City Council Meeting   12/16/2013

...strong advocate of creating affordable housing for renters and home buyers, fighting poverty, reduction of racial disparities in our community, whereas Mr. Norris was instrumental in establishing Charlottesville Housing Fund, which has established to assist city residents in finding affordable housing and help local agencies in their mission to do the same.

Whereas Mr. Norris has worked tirelessly to promote environmental sustainability,

in our local and regional planning, and has been a driving force behind many of the city's clean energy initiatives, including LEAP, municipal and seasonal electric project, and bicycle and pedestrian improvements throughout the city.

Whereas during Mr. Norris' tenure on City Council, the city saw the largest expansion of parkland in decades.

And whereas Mr. Norris has worked to encourage greater cooperation and collaboration

between City and University on a large range of issues.

Mr. Norris has decided his time and service to a number of the boards and commissions during which he served on Charlotte City Development and Housing Authority, MECA board, FAR advisory board, Peatman Housing Alliance board, Thomas Jefferson area coalition for the homeless and LEAP advisory board.

where the City of Charlottesville is fortunate to have benefited from Mr. Norris' services in the City Council for almost seven years, during which he made contributions to this community and could not possibly be united here.

Now, therefore, the Charlottesville City Council to hereby sincerely thank Mr. Norris

For his years of service to the city council, we heartily wish him full success in his future endeavors.

Silent Seal, 16 December

A token of appreciation on behalf of the city council.

Thank you to the city and the city of the city.

I hope you enjoy this meeting.

Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor.

And not this one.

He doesn't reuse the paper.

I'd also like to point out that Mr. Norris hasn't just taken to wearing jewelry for no reason, but the two necklaces that he's wearing

are the necklaces that show the colors of the two warrior groups in Winneba, our sister city in Ghana.

And most people in Winneba are a member of either one warrior group or the other.

And Mr. Norris was named when he was mayor of Charlottesville as, I don't remember how to say it,

Osagene, which means that he is the warrior chief of both of the warrior groups and so he gets to wear, he's the only person who gets to wear both.

He's probably the only vegetarian.

Well, just real briefly, I know we have a very long agenda, but first of all, thank you for your recognition.

It's been a tremendous honor to serve with each of you and to serve the citizens of Charlottesville over the last seven plus years.

And it's hard to believe this day is here because I remember my very first day sitting up here.

But it really has been a tremendous honor and a pleasure, really has.

And I'm very proud of the work that we've been able to accomplish together over the last seven plus years to make this a better community on so many fronts.

And we've been through some hard times and some hard decisions.

We haven't always agreed.

But one thing I really appreciate about Charlottesville and I really appreciate about this city council is that 99 times out of 100, we can

come to disagree agreeably when we do disagree.

And it's a community that really values civic engagement and civil engagement.

And so thank you for the honor.

Thank you for your service as well.

Keep up the good work and I'll be I'll be watching carefully, I'm sure.

I have the honor of recognizing a young man in the audience here tonight who is a participant in the first T program of Charlottesville.

This is a wonderful program, a wonderful regional program that has

really engaged so many young people in positive activities since its inception.

This past summer, Philip Hoffman, who's a seven-year participant in the First Tee of Charlottesville, and an 11th grade student at Charlottesville High School, represented the Charlottesville Chapter of First Tee at two national events.

The first was held on June 12th in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Philip and nine other national finalists were selected to receive the Royal Bank of Scotland Achievers of the Year Award.

This award recognizes first-team participants for outstanding achievement in spite of insurmountable odds and circumstances in their life.

And if you know Philip, you know he's had a really amazing life story and he's an excellent example of what a young person can accomplish when he really sets their mind to it.

The RBS, the Royal Bank of Scotland, provides scholarships to assist with ongoing education after high school.

As a finalist, Philip received a $3,000 scholarship to the College of his choice.

He was also a recognized guest at the 113th United States Open Golf Championship at Marion Golf Club.

He is the third Charlottesville participant to receive this award.

In July, Philip was also selected to attend the prestigious Player Advanced Academy held this year at the University of Richmond.

He's one of 25 selected from a nationwide pool of applicants.

Selection is based upon academic achievement, school and community service, chapter service, certification level, and the desire to pursue advanced competition at the collegiate level.

He is the very first chapter participant, a first T. Charlottesville, to attend the Player Advanced Academy.

So on behalf of the City of Charlottesville, we just want to say how proud we are of Philip and we congratulate Philip for his national achievements and exemplary representation of the Charlottesville community, the Charlottesville chapter and First T. So please join me in a round of applause for Philip Hoffman.

And Philip, I don't know if you'd like to say a few words, but if you'd like, you're good?

Go ahead.

Detective Joey Lewis, on November 9th, 2012, we received a call in the 2200 block of Stadium Road where a female victim had reported that a male subject had attempted to abduct her.

They struggled for a time and she was able to break free from him.

She ran home and was able to call 911 and provided us with a description

of the suspect as well as the vehicle that he was driving.

Then Officer Lewis was actually preparing to go home for the night, but instead got back in his police car and responded to the area of the call.

Using some detective work and some experience, he knew that he needed to start looking in the outer lying areas.

He was able to find a vehicle that matched the description that she had given

He followed that for some time and they eventually made their way onto I-64.

He was radioing in this information to our dispatch so that other units could come and assist him.

At one point he was able to parallel the vehicle and he used one of our, what we call our alley lights to light the vehicle up to see who was driving and the driver matched the description that the victim had provided.

He continued to follow that vehicle.

The vehicle exited at 64 and decided to just suddenly pull over on the exit ramp.

At that time, he got behind the vehicle, activated his emergency equipment, and at gunpoint ordered the driver to drop the keys out of the window and he held that position until other units arrived.

They took the suspect into custody.

He was taken to the police department and interviewed.

and he told the detective that he had been planning this attack for some time along with some other details of what he planned to do to the victim.

It's our belief that had he not been caught that night he would have attempted this again and traumatized another female victim or even worse.

Based upon those actions we nominated

and Officer Lewis for the American Legion Officer of the Year Award.

Thank you very much.

Would you like to make any comments?

Thank you.

I just wanted to get a little clarification on Page.

Did you want to give me a revised one or these?

We'll be a little bit backwards here.

The city of Charlottesville offices will be closed on Wednesday, January one, 2014 for New Year's Day.

The Shonsel Area Transit will operate at Sunday level service on New Year's Day, only the free trolley and Route 7.

Trash and recycling will not be collected on January 1.

Collection will be postponed by one day for the rest of the week, Wednesday.

Collection will take place Thursday, Thursday collection will happen Friday, and Friday collection will happen Saturday.

I have another.

Great.

Thank you, Page.

City of Charlottesville offices will also be closed on December 24 and December 25 for the Christmas holiday.

The Charlottesville area transit will run regularly until 4 p.m. then on a holiday schedule.

There will be no Charlottesville area transit service on the 25th.

Trash collection will be normal on December 24.

Trash and recycling will not be collected on December 25th.

Collection will be postponed by one day for the rest of the week.

Wednesday collection will take place Thursday, Thursday collection will happen Friday, and Friday collection will happen Saturday.

This Thursday

We have a budget work session coming up.

This is the one that's rescheduled from last Monday.

It'll be at 6 p.m. in the basement conference room.

We'll be talking about some of the kind of principles of the budget for the year.

So if you want to come and talk to us, I'm pretty sure we'll have a public section to that.

It's not a public hearing, but we will have a chance to participate and also listen to what's going into the next year's budget.

I'd just like to announce that the Holiday City Market will be open this Saturday despite the tragedy this weekend with the building.

The holiday market will be open from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m.

It will be in its usual location at Water and South Street parking lot.

Unique gifts and decorations to meet all your holiday wishes will be offered at the holiday market.

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

And for those of you who don't know, the little building that's in the city market lot burned down on Sunday.

Fortunately, it was not during the market.

Nobody was around.

Nobody was hurt, but the building was completely destroyed and has now been removed because it was dangerous sitting there the way it was.

Mr. Mayor, I'm pleased to move the nomination of the following individuals to city boards and commissions.

To our board of architectural review, Whit Graves, Tim Moore, and Carl Schwartz.

To our personnel appeals board, Joseph Sable and Richard Brewer.

To the community development block grant task force for the 10th and Page neighborhood, Justin Serafin, and we still have a number of additional openings for that group.

for the Workforce Advisory Council, Stephanie Carter, Adam Hastings, Susan Erno, Valerie Palomonton, Barbara Kessler, Barbara Miller, Rod Gentry, Helen Cawthon, Ridge Schuyler, Adrian Felts, Sarad Davenport, Frances Burns, Donna Kaufman and Jenny Kim Haynes.

And we do have one additional slot open for a representative of the workforce community, the target population.

Any second to that question?

I second.

Any discussion?

Should I vote?

Thank you.

Any other announcements from any of the staff?

Okay.

Members of the public, please come forward to identify your name and address and take up to three minutes.

Mayor Huja and members of the City Council, my name is Paul Long and I live at 1410 Grady Avenue here in Charlottesville.

I am dismayed that with the introduction of the new bus service and routes beginning in times beginning January 4th on the CAT system, many residents of the Charlottesville area will be denied easy access to the public transit system.

With the increase in the commercial and building activities in Charlottesville and Albemarle County, with the increase in residential construction and with the resultant increase in

and population for the region and the increased congestion of the autos in our roads and highways, it should be apparent that we need a drastic increase in public transportation services in our area.

Pedestrians are being killed and maimed trying to cross Rio Road, Route 29,

and other arteries.

I propose that the City Council divert the $3 million budget surplus to the Charlottesville area transit.

With that money, CAT could operate all the bus routes on Sundays and legal holidays, and they could restore the proposed cuts or a decrease in services to the bus routes that were approved by City Council recently.

And thank you very much for your time, and I hope the City Council has a nice holiday.

Thank you.

Good evening, Brandon Collins, 418 Fairway Avenue.

I've lived in Charlottesville my entire life.

I have three children who also have lived here their entire lives.

And before I go too much farther, I think it's totally awesome that Dave is here for this meeting.

I think you all know why I'm here.

I work for FAR and we're eagerly awaiting the report on the Housing Authority that the City Manager is putting forth this evening.

You know Dave, you've been a real friend to residents of public housing and a friend to FAR and a friend to me and I think you know all the great things they just said about you at the beginning of the meeting has gotten you in hot water with some folks in this city from time to time and I think that's the best award you could possibly get is maybe getting a few people pissed off at you and I think we're all proud of you.

Don't agree with everything you've stood for over the years but

You have been a friend and I hope you all will listen to his comments tonight as Mr. Jones goes over his review of the Housing Authority.

We are curious to see what happens.

We've read the review that's in the materials.

We are not going to offer any support or non-support on the items presented but we are very curious and definitely support the idea of greater city involvement with the Housing Authority either entirely or on a number of fronts but in any event, what I have here is hard copies of stuff I emailed you all earlier and I think I have enough for everybody plus Ms. Wright

But as I was going over that stuff, particularly comments from the HUD review of the Housing Authority, it struck me that a lot of the things that FAR has been bringing forward way back in April 2012, we've been coming to you over and over and over again asking for help and hopefully you're prepared to take things a little further.

but a number of those things that we've brought forward in the public still have yet to be addressed and that's a problem and some of the things that have been addressed by the Housing Authority policies and such like the Barman policy continue to be implemented terribly and it shows it's not just a matter of some policy changes but structural and systemic changes and I really hope you'll look at that.

I think it's telling and a testament to the

Incompetence of the Housing Authority Board of Commissioners and the CRHA staff that none of them are present here this evening with the exception of Mr. Huja, my bad, beyond Mr. Huja and newly appointed Resident Commissioner Allen and former Resident Commissioner

Talbert, there is no one here from the Housing Authority and I think that's a shame with such a big momentous and big change being discussed about the Housing Authority that none of them would appear.

Now if they're watching me on TV, maybe they'll show up any minute.

We do hope that as you ponder this and you ponder redevelopment, that redevelopment is going to be a disaster.

if you still have a broken housing authority in place.

And so it's imperative that the systemic and structural problems with the housing authority are addressed before you talk about redevelopment in a major way.

Greater involvement of residents.

We're encouraged that you're bringing forward more resident engagement as you go over this review.

And we look forward to more details.

And ultimately, you know, the criteria we're hoping is based on resident input and greater accountability from the housing authority.

Well good evening mayor and city council members.

I'm here to wish Dave farewell and to thank him and Holly Edwards.

for all the good work that y'all have done.

And I know the list is pretty long.

You covered most of it.

But I know that y'all worked on Bank On.

Y'all was very instrumental in that.

And reentry, and out of reentry came believers and achievers.

And the SRO, Dave, I happened to be there probably about two weeks ago.

That place is absolutely beautiful and the only thing that I could say, I was there with Shamour, she was catering there one night and the only thing I kept saying to them was, I have to thank Dave for this building because it took a lot of homeless people off the streets and it's gorgeous, so I want to say thank you for that.

I also want to thank you for the African American Infant Mortality.

I know you and Holly worked on that.

And you all did a couple of educational programs.

One of them was Safe to Sleep.

Program that provided cribs to infants.

I know you was instrumental in doing a lot of the environmental studies.

And you have been a big supporter of FAR.

And I remember being at the low income housing conference and Dave did a workshop.

And I know you have also been instrumental in all the neighborhoods, making sure that things was in place.

I also want to thank you for the Bill of Rights, you and Holly.

I know in traveling with you and Holly and Joy, I know that's one of the things that other organizations across this country wants to adopt.

So I want to say thank you for that.

and also with Redevelopment Done Right.

And what I would like to say, Dave, those are some pretty big shoes to fill.

But you know what my prayer and my hopes are?

That somebody may want to fill those shoes.

Because if it wasn't for you and Harley, a lot of stuff that's pertaining to the low

wealth communities wouldn't be happening.

And I'm really proud to say that I know you and it's been good and I hope that you don't leave the area because there's a lot more work to do.

So with Bob and the other person I cannot say, but with Bob

coming on board.

Thank you, Kristin.

Thank you about somebody else.

With Bob coming on board, I hope we can count on you for reentry because, you know, that is something that's needed and I can see that my time is up.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dede.

Yes, my name is Larry Jones and I live at 301 Middleton Lane.

The reason I'm here is to talk to you about the parking on Middleton Lane, which they are measuring off about 40 feet where they are talking about condemning the parking on this particular area from the corner where I live, 40 feet back.

We can only park seven to eight cars on that block.

That's all we can park on that block.

If you take 40 feet away from there, there's a duplex right beside where that I live, with three bedrooms in the place in the back and three bedrooms in the place in the front.

And this is going to cause quite a problem as far as parking goes when these apartments are rented out.

We're having a hard time then and it'll just cause hard feelings amongst the people who live on this street to try to find a place to park.

And before we go into making a decision by December the 25th to make a decision to stop parking there, I think we really need to look into this a whole lot closer and find it

And this is really beneficial to the problem we're having there because the parking is going to be a problem.

Only seven cars on the block like I sit now.

I don't know what else to tell you, but I could sure use a little concern here because this is going to cause a real hardship with us.

I have a son who is sick, had a liver transplant, and we need this parking place in front of my home.

And I'm asking you all to look into this.

It is troublesome to my family and myself, and I need some help on it.

I'm Lily Williams, P.O.

Box 866, Charlottesville, Virginia.

I come on behalf of CHIHAMA and the African American Festival, and I bet you know us.

Well, I come with greetings and invitations.

Greetings.

CHIHAMA's 25th

Very special anniversary.

Annual African American Cultural Arts Festival events will be held in Charlottesville, Virginia in Albemarle County July 23rd, 24th, 25th, and 26th of 2014.

It is CHIHAMA's mission to create events to celebrate this rich heritage of people of African ancestry and recognize their contributions to the community, the nation, and the world.

Now our theme this year is going to be Where We Are,

I'm sorry, where we were, where we are, and where we're going, 25 years of history and heritage.

You are invited to participate Wednesday, July 23rd, African American Heritage Youth Forum and scholarship presentation location to be announced.

Thursday, July 24th, A Taste of Ghana,

A palette-pleasing cultural experience prepared by Sister City Chefs of Winneba and Entertainment in the location also to be announced.

Friday, 25th, Ladies Night, an evening for ladies only, only featuring fashions, health-provoking chats, refreshments, and fun at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center.

And on Saturday, July 26th, the biggest event,

Chihama's African American Cultural Arts Festival Parade and Community Health Fair at Booker T. Washington Park.

The festival events are free and open to the public thanks to our sponsors.

We have come to ask you to extend an invitation to Charlottesville Sister City and Winnebagoana to attend our planned events.

We take this opportunity to thank you for your contributions and support.

Now I'm going to speak for myself right now.

I've been a longtime committee member for this festival.

I love it, and we absolutely could not thrive without your support.

Thank you.

Hello, council members.

My name is Janice Jones.

I'm the wife of Mr. Jones here with the second party.

I'm here to let you know about the proposal to stop the parking on 301 Middleton Lane.

We have lived in this house for almost 17 years.

Parking has never been an issue going up and down this Middleton Lane.

I've had one accident which was a car backed out of a park,

across the street, the neighborhood, and backed into my car.

We've never had any problems going up and down the road.

At one point, the road was made from a two-way to a one-way lane, and now they want to take the parking place away.

Now, when they went through and fixed the new road, we did have a paved parking on the side there.

That will do.

It's very small.

You can hardly get two cars in there.

but they went up when they paved the road and made it a double lanes, got two yellow lines in it and apparently when I spoke with Mr. Buchanan, I think his name was, Gerard, he said that they shouldn't have made the yellow lines in the road and that is what's causing the problem where you only have so much room going up and down the road

So anyway, as I said, we've been there for a long time.

This is something that's new.

We haven't had this parking issue before, and I would like your consideration as to keeping the parking places where they are.

Thank you, ma'am.

Good evening, Council, Mr. Jones and Council.

I would like to extend our thanks to Dave Norris.

He's leaving council in one capacity, but he has also said he's going to be with us until the OLR project is 100% complete with no glitches and we thank you for that enduring and support.

We really appreciate that.

I'm here to speak on behalf of the new glitch that has arrived on Middleton.

with signs being posted that there's no parking that will take away some parking in front of two residences, one with Mr. and Mrs. Jones' property and people within being affected, and the second is a rental

which is like a duplex where you have multiple family potential there and that is also going to be affected greatly.

We have always been in consideration for one another and going in and out of Middleton, in and out of Mobile, in and out of Monte Vista.

We have parking which is kind of tight and squeezed on those three streets.

However, with consideration and with manners, we continue to be a neighborhood and hosting those two signs to present another glitch in this OLR project is very frustrating.

It's very premature.

We still have some issues on Middleton that need to be resolved because we have some

drains that don't catch the water as intended and those drains are to be remedied well before anything else should be perhaps addressed along there.

So it's kind of like putting the cart before the horse in this issue and we have been told by traffic that the double yellow lines were put down in error.

I will be happy to pay for

a bucket of black paint and a roller.

I'll be happy to give you labor free and I will paint over those double yellow lines if that's the issue is money on time to do it.

But I really think that it's something you need to address.

because it is a neighborhood issue and it has put a glitch unnecessarily, another glitch to be faced by the folks that are already facing problems that need to be addressed to be corrected and I thank you so much for listening and I see my yellow caution light and Mr. Norris, thank you so much for following and Mr. Fenwick, we appreciate your time and effort as well as you

get to be on council.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor Huja and other members of the council.

I am Dr. Tom Daniel.

I lived for 28 years in the great city of Charlottesville and only recently moved to Albemarle County at 826 Coleridge Drive.

I'm here tonight to propose raising the city tax on a pack of cigarettes by an additional 15 cents in fiscal year 2015.

The group that I represent, Citizens for Youth Smoke and Prevention, has prepared the handout that you have received by email and also I'll pass again tonight.

Please pay special attention to the one-page summary of five important facts and considerations that we want you to be aware of.

I'm a retired chest surgeon who taught in practice at both the University of Virginia and Martha Jefferson Hospital.

I have done thousands of operations trying to cure my patients of lung cancer, and I've also done dozens of lung transplants for smokers with advanced emphysema.

But more importantly, for the last six years, with the help of two wonderful nurses, Barry Carvath at the Free Clinic and Professor Janie Heath at UVA School of Nursing, I have run a quit smoking group that is free and open to the entire community.

We meet weekly in the State Health Department building on Rose Hill Drive.

The sobering facts about smoking are these.

Even with the best of care, if you were to get lung cancer today, you have only one chance in five of being alive in five years.

Lung transplants are a great treatment for emphysema, but only few lungs are available.

Lastly, only about 20% of adult smokers in national studies are able to quit smoking, even with the support of a group.

Of interest, our local quit smoking group has seen a 50% quit rate, but it is very hard work for all involved.

These are the reasons why I think it is so important for our Charlottesville community to do whatever we can to help our teenagers never to start smoking.

The reality we need to address tonight is that cigarette smoking is not just a bad habit that good intentions can overcome.

It is a powerful addiction.

The nicotine in cigarette smoke is a highly addictive substance.

Studies have also shown that the earlier one starts smoking and therefore becomes a nicotine addict, the less likely they will be able to quit later in life, and I certainly have observed that in our quit smoking group.

Our brains are still forming in our teenage years, and nicotine addiction creates literal physical changes in our nervous system that stay there for life.

Your packet represents evidence that increasing the cost of cigarettes does reduce consumption.

If by raising the city tax 15 cents, we were able to keep even a dozen of our teenagers from starting to smoke, we will have given a wonderful gift to them and to our Charlottesville community.

Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, Council, I'm Randy Page.

I live at 1401 Wellford Street in the city.

I'm a taxpayer, and I have concerns about the wisdom of putting the YMCA in McIntire Park, given all the changes since it was approved by a slim majority six years ago.

Carver and Smith recreational facilities weren't even planned.

And I ask, are we funding our own competition?

Is there really room for all these low-cost facilities?

The master plan for the eastern side of McIntire Park is new.

The loss of 100 parking places near the pool and the building of a permanent skate park, already one of the city's most popular outdoor youth activities, will further stress parking.

The handicapped, mothers with strollers, people who don't want to drive to Melbourne Road but want to visit the botanical gardens and enjoy the beauty of the Oak Tree Ridge will have to access the Eastern Park from the Y side or climb the hill from Melbourne.

How will this affect parking?

Any sizable activity in the Botanical Garden along 250 will impact all activities on the Y side of the park.

David Brown, mayor at the time, it was approved, was so worried about the parking and its impact on the park he spoke to all of you about the problem.

And things are now different from when it was approved 3-2.

How will material storage be handled for the year and a half the Y is being built?

Is there a plan for this so that activities in the Y side of the park will not be disrupted?

Paragraph 12 of the ground lease users agreement states the Y will give the Charlottesville high school swim team priority access to six lanes for practices up to two hours immediately after school classes

and during the high school winter swim season and otherwise subject to the same terms and conditions established by the lessee with respect to other teams using the pool.

We gave them the land, we gave them over a million dollars and they're charging the swim team.

This was never discussed in council but will have an impact on budget.

Pool time is expensive.

These questions

and others need to be answered before the project goes forward because of the changes in the park.

I stood here in March and fully did not expect to stand before you again on matters concerning the Y.

The multiple construction dates, the first being July of 08 and the latest given to me by Mr. Blanks is August of 13, have all come and gone.

But in between these times, things in the park have changed significantly.

There are many pertinent questions now that in 2008 were not relevant.

I support the Wyness Mission, but I think we're making a mistake by putting it in the park.

This is about the stewardship of McIntire Park and the public treasury.

I ask that you please deny the extension or table it until more study is complete and address it at your meeting in January.

Council, thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight.

I'm Mary Frances Porter.

I live at 2239 Brandywine Drive and I'm speaking as Vice Chair of the Board of Region 10 Community Service Boards and the Chair of the Public Policy and Advocacy Committee.

City Council has historically been very supportive of Region 10 and we deeply thank you for that.

Each year I come to City Council just to let you all know about the current successes, issues, and priorities facing Region 10.

First, we're proud to say that this fiscal year we've employed nearly 700 individuals, served more than 6,700 individuals, paid over $24 million in compensation, spent $35 million in total expenditures.

More than 2,000 Charlottesville residents were served at a cost of $14.6 million.

For every dollar of local funds received, Region 10 has generated 22

dollars and 96 cents from other sources making region 10 an excellent return on investment.

Furthermore, the good news is that we are able to blend and braid funds in order to support 37 programs operating in a deficit out of our total of 61 programs.

The bad news is that three of these 37 services are particularly important.

These are medical services, which are psychiatry services and operate at an annual deficit of $600,000, emergency services, which are crisis intervention services and operate at an annual deficit of $700,000, and case management, which is currently limited to seriously mentally ill population and those with intellectual disabilities, and we are unable to serve additional consumers who would greatly benefit from these services.

As poignantly highlighted by the Deeds Family Tragedy, these services are central and critical for the health and safety of all communities.

With increased demand for these services, it is important that we seek funding at the local, state, and federal level.

The city's financial support, regardless of the amount, is critical to ensure our most vulnerable citizens have the care they need and that our community is healthy.

Furthermore, your advocacy at the state level is also critical.

Please help keep the sense of urgency in the state conversation around mental health.

Additionally, the issue of adequate public transportation and sidewalks at Region 10's old Lynchburg Road building, which currently houses 177 employees and almost 1200 appointments a week, is a central staff and consumer issue.

We have asked CAT and Albemarle County to be creative and partner with Region 10 to figure out how to directly serve this building.

If CAT chooses not to serve this building, then we request Council's support in lobbying Albemarle County to install traffic lights, crosswalks, and sidewalks on Fifth Street extended and Old Lynchburg Road so that staff and consumers can safely get to the building.

Lastly, as you heard last meeting, we remain very concerned about the access to the Meadow Creek Center on the corner of Mickey Drive and Hydraulic.

We understand why a blinking light and additional policing are being put in place at this time.

We hope that Council continues to actively figure out how to manage the Hydraulic corridor so that staff, consumers, and Mickey Drive residents can enter and exit Mickey Drive safely and efficiently.

Thank you again so much for your time and attention and support and advocacy on behalf of Region 10 and the people that we serve.

Good evening.

I'm Dr. David Moody.

I'm the medical director at Region 10.

Even though I'm a resident of Albemarle County, I'm pleased to be here to represent this agency, which I've had the pleasure of participating with for 30 years.

I'm here to represent one of the prongs of emphasis that Mary Frances mentioned, which is our medical services, our psychiatric services.

While we try to foster and encourage the recovery of folks in all areas of their life, psychiatric services has become a very important part of that and I'm pleased to provide that emphasis.

However, I wanted to point out that over these 30 years that I've been there, there have been a lot of changes and there's been a lot of growth.

Growth is a good thing and it's been a very positive experience.

but it presents some challenges.

Over those years as there's been growth in the agency and the need for those services, there has not always been the corresponding growth in the capacity for psychiatric services that we want to provide and to provide thoughtfully and competently.

The first of those is that there's been a growth in the population.

Given that there's a certain percentage of folks that face the challenges of mental disorders or intellectual disabilities,

There's a corresponding increase in the numbers of people that need services.

Without an increase in the capacity, it's harder for us to serve them.

Secondly, Region 10 has been able to enjoy

Fostering collaboration with many sister agencies within the community, the Charlottesville Free Clinic and others that have, I think, been able to reach out to many folks and provide needed services that again brings the need for capacity that we need to be able to supply and have been unable to.

And lastly, which is not in the purview of you as City Council, but our agency serves neighboring rural counties as well.

There's been a growth there.

And I say that that's important because within the agency we look to have on our staff people that have been there committed and long time service, working full time as their commitment to community psychiatry.

And so being able to serve the growth in those counties I think impacts our staffing as a whole within the agency.

Being there 30 years, I can speak to the fact that our current psychiatric staff has a long tenure there, which I'm very proud of, and it shows the very commitment that has been there with the kind of service we've offered.

However, that makes us vulnerable as some of our staff get older and look toward retirement of replacing that staff.

Recruitment is a problem.

Payment for the positions that we offer is one factor in that recruitment issue.

I think the other is that there's a nationally demonstrated shortage of physicians, but particularly psychiatrists that you may have read about.

And that poses an additional challenge.

So I appreciate your attention to this particular facet of our budgetary requests and your work on our budget later today.

And thank you for your time.

Happy holidays.

And thanks, Dave, for your service.

Thank you.

Good evening, my name is Joseph Bostock and I'm a big part of Regent Tain and I'm also the vice chair of the CAC standing for the Community Advisory Council.

We need mostly support for emergency services and also case management and psychiatry.

I've been getting services from a young age since I was about 10.

That's a long time before I got a record or something, I don't know.

But we just need most of the services from that.

And buses situation, we need more buses running on Sundays.

We only have the seven in the trolley.

Thanks, Joe.

Good evening, Council.

I'm Robert Johnson, the Executive Director of Region 10.

I wanted to just say that we're going through a lot of transformation at Region 10.

We're working very hard on becoming what they call a health home, and that means that we're going to probably

We've been in a position a year from now to do a lot more than just the behavioral health services that we've provided in the past 40 plus years, but we're also trying to partner as a health home

with the major hospitals in the area, Martha Johnson Hospital in particular.

So I wanted to tell you about that because as we renovate our Peterson building, it's going to look a lot different than it's ever looked and it's going to provide more services than it's ever provided before.

I think that's a great thing and it's all in keeping with the Affordable Care Act, health care reform,

and the changes that are going to be coming to our landscape in the near future for individuals who come into our services.

The intent there is to provide more of what they call one-stop shopping.

And as Region 10 becomes more of a community partner through our involvement with the Coalition, I think it's good for the Council to know about those types of changes because the change is so deep, so different in so many ways that as it happens, it's important that you know

at least get a preview of what could be coming ahead of time.

It helps us describe also what we can do for the community in the near future that we have not been able to do before.

So our involvement with the coalition helps us at the state level as a result of the tragedy with the state Senator Deeds and his son and his family.

We're working very closely at the state as well through this General Assembly session

and are hopeful that the first big step that was taken by the governor will allow us to bring even more services to the community.

Thank you very much.

We will have another opportunity for people to speak at the end of the meeting.

It's a long agenda, so we have tradition to allow 12 people to speak when we have the time.

A couple quick ones.

But I just, is Miss Williams still here?

Okay, I had a question for her about Cheahamba.

I think we have always supported that and I think we're planning to invite our friends from Ghana to come for that anyway, so I'm delighted about that.

Let's see.

Those are all on the agenda.

The cigarette tax is something I'm very interested in.

And I will say, as a former teen smoker who started smoking at 11, and when I quit in my early 20s, it was the hardest thing I have ever done.

So I can attest to the fact that when you start that young, it's, I think, harder.

So whatever we can do to keep kids from smoking, I'm all for.

Whether or not Albemarle County joins us, I think we should do it, but I would really like us to urge Albemarle County to join us and do it regionally.

and I think a 15 cent cigarette tax is perfectly reasonable under those circumstances.

I totally agree on the cigarette tax that unfortunately, as I understand it, correct me if I'm wrong, if anybody knows the facts, but I don't believe Albemarle County is allowed to issue it or to levy a cigarette tax.

That's correct.

But I do support it.

I mentioned earlier in the meeting how we've gotten a lot done in this city in the last seven or eight years on a large variety of fronts.

The only tax increase we've made in seven years that has gone into effect during my time on council was a cigarette tax increase, which I

proudly supported, not because it was going to bring in additional revenue, just because I know the impacts that it has, particularly on youth smoking.

And I think they've made a very compelling presentation tonight.

The only quibble I have is they're proposing that of the new revenue brought in by a potential cigarette tax increase, that 2% of it be used for smoking cessation programs.

I'd like to see that up a bit.

If the council is going to increase cigarette tax, I would suggest that, you know, that seems rather paltry.

So that's on your shoulders.

I do want to get staff to follow up on the comments about the parking on Middleton and just sort of what precipitated that proposed change and it does seem like it's going to result in a fairly significant burden on the property owners and the residents on that street.

Councilor, if we can bring up Mr. Tolbert.

And while he comes, I realized I forgot that wasn't on the agenda, but we also got a picture actually from Ms. Chase that says it's a proposal.

Right.

That was actually an innocent move by our assistant traffic engineer who was out in the neighborhood looking at something else and saw that narrow section street and said, ooh, I think it's dangerous for somebody to park in a part of this.

And so he put up the signs, as is our practice, to get comment and opinion on that.

We did.

And we have already made the decision that we're not going to change the parking there.

And the double yellow line was not a mistake.

That was in the plans from day one.

I'm not sure how that, why that got said or what was said.

But the double yellow line is not a mistake.

Right, it's a safety matter, yes.

As Ms. Szakos said, a lot of the other items will be discussed later on, but I did want to thank everyone who came and spoke on behalf of Region 10 and the wonderful services they provide.

They're really, it's a valuable organization and we'd be lost without them.

And I'll just go next to say ditto on Region 10.

I think we've all known now for years of the crisis that mental health funding is in.

And I remember talking with Free Clinic when they did partner with Region 10 and started to offer some even low level of psychiatric services, they were shocked.

at the demand and it wasn't just an appointment here or there.

So it's critically important and of course we've had a very public incident with the Deeds family.

It's a shame it takes something like that but I am optimistic that we'll see more funding and I hope that we take it to heart as well.

I'm really glad the Middleton thing isn't resolved.

I find it funny that there's a double yellow line on this tiny little street but

And thank you, Mr.

I just have one comment, Mayor Huja, because everyone else has so ably discussed the other items that I agree with.

And just as Mr. Paul Long's comments about the CAT and expanding the service by the tune of $3 million more, that

I really do believe we need to be talking more and more vigorously and aggressively with our counterparts in the county about a regional transit authority and I do believe we have that opportunity.

We will be talking tonight about major investments in our public transportation, excuse me, in our transportation network with regards to

safety with regards to the kind of streets we have, the kind of intersections we have.

So we are investing in our transportation network and trying to make it much more accessible for pedestrians and cyclists and safety is paramount.

So unfortunately, we're spending money on transportation and there's so many aspects to that topic that it can't all go into one mode of transportation.

I'd like to make a comment about the cigarette tax.

I met with the group last week.

I encourage them to come to the city council.

I support the cigarette tax for two reasons.

Number one, it will prevent some young people to get started with cigarette smoking, which is very bad.

And secondly, I'm not opposed to some more revenues for city funds because we're going to need money for education and many other things.

So I would like to

to see how we can proceed with this staff level.

Certainly be part of the discussion.

Okay.

That would be a good idea.

There was one today.

just occurred to me that I- I believe it's the December 28th.

Actually, I have them right here.

December 28th at 10 a.m. and Saturday, January 4th, also at 10 a.m. And the meetings will be at City Space downtown to discuss- It actually goes into effect on January 4th.

It goes into effect on January 4th, exactly.

Oh, you're right, you're right, I'm sorry.

Yes, so the meeting,

One today and then one on the 28th.

So December 28th is your next chance at 10 a.m.

Item number N, which is dealing with care a lot.

I'll move it after the public hearing and my report of the state of the city.

Item A, minutes for December 2nd.

Item B, an appropriation, Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation, FY 2014, mid-year funding allocation, $565,105, second of two readings.

Item C, an appropriation, Charlottesville Sheriff's Office insurance claim recovery, $12,943.95, second of two readings.

Item D in appropriation, Yarny Loan Payoff, $8,411, second of two readings.

Item E in appropriation, reimbursement for attendance to the Congress of Building Code Officials, $1,000, first of two readings.

Item F in appropriation and transfer for the Thomas Jefferson Area Coalition for the Homeless Collaborative, $65,000, first of two readings.

Item G in appropriation, FY 2014 Jaunt pass-through funding, $480,724, first of two readings.

Item H, an appropriation of funds from Charlottesville City Schools to the Buford Science Labs Project, $451, first of one reading.

Item I, a resolution release of outstanding $30,000 Albemarle housing improvement program loan, first of one reading.

Item J, a resolution FY 1213 and 1314 action plan amendments and housing funds allocation, first of one reading.

Item K, support for first day introduction requirement for bills with local fiscal impacts, first of one reading.

Item L, a resolution release of encroachment permit at 853 West Main Street, first of one reading.

Item M, a grant application for trails program, Meadow Creek Trail and Bridge Construction, first of one reading.

Item N, an ordinance sale of Kenwood Lot has been pulled.

Item O, an ordinance petition to rezone.

Property adjacent to 601 Concord Avenue, second of two readings.

Does any members of the council like to move or comment on any of the items on this agenda?

Next item is a public hearing on resolution authorizing a lease agreement

from 608 Ridge Street.

Good evening.

As you know, LEAP currently operates their non-profit operations from the house that we own at 608 Ridge Street in the upper two floors is where they're located.

They utilize the main living room facility for meetings and community events.

The basement's currently occupied by a single individual, Heather Higgins, who's on a month-to-month lease with the city until June the 30th of 2014.

She had previously, Ms. Higgins had previously indicated to me that she might need to move out of the unit by November, but in contacting and following up with her since this memo was prepared and in preparation for tonight, she indicated she's uncertain about whether she's going to move or not.

She may need to go

until June to the full term of her current lease.

And it's currently approved Lee could take over her space should she move out either at the point of moving out or, you know, after June.

Well, I guess July 1 of 2014 with an increase of $400 per month.

However, due to budget constraints and some organizational transition that they're going through, they contacted me and they told me that they deemed that to be a bit excessive for their current budget.

So we're proposing tonight to extend the current lease until June 30, 2015 and allow them to assume the basement apartment upon vacation by Ms. Higgins for only an additional $200 per month.

We feel like it's best to keep the property occupied, have someone in there.

until the city decides to sell because it's best for maintenance and security and upkeep reasons.

Leaving a house vacant is just never a good idea for an extended period of time.

Having leave

occupy the space because they have a mission for increasing energy efficiency in the community has some intrinsic value to it.

It's kind of difficult to quantify that, but they use the space in the house and every meeting really is an opportunity to showcase the features of that particular home and for the community to see how an energy efficient retrofit can be done with an historic house.

We know a sale will be difficult with the house because the city has a sizable investment in the property.

We're not likely to recoup that full investment upon sale.

Including $264,000 of donations, the city has roughly $590,000 involved invested in renovating the house.

With acquisition costs of $170,000, the city's total investment is about $495,000.

And you include the value of the investment, it's roughly $760,000.

Finding comparable properties to justify a higher than average sales price will be very difficult given the location of the home, the high-end features, and the LEED Platinum certification that has been placed on that most recently.

While another tenant could be identified to come into the basement in lieu of letting LEED use the space, finding someone to fit both that small space and sharing

The space with LEAP is challenging.

Before we go to public hearing, are there questions or clarifications?

Honestly, we never did a comparison of

that small size, you know, basement unit for that particular area.

How many square feet is it?

It's approximately 600.

I'm going to open a public hearing.

Is there anybody in the audience who would like to speak on this topic?

If not, I'll close the public hearing.

Now the Council has any questions?

Comments and motions?

Although it sounds like that perhaps is not an issue necessarily until, you're saying the tenant is- Starting June.

This June.

One thing that we talk a lot about is the need for workforce housing and the unsupported rent that costs in that range.

And to take a unit out of circulation worries me a little bit.

I love LEAP and I think they do great things.

One thing we could do after the current tenant moves out is rent to somebody who doesn't have dogs, but just put that as a thing on the lease.

But I think that we should

Sounds like we may want to revise a lease in the future and say no pets if it's a new person, if we've learned that lesson.

I love LEAP and I'm on the advisory board, so disclosure, and I think they do just really amazing work and are in an interesting point in their development because they are moving away from having some very, very large grants and implementing them and being, serving that role in our community to being more service based.

So I think we, you know, it's

Given the history of LEAP in our community and our involvement in it, I think it's prudent to continue to support them.

So I would hope that we would keep LEAP in the building.

I do have sympathies, though, with your argument.

And I do have a question about the expansion of LEAP itself, that if LEAP is feeling it needs to expand,

But then it doesn't have the resources to meet the $400 a month rent.

I'm wondering why we're essentially being asked to subsidize the rent for them.

Are they having financial difficulty?

And then secondly,

And those are all valid and good points.

As far as expansion, I don't think it's so much expanding their current programs or staff, they're just busting at the seams.

They keep that, the living area, living room if you will, it's a house.

The area with the fireplace, they keep that open for meetings and they don't have staff in there.

I think a UVA intern works in there occasionally because they're still doing the monitoring for the energy efficiency.

So they have that person kind of in and out.

But the rest of the space, I mean, whether it's the kitchen, you know, upstairs, they are crammed in every nook and corner.

And I imagine if you look at proportionally adding 600 square feet to

Well, the other thing to keep in mind is that when LEAP started, they were just serving Charlottesville and Albemarle, and now they are serving big portions of Virginia.

based here in Charlottesville, based out of that house.

Well, let me share that I also support LEAP very much.

And I think the rent they get right now is a very good bargain.

I don't think you could find rent $600 for that kind of building.

And I think $400 is, if they need space, I would want to encourage them to

Give them the space before we give it to somebody else.

I'm sure that could be done.

The resolution hasn't been moved yet.

Well, I'll second that.

Would you accept an amendment to extend the lease to leap on the main part of the house but to keep the basement part as an apartment?

It seems to me their main need is space.

They need more space.

And I think the other question is whether or not we're going to give it to them at a 50% lower cost or keep it at the $400 a rent.

That's fine.

I don't know that we can do this really, but in a way I would want to then say that extra $200 or that the $200 difference should go into the housing fund, since we are taking housing out.

So is there a motion on the floor saying that there's a motion to amend the standing resolution so that I guess to paragraph two of the lease, the following amendment, I would amend that number two

to read that the tenant shall pay rent to the landlord to the amount of $1,000 per month, correct?

Or when they take occupancy.

Yes.

That's different than what Councilor Norris moved.

I second it.

So I was amending that resolution as presented.

And this says that they may take occupancy.

So does the seconder also accept the motion?

Do you accept the amendment?

Yes.

You do.

Any more questions or discussion?

Good evening Mr. Mayor and Council.

This item also requires a public hearing as it does involve lease of public property.

The city was approached a couple months ago by a telecommunications provider seeking to lease some antenna space on the Market Street parking garage.

These antennas are 20 inches by approximately two and a half inches in diameter.

They're fairly small.

and they've been designed to go within the existing light fixtures on the side of the building along the mall side.

I do have some pictures here if you haven't seen them, if you're interested in seeing those.

There's also some radio equipment cabinets located inside the parking garage that they would be connected to.

Given the location, the Board of Architectural Review was required to review this item and issue a certificate of appropriateness.

That was done.

That was a 7-0 vote.

in favor.

The applicant would be required to install, operate and maintain the equipment at their cost and they would be paying the city approximately $9,000 per year.

It's a five-year lease that has been proposed.

It does require a public hearing.

My name is John Cooper.

I live in Snowshoe, West Virginia.

I represent Verizon Wireless.

I'm a bachelor of science electrical engineer.

I've been an art of engineering for over 25 years.

I've worked in the field of radio health and safety, and this site complies with all of the requirements from the FCC of monitoring and managing electromagnetic radiation and

and power levels.

This is what's called a small cell and it's not like the large cells you see on the towers or the top of buildings.

This is a very low power, very low radius transmitter.

It's made to just cover the walkway and the Market Street area of the shops and the locality.

So it is a low power and it

And there's not just one unit.

If there are no questions, any more questions and clarification?

If not, I'll open the public hearing.

Anybody would like to speak on this topic?

If not, I close the public hearing.

Second.

Yes, this is going to generate $9,000 a year for the city.

And I assume that's the notions that just go into our general fund, Mr. Jones?

So it seems since this is quote unquote found money,

You know, there are initiatives underway.

I know the Promise Neighborhood has one and there's others to expand internet access in low-income neighborhoods in Charlottesville.

Would the council be amenable to targeting this money in support of those kinds of initiatives?

I think it's a great idea.

We are in the middle of a strategic planning process.

and I would like to not jump into this.

Is there a motion?

Is there a second?

Any more discussion?

In Virginia, anything you do more than the most becomes a tradition.

This state of the city which I will present to you today is a joint effort of the city council, staff, and citizens of the community.

It is not done by one person.

Next.

Charlottesville is a great place to live, work, and enjoy.

And I think that's why we live here.

It is highly recognized

Every week I hear some recognition, Top 100 Places to Live, Most Romantic City, Smartest City, Top 10 Book Loving, Small City for Women, and College Town.

There are many recognition that gives the indication of the quality of our community.

It is a great community to live in.

and some of the people who are involved in this effort you can see in the picture.

It is a great diversity and concerned members of the community.

In this year, we have also had our Vice Mayor Szakos re-elected, Mr. Bob Finnick elected as the city council member, and Mr. Norris is going to be leaving us on the council.

Charlottesville today has had no tax increase in many years, has high quality of service, excellent national reputation, and AAA bond rating, which is not too many communities have in this country.

We always have interesting visitors.

We met President Clinton, and we had Judge Clemson from Ghana also visited us in this year.

We had visitors from Sister City, from Venable, and Chinese education dealing with education.

City Council has a vision which is important framework for our community.

Economic sustainability, Centre for Lifelong Learning, Quality Housing and Opportunity for All, Art as a Culture, Green City, Healthiest City, Connected City, Community, Community of Mutual Respect, Smart Cities for this Government.

We aim for these goals in improving our community.

In this coming year, economic sustainability will be a very major initiative.

Flats on West 219 units and 12,000 square feet of commercial space, New Manette Hotel on West Main Street with 124 rooms, City Walk Project with 300 units, CFA Institute with 143,000 square feet, and the new economic developers in our community.

New major projects have been approved this year.

Standard on West Main Street with 189 units and East Market Street, 57 units and 19,000 square feet of commercial space.

This speaks for the economic health of our community.

There have been dramatic improvements on the mall.

There are very few service calls that are reduced.

And as a result of the mall work group which have been working to see how we can improve our mall area.

Council has made attempts dealing issues of poverty and creating opportunities for our citizens.

We also developed a strategic investment area study which was just completed and we hope to implement it in the coming year.

We have job fairs to encourage with jobs for our citizens.

We recently had a skilled trades summit last week.

In the area of the Center for Lifelong Learning, the city has been very generous in supporting our schools.

As you know, the state share of the schools has gone down, the city share has gone up.

There's more and more burden on the city, and that's why I mentioned earlier about the taxes.

City Council also funded science lab to encourage STEM classes in our school system.

We have pointed a blue ribbon question to see if financing needs of the school system.

City Council also appointed a youth council which is now working to involve young people in our community.

We also supported nursing assistant program.

In the area of housing, last year a number of projects have been done.

Timberlake Place, which is a 28 unit housing project for elderly.

I heard a definition of elderly recently for seasoned citizens.

We also have a close relationship between city and housing authority.

We funded playground improvements in housing authority playgrounds.

The city has also received about a million dollars in private sector contribution to affordable housing which we hope to use for affordable housing.

We also started block by block rehabilitation program in the city last year.

We have supported the restructuring of TJAC for homeless to better deal with homeless issues.

In the area of arts and culture,

We have a vibrant art community in this city.

We endorse the cultural art plan, which is an important step in improving our cultural supplies.

We have supported a variety of cultural events and festivals, at least 11 or 12 festivals the city supports in the last year.

We also have supported Jefferson School Heritage Center,

City of the Green City has adopted a water, storm water utility system to protect the environmental quality of our community.

We also adopted a tree conservation ordinance and promoted the use of granular activated carbon for water purification.

We're also starting electric charging stations through mini-grant.

In the last year or two, we acquired about 55 acres of parked land for the city.

America's Healthiest City.

We have active living programs.

We have adopted a move to health program.

We have built master plan for Transylvania Park.

Military extreme value master plan has been completed.

And Greenbrier Trail has been expanded.

Meade only trail project is being built.

We have connected community.

We revamped our transit system and I think we have a much better transit system than we have now.

It provides better services to our citizens and I think it could be improved even more.

We also have done an ADA study for improving access for the transition plan.

We also funded part of the funding for synchronizing lights in 29 North and we will be having further discussion on this tonight.

Route 29, Route 250 bypass and the change is now under construction and will be completed in the coming year.

We have secured funding for pedestrian bridge connecting east and west part of Beck and Tappar area community of mutual interest

We have promoted dialogue and race, and I think we have been a very important step in appointing the Human Rights Commission to deal with human rights violations in our community.

We have also promoted LGBT rights and employment benefits.

We have partnered with and honoring Olivia Ferguson in the integration efforts of the city.

And an interesting event we passed was a resolution, a drone resolution to protect privacy of our citizens.

I must say I got more feedback on that issue than any other issue in the last eight years.

I've had visitors, callers from all over the world.

So we must be doing something right.

Despite our citizen-focused government, we need to hold, turn on meetings to hear citizens' concerns and follow up on those concerns.

We have launched the performance measure scorecard to better evaluate our services.

We have taken part in our national citizen survey to find out what our citizens think.

This year started a place design task force to improve the quality of design in our public facilities.

We also adopted a comprehensive plan which is a major policy document for the city of Charlottesville.

We also adopted towing ordinance.

Since the year of progress in government, as I mentioned to you earlier, we also received an award, a platinum award from the Virginia Municipal League.

We also have a triple-A bond rating.

In looking forward, in coming year, we hope to be working with Houston Authority and some form or other.

We hope that we will have a new city market, at least in construction we will be discussing this tonight.

We will also be hoping to build a well-bound bridge in the coming year.

We will be starting the implementation of growth opportunities.

We will also be working on the strategic planning process for the city.

We will also be doing implementation of the SIA neighborhood program,

and opening a new city walk, open program.

We are doing a plan for West Main Street to think ahead.

It has been a good year and it has been a very diverse community and we have been very fortunate.

The city is in good health and doing well.

It gives a great place to live, work and enjoy and I hope you will enjoy the community and keep on improving the community.

I imagine.

It is nice to see it all in one place.

Next on our agenda is sale of Kenwood Lane property.

As you know, we had first reading on this at our last meeting, but the proposal in front of you is, or the ordinance under consideration right now is the sale of 1279 Kenwood Lane to Hugh Scott and Susanna Wood,

for $105,000.

And then with a real estate commission, the total sum would be $101,850.

There was a discussion last time regarding the possible sale of the property, maintaining the property under city ownership, selling that or keeping that property.

However, that was considered and then defeated on a 3-2 vote.

I have a question for you.

There is a drawing showed the excess easement in your drawing.

It is not an easement.

It's 10 feet wide.

And can you explain what a pipe stem is?

I think it's just a terminology.

I've heard the term like, you know, flag property.

It's kind of like a flag pole going back to the property that's the flag.

But it's just a descriptive, you know, word for a small strip of land.

It's generally used to provide access to a public right of way to the property that otherwise would be landlocked.

Okay, so on a plat, when you see a skinny little piece, right.

Let me ask you a question.

Depending upon the size of the vehicle, certainly.

For very large, heavy, earth-moving equipment, it's probably insufficient.

What would be sufficient for that?

For very large stuff, but all of our maintenance vehicles would certainly be able to... For large, what would be the size, 20 feet?

It's one potential way of accessing the last part of the stream for the restoration.

It's not the only method of access.

We haven't had a full-blown conversation with the contractor about, all right, tell me the dimensions of every piece of equipment you would use.

But if you saw some of the equipment that was used for the primary restoration project, some of it was small and some of it was big.

That I couldn't tell you.

Proposal for you guys to shoot at.

I suggest that we sell this lot for a housing unit of fronting canwood with 20-foot pipe stem for two reasons.

One is that it will provide better access to larger equipment.

Second, it will provide a more open, spacious entrance to the area because 10 feet is pretty narrow between the two houses.

Is there room for a house and what would remain?

Let me finish.

My proposal is that we sell

So I have a question before, I mean if somebody wants to second it.

Okay, I may be later, I'd like to discuss a little bit more.

I have a question, is that I haven't heard from anyone on staff or

anywhere else that there's a need for more than 10 feet and it sounds like if there was a need for construction that can come from somewhere else and I'm

wondering why we would need to do that.

But it can't.

That's what we heard.

It's not the only way that it could come in.

Well, that's why we bought the land, was to get access to this part of the park.

But not for heavy equipment necessarily.

Mr. Daley's here.

Well, the reason we pursued acquisition of the property was to complete the stream restoration.

That was the primary reason for pursuing acquisition.

The previous landowner never responded to multiple requests over a period of years from The Nature Conservancy and the city to provide for a construction easement on the lower portion of the parcel that will allow the stream restoration to be completed all the way to the railroad.

Had that occurred and that landowner provided that construction easement, we're probably not having this conversation.

because we wouldn't have necessarily pursued acquisition of the property to complete the restoration project.

If we didn't pursue the property for access, we pursued it to complete the restoration project.

I think that's an important point.

As we work through, okay, if we're going to take this strategy, acquire the property, carve off the bottom,

floodplain area that will allow the stream restoration to continue.

We also should be able to provide pedestrian access from the community into that end of the park.

On the extreme eastern end of the stream valley, there is not an entrance from the right of way into the park.

It's all the way down at Jamestown.

So that was part of the other strategy.

A 10-foot pipe stem, if you will, is perfectly sufficient for that.

In fact, in many cases, in some other communities, it's not even that wide.

It may be six or eight feet that allows for pedestrians and bicycles and that sort of thing.

So that was our thinking at the time, that 10 feet would be sufficient.

In terms of accessing the lower portion of the parcel,

In the long run to do the stream restoration, this makes sense as a logical point to access that portion of the site.

However, there are other ways to get there.

You can use the easement, part of the easement that is the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority that runs along the length of the stream.

that it will be maintained at a 20-foot width per their easement.

That is one method of access.

You could come down this 10-foot strip using smaller equipment.

The key question will be, you know, how do we work through those logistical details?

I'd like to actually, first of all, second Mr. Huja's motion just

I'm totally happy with it, but I'd like to see it at least get decided.

It's interesting that Rivanna's easement is 20 feet.

I know it's probably for different purposes.

But the idea that we don't know whether the equipment can get down the 10 foot, we apparently assume it can get down the 20 foot easement of Rivanna's easement.

I haven't given that a ton of thought, but I would not think so, no.

Yeah, I'm a little worried about kind of setting up in this kind of neighborhood kind of the assumption that large equipment is going to be coming through there.

What I was visiting this Sunday, I went to walk other end of the park and there is a

entrance.

There is no formal parking lot entrance to this whole 64 acre, right?

That's what you told me today.

There's multiple park on the street and use a path to get in.

But the Jamestown does at least have

the same scenario that we're seeing today on the ground today, which is that there's no house at the end of the cul-de-sac.

And there's a trail, I believe it's paved, isn't it?

Yes.

And it goes across, and that's what the children use to go across to Greenbrier School.

So it would be more in that liking to have, it would be the same scenario in Kenwood if there was no house.

that it would be you park on the cul-de-sac and it's an entrance to the park and if indeed there's a tunnel at some point that makes it even more important access point for...

At our last meeting, I talked at length about my concern that we were not being more aggressive in providing affordable housing in the north side of town.

And that's why I appreciated the Habitat proposal.

That is now off the table.

Is it possible to make a condition on the sale of this land that there be an accessory unit?

I don't think there's anywhere to put one.

I know, but we own the land and we make conditions all the time on city-owned land.

While he comes up, I am concerned about

the steep slope there.

And I think that the narrower that we make the buildable lot, if we are going to try to encourage somebody to build a house there, the more likely it is that we're going to run into steep slopes issues.

That's exactly one of the points I was going to make because of the sort of wedge shape of the lot.

The more you push the setback over, it kind of pushes the house back, if that makes sense, because the line is diagonal.

It's pushing it back, which does make it harder.

It pushes the whole development closer to the steep slope part of the house.

But in my reckoning, I've been to the house and measured approximately where the setbacks would be.

and in my mind sort of laid out kind of where the development would go and it would work great with the 10 foot, it would amount to a 20 foot setback when you include the pipe stem and the setback line.

So you're already 20 feet off of the existing property line and I think it would work fine with that.

I think pushing it any more than that

She's not talking about two structures.

I mean an accessory unit.

For the bigger house.

For the bigger house.

Your garage, your house, anything like, you know, accessory unit.

Well, it is currently zoned R1.

I have a question for Mr. Brown.

When we were dealing with the Stonehenge property and we had a critical slope waiver before us and you said, well, you have to approve this basically because it would, you know, the developer couldn't do what they were doing.

Are we by any chance in approving the sale of this lot for a house

What the city code currently provides is that for a lot of record, and this would qualify as a lot of record, it is exempt from the steep slope requirements for the first single house dwelling you build on that lot.

There is a proviso to that, which is that if you can put the house in an area where there are no steep slopes, then you have to do that.

So Mr. Huja, is your motion to amend the existing motion?

Yes.

And I would be making a motion then

to amend it further to make an accessory unit a condition of sale.

Crystal Ritterbald is here tonight and involved with stream restoration work.

I grabbed my ear just a second ago to make sure that the council understands this is a one-time, the stream restoration entry of that equipment would be a one-time event.

It could be handled with a temporary construction easement with Mr. Scott's concurrence.

Well, it does seem to me that there's two amendments on the table, right?

An existing resolution, one where there's an accessory unit, that's part of the condition of sale, and the other one is Ms. Mir Huja's, which is yours,

I think the purchaser or the potential purchaser made a compelling argument for not crowding it too much but I you know my initial preference was to leave it just as green space altogether but if we are going to build on it I really like the notion of having a very visible

accessible entryway at the east end of this park for all the reasons that Ms. Smith laid out at our last meeting.

I wonder if there is an appetite to maybe just cut it down the middle and just do a 15-foot pipe stem and just leave the price as is.

Before we, I'd just like to kind of go at that because I think that we deal with the same issue about squeezing the latin so just to the whole issue of squeezing it or not, one thing that I would actually think might help more than making it wider is to make it better marked so that we have, you know, whether it's, you know, the way that we

I think you can.

Sell the property subject to specifying the use and that could be a single family home with an accessory apartment.

It's hard to just allow the opportunity for it.

Absolutely.

That's certainly the owner's right.

So are there discussions?

And actually, since Ms. Wintervold is here, I can ask you, have

I know you got someone contacted you about what she described as a blowout, some sort of stormwater pipe that was creating a hassle.

Sure, it's my understanding that there's a stormwater structure at the street and a pipe that then daylights partway down the hill slope.

And to the extent that it's blown out, I think it's very typical of

Water running off a street and coming down the side of the hill to the extent that there's a forested buffer between that point and the stream, I think there's some protections in place.

If that's answered your question.

So the storm water from the street does discharge further down on that parcel, but not right in the stream.

It sort of goes down.

Would it be the opportunity

If this was a green infrastructure model to divert the stormwater into

That would be one opportunity, wouldn't it?

I think there is some opportunity.

I know there was some discussion about whether that was the best or the right place for a green infrastructure feature.

The drainage does flow down to that property.

If it were disconnected from the structures, something could be done on the site itself.

But again, I think given the

Thank you very much.

There is actually some decent natural system down at the bottom, so you're not seeing erosion of the hill.

What was all the activity there, does anybody know?

I mean, I think there were a number of us that went out there to take a look at different situations and to discuss a potential strategy for accessing the stream to complete that restoration work.

And as Kathy mentioned, the intention would be for that to be very within a window of time that once that effort's done, that equipment and that project is finished, everything's backed out and it wouldn't affect the buildability or the sellability or

Yes.

Just that we do them one by one, rather than as a bundle?

I suggest a 20-foot, and then Ms. Norris suggests a 15-foot.

Yeah, I mean, I personally, I agree with Mr. Huja that if we're going to, or I agree with both of you, if we're going to build on it, which I do not, I think actually violates our newly approved comprehensive plan that encourages the

Ms. Lewis?

Are we talking about 15 feet or 20 feet?

I could certainly live with 15 feet.

I agree with Ms. Szakos, I don't think we need more than 10, but for the sake of

And my concern, and it sounds like there's three, so I'm not going to fuss too much, but I will say that we let out this with the 10-foot request.

That's what was requested by Parks and Rec.

And I really am concerned that we're going to push the buildable lot into the steep slope, which I think is completely undoing the very thing we're trying to do by having this there.

Well, it's not a matter of what I can live with.

Well, you haven't made the motion yet, though.

Motion on the floor is for...

The motion is to amend Mr. Huja's motion.

Mr. Norris has made a motion to amend

the ordinance to provide for a 15 foot pipe still and I think that reduces the size a lot by about 1500 square feet.

And it may be that at that point if we do that the bid to buy it may be withdrawn because it will no longer be what they bid on.

Real quickly, the water meter and the sewer stub out that are in place right now are right, the water meter is right at 10 feet, I haven't actually measured where the sewer stub out is, but they would both be within that 10 to 15 feet range.

I don't know, the sewer stub out can obviously be moved back, the water meter

I think you should realize that you're getting what you're looking for, mostly.

Okay, so let's vote on the 15-foot amendment.

All those in favor of the 15-foot?

Okay, 4-1.

Is there a second to the motion?

Okay.

You now have the amended motion before you for second reading.

Okay.

Second reading.

The purchaser to buy it if we say yes.

since we've changed the alignment as well.

But I mean, if we vote yes to sell it to them, does that commit them to buy it or can they say no?

Okay, all right, that's fine.

It's 15 feet.

As also we amended last

What will change in the ordinance is in the second whereas clause it references that the city has proposed a subdivision of the property and it contains the number of square feet and 0.33 acres.

That will change due to the increase of the size of the pipe stem that the city is retaining.

A new plat will have to be prepared to show the new dimensions of the property the city is retaining.

Without knowing what the...

Exactly, yeah, the dimensions.

Page 97.

That boundary line, I believe, is

About 148.17 feet.

You're moving that 10 feet over.

Five feet over.

So 700 and... You're going to move back to that line a few feet also to give them area.

Can we then say, although we've already moved the line, I would offer another amendment to say that, although it does concern me that it is too much on the steep slope and without having it in front of me and not being a hydrologist, I certainly can't tell if it's a good idea, but to keep the size of the lot the same as advertised

What I would suggest is that you direct staff to reconfigure the lot to come up with an approximate same area.

I'll second it.

I have a problem with it because

Now maybe not having to open this whole thing open again.

I agree with Ms. Akos.

I think we need to do that.

All in favor of this amendment?

Now, Mr.

Doctor, the amended motion.

It's 15 feet, same as 12 feet, and an accessory unit.

I would say that, you know, I would have voted differently on the accessory motion if I had known that.

And I had a hard time with all of them.

Yep.

Good evening again.

I'm here tonight to follow up on the discussion at the October 21st meeting that was an update on the city market.

At that time, you all gave direction, given your interest in developing a request for proposal to solicit interest from the private sector to develop

the current city lots where the city market takes place.

There's actually five parcels that compromise about three quarters of an acre.

So I've gone back and we have developed a RFP that attempts to require

City Market, Mixed-Use Development, and Parking as the three basic key components of any response.

And the draft in front of you has a little bit more detail on each of those, but the way I understand the way RFPs are supposed to be written is you're supposed to seek a solution from the potential proposals

and not prescribe that solution.

So we've left a little bit of room there, but we have prescribed some basic boundaries of trying to incorporate the market at its current size, which is 102 excuse me, one hundred and fifteen vendor spaces approximately.

And the number of parking spaces on the site

No, that includes First Street.

It does.

And then with respect to the vertical mixed-use development, we didn't say it has to be any certain size or dimensions or height or anything, but it needs to require, it needs to incorporate that at some level.

In addition there are a number of kind of guiding principles that are intended to give some direction to the potential respondents and you can look through those and we can we can talk about those.

What is also intended to go with this would be a series of documents you don't see that list here but there will be 15 to

18 documents including past comprehensive plans, the most recent market feasibility study, the design competition that incorporated this lot and the neighboring lot, as well as some other market materials to give the respondents some guidance.

Let me make a comment.

The reason why I suggested in the last meeting that we have a RFP

so we can see what is the interest in public market and private market to develop this valuable piece of property, not only for city market but also for other development.

I am for giving some flexibility to developer because they'll know their market better than we would do.

And I should probably mention that

The RFP specifically addresses the city-owned property.

So, in addition to what I asked before, if we now have

115 vendor spaces, but that includes the street.

One of the guiding principles here does suggest that the city would consider closing First Street.

This has been talked about for a number of years and it's effectively closed on market days now.

My understanding, and I think they can provide it within the street as well.

The city would consider closing that street.

I understand.

I just want to make sure that we're not tying them into doing 115 within the confines of the lot.

Can you describe more the permanently closing first year?

and we can do that?

Yes.

Or maybe not.

Let me say, I don't want to

I don't want to micromanage your details, but I do share concern with Mr. Szakos that it will be very difficult to get 115 on block itself unless you're in the first or second street.

Or even to say however many there are currently on that lot, that they'd be required to have at least that many.

I do have some comments as well.

I noticed that under the guiding principles, the very last bullet was just one sentence proposals most evidence the developers familiarity with urban design principles with emphasis on pedestrian friendly street edges and landscaping because of the very low emphasis on that particular quality.

In light of the fact that we have multiple documents and multiple comprehensive plans that have been talking about in various degrees,

I think it's extremely important that we emphasize

the urban design principles as one of the required elements.

And I sent everyone some amendments to the RFP that that do just that.

And the gist of it is that the interested developers must design a development in accordance with the urban design guidelines established by the recent 2012 comp plan, as well as the Tori Gallas study in the 2001 comp plan for

A streets, B streets, alleys and urban design details in general and Water Street in particular.

It goes on further some of the details for implementation and it adds language that suggests that could entail, but overall it does also stress that furthermore as per that corridor study, interested developers must contribute to the improvement of intersections and streetscape along Water Streets.

I don't think this is too confining or too restrictive.

In fact, it provides clarity so that we're going to get better proposals.

Otherwise, we're going to get a wide range of very low quality in some cases and maybe very high quality, and there'll be a different price range.

Why is a streetscape and proper massing and scale negotiable?

Why can't we be more direct about the fact that that is a major corridor with lots of pedestrian activity and the

kind of uses that are at the ground level will be complementary to the live arts across the street to the other retail uses across the street.

Otherwise, we could very well just get a very blank, barren wall that's just the backside of the face of a parking garage.

It's just popping out the existing documents that we've been using for the last 13 years.

Well, when you look at the urban design details of the 2001 comp plan, they talk about A streets and so on.

It's amazing the documents you come up with.

The 2013 market study pointed that out that it was deleted in the 2007 comp plan and wondered why.

Okay, so the 2001 comp plan is still functional, it's still... Well, absent anything to replace those standards, yes.

Mr. Norris?

I didn't have any problems with Ms. Galvin's suggestions.

Well made.

Just more of a general comment, which is I'm not completely convinced that the development community is going to be able to come back with something that's really going to work, but as I told you, Mr. Huja, I'm certainly willing to see and test out this idea that we can make all this happen on this one site.

This is sort of one of the major pieces of unfinished business for me leaving city council.

I was really hoping we'd be further along right now.

And I've been all over the map, as have a lot of us, literally and figuratively about what to do with the city market.

And where I've landed, if we can't make this work, I hope council will seriously just consider just going with option one from the market feasibility study and just creating a public plaza.

Okay, any more discussion?

If that's so.

That is a million mile step forward.

I look forward to some proposals.

Next item on the agenda is Charlotte City Development and Housing Authority Review.

Mr. Jones, please keep remembering that this is a report.

Thank you Mr. Mayor, Members of Council.

In December of last year, the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority made a request of the City Council to consider a review of the Authority's structure, provide suggestions for improving the performance of the Authority, and consider the feasibility of taking on a number of the Authority's functions.

There was an agreement at the time that this review would occur after the findings from the Department of Housing and Urban Development were addressed.

In March of this year the CRHA Executive Director Constance Dunn provided a response from the authority to HUD and several months later the authority received word from HUD that their response had been accepted and approved.

So over the course of the last three months we've reviewed the authority's policies and procedures for resident outreach and coordination including its relationship with its residents, the financial health of the authority,

compliance with the regulations set forth by HUD, the maintenance of its facilities, the development of programs to assist in preparing its residents for a life of self-sufficiency, the feasibility for successful application for the rental assistance demonstration program, and short and long-term approaches to capital improvement needs.

Council's made it fairly clear in discussions that we believe that the council believes that affirmative steps should be taken to strengthen the relationship between the city and the housing authority and we all recognize that over the years there's been kind of a barrier that's been set up between the city and the housing authority

and that that barrier needed to be removed to some degree.

We've taken some important steps forward in doing just that during the last three months or so by having regular discussions between the city and CRHA staff, holding joint meetings with public housing residents and approving a $300,000 expenditure to replace old playground equipment on the housing authority properties.

So we thought that those were all very positive steps in the right direction.

Staff has now identified seven areas of improvement for the City Council and the Housing Authority Board to consider as we move forward.

We believe that there is a sense of urgency with the Housing Authority right now because of the rising operational costs, increase in capital needs in the form of ongoing maintenance and the eventual

redevelopment of the CRHA properties and a steady and significant decrease in federal funding.

So improvement in these areas is critical to the long-term health of the Housing Authority.

So I'll go through those seven areas and then talk a little bit about some of the options that we put out there for council to consider and then some next steps forward.

So I'll start with the financial situation for the housing authority.

Federal funding for housing authorities nationwide have decreased considerably over the course of the last few years.

HUD is now requiring authorities to utilize what had been significant reserve funds for

for folks including CRHA to cover the loss in federal dollars.

There has been some discussion as to whether or not HUD would actually provide assistance once those reserves are depleted, but I don't think there's much hope that that would actually occur.

CRHA went from 91 percent of normal operating subsidy in 2012.

to 82% in 2013 and they are using their resources pretty quickly.

That large reserve fund is within two years or less of being exhausted at this point.

So with continuing cuts from Washington and no additional help in sight, the authority will be operating

in the red fairly soon, and something needs to be done to address this looming deficit.

Resident relations is another area that we felt that we could provide some assistance on.

The relationship between CRHA and its residents has been an area of concern for many years now.

An unhealthy distrust has developed that must be addressed if the hope of the CRHA board and

The public housing association of residents of an improved quality of life for all of the public housing residents is to be realized and we feel as though that's an issue that we should take on.

There should be an emphasis on improving that climate between the housing authority and the residents and it will take an extraordinary effort on the part of CRHA, the city and the residents to make it happen.

There must be a commitment to enhance the communication between these entities and to develop relationships that build trust.

An agreed upon communication strategy and resident engagement plan on both issues, both issues that are small and large, must be developed and implemented in order to bridge the existing gap between the residents and the authority.

Another area of concern is maintenance.

CRHA is responsible for the maintenance and repair of 376 units on 11 scattered sites around the city.

The interior and exterior building maintenance is handled internally at this point.

and landscaping is contracted to a private vendor.

And numerous discussions with residents, concerns over the conditions of some of those units and the speed by which those repairs were addressed have been raised.

CRHA has worked diligently to speed up response times for work orders, but there is certainly room for improvement, especially on how those calls are prioritized.

The authority does not currently have a maintenance supervisor to coordinate the responses and to decide how best to stack those calls.

CRHA is currently relying on a site-based approach to maintenance, and this decentralized strategy is a result of HUD suggestions and decreased funding over the years, but it does not lend itself to a comprehensive method of tackling the increasing numbers of calls for service.

that the Housing Authority is facing.

Human resources is another area that we believe that we might be able to assist CRHA on.

They do not have an HR department and the great majority of the HR functions are currently managed by the Executive Director, including hiring, training and benefits management.

conducting job searches and managing the HR affairs of an organization can be a daunting task when you have a department that is doing it let alone having your your executive director run that program so we see that there could be some opportunities there we believe that additional assistance in this area could strengthen the relationship between the city's section 3 coordination and

and the authority as well.

So that's something else to consider as we move along.

Training residents and giving them the tools they will need to be competitive for jobs associated with the redevelopment of the CRHA properties and for jobs with CRHA is critical and would be critical in the success of the Section 3 program.

Board development, the CRJ board is fortunate to have a group of area residents who are committed to improving the living conditions for those who reside in public housing.

I met just about every one of them, had a chance to talk to them about their concerns.

When asked if they had had adequate training and orientation before they became a part of the board to a person, they said no, they needed more.

And so I think that's got to be something

that the housing authority should consider in the future as well as developing a board development policy that would give you a path forward and for orientation and for building a strong housing authority board.

Public safety, I've had a series of discussions with Chief Longo about what we can do to improve public safety on the sites.

That was another concern that came up time and time again with the residents.

And we are going to have a more detailed discussion about that through our strategic planning process, recognizing the needs on the housing authority sites, but then also throughout the city and developing

process to get us to a point where we feel comfortable with identifying what our needs are and how to get there throughout the community and with the Housing Authority.

The redevelopment of the public housing sites continues to be a critical issue for CRHA, its residents and the city.

Several years ago, CRHA engaged in a comprehensive master planning process for the redevelopment of all of its properties.

Since the completion of the plan in 2011,

There have been numerous obstacles that have slowed the process, including the lack of federal funding, the transition in leadership in the Housing Authority, and the inability to launch the Charlottesville Development Corporation, or what's also commonly referred to as CDC.

This was envisioned to be a nonprofit that would help guide redevelopment, bring the folks together to the table, encourage private developers to work with the Housing Authority, identify funding sources, and make redevelopment occur.

and our community.

And I believe that no matter what direction city council decides to go in, I think that's something that we should begin pursuing as soon as possible, is getting that CDC up and running.

Of course, in addition, the rental assistance demonstration program has taken up a substantial amount of time and discussion this fall.

It is viewed by HUD as a tool that PHAs can utilize in their redevelopment efforts.

HUD has offered up RAD to the first 60,000 units that qualify for the program.

To date, numerous PHAs around the country have applied with a total number of units well beyond the 60,000 allotted.

The deadline for submitting an application is December 31st.

There's been a lot of discussion in our community about whether or not we should move forward with RAD.

I think, quite frankly, at this point, it's pretty obvious that the time has run out for us to do that this time around.

So we need to develop a comprehensive plan to have a discussion within the Housing Authority and within our community about whether or not RAD is something that we want to continue to pursue in the future.

So that's another important next step that I think we should consider.

is how do we do that?

How do we have a meaningful community engagement process associated with that?

We have held a series of meetings in the community on the subject of CRHA, both broadly and then more specifically about redevelopment.

We've had meetings with CRHA resident advisory groups, interaction with residents at several public housing sites, and attendance at several training sessions on the issue of RAD.

I've personally met with City Councilors, CRHA Commissioners, the CRHA Executive Director, the FAR Executive Board and staff, representatives from Legal Aid, individual residents of the public housing sites, and HUD representatives as well.

I believe additional engagement is necessary and so I propose we hold a series of forums with residents to discuss the options put forth for consideration on the future relationship between the city and the Housing Authority.

When evaluating our options for increasing the city's involvement with the Housing Authority, I have narrowed my focus to two options.

One, developing a series of memorandums of understanding between the city and CRHA for specific services that we could provide to the Housing Authority, or to have the Housing Authority return to a forum that it has had at one point in its history as a department of the city government.

and so there are challenges and opportunities that are associated with both approaches.

I'll start first with the departmental status.

This option would require a considerable change in the oversight and management of CRHA.

In simple terms, the housing authority would become a city department in the same manner as social services and parks and recreation and so on.

The CRHA board would undergo a complete transformation and the executive director would no longer report to the board.

Instead, the ED would report directly to the city manager.

If Council chooses this route, I would recommend that our City Council serve as the Housing Authority Board, as it once did when the Housing Authority was under the City.

But I also believe that we should add at least four commissioners that would include two public housing residents and two at-large positions as well.

So it would be a body of nine.

A separate advisory committee could be formed as well, but not be necessary because of the resident representation on the Housing Authority Board.

Having CRHA revert to department level status would allow the city to become more directly involved with the overarching policies and the management of the authority and to provide increased technical and financial support.

There would also be a new level of accountability established with both the city council and

and the city manager serving near the top of the organizational chart.

Another approach would be to establish a series of MLUs between the city and the housing authority to provide financial support and direct services in areas such as but not limited to facilities management and maintenance, human resources, procurement and social services.

This option would enable the authority to keep its management autonomy while improving upon many of the services it is currently providing.

Without question, the City possesses the human resources to assist in enhancing the services that the employees of the Housing Authority currently offer, and this new partnership could also be a more cost-effective approach to addressing some of the issues that have burdened the Authority for years.

However, a final determination on that cost would not occur until we've had a thorough review of the organizational structure within the Housing Authority and then also within our

organization to make sure that we could meet the needs of the Housing Authority.

As previously mentioned, the Housing Authority is short staffed right now.

Federal budget reductions have forced its employees to do more with much less, and this has led to areas of needs that must be addressed throughout, through the possible creation of new positions within the Authority.

So three positions that I offer up for consideration at this point are as follows.

The Deputy Director, who could manage Resident Relations, Community Engagement and Communications,

maintenance of the grounds and buildings of the property.

Community-based social worker.

This is a position that would work closely with the city, CRHA and service providers in the community to address the social needs within the housing authority and to help develop paths to self-sufficiency for residents.

And they previously mentioned maintenance supervisor position.

The authority used to have a position like this, but through budget cuts eliminated the position.

Plus, as I mentioned before,

and emphasis on maybe decentralizing some of that, but I do believe that they need someone in place who's looking at all of the different needs of the Housing Authority sites and doing some prioritizing there.

So next steps would be to begin a discussion with the Housing Authority over these recommendations and get a feel for where the Housing Authority board is on the options as well.

to meet with residents, establish a series of meetings with the residents to go over what our options are and to move forward from there.

I would also feel as though it's important for us to meet with the CRHA employees to discuss some of these options and what their issues are.

Staff level employees, I've had numerous conversations with management but we feel we want to hear from the employees

throughout the entire organization to get a sense of where they are.

And I also believe that we need to schedule meetings with representatives from HUD in early 2014 to get an understanding of what a transfer, if the council wanted to move forward with a transfer authority, what that would look like and how we would go about doing that with HUD.

I think we need to think of how we're going to proceed forward with these ideas.

No one know what Dave has to say.

First of all I want to say thank you to our city manager and his staff for really digging into this issue and taking a hard look at the housing authority from top to bottom.

It's really been long overdue and I think you're finding already that there's a lot to be gained as you say from breaking down that wall.

between the city and the housing authority.

Just a few comments really.

I think one of the problems with the whole discussion that was launched this fall about funding for redevelopment was the fact that it kind of put the cart before the horse process-wise.

We had all agreed that the housing authority in its current state really doesn't have the capacity to do redevelopment and it really needs to focus on the day-to-day operations and meeting the needs of the residents today.

and that we would create this hybrid entity, this community development corporation, Charlottesville Development Corporation to take the lead on financing redevelopment, implementing redevelopment, planning redevelopment, etc.

And so I think it caught a lot of people by surprise and it caught a lot of people off guard when

before we had done this the one step we had all agreed to do that we started then talking about a total overhaul of the housing authority in order to accomplish redevelopment through RAD and so my my advice would be put RAD on the back burner for now focus on getting that community of the Charlottesville Development Corporation off the ground which has been you know we've all we've all been waiting with you know everybody had agreed to do it so let's focus on getting that done and then

We can have those conversations about how to finance redevelopment.

I'm a little concerned about having the city council serving as the board for I'm not sure the city council wants to be really serving as the board of commissioners for the housing authority for many reasons, but

I wonder if there is sort of a hybrid proposal where the Housing Authority could be a department of the city but still have its own policy board that would sort of have authority for, you know, governance of the Housing Authority.

I don't know if that's an option or not, but it seems like that would sort of draw the best of both worlds.

still have the direct accountability of the city manager in its operations but have its own advisory board to handle some of the policy questions.

My biggest concern with your proposals, which in general I agree 99% with your proposals, but I'm very much concerned with the idea of

drawing hundreds of thousands of dollars a year out of our Charlottesville Housing Fund in order to cover operating costs of the Housing Authority.

And you can probably see where I'm going with this, which is the intention of the Charlottesville Housing Fund is to grow our stock of affordable housing in the city.

It's not for workforce development, it's not to cover operating costs of any non-profits or quasi-governmental agencies.

it's really about housing and so I go back to Ms. Galvin's point earlier when she was talking about LEAP and it's a point that she's made on a number of occasions which is why isn't this an ABRT question and so I would say if the city is going to get into the business

on an annual basis of funding operating costs of the housing authority should be treated the same way as other agencies are treated.

And we have different ways of doing that for governmental or quasi-governmental agencies versus nonprofits.

This would probably fall more in the former category.

I would much rather see it go that direction than

I have a series.

First of all, I'd like to say that, Dave, I agree with what you said.

I think that the hybrid model, I see all sorts of possible landmines there, but I think it is a complicated question that we're going to really have to look at carefully.

If I could just ask my, let's see, seven questions, and I don't know that we need answers to them all, but some may have simple answers, and then some may just be something to put in the parking lot for when we start discussing this.

One, I think, is just a yes or no question.

They were aware that we were presenting tonight, yes.

Yeah, I'm sorry they didn't come.

I mean, Mr. Huja's here, he's on the board, but are there any other board members?

Zallon was here before.

But yeah, to me it seems like this would have been a good place for them to be.

The second question, well one I just really wanted to say, I was startled, not really surprised, but the magnitude of the shrinkage really struck me that in 2000

There were 36 staff on CRHA and now there are 19.

And so when we look at some of the problems of organization, of communication, of hiring, all the different things that are falling apart it seems, it makes it make more sense that it isn't

Anybody's evil intent necessarily, but just trying to get all the same things done.

There's certainly more need than there was before and to have that fewer people doing it is a real challenge.

I totally agree with the housing fund.

I think we do need to put more money into it and I think it needs to be either out of the general fund if we take this on as a department or it needs to be something that we

look at budgetarily, but I don't think that, I've always been for taking a small piece of the housing fund for use for programming of various kinds, but this is more than a small piece and I don't think this would be it.

If you're talking about positions, yes ma'am.

That's what I thought.

Two things that I would like to amend to your recommendations and you can do what you want and other councilors can weigh in.

If we did do a board or if there were a board having two residents and two at large, I think currently we have two public housing residents and one section eight resident and I would rather keep that because that was a hard fought battle to get those folks on the board and I think that we need to protect that and then to have one at large.

if we were to go that direction.

Yeah, I think you did give us a lot of good information and I think right now I'd like to see some analysis.

of what you gave us.

And what are the pros and cons in a very kind of disciplined way for the departmental approach, the MOU approach, perhaps this hybrid approach?

And what are the case studies?

What other housing authorities have done this kind of combination?

So that's number one.

Number two, I completely agree with the idea of having to move forward with some agency to do redevelopment.

And I think it's important to look

The history of this, and I think it was interesting one time with talking with Mr. Brown about this, the CRHA used to be a robust redevelopment agency.

It used to be the vehicle that had the expertise to get that done.

And since that dissipated over the years, we really don't have an agency that does that anymore in the city, anywhere.

Economic development is a totally different animal than redeveloping parcels.

You know, the idea of the CDC

is appealing because it gives us that vehicle.

The problem is when you have redevelopment within a redevelopment and housing authority, the redevelopment provides the resources to put back into that housing authority so that it expands resident services.

It expands the resources so that this locality isn't spending $500,000 a year on additional staff.

The proceeds from redevelopment are doing that.

And I'm concerned that decoupling the housing

piece from the redevelopment piece has now left us with very much a dependent department.

And I don't know if the CDC can work in the same way.

I know a CDC is supposed to pay for itself, but how is that going to then be turned back into the kind of really

kind of best practices in resident service delivery.

Can I interject real quick?

As long as we find a channel to do that.