Charlottesville Tomorrow Blog

Council gets update on Martha Jefferson’s future

Later this month, the firm Economic Research Associates (ERA) will present a comprehensive market study of the property currently owned and used by Martha Jefferson Hospital. A preview of this report was presented to the Martha Jefferson Neighborhood Association in late January, and again to City Council at a work session on February 11, 2008.  Hospital spokesman Steve Bowers says the full report will be available within the next two weeks, and will be used to help the hospital identify a single redevelopment partner.

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“[ERA’s] product is going to be a research tool that developers can literally take to the bank to help finance their project,” said Bowers. The hospital wants a partner that will create a mixed-use development that energizes the High Street corridor. The ERA report will outline the feasibility of hotels, condos, offices, and other potential re-uses.

Councilors were generally supportive of Bower’s presentation, and the hospital’s approach. They asked that some form of a citizen oversight panel be set up to help coordinate communications between the hospital, the City, and the neighborhood. Bowers said the hospital is in the process of doing so, and that the hospital would seek input from Council on who should make up that body.

These houses on Locust Avenue will be preserved, according to Martha Jefferson spokesman Steve Bowers

Councilor Julian Taliaferro said he would like to see the five houses owned by the hospital along Locust Avenue returned to their original use as residences. Councilor Satyendra Huja said he wanted affordable living choices to be built into the project. Councilor David Brown said he would like to know more about the future of other medical businesses in the area. Mayor Dave Norris said he would like to see the historic portion of the existing hospital preserved in some way to preserve the fabric of the neighborhood.

Bowers said the hospital’s intention is to narrow the field of developer partners by the summer.
In May, the Charlottesville Community Design Center will present the work of UVa School of Architecture students who have been tasked with coming up with conceptual designs of their own.

Sean Tubbs

Martha Jefferson describes path to redevelopment for 9-acre site

Martha Jefferson's Steve Bowers

The Martha Jefferson Hospital expects to move to a new location on Route 250 in Albemarle County by the year 2012. Before then, the hospital hopes to work with the City and surrounding neighborhoods to find a single business partner to redevelop the current nine-acre downtown campus.

“This is a once in a generation opportunity,” says Steve Bowers, the hospital’s spokesman and the man coordinating the hospital’s efforts to shepherd the site of its soon-to-be-former home. 

Bowers gave an update to the Martha Jefferson Neighborhood Association at its meeting on January 31, 2008.  About three dozen people took seats in the hospital’s Education Center to hear Bowers share information about Martha Jefferson’s plans. At the moment, the only thing that is certain is that the hospital is moving.  Issues up in the air include determining the future uses at the site, the amount of demolition needed to support redevelopment, and the hospital’s role in a development deal.

Bowers began his presentation by saying the main goal for the site is to “optimize” redevelopment, and pledged to the neighborhood that the site will not go to the highest bidder. Bowers said there will be no rush to find a new tenant, and that a patient approach will benefit the whole community. Bowers said the meeting presented an opportunity for the hospital to rekindle a spirit of collaboration with the neighborhood. He told the crowd that their needs would come first.

However, Bowers said the hospital needs the site to be “in transition” by 2012, when all hospital operations are scheduled to be transferred to the Pantops campus.  Bowers told the crowd the process will be affected by the possibility of recession, the credit crunch, and a declining housing market. On the other hand, he said national trends are towards infill redevelopment, and that downtown living has become more popular.
The next step in the process will be the release of a market and demand report from the firm Economic Research Associates. They’ve spent the past nine months evaluating various redevelopment scenarios and their report is due in mid-February.

Bowers gave a few hints at what is in the report. He said one early indication is that an aging national population has created a high demand for “walkable” communities. With the downtown mall only a few blocks away, the current campus could satisfy that demand. With retail elements such as a grocery store, Bowers said a new community built on the footprint of Martha Jefferson could help the City compete with similar mixed used developments such as Biscuit Run or North Pointe.

Bowers said the report will also evaluate the site’s potential use for a hotel/condominium complex geared towards UVa alumni. In these facilities, owners purchase a room they can use during their trips back home that is used as a hotel room the rest of the year. They are becoming increasingly popular in communities with large universities. Bowers said the University of Virginia Health System has not yet expressed any interest in using the existing hospital facility.

Bowers said the ERA report has ruled out converting the campus to a research and development park. He said that “wet-labs” would use as much water if not more as the hospital. The report does acknowledge a demand for office space, though Bowers that did not necessarily mean an office park.

About three dozen people attended the meeting

An audience member asked if retirement communities were being considered as a redevelopment partner, because he and his wife would like the option to stay nearby. He pointed out that the hospital is already equipped with the right size rooms. Bowers said that the hospital structure could remain, but that the power plant and related issues might make reusing the hospital less financially feasible. He said another obstacle to using the existing structure is that it does not get much light.

“There are very few uses for a building without light,” he said. He also said the existing power plant would need to be replaced, and that would be very expensive.

After the ERA report comes out, the hospital will discuss the possibility with potential partners. Bowers said the field of suitors would be narrowed down by the summer.

Bowers said the hospital’s first preference is to find a single partner who will take on the redevelopment of the whole site. He said that would be the simplest way to make a deal, and ensure that any necessary infrastructure upgrades at the site would be implemented. “We don’t want a cherry picker,” he said. Bowers said the hospital wanted to partner with someone with a national track record.

Bowers gave the community several assurances. First, no one will be displaced as part of the redevelopment process. Second, the redeveloped campus would accommodate the City’s desire for growth while accommodating the neighborhood’s desire to stay intact. As a sign to show the hospital’s commitment to this principle, Bowers said five houses on Locust Avenue would be preserved. “If we keep something downtown, this might be a place to do it,” he said. The houses are currently used by the hospital in a variety of support capacities, and City Councilor David Brown stood at the meeting to say he would support down-zoning so they can be used as residences once more.

Another audience member asked what would happen if a suitor wasn’t found by 2012. Bowers said he didn’t want to see the hospital end up as an empty hulk, but that demolition would not be the hospital’s call. The hospital may or may not end up as an equity partner in the redevelopment project, but that would depend on the structure of the deal. While there have been no firm offers, Bowers said his office has had a handful of meetings with interested parties.

The process of how that partner will be determined has not been finalized, but Bowers said whoever is selected must have a commitment to becoming part of the neighborhood. He pointed to the recent decision by the Jefferson Scholars Foundation to demolish a house near the University to make way for their new headquarters. “That’s what we’re trying to avoid,” he said.

“The redevelopment partner will be making a bet on the future of downtown,” Bowers said.

Sean Tubbs

CBIC unveils high-tech employment figures

Economist Billy Kinsey of Virginia Commonwealth University presents the results of the survey

On November 20, 2007, the Charlottesville Business Innovation Council continued their series of tech town hall meetings at the Omni Hotel in downtown Charlottesville.  The highlight of the luncheon was the release of an economic study on the impact of high-tech companies on the local economy (.PDF).  The study was conducted by the Center for Public Policy at Virginia Commonwealth University and funded by the City of Charlottesville.

The presentation was followed by a panel discussion with local high-tech business executives who discussed the challenges of hiring and retaining technical employees in our area.

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Watch the video below:

Kendall Singleton

Council candidates on economic sustainability

As the community gets ready for election day on November 6th, Charlottesville Tomorrow is preparing to mail our non-partisan voter guides featuring the results of interviews with each of the candidates for Charlottesville City Council and the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors. 

Over the next few weeks, this blog will feature some of the questions that did not make the cut for the voter guide, but which still offer important insights into the candidates' views on local growth and development issues.

 

Our Election Watch 2007 website includes the complete audio and written transcript for each candidate interview.  Subscribe to our e-mails to get immediate notification of the availability of the 2007 Voter Guides.  The content below are excerpts pulled from the verbatim transcripts.

CITY COUNCIL, FOURTH IN A SERIES

The City Council’s 2025 vision statement identifies economic sustainability as a key objective.  What do you think needs to be done to support that objective, and what role should government play to promote economic vitality?

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David Brown (D)-Incumbent: Well, one of the things we need to do [is]… to have a skilled workforce whose skills meet the need of the emerging business community.  That’s in our public schools, it’s in adult ed, CATEC, partnerships with the University of Virginia, with PVCC. 

Secondly, we need to continue to support small and emerging businesses….  And, thirdly, we need to make the Downtown be an attractive place for businesses, a place where people want to locate, which means it needs to be safe.  We need to continue to have good schools where people feel like that their employees will want to live here and what we need in particular is to attract businesses for which there are career paths for our residents…

 

Holly Edwards (D)-Challenger: …[T]he key will be operate smarter with the dollars and levering resources from private, state and federal resources and I guess… as a new Councilor, I have to be really strategic about following the dollars.  And what’s going to be different more so about this election is that everything’s happening in November whereas before new Councilors had from spring until the end of the year to prepare for the budget…

…Just from listening to some of the concerns that people had during the campaign trail, I heard a lot… of concerns about how the budget seemed to be so out of balance with the priorities… and a lot of it had to do with people not having enough information about the thought process that went into some of the decisions and, granted, everybody’s not going to agree with everything that’s handled, but I’d like to see a way that… we all feel as if we’ve taken a part in that plan…

Barbara Haskins (I)-Challenger: Right now, the main sources of City revenue are homeowners, taxes, and commercial, and a lot of it is homeowners because we have a limited commercial base… it’s nothing like the County where the commercial tax base is just exploding, so they can take a lot more of their revenue from businesses….  I want to be able to sustain homeowners in what they can afford to pay and then the City’s budget flows from that.  Right now, we’ve been on a non-sustainable trajectory.  We’ve had since about the middle of the last 10 years double-digit inflation in the assessments every year and that’s been rising taxes for homeowners and… I would change it if I were elected, so we’re talking about the City but the City is funded by homeowners and funded by businesses and so my focus is really more on how do you protect the economic viability of the homeowners….  There’s been lip service but not so much regard for them.

Satyendra Huja (D)-Challenger: Well, promote workforce training, and job creation activities. Especially growth of new small businesses and expansion of existing businesses. As you may know, most development, economic development, comes from expanding existing businesses. So, I will try to see what their needs are and try to meet those needs for them. Also, the City can provide utility capacity, for example, sewer and water, for without that, you cannot have development.

Peter Kleeman (I)-Challenger: …I read carefully through the strategic plan for economic development and I was a little bit surprised… to find out that the strategic plan is really a much shorter-term plan than the Charlottesville City Council vision plan….  It’s called the Economic Sustainability Matrix.  Anything that has a date on it is dated is 2006-2007 and we’re talking about a plan that I believe should extend out to 2025, so…

What do I think needs to be done to support this objective of economic sustainability in 2025 is that we need to have some time increments with some intermediate targets as to what it is that we really would like to see in terms of economic development… there are neighborhoods that could use some economic development activities, local stores.  There are zoning restrictions to putting economic centers in some neighborhoods.  I think that they need to be looked at and revisited and perhaps a partnership with the City and some of the neighborhoods could look into how can we provide these commercial economic entities that could provide local jobs… It would make living in those residential areas even more appealing than just being in a total housing area…

…What role should the government play?  I think we need to play the role of a facilitator…

Kendall Singleton

Rivanna District Candidates Forum

On October 17, 2007, the two candidates for the Rivanna District on the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors appeared at a candidates forum sponsored by the Free Enterprise Forum and Charlottesville Tomorrow.

Republican incumbent Ken Boyd and Democratic challenger Marcia Joseph answered ten questions on land use, transportation, and growth in the County. The candidates  also answered several questions submitted by members of the audience. About fifty people attended the forum, which was held at Baker-Butler Elementary School on Proffit Road. The event was co-moderated by Neil Williamson of the Free Enterprise Forum and Sean Tubbs of Charlottesville Tomorrow.

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OPENING STATEMENTS

Ken Boyd (R): “I'm a 26-year resident of the County. I'm married and I have four children, all of whom were educated in the public schools here. I spent 23 years as a professional in the banking business before starting my own financial planning company 16 years ago, and that's what I do today, I'm a financial planner. Because I was very interested in my kids and their schools, I have a real passion for education, so in 1999, I decided to run for the School Board. I ran, was elected, and served four years as the School Board representative from this area... After that, my youngest son had graduated from Monticello High School, and he had moved  on to JMU, and I didn't have any more kids left in school, so I decided to move up to the Board of Supervisors and ran for that in 2003, and have served, this is my fourth year. I'm currently the Chair of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors. There's really a number of things that we've accomplished in the last four years... I'm going to touch on just a couple of them... One is in water, and I know it seems to you like it does to me that nothing has been done about our water situation since the 2002 drought, but the Board of Supervisors and the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority have been actively working to put together a 50-year plan, and we're about a month or two away from getting that approved. I'm real happy with that. I was particularly pleased that I was able to work with Dave Brown, the Mayor of Charlottesville, and he and I went to Washington and got the money for the completion of the Meadowcreek Parkway, and if you've been reading the paper, we're actually going to get that road built here in the next year, I think we'll put it out for bids... Lastly, I think that one of the things I'm really happy about that's just come out recently is, you know, we weren't able in either the Planning Commission or the Board of Supervisors to approve the first SOCA location for their complex, but I've been working closely with them ever since, and we've now come up with an alternative location which we feel will work for both them and us, and we're really excited about that.”

Marcia Joseph (D): “I'm the current chair of the Albemarle County Planning Commission. I'm a 23-year resident. I do also have children who graduated from Albemarle High School, and thanks to Mark Curry, our chemistry teacher at Albemarle High School, are now chemists, so I'm very proud of them. There's a lot of things that have gone on in my life in Albemarle County, and I've done a lot of public service, I've worked for 12 years either on one board or another commission. I've been on the Architectural Review Board, I've been chair of that, I've been on the Ag-Forest District Committee, and I've also served on the Acquisition of Conservation Easements Committee. All of these very important issues to me. I think that it's extremely important for us to have transparency in government, which is exactly what I plan on doing. I think it's important to have all kinds of communication go on between Rivanna, between the Albemarle County Service Authority, between the City and the County. I work currently with, and have friends in, City government and Rivanna. I think it's not just the fact that they're friends, but the important aspect that I feel that we've been lacking is communication. I think that's extremely important. I think that it's time that we started looking at how we develop in this County, and make sure that anything that comes down the pike is not what we develop, or is not what we approve, but we only approve things in this County that improve the conditions for the existing residents of Albemarle County. I think that we've found that our infrastructure now is failing, and needs help, and now its time to pay the piper and we're going to have to figure out how we're going to do this. So, that's why I'm running.

Question 1: How would you assess Albemarle County’s growth management strategies? What other steps would you advocate be taken to discourage development in the rural countryside and encourage development in the growth areas?  Are the existing incentives adequate?

Marcia Joseph (D): “I think that what we've done is we've managed to definitely encourage growth. We've got over 1400 residential units that have been created, and just in our neck of the woods, along 29 corridor, we've got over a million square feet of retail space that's been approved, which according     to our latest Comprehensive Plan, is a whole lot more than we're going to need by the year 2015. So, I don't think we've done a real good job in measuring how much we're putting into different areas. We also have not really done a good job with discouraging growth in the rural areas. We've had several     items that have come before the Board of Supervisors in the last few years that would just slow down growth, just slow it down a little bit. One was phasing, and that would not allow so many units, so many lots to be created in a year, and the other night had to do with critical slopes, family division, and stream buffers. And those were very benign things, and were just not approved by the Board, and I think it's really important that those sorts of small steps be taken so that we can discourage a lot of growth in our rural areas because that really helps create the character of our rural areas, and the character of Albemare County as a whole.”

Ken Boyd (R): “First of all, I want to comment on the rather benign ordinance changes that we put before the Board of Supervisors the other night because we had over a hundred speakers come out that spoke until 1:00, til 12:30 in the morning, that didn't feel like they were very benign changes... The Board of Supervisors did not, did not vote those down. They felt they just needed more work, and so that's what we're going to do with these, we're going to  have some more work done, try and get more people to buy into it. Now, I have here, I think that our growth management activities are working. I have here, the spring 2006 Clarion, which is put out by the Piedmont Environment Council, and it says, Albemarle landowners set conservation record, and it goes on to talk about how in 2005, we put 10,500 acres into conservation easements, and that brought up the total acreage to around 60,000, and this kind of lauds what we're doing. I know that there's a lot of perception being put out there, but I like to deal in real numbers. I'm a numbers type guy, I'm a financial type person, so, what I did was I went back and I got the building report, the latest building report for the 2nd quarter of this year. And if you compare it to a similar building report in 2004, 46% of the new housing starts... was in the rural area. In 2007, through the second quarter... it's 16%... These issues are beginning to work and beginning to take hold now. It's very soon in the process, and I'd be the first to admit that it's early on to be declaring that we've really shut down all the level of growth we want in the rural areas...”

Question 2:   How important is creating new jobs to the future of Albemarle County?  Should particular businesses be encouraged or discouraged from coming to or remaining in Albemarle County?  Who?  How?

Ken Boyd (R):  “This was an issue on jobs that I ran on 4 years ago, because we were coming off of the year in 2003, a period of time when we had a number of closings of manufacturing jobs. ConAgra, Comdial, Technicolor... We constantly need to be trying to promote job growth in this community... I think we can all agree that what we want are good clean industries here.... Biotech would be an excellent thing for us... I was part of the people on the Board who promoted us joining the [Thomas Jefferson] Partnership for Economic Development and the Chamber of Commerce, and the reason for this is that those people thinking about bringing jobs to our area were concerned with the fact that when they were talking to the University of Virginia, when they were talking to the Partnership, that the County of Albemarle wasn't there... In addition to that, we've also set up a $250,000 jobs opportunity fund, which we haven't had to use yet, but I certainly hope that we have some opportunity come up that we can use those funds for job training or for other things that might attract jobs to our areas.

Marcia Joseph (D): “We have an unemployment rate that is 2.7%, around 3%... I think what I hear     more from people is not so much that we need jobs here, but we need some jobs that are higher pay and     better quality and that goes hand in hand also with affordable housing... We have some really good     resources in town, people who have made some home-grown businesses: MusicToday, SNL Securities,     Biotage, Crutchfield. There's a bunch of people who have stayed right here and made some money, and     created some businesses. What I'd like to do is talk to these folks... and find out what is it about     Albemarle County that made you do this, how can we make it easier for you, and how can we create     some jobs here? I'm not so sure that it's important that we attract all kinds of things, though Albemarle     County has never turned down anything to my knowledge...

Question 3: How will you deal with neighborhood opposition to rezonings in our growth areas that are in line with the goals of Albemarle’s Comprehensive plan?

Marcia Joseph (D): “I've really had some real interesting experiences while being on the Planning Commission, and one of them is that normally we have neighbors come in, and they're really concerned  and they speak to the developers and they say why these things shouldn't happen, but recently in the last couple of years we've actually had some developers come in because something has come that wants to happen, some rezoning next to their properties, so I'm finding it kind of comical that we have this sort of thing happen, because it's human nature. People don’t like change.  People don't like the fact that what their expectations are, this piece of property was going to stay the same, it makes it difficult. Our comprehensive plan is our plan.  It helps guide us with growth, if growth is necessary in any particular area... I think it's important to listen to people.  They're the people who live in that neighborhood. I listen to those developers that came in and complained, just as much as I listen to any other neighbor that comes in, and talks about and explains to me how this will have an effect on their property.... I think it's important that we also look at our Comprehensive Plan and look at the Community as a whole... there's some sort of middle ground that we have to come to when we're doing something like that...

Ken Boyd (R): “I am on record saying... that  I will do everything possible as a Board of Supervisor representative to preserve our existing neighborhoods, even if that means going against issues that are in the comprehensive plan.  I personally don't believe that we should do things like put connector roads through existing neighborhoods where the existing roads are not set up to handle that...I think an example of that is the stand that I took on  Ashwood Boulevard, which I did not want to connect to Polo Grounds Road, and we heard from over 800 residents in the Forest Lakes area saying they were opposed to that particular road... We've now got that taken off of the plan for Places29.... I much prefer the alternative of taking the new neighborhoods and putting parallel roads through them if we need to do it...If we build a neighborhood with the idea that they're going to have a road that is a commuter road that's taking people through their neighborhood... then at least they bought their house knowing what's going on...”

Question 4: Albemarle County has dedicated $2 million towards priority transportation projects. With the state unable to fund critical road projects, what do you see as the responsibility of local government bodies to fund road projects? 

Ken Boyd (R): “I guess since I am the Supervisor who originally promoted the idea of putting more money into transportation, that I would have to say that I think that, unfortunately, we have to step up. We have to step up here locally because we have transportation problems that are not being dealt with by the state so we have no alternative but to put money into our own transportation... One of the things that we've done is we've recently put a proffer policy, where we are going to get from developers money up front for every house that's built that will go into paying for infrastructure costs, things like schools and roads and transportation...There's something we have to be very careful about. In my opinion, VDOT or let's just say the state, would very much like to turn over road-building to the counties, and road-maintenance to the counties. We can't do that. We can't put that kind of burden on property taxes... They have been giving us less money and we get less money today than we got ten years ago...One of the things you'll probably see next year from the Board of Supervisors is a proposal for a bond issue so that we can go ahead. We've been paying as you go for most of the time that we've been funding infrastructure in this area, and we can't keep up with the inflated cost of it...

Marcia Joseph (D): “I think our responsibility is to find out what our  priorities are... If we're going to do bond referendums and we're going to do general obligations, we'd better find out from people if this is what they want to happen, or if these are the improvements that they want to happen at this point in time.  I do think there are some important things. We do hear a lot about traffic and we're going to have to do something about it. There are other ways we need to look at this, too. If it's traffic related, maybe we can still looking at other modes of transportation. Maybe we need to think about doing somethings a little creatively, like using transit, and trying to figure out some ways that we can really get people to use mass transit... Maybe we need to talk about other forms of transportation like bicycles...  What's the best way to spend our money? If we're going to go out and we're going to ask some financial institution to lend us some money, what do we want to spend it on? So I think we really need to start talking about those things. I think this is an opportunity for us to become a very unique community... It is not just roadways.  I think we need to think about other means of transportation, and how we might handle that... I do think we may have to borrow some money, but I would certainly make a point of coming to the community and making sure that's exactly what they wanted to happen.”

Question 5: Albemarle County has expectations for the development community to build or pay for affordable housing.  Do you agree with that approach?  How do you believe the County should address the need for not just affordable housing, but also workforce housing?

Marcia Joseph (D): “I have worked with Habitat for Humanity, and so I know what goes on in some of the lower realms, you know, 50% of median income.  Affordable housing in our community is defined as 80% of median income. I think that this is an absolutely wonderful opportunity for us to do public-private partnerships... There's a group out there that's talking about community land trusts... I've been involved with those people... it's just really exciting because it's a way to provide affordable housing by using private funds and if we can get, if I'm on the Board, I would like to encourage other board members to also endorse and commit to providing some funds for this... Right now what we've got going in our affordable housing is that the proffers that we have are for five years only. So, that piece of property would stay affordable for five years and that's it... This would leave it so that it would stay forever...”

Ken Boyd (R): “I want to first address the land trust idea... That's been presented to our Board with encouragement from our existing Board for them to get the act together and come back and tell us what  they want to do there... That's something I'm very intrigued with and I think it's an excellent idea. I think that we've got a good start on the affordable housing project. But, as Marcia says, what we've done, and I'm not sure why we did it this way, but we sort of identified our affordable housing policy around  80% of median income... That does not touch the workforce housing needs in this community... These things are driven by market-rates. We're very very concerned about what's going on with the sub-prime markets now and what that's going to do to the lenders... It's a much more complicated issue than that. I'm looking for great results out of our task force. It's a City, County, University task force  that's looking at it, and they're trying to define what the problem is so that we can break it up into manageable pieces and tackle it.”

Question 6: “The Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission have both had work sessions on the, transportation elements of the Places29 Master Plan.  Will you support Berkmar Drive Extended from the Sam’s Club to Hollymead Town Center and grade separation on Route 29 as major components of that plan?  Why or why not?”

Ken Boyd (R): “First of all, I have been a big supporter of Berkmar Drive Extended for a long time... We've actually had the opportunities in the past to try and get that done but our Board has decided to hold off zoning applications that might have accomplished at least getting some of that road built until such time as the master planning process is over... I think that's an important parallel road  to 29 that we need to build. We're going to have to come up with a bridge, and it's going to be expensive for that bridge, but it needs to be done. Now, I'm not sure that I'm ready to turn Route 29 into an expressway... We've got...  12 percent that's through-traffic. So why would we want to build an expensive expressway  with a bunch of overpasses that are going to handle just 12 percent of the traffic?

Marcia Joseph (D): “The consultants have looked at this in any number of different ways and have come to the conclusion that [Berkmar Extended] is the way we can move traffic most effectively on 29... I do support that. It's going to be a real huge challenge to try to come up with the money for that bridge. I've heard anywhere between $14 million and $40 million... The grade separated  interchanges have been a problem in a lot of people's for many many years. I met with one of the members of the North Charlottesville Business Council today and I'm going to sit down with him next week and try to figure out what it is about that whole process or that whole design that is so problematic to people... It's hard for me to say I don't agree with it, because we've got engineers and experts that we're paying an awful lot of money, that are telling us that that's the way to solve our problems. I realize that we're the people who are leaders and we're supposed to look at this and make sure that it's  right, so that's what I'm doing now...

Question 7: Do you support a limited access bypass for Route 29 around northern Charlottesville and, if so, where would that be located?

Marcia Joseph (D): “I really don’t.  I think that the Places29 [Master Plan] has determined that we don’t need that. I mean, I haven't heard that as part of their recommendations, and again, I'm relying on experts but I'm not an engineer and haven't done any traffic modeling, but they say we don't need it, so I don't support it.”

Ken Boyd (R): “Well, just so everybody understands, the so-called Western Bypass as its more commonly referred to was not, was taken out of the study group, so they were not allowed to look at that as an alternative, so that was the recommendation, that was a majority of the Board that did that. I in fact do support a  connector road. I would rather call it a western connector rather than a western bypass. I think that if we follow the route of the existing, proposed bypass, by which they've bought most all of the land already for that, and then if we had a road that would dump in right across from Leonard Sandridge Road, that this would be an excellent help to us to route traffic off of 29 and we could then possibly have 29 become that main street that we want it to be... But, for right now, there's not enough support on the Board to do that so that's not a road that's even being considered as part of Places29.”

Question 8: The county’s water and sewer infrastructure will need upgrades and expansion. How do you propose to fund our water and sewer  infrastructure and over what time frame?.   What changes, if any, would you make to the boards of the Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority or the Albemarle County Service Authority?

Ken Boyd (R): “When I first came on the Board four years ago... one of the things I wanted to do, I was concerned about the water supply and the water system in this area, and I was sort of amazed to find out that we had no accruals for capital improvement projects that were happening in the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority. Now, the Albemarle County Service Authority was, but not in Rivanna. In addition to that, and even worse in my respect, is that we had not done any real analysis of the either the flow or the maintenance of the infrastructure... So when we talk about the fact that we've got to build for growth in the future, we've got to do some corrections for growth that's been in the past. We have some pipes that are as much as 50 years old, and we've found out now that we're already at capacity with sewer lines... Another thing I've been advocating for for at least four years is to change the structure of the board of the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority. I think this community would be much better served with a board similar like the MPO, which has elected representatives on that Board... I think that in regard to how we would fund the future, would be sort of presumptious and probably not  appropriate for us to to try to micromanage a process that's already in place. They're already looking at bonds and options... I do think this from the preliminary things I've seen, this is another situation where we probably need to go ahead with all of the improvements at one time rather than do them piecemeal...”

Marcia Joseph (D): “We don’t have any choice as far as time frames go in the water supply. We are under the gun now.  We have to repair a dam that was built in, well one of them was built in 1920 and the other in 1895. These are at Ragged Mountain, and they have to be repaired. The state is telling us that it's got to happen. So we don’t have any choice in that matter.  We are also going to raise the height of the dam to make sure there is water enough for the next 50 years. We're looking at a cost of $140 million dollars, so we have to do that. The time frame for this building is 2011... How do we fund this?  What I've heard a lot is ratepayers, and I think it's really important for us to make sure the ratepayers are not the only responsible parties.  I think we really need to sit down with the University and the City and make sure this all works equitably... Now in changing the structure of these entities, I was fascinated at how independent these entities are that are actually providing our water and sewer for us. As I sit on the Planning Commission and projects have come before us, I have asked and other commission members have asked, “Alright, this is a rezoning, do we have enough water?”and we are assured by the Service Authority that we have enough water. Not once has anyone said to us “Oh, by the way, we have a $140 million project coming down the pike,” so that we're never able to give that information to any of the developers or any of the citizens that come in, because citizens have been badgering us for years about water, and we have been told, no problem.... we really have to start thinking about these things and get all of these entities together to make sure that we're all talking...”

Question 9: Does County government have the appropriate resources, financial and personnel, to achieve the objectives in our comprehensive plan?

Marcia Joseph (D): “That's a real interesting question because right now we're dealing with a planning staff that's down several members because of the budget cuts that have been made recently... We don't have the proper resources apparently at this point of time to be on a level playing field right now, and deal with the issues that we're dealing with maybe six months ago, because our revenues have gone down... We really need to take a look at our comprehensive plan and decide what it is we want to do, again, as a community... If we're down right now, in funding, it's going to be a little bit difficult to decide we have the personnel when we don't have the appropriate personnel right now.”

Ken Boyd (R): “First I want to clarify one point because there is not budget cuts that are going on and causing a freeze in salaries. It's a revenue shortfall, that's what's happening. We had projected to have a five percent increase in our revenues, and it is probably going to manifest itself at something less than one percent... That's why we're being very cautious with replacing people for opening that we have. But I do agree that at the present time, we do not have the resources we need to implement all the things that are in the comprehensive plan.  But by the same token, even though we live in this sort of, immediate “me, me, me” world where everything has to be immediately done now, we have to realize and take a step back and understand that in order to be appropriated in our taxation of the individuals here, we can't do everything all at once and it's going to have to be gradually done over time as we implement these changes and move forward.”

Question 10: The Board of Supervisors has recently endorsed the concept of prioritizing areas for new development and community infrastructure within our growth areas. Do you think this prioritization is a good idea? Why or why not?

Ken Boyd (R): “Well the answer to that is yes and no.  I think that it is very appropriate that we set priorities for the infrastructure that the County is going to be putting into our master plans, I think we should do that. We should decide on which way we want to spend County dollars for things like sidewalks, redevelopment, libraries, things like that, and what sequence we ought to do it in. I do not agree, in fact, I voted against prioritizing what the development community does, because I think that is going to create a competitive advantage or disadvantage depending on who owns the property where we see can be developed next. So it's simple. I don't think we should be dabbling in the free enterprise, and the marketplace with that and giving priority for one person or developer or build over another.

Marcia Joseph (D): “I do support this idea.  I think it's extremely important. If we're going to prioritize where we put our infrastructure, then we ought to make sure that’s where the development goes. I think that unless someone is willing to put in all of the infrastructure that's necessary to support the development, then that would be fine, but I think it's also a sense of security for the community, that they have an idea of what's going to happen, where, and if we're all helping to pay for the infrastructure, then we ought to know where the development is going, so I think it's extremely important.”

Audience Question #1:  How do you see recently approved projects such as North Pointe, Biscuit Run and Hollymead Town Center as benefiting our community?

Marcia Joseph (D): I’ll start with Biscuit Run, because I think it does benefit the community. I think we got a 400 acre park, I think we got a through-road through that, I think we got a school site on that. We got money for proffers for road improvements that are off-site...  I don’t think North Pointe was a good idea.  I think the layout is not good. I think that anything that puts another 30,000 cars through that intersection of Airport Road and 29 is not such a good thing. I think that North Pointe could have been phased, if it it needed to happen. I don't think we need any more big boxes on 29.... I think that we didn't need that much commercial activity... Hollymead, I think that that was also not a benefit the way it happened. It should have been phased, I think we learned a lot about stormwater with that, that we really need to make sure that as these things happen, they are phased so that people know what's going to happen so that ponds are not destroyed and water isn't rushing through some of these culverts underneath...”

Ken Boyd (D): “I was not on the Board at the time that Hollymead was approved, and had I been on the Board, I never would have approved it with the erosion control and sediment control restrictions that were put on it. Every project since then, we've put much stricter erosion and sediment control restrictions on them, and we've asked them to proffer it, and that includes North Pointe, and that includes Biscuit Run, both... I disagree little bit, that I'm going to sit here and say that a planner who does absorption calculations and says we have too much or too little retail space only because all we've done is rezoned it. I'm more of a free market type person, and what I believe is that the market will take care of itself. If there's too much retail space in North Pointe, then it won't get built because they won't find anybody to put in it, and I can tell you they're not going to build something where they've not got a tenant to put in there... I think that the traffic situation is probably no worse on North Pointe than what has been created at Biscuit Run.... I do want to correct Ms. Joseph.  It is phased at North Pointe. We have phasing in regards to when the commercial development will happen... In my mind, both [Biscuit Run and North Pointe] met the neighborhood model....

Audience Question #2
What experience do you have that will help you lead the County as we deal with major financial issues in the near future? Roads, water, revenue decline...

Ken Boyd  (R): “My background is in finance and banking and financial planning.. I've also had the opportunity over the last 8 years to be working with both the school budget and the budget for the Board of Supervisors... This positions me... to deal with what's going to be a very complicated budget process. This year with us being down on our revenue projections is just the beginning of what we feel will be a 2 to 5 year cycle and one of the things we're doing is we're reforming our budget, and this is based on an initiative that I've been asking for for eight years to start doing our budget differently, so that we can get a better handle on it...”

Marcia Joseph (D): “Well, I do not have an MBA, but I don't think that you need that to be a member of the Board of Supervisors.  I think we have adequate staff and I think I'm a smart enough person to try to figure out exactly what's going on in the budget. I think we would get lots of public input as we normally do, and lots of input from staff, as we normally do, and I think that that's how we would do it. I don't think it takes rocket science to do this stuff, it has to be simple, we all have to understand it, so I think my experience in knowing what the needs are of the community, talking to the people in the community, I think that's extremely important also in deciding what our priorities are and how we're going to do this...”

Audience Question #3
With the County’s annual [population] growth rate less than 2%, where do you want it to be?

Marcia Joseph (D): “I think we've all sort of counted on it being around 2% for a very long time, since I think 1976, 75, it's been about 2%, and I think that's what we've relied on when we're looking at our comprehensive plan, and deciding where our designated growth areas are, and where these people are going to go. I think that makes a whole lot of sense. I think that we're never going to get it lower, and it's not anything that I want to see go lower. I didn't spring from the earth in Albemarle County. I am not a native. People come here because it's a beautiful place, and I think that we should probably count on about two percent growth happening in Albemarle County."

Ken Boyd (R): “Well, actually, since I've been on the Board, the growth rate as a percentage of population has been declining every year. When I first went on in 2004, our growth rate was 1.7%. In 2006, according to the Weldon Cooper provisional numbers, it was at .7%...  I mentioned earlier about jobs and the economy and ebb and flow.We can't get to a point where we have much less than one percent in growth. We certainly don't want to get to a situation where we have a minus growth pattern going on, because if you think that your taxes are high now, then just imagine what it will do if we don't have the economic development going on and the job creations here, and the retail business that brings in retail sales and business taxes that they bring...I think that one to two percent would probably be a good level for us to be, and it looks like that's where we've been for a long time, and I am a bit concerned it dropped below one percent at the current time."

Audience Question #4
The MPO is considering a regional transit authority.  What is your position on the RTA and would you support the implementation of night bus service on [CTS] Route 5?

Ken Boyd (R): “I wholeheartedly support the Regional Transit Authority... I think it's very important that we improve... that we have different transportation mechanisms for people to get around this county without having to be in a car... I'd like to see the numbers [on night service] are...I think if we have got empty buses like we had years ago with Big Blue that ran up to the Forest Lakes area, then that's just a big waste of time and money. But we also need to work with the public and educate them and I'm not at all opposed to investing some money in transit with the idea that if we build it, they will come.”

Marcia Joseph (D): “I am really excited to hear that there are Board members that are supporting this.  It really is about time we started thinking of ourselves in more of an urban context and providing different means of transportation for people. Again, that's another way that we can get people off the roads, and deal with some of the traffic that we've got going on. Yes I would support [the RTA], I think it's really important, we've got some terrific entities here that can get together and make something work... You talked about the night service. I think it's important to try these things out. There are people who work at night. There are people who need to get to places back and forth, and I think that we need to try something like that, see if it works, see what the ridership is, get some advertising out there, and get these things happening....

Audience Question #5
While preserving the rural areas is admirable, preserving quality of life in the development areas is equally important.  Please speak to your commitment to preserving quality of life in the urban areas.

Marcia Joseph (D): – “Places29, if you all don't know, is a Master Plan that we're all looking at right now... actually, the 23rd of October, the Planning Commission is having a meeting at 6:00 PM, so if you want to find out what's going on, please come to the meeting and we do allow public comment... One of the things I think is extremely important is for the growth areas, is, I'm a landscape architect, I think we need parks. I think it's important for us to have some open green spaces in these urban areas...I think when we start talking about bus service, and we start talking about walking trails and bike trails, one of the exciting graphics that you'll see in Places29 has a parallel multimodal kind of pathway along 29, and when you see it, it's a wonderful thing because people can walk on it, people can bike on it...”

Ken Boyd (R): “Every other year we do biannual survey, and we call it our customer service survey to find out what we're doing in the County that people appreciate, and what we feel we're doing a good job. Something that always comes back  with high remarks is emergency services and police services. And when we talk about quality of life, now this is something that falls off of the radar screen because we've done a good job of providing that but it's a quality of life issue for this community...Now, since I've been on the Board and probably one of the most recent things that we've done is that realizing that our response times for emergency services have greatly dropped for this area, particularly in the Forest Lakes area, with the density and the urban area that we have there. We put a temporary station out at the airport a year and a half before the opening of the new station, because we knew that we had to do something... These things cost money. The Board has just recommitted to its plan to get to a level where we have 1.5 police officers per 1,000 people in the County. Now we haven't gotten there yet and we're probably going to have to add four or five police officers over the next few years to accomplish that...”

CLOSING STATEMENTS

Ken Boyd ( R): “I very much love this community and I have since I came here 26 years ago. I think that if what I'm hearing on the doorsteps of the 3,000 homes that I've visited during this campaign is true, that everybody that I've run across would like to, whether they moved here 26 years ago... or whether they moved here last year, they want to freeze this community in time as of when they got here... We cannot do that, that's an impossible thing to do. It's very important for the Board of Supervisors to consider all of these issues that you're talking about... And I still remain committed to you to work very hard on that...”

Marcia Joseph (D): “I just received the endorsement from the Albemarle Political Action Committee for Education, that's the teachers in the community. I'm very excited about that.... I've also been endorsed by the Sierra Club... I am an environmentalist and I am not ashamed. Those two things I'm very proud of.... One of the things that's really really important to me as a Board of Supervisors member, is to make sure that we have open communication between all kinds of entities. I don't want to see what happened at the budget last session, where there was all kinds of animosity between different people within the audience, and schools took a hit a lot of the times and they shouldn't. We're proud of our schools, we have some great teachers, we have great schools, we have great principals, we have great kids. It's important to us to remain a community that people want to live in to have a great educational system...”

TIMELINE FOR PODCAST

• 1:10 – Introduction and ground rules from Neil Williamson of the Free Enterprise Forum
• 2:27 – Opening statement from Ken Boyd (R)
• 4:39 – Opening statement from Marcia Joseph (D)
• 6:36 – Question 1
• 11:25 – Question 2
• 15:36 – Question 3
• 19:10 – Question 4
• 23:46 – Question 5
• 29:33 – Question 6
• 35:45 – Question 7
• 37:39 – Question 8
• 44:02 – Question 9
• 47:19 – Question 10
• 49:15 – Audience Question 1
• 54:59 – Audience Question 2
• 57:43 – Audience Question 3
• 59:42 – Audience Question 4
• 1:02:33 – Audience Question 5
• 1:06:24 – Closing statement from Ken Boyd ( R)
• 1:07:25 - Closing statement from Marcia Joseph (D)

Kendall Singleton and Sean Tubbs

An in-depth look at the NGIC deal

NGIC land deal in the news...

October 2005: NGIC's Expansion Announced

10/20/05 * Daily Progress: NGIC plans for expansion with $85 million facility

May 2006: The vote on the land deal

5/3/06 * Charlottesville Tomorrow Includes audio and PDF download of resolution

5/4/06 * Daily Progress:  County Adjusts for NGIC

March 2007: C-Ville Weekly's Jayson Whitehead starts a series of articles on the land deal

3/20/07 * C-Ville Weekly:  Let’s Make a Deal

5/1/07 * C-Ville Weekly: Army keeps Wood's secret:  Government refuses to disclose value of NGIC land

5/7/06 * Daily Progress: Conflict delayed land deal: County  vote to aid NGIC, area developer

5/15/07 * C-Ville Weekly: Citizen presses for NGIC info:  Accuses Supervisor Boyd of lying about land swap

May 2007: Planning Commission  takes Wheeler parcel off the table

5/29/07 * C-Ville Weekly: Pantops land will remain in growth  area: Supervisors respond to impact on NGIC resolution

6/5/07 * Charlottesville Tomorrow Includes audio of Planning Commission discussion about Wheeler parcel

6/6/07 * Daily Progress: Planning Commission eyes Pantops  site

6/19/07 * WINA AM 1070: Clara Belle Wheeler interview

6/23/07 * Charlottesville Tomorrow's in-depth report (this posting)

WINA’s talk radio programs have drawn some added attention to the National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC) land deal this week.  Unfortunately because of a thunderstorm Tuesday that interrupted power at their studio, much of the recorded audio from these programs has been lost.  Since I was one of the guests and took some notes during the interviews, in this post I’ll share the information Charlottesville Tomorrow has pulled together on this important public policy issue.

Watch a 1 minute video at the bottom of this post showing which parcels of land are part of the NGIC deal

Download a printer-friendly PDF of this article

The NGIC land deal has been described by supporters as an effort by Albemarle County to ensure a major employer on Route 29 North remains in Charlottesville and has room to expand to support another 800-1000 jobs being moved here from a defense facility in Maryland.  The “deal” involved the sale by Wendell Wood of about forty-seven acres of land to the federal government.  It came with support from the Board of Supervisors, via a May 2006 resolution of intent, to have Albemarle County consider a future redrawing of the comprehensive plan boundaries to move thirty other acres of Wood’s rural land near NGIC into the growth area with an offsetting adjustment to move seventy-seven acres near Pantops, owned by Clara Belle Wheeler [no relation to this author], into the rural area.  The deal has been described by critics as not starting with an open process, as government being bullied into helping increase the investment profits for a private citizen, and as an over reaction to the suggestion that Department of Defense might pick up their facility and leave town if they didn’t get Wood’s land for $7 million or less.

The resolution of intent passed by the Board was intended to send Wood the signal that he could proceed with the sale of land to NGIC knowing that five of the six members of the Board of Supervisors had supported his request for a growth area boundary adjustment.  The resolution has initiated a sequence of reviews to be incorporated into the development of both the County’s Places29 Master Plan and the Pantops Master Plan.

A little over a year ago, Supervisor Ken Boyd took the lead bringing the matter before the Board and he spoke directly to Wendell Wood and Clara Belle Wheeler in advance of the Board’s meeting on May 3, 2006.  Wood’s letter formally requesting the adjustment is dated April 26, 2006.  In that letter, Wood asked that portions of five separate parcels of land be incorporated into the growth area adjacent to NGIC and along Watts Passage Road.  In an appearance on WINA’s Charlottesville Live on June 22, 2007, Boyd described how Wood had “said that he was going to lose a lot of money on this if he sold it to them at [$7 million], but if we were willing to redraw the boundary lines to put another thirty acres, which was adjacent to it, or surrounding it, into the development area, he could recoup his losses with that.”  Boyd also said that no promises were made to Wood about the boundary change beyond the fact that the Board’s recommendation would go through the public process as part of the master plan reviews.

Unlike Wendell Wood, Clara Belle Wheeler never put a request in writing to the Board.  When Boyd called her and described the proposed swap of land involving a property owner on Route 29N, she says she told Boyd, “I’ll think about it.”  Wheeler’s interest in having her land remain undeveloped was well known by the Board and her parcel was held out as a way to offset the boundary adjustment being proposed for Wood.  The County Attorney, Larry Davis, even revised the resolution of intent the day before the vote to insert language related to Wheeler’s parcel as an offsetting adjustment.  Boyd told the Daily Progress that Wheeler had told him she was committed to moving her land into the rural area.

After the resolution was passed, Wheeler was shocked to hear via a phone call from Supervisor Sally Thomas that her land had been included as part of the proposed NGIC resolution.  In her appearance on Charlottesville Right Now with host Coy Barefoot on June 19, 2007, Wheeler stated, “If you don’t know there is going to be a public meeting, and you don’t know what is going to be discussed, you can’t be there.  If you are going to discuss something as major as trading rural and urban development rights, that needs to be done in a pre-announced public forum.”  Sally Thomas was the lone vote against the resolution.

Wendell Wood called in to Coy Barefoot’s program shortly after Clara Belle Wheeler’s appearance.  When it was suggested he was getting special treatment, Wood responded, “I think I deserve special treatment.  I pay millions of dollars in taxes.  In reality, I think I do get special treatment, negative treatment.  I truly believe I get negative treatment as a developer in this community.”  Wood said before the matter came to the board he had no prior knowledge of the offsetting arrangement with Wheeler’s land.

Thus part of the controversy related to the NGIC land deal relates to the fact that the matter was not published in the Board’s meeting agenda and it was brought up by Boyd under other business at the very end of a meeting.  Neither the general public, nor Clara Belle Wheeler, had any advance notice that the Board would be acting on the resolution of intent.  Even Wood was not aware of proposed boundary adjustments involving anything but his property.  Further, the exact parcels belonging to Wood were not detailed for the public’s review.  In addition, the Supervisors had discussions behind closed doors that, while legal, meant the public didn’t have the benefit of knowing the details of their past discussions leading up to the vote on the resolution.  [Listen to our podcast of the May 3, 2006 vote]

Two months after the resolution of intent was adopted by the Board of Supervisors, Wood sold the 47 acres to the federal government for $7 million in July 2006.  He said on WINA this week that he did not know how much money he was giving up by letting the property go at that price because he did not have it appraised.  The federal government’s appraisal has not been shared with the public. 

In May 2006, Wood told Charlottesville Tomorrow that federal government was $4.5 million short of the property’s appraised value.  That puts Wood’s understanding of the appraisal at about $11.5 million in May 2006.  In May 2007, C-Ville Weekly concluded after interviewing Wood that he thought the property was “appraised at around $16 million.”  Wood and Boyd have both pointed out on WINA that taking the property by eminent domain was not an option because the government still couldn’t pay fair market value for the property. 

While the government now owns the land they need for NGIC’s expansion, the other parcels and the officials that voted for the deal are facing increasing scrutiny, particularly as the Places29 and Pantops Master Plans are coming under review.  The Albemarle County Planning Commission had an opportunity to act on Wheeler’s land when they voted to approve the Pantops Master Plan on June 5, 2007.  Wheeler says they did what she asked them to do which was to leave her land in the designated growth area. 

C-Ville Weekly has quoted Supervisor David Slutzky as saying he did not recall Wheeler’s land was involved in the deal nor was it a factor in his decision to help NGIC.  Supervisor Boyd was quoted as saying, “there was never any tradeoff, there was never any association between the two items,” the Wood property and the Wheeler property.  When interviewed this week by Charlottesville Tomorrow, Slutzky expanded on his remarks and said that the two pieces of land “were not linked in my mind as justification for my support of the resolution.”  “Our decision to do this was not tied to her land, that [77 acres] was just an illustrative example that such things would be possible,” said Slutzky.  He acknowledges now that the resolution does reference her land, but he points out that, in the resolution’s action statement, it only refers to Wood’s 30 acres as being identified for a specific boundary adjustment.

What will become of the land Wendell Wood’s wants added to the growth area?  That will certainly be a topic in future Places29 work sessions and upcoming public hearings.  The Daily Progress recently quoted Supervisor Dennis Rooker as saying he felt like the Wheeler parcel was a “material” factor in his vote in favor of the resolution and that he would be “less likely” to support moving the boundary adjustment for Wood without other land as an offset.  At the same time, the Daily Progress has reported that Supervisor David Wyant, Slutzky, and Boyd agree that “having the land swap was not crucial to the decision, and that they will continue to support the designation Wood wants.”

Reviewing the matter with Charlottesville Tomorrow, Slutzky says, “This isn’t about Wendell Wood, this is about NGIC.  Because of what I learned in my own investigation, I became convinced that it was what we needed to do.  The threat was real, that if we couldn’t give them some assurances, that we would likely lose the existing NGIC.”

No matter what happens with Wheeler’s land, Wood said on WINA this week that he expects the County to follow through on their intentions to move his land into the growth area, particularly since he has already sold his other property to help NGIC.  Rooker pointed out in a call to WINA Friday that a change in the comprehensive plan doesn’t rezone Wood’s property.  He noted there would still be public hearings for a rezoning before the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors.  However, if a revised comprehensive plan and the Places29 Master Plan call for the additional growth on Wood’s thirty acres, he would have every reason to also expect their approval of a reasonable rezoning request.  Wood is accustomed to lengthy deliberations by Albemarle County and he knows the math—it will take four votes in the future to seal the deal.

Watch a 1 minutes video presentation showing Wendell Wood's property involved in the NGIC land deal:

Brian Wheeler

Are we on the path to Austin, Aspen, or maybe Boulder?

On January 23, 2007, the Virginia Piedmont Technology Council (VPTC) held a town hall meeting entitled: “Pursuing Technology for a Robust Economy--Choosing our future: Austin or Aspen.”  The principal speakers were Gary Henry (longtime resident, technology leader and Chair of the VPTC Board) and Katie Bullard with AngelouEconomics in Austin, Texas.  Ms. Bullard was previously Budget Director for the City of Charlottesville.

[Charlottesville Podcasting has the audio.  VPTC's website has the presentations]

The Virginia Piedmont Technology Council wants to be a catalyst to spark a collaborative effort to create a larger technology-based economy in Charlottesville.  They are asking the question… Do we want to look more like Aspen, CO (i.e. completely unaffordable with no middle class) or Austin, TX (a highly rated community with a strong technology economy, more affordable cost of living, and a substantial middle class)?

VPTC sees this initiative as balancing the scale of our economy which is weighted today towards retirees and tourism.  I applaud their search for some of the ingredients in a common agenda that could help us achieve quality growth, growth that would benefit the community as a whole.  They have framed this as a desire to add balance to our economy and generate economic vitality.  Charlottesville Tomorrow shares those objectives.  We are going to grow, let’s make sure it is quality growth that enhances the community and doesn’t sacrifice our quality of life.

In their presentation, VPTC identified the need for a critical mass of new jobs and technology companies.  They want to build Charlottesville’s reputation so it becomes the #1 place to locate or incubate a small technology company.  This is ideally defined as home-grown technology businesses that employ 5-25 people.

VPTC’s three primary goals in this initiative are:

1. Bring this conversation to the community
2. Develop a center for technology incubation
3. Drive workforce development to support this effort

To measure the community’s progress down a technology path, they will define a “Technology Index” by which our technology economy’s growth can be measured.

I found the discussion helpful, but I left with many questions.  Here are a few to get people thinking.

Katie Bullard said a key indicator for Charlottesville to watch is the number of 25-44 year olds in the population (currently 29.1%).  She said we need to be at 33% or better to get young people to stay here after college and find career ladder jobs in technology companies.  Gary Henry defines “critical mass” as being opportunities (i.e. jobs) so our talented young people do not feel like they have to leave Charlottesville.  With a critical mass of opportunities, they can switch companies more easily here at home.  How many new companies and new jobs would it take to create that critical mass? 

Many of the comparisons in Ms. Bullard’s presentation were to Austin and Raleigh-Durham.
Has any other City our size figured this out?  [When I asked that question from the audience, Ms. Bullard cited Boulder, Colorado as one town already on the path of having a strong technology-based economic sector (software development).  Are there others?  Is Boulder an attractive model?]

Ms. Bullard identified our technology wages as a major problem.  “Wages here are not keeping up with the cost of living.”  The average technology wage in Charlottesville is $61,894 vs. Austin at $87,988.  When pressed on this by an audience member, Ms. Bullard said we needed to find “a couple small companies willing to pay higher wages and jump start the market.”  Is it realistic to think technology companies will come here and substantially raise wages?

Gary Henry pointed out that the technology sector is attractive because “the infrastructure impact will be minimal.”  He indicated we already have office space into which many small 5-25 person companies can go and UVA research parks are ready to expand.  What other community infrastructure (roads, schools, housing, etc.) will be needed to support the growth required to reach critical mass? Is UVA not on track to grow our technology sector with their investments at Fontaine and North Fork research parks?  If the organic growth we are seeing today is not enough, what pace of growth do we need?

In response to a question from Neil Williamson about the role of local government, Ms. Bullard said that local government should play a supporting role.  “Economic development should not be subsidized by government.”  Ms. Bullard emphasized private investment and pointed out she had never seen a regional approach work too well.  She clarified these comments for me after the lunch by indicating token financial support from local government was fine, but really economic development needed to be funded and championed by the private sector and venture capital.  Do we have the right mix of public-private investment in economic development?  How would we measure the results thus far and what needs to be done differently to more strategically serve VPTC’s goals?

As you can see, I plainly don't have all the answers, but I appreciate VPTC stimulating the conversation.

Brian Wheeler