avenue, Rugby Road, Old Inchburn Road, and I just found out this week, or the end of last week, that the city of Charlottesville actually has a traffic calming handbook, which is dated 2008. Who would have guessed?

Out of all the trouble we've been having the last few years about traffic,

we have one of these.

Nobody has ever mentioned it until about a week ago.

So I just want people to know that it's out there.

It's available on the city website, Charlottesville.org.

All you have to do is search for traffic study, traffic calming handbook, and you can read it yourself.

I have yet to find the time to read this.

So we're hoping if we get an experienced, trained traffic engineer

Thanks, at least me.

It's interesting that a number of the issues that have come up tonight with Ms. Roberts' issues, with Ms. Carey's issues, are about how different parts of the city are treated differently.

And it comes up over and over and over again

the fact that we had actually directed to have some of those parking spaces taken away and then they're all back is, you know, for what?

For all day parking.

For a few select people, I guess.

You know, it's just that wouldn't have happened in another part of the city.

And this, you know, a lot of it has to do with not only policies and decisions, but with zoning.

And, you know, I've asked

And I will ask again, Council, to consider a comprehensive look at the whole city.

We came up with Fry's Spring being zoned differently than the whole north side of Charlottesville.

Look at the zoning map.

And you can see immediately where the sort of preferential neighborhoods are.

And so I really think that that would be one way to at least begin to address this issue of inequality and unequal treatment.

I'm sorry, Ms. Carey, I am horrified too at what happened on that street and to a vulnerable population.

It's just got to be fixed.

Lighting is a fascinating one.

I concur that South First Street has to be fixed.

It has to be fixed soon, but that is not a

and I agree with Mr. Jones, that's not really a fix.

If you need a more comprehensive way of dealing, those lights are gonna go out again and other lights someplace else are gonna go out again.

And you should not have to come to us and have counselors direct some spot fix every time something is broken.

And so I actually,

I think the most right person here is Mr. Jones, who says, let's really think.

I mean, I agree, it has to be fixed, that particular situation, lighting is a safety issue, but really a long-term solution needs to be had.

That's all I'll say.

I'm surprised, I thought rugby, I was at rugby and university the other day, actually, I remember thinking, oh, they've got dedicated pedestrian

walks where all the cars were stopped.

Everybody was stopped and there were walk signs.

I would also like to add, let's start with the study of the intersection of Rambi and the University.

Have you used intersection of pedestrian use, I would say?

It doesn't need to be safe.

Any other comments?

No?

Item B in appropriation, funding for family preservation services, $8,354, second of two readings.

Item C in Appropriation, Grand Illumination Sponsorship, $3,500, first of two readings.

Item D in Appropriation, Virginia Commission of the Arts Challenge Grant, $5,000, first of two readings.

Item E in Appropriation, Funds from CATEC, Charlottesville, Albemarle Technical Education Center to the CATEC IT Networking Academy Project, $10,000, first of two readings.

Item F in Appropriation, Helen Williams Loan Payoff to the Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund, $13,528.80, first of two readings.

Item G, an appropriation grant for construction of 255 Pass Trail, $461,323, first of two readings.

I have a comment.

I'd just like to recognize, because Diane Kuchenau is here, she's right there, that the first consent agenda item is for funding for family preservation services, which it's not a lot of money, but this Department of Social Services does such a fantastic job of keeping families together and doing what they can.

I mean, it's not always possible, but the efforts that, particularly in recent years, that have been made

to prevent foster care and if in those cases where it has to be to reunite families or ultimately to find permanency for kids when all else fails.

And I think that we will see and we all know we will see in our main agenda when

Comprehensive Service funds have saved $440,000 less than what we thought they would be.

And part of that is family preservation.

And so I just wanted to call that out.

And I had one other little ask for an explanation here, I know.

Oh, actually, so Chris is here.

Mr. Ginzik is here.

I actually was just a little confused.

This is great.

that there's a grant.

And it says it's for the bridge across the railroad.

But then later on, it says it will also finish the section between Hydraulic Road and Meadow Creek Road.

Oh, okay.

Thanks for that clarification.

Congratulations.

It's great.

Well, I actually have.

It's really a kind of question.

I don't want to pull it necessarily, but the CACBB agreement, I understand it came from the county, the idea of having a kind of oversight board for the CACBB or a committee.

That's fine with me.

I just wondered.

There's nothing in here about what its composition might look like.

Does it say that?

How did I miss that?

So I was just thinking it made sense to at least consider something like two private citizens from each locality and one

Exactly, but I think a combination of expertise and small d democracy would be lovely, but I don't want to

Yeah, I was sort of curious as to how the executive committee would be different than the regular board.

Aren't they both oversight boards or no?

Isn't that what the regular board should be doing?

It is an oversight board, yes ma'am.

City and county have a lot of investment in this.

I'm not terribly opposed to it.

I just think it's redundant.

It says there's an annual return on investment report card.

I'm not sure I can check.

Yes, hello, Kurt Berthardt, Executive Director of the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention and Visitor's Bureau.

We transmitted our ROI report to Chris Engel.

We had a 7.5, I believe, 7.5 ROI this past 7.56 to one.

So over the last three years, we've averaged better than seven to one.

We report, you can't slice city and county.

Okay, any questions for that?

Wait, did you make a motion?

I think I did.

Thank you.

We have public hearing on year-end adjustments.

Anybody sign up for that?

Yes, sir.

Good evening Mr. Mayor, Members of Council.

My name is Chris Cullen.

I'm the City's Director of Finance.

This evening I'm here to report on the results for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2015.

I'm pleased to report the city's general fund ended with a surplus of approximately 4.3 million dollars.

which is a little less than 3% of the total general fund budget.

This positive result is the result of revenues performing better than expected and expenses coming in less than budgeted and this is a trend that's been consistent with what we've seen for the last few years in terms of revenues performing better than expected and expenses being lower than budgeted.

On the revenue side, revenues were approximately $2 million over budget, or about 1.3% over the adopted budget.

And several of the city's largest local, for lack of a better term, revenue sources were the primary drivers of this, such things as the meals tax, the real estate tax, personal property taxes, lodging tax, and parking garage revenues, which certainly indicate to me the strength of the city's economy during FY15.

On the expenditure side, expenses were about $2.4 million, or about

1.5% below the adopted budget, the significant areas of savings as Ms. Smith previously commented, the Community Service Act local match, our jail expenses, some position vacancies in the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office, savings in parks and recreation due to some salary savings as well as lower utility costs, and then just departmental and budget savings throughout the organization as departments made best use of their budgeted funds.

Tonight, staff recommends council adopt the FY15 year-end resolution recommending that $2,034,066 be approved and carried over into the current fiscal year.

These requests have been reviewed by the city manager's office and the finance department.

And the city doesn't, just as a reminder, the city does not plan or budget for a surplus each year and thus these funds should be treated as one time in nature.

And so as the requests are reviewed, they're certainly looked at to make sure the expenses are one time in nature.

or they fund a previous commitment or further strengthen or enhance the city's long-term financial policies.

The other piece of the request is that the balance of the surplus $2,282,540 be placed in the capital improvement plan contingency for future programming.

The requests are detailed in the attachment that you have.

In 2015 fiscal year, which was finished June 30th of this year, there was an item of bridge repair for $200,000.

No bridges have been repaired in the city during that year.

That's not part of the general fund lower expenditures, which I cited in some detail.

That's actually over in the capital fund.

The difference is that any monies that are left over in the capital fund automatically continue over every year as with the general fund, the difference being the general fund, we have to come back and through council action appropriate any funds, any additional use either

to be used in the current fiscal year or to be carried over into the CIP contingency.

But all the capital funds automatically carry over from year to year.

So I think we now, if my figures are correct, we have approximately 1,900,000, not including this year, built up in the fund.

In the capital contingency fund, I believe that's about

The contingency is there.

It's not designated for any particular project.

It's certainly used for a specific project to make up some cash difference, or it can be used truly as a contingency in the event that a project comes in at a higher amount than budgeted or expenses actually, actuals are more than the budget was allowed.

The money that I was just talking about is not in the contingency fund.

Correct.

It's in its own capital fund.

Can you tell us a little more about the million dollars for employee benefits contribution to the retirement fund?

Right.

The million dollars, it's really there are two pieces to it.

Cost of living allowance.

I'm sorry?

Cost of Living Adjustment, yes, thank you.

Our past practice has been that retirees receive half of what the active employees receive, so this year active employees receive 2%, therefore the retirees get 1%.

And again, the past practice has been to fund that out of year-end surplus.

And so that $700,000 is to fund that previous commitment.

The remaining $300,000 is to be used to

to change that practice to more proactively fund that COLA in that fiscal year as part of that planning process.

And so that $300,000 will actually be used for the upcoming COLA should one be granted to proactively fund that, because that's really a best practice.

As I mentioned in my comments, we don't plan for it.

We don't budget for a surplus.

We've been fortunate that we've had that and have been able to continue this practice.

But really, a better financial management practice would be to proactively budget that

And so those funds allow us to do that.

So it's sort of setting aside $300,000 for the following one after this one.

Correct.

Yeah, actually, just to piggyback on that, being on the retirement commission, not that it means I know a lot.

So hasn't there been discussion about the COLA is tied to raises, which might have a different incentive than actually inflation?

There's a broader initiative within the Retirement Commission to do a sustainability study looking at all aspects of the retirement plan, both policies, the practices, those sorts of things.

And that is one of the items that's on that list.

But we're looking at a more comprehensive set of

of different items, of objectives, knowing that they all ultimately contribute to the retirement fund and to its long-term sustainability.

And so those will be coming forward in the next few months.

to discuss this.

Anybody who's here, would you like to speak?

You have a chance, right?

If I could just say one thing that I brought up.

I can't remember what it was last meeting.

It was a meeting before when we were talking about the PHA funds that we promised to Piedmont Housing Authority.

I think it was 330,000 comes to mind

for the study.

I don't know if other counselors would be interested in funding that through the reserves instead of the affordability, housing affordability, that's not what it's called, Affordable Housing Fund, which is what we, what it was suggested we take it out of.

My concern being that that's a dangerous precedent to start using our affordable housing funds for things like that.

And it's a one-time cost.

instead of the retirement?

Instead of the, well, no, no, no.

Well, out of what was left.

Everything that's left over is put into the capital contingency fund.

And so, you know, of all of this long list of things that we are going to use our surplus for, I am asking if other counselors are interested in

I'm not dissing that because we have fund for housing and that is housing inflection.

And the idea being that the affordable housing fund is to actually create housing or housing opportunity or housing stability to

go towards our 15% and that is not what that is going for.

I just think it's a dangerous precedent.

Is anyone else going to be talking about that?

No, I was concerned about the amount of that, but I think I've already voted for it, so I'm confident

And Mayor Huja, to that, to Councilor Smith's point, I just want to add that the beauty of going the route that we've taken is that there's already a grant agreement in place.

You know, just in light of what Mr. Jones was talking about, we don't have a memorandum of understanding, for example, right now with the Housing Authority.

Well, in that particular arrangement, we have

an instrument in place that allows us to establish clear conditions that then make it very clear what the arrangement is between the city and the PHA.

And then we worked very hard that evening to hammer out those conditions.

And I just really think that we need to hold that sacred and pursue it accordingly.

Yeah, and it has absolutely nothing to do with that.

All it is is where the money comes from.

Well I do and just in the spirit of what Ms. Smith was offering it's just some other ideas about the use of this one-time money and this may not even be something that we would choose to do at this point but I do want

to at least consider back in July we had made, had a discussion about management audit or an efficiency review that Mr. Jones was gonna conduct.

And I did look at, we have a compensation study here, for example, for $40,000 to look at, to fund a market study to review compensation plan alignment with the city's organizational goals.

So these one-time funds are often used for such studies.

So whether we agreed to fund a portion of this surplus to put in reserve for an efficiency review is something to consider, especially since the Albemarle County has just completed, their Citizen Efficiency Review Committee has completed a draft report where they've recommended that their third-party efficiency study be done.

of their government and just throw out there the possibility of perhaps doing that jointly.

It also could roll in the question that Ms. Smith raised at the last budget work session about council governance and compensation.

That's what efficiency is all about, whether or not we're paying people adequately, whether we're being efficient with the use of our money.

So with that, at the very least, I think back in July, I looked over the minutes, when Councilor Szakos asked Mr. Jones to report on whether an efficiency study could be done with existing staff with minimal outside assistance.

Mr. Jones said he would review it, but had to come back and give us an update on costs.

It's difficult to say.

I mean, it's much less than we talked about before because we're not doing a full-blown study.

I think at one point we talked about $100,000 to do a full-blown study.

That's based on other studies that we've seen in recent years.

We have had – I've had some conversations with some folks from the Darden School of Business about helping us out with an efficiency study, once again, in terms of scale much smaller than we had talked about as a possibility based on council's direction.

last summer.

And so somewhere between $10,000 and $20,000 for an efficiency study working with them.

Once again, it's scaled back.

Ms. Lowens?

I'd like to actually concur.

I think especially if we're talking about less than $20,000

Carving that out of this one-time money makes a lot of sense.

I had actually thought of that as I was looking through this.

There were not other things that I wanted to substitute because I thought the list of expenditures that were proposed here made a lot of sense.

I read the previous efficiency study, but when I did six, eight months ago, there was a lot in there that we had still to do.

We've got some report on that showing that a lot of those things had been done.

I don't remember how long ago that was.

It was certainly several years ago.

And then there were elements that the council did not have an interest in pursuing.

Right.

It's actually good news, so it's worth reiterating.

What year was that?

I have a couple.

It was 2009.

The study?

2009.

2009.

No.

There were a couple of other things that I was thinking about as I was looking at this that I actually decided not to ask that they come out of this because I think that the list that's there makes a lot of sense.

But I just wanted to call attention to a couple of things that are in the expenditure savings that we had.

The community service, and Councillor Smith alluded to this before, the Community Service Act local match was under budget by $441,000 like last year.

It was a result of fewer children in foster care and fewer foster children in congregate care, which is good news for the children, good news for their families, but also good news for our budget.

Foster care prevention cases, sometimes known as family preservation, continue to climb, but services for foster care prevention cases generally less expensive than a foster care case.

and at the same time our Charlottesville Albemarle Joint Security Complex, otherwise known as the jail, and the Juvenile Detention Center was $489,000, almost $490,000 under budget.

The cost share agreement is based on population figures for both Charlottesville and Albemarle County.

The county saw a significant increase in its population for FY15, which caused a drop in the city's cost share amount.

And the city has been working on a lot of things

to try to prevent people from going to jail and to work on re-entry when people come out of jail.

And I think we're seeing the result of that by our lower share of the jail population.

I'm on the jail board and we recently did a decision to change it to a three year average rather than each year.

So we can expect that next year this isn't going to change dramatically.

So I would like to, as the staff is looking at the budget for the coming year, understanding that Community Service Act local match is likely to be lower than we had budgeted this year, and that the Albemarle jail budget is likely to be lower than what we budgeted this year, that we take some of those savings, some of those amounts that we would have spent on that, and plow it back into things that are having an impact on reducing those numbers.

So we've just recently added money into the,

Family Preservation work at Social Services, and I know there's more of that, but also increase the ABRT, the money that we do for non-profits that we're funding.

We haven't raised that in a long time, and they're doing a lot of the work that's making that happen.

Look again at the Center for Risk Reduction, the Diversion Center for folks with felony convictions who are non-violent who could be in the community working in their jobs and supporting their families rather than in jail.

Look at some Region 10 initiatives.

Look at supporting the work we're doing on blackmail achievement.

Just some of the things that are helping to drive those numbers down to reflect those in the upcoming budgets.

I concur with that, but particularly as it relates to those

very specific programs that very specifically drive down those.

As opposed to, well, we kind of think that maybe this one is helping.

But I just am really concerned that the Department of Social Services has the funds they need.

I know they don't have the space they need.

I mean, that's been a problem for years and years and years.

But to be sure that

Great progress with the getting more space.

They used to be Parks and Rec for the family partnership meetings.

But we do need to be sure that that component particularly is solidly funded and they've got space and staff.

And I've been assured that social services has the funds now to do what the police department has done for years, which is over hire.

Because it's tragic when there are vacancies.

and the tragedy goes to the kids and to the families and to the people who need it.

I mean, I just had a conversation the other day with Diane Cucno about the funding levels

staffing levels right now.

She's pretty comfortable where they are now.

If we were to decide to do some sort of over hire position on a regular basis, that would have to be part of the fiscal year budget, I think, instead of one time funding.

This is specifically for next year.

As for next year.

Well, that sort of is.

And I understand that, although at some point there will need to be an initial infusion.

And then if

The theory is true that there is a very predictable turnover that you've then got the whole sort of system is rolling, but one would assume that there would be an initial just one time really burst of funds.

And did you have the funds, Ms. Cookinow, to do that?

Can we ask her to come forward?

Because this was a huge savings cost center, and I do think we owe it to

Yeah, our problem really is vacancies and so having the ability to overhire, we're not really asking for more funding, we're asking to overhire because we know we will have vacancies.

The positions are stressful positions and some people will stay with us for a long term but that's not a lot of people so we can predictably look at our prior history over the 22 years I've been there

There was one time when we were fully staffed, and in this past year we were fully staffed, even though we knew another frequency was coming, for one week.

So it's not a matter of us asking for more funds, it's a matter of being able

to overhire using that vacancy money we know is going to be there.

I think the best thing to do is get information from Ms. Cucno about, let's say, the last five years.

Because then that will give us an understanding of what the vacancy issues have been, the exact numbers.

And then we could come back and have a separate discussion with counsel.

about an infusion of funding based on what those numbers are, if that's what we need.

And I think that's probably the best route to handle that.

Right.

And we can go back five years and we can look at the savings in our

budgeted salary and fringes and that's budgeted on all positions being filled.

Does it need to be a policy change or a resolution?

Yeah, I think we definitely would need an indication from the council that this is something that we want to continue to do.

But, of course, each council in every year makes budget decisions, and so that could change, obviously, based on what the budgets are.

Well, what Ms. Szakos and Ms. Smith have been talking about are people, and we have extra money.

If we're going to do something, I don't see any reason to wait until the next fiscal year.

A person, a child, an ex-felon can't wait.

We're not talking about the operating budget.

No, right.

And I don't think, actually, you're telling us that money isn't necessarily what you need.

I just want to assure that there's intent on council to enable you to get to a better place that can serve our people.

I mean, our budget, if we were fully staffed all the time, we would have the folks that we needed to handle the current caseloads.

The problem is we're never fully staffed.

I have three benefit workers open right now and I have five positions in our family services open right now.

And before we finish on the specific purpose, can we ask that by the second January meeting we have an update of kind of what a policy might

Well, just the ABRT was the other thing that struck me.

I mean, they're always coming to us at the end because they don't have enough money.

Again, Mayor Huja, I need a point of clarification, though.

The ABRT comes out of our operating budget.

That's right.

And I actually had asked at our small budget meetings about the idea of adding to the ABRT from this and I because I share your your concern and I think that that I that one of the ways that the ABRT process works is that if a program is good they get level funding or up you know increased funding and so if by adding one-time funding we would add to that pot now I think if we wanted to do a specific thing for

Children's programming or a specific thing, we do have the council priority fund that we can use for that.

So going back in, there's one change which has been suggested.

How does the council feel about it?

You?

Yes.

You too.

Do you want to add to efficiency studies for the Southern Office?

To add to ABRT?

No, not until we pull out the old one and make sure we've done everything.

I think I'm coming in.

But I do want to just say, when are we going to get an update on the efficiency study then?

If it's now totally in Mr. Jones' hands,

and it's contingent as it was back in July on the previous 2009 study.

That's all I have to say, right?

Thank you.

Your next item is the resolution.

So we will vote on the next meeting.

Mr. Mayor, the City Assessor's Office, as you know, is responsible for the valuation of all real property within the City of Charlottesville.

We had a, our previous Assessor, Roosevelt Barber, retired earlier this year and at your direction, both Chris Cullinan and I

have spearheaded a search for a new assessor.

And we have before you tonight Jeffrey Davis as our recommendation for your appointment.

Mr. Davis has been a representative, has been part of our department for several years now.

He came aboard as a commercial appraiser for the city of Charlottesville.

He most recently served as the interim city assessor after Mr. Barber retired.

We received 20 applications for this position.

We invited five candidates in for interviews.

And after those interviews, Mr. Davis' name rose to the top of the list.

I move the appointment.

Yeah, I'd just like to say I actually dealt with Mr. Davis recently on the phone.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

It is.

It's the first of one.

Good evening.

My name is Jeff Davis, and I want to thank you for this appointment.

I'd also like to thank Maurice Jones and Chris Cullen.

Chris told me to say that.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Next item on the resolution ordinance

In March of this year the City Council voted to end the city's observance of the Lee Jackson Day holiday.

At the time the City Council expressed an interest in adding another holiday to replace Lee Jackson Day, Veterans Day was discussed as a possibility.

as a possibility and also to poll our employees to get a sense of what date would work for them or what date they preferred.

We did a survey monkey with our employees, 526 votes were cast, and the top choice at 43% was Veterans Day.

As you know, Veterans Day is honored every year, November 11th.

It began as Armistice Day after World War I, and the first armistice day took place on November 11, 1918.

In 1954, it was changed to Veterans Day to honor all veterans.

So after taking a look at this, we have decided to put this forward to you for consideration for next year.

November 11, 2016 would mark the first Veterans Day that we would observe.

Did the staff lose a holiday during one year, or is it coming out even this year?

We celebrated Lee Jackson Day earlier this year, it was after that date.

Any comments or questions?

One question.

I thought Kristin was going to ask this one.

We lost one, and this is replacing it.

Mayor Huja, I move that we pass an ordinance amending and re-ordaining section 2-6 of the Code of the City of Charlottesville 1990 as amended to add Veterans Day as a legal holiday.

Second, we will order next meeting.

Thank you.

You initiated a study of this at your October 19th meeting.

The Planning Commission voted on a kind of a two-pronged

change to the ordinance that I'll try to review briefly because I know there's been a lot of confusion about this.

Currently we allow microbreweries up to 15,000 barrels of production annually in the city in a number of zones.

The request that we receive through our economic development office

was to examine allowing larger facilities, facilities up to potentially 30,000 barrels in some areas.

So you have a proposal in front of you that creates a definition for a small brewery that would be breweries that exceed 15,000 barrels go up to 30,000 barrels annually and we recommend allowing them in a certain number of districts by special use permit.

We do recommend allowing them by right in manufacturing industrial and industrial corridor, partly because beverage and bottling facilities are already a by right use in those zones, so that wouldn't really change the land use regulations in those areas.

Along with that request,

Staff has long had an issue with the fact that microbreweries are permitted, but similar uses for wineries or distilleries are not permitted anywhere in the city, except in the industrial zone.

So microbreweries can go in our downtown area, but similar facilities that deal with wine or distilled spirits cannot.

So our proposal there was to create a new definition for microproducers.

and underneath that would kind of be an overarching use category that would include the current definition for microbreweries as well as new definitions for micro wineries and micro distilleries.

The number of the limit on the micro wineries and micro distilleries is 5,000 gallons.

That comes from the alcohol beverage control board, the state control board in terms of licensing.

That's one of the areas where the limits where they stop.

One of their licenses is

up to 5,000 and then 5,000 and above.

So the Planning Commission reviewed this at their November meeting.

they recommended approval.

One point of contention the micro producers definition that the Planning Commission voted to recommend approval had a limit of 3,000 square feet in area.

It was pointed out to us after that meeting that that would make two existing facilities in the city non-conforming and so we're recommending removing that but keeping the regulation about the amount of

product being sold out the front door as opposed to the back door.

So the microbrewery definition will not change.

It's already existing in the code.

I think that's covered under the brew microbrewery definition.

I have a question.

In the event that, and I hope we do move forward with this, that the strategic investment area has the list of recommendations where it is supposed to move towards its own overlay district, where it might get its own zoning.

And I know that that's downtown extended at this point.

So if there's a facility that has achieved this zoning designation now in that area,

We just have to make sure that as we rezone that area that we're not creating nonconforming uses again.

Could we change it to a by right situation if it's currently an SUP?

For small breweries in the downtown extended, let me pull up the section, it's section, it's page 56 of your digital document, it's page 56 and 57, we're proposing small breweries to be by special use permit in the B2, B3 zones, and then in the downtown extended, the highway corridor, the urban corridor,

and the Central City Corridor.

So downtown extended for people that aren't aware is the area south of the railroad tracks in downtown and it encompasses Friendship Court, the ICS property, ACAC, all in that area.

Right.

This seems to go very well with our kind of

stated purpose that we want to increase and encourage green kind of manufacturing, making stuff in our cities.

And we've had a couple of places where we've taken previously industrial land and made it for other purposes.

So I'm really delighted that this kind of rebalances that a little bit in the other direction.

I have one technical question about the brewing process.

I had a fellow say be careful of the odor.

I'm not sure about the current ones that are by or right.

I know we haven't had, I at least am not aware of many complaints about the current facilities that are in the city.

One of the reasons we decided to make the small breweries by special use permit is odors is one of those, that list of items that we have to consider in a special use permit.

And that'll be a point that we'll ask anyone applying for these in the

I'm not aware of any that I've seen.

Some of them, there are facilities in the city that do most of their bottling in the county.

Champion Brewery I know does that.

I'm not aware of any.

Probably.

Champion?

Yeah, I don't know.

That's interesting.

We have three that I'm aware of, Civilian is the other one, West Main Street.

It does, I believe so, yes.

And then one other question is, is this first motion cover all of those things including the 3,000 square foot cars, like getting rid of that?

It's not in the ordinance.

So I'd like to make a motion that we adopt amendments to the text of Chapter 34 of the Code of the City of Charlottesville to permit certain small-scale producers of beer, wine and distilled spirits outside the city's industrial zoning districts.

Second.

and omit the 3,000 square foot limit if it's in there.

It's not in there.

Okay, discussion.

This is the first reading.

Okay.

We can just go.

I got a five minute presentation.

Yeah, okay, just go.

I have no presentation visibly.

I thought about it, but nah.

So I actually, just as background, we've talked in the past when people go, especially on the city dime, to conferences and meetings.

It would be great if we have a report back.

And often we have really long meetings, but this seemed like a meeting that would be appropriate.

And I have just actually gone to three meetings.

Only one of them was on the city dime, but they're all associated with the National League of Cities in some way.

So I'm going to quickly report on all three.

So the first one was in September.

It was in Orlando, Florida, and in Sanford, Florida.

It was sponsored by a piece of the National League of City called Race, Education, and Leadership, REAL, and it was a real talk conference.

And we were invited to come because of some of the work that we've been doing locally, and our plane tickets were paid for.

So I actually went with Ziona Bryant, who's a member of our Youth Council, and the two of us went

The first part of the meeting was in Sanford, Florida, which is where Trayvon Martin was killed, and we met with the city manager and the mayor and the police chief of Sanford about kind of how they had dealt with the events following the killing of Trayvon Martin and talked about how they had really used openness and kind of inclusion as their response and how well that had gone.

for the city, not that the situation was great, but that they had a lot of lessons learned and things that they felt that they had done well, and some mistakes that they had made that they shared as well, so that was very helpful.

In the second day of the meeting, we talked a lot about the National League of Cities Race Education Leadership Initiative, specifically efforts to help cities

with looking at policies and at things that we do through an equity lens, not only racially, but specifically in this case racially, but looking at things not so much for equality, but as for equity.

So to make sure that the results of our policies have equitable outcomes.

And so there are lots of ideas of ways to do that, and I'd be happy to talk more at length about it before.

But I've got several resources for that work and have talked with Charlene Green in the Office of Human Rights.

And I understand that there's a committee looking at those specifically now.

And REAL itself is working to assemble resources and training available to cities and to make recommendations for specific policy changes and leading solutions nationwide and a racial equity toolkit for cities.

And if you want to know more about their work, it's at nlc.org slash real or slash

The second conference was in Portland, Oregon.

It was a national gathering of groups that have gotten technical assistance grants from the National League of Cities working for black male achievement.

And we were one of those teams.

We were one of six cities that was selected out of a group of 11 that had been selected last year to receive technical support.

And again, they paved our way, which was lovely.

It was through a grant that they had received from a national foundation.

So three members of our Alliance for Black Male Achievement, Sarad Davenport, Matthew Murphy, and I went.

And we also brought a youth member, Trayvon Adams.

It was a cross-site convening, so all the other cities were gathered, and several other cities as well, talking about best practices.

We learned a lot about what the city of Portland is doing to promote policy structures and collaborations to improve outcomes for young black men and boys.

We visited a school using restorative justice practices with middle schoolers.

And one really cool exercise that they had was a fishbowl

where there were teenagers who sat in a circle with a facilitator and talked about their experience of leadership, of race, of racism, and achievement without any grown-ups talking to them or answering them or calling them on it.

So they were talking to each other, but we were gathered in a circle around them listening, and the only rule was that we couldn't talk.

So it was really

It was like a fishbowl.

We got to listen to their thoughts about those issues.

It was very helpful.

So we also, while I was there, actually when I was at the school looking at restorative justice practices, I noticed that it was garbage day and Portland has curbside composting.

So I ran across the street and interviewed several residents in this neighborhood where the school was about how they felt about curbside composting.

They were all enthusiastic about it, loved it.

One thing that they have is they gather also their yard waste in the same bins, which helps.

And then in November, November 7th through 9th, I was in Nashville at the National League of Cities annual convention.

I was the only city councilor this year who went, although we've had more in previous years, but we brought five members of our youth council this year.

Megan Byrd, Kat Johnson, Brianna Wilson, Tia Wilson, and Addie Brown.

And our own city attorney was one of the

the chaperones because his daughter is one of the members.

Thank you for coming.

And a mom was there as well.

So Megan and I, Megan also serves with me on the National Youth Education and Families Council, which I co-chaired this year with the mayor of Pittsburgh, Bill Peduto.

So she and I went a day early for the meeting of that council.

And we were working in the council on a playbook for cities looking at

practices for children's education, not so much what they do in school but what they do the other 85% of their waking time in our communities and how our communities prepare kids to be able to learn well in school and to thrive in our cities.

We talked about cradle through career or to career initiatives and that's what this toolkit is going to be about.

So we did a lot of kind of working on the concepts of that and getting a report from staff about what that will look like.

And we also celebrated the council's 15th anniversary with a new video which

At the general session for the National League of Cities, Joe Biden was our keynote speaker.

He talked about how he had been on his county council and he said, you know, I had to get out of that local government work.

It's too hard.

If you go to those zoning meetings, those people know where you live.

He said he's found it much better in the national limelight.

I'm not sure I'd agree.

I went to several workshops.

There's always concurrent workshops.

You always wish you could be at two or three at the same time.

And a couple of the highlights, I went to a bunch of them, but a couple of the highlights were a Let's Move Cities and Towns workshop, Tech Solutions Workshop.

We had representatives from TechCrunch, CNN, Money, Urban, Us, Acela Software, Lyft, Airbnb, as well as city council members and mayors from several cities presenting on

Some of the apps that we talked about today, the way that disruptive technology is affecting cities and kind of how we can learn from that.

If anybody wants to know more about that, I'd be happy to have a longer talk about it.

I also went to a thing about citizen engagement, best practices of citizen engagement around the country.

and I also was, I presented at two of the workshops.

One was, I was part of a panel in a workshop on supporting communities' families through re-entry initiatives and then I was also one of the featured five-minute Ignite presentations to the whole membership about City of Promise and the idea of cradle to career support for kids.

I also, we had, of course, whatever that, 4,000 city councilors are all gathered in one place, you have all these vendors who want to sell to us so there's big kind of vendor room

and I talked to a lot of the vendors including several who do apps that citizens can use to report infrastructure issues with their iPhones like a pothole or a stop sign or report a request or a complaint and I've submitted those to the city.

We're looking at RFPs for that sort of thing.

Talked to people who build skate parks because we're building a skate park.

Talked to folks who do parking meters, both the ones that are space by space and the ones that are whole block.

Some of them had really interesting ways of feeding back into the system and apps that people could use to know where parking is.

So there are lots of assets out there, and I brought all the information back.

Also talked to folks from HUD who are there with their publishing house.

They have a lot of reports.

I ordered several of them and have brought them in, as well as a guide to HUD user data sets online, which is kind of a geeky thing, but it's

Very cool to access, happy to share that.

Also heard about several recent studies and reports that might be of use to us.

There's a study on short term impacts of housing and service intervention for homeless families.

It was a multi-site random assessment, a random assignment experiment designed to study the impact of various interventions.

A new report from HUD on the worst case housing needs for folks who either are paying more than half their income on housing and or live in severely inadequate conditions.

Some information about smart cities.

Productivity, Efficiency of Government, Transparency and Collaboration, Use of GIS, Outcome Tracking and Open Data, a report called The Business Case for Racial Equity from the Altram Institute and the Kellogg Foundation, and a racial, that I referred to earlier, the Racial Equity Toolkit from the Government Alliance for Race and Equity and the Center for Social Inclusion.

I also got talking to a woman who's with a nonprofit called Star Rating.

They rate, the cities sign up and you can be at various levels.

But it rates cities, and I actually put several copies here just to pass these out.

It's a rating system that you can use, sort of like our Green Cities Initiative, where you get scores on various things that you do.

But it's really for sustainability in lots of different ways.

So the categories are built environment, climate and energy, economy and jobs, education, arts and community, equity and empowerment, health and safety, natural systems and innovation and process.

and I thought this might be a really cool way for us to look at all the different kinds of things that we do to try to make our city better that rates them all in one place.

And so not only helps us learn best practices from other folks doing it as well, but kind of helps us compare to see how we're doing compared to other cities around the country.

And then just today I got an email that I have been named to the Public Safety and Crime Prevention Committee of the National League of Cities.

It's one of several different policy committees

that make recommendations on behalf of the National League of Cities to Congress and to the federal government on various issues.

And this one is on safety and crime prevention.

Well, yeah, and congratulations.

That's fantastic.

And thank you for downloading.

And I'm very interested in the Starr rating system, especially because I know Leslie Beauregard has been working hard on trying to come up with performance metrics.

And it's all open data as far as you can get the information on how they do it for free.

So I'll be brief.

Last year we tried to do this because last year three of us went, Mir Huja, Council Szakos and myself, and then we kept running out of time.

So I'll just talk about this one tour to the Mueller redevelopment site that Mir Huja and I went together on because I think it might have some important insights for the strategic investment area, for example.

or as a large area that's being reimagined.

So the Mueller site actually was once formally a municipal airport and then that became, it was abandoned.

It was owned, it became owned by the city of Boston.

So there's, from the get-go, there's a different baseline.

The city created a task force back in the 90s and they established six values to guide development.

So redevelopment must be fiscally responsible, drive economic development, revitalize East Austin, which had been racially segregated by law in 1928, be affordable to a wide range of people,

It was also viewed as a transit-oriented development, which meant that 25% of its population at build-out would have been at 80% AMI or below.

So that was at every transit-oriented development in Austin.

It had to be sustainable and be walkable in mixed use.

So again, that was some comfort to know that we were kind of following the right pattern, the right model.

The vision plan was created, guided by the Austin Urban Design Division of the Community Development Office.

In fact, the Director of Urban Design was the person who guided us on the tour.

Their master plan was adopted in 2000.

It was interesting, the implementation was done via a public-private partnership.

At that point, the Office of Economic Development

Development's redevelopment division took over.

Once the vision plan was done, a redevelopment division of economic development took over.

That was a multi-person division that included architects, landscape architects, planners, and economic and fiscal analysts.

So those were folks that actually implemented the plan and coordinated all the different departments

from Public Works to Police and Fire to make sure that the plan was built out in a coordinated fashion.

A request for proposal for a master developer was distributed and a developer was selected.

It was the same developer that

actually built out Stapleton, which was the United States' first transit-oriented development.

The goals of the city were to maximize its rate of return, minimize risk, didn't want any windfall profits to the developer.

They did create a development agreement, which is online.

So the idea was that the master developer pay for all the upfront development costs and

And after closing, when the developers sold any of the parcels, the balance went to the city and escrow account.

That's how they kept the developer from getting a windfall.

They created several districts to finance and manage and maintain the infrastructure and amenities.

There was a tax increment finance district where the sales and property taxes were used to reimburse the developer for infrastructure costs.

The city did have to float about $60 million in bonds over time.

This took a lot, like 30 years to build out, and they're still building out.

It was also a parking and transportation management district, so they used the revenue from parking meters to pay for this area's parks.

All parking lots were designed to accommodate structured parking wrapped with uses within a street grid, so there was never any just bald-faced

Parking Garages.

The Greenway was a buffer with adjacent neighborhoods that initially worked against the project, but as the project built out and had wonderful amenities and destinations, they wound up having to build walking paths through the Greenway to connect to the adjacent neighborhoods.

It also became a stormwater management facility.

So, ultimately, the Austin Independent Performing Arts Center decided to locate there.

Some of the tips of zoning changes that were required.

When it was first proposed back in 1990, they used a planned unit development with variances.

But today, they told us they would have used a transit-oriented development overlay district managed by the Urban Design Division.

So again, we've got, as our recommendation, an overlay district.

So again, gave us some comfort level.

Olive Austin is currently rewriting its code.

and so but this particular site, Mueller, would be in conformance.

Austin had a great and complete streets program like we do.

They were oriented towards a form-based code approach so that there was an understanding of human scale as this was building out.

They worked with, and this is important for a lot of people in the community, they worked with Carl Wren

a national leader in work with fire departments to make sure the streets were narrow and the curb radii were short enough or tight enough so that the intersections weren't too wide.

That might be someone that we need to get back in touch with.

The local fire department signed off on this plan.

Pedestrian-oriented throughout, all parking relegated to the side or the rear, no front-facing garages anywhere,

made for a comfortable scale and a safe walk without curb cuts, used alleys a lot.

Live works were a transitional building type between a mixed-use center and the single-family detached, single-family residential areas.

Again, something that we're trying to do in the zoning of the SIA with the transitional zoning types.

Affordable units are maintained via the Mueller Foundation that buys back the affordable properties at the time of sale.

that's suggested to me a little bit like Laughlin.

So the takeaways to sum up that could apply to Charlottesville, an urban design division undertakes the visioning, engagement, planning and design of the master plan.

Urban design also set the rule book for built form.

Then a redevelopment division out of the Office of Economic Development with capabilities in planning, architectural landscape, architecture and civil engineering,

took over to implement the plan and they also monitored the economic build out.

Both the urban design and redevelopment divisions understand how affordable housing works and ensure that it happens project wide, not in isolated enclaves.

The services of an excellent master developer with a transparent developer agreement online that safeguarded the public trust was highly effective.

Together with the city redevelopment staff, the master

Master Developer ensures that infrastructure is done at the right time in the right way at the best cost to the city without hampering timelines.

Okay, thank you.

Yes, I have some other business.

And we are on the verge of making a commitment to a on-call consultant in town to do work for on Locust Avenue.

So I would suggest that we not do the on-call consultant.

Wait until we get the traffic engineer on board because that's a big part of what he's going to do from the get-go anyway.

And from NDS, the word was we wouldn't do anything until mid-January or later anyway.

So we wouldn't be losing any time.

Initially, I thought it would be good to have some internal consultant.

Mr. Huja, I have a comment.

The time you hire someone and then that person takes at least six months to get up to speed.

And we have been, and Mr. Fenwick, you've been one of the biggest advocates for doing and dealing with these issues as soon as possible.

I don't think we can afford to wait.

And as I understand it, this is already, this is a consultant that understands the city, has been working with the city, has access to all the information, and we won't lose any time.

Well, if it comes down to a delay, then we could turn to that consultant.

But if we hire somebody as a traffic engineer at the salary that they're advertising, which is in the neighborhood of $56,000 a year to $110,000 a year, if he doesn't know about traffic engineering and what he can do right off the bat, then we've hired the wrong person.

So we are not looking at a big delay.

I think it would be

My concern is we keep doing these things in isolation and what we really need in a new traffic engineer, he or she, is, because we did just have two females,

I completely agree with you and that's why we're doing Streets at Work and moving that process along and I think what we're looking at right now is

Realistically, if you close the advertising this week, you're not starting, truly starting interviews until probably after the holidays.

And then there's a process for that, then there's a process of negotiation, and then if the person is

And I do have a question.

It's my understanding that all this is fitting within the operating budget of the department.

We have not asked for any additional time.

So the director should have some latitude in how to use their resources.

Yes.

Makes a difference.

We've learned.

Any other comments on this idea?

The neighborhood at this point, what they're looking for is the basics like trimming vegetation, striping on the roads, perhaps a crosswalk painted across the road.

This is actually things that an assistant traffic engineer or somebody tasked with that

And I think that to have somebody kind of looking at it who understands the whole structure makes sense.

I don't think it's going to take a whole lot of that, especially what they're talking about on Locust Avenue.

And, you know, something else to consider, too.

If we do hire someone earlier who can get up to speed pretty quickly, then that's less than we rely on the consultant, so we wouldn't spend all of that.

Plus, Mayor Huja, if I may say something too.

Is it that again, we have recently hired Mr. Iqfuna to be the director of the Naval Development Services, who is using his judgment.

He's assessed the issues that have been brought to him over the last three months.

And this is this is how they're planning to address those issues.

I find that this is quite, quite a precedent for us to then be getting into the point where we're telling

Department head what precisely he should be using his budget for in terms of personnel.

It sounds like that's what we're doing.

It does sound like that's what's going on here and I don't think that's appropriate.

You need to give a yes or no one way, then I'll wave back to one too.

I mean, that's what I just heard.

So why are we voting to tell them what to do?

Well, yeah.

Any other business?

public comments again.

I am speaking for myself this evening.

As I heard you talking about the CIP, it just sort of reminded me of a project that's been going on that I wanted to take an opportunity to bring up again.

So, I studied environmental science and I think I know a little bit about this project, but also, probably more importantly, I'm also an avid gardener of both food and flowers.

I'm very familiar with sun and light and how those things interact in living space, indoors and out.

My topic is the McIntire Park east side building.

And I'm gonna try to explain this in a very common sense way.

Let's say you are, this is south and behind me is north.

I'm not sure if it is.

Once I get inside, I get a little turned around, but being in the northern hemisphere, this side of me would get full sun.

My back would never get sun.

So when you take a building and you face it south, you get a lot of light.

You may even get a little bit more light by going like this.

But as you start to turn this way or this way, the building starts to shade itself.

When you fold in on itself, the building again shades itself.

The building that was come up with for McIntyre Park faces

mostly to the west, it's folded in, and the entire back half is underground, so it's not getting sunlight.

The only part of it, there's only a small part that would be equivalent to my head that is actually at the parking lot level, and then everything goes down.

This is actually similar to how my house is built, so I'm extremely familiar with getting light into a space like this.

So it's very limited.

the natural light that's going to come in there.

I just want to remind you that green building is more than just building efficiency.

It also has to do with using natural light, working with the topography and other things.

So, let's see.

We had consultants work on this and they came up with a design, but a consultant that knows how to design a park is not necessarily who you want designing

your building in the park.

Some of the designs we saw looked more like office buildings.

And we ended up with this one that is basically underground and like this.

I brought it up with Parks and Rec staff and they weren't told, well, maybe we can get skylights in there.

Well, this is a multimillion dollar building.

We shouldn't have people who have no expertise in this area trying to guess how to fix it.

before it's even built and before we have the designs for it.

I really think that we need to have somebody who's more familiar with this area to take a look at it.

The Green Building Council of Virginia meets here in Charlottesville every month.

There was a presentation at an environmental potluck that I was at last night where they had somebody who was building something on private property, but they understood how to fit buildings into the surroundings and work with the topography and the natural light.

I think it would be a

One of the things that wasn't covered was taking the 25 lots, you know, where our houses are on, there are two lots, taking those two lots and combining them into one and rezoning it as one lot instead of two lots.

That would solve

the problem that other people, I may not live long enough to see all of this happen but it's going to happen and it probably might happen to the house next door to me because that's not being well kept.

We've got two homes down there that have been renovated and they've been sold and they're good neighbors.

Our street is really quiet now because the people that were causing problems are gone and we have young people moving in and we like that.

We have one couple with children

and we never see the children but that's not good because you know children do need to get out but we don't see them.

But my question is and my concern is why can't the city take the two 25 feet lots and combine them into one 50 foot lot where single family homes can be built and not a 14 foot two-story house.

I mean you didn't bring that up and that was one of my main issues that I was concerned about because it's ruining our neighborhood.

This house is two stories right smack in the middle of our block and when you come around River Road that's the first thing you see is that big house.

It's a blight to our neighborhood.

It might be a new house but it's a blight to our neighborhood and I'm speaking not only for myself but others that live on Locust Avenue in the 1100 block.

And another thing, our street has not been paved in 20 years.

River Road has been paved, Locust Lane has been paved, part of the Locust Avenue extended has been paved.

We have not had our street paved in 20 years.

And I've been living down there since 1963.

Rebecca Quinn, 1044th Street here in the city.

I was interested to hear Councillor Szakos talk about having run into citizen engagement tools and it reminded me that you reported the same thing last year.

In part, I think, response to my expressing some concern about the citizen budget survey and that

It is not a survey, and I really object to it being characterized as a survey or any kind of expression of citizen opinion.

It is expression of some citizens' opinions, but it surely reaches only those who have computers, who know to check for it, who are active and engaged.

And so the tool that is there now is not the best tool.

I also had someone express to me some frustration

because of the 10 or 11 things, you had to rank each one of them.

You didn't have the choice to say, don't spend any money on something.

And so no survey is ever perfect.

No engagement tool is ever perfect.

But I would urge caution this budget to relying on that in any way of justifying, whether proactively or retroactively, whatever budget decisions and numbers may come forward.

Thank you.

Oh, I will say something about breweries.

The brewing process doesn't produce a smell.

It's the waste.

Hi, Maeve Curtin, UVA Student Liaison to the City Council.

I just want to follow up on the Rugby Road and University intersection.

Student Council is definitely willing to work with you guys this year.

We've been very focused on safety and traffic and bike lanes and all that stuff that is comprised in that area and are happy to provide more anecdotal evidence.

We can collect that.

Also, since I won't be here at the meeting on the 21st, I just wanted to thank Councillor Smith and Mayor Huja on behalf of the Student Council for all of your work for Charlottesville, everything that you've done.

Thanks Brandon Collins, 418 Fairway Avenue.

I'll be brief.

I wish I had chosen my words a little more carefully when I began earlier.

I just wanted to clarify some of the issue with the lift equipment with the housing authority.

So yes, lighting currently needs to be addressed.

and Housing Authority is working on a plan.

One of the great things that you guys have done is provide some of the salary for a maintenance supervisor with the Housing Authority.

He seems fairly qualified and they have a lighting plan that they're trying to put in place.

Part of that plan requires use of lift equipment to be able to address lights when they go out as needed.

Currently what Housing Authority does is

they'll kind of go through once a month, see what's going on and they never get up to speed.

They do need to install more lighting.

There's lighting that needs to be fixed that they're hopefully continuing to work on and hopefully we'll see those improvements soon.

But it doesn't change the fact that they need this ongoing use of lift equipment to repair and maintain lighting on all the sites as needed.

And that's what's become very frustrating and that's been an excuse that we've heard from the housing authority for a number of years that

you know it's very costly each time they have to go and rent it so they wait a month, they rent the lift, they go out and fix stuff but it's really never enough so that kind of coordination with you guys on that is going to be crucial and I think fits the spirit of what Mr. Jones had come to you with some time ago with his stretch objectives that there are smart ways that the city can really engage with the Housing Authority to make things better it's a really simple fix and one that I'm

I've been frustrated.

I know the Housing Authority's been frustrated that it hasn't been able to pan out.

So I'm really excited that you're committed to making sure the lighting is fixed and straight and safe for everybody in the short term and really excited to hear that you're going to pursue a policy and I really do encourage you to get that done by the end of the year.

Mr. Mayor, can I say one thing about the grand illumination that took place on Friday night?

And not just the grand illumination, but the

Daylong festivity that we had downtown because we, for the first time, we partnered with the Toy Lift to do a satellite location for the Toy Lift and we had over, we had 855 toys that were donated downtown.

$1,200 worth of donations were made and 121 books were donated as part of the Toy Lift downtown.

We've worked for

several months now to make this happen.

I just wanted to thank a few people who made this happen.

From the city's side, we have great partners.

There's a long list of folks who we partnered with, great musical groups who came downtown.

We had some city counselors who were part of the bucket truck and part of the toilet.

Some of them sang on Friday.

But Jill Rice from communications really headed this up to an excellent job.

Miriam Dickler from our communications office.

Aubrey Knight, Ron Noland, Andrew Baxter, David Delahunt, Cal Tate, Rich Jones, Doug Gaiman, Brian Daley, Steve Nick, David Shifflett, Donna Hagedorn, Lance Stewart, Steve Vineyard, Todd Divers.

There are a lot of folks who contributed on Friday night and it was a wonderful, wonderful day for us.

Thousands of people were down here.

The moment that we had the Grand Illumination, everyone was singing, We Wish You Merry Christmas.

I'd like to add one name to that.

You mentioned Miriam Dickler, but also Page Rice.

And Page Rice, that's right.

I went up in the truck and I had, in a moment of weakness, agreed to sing Christmas carols and then realized I'd be all by myself, and so

Page agreed to join me for the first half hour and Miriam for the second half hour and we sang duets.

Thanks a lot for that.

That was a lot of fun.

In response to some of the comments that we just got.

Okay.

I just would like to speak to Miss Roberts.

The main way that rezoning takes place is when the owner initiates the rezoning.

So the discussion about the city pooling together these lots to make the 25 foot wide lots and combine them to be 50 foot wide lots, that's not something that the city would just initiate on its own and it's not something that the neighborhood association could initiate.

What has to happen is

Either the owner initiates the rezoning or you go through a process like what we're going through on West Main Street, where it is a district, an identified zoning district that is being completely comprehensively changed in its zoning.

And I'm sure that Mr. Iqfunu would be more than happy to meet with you and talk to you about that because it is an important law to understand.

It's not something that we can just unilaterally say we combine these units.

So that would be what I recommend that you go and meet with Mr. Kfunna and certainly Mr. Brown if I've been incorrect in any way in how I've described that.

But these are property rights, though zoning is part of the property, and that's a legal arrangement.

But we did recently also talk about notification of neighbors when this first came up.

Even when they're by right.

And we are working on a policy where that would be improved.

I actually have another thing.

I'd just like to ask staff to report, maybe to Ms. Roberts or to us, kind of when the last time that part of St. Clair was paved and see if it's on the list to be paved soon or if it somehow got missed or what the plan is.

I wrote it down.

One thing about Ms. Seville's comments, when we approved the East McIntyre plan, I didn't think we were approving anything but a schematic.

Other questions regarding the council members?