Charlottesville Tomorrow Blog

County Planning Commission mixed on wind turbines

 

With the rising cost of electricity, many homeowners are seeking ways to generate power on their property. Could wind turbines be part of the answer for Albemarle County residents?

That was the basic question explored in a work session held by the County Planning Commission on May 13, 2008. Mark Graham, the Director of Community Development, briefed the Commission on how wind power works, and explained that the structures are currently not permitted under existing zoning. He also assessed the viability for a commercial wind farm, and the results aren’t promising.

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To generate enough electricity to be commercially successful, an operator needs sustained winds, close access to the national power grid and transmission lines, as well as roads that can transport very heavy components. A wind resource map created by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) shows only a handful of spots in Albemarle County, such as Bucks Elbow, where a commercial site might work. However, Graham suggested the site’s proximity to Shenandoah National Park would likely prevent any application from being permitted by the State Corporation Commission.

An example of a small wind turbine

However, the bulk of the work session dealt with whether the County zoning ordinances should be amended to allow small wind turbines for residential or agricultural use. To be effective in generating a current, a turbine must be tall enough to catch sustained winds. The taller the tower, the more power is generated. Turbines also need enough clearance to avoid causing turbulence in surrounding structures.  Graham said the bottom of the rotor needs to be at least thirty foot above rooftops or landscaping. 

“Right now under the zoning ordinance with residential properties, the maximum height for structures is 35 feet,” Graham said. He also pointed to a chart that showed how taller towers can greatly maximize the voltage generated, but said the smaller ones could power well pumps. 

Graham said mountainsides and hilltops are the best locations for turbines in Albemarle County, but if they are permitted, a land-owner would need to clear-cut several acres around the turbines in order to provide for enough space for the wind patterns to be sustained.  That would conflict the County’s comprehensive plan, which calls for protecting tree cover in rural areas.

However, Graham said the technology is changing, particularly in European countries that are rapidly developing wind power. Firms are experimenting with using different shapes to capture wind in urban environments, and also to minimize noise and wildlife issues. Graham also suggested wireless providers might also develop wind turbines as way of getting taller cell towers through co-location, though the technology for this does not currently exist.

Commissioner Tom Loach (White Hall) asked Graham if anyone had approached the County about installing a turbine. Graham said no one had yet officially sought a permit, but he was aware of a couple of interested parties in the County. He said investigating those is a very low priority for his department, but the Board had directed staff to do this preliminary investigation.

Commissioner Marcia Joseph (At-Large) said she would be interested in pursuing a way to allow for small wind turbines. Graham suggested one course of action would be to allow them as an accessory to a building, which could be regulated with a special use permit.

This wind resource map from the U.S. Department of Energy shows that Albemarle County is "wind poor"

Loach said given community opposition to cell phone towers that are only seven to ten feet taller than surrounding trees, he could not see a future for small wind turbines. Loach said residential structures are capped at 35 feet in the County, and questioned what wind turbines twice that height would look like.

Joseph said she did not want to preclude a farmer from constructing one in a field, and that she wanted staff to work on an ordinance change.  She said the country needs to be looking at other energy resources, and said she was concerned that land owners can’t currently even consider putting up a wind turbine. Chairman Calvin Morris (Rivanna) agreed that residential wind turbines should be allowed in specific cases.

Commissioner Linda Porterfield (Scottsville) was another voice against pursuing the ordinance change, given the current work load of planning staff. Instead, the County should encourage residents and businesses to invest in solar technology. Commissioner Eric Strucko (Samuel Miller) said because of Albemarle’s “wind-poor” status, other options should be explored, but said a way should be found to allow small-scale ventures. Commissioner Bill Edgerton (Jack Jouett) agreed that owners of large tracts of land should be able to experiment, given rapid changes in technology.

Commissioner Jon Cannon (Rio) said he thought the permitting process would be just as controversial as the one for cell towers, but that the County should take a deeper look. He wanted staff to find out more about the feasibility of turbines before making a commitment.

Sean Tubbs

Board approves $25K for ASAP population study; group may not accept

The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors has allocated $25,000 to a local group that is conducting a study on the area’s “optimal population size.” However, the President of Advocates for a Sustainable Albemarle Population (ASAP) told Charlottesville Tomorrow he is not certain if the group will accept the money, given certain restrictions that were placed on its use.

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ASAP was formed in 2002 to study the effects of population growth on natural resources.  In October 2006, the group first approached the Board of Supervisors to ask if County staff could spend time assessing the Albemarle’s biological resources to find out how many people it could support. ASAP sought to produce a population number or range that could be used by the County as planning tool, but the Board decided that the County did not have the resources to take on the work.

So, ASAP decided to pursue the study themselves to answer this question: How big can this community grow and still ensure a quality of life current citizens expect and deserve, protect our environment, and maintain the character of our community?

While ASAP’s mission is primarily focused on this community, they have a secondary goal to use the study as a template to assist other communities. This goal has helped them raise more money towards the $110,000 project, but ASAP sought the balance from local governments. ASAP members have contributed $26,000, and ASAP received a grant from the Colcom Foundation of Pittsburgh.

Last June, the Board agreed to set aside $25,000 pending the review of the scope of ASAP’s project. At the time, Supervisor David Slutzky (Rio) said he supported the idea because he wanted to know the “ecological carrying capacity” of the County. In August, the City of Charlottesville set aside $11,000, also pending review. 

ASAP presented their scope of work to the Board of Supervisors on March 5, 2008. ASAP President Jack Marshall said because there is no known methodology for such a study, ASAP planned to simultaneously examine seven categories. The first three would take a look at services provided by the ecosystem, an analysis of the environmental  footprint of human activity, and the effect of population growth on streams and air quality. The other four would include evaluating the opinions of area residents, the effect of population on the character of the community, and evaluating the economic costs of growth.

ASAP's Jack Marshall

“We believe that this project is a step in the County’s effort to work towards a truly sustainable community,” Marshall said. “The product of the exercise is knowledge.”  To that end, Marshall said ASAP has developed an accounting system under which County funding would only go to fund the first three goals.

But Slutzky said he was uncomfortable funding the latter four categories of study, and asked if it would be possible for ASAP to hold off on those avenues for the study.

“I think it’s imperative that the community undertake this work,” Slutzky said. “My concern is that because… instead of doing this ourselves we would be funding an advocacy group to do this work for us, I think we have to be very very careful. We’re using public monies for a public purpose, but my concern is that if an advocacy group is undertaking not only the scientific elements, but the softer social science elements… What I wanted to do, and have all along, is fund the hard science part of this,” Slutzky said. He then asked ASAP to consider holding off on the latter four categories of research until the first three are complete.

Marshall said he could not agree to cut the study in half. “We’re the blind men trying to define the elephant,” he said. “The elephant is an optimal population size, a sustainable size. We don’t know how to go about that. We’re all grappling at ways to define it,” he said.

Supervisor Dennis Rooker (Jack Jouett) took up Slutzky’s concern, and said the County did not want the subjective social elements to “bleed over” into the scientific work. Slutzky went a step forward, and said the County’s use of the science could be politically compromised.

Marshall said the Colcom Foundation has given $50,000 for one year of work based on the entire study, and not the first three categories, and might not accept a postponement of the other ones.

Chairman Ken Boyd (Rivanna) said he was opposed to the idea of the County Board setting a population cap. Rooker said ASAP’s study did not do that, but instead sought to provide a way to give County officials and residents a sense of how much human activity could be absorbed by the ecosystem.

“You can either operate based upon the best possible information, or you can put your head in the sand,“ Rooker said. “Whether or not this Board now, or ever, would adopt some kind of section to the Comprehensive Plan that talks about an optimal population would be a decision to be made at that time. These things that we talked about funding provide us with valuable tools for making land use decisions.”

Supervisor Lindsay Dorrier (Scottsville) wanted to know what new information ASAP’s study would bring in, given that the group StreamWatch already monitors human impacts on streams.  He added that he though accepting ASAP’s study could potentially end up putting the County in conflict with its own zoning ordinances.  Rooker said the County would not be asked to support any of ASAP’s conclusions, but were instead being asked to make a one-time expenditure to help ASAP conduct the research.

“If we were going to go out and do this ourselves, it would be a whole lot more costly," Rooker said.

Boyd said that the $25,000 could be put to better use given that other projects are being denied funding because of the revenue shortfall.

“If we’re going to be investing taxpayer money, we have to do it very prudently, and I’d like to stick to the first three items,” Slutzky said. “We need this money to buy us some information, some knowledge, something that is extremely valuable to us without it being compromised or tainted in any way.”

Though no public hearing had been advertised for the action item, Chairman Boyd decided to allow public comment.

Neil Williamson of the Free Enterprise Forum said he did not object to the work being performed, but that government funding should not be awarded. “ In the end that’s what this is about - government funding for population control – this is the first step,” Williamson said.

ASAP member Tom Olivier spoke on behalf of the Sierra Club, and said the Board’s conditions would make it hard for the study to be fully effective.  He said ASAP had met all of the previous conditions set by the board, and dismissed the notion that ASAP had a preconceived agenda it wanted to push. “This is ASAP’s first foray into scientific research,  and it intends to establish and proceed with a very high standard,” Olivier said. Olivier said the Sierra Club would be troubled by a government dictating to a non-governmental organization how it should proceed.

Jeff Werner of the Piedmont Environmental Council pointed out that Albemarle County participated in the Sustainability Accords,  an effort spear-headed by the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Council in 1998, and later incorporated into the County’s Comprehensive Plan.

“You all participated in the Sustainability Accords, and one of the adopted provisions was:  ‘strive for a size and distribution of human population that will preserve the vital resources of the region for future generations,’” Werner said.

Jay Willer of the Blue Ridge Homebuilders Association asked how ASAP would feel if his organization approached the Board with a request to fund a study to promote growth.  He said the science to be performed by ASAP would be more useful  to the public if it did not come from an advocacy group.

After public comment, Supervisor Sally Thomas (Samuel Miller) said she shared Olivier’s concern. “If you think [the research] is tainted just because it’s being done by ASAP, I will remind us that ASAP suggested we do it ourselves,” Thomas said.

Slutzky made a motion to approve the allocation, but with the conditions that he had outlined, namely that a draft of the scientific research results come to the Board of Supervisors before ASAP expended additional funds on the second phase of their project. Rooker seconded. After further discussion of whether ASAP would be willing to accept the conditions, the Board voted 5-1 to allocate the money.

Afterwards, Marshall told Charlottesville Tomorrow that he was not certain if ASAP would take the money, or pursue other funding options.

Sean Tubbs  

City, County and University hold first PACC meeting of 2008

The Planning and Coordination Council is a body made up of two City Councilors, two members of the Board of Supervisors, and top officials at the University of Virginia. The group gets together four times a year to discuss planning issues that involve all three entities. Last year, the meeting was cancelled twice.

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In 2008, the University of Virginia is hosting these meetings. The first meeting was held on February 21, and began with a discussion of the Fontaine Avenue/Sunset Connector, a proposed road to link the University’s Fontaine Research Park with the County’s southern urbanized area. The University of Virginia Foundation has asked the County to rezone the research park to more than double the amount of currently allowed construction and for permission to build three parking garages. That rezoning is currently under review by the County Planning Commission.

David Benish, the County’s Chief Planner, said U.Va has commissioned a traffic study that models several development scenarios, including development of the nearby Granger property. The Granger tract is a 69-acre parcel of undeveloped land to the southwest of the Fontaine Research Park. The Virginia Department of Transportation is currently reviewing the results of a meeting at which University, City and County officials met to discuss the scope of the Fontaine Avenue/Sunset Connector which would traverse both properties. 

Supervisor Dennis Rooker (Jack Jouett) pointed out that the Granger property’s Comprehensive Plan designation was changed in 2007, and asked if the traffic study would reflect the higher amount of development allowed. Benish said the comprehensive plan amendment was written in such a way to restrict development subject to the road network being able to absorb the extra traffic, and that the traffic study will model several development scenarios. He said County staff have had preliminary conversations with the owner of the Granger property, but that there is no timeline for a rezoning.

Charlottesville Mayor Dave Norris asked Benish for an estimate on how much money would be needed to build the road. Benish said he did not have an updated cost estimate for the full extent of the road. He said the major cost would be a bridge to cross the railroad, and added that the County has currently set aside no money for the project, though it is a priority on the County’s Secondary Six Year Plan, and thus eligible for state funding. The Board of Supervisors was given an estimate of $12.8 million when it was discussing the comprehensive plan amendment last year. Rooker said that the Biscuit Run rezoning includes proffer money to help pay for the road, but the County won’t receive the money until building permits are issued for construction. With the current decline in the housing market, that isn’t expected to occur for some time. State funding for road construction is also expected to be significantly down for the next several years.
UVa Chief Operating Officer Leonard Sandridge said he thought it would be a very expensive project. “There’s a lot of bridging to go in that area,” he said.

Norris said he hoped all the parties could work together to build some version of the road. “The volume of traffic that we’re projecting will otherwise impact our residential neighborhoods,” Norris said.

The building in red marks the location for UVa's planned Long-Term Acute Care Hospital

The PACC also discussed the future of the UVa Medical Center’s Northridge fa cility on Route 250 between Ivy and Charlottesville. The plan is to build a Long Term Acute Care Hospital (LTACH) at the site in order to free up beds at the hospital’s main campus. “This is a key step in our efforts to try to accommodate what has become a very heavy patient load that we’re experiencing in our hospital system,” Sandridge said. When built, the LTACH will be designed to house patients who need to stay in the hospital for several weeks.

The hospital may also play a role in the expansion of the region’s public safety infrastructure. Thomas Harkins, the Medical Center’s Facilities Planning and Capital Development Administrator, said he has been having conversations with the County about using some of the warehouse space to build a fire station. On a somewhat related note, the University is also considering leasing space in the Fontaine parking garages to the Charlottesville Fire Department for their new facility there.

Ed Howell, the CEO of the UVa Medical Center, said he hoped to break ground as quickly as possible, and is shooting for late May/early June. He estimates an 18 month construction period. Howell also said the majority of the staff at the new hospital would be new employees because different skills are required.

The meeting concluded with a presentation of environmental sustainability initiatives underway in the City, the County and the University of Virginia. Julia Monteith, UVa’s Senior Land Use Planner, said one milestone is that all new construction and renovations of existing buildings will be performed to LEED standards. Kristen Riddevold, the City’s Environmental Coordinator, remarked that all three jurisdictions are members of the U.S. Green Building Council, which means they are using the same benchmarks for sustainable building. The County’s first building to be submitted for LEED certification will be the new library in Crozet, according to County Environmental Compliance Manager Sarah Temple. For about 45 minutes, the trio talked efforts to improve stream quality, provide transportation choices besides driving, and recycling goals.

Rooker said he was pleased to see a status report from all three jurisdictions. “This presentation makes me feel proud to be a citizen of this area,” he said. “I kind of know what’s going on in the County, but to see it all together is impressive.”

Under other business, Supervisor Ken Boyd (Rivanna) asked if the University would be open to the concept of using the former Blue Ridge Hospital to satisfy the County’s need for land that can be used for light industrial purposes. Supervisor Sally Thomas (Samuel  Miller) made this suggestion at a recent Board meeting.  Sandridge said that property has strict usage restrictions, but that he would take a look at the idea.

TIMELINE FOR PODCAST

• 1:00 - Introduction from Leonard Sandridge, and approval of minutes from August 16, 2007 meeting
• 1:50 – Discussion of Sunset/Fontaine Connector
• 10:13 – Presentation of UVa’s proposed Long Term Acute Care Hospital
• 23:04 – Presentation of the Joint Environmental Sustainability efforts
• 1:10:12 – Other business, agenda setting for future meetings

Sean Tubbs

Board postpones action on rural protection ordinances

The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors has postponed action on three ordinances to increase protection of the County's natural resources. Chairman Ken Boyd (Rivanna) recommended that the public be provided the opportunity to weigh in on changes that have been made since the Board held a public hearing last October.

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“I believe it’s very important that we always have as much public input as we can,” Boyd said shortly after introducing the item at the Board’s January 23 meeting.  Boyd felt not enough notice had been given to the public and he exercised his prerogative as Chairman to allow public comment on the discussion. However, time constraints prevented that from occurring at this meeting as two Supervisors, Dennis Rooker (Jack Jouett) and David Slutzky (Rio),  had to leave the meeting to attend an MPO Policy Board meeting.

Supervisor Rooker said there had been no rush to judgment, pointing out that the Board had a lengthy public hearing in October.  On October 10, 2007 over 80 speakers addressed the Board for four hours providing input on the rural area ordinance changes.

“This process has gone about six years, of trying to adopt some of these rural area provisions that are included in our land use plan. There have been more than seventy meetings held dealing with these and other recommendations that are in the rural area plan,” Rooker said.

Rooker said the changes to the ordinances were scaled back due to public feedback, and that the public had a right to a decision.  He said Boyd had previously brought items up for action without any public input, citing the Board’s 2006 decision to join the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Boyd thought the public needed to know what changes had been made before the Board takes action. For instance, he said he disagreed with the science behind the proposed requirement that no construction can occur within 100 feet of a stream. He said he felt the Planning Commission had not done enough to investigate the issues. 

Mark Graham, the County’s Director of Community Development, said that the County’s authority to impose a 100-foot buffer is granted by the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act, adopted by the Virginia General Assembly in 1988.  Currently, half of Albemarle does have a 100-foot stream buffer in place, and the ordinance change would apply it to the entire County.

Supervisor Sally Thomas (Samuel Miller) said she had not taken the two recent holidays  into consideration when she made her motion to place this item on the agenda, and she noted the Board could not have predicted the snow storm that closed the County Office Building the previous Thursday afternoon. She agreed that more time should be given for the public to study the changes.

After some discussion, the Board agreed to delay action until another public input session can be held. That date was set for the February 6 Board meeting, and the item has tentatively been scheduled for that evening. Boyd asked for staff to prepare a Frequently Asked Questions page to provide a place for citizens to find answers about the proposed ordinance changes.

Sean Tubbs

Albemarle now a “Cool County”

The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors has adopted a resolution that commits the County to a goal of reducing carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050. That would mean the County would have to achieve average annual reductions of 2 percent.

The resolution is part of the Cool Counties initiative sponsored by the Sierra Club. Fairfax County adopted the resolution earlier this year, joining other major metropolitan areas across the country.

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Last month, Supervisor Dennis Rooker (Jack Jouett) introduced the idea and sought board consensus to bring the resolution forward in December.  While the item was not included on today’s agenda as he had expected, Rooker introduced a motion to approve the resolution during the Board’s discussion of other business.

But, Supervisor Sally Thomas (Samuel Miller) suggested that staff might want to weigh in on the resolution. County Executive Bob Tucker said the County’s Environmental Compliance Officer, Sarah Temple, is preparing a report on all of the various initiatives and programs to reduce emissions. That report is scheduled for a Board meeting in February. Deputy County Executive Tom Foley said the item had not yet been scheduled due to heavy board agendas in December and January.

Rooker said that passing the resolution now would not prevent the County from engaging in other green initiatives in the future. 

“I think if we don’t take steps at every level of government, we’re not being responsible,” Rooker said.

Chairman Ken Boyd (Rivanna) said he would prefer to have seen analysis from staff before voting on the resolution, particularly with respect to potential costs of committing to the targets. He suggested setting higher average fuel economy rates for the County’s fleet would create a need for more efficient school buses.

Supervisor David Slutzky (Rio) said there are several bills pending before Congress to require automakers to increase fuel efficiency, and that the Cool Counties initiative is a way for places like Albemarle to send a message that they’re in support.

“These aren’t draconian measures that are going to compromise our economic vitality,” Slutzky said. “This is just getting on board the bandwagon of dealing with a serious, serious ecological crisis that’s well understood and recognized.”

Boyd said he was concerned that the resolution wouldn’t do anything in and of itself, and that he would prefer to see a list of options the County could take. County Executive Bob Tucker said those will be coming in February with Sarah Temple’s report. He added, however, that her report will likely not contain any costs for particular actions.

Thomas said she could support passing the resolution now, if only to send a message that Albemarle County is committed to doing its part to mitigate climate change.  The resolution was passed unanimously. To comply, the County will now have to take an inventory of all the greenhouse gases it is responsible for.

Sean Tubbs

Richmond-based green consultant explains LEED for Homes

On November 1, 2007, the James River Green Building Council invited area architects and builders to hear a presentation on the new LEED for Homes green building certification. Karl Bren of the Richmond-based consulting firm GreenVisions spoke for about an hour about how the new standard is being developed for homes.

The event was hosted by the Charlottesville Community Design Center, and more than sixty people attended. Bren said that was a testament to the origins of green building.

"I kind of somehow think that green building sort of oozed out of the ground of Charlottesville," Bren said, recalling previous packed meetings held here. He said there was a tremendous need for energy efficient houses with smaller footprints. "This is the defining issue of our generation. We must be the ones who turn this around."

Bren took the audience on a tour of the principles of the LEED certification, and how it is being modified for homes. He also addressed one obstacle - getting the public to understand that green building doesn't mean making design sacrifices.

"Green building can look like anything," he said. "The green is in the inner workings of the house."

Watch the video below:

Kendall Singleton and Sean Tubbs

An introduction to rainwater harvesting

A "vortex" filter used in a rainwater harvesting system in Albemarle County

The drought watch recently declared by the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority has many people wondering what steps they can take to save water. But another option is to look above your head and consider collecting the water that falls on your roof.

In this video feature, we get a demonstration of a rainwater harvesting system from Benjamin Sojka of the Charlottesville office of Rainwater Management Systems. We then spoke with John Quale, of the University of Virginia’s School of Architecture, who describes a system installed at the ecoMOD house in Fifeville which collects and filters rain for drinking water.

Watch the video on YouTube below:

Will Faulconer and Sean Tubbs

UVA details journey to becoming a 'Greener Grounds'

Attendees of the Community Briefing review exhibits highlighting UVA's environmental projects

All new buildings constructed at the University of Virginia will be built to LEED certification. A transportation demand management plan will reduce car traffic coming to Central Grounds. Efforts to save water and electricity will be continued, resulting in a lower environmental impact and increased cost savings.

These are just three of the ways in which the University of Virginia is changing its culture to reflect a new commitment to becoming a more sustainable part of the community. They were presented as part of UVA's Community Briefing, an annual event in which the school updates the public. This year, sustainability was chosen as the focus of the briefing.

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Leonard Sandridge, UVA's Chief Operating Officer, says the administration's efforts to promote sustainability are not a one-time project. "It's not something we're going to start and finish, but rather what we are promoting is a culture," he said.

The University's sustainability plan (.PDF) is being used as a road map to guide the various changes, which he says are realistic and achievable. But Sandridge seemed most pleased with what he called the "quiet leadership" that various UVA departments have been undertaking to push the issue.

"There have been water conversation programs, storm water management, recycling and public transportation initiatives that have singled us out from the competition," adding that these grass-roots efforts are becoming part of the culture UVA is trying to build.

Implementation of these initiatives is the responsibility of David Neuman, the University Architect. His office is currently developing a new Grounds Plan to guide planning for the next hundred years. It will include for the first time a comprehensive biohabitat survey of more than 5,000 acres owned and managed by the University and its foundation.

All new buildings to be constructed at UVA will be to LEED certification, including the new Emily Couric Cancer Center, the Claude Moore Medical Educational Building, and the various structures of the massive South Lawn Project. Neuman says this will add about three percent to the cost of each, but that the savings in energy will be worth it.

The new master plan will also focus heavily on connectivity, and the importance of giving people more choices to get from one place to the other. Neuman said the University will seek to replicate the pattern of the Lawn, where residential, classroom, and other uses co-exist in a tight footprint. He suggested using the railroads through the area as a way of improving the ability of getting around, and also in designing better bikeways and sidewalks. That will take close cooperation with planning staff in the county and city.

"The notion that we have artificial boundaries between any of these jurisdictions has to be forgotten when it comes to sustainability," Neuman said.

Rebecca White, Director of Parking and Transportation, said her department is currently designing a Transportation Demand Management plan to help reduce the number of people who get to UVA in a single occupancy vehicle. Elements of the plan include coupling transportation planning with parking management, investment in alternative modes of transportation, and identifying where employees and students live using geocoded data.

"We have the opportunity now to assess commuting patterns, and these data start telling us how we can match transportation alternatives," she said. "It's a very systemic and strategic way to measure your impact on the environment."

Potential strategies which may be included in the plan include preferential parking for carpools, encouraging human resources departments to allow for flexible work-times, and car-sharing. White says this last strategy helped the University of North Carolina replace much of its fleet of state-owned vehicles.

University officials created this map (.PDF) to make it easier to get around Grounds without a car

White also said marketing existing programs is one piece of the puzzle. She explained the recent decision by the Charlottesville Transit Service to offer free rides to anyone with a UVA ID card is paying off, leading to an average of 10,000 extra riders per month on CTS routes. White says UVA is also participating more in the efforts to create a regional transit authority.

One piece of becoming sustainable is to reduce energy consumption and to conserve the use of water. That's happening at UVA, according to Chief Facilities Officer Don Sundgren. For example, he claimed the University saved 70,000 tons of carbon emissions in 2006. The University is also saving more water, too. Sundgren says in 2006, 13,000 gallons were consumed per person, down from 23,000 in 1999.

Small steps such as switching from incandescent to compact fluorescent light bulbs are beginning to pay dividends, by using less energy to light buildings. 

"Programs in energy conservation and recycling have resulted in almost six million dollars in savings in the last academic year alone," said Ida Lee Wootten, the Community Relations director.

You can track the latest in UVA's efforts at their new website devoted to the issue.

Sean Tubbs

A Close Look at an EarthCraft Home

The Blue Ridge Home Builders Association continues its 2007 EarthCraft Home Tour this weekend at ten locations throughout Charlottesville and Albemarle County. EarthCraft House provides a set of guidelines to home builders so they can construct energy-efficient houses that have less impact on the environment.

We visited two homes being built near Profitt Road in Albemarle County to in find out some of the construction elements that go into an EarthCraft home. These homes are being put together by Dominion Development.

In this first-ever video feature from Charlottesville Tomorrow, we speak on location with Dominion's John Kerber and Jay Willer of the Blue Ridge Home Builders Association.

Sean Tubbs

Watch this six-minute video below:

County’s Natural Heritage Committee presents annual report

The Albemarle County Natural Heritage Committee (NHC) made its annual report to the Board of Supervisors during the Board's meeting on June 6, 2007. The committee was created two years ago to assess the county’s biological assets in an effort to come up with a sustainability plan. (report in .PDF format)

The roots of the NHC date back to the Comprehensive Plan adopted in 1999, which recognized “the importance of protecting biological diversity… for the ecological, aesthetic, ethical and economic benefits to the community.”

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In 2002, the county formed a temporary biodiversity committee to come up with an initial assessment of Albemarle’s natural biological assets. In 2005 the panel was formalized as the Natural Heritage Committee.

Tom Olivier served as the chair of the committee last year, and presented the report to the Board. He said the NHC is developing an education plan to make sure landowners are aware of the assets on their property. The panel also is creating an additional layer in the county’s Geographical Information System to give county planners more information on biological resources when making land use decisions. Olivier said both the Nature Conservancy and Stream Watch have agreed to help fund this effort.

More importantly, the NHC will develop and implement a “Rapid Conservation Plan” to help protect areas that are under threat. Long-term, the NHC will develop a “Strategic Conservation Plan” to protect biodiversity at “a landscape scale.”

To that end, Olivier told the board that six sites should be considered as “priority conservation targets.” They include three wetlands (Campbell, Preddy Creek, and Pinkerton Slash”, ), two river bluffs (Key West Rivanna and North Fork Rivanna Bluffs), and a large forested area in the southwest portion of the county that Olivier called Southern Albemarle Mountains.

The Pinkerton Slash area is already covered by a conservation easement, but Olivier says that doesn’t necessarily mean that the biological diversity of the areas will be protected.

“They simply insist that they be kept in open space,” he said. He recommend county staff develop a program similar to the Acquisition of Conservation Easement (ACE) program to protect the fauna and flora in targeted areas. “We think that sites that are recognized as being of high value based on biological resources… should be recognized as things we need to protect”

Olivier also said the committee wants the county to create a plan to help landowners understand the importance of these areas, and to also offer options for how stewardship programs might work.

When asked by Supervisor Ken Boyd (Rivanna) if the committee has contacted landowners, Olivier responded that they want to develop the stewardship education plan first. “I think the sense was that since we’re proposing things that are entirely voluntary, and since the biological value at these places is really independent of the current ownership, that this was the proper initial step to take.”

“Many people simply have no idea when they have biological resources on their properties that are special, and unfortunately sometimes they are destroyed quite casually.” He said the first step is let people know what they have, and also that the county wants them to voluntarily preserve them.

Supervisor David Wyant (White Hall) asked Olivier what guidance the committee might give to landowners who want to see a return of certain species of animals to their property. He recalled one woman who recently appeared before the Board to discuss the disappearance of bobwhite quail.

“I know the reason we don’t have them is because we clear-cut a whole lot more than we used to, we used to have brush fields. Well that goes against our land-use. We have got some things in place, and I think we’re going to find we run into these conflicts, and for me to get quail back, I have to do certain things, and other people come along and say you can’t do that. That’s the kind of guidance I would look from ya’ll.”

A naturalist with the University of Virginia’s Department of Environmental Science and member of the committee responded that the NHC is still trying to work out long-term plans for how to resolve such conflicts.

“Not only are we in conflict with our environment but the county of Albemarle is actually degraded,” said Carleton Ray. He added this costs the county more in increased water bills and impacts the county’s aesthetic values.

“Resolution of these conflicts is going to be a tough nut, but it need not cost a lot of money if people knew how or had guidelines for how to take stewardship of their own land, this wouldn’t cost anything, it just changes behavior.”

Sean Tubbs