City Council Meeting   3/7/2016

Dr. Michael Kochis

All right, I'm going to call this meeting to order.

First of all let's do the Pledge of Allegiance.

Ms. Rice, will you read the roll?

Mr. Bellamy?

Here.

Ms. Zichner?

Here.

Ms. Galvin?

All present.

OK, awards and recognitions.

We do this every meeting.

All right.

I have a proclamation.

declaring American Red Cross Month 2016.

Whereas in the city of Charlottesville we have a long history of helping our neighbors in need, American Red Cross Month is a special time to recognize and thank our everyday heroes, the selfless Red Cross volunteers and donors who give of their time and resources to help community members.

And whereas these heroes help families find shelter after a house fire, give blood to help trauma victims and cancer patients,

deliver comfort items to military members in the hospital, use their life-saving skills to save someone from a heart attack, drowning, or choking, and enable children around the globe to be vaccinated from measles and rubella.

And whereas the American Red Cross depends on local heroes to deliver help and hope during a disaster, we applaud our heroes here in the city of Charlottesville and the entire Central Virginia area who give of themselves to assist their neighbors when they need help and can.

And whereas across the country and around the world the American Red Cross responds to disasters big and small,

Every eight minutes, the organization responds to a community disaster, providing shelter, food, emotional support, and other necessities to those affected.

It collects 40% of the nation's blood supply, teaches millions of people life-saving skills, and through its Restoring Family Links program, connects family members separated by crisis, conflict, or migration.

And whereas we dedicate the month of March to all those who support the American Red Cross mission to prevent and alleviate human suffering in the face of emergencies as our community depends on the American Red Cross,

which relies on donations of time, money and blood to fill its humanitarian mission.

Now therefore, I Michael Signer, we City Council of the City of Charlottesville, to hereby proclaim March 2016 as American Red Cross Month and encourage all residents to support this organization and its noble humanitarian mission.

Sign the seventh day of March 2016.

Is there anyone here from Red Cross to accept this?

All right, it's budget season in the city.

Tonight we're getting the city manager's proposed budget.

We won't be discussing it this evening, but we will be discussing it at a series of five work sessions and public meetings.

The first is the, well actually it's not the first, but I'll first talk about the community budget forum.

which is March 23rd from 7 to 9 p.m. in city space.

Join city council and city staff for a community budget forum to weigh in on the city council's proposed FY 17 budget.

There'll be lots of time for public comment and reflections on the budget which is available online.

You can find it at the city's website at www.Charlottesville.org slash budget.

Other upcoming budget work session dates where we get to talk more about it are March 10th, the council budget work session at 5 p.m. in city space.

March 15th, city council budget work session, 5 p.m. in city space.

March 31st, city council budget work session, 5 o'clock in city space.

April 7th,

Council Budget Work Session 530 in City Space, and April 12th, the adoption of the budget at 530 in the second floor conference room of City Hall.

And if you want to know any more about that, you can go to www.Charlottesville.org slash budget.

Thanks.

on a roll with announcements.

I have three.

The first one is the Streets That Work open house.

That's Thursday, March 24th from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at City Space, 105th Street Northeast.

It'll begin at seven with a welcoming and light refreshment, 715, presentation of final Streets That Work guidelines.

That's the street types, including cross sections, and how the

the new street types are going to be implemented.

750, there will be a demonstration project, 8 o'clock, Q&A, 815, open house.

You can learn more at www.Charlottesville.org slash streets that work, all one word.

Or call 434-970-3182.

Let me just keep going?

Yes.

The second announcement is the Ragged Mountain Natural Area Master Planning.

The Department of Parks and Recreation is undertaking a master planning process for the RMNA and will be hosting a series of public meetings to provide information and receive public feedback on how to manage the RMNA.

That's the Rag Mountain Natural Area.

The second meeting of these three is coming up this month.

That's gonna be Tuesday, March 22nd from six to eight o'clock p.m.

The third meeting will be Wednesday, April 6th from six to eight.

All meetings take place at Trinity Church 3101 Fontaine Avenue extended and during this process public comment can also be sent to RaggedMountain, one word, at Charlottesville.org or mailed to Parks and Recreation, care of Ragged Mountain, 501 East Main Street, Charlottesville, Virginia 22902.

or calling 970-3610 and leaving a message at the park planning hotline.

The third one is, my piece is very short, but it is an introduction of the new electoral board.

Thank you.

My name is Anne Hemingway.

I live at 800 Park Street in Charlottesville, and I am president of the electoral board for Charlottesville.

And with me tonight is Patricia Maroona, who is the vice president of the electoral board, and Jim Nix, who is the secretary of the electoral board.

I just have a few comments about last Tuesday's Super Tuesday Virginia contest in Charlottesville.

I think it's important for everybody to know that we had

44.9% of the active voters voting last Tuesday.

That's the highest primary turnout in Charlottesville.

And it's nearly as many people as came out for the gubernatorial race, our last one.

We're expecting twice as many in November for the presidential election.

But it's important to know that we had a huge turnout, really, for this primary.

Whereas in the rest of the country,

I've heard, I'm sure, that the Democratic turnout was low, but it was not in Charlottesville.

It was high.

It was wonderful.

I want to thank a number of people for the election, which really went quite smoothly.

First of all, I want to thank Parks and Rec for making available three of our precincts at Carver Rec, Downtown Rec and Tonsler.

I also want to thank the school system and the school board in particular for making four of our precincts are at schools, making those places available.

and for allowing a two hour delay.

This really enabled a lot of voters to vote early in the morning and not be in conflict with the school buses and the children coming in.

Boys and Girls Club makes their place available as our precinct for Buford and Alumni Hall provides their facility and all of that is extremely helpful.

We also had 117 citizens perform as election officials, which is a large number and we're going to need more for the presidential election.

These people, 75 of them worked from

4.30 in the morning until 8, 9, almost 11 o'clock at night.

And then 42 others worked half day shifts.

These are your neighbors, your friends, your family, and we encourage more people to come out.

You can go on the website of the registrar's office for more information about that or call.

But it's fun, actually, I think.

And then I also want to thank the registrar's office, in particular, well, all of them, really.

But Rosanna Bencoach just has been our registrar for a little more than a year.

and in that time frame, she's had three elections to perform, which is really extraordinary, actually.

And get to know her staff and accept new regulations from the state and ever increasing information that the state is requiring.

She has a wonderful staff, very professional staff that works with her, but only two of which are full time employees.

And we have asked that the city allow more

real employees for this office because it's very important and it's become much more technical.

We have new voting equipment, we have a lot new regulations and we have more and more people registering to vote in the city of Charlottesville and it's very difficult to develop professional staff when you're telling somebody that's working 80 hours one week that they're just a

not even a part-time, an hourly temporary employee.

These people are extremely professional and they enable the city of Charlottesville to have a very successful election time after time.

So thank you and I encourage everybody that's listening to get out and vote in November and to perhaps be an election official.

Thank you for your service.

I have a first announcement.

This one means a great deal to me.

Some people may not realize that I grew up watching Author, the cartoon.

I still watch Author when counsel gets a little too hectic.

Yeah, I grew up on Author.

So it is the 20th anniversary of Author and we're going to be

celebrating their anniversary here in Charlottesville.

So we have a proclamation that we're going to read.

So, again, I'm excited.

It's exuding through me.

Mr. and Mrs. Reed were growing weary of all the children's energy after they had been cooped up all winter.

So they decided to take them on a day trip to Charlottesville.

That's the brother.

DW, that's the sister.

Baby Kate, obviously the baby.

And their trust pup pal all hopped joyfully in the car.

What do you think is in Charlottesville, author?

DW asked.

Well, I don't know DW, but they do have smart, fun kids who read lots of books.

I'm sure it's a great place.

When they arrived at the Charlottesville downtown mall, they were all very excited.

So many cool things to look at and fun things to do.

Where do you want to go first?

Arthur asked.

Baby Kate loves ice cream.

Let's go to Chaps Ice Cream and get ice cream first, replied D.W. All of a sudden, Pal started to bark and bounce.

He seemed to have found something he really liked.

So Arthur, D.W., and Baby Kate all followed him.

What do you think Pal is running after, Arthur, D.W. asked.

I don't know.

But he is making trouble, Arthur replied.

Pal can't go anywhere without getting into trouble, said D.W.

Sounds like someone up on here.

Anyway, with a great big leap, Pal broke his collar and took off into a big building, the Paramount Theater.

I wonder what's in there, D.W. said.

I guess we are going to have to find out, Arthur replied.

The children followed Pal the pup into the theater, only to find all of their friends inside.

Buster, Binky, Francine, Brian, and Muffy were all waiting for them, and Pal was sitting beside him with a hamburger in his mouth.

Happy 20th anniversary, their friend shouted.

It was a surprise party to celebrate Arthur and his friends and family for contributing 20 years of learning and fun on air with the PBS Kids lineup at WVPT.

What a wonderful anniversary, and no better place to celebrate it than during the Festival of the Book.

Whereas WVPT is helping to promote literacy in children and thereby instilling a lifelong passion for reading, education, and learning.

And whereas WVPT has been transformative in how children are introduced to letters, words, languages, and respectful relationships with their families, friends, and communities through their broadcasts of the PBS Kids programs

and other educational shows and, whereas, the show Author has been a part of this educational broadcast for the past 20 years and are celebrating its anniversary this year, now, therefore, our mayor, Mr. Signer, and the City Council of Charlottesville, Virginia, do hereby proclaim Author Honorary Mayor of Charlottesville for the morning in honor of Author's anniversary

and visit Saturday, March 19th, 2016 during the WVPT Children's Event for Festival of the Book.

And I encourage all the children to participate fully in this celebration of literacy and learning.

And this is signed on the seventh day of March by our wonderful Mayor, Mr. Signer.

Now I understand Ms. Anne Jolly is here to accept this proclamation.

First 200 kids get three books and then we have a program at the permanent last year we had over 900 people so

This is an event we've been doing I think for nine years now.

So I hope you come, I hope you bring your kids or your grandkids or your nieces and come down and if you get there early you'll get a free book.

And Arthur himself is going to be there.

Arthur's going to be there and Cubby, the big bear.

So it's the 19th and the doors open at 930.

So thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

Yes, sir.

So, I love Arthur.

Also, Mr. Alexander and Mrs. Ann Gatewood present My Help List Contest.

So this is a thinking, writing, and reading activity.

It's an essay entry that they're looking for 150 words or less to share in writing.

So you have to write about

three things excuse me two things why it's important to help people so and also you have to list five things you have done to help someone or how you can help someone so anyone grades K through five six through eight and nine through twelve are eligible as long as you're throughout the Charlottesville and surrounding counties and the winner I may have to

Try to get into this.

One winner from each grade category will be chosen and win a $100 cash prize with a reception to be held in their honor.

So all you have to do is write an essay about why it's important to help people or also list five things you have done to help someone or how you can help someone and you may possibly win a $100 cash prize.

Mr. Fenwick?

and Wes gets the good ones and I get the leaks.

So, Fix-a-Leak Family 5K.

Next week is Fix-a-Leak Week, a national awareness campaign sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency to encourage residents to find and fix leaks at home.

To celebrate Fix-a-Leak Week and World Water Day, which also occurs in March,

The City of Charlottesville is holding their fourth annual Fix a Leak Family 5K at 10 a.m. on Sunday, March 20th at Penn Park.

This is a fun family event where participants get to chase and stop the infamous running toilet.

There will be family activities on information on how to save water and money by fixing water leaks.

The city encourages everyone to support Fix a Leak Week with the following simple steps.

Check for leaks, twist and tighten hose and pipe connections and replace fixtures as necessary.

By checking and fixing leaks, you could save as much as 10,000 gallons of water every year.

Go to the city's water conservation page at www.Charlottesville.org forward slash water conservation to register, excuse me, for the Fix the Leak Family 5K event and for more information about finding and fixing.

Now we had some fun with this but a couple months ago I had a leak under my van and I didn't catch it for a month and it cost me a thousand dollars.

The extra water bill was a thousand dollars.

So please, if you have leaks around your house, don't think they're very minor.

The city is more than happy to come out and check what you think may be a leak.

If you have gutters in the street that are damp after it hadn't rained for a while, that's a great indication.

Two other quick ones.

I've mentioned before internet scams that are catching some of the elderly people in our community.

And now it has jumped over to the phone, to cell phones.

So if you have

Seniors that you watch out for occasionally, or really almost anybody, make sure that they're not being taken advantage of.

And if there's any question, call the police department.

If it is some kind of a scam, they will log it in and hopefully, after a couple of these, they'll be able to track this thing down.

So just be very careful about that.

Wheelchair basketball team in our community has once again gotten to the Sweet 16 National Championship.

That means they're one of the top 16 teams in the country.

These men and women are incredible when they compete.

So you'll be hearing more about that.

Market Plaza is starting up.

That means traffic problems will be a little worse on Water Street.

Be ready for that.

And it'll be maybe a year or a year and a half that we're going to have to endure that.

But that'll be major.

And one last thing.

Across the city, people are worried about speed control cut through traffic in their neighborhoods.

And I think three neighborhoods now are tracking speeds on a clever system by a gentleman out on Locust Avenue.

So be careful about your speeds going around town, especially if you have a business with your name on the truck, because they will snatch you.

And it's just for the benefit, for the children, for the elderly, whatever.

That's it.

I have two items, one proclamation and then one exciting award.

I told you second.

Proclamation, Virginia Festival of the Book.

whereas the City of Charlottesville believes that literacy is critical to active and engaged citizenship and whereas reading stimulates the creative and intellectual growth of individuals while also building community through shared experiences and understanding and whereas the Virginia Festival of the Book draws attendees and authors from the region, the Commonwealth, other states, and indeed the world serving as an economically significant event for this area while providing a majority of programs free of charge

and whereas the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, the Virginia Center for the Book, the University of Virginia local businesses and schools, as well as cultural and civic organizations collaborate with the Virginia Festival of the Book to promote literacy and reading.

Now therefore I, Michael Signer, Mayor of the City of Charlottesville, do hereby proclaim Wednesday, March 16th through Sunday, March 20th as the 22nd annual Virginia Festival of the Book and encourage community members to participate fully in the wide range of available programs and activities.

I'm particularly excited I presented at the Festival of the Book twice and it is a really remarkable thing about Charlottesville.

Very briefly, I would like to thank you.

We at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and the Virginia Festival of the Book greatly appreciate the support of the City of Charlottesville for the festival.

In addition to financial support, we appreciate the unflagging help of city staff in support of programs that are held right here at City Council Chambers.

We appreciate the partnership of city of Charlottesville City Schools where authors will be authors, not Arthur,

Authors will be visiting every school in the district.

In addition, as a reflection of the community-wide support of the festival, we count 214 community partners for the 2016 festival, which is about a 60% increase over last year.

Thank you.

To end on a very exciting note for the city, the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada has awarded the City of Charlottesville GFOA's Distinguished Budget Presentation Award for the Fiscal Year 2016 Budget.

This is the 23rd time that Charlottesville has won this award and the 14th consecutive budget award.

It reflects the commitment of council and staff to meeting the highest principles of government budgeting in order to receive the award.

The city had to satisfy nationally recognized guidelines for effective budget presentation guidelines that assess how well an entity's budget

Illustrates in several areas and then there are four categories that produce the final scoring and we're excited.

So thank you Mayor Signer and Members of Council.

We always like to start off a new budget process with this good news of receiving the budget award each year and it's a really, it's not an easy thing to do.

It takes a lot of work from staff and from a lot of folks around the city actually.

I'll recognize in particular Ryan Davidson who's in my office and Maia Kumisawa who just started in my office but she's already contributed to next year's submission for fiscal year 2017 with her contribution to the proposed budget that you have before you now.

And I would like to say it's very exciting because for the first time we received outstanding scores for aligning the budget with strategic planning goals, unit goals and strategies and performance measures.

And that's the first time we've ever received that.

And it's the first year we also aligned the budget with the strategic plan.

So we were super excited to see those scores when they came through from the reviewers.

So thank you again.

Again, we look forward to working with you on this next budget cycle and to preparing another award winning document and policy plan.

Okay, we are now moving on to matters by the public.

Mike, you want to do applicants?

Thank you.

I would move the following appointments to the following boards.

All in favor?

The ayes have it.

Thank you.

Okay, we're moving on to matters by the public.

As everybody knows, this is the first, well some people know, we're doing a new system tonight.

The request for speaking slots by email and phone and in-person requests up until 9 o'clock this morning.

That was a new system to get to the 12 slots that we have offered in many years.

The people who got the slots were selected through a random process, which is explained on the city's web page.

So I have that list right here and we do have a wait list and the wait list has also been publicized as well as this list since noon today.

So if in the event some of these folks don't show up, please be prepared if you're on the wait list to speak.

And the drill is the same as before, you have three minutes to speak and just pay attention to this nifty device right here just like a traffic light and it'll show when you're running to the end of your time.

Good evening.

My name is Kim Rolla.

I live at 1206 Greenway Road, and I'm an attorney at Legal Aid Justice Center.

As I'm sure you're all aware, the agency budget review team has recommended a cut in LAGC's funding this year.

You've received materials from our organization about the number of families we represent in the city of Charlottesville.

the dollar value of settlements and judgments we obtain and the money we keep in low income residents pockets by successfully defending suits.

But tonight, I thought I'd offer you a slightly more human face to our work taken from my primary area of practice, which is housing.

At any given moment, our office is likely representing upwards of a dozen tenants potentially facing eviction.

An eviction can set off a cascade of problems, including depression, job loss, material hardship as people lose not only their homes, but their possessions as well.

It can set off a spiral of future housing instability when landlords won't rent to you because of an eviction on your record.

And that same eviction on your record bars you from accessing affordable housing programs.

Recent research has associated eviction with poor health outcomes for children.

And following evictions, people end up in the shelter system or substandard living conditions.

Lawyers matter in preventing this.

After New York City increased funding for legal aid, there was an 18% decrease in evictions.

Even though during the same period of time, there was only a 2% decrease

and eviction actions filed by landlords.

And it's not just tenants who are facing displacement in the city of Charlottesville.

One of my clients asked me to read some brief comments from her.

Quote, my husband and I live in Charlottesville.

We came to Legal Aid as our last resort, hoping we could get help to keep from losing our home because of the mishandling of our mortgage through Wells Fargo.

We were both retired and had no way of affording legal counseling here in Charlottesville with the outrageous fees that lawyers charge.

Legal Aid saved our home.

There is no way to say it other than that.

And the broader context of these individual cases is the desperate need to preserve and expand affordable housing in our area.

As the city's own recent comprehensive housing analysis revealed, quote, from a purely statistical perspective, the city's most underserved segment in its housing market is its lowest income households.

The majority of those low income households have unaffordable rent as defined by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

As the city moves forward with its strategic investment area, public housing redevelopment, and other major plans, LAGC is playing a critical role in supporting low-income residents' participation in conversations about the future of not only their neighborhoods, but the city as a whole.

We work with a number of tenant organizations in the city and are a vital source of technical assistance and legal advice.

When there's a conversation about affordable housing occurring in the city of Charlottesville,

Legal Aid Justice Center is there.

And more importantly, Legal Aid Justice Center is there with low income residents.

Housing is only one of the many needs that LIJC is working hard to meet in the city of Charlottesville, and we need your support to continue that work.

So please restore LIJC's funding fully.

Thank you.

My name is William Stevens and I would like to address the noise restrictions in the Planning Commission's recommendations with regard to the SUP for Common House.

I reside at McGuffey Hill Condos, 209A 2nd Street Northwest, which is a quiet neighborhood at the west end of Jefferson Street in the historic district.

I am 72, retired, and try to get to bed by 930 most nights.

McGuffey Hill Condos was built in 1981 and has 38 units largely occupied by persons in their 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s.

We are across the street from 206 West Market Street.

I proposed two changes to the noise restrictions as recommended by the Planning Commission, namely

instead of the prohibition against outdoor amplified sound after 11 p.m. seven days a week.

I think it is reasonable that the restriction be prohibition after 9 p.m. on weekdays that Sunday through Thursday and after 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.

I also believe that the

Proposal for valet parking is ill-advised.

With regard to noise, Common House proposes a third floor deck with a cabana bar and restrooms with alcoholic beverages and rock and roll music.

We were told that they would have music programs similar to the bands that play at the garage.

The plan commission recommendation prohibiting outdoor amplified sound up until 11 p.m. on all days of the week is unreasonable and would violate the city's public policy and noise ordinance.

Section 16.2 of the noise ordinance establishes that it's the public policy of the city

that excessive sound is a serious hazard to the public health, welfare, peace, and safety, and the quality of life.

It also provides, quote, it is the public policy to prevent, and I emphasize the word prevent, excessive sound that degrades the quality of life.

There is no exception under 16-2 of the noise ordinance for the downtown business district.

It applies citywide.

Outdoor amplified sound on the roof deck past 9pm on weekends is excessive by definition.

Section 16.10a states that with regard to the downtown business district, quote, it shall be unlawful for any person to make, quote, any sound that unreasonably disturbs the comfort, peace and quiet of others.

Good evening, my name is Nancy Carpenter.

I live on Henry Avenue in the Rose Hill neighborhood.

Thank you for allowing me this opportunity to address you this evening.

A lot of times I come up here and I talk about affordable housing and other low income issues.

And I have to admit that I do support what Ms. Rolla said about restoring the totality of the funding for

for the Legal Justice Aid Center, because I do use them and suggest them as a resource for individuals that I talk to.

But this evening, I'm coming to you for another reason.

March, I believe, is the month for women's history, kind of an interesting month.

And so in some flyer materials I got as a service provider, there's this really important fair coming up in April.

It's the resource fair for reentry.

And I noticed that there's something

missing from this flyer.

And it's a great resource.

I'm supporting it.

I'm advocating for people to go.

There's no woman here.

There's no female in the background, the foreground, or whatever.

And it may seem like a silly concern, but we do have a lot of women that come back into reentry programs from incarceration.

And a lot of them face a lot of obstacles when it comes to

domestic violence, when it comes to substance abuse, when it comes to regaining custody of their children, because primarily in today's society it seems like women have a lot of primary physical custody of children.

And so if we're going to do a re-entry fair, it would be nice if the office that provided this marketing material would have also had one specifically with women, showing them being engaged and being proactive in wanting to

get better to move ahead, whatever that looks like for them.

So I just wanted to bring that to your attention that while this community resource fair is a great, great opportunity for a lot of people, it would just be nice to have some marketing materials so that 50% of our population would not feel marginalized any more than they do.

Thank you.

My name is Paige Williams.

I'm with Linhart Pettit, 530 Main Street.

Hello, my name is Alan Kajean.

I'm the Manager of Union Station Partners.

which owns the Amtrak station.

Main Street Associates has done the Main Street market and Eloise and the development across the way.

And we own a couple of other properties on Main Street as well.

I could talk here and repeat what Page has put in his letter as to why we think the Amtrak site is unique.

I think the topography is unique.

It's surrounded by railroad tracks.

so it has less effect on other property owners as a development.

And you've ignored, we've gone through, I think that site has gone through three zoning changes just in your draft.

And you've ignored the advice of your consultants.

So I find the process a little arbitrary and upsetting.

I don't want to talk about that.

I want to talk about the big picture.

You got, and I'll be kind, I'm not Southern, so I'm not as kind, I'm a little more direct.

You got an ugly project that upset the citizens, that upset the city council.

Right?

Am I fair to say that?

You should be addressing the question, what happened in the planning process?

How did that get approved?

The ordinance doesn't do that.

It doesn't address that at all.

You've focused on one aspect primarily, height.

Great architecture has nothing to do with height.

Charlottesville deserves great architecture.

You can produce an ugly four unit builder or an ugly seven unit building and nothing in your ordinance have you changed the process.

I can't really say what went wrong with the process, but something went terribly wrong and it has not been thought through.

How can I correct the process?

Gabe and I, we spent all of our time doing historic buildings.

We don't build new buildings.

So, you know, we don't build new developments.

That's not what we did.

It's not what we like to do.

So, I'm also amazed by the lack of consideration for historic preservation in the ordinance.

Charlottesville talks about historic preservation, but you do the little of any jurisdiction I work in to preserve older buildings.

How do you do that?

If I have a truly historic building that ought to be preserved, you ought to be telling me, I can't touch that building.

I can't build around that building.

I can't make it a little part of a facade.

Now, how do you do that and still be fair to me as a property owner because you aren't getting the value of my land?

Well, what other jurisdictions do is they allow transferable development rights.

So in return for preserving my building, I can take those rights and put them in another location.

My name is Louis Schultz and I live at 1809 East Market Street.

Wes Bellamy, you are a teacher and have also taken on the role of mentoring or helping young people evolve, as you put it.

Young people look up to you in those roles.

Students who may not be in your classes but know who you are also come to these meetings.

At the last council meeting, you spoke about a 10th grader who told you he heard someone yell at you at a council meeting after you had failed to follow through on a promise that you had made.

At that same meeting on February 16th, I asked you four questions which I will repeat tonight.

You refused to say a single word in response and just sat there looking embarrassed, confused, and very uncomfortable despite being given these specific questions weeks in advance.

If the conversation with that student was as difficult for you as you made it sound,

Then it must be really hard for you to explain to kids why you won't answer my questions.

Something is definitely wrong if you as an elected official can't proudly say with 100% confidence that what you have done is legal or admit you made a mistake and immediately work to correct it.

That's what we expect of a proper role model.

If you still refuse to answer, you at least owe those kids and the rest of us an explanation for doing so.

Question number one.

Section 9 of Charlottesville's charter and Section 238 of Charlottesville's code say that the terms of the mayor and vice mayor begin in July.

The charter says that a vacancy in either office can be filled only for the remainder of the original term.

Wes, you were elected vice mayor on January 4th of this year to a two-year term.

Do you believe that to be lawful?

If so, what law authorizes that two-year term if it began in January?

Question number two, section 35 of the city's charter says very plainly, the council shall fix by ordinance the time for holding their stated meetings.

Chapter two, section 41 of the city's code is that ordinance.

By law, it can only be amended by another ordinance.

On January 4th, you voted in favor of a resolution purporting to establish a meeting schedule that differs from what the ordinance requires.

Do you believe that to have been a lawful action on your part?

If so, what law authorized council to pass that resolution and how could it amend an ordinance?

Question 3, Section 7A of City Manager Maurice Jones' employment contract explicitly states twice that his employment is to be for a definite term and that it ends on a specific date.

Virginia Code section 15.2-1503 says very plainly, all appointments of officers and hiring of other employees by locality shall be without definite term.

Is the employment contract between the city and Maurice Jones valid?

If you believe it to be valid, can you please explain how that can be since it does not comply with state law?

Can anyone explain why 10 weeks after I first raised that question with you and nine weeks after you publicly asked the city attorney to respond to my questions, we still don't have an answer.

Question 4, Charlottesville's charter is an act of the General Assembly which the city has no authority to modify.

Section 5A of the charter says the City Council shall be elected

at the intervals and on the day prescribed for such elections by the laws of the state.

Section 5D says, in accordance with the general laws of the Commonwealth, the election of councilmen shall be held in May of 1972 and biennially thereafter.

You and everyone else acting as a councilor here tonight was elected in November, which is very different from what the charter requires.

Do you believe that your authority as the city councilor is legitimate?

Thank you.

My name is Scott Payton.

I'm a native of the city of Charlottesville.

I would like to address some comments and observations about West Main Street and the proposed amendments.

that are before you all this evening.

I might say this is no less than the third time that I've appeared before this body to share these same comments, so I apologize in advance to those of you who have heard me before.

In particular, Mayor Signer and Vice Mayor Bellamy have not.

I do believe some things bear repeating.

I think I can share a bit of a unique perspective, and as you may have heard before, I basically grew up on West Main Street.

My father, Bradley Payton, proudly owned and operated Payton Pontiac Cadillac Datsun for over 40 years until the time of his retirement.

I'm thankful, quite frankly, he's not alive today to see some of the changes that have been wrought on West Main Street as a result of special use permit approvals by this very body.

It's interesting to me, I attended most all of the meetings and opportunities to speak about the special use permits for the flats, for public plaza, for the uncommon, is that what it's called?

Which I think is perhaps quite common.

The Sycamore House, what have you.

So those projects are already in the pipeline.

My concern is that you not further compound the prominent impact that those proposed developments and some that are already in place have and impose quite frankly on

the context, the texture, the scale, the pedestrian presence on West Main Street and the actions of this council will indelibly place your fingerprints on the West Main Street corridor for generations to come and I strongly encourage you particularly with regard to the reduction in height

aspects of the zoning amendments that are before you that you would approve those restrictions and limitations.

What's already done is done, but I do believe that it's in the best benefit of the corridor and to preserve the integrity of what yet remains that we not allow additional developments to reach that limit.

I'd always believe that the, well,

I am mindful that this is substantially a down zoning.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening Mayor Signer, members of council, and staff.

My name is Morgan Butler and I'm speaking for the Southern Environmental Law Center tonight.

Back at a work session on the West Main Street Action Plan that took place about a year ago, the city's consultants summarized the five main things they had heard from citizens during the three public meetings that were held as part of the project.

First, celebrate history.

Second, accommodate people who bike, walk, drive, and ride transit.

Increase the public green space and tree canopy along the street.

Fourth, support a mix of land uses that support local residents and students.

And finally, encourage compatible development that is in keeping with the historic character of West Main.

All those points are relevant, but that final one is key tonight.

And it is the essence of the proposed zoning changes that are before you.

These amendments correct some provisions where the code has clearly gotten the scale of permissible development wrong.

but they add some flexibility where it makes sense too.

For example, the changes would lower the by-right building heights along the eastern half of the corridor where more of the historic character is intact, but they raise the by-right heights along the western half.

Also, they would end an unpopular exemption that allows penthouses to exceed the building height limits, but at the same time, they would expand the mix of uses allowed on the north side of the street.

In short, the proposed changes strike a fair balance that invites the future while ensuring it will not overshadow the past.

We avidly support the changes, and both Preservation Piedmont and the Piedmont Group of the Sierra Club have been closely following the process and asked us to voice their support also, since their representatives were not selected to speak tonight.

Finally, we'd like to remind you of the urgency here.

Charlottesville residents sometimes bemoan the city's tendency to study an issue until it's obsolete,

While that's usually an obvious exaggeration, these zoning amendments are getting dangerously close to fitting it.

This, of course, is an important topic that requires a thorough public process.

But we're now up to three public meetings, multiple steering committee meetings, the city soliciting public comment on the draft code, two special council work sessions, two discussions at regular council meetings, and three joint public hearings with the Planning Commission,

and an extensive process that began well over two years ago.

And all of this time, development has continued to be submitted and approved along West Main Street.

If we don't finally adopt these amendments, there will be nothing recognizable left of the historic character that the public has made so clear it still wants to protect.

Please adopt these changes with no further delays.

Thank you.

Good evening.

My name is Lena Seville.

I live on Alta Vista Avenue near Belmont Park.

I'm also here to talk with you about the West Main Street rezoning amendment.

I would encourage you to put in place substantial

Setbacks to the corridor.

I think there are a lot of good parts to this proposed amendment, but one thing that's sort of gone back and forth somewhat over time are the setbacks, and so that's what I'm going to address.

For those of you who are newer to council, I'd like to remind you that the Tree Commission, BikePed, and the consultants all

asked for a minimum of 10-foot setbacks and the Planning Commission, I believe, recently passed something asking for 15-foot setbacks.

And there's a reason for that.

If you look at buildings that, as a pedestrian, that are interesting when you walk by, there's a three-dimensional quality to it.

It's not a street wall.

Part of the building comes forward, part of the building sets back.

It gives some interest to the eye and

And that is one of the things that setbacks would do.

While we have quite a few buildings that are close to zero setbacks or short setbacks, that variability of the setbacks gives you sort of an ebb and flow down the street that helps you

It helps you orient yourself, honestly.

If you are new to an area or if you visit it irregularly, when you have really just a straight row of buildings, it can be difficult to figure out where it is your destination fits in or where you are if you're taking the bus and you're trying to get a stop or to park.

That variability along the street edge really helps you get a sense of a place of where you are and where you're going.

Another thing that I would mention, I've heard that some people like the closed-in space of a building right next to them because they say it's like being inside of a room or in a building.

And I would say that people don't usually walk right next to the walls.

There's furniture next to the walls.

There's that three-dimensional quality that the setbacks can give us that makes a place more enjoyable and more comfortable.

Thank you very much.

Good evening City Council, Mayor Signer.

Thank you for letting me speak.

My name is David Zall.

I live at 1833 Fendal Avenue and I'm on staff at Christ Episcopal Church and wanted to briefly lend my support and public advocacy for the common house special use permit

This is a project that's been very near and dear to my heart, working right down there with seeing all that goes on downtown with so much wonderful, vibrant activity, but also so much atomization and sort of segregation that happens.

When they initially approached me about this institution, what excited me was that it was not going to be another vehicle of stratification socioeconomically, that they would go out of their

out of their way in every possible way, including financially, to make it an inclusive place where people could get connected that aren't normally getting connected.

And I believe that what initially excited me about it has continued to excite me about it.

I also believe that they've been deeply respectful of the history of the building that they are occupying.

This will bolster the harmony and creativity of the city which was reflected in our vision, of course, in a variety of ways, but especially through the building of friendships, through social gatherings over food and refreshment.

I think, as we all know, society is increasingly mediated by devices, technology.

This would be a place for face-to-face interaction, mutual understanding, and really building points of compassion.

just implore you to pass their special use permit.

Thank you.

Good evening.

My name is Peter Kleeman.

I live at 407 Edge Street in the city.

By the luck of the draw or the spin of the

Random Number Generator, I have the opportunity to speak to you tonight and I just feel disappointed that other people who are signed up in the secondary list who are talking about the only item that's up for action are on that list and will have the opportunity only to speak after the action schedule on today's meeting will be taken.

So I would be very curious to know what new information they might bring and I guess I will not know that information when you have your discussion.

I'm also here to talk about the new procedures that were passed last time about the idea of using resolutions as the basis for governing the city and I did some homework on that and I looked up in legal sources about the role of resolutions and them versus ordinances etc.

and it turns out in my research that the

Resolutions are a wonderful way to state the opinion of counsel, but they are in no means enforceable.

So I had the opportunity to speak with Mayor Signer about this at his Thursday office hours and mentioned that an ordinance would be required if you wanted to have enforcement.

If the mayor is going to ask the police officer in the back of the room to escort someone out of the room and not allow them back in and possibly not allow them back in and other meetings, that sounds a lot like enforcement to me.

So I recommend it to Mayor Signer and I'm here because he is but one of the action takers to speak to the council and Mr. Jones.

about requesting that you reconsider that as an ordinance which would just require that you follow the normal ordinance procedures and you have a public hearing so that all sides of the issue will have a chance to participate in that discussion.

Thank you.

My name is Angela Cholfi.

I live at 805 Knoll Street, and I'm also the legal director of the Just Children program at the Legal Aid Justice Center, and I'm here to urge you to fully fund Legal Aid's requested funding amount.

At Just Children, we provide free legal advice and representation to children and families

Good evening to everyone.

My name is Shelly D. Bryant.

I live in the city of Charlottesville and 912 Rock Creek Road.

I would like to speak on the behalf of Just Children program at the Legal Aid Justice Center.

I first learned about this program months before needing their help.

My son was having difficulties at school, and someone had mentioned this program to me.

So I sought out their help.

And then I told my story.

They assigned me and my son for over a year

My son had been suspended over 20 times in kindergarten and first grade.

His school was ready to put him in a special school.

I didn't want that, but I couldn't get the school to listen to me.

Just Children was there to assist in the process.

They worked really hard on my case.

They came with me to every meeting, helped me and the school make a plan to deal with his behavior and his academics.

They made sure my son was able to stay in a mainstream school setting.

Two years later, my son is currently doing very well in his epidemics as well as his behavior.

In fact, he is on grade level for both reading and math and is now currently playing for AAU basketball.

If it wasn't for just children, my son wouldn't have been given a fair chance to stay in school in a mainstream study.

I believe this program would benefit mothers like me and it is well worth great honors to say this program is well deserved.

Thank you.

Thank you both.

Mr. Mayor, Councilors, Bill Emery is my name.

We have two items tonight.

First, I hope that you will approve the West Main zoning map amendment and ordinance as presented in your meeting materials, agenda item number five.

There have been months of careful study, planning and deliberation leading up to this council action.

You've heard from the public and you're in the receipt of excellent documentation from staff and from the Planning Commission.

The character and scale of buildings, the provision for adequate sidewalks, associated amenities matter to Charlottesville residents.

Please consider approving the zoning text and map amendments before you without substantive change and moving this ordinance forward to a second reading.

And then a second item on your consent agenda tonight.

Item O, there's a proposed Ting

Franchise Agreement Ordinance, and I believe this is the second reading.

I follow the tree commission pretty carefully, and there's an item in here, Article 10 of the proposed ordinance section 1002, which gives Ting the authority to trim trees and the public right of way, prevent tree branches from interfering with fiber optic cables.

While tree branches can interfere with high voltage, uninsulated power lines, they pose little threat to fiber optic cables.

Tree branches overhang the public right of way, provide a valuable green infrastructure service to bicyclists and pedestrians.

The negatives envisioned by Ting must be balanced against the positives of the shade and other ecosystem services that our street trees provide to the

Residence of Charlottesville.

And maybe this item is just a telecommunications boilerplate contract.

You know, if we could, maybe it can't be removed.

Or maybe Ting would be more than happy to remove it.

You know, they seem to be a public spirited company.

Thank you.

I have one I know we're going to a new method.

I would say that this is, and for everybody's knowledge, this is the first meeting under the new procedures where we're in general not, we're going to defer the responses to Mr. Jones and I would say that both of these comments are

are incorporated already by Mr. Jones.

And that's like one response that's not a staff issue in regards to Mr. Kleeman's comments.

I think that it's really important that we hear, where are you?

Sorry, that we hear from folks about what they think about that process, so thank you.

I have a comment.

As far as Peter Klayman, Mr. Brown, did he raise a point that we should look into

more deeply about the enforcement of these.

But let me just say why you're considering the answer.

I think it's very important that the citizens of Charlottesville hear from the elected representatives, not just from the city manager.

So however I can phrase the motion,

so that the citizens can hear from their elected representatives that they voted for, I would like to do that, whether Maurice Jones is going to respond to a certain comment or concern or not.

This is not a part of the agenda when we would do motions.

That would happen under other business at the end of the regular agenda.

So I think that you could bring that up then as a motion under our procedure.

And other business at the end?

Yes, sure.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Just two responses from the last city council meeting.

There's just an update for you on the speeding issue along Locust Avenue.

We're working on changing our standard operating procedures to include speeding as a violation that could result in disciplinary action.

Our transit manager has also discussed his concerns with the drivers.

We will be developing materials for all city employees who use city vehicles.

to read and understand the responsibility that we all have in minding the rules of

when they have those identifiers and they're providing the photos for the media that they pass along as part of the press release as well.

Thank you.

And then all the concerns that were raised tonight will be responded to in the next meeting.

This is by Mr. Jones.

At his discretion.

Okay, so now everybody, also just a quick note because we have new procedures in place tonight.

One of the major reasons for these was to try to streamline meetings more.

The last two meetings we have only had two or three agenda items and they both went after 1130.

Tonight we have

Five agenda items.

That's not even including one that might come off the consent agenda.

We established that the benchmark time period for an agenda item is going to be 20 minutes.

Counselors are free to move for more time to be allocated during the debate on an item if we want more time.

They're also free to move to call the question if it seems like debate is moving forward.

As it stands right now, we have over two hours of meeting ahead of us, and that's not including the open public comments at the end.

We are trying to offer the public a more streamlined meeting that is more accessible, because the meetings that go till 1030 or 11 o'clock are hard for people to watch, to be honest, and to pay attention to.

So we are trying now, but we happen to have the first instance of these procedures at a very packed meeting.

So I'm going to try and do my best to keep

us moving along.

We have new time limits of three minutes for ourselves with questions and with comments, five minutes when we're introducing a motion, and we have limits of 10 minutes for anybody making a presentation to us.

Ms. Rice, our clerk, is going to be keeping track of all those with the same device right here.

I'm going to be keeping track of the 20 minutes for each agenda item, and we allocated 40 minutes for the West Main

Zoning discussion because that is such a significant and lengthy one, an important one that has been going on for a while.

So that was also in the rules.

And contrary to what has been floated out there a little bit in some critique I've seen, there is actually no limit on the amount of comments that an individual counselor can make.

You can make as many comments within the time limit that is allocated as you want, as long as it's within the 20 minutes.

So somebody could speak multiple times.

One comment has to be three minutes or less.

OK, with that said, we are going to move ahead to the consent agenda.

Item A, minutes for February 16th.

Item B, appropriation National Endowment for the Arts, Our Town grant, Play the City, $30,000 match, second of two readings.

Item C, an appropriation Department of Criminal Justice Services, Barnes Special Fund grant, $9,990, second of two readings.

Item D in appropriation and donations to fire department for training and safety initiatives $1,350 second of two readings.

Item E in appropriation proffer payment for DGIF directed stream project on Moore's Creek $10,000 second of two readings.

Item F, an appropriation funds from CATEC to the CATEC IT Networking Academy Project, $10,000, first of two readings.

Item G, an appropriation Department of Conservation and Recreation Trail Grant, $175,000, first of two readings.

Item H, an appropriation for the Piedmont Workforce Network Inconvent Worker Training Matching Grant, $3,010, first of two readings.

Item I, a resolution for approval of tenant improvements at the Virginia Discovery Museum, first of one reading.

Item J, a resolution tax payment refund to St. Ann's Bellfield School, $34,216.20, first of one reading.

Item K, a resolution for the request to VDOT for street maintenance funding, first of one reading.

Item L, an ordinance easement to cure encroachment in at Vinegar Hill Hotel, second of two readings.

Item M, an ordinance authorizing conveyance of city-owned land on Hillcrest Road to Covenant School, second of two readings.

Item N, an ordinance closing, vacating, and discontinuing Birdwood Lane right of way, second of two readings.

Would anyone like to move any item off the... Mr. Mayor, I'd like to remove the National Endowment for the Arts, Our Town grant for a very short discussion.

And is there, under our rules, two counselors need to concur with moving one off.

Sure.

I'll second it.

Okay.

All right.

So then, under our rules, we move this now to the end of the regular agenda.

So we'll discuss it at the very end after all the regular items.

Is it possible to amend something within item O, or?

or would that have to be moved to discussion at the end?

I think we need to move it off, yeah.

Is there a second?

Second.

For discussion.

Okay, so both of those are off.

We'll discuss them at the end.

Second?

Second.

All in favor?

The ayes have it.

Okay, school board budget.

Before we go into the specifics, we'd like to go over some points of pride this past year.

And I think I only have 10 minutes, right?

Combined?

Yes, go on on.

Okay, so we will get started.

Okay, so we will go through points of pride, strategic plan, our funding history, and the budget development.

So these are just a couple of things that we wanted to talk about tonight, things that we're really proud of.

First of all, all of our city schools are accredited.

That means the whole school division, which is only one of 37 school districts throughout the state out of 132 school divisions, which I think is pretty amazing.

Then also our SAT scores continue to far surpass the state and national levels.

So here you see the blue is CHS, red is the Virginia, and sorry, orange is national standards.

And as you can see, we far out surpass those.

Thank you.

I think we should clap for that.

That is amazing.

It's truly amazing.

The next thing we'd like to show you is our AP exams.

Again, it's the same color scheme and you see again that we are far out surpassing national and state levels.

And actually we are the only area school that was recognized by Washington Post for encouraging large numbers of students to take these AP exams.

And we actually offer 28 different AP courses.

We have dual enrollment.

If your child wants to try to pursue an associate's degree, you can do that at CHS right now, which is really incredible.

All right, the next thing.

As Mr. Mickey has said for many years, our graduation rate is the summation of our program.

And here we see.

We are overall graduation rate of 85%.

Our African-American graduation rate, closing the gap at 80%.

In 2008, it was actually 66%.

So we know that we are working really hard.

Yeah.

It's amazing.

And even more incredible here is 89% of our students with disabilities are graduating on time.

That is an incredible feat.

And actually, students that have multiple disabilities can actually stay with us until they're 22 to get life coaching and job coaching to be more sustainable.

We have an actual CATEC house behind the high school called Parkside that offers these programs.

It's really amazing.

And the next thing, which is so amazing, these niche ratings.

Okay, this is a third-party national rating scale for schools.

We ranked sixth best division in Virginia.

Amazing, right?

Our small community.

Thank you.

And by the way, that's the top 3% in the whole country.

Good Lord, we have 4,400 students, it's incredible.

We should celebrate.

Alright, so after graduation we're seeing that over almost 15% of our students are going to these amazing schools.

We have MIT, you know, Harvard, Cornell.

This is the public school people and we are getting these people into Yale.

It's just truly incredible.

Yeah, Virginia State, I can read it to you.

Cornell, Harvard, Hampton, Howard, John Hopkins, MIT, UVA, Virginia State, William & Mary and Yale and PVCC by the way.

This is really amazing for a public school to be able to get that many students into these kind of top name universities is truly a testament to all the folks that are working for us and the community.

Okay, so when we go through the budget process we really talk about our strategic plan.

And when we bring this budget to you, these are the things we're thinking of.

Our first goal is that all students will graduate prepared for post-secondary education and active participation in society.

And our second goal is that our schools will be partners with families and community to meet the academic, physical, social, and emotional needs of every student.

We have so many partners that we work with.

UVA has our Sigma and Alpha Labs where we start 3D printing in our middle school and high school.

We're working with the Smithsonian to create educational kits.

It's really amazing.

And Parks and Rec and Boys and Girls Club, there's just so many partnerships going into the school division to help us with our students.

Our third goal is that our schools will be optimal teaching, learning environments and places of excellence and equity for all.

And I'd like to thank you guys for the $3 million renovations that you helped us with at the high school and the middle school.

It really did make an amazing change for us and we see so many more students going into STEM-like academies because of that.

And our fourth goal is that Charlottesville City Schools will be an exemplary workplace that attracts and supports the best qualified teachers, administrators, and staff members.

And I have to say, after those first couple of slides, you must know that number four is right.

All right, I think we should give them all a clap.

Oh, sure.

So this chart really highlights what has been key for Charlottesville City Schools to continue making progress on the goals of our strategic plan and that key has been local support.

The chart on the left shows what's been happening with state funding and a couple of things to understand written in blue there at the state level

K-12 direct aid funding has dropped from being 35% of all state spending in fiscal year 09 down to 29% for the year that we're currently in.

And if the governor's budget was passed, if it were to be passed as proposed, it would still only get up to 30% of the state general fund spending.

So state funding for education has pulled back across the Commonwealth.

Also, if you look at the Governor's proposed budget for fiscal year 18, K-12 funding will still be lower in inflation adjusted per pupil dollars than it was 10 years ago.

The chart on the right shows again where the Charlottesville community has stepped up to fill in where state and federal support has pulled back and that really is essential to continue making progress on the goals of the strategic plan for education in this community.

One other thing to understand as you're looking at the chart on the right is that during this same time period, the local composite index of ability to pay, which is a factor that the state uses in calculating how much state money goes to each locality, it's driven largely by property values,

income levels and sales tax for each locality.

It has increased over the same time period and that is a factor in what's going on with the state pullback in funding for Charlottesville, but nonetheless the clear message is that local support has been key in achieving a lot of those points of pride that Ms. Laufer just shared with you.

Budgeting of course is a balancing act and this is another factor in what has been going on in the city schools to be able to continue making progress on the strategic plan and that is making tough choices and trade-offs and so I won't read all of these to you you can you can see them but it gives you a summary of the types of discretionary reductions that the school board has made and what they've been able to accomplish as far as discretionary increases and so

The local support coupled with this balancing work within the school board have really been key to keep moving things forward and you can see the total numbers associated with the over 3.9 million in discretionary reductions since 2010 coupled with over close to 6.8 in discretionary additions again trying to advance the programs and keep them moving forward.

and this is really just a visual to depict the budget process and certainly City Council goes through this on a larger scale but you face many priorities competing for limited resources.

We go through our process and it works kind of like a funnel.

You start out, you review everything.

All requests are evaluated in terms of, you know, first we have to address the non-discretionary items and then we look at everything that is before us in terms of the strategic plan.

and then items that are advanced to the board for consideration are those that are deemed most essential to maintain operations and impact student success and then as a second level, items that are important to consider if resources are available and you know the term needs-based budget proposal is up there and you know some people will interpret a needs-based budget as just what you need to maintain but I don't think that that's what this community considers to be a needs-based budget.

It's really about continuing to move forward and advance.

So now we'll just quickly go over expenses, revenues, and give you a summary kind of what's behind the budget proposal that the school board has adopted for fiscal year 2016-2017.

The first place you want to focus is the pie chart on the right, the blue and gold.

This shows you that right off the bat we were looking at about 40% of the items we had to deal with were non-discretionary contracts and services.

And you'll get more detail on each piece of the pie as we go through the coming slides.

So you've got 40% non-discretionary and then about 60% of what you'll see in this budget proposal are things to support programs and drive improvements.

And of that 60%, about 59% are items related to salary actions, goal four in our strategic plan, and then the other 40% are positions to support and improve our programs.

And the last 1% really is materials, specifically for STEM, which is a growing area for us.

So this particular chart is devoted to kind of explaining what are the non-discretionary items.

You can see about 28% are items driven from the state.

18% are related to our city contracts.

That's transportation services, maintenance and facilities, security services, and then the stormwater tax.

And then everything else makes up about 54% of the non-discretionary items we have to deal with up front.

And you can see what those services are.

PREP is required special education services, CATEC I'm sure everyone here is familiar with and so forth.

So now moving to the other side of the pie, the 60% of items in our budget proposal that are really focused on supporting our programs and improving our programs.

So first we're going to talk about that green piece of the pie which are related to salary actions.

$810,000 is devoted to giving our staff basically step plus .75% and only people who are eligible for step get step of course so that results to in about an average increase of 2%.

I can tell you that some of the localities around us that were helped out more by the local composite index are pursuing things like 3 and 4% but you know this should still keep Charlottesville competitive in our area and that's certainly a priority.

We also looked at substitute pay and the second item there is part two of a two-part plan to make our rate for long-term subs competitive with the area.

It just brings us on par with our neighboring localities as far as what we pay for long-term subs.

And then the last item was just to look at what we pay subs on a daily basis and the current base rate is $75 a day.

The board wanted to increase that to $80 a day.

for those meeting the minimum requirements of 60 college credit hours or more and then if they actually hold a teaching license we would do $85 a day for substitutes on a daily basis.

I think we're almost done.

We will go.

So this is just, forgive me, we've always walked that line between providing too much detail or not enough.

So these are the positions that are in the budget proposal and you just see here that they're covering everything from core programs, language learning, early childhood education, special services, science, technology, engineering, math, and the arts.

We're covering a lot of areas with the positions that we've put forward.

And then the materials and supplies item is $21,000.

That's STEM consumable materials.

We have such great things going on in our STEM labs,

those 3D printers don't run without materials going in them and so we've got to address that and that's what that is for.

This is just a summary of the overall picture and the numbers speak for themselves and unfortunately I only have one revenue slide to show you but it's kind of indicative of the situation.

For all that discussion on expense this is all we can bring to the table on revenue.

The projected additional state funding is based on the governor's proposed budget.

We did, the board is taking action to increase out of district tuition by five percent

So you can see what that brings us in at close to $600,000 additional projected revenues for the general fund.

And wrapping things up, it comes back to local support to really keep moving things forward.

The city request is $1,987,756.

The total budget proposal and its impact is there at the bottom.

This whole thing represents an increase of 3.6%.

and of course we have some things still outstanding.

Indeed.

I don't necessarily have a question of a comment.

I think what we saw- Well, it has to be a question.

Oh, sorry.

Never mind.

Go ahead.

I do have a question.

I will preface it by saying very impressive results.

Thank you.

The question I have is that the- I'm just curious, the total increase for the budget this year was 3.6 percent.

I can say that looking at the Blue Ribbon Commission Report from 2014, it predicted two to four percent increases, and I actually, looking back through the history, saw some that were closer to five.

This actual increase last year, I can tell you,

that the overall increase was $2,282,231, which was 3.14%.

I think the key for us is also maintaining competitiveness with our teacher salary.

I think that's critical.

Question on competitiveness.

How often do we lose a good teacher and would they first go to Albemarle County?

I'm certainly not prepared to speak to that, but there's one thing I can say definitively.

Having worked in a neighboring school division in the area, you get quite a few top notch teaching professionals from other school districts that start somewhere else and get some experience.

and then choose to work here.

Okay.

If you were to have a situation where you had a really good teacher and you thought you would lose him or her, would you give him a, do you have a bonus situation or anything?

We don't.

The state had pursued some kind of

pay like that, but it ended up not going anywhere.

It's really difficult to do that.

It was incentive-based pay about two years ago.

For staff or for teachers?

And I guess my question is,

Yes, and the public should know that this is a report where we don't have any action ahead of us.

There's lots of discussion about the budget going forward.

This is something we do for the public education for us, but these questions are meant to clarify.

I have a final question for Ms. Stilofa.

Am I correct in my assumption that with what we are dealing with, that our school division is doing very, very well based on the numbers?

So we know we have work to do and we're working to get there, but we can also be proud about what we've done thus far.

Is it not correct?

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

On to the city manager's proposed budget.

Again, also for the public's knowledge, there is no action ahead of us tonight on this.

PowerPoint?

Mr. Mayor, Members of Council, it's my honor to present to you the proposed budget for fiscal year 2016-2017.

I wanted to thank the lead team, budget review team, for their hard work in making this budget happen.

And I also want to thank the budget and performance management team of Ryan Davidson and Maya Kumazawa, along with Leslie Beauregard, our assistant city manager, for their hard work on getting this budget ready for this presentation tonight.

There are several themes for this year's proposed budget, continuing our strong support for our city schools, preserving the wonderful services and quality services that we have to offer that people have come to expect from us here in the city of Charlottesville, enacting savings and efficiencies in our government operations, our focus on the strategic plan and how that's aligned with our budget, and maintaining our real estate tax rate at 95 cents per $100 of assessed value.

You can find all of our budget information at our website, www.charlottesville.org slash budget.

There's also a way to get to that link also on our homepage.

Just click on budget.

So let's take a quick look at the changes in the general fund.

Over time, as you can see, the robust economic times that we experienced 10 years ago or so have slowed considerably.

Our proposed budget of close to 162 million dollars is a three and a half percent increase over fiscal year.

2016.

Back in January, the staff met with the City Council to discuss the budget when we were facing a sizable gap in expenditures and revenues.

We've worked hard to get us into balance.

Here are some of the details.

Our updated forecasts are predicting an additional $778,000 beyond the $1.5 million offered at the retreat.

Personal property tax is expected to grow by another $254,000.

We've added the proposed increase in the lodging tax rate of $566,000 and we've included a one-time transfer from the Human Services Fund of $500,000.

On the expenditure side, the contribution now to the city schools that was recommended by the City Council has been included.

We've added several services that I'll be touching on in just a few moments and also we have over a million dollars in budget reductions that staff has included since the retreat.

So our revenue projections for fiscal year 2017, very similar trends as previous years, relatively slow growth.

It's kind of become the new normal.

Real estate assessments are healthier than previous years, so they're heading in the right direction.

We've got some positive news with new city development and revenue that is diverse and well-balanced, which we believe positions us well for the future.

We are proposing an increase in the transient occupancy tax, also known as the lodging tax.

That tax rate is being proposed to increase from 6% to 7%.

That generates approximately $566,000 in new revenue to help fund the school's needs, which you just heard about just a few moments ago.

Just a couple of stats for you.

We have over 1,900 hotel rooms currently in the city of Charlottesville.

We expect another 500.

in the next two to three years.

We have seen a very healthy revenue trend, up 14% since fiscal year 13, and fiscal year 16 is performing better than we had projected when it comes to the lodging tax.

To give you a sense of where Charlottesville ranks with the lodging tax, if the tax increase is approved by the city council, Charlottesville will be 18th out of 38 cities in Virginia with a 7% rate.

This graph gives you a good sense of where our general fund revenue is coming from,

Of course, local taxes are the largest piece of the pie, accounting for almost 69% of our revenues.

Revenue trends have been mixed.

Some areas are doing quite well.

Holding their own are trending upwards, such as personal property, lodging, and sales tax revenue.

Residential real estate assessments have started to go in a positive direction again, although modestly.

Real estate assessments for calendar year 16 are showing residential property assessments increasing

by 2.56%, of which commercial and new construction is accounting for 4.5% overall assessment for this year.

And as a result, the revenue is projected to be up $3.1 million in fiscal year 2017.

So it's up 5.7% from last year.

Personal property tax is also increasing and it's indicating that people are starting to get a little more comfortable with their personal financial situations and they're purchasing new cars again, which increases the assessment base.

This is a good indicator of an economy that's starting to move in the right direction.

Another important indicator is the sales and use tax.

This revenue stream has started to see some improvement as consumer confidence increases and we bring more business into the city.

You can see a continued move over the course of the last several years, up 2.84% from fiscal year 16.

The meals tax is performing better than anticipated in fiscal year 16 and will continue to do so, we believe, heading into the next fiscal year.

The first six months of this year are doing much better than we had expected, which has led to our new forecast for fiscal year 17.

As you may remember, we increased the meals tax by one percentage point from 4% to 5% for fiscal year 16.

and that's why you see the large jump there from 2015 to 2016, but as I mentioned, we are seeing pretty robust growth there in the meals tax.

Here's a look at the lodging tax with the one percentage point increase included for fiscal year 17.

In total, the lodging tax revenue is expected to bring in an additional $881,000 next year.

Some general fund expenditures.

We showed you where our revenues are generated.

Now we're moving on to where they are spent.

The schools are the largest slice of our expenditure pie, coming in at 33.35%.

City Council has traditionally supported our schools very well.

especially in the years in which the state has reduced their support for K-12.

I believe our budget continues to do that as well for fiscal year 17.

Public safety and justice, that's police, fire, sheriff's office, courts, etc.

is making up just a little over 25% of our operating budget, followed by healthy families and community at 18%, and infrastructure and transportation at 10%.

So let's talk a little bit more about our schools.

The total contribution for fiscal year 17 would be $49.3 million.

That's an increase of nearly $2 million to the schools, a 4.2% increase over this current fiscal year, and it's the largest single increase in the total city general fund budget.

This chart gives you an understanding of the changes in responsibility for schools funding.

You can see how the state's percentage of funding has gone down over the course

of the last 17 years while the city's investment percentage has actually increased pretty significantly in response to that.

Some other major budget drivers for next year, health insurance, healthcare costs are going up by about 12% overall.

That's a $693,000 increase.

We are also seeing an increase in the city's funding for our retirement fund of $957,000

and we are proposing a 2% salary increase on July 1st, which equates to about $850,000 in the budget for our employees.

Once again, as the schools highlighted, we want to do our best to make sure that we are attracting and retaining the best employees and we believe that that 2% increase is very similar to what you're going to see and pretty consistent with the proposals from around the region for their employees as well.

A few other budget drivers, the regional jail and detention center, library system and paratransit services.

These are contractual agencies that we work with.

Overall $393,000 increase.

Debt service requirements are increasing to support our capital budget of $568,000.

Our city departments have also engaged in some discussions over how we can reduce our expenditures.

and provide some savings.

The departments have identified over $240,000 and reductions that we deemed and the departments deemed as no service impact, over $27,000 and minimal service impact.

Those are changes to operating hours at Smith Aquatic Center and Washington Park Pool and some changes to how we do our plantings around the city as well.

We have a couple of moderate service impact reductions that total about $276,000.

There's the transit route seven, which is reduced by one bus per hour, and that's reducing it from six buses to seven buses, or from seven buses to six buses.

That's $172,000 in savings, and that will affect our routes just a little bit.

We will see the lead time between buses

at those stops along Route 7 reduced from or increased from 15 minutes to 20 minutes.

And then there's also the Downtown Mall Ambassadors Program.

This program was started to assist visitors in the Downtown Mall area.

Since that time, the city's strategy has been to hire more full-time police officers, some of which would be assigned to the Downtown Mall.

We had eight additional officers who were approved in fiscal year 2016 with more to be phased in over time.

In addition, the city council will soon be considering the creation of a new parking division to improve parking options in downtown, providing hospitality and customer service to our visitors, and we believe that if the council is to approve that, that we'd have additional folks in downtown who would be responsible for making the mall a very welcoming place.

They can position funding reductions.

We have a couple of positions that we are proposing to take some of the funding away for the next fiscal year but leave the positions in place.

We have a paralegal in the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office.

This is a state-funded position, but the state has not funded this position for many years, and the Commonwealth Attorney has said that he will maintain this position but not fill it until the state decides to fund it.

Then we have a Section 3 Coordinator in Neighborhood Development Services.

This position came around back in August of 2011 to assist with redevelopment of public housing, but that has slowed.

We are still working on that.

The Housing Authority is working at that and getting that project off the ground of redevelopment of the public housing units.

And we believe that we can go without this position for at least a year or two until we start to see some momentum when it comes to redevelopment of public housing.

We are also proposing to reclassify one of the two positions in the Human Rights Office, the Outreach and Education Specialist position, to a part-time position.

In addition to that, we are proposing $5,000 be added to the Office of Human Rights budget to cover any possible legal services that may be required.

So a few additions to the budget, $16,000 for the city market composting program to continue that.

That's been a very successful program and we are expanding it, offering a midweek drop-off location and a drop-off location during the winter as well.

So we believe that will increase and enhance that service that we've had so far.

As of the end of October of last year 9,000 pounds of waste had been diverted from landfills and over five metric tons of greenhouse gases were reduced according to our folks in the Environmental Division.

We are enhancing a transit service to 5th Street Station where the new Wegmans will be.

Right now we're proposing $139,000 to assist with that.

Albemarle County is currently reviewing the cost of their service, of this service as part of their fiscal year 17 budget discussion so there will be

Continuing discussions with the county over that.

We are proposing $48,000, almost $49,000 to increase the city's weeding and leaf de-bagging.

This is funding that will pay for additional temps to provide this important service of curbing weeds along our city streets and curbs and de-bagging leaves at Panorama Farms.

Public Safety ammunition, $100,000 to increase the amount of ammunition that we are able to purchase.

In recent years, we've had some difficulty buying ammunition for all kinds of different reasons.

Conflicts around the world have contributed to a deficit of ammunition, causing the police department to deplete their supplies.

This is really important when it comes to training for our police officers, especially with a new firing range that is about to become operational.

The presidential election costs, Ms. Hemingway mentioned this earlier this evening, we will see an increase in interest in the presidential election and we need to provide additional assistance so we're proposing $75,000 to help with that.

There's an assistant to the city manager position that's proposed to provide assistance not only to the manager's office but also to the clerk of council.

They would enhance our customer service by managing the city's tracking system and constituency services

also providing direct support to the clerk.

The funding includes salaries and benefits.

Even with the addition of this position, the city manager's office budget for next year is still decreasing slightly from fiscal year 2016.

Capital improvement program, over 20 million dollars in projects for fiscal year 2017.

Schools capital improvements are at 1.72 million dollars, new sidewalks, general district and circuit courts a million dollars to help get those projects off the ground and designed.

3.5 million dollars for the West Main Street improvement project, a million dollars for the McIntire park master planning implementation, 1.7 million dollars for the McIntire skate park,

$250,000 for the SIA implementation, $4.1 million for public safety and justice, $277,000 for bicycle infrastructure and trail development, and $1.5 million to the Affordable Housing Fund.

So looking forward, we are obviously monitoring what's going on with state funding of our schools and keep a close eye on what we will be able to do in the future.

for our schools.

We need to prioritize our operational and capital needs.

City Council began that discussion at the retreat.

I'm sure we'll continue that over the course of the next month or so and into the rest of the year.

Residential real estate market continues to tick up.

New development is positive, but it's not enough to cover all of our needs.

Our regional unemployment, a good sign there currently at 3.1%.

That's been trending downward.

Commercial and residential permit numbers and values remain strong, and our retail vacancy rates remain steady.

at 3.5%.

Just wanted to highlight a couple of significant construction projects that are completed, have been completed recently or soon will be.

The Coca-Cola building on Preston Avenue that was completed in last year, June of last year.

The pavilion at North Grounds, phase two.

The Violet Crown Cinema, which opened downtown in the fall.

showed Star Wars by the way, it was great.

You didn't get a chance to see it.

The Marriott residence end is nearing completion in April of this year.

The country Inn and Suites is also nearing completion later on in the summer.

The King Lumber Yard, the King Lumber building on Preston Avenue is under renovation.

The Uncommon on West Main Street under construction opening in August of 2016.

Market Plaza, the construction is beginning in 2016.

Actually the utilities are already underway

McIntyre Business Park on Allied Street, it's a new mixed use addition, is also under construction.

So a lot of positive signs of investment and reinvestment in the city of Charlottesville.

Counselor Szakos did an excellent job of reviewing the calendar, so I won't spend a lot of time on the budget calendar, but we do have a budget work session this Thursday from five to seven on revenue and expenditures.

On the 15th, we'll have our capital improvement program at City Space.

March 21st, several public hearings, the real estate tax levy, the lodging tax, and the proposed budget, 7 p.m. right here in the city council chambers.

March 23rd, a community budget form at 7 p.m. at City Space.

March 31st, a work session from five to seven at City Space, where we'll review outside agencies and our nonprofits.

April 4th, the second public hearing on the first reading of the budget, right here in the city council chambers.

April 7th, a work session from five to seven,

at City Space where we will hopefully be wrapping up the budget for approval on April 12th.

Once again, if you need detailed information on our budget, you can find it at charlottesville.org.

Thank you, Mr. Jones.

All of the good details in our zeal and our new, we went slightly over, so we only have a couple minutes left in our block for this agenda item, but does anybody have any, thank you for the presentation and for all the good news.

I will have lots of them at our work sessions, but I think I'll hold them until then.

Couple real quick ones, just for the general public.

Did I see anything for Landmark, for the Landmark Hotel in there?

It's not currently in the Seattle.

It's not in there.

The total budget was increased.

So there is a net decrease.

Net increase.

A net increase.

That's right.

Okay.

Actually, I can't tell off the top of my head,

Ms. Poergaard, do you have those numbers?

I think that's the rest of them.

We always encourage that.

We encourage more folks to be involved with the budget as possible.

Thank you.

We're out of time.

Does anybody have any other, and we're at our break?

Any other questions?

Okay, thank you so much, Mr. Jones.

We're going to take a five-minute break.

9 o'clock, about.

Dr. Michael B.

We are reconvened.

We are moving on to the next number four item in our agenda, which is public hearing resolutions.

This is the community development block grant annual action plan and home funds.

Hello, my name is Tiara Howard.

as well as reprogramming of home and CDBG funds that are related to the action plan amendments.

Just to give you some background, there are three items that are separate but related that I'll be discussing tonight.

The first one is the Housing Authority had previously received or were awarded home investment partnership funds.

for fiscal year 06-07 and 11-12 for down payment assistance and closing cost projects.

And on October 21st, 2015, the city terminated the two grant agreements that we had with the Housing Authority due to the fact that, you know, the lack of implementation and due diligence.

So we had to recapture those funds that were older funds.

And the total of those funds were $65,400.

And in addition to that, last year the city received $40,000 in program income from the HOME program.

And the way that HOME works is you have to expend your program income before you can spend down any entitlement.

And so with that said, that's a total of $105,400 that has to be committed by July 2016.

And so what we did was we rolled

this funding that needed to be reprogrammed and committed by July 2016 into the RFP process for fiscal year 16-17 as a separate stream.

And the task force convened, and just so you guys know, the way that the city handles citizen participation as a requirement for HUD is through the CDBG task force, which there are citizen representatives on the task force, and they make a recommendation.

And so they made a recommendation to fund Habitat for Humanity

to assist with down payment assistance.

And so with that, you would be approving the reprogramming of the 105-400 to go towards Habitat in addition to amending the action plan to allow for that to happen with those funds.

So that's one matter.

The second matter is MACA.

They were awarded CDBG funds in totaling $200,000 in fiscal year 15-16.

to purchase a house to serve as transitional shelter for homeless families.

Due to challenges with identifying a property within the city that meets the outcomes of the project is affordable and being able to identify a property that does not trigger the Uniform Relocation Act, we are requesting, our staff is proposing to provide MAC an additional $10,000 to meet this outcome.

And what it will do is it will help the city of Charlottesville meet its timeliness

spending deadline by the end of April, which HUD says we have to spend over $430,000, about $430,000 to date by the end of April.

And as you can see, $200,000 is a large chunk of money.

And so MACA had been looking at properties.

They were trying to find a duplex.

As you know, in Charlottesville, it's difficult to find a vacant duplex to avoid triggering the Uniform Relocation Act in the city of Charlottesville.

And so

Upon looking at other duplexes within the community, staff in MACA came together and said, maybe we need to start looking at other properties and not just duplexes so that we can meet those outcomes of the grant and also be able to spend our funds in a timely manner.

And so what we're doing is we're proposing to you guys to be able to approve an additional $10,000 to be used to acquire a property that they've already identified.

It just goes over that 200,000 threshold.

and we're proposing that we reduce the 10th and Page project as we just got our bids in for that and it came in under bid.

And so staff feels that that project has enough funding in it, sufficient funding to be able to reduce it by $10,000.

And then the third item is just to amend the action plan to allow for DSS, their career training where they were approved for funds last year, 15-16,

to not only serve view clients but to open up the pool of funds to actually provide assistance to also not just view clients but also to help fund folks who are on SNAP as well.

So those are the three items.

And these three changes to the current action plan and the reprogramming of funds would be needed to facilitate the exponential funds in a timely manner.

How does it align with Council's visions and strategic plan?

Approval of this agenda item aligns directly with Council's vision for quality housing opportunities for all.

Expected outcomes include access to affordable housing.

The project also will help realize the following strategic plan objective.

1.3, increase affordable housing options.

Community engagement.

As I discussed earlier, a request for proposals was held for the housing projects as required by a citizen participation plan.

Applications were reviewed by the CDBG task force and then they made a recommendation.

That recommendation was put out in a 15-day public comment period.

And they also provided support for the MACA recommendation as well.

And that also went through a 15-day public comment period.

Budgetary impact.

The proposed change to the HOME program does not alter the amounts of funds nor alter the match required for the HOME program.

The proposed change to the CDBG program is a transfer of funds from one project to another where one project will be increased by $10,000 and then one project will be decreased by $10,000.

Recommendations, the CDBG task force recommends approval of the action plan amendment and appropriation of reprogram funds for home and then staff with the support of CDBG task force recommends approval of the action plan amendment

in appropriation of reprogram funds for the CDBG program.

Alternatives, if the home and CDBG funds are not reprogrammed and appropriated, the city will not meet the HUD timeliness deadline as well as the home commitment deadline, and we can be in jeopardy of losing funds next year.

So there you go.

Coming in under time.

A couple of quick ones.

So, yes, you could lose funds.

That's one of the sanctions that HUD, it depends on what they decide.

But $200,000 is a large amount of money.

So I can see that they would take funding from us because what they do is they say, OK, if the city can't spend that,

We're going to give it to another jurisdiction that can.

I understand that.

Well, I'm new to this.

OK.

The 10th and Page money, will that be made up?

I understand that that project came in, but we're always short money.

So in September priorities were set and council agreed to make 10th and Page an additional priority neighborhood.

So they actually will be receiving additional funding next year.

And it's expected to be in excess of $200,000.

And I think this is the last one.

If we're taking money from CRHA and AHIP and giving it to Habitat, do you have it?

Just CRHA.

It's just CRHA.

So they were awarded funds in 06-07 and 11-12.

and so because they weren't meeting their grant requirements and spending that funding in a timely manner and because we have to spend those older funds by or commit those older funds by July 2016 we had to recapture those funds to put them to use to another other programs and so the task force or Habitat for Humanity submitted a proposal as others did and the task force recommended that they get

Okay.

I have one follow-up question and another question because I was going to ask the same question about the $10,000 from 10th and Page.

And what I think that my colleague was saying and that I was going to ask too is that if they're getting $10,000 less than they originally programmed this year, can they get $10,000 more than they would originally be programmed for next year?

So in a way, they are.

based upon what the planning commission does tomorrow night.

We pulled some funding from, well, not we, but the task force or the SAT for economic development projects, pulled $10,000 from the pot of set-aside funds, and they wanted it to go towards 10th and Page project.

said they'll be made whole kind of as a neighborhood over the course of a couple of years.

What would happen if we, what is that?

So basically, you wanna kinda stay away from acquiring property or a dwelling unit where there are tenants or people living in that because what happens is you have to, once you

go in with this CDBG money, for instance, and you acquire a property and there's people living there, you have to pay assistance to them to relocate, which there's a whole process for that.

Yes.

Okay.

Yes.

Mr. Mayor, I have a question.

So that that would be my question.

I can only speak for the time I've been here since September and we did a monitoring and we saw that they still had these funds and we sent them a follow-up letter and basically they weren't able to spend the funds within a timely manner so based upon those two programs I could say that they didn't carry out their contracts or they didn't carry out their grant agreement.

Is there a second?

Any discussion?

The ayes have it.

All right, on to the next matter.

West Main Street, mixed-use corridor as a member.

Mr. Mayor, just a quick question.

Yeah, I don't think we actually did the public hearing.

That was a public hearing.

I jumped the gun.

That or we can, we can go back and this was not on my, is there any, anybody speaking in this public hearing on that, on the CDBG grant?

Could I, well, let me ask our parliamentarian, Mr. Brown, in the case of

and an error on the agenda like that.

Okay, so we're going to supersede the motion that we just passed, which was invalid, after the public hearing that we just held.

Any further discussion on this or concerns from

Is there a second?

Second.

Any discussion?

All in favor?

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Jones.

Sure.

West Main Street, mixed use corridor amendment.

Ms. Rainey.

And we have allocated, so everybody knows, 40 minutes for this item, which is twice the normal time if we need it.

Gary Rainey, City Planner with Neighborhood Development Services.

Today I'm speaking with you regarding the proposed amendments for the West Main Street mixed use corridors.

The proposed zoning amendments before you tonight incorporate recommendations from a code consultant, Code Studio, a firm that participated in the West Main Street project.

The consultant team originally proposed a form-based code, many elements of which subsequent staff review determined to be inappropriate for the West Main Street corridor.

In May 2015, staff presented sections of the proposed amendments from the consultant's work.

which staff felt would be appropriate to incorporate into the West Main Street corridors.

Council provided amendments to the original staff proposal and these items were discussed by the Planning Commission on August 11, 2015, October 13, 2015, December 8, 2015, and February 9, 2016.

In addition, Council held joint public hearings with Planning Commission on October 13, 2015, December 8, 2015, and February 9, 2015.

On February 9, 2016, the Commission proposed a recommendation to Council to incorporate

Additional amendments to the code which have been included in your packet as the proposed ordinance.

As a result of the prior direction received from council, the Planning Commission specifically discussed and reconsidered several aspects that I'll describe following.

Item one, the Amtrak site, also known as Tax Map 30, Parcels 2, 2A, 2B, and 2C.

Initially, the Planning Commission recommended that all the Amtrak parcels, all of which, actually if we can raise the screen, you can see there's a map up on the wall, but all of these parcels are located east of the railroad tracks, and Planning Commission originally recommended they all be classified as West Main East.

In May of 2015, City Council asked the Planning Commission to have additional discussion on what might be the most appropriate zoning classification for these parcels.

The Commission did so at one point determining that for Tax Map 30 Parcel 2B and 2C, they should remain West Main East.

Tax Map 30 Parcel 2 should be moved to West Main West District.

In Tax Map 30, Parcel 2A should be classified partially within the West Main West District and partially within the West Main East District, split generally along the lines of the Cream Street right of way.

Following the December 8th public hearing, members of council requested the Amtrak site receive further review regarding the most appropriate zoning classifications.

At the February 9th, 2016 public hearing, the commission ultimately decided that the West Main Street East classification

is the most appropriate for all of the Amtrak parcels.

Staff also recommends the West Main Street East Classifications as being the most likely means of affecting desired patterns of use and development east of the railroad bridge consistent with the intended purposes of the West Main Street District.

In addition, the Commission also discussed the most appropriate classifications for the Midway Manor Parcel.

During development of staff's recommendations for the proposed rezoning, staff has always regarded West Main East as the most appropriate zoning classification for the parcel known as Midway Manor, also known as 100 Ridge Street.

On December 2, 2015, City Council asked the Planning Commission to have additional discussion on what might be the most appropriate zoning district classification for this parcel.

This site provides an anchor for the eastern end of the West Main Street corridor.

In terms of both the current and future requirements of the community, this site is significant in terms of the impact that future redevelopment would have on interactions between the West Main Street corridor and the downtown district.

The Planning Commission ultimately determined that the parcel should remain in West Main East, which staff concurs.

Mixed use development would be desirable at this site, but at a smaller scale than developments such as those at The Flats, which propose to be West Main West, or Water Street Plaza, which has a downtown zoning designation.

In addition to these two items, staff wishes to bring up a third item for consideration.

During the public hearing on February 9th, 2016, one speaker indicated that she felt the proposed ordinance was unclear regarding the distinct purposes of the West Main Street East and West Main Street West districts.

Staff recommends that council should consider the following edits to the proposed ordinance to provide clarity on the purpose of each district.

For section 34-5414, West Main Street West corridor, the land use and lots on West Main Street West, west of the railroad bridge are generally larger in size than those east of the bridge.

The West Main Street West District, also known as WMW, is established to provide the opportunity for large-scale redevelopment that may alter established patterns of commercial and residential development along West Main Street and that will respect the character of neighborhoods in close proximity.

Within this district, the purpose of zoning regulations is to facilitate redevelopment while at the same time creating a walkable mixed-use main street setting that encourages vibrant pedestrian activity, at which point it continues on with the original text, to state following designations for the primary streets.

Per section 345415 West Main Street East, the land use and lots on West Main Street east of the railroad bridge are smaller than those west of the bridge containing existing buildings including historic buildings that have been renovated to accommodate modern commercial uses.

Established buildings are located in close proximity to the street on which they front.

Within this district, the purpose of zoning regulations is to encourage a continuation of the established pattern and scale of commercial uses and to encourage an extension of a walkable mixed-use Main Street setting eastward from the railroad bridge continuing into the area where the West Main Street corridor transitions into the city's downtown, continuing as follows in your attachment.

The proposed zoning amendments support Council's Economic Sustainability vision by encouraging mixed use and infill development, Council's Green City vision by providing additional opportunities for street trees and landscaping, and Council's smart citizen-focused government by providing ordinance amendments in response to community concerns regarding development on West Main Street.

It contributes to goal two of the strategic plan, be a safe, equitable, thriving, and beautiful community, and objective 2.6, engage in robust and context-sensitive urban planning.

On February 9, 2016, the Planning Commission voted unanimously to pass a resolution recommending the proposed zoning amendments that are before you today.

If counsel so desires, I'm happy to read that resolution to you.

Thank you.

Questions?

I got a real quick one.

So this rezoning, how long has it been going on?

The original West Main Street project began a little over two years ago, and the proposed code amendments in some fashion were first publicized in March of last year, where the official discussion really began.

I think in the three public hearings we've had, I've asked all the questions I had.

Mr. Mayor, I have a motion I'd like to propose just to get us started.

And I'm going to read it out.

I've also given each of you a copy of it.

And I'm certainly open to amendments, but just to start us in the process.

So I move that City Council adopt the proposed West Main mixed-use corridors ordinance zoning text amendments recommended by the Planning Commission and those amended by staff.

And I'm assuming that will include those edits for clarity.

Article 1 Administration item I is amended to read the property having an address of 100 Ridge Street identified on City Tax Map 28 as Parcel 93 and currently zoned West Main South Corridor shall be classified as Water Street District Corridor instead of as West Main East.

in Section 34618, item A1, and in Section 34638, A1, street wall regulations, the minimum building setback from the primary street frontage shall be 5 feet instead of 15 feet, and in Section 34621 and Section 34641, density,

Instead of reading, residential density shall not exceed 43 dwelling units per acre.

however up to 200 DUA may be allowed by special use permit will read instead residential density shall not exceed 200 dwelling units per acre and the SUP provision for density will be removed and finally in the section beginning and be it further ordained add language to read that effective on adoption of this ordinance the city's board of architectural review is directed to review the city's design guidelines and the new part is replacing

Thank you.

about the motion, so.

You second?

Second.

Okay, now, questions, discussion, clarification?

My intention is not that it be sent to all those, but that it be done in coordination with their activities.

So do we have a timeline?

Would you have a proposed timeline?

Because if they all decide to weigh in, this could be prolonged another three, four, maybe six months.

One of the things that I would like to see us do is, I mean, we've discussed this

At Great length, there's been tons of different meetings.

Upon adoption of this ordinance?

Where are you saying upon adoption of this ordinance?

So I don't anticipate any particular delay in the implementation.

So that effective on adoption of this ordinance, then we proceed forward.

A motion to amend Ms. Szakos's motion.

Thank you.

I move to amend Council Szakos's motion section 34-618 item A1 and section 34-638A1 street wall regulations accordingly.

Okay, so we're gonna have a discussion about this and I'm imagining that this is one of the areas where there's a lot of interest in discussing.

So, comments from my colleagues?

There does need to be a second tonight.

Correct.

Second?

Since I haven't used my entire five minutes, I'll say why I think five is appropriate.

I think some

Folks have recommended zero, which is really what it is now, or the way a lot of the buildings were built that are already there.

I think that there is, you know, setback to a certain extent I think is advised, because we really do want trees, we want a little wider sidewalk, a little elbow room, and I think that's a good thing.

And I think also a setback also helps to encourage the

preservation of existing buildings because they get a little more leeway being closer to the street.

I think 10 is more than I would be comfortable with because I think you end up with buildings so far back you've got a lot of space and it de-defines the sidewalk.

And I think having a sidewalk that's linear, it makes it more walkable.

It feels more like a passage in some place you're going through.

And from what I've read about street design and the things that resonate most with me,

make me think that that is the sort of street I would be wanting to walk by and you wouldn't have quite such a broad diversion or a distinction of the street wall buildings that are right up against and then some that are clear 10 feet back.

It's a big distinction.

And while Ms. Seville talked about the

Ms. Galvin.

He also came.

This is a little interesting.

Would you mind explaining the 10 feet?

It absolutely changed the subject.

Yes, the rationale behind the 10 foot setback as opposed to 5 foot is very much in keeping with the whole kind of genesis of the change in this whole West Main Street improvement plan that began back in August of 2013.

It was the place design task force recommendation to do a Main Street improvement plan that gave rise to what we're looking at today, not the flats.

That was built a year later in 2014.

So as stated in that 2013 report, it said the Charlottesville community's expectations and standards for corridor redevelopment have changed significantly since the Torti Gallas study.

And that 15 year old study was what gave rise to the 2003 zoning ordinance.

So today's new zoning needs to address the new federal environmental regulations as they pertain to stormwater management, emphasize pedestrian and bicycle orientation, use best practices with regards to tree plantings, as identified by the tree commission, improve the city's built forum and public space standards,

and

those tenants I mentioned above, but it specifically would allow for great, because the existing, the zoning in front of us allows for greater build out of the parcel itself.

It goes from a 75 foot wide building facade width to 80 feet, 80 feet wide.

We are already expanding the buildable area of the parcel.

So that mitigates the additional front setback.

Second,

The 10-foot sidewalk on both sides equalizes the setback on north and south.

That makes it far more consistent.

And then thirdly, it was what the consultant recommended.

two years ago, or a year ago when they presented the form-based code, they recommended 10-foot front setback, both sides, and it does follow a pretty standard urban design rule of thumb that the space between buildings across the street needs to be about two times the height of the building.

So at a 40-foot tall street wall, that space between the buildings is 80 feet.

That's what you get with a 60-foot right-of-way plus 10-foot one side, 10-foot on the other side.

It will then provide ample space for outside dining, street trees with better planting strategies, and walking, more comfortable walking on both sides of the corridor.

Mr. Mayor.

I do

This sounds like a comment, so do you want to do it after we second the amendments that we're moving into debate?

As long as nothing final is done, that's fine.

So is there a second on Ms. Galvin's amendment?

I'd like to second Ms. Galvin's amendment.

Okay, so discussion, Mr. Fenwick?

There's been a couple comments and I think they're in the briefing packet as well about a lot of the buildings are already encroaching and for the public

We're talking about a setback from the sidewalk, correct?

I would reference the back of the sidewalk.

It officially references the end of the public right of way, which on West Main Street is generally the back of the sidewalk.

And on West Main Street, it's whatever is there now for the sidewalk, the rear of the sidewalk.

Correct, generally speaking.

I will say that gentlemen down here, Mr. Gajean and his partner, Gabe Silverman, are the ones that really turned around West Main Street.

And their properties, almost all of them that they've redone, are 15 feet or further back.

There's a transmission shop where the toy store is now.

The church is back.

The market is back.

Even, you could even say Albemarle Hotel is back because it has that portico.

So it makes all the difference in the world having a decent setback.

I would not like to see zero, certainly.

So I feel very comfortable staying with 15 because it's obviously worked.

And that's the whole point of this West Main Street effort is to make sure that this

Plan works.

And we're doing this one by one.

This is for the setback, correct?

We'll take up the others.

This is for the whole motion.

Okay, about the setback.

Alright, well my preference is to keep it at 15 feet for a number of reasons.

Yes.

Okay.

So in regards to Ms. Galvin's points about keeping it at 10 feet, I think it's imperative for us to be able to, A, adhere to what the consultant suggested.

So when we, we've heard a great deal of discussion in regards to us hiring consultants and what comes of it.

Well, they gave us a clear directive in regards to 10 feet.

and if we want to let our constituents know that when we pay for consultants we are indeed adhering to what they suggest, I think it would behoove us and they would be in our best interest to go along with what they stated.

In regards to Mr. Fenwick's comments

specifically between 15, or looking at 15 feet and Maseca's in regards to five feet, this 10 feet kind of splits the difference.

It's in the middle.

It still allows for pedestrians, and I like to run, so this would still allow me to be able to run.

You could bike, you could plant the trees.

You still have many of the benefits that we're looking for, and it also gets us essentially what we need.

So I would like to urge us to go that route.

That's just my kind of,

Mr. Signer, since it seems that there are not three votes to do five, I will accept the friendly amendment.

But I will say that we did have consultants who said zero.

We had consultants who said 10.

We had consultants who said 15.

So it wasn't as clear.

May I make a comment about that?

I think it's important to clarify that it was the code studio consultant that gave us the 10-foot setback.

That was the consultant that understood the placement of buildings relative to the street.

The consultant that was related to the real estate market and development

mentioned that a zero foot setback would allow more buildable area.

And that would be a benefit to the development of that site.

So just wanted to make that distinction.

Thank you.

Great.

And since the person who seconded the original motion was the one who proposed the amendment, I'm assuming she accepts that as well.

I have a vote on that.

Do we have to?

Okay.

So, okay.

All in favor?

Okay, yays have it.

Aww, look at that.

I said it.

Okay, now let's proceed to continuing the discussion on the original motion about all the different items.

I have a comment.

You haven't yet, so I was.

So I also am a great admirer of what Mr. Kajean has done and Gabe Sullivan in development projects around the city.

I think the city is indelibly improved by your investment and the projects that you have built all throughout and there are more coming and there's an incubator to contribute to the tech ecosystem.

And the Mickey building and a lot of good projects including on West Main.

I think that with all these decisions we have tough balancing acts, especially with planning decisions that go a long time into the future.

What's happening right now is a significant change to the last zoning overhaul that was done in 2003.

So municipalities don't always get it right.

We have to listen and we have to adjust.

I don't think running for city council last year there was a single issue I heard more about than height on West Main Street.

I think it was prodded in part by the flats, but I think that it went to a deeper concern on that part of West Main.

I heard about it every day.

The feedback we've gotten right now has been overwhelmingly in favor of this amendment.

And that is also doubled up with the Planning Commission's unanimous support.

As a member of the City Council, I would have to set a new member, I would have to set a pretty high bar to overrule the Planning Commission.

And I would say this to any landowner, there are I think over 80 who are going to be impacted with their ownership.

Stakes are going to be impacted by these changes, which go down to 52 feet.

And I understand the frustration.

I think that with

Ms. Szakos's amendment, there is a significant change here in the favor of business development rights within the density of a particular property.

This has changed the expansion of density units up to 200 from being a special use permit request, which means they would have to come back to us, to being by right, which is a significant change and I think a rethink of the basic

I think it's a great question.

people who have these parcels.

And again, I think there's over 80 on the corridor, and it's meant to be a compromise.

It may not be perfect, but I do think that it is an attempt by us to listen to the constituency and the planning commission who wanted these heights brought down.

That was, I cannot emphasize how much we have heard it.

And there's a lot of other good stuff in this amendment about bikes, expanding bicycle parking, really reopening

gearing the planning on the corridor around bike transit.

And I think that the setback is a very useful tool also.

Mr. Signer, I'd like to offer an explanation in addition to what you mentioned about the density proposal.

One of the concerns that I've had about the 43 units per acre

and the SUP for density is that what that tends to encourage is if people don't get an SUP is a building that has only 43 units and so they're likely to want to make them as expensive and large as possible and attractive to people who are willing to spend a lot of money.

and I've been concerned all along about affordability and I don't think that West Main is ever gonna be the part of town where we're gonna be having very low income housing, although I would love that.

But I think that we can lower the cost of housing, of market rate housing by encouraging developers to consider building smaller apartments, apartments in a slightly different model rather than just the large condos.

So that was the, we had a consultant who