Competing interchange plans under review for Hydraulic and U.S. 29

By Sean Tubbs & Brian Wheeler
Charlottesville Tomorrow
Thursday, October 22, 2009

Less than a month after the Virginia Department of Transportation unveiled its plans for the U.S. 29 corridor, a local solution to the traffic congestion at U.S. 29 and Hydraulic Road has resurfaced before planners in Albemarle County.  At their meeting Tuesday night, engineering plans for a grade-separated interchange were reviewed by the Planning Commission as part of the process to establish right-of-way boundaries around the future Albemarle Place development.

Download the plan developed by the Cox Company

Cox Company design for a grade separated interchange at Hydraulic and U.S. 29 (Click for a higher resolution image)

One corner of the Hydraulic Road intersection is in the county at the current location of a 7-Eleven store.  The other three corners are all in the City of Charlottesville.  When the county approved the mixed-use Albemarle Place development in 2003, it required the Cox Company to submit a design for the interchange in order to identify viable building locations in the development area behind the 7-Eleven store. 

VDOT and Albemarle County have been reviewing the interchange design plans since late 2006. In an interview, Jack Kelsey, the county’s transportation engineer, said more design work would be required prior to construction.

“This has not been accepted as a final design, but for the purposes of adopting an official map, it provides the necessary information,” said Kelsey.

The Planning Commission recommended adoption of an “official map” that shows which parcels of land the county would need to ask be reserved in order to prepare for construction of a grade-separated interchange. No similar process is currently underway to reserve right-of-way in the city.

David Benish, Albemarle County’s Chief of Planning, said approval of the map does not indicate approval of the interchange itself.

“It’s just to establish the amount of land which may be necessary for such an improvement,” Benish said.

The interchange, which was designed by the Cox Company, is known as a “single point urban interchange.” During construction, U.S. 29 would be lowered by about 25 feet allowing for Hydraulic Road to be rebuilt overhead at its existing elevation. According to the Places29 Master Plan, the cost estimate for the project is around $40 million in today’s dollars,.

This design is consistent with what is envisioned in the Places29 Master Plan,” said Kelsey.

The plan has also convinced VDOT and the County that at least three lanes of through traffic would be kept open in each direction during construction, a condition required by VDOT according to Mark Graham, the county’s director of community development.  However, Graham said in an interview that the compromise made to achieve that goal was that the Hydraulic Road crossover would have to be closed during construction.

The official map has to be adopted by the Board of Supervisors before the end of this year or the requirement that the developer reserve right-of-way would expire. Proffers signed at the time of the rezoning also require the developer, now Edens & Avant,  to “diligently pursue approval of the plans in the City.”

(Click for larger image)

However, VDOT’s corridor-wide study of U.S. 29, released last month, recommended a much different approach for moving traffic on and off the U.S. 29/250 Bypass. Their study proposes an elevated road starting north of the Hydraulic intersection and passing over the Kroger grocery store and other city businesses. This “flyover concept” known as the 250-Hydraulic Connector remains in the study’s recommendations, despite the removal late last week of two other local proposals, the Leonard Sandridge Road extension and the so-called “eastern bypass” along Albemarle’s border with Louisa County.

"Given the fact that the corridor study eliminates the grade-separated interchange and replaces it with a flyover concept, that changes the dynamic there,” said Jim Tolbert, Charlottesville’s Director of Neighborhood Development Services.

Tolbert called the Cox design nothing more than a concept, and said the city continues to have concerns that too many of its businesses would be impacted by the construction. No funding has been dedicated to the interchange nor is any expected to be available in the immediate future from the state transportation budget.

In May, City Council overruled the recommendation of the city’s planning commission to put the Hydraulic interchange back in the region’s long-range transportation plan.  Council indicated its priority was for the Hydraulic Road interchange be built only after one is constructed in Albemarle at the intersection of  Rio Road and U.S. 29. 

The Board of Supervisors will consider the right-of-way map at their meeting on December 2nd. Next Tuesday, the Albemarle County Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on the Places29 Master Plan at 6:00 PM in Lane Auditorium at the County Office Building.

Senior Statesmen of Virginia hold forum for all six Albemarle Supervisor candidates

By Sean Tubbs
Charlottesville Tomorrow
Friday, October 16, 2009

All six candidates for the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors participated in a forum sponsored by the non-partisan Senior Statesmen of Virginia on October 15, 2009. Samuel Miller District candidates Madison Cummings (D), John Lowry (I) and Duane Snow (R) sat alongside Rio District candidates David Slutzky (D) and Rodney Thomas (R). Jack Jouett District incumbent Dennis Rooker (I) was also on the panel even though he faces no opposition.

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After each candidate gave a five-minute opening statement, they answered questions from the audience about land use taxation, the role of chain stores in Albemarle’s economic plan and cooperation with the City of Charlottesville. Each candidate was also given a chance to make a closing “wrap-up” statement.

The opening statements offered a chance for each candidate to explain why he is running. Rooker pointed to many achievements the Board of Supervisors has made during the past eight years, including maintaining a AAA bond rating.  Thomas said his time as Chairman of the Albemarle County Planning Commission prepared him to serve as a Supervisor. Slutzky said he was a hard worker who would put in the time to continue to serve Albemarle County. Snow said he was qualified for the job by his lifelong residency as well as his experience as a business owner. Lowry called for the creation of an economic development department. Cummings pointed to his service on the School Board as a reason why he should be elected.

The following are highlighted responses from the five questions asked by the audience.

Question 1:  What action would you take to enable restaurant chains such as the Olive Garden and Cracker Barrel, as well as big box stores such as the Home Depot, to open in Albemarle County?

Duane Snow (R-Samuel Miller): “We make it almost impossible for them to come here because we demand so much from them…”

Dennis Rooker (I-Jack Jouett): “We do not choose which businesses want to come here. We provide adequate land uses for businesses to locate here. We have today about 3 million square feet of commercial space that is approved in the County but has not been built out.”

Rodney Thomas (R-Rio): “The [County’s] maximum footprint is 65,000 square feet… I think that probably should be doctored a little bit to let the bigger stores come in…”

David Slutzky (D-Rio): “The Department of Conservation and Recreation issues some draft regulations that were ruthless in protecting the bay, but they also were going to have a profound chilling effect on the business climate in the Commonwealth in Virginia…I came up with an alternative proposal… They’ll be finalized and signed by the Governor later this year.”

John Lowry (I-Samuel Miller): “Businesses have to want to come here. Is the County perceived as being friendly to business? We need to have an economic development office to invite businesses here.”

Madison Cummings: (D-Samuel Miller): “If we’re not welcoming to businesses… we need to be working on that… I do hear occasionally that there are County employees who are less welcoming and sometimes rude. I would hope that we would work on that.”

Question 2: How would you join with Charlottesville government to help in making both areas save taxpayer dollars?

Rodney Thomas (R-Rio):”I would plan a meeting to do something with the revenue sharing… Right now we have no say over that money that is spent inside of the City of Charlottesville. $18.8 million is what the check is going to be for in January.”

Dennis Rooker (I-Jack Jouett): “City and County cooperate on many, many things… We can always do more.”

David Slutzky (D-Rio): “The City runs the bus system… the bus system is very downtown-centric yet 80% of our commercial activity is along [U.S. 29]. I would like to see us enter into a collaboration with the City to form a Regional Transit Authority.”

Duane Snow (R-Samuel Miller): “We have to be careful that in the effort to collaborate, [that] we don’t get carried away with spending…”

John Lowry (I-Samuel Miller): “We have a City operating independently inside the County and logically the two really ought to be together completely so we wouldn’t have an overlap in the school system and police, fire and rescue…”

Madison Cummings (D-Samuel Miller): “I was on the School Board in the late 90’s and I approached the superintendent and [asked] how we could cut this dog.gone transportation budget? I tried to work and see if maybe we could meld at least in the urban area the two transportation systems for the schools… One opportunity maybe we could consider again.”

Question 3: The Daily Progress recently reported that housing prices have dropped by 20%. How should the Board respond to lower real estate assessments?

Duane Snow (R-Samuel Miller): “There’s nothing we can do about raising those property values back up until the economy improves. But in the meantime you can’t tell someone that is already struggling to make ends meet that we have to raise taxes… Cut the waste in the County and then from there we can make decisions. Do you realize the County has never had a zero-based budget?”

Dennis Rooker (I-Jack Jouett): “The County actually did try zero-based budgeting back in 1990 and then they went away from it… What we do today is what I would call a modified zero-based budget. We do look at every line item in the budget to determine whether or not it’s something we need to fund… Actual full-fledged zero-based budgeting is an incredibly time-demanding… At the end of the day it was abandoned because it took up a lot of time that could have been spent elsewhere… Before we raise rates, we always need to look for efficiencies and make sure we are getting the most out of the revenues we currently have.”

John Lowry (I-Samuel Miller): “Relying on property taxes alone is unsustainable.. You could have $20 million from commercial taxes over time that could be a replacement…It’s not a crisis of wasteful spending. We have a crisis of not having enough revenues to provide the services we like.”

David Slutzky (D-Rio): “You’ve got to minimize your expenses and you’ve got to increase your revenues… I voted against the turf fields that were going to be put in the schools…I find it frustrating in a campaign process where candidates sit there and say they’re going to cut the waste… if we’re interested in zero-based budgeting, that must mean that these candidates have already looked at the budget and have at least some suggestions of what waste they want to see cut, and I haven’t been hearing that so far.”

Rodney Thomas (R-Rio): “There’s a lot of ways that you can cut. You want to cut the waste out of the budget… I think it’s going to be obvious as to where we need to make the cuts when we get into the budget, and cut the wasteful spending.”

Madison Cummings (D-Samuel Miller): “We perhaps are at zero-based budgeting now whether we want to be or not. We’re at least at baseline budgeting because of the number of folks [in County government] that are frozen.”

Question 4: “What negative results would occur if land use taxation were to be eliminated?”

Dennis Rooker (I-Jack Jouett):”There probably are some properties out there that have been getting a benefit for that tax break that might not qualify, and we want to make certain that the program is only going to those who meet the definition... We decided to go with revalidation to see where that would lead us.”

David Slutzky (D-Rio): “I can’t imagine our board would eliminate the program. I certainly wouldn’t support it… It provides immense value in that it does create an incentive for rural lands to be protected for a period of time…”

Duane Snow (R-Samuel Miller): “I don’t think it’s a matter of taxes. It’s a matter of personal property rights… The people that are living in the County that are getting a tax break on their property, most of them don’t use the services that those in the urban ring use.”

Rodney Thomas (R-Rio): “Farmers would not be able to afford to run their farms if the program was done away with… I don’t know of any land use participant that is a land speculator… I can’t imagine anyone in the County doing that.”

Madison Cummings (D-Samuel Miller):”It’s a sacred duty to maintain the rural areas of Albemarle County and other areas. Land use taxation relief helps to do that.”

John Lowry (I-Samuel Miller): “The agriculture industry would completely go away. The timber industry would disappear, too.”

Question 5: What are your views on the bypass around Charlottesville?

Madison Cummings (D-Samuel Miller): “In the 70’s, they were talking about the western bypass. We talked about it and I said, why wouldn’t they talk about going down U.S. 15? What doesn’t make sense about that? That was before Historic Green Springs set itself as a historical area, so that makes it more difficult now… The western bypass, the topography there is not attractive. It’s terribly expensive…I think we need to drive a stake through its heart permanently.”

John Lowry (I-Samuel Miller):”I’d like to speak on the seriousness ofn the ability to fund road improvements in our area. We have a problem of flow right now. We have a state that is not sending money to our community… It’s not a lack of planning that we’re missing. We’re missing a lack of funding… It’s not the bypass that’s so important. We need lanes connecting Hydraulic to the traditional 29 bypass. We need the rural road program to be funded.”

Duane Snow (R-Samuel Miller): “They tell us that roughly 10% of the traffic we have in this area goes straight through the 29 area and out of the County. They say that in building a bypass we’re building it mainly for that 10%. What we really need is to make it easier for the 90% that are moving around inside of the city to get around more effectively.”

Rodney Thomas (R-Rio): “I really like the [Western] bypass… I thought it was a very good internal road that we needed… If the bypass had been put in, it would have eliminated a high percentage of the cars blocking or backing up at the 250 bypass interchange…”

Dennis Rooker (I-Jack Jouett): “There is no funding for transportation in the state… Somebody needs to solve the transportation funding problem… Hillsdale needs to be built… We know we need to add a lane on 29 from Hydraulic Road south to the 250 Bypass along with an extra ramp at Best Buy… we don’t have any money for it.”

David Slutzky (D-Rio): “I strongly agree with my opponent Rodney that we cannot let 29 become an expressway, and I think that was one of the original reasons why the community looked at the so-called Western Bypass… If the Board is going to be deliver anything out of Places29, it is that parallel road that is Berkmar that’s been described already.”

TIMELINE FOR PODCAST:

• 01:00 – Introduction from David Perkins of the Senior Statesmen of Virginia
• 03:30 – Opening statement from Dennis Rooker (I-Jack Jouett)
• 09:00 - Opening statement from Rodney Thomas (R-Rio)
• 10:30 - Opening statement from David Slutzky (D-Rio)
• 16:00 - Opening statement from Duane Snow (R-Samuel Miller)
• 20:15 - Opening statement from John Lowry (I-Samuel Miller)
• 25:45 – Opening statement from Madison Cummings (D-Samuel Miller)
• 31:20 – Question #1
• 44:00 – Question #2
• 56:30 - Question #3
• 1:10:30 - Question #4
• 1:26:00 - Question #5
• 1:39:00 - Wrap-up comment from Madison Cummings (D-Samuel Miller):
• 1:42:00 - Wrap-up comment from John Lowry (I-Samuel Miller)
• 1:44:40 - Wrap-up comment from Duane Snow (R-Samuel Miller)
• 1:47:15 - Wrap-up comment from Rodney Thomas (R-Rio)
• 1:50:00 - Wrap-up comment from Dennis Rooker (I-Jack Jouett)
• 1:53:30 - Wrap-up comment from David Slutzky (D-Rio)

Groups say Places29 Master Plan is compatible with VDOT corridor study, federal funding priorities

By Sean Tubbs & Brian Wheeler
Charlottesville Tomorrow
Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Planning currently underway at every level of government will shape the future of U.S. 29 through northern Albemarle County. At the local level, the Albemarle County Planning Commission is reviewing the final draft of the Places29 Master Plan before sending it on to the Board of Supervisors. At the state level, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) is studying future options for the entire U.S. 29 corridor south of Gainesville, VA. Both studies are being conducted while the U.S. House of Representatives begins to debate a major transportation funding bill.

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Local and national advocacy organizations such as the Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC) and the Coalition for Smarter Growth believe that any investments in transportation need to include key planning principles being followed locally in the Places29 master plan.  In times of very limited resources, this community’s emphasis on parallel roads, interconnected neighborhoods, and improvements on Route 29, for example, are seen by these groups as highly preferable to building a bypass around Charlottesville.

On July 13, 2009, the PEC hosted a panel entitled “The Route 29 Solution – Winning Federal Support” which sought to encourage individuals and organizations to get involved with local, state, and federal efforts to prepare for a “21st century transportation system.”

Stewart Schwartz of the Coalition for Smarter Growth

The discussion was moderated by Stewart Schwartz, the Executive Director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth  , a Washington D.C.-based group. Schwartz said groups and individuals that would like to see a higher priority placed on funding transit, sidewalks and other mobility choices have a chance to influence the federal process this summer and fall as the House begins deliberating on transportation legislation.

“We’re talking between over $300 billion and $500 billion in the next five years shared amongst all the states in the Union,” Schwartz said. He said that compares with $30 billion spent on transportation in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, otherwise known as the stimulus package.

Schwartz said Albemarle County and Charlottesville could be well placed to influence the national discussion. Congressman Tom Perriello (D-5th) sits on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, the only member of the Virginia delegation to do so.

“We want to see a bill that will ensure that the transportation spending that we do and the federal housing spending that we do are linked together,” Schwartz said. During his presentation, Schwartz urged stakeholders to send feedback to both VDOT and the federal government saying that Places29 is in line with emerging federal transportation priorities.

FORMER TJPDC EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR RETURNS TO PROMOTE PLAN

Former TJPDC Executive Director Harrison Rue

Harrison Rue, the former Executive Director of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission  (TJPDC), returned to Charlottesville for the discussion. During his tenure, Rue helped develop many of the underlying concepts contained within the Places29 plan, which he said came about in part as an alternative to the Western Bypass. He said the bypass would do very little to address congestion caused by motorists seeking to move within the region. Rue said only 12% of the average daily trips are people traveling through the area.

“Once we saw that number we realized that we could come up with a different plan to maintain through traffic by providing a local network over time,” Rue said. For instance, grade-separated interchanges would allow for traffic to travel from east to west at key intersections. The interchanges are the most capital-intensive of all the transportation components called for in Places29, but Rue said each one would increase the efficiency of the overall system.

“You don’t have to build the whole thing at once, unlike a single roadway, to make the whole thing work,” Rue said.

Now with the firm ICF International, Rue predicted that the new federal bill will place a priority on funding the kinds of the transportation improvements called for in Places29.

Rue said that urban planning is about choices and that given the current funding climate, the community would have to make a choice between the Western Bypass and the dozens of projects called for in Places29.  The projects identified in the first ten years of the draft Places29 plan are projected to cost about $350 million (in 2010-11 dollars).

“We’ve long known that if a bypass was chosen to be funded and built, there would be no money for decades to do anything on U.S. 29,” Rue said. “Not a light, not a crosswalk, it would take all of our primary funding.” Rue also said it was more likely that smaller projects will be the priority for federal funding in the next few years.

COUNTY PLANNER DEBUNKS PLACES29 MYTHS

Places29 features a series of road improvements through the area marked in red. Click to enlarge. (Source: Albemarle County)

Wayne Cilimberg, the Director of Planning for Albemarle County, spent several minutes addressing some of the concerns that have been raised by critics of the master plan. Cilimberg said the Places29 Master Plan builds on the land use decisions made by the Board of Supervisors over the last several decades. For instance, the County’s 1980 Comprehensive Plan further refined the County’s urban growth areas and downzoned the rural countryside. In 2001, the County adopted the Neighborhood Model District. Now, the transportation component of Places29 contains a series of recommended projects to help address the infrastructure needs required to support mixed use development and high residential density, some of which has already been approved in major developments like Albemarle Place, Hollymead Town Center, and North Pointe.

“The overwhelming majority of infrastructure recommendations are already required by existing approved and planned development,” Cilimberg said. “We feel like the area will be better off with the land use pattern of mixed-use, walkability and transit options that Places29 could result in, even if the road improvements are very limited, significantly delayed or in some cases not at all constructed.” 

Cilimberg also addressed concerns raised by the North Charlottesville Business Council that Route 29 would become a major expressway.  He said that the concept of grade-separated interchanges predates the Places29 master plan. While Cilimberg said that he felt Places29’s transportation improvements would be a better investment, he said nothing in the plan precluded the construction of a Western Bypass. 

SUPERVISOR ROOKER SAYS COMMUNITY AS A WHOLE WILL BENEFIT FROM PLACES29

As one of the County’s six Supervisors, Dennis Rooker (Jack Jouett) will vote on the Places29 Master Plan. As a member of the MPO Policy Board, Rooker is one of four elected officials who communicate local priorities to both the state and federal government.

At the beginning of his comments, Rooker said decisions made locally by that Albemarle County have set a standard for the rest of Virginia. For instance, he said the County’s land use policies are being emulated across Virginia.

“As proof of that, about a year and a half ago the legislature passed a bill which requires that localities establish urban development areas much like our growth areas in Albemarle County,” Rooker said. He said the bill also calls for localities to incorporate interconnectivity and other new urbanism principles into their comprehensive plans. “What they have basically done is legislated what we adopted about eight years ago as our Neighborhood Model.”

Rooker used the example of the Biscuit Run development to show that developers are increasingly seeing the potential of greater returns by developing a conceptual plan that stayed within the principles of the Neighborhood Model District. He said the developer, Hunter Craig, could have built 900 units by-right. However, by working with the County, the developer was eventually given permission through a rezoning  to build up to 3,200 units because of the various proffers for community improvements, as well as the mixed use components.

He said groups that attack master planning efforts such as Places29 usually do so because out of a concern that their interests will be threatened. In the case of the North Charlottesville Business Council, Rooker said members of that group feel that grade-separated interchanges will hurt their livelihood. But, Rooker said the City of Charlottesville has benefited tremendously from the many grade-separated interchanges on the Route 250 bypass.

On the subject of the Western Bypass of Route. 29, Rooker said the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors has been consistently against the Western Bypass and has “never spent any of its own money on the project. Funding for preliminary engineering and the purchase of the right-of-way has come entirely from the Virginia Department of Transportation.

Rooker said it was more likely that smaller projects called for in Places29 would receive funds than the Western Bypass, which has been estimated to cost around $300 million.

“Nobody is going to give a proffer for building a bypass,” Rooker said. “The state has now determined that [the Western Bypass] does not pass any reasonable cost-benefit analysis in terms of looking at the transportation improvement provided for the dollars invested.”

In response to a question from Brian Wheeler of Charlottesville Tomorrow regarding opposition from the NCBC, Rooker responded that the County and the business community are more in agreement than disagreement.

“They support the Hillsdale project, they support the 29 improvements from Hydraulic Road to the 250 Bypass and the ramp at Best Buy,” Rooker said. “The NCBC has never supported the grade-separated interchanges. If you look back at the history [of the NCBC], it was formed for the purpose of opposing grade-separated interchanges on 29.”

“We have enough projects that we are in agreement on that are in this plan that would take us out for the next ten years, and in total they would make a substantial improvement to the traffic flow on 29,” Rooker said.

County Supervisors briefed on water and sewer issues; Whole Foods & Trader Joe’s may face added delays due to inadequate sewer capacity

By Sean Tubbs and Brian Wheeler
Charlottesville Tomorrow
Thursday, July 2, 2009

Every three months, the Executive Directors of both the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority (RWSA) and the Albemarle County Service Authority (ACSA) appear before the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors to give an update on current water and sewer issues. Gary Fern, Executive Director of the ACSA, and Tom Frederick, Executive Director of the RWSA, made their latest visit on July 1, 2009, the first day of the new fiscal year. 

One highlight of the meeting was Fern stating that the opening of both Whole Foods and the proposed Trader Joe’s for Albemarle Place may face further delays until the Meadowcreek sewer interceptor is replaced.

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FERN UPDATES BOARD ON THE ACSA

Gary Fern, Executive Director of the ACSA

Gary Fern told the Board that the ACSA implemented a four-tier rate system on July 1st that encourages conservation by only charging the ACSA’s wholesale rate to residential and irrigation customers using less than 3,000 gallons a billing cycle. The second tier charges users at two times the wholesale rate, the third tier charges users at three times the wholesale rate, and the fourth tier charges at four times the wholesale rate. The fourth kicks in after 9,000 gallons are used.

“We hope our customers will understand how we developed the rate,” Fern said. “What we’re trying to do is encourage people to conserve and try to stay in that second-tier and third-tier.” Commercial users will still play a flat-fee for each 1,000 gallons. Apartment complexes also will pay a flat-fee because Fern said it was too complicated to determine individual family amounts in multi-family dwellings.

Supervisor Dennis Rooker (Jack Jouett) questioned whether it was good practice to not charge anything additional to customers who only consume enough water to keep them in the first tier.

“It just seems to me that every tier should contribute something towards administrative overheard,” Rooker said. “You could drive everyone down to the bottom tier and the system would go bankrupt.”

Fern pointed out that all ACSA customers pay a service charge, and administrative costs are included in that fee. He added that ACSA rates have generally been increased to help pay for new infrastructure and maintenance of existing lines.

Supervisor Sally Thomas (Samuel Miller) asked Fern if he was able to balance the ACSA’s budget for FY2010 based on the new rates. He responded affirmatively. 

Supervisor David Slutzky (Rio) asked if there was a way to change the rate structure to make it more affordable for growth area residents who are not currently connected to the ACSA sewer system. Those homes could pay up to $7,647 to be connected under the existing fee structure. Fern said that the ACSA is considering terminating the local facilities charge, which could help reduce the one-time cost for those citizens. Fern said the ACSA will hold a public hearing on all of its connection charges in August.

FREDERICK UPDATES BOARD ON THE RWSA

Tom Frederick, Executive Director of the RWSA

Tom Frederick was on hand to update the Board on the status of the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority’s many projects. First, he told Supervisors why the RWSA has decided to hire another firm to design the proposed new dam at the Ragged Mountain Reservoir. The decision is one of the outcomes that stems from the RWSA’s hiring of a panel of dam experts to revisit Gannett Fleming’s original design after its cost estimate more than doubled in September of 2008. He told the Board that he is aware of criticism in the community that, by dropping Gannett Fleming’s services, important data will be lost. Frederick said those fears are unfounded.

“We own all the work that we produce, so we have a right to request it all and we have received everything that we are aware of,” Frederick said. “Nothing has been lost in terms of the data and the information.” He acknowledged that the RWSA will likely have  the new designer provide their own analysis of the data collected by Gannett Fleming.

“We want to have someone who can give us the closest interpretation we can get to a pragmatic viewpoint that recognizes the safety and importance of the structure, but who is also looking for innovative and exciting ways to keep the costs as economical as possible,” Frederick said.

Supervisor Ken Boyd (Rivanna) pointed out that Gannett Fleming’s main role to date has been in leading the public input process that led to the adoption of the 50-year community water supply plan. Frederick said that was true, and added that the consultant also played a role in getting the permits from the Army Core of Engineers and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.

“The goal was to get a permit from both the state and federal agencies, something this community had never accomplished before in its previous water planning,” Frederick said. The permitting process began after the City Council and the Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted the plan in June 2006.

Since then, the RWSA has responded to City Council and community interest in revisiting the dredging of the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir as a way to restore water storage capacity. In May 2009, the Board voted to issue an RFP for that purpose, and so far eight proposals have been received. They will be reviewed during a public meeting on Wednesday, July 8, 2009 at the County Office Building South.

Frederick also reported that construction is under way for upgrades at the Moores Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, but he alluded to the possibility of Virginia not meeting the deadline for cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay despite efforts to upgrade treatment plants.  He also said the Meadowcreek sewer interceptor replacement, which is still in the right-of-way acquisition process, could go to bid this fall with construction taking fourteen months after the winning bid is awarded.

Near the end of his briefing, Frederick reported that the RWSA was in the process of conducting a wastewater master plan with the City of Charlottesville and the ACSA. The idea is to better link the approval of new commercial and residential developments to the provision of sewer capacity. Inadequate sewer infrastructure has delayed both the North Pointe and Albemarle Place projects in Albemarle County.  By contrast, subsequent rezonings at Hollymead Town Center and Biscuit Run have included up-front written agreements for the developers to pay for their share of sewer infrastructure upgrades. 

“The idea of the master plan is to plan to get ahead of the process so that things [like this] don’t happen again,” Frederick said. One of the obstacles to developing the plan will be to decide who is responsible for paying for efforts to prevent stormwater from getting into the sewer system, a problem known as inflow and infiltration.  Stormwater entering the sewer system increases the load at water treatment facilities.

Rooker asked what restrictions might be placed on new connections until the Meadowcreek Interceptor is complete. Frederick said that there is no additional capacity available until that project is finished.

“The system works very well under dry periods,” Frederick said. “But it is not always where we need it to be during wet weather periods.”

CAPACITY PROBLEMS FOR TRADER JOE’S AND WHOLE FOODS?

Click for a larger map of the interceptor's alignment

Rooker asked if the new Whole Foods in the City on Hydraulic Road could be connected to the system before the Meadowcreek Interceptor is upgraded. He also mentioned that a Trader’s Joe grocery store is being proposed for Albemarle Place in the County. Gary Fern of the ACSA said if any one new customer submits a connection request to use more than 40,000 gallons a day, the ACSA must request that capacity from the RWSA. Fern said that at this time, that additional capacity is not there.

“At this point in time, if there is not capacity within the Meadowcreek Interceptor, they will not get an approval from the [ACSA],” Fern said. “We don’t want to be put in a position where we would grant approval to a development and then we have no place to put the wastewater.” Fern said grocery stores usually use produce more than 40,000 gallons of wastewater a day.

Rooker asked if Whole Foods, which will be built within Charlottesville’s city limits, would be in the same situation. Fern said he did not know the status of that project. Rooker said he wants to make sure that the County gets equal access to sewer capacity.  The City Planning Commission approved a revised preliminary site plan for the store just last month.

“The City has to go through the same process of requesting [capacity],” Fern said. Fern said he had not seen a site plan for Trader Joe’s yet. Frederick said he was also not aware of any requests from either Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s.

The Supervisors were informed at a briefing in September 2008 that the sewer capacity should be available by December 2009, a schedule that was expected at the time to accommodate the new Albemarle Place development schedule.  The delays in the Meadowcreek Interceptor project mean the sewer capacity will now not be available until late 2010 or early 2011.

TIMELINE FOR PODCAST:

• 01:00 – Introduction from Gary Fern, Executive Director of the ACSA

• 02:30 – Supervisor Rooker asks for clarification on new rate structure
• 05:30 - Supervisor Thomas asks if there is a way to give different rates for those who use garbage disposals
• 06:20 – Supervisor Slutzky asks if the ACSA can change its sewer rate structure to make it easier for growth areas residences on septic fields to connect to the sewer system
• 10:05 – Rooker asks another question about the rate structure
• 13:00 – Supervisor Mallek asks for more information on the tier system
• 15:00 – Rooker hands Fern a quality report from the City of Williamsburg
• 15:20 – Tom Frederick, Executive Director of the RWSA, begins his presentation
• 17:00 -  Frederick begins discussing why the RWSA has opted to hire a new designer for the Ragged Mountain Dam
• 21:45 – Frederick reports on the dredging feasibility study
• 22:20 – Frederick reports on the Moores Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant
• 25:30 – Frederick discusses the possibility of Virginia not making the deadlines for cleaning the Chesapeake Bay
• 29:38 – Slutzky asks Frederick if his trade organizations are weighing in on DCR’s new proposed stormwater regulations
• 30:35 – Frederick briefs Supervisors on the Meadowcreek Interceptor
• 32:12 – Slutzky asks Frederick to reconsider routing the RWSA’s Route 29 pipeline along the alignment for the proposed extension of Berkmar Drive and Berkmar Bridge
• 36:30 – Rooker counters Slutzky and offers a different interpretation
• 38:50 – Frederick briefs Supervisors on a new master plan for wastewater plan being conducted by the ACSA and the City of Charlottesville
• 44:00 – Rooker asks follow-up on Meadowcreek Interceptor, leading to discussion of Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s potential access to that sewer facility
• 48:20 – Frederick updates Supervisors on a Rivanna Solid Waste Authority issue – single-stream recycling
• 51:02 – Boyd, the Board’s RSWA representative, says the Board needs to make a decision about what recycling services it may offer in the future
• 55:30 – Fern asks for more time to mention that all ACSA customers pay a service charge

Planning Commissioners debate cost estimates for US 29 improvements

By Sean Tubbs
Charlottesville Tomorrow
Monday, June 8, 2009

The twenty-year master plan for the Route 29 corridor north of Charlottesville, known as Places29, has been under development for more than three years. This spring, the Albemarle County Planning Commission is continuing its review in a series of work sessions. When adopted by the Board of Supervisors, Places29 will be incorporated into the County’s comprehensive plan to guide future development in the County’s most urbanized area. 

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A key goal of Places29 is to link land-use decisions with the community infrastructure improvements necessary to support a more densely populated community. That means planning for transportation improvements as well as parks, libraries and other community facilities. Places29 calls for the creation of a parallel road network and grade-separated interchanges for roads that currently intersect with US 29 at traffic signals.

On May 12, 2009, Judy Wiegand, a Senior Planner for Albemarle County, and other staffers sought the Planning Commission’s feedback on the most appropriate format for the implementation table. The implementation table is the County’s list of priority infrastructure projects necessary to address existing and future developments.  It serves as a guide for the public, planners and developers as to why, when and how projects will be built and funded.

The full implementation table and more specific cost estimates will be reviewed by the Commission this summer.  However, the discussion at this meeting mostly focused on what cost estimates should be displayed on the table, and featured a philosophical debate on whether the Commission should be concerned with potential sources of funding, given that the Board of Supervisors will ultimately make those policy decisions.

COMMISSIONERS DISCUSS HOW TO FORMAT IMPLEMENTATION TABLE

Staff shared an implementation table example for the Commission’s consideration. The transportation project was the conversion of Rio Road’s intersection with US 29 into a grade-separated interchange. The Rio Road project is a major component of developing the parallel road network called for in Places29, so the project’s description also includes the construction of “ring roads,” which would need to be in place before construction could begin. In this example, the action steps included:

• Prepare a small area plan at a cost of $100,000
• Construct Ring Roads at a cost of $14.8 million (in 2007 dollars) (including right-of-way)
• Replace at-grade intersection with Grade Separation at a cost of $35 million (in 2007 dollars)

There is no detailed engineering plan for the Rio Road intersection, but an appendix included with the new implementation table lists the broad parameters of how the grade-separated interchange would work:

“The grade separation would put Rio Road over US 29 and include direct ramps from eastbound to southbound US 29 and westbound to northbound US 29. Rio Road would cross over US 29 because the intersection is at the crest of a vertical curve on US 29. By depressing US 29, US 29 becomes a flatter roadway and there is less excavation...”

This image from the draft Places29 Master Plan shows how Albemarle County would create a road network as part of the grade separated interchange at Rio Road and US29

Wayne Cilimberg, the Director of Planning for Albemarle County, said the Rio Road interchange called for in Places29 would likely not require the purchase of much land for the interchange because it is being planned as a “very tight interchange within right-of-way and the ring roads serve to provide the additional access.”

While no similar appendix entry yet exists for Hydraulic Road’s intersection with US 29, preliminary plans for that grade-separated interchange have been produced as part of the Albemarle Place project. The development’s previous owner, Frank Cox, was responsible for creating a plan that showed how at least six lanes of traffic could be maintained during construction.

A DISCUSSION OF COST ESTIMATES

Much of the Planning Commission’s discussion focused on what cost estimates would be appropriate to list for each transportation project.  David Benish, the Chief Planner for Albemarle County, initially suggested that the table list both the consultant’s cost estimate as well as the estimate factored into the MPO’s Constrained Long-Range Plan, also known as the UNJAM 2035 plan. Benish said if desired, the Commission could direct staff to break down the estimates to include separate items for construction and right-of-way acquisition.

 “We’re going to sit down with VDOT and validate these numbers,” Benish said. “VDOT was part of the consultants’ process and the consultant used the VDOT cost estimate process to come up with these, so as we adjust them, we want to make sure VDOT is okay with what they had looked at before.”

Chairman Eric Strucko (Samuel Miller) said that as a person employed in the financial sector, he wanted to see as many details as possible. Commissioner Don Franco (Rio) said he wanted to see right-of-way costs included as a separate category, or at least broken down. Benish said that while the new table is being developed, County staff would be providing further information on right-of-way acquisition costs.

Franco asked if it would be worth listing the tax parcel numbers of the properties that will need to be acquired to provide the right of way. He was concerned that the Hillsdale Drive Extended project may be in jeopardy because the owners of the Regal Cinema 4, a crucial property along the way, are about to renovate their theater. Cilimberg said because the grade-separated interchanges are not yet fully designed, it is not yet known what properties would need to be taken.

Franco’s concern was that key properties essential to creating the new road network might not be secured. In particular, he cited the need to secure the land to build a bridge for Berkmar Drive Extended, which would allow for a north-south road running parallel to US 29 from Airport Road to the Shopper’s World retail center.

Cilimberg said in the case of the grade-separated interchanges, the small area plans would identify key parcels of property that would need to be acquired. In general, he said, he did not think it was prudent to list that information directly in the implementation table.

A key issue is how inflation should be factored into the cost estimates. The consultant who came up with the initial cost estimates for the transportation projects used the value of the dollar in 2007, the year the consultant’s work was finished. Benish said he assumed the Commission would want those figured to be extrapolated to the current year. The Chairman agreed.

“You have to time-stamp these estimates so we understand that they may be several million dollars off depending on when the year is,” Strucko said.

Julia Monteith, an ex officio member of the Commission, said she thought it would be better not to add escalation costs at this time because the real estate and construction markets are so volatile at the moment. Her point was that construction bids are currently coming in lower than expected, and that it was unclear how much projects would cost in the future.

Commissioner Bill Edgerton (Jack Jouett) said he thought the numbers should be shown in the current year for now, but then should be updated every time the master plan is updated. Each master plan must be reviewed every 5 years. Edgerton suggested altering the cost estimates at that time. Cilimberg said staff was planning on using 2009 dollars if the plan is adopted this year.

At the end of the discussion, Cilimberg suggested condensing the UNJAM 2035 cost estimates and displaying one column that listed the estimated project cost in 2009 dollars.

COMMISSIONERS DISCUSS FUNDING SOURCES

The table also listed potential funding sources for the transportation projects.

“You just don’t know based on timing what funding is going to be available from VDOT,” Cilimberg said. “We’re saying [VDOT] should be the primary funding source for the grade separation, for example. But we may over time through the cash proffer system collect funds that can be put towards that project that would reduce VDOT’s part of the project… but we don’t know how much private funds we might have at that point of time.”

Cilimberg said with funding from the state uncertain, and with Albemarle County’s dwindling revenues, there would be challenges in paying for the improvements. He said it will be necessary to prioritize the first five projects crucial to building the road network.

 “We’re only going to be able to identify a few of those elements that we think can actually get funded based on current resources that we can project being available, which is going to leave the question of,
‘How do you do the rest?’” Cilimberg asked. He said many of the transportation improvements would be necessary regardless of whether or not Places29 is adopted, given previous rezonings approved by the Board of Supervisors including Albemarle Place, Hollymead and North Pointe.

Loach said he thought it was a good idea to be able to let the public know the gaps between the planned improvements and the funding realities.

Franco said he wanted to see a column which calculated how alternative funding mechanisms could generate the necessary revenues to pay for the projects. However, Strucko said because the County has not settled on any alternative funding mechanism, providing that information could be over-simplified and could be misleading. Benish and Cilimberg said they would work on providing such information. That prompted Loach to warn that certain groups are already claiming the Planning Commission wants to raise taxes, an allegation he said was false.  

Loach questioned whether funding was a policy area over which the Planning Commission should give its opinion. He said the Board of Supervisors would need to make those decisions and determine that policy.

“The project needs don’t go away just because the money isn’t there,” Cilimberg said. “Plans  are supposed to be able to tell you what you’re going to need and I think if you don’t identify what you’re going to need, and that’s been a problem that we’ve run into already with where we are now. We’ve got a backlog of needs that aren’t going to get addressed.”

Franco said he wasn’t proposing that the Commission make funding decisions, but that the Commission could help explain to the Board of Supervisors what options are available.

“Because these things are improvements that are required today, the public or the Board is going to have to make decisions on how to fund these projects,” Franco said. “It’s more for me that this plan is a transportation plan on how to meet the existing needs and it’s less about rezonings.” He predicted there would be fewer rezonings, and thus less opportunities to secure funding, as the Places29 area is redeveloped. Franco said that’s why he wanted to see data on how much money could be generated by either a service district or a gas tax.

Joseph disagreed with Franco’s approach and said the County’s next step would be to consider reducing its development area if it can’t afford the necessary infrastructure. That prompted Cilimberg to suggest that even if the County scaled back the growth areas, the necessary road improvements would still have to be made.

“The rezonings have already been done, the growth is happening and if it’s not in a development area, it’s somewhere else,” Cilimberg said. “Most everything in this plan that’s being shown for implementation purposes is to deal with growth that has nothing to do with this land-use plan.”
Places29 will next come before the Commission on June 16, 2009. Commissioners will consider the chapter on design guidelines as well as a revision of the land use tables and the future land use map.

TIMELINE FOR PODCAST:

• 01:00 – David Benish, Chief Planner for Albemarle County, begins his report
• 04:00 – Benish describes how cost estimates and funding sources are available for projects
• 06:15 – Benish describes the community facilities project example
• 09:00 – Questions from Commissioners begin
• 10:00 – Commissioner Don Franco asks if right-of-way costs are included in cost estimates
• 12:40 – Commissioner Franco asked if specific properties that would be acquired for right-of-way should be listed in the implementation table
• 18:00 – Commissioner Franco asks if parcels will ever go into the master plan
• 21:00 – Commissioner Bill Edgerton says the new table is more clearer than previous ones
• 21:52 – Benish asks Commissioners if they want to include cost estimates for projects recommended to be done by private developers
• 23:30 – Benish asks Commissioners how inflation should be factored into the Places29 cost estimates
• 25:30 – Benish said County staff will sit down with VDOT officials to validate their cost estimates
• 26:00 – Loach asks if funding sources listed on table can be broken down by percentages
• 27:00 – Cilimberg says the plan will feature a list of projects than can realistically be built
• 28:40 – Strucko questions Cilimberg’s assumptions about listing what projects can be built
• 31:00 – Benish says he thinks many of the projects could come 100% funding from primary road funding, but secondary road funding could augment the road network
• 32:00 – Loach asks if it is possible to include a graph that projects levels of funding
• 33:00 – Julia Monteith says she doesn’t feel escalation costs are needed
• 35:00 – Edgerton said all cost figured should be calculated in the year of adoption and updated every five years when the plan comes up for review
• 37:00 – Cilimberg asks if UNJAM 2035 cost estimates should be included as a column
• 38:30 – Franco asks for estimates of how much alternative sources of funding could bring in
• 46:30 – Cilimberg says he hears mixed messages regarding the Commission’s desire to list fund
• 48:22 – Commissioner Joseph says the table as depicted is “perfect” and she says no more detail is necessary
• 49:30 – Edgerton expresses support for keeping UNJAM 2035 cost estimates in the table, but calls for equalizing them with the County’s estimates
• 55:30 – Franco returns conversation back to cost estimates
• 59:00 – Joseph suggests contracting growth area if County can not afford necessary improvements
• 1:03:30 – Strucko sums up what he thinks he’s heard from his fellow Commissioners
• 1:06:00 – Public comment from Jeff Werner of the Piedmont Environmental Council
• 1:09:15 – Public comment from Neil Williamson of the Free Enterprise Forum
• 1:12:00 – Strucko said he agrees with Williamson’s point on including project costs and timelines in the table, as does Franco
• 1:13:30 – Joseph says she resists including a timeline because she’s not sure if the table is to be used in that manner

City Council endorses UNJAM 2035; Hydraulic grade-separation jettisoned off 20-year plan

By Sean Tubbs
Charlottesville Tomorrow
Wednesday, May 20, 2009

The Charlottesville City Council has rebuffed a recommendation from its Planning Commission to move the grade-separated interchange of Hydraulic Road and Route 29 back onto the region’s long-range transportation plan. City Councilors on the MPO Policy Board recently placed the project on the “vision list” during consideration of the five-year update of the United Jefferson Area Mobility Plan (UNJAM 2035). Projects on the “vision list” have no funding and no expectation that they will be started in the next twenty years.

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Three corners of the Hydraulic intersection are in the City of Charlottesville. The NW corner in Albemarle, location of the 7-11 store, is the area of the mixed-use Albemarle Place development (Click for a bigger picture)

To clear up the conflicting recommendations, Mayor Dave Norris pulled Council’s endorsement of UNJAM 2035 from the consent agenda at the Council’s meeting on May 18, 2009. Both the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors and City Council were required to approve the plan before it can be officially submitted to the Federal Highway Administration, the federal body that mandates each metropolitan area to produce a long-range plan. The MPO will hold a final public hearing on UNJAM 2035 at their meeting May 27, 2009.

Norris wanted an explanation from Councilors Satyendra Huja and Julian Taliaferro about why they pushed the Hydraulic Road interchange to the vision list. The project, however, is one of six such grade separations on US 29 recommended in the County’s Places29 twenty-year Master Plan.  This project would involve lowering the elevation of US 29 to allow for the construction of an overpass to carry Hydraulic Road over the highway eliminating the traffic light for traffic on US 29.  The other intersections targeted for grade separation include Rio Rd, Airport Rd, Ashwood Blvd, Timberwood Blvd, and Hilton Heights.

“My opinion is that [Hydraulic] should be in the plan, but I’d be interested to hear what other Councilors think,” Norris said. “From a transportation utility standpoint, that intersection is a major clog in our machine and I think if we’re trying to ‘unjam’ our machine, that’s one project that should be considered.”
Huja said that too many City businesses would be affected by the construction of the interchange. He also cited the lack of funding for the project. Taliaferro said that was his recollection of the meeting as well. Councilor David Brown said that County businesses would not be affected and he didn’t want to send the “wrong message” to City merchants.

With the endorsement of Charlottesville City Council, the UNJAM 2035 plan will next be considered by the MPO at a final public hearing next week.

Top-10 Growth & Development Stories of 2008

In my weekly appearance today on WINA AM 1070 on the Charlottesville Right Now program, host Coy Barefoot and I will count down Charlottesville Tomorrow's top-10 growth and development stories of 2008.

This is the third year we have counted down the top-10 growth and development stories in Charlottesville-Albemarle.  This wouldn’t be possible without the support of WINA for the Charlottesville Right Now program, host Coy Barefoot for having me on the show each week, Charlottesville Tomorrow’s donors, and the excellent reporting by my colleague Sean Tubbs and our interns and fellows.

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Charlottesville Tomorrow's Top-10 Growth and Development Stories of 2008

1. Approved 50-year Community Water Supply Plan comes under scrutiny as proposed Ragged Mountain Dam cost estimates rise and citizen group demands look at project alternatives and dredging options. [Review all our water supply news].
2. Major new housing and retail developments held up by market forces and lack of adequate public infrastructure (e.g. sewer capacity impacting North Pointe and Albemarle Place developments). National economic recession impacts local government budgets, housing market, and new home construction.  New County residential building permits total 360 through September 2008, on track to be the lowest annual total in over a decade.
3. Supervisor Ann Mallek’s first year representing the White Hall District on the six member Albemarle County Board of Supervisors results in several significant 4-2 votes breaking the 3-3 stalemate that had existed on issues like property taxes and rural area protection strategies.
4. City and County agree to seek legislation to support formation of Charlottesville Albemarle Regional Transit Authority (CARTA), a jointly run public transit authority that would take over and expand the bus operations of the Charlottesville Transit Service (CTS). Separate legislation is being recommended by a work group of Supervisors and City Councilors to seek authority to raise funds for transportation projects (including transit operations) via a local sales tax increase, if approved in a voter referendum in each locality.
5. Meadowcreek Parkway construction contract (for the County’s portion) awarded to Faulconer Construction with work scheduled to begin in early 2009. City Council opts for grade-separated “signalized diamond” interchange for the Parkway’s intersection with the Route 250. The Steering Committee had recommended a design with an overpass above an oval roundabout. City Planning Commission ends their work in 2008 with a recommendation to withdraw funding for City’s portion of project which is scheduled to go to bid in early 2009. 
6. Albemarle County approves several rural area protection strategies. Three rural area ordinance changes were approved related to holding periods on family sub-divisions, stream buffers, and driveways across steep slopes. A new land use taxation revalidation program is also approved by a unanimous vote of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors. 
7. County continues review of economic development policy update in comprehensive plan and eyes light industrial zoning needs. As part of a lengthy (and frequently delayed) review of the Economic Development chapter of the Comprehensive Plan, Supervisors overturn a Planning Commission decision and opt to continue review of Yancey Mills Business Park, a proposal for a light industrial business park in Crozet near the I-64 and Route 250 interchange. Review of the economic development goals began in November 2007 and is once again on the agenda of the Board of Supervisors for their meeting on January 7, 2009.
8. Charlottesville City Council holds retreat in Staunton, VA.  Charlottesville Tomorrow attends as only observer from public or media. 
9. Albemarle County improves citizen and media access to important planning information by providing Internet access to complete staff reports provided to the County Planning Commission and by releasing the County View web application which allows detailed tracking of planning and building applications. Combined with the County’s GISWEB application and complete access to Board of Supervisor meeting materials and podcasts, the County has an impressive collection of material available online.
10. Charlottesville Tomorrow’s Pie Day 2008.  No other topic generated as much positive feedback and listener calls as Coy and Brian’s ongoing radio dialogue about homemade pies.

Brian’s predictions for the top stories of 2009

• 50-year Community Water Supply Plan
• Results of government efficiency reviews released by City and County.  What changes will be implemented?
• Local elections will be held for City Council and Board of Supervisors (see Election Watch 2009)
• General Assembly will block local sales tax increase for transportation funding and continue to shrink VDOT funding allocations to Charlottesville-Albemarle
• Downtown Mall renovations will be completed.  Will it be under budget and on schedule? Monitor the progress here.
• Local governments will face budget challenges as recession continues.  Revenue sharing from County to City will increase by $4 million to around $18 million a year.
• Places29 Master Plan will be unveiled.  Will it be approved?
• Crozet Master Plan’s first 5-year review gets underway
• Meadowcreek Parkway construction gets underway. Will a lawsuit stall City’s portion?
• Community will review of ASAP’s optimal population study findings

The best way to keep track of these and other stories about growth and development is to subscribe to our free weekly e-mail updates.  Thanks for listening, reading, and commenting in 2008!

Brian Wheeler

Supervisors updated on sewer capacity for Albemarle Place and North Pointe

FILE PHOTO: Gary Fern, Executive Director, Albemarle County Service Authority

At their meeting October 1, 2008, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors heard a quarterly update from Gary Fern, Executive Director of the Albemarle County Service Authority which is the utility for public water and sewer in the County’s urban areas.  Fern reported on sewer capacity for the Albemarle Place development and on the North Fork wastewater pump station project.

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On Albemarle Place, Fern described a September meeting between the ACSA, the new developer, Edens & Avant, their engineers, and the Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority (RWSA) to discuss "how to get wastewater flow from the Albemarle Place site to the Meadowcreek Interceptor."  According to Fern, the collaboration between all the parties and the City of Charlottesville has led to identification of a sewer line route running near the US Post Office facility.

Albemarle Place is a major mixed use, town center development on 65 acres wrapping around the Sperry Marine facility on Route 29 North starting at Hydraulic Road.  The size of two Charlottesville downtown malls, the rezoning approved by Albemarle County in 2003 allows for 7-800 apartments, a large grocery store, parking garages, a theater, a hotel, and other retail shopping.  The preliminary site plan was approved in August 2006, but development has been on hold waiting for adequate sewer capacity.

Fern told the Supervisors that it was his understanding that the Albemarle Place developers would be paying the costs for the sewer connection to the RWSA's Meadowcreek Interceptor.  In a meeting on September 10, 2008, the Supervisors were told that the sewer capacity would be in place and available when Edens & Avant is ready to move forward with the development.  A separate upgrade of the capacity of the Meadowcreek Interceptor, necessary to support Albemarle Place, is scheduled to be completed by the RWSA by December 2009.

The North Fork pump station is a wastewater project on Route 29 North that will increase sewer capacity for the County's growth area area around the Rivanna Station Military Base, the future North Pointe development, and the UVA Research Park.  Fern said the preliminary engineering report would be completed in November 2008.  The pump station, or stations, are expected to be built by 2010.  Afterwards, the ACSA will decommission the Camelot Wastewater Treatment Plant and wastewater will be pumped to the Moores Creek facility in Charlottesville.  Developments not already connected to Camelot, like the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) facility at the military base and the North Pointe development, are expected to use the new pump station.

Fern updated the Supervisors on recent meetings between ACSA staff, developer Wendell Wood, developer Richard Spurzem, the UVA Foundation, North Pointe, and the US Army. "It's our intention that the developers will pay for their appropriate share of that particular project," said Fern.  "We have been meeting with them, talking over what their projected flows are going to be from now to buildout, and working through types of arrangements for payment."

Brian Wheeler

Supervisors discuss water/sewer connection fees and infrastructure needs with service authority

The Albemarle County Service Authority (ACSA) held a rare joint meeting with the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors on September 10, 2008. Topics included whether the ACSA water and sewer connection fees are high enough to support new construction, an update on the Northfields sewer line, and ways the ACSA can improve communications with both the Board and the Albemarle County Planning Commission.

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Don Wagner

ACSA Chairman Don Wagner (Rio) began the meeting by explaining to Supervisors how the County’s water and sewer infrastructure is funded. He explained that developers seek to build new neighborhoods in the growth area, they must submit construction plans to the ACSA for how those lines will be laid. The developer pays to put the pipes in the ground, the ACSA is paid to inspect the new lines, and then the new capacity is turned over to the ACSA for maintenance.  Each time a new home is connected to the system, the homebuilder pays various fees to the ACSA.

“All of these things together amount to a little under $5,000 for a new house,” Wagner said. However, in areas where there is no current ACSA service, the fee is higher at $11,200.

When service is extended to areas that are not currently supporting large amounts of residential units (e.g. Biscuit Run and Hollymead Town Center), Wagner said that ACSA engineers also look at the plans to determine if the lines are large enough to handle future development.  If sewer lines need to be made larger, the ACSA will seek a share of the costs from the developer and then pick up the difference.

Wagner said the County’s goal of encouraging denser development in the growth areas has meant some challenges for system capacity. He noted that the sewer lines originally installed near the airport in the Hollymead area were designed to support light industrial zoning. Because those parcels of land were rezoned to mixed use and the Neighborhood Model District, the authority will be  forced to upgrade its infrastructure.

“Our staff is working with the people that are using that land to get the money to do that from the people who are doing it as opposed to taking it out of [other ratepayer’s] pockets,” Wagner said.
ACSA Board Member John Martin (White Hall) said the ACSA Board of Directors will be looking closely at whether its fees are enough to finance new construction. The ACSA will be conducting a rate study to evaluate the issue further. Supervisor Sally Thomas (Samuel Miller) said it was up for the ACSA to set its own rates.

“But it becomes our business and concern when it has an impact on how the development area is developing and whether that meets our Comprehensive Plan and our goals,” Thomas said.

FUNDING THE NORTHFIELDS EXPANSION

The issue of connection fees also comes up in old County neighborhoods such as the Northfields. When the neighborhood was built in the 1960’s, not all of the homes were connected. Some of the septic fields that serve these houses are now failing.

“One of the difficulties we have is trying to go in and service those small areas because they’re very costly and we can’t recoup the costs, even with the connection fee,” Fern said. The ACSA is currently planning a fourth phase of connecting Northfields to its system, which Fern said would cost $400,000, and that the connection fees would only bring in a quarter of that amount. 

Supervisor David Slutzky (Rio) was concerned that homeowners with failing septic fields won’t be able to afford making a one-time payment to connect to the system. He said he’s spoken to homeowners who are afraid to come forward because they can’t make the payment. Slutzky also was concerned the failing septic fields could pose an environmental hazard. He posed a solution.

“Maybe now is the right time to consider completing the sewer network in the growth area,” Slutzky said. “And then developing a funding strategy that is equitable so that the new entrants to the market aren’t getting an advantage that the already existing residents don’t.”  Slutzky suggested several options for how to do that, including allowing existing homeowners to pay for their contribution over a number of years. 

ACSA Board Member Liz Palmer (Samuel Miller) suggested the possibility of creating a service district that would raise an additional property tax on homes that need to be connected to the system. Martin pointed out that 53 homes in Northfields that can connect have chosen to do so.  Wagner added that the ACSA has had to “rescue” many failing homes where either wells or septic fields failed.

“Rescue doesn’t pay for itself, and something’s been paying for that. And we have tried to set our rates so that the rates reflect what we’re paying [the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority],” Wagner said.
Slutzky requested that the ACSA look to solve the problem in a way that was fair to elderly homeowners who cannot afford the connection fee. 

Supervisor Dennis Rooker (Jack Jouett) said he wasn’t sure if the Board could ask the ACSA to make a decision for something they can’t afford. Wagner said the ACSA Board would take it under advisement, but asked the Board to consider requiring mandatory connections to anyone in the Northfields service area. Supervisor Rooker said he was skeptical about that approach.

“I don’t know if we’re talking about curing a problem for five or ten people by imposing a cost on 150,” Rooker said. 

ACSA staff will prepare a report for the Board of Supervisors on potential ways to fund Northfields Phase 4.

ALBEMARLE PLACE UPDATE

Gary Fern

Gary Fern updated the Board of Supervisors on the status of sewer capacity upgrades for Albemarle Place. That development has been on hold for many reasons, one of which is a potential lack of capacity. On September 24, ACSA officials will meet with the firm Edens and Avant, which is the current developer of Albemarle Place. The site was rezoned to the Neighborhood Model District in October 2003, but so far only minimal grading work has been done. 

“One of their key components is trying to get sewer from the Albemarle Place site to the Meadowcreek Interceptor,” Fern said. The Meadowcreek Interceptor, which is scheduled for an upgrade next year, runs east-west and feeds the Moores Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant. The Rivanna Water Sewer Authority will be submitting plans to the Department of Environmental Quality later this year, and Fern said capacity will be there when Albemarle Place is developed.

“The sewer will be ready when they’re ready,” Fern said.

During the conversation, Don Wagner addressed the question of whether the ACSA was prepared for the extra capacity required for Albemarle Place.

“When this question of the size of the sewer line came up, I panicked and went and read what the Service Authority had said,” Wagner said. “And the very first report that came out of the County staff to the Planning Commission and [the Board of Supervisors] wasn’t a red flag, but it certainly was a yellow flag saying it was questionable whether or not there was enough sewer capacity down there.”

TIMELINE FOR PODCAST

• 1:00 - Don Wagner begins discussion by asking Board if they feel connection fees are adequate
• 6:30 - Supervisor Rooker questioned whether the fees were high enough
• 7:30 - Wagner explains how the Hollymead area is served by lines that are too small
• 9:00 - Supervisor Mallek asks how the cost of upgrading will be spread out
• 10:00 - Rooker points out that many neighborhoods may not fully build-out if capacity is reached
• 13:45 - ACSA Member John Martin comments on connection fees
• 15:00 - Supervisor Thomas says it is up to the ACSA to set its own rates, but only to a point c 
• 15:45 - Fern begins discussion of connecting portionns of the Northfields neighborhood to the ACSA system 
• 18:00 - Supervisor Slutzky expresses concern about requiring homeowners to pay full connection fee to connect to ACSA
• 22:45 - County Attorney Larry Davis explains the legalities of requiring people to connect to sewer systems  v
• 45:45 - Discussion of Albemarle Place
• 48:50 - Discussion of North Fork Pump station
• 53:40 - Discussion of compensation for Board of Directors

Sean Tubbs

Council hears from public on water supply plan

The Charlottesville City Council will vote on June 2, 2008 to set the water and wastewater rates for City residents and businesses. They’ll also take a new vote to indicate whether the City supports the implementation of the 50 year community water supply plan, which was adopted unanimously by a previous Council in June 2006. Whatever Council’s decision, it will be informed in part by the recent three-hour Council work session on whether dredging should be a component of the plan, as well as the two hour public hearing held earlier this week.

There were roughly two camps among the thirty-four people who spoke at the meeting, and both sides traded applause throughout the evening. One group consisted of the opponents of the plan, who think dredging should be done first before a new dam is built at the Ragged Mountain Reservoir.  The second group was made up of business leaders, citizens and environmentalists who say the existing plan is the best way to proceed.

OPPONENTS MAKE THEIR CASE

Former Mayor Francis Fife, a past member of the RWSA Board, said he was astounded the organization did not consider dredging more carefully. Susan Smith, representing the Ednam Forest Association, urged Council to delay implementation of the plan if dredging could prevent the expansion of the Ragged Mountain Reservoir.

Tom Olivier, Conservation Chair for the Piedmont Group of the Sierra Club, said his group still supports the adopted water supply plan, but added they now want dredging to be reconsidered as a key component. Colette Hall of the North Downtown Neighborhood Association said she should not have to pay higher rates to support future generations.  City Resident Downing Smith said the City should dredge now, and wait at least another 10 years before adding on to the dam. 

Former City Councilor Kevin Lynch largely repeated the information he presented at the May 6, 2008 work session on the water supply plan, and criticized the permit for using faulty population data. Lynch also handed Councilors and reporters a written version of his plan. Rich Collins, a fellow member of Citizens for a Sustainable Water Plan, said the group will be traveling to Richmond on Friday to ask the Department of Environmental Quality to reconsider the permit it issued in February.

Sam Freilich, whose property adjoins the Ragged Mountain Natural Area, doubted that the proposed $56 million pipeline from the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir to the Ragged Mountain Reservoir would be technically feasible, given that it would have to travel 9 and a half miles uphill. Keith Rosenfeld doubted the RWSA would be able to obtain the right of way for the pipeline.

Engineer Martin Chapman, whose company Indoor Biotechnologies tests water quality, said Council did not have enough information about dredging alternatives. James King said the RWSA should pay for a bathymetric study of the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir.

Betty Mooney, who helped organize the Citizens for a Sustainable Water Plan group, said the current Council would be remembered for killing trees if they allow the plan to be implemented.  She also said many people cannot afford the higher water rates that will result. Her husband, Joe Mooney, concluded the public hearing by issuing a six point plan of action for Council, which involves repairing the Ragged Mountain Dam rather than expanding it.

SUPPORTERS URGE AFFIRMATION OF ADOPTED PLAN

Rod Gentry, president of Union Bank and Trust, urged the Council to show leadership and continue to support the plan. Martha Levering, representing the Natural Resources Committee of the League of Women Voters, said the adopted plan is the “least environmentally damaging solution.” City Resident James Nix said spending money on dredging would divert money from capital improvements to increase reliable storage.

County Resident Jim Kennan said further delay would increase the construction costs, raising the price tag for the whole plan. That sentiment was echoed by City Resident Bob Hodous and Timothy Hulbert, President of the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Robbi Savage, Executive Director of the Rivanna Conservation Society (RCS), acknowledged that “planning ahead can be tough” but said Council needed to take steps to make sure there is enough clean drinking water for “our children and our children’s children.” Jason Halbert, also with RCS, said Albemarle County and Greene County should do more to control sedimentation in the Rivanna River Basin “before one dime is spent on dredging” the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir. David Hirschman, who supports the adopted plan, said the community needed to decide what role it wanted that Reservoir to play before undertaking a dredging program.

RCS Member Leslie Middleton called on Council to follow the legacy of City leaders who in 1908 built a second dam at Ragged Mountain, when it was clear that the first one built in 1885 was not enough to meet the needs of the community.

“This second dam has helped meet our needs for a 100 years, and we have benefitted from this investment since then,” Middleton said. “It is now our turn to invest in a plan that provides for at least the next 50 years, and we certainly hope more. We should bear this cost, and should be willing to bear this cost because it is our turn to bear it.”

COUNCIL COMMENTS

Council took no action after the public hearing, but Mayor Dave Norris asked his Councilors if they had any reactions to the hearing.

Councilor David Brown, who is the only sitting member of Council to vote for the plan’s adoption in 2006, said he did not think there was any doubt that the water supply needed to be expanded, even as the community gets used to conserving water. He pointed to climate forecasts which show the southeastern United States will be dryer in the near future.

“If dredging alone can’t solve the problem, then the economics favor building the dam,” Brown said. “If you have to raise the dam part of the way, it doesn’t cost much more to raise it the rest of the way, and that negates any savings that occur from dredging being cheaper then you thought it was going to be.”
Brown went on to say he was not prepared to make the same assumptions being made by opponents of the adopted plan, who say demand will not be as high as the RWSA projects in 2055 because of increased conservation and lower population growth.

“I’m not prepared to go along with those assumptions,” Brown said. “The risks of not being conservative in your estimating are significant… I think we have to err on the side of being careful.”

Councilor Holly Edwards urged both sides of the debate to refrain from attacking each other, and added that the African American community has not been engaged in the discussion.

“The Rivanna River belongs to all of us, and in the past, African Americans weren’t a part of the decision process, but we’re there now so we need to be present,” Edward said.

Councilor Julian Taliaferro said he wants to make a decision and move forward. “This thing has gone on far too long,” he said.

Mayor Norris acknowledged the City and County have not taken good care of the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir. He agreed with some speakers who argued the RWSA Board of Directors did not adequately represent citizens, given that four of its members are City or County employees.  Norris cautioned against making direct comparisons between different dredging plans.

“I think it’s important when we talk about the competing visions and competing proposals that we compare apples to apples,” Norris said. “We hear occasionally people say ‘Why would you consider a $140 million plan when this company can do it for $20 million. That’s not an accurate comparison, and I think the public needs to know that.”

Norris also reminded Downing Smith that the state Department of Environmental Quality requires a 30-year planning horizon, but encourages a 50 year plan. “It would certainly be much easier if we could just plan for 15 years, because then we could do it by dredging alone,” he said. “But I agree with Dr. Brown that we can’t do it by dredging alone, and I think even Kevin Lynch has not made the argument we can’t do it by dredging alone.”

Norris said the community needed to move forward with an examination of dredging, though not necessarily as part of the water supply plan. He said he would introduce a motion before the RWSA’s June Board Meeting to direct the City’s representatives (Public Works Director Judy Mueller and City Manager Gary O’Connell) to move forward with a feasibility study as well as the creation of a task force on the future of the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir.

Sean Tubbs