Cville Tomorrow News

City, county agree to talk about money fight

2/25/2010 * Daily Progress [full story]

Charlottesville and Albemarle County officials have agreed to meet about future collaborative efforts after a fight about state education funding has resulted in increasingly frosty relations between the two localities.

The meeting will take place on April 24 at 10 a.m., with the location to be decided. Del. David J. Toscano, D-Charlottesville, had called for local officials to sit down and discuss how they could save money through collaboration and combining services.

Toscano called for the meeting after the localities continued to spar over a proposed budget amendment that would take $2.8 million in state education funding from Charlottesville and give it to Albemarle in fiscal 2012. The amendment, introduced by Del. Rob Bell, R-Albemarle County, is seeking to account for the localities’ revenue-sharing agreement.

Docu-demo: Lumber building gone, but not forgotten

2/23/2010 * The Hook [full story]

In December, the old Charlottesville Lumber building on Avon Street was lost, demolished in dramatic fashion by Parham Construction. But thanks to members of Preservation Piedmont, it was not forgotten.

Alarmed by such architectural losses, the non-profit launched a program in 2004 called “Document Before Demolish,” which seeks to record endangered buildings with photos, field notes, and drawings before they come down. However, because the city has yet to officially adopt the program, Preservation Piedmont members have taken it upon themselves to do the documenting.

Unfortunately for preservationists, the 116-year old lumber building, home to businesses as recently as last spring, fell just yards outside the boundary of the Downtown Architectural Design Control district, which protects the circa-1885 Beck-Cohen building next door. In 2008, the old lumber building also slipped through the cracks of a city-wide effort to protect century-old buildings. According to city preservation planner Mary Joy Scala, the building wasn’t recommended by any of the experts called on during the 2008 survey.

Restaurants rising: Up in arms over Tolbert’s noise law

2/25/2010 * The Hook [full story]

Charlottesville restaurants— already hammered by chilly wintertime sales, zealous alcohol rules, and a nine-percent tax on all they sell— have decided to rise up to fight the latest thing threatening their livelihood: a proposed noise ordinance that would limit nighttime restaurant noise to just 55 decibels, a sound level lower than a typical conversation.

“I really think we’re being steam-rolled here,” says Alan Katz, the music director for Coupe DeVille’s and one of several speakers at City Council Tuesday night.

An Elliewood Avenue restaurant that features live music six nights a week, “Coupes” (as it’s known to regulars) would, Katz said, be irreparably harmed by such an ordinance. “We need a break,” Katz told the Council.

Albemarle plan calls for slashes to services

2/25/2010 * Daily Progress [full story]

Slashes in services and measures to operate Albemarle County’s government more cost efficiently will be included in a budget proposal being presented today by County Executive Robert W. Tucker Jr.

“It would be impossible to respond to the dramatic decline in revenues we have experienced over the past several years without seeing an impact, so there will be some service level differences in a variety of areas,” county spokeswoman Lee Catlin wrote in a statement Wednesday. “As we have in past budgets, we are focusing on protecting core services of public safety and human services to the greatest extent possible.”

However, even core services have undergone funding reductions in the past two years because of dramatic revenue declines, Catlin noted.

City, county, get together

2/24/2010 * Daily Progress Editorial [full story]

“If you want to be incrementally better: Be competitive. If you want to be exponentially better: Be cooperative.”

That Web quote sums up the intellectual crisis now facing Charlottesville and Albemarle County. And, yes, it is a crisis of ideas and policy that underlies the more immediate financial crisis facing both localities.

Albemarle is seeking a revision of the formula by which state educationaid is apportioned but which fails to count revenue-sharing money that is transferred to the city. Charlottesville therefore is judged as being “poorer” and due additional state aid, while the county is counted as “richer” and needing less state funding.

Area businesses show cautious optimism for ’10

2/24/2010 * Daily Progress [full story]

A Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce survey of its members shows plans to hold the line on hiring employees, not expanding operations and making few or no capital purchases during 2010.

At the same time, members are hoping for increased revenues and profits in 2010 while citing economic growth and the nation’s economy as their major concern on a regional and national basis.

“Our chamber members remain concerned about this year and future years,” said Valerie Long, vice president of the chamber’s Board of Directors for Economic Vitality. “Our businesses have an improved outlook while remaining focused on staying successful, holding on to their employees, controlling costs and a firm belief that better times will arrive.”

Leaders to release budget proposals later this week

2/24/2010 * Daily Progress [full story]

Albemarle County Executive Robert W. Tucker Jr. will present his budget proposal for fiscal 2011 to the county Board of Supervisors at 11 a.m. Thursday at Lane Auditorium in the County Office Building at 401 McIntire Road.

The budget will be available to the public at noon on Thursday at http://www.albemarle.org/budget.

 The budget presentation will be open to the public, though there will be no opportunities for public comment at the meeting. The first public hearing on the budget will be at 6 p.m. March 3 in Lane Auditorium.

Community colleges have little economic impact, says UVa study

2/24/2010 * Daily Progress [full story]

Contrary to conventional wisdom, a survey by the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia shows that community colleges may provide little economic stimulus to their regions in terms of attracting employers or promoting industry.

Local community college and economic development officials, however, say the two-year colleges give communities an edge on attracting companies seeking educated and trained workers and a location where existing employees can receive further training.

“Community colleges certainly provide educational opportunities in a community, including workforce development and on-site training for existing business,” said Terance J. Rephann, regional economist with Weldon Cooper and the study’s author. “But they don’t have the extensive research programs and advanced degrees to gain access to grants and money from outside of the community that a four-year school has — resources that attract larger employers.”

Musicians and venues turn up, Council turns it down

2/23/2010 * C-Ville Weekly [full story]

At Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, in the midst of a contested amendment to the city’s noise ordinance, one thing was agreed upon: Charlottesville’s music scene is vibrant, unique and in need of protection.

Musicians, restaurateurs and venue owners vocally opposed two proposed amendments that would lower the evening noise level to 55 decibels citywide or in specific neighborhoods. Peter Castiglione, owner of Maya on West Main Street, called the proposals “completely unrealistic.”

The first amendment would limit amplified sound between 11pm and 6am in the Neighborhood Commercial Corridor district to 55 decibels, while leaving the current 75-decibel limit intact for non-residential areas. The second amendment—far more sweeping, and discounted by Council—would limit sound to 55 decibels in all districts aside from the Downtown Business District—a.k.a., the Downtown Mall.

Stonehaus sells 16 Belvedere acres to Cathcart Properties

2/23/2010 * C-Ville Weekly [full story]
$4.6 million purchase will create 294 luxury apartments

We’ve all heard that timing is everything; likewise, time equals money. So when Frank Stoner, vice president of business development for local real estate developer Stonehaus, said the time was right for a 16-acre sale within the company’s 207-acre Belvedere neighborhood, it also meant the price was right.

Cathcart Properties plans to construct a collection of one-, two- and three-bedroom luxury apartments, along with a few other amenities, on 16 acres of land in the Belvedere neighborhood (pictured).

Cathcart Properties agreed, and purchased the land from Stonehaus for $4.6 million to construct The Reserve at Belvedere, a multi-family luxury apartment building with 294 units. Those 16 acres are located near the planned site for the Belvedere neighborhood’s towncenter, and won’t go unused. A press release from Stonehaus lists amenities like a clubhouse with a movie theater and billiards parlor, and a “central park” with both a putting green and a bocce court.

Asked about reasons for the sale, Stoner tells C-VILLE that, while Stonehaus had developed multi-family housing in the past, “we have typically partnered with somebody else to do that, because that’s sort of not our core competency.”