City Council   10/1/2018

That's from one of the speakers.

All right, good evening.

I called this meeting to order.

Dr. Bellamy.

Mr. Signer.

Here.

Here.

This is requested announcement for the voter registration office.

Voters who need to register to vote or update their address before the next election have only until October 15th to do so.

A voter registered in his or her current address does not need to re-register.

Voters may look up and update their registration online at vote.virginia.gov or apply online to register.

New Virginia voters who did not have a Virginia driver's license or DMV ID will be prompted to print, sign, and mail the online application.

so that it is postmarked by October 15th.

Registration is available in person in the voter's registration office, registrar's office, excuse me, during business hours, normally 830 AM to 430 PM, Monday through Friday.

And applications are available in the city hall lobby and local libraries.

In person absentee voting is underway through November 4th for city voters in the city voter registration office in the city hall annex next door to city hall.

Curbside voting is available in the car for absentee voters who are disabled or who are age 65 or older and have other qualifying absentee reason.

Call the office for more information.

Voters must show a photo ID when voting in person, just as on election day.

Voters who do not have an acceptable ID may apply for a free photo ID for voting during office hours in the registrar's office.

The deadline to apply for a mailed absentee ballot is October 30th, but that may be too late to receive and return your voted ballot by mail.

If you need to be mailed an absentee ballot, apply online now at vote.virginia.gov.

Please call the voter registration office at 434-970-3250.

Mayor Walker, I would just like to request that we offer a moment of silence for the young man Quinn Brooks who lost his life this morning in a car accident.

He was 20 years old.

Could we have a moment of silence for him please?

Thank you.

Yes, Mayor Walker, I have, I actually have two.

The first one comes from our Office of Economic Development and

The City of Charlottesville has been invited to attend the National League of Cities Roundtable on municipal efforts to support parent employment in Washington, D.C.

Earlier this year, the National League of Cities conducted a survey of local governments and their workforce development strategies, and in particular, those demonstrating a strong dedication to programs focused on employment for parents.

As a result of this survey, the city of Shostel was selected to attend the roundtable on municipal efforts to support parent employment.

This peer learning environment will provide an opportunity for the city to shield workforce development best practices as well as learn from others.

The City of Charlottesville was especially chosen as a best practice due to the continuum of workforce services that it offers.

This includes the work of the Downtown Jobs Center, which is the first point of entry for city residents seeking employment, the Growing Opportunities Training Programs, known as the GO programs, which provide pre-employment training using the jobs-driven workforce development model, and wraparound supportive services that assist with employment barriers such as transportation, child care, and rental assistance.

The other cities invited are Jackson, Mississippi, Chattanooga, Tennessee, Las Vegas, Nevada, Walla Walla, Washington, and Grand Rapids.

So anybody interested in more information about this, please call Holly Lee at the Office of Economic Development on 970-3117.

And I guess I got this because.

So I guess I got this because I'm on the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority Board.

But anyway, imagine a day without water, whereas water is essential to everything in life.

Whereas we need water to make a cup of coffee, fight fires, swim on a hot summer day.

keep ourselves hydrated, shower and bathe.

Whereas most sectors of our economy rely on water and without it the economy would grind to a halt.

Whereas while nature provides water it takes pipes, pumps, treatment plants, people working 24-7 to deliver safe, clean water to our homes and businesses and then remove and treat that waste water so it can be safely returned to the environment.

Whereas water infrastructure is largely invisible because it is out of sight and out of mind to most people and needs our attention.

And whereas investing in our drinking water systems will secure a bright and prosperous future for generations to come.

And whereas the staffs of the City of Charlottesville, Ammon County Service Authority, and Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority have joined to work together to locally promote Imagine a Day Without Water with each of the three governing boards adopting this resolution.

Now therefore be it resolved that the City Council of Charlottesville, Virginia hereby proclaims October 10 as Imagine a Day Without Water Day to help Charlottesville residents and Charlottesville water utility customers recognize the value of safe, clean water to our community.

Okay.

I have a proclamation and before this proclamation I also want to send some love to all of the breast cancers and cancer survivors as we know we'll be celebrating all month so much love to everyone celebrating and all of the survivors for getting cancer.

That's the PG version.

So we have a proclamation for Miss Maybell

Yeah, if we could maybe present it to her after.

So I have a proclamation, domestic violence awareness.

Whereas the problems of domestic violence are not confined to any group or groups of people but across all economic, racial, and societal burials and supported by societal indifference.

And whereas the crime of domestic violence violates an individual privacy, dignity, security, and humanity due to the systematic uses of physical, emotional, sexual, psychological, and economic control and or abuse.

with the impact of this crime being wide ranging and whereas no one person, organization, agency or community can eliminate domestic violence on their own, we must work together to educate our entire population about what can be done to prevent such violence, support victims and survivors and their families and increase support for agencies providing services to those community members and

whereas the shelter for help and emergency has led the way in the city of Charlottesville in addressing domestic violence by providing 24 hour hotline services to victims, survivors and their families, offering support and information and empowering survivors to chart their own course for healing.

and whereas the shelter for health and emergency commemorates its 39th year of providing unparalleled services to women, children and men who've been victimized by domestic violence.

Now therefore be it resolved in recognition of the important work being done by the shelter for health and emergencies that I, Nikuyah Walker of the city of Charlottesville do hereby proclaim the month of October 2018 as domestic violence awareness month and urge all citizens to actively participate

and the scheduled activities and programs sponsored by the Shelter for Health and Emergencies and to work towards the elimination of personal and institutional violence against women, children and men.

Is there someone here to accept this proclamation?

OK. All right, so we're going to come back to the last proclamation, and we're going to move on to the consent agenda.

I'm sorry.

This evening, the following individuals have been appointed to our boards and commissions.

The Human Rights Commission, Olivia Patton,

Thank you.

Ms. Hill, may I add one thing really quickly?

Just for everyone's information, we are still looking for applicants for the Charlottesville Albemarle Regional Jail Board.

Those applications can be found online.

There's one app, or excuse me, there's one opening available right now for a city rep, so please apply.

Again, you can find that online with the website, with the boards and commissions.

Thank you.

I move that those that we have identified be appointed.

Second.

All in favor?

Thank you.

It carries 5 to 0.

All right.

Sure, come on up.

My name is Louis Schultz.

I live at 1809 East Market Street.

Tonight, council is likely to make city spokesman Brian Wheeler acting clerk of council, and I have some grave reservations about that possibility.

Page Rice's resignation is an opportunity for council to make another long-needed move towards transparency and accountability.

I don't think that will happen with Mr. Wheeler in that role, and I fear his temporary promotion may become permanent.

Virginia's Freedom of Information Act requires counsel to inform the public of its meetings and to keep accurate records of its proceedings that are readily accessible to the public through its clerk.

For years, counsel has frequently met in secret, often with no notice at all to the general public.

Lack of online records has made it impossible to know when special meetings have taken place or what was discussed at them.

Since 1972, the city's charter has required that at every regular meeting, the minutes of the previous regular meeting, and all intervening meetings be read, approved, and signed by the presiding officer.

As far as I know, that never happened with Ms. Rice's clerk until the meeting after she offered her resignation.

On September 17th, the minutes of 13 council meetings dating back to mid-July were approved.

That only came after I pressed the issue for months and spoke at two council meetings on the subject.

Most of the minutes which were approved are still not available online more than two weeks later.

An untold number still remains completely secret.

It took me a month of repeated requests to get Page Rice and Brian Wheeler

to release minutes of council's July 18th, 20th and 24th special meetings and it's no wonder.

They document numerous violations of the Freedom of Information Act.

Long before there was a policy to allow it, council members phoned into those meetings and voted illegally.

As city spokesman, Brian Wheeler has acted like a minister of propaganda rather than a source of information to citizens.

Once it was clear that I might uncover what had happened with the remote meetings, Mr. Wheeler approached me at the August 6th council meeting to tell me that Heather Hill had phoned in to listen to the July 31st meeting.

While that was true and legal, Wheeler's purpose was evident from the fact that he didn't say anything about the meetings on July 18th, 20th and 24th when he certainly knew that at every one of them, counselors had voted illegally.

Wheeler has never offered any explanation of why Maurice Jones has had $80,000 in zero interest loans forgiven by the city when his contract didn't authorize that.

He has never explained why Jones received any severance at all since Jones disqualified himself from that by abandoning his contract in July when it doesn't expire until December.

In fact, when Rob Shilling first asked Mr. Wheeler about Maurice Jones' severance package, Wheeler refused to provide that information even though Virginia law required it to be disclosed before Jones left.

Thanks again to Rob Shilling, we've had another shocking revelation today.

Retired former police chief Al Thomas is still on the city's payroll making $134,000 a year until July of next year.

Yet again, Brian Wheeler is refusing to release Thomas's contract and citing the same bogus privacy excuse that was tried with Mike Murphy's contract before it was finally released.

I say enough.

Council needs to stop with his secrecy, stop taking my tax money to pay someone to lie to me, and purge this city of anyone who doesn't believe in transparency.

So thank you.

Mr. Wheeler, can you remember the time?

So Mr. Schultz, thank you for coming out.

Mr. Wheeler does not intend to apply for the clerk position.

Staff, there were a couple staff members who have been

willing to be very helpful during this time of transition that we are going through and he's one of them so he's not intending to apply for the position.

We have our Mr. Blair working on the minutes and making sure that council is making sure the minutes are attached to, I mean are online.

and properly updated and that we are adopting them at the beginning of every meeting starting the next meeting so hopefully that addresses some of the concerns that you have.

Mr. Jones's contract did call, in fact, for a repayment of the balance of that loan if the contract was terminated.

The council did on July 2nd.

There was a resolution that, in fact, approved an alternative arrangement for Mr. Jones's exit from the city.

We're being lied to and I'm not going to take that.

Mr. Jones got a payoff that he is not entitled to.

So the update that you received from legal

is all the information that we have at this moment.

What did you vote for on July 2nd, I believe it was?

That's not at all what I voted for.

Are you asking me a question or are you telling me what I decided?

Yeah, we're being lied to.

We're being lied to.

Item A minutes for the September 17th, 2018 council meeting.

Item B, an appropriation of VML Insurance Programs Grant of $2,000, second of two readings.

Item C, an appropriation of the 2017 Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant, $25,033, second of two readings.

Item D, an appropriation

Victim Witness Assistance Program Grant for $257,024, second of two readings.

Item E in appropriation, FY 2019 Transit Grant Funds in the amount of $707,657.64, second of two readings.

Item F, appropriation.

The Virginia Housing Solutions Program Grant Award in the amount of $484,785, second of two readings.

Item G in appropriation, VDOT Primary Extension Paving Project funds in the amount of $31,441, first of two readings.

Item H, appropriation, insurance reimbursement for fire truck settlement in the amount of $89,369.91, first of two readings.

Item I, resolution, transfer of funds for citywide sign and street survey in the amount of $142,500, first of one reading.

Item J, a resolution.

CIP transfer from fueling station projects for fleet shop improvements, $380,000, first of one reading.

Item K, a resolution.

Approve the revised role for Charlottesville Area Transit Advisory Board, first of one reading.

Item L, resolution.

Transfer of funds from the SIA fund to the form-based code account in the amount of $40,707, first of one reading.

Item M, a resolution.

Appointment of interim clerk of counsel, first of one reading.

Mayor Walker if I may make one comment on and it's a request but it's related to item K the approved revised role for the Charlottesville area Transit CAT Advisory Board and I would like to request that that adopted resolution be forwarded to the Regional Transit Partnership for review and comment and we're both on that board that was a request made by the chair and I think it's very

Constructive.

So we had our subcommittee meeting last week to come up with the agreement, the county's city agreement.

So you don't want to pull it?

I just wanted to make that request.

And if that's OK, we'll just do that.

But I don't need to pull it.

So I'll make a motion that we adopt the consent agenda as written.

All in favor?

It carries 5 to 0.

Just for clarification, we have a proclamation for Ms. Maybelle Kenny, who is a resident of West Haven, matriarch of the community.

She's not able to make it.

Maybelle,

And Ms. Maybell, we will have it for you on October 15th, okay?

So we'll see you here.

September 17th meeting.

There was a request for follow up with Miss Carmelita Wood of the Fifeville Neighborhood Association regarding some CAT routes.

John Jones from CAT did follow up with her about some rumors that there was going to be some cuts to that neighborhood when in fact we're going to be increasing Route 6 in that neighborhood and making some changes to Route 4.

Ms. Parker pointed out some ongoing issues with some reflectors that need to be added at 8th and Main.

There is a work order in for that.

We haven't had any crews out for striping because it's rained every day, every work day for two weeks.

Tanisha Hudson spoke at the last meeting, made a request for information about tax receipts

prior to urban renewal and present day.

We did contact Ms. Hudson.

There's not really a responsive record to her exact request, but we did indicate an interest in helping her do the research, and we're waiting to hear back.

Mr. Signer asked a question about the monies that were given to the Legal Aid Justice Center.

last year and they wanted to let us know that with those dollars they conducted Know Your Rights trainings focused on how to respond if confronted by ICE at home, work, or in the public.

They held clinics to assist local DACA recipients as they rushed to renew their status in the wake of President Trump's decision to wind down that program.

They helped families fill out power of attorney and make other preparation in case a parent or parents were detained by ICE.

and provided legal support to other organizations and coalitions that serve immigrants including in the formation of a local ICE hotline and through legal analysis and testimony regarding the legal framework for local cooperation with ICE in the ACRJ.

Ms. Galvin asked some questions about the development of a business regarding flash freezing.

You all have seen under separate cover an email about that project, which was underway back in 2014 as a concept.

Eventually, lack of space and the $6 million in startup capital caused folks to consider other options, and that is not currently actively a project.

Ms. Carpenter spoke a bit about our voucher program and based on the information that we've received from CRHA, we're not aware of anybody turning their vouchers back in.

but we are waiting for the quarterly report from them so we should be able to continue to update that.

We can say from the 21 households that we knew of at the time of this report who had used their vouchers successfully

It did take them an average of 55 days to secure a unit.

So there is a stock issue for sure.

I want you all to know that if somebody is not successful using the voucher in the first 90 days in the city, they do have the possibility of an extension for an additional 90 days to broaden their search out.

So we do offer up to six months time should people need that long.

Myra Anderson gave some comments about region 10 and I know that you all had some back and forth with their staff.

I wanted you to know that I did meet with the executive director and the board chair today and had had that scheduled for some time and they are happy to come in and talk about

how they can be a good partner in the community.

As I suggested last time I think there's two ways that we can tackle that here.

Region 10 already comes every year for kind of an annual report and they could stretch that out to give this some more time or this may be more appropriately dealt with in a work session.

I know you all have busy calendars for work sessions but I think that would allow you to also consider the work of the MAP report and the Mental Health and Wellness Coalition and more globally

what we're doing in the way of diversity and inclusion in both health and behavioral health.

So I'll leave that to you to decide what's the most appropriate format.

But they are willing, eager to come in and talk more about that issue, about diversity of staff.

Is that OK?

Yeah.

So in regards, there's been a lot of email traffic going back and forth.

Just for the sake of transparency, there's been a lot of conversations between counselors and Ms. Anderson.

I've had some conversations as well as representatives from Region 10.

One of the things that came up was the Sankofa Center and how that demised for a variety of different reasons.

I think that that's accurate.

You know, you're aware that I did respond to Ms. Anderson and my recollection is simply not necessarily as a city staff person at that time.

I happen to have been on the Board of Directors for Region 10 back at that time.

Right so one of the things I would be interested in potentially this could be another topic for council

but based on what we've heard from members of the community, specifically during the last meeting in regards to individuals seeking, specifically African Americans and people of color seeking mental health assistance and if that was one of the reasons in which there potentially was a drop, excuse me, a reason in which the Sankofa Center was closed and if funding is also an issue, being that there is now, I think, a much heightened desire for African Americans to see African American counselors

and our psychiatrist.

I would say certainly it's a good possibility.

I would say that if you get the big picture of all the services that are out there in the community, you'd want to look at a couple things.

Diversity of staff, cultural competence training for staff, and that you want to look at all of the levels of different clinical services.

when you're determining kind of whether there's diversity in that workforce.

And I would just encourage us to think about if the only measure, if this is a pass-fail about psychiatry, right, and if we look at the huge lack of psychiatry resources nationwide, and then

take that down and look particularly at psychiatrists who are just African American and whether they might decide to come to Charlottesville when they can command much different salaries in a different marketplace or

or not be willing to look at other resources if we're particularly looking at kind of medication management and I think we should look at then psychiatric nurses and other resources.

So the chances that Charlottesville is going to necessarily recruit a psychiatrist of particular demography is unlikely.

You know, every time we look for a psychiatrist of any

type, it is extraordinarily difficult.

Understood.

I'm just thinking, I feel like this is a similar conversation in which we have in regards to recruiting African American teachers and how sometimes we hear, well, there's difficulty recruiting them.

They may not want to come because of the area.

They can go other places where they can be paid and so forth.

But then I think the question has to then be turned around and to

what can we do as a community and specifically as this body as a council to become more enticing or to entice individuals of this specific demographic to come to our city and join our community resources like Region 10.

So I think it would be plausible to believe that if there was in fact a Sankofa Center

and we were to say that we are willing to do a variety of different things, whether that be higher wages, housing stipends, whatever the case may be.

I'm just literally throwing out ideas to attract this specific population of psychiatrists and or mental health specialists to fit this specific need from the community, from a specific demographic that we've been desperately hearing for, hearing the need for it.

I would love for us to explore it.

also on full transparency.

I haven't had this conversation with Mr. Murphy.

We hadn't.

We didn't talk about this at all.

I think that it's important to have a community plan about how to diversify behavioral health resources.

I would just say, in fairness to educators such as yourself, if we count the raw number of people who become psychiatrists,

versus educators, and the road to psychiatry being minimum probably 11 years post high school.

Okay.

Mr. Murphy, I mean, related to what Councilor Bellamy is saying, I have no problem with this discussion being part of a work session that you first offered.

because it would be in keeping with that topic area.

and I do have one comment or question request with regards to the vouchers because I believe in the last meeting, and I followed up with an email, when Anita Morrison presented to us with her housing needs assessment, she did indicate that one of her findings was the CRHA had established its HUD fair market rates for rentals

at the 2016 level.

And they should be set at the 2018 level.

And that difference means that our vouchers cannot be used for units that are being built today that are at 80% AMI.

They're too high and our vouchers are set too low.

I just would like to get an absolute confirmation.

Is that really what's happening?

I know Dr. Pepe is certainly here later this evening, but we will do some follow up and message that out to council right away and also follow up with the public next time.

Only other item I have, Madam Mayor, was a question from Dr. Bellamy to the city attorney regarding

Any insights about blight, particularly with regard to the landmark?

Sure.

Spotlight, there does need to be a finding of endangering the public's health, safety, and welfare.

concerning that aesthetics have never been found by a court in Virginia to constitute health safety.

So what process that would need to occur is that the NDS staff perhaps with assistance from an outside consultant or someone of that nature if they need it have to prove in some way that there's a structural deficiency that would in fact

either violate code or present a danger to the health, safety, and welfare of the public.

If that's found, then the owner is provided a 30-day opportunity to provide their own plan to evade the blight.

If they don't, at that time, council can then pass an ordinance to declare the property blighted.

I know the speaker at the September 17th meeting mentioned the idea of acquiring the property.

Council, if in fact the council did declare the property blighted and the owner did not abate the blight, one option the council has is to acquire the property by eminent domain, but again that's a fair market value price that would have to be provided for the property itself if the council looked at that.

So one of the items I'm interested in, and I think I may know the answer, but just for the sake of the public, if I'm not mistaken, it was two years ago when there was a windstorm of sorts and there were items literally falling from the landmark onto the mall.

And then there was some wrap around that was done to try and patch it up.

I just want to interject one point which is I caution us not to be too forthcoming about legal analysis that could benefit us but that also might

I don't think that would disadvantage us if this ever did proceed to the law.

And we went through this at length two and a half years ago when that happened.

But if I might add, the very scenario that Mr. Blair described was the very series of steps that we took two years ago.

And that's why the wrapping of the plywood happens, because it was blight mitigation.

And to your question, Dr. Bellamy, once the blight is identified,

The property owner does have to have an opportunity to abate that blight themselves.

So whether it's loose materials or some other aspect of the property, before the council would take action there does have to be an opportunity for the property owner to abate the blight that's identified.

Thank you.

All right, next we have Community Matters.

I live in Belmont.

I wanted to discuss a couple of matters about the police department because they never discuss it and you never discuss it.

Several months ago the police chief, the new police chief, was in front of you telling Al she was going to enhance the process by which the department was going to handle civilian complaints and indeed they were going to reduce the time period from 45 to 30 days.

On Thursday or Friday I received a response to my complaint of June 18th, 90 days later, saying that the officers were all exonerated, Miss Katrina,

also received a similar letter last week.

Everybody's exonerated or not sustained, whatever, just thrown out.

The rules of the police department require that the internal affairs officer explain the underlying justification for the findings.

No such explanation is given to either of us.

I pointed this out.

Mr. Murphy knows this.

Mr. Blair knows this.

I've shared this all with them.

Nobody's done anything.

I wrote back saying, well, what's your underlying justification?

And pointing out the specific provision of their rules that requires it.

No response.

No response whatsoever.

It's a dead hole over there.

And that's very concerning and of course it leads to the proposition that we're not getting an enhanced internal affairs bureau, we're getting actually a worse one.

And it points to the need for us moving on the civilian review board as fast as is conceivably possible.

But the other issue is the issue of stop and frisk.

And I take it by now you all know that the department is no longer keeping statistics in a manner that can be extracted from their database.

And if you look back at the, as I did, and you might, I don't know whether you're interested or not because most of you have not been interested in this subject, at the presentation that was given to you by the interim police chief, and there were two responsible people for that presentation, it was Mr. Murphy and the interim police chief whose name I can't remember.

and in that memo it says that they were working to enhance the process of examining, researching and dealing with the stop and frisk issue.

Well in fact what was happening was they were dismantling the process by which we could look at it and nothing has ever been done Mr. Murphy.

You were there, you should have been following up on it and you didn't and therefore the police chief did nothing, the subsequent police chief did nothing and now we're told you cannot get access to any of that material.

So after five years of struggling to get something, something, because several of you have been on the council during this period of time refusing to do anything, refusing to say anything.

When we finally got you to say something, nothing happened.

And that's still going on.

Now let me just point out one other thing I have to.

This was a shocking revelation about Chief Thomas being paid $135,000.

He didn't bother.

There's only two possible reasons for giving him that money.

Number one,

He was forced out.

He was told, here's your 150,000, get the hell out of town.

The second reason is, here's 150,000, keep your mouth shut.

We still don't know what happened last August.

He does.

He disputed what Mr. Heafey said.

We never heard a word from him.

Have you guys actually squelched his voice?

And if you haven't, why aren't you reaching out to him?

You know where he is.

Thank you.

Mayor Walker, I would like to follow up on the question of the data and the stop and frisk.

And I want to get a timeline on what's gone on because I do remember last time we had a conversation about this, the idea, the consensus on the council at the time was that we wanted to have more transparency about that process and more accountability.

So I do want to

Thank you.

I live on Holmes Avenue.

I'm here today, I'd like to touch on a couple of things.

One, the housing situation.

Renting is very important because everyone cannot be a homeowner.

But I really want to talk about being a homeowner, what it meant to me and my family.

I went home one day and my wife said Habitat for Humanity was taking applications at the library and she was thrilled and so happy.

And I was sad because I didn't want her, once my application went in,

and I wasn't workable to see the hurt on her face.

But like all good husbands, I did what my wife asked me to do.

And the rest is history.

I've been in my Habitat homeland since 2004.

And what quickly it done for me was

I look at my daughter, it gave her a stability.

It gave her where she can be a kid, where she can go out and play in a safe haven, where she don't have to see her mom and dad struggling for a place to live or had to move in two years.

If I wanted to build something to my house, I can do it.

As long as I got the permit, it's okay for my wife.

It belongs to me, you know, and that gave me this pride.

I can't explain it to you.

You know, I walk with my head up in the air.

I should have if I was renting or had nothing, but it just gave me this unexplainable pride.

And with pride comes success, you know, and I became a better citizen in the community.

I study giving back every day, not because I want to, because I have it in my heart.

I'm doing what people have done for me.

And it's special.

It becomes just like getting up and putting your socks on.

You know, it becomes natural to walk hand in hand with the community.

By me doing things that I'm doing, people is noticing other people, the crisis that they're going through.

So we have to speak on this.

We have to act on this.

We just can't sit back and just put our head down and let it continue to go head on a down low and not say anything about it.

You know, I broke the cycle with my family.

My mother didn't rent.

I didn't own.

Her mother didn't own.

and I'm a homeowner.

I passed this down to my daughter.

She don't know what it is to not to own something or to have something, and she could pass it down to her kids.

We broke that cycle.

We not only pass it down, but she could add to it.

You know, it's a very special moment in our house every day when we sit back and look around and see that, you know, we don't have to wait to get the okay to do something to our own home.

We can do it, like I said.

You know, I just want to say one last thing.

I want to thank the council for the support they have given us habitat in the past.

Madam Mayor and Councillors, my name is Sally Duncan.

I'm an Albemarle County resident and a student at UVA.

Two weeks ago, I had a meeting on Rugby Road, and it let out around 830.

I had just missed the bus, so I decided to walk down to Preston, where my car was parked.

I walked down Rugby to Grady to Madison.

And when I turned on Grady, I was shocked to see how dark the street was.

There were no street lights.

I felt very vulnerable and unsafe.

And then two nights later, a woman was attacked and assaulted in the same spot.

It should be the city's responsibility to provide city streets that are adequately lit.

The city did a lighting study in conjunction with UVA two years ago, and in the zone around UVA, they prioritized the top ten areas most in need of lighting.

The area I walked in had four of the top ten segments.

There are several ways the city can prioritize pedestrian lighting.

You have a CIP request for city lighting that is coming before you soon and it needs to be funded.

Change the policy for requesting pedestrian lighting.

Right now the policy calls for 100% of property owners to agree to the lights.

The safety of pedestrians should not be left to the whims of property owners who may not even be residents, especially when in the college areas many of them are landlords who do not have the best interests of the renters and the community in mind.

Three, change the code that right now doesn't allow light to trespass off of property into the pedestrian area of the street and it could even go so far as to require new businesses to light the sidewalks.

Number four, apply pressure to UVA.

The university has committed millions for capital improvement type projects along the city university line.

They have the ability to help solve this problem.

Five, create a priority lighting list.

You already have a priority sidewalk list.

In a similar way, you can create a priority lighting list and dedicate money to it.

I've talked about pedestrian lights because I know they are different from streetlights, but a sixth thing that you could do immediately that would be an interim solution would be to order Dominion to install streetlights in the areas the study has determined are important.

There is no installation cost for the city for this.

There's just the standard monthly rental fee per light.

But streetlights are not a complete solution.

Our roads need more than tall streetlights.

We need lower pedestrian lights and to prioritize where they're installed.

I understand that in the long run this is not a cheap fix, especially considering the Dark Skies ordinance, but women's safety is more important than Starr's.

I also think it's appalling that even after Hannah Graham was kidnapped off the mall, call boxes have not been installed.

If the city can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on police to stand right next to me to protect me, and if the city can spend millions of dollars to install trees on West Main Street, they can prioritize the lighting that will help make its citizens safer.

I have a question.

I don't know.

I'm experiencing deja vu.

So there is a lighting study, and it was done with UVA and the city.

It is a mixture of street lights, the Cobra headlights, and pedestrian lights.

Council has previously funded, I think, $94,000 this year, and there's a request next year.

and there is a prioritization of sorts in that that funding was for 15 lights in the downtown area.

As you all are aware, I emailed you and Ms. Duncan today and have asked staff to prepare an agenda memo and bring this back to council.

I don't think we can do that by the 15th, but certainly in November.

There's a variety that cross both legal and neighborhood development services issues that I want to queue up for you all.

I can tell you that the particular pedestrian lighting and the spacing that's recommended and all that is on a scale that's never been considered by the council before.

Budget wise.

And so just want to, even outside of your CIP process, because I do think that was an excellent point made by Ms. Duncan today, have you give that some additional consideration before that comes forward.

And so it's actually, I've

But I mean being that this would be maybe a very expensive expenditure

and being how this affects so many students, I would hope that the University of Virginia would be willing to come to the table and help us pay for some of this lighting.

I mean, it affects that specific population, but I mean, to that point, Ms. Duncan, I think you make value points and I'm not trying to put like one against the other, but I think oftentimes what also happens is that we hear students or individuals who belong to the university community come and speak very passionately about things that are going on

We have local residents who have been also asking for similar.

And what I would hate to see is that if there's a pecking order of sorts.

For example, I hear Ms. Parker, she's been talking about this for a few months now in regards to the lighting for the crosswalk.

It would really pain me if I'm being completely honest to see this young lady come and speak eloquently in regards to the lighting that's needed in the specific areas in which you're describing.

And for that to be jumped on immediately.

and then we've had individuals from the community like Ms. Parker be talking about lighting and lights on crosswalks and it still not get done.

Alright, thank you.

I would like an update, I guess is what you, and you're going to provide that, so.

And my understanding was Pat Hogan and Mr. Jones previously had agreed in some maybe informal way

But there was an agreement that this would be a joint effort on the part of the University and the city.

But again, that's something to be confirmed.

And that was my question, is that what conversations have and what can we plan on happening with the University?

Because I do think there's going to be interest there.

And maybe we can have it back.

I would say Mr. Hogan is still here this year.

And the dollars that the university has committed thus far for safety purposes was really, while it's not to the exclusion of other locations, I think it was intended for the West Main Street project.

Okay, thank you.

Okay.

Mary Carey, city resident.

Welcome back, Mayor, to the United States of whatever.

So what I'd like to say tonight is I sit back there and took a lot of notes here, because every time I come, I don't know what I'm going to talk about.

But anyway, Ms. Galvin, I'd like to know what you meant by a resurrecting Second Street project.

You talked about it on the radio, you put it in the paper.

Because Mr. Woodard don't want a bill over there, why should you be concerned about it?

So you have people around here in Charlottesville that need places to live and all of a sudden y'all got this redevelopment thing going on for public housing and low income people.

Which you had that going on back in 2002 also.

and it was supposed to have been up and running by 2005.

This is 2018.

What are y'all gonna do about what's going on now?

That's what I'm talking about.

So, talking about the voucher program, I see where you said that the rates for the voucher program is not high enough for the rents.

I wonder why that is.

because you got a lot of people coming in from other places, bringing their money, staying a couple years, and you, Ms. Galvin, is helping to build all these hotels and these affordable housing for rich people, Ms. Hill, and you're not doing anything for the people that's working to keep the city rolling.

You don't pay them enough, they don't get enough wages.

they don't have anywhere to live and Mr. Scott, he just got a house from Habitat which they fit in where they can get in.

They take down the value of black people that already have property, already have houses already built up, they already have property, they come along and want to buy this little bit of land that might be this wide and they put two houses up in there.

You go around Charlottesville, it's so cluttered.

It's so cluttered.

You can't even go to the bathroom without your neighbor two doors down the street hearing it.

That's how close these houses are being built.

Is that the way redevelopment's going to happen?

I don't know.

But I'll see if I'm here long enough.

Because I know when I first heard it, it was CRHA back in 2002.

It would be on Levy Street and Garrett by 2005.

So, I mean, you all make a lot of promises, but you can't put through unless it's concerning the University of Virginia now.

I know for a fact that when it was snow on the ground and the kids couldn't even get from their houses in the city to the bus stop because of the snow,

What did your little city engineer man come in here and say?

We are so proud of our workers for clearing off the university up there at the university.

Clearing off the streets and the walkways for the students.

And here you had kids in Charlottesville that went to Charlottesville schools, couldn't even get down to the bus stop because nobody had cleaned the streets.

So now what you gonna do, put some lights up there?

I sympathize with the lady, Ms. Duncan.

Sympathize with her.

But y'all gotta start taking care of the city.

And y'all gotta start taking care of the low-income people too.

So Louis Schultz, are you coming back up, or was that your time before the, because you're on the, OK. All right.

Hello.

I'm Garrett Trent.

Hi, my name is Nasir.

I'm a city resident and it would be an honor if you gave Habitat the money that they needed to help families because Habitat helps families buy homes.

When we first came to Habitat in 2012, I was glad because I knew my family could have the stability that we needed.

Owning a home is important.

for families to have their own legacy.

Louisa, he's looking for you.

Thank you.

My name is Richard Tremblay.

I'm a member of the Charlottesville Habitat Board of Directors.

I'm speaking on behalf of the board in support of the allocation of $585,000 in affordable housing funding for Habitat for this current fiscal year, fiscal year 19, as recommended by the Housing Advisory Committee and your staff.

The three specific uses that are proposed as part of this funding are detailed in the staff report and Habitat's application, so I won't touch on that.

I'm a volunteer, one of the many volunteers that helps build these homes and renovate Habitat homes.

So I've had the opportunity to see the benefits of home ownership working alongside the Habitat

Future Habitat homeowners when they're doing their sweat equity work, seeing them and meeting their families at the dedication ceremonies and then having interaction with them after they've become homeowners in the neighborhoods.

And so I've witnessed firsthand the uplifting, many uplifting benefits of homeownership to these families, many of whom have experienced generations of poverty.

Among these benefits are building wealth and equity in their homes.

Secondly is the pride and joy that's obvious from home ownership.

Everything that comes from a safe and stable home for raising a family.

Living in close proximity to work and to schools is a big benefit.

and finally having a greater level, as a homeowner, having a greater level of involvement in the broader community and also in their particular neighborhoods.

Thank you.

I'm Katrina Turner.

Sorry about that.

Skipped the line.

Great.

Good evening, everybody.

Good evening.

Yeah, so Sean Tubbs is going to come to the second session to talk about the summit with the county later this week.

That's pretty exciting opportunities there and work to do.

I'm going to talk about some more local type stuff during my time here.

First of all, I want to acknowledge and give an invisible high five to the city staff for getting the pedestrian bridge at McIntire Park.

on the ground.

So that's exciting.

And we're going to have a heck of a party when we can cut the ribbon on that and maybe get the track team to do a 40 yard dash across it or something.

Get some of you in that race too.

Speaking of kids running, I wanted to let people know about my favorite foot race of the year, which is the Clark 5K.

That's this coming Saturday at 8 a.m. And then there are kids races to follow.

really great.

And in the same day, same morning, same spirit is another event that seems pretty exciting.

So after the pilgrimage, I thought to myself, well, what kinds of smaller sub-pilgrimages could we have in the area?

That's almost a bucket list thing.

What could people do every year or every month or even

every day or every week.

Well, the Clergy Collective is leading a walk from Charlottesville to Monticello also on Saturday.

Now, the timing is such that you could do both of those things.

And I think you should.

That's what I'm going to do.

So they're gathering at the Jefferson School at 10.

and you could also pick it up at Sojourners at 12 and then they're walking part way to Monticello taking a bus in my least favorite segment and then getting back on the Monticello Trail and finishing the walk.

So that's Saturday.

A week from Wednesday, so not this Wednesday, but the following Wednesday is walk to school day and all of the schools are having walk to school events with food and fun and prizes.

You can talk to your school or your PTO to find out more about that.

And then on October 17th, the Planning District Commission is hosting an open house about the Long Range Transportation Plan.

And that's important.

That's our regional transportation planning process.

and also within that is the first look at the bicycle pedestrian plan for the region.

I think there will be an announcement about that in the next city council meeting but I don't love the sort of two days notice thing so I'm letting people know that's October 17th and I have fliers for all of you and that's it.

Just super quick, wanted to let you know that we're working to have Charles Brown come to Charlottesville.

And he's had to reschedule, unfortunately.

That's going to be pushed into November.

But I'll let you guys know with plenty of advance notice.

But you can clear the October 29 date from your calendar if it's on there.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

Trina.

Katrina Turner, Charlottesville.

It's kind of funny that you talked about a proclamation for domestic violence, because this is the case of my son.

And I'm just wondering why he was not believed that night.

If everybody has a right, why was my son not believed on that night that he called for help?

This is a case, as I said, my son called for help.

On the night of my son's arrest, the officers claimed to have seen the supposed victim running down the stairs yelling in fear of her life while my son was still on the phone calling 911.

So I want to know how

the officers saw the supposed victim when they arrived almost 10 minutes later to the scene.

So that's one of the things that

has changed because it's no longer that they saw her running down the stairs in fear of her life.

It's now what I testify to in my home to then Internal Affairs Brian O'Donnell.

that the only way they could have seen her running down the stairs if they were standing right outside the door when my son was on the phone calling 911.

That has never been explained on how their story changed that night from when my son was arrested.

I'd also like to know how an officer is allowed to assault somebody

We follow complaint on them.

Officer Hickey was accused of racial bias, excessive force, non-feasance, demeanor, and untruthfulness.

Lying, but he was able to testify in court while he was under investigation himself against my son.

And that's how my son got.

found guilty because of what Officer Hickey said.

I want to know why my son was arrested, period.

They have believed everybody else except me and my son.

People that weren't even on the scene, they have believed in this case.

Chief Brackney also has called me a liar.

Chief Brackney has written me a letter

and told, well, she told me that I lied on Officer Hickey.

She didn't tell me how I lied on Officer Hickey.

And I want to know what she's talking about.

One, Chief Brackney also told me there was a videotape in my son's case there for over two years.

We've been told there was no videotape.

Where did the videotape come from?

There's a lot of discrepancy in this case.

a lot and somebody needs to reopen this case up because I'm telling you all now records have been changed and I'm telling you all now in front of everybody in front of these cameras records have been changed in my son's case.

and I can prove it, but they will not give me the information I need.

Everything they are telling me I lied about when I testified, I want to know what they claim I lied about in order for them to go against me and my son.

I watched what those officers did while my son was handcuffed the whole time.

There's no explanation as to why they threw him against the wall, as to why they threw him against the police car, as to why they threw that set of keys and hit him in the head.

And that's what she lied about, said that I testify that those keys injured my son.

I never said that.

So something needs to be done about this police department.

And I just want to know if you all are going to allow this information

Alright, Ms.

Well, I just talked about records being changed in the police department and nobody is concerned about that.

I've been saying it for over two years that records have been changed in my son's case.

If I am lying, why has nobody ever come after me yet?

So I sent you an email from the information that I have at this point.

So I don't have any new information if you want me to share that with everybody.

But I sent it to you.

All right.

Ms.

I'm Gloria Beard, resident of Charlottesville.

I don't have no bad news today.

and I heard enough already, Lord mercy.

This is for you, Mayor.

We want you to know that we appreciate you and all you do for this city and the rest of you too.

I was glad to hear that y'all gonna start a project over there at Crescent Hall.

I heard that you got the land.

and just a matter of getting the contractors, am I right?

I was so happy.

Please don't let me see it in my lifetime though, you all.

I've been here 44 years.

So Mayor, to procure my appreciation and a few others, I was hoping to be more, but that's okay.

Really quickly in regards to your question about Crescent Halls, for those who are not aware of what Ms.

Beard is talking about, very excited to share that the Housing Authority, with the help of Mr. Bernard Collins, Farr, as well as several other community members, Ms. Rosia Parker, who's sitting in the front, Ms. Johnson, there's been a litany of committee members who have worked with the Housing Authority on a redevelopment committee,

for the first time, and well, we won't hopper on that as Mr. Collins told me not to, but we have finally moved forward in regards to one of the first steps for redevelopment.

A RFP has been awarded to Riverbend Development.

Riverbend is the partner in which the Housing Authority will be working with.

There have been a site that's been targeted, so two sites, excuse me, both Levy Avenue as well as First Street, South First Street.

So the goal is for residents at Crescent Hall, our first target area, to be moved out of there and onto these two new sites in which we're looking to develop, we being the housing authority.

This is a huge step.

There has been a great deal of conversation in regards to redevelopment.

I shared this with the housing authority meeting.

I remember having a conversation with Delegate Toscano on a panel and he said that housing redevelopment, the conversation began in 1991.

I was born in 1986, so nearly 25 years ago this conversation was started.

But this housing authority board and this council, this far in this housing, excuse me, this redevelopment committee was able to get it done.

So please be on the lookout for more information in regards to next steps.

But again, this is a huge, huge accomplishment for not only the housing authority, but for far, but most importantly for residents of our community.

And I would just like to add to thank you to people who worked on it for years and decades who have done the work that have led us to this point because this doesn't happen with just one group of people or at one time.

You build on the work that people have done.

in the past.

Hello, my name is Randy Rogers.

I'm president of Albemarle County, but I'm here today on behalf of Java, Jefferson Area Board for Aging.

I'm the manager of community services there, and I've come to, I guess, thank you all for your support for Java over the years, and especially right now, and I'm here to tell you about one of the programs you help make happen.

and that is the Insurance Counseling Department.

The Insurance Counseling Department is part of a federal ship program that provides people on the ground to give you non-biased help with Medicare.

It's rather important to have that there because there's so many people trying to give you rather biased advice on your Medicare.

But we're there with counselors to help people set up their Medicare when they first start out, help them throughout the years as they have problems with it, and then our busiest time of the year is coming up in just two weeks.

Open Enrollment for Medicare Part D, the prescription part of Medicare, comes around every year, October 15th, December 7th, and that's when people get a chance to change their plans for the next year.

Washington Post a couple years put out an article saying 87% of Medicare bidding fisheries are on the wrong plan for them.

We're there with counselors to help them out because here's what's important.

Somebody will come up to me, I had a guy come up to me one time and said I've had the same plan for 10 years and I said no you haven't.

You've had 10 different versions of that plan because every year the insurance company and every insurance company changes parts of the plan.

What the premium is, what the deductible is, and what most importantly is the formulary.

and so that means what drugs are covered, what drugs are not covered, what the tiers are, what the prices are at specific pharmacies change every year and we get calls in January and February from people who did not look at their plans saying I'm standing at the pharmacy trying to pick up the prescription that I've been taking for years

With the plan I've had for years and now they're saying it's not covered and we go, they're right and there's nothing you can do about it now.

You needed to do something about it in open enrollment.

So it's very important that people check their plans every year and that's why we provide counselors there.

Last year we helped 307 people within the city limits of Charlottesville and we saved those people $240,000 on their prescriptions.

over the whole region because we served the whole region.

We saw 1871 clients and saved them 1.28 million dollars on their prescriptions had they not come and seen us and worked with us.

It's a free service that Java provides and this year we're very excited.

We're going to have an increase to 50 volunteer counselors who are certified by the state to help people look at their prescriptions and their pharmacies and find the right plan that matches them.

So, you know, this is a federally funded program.

Was that my off button?

That was my off button.

Okay, sorry.

It's a federally funded program, which is great, except that the funds that they give us only give us about 43% of what it actually costs to run the program.

The rest of the money comes from grants and private donations and from local governments in the city of Charlottesville.

And we're very thankful that you guys help us provide this service to our community every year.

I just want to thank you personally for your support in doing that.

Also, if you've got friends on Medicare, it's only two weeks away, send them to us.

We'll help them out.

Where we found out the average person coming to us, 48% of them needed to change plans and the average person saved $1,500 and that's a lot of money back into people's pockets, especially if they're on fixed incomes.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Nancy Carpenter, city resident.

A couple of quick shout outs.

One to the Burley Varsity Club.

If you haven't noticed, there is a wonderful two-piece memorialization of African-American history in this community.

The black high school that educated both city and county students during Jim Crow, during massive resistance, and up until the schools were

integrated.

It has a separate statue about Mr. Jackson P. Burley, a very important educator in the black community and businessman, as well as a separate memorialization of students who attended that school.

And many of them come to this meeting.

Many of them are certainly involved in this community.

So it's wonderful.

Go see that.

Another shout out to the Hate Free Schools Coalition, who with their hard work,

and in the area of dismantling white supremacy and dismantling systemic racism in the Albemarle County Public Schools is now bringing together both our city school board and the county school board to talk about this hard work.

It's about time we sat down at the table and started talking about these issues and not hide from them.

They have put their bodies on the line for us, so thank you very much to them.

and the one housekeeping thing for Rose Hill where I live.

I would like to talk to the traffic engineer in reference to a curve at Henry Avenue and 10th Street right there where the Washington parking lot is.

I know that one of my neighbors enjoys having an on-street parking spot there.

and Michael Kochis.

entering 10th Street from Preston, one coming up Henry towards Preston, you have a bottleneck there if there are two cars parked, parallel parked on opposite sides of the roads.

We see it sometimes with the school bus coming around the corner, and we also see it if there's the jaunt bus that comes to service some of our neighbors who are in group homes up there.

Once again, I'd like for them to revisit that.

They've been talked to many times about that by various neighbors throughout the years, but as density changes and traffic tries to find the shortest route around the city, they sometimes come through the neighborhood and it can be a little problematic.

The other thing that I want to talk about is that you're going to be having later this week a combined city-county

work session where a housing strategy is going to be talked about among other things, MOUs, regional transportation plan, but one of the things that I'm looking to see is some housing strategies in regards to creating stability for tenants who are, you know, for renters, for tenants.

I appreciated the young man's testimony about stability of being a homeowner and being the son.

It's great but we still need to look at especially an emergency assistance plan for the funds for the county because there is not one.

There are a lot of people that live at Mallside, that are in the county, live at Hearthwood, some other

types of Section 8 rentals that are out there in the county, but when they have a problem, when they have a car repair they have to pay, or a medical, unexpected medical expense, or they have, you know, a job that is reducing their hours, there is no real emergency fund to help those folks.

So if you can talk to them when you see them later this week about establishing that, it's made a big difference for people who live here in the city that have emergency assistance needs

It would make a big difference for some of our neighbors who are also struggling paycheck to paycheck to have something through the county that would also help.

I've written them, so hopefully.

Yeah, thank you, Nancy.

Sorry, Rosea.

My name is Rosea Parker, city resident.

Mr. Mike.

There's been so many different complaints about your police chief.

What do you plan on doing to achieve the wrongness as she says she owns up to her wrong?

She's been wrong so many times and she speaks so eloquently of what she's done and she hasn't done anything to protect the black community.

So you being her boss,

I think that needs to be taken care of, rectified, and let the community know what's being done behind that.

Two, when is the, I've watched so many different mayors come before me in council, but I would like to know when is the city going to take accountability for the police again?

Not looking for Furby or Faye Tinsley, Sage Smith, Quentin Wolfock,

and then also to the state of Sage, for his father to ask a police officer, what's going on with my son and for the police to react and hit this man, even though it was an ongoing investigation, but I'm not gonna talk too much, but to actually watch that when this man asked him about his child and for this police to act in the manner that he did and as the chief of police say, we police the behavior.

So how about the citizens police their behavior?

and I'm going to go back to Ms. Galvin, Mike Signer and Ms. Hill.

I'm going to go back on what Ms. Hudson said.

Do you all plan on spending the night in West Haven?

because when the news got to y'all, y'all didn't have a reply.

So I'm going to look you in your face today and ask for a reply.

Are you breathing hot?

I know.

But that's how we feel living in West Haven in low income housing.

So I'd like an answer tonight, please.

Sorry that I don't have flowers, but I did want to, I'm here to talk about a couple of issues that are on the agenda that deal with the Belmont-Carlton neighborhood, and I'm just wondering how many other people are here from Belmont-Carlton?

Are there any?

Okay.

Thank you for being here, but I,

I want to say first thank you for listening to residents who are concerned about their homes which border the commercial area and so that's where the flowers are missing but thank you all of you for listening to that concern.

But then the question is that is that I don't think that that when one neighborhood or one

constituency is served that another necessarily loses like when we're talking about about about lighting for example that's that's clearly a concern around the city and I thought it was interesting that

that a neighborhood association in North Downtown knew about a grants program and has submitted a request to include lighting.

But yet, as far as I know, no one in other neighborhoods have been made aware of the availability of these grant funds.

And why would we need to access grant funds to get lighting in our communities?

But the real question is about process and it's about, and maybe it's because I'm new to the community, but

I think that we don't have a very clear system as is evident by the fact that there are two people here from Belmont Carlton.

There are two issues.

One of them has to do with rezoning 1206 Carlton Avenue.

And I wonder how many of the residents on Carlton Avenue and in neighboring streets know about this rezoning.

And how would they know?

And I really don't know.

what the answer is.

And so I'm asking, what is the obligation of developers, of people who wish to rezone?

What is the obligation of the city departments and staff when they want to offer services or change services, for example, lighting or some of the other issues?

And what is the role of neighborhood associations?

with respect to issues that affect residents.

And I'm asking because I really don't know.

And I really don't think this is, and I'm sort of surprised as a newbie to a town that was sort of sold to me by my children, who I love very dearly, but nevertheless, I was told it was diverse.

and it was progressive and it was open and I'm not so sure that I'm getting it.

So as far as public hearings, for example, I sort of got thrust into

Learning about process when a large group of residents of Belmont were threatened with blasting.

And I learned that there really isn't a very clear obligation of developers to notify residents of their plans.

and public hearings are not public hearings in the sense of being opportunities for people, for parties who are involved in a question to come together and discuss benefits and consequences, but instead they're a part of a civil process like this.

And this is not a public hearing.

It's really a part of, it's a civil,

It's a civil process.

It's a meeting.

But it's not a public hearing.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

I could summarize some of those things, but I'm afraid I might say something wrong, at least about the general process that we do follow when there are, for example, for this case, a rezoning.

There's a certain radius in which all residents are notified.

There's a posting.

I was at the site today for 1206.

There was a large sign that just says what's coming up.

And I know that we do try to leverage the neighborhood associations, and there's a requirement that

And two years ago, some of those steps weren't even in place, but it was by the neighborhoods kind of requesting that there would be more.

input and opportunities is where some of those, at least those meeting requirements came into play.

So some of those are relatively new, but it does vary from project to project.

And I do think that the role that neighborhood associations plays depends on your neighborhood.

Certainly some neighborhood associations are much more organized than others and have more of a tap into the city and the staff and the communications that take place in between and other neighborhood associations just don't have those resources involved.

So it's definitely,

Hit or miss depending on where you reside in the city and the commitment that you have from residents to kind of volunteer in that role.

Mayor Walker, may I ask Mr. Murphy something?

So before Mr. Jones left, there was an awful lot of discussion that he was going to reactivate the Neighborhood Leadership Institute.

That was something that was put in place, I believe, with Dave Norris and Holly Edwards.

It was something that used to be run by Ebony Walden, a former planner here in the Charleston City government.

and it was exactly an opportunity for the community to learn about all the different parts of government and every department from planning to economic development

the city manager's office and I thought it was clear that this council wanted to see that re-instituted as part of the community engagement piece that's being written in the conference of plan.

Can we please get an update on what it would take to actually get that up and running because there really does seem to be a thirst for more information and knowledge on how government works and how the community can participate in that.

and it can't come in little bites.

It can't come sporadically and some neighborhood associations get it and others don't.

Can I ask the mayor for some clarification?

So if council's interested in that, I'm happy to work with staff to provide you some details on what that would look like.

I would like to know traditionally that takes one of two forms and so are you interested in what I would call more of a education for residents about government and exposing them to all of the departments and what they do or is it more so about a

I don't think they're mutually exclusive, but I do believe it was originally intended to be the former and many of the people that went through the Naval Leadership Institute wound up becoming neighborhood leaders because they were extremely well informed and they knew how to use the levers of government.

so I think, I don't think they're mutually exclusive.

The other thing that I think is missing or needs to come back again is there used to be quarterly meetings between the city manager's office and all the neighborhood associations.

I will, I'm gonna be very honest, many neighborhood association presidents told me they felt that it was, it just became kind of a perfunctory kind of a process where they checked the box and they never knew that their questions and concerns were being addressed.

I do think we need,

to reinstitute something like that.

I know Mayor Walker's doing her onsite lunches, but I think, again, the meetings between the city manager and the neighborhood associations' leadership are a really good opportunity to cultivate partnership so that there is better communication exchange.

And that, I know, was the goal, anyway, with those quarterly meetings.

How that actually played out, I'm not

I'm happy to have council be

advised on an email with all the neighborhood association presidents about what their goals for that interaction would be.

I would say that they are ongoing.

They continue to happen.

Problems get raised and resolved.

The recent request that went out to neighborhood associations to give us ideas about capital concerns was raised at the last meeting by Mr. Mickey.

Ms. Hill certainly attended all of those during her tenure as a Neighborhood Association President.

I see other presidents out there in the audience.

Madam Mayor, I also, Mr. Murphy, just want to raise one other point that came up just to this question just because a lot of people don't know this.

The neighborhood associations vary really widely and there is no formal structure in Charlottesville at all across neighborhood associations.

I know that with our then new neighborhood development association, Alex Ikefone, he was surprised when he came here from another city because in that city, I think it's South Carolina, they actually did, neighborhood associations were nonprofits.

It was standardized how they were supposed to exist.

Charles, that's not the case.

They're civic associations.

A lot of the time they have no legal structure at all.

Sometimes they don't have a board of directors.

Sometimes they meet once every couple months or once every six months.

Some are more active than that.

It really depends on you.

It depends on what people do.

in their neighborhood with their neighborhood association because some really depends on where you live.

It may not provide much information at all.

Sometimes the email addresses are out of date, sometimes a Facebook page.

So that's how we are right now, and it may be something for another county, for maybe the next year for us to think about.

NDS has a lot to do, but formalizing the neighborhood association structure, not just having the institute, is something that

After spending a couple days up in a very gross U.S. Senate building up in D.C., I just wanted to say that I believe survivors.

And for all of those people who are watching and for the one-third to the half of the people in back of me and who are watching,

We believe in survivors.

We believe survivors.

And I just want to make sure that that message is a community message.

Three things from what I heard tonight.

Mr. Fogel made an assertion about police stop and frisk data.

If it's true, and I fully expect you to figure this out between now and the next meeting, if that's true, that somehow the

The way that data has been collected has been changed once we found out that there's a problem.

That's a serious breach in the public trust.

That's a significant breach in the public trust because institutions do this all the time.

When they collect data and they find that there's a problem, they change the category definitions of the way things are counted around.

And this is a way of hiding.

and obfuscating the truth.

So I fully expect you as a council to fight between now and next meeting to get the police chief in here and find out and report to the public whether or not the assertion that Mr. Fogel has made is actually true or not and how that is actually working out.

We want the truth.

Secondly, on affordable housing.

Over the moon with what y'all are doing and what we've heard in terms of positive steps over the moon about it Really, I can't I can't communicate my happiness with what you're doing.

My only suggestion is this

your own staff and the Charlottesville Coalition on Low Income Housing has estimated that we're in the hole on affordable housing somewhere in the number of four to five to six thousand units, right?

And so you're making steps.

What I'd like to see you do is to think to yourselves about what this looks like in 2023 and say to the public in 2023

You're making a commitment to X number of units that are going to be produced in this process.

We can't stop with little victories.

We have to set strategic goals.

And we have to say by 2023, this council is committed to X number of units being built in this town.

Lastly, I sat in on the Planning Commission Place Design Task Force meeting the other day about public engagement and community engagement.

I think it's a disaster.

Everywhere you look, whether it's the Planning Commission, the DMC Task Force, or the CRB, everywhere you turn in this community, you hear the same refrain.

We do not have effective public engagement.

We don't have public input.

I just want to encourage you to declare that as a crisis.

This is a community crisis that needs to be solved.

We're not talking about it at the level of crisis yet.

And it's very, very important that you guys figure this out because there's different ways of defining what the purpose of community engagement and public input is.

And at the top of the ladder is empowerment.

of Citizens.

You need to rethink about the goal of community engagement as to empower not to gaslight us, not to manipulate the public, but to actually empower the public.

And just the last thing I'll say is the best thing I've heard after I'm doing a study right now with some community organizations, the best thing I heard this weekend was

Go to the communities who have the connections with the low-income communities in this town, like Black Lives Matter, Legal Aid, FAR.

Go to them and ask them, how do we do public engagement?

And a survey is good, but it ain't going to cut it because there's lots of different ways to get to public engagement.

And if we're only defining it as a survey, we have a problem.

I would say just very briefly, Dr. Heinecky, I think your points are well taken.

There's a lot of thoughts I have, but just for the sake of time, I'll respond to one.

Particularly, if we were to, as a city, say that by, to use your year 2023, we're going to have 5,000 units.

One of the reasons why I struggle with that is that because we're landlocked and there's a lot of variables that we can't control, the last thing I feel like our community needs is to promise to deliver on something and then not deliver.

And if we were to make an assertion, there was a similar commitment made years back saying that we would, what was it, 15%?

Yeah, like we would get to this 15% number.

And we found, for a variety of reasons,

You just can't do it without partners.

I mean, to be realistic, we need to work with the county since they have the land.

But to use that example, if we were to say, okay, we're going to get 6,000 units.

And although as Ms. Carpenter alluded to, this Thursday we're having a joint meeting.

If we say to the county, we want you all to make sure you partner with us.

Let's figure out how we can get some of that land.

Let's work together.

You all have a housing need.

We have a housing need.

And if they say no,

We don't want to work with y'all.

Y'all are crazy, right?

That severely strangles us or it kind of creates a situation in which we can't do it.

Or if we have developers, as we're saying we want to create more affordable housing, developers who come in and they just take advantage of the fact that they know we want to do more affordable housing, so they just kind of give us crumbs.

I don't want us to be in that kind of situation.

I don't think my colleagues want us to be in that situation.

So I know we want to get more.

And I agree with you.

I'm very proud as well that the Housing Authority and others were talking about how we get to more units.

Anyone else?

Good evening.

My name is Jared Slocum.

I'm a city resident.

I wanted to just touch on briefly the issue of water security.

Some of you may have heard last week buried in a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report was the prospect of 3.5 degrees Celsius of global temperature rise, 7 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100.

and I just can't understate how catastrophic that would be if that came to pass.

And I know that may not be in some of your lifetimes.

It hopefully will be in my lifetime.

It will definitely be in our children's and grandchildren's lifetimes.

Around the world, there's increasing data showing that a lot of conflict, such as the civil war in Syria, some of the refugee crisis issues in Venezuela and South American countries are caused by drought and instability due to climate change.

Yemen may be the first country in the world to run out of water in like the next few years.

And so I'm sure you are aware of Dr. Richard Gulick's concerns regarding the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority and some of the proposed projects, the various pipelines and whatnot.

I don't quite understand some of the points he's making based on the idea that demand has apparently gone down and that reduces the need for a lot of these water improvement projects.

But apparently the forecasts for water in the area are supposed to be done every 10 years and apparently the last one was done 10 years ago.

So as we see

our federal government basically giving up at least according to this one report on addressing climate change and the prospect for conflict to come here I believe we got a pass with Hurricane Florence but it's it's not if it's when and if we're not ready to secure

Our water supply, we are going to be dealing with conflict far in excess of August events and other terrorism type things, racial or not.

We're going to have a lot on our hands if we don't look far, far ahead as to how our water is secure.

And so I hope you take that into consideration.

Thank you.

Last council meeting I brought up the issue of coordinating with ICE regarding immigration and once those

members of our community are brought into the police department or the jails, the jail system.

One thing that I noted, I sent this all to you

You may have gotten it by now?

Okay.

So I don't need to go through it.

I'm not going to read it.

It's too long.

So one of the things that I noted from my previous conversation with you all, Mike and Wes, that you said one of the stipulations, you know, one of the things that you were saying were minor traffic violations, minor, you know, like driving without a license, driving without a suspended license.

First of all, there's only 12 states in the United States

that allow undocumented people to have a license.

So how is someone getting a suspended license when they're not even supposed to have one?

Do you understand what I'm saying?

So was that like racial profiling?

Oh, I saw you doing this.

Oh, you swerved this way.

But now you may have a similar name as someone.

Or you may have a, you know, if that person isn't allowed to have a driver's license.

You know what I'm saying?

Do you have any answers for that?

As far as the process, like how we can say, okay, if that is an issue, not having a driver's license is an issue, then how can we fix it to where undocumented people or persons can have a driver's license?

So that's one issue we can just take off the board altogether.

Do you see?

No, I just want to ask that question.

I mean you have a whole list of questions.

Okay, so excuse me, I'm a little bit tired.

So I'm just going to say a common question I've heard, I'm just going to read it, a common question I've heard throughout the Charlottesville community is why don't they just come here legally?

The obvious but not so obvious answer to some is that those seeking asylum lack resources to go through the lengthy and financially straining process

while being in immediate danger, fleeing abuse, drug related violence, violence and or oppressive government.

There appears to be a fine line between which immigrants are accepted with stipulations and are placed by certain community members within the community and which are not.

If they're working jobs which are undesirable to privileged, where they're being exploited and abused, it's okay.

But as soon as someone gets pulled over, has a few too many drinks while outside, misses a child support payment, then is off to jail and next is ICE.

This makes absolutely, I can just stop if you like.

Okay, this makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

It's perfectly acceptable for an undocumented person to be violated with very few eyes being batted.

But once they've encountered law enforcement, no matter what type of community history they've had, their life is over.

If they end up in a detention center, their life is over.

If they end up returning to their country of origin, their life is over.

This should never be a proud moment for the residents in Charlottesville.

Should I continue?

I just haven't heard that.

I mean, it doesn't matter.

So do you want to respond?

Sure.

So the initial question in regards to the driving without a license piece, I don't think that's a question for the jail board.

But what I do think that we could do is have a conversation with Joe Patania, the Commonwealth Attorney, in regards to figuring out different ways in which we can have our undocumented brothers and sisters obtain driving permits.

I know there's a push right now by Mr. Russ Linden.

and others to get identification cards for those who may be undocumented.

He's had conversations with Chief Brackney and others.

I know he's essentially spoke with all of us on council, and I think that we're all in support.

I know we haven't formally voted on it, but I think we're all in support of regards to them obtaining identification cards.

Now, the driving license piece, again, we would need to speak with Joe Patania,

If I could just interject that if there are states that allow folks to get a license without being citizens, I'm not aware of that.

I believe you said there were 12.

There's only 12.

It seems to me that that's more of a question for council to get some data and consider for their legislative packet because it's really a decision by the state.

It's not a local decision.

Virginia is not one of those things.

So we would have to send it to the General Assembly in our legislative packet.

And so that would detour, you know,

I just want us to go back and double check the jail data right and be precise about the charge because I think that what people are maybe coming into custody for was not

a suspended license, but perhaps driving without a license.

Right.

And so there is some nuance there.

Dr. Bellamy came in and made a proposal about maybe a compromise with some of our colleagues on the jail board from other localities.

I would kind of submit that

In the email I sent you, you may have already received it, there are links to city and county.

Yes, everybody got it.

So I've sent information for Alexandria and Fairfax County.

Fairfax County has, they put into place resolutions for these types of programs and they've been updated

a couple of times.

Yep.

Okay.

And just to the last speaker I know that last meeting she had asked about state legislation about sanctuary cities and just to give you an update there have been seven bills in the last three sessions of the Virginia General Assembly

Three of them did pass the House and Senate and they were vetoed by Governor Northam and Governor McAuliffe.

Right.

Oh no, I'm aware.

But just because they, you know, you still have to try.

The more you push, the better.

The more people are on board, they think there's only 560 sanctuary cities in the US.

Right.

So, you know, it's

to even sanctuary, becoming a sanctuary city isn't even a legal term.

It's just a political term used to say, oh, we're giving sanctuary.

No, you're helping another human being is what you're doing.

You're helping another human being avoid death, ultimately.

Thank you.

Yes, Mr. Blair is there.

Do you have?

Oh, no.

And additionally, concerning the issue about the contract with the former police chief, there was a settlement agreement that settled an employment dispute back in December of 2017.

Senator Walker, if I may, and I don't, I am not going to go into any more answers of questions because it's getting so late, but I do want to say that at the next meeting I will have a response for Ms. Mary Carey about West Second Street.

I will have a response for Ms. Rosia Parker about spending an evening in West Haven.

and I will have a response to Mr. Heinecke about having a strategy for housing.

We do need to be more strategic and utilize every scrap of our land.

So I will get back to those three individuals next time.

Okay, all right, great, thank you.

All right, next on the agenda we have a public hearing.

Mr. Alpley's been handling this application through most of the process, but he wasn't able to be here tonight, so I'll be giving you all an overview.

We also have representatives from the applicant who have a presentation for you all as well this evening.

This is for 1206 Carlton Avenue.

Mr. Justin Shimp, on behalf of Chris Hewlett, who is the owner of the property, has submitted a rezoning petition for 1206.

The rezoning petition proposes to change in zoning from the existing R2 residential, two-family residential, to R3 multi-family residential with proper development conditions.

and those include affordable housing unit as well as a restriction in the height to 35 feet.

The rezoning application is requested in association with the special use permit, so the first thing that comes forward is the rezoning application and then depending on how that progresses, a special use permit request would come next.

That special use permit request would accommodate six units on the site with seven parking spaces and that's something that would not be permitted under the current zoning.

The subject property is currently vacant with road frontage on Carlton Avenue and an alley access from the rear of the property to Bainbridge Street.

In addition, this application first came to a public hearing on March 13th to the Planning Commission.

It was recommended for denial.

It came forward, it was then passed forward to council and in the meantime the applicant provided proffers and once that application was received by council we were informed that you all had referred it back which is the proper procedure because additional information had been submitted and it needed to move forward through an additional public hearing.

So we scheduled and had a public hearing in July.

You all as Council were unable to attend that July meeting and so we're holding a second public hearing this evening in order to hear the application.

Some of the concerns, not concerns, appropriateness of a six-unit apartment building on such a small lot and the adverse impact it could have on the surrounding neighborhood was one of the main focuses of the discussion at the Planning Commission meeting.

An apartment with six units and only seven parking spaces seemed inadequate to the commission.

They expressed concerns that overflow parking would impact Carlton Avenue and Chestnut Street.

The lack of a sidewalk on the north side of Carlton Avenue, the lack of a crosswalk, parking and speeding were also other concerns that were noted.

The commission discussed how the lack of pedestrian features and speeding at this location could impact the safety of children walking to school.

The massing of the building was also a concern.

Most of the buildings in the area are one or two stories in height.

The proposed apartment would be three stories with a maximum height of 35 feet.

It should be noted that this is the same maximum height that would be available in the current R2 zoning.

So a building of 35 feet could be built on this site today.

The commission was concerned the building would not transition well to the southern and western adjacent properties.

There was also concern about the status of the alley in that area.

One unit renting up to 80% AMI was of concern as they

didn't feel that it would have much of an impact on affordability, but it was noted that this type of development was a needed housing type for the community, but this location may not be the best location.

So at the hearing in March, we had citizens in attendance who noted that one was in support of the project, believing it was in line with the social network of the neighborhood.

The other speaker read a number of concerns and those were summarized earlier and then in July we also had additional members of the public come and were concerned about the parking and potential overflow of parking into the neighborhood.

As I noted before, the commission recommended denial of this application.

I also did want to make a few other points that will be helpful in your deliberation.

So if the property remains the R2 property that it is, then there is a potential for a maximum of two market rate units on the site.

If the property is rezoned from R2 to R3, that would allow for a maximum of four market rate units and one affordable unit because of the code requirements that would be there.

A rezoning from R2 to R3 with the special use permit, which is the application that will be coming forward to you, would allow for a maximum of five market rate units and one affordable unit.

So that just kind of gives the range of the potential for this property.

And that is likely pretty helpful in the deliberations.

So we have representatives from Shimp Engineering here that can that have a presentation.

So I have one question.

Going up one, I meant, not R1.

Well, there's, like I was noting, the ranges there.

From what it currently, they can have two units currently on the site.

That's a proper condition that the applicant has provided to us and so that is the request they put as part of their application.

They're going to present and then we'll do the public hearing and then we'll talk, I guess?

So thank you for the opportunity to speak with you all tonight.

Yes, sorry.

I'm Kelsey Schlein.

And as Missy said, we're here representing the property owner, Chris Hewlett.

So I wanted to start off to just address something that was brought up during Community Matters as far as the process and what we have done for community outreach in regards to this project.

So a few years ago, the city instated a requirement that

applicants for rezoning notify adjacent property owners within a 500 foot radius.

So typically in the city of Charlottesville, that ranges anywhere from 100 to 500 notices that we're sending out to property owners.

So that notice was sent out

back when this project first went before planning or when we held a neighborhood, we were required to hold a neighborhood meeting and so that first neighborhood meeting I believe was held back in November of 2017 and so that notice was sent out and then the city sends out notices prior to their public hearings to all adjacent property owners.

Additionally, we went back to the Belmont-Carlton meeting which are held the second Mondays of

of every month and so we've made an additional appearance there before this project move forward to public hearings since so much time had lapsed between our first meeting and moving forward to public planning commission.

So moving on to 1206 Carlton.

So again the project proposal is for a rezoning from R2 which is two family that allows two residential units by right.

This could

be manifested in a way that is a suite style apartment.

So it could be eight bedrooms on site in two units by right.

So this rezoning is for a request for six units, two bedroom and with proffered conventions for an affordable unit and not to exceed 35 feet in height.

So again, the requested rezoning and the proffered conditions, but it's really intent of this project to address some housing needs outlined in the most recent housing needs assessment, like a particular need for small units to accommodate the two-thirds of city households with only one or two people.

So this project kind of achieves some things outlined in the comprehensive plan in regard to housing as far as the availability of a variety of housing types.

And in this neighborhood, a variety of housing types is kind of the platform, the launch pad for a mixed income community since this area is pretty predominantly single family.

It's located in a pretty mixed use corridor, access to commercial,

work opportunities as well as restaurants close to Kathy's shopping center.

Awesome.

So again, some existing conditions.

and yeah, in relation to scale.

So directly to the right of that yellow arrow at 1206, there is a six-unit apartment building.

And then moving further from that, there is another apartment building on the corner that I'm unsure of how many units, but definitely probably around more than six.

Directly behind on Bainbridge, it's the second house from the left on the corner.

So the one immediately to the right is a two-story with a gabled roof.

So it looks approximately to be 25 to 28.

So this just shows the existing multi-family housing in the area, showing that a six-unit apartment building is pretty consistent with existing housing, especially fronting on Carlton Ave.

and I want to take this opportunity to kind of to go through the history of the zoning on the site just because the historic regulations in this area have shaped the Belmont neighborhood into what it is today and so just to revisit what historically this site was and how it was recently down zoned in recent years.

So this is the site.

You can see, sorry, that it's the only R2 parcel fronting on Carlton Avenue.

It's adjacent to R3 parcels, kind of to just above the site there, R3 parcels.

And then just below the site is our commercial parcels.

So the only R2 fronting on Carlton.

So in 1949, it was zoned as a business parcel.

You can see historically there along Carlton Ave, a very mixed use neighborhood corridor center there.

It's interesting, the history of this, it's sort of been steadily down zoned over time and that the density allowable was per square foot of units, you can't read it on this, but it was something like 8 units were allowed?

10 units were allowed in 1958.

10 units by right on this parcel because it was determined, number of units was determined per square footage of the parcel.

This parcel, the square footage of it deemed 10 units by right in 1958.

1976 we're looking at an R3 zoning district so again multiple dwelling there 1991 still maintaining the R3 zoning district and then in 2003 was the only parcel down zoned to R2 fronting on Carlton Avenue

This was particularly interesting because in the 2001 comprehensive plan it was noted that residents were concerned with discrepancies between the future land use map and the zoning map and the comprehensive plan listed

and every single parcel that had an inconsistency between the existing zoning and the land use map, this parcel was not depicted in that list.

So it was not an area of concern for residents at the time according to the list that's included in the 2001 comprehensive plan, which I do have a copy of if any of you would like to look at that.

So parking and circulation,

I heard concerns about pedestrian access.

Six parking spaces are required.

We're providing seven.

And it's a one-way circulation to the site, which will mitigate some potential conflicts with pedestrians because you're not having two-way traffic going out onto Carlton Avenue.

Yes, I want to take a quick moment on parking just to highlight something we've learned that's interesting today.

We're looking at your proposed parking ordinance for Belmont area, which this is part of, the new area that could be subject to permit parking.

And if you read this, what's the code?

If it were a duplex, a two-family, there could be eight bedrooms there, you know, unrelated people, which is fine.

I think this two-family

Unit housing type is better, but a saying was that a single family or duplex gets four permits, now four street parking permits.

As the code is, our multi-family building, because it has adequate off-site, will be entitled to none.

So if this were approved to an R3, the residents would not be eligible to park on the streets.

So in a way,

You're taking congestion off the streets by making it multifamily because all the parking required is on a site.

I just don't.

If it was permanent parking, right.

Right, yes.

Correct.

Given, yes, if they do have more, yes.

And so this shows the Bainbridge, Leonard, Chestnut shows available on street parking currently as stands.

I lived for

I've owned for a decade a house in Fifeville that was an infill development just like this, very similar on Fifth Street.

And everybody had a second car.

And there was only one space per each of the six units.

So it was just like this.

There were six.

And everybody had a second car, or a third.

And they all parked in the neighborhood.

And how far are you from the Belmont Center?

Yeah, well, yes.

And the map on the left is, sorry, just one.

Yeah.

And Ms. Creasy, am I correct during the Planning Commission meeting they said that the zoning changes that are being recommended for this area stay the same?

Is that what I heard from the July 10th meeting?

So it said it does not conform to current comp plan standards like this.

Because we don't have a new comprehensive plan at this point in time, the standing plan would be the 2013.

So the land use map that the commission is currently working on is in process.

What are proposed changes to the 20?

Is that something that you can answer?

I don't believe they have any changes to this area at all.

Could I just make one more statement before you open public?

You know we look at a lot of these little parcels around and it's very difficult to find places where you can go to sort of a more affordable type and let's say market affordably if it's not 100% affordable because really the easy money on these is just put a single-family house there.

That's the reality of it and I don't really think that's a good long-term

for this particular property, I think we have to look at these opportunities to say, hey, here's a spot where we can build a building that's in scale with those around it.

We can have adequate parking that's defined by the code.

Realizing from what I say, that's not enough, but that's what your ordinance requires.

We have one more than the ordinance requires.

So that would suggest if that's not enough, then what's going on with the rest of the city.

So I really think these things need to be weighed.

And I know the density of the study is higher in the comprehensive plan, but there's other avenues that we need to think about that are important considerations.

and I think this one fits the bill for an infill, so you really can have very minimal impact and if it's plotted with a parking zone, then you can require to have people not park on the street and I really don't, I think you have to at some point create housing that doesn't have that multiple, that idea of having two or three cars or you're not going to get people away from it.

I know in my own experience with my office when I moved off the downtown mall at a parking lot, people started driving to it.

They could walk, but you enable this kind of activity and it happens.

I think you have to look for places where people can move to and say, hey, I accept the fact that I have one parking space.

This is fine.

This can be enough to walk to or bike to whatever other services I need on a daily basis.

There was another concern about the alleyway and whether you all would repair the entire, or have you all taken a look at that since the July 10th?

We haven't spoken with the neighbors, but the alley gives us the right to maintain it, to improve it.

It's an alley that's in disrepair.

That's right, yeah.

I mean, there's a practical element of we're going to rent these units.

We need to have, especially that's, you have to leave that way, right?

So we need to make that functional.

And the AMI, could you talk about that a little bit?

a period of not more than 10 years.

Intention is 10 years.

And I think we got that.

This doesn't trip the level for affordable housing.

We're way under the FAR in the zoning ordinance.

But we think that the 15% affordable is a good goal to the extent that we do any development, we can provide onsite.

I've done that in a couple projects in Albemarle.

We've actually built onsite affordable that's just developer funded.

And do you have a clear, during that discussion you had some, there was some question about what the rent would be for your property.

We have that number actually.

came from the new housing study.

So two bedroom 80% AMI, including utilities, is still remarkably high.

It's 1460 is the 80%.

And it's an interesting, just a quick side note, I actually have a little housing complex in Nelson, my wife and I run, where we rent to people for like $7.50's our max for a two bedroom.

We can do it out there because it's a different cost of doing business and whatnot.

Unfortunately, you really can't build new construction and rent for less than that here.

It's unquestionably a massive problem.

What's a 60?

We can look at that.

I have to tell you, I don't actually own this property, so I can't change that proper on the fly.

But yeah, I mean, I think, I can't commit this moment.

If you said that that was the only way this could be approved, I'd certainly go back to our owner and say, hey, this is the consideration, and we'll talk about it.

I think there's a value in just having six two-bedroom units that are at that level just 80 to 100%.

and Market Rent because it's going to open up some housing to that level below.

There's an infill SUP available.

For R2?

For R2.

What would that be?

It's an increase of 1.5 on the density.

plus up to a bonus of two for meeting a certain requirement on the LID checklist.

So R2 is, I want to say 12 units an acre, roughly, and so 1.5 would get you to 16 units an acre.

And as I understand it in our current zoning,

when the SUP is clearly articulated in that zoning.

So the public can see that with any particular use type, they know that there'd be an SUP associated with it.

So it wouldn't be like anybody springing anything on the public.

There's something that's already there.

It's already in the zoning.

An SUP is already a possibility in the zoning.

It still needs review, but it's a document, correct?

I think that the sort of marginal increase of going to like two, eight or four bedrooms to maybe four bedrooms, actually more bedrooms than we have here.

But sort of that increase probably made it better off just to make it a single family house, just from a dollars and cents standpoint.

And I also think we looked at the zoning map and said, why is this thing R2 if everything up and down the street is

B3, B2, R3 already.

So it seemed to us like if the building scale was not wildly out of proportion in height, right, 35 foot height, compared to what was allowed on our adjoining properties, which are actually so they could be redeveloped at 45 foot building heights on both sides of us.

And I hear that, but again, the standards of review say that we have to go towards our conference plan, and the standing comp plan is 2013.

And that is, that puts this area in a low density area that's an R1, R2 blend.

And so if it's, you're asking for rezoning now that doesn't match our comp plan vision.

This is kind of just coming out of the blue that it's an R3.

It's not even associated with what's allowed by an SUP under R2.

I just want to get that clear.

Yeah, I think that we've done the same.

I didn't consider that to be the same number of bedrooms.

I could do three, four bedrooms.

you know

Two bedrooms is great for them.

So I was just thinking about my experience with that.

I said, well, two bedrooms would make sense here.

And the building's not so large.

And in some ways, I look at the comprehensive plan.

I look at the ordinance and how it sort of became allowing less and less density over time.

And I think that's at least a little bit of our issue today, attributable to that.

And so I look at that and say, well, maybe this was in 2003.

We thought, like,

All right.

I'm going to open the public hearing.

Do I have it?

Oh.

Okay.

You see the camera?

Frans.

Good evening.

Good evening.

My name is Frederick Schmidt.

I live at 312 Chestnut Street.

And the petition I handed to you is signed by 17 residents, mostly on Chestnut Street, and a couple are close by.

And I have two statements that were formed by committee.

I'll try to read them quickly.

First is the comprehensive plan calls for no greater than 15 units per acre.

This request calls for the equivalent of 24 units per acre.

approximately 24 units.

This is more than 50% above the limits called for in the comprehensive plan.

The Planning Commission exercised due diligence in the two previous meetings and voted both times to deny the request to rezone.

The effect of the proposed plan because of inadequate parking would be to have spillover parking that would affect not only Chestnut Street but much of the neighborhood.

Many homes do not have off-street parking, so others park up the street from the proposed development would affect those residents and there would be a ripple effect on others.

Finally, there is a major traffic issue on Main Bridge Street down to the corner of Carlton and Carlton where cars are parked in the street and basically there is a one-way street which you must take turns to get through, particularly with delivery trucks parked there.

And also, the other statement

We ask you to vote against the rezoning for three reasons.

First, the rezoning will provide more unaffordable housing.

There are already two approved or by right developments planned within a three block radius, which will almost certainly be unaffordable.

Only one of the units in the proposed plan is identified as affordable.

That is for not more than 10 years, making it unlikely it would be affordable for even a year given the current rental market.

The proposed development would not provide sufficient parking where we support a city that is pedestrian friendly and transitions from cars to walking and biking

There are significant safety concerns in this area of Belmont.

This is a street with no sidewalks on one side and a three block area with no sidewalks at all in Chestnut, Myrtle, Spring, Cherry.

We encourage you to review with staff what the parking and pedestrian safety plans are regarding the other two developments, one across from Carlton Avenue and one on Holly Street off of Monticello Road.

Finally, the rezoning does not follow a city's comprehensive plan.

When my family moved to Belmont 31 years ago,

We moved there because it was the only neighborhood that we could find the district affordable.

We've loved raising our family in a diverse neighborhood with older neighbors, young families, homeowners, renters of all different backgrounds and incomes.

While I know it's tempting to look at this rezoning as a single decision, I urge you

to look at how it relates to the other developments currently planned in this area of Belmont and what its impact will be on affordability of housing in Charlottesville, the safety of the families that live here, and the ability of other families of all incomes to move here.

Thank you.

Karen Katz.

Hey guys, my name is Rory Stolzenberg.

I live on Water Street between first and second.

I'm coming up to speak to speak emphatically in favor of this development and to say that this sort of project in a relatively wealthy neighborhood, relatively white neighborhood where we're talking about having two units or six units with one affordable is exactly what I'm talking about, what I'm talking about.

Neighborhoods across the city sharing the burden of density.

We should have it everywhere.

We're talking about a lot that's a 12-minute walk from where we are right now, a four-minute walk from the center of the Belmont neighborhood commercial corridor.

I submit that the impacts of unaffordability of having more units, whether they're designated affordable or not, relative to having a single-family home or two units,

can only be in favor of affordability.

Adding supply to the market is how you reduce prices.

I know you haven't had time to read that Glazer article yet, but I hope that you do.

And I think you'll find that this is exactly the sort of project we should not only have now, but really need all over the city.

And I hope that in our

comprehensive plan to come.

We can fix the failures of this one and allow for more housing.

Thank you.

Would anyone else like to speak?

Okay, closing public hearing.

Do you want to do a motion before we get to comment?

I don't think we have to do a motion because it's just a first reading.

The only thing I would advise you all is if you're comfortable with this going on the consent agenda for your next meeting that's fine but if

I'm not comfortable with it going on the consent agenda, because I think I'd look at this in tandem with the SUP request, which has a lot more information and addresses.

Right.

Down to 50% or 60% and you stated, hey, I don't own the property.

Talk to your partners.

I would be very interested in hearing what they

how they feel in regards to going to that AMI level?

Well, I thought you have to talk to them.

I mean, sure.

I think that

We have many goals that we have to meet.

There is an affordable housing crisis, and we also heard tonight with great passion the importance of community engagement.

That is what the whole point of the comprehensive plan update is, is to get the public involved in these discussions where we learn together about the severity of the crisis of housing, but also the importance of the character of neighborhoods that people grow up in, live in, raise their children in.

That's physical character.

So I'm looking at this situation as seeing a very, it's a breakdown of a transparent, accountable process.

The zoning ordinance is something that the public has grown to understand is a document that has direct bearing on what happens on their property.

The Conference of Plan is a document that's supposed to tell the community and everyone else, including developers, what the future vision is of the community's development.

In this case, the vision is the land use plan, it is not being met by this project, and secondarily,

by not doing the SUP with an R2 that would have increased the density in a missing middle format, the public has been denied knowing what the rezoning was going to be.

Out of the blue is R3.

If there was an R2 with an SUP, at least it's in the zoning document that that's a possibility.

Right now the public is not privy to what's going on in their neighborhoods because a property owner is coming forward with their own individual plan, their own individual vision of how we can meet the affordable housing crisis.

This is a community process that we must undertake.

And it also just flies in the face of our other goal for community engagement, transparency, and accountability.

I find it

really, once again, after being here for seven years trying to change the zoning, trying to get it to be comportment in alignment with the comp plan, our zoning is out of sync with our vision, and then our vision seems to be out of sync with our zoning.

And we can't do this anymore.

We gotta get moving on the comp plan update.

We gotta make sure we have these community conversations, and then we've gotta get the zoning to match that vision.

Right now, this is a shell game, I believe.

Just a thought, which is I would urge everybody who is following on TV, I hope, the affordable housing debate and the policy discussion that the city has been in for a while now and is going to go into for a lot longer to come to follow this very closely.

Because these trade-offs and these tensions are exactly what the city is squarely

in the mix of, and I thought that Mr. Solzenberg referred, who's a new member of the Planning Commission as of tonight, referred to it, or whenever he gets sworn in or whatever, but referred to it pretty well because we've had some big battles even in the last couple years.

Density most, I mean there's debates about it, but at least what our own housing study said is we need more supply because we're in demand across all strata of housing

and so on.

So we need more of it because what is happening right now is the wealthier people are snapping up the middle income and the middle income people are snapping up the lower income and because the city is in demand and that has made housing more scarce and it has made it more expensive because the city is in demand and that hurts

if density near you feels like gentrification or feels like whatever word you're going to put on it, it's also, if you're saying no to it all, it's contributing, having less supply is contributing to increasing prices, which is what our own housing study said.

Now, that doesn't mean that we don't do it sensitively.

We don't have it incorporated in a comprehensive plan.

The problem I see is that when you're

Delaying things always behind a 10-year comprehensive plan process or what we've talked about with the zoning study, it's very hard to get projects underway because it takes a long time.

Probably a couple years have gone into this project, so if it's scrapped entirely, then

I'm not saying it's I'm in love with the project and I did live in a development that was almost identical to this and it was really tough because I mean I would think that if we move this ahead one of the things that it would constrain would be putting permit parking in the immediate blocks around this because you're gonna have six to ten cars probably

I think we have to think about

expeditiously increasing supply in the city because otherwise it just will get more and more expensive.

But I totally ally myself with everything that Councilor Galvin has said also.

It's also going, if I may add, the Riverbend development is going to be adding about 130 units within this area.

This Belmont Center, I've asked last meeting that we actually do a more rigorous parking study because of the crunch in the parking because of all the commercial investment in that area.

This is a tragic condition where this was not planned.

This was an area that was rezoned neighborhood commercial corridor.

which put a lot of pressure into an area that didn't have the infrastructure to sustain it and now everyone's shoehorning more units into this area and it really has not been given any kind of forecasting as to what needs there are where there's not even sidewalks.

So I think this is a reflection of our failure to do long-range visioning and planning.

No, but I just want to say that there's 12 small area plans in the city.