City Council Meeting   11/21/2016

I don't know.

If we could all do the Pledge of Allegiance.

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

Mr. Bellamy?

Here.

Mr. Signer?

Here.

Ms. Szakos?

Here.

OK, we're going to start with some awards and then announcements.

I'll begin with one award here for the Virginia Film Festival.

It's Jody Kielbasa.

OK, great.

This is a proclamation.

I'm going to read it and then present it to Mr. Dean Kielbasa at the University of Virginia and then if you'd come up and say a few words after it.

This is a proclamation honoring the Virginia Film Festival.

Whereas the Virginia Film Festival has for the past 29 years celebrated the art and magic of filmmaking by bringing artists from around the world to Charlottesville for a unique, substantial, and dynamic festival hailed as one of the best of its kind in America today,

and whereas the Virginia Film Festival recently wrapped its seventh consecutive record-setting year attracting more than 30,000 attendees and creating an economic impact of over two and a half million dollars making it a significant economic driver to businesses downtown and throughout Charlottesville and whereas the Virginia Film Festival serves as a vitally important cultural bridge between the University of Virginia and the larger local and regional community relying on the unique resources of both to create an annual festival that showcases the best of UVA

and of the place it calls home.

And whereas the Virginia Film Festival annually extends it to reach far beyond movie screens and into the lives of all members of our community, presenting a highly acclaimed array of offerings for all ages.

And whereas Virginia Film Festival Director and University of Virginia Vice Provost for the Arts, Jody Kilbasa, and his talented team, bolstered by extraordinary student support from UVA and hundreds of community volunteers, continue to engage our entire community and bring to Charlottesville a world-class cultural experience

that exceeds expectations each and every year.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Charlottesville City Council does hereby recognize the Virginia Film Festival and thanks the many people behind the festival for their immeasurable and outstanding contributions to our community.

Signed and sealed this 21st day of November 2016 by myself.

I greatly appreciate your support and I greatly appreciate this proclamation on behalf of my staff and the University of Virginia.

You know I can say it's a great privilege for me every year to present the film festival and to have over 300 volunteer supporters from our community turn out.

Some of them have been doing it for 29 years which is extraordinary to me that they

We care so deeply about this festival and I'm actually humbled by it.

We're proud that we're growing the festival as a cultural tourism destination here in the city of Charlottesville.

I personally believe that it has great potential to continue to fill our hotel rooms and our restaurants.

but I think most importantly it's a bridge in our community that goes both ways from the grounds of the university into the community and back again.

We have a huge outreach and education program that reaches every year over 3,000 students here in Charlottesville and we're very proud of that as well and it celebrates diversity throughout our screenings.

So thank you very much for this proclamation.

Thank you very much.

I have one other award here.

Are there other awards that anybody has?

Okay.

One more.

This is for Small Business Saturday.

Is either Joan Fenton or George Benford here to receive this?

Okay, we weren't sure if they'd be able to make it.

I'm just going to read it then.

This is Small Business Saturday, 2016.

Whereas the City of Charlottesville celebrates our small businesses and the contributions they make to our local economy and community, and whereas small businesses employ over 49% of all businesses with employees in the United States and are critical to the overall economic health of our city,

and whereas small businesses contribute positively to the local community by supplying jobs and generating tax revenue and whereas it is important for people to support the small businesses that they value in their community and whereas the City of Charlottesville supports our local businesses that create jobs, boost our local economy and preserve our neighborhoods

Now, therefore, I, Mayor Signer of Charlottesville, do hereby proclaim the Saturday after Thanksgiving, November 26th, as Small Business Saturday, and urge the residents of our community to support small businesses and merchants on Small Business Saturday and throughout the year.

Thank you very much.

All right, now we're moving on to other announcements from my colleagues.

Big announcement, city offices will be closed for Thanksgiving and happy Thanksgiving everybody.

Charlottesville city offices closed Wednesday, November 23rd at 1 p.m. and they'll remain closed on Thursday, November 24 and Friday, November 25 for Thanksgiving.

On Thursday, Schossel Area Transit, CAT, will operate on a Sunday schedule.

Service will resume to normal on Friday.

Curbside trash and recycling will not be collected Thursday, the 24th.

For the remainder of the week, each scheduled collection day will be delayed by one day.

So Thursday collection will take place Friday.

Friday takes place Saturday.

Both CAT and refuse collection service will be normal on Wednesday.

and city offices will be reopening on Monday, November 28, 2016.

So upcoming city council events, joint city council school board lunch, Tuesday, November 29 at 12 p.m. at city space.

Joint city council planning commission place design task force work session regarding the code audit will be Wednesday, November 30th at 5 p.m. in the NDS conference room.

Our town, north downtown Little High, Locust Grove, Martha Jefferson, Woodhaven, will be Thursday, December 1 at 6 p.m. at the Key Rec Center.

Dinner and childcare will be provided.

And then there's the Holiday Heritage Parade, Saturday, December 3 at 10 a.m. on the downtown mall.

And I think all of us will be there in some fashion, either walking or on a golf cart, I guess, right?

So if you want to just come and be amused by us in our little carts that you're more than welcome.

Again, happy holidays.

Now, Kristin, if I could interrupt.

Mike, I forgot this thing said an award.

It's not an announcement.

OK, so let's go back to the awards part.

This is the Free Smoke Alarm Program.

The Center for Digital Government recently awarded the Charlottesville Fire Department and the Charlottesville Department of Information Technology with the Digital Government Achievement Award for their partnership in developing a customized mobile software application to improve the management of the fire department's free smoke alarm program.

The risk of dying in a home fire is cut in half in homes with working smoke alarms.

With this new mobile application, the Charlottesville Fire Department is better able to survey city residences, manage smoke alarm installations in partnership with other community partners, and analyze the survey data to better direct efforts to increase smoke alarm usage and replace out of date smoke alarms.

Other jurisdictions winning awards in this category included Austin, Texas, New York City, Sacramento, California, and San Diego County, California.

and present to accept the award.

Chief Baxter, is he?

Yes, he is.

OK. Captain Joe Hughes and Battalion Chief Rich Jones.

And the IT reps, Karen Parker, Steve Hawks, Mark Simpson, and Kangyuan Bai.

And did I get that last name correct?

OK. That's very kind of you.

Thank you.

We're very excited about this award.

I think this is a wonderful signal or sign of the community of how collaborative and creative we are here in Charlottesville city government and this is incredibly meaningful.

As Mr. Fenwick said in the award announcement, it's the single most important thing you can do as a homeowner, as a resident is to have working smoke alarms and this tool, this application that our team worked together to build is working every day for our firefighters out there and in fact we have some folks in the back of the room this evening so if there's anyone here tonight who wants us to check up on their smoke alarm status we'll be more than happy to do that.

Somebody from IT want to say a few words?

This is your time if you want to.

Hearing those other names of cities that got this award, I'm reminded that Councillor Bellamy and I just came back from a National League of Cities meeting and often when we would talk about things that we were doing here in Charlottesville, people would be really startled at how small we are and kept saying that we were fighting above our weight in a lot of categories.

This is another one.

Thank you.

All right, I have an announcement.

All right, so the Grand Illumination is coming up.

You're invited to celebrate Charlottesville's Grand Illumination.

The City of Charlottesville and the UVA Community Credit Union invite you to experience the Grand Illumination on Friday, December 2nd from 5 to 8 p.m. at Central Place in the Downtown Mall.

This annual community tree lighting event is free for all ages and includes live musical performances

Fun kids crafts, character photos, a visit from Santa, a free screening of the holiday movie Elf, and of course illuminating the community tree.

You can go to charlottesville.org slash Grand Illumination.

You can like us on Facebook at Seaville Grand Illumination for updated event information.

Also the Toy Lift will take place on the downtown mall from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the City Hall Plaza.

that same day, December 2nd.

The Toy Lift will continue collecting donations from 5 to 7 p.m. at Central Place.

Toy Lift charities will exchange a raffle ticket for every donation received during this time period for a chance to win a gift certificate to a participating downtown restaurant.

Winners will be announced just prior to the tree lighting.

Also, the Paramount Theatre will host a Community Cares and Crafts from 5 to 7 p.m. Area nonprofits and event sponsors will provide fun, interactive activities for kids and adults, including face painting, concessions, and photos with Mrs. Claus and friends.

So come downtown on the 2nd of December.

I'd like to, we have an agenda item later about the RWSA, but I'd like to just say a quick word, welcome Bill Moyer, who is the new Executive Director, I hope I pronounced that right, of both the Rivanna Water and Seward Authority and the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority, coming to us from Henrico County and a couple other places before that, including Albemarle.

Thank you, thank you for inviting me.

I'm excited to return to my hometown.

I grew up here in the county, so it's a great privilege to come back and help provide the outstanding drinking water, wastewater, refuse and recycling services that the authorities provide for the Charlottesville Albemarle area.

So I expect to come back.

Mr. Jones has invited me to give you an update early next year.

I'll be glad to answer any questions, but after three weeks, my knowledge pools not too deep, but I look forward to working with the council.

Mayor Signer, may I say a few words?

So as the Council's representative on the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority Board, I would just like to let everyone know that we had a pretty arduous process to find a replacement for Mr. Tom Frederick.

And it's really telling that Mr. Moyer rose to the top.

I can't underline that enough with experience and with his ability to be a leader among pretty large organizations.

And we have, again, as we punch higher than our weight class, we have one of the best water treatment

programs in the country, and I think Mr. Morier is going to maintain that and probably get us to the next level, which is pretty amazing to think of.

Thank you.

Mr. Bellamy?

Sure.

Good evening, everyone.

Good evening.

Come on, man.

Y'all should know by now.

And I say good evening, everyone.

Good evening.

We've been in this almost a year.

You're just depressed about what's going to happen to the Cowboys on Thursday.

You dead skinned fan.

I'm going to get you back.

Don't worry.

So I have a nice, nice announcement.

Not our football jarring that the mayor and I have been going through.

So we have a big thank you in order for a lot of people here in the city.

The city's voter registrar and electoral board wish to thank the 22,565 city of Charlottesville voters.

Kudos to all of you.

These are, excuse me, 22,565 is the amount

Thanks is also owed to

119 of whom worked the full election day from 5 a.m. until late that night.

Our polling place hosts the Charlottesville City Schools, Charlottesville Parks and Rec, and Alumni Hall at UVA.

Charlottesville Area Transit, which provided the free rise on election day, other city offices and staff, and the many people in the city and at UVA who helped voters to get registered, learn about the candidates and issues, and get to the polls to vote.

Thank you.

And our voter registrar told me to leave a P.S.

Absentee applications are now being accepted for next year's elections.

Woah.

Woah is right, Bob.

Be prepared.

Be prepared.

I have one final announcement.

Just want to let everyone know that on Saturday, December 17th, we'll be having our fifth annual coat-driving giveaway.

It'll be at First Baptist Church starting at noon.

So again, for anyone who has an old or gently used coat, you can donate it or bring it to Virginia organizing at 703 Concord Avenue or to First Baptist Church or to Carver Rec Center.

Those are all drop-off location sites.

Feel free to come out and hand out some coats on December 17th.

And two quick announcements.

First, I'd like to acknowledge the presence of a Shonsville High School senior.

I'm talking about you.

A government student, and we appreciate it when the students in our schools come down and participate in the civic life of the city.

It's good for them, it's good for us, so welcome.

And the other thing is Java has a, oh I'm sorry, CHS?

And what subject?

Government.

Okay, well then you jump on him because I asked him if anybody else was here.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

That's four, right?

Okay.

And the other thing is Java has an insurance counseling service that is free, J-A-B-A, the Jefferson Area Board for Aging.

And I brought a show and tell, which I don't know if the guy running the camera can pick this up.

And to most people here, you will not know what it says, but I just thought I'd get your attention by having something up here to show you.

The important thing is, in the last year, Java has saved their customers, mostly seniors, $611,361, mostly on medication costs.

Their program will close December 7, so if you have any seniors or anybody in your neighborhood or you want to just ask your family

If they have a problem with medications or anything of that nature, please go by Java or give them a call or you can Google J-A-B-A and this program will come up.

But it will close December 7th, so it's a real money saver.

It's one of the best programs Java has, so please take advantage of it.

And that's it.

Thank you.

All right, we move on now to city manager response to matters by the public raised in our last meeting.

Since we received her first complaint about a specific alleyway, reps from Public Works have checked on that alley.

The most apparent problem is that businesses are overloading their containers.

We've also had folks who are not tagging their bags at all.

One supervisor has worked one-on-one with the offenders and has had the alleyway power washed.

We will continue to check the alley and look for ways to improve the situation and enforcement throughout the downtown mall.

There are, in that specific alleyway, there are 44 large mobile trash containers and about six grease containers that are all in a very tight space there.

The adjacent restaurants and the food establishments.

I have very few alternatives as they lack the interior space to store those containers.

So we're trying to work with them on identifying ways to improve the aesthetics over there and improve the cleanliness over there as well.

And so a representative from Public Works has assured me that they will be in touch with Ms. Quinn to talk specifically about her concerns and any ideas that she may have to address the situation.

And I'd like to add just that

This week was the anniversary of the disappearance of Sage Smith, and I know that people have been asking about that.

All right, thank you.

We move on to the first matters by the public.

I'll read the guidelines.

Guidelines for public comment.

We welcome public comment.

It's an important part of our meeting.

Time is reserved near the beginning and at the end of each regular city council meeting for matters by the public.

Please follow these guidelines for public comment.

Because of the recent court case, we will not be enforcing Rule 9G in our public comment guidelines tonight.

If you are here to speak for a public hearing, please wait to speak on the matter until the report for that item has been presented.

and the public hearing has been opened.

Each speaker has three minutes to speak.

Please give your name and address before beginning your remarks.

Please do not interrupt speakers whether or not you agree with them.

Please refrain from using obscenities.

If you cannot follow these guidelines, all of which are listed on our webpage under City Council guidelines, you will be escorted from City Council chambers and not permitted to re-enter.

So I'll go through the folks who have signed up.

Good evening, I'm Brandon Collins.

I work for FAR, Public Housing Association of Residents, at 1000 Preston Avenue, Suite C, and you can call us at 434-984-3255.

I would like to talk briefly about the Housing Advisory Committee's recommendations that you'll be hearing about this evening.

And I think actually these recommendations may deserve a little more community-wide discussion.

These details really need to make sure that housing in the city is truly affordable, truly expanded, and that redevelopment of public housing is supported by any zoning changes or other changes.

One of the most important recommendations that you'll hear tonight is also one of the most vague, and that is increasing your city council's contribution to the Affordable Housing Fund.

There's no dollar amount assigned to that, and I think that really needs robust discussion by this council.

You know, previous councils have really failed to contribute significantly to the Affordable Housing Fund, and as things may start to dry up on a national level, I think it's really important to consider increasing your contribution dramatically

You know, there is the call for upping the payment in lieu of affordable units, which is a great idea.

I think that's a great idea that may encourage developers to actually provide more affordable housing.

But those are just going to be incremental increases in affordable housing.

And so while that's a good thing, it's also going to keep your affordable housing fund from growing.

One more reason why your contribution to that fund is extremely important because what's going to make a big difference is having a big pool of cash to build a whole lot of affordable housing.

And we would suggest you could do that through the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority, which is proceeding quickly with redevelopment.

and as you do that it would be good for them to know what your commitment to that process is going to be financially, how much you're really going to put into that.

Now if you can't do that without tipping your hand, one way to do that is to show a large annual contribution to the Affordable Housing Fund.

I would ask that as you do your budget work sessions that you have an agenda item specifically devoted to the Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund to discuss those matters.

Density is huge and very nuanced.

Density in this community should provide more affordable housing.

What we see in these recommendations are some incentives for developers and they're kind of all over the place.

But what I really want to know is what does that mean for the redevelopment of properties, not just a vacant land that may develop some affordable units.

whether it's 10%, 15%, or 17%.

If you're redeveloping properties, you really have the danger of just maintaining what's there and not providing any additional affordable housing at all.

There are quite a few other things about these recommendations that you should understand and maybe we'll hear about later.

Thank you.

Good evening.

As you know, you have the wherewithal to make significant inroads into the housing crisis in our community and at the same time to have a significant impact on poverty in the community as well.

I have discussed this collectively with you and I have discussed it individually with each one of you.

and I have discussed it with the Housing Advisory Council, but for some reason nobody wants to discuss it.

And the proposal is simple.

It is that you use public funding to ensure the fact that there will be provided affordable housing for poor people, most of whom are working, and for the broader working class, including your own employees.

If we do so in a manner in which we employ local residents who are unemployed or underemployed, train them in the building trades, marketable skills that can be used later, and use those people to build that housing and pay them a decent wage, you will have a significant impact on poverty as well.

This will inure to the benefit of the entire community in general and to small businesses in particular because as you put money into people's pockets at a level in which we're talking about people who are making now $10,000 or $15,000 getting $30,000 all of that money has to be spent because at even $30,000 or $40,000 every penny is spent by families in our community and that money will inure back into the community and be recycled.

If you believe that entrepreneurship is a useful thing for the community who's had this entrepreneurship destroyed at Vinegar Hill, this will allow people to develop wealth in which they can utilize in order to start small businesses.

The question really is, do you have the political will to do so?

Now I know there's concerns about money, but as I have said, for those of us who are middle class and above, we can afford considerably more property taxes.

That's an area where we're low on the rating scale.

I have friends paying considerably more.

You can double my taxes right away if it will go to the kinds of purposes that we need.

You can also use your bonding, your AAA bonding, in order to secure other funding.

And I believe if you do this, you will be able to secure funding from institutions and organizations that want to see something like this happen and to use it as a model elsewhere, so that if you truly believe

As I do, that Charlottesville could be, could be a world class citizen, for all of its citizens, if you believe, as I do, that we can have an impact on poverty, that we can have one Charlottesville.

And I believe we can, though we don't.

This is the kind of proposal that will go in the direction of doing that.

Now I realize or I sense a fear in your part of even discussing something like this.

The HAC wouldn't put it on the agenda.

Some of you haven't even responded to emails that I sent you about this proposal.

I wrote an op-ed piece about this five years ago.

I got no feedback.

I have a response that I put together because I wanted to and it actually, I'm not going to hand it out, but it's up here for people to read and it's actually my response to a little bit of what just happened this weekend or what was reported.

Oh, stop.

Yeah, two of them.

Uh-huh, yeah.

And so they're up here.

If people would like to read my impression of something, they're welcome to do it.

If not, just leave the paper up here.

It does say trigger warning on them, so if you don't feel like you're able to read it, just don't.

Right now I would like to talk about the percent of people coming since 2010 to the meetings.

I touched on this a little last time I came to this meeting.

there's these up here too for people too because I didn't hand them out but there's plenty and also the media has the numbers so for 2010 I took the meetings that had less than fewer than 10 speakers and then I averaged them out so in 2010 throughout all the meetings you see

from every day how many people spoke, okay?

And that was only 20% of the meetings had 10 speakers or below, okay?

So 2011, there's 33% of the meetings that had 10 or below.

So if we carry on to 2012, there's 50%.

All right, if we keep on, 2013, there's only 27%.

So that of course shows an increase of speakers, an increase of talking, an increase of people communicating their thoughts and their ideas.

In 2014, it was only 20%.

So that shows you that there's more speakers.

Look at the results there.

In 2015, again, it's only 40%.

However, we skipped to 2016 and it's different because you all changed the rules then and it's the signups online, the chosen to speak versus the actually

And that leads up to 50%.

So I think with this being said, from going back to 2010, that it exhibits that, like Mr. Fenwick had mentioned, I read it on the news, Mr. Fenwick said there was some sort of a

decrease, well I actually just decided to go look and I shared my figures and these are for people if you would like them and you all have them.

Thank you very much.

Mr. Signer, I recall at the very first meeting as mayor you railing against divisive rhetoric of Donald Trump, yet you and Mr. Bellamy have engaged in divisive rhetoric and have stoked the flames of racial tensions in this town.

Mr. Bellamy, you point to an alleged incident at Bodo's Bagels of white-on-black bias, yet at most a verbal insult

yet say absolutely nothing about the black on white bias of violent crime that happens here.

And in a few cases, if I'm not mistaken, have publicly defended some perpetrators of violent acts.

At least 80% of the violent crime in this town is committed by a small percentage of blacks, yet you liberals are more concerned

about what some white slave owner did 200 years ago than acknowledging and fixing violent crime of today.

No one is claiming all blacks are bad due to the actions of some, but you make most white people out to be racist who disagree with you.

Violent crime affects both white and black neighborhoods, yet you seem to be more concerned with insults than violence.

Black people deserve to be protected from criminals also.

As a matter of fact, they are a higher percentage of victims of violence, of violent crime.

As a city official, you sanctioned a picket and boycott of a white business owner because you were offended.

And when questioned whether it is ethical or legal for you to do so, you never accept responsibility for your actions.

and I've never answered my questions about the ethics and legality of your actions.

Will you answer tonight?

Your actions and bias have handed you a defeat in federal court.

This election was a repudiation of your liberal socialist agenda where you seemed to make white people the cause of all the problems in the black community.

Those statues have sat there for almost 100 years

and until you came along and told people they should be offended and stoked up racial tensions, no one cared.

Some have called for stop and frisk data to be released to determine a white bias on the part of cops.

And I say, go ahead and do it.

You and the police chief have the authority to do so.

Let's look at all the crime data to determine a black bias on the part of criminals.

If you want to talk about race, it has to be a two-sided discussion with both sides acknowledging their roles and responsibilities.

I've said this before.

Thank you.

Good evening City Council.

I'm Maeve Curtin and I am the UVA student liaison to City Council.

Much in the similar vein to what Ms. Szakos announced earlier today, I am here to invite everyone in the Charlottesville community and in the surrounding counties to UVA's 16th annual Lighting of the Lawn on Thursday, December 1st from 7pm to 10pm.

Lighting of the Lawn was started back in 2001 really to add light, so to speak, in a very dark time and a hard time for a lot of people.

And what we're really looking to do with this event this year is try to add that same sort of light and that sense of community bonding and togetherness at a time when I really believe that our community needs to come together.

Lighting the Lawn seeks to bring together students, faculty, and the Charlottesville community to foster a sense of camaraderie and holiday joy, but we are also looking to set an example of safety and inclusion this year.

With the reopening of the Rotunda doors, there is no better time than to support each other and our community around us.

For anyone who is interested in attending the event, there will be an open pavilion reception in Pavilion 10.

So everyone is welcome to attend.

There will be food and drinks there, courtesy of a number of student organizations at UVA and the Baucom family.

And for anyone who has young children and won't be able to make the entire event,

It will be streamed live at www.lightingofthelawn.com and you guys can also find out a ton of other information about the event, a schedule of the performances that are going to be happening from the hours of 7 to 10 and then at the end of the event it will culminate in our light show.

So that can be watched online or attended in person and I look forward to seeing many of you guys there.

Thank you so much.

You said it was .com?

Thank you.

Just, we have an hour town meeting that night, but we should be wrapping up by eight, so we all, some of us should be able to make it, but thank you.

Nikaya Walker?

Good afternoon.

I'm here tonight because the American Dream is not working for me.

I lost my wife a couple months ago and I'm here to talk about this subject, but she didn't want me to come here and talk about it.

A couple months ago, y'all also recognized Mr. Barber, who was the first black mayor who was a great friend of mine for like 40 years, and CeCe Thompson, who was the first black female.

She's a neighbor of mine, which have been like 20, 25 years.

I was a firefighter myself in the city back in the 60s.

And they were not recognized.

The first black firefighter in the city of Charlottesville was Carl Carter.

The first black police officer in the city was James Jones.

My mother, James, was the first black cop in the city of Charlottesville.

That's my brother, James.

My brother passed away in May.

And when the pituary appeared in the paper, the progress contacted the city.

I don't know who.

But they couldn't find any information on my brother as being the first cop in the city of Charlottesville in the early 60s.

So that's the reason I'm here tonight to hope that y'all can find some information on my brother and honor him like everyone else in the city, past and present.

And like I said, this is history.

Good evening.

My name is Nancy Carpenter.

I live in Rose Hill and I appreciate this opportunity to address city council.

And I want to thank Mr. Jones for that information about the firsts here in Charlottesville that we should remember as well in some fashion.

Also, I want to say Minnie Wiconi, Water is Life.

One of the things I want to mention this evening that I heard was told that really disconcerted me regarding the public school system.

I was talking with a social worker who has worked 10 years in our city school system and she told me that for some reason this fall

They have seen more children that are homeless.

She has 60 children in her school that have been identified as homeless and they're estimating that maybe 100 in just one school are

in a family that is being traumatized by the lack of, I don't know what it is, I mean part of it is the crisis in rental housing, I'm sure.

Part of it is perhaps crisis in wages.

This is also not just endemic to that one school.

There's another program here in the community, Families in Crisis, and I also have heard that they have seen an uptick this year in children that are homeless and

I think I talked one time before about, or maybe I'm not here, but I comment all the time that we should not have children who leave the third grade that can't read.

Because of so many people that I see in my job every day that are natives here in Charlottesville.

They've grown up here, they've gone to school here, they've stayed here.

And they don't have a GED and there may be a lot of reasons for that.

But I don't know if it can be extrapolated back to a tenuous housing situation.

which I'm hoping that some of the information that you look at from your housing studies from what the hack has talked about that you'll consider, you know, addressing.

Because these are our future leaders.

The, you know, we're trying to, you know, create systems that allow for everyone to be successful no matter where they are on a spectrum.

One of the things that HUD has said, one of their goals is to end family homelessness by 2020.

Now in six years, you know, it sounds great to the statistic from January 2016 from the last point in time count is like down by 23%, but that's 23% over six years.

So that's not a great, it's a good statistic, but it's not great.

We have a lot of room for improvement and I think what you're starting to look at and address through our housing crisis and how we address that because I really feel in my heart that

a lot of it's going to rest with our locality to take care of our people because I don't think that we will have the support through our federal government that we once enjoyed.

First of all, my apologies, I'm a terrible public speaker.

I came first of all to, my original idea was to be like declare Charlottesville a safe city and I have since come to learn that

Declaring as a sanctuary city also entails some problems that would cause that to be counterproductive and potentially lose funding for some of the same programs that would be aiding some of the people for whom the city would be declared safe.

So one of the things I wanted to do was to encourage you all to magically come up with some way to promote the safety of all of the residents of Charlottesville

and make it clear that that is being supported and that, you know, any sort of bigoted or biased behavior is not only reprehensible but won't be tolerated, you know, with or without officially declaring.

I'm not sure what the options are for that.

I know several businesses have personally taken steps to declare, you know, BOTUS is one of them that made a very public statement that, you know, that kind of behavior was not welcome.

I don't know if there's any way you can support businesses like that that make such a statement or just to represent that you have these values at heart as well.

And some of the racial problems, and it's one of the biggest issues in Charlottesville, but it's not just black and white or even black and Latino and white.

There are so many demographics, those are some of the biggest,

I'm German and Pakistani, there is no demographic for me.

But people can look at me and I'm an ethnically ambiguous woman of childbearing age so personally I have a lot of concerns about what's coming up.

I know a lot of people do and it's one of the few heartening things that has come up in the wake of this is how many people have risen to the occasion with a suddenly developed sense of personal responsibility

I want to thank you all because I know a lot of the onus is going to fall on you and on law enforcement to make personal decisions that may or may not go against broader orders or expectations.

And I think everybody's going to need to really think about things a little bit harder.

But I wanted to encourage all of you to see if there was some

some option for providing safety or encouraging safety and I know a lot of people economically the city will suffer if people don't feel safe.

They're not going to go out.

I'm not going to go to businesses I don't know because if I don't know how I'm going to be treated.

If people have a reasonable assurance of safety or that if someone harasses them

They will be ejected from the premises of whatever business.

They're likelier to go out and keep providing whatever it is they can provide.

We really appreciate and thank everybody who comes to speak to us.

It takes a lot of courage.

We take everything that we hear very seriously.

The issues that go to city policy or decision making, Mr. Jones will address in our next meeting.

And we read everything we receive as well.

With that said, are there any responses anyone would like to make?

Mr. Mayor, I have just a couple.

Mr. Jones?

I got two names, but I couldn't quite hear the first one.

Your brother's name is Paul Jones, James Jones, Carol Carter.

Carol Carter.

Thank you, sir.

I think it's really important that we do recognize those whose shoulders we stand on and hope you can accept our apology on behalf of the city.

We're missing those individuals initially but I can assure you that we will get this right and they will get their proper just due.

I have something that is sort of a response but it was something I already had prepared to add to new business.

and it relates to our last speaker.

Mr. Bellamy and I, as I mentioned before, just got back from a meeting of the National League of Cities and cities across the country are really grappling with the very things that you brought up, you know, how we make our citizens feel safe in the light of an administration who has very clearly stated an intention to deport millions of people, to

and the National League of Cities.

a statement of principles and beliefs and commitment and to be customized as we see fit.

But it's going to, I mean, obviously we're not going to be able to do the discussion on it until other business which I think might be more

Yeah, Mike, I think this would be the appropriate time.

Okay.

And we will have a discussion about it.

So what the NLC has brought forward as a template is we believe in and stand for values of inclusion, equity and justice.

We condemn Islamophobia, racism, sexism and xenophobia in rhetoric or action.

We welcome all people and recognize the rights of individuals to live their lives with dignity, free of discrimination because of their faith, race, national origin or immigration status.

We will continue our work in making our services and programs accessible and open to all individuals and we believe in the public sector for the public good.

Advancing equity and inclusion is critical to the success of our communities and our nation.

Mayor Signer, one comment, if I may, and I'll be brief.

And it's related to one of the members of the public's comments about generating opportunities for work for our local residents.

And even though it's not specifically on the agenda, it's related to the Belmont Bridge and the infrastructure project.

So I'm offering a resolution that we would expand career

and apprenticeships in building and repair of infrastructure within the city of Charlottesville.

And it's patterned after a precedent that we've already taken for the improvement of West Main Street, so tying it to local training and employment.

So I just wanted to flag that.

All right, thank you all very much.

We'll now move on to the consent agenda.

Item A, minutes for November 7th.

Item B, appropriation grant for construction of Water Street Trail, $318,730, second of two readings.

Item C, an appropriation supplemental nutrition assistance program funding, $34,584, second of two readings.

Item D, an appropriation local emergency management performance grant, $7,500, second of two readings.

Item E, an appropriation state criminal alien assistance program grant for 2016, $10,375, second of two readings.

Item F, an appropriation CHS Check and Connect Student Engagement Grant, $50,000, second of two readings.

Item G, an appropriation Disproportionate Minority Contact Research Project, $100,000, second of two readings.

Item H, an appropriation Virginia Department of Health Child and Adult Care Food Program, $32,000, second of two readings.

Item I, an appropriation New Sidewalk ADA Improvements and Bicycle Improvements, $295,000, first of two readings.

Item J, an appropriation U.S. Department of Justice Bulletproof Partnership Grant, $6,737.50, first of two readings.

Item K, a resolution approval of council meeting calendar for 2017, first of one reading.

Item L, an ordinance technology zone reauthorization, second of two readings.

Item M, an ordinance Sunrise Park development amendment, second of two readings.

Thank you.

Any questions?

Actually, I don't see any reason to take it off.

If I could just read the change that's in it because the motion wasn't in our agenda online.

So we had a motion at the last meeting that would change the eligibility to seven years from five, and so I'd just like to

To the technologies on reauthorization.

Okay, so that's read in.

Any further questions about any other item on the consent agenda?

and with as explained by Ms. Szakos.

Second?

Second.

Any further questions discussion?

All in favor?

Okay, consent agenda passes 5-0.

Thank you.

Moving on to the next item in the agenda, public hearing appropriation item number two.

This is an appropriation of $715,436.19 from Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority for reimbursement of utility betterment for route 250 bypass.

This is the first of two readings and we've allocated 15 minutes on the agenda to this.

Tony Edwards will be

Mr. Edwards.

there were opportunities for us to improve some of the existing utility infrastructure or betterments.

So during the construction phase of that we chose to do several of these projects of water and sewer, some of which Rivanna will be or has reimbursed the city.

in this amount

and we'll go over that again since there are two separate items but just want to make the connection there that this is the items that were found with the reimbursement process and the closeout of that project, normal closeout procedure that you would have in any construction project of this nature.

that there were certain funds that we would reimburse the state for that were actually given by the state to the city and later identified by the city that these were not meeting the criteria for reimbursement and therefore we needed to give that funding back to the state.

Thank you.

Yeah, initially, I mean, I wasn't involved at the very first end of this project, but it's my understanding that these were going to be eligible for reimbursement, and the state thought so as well.

Perhaps, yeah.

They would have been an individual decision at that time.

Okay, so then do we have a portion of that that we pay into Rivanna or is that part after we've paid in?

Because with the cost share agreements with Rivanna expenses, is that something that comes out of money that we pay into Rivanna or is that coming out of Rivanna?

When there are projects that we do

with the city or county and the Rivanna is representing both of them.

The cost share agreement talks about how much the city pays and how much the county pays on various things.

Got it, okay.

So we keep this?

Yes.

Obviously we send it most to BDOT and plus more, but okay, thank you.

OK, let's open the public hearing on this matter.

I don't see anybody signed up.

Is there anybody who would like to sign up or speak in this public hearing on this matter?

Public hearing is open.

Yeah.

Any further questions for Mr. Edwards?

This is not the last we'll hear from you, because we have another item coming right up.

Second.

Do we need to read it Ms. Rose?

Okay and we have a second and that is duly moved and seconded so that's what we needed for that item.

for the overpayment of funds received, again, for the 250 bypass.

This is the first of two readings.

Again, in continuing the conversation, this is the other half of the conversation, where, as in the first appropriation fund that we were talking about, these funds would go towards the payment or the

So there's nine hundred thousand dollars going to VDOT from the city plus the water

It's going to be coming from the funds that we receive from the state.

So it's never gone into anything else.

It's just sitting there as part of the pot.

Okay, we have another public hearing on this matter as well.

Opening public hearing sign-up sheet is here.

Opening a public hearing.

There are cookies if you... And there's cookies for anybody who would like to speak about this appropriation.

Public hearing is open.

Looks like nobody wants to speak.

So, closing a public hearing.

Is there a second?

And that is it.

Thank you very much.

That was the first of two readings on that as well.

All right.

This is the acquisition of 801 to 805 East Market Street.

First of one reading, Mr. Craig Brown is going to be presenting to us.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of council,

This is a one reading resolution that's proposed tonight that would approve a contract for the purchase of property at 801 to 805 East Market Street between the current owners and the city and authorize the steps necessary to consummate that purchase.

There is a sales contract in your agenda materials

That contract has been executed by both sides, both of the two principal owners of the property and the city represented by the city manager, Mr. Jones.

Section 10B of that contract does say that the city's obligations under the contract are subject to city council approval.

So that is not binding on the city tonight unless you take action to adopt the resolution and approve the purchase.

If you decline to do so for any reason, then the deal is undone, we get our deposit back, and both sides go their separate ways.

I'll mention a couple of what I think are the key provisions in the contract, the purchase price,

is $2.85 million and that was the product of what I feel like was good faith negotiations between the two sides.

There were a series of offers and counter offers for this property.

It is a very attractive and important location.

The city was my understanding is the city was not the only party interested in purchasing purchasing the property But that was as I say the the 2.85 million was the product of negotiations The contract does require the city to honor the leases of the two current tenants on the property and those tenants as you know are the lucky seven convenience store and the Guadalajara restaurant and

Those two leases continue until the year 2021.

I think the staff's best estimate is that we will take probably three to five years to decide how that property will be used by the city in the future.

And to the best of my knowledge, all options are on the table at this point.

This property, if it is acquired by the city, could be a standalone development.

It could be developed in conjunction with the property that is currently owned by the city and the county at 7th and Market Street that's currently used as a parking lot.

It could be developed by the city, it could be developed by a private developer, or it could be developed through a public-private partnership.

It's possible that the existing tenants would be incorporated into a new use on that site, or it's possible that they may go somewhere else, hopefully remain in the city.

A couple of other numbers that I will mention just as background for your information.

This property will come off the tax roll since it will be owned by the city.

By my calculations, based on the current appraisal, the real property taxes for this year, 2016, for this site are $13,715.

On the other hand, we will become landlords of the two tenants and for 2017,

Next year, the contract calls for us to close in January of 2017.

As the owner of the property in 2017, the city will receive rent from the two tenants slightly over $126,000.

Again, I think for reasons that have already been outlined to you from the Department of Economic Development, I think this is a significant purchase for the city.

It is a very significant piece of property, both in terms of its potential and its location.

Thank you.

I would like to just thank you for the very hard work as a civil servant and as a lawyer and as a counselor and as a tough negotiator that has gone into getting this deal done.

This was no easy thing and it is an example, we talk a lot about

and with Mr. Jones' direction as our CEO of our government, this working, this team that got this done with the guidance of council, this is an example of, there's nothing more proactive than purchasing real estate for development in this sort of way because we're looking down the future and it took a lot of proactivity as hard because it takes

putting yourself out there and making a commitment and making an investment.

And so you all really did a lot of work on this and got it done.

And I think we all really appreciate the amount of work and forethought and negotiation that went into doing this.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

And Mike, if I could add, I have spoken to the clerks and the waiters, the servers, clerks at Lucky 7 and the servers at Guadalajara.

and I told them nobody will lose their job because of this.

They were very concerned about losing a job.

They will not lose a job.

The development is far in the future and this gives the city a lot of leverage, a lot of say in how that property will be used.

which the workers would not have if a private developer came in and bought it.

I do have a question just kind of for history's sake.

I cannot recall the last time the city bought property of this magnitude, of this significance in terms of this location and its size.

Now, I did reference the property immediately adjacent to it.

A number of years ago, more than 10 years ago, the city and the county jointly purchased

what was then known as the hedgerow properties, and that was the parking lot at 7th and Market Street, the Jessup House on High Street, and the Levy Opera House.

and I think the council in hindsight that did that can certainly be commended for being, as the mayor has alluded to, proactive in looking out for these opportunities because the ownership of those properties certainly gives the city a lot of flexibility and a lot of options and I hope that this property will turn out the same way.

Very good.

Again, I just want to echo what my colleagues have said, and it really was a lot of work.

And it obviously was something that a council has not done in a while.

So I want to appreciate the work and the faith of my colleagues to act together on this.

And it does speak as well to the idea of being able to stabilize the land prices because we own it and that we can be setting the program.

I do want to see the day when the Housing Authority is as robust.

And I would love to have future conversations about how that can happen.

Maybe this is good modeling behavior.

I'm not sure that's formal parliamentary procedure.

Mr. Brown, you're the authority on that.

Does that count?

We'll accept that.

That's a second to do this.

Any further discussion or questions?

Do we have a second?

Second.

All in favor?

OK. We're moving ahead with that acquisition.

Thank you all very much.

It is finished.

Great job.

This is a $9 million Belmont Bridge replacement and a $2 million multimodal improvements.

This is the first of one reading.

We have 10 minutes allocated.

Unless anyone is confused, this revenue sharing is different than the revenue sharing between the city and county.

Yes, this is a VDOT grant program where a dollar for local money is matched with a dollar for state.

The city is seeking to submit two applications and a resolution of support tonight.

One is for $9 million for Belmont Bridge.

This will supplement

are previously allocated 14.5 million roughly of previously allocated funds.

This is to help with a $17.2 million construction budget, 2.3 in inspection services, 3.2 in design, and 500,000 in right of way.

Kind of comes up to that $23 million number.

I was asked to give an update on the project.

We currently have a stakeholders group or steering committee that's been created by you all.

We have three place design task force members, we have one planning commission member, four neighborhood representatives, a business representative, and then a Charlottesville area transit advisory committee member as well.

They've come together, they've reviewed the RFP numerous times,

They created and volunteered for a selection committee that reviewed the RFPs after we advertised.

They read the proposals, selected the highest best respondents.

We interviewed them and we selected a top offer which we then negotiated with.

Negotiations have concluded at this point.

VDOT has completed a CAFR audit, which goes over the finances of the firm, makes sure that they're billing appropriately, etc.

There's a few minor issues.

The consultant is going to be fixing those, hopefully by this Wednesday, and will be executing a consultant agreement for the design portion of Belmont Bridge.

So that was the first application.

Second application is

for our 2 million multimodal improvements.

The city has participated in several planning initiatives, such as the strategic investment area plans, the Streets at Work study, as well as the recent update to the Bike Ped Master Plan.

There's a lot of need in the city for these types of projects, and we were hoping to get an application for a million local

to receive another million in state to help fund these types of programs.

If we were to receive the funding, we would come back and explain from the priorities of these other plans, these are the things that we think these projects are the best suited for this program.

Yeah, I have a question.

Yes.

And thank you so much for updating us.

Certainly.

We're looking to execute the agreement.

We're going to post the notice to award.

We don't yet have an exact date.

However, the consultant is already working on a perspective schedule.

And several of the, let's see.

We're going to have a public meeting to kick it off, of course.

We're going to meet with city staff, do an initial meeting with the steering committee, do an urban design analysis workshop.

So that's basically where we've been, what does the area look like, where do we want to go, looking at the various studies, etc.

They're looking to do a design charrette that's going over a three-day period of time and there's going to be specific topics as well as like open design,

forums, et cetera, for the public to participate in.

We're looking at doing an open house where the design options will be presented.

And then I have one other question.

Yes.

As I was reading your memo,

We already had received a commitment of $14.5 million from a previous allocation from the state and federal programs.

And then the most recent cost estimate of the project was $17.2 million.

For construction, not design and engineering?

Correct.

We would release that.

Basically we would use the 14.5 first because that is largely federal and state, a little bit of local mixed in from a previous revenue sharing application.

Then we would move on to the revenue sharing application, this 9 million if we go for it.

If we have money left over then we would release that kind of allocation of whatever funds we didn't need and the city would save half of that.

Okay, great.

My only question is kind of just a kind of protocol, or kind of what the rules are.

So if we ask for this amount of nine million

Well there's different priorities.

So revenue sharing is the first priority.

So they're going to look at all the applications submitted throughout the state.

Each locality that applies for up to a million gets funded first.

If there's money left over

In their entirety if there's enough funding.

If not, then it would be prorated.

And if there's enough funding to move on to priority two, that would be our other application for the multimodal.

And again, the first million gets funded and then et cetera.

And I have a couple questions.

It says a construction estimate was updated to 17.2 million for the enhanced bridge concept in July 2014.

That is our working concept of 17.2.

So we would be working with our consultant that we're the design team that we're going to announce.

We might as well announce it tonight.

That would be factored in.

So we're planning on a 15 year or 15

We're not planning for 15 years.

So 15 month design period, six months of right of way, and then moving into construction.

So I'm a little confused here.

So the 17.2, that's the budget?

It would be for the construction budget.

We established 17.2 back in 2014.

We're going to work in escalation.

November 2016.

Well, it used to just say construction for construction, contingency, and add-ons.

Okay.

On the second page you see several studies have recently been conducted through the public process.

No traffic projections as of today?

No, we're waiting until the design begins.

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion that we adopt the resolution for the revenue sharing program of $5.5 million for the Belmont Bridge.

Thank you for your hard work.

It would be great to get this going.

Yes.

Ready for a vote?

All in favor?

Amen.

Carries five to zero.

All right, thank you.

Mr. Mayor, just a point of order.

Would now be the time for me to introduce my resolution about tying the employment opportunities to the building of the bridge, or would this be under other business?

As I alluded to very briefly earlier in the evening, this resolution is entitled to expand career pipelines and apprenticeships in the building and repair of infrastructure within the city of Charlottesville, such as the Belmont Bridge, for local residents.

and it cites the various strategic planning goals as well as comprehensive planning goals that relate to expansion of economic opportunity for all our city residents, particularly as they relate to our emerging technologies and all the kinds of industries that support those technologies like transportation.

And also just to remind my colleagues that on March 21, 2016,

This council already directed the city manager to conduct an analysis of jobs that would be required for the West Main Street Improvement Project that could be performed in-house by city departments and link them to the growing opportunity apprenticeship programs.

This resolution is in the spirit of that

earlier resolution and I will read for the benefit of the public the resolve.

Be it resolved that Charlottesville City Council directs the city manager and his staff to conduct an analysis of jobs required by the Belmont Bridge project that can be performed in-house by city departments and linked to the growing opportunity apprenticeship programs as well as programs at CATEC and PVCC for the benefit of local residents within nine months of passage of this resolution.

Be it further resolved that Charlottesville City Council directs the city manager and his staff to work with the Virginia Department of Transportation, the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission, the local metropolitan planning organization, and Piedmont Workforce Network Council and Board to develop strategies to promote local recruitment for VDOT training programs in hiring as they pertain to regionally significant transportation projects like the Belmont Bridge, again within nine months of passage.

I just, I don't know if Councilor Szakos remembers, but

Back last March in an MPO meeting, we did direct Mr. Boyles, the director of TJPDC, to look into being proactive as well with regards to having the MPO be willing to do research about the kinds of employment practices that could be tied to infrastructure projects.

So that might already be underway.

We have not touched base with Mr. Boyles, but

I ask for your consideration if this is something, again, as with the earlier resolution that we asked Mr. Jones to take a look at.

Otherwise though, I would love to just get into the habit of passing these resolutions that tie all of our construction projects, be it for roads, bridges,

has been mentioned earlier tonight as we get to these discussions about housing and the redevelopment of our housing to local apprenticeships and local hiring.

In this case, it would be strictly about this piece of infrastructure, the bridge.

I think we need to spend a little bit of time on that to determine that.

There are concerns that we

If there's an expectation that there's guaranteed hiring that's associated with this, that is a concern from a procurement standpoint.

There are some limitations to what we can require.

I'll go back to what we did with the downtown mall renovation back in 2008.

If I remember correctly, the city provided additional funding for an apprentice-like program where we had

and a number of folks who were working on masonry, for instance, and learned how to do that and had that skill after the project.

We also had a person who was involved with office management as well.

Why the nine month time frame is put in there to give you a lot of time to flush those questions out.

And if you feel you need more time, I think that's something that we could amend this.

But I think, just as you've described, that is another precedent.

and that is exactly the kind of infrastructure project that makes an awful lot of sense.

Would you be open, I guess one, you know typically when we get a resolution we

We do it, you know, it gets brought up in another business, and then we do it the next meeting, so that's what we're going to likely do with the...

This is considered the first reading?

Well, yeah, because I just want to make sure that Mr. Jones has, and Mr. Brown, have a chance to legally cross our eyes about our season.

We could do that in two weeks, and then we could, it's only, we would need one reading, it's a resolution.

Well, this wouldn't require two readings anyways.

We can certainly take a look at this.

I just want to kind of remind the public that

One reason that we have to do things like this is in Virginia, we're not allowed to make requirements that a lot of cities around the country can make that you have to hire local people for local projects.

Under Virginia law, we can't do that.

And just to follow up on Councilor Szakos' comments, that's why this resolution is worded for the city manager to analyze what city staff

can be expanded to build this piece of infrastructure because as we put projects out to bid, we are compelled to get the lowest qualified bid price by state law.

If we would like to have an action item happen tonight, we could.

with a vote to be held.

Ms. Szakos is right.

We have something called Dylan's Rule in Virginia, which really constrains progressive localities who want to do a lot of progressive work like this from doing it unless it's very artfully, specifically crafted within their existing authority.

So but with that said, it looks like we will move forward on this vein.

Okay, moving on to the next item.

Number six on the agenda, moving right along, we're on to the Thomas Jefferson Planning District and City Legislative Package.

Mr. David Blount will be presenting.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

That's a really good segue, I guess, to talking about legislative issues, as you mentioned the Dillon Rule.

You do have before you tonight for your approval the Regional Legislative Program for 2017.

and if I could just briefly run you through the top three priorities in the draft program.

The first being the state budget and funding obligations position which urges the state to preserve aid to localities when addressing what is now a roughly 1.5 billion dollar state budget gap over the next 20 months.

This is also our top defensive position on funding issues that calls for the state to adequately fund the programs that it requires.

and it also urges that they not pass down state mandates unfunded or underfunded and that they not shift cost for state programs to localities.

The second top priority is our top one from last year or from the current General Assembly session in 2016 on public education funding and again given the attention on the state budget gap this year we want to stress that they preserve the investment in K-12 education that was put into the current biennial budget.

for the first time in quite a few years.

That funding level from the state is actually above where it was back in 2009, first time since then.

The third top priority is our local revenue authority position, primarily one on behalf of the counties in the region in that it supports equal taxing authority for counties with that that you have here in the city of Charlottesville.

The draft also expresses some concerns

about a couple of other major issues that are carryover from this past General Assembly session that I wanted to touch on just briefly as well.

Again, both of them asking for local authority in the area of wireless infrastructure and also in transient lodging.

There are new statements in both the land use priority and the general government priority concerning the transient lodging issue.

There's been a

work group of the housing commission that's been looking at that issue this past year, looking at taxation, licensing, public safety, land use, and all the potential impacts to local communities of having this type of operation.

I want to give kudos to Ms. Robertson for her involvement with this study work group.

She actually was invited to present to the very first meeting of the work group back in the spring about the ordinance that you all passed last fall so that the work group could be informed of that.

Still a long way to go on this issue.

It's been kind of hard to get all of the interested parties to

come together and I really fully expect that we'll be back doing battle on this one again during the coming session.

Likewise on wireless infrastructure, an unsuccessful bill from this past session that would have placed restrictions on

Local ability to approve and permit and charge fees for wireless infrastructure.

Again, another area where there's been difficulty in getting the parties to agree on how to move forward.

And again, Ms. Robertson has been involved with the local government representatives on that work group in responding to different proposals that have been proposed during those discussions.

Let me finally point out that there are a number of areas where positions in your local priorities that you have before you in a few minutes are included in the regional program.

Very similar language concerning the transient lodging and the wireless are included in the legislative program for the region that you have in your local program.

And also some opposition to restrictions on your ability to level the stormwater utility fee, which was the subject of

another piece of legislation this past year.

You are the last stop for the legislative program approval here in the region so hopefully with your approval tonight that will enable the program to then be published widely, distributed widely, shared with the legislators, elected officials in the region.

So I'd be glad to take any questions you may have or if there are any further

And this is just about the TJPDS?

This is just about the regional program right now.

And if you want to do those all at the end, it's up to you.

Can you just mention the one that you were assuming that we would not support within that?

The Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act, yeah.

I think that there are some of the counties, more rural counties in the region that do not want to see that expansion or those requirements that are applicable to bay localities.

That was an issue probably eight, nine years ago.

So that if we do approve it, we would be approving

One of the things that as I've been kind of going back and forth with myself in regards to

What I may say in regards to this report, which I think you all did a fine job and I know there's more to come, but some things for me are missing and I don't think it's just

the TJDP report.

I think it's oftentimes how we analyze and view things through a lens as a whole in regards to how direct we are.

For example, when I look at environmental quality and when I look at items like education and the suggestion to fully fund the SOQs and as a State Board of Education member I'm very glad to see that.

And we have things like economic and workforce development and we ask for fair housing practices

and things of that nature.

And I feel like we address certain issues in a roundabout way, but we don't oftentimes talk about issues like racial equality and racial justice or criminal justice reform or attacking specific things that affect people of color directly head on.

And that's something that I really will love for our bodies as a whole to not talk about in a roundabout way, not be kind of disguise it or

Let's figure out different ways to talk about it but I wish we would address these issues very directly and very head on because while they are extremely difficult if we don't begin to talk about them explicitly and directly then in my personal opinion we're just only going to move the needle a little bit

instead of where we could truly move it if all of the localities in the area decided to get on board with this so I don't have any major issues because I know that again in the different ways in which the report is stated and the things that you guys are looking to implement is going to affect those things in some ways but again I just wish that we could get our localities to not be afraid of this issue

But let's really deal with it, because it's one that's not going to go away.

And I think there's a lot of people here who know that.

We all know that.

I appreciate that comment.

And I think there are probably, within the realm of the Planning District Commission, not necessarily in the legislative program, there's some other ways at which a conversation like that could be entertained.

But in the legislative way, we could do so.

Certainly there could be if there were some specific proposals or specific positions to come out of those discussions.

I also believe that we've got a legislative forum that's coming up next week with our legislators.

That's an opportunity to speak directly to them about your concerns and to also see if there's some support from some of the other

localities to begin that discussion because I agree I think it's an important one to have.

Well, I just wanted to set the stage right now and let it know that this will indeed be brought up.

You're right, we have our meeting next week.

Please believe you can bet your

just to show us the Redskins are not going to make the playoffs, that this will be bought up.

Mayor Signer, if I may offer something to this conversation, because in this legislative packet, it's been my experience here that you do have to be pretty specific about what it is you're going at.

Now, I remember about three years ago, we did have an item in here that was related to

decoupling the fines and driver's licenses.

And it's still an active play, that whole debate.

So that is a social justice issue.

It does heavily relate to racial disparity, but it is something that was a specific issue.

Thank you.

And Mike Kochis.

I know you are.

I'd like to I'm the council rep on TJPDC Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission.

And Wes, we can get more specific and we will get specific.

So I'll make sure to work with you and bring these issues forward.

Thank you.

And then we go to the city.

Well, how, Mr. Brown, what do you recommend?

We have one motion or two.

If I could ask if you could prove the program as it is before you.

Is there a second?

Second.

Any further discussion, questions?

Okay, all in favor?

Alright, the regional package passes.

Full Cloth, now moving on to the cities.

So, we're here again this year.

The way we have been developing this statement the last few years is to work with legislative committee of city council to sort of develop some information about what council's priorities might be in a given year, which things ought to carry over from year to year,

and how to set up two different tracks.

One is a fairly straightforward list of position statements so that as our legislators go through the General Assembly and react to bills that other people are introducing that may or may not be good for Charlottesville, we know in advance sort of how to interpret those.

So part of the reason, as Mr. Blunt said, for the

The general of some of these statements is that we can have a good idea of where counsel's priorities are but not to be so specific in the position statements that we have to come back to you during the General Assembly session each and every time to figure out how to be a good advocate for you against something that might be harmful or for something that would be helpful.

The other track of things are lists of specific legislation that city council might like to ask our legislators to introduce on behalf of the city.

So as Mr. Blunt noted within the position statements, there are a number of things that either expand a little bit on or

express a little bit different position than TJPD's statements.

I'd like to add to what Mr. Blount talked about.

On the very first page, there's a category for public service corporation's use of public rights-of-way.

There's a House Bill 1347 that was introduced last year.

The significant thing about that is not just about permits and right of way fees.

There's a provision in the bill that would require localities to allow people to put support structures in the right of way, which would be directly counter to everything you're trying to do with your streetscape improvements, which is to get

polls and support structures out of the right-of-way.

So that's a big deal.

It's not real specifically, there's not a lot of detail in here about it, but we're watching it.

Affordable housing, there are a number of things that will come forward in the HAC recommendations that we can already do locally to the extent that we need to look at issues such as

a different type of fee in lieu of units or something.

We just didn't get that together in time for it to be specific legislation this year, but it does take some time to develop so we can work on some of those issues longer term.

On page two, the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act statement is there.

That's the statement that differs from TJPD.

In the public safety provision, we have a provision that requests the expansion of a particular code section to allow Charlottesville to be included among those who can regulate the use and possession of certain types of firearms.

In the procurement section, as you were discussing, we've requested

that there not be legislation that takes away authority to make procurement decisions that are good for localities and we're also advocating support for any legislation that would allow localities to use competitive negotiation and the best value analysis for those.

There are three requested items of legislation and this is where I'm anticipating that you may want to spend

and more of your time discussing.

Two bills request legislation that came either from staff or are the result of something that council has already done.

So we're asking for legislation that would allow for contract parking enforcement.

Currently under state law only localities that have populations of greater than 90,000 people

can contract out for parking enforcement.

As you all were going through the process of setting up the different instructions and charges for the economic development director to set up a new parking department and you were talking about doing some metered parking.

Part of what will be important to roll into that type of contract will be the ability to have some contract parking enforcement.

So this particular bill is being brought forward and advocated by Chris Engle, the Economic Development Director.

The exemption for stormwater management facilities for trails and city local government sidewalk projects is something that's come forward both out of parks

and the City Engineer's Office.

There's a description for the support for it.

And then in a little bit of a departure from the normal process of developing proposed legislative items by simply by staff or by council, we've had a local citizen who's been advocating for some time that we seek legislation that would allow for

speed enforcement through use of photo speed monitoring systems.

And so we've included that item in the packet.

Yeah and I know that there will be one I would like to well I guess we're discussing them all together so we'll definitely be discussing the speed monitoring

The first one is more of an editorial thing but at the top of our agenda in the first section where it says endorsement of TJPD and VML it doesn't include Virginia First Cities but the paragraph under it does.

As a member of the TJPD Virginia First Cities and the Virginia Municipal League we are supportive of their legislative agenda so it should be in that headline there.

Oh, the section headings.

VFC and VML.

That's a pretty minor one that I don't think we really need to discuss.

The second is that I at this point don't support the speed camera, so just putting that out there and we can discuss that later and I'll talk about why.

A question about the parking one.

One of the other questions we had as we were looking at our parking study and how to implement a good parking plan

and a parking department was the idea of being able to use shared parking and we understood that we had to have a legislative change to be able to do where we could contract with local businesses and private property owners to use their parking after hours and stuff.

No, I see that more as a local issue.

So we don't need more authority to be able to do that?

All right, that was just something I remembered from that conversation, wanted to make sure that this was our moment to do that.

And the other is that I'm really interested in the housing.

You mentioned that we haven't really gone through the housing advisory committee recommendations yet, and there are a lot of legislative things, but there was one in their recommendations, which we have not yet discussed, and I understand that, and so I'm not really saying that we should

implement it but that it might be time to put it in our legislative agenda now because it was a short-term recommendation for a pretty straightforward legislative change which would, and I guess the language that I would be interested in, I'm trying to find where it is in here under housing.

Here we go.

So we support any legislative action that would allow localities greater flexibility in the establishment of local housing programs and in the use of public funding

for the promotion and establishment of affordable housing, which is what's there, and I would add particularly the ability to use tax credits or other after-purchase subsidies to assist workforce households in purchasing housing in the city and maintaining long-term affordability, which is just the language from the HAC recommendation for legislative agenda.

I do have a follow-up question to that if I may, Ms. Szakos.

I'm done.

Because I was interested in the inclusionary zoning piece.

Well, there's existing enabling legislation that allows us to use incentives to encourage affordable housing.

Historically, we haven't used that

to benefit.

And as you can imagine, in order for an incentive to work, you have to trade it for something that's valuable to people.

But not tax credits.

I thought the language, and we'll get to it later, was requiring affordable housing in all projects.

Well, that's different than the legislation we have now.

So the legislation that we have now that we obtained several years ago calls for the inclusion of affordable units or the payment in lieu fee.

And so we have it.

So the question for me is to the extent we want a different provision

then is either a bonus provision or different requirements than the legislation we obtained five years ago.

Well, I would include that language in this legislative...

Well, City Council has been identifying two members who will serve as a legislative team.

And so that's how I get information as to what Council's priorities may be.

And then I also hear from staff members or department heads.

So for example, in connection with the Trails Bill, I heard from Parks and Rec and our city engineer.

And so it

Things come from different sources, but in terms of what council wants, we've been trying to channel that through a council committee so that we can do a little work in advance each year.

So we start talking with legislators late summer, you know, August, early September,

What they have been telling us the last few years is that if we want legislation that may be in any way controversial, we need to put it on the table not in November but in August and start doing work with the stakeholders who are likely to show up at the General Assembly to oppose it.

Yeah, let me, so my question was sort of getting to how do we, how do we know that the relevant committees would be involved in this?

As an example, the storm water management water quality, was the water program advisory committee consulted in this?

No, we don't, we haven't checked with all of those committees, although if there was a new piece of

Oh, the legislators, from their personal experience.

So a couple of years ago, for example, we sought a bill that would have banned smoking on the mall and the outdoor areas of the mall.

And initially, our legislators, or one of them agreed to sponsor it.

but then decided that because the city hadn't done advanced work to speak with all of the downtown merchants and to really sort of publicize at the local level that this was something that they were interested in doing, they didn't want to get to the General Assembly and have business people and others coming forward to oppose it.

And so they said that we hadn't done enough local

work to make sure that everybody here locally would be on board with that type of legislation.

There are certain other issues such as affordable housing.

When you go to the General Assembly and you try to seek additional authority to impose requirements for affordable housing, you're always going to be doing battle with some business people and some others who

who make a living in the home building industry.

And so you know ahead of time that you have to start locally and speak with those local business people and sort of work through as best you can at the local level and then if you can get the endorsement of those people it helps you when you get to Richmond.

So usually when they're telling us that they're worried about controversy

Thank you.

Alright, any other

I would too.

So pulling out speed cameras, are there any others like that?

Anybody else has?

So other than speed cameras, we would all be okay with moving ahead with the package, is that correct?

Okay, so let's have a discussion of the speed cameras bit.

And then we can, we'll make a decision separately on that.

Okay, and then we'll, then we'll move ahead.

So, I... Let's keep it, so within our rules this should be to...

Speeding enforcement I think really is a key part of slowing down speeding in the city.

But the issuing of tickets disproportionately impacts low income drivers with fines and fees.

The speed cameras haven't been proven to actually reduce speeding.

In fact, as I learned back in psychology in college, an intermittent and unpredictable reward or punishment can be more effective at changing behavior than a predictable, consistent one.

And so I think that with that combination of we saw in St. Louis County in Missouri where there were so many fines and fees being issued for lots of things, it was really disproportionately impacting low income folks.

and that it can be a spiraling effect.

And I have a couple comments on this as well.

So I think that innovation in the city is generally, I talk a lot a lot and try to work on innovation, technology issues in the city, both for the city, we've done an open data policy, we're doing

Customer service system, lots of areas of innovation.

But in this area, for three reasons, I don't support speed cameras in the city of Charlottesville.

The first is that I believe that human discretion is essential to law enforcement and to criminal enforcement.

If you were to put in a phrase, I am against the

having robots do law enforcement, which is what happens functionally when speed cameras are doing the great body and the work of law enforcement, of enforcement of laws.

I know that it's said that there would be a human element in here, but that often times because of the volume and because the limited side on the human side ends up just being rubber stamping whatever comes out from the speed camera system.

Discretion is when a human being talks to another human being, when they make a decision based on their humanness, so it's a cop, you know, looking at facts, talking to motorists, interacting with motorists, deciding whether to issue that ticket, and then it's the other set of occurrences that happen later on.

All that is when human beings are interacting with human beings.

None of that happens when a machine or a robot is making the decision about enforcing laws, and it does

concern me because I think the human element is crucial to our interaction with our law.

The second one is less about that area and I do think that goes to the issues that Ms. Szakos raised.

I think that it will ultimately kill jobs.

This is one of the elements, the danger with robotization of many fields is there are human beings who do these human functions and when you start outsourcing

law enforcement to machines, then it does end up, it will cut into the jobs of police officers with getting full benefits and working for the city.

And the third one is a moral hazard of this becoming a profit center for the city.

So if you start to see, and this is what has happened, I mean, we know that speeding tickets, tickets in general, different localities around the Commonwealth have seen this as a profit center.

It can be very problematic.

But if it starts to become automatic,

a robot doing it, then it's much easier to see it as a profit center for the government and to start funding your budget through this thing that just automatically churns out revenue.

And then the lack of humanity, the lack of human beings involved in it and interaction becomes kind of secondary to the fact that it's a predictable revenue stream

and then you can tweak it up and down and you can expand it and that's my third reason that I'm concerned about this moral hazard.

I support the speed camera request within the legislative packet and mainly to look at the fact that this is just a request to have the option to use one more tool that we currently don't have.

So getting that permission, if you will, from the General Assembly is what this step is all about.

It doesn't preclude the need or the reality that we will be doing our own further investigation about how we would be using this tool.

Second, there has been every town hall meeting that we have attended citywide, no matter what neighborhood you're in, be it low income, moderate income, relatively affluent,

be it predominantly African American or predominantly white, mixed immigrant communities.

The speeding problem in the city is terrible.

And it is on the rise.

It has been increasing over the last five years or so, at least since I've been on council.

and to respond to this with human beings, which is extremely compelling argument, however, would mean that we would have to have an incredibly larger police force to do the traffic monitoring.

This is an extender of our police department to be able to know at least where a violation has occurred so that then that behavior can be checked.

and it is really impossible right now for our police officers to be everywhere at all time to do that sort of monitoring.

So I see it as an officer extender, one that doesn't take our police officers away from other important law enforcement and community relational duties.

And it also just gives us one more arrow in the quiver to be able to kind of use in combination with other tools.

When human beings are aberrant in their behavior and reckless in their driving, that's a ton vehicle that is being used that can hurt people.

And the callousness that I've seen, the running of stop signs that I've seen, is just breathtaking.

I really find it

We're at a crisis moment right now because of the callousness of people in their cars that have no clue that these are dangerous, dangerous weapons.

So we have to do something.

And I see this as one tool that, yes, we need to have it investigated with our local police.

Thank you.

A couple of different ways of looking at it.

First, I don't envision this system being like R2-D2.

This is not a robot any more than an ATM machine is a robot, or a supermarket checkout is a robot.

It's always been a puzzle to me.

It shouldn't have been actually because we have a police officer in the back there.

These young men and women are trained probably for a year before they go on the street.

And they're highly trained people who do a specialized job.

They are armed.

They can arrest people.

And I would like to see them used in that capacity.

I've always thought that if somebody were put on the traffic patrol, it was because

he or she was not behaving.

And they stuck them trying to give tickets to people.

I have been assured by several police chiefs that is not the case.

I will take their word for it.

But for whatever reason, the primary complaint around the city is speeding.

And we have been unable to do anything about that.

Speeding through residential neighborhoods primarily.

So this would be a way to ease the burden on the police department.

It's doable.

And in fact, it would kind of fold into our efforts to promote tech jobs.

Because somebody could, in fact, one man already has basically done an incredible application that could probably serve as a pilot for this program.

And then the safety thing.

I totally agree with the safety thing.

There was one.

So I must admit I'm somewhat conflicted on this issue for two reasons.

One being I see the arguments in both sides, one being that undoubtedly

This could cause a significant issue when you look at those who may be, who live below the poverty line, who may be living from paycheck to paycheck, those who just may not be able to afford the air that may potentially occur.

Our mayor gave a very eloquent story some time back in regards to how he was actually unfortunately treated

in regards to, there was two, he was one of two cars in the frame, and the camera caught two, two cars, and there's a way of getting out of that, but I had to go find case law that supported that, write a letter, and I'm a lawyer, so I was able to get out, I mean, I wasn't speeding when it, so I mean, for those who don't have that kind of training and wherewithal, they're essentially just gonna be stuck with the fine.

And then seeing Ms. Galvin, excuse me, Councilwoman Galvin,

and Councillor Fenwick's points in regards to we do want our officers to be out in the street.

We do want them to be doing the things that building relationships with others and I think your point which I'm very surprised came from you the tech guy, the guy who still has the flip phone.

Your point about how this would actually be, I had to say that, I'm sorry.

It's a nice flip phone though.

No it's not.

We gotta laugh a little bit, it's getting late.

But your point, in all seriousness, your point in regards to how we're trying to move towards a technology savvy city, this may even potentially go to job, I think is a point

That is well taken.

Is there no compromise from my other four counselors?

Is there?

And I will say that, you know, I will go along with this legislative agenda, whether this is in here or not, because I think the agenda itself is valid.

I just think we really needed to flesh this out.

And I would not support this when it came to a vote.

in council, but that's not what we're doing.

Well, I would actually be in favor of it moving forward.

Let's keep it in.

And I do think it's important for us to, in regards to so many individuals have come and complained about the speeding and how this has indeed been a very hot issue.

I very well see, and I

I do see the point of our mayor as well as Ms. Szakos.

I just want to see what happens as it moves forward.

I just want to see what our legislators do with it.

Thank you.

I'd kind of like to do a vote on this.

Well, we had a discussion.

For the record, I'd like to have a vote on this one item.

I think it's important for what's going to happen with the future with this, because if it's granted when it comes back to us.

Mr. Mayor, would it be a vote or a poll?

And, Mayor, soon if I may say something else.

Sure, of course.

There was no reason to have our police chief spend time on investigating the pros and cons of cameras from their perspective without this even being in the pipeline for the legislative packet.

If and when we get the permission to do that from the legislative body in Richmond, then I would want our police department, our police chief, and whoever is going to be touching, even maybe neighborhood associations, getting input on this definitely in a very robust way.

Again, I am in support of getting this just as a possible tool, but it doesn't say that it doesn't need more vetting.

I agree with Councillor Galvin and the staff would be charged with looking at different ways to address some of the concerns that have been raised tonight and will be raised in the future once we receive authority to move forward.

Because you could picture, it sounds like, the three of you who support this, even though you're not absolutely sure you would vote for such a thing, you could picture a situation in which you would.

Whereas I can't.

Right.

All right, so we're not going to pull it out separately.

The minutes will reflect the three to two poll on this, and we can communicate that to the legislators so that they know.

But as a matter of whole, we will vote on the package as a whole.

OK, is there a second?

Second.

Any further questions, discussion?

OK, all in favor?

I just want to thank Mr. Blount and Ms. Robertson, excellent work.

And we now will take a five minute break before we get on to items seven and eight in our agenda.

I don't know what you're thinking.

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I'm going to make the same thing no matter how many people come.

So, as part of the presentation, can we get the process of... Don't make any predictions.

Okay, we're going back to item number seven in our agenda.

We've got 20 minutes allocated to this.

Is this your first presentation to Council?

Second.

I remember to talk louder at this time.

The microphone won't raise the volume.

Thank you for having me on the agenda this evening.

I am here to present the HAC's recommendations from the RCL Co housing study.

There are 35 recommendations that the HAC have put forward.

I am not going to read all 35 of those tonight.

You're welcome.

I will, however, sort of summarize as I go along, pull a few out.

I have to say that the HAC did not order their, they did not prioritize really their recommendations any more than short, mid, and long-term actions.

And then we further broke it down into actions that can be done already with, not already, let me rephrase that, that can be done through amendments to the current zoning code.

Things that staff can do and implement already that may require some research on our end.

Actions that definitely require your approval to implement and then things that need to go to the state legislature for enabling legislation, which you mentioned to those this evening already.

So I will start with the short-term recommendations.

And most of those were actually related to the city's zoning ordinance.

And a couple of the changes that the HAC has recommended being done to the zoning codes are offering density bonuses for developers in exchange for providing affordable housing.

allowing by right density increases for affordable units and the use of an affordable housing overlay district.

Some of the actions that staff can take that they recommend doing is increasing public outreach and education about the city's current affordable housing programs.

This would help ensure that the money that is used through the CAF Fund and through other programs here in the city actually get filtered to the correct people that need the most help

and ensure that we use the money efficiently.

And I wore the wrong glasses.

I'll just hold my hands out longer, a lot farther.

Some other short-term recommendations that they have put forth are increasing the annual contribution to the affordable housing fund.

I have to say I support that one too.

Adding workforce housing or moderate income as a separate housing income category under housing policy one.

I agree with that.

I have not come up with a better term for that yet.

Another short term recommendation is implementing an employer assisted housing program to help assist lower income and moderate income employees that work for the city to purchase homes within the city.

Some midterm recommendations.

These cover a variety of developer incentives to encourage the construction of affordable units in the city.

Some of the recommendations include increasing the minimum residential building densities in mixed-use districts and the provision of extra floor area ratio for on-site affordable housing units.

The HAC also recommends the city implement an affordable or workforce housing program similar to Montgomery County's

Moderately priced dwelling unit program or MPDU.

That's a program that actually provides, it requires developers building developments of 20 units or more that they put aside 12.5 to 15% of those units for moderately priced and moderate and low income families.

They also require that 40% of those units that are built are offered for

to the city or the county or a nonprofit agency that would then offer those units for rent or for sale to low income and moderate income households.

That falls under the inclusionary zoning category, so that would definitely need enabling legislation to make happen here in the city.

Some of the other recommendations.

One that was put forward in the RCLCO report is the use of public funds for streetscape and infrastructure improvements in distressed or reinvestment areas.

And Councillor Galvin, you had sent an email to me about that this morning.

The HAC actually supported that recommendation, but they wanted to ensure that affordable units were included in that.

don't invest it.

Right, and actually in the report itself, RCLCo had simply stated investing

in Streetscape and infrastructure improvements in distressed neighborhoods.

They did not tie that to affordable housing.

No, you're correct.

That was something that they, a condition that they would like to see included with that.

And then for long-term recommendations, the HAC supports the creation of a revolving loan fund through the Affordable Housing Fund or a different funding source.

That would provide gap financing for affordable housing developments within the city.

Additionally, they would like the city to provide funding support to assist the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority to help with their redevelopment of public housing once that starts.

They would also like to see the creation of a transfer of development rights program with the county and tie that to affordable housing development.

They also recommend the city pursue enabling legislation for the implementation of inclusionary zoning policy here in the city and for increasing the affordable dwelling unit program cash in lieu payment from the current $2.205 per square foot gross floor area to $4.41 per square foot.

As I said, I'm not gonna cover all 35 of those and it is late so I even summarized more than I would have, but I'm happy to answer any questions

May I ask a couple of questions that lead to my it's not exactly a recommendation but a thought about a way to deal with the workforce housing issue because I too share your concern about the word workforce housing and when I googled it online about is there a better word than workforce housing there were all these discussions all over in every community about you know how

although it's a well-meaning term it really it's become synonymous for housing for people with moderate income and of course we don't actually limit our workforce to people with moderate income so the people who live in public housing are part of our workforce if they can work and people who live on Park Street are part of our workforce and so it's sort of a euphemism that we've gotten used to it's kind of code for something but it really isn't what it is so one of the question well actually so what I'm

asking if we would consider is the term moderately priced housing and define that for the purposes of our regulations as housing that costs no more than 30% of the income for households earning between 80 and 120% of area median income.

And then when we're talking about subsidies for that or incentives for that, we would just call them subsidies for that or incentives for that rather than a separate thing.

So in that way, we're not characterizing the people who live there so much as we're characterizing the housing itself as moderately priced housing.

So if I may ask then, the definition is the same.

No more than 30% of the income going to housing for AMIs of 80 to 120.

And that's how you define moderate.

So but it's just called moderately priced housing instead of workforce housing.

It's in our current comp plan, workforce housing is defined as what we just said.

And I'd like to replace it everywhere it appears.

So when we do the comp plan update, that would have to be noted.

I have a couple questions and a couple framing thoughts.

We are going to try and figure out here how to go forward as a body with this next step.

So we put this on the second meeting of the month because this is a working meeting.

This is where we have work sessions.

This is set up as a fairly short one, but we could, this is intended for us to be able to chew this over and have discussion about it.

So along those lines, I just have a couple.

So we're going to discuss what to do next with this.

With another work session with the Planning Commission, where does this go?

How does this go in sync up with the budget season that we're entering into?

I'm really glad to get this.

I've been, we started talking about this summer, wanting this affordable housing fund to be more strategic and proactive and focused, as opposed to being

We want to achieve these things it's a matter of

of us doing it rather than a partner initiating it and us saying, okay, yes, that request.

That said, the constraint on a lot of proactive work is our staff.

So to me, and also I see two constraints, staff and actual goals.

So council would say we want to achieve, that's like the best evidence-based policymaking is where you say we want to achieve that.

That's a number, that's a goal, that's an outcome, and then we can measure in a year or two years whether we got there.

So, yeah, but on each of these things.

Like, for instance, how much, so if we waive development fees for developments reserving at least 10% of residential units at affordable, what is the practical, what in a year, two years, three years, do we think that will get us?

15% affordable.

No, no, I mean specifically.

See, that's just notion.

That's a discussion that we need to have.

That's an aspiration.

I'm talking about within known practices.

And then secondly, what can we actually administer with you

and with other staff that we have because that's a real constraint we have in all these other agencies and departments.

So I would like to get this to

If we could translate this into something, it would be how do we focus primarily on the supply and demand problem, so on more units, which is the goal.

So there are some goals in here that are about improvement of units, and that is a wonderful, very laudable goal, but it's hard to do all these things at once with very limited, it's very hard to do it proactively.

So if we were to, it doesn't, you know, what I see in here, the danger is that we try to do 18 things and we don't do many of them well.

And that's where we end up in 24 months or something like that.

So to me, the best outcome would be we come out of this process with, you know, a discrete number of goals that we, you could do proactively and could say, we want to use this money toward

and we know the likely outcomes of those.

We at least know the hope for specific and it's not just the 15% bucket for all of them.

And then we're being intentional and then I could see increasing money toward it.

Right now it doesn't make any sense to me to say let's just put more money to it and we've got 18 things that we're gonna do but we're not sure if we can do any of them that well and we don't actually know the specific outcome of any of them.

So I would like to go from this to that in short order.

a prioritization of this list with the idea that the idea of being a supply, increasing the supply.

We've got, you know, how do we, May I ask too, that that's also something that you, you have to set what you want to do and then you see what the resources you need.

and then as opposed to starting from the bottom up.

I mean because there could be a way to think about partnering with staff at PHA.

The Housing Authority can be doing some of this.

I don't want to limit ourselves because of our own staffing limitations.

I do think we need to have a real clear vision and roadmap of what is the best approach for the city as opposed to just looking at what we can only get done given that we have one person as a housing specialist.

I mean some of this stuff

You know, clearly it's like housing authority stuff could be monitoring some of the stuff if they were robust.

So would there be a way?

I don't mean that.

Let me, it's sort of peripheral to what you're saying in a way.

Let me back up because a lot of people are watching this across the city.

So the HAC, the Housing Advisory Council, how many people are on the HAC, H-A-C committee?

I'm sorry.

15, Charlottesville citizens, and there was some mention, I think I caught city and county, is it all city who get this service?

Okay.

And unless I missed it, I didn't see any kind of

build up this report on what was good.

I was looking for what are we doing well and how do we build on that and then maybe have some suggestions coming from that.

And I think that would that would echo back on how many people we have available to do this work.

Are we good at some things and not good at others or whatever.

Now did I miss anything in this

This point on the future, okay.

It would just help me if I knew what we did well, what we don't do well, and that would guide I think some of the future actions.

And one thing that did come up we talk about

Do we put our resources in renovating or new housing stock?

I'd really like to discuss that.

There are situations where people come to me and say, you know, I was charged $45,000 for a $22,000 job.

I'd like to be able to explain to them.

I'm in the business.

I know some of what happened.

So those are just my comments.

One thing just on the MPO.

a lot of what they do is this kind of three-dimensional looking at projects and seeing what's possible and what's fundable and all that kind of stuff and I'll just offer, not even endorsing it so much, it's just one way of looking at what you were trying to get at is that they have a, for the past couple of years we've developed a sort of metric that looks at cost, feasibility and impact and so you get points for costs and points for feasibility and points for impact and so they can

You know, something could cost a whole lot and have a whole lot of impact, it might be worth it.

But if it costs, you know, very little and has no impact at all, it might not be worth it.

And so it just helps to kind of score things that are scorable.

I mean, that idea of a scorecard is also in our own streets that work policy.

There's a criteria of five items that everything gets measured against.

So maybe what

That might be a good charge for the hack.

What are the three to five metrics that are going to tell us we're doing a good job here?

If we did a work session coming up and we invited maybe a part of it, we were talking about having a planning commission possibly for those parts of it.

I mean, we could see an agenda where we kind of knock out the parts of this that touch on zoning and planning commission.

And then the hack, we could sit with them, and we could have a lot of prep work that went before it.

And we could say, I mean, I think this sounds like a great thing.

You did a lot of research into these, and that they might be able to answer some of those things.

options here that would get us closest to our goal within three years, five years, whatever we're looking at.

And again, as we've talked too, that almost half of these recommendations relate to zoning

and that has to be under the purview of the Planning Commission.

So they've got to get a bite at this apple and then after that we get a work session with the Planning Commission and the HAC and the Council to review

almost just the zoning elements alone but the Planning Commission is also involved with the capital budget so they should also weigh in on this question of how much money do you put into the housing fund in addition to what currently goes in there now so and it could affect all policy how every small area plan could have a percentage of affordable housing that needs to be included in it

I mean, in brass tacks, there are some parts of this which are policy changes that wouldn't cost us any money and we wouldn't be required to spend staff time or real dollars proactively doing them.

There are some of those.

And I kind of wonder,

Those are broken out here because in short, I mean first of all they have short term, middle term and long term but then they also break it down into

zoning ordinance amendment or action.

So that's something that would definitely go to the Planning Commission.

But the other is staff action, things that under our current policy staff could do, and then council action, things that we could do.

And I would really like to look at the things in those two categories that we could do kind of

There are some obvious things we could start with so yeah Breaking it apart from the zoning take the zoning out put that on a different track and there's the thing is I'm a little I Really appreciate the breaking it down But I'm a little confused about so City Council action prioritize sale lease of public property for purpose of affordable housing development

That would be heavy staff work.

That's on mid term.

See I would rather, I'd rather make, like if we're setting in motion a whole

I think these should be brought together because we're looking, we don't want to come back and redo this in six months and go to the midterm.

Yeah, it could be, definitely.

But things like increasing public outreach and communication regarding existing affordable housing programs, there's no reason, and I'm assuming that you're probably already doing it, that we can't just do that now.

Well, there is value.

So rich over there, rich discussion.

Well, how about on this side, Wes?

My bad, man.

Make it rich.

We are the A students in our class, OK?