Council Candidates address Fry's Spring Neighborhood

On May 15, 2007, The Fry's Spring Neighborhood Association (FSNA) served as the host for the second in a series of forums featuring City Council candidates. There are three open seats and five candidates have declared. All of them are Democrats. The only incumbent in the race, Mayor David Brown, was not available to attend the forum which was moderated by FSNA President John Santoski.

(L to R) Jennifer McKeever, Holly Edwards, John Santoski (FSNA), Linda Seaman, and Satyendra Huja

Visit our Election Watch 2007 website for detailed information on the candidates, campaign finance reports, upcoming candidate forums, and related events. View all postings related to City elections.

Podcast produced by Charlottesville Tomorrow * Player by Odeo

Listen using player above or download the podcast: Download 20070515-Fry-Spring-Candidates-Forum.mp3

Watch the video program:

The candidates began the event by giving a short opening statement, followed by responses to two questions submitted in advance by the Fry's Spring Neighborhood Association.  One of the major issues for Fry's Spring area residents is cut-through traffic from the County along Old Lynchburg Road, and residents wanted to know how prospective councilors would weigh neighborhood interests versus those of the City and County governments.

Question #1 with excerpts from the candidate’s responses:

Question #1: "What should be the priority for protection of the residential quality of City neighborhood in relation to development and other interests, would you work to establish a policy to protect the neighborhood residential interests, and how would Council assure that the policy is implemented by City staff?”

Satyendra Huja: "Neighborhoods are building blocks of any community, and I think if you don't have healthy neighborhoods, you don't have a healthy community..."

Jennifer McKeever: "I think we should follow the plans that we create. We have this inordinate process, this strategic process, all of these processes in place, and they seem to kind of go away at some point in the decision-making process, in particular with special use permits."

Linda Seaman: "It's important for neighborhood associations to be involved in any kind of development planning process from the very very beginning." 

Holly Edwards: The city needs to place pressure on "UVA for predatory student development and the county for predatory building and an inability to follow through with previously outlined plans."

Question #2 with excerpts from the candidate’s responses:

Question #2: "How would you measure the negative impact on the quality of life in the City's residential neighborhoods, including the safety and comfort of their residents, rather than just using the levels of service measurement that measures only the convenience of drivers and their riders?"

Jennifer McKeever: "The way that I would measure negative impact specifically rates to my family time. How much time do I have to spend time at home or doing things with my family?"

Linda Seaman: "I think we may need to measure problems on a road in some different ways than they've been measured before, not by just volume."

Holly Edwards: "What I'd really like to do is develop a tool specific to the neighborhood based on how the residents define quality of life."

Satyendra Huja: "I would like to switch the question around, how would I like to see how happy the neighborhood is... find out what the neighborhood people feel, what they think needs to be improved, what would make it a nicer place to live."

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HIGHLIGHTS WITH QUESTIONS ON GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT ISSUES (times correspond with audio in the above podcast)

• 01:00 - 03:55 - John Santoski gives the highlights
• 03:55 - Holly Edwards opening statement
• 05:30 - Satyendra Huja's opening statement
• 07:00 - Jennifer McKeever's opening statement
• 08:50 - Linda Seaman's opening statement
• 11:20 - Question #1 (see excerpts above)
• 20:00 - Question #2 (see excerpts above)
• 27:30 - Audience Question: "In your opinion, what functions of city government are not now being effectively managed? As a city council member, what would you do to [address] these shortcomings?"
• 38:39 - Audience Question: "How do you ensure that city staff are responsive to the needs of City Council?"
• 43:30 Audience Question: "Could you talk a little about your working style and the leadership you would bring to the City Council?"
• 49:43- Audience question: "Please say some concrete ways in which you would reduce the budget? What would you be willing to eliminate?"
• 58:40 - Audience question: "What will candidates do to get the county to address traffic that affect neighborhoods such as Fry's Spring?"
• 1:10:00 - Audience question: A resident of the Johnson Village neighborhood asked the candidates to weigh in on the approval of the Cherry Hill development, which resulted in the clear-cutting of more than 30 acres off of Cherry Avenue.
• 1:25:00 - Audience question: "The city has given up land for the Meadowcreek Parkway. The city council recently given up as much as 500 acres at the city owned Ragged Mountain Nature Area to increase the water supply for county growth. And some people feel they'll come for city land for the Eastern Connector? How do you feel about giving up city parkland or city public space to support county growth?"
• 1:30:40 - Audience member asks a question about how candidates will deal with growth that may be caused by growth at the University of Virginia.
• 1:36:33 - Moderator asks candidates to close by stating a promise they intend to keep if elected.

Sean Tubbs