Cville Tomorrow News

Arts Grounds to extend with theater space

8/31/2010 * Cavalier Daily [full story]

The University will begin construction on a new theater as an expansion of the drama education building and part of the Betsy and John Casteen Arts Grounds next year.

The expansion will include a 300-seat thrust-stage theater, which will extend into the audience on three sides connected by a backstage area.

University Architect David Neuman said plans for the theater — which will accommodate drama, dance and film — include remodeling the main lobby and public restrooms. The new building also will mirror the surrounding architecture.

Bob Tucker makes his final budget

8/31/2010 * C-Ville Weekly [full story]

County executive talks retirement, revenue sharing

By his own count, County Executive Bob Tucker has attended more than 1,700 meetings of various boards during his tenure as Albemarle’s CEO. After 20 years of crafting the county budget—and a total of 37 years as a county employee—Tucker announced last week that he’ll attend only a few more, and plans to retire at the end of this year.

“You kind of know when it’s time,” says Tucker, 62, who adds that his family will remain in Albemarle. “I will be looking for some other things to do, not necessarily in county-related efforts.”

Tucker began his local career in the county Planning Department in 1973. Ten years later he became deputy County Executive, and became Executive in 1991. County attorney Larry Davis, who has worked with Tucker for 16 years, calls the executive “a person of high integrity, whose goal in public service was to make Albemarle County the best community that it could be.

Sunset/Fontaine Connector gets new study

8/31/2010 * C-Ville Weekly [full story]

When the Albemarle County Planning Commission unanimously approved the 54-acre rezoning of UVA’s Fontaine Research Park in July, it did so without specifically including the most scrutinized piece of park property: a plot of land reserved for the Sunset/Fontaine Connector. One month later, the planning commission signed off on the same request to allow for more commercial space, updated to clarify the land reserved by the UVA Foundation for the path it favors.

“We’re looking forward to the Board of Supervisors meeting on September 8 as a final step,” says Fred Missel, UVA Foundation’s Director of Design and Development, of the park’s rezoning.

But while the UVA Foundation is committed to building the connector, a route between Fontaine and Sunset avenues—first recommended in 2004 in a study produced by the city, county and UVA—is yet to be finalized. Now, a new study by the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission will examine the UVA Foundation’s preferred path, along Stribling Avenue, as well as other routes that might lower costs to the county.

Closed city-county meetings questioned

8/28/2010 * Daily Progress [full story]

Albemarle and Charlottesville  officials have been having a series of closed-door meetings about everything from resolving a money dispute, to finding more ways to collaborate — a setting some say is necessary for frank conversations to be had, while others argue the process should be more transparent.

In April, nearly all of Albemarle and Charlottesville’s elected officials met publicly to discuss ways to save money through collaboration.

At that meeting, officials picked a few topics that they were most interested in discussing further, including fire and rescue services, social services, revenue sharing and a dispute over the composite index formula for school funding.

Albemarle's leader will retire Dec. 31

8/27/2010 * Daily Progress [full story]

Albemarle County Executive Robert W. Tucker Jr. is retiring at the end of the year.

The county’s top leader made the announcement Thursday.

Tucker, 62, has served the county for nearly 37 years, including the past 20 years as its executive.

Energy upgrades for low-income housing get boost

8/26/2010 * Daily Progress [full story]

The Charlottesville-based Local Energy Alliance Program has been awarded $1.9 million to improve the energy and water efficiency of low-income, multi-family housing in this area and in Hampton Roads.

LEAP will work in partnership with the Green Jobs Alliance, based in Hampton Roads, to provide landlords with investment-grade audits, contracting and financing options, as well as run a tenant engagement program to demonstrate other possible efficiency measures that can be taken in their residences. The program is expected to launch in early 2011.

The grant was given by the U.S. Department of Energy and is part of nearly $7.5 million awarded to multiple entities in Virginia that work to improve energy efficiency.

Judge confirms award in heated Landmark Hotel battle

8/25/2010 * Daily Progress [full story]

A Charlottesville judge has confirmed Minor Family Hotels’ multi-million dollar arbitration award in the legal battle between the owner and former developer of the vacant Landmark Hotel.

Judge Edward L. Hogshire signed the order Wednesday in Charlottesville Circuit Court, rendering the award of $4.2 million in damages, $2.2 million in attorneys’ fees and any additional fees or losses in effect.

The parties have been embroiled in lawsuits and countersuits against each other since construction on the nine-story hotel halted in November 2008 and both men began making conflicting statements about its status. Earlier this year, Hogshire ordered the companies into arbitration on parts of the complaints not related to contract termination.

City panel tours sites as steep slopes rules under review

8/25/2010 * Daily Progress [full story]

Members of Charlottesville’s Planning Commission spent much of their Tuesday evening looking at plots of land — some mostly bare, others covered in foliage, but all that are steep.

The tour around the city with commissioners, city staff and other interested residents was done as officials review the rules for building on “critical slopes” and how such pieces of land are defined. The city’s current rules for steep slopes say that no building can take place on a slope that has a grade in excess of 25 percent, unless a waiver has been granted.

But city staff and planning commissioners have agreed that evaluating waiver applications has been difficult because much of the criteria are vague. As such, officials have said many waivers have been granted to developers that would allow them to build on steep surfaces, when the ordinance was crafted to prevent developers from disturbing those areas.

County panel allows family to subdivide property

8/25/2010 * Daily Progress [full story]

Having fought for a year and a half to have their 4.9-acre property in western Albemarle subdivided, Ronnie and Janie Matheny won a major battle Tuesday.

The Albemarle Planning Commission, which had voted against the request more than a year ago when it had different members, now recommends that the Mathenys be allowed to subdivide, to give 2 acres to their grandson.

All of the members supported the request, accept Linda Porterfield, who contended that the Mathenys had used up all of their development rights and allowing them to divide again would contradict the county’s Comprehensive Plan and set a poor precedent.

Could tax rebate seal Waterhouse deal?

Atwood's project first to receive funds from city

8/24/2010 * C-Ville Weekly [full story]

Thanks to actions last week by Charlottesville City Council and the Board of Architectural Review (BAR), architect Bill Atwood’s Waterhouse project has quickly thawed from glacier to geyser. One day after council unanimously signed off on its first resolution for a tax increment financing rebate—don’t worry, we’ll explain it in the third paragraph—the BAR approved Atwood’s six-story redesign with a 6-1 vote and a few conditions.

The latest Waterhouse design—featuring two parking garage entrances on South Street, and a partially recessed presence at 216 Water Street—will appear before the BAR again for approval of color and a glass column that links the structure’s two main buildings. With the majority of the BAR wooed by Waterhouse’s latest look, Atwood can focus on courting WorldStrides, an Albemarle County student-travel business, as his anchor tenant.

Now, about that tax increment financing (TIF). Approved unanimously by council, the TIF resolution guarantees that the city will offer Atwood a 50 percent cut of real property tax revenue that can be attributed to Waterhouse and its occupants for five years. The property’s tax base is assessed pre- and post-construction and “the difference…is considered the taxes attributable to the new development,” according to the resolution. (The site is currently assessed at $2.8 million.) The developer must secure all funding—in this case, a $20 million cost—and see the project through construction to receive the TIF rebate.