City Council Budget Work Session - Capital Improvement Program   3/26/2026

Well, I mean, anything popular, but...

All I know is I came out, just made a lap front window looking out.

Good strategies.

First off, they rolled down the street or something.

That happened to my poor mom.

So they'd have to drive the bikes back and redistribute.

Oh, they do have video?

Here there's probably a hospital.

And it technically means that when I think of a kid house here, it works there as well, or we somehow manage to become a person there.

It's a bit of a ride, but yeah.

So that was kind of the thing we have.

You're talking about the average of that.

No, I'm talking about because we've got to change the board so everything to reflect the changes.

So they sent us that class list.

So I'm going to get that too.

And when would we have to scoot for us?

and we might...

So anyway, it was a cool conversation.

You just have to sit down there.

She said that's a drawing course.

Well, I'm thinking that May 15th is the last time for that printer.

That's what I'm looking at.

I can tell you that day.

Okay, you're asking.

We're going to have to spend our resources going if we need to go forward with the script.

Yeah.

The house, the private provisions want us to go all the way home, but they can't, so there's no part of it right there.

We're going to have this place where we have something about super strict real events,

It is interesting.

So I mean it really is.

I think it has two or three free rides a day and a good amount of people are really doing it and you have two that are promoting and they have those same products

That's great.

I think it's in his white paper.

I called the Charlottesville City Council special work meeting

And Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Councilor Payne?

Here.

Councilor Snook?

Thank you.

I was not connected to units, but I'm coming.

I'll turn it over to Ms. Hammel, walk you through the CIP.

Thank you.

So this is the one for schools.

What had it been?

$750 a year.

Sorry about that, Siri.

that had not been in the plan previously but is for one hour stand long overdue and so that's been programmed here.

Have we done an analysis about what we need and that's reflected here or is this kind of socking it away knowing projects are going to come up?

Do you ever want to speak to that part?

But I think that's a number that'll get us closer to what we actually need to keep things running.

And that's not schools, that's just city buildings.

Yeah.

But on the previous slide was the school one.

We spent a lot of time talking about those plans and right now we're putting in the half a million a year to try to address some of the more immediate things as there's further discussions that need to happen with council in terms of next steps on that.

This is just to indicate what we're going to attempt to do right now.

What does that mean?

They've used it for various things over the years, but it's basically just a small amount of money to allow them to do

they too probably would say that they could spend more if we gave them more because the maintenance issue came out as a very high priority in the Parks Master Plan that a lot of what the study produced was we should invest a lot more in what we have and then begin to invest in taking it somewhere else.

It's ordinary recurring maintenance expenses being regarded as capital.

It's more like replacement of benches or signs or, you know, they've used it for some trail work or just a couple of things that come up to the top of mind.

But there was a notion that there was a threshold that it had to be more expensive than that to qualify as a capital expense.

It's not really, it is more infrastructure related than maintenance related.

So in that whole capital refresh, that's where it also gets to a capital eligibility.

Is that something that is a bondable expense?

Yeah.

So there's a definitional reason to call it one versus the other.

But we can provide you with some more specifics to give you some better comfort of actually what they're using this money for.

I don't want to suggest that I am uncomfortable.

No, no, no, I'm sorry.

I'm just puzzled.

And we'll get you some better details.

That happens way more often than any of us appreciate.

We'll get you some info.

They also have garden plots and pools.

Is that from the four point something million that we've seen for the downtown maltrees, those are two different trees?

are the two, I think.

So is it a joint account, like we've contributed X, they've contributed that?

And who spends that money?

The county and then they bill us.

What's different about these?

for that is about really over time renewing and replacing the trees up and down the whole wall.

is there something in particular planned for FY28?

So it's a big project for each one of those.

thought that we'll do one of those in FY27 and three of them in FY28 or something.

I think that's the one in Central, yeah.

He's in a better position.

So that is, we are just talking about phase one.

Sorry, I forgot you were online.

What is our approach going to be towards working to that point?

or canopies at areas like splash pads at certain parks that people have been asking for, so small impacts before we get to the big ticket items.

I'm just trying to think through what 70 plus million, like how, what would it look like to actually do that?

You're muted.

But we are looking at different stages of how do we meet the goals of the community.

Thank you.

And the Carleton Mobile Home Park, the loan has been finalized, which allowed us to reduce the amount that we had in the budget last year for those annual payments, but noting that there is a balloon payment in 2030 for that.

So I just decided to give ourselves another year before we have to make a decision on taking it out.

At least it might end up being family shelter or something like that.

Right.

Where does that

In CSRAP, that is

End of fiscal year?

I think as you know we also have staff shortage there that we need to refill positions so that we can get back on schedule with that.

Just depends on what that update is.

Yeah.

Any questions on expenditures?

So in the transportation line item, and I probably asked this before, but just to clarify, what counts as bicycle infrastructure in that line item?

Yeah, do we have anyone who can speak to that directly?

My memory says that includes bike racks and that's the primary thing I can think of that we've used or have used that funds for.

And so I think it's been used for various things.

So if we were to have a project that was like adding a curb to a street to make a protected bike lane, where would that money come from?

It could potentially come from there, yeah.

Okay, and it's not a huge number, which leads to why we don't have plans to do that just yet.

Because if we're adding a curb, we're changing on the street, we're potentially changing how the water flows, and so now you've got a bunch of downstream impacts.

Where does that live?

And then building out a line where we would pay for those improvements.

Okay, and what's the timeline on putting something like that together?

Evan, I know there's something you've been looking into, right?

So that's also going to play into the timeline for implementation and hardening of those features.

the tiering system, the community engagement activities happen and we have that list and it's ready to go before next budget cycle, would it come as a CIP request and like- It depends on how much it adds up as.

But I have done it in the past.

Yes.

Chambers last came before you, was that he has what he needs for right now, but he would be working on a different plan, like the sidewalks.

And so this is why we're not?

Putting anything in.

Okay.

And more likely he had that knowing then that is already spent in his head.

Sure.

I'm sure he even has spreadsheets somewhere.

But what can we do to fast track?

So I'm bringing it up.

Consider it rotten.

You had a reaction to that.

Don't bring it on until you know years old, but we can watch it later.

Not tuck it away so that I'll have it available to me to pull out and do something that's not discipline behavior and this is really supposed to be about discipline management so that we can use as much of the available resources to do as many things as we possibly can for any given year.

Okay, great.

Thanks.

Which we've talked about from time to time, but it currently isn't appearing here.

It's in the CAT budget.

And the county is paying for some as well.

I need to see that.

It was a proper bus stop audit.

Any kind of right-of-way access.

Want to make sure somebody's doing something about it.

Ms. Carey made that a thing.

Anything else on expenditures for removal in any of the categories?

Historic District and Entrance Corridor design guidelines going on.

And so they are due for an update relative to those needs.

And what we did there was it was 75,000 I think in 27 and 29 and we just moved it all up so that work could begin on that.

And then the initiatives ended

Plus, it becomes a part of that reconciliation conversation as well.

The small area plans, is that a similar situation with some of these other items where the amount for implementation is basically 200,000 a year because we don't yet know?

But it's a lump sum that is meant to be used to fund those studies.

It seems like except for the one bridge project, we just haven't really spent money implementing small area plans to this point.

What are the things we can concretely do within that time frame and have a funding source in which to immediately move on them?

So we're doing a little bit of socking it away without knowing what it's going to be for.

We are doing a little bit of socking away without knowing, yeah.

and that's when James requested the combining of small area plans and that fund so it wasn't just for that area specifically it was for all plans that we have on the books.

It's being spent, and I know there's new small airplanes underway, but even our existing ones, I mean, there's low-hanging fruit items about traffic calming measures and

So we've been trying to pivot those conversations to let's identify projects so that we can plan to get this work done and let's spend it because the threat that I've made was and I'll take away the annual allocation if we're going to let it sit and go because there are other things that we can use that money for.

Makes sense.

Do we only have Cherry Avenue as something to implement at this point, or do we consider the Starr Hill to be a small area plan, or do we consider that to be this separate vision plan?

So that's, so the extent that I can remember, that's the whole list.

The city was about to make a final decision on years ago and then there was turnover and all kind of things, but basically the answer to that question will determine, I think, is this actionable or not?

Right.

We just haven't had the capacity to get to it yet.

But for the future, there will remain a giant city-owned parcel primarily used for parking vehicles that aren't in use.

And procurement is there, yes.

We get your point.

Including Snowblower and all that.

On that same page, for traffic signal infrastructure replacement.

I talked about that.

What goes into that?

But right now we are just focusing on FY 27-28 intersections to make sure that those traffic signals are, without a doubt, they need to be replaced and they would remain a signalized intersection in the future.

Great.

I do want to make sure that we are reviewing that and make sure that they're all needed.

Thank you.

So if it's three of the four are a green arrow and the fourth one is an open green, and there's a need to change that to an arrow from a green, would that happen at that audit or review?

It's something that I'll have to bring up with the engineering team.

So that would qualify as more of an engineering.

One, we don't want them.

in five very short years.

And so- Is there an inflation adjustment built into that or is it just today's dollars?

This is based on what our actual debt, I'm gonna show you what's behind these in just a second, but it's based on what we anticipate our actual debt service will be.

Sorry, I was thinking about the 3% transfer.

The story is basically the same, but the takeaway is that the debt service is something that we have to manage, but it is also something we have to budget and pay for as we continue to issue the debt.

What does it mean for us as we look at new projects or not looking at new projects?

And what questions do you have?

I knew enough about this because this question came up so I sounded like I remember that chart and I was talking about impressed with the management so thank you.

Because that's just obviously going to have a huge influence on the level of debt we can issue.

So it's, you know, to your benefit to look at this more conservatively for when we're planning, but also there's a balance to not be too conservative.

Absolutely.

You just don't want to overshoot that thing.

Should that be reflected in some way in this budget?

So I think it's a policy issue, but I'll back up and let anyone else speak.

If our zoning code had just kind of been going like gangbusters now, like you want it to be with this blitz concept and it's just churning out project after project and we could start truly anticipating what each year might feel like, I'd be all for let's start plugging more of that in because it's more anticipated what we could rely on.

Sure.

I can take that as a, if that's a request for us to plan a work session around that, then we can, we can do that.

I think we ought to have some organized discussion as a matter.

Yeah, I mean, I think landing at clarity on the question.

So anything else on the CIP before we move to that?

No, I mean, that's you or James.

But I think, you know, we have continued to manage those well.

Yeah.

It's that money back slide.

The constant reminders, you know, that's what it is.

Any additional questions on this?

Where are the areas they submitted any requests for funding?

So it ended there.

And that conversation with UVA has not happened yet?

I don't know how they took that message, but no one has reached out indicating that they would like to have any conversation.

That's his job.

Are you talking about for the referendum?

So we've done preliminary work.

Not what we do to get the message out to the public to support this.

So yes, we would, we know that we would need to be able to produce that.

I had said that the last time I mentioned it, that we should have such a plan in mind by May 1st, but given that the General Assembly won't even have a decision on anything until at least April 23rd in the earliest, maybe June 1st is the timeframe.

Yeah, I think the preliminary work that's been done, we all, I think we all would nod that we feel good about what we saw in that work, that assessment work, that we could frame, here are a series of initial projects that we would like to see getting done, and we would put that in front of school board and superintendent, and I'm sure they would concur very easily on a number of them, and that probably would be the initial package that we would put out there.

So it's not just city staff.

I mean, the ongoing CIP work that we're already doing is going to help us identify things that could be done as well.

As representatives from Mike and his team and the school's department, looking at what the needs are and developing a, I forget what, 20 year?

I was thinking 10th, but you know, it can be 20 because there's plenty.

There's plenty to do.

Well, the 1% is only for a certain number of years.

So the last version did not have a sunset.

Really?

What the 1% does is potentially accelerate that timeframe.

Now is how we pay for it.

Okay, the CDE, is that on?

And then I think formal recommendations will be coming to council in May.

And that's it.

That's all we have.

If y'all aren't interested in talking about anything else.

Because we only have one work session left.

Or anything that can help give them guidance for more information we need to help make that decision.

So you mean like if we pass an increase or support that, it may be more difficult to get the one sent for the school?

so if there were other like magic tricks we wanted to look at or if there were other suggestions on that one cent thing.

I think the one cent, we mapped out the math for the one cent thing and it made sense.

And then the difference would be?

Yes.

Yeah.

So we wouldn't need in that, if we do the one cent, we would need to contribute the citywide reserve and

to pull from the Citywide Reserve and the Council of Strategic Initiatives or pull more from the Citywide Reserve and not touch the strategic initiatives if you all are planning to use more for known things.

There's room now to do this plan.

$31,000 because the revenue adjustment is a million five and that gives you the bulk.

And one, do we have the space to extend our deadline by any amount this year to as best we can try to know the outcome and certainly for next year to not have us be in the situation where we're making a decision without full information that is at the scale of a tax increase or not.

Is that a question that you have?

Yes, both for next year and also is there any ability to do it this year?

unless we decide we're not going to raise real estate, or unless we decide on a fixed real estate tax number, which is, I mean, trying to avoid that is kind of the purpose of your inquiry, I think.

So I think all in all, by the time we finish it, it buys you about two weeks time on waiting on the state.

Next year making the adjustments, it could be longer than that.

I don't know if we have time to change that for this year, but we could for next year.

It's not merely a question of an ordinance and charter.

and our code section that says that the council shall approve the annual budget and shall make such city levy prior to April 15th of each year.

It was 1976, you're close, when that went into effect.

That can be, y'all know me, I love nothing more than amending an ordinance, so that's completely possible, but as you said, there are practical implications that go along with this that's more in the treasurer's magisterium.

We close the fiscal year.

And it would have to go from a 45 day accrual to a 60 day accrual.

So I think everything was good.

So it doesn't affect the, like right now, if things are due June 5th and we have three-ish weeks before the new fiscal year, if we get everything June 20th, is that enough turnaround time to get the new fiscal year ready or

All in all, I think we came down to advise you about two weeks of extra time.

But that being this budget year, it could be more time beyond that next year.

So I don't, I think whatever we land on would be whatever it is going forward.

Fair.

In this case, it's a difference of about six weeks on the budget minimum.

So, Sam, do you want to know tonight like what?

And your decisions in regards to any allocations from the council strategic initiatives fund for VCF candidates or anything else that you want to do.

What is the best way to deliver that information to make it easy for you to process and build?

Do we have to have that?

That's kind of how we've gotten around that.

So we can have a slide ready for you on Thursday.

And we would want to be able to have that back and forth with you.

Well, I mean, in all defense.

Could we change it, the title, to council reserve fund?

I don't know if that was a coding or... We called it something else before we started calling it that.

It's been, it gets... Yeah, we can change it.

That's kind of why we leave it unplanned in case there's something, but we aren't looking for real surprises either because we only have a week after that.

So I'll wait for that.

We always do an after action, so we will happen to take that and plan that.

probably by end of day tomorrow, by Monday, for sure.

That's good, because we can do our work in our budget team meeting in preparation for Thursday.

Freeze's recommendation for a public arts commission.

If there's anything else like that, that we might need to prepare some discussion points or something like that, we need to know.

Keep it in mind if we can't fit it in this year, what can we do to make sure that we have staffing for next year?

Now we're working with our financial advisor to backfill some analysis perspectives as well and helping us kind of assess where we are.

So it looks like we're going to be meeting next Thursday.

Yep, does sound like you're going to be meeting next Thursday.

And as usual, spend quality time with VCS.

Over $500 million less in education funding.

I think it's not, I think it is school staff that would have to do that for us, but whichever stuff it is.

At least we can solve them and I can get to work on them.

We'll need to do somebody on the school board who might be able to put in a word on this.

Those were potentially things others were interested in.

Can you explain it again?

engaged folks in all levels of government and how we operate because they get so embarrassed and involved with the decision making.

But I don't know if this approach has a way of preventing that.

I never thought of that kind of thing.

We still have the framework from when we did it before, and we did get as far as having some projects, but you're right, it didn't go further than that.

But yeah.

What other, what's our last piece of homework that we need to give to you?

Anything else?

Okay, got it.

I want to make sure you have anything you want to say.

And like I said, I'll see you next week.

Thank you all so much.