Charlottesville Tomorrow Blog

Army base expansion requires new sewer capacity; Report also recommends widening Route 29

The US Army has determined that an in-depth Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is not required for the expansion of the Rivanna Station Military Base on Route 29 north of Charlottesville.  However, the draft Environmental Assessment released by Fort Belvoir last month does shed new light on the Army’s plans for the current home of the National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC).  It also raises a number of issues related to sewer capacity, the ability to use leased space off-site, and the future of nearby land owned by local developer Wendell Wood.

COUNTY REVIEWS ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT

Albemarle County officials are just beginning their review of Fort Belvoir’s 130-page Environmental Assessment this week.  The County’s Natural Resources Manager, Tamara Ambler, tells Charlottesville Tomorrow that the County has requested an extension beyond the January 9, 2008 deadline to provide written comments to the Federal Government.  Ambler is collecting feedback from numerous County departments about the issues raised in the Army’s report.

Susan Stimart, Albemarle’s Business Development Facilitator, says the Federal Government has been a good listener to the County’s feedback on Rivanna Station thus far.  “They are taking a pretty good attitude in listening to our requirements for design standards and erosion/sediment control standards,” said Stimart.  She also noted, the Federal Government can decide on its own to not comply with any of Albemarle’s standards for new development.

Among the most significant items raised in the report are the following:

• The increased workforce at the base will double the sewage discharge.
• The Federal Base Relocation and Closure (BRAC) program which is moving jobs from Bolling AFB to Charlottesville prohibits any of those jobs to be located in leased space.
• The US Army intends to seek additional land as a buffer around their facility for both future growth and for enhanced security. 
• The Environmental Assessment suggests the widening of Route 29 to 6 lanes (3 northbound and 3 southbound) is desirable to bring relief to congestion expected to result from increased traffic at the facility.

SEWER CAPACITY

Charlottesville Tomorrow was the first to report last month that the North Pointe development near NGIC was stalled in part because of inadequate sewer capacity at the Camelot Waste Water Treatment Plant.  The current NGIC facility also uses the Camelot facility and the Army’s recent Environmental Assessment estimates that sewage discharge from the site will double as the result of the base’s expansion.  While the Army concluded the “increase in demand is well within the capacity of the [Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority (RWSA)],” their report was completed before the Albemarle County Service Authority (ACSA) could weigh in with specific recommendations on sewer infrastructure requirements. 

Peter Gorham, ACSA’s Engineering Director, told Charlottesville Tomorrow that the authority wants to eliminate the Camelot treatment plant and replace it with a regional pump station.  Gorham is trying to schedule a meeting by the end of January for area property owners and other interested parties.  Invitations will be extended to the University of Virginia Foundation (North Fork Research Park), the US Army, developer Wendell Wood, and those involved with the North Pointe development.  The meetings will review timing, costs, and engineering options for the pump station project.  The RWSA is expected to weigh in on the downstream impacts on their sewer network which is also having its capacity studied. 

The ACSA is providing written feedback for inclusion in Albemarle County’s response to the Army’s report. In the meantime, Gorham says the ACSA is working on an interim solution that can boost the capacity of the Camelot plant, however that solution will not be able to accommodate all the potential new users in the area.

BASE EXPANSION AND BUFFER

The existing NGIC facility sits on about 29 acres at Route 29 North and Boulders Road.  The Federal government purchased an additional 47 acres from developer Wendell Wood in 2006.  The expansion of the base of this combined 76 acres includes an addition on the NGIC building, construction of a Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) facility, a warehouse and delivery facility, additional surface parking, and a new parking garage.

The Environmental Assessment also reveals the Army’s intention to further protect a zone around the base by purchasing an additional 50 acres on the north side of Boulders Road.  According to County records, this land is currently owned by Wendell Wood’s Next Generation LLC.  The report identifies the following purposes for the buffer:

“The purpose of the purchase of the land north and southeast of Boulders Road is to provide protection against encroachment on the Rivanna Station by industrial or residential development, and to allow for future expansion, if needed. It is critical that the Army provide sufficient buffers to meet [antiterrorism/force protection (AT/FP)] requirements and to prevent land uses that could eventually conflict with missions of the U.S. Government. Rivanna Station is currently located at the edge of a developing industrial area, which could ultimately lead to AT/FP and hostile intelligence risks to the facility and personnel through electronic eavesdropping and observation.”

WENDELL WOOD

In August 2007, local developer Wendell Wood received approval from the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors to have 15 acres near the NGIC facility rezoned for commercial offices and residential barracks.  According to the General Services Administration, on November 30, 2007 Wood was awarded a $14.76 million lease for non-residential buildings.  The Environmental Assessment notes that nearby land has been rezoned “for the construction of office buildings to support NGIC operations.” 

During the County’s review of this rezoning in 2007, Wood was told water and sewer services were available and, according to ACSA’s Peter Gorham, Wood’s project will be grandfathered into the Camelot treatment facility until the regional pump station is available.  ACSA’s interim sewer capacity measures will only help a limited number of new users, and only those accessible by gravity feed to the existing Camelot facility.  Other buildings and developments not already tied into Camelot will have to wait for the new pump station.

The Federal Base Relocation and Closure (BRAC) program which is moving jobs from Bolling AFB to Charlottesville prohibits any of those jobs to be located in leased space.  Thus, the expansion of NGIC and the construction of the new Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) facility will take place entirely on the federally owned land at the site and not on the recently rezoned 15 acres which is expected to house other support facilities.

Since he sold the 47 acre parcel to the government in 2006, Wood has also been expecting the Board of Supervisors to carry through with a resolution of intent that would move yet another 30 acres nearby into the County’s designated growth area.  Wood’s Next Generation LLC owns almost 1,000 acres near the military base.

The 30 acres of land were proposed to be removed from the rural area to allow for more intense development such that Wood could recoup money he felt he lost on the original deal with the government.  Wood and a number of Supervisors believe this deal ensured NGIC would not leave Charlottesville as it looked for room to expand.  That matter will be considered by the Board of Supervisors as it reviews the Places29 Master Plan in 2008.  The County Planning Commission has already recommended against adding Wood’s land to the growth area.

WIDENING ROUTE 29

The Environmental Assessment suggests the widening of Route 29 to 6 lanes (3 northbound and 3 southbound) is desirable to bring relief to congestion expected to result from increased traffic at the facility.  The Route 29 and Boulders Road intersection is projected to go from a level of service (LOS) C in 2007 to level of service F in 2015 during peak evening traffic.  According to the report, “LOS F is used to identify that point where the facility has reached maximum capacity and a complete breakdown of service occurs.”

The Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) recently approved the use of over $2 million to begin preliminary engineering on the widening of another section of Route 29, the area between Polo Grounds Road and Airport Road.  The US Army’s report suggests that widening should continue at least another 2 miles North to Rivanna Station and possibly all the way to Greene County.  Between Rivanna Station and Airport Road is the proposed North Pointe development which will add an estimated 30,000 vehicle trips per day to that portion of Route 29. 

Brian Wheeler

Sewer capacity stalls North Pointe development

The first site plan which would launch the residential construction of the North Pointe development has been denied by Albemarle County, in part, because of inadequate sewer capacity.  Developer Richard Spurzem’s 188 home proposal was denied by County staff on November 26, 2007.  Officials with the Albemarle County Service Authority (ACSA) indicate that, until new sewer capacity and pumping stations are designed and built, any new construction at North Pointe is unlikely to move forward.

When the North Pointe rezoning was approved in 2006, one of the unresolved issues related to the details of the 900-home development’s sewer system.  The plan proposed a new sewer pumping station that would handle the majority of the development.  Exactly how that station would be connected to the network of pipes leading to the Moore’s Creek Waste Water Treatment Plant near downtown Charlottesville was not specified.  However, about 40 acres of residential development in the northwest corner of the 264 acre project were shown by the developer, Great Eastern Management, to be connected to the existing Camelot Waste Water Treatment Plant on the Western side of Route 29. 

Gary Whealan, a civil engineer with the Albemarle County Service Authority (ACSA), assessed the site plan and determined in early October that “there is no capacity for sanitary sewer” at the Camelot facility.  Whealan told Charlottesville Tomorrow that the 10 inch sewer line feeding into Camelot cannot handle any additional users. 

ACSA is one of two customers of the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority (RWSA), the other being the City of Charlottesville.  The RWSA currently operates the Camelot facility which was built in 1988 and is operating at full capacity.  Instead of putting more money into a facility that needs repair and expansion, Tom Frederick, RWSA’s Executive Director, says he would support abandoning the facility in favor of connecting all of North Pointe to a new pump station.  “Through our discussions with ACSA, the preference is for a regional pumping station,” Frederick told Charlottesville Tomorrow.

Richard Spurzem has had past legal disputes with Albemarle County.  In 2005, Albemarle lost a court case with Spurzem that sought to deny the by-right development of Gazebo Plaza in the Pantops area near Interstate 64.  At Pantops, transportation capacity and safety were among the County and VDOT’s concerns.  Now at North Pointe, Spurzem’s development plans have hit another snag with the community’s inadequate sewer capacity.

While Spurzem declined to comment for this article, he has already written one letter to the County Planner managing his project demanding “appropriate action to enforce the County’s legal obligations.”  In that letter, Spurzem was seeking a timely decision on his preliminary site plan.  The County responded with a denial and a six-page list of items detailing concerns about sewer capacity and other items where the plan was found to not be in compliance with the original North Pointe rezoning.

Herbert White, President of WW Associates, maintains that the sewer design is exactly what the County should have been expecting.  WW Associates is Spurzem’s engineering firm and White points to the rezoning plan as evidence that the homes in this corner of North Pointe were to have their sewer flow by gravity feed to an existing pumping station on the other side of Route 29.  To reverse the flow towards a proposed pumping station inside the North Pointe development would, according to White, require pipes installed inside a 45’ vertical grade.  In his letter of October 15, 2007, White told Albemarle that “installing sewer at these depths is not feasible.”  White also suggested that if the Camelot plant was not an option, a second pump station may be necessary for his client.

Peter Gorham, ACSA’s Engineering Director, told Charlottesville Tomorrow that the authority has consistently advised the developers since 2001-2002 that using Camelot was not an option.  “From the very first time we saw that plan, and saw the proposed gravity line, we said that is not a feasible option,” Gorham said.

Jeff Werner is the Field Officer for the Piedmont Environmental Council and someone who closely followed the North Pointe project and who raised concerns about the sewer plan’s uncertainties. 

“Many people in this community have been asking if the infrastructure is in place for new developments.  This is a disappointment,”  said Werner.  “A benefit of the whole rezoning process is to get developments to pay for themselves.  This is a disappointment that the County missed an opportunity to add additional sewer capacity.  The developer should pay their way.”

When asked about the approved North Pointe rezoning plans that show Spurzem’s property utilizing Camelot, the ACSA’s Gorham said those drawings were incomplete and not a formal engineering proposal for the development’s sewer needs.  According to Gorham, “A regional pump station still looks like the most cost effective option.  The next step is to get that station scoped and under design.”  Gorham expects the single regional pump station will be satisfactory for Spurzem’s needs.  Where that station is located, who will operate it, how much it will cost existing customers, and when it will be operational all remains to be decided.

In the case of other recently approved large developments like Biscuit Run (3,100 homes) and Hollymead Town Center Area A2 (1,228 homes), developers have had to sign memorandums of understanding with the Albemarle County Service Authority detailing arrangements by which they would pay to expand sewer capacity.  North Pointe (900 homes) was rezoned before local officials started seeking those commitments in advance of project approvals by the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors.  Gorham says those negotiations will take place in the near future with all the existing users of the Camelot facility, like the University of Virginia North Fork Research Park, as well as new users in North Pointe.  The ACSA will be taking the lead to bring these parties together and to get a new regional pump station added to the Service Authority’s capital budget.

Charlottesville Tomorrow asked Gorham if new development at North Pointe would be delayed until the pump station is online.  “Yes, that’s correct,” said Gorham.  However, if that pump station is designed to connect to a sewer line known as the Powell Creek Interceptor, the RWSA’s Tom Frederick pointed out that the development might find more capacity problems downstream in RWSA's network.  “If [the ACSA] chose a route that uses Powell Creek, the capacity of that interceptor will also have to be assessed,” said Frederick. A comprehensive sewer interceptor study is already underway. It appears water and sewer officials, Spurzem, and the rest of the developers in North Pointe, have a lot of work to do before any new homes are occupied.

Brian Wheeler

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.

Podcast produced by Charlottesville Tomorrow * Player by Odeo

Listen using player above or download the podcast:  Download 20071017-Rivanna-Forum.mp3

Watch the video below:

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

North Pointe rezoning approved

The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors approved the North Pointe rezoning at their meeting Wednesday evening August 2, 2006.  The County Office Building's Board Room was filled beyond capacity and a second overflow room was wired for sound so the large audience in attendance could hear the Board's discussions.  The final vote was 4-2 with Sally Thomas (Samuel Miller) and Dennis Rooker (Jack Jouett) both voting against the project.  Ten of the twelve public speakers were in opposition to the project, however North Pointe supporters clearly filled the room and the Board was told they had been asked by the applicant not to speak if they had spoken at the previous public hearing in May.

Daily Progress coverage is linked here.

Both Rooker and Thomas cited transportation concerns as their number one reason for voting against North Pointe.  Rooker indicated the development was not in the best interest of the community at this time and that he feared, "we could end up being buried in traffic on Route 29" by the additional 30,000 vehicles a day that North Pointe is projected to bring as a regional shopping destination.  In this location, Route 29 currently has 37,000 vehicle trips a day.  Seventy-five percent of the additional 30,000 vehicles are expected to be generated by the non-residential parts of North Pointe.

David Slutzky (Rio), who voted in favor of the development, indicated he agreed with the applicant's arguments that traffic would actually improve on Route 29 with the North Pointe project because of the transportation proffers for the area immediately around the property.  Mr. Slutzky also addressed concerns about the amount of retail being approved in the County by saying that the resulting displacement of shopping towards North Pointe and Hollymead Town Center would create accelerated redevelopment opportunities closer to Charlottesville.

This recording below has been edited to include only the transportation portion of the staff report, the Board's deliberations on transportation, the comments by the applicant's attorney Valerie Long and the Board's final deliberations and vote.

Download the podcast: Download 20060802-BOS-NorthPointe.mp3

Brian Wheeler

Correction 8/8/06: The traffic numbers 30,000 and 37,000 were transposed in the original post.  That has been corrected above.

Realtors touting walkable, livable villages

Local realtor Jonathan Kauffmann has a blog that focuses on the Old Trail development in Crozet, VA.  In a post today, he makes mention of a CNNMoney.com article entitled "The next real estate boom: Dense settlements, not sprawling ranch houses, are the future of housing - and could make for a smart real-estate investment."  Mr. Kauffmann wants his readers (and future investors) to know that Old Trail is intended to have many of the benefits described in the article as a similar "New Village" redefining the housing product in areas outside of a city center.  According to the article's author, Chris Taylor:

"The demand for such developments is real, and it's only going to get greater as consumer preferences rapidly shift away from the McMansions preferred by boomers. According to a study by the nonprofit Congress for New Urbanism, while less than 25 percent of middle-aged Americans are interested in living in dense areas, 53 percent of 24-34 year olds would choose to live in transit-rich, walkable neighborhoods, if they had the choice."

The demand in Albemarle for "walkable" and "livable" communities has been spurred by Albemarle County's Neighborhood Model Development (NMD) ordinance.  Developers wishing to get their property rezoned (e.g. Biscuit Run, Rivanna Village, Old Trail) know the County is expecting mixed-use communities (housing combined with retail/commercial), town centers, interconnected streets instead of cul-de-sacs, and a variety of housing types and cost ranges.  The article also points out that developers also know simple math--There are more housing units selling at higher prices in these denser villages.

Another large County development designed with this model in mind is North Pointe.  North Pointe is currently at the rezoning stage and will be in front of the Board of Supervisors on August 2nd for another public hearing.  One of the things I noticed at the North Pointe public hearing was how many people said favorable things about the idea of pedestrian and bicycle friendly neighborhoods following the County's Neighborhood Model principles.  One of the challenges is that we do not have a large NMD project in Albemarle completed that we can look at and evaluate.   

As a result, the public often questions whether denser developments are a good thing.  For example, residents of existing neighborhoods ask not to be connected to new neighborhoods which will have schools and shopping they could easily drive, walk or bicycle to IF they were effectively and safely connected. New roads would allow them to take shorter trips off congested thoroughfares. However, the Neighborhood Model will only work if the developer, County and the state government can fund and build the infrastructure required to support a growing population. 

Another factor we have to consider in Charlottesville and Albemarle is the impact on our roads of developments located on the outskirts or separated from the existing urban area (Rivanna Village at Glenmore, Old Trail in Crozet, North Pointe up 29N, and Biscuit Run south of Charlottesville).  What needs will develop for new transportation solutions as people commute to jobs at UVA and in the City of Charlottesville.  What will the impact be on traffic congestion?  What impact will the over 3 million square feet of additional retail under review by Albemarle have on existing stores and roads?  Transportation infrastructure and retail saturation are two issues Charlottesville Tomorrow has asked the Board of Supervisors to consider carefully as they consider future rezonings in the County's growth areas [our letter].

What do you think about denser neighborhood villages in our community?  Are you ready to invest?  Are you ready to move in?

Brian Wheeler

Charlottesville Tomorrow's letter on North Pointe rezoning

Charlottesville Tomorrow's Board of Directors has sent a letter to the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors regarding the North Pointe rezoning request. You can read this letter via the following link.

The Board of Directors of Charlottesville Tomorrow has been closely following the County’s review of and public feedback on the North Pointe rezoning. While our input on a project like this comes late in the Board’s evaluation, we want to take advantage of this window of opportunity to reflect on the accumulated information and research that is now available to the public.

Charlottesville Tomorrow is not asking the Board of Supervisors to take a position for or against this project. Many members of the public and other organizations have made up their mind and shared their viewpoints with the Board. It is significant that the comments at the public hearing demonstrated how much common interest exists in creating quality neighborhoods in our designated growth areas.

Our Board of Directors, which broadly represents many interests in the community, is asking for the County's thoughtful consideration of the critical challenges we face to reduce current and future traffic congestion, the environmental impact of development on the North Fork Rivanna River, and the cumulative impact of past rezonings in the 29 North corridor, especially with regard to major retail developments.

To read all our blog postings on North Pointe, click here.

Brian Wheeler

North Pointe Commentary

In this post I want to share several comments from County staff and the North Pointe representatives which immediately preceded the May 10, 2006 public hearing and which I think help inform the North Pointe discussion in advance of the next public hearing to be scheduled this Summer.  Major outstanding issues involve transportation, the form or design of development, and the timing of this rezoning.

• Additional North Pointe material of interest:
  • Posting with podcast of my appearance this week on WINA
  • Posting with report/podcast on public hearing
  • All North Pointe postings

Recommendations in staff report to Board of Supervisors for May 10, 2006 meeting

... approval of the rezoning is both premature and not recommended.  Staff has analyzed the proposal for conformity with the Comprehensive Plan and finds that the proposal represents a conventional suburban form with a segregated land use pattern that is not in keeping with the following principles of the Neighborhood Model: [abbreviated below, details here]

1. Pedestrian orientation...
2. Neighborhood friendly streets and paths...
3. Relegated parking...
4. Neighborhood Centers...
5. Buildings and spaces of human scale...

The proposal does not appropriately mitigate transportation impacts because there is no calendar date for constructing the middle entrance or constructing a southbound lane within a reasonable period of time.  Affordable housing is not provided in accordance with the County’s policy for 15% affordable units and the administration of the proffers for affordable housing will be problematic.

The proposed rezoning does not reflect trends in growth and the economic needs of the community.  Retail space is proposed in excess of absorption within a reasonable amount of time, which staff believes will result in vacancies throughout the Route 29 corridor.  Zoning property before the use is actually needed will limit the County’s ability to cause the owner to respond appropriately to a changed future condition.  The County has recently dealt with this situation in Gazebo Plaza and Faulconer Construction.

Chuck Rotgin, Applicant, Great Eastern Management

“It’s an exciting proposal that reflects a new paradigm for creating communities in Albemarle County.”

Valerie Long, attorney representing Great Eastern Management

“We’re very excited about the North Pointe community.  It is an exciting mixed use community where generations of residents can live, work, play, learn, worship, exercise, all in the same community.  They can… ride their bike to their job at the UVA Research Park across Route 29 or perhaps at the [National Ground] Intelligence Center.  Where they can live within walking distance of their grandchildren.  Where Great Eastern will build walking paths for the public to access the Rivanna River ‘blue way’ trail system, and where it will donate land for the ‘blue way’ trail system.  Where public transportation infrastructure has been designed into the road network.  Where Great Eastern will financially support the provision of bus service to the community.  Where there will be a dynamic mixed use area, including a library, and a park.  The library block area will include three and four story buildings combining small stores, offices, and residences in the same building.  And again, North Pointe will put the necessary infrastructure in place at the time the community is built.... North Pointe is consistent with the applicable portions of the Neighborhood Model.”

Mark Graham, Director of Community Development, Albemarle County

“In talking about the transportation impacts, for staff, the eight-hundred pound gorilla is Route 29.  We’ve got the regional impacts [of this project to consider], this goes beyond what the applicant has proffered which deals with the immediate impacts associated with getting their entrances onto 29.  This development could potentially drop up to 30,000 cars onto Route 29 and at this point in time we need to recognize… that 29 has no approved plans for how to deal with this additional traffic.  Places29 [Master Plan] is working on that, we do have a transportation study that is trying to deal with it, but it is not addressed at this point.”

Elaine Echols, Senior Planner, Albemarle County

“The big picture problem areas; there are four of them.  The first one is the form of development.  We just want to talk a little bit about why we can’t recommend approval.  The form of development is fairly conventional.… What the Neighborhood Model is about is a more integrated development, one that brings the commercial and the residential in closer proximity to each other so people can feel comfortable walking in those areas [around retail establishments] and they are not having to walk across a vast expanse of parking lots.  The integration is what is so important to the Neighborhood Model, not just the little pieces, not just the pieces of sidewalks and street trees, but how they all relate together to make a whole.”

Supervisor Ken Boyd (Rivanna)

“I have [a question] for staff and the applicant.  On the one side you feel like you have met the neighborhood principles, and staff says you haven’t met the neighborhood principles.  Just curious, what is the dividing line?  Is it the size of the stores?  Is it too much commercial?”

Elaine Echols

“It’s the fact that it is not integrated… In the southern part, this is all very conventional development.  The only mixed use area is right here in the library area.  When I showed you those pictures, which I got off the Internet… I was looking for some that conveyed the sense of place.  The sense of a place where people could go and shop and they could feel a part of the community… The potential for that only occurs right here [in the library block].  All of this area [around large retail development] has large expanses of parking and there’s not really a good way that [the two areas] integrate...  We think there are very appropriate ways it can happen, maybe with not so much commercial.  But it’s the integration Mr. Boyd.  That’s the issue, it is so segregated it gives us a lot of pause.”

Valerie Long

“We think it is very much a Neighborhood Model project.  Sometimes, like everything, there is a difference of opinion.  Whether something complies with the Neighborhood Model, you could have twelve people look at twelve principles, and twelve projects and everyone might come out with a different opinion or a different conclusion about something.  I think that’s why the public process is so important and its so helpful to have such a large group of people look at projects and talk about projects…. The mixed use library block area is actually a little larger than what Elaine was showing… These buildings here are all within the library block, those are all two and three story buildings all with a mixture of uses.  There is retail on the ground floor level, offices on the second floor and then residential on the third and fourth floors…. We think we have actually done a very good job integrating those uses, and to be fair, we’ve had a lot of help from [County] staff on that.”

Brian Wheeler

Podcast of North Pointe discussion on WINA

Yesterday, I made my weekly visit to Coy Barefoot's radio show on WINA.  The topic of the day was the proposed North Pointe rezoning under review by Albemarle County.  Sean Tubbs and the Charlottesville Podcasting Network have the podcast available here:

http://www.cvillepodcast.com/2006/05/17/rightnow-northpointe/

As I described on the show, I took some time last weekend to listen to the 3 hour recording of the March 10, 2006 North Pointe public hearing.  My goal was to scorecard each of the 39 public speakers and distill out of the evening's discussions the major themes of the public's current assessment of this large rezoning request.

My assessment is that the public feedback was evenly split between those for and against the project.  When I make that assessment, I eliminate the feedback from people who stated they had a direct economic interest in the project (nine speakers that were consultants, realtors, builders, investors, attorneys, etc.).  I include the advocates representing various constituent groups (Chamber of Commerce, Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors, environmental groups).

If you look at all thirty-nine speakers, the following themes were most commonly shared by those for and against North Pointe:

• 33% of all speakers expressed support for growth being channeled into the County’s designated growth areas.  This support was strongest among those in favor of the project.
• 31% of all speakers stated something positive about neighborhood model.  This support was found to be equal among those for and against the project.  The only concern expressed about the neighborhood model was from those in nearby areas who did not want their neighborhood streets interconnected to North Pointe.

Note: This doesn't mean the remaining 67-69% of speakers were necessarily against these two concepts, it is simply an indication of the most popular themes expressed in the public speakers' remarks.

Strongest themes among those supporting North Pointe:

• 48% of all the supporters said retail development in North Pointe was needed or a positive aspect of the development.
• 38% of all the supporters said they thought the North Pointe development would create affordable living choices.
• 29% of all the supporters said they thought development in North Pointe would help protect the rural areas of Albemarle.

Strongest themes among those opposed to North Pointe:

• 64% of those opposed to the project cited traffic congestion concerns.
• 57% of those opposed to the project indicated retail development in North Pointe was not needed or a negative aspect of the development.
• 36% of those opposed to the project expressed concerns about the environment (quantity of available drinking water, impact on sedimentation in river, air pollution related to automobiles)

Brian Wheeler

No decision at North Pointe public hearing

The public filled the Burley Middle School auditorium tonight (likely over 150 people were in attendance) to give the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors three hours of feedback on the North Pointe rezoning request [project website].  Almost 40 speakers testified, many sporting buttons either for or against the project, which if approved would bring to the US 29 North corridor a mixed use development on 264 acres with about 900 new homes and over 500,000 sq. ft. of additional retail space.

Yesterday, developer Chuck Rotgin was surprised to learn that the Board would announce to the public tonight that no decision would be made at this meeting.  Another work session will be scheduled for June 7, 2006, followed by another public hearing, before the Board of Supervisors is expected to take action on the project.

I was unable to attend the first part of the public hearing [thus I am looking forward to hearing the podcast too], but my understanding is that supporters outweighed opponents of the project both in the audience and at the microphone.  I expect the Daily Progress will have a good assessment of this in tomorrow's paper.

Late in the public hearing, after a number of speakers had suggested the County was dragging its feet on approving new developments, Chairman Dennis Rooker interrupted the public hearing and stated, "It has not been the County that has held up this proposal."  Mr. Rooker cited developments initiated after North Pointe including Albemarle Place, Belvedere Farm, and Old Trail Village  which have all been approved by the County.

At the closing of the public hearing, Mr. Rotgin asked for a vote to take place at the June 14th meeting.  Chairman Dennis Rooker informed him that the timing of a public hearing and vote was largely dependent on the proffers being finalized in advance.  According to Mr. Rooker, the proffers for th