Cville Tomorrow News

Zion Crossroads outlet mall put on ‘indefinite hold’

07/22/08 * Daily Progress [full story]

Coach will not be displaying its new collection of handbags this fall in Louisa County as plans for an outlet mall in the Zion Crossroads area have come to a halt.

Retail developer Land Capital Group has put the project on “indefinite hold,” Scott Davison, the developer’s president, said, putting about 170 acres of land back on the market.

The outlet mall had already been named Merchant’s Walk and plans included retail stores such as Ann Taylor, Coach and Nike. The mall would have generated millions of dollars in yearly tax revenues, according to Bob Gibson, Louisa’s director of economic development.

Gibson cited the weakening economy as the sole reason for the project’s cancellation.

“Nationwide…retail is closing stores, not opening stores,” Gibson said.

Davison added that retailers had expressed only a moderate interest in the outlet mall from the beginning.

“At this point in time … retailers felt it wasn’t worth the risk,” Davison said.

Willie Harper, chairman of the Louisa County Board of Supervisors, also noted that there was doubt about whether people were willing to travel to Louisa to shop.

New passenger rail for area?

07/22/08 * Daily Progress [full story]

A draft of Virginia’s Statewide Rail Plan recommends implementing a new passenger line with stops in Charlottesville as the first phase of the statewide TransDominion Express, with initial operations that would begin as early as 2010.

The plan was released last week by the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation, which examines all state transportation corridors to determine where improvements are needed. Public comment on the draft will be received until Aug. 25.

The passenger line — listed in the plan as a potential rail investment location — would add up to two roundtrip trains per day from Lynchburg to Washington, D.C., with stops in Charlottesville, Culpeper, Manassas and Alexandria. The TransDominion Express, a four-phase venture for which the General Assembly has already earmarked $9.3 million, is a $206 million project that includes expanded service to Richmond, Roanoke and Bristol.

“What’s in the plan is completely consistent with what we had hoped for,” said Meredith Richards, chairwoman of the Piedmont Rail Coalition and a former city councilor. Richards and the coalition have been longtime advocates for increasing train stops in Charlottesville, and 21 area governmental bodies and other organizations recently signed a resolution declaring support for the Lynchburg to Washington line.

“I think the public pressure is going to result in major public investments in rail,” Richards said. Currently, 20 passenger trains run through Charlottesville per week, compared to Lynchburg’s 14 and Richmond’s 126.

A city of trees, trails

07/22/08 * Daily Progress [full story]

Green is a color Charlottesville can’t get enough of.

Over the next five years, the city will pour nearly $550,000 each into urban tree preservation as well as city trail and greenway development.

“We don’t want to end up with communities that are dominated by asphalt,” said Charlottesville Mayor Dave Norris.

For fiscal 2009, the city has budgeted $103,000 for each project, and the amount increases roughly $3,000 each subsequent year until fiscal 2013.

Mike Svetz, Charlottesville’s Parks and Recreation director, said the city currently has a tree canopy of 34 percent, and the goal is to get it to 40 percent. Last year alone, the city spent $15,000 on (to bring in 100 trees for planting).

Future tree types will be determined by planting location, Svetz said, and the canopy will be measured every three to five years.

Part of the funding will go toward creating a tree inventory and setting up a replacement program, and Norris said a forestry plan is in the works to determine where more aggressive tree planting is needed.

The changing face of the Corner

07/14/08 * The Cavalier Daily [full story]

When a small café known for its healthy food opens a bar, a gritty pool hall goes upscale to become a gourmet hamburger joint and an independent record store may make way for a national pharmacy, it is just another year on the Corner. This ever-changing string of shops, bars and restaurants has been called the center of student life at the University for over a century.

This year alone, in less than four short months, the Corner has experienced a number of changes as its patrons and business owners attempt to survive and respond to what some see as the recent downturn in the American economy. Considering this, some Corner business owners are making significant changes to their businesses and the area in order to survive and prosper near the University.

All about alcohol

In Virginia, restaurants serving mixed drinks may only garner a certain amount of their profit from liquor sales. This sales ratio is 45 percent food to 55 percent liquor, said Steve Jones, assistant special agent at the Staunton office of the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. In addition to this sales ratio, Jones said, there is also a minimum food sales requirement. Establishments serving liquor by the drink have to sell a minimum of $4,000 a month in food sales, of which $2,000 must be entrees or full-blown meals.

Two four-story buildings slated for Fifeville

07/22/08 * C-Ville Weekly [full story]

The wall separating one side of Fifeville from the other looks to become even thicker if the city approves the second and third phases of Grove Square, which goes before the Planning Commission Tuesday, July 22. Both phases are four-story buildings facing Roosevelt Brown Boulevard, and each building would have retail on the first floor.

The renderings for the project show a gigantic structure in the background—it’s the already approved (though not yet built) nine-story, 928-space parking garage, which was the first phase of Grove Square.

Though the Grove Square project represents a tremendous scaling up of the single family houses down King and Grove streets, the city has precious little leverage over the proposals—planning commissioners are asked to approve only slight changes to setbacks and increases in allowable retail space. Most of the land is zoned mixed-use and is considered part of the Cherry Avenue corridor.

Community land trusts coming to town

07/22/08 * C-Ville Weekly [full story]

Between 2000 and 2006, the median sales costs of houses doubled in the Charlottesville metropolitan area, and the county nearly kept the same pace. As a result, housing became affordable only for the few with enough money to spend on escalating properties. Your average family was practically priced out of town.

“I was at a party about three and a half years ago talking about how hard it was for my children to find a home,” says area mortgage lender Frazier Bell. Shortly thereafter, he ran into an old frat brother from his days at UVA named Bill Edgerton. The old friends’ conversation drifted to a topic fresh on both their minds. As a member of Albemarle County’s Planning Commission, Edgerton is constantly confronted with the area’s housing dilemma. He had a suggestion for Frazier Bell. Had he ever heard of something called a community land trust (CLT)?

A few years and a lot of research later, Bell is now the chairman of the interim Board of Directors for the Thomas Jefferson Community Land Trust (TJCLT), the latest area effort to help provide home ownership to those in need of a little boost. An idea first started in the 1960s, a CLT works simply by setting up a nonprofit that purchases property that it owns for perpetuity. The nonprofit then sells the houses on the property but retains ownership of the land that it’s on, thus keeping the overall housing costs down. “We act as a steward of the land,” says Bell.

Red Light venue headed to Preston

07/22/08 * C-Ville Weekly [full story]

Forget the motor mile—Preston Avenue is repositioning itself as the music mile, thanks to a little love from Coran Capshaw and his people. Red Light Management, operating under its moniker Starr Hill Presents, will lease a roughly 5,000-square-foot space at 608 Preston Ave. from the development team, led by Andy McGinty, that is renovating the adjacent King Lumber building. The deal is conditioned on approval of a special use permit, which Red Light is in the process of getting from the city.

Preston is already home to Outback Lodge, the music venue behind Mona Lisa Pasta. Along with Gravity Lounge, it is largely all that’s left of the city’s small venue circuit for those bands that don’t have the cache to play the Pavilion or John Paul Jones Arena. Satellite Ballroom, a 350- capacity music hall on the Corner that had soaked up most of the recognizable acts that can fill a space that size, closed in May after it lost its lease to CVS.

With a capacity of up to 500, the as-yet-unnamed Preston Avenue venue will fill Satellite’s void until Red Light is finished fixing up the Jefferson Theater. As the site makes for a long walk for UVA students, venue operators are looking into running extended bus service from the University.

Council OKs mall renovation

07/21/08 * Daily Progress [full story]

With the Downtown Mall renovation, there’s no turning back.

City councilors unanimously decided Monday to move forward with the Downtown Mall restoration project, crunching the construction timeline into four months and advancing $4.5 million into this year’s budget for the overhaul.

But community discussion about the entire project, a $7.5 million endeavor set to begin in January, took an interesting turn in light of recent events.

Because of recent shootings on Sixth Street Southeast and Page Street — the former incident killing 19-year-old Joshua Anthony Magruder — several residents discussed the need to create a strong sense of community and connect all of Charlottesville’s economic groups through the project.

“I’d like to believe the rehab of the mall will provide rehab economic opportunities in the city,” Councilor Holly Edwards said, additionally pointing out that the city’s public housing sites and the Downtown Mall were constructed around the same time.

Several community members who attended Monday night’s City Council meeting said the mall renovation could provide an opportunity for residents who have no jobs.

County takes account of its country stores

07/21/08 * Daily Progress [full story]

Nancy Kallander sells high-quality deli sandwiches, bottles of wine and fresh-cut flowers at her country store on Garth Road.

In the five years she’s operated Hunt Country Market and Deli, a circa-1911 roadside store near the Foxfield racetrack, Kallander has tweaked her merchandise selection to meet the needs of a varied customer base.

Her 900-square-foot business is popular with the lunch crowd of stay-at-home moms, workers and nearby residents.

“It’s a very diverse clientele,” Kallander said. “We have locals that live in the area and people who maintain the properties around here.”

Kallander’s store is one of 83 country stores documented in Albemarle County, and officials are working to help the businesses stay afloat, said Joan McDowell, the county’s principal planner.

The Albemarle Planning Commission is holding a public hearing at 6 tonight on proposed changes to the country store ordinance. Among those changes will be making it easier for business owners to get county permits, easing parking and sewage requirements and defining what makes a country store.

How green will officials make Albemarle County?

07/20/08 * Daily Progress [full story]

From hybrid vehicles to motion sensor fluorescent lights, Albemarle County government is going green.

Though it’s not cheap, county officials hope to save money in the long-term and reduce the county’s carbon footprint.

“My guess is that there is an initial investment and that ultimately it will save the county money,” Supervisor Dennis S. Rooker said of the county’s environmental investments. “We’re not going overboard, investing tens of millions of dollars … but we’re astutely taking steps.”

One decision by the Board of Supervisors is currently coming into play: a resolution for all new county buildings to meet stricter energy standards.

The new Crozet Library is the county’s first project planned to meet the U.S. Green Building Council’s standards for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

To get LEED certification, buildings have to garner points in a rating system for sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.

Downtown project could get go-ahead

07/20/08 * Daily Progress [full story]

Plans for the Downtown Mall restoration, a $7.5 million overhaul slated to start in less than six months, could be set in stone tonight.

The City Council is set to vote on the entire project and the accompanying $4.5 million advancement of funds, which was needed to crunch construction into four months instead of the originally planned several years.

“I hope we can get it squared away,” Councilor Julian Taliaferro said.

Jim Tolbert, director of Charlottesville’s Neighborhood Development Services, said the city is looking for councilors to confirm the design decisions that have been made — such as using sand to lay the 4-inch-by-12-inch brick in a herringbone pattern — and to bump up the money into this fiscal year’s budget instead of allocating money over many years.

“We think we’ve addressed as many of the concerns as we can,” Tolbert said. “Council committed to this project many years ago because there’s a real need for it. The mall’s deteriorating and yet it’s one of our biggest economic engines.”

Councilor Holly Edwards agreed about the critical need for renovation to begin.

A bright future for County fields?

07/17/08 * The Hook [full story]

After two years of stalled attempts to light athletic fields in the county, the Board of Supervisors approved an amendment last night to a zoning ordinance that had previously made it “impossible to light the ball fields,” according to the County’s Manager of Zoning Administration, John Shepherd.

According to the county staff report, the zoning ordinance split the process of lighting a field into several steps, with athletic light poles considered “structures” in the dense planning committee language. As structures, the poles were restricted by building height regulations, and applicants had to appear before the Board of Zoning Appeals— which has stricter restrictions than the Planning Commission— to request a waiver or an exemption from the restrictions. This is where most proposals failed.

“The interpretation was that the pole height couldn’t be modified by the Planning Commission, which ultimately put an end to sports lighting,” Shepherd says.

Single-streamin': Why not try private sector recycling machine?

07/17/08 * The Hook [full story]

Developer and entrepreneur Peter van der Linde has a proposal that could save the City and the County millions and make recycling "everything on the planet except food waste" as easy as tossing it into a trash bin. The problem is, no body appears to be listening.

In the Rivanna Sewer and Water Authority's ongoing strategic plan to improve waste management and recycling services, one idea under review is the feasibility of building a $7 to $10 million Materials Recycling Facility (MRF). However, as previously reported in the Hook ["Coming soon! van der Linde's amazing recycling machine," February 14], van der Linde already has one-- an $11-million, 100,000-square-foot recycling center near Zion Crossroads that includes a 270-foot state-of-the-art sorting machine, that he now hopes will be operational in 60 to 90 days. 

Last December, van der Linde says he contacted RSWA director Tom Frederick and RSWA board chair Mike Gaffney-- the two who are also leading the community into a controversial $143 million water project-- to explain his services. Van der Linde, who already owns a container rental business, says he offered to rent his containers to the RSWA for free and process recyclables for "half the price that the RSWA says it could do it for."

Single streamin', comminglin': Whatever it's called, it's tasty, less (land) filling

07/17/08 * The Hook [full story]

The desire to recycle is powerful in many of us-- especially when it's easy. That's why Charlottesville's quiet switch to single-stream recycling-- obviating the tedious separation of glass and paper-- is such a godsend to those who want to save the earth without getting their hands too dirty.

Last year, the city's recycling hauler, Allied Waste, saw an opportunity to expand its services and  pick up plastics and cardboard without having to separate the materials on the street.

"We talked to the city and said we'd put it all together," says Allied's Tad Phillips. The change was possible thanks to Tidewater Fiber in Chester, a recycling sorter with facilities in Richmond, Chesapeake, and North Carolina. "We were able to piggy back on them," Phillips says.

Starting in February 2007, citizens could toss recyclables with abandon; by October, mixed paper was added to the commingled pool. Despite little notice to the public beyond City Notes, the newsletter enclosed with utility bills, the amount of recycling collected between October and March increased by 301.26 tons over the previous year, a 26 percent increase, according to Steve Lawson, the city's public services manager. During that same period, trash tonnage decreased 226.08 tons, saving Charlottesville over $14,000 in tipping fees.

Grant aims to up appeal of walking to school

07/17/08 * Daily Progress [full story]

The city of Charlottesville is getting $328,280 as part of the statewide Safe Routes to School program, designed to make bicycling and walking to school safer and more appealing for students from kindergarten through eighth grade.

Charlottesville’s funding is part of a package of more than $1 million for 13 school systems, local governments and not-for-profit groups, Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine announced Thursday.

The money for the city is designed to fund infrastructure projects, which can include pedestrian and bicycle crossings, sidewalks, signs and traffic-calming improvements.

The Alliance for Community Choice in Transportation for Charlottesville and Albemarle County will also receive $50,000 to develop and implement local programs.

“Walking and biking to school offers a host of benefits to students, communities and the environment,” Kaine said in a statement.