Crozet “Downtown Mall” gets OK from advisory group

By Bridgett Lynn
Charlottesville Tomorrow
Sunday, August 22, 2010

A group that oversees planning in Crozet has endorsed a new concept to redevelop a lumber yard on the Square into a walkable and livable community similar to Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall.

“We need a pedestrian mall in Crozet,” said Mike Marshall, chairman of the Crozet Community Advisory Council. “This comes into Crozet’s life at a very fortunate time for us.”

The CCAC voted Thursday to recommend rezoning the 14.74-acre J. Bruce Barnes Lumber Yard and CSX railroad property to allow for future development as part of the Crozet Master Plan.

[full story]

This story also appeared in the Daily Progress.

Regional effort under way for Chesapeake Bay cleanup

By Bridgett Lynn
Charlottesville Tomorrow
Tuesday, August 10, 2010

A federal pollution crackdown meant to protect the Chesapeake Bay likely will spell major changes for local governments and area growth, officials said Monday.

“We’re concerned … local governments are going to be required to increase [their] attention to existing regulatory efforts, that there will also be increased regulatory requirements, [and] … that the new pollutant loadings resulting from growth will need to be offset,” said Steve Williams, executive director of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission.

The Environmental Protection Agency is announcing, for all levels of government, mandates to limit the Total Maximum Daily Load, which refers to the total amount of pollutants and sediment allowed to enter into a body of water before water quality becomes impaired.

The forthcoming changes were discussed at Monday’s meeting of the Rivanna River Basin Commission. Albemarle County Supervisor Ann Mallek, a commission member, said that the new pollutant loadings have important implications for local growth patterns.

“For the last 20 years, any of the gains that we’ve made procedurally [in watershed protection] … have been demolished by the growth,” Mallek said.

“If [the mandate] doesn’t end up being enforced by EPA, the state, or the local governments, [then] it’s going to end up being enforced by the courts,” Williams said. “There will be some sort of lawsuits brought that will ultimately force this down our throats in one way or another.”

The basin commission recommends programs to enhance the water and natural resources in the Rivanna River watershed, a tributary of the James River, which forms Albemarle County’s southern border. The James River watershed accounts for one-fourth of Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay drainage area.

“The major reason that communities should consider being prepared is that, regardless of this federal and state mandate, we have water quality issues in our watershed as well throughout the entire planning district commission,” said Leslie Middleton, the commission’s executive director. “It’s not just in the Rivanna.”

In September, the commission and the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission will begin facilitating focus group meetings with pairs of elected officials from each of the six member governments. Meetings for other stakeholder groups will be held during next three months.

Additional information can be found on the commission’s Web site at www.rivannariverbasin.org.

This story also appeared in the Daily Progress.

Albemarle collects almost $1 million in land-use revalidation program

By Bridgett Lynn
Charlottesville Tomorrow
Friday, August 6, 2010

Albemarle County has collected $955,000 worth of roll-back taxes from a land-use taxation revalidation program adopted by the Board of Supervisors in 2008.

The report was shared with the board Wednesday.

“It was important that we put in place a revalidation program so that the public has confidence that the parcels receiving the land-use tax benefits were using their land for agricultural purposes,” said Supervisor Dennis S. Rooker in an interview.

Since 1975, the county has used a land-use program to give reduced assessments to landowners who use their property for agriculture, horticulture, open space or forestry. The program was started to help protect rural land from development.

With the revalidation program, property owners who receive a tax break have to submit proof every two years that they continue to qualify.

“I was disappointed that the county had never done a revalidation,” said Glenmore resident Paul Accad in an interview. “Now they are in the process of completing the first one and look how much money has been, and will continue to be, collected due to the revalidation.”

“My thoughts on the program are that it needs to be run as cheaply as possible given the program’s goals,” Accad said. “I’d like to see those goals posted on the Web site since I’m not sure what they are.”

In 2009, owners of each of the 4,927 properties in the land-use program were mailed revalidation applications and approximately 98 percent of the forms were returned by the December deadline. The applications that were not submitted or that no longer qualified for the tax break were removed from the land-use program and had to pay the roll-back taxes.

The result was a loss of 177 parcels of land and the collection of $955,000 worth of roll-back taxes. The county also received an increase in taxable land value of $46,254,500 and new real estate revenues of $343,208.

Although Supervisor Rodney S. Thomas said he supports the land-use program, he said that he does not necessarily agree with the policy on roll-back taxes paid by people losing eligibility.

“What if I want to get out of this land-use program?” asked Thomas in an interview. “Does that mean I don’t have to pay for the roll-back taxes even if I gave a five-year notice? No, I would have to pay for it. [That’s] one thing I didn’t like about the program.”

The General Assembly has capped the roll-back tax period at five years. Property owners leaving the program have to pay the difference between what they paid under land use and the taxes they would have paid at fair market value. Albemarle County has been unsuccessful in past attempts to get the General Assembly to extend the roll-back penalty to 10 years.

According to Bob Willingham, the county’s assessor, the Real Estate Division is now two months into a field review process to ensure that the parcels in the program meet qualifying standards. The goal is to review the remaining 4,800 parcels over the next two years.

Because the review process just started recently, information on the number of parcels verified has not been collected yet, according to Willingham. Preliminary findings indicate about 33 percent of the applications need additional follow up to verify a qualifying use.

Each property owner will be given an opportunity to provide documentation of a qualifying use before the property is removed from the land-use program and the owner is billed for roll-back taxes.

This story also appeared in the Daily Progress.

Improving conditions for bicyclists a focus of transportation work session

By Bridgett Lynn
Charlottesville Tomorrow
Friday, August 6, 2010

At a transportation work session Thursday that attracted a couple of dozen people, Charlottesville city councilors heard from community and staff members about ways to increase bicycle safety.

“The emphasis that I took away from this is more on-street or off-street facilities for bicyclists and public education,” said Jeanie Alexander, the city’s traffic engineer.

Improving bicycling safety has come to the forefront after a 23-year-old University of Virginia graduate student was hit and killed in a collision with a truck on West Main Street in April.

Leo Connally, a teacher at St. Anne’s-Belfield School, said at the meeting that he was hit by a car in April and has also had a bottle thrown at him by an angry motorist when riding his bike in town.

“There’s this animosity between drivers and cyclists when the cyclists don’t follow the rules,” Alexander said.

Lanes that can be striped within the existing roadways to separate bikes and vehicles, as well as other efforts such as “share the road” signing, have been made to improve safety.

City staff also put together a number of sign options to alert motorists and cyclists to the rules of the road.
“One is this ‘Bicycles may use full lane’ sign,” Alexander said. “It’s just another way to alert a motorist to the fact that it is legal for the bicycle to take over the lane and, in many cases, the cyclist should take over the lane for their own safety.”

Additional projects are also under way in the city to create more safe routes for bicyclists.

“We do have funding from [the Virginia Department of Transportation] to design a bridge over the railroad tracks that would connect the two sides [of McIntire Park] for bike [and pedestrian] use, and that would tie into the 250 Bypass trail,” said Chris Jensic, the city’s trails planner.

New ideas to increase bike travel lanes included lane narrowing and “road diets.”

“There are some opportunities where we can narrow the travel lane,” Alexander said. “This is something that we haven’t really done in the past, but it’s an option in some of these places where we can’t fit the bicycle lanes with the standard 12-foot lane [and the] 5-foot bike lane.”

To illustrate lane narrowing, Alexander used Meade Avenue as an example of where an existing road could accommodate a 10-foot-wide, shared-use path.

“Road diets” is another new idea that staff presented as a way to create safer bicycle travel lanes. Preston Avenue was used as an example to show how its four lanes could be reconfigured to serve vehicular, transit and bicycle traffic.

“[One option is] we’re only going to leave one of those lanes for vehicular traffic,” Alexander said. “We’re going to use the other lane in one case for a shared bus and bike lane.”

Jim Tolbert, director of Neighborhood Development Services, also said he expects a draft sidewalk prioritization plan to be brought to the City Council sometime this fall after receiving feedback from the Planning Commission.

Mayor Dave Norris recommended that staff evaluate results from a recent survey by Bike Charlottesville and the Alliance for Community Choice in Transportation.

“There are some suggestions about legislative change that can’t be done at the local level,” Norris said.

The story also appeared in the Daily Progress.

Roundtable discusses streamlined site plan and subdivision review process in Albemarle

By Bridgett Lynn
Charlottesville Tomorrow
Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Albemarle County staff held a roundtable discussion last week to receive public input on potential changes to the site plan and subdivision review process. The project is part of the implementation of the economic development priorities outlined in the “Albemarle County Action Plan” approved by the Board of Supervisors in January.

“We’re trying to make the regulations match the necessity,” county planner Bill Fritz said to the group of about 20 participants.

In June, the Board of Supervisors held a work session to initiate an evaluation of the site plan and subdivision process for the purpose of “reducing the time and cost processing applications.”

“One thing we can do is [make] more decisions administratively,” Fritz said. “The other is to simplify the process and give … applicants more guidance at the very start of the application process [by] clearly stating what your requirements are.”

Fritz said that the changes would also clarify submittal requirements, give good concise timeframes for reviews, eliminate multiple public hearings, and include a presumption of approval.

“I like the sound of it,” said Jo Higgins, former member of the Planning Commission. “It changes the site review committee [to] something of much more power … [Fritz is] talking about evolving site review as to a much more complex and decision making committee, and I think that’s a key thing that needs a definition.”

Some roundtable attendees were concerned about the elimination of public input opportunities.

“The more things you take right now that aren’t purely [administrative] and put into that category of [administrative], you’re shutting out public opportunity where it currently exists,” said Morgan Butler of the Southern Environmental Law Center.

“We were told [by supervisors] very clearly to … not remove public involvement,” Fritz responded. “We’re trying to figure out how to still include public involvement to the extent that you can in a purely administrative process. What we came up with was the site review meeting where you can work with staff and you can sit down and do those things.”

For projects not receiving planning commission review, staff plan to conduct a site review committee (SRC) meeting with a greater level of public input when a project would require conditions for approval or when staff expect to recommend denial.

Currently, when a project is reviewed before the planning commission, comments up to three minutes are allowed and there is no opportunity to ask follow up questions or provide clarifications. The SRC meeting would give the public an opportunity for an informal dialogue between all parties.

The input gathered from the roundtable and the Board of Supervisors will be presented to the Planning Commission and the Architectural Review Board possibly in September, but no dates have been set yet according to staff. Another roundtable discussion may be created after staff reviews all the feedback and make recommendations before returning to the board.

The article also appeared in the Daily Progress.

County planners give okay to expanded Fontaine

By Bridgett Lynn
Charlottesville Tomorrow
Thursday, July 29, 2010

A proposal to increase the size of the University of Virginia’s Fontaine Research Park by 310,000 square feet has moved one step closer to reality.

The Albemarle County Planning Commission on Tuesday recommended approval for a rezoning, despite concerns from city residents that an expanded research park would mean more traffic through their neighborhoods.

“The Comprehensive Plan proposes the Sunset-Fontaine connector to be accommodated on the site,” county planner Claudette Grant said. “Outside of showing this area on the application plan, the applicant has made no commitment elsewhere to address this [project].”

City, county and university planners agreed on the concept for the road as part of a 2004 planning study. The road would reduce traffic congestion on Old Lynchburg Road and would link to the county’s designated growth areas south of Interstate 64.

The University of Virginia Foundation originally proposed in 2007 to expand Fontaine Research Park by 725,000 square feet but has scaled that back to 310,000 square feet.

“The major issue was the need for a traffic study,” Grant said. “The traffic study revealed that the research park could propose an additional 310,000 square feet instead of 725,000 square feet in order to mitigate traffic impacts.”

Fred Missel, director of design and development of the UVa Foundation, said at the Fry’s Spring Neighborhood Association’s meeting held earlier this month that the county has not yet decided what the exact route of the connector should be. However, the county is suggesting at least one alternative.

“Staff believes an alternative location would be to utilize parts of Natural Resources Drive which accesses the Department of Forestry building,” Grant said. “This would necessitate relocation of a part of this road which the applicant has indicated they are not supportive of because this would generate too much traffic going through the park.”

Staff also recommended the applicant participate in a Sunset-Fontaine connector study that the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission will be undertaking.

The Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing for the UVa Foundation’s plans at their meeting September 8.

This story also appeared in the Daily Progress.

County planners reject inclusion of industrial park in Crozet Master Plan

By Bridgett Lynn & Brian Wheeler
Charlottesville Tomorrow
Wednesday, July 14, 2010

While Albemarle County is seeking to increase its industrial and commercial land activity, proposals reviewed as part of the Crozet Master Plan to build a new business park and convert some residential homes to mixed use have been rejected by the Planning Commission.

Will Yancey appeared at the public hearing Tuesday to lobby for his family’s 2008 application to create a light-industrial business park just outside the Crozet development area near the intersection of Interstate 64 and U.S. 250.

“We don’t have enough industrial land,” Yancey said. “In the last three years there have been two studies, one in 2007 and one that was just completed recently, that indicated Albemarle had a shortage of industrial land.”

According to county staff, the majority of Crozet residents and the Crozet Community Advisory Council (CCAC) do not support the proposed business park which would be on 184 acres around the site of the Yancey Lumber Co. sawmill.

“The public very adamantly said they were opposed to having a 1.1 [million] to 1.8 million square foot industrial park right outside of the master plan boundaries,” said Mary Rice, a former advisory council member.

“The proposal has serious flaws beyond generating sprawl in the rural area,” said Morgan Butler of the Southern Environmental Law Center. “The property is located in the water supply watershed. It drains to the South Fork Rivanna River and ultimately to the South Fork Reservoir. Major development activity on this land would almost certainly increase the amount of sediment and other pollutants entering that drinking water reservoir.”

Other concerns about the proposed business park were that it would undermine efforts to invigorate businesses in Downtown Crozet and would negatively impact traffic near the interstate.

“Our recommendation is that it’s bad for the master plan,” said Mike Marshall, chairman of the advisory council. “We don’t think it ought to be allowed.”

The planning commission indicated last month that the Yancey Mills project should be independently reviewed by the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors. At Tuesday’s meeting, the commission formally voted to exclude the project from the master plan update and went a step further and also voted 4-3 to recommend the Board of Supervisors deny the business park request. Commissioners Don Franco, Linda Porterfield, and Edward Smith voted against that motion.

Porterfield was the only commissioner who supported further study of the Yancey Mills project when the commission originally rejected it in November 2008 by a 6-1 vote. Franco and Smith joined the commission subsequent to that decision.

“We have not studied the Yancey proposal,” Porterfield said Tuesday. “We can’t vote it down if we don’t know anything about it.”

“There is no place else that I’m aware of in this county right now that there is one entity that controls that much land with good transportation,” Porterfield said. "If we don’t start thinking about that, we’re going to be supporting this entire county on residential taxes.”

The other topic getting considerable attention at the public hearing related to a proposal to mix commercial and residential uses in a small area north of downtown.  The commission voted unanimously to maintain the existing residential character of the neighborhood around Wayland Drive and St. George Avenue.

“We’ve had some interest for quite some time from property owners…wanting to have greater use of their property than just the single family residential use that they have right now,” said Elaine Echols, Albemarle County’s principal planner for the development areas.

“What we came up…with the community was a recommendation for mixed use in this particular area with a modification to the stream buffer to allow for redevelopment if there’s mitigation which helps to protect the water supply,” said Echols.

Jenny Martin spoke on behalf of the property owners that supported the staff’s recommendation. She said the proposal would create a transition between commercial and residential use.

“This designation of mixed use will create a buffer to the north of Crozet between commercial and residential which today does not currently exist and will preserve the look and feel of the village of Crozet,” Martin said.

However, other members of the community and representatives of the CCAC spoke against the proposal.

“The resolution that the advisory council passed was on where to maintain the boundary between commercial use…and residential,” said Marshall. “The motion…to maintain that natural [creek] boundary, which is the boundary today, as the future boundary…passed 10 to 2.”

“I cannot understand why just two houses in Wayland Park should be included in a transition zone for mixed use,” said Joyce Shifflett, a resident of St. George Avenue. “To consider just two houses in the subdivision for mixed use would be totally unfair to us and the other property owners in Wayland Park.”

In 2006, county staff prepared a report estimating that Crozet, which has a population of about 5,500 today, could reach a maximum population of about 24,000.  The revised plan now anticipates a long-term population capacity of approximately 18,000.

“I’m all for the community deciding that it wants a much lower total build out,” said Peter Loach of the Piedmont Housing Alliance. “I just want [the community] to be aware…as they lower density and make each house sit on a bigger piece of land, each house is going to cost more and become much less affordable.

Staff will incorporate changes recommended by the Planning Commission and bring the plan back for final approval at their meeting July 27.

This story also appeared in the Daily Progress.

Home energy efficiency program anticipates reduced energy costs and "green jobs"

By Bridgett Lynn
Charlottesville Tomorrow
Thursday, July 8, 2010

An organization created to encourage residential energy efficiency has launched a contest to get residents retrofitting their homes and installing renewable technologies. Local leaders say the benefits will include reduced energy costs and the creation of new jobs.

“The Home Energy Makeover Contest is an initiative that will help…to educate local homeowners about the importance of energy efficiency,” said Cynthia Adams, executive director of the Local Energy Alliance Program (LEAP).

“Through energy efficiency, LEAP will stimulate our local economy and generate clean energy jobs which fosters energy independence and makes maintaining our homes more affordable,” said Charlottesville Mayor Dave Norris. “We are a lucky community indeed, nowhere else in Virginia does an energy alliance like LEAP exist.”

Over a year ago, the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County jointly won a $500,000 grant from the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance (SEEA) to create LEAP. The grant challenges the community to gain 20 to 40 percent in energy efficiency in 30 to 50 percent of area buildings over the next seven years.

Adams announced on Wednesday that the organization will award up to $10,000 in energy efficiency improvements to two residents living in either Charlottesville or Albemarle as part of a Home Energy Makeover Contest.

Eight runners up will receive free professional home performance assessments worth up to $600 conducted by certified local contractors.

Homeowners Wendy Roberman and Ted Millich had their house audited with LEAP and received suggestions to add insulation, switch out appliances, add a new furnace and windows, and some additional ventilation.

“We were able to quickly narrow down who we wanted to do the work, and we were very satisfied with that work,” said Roberman. “I would recommend people get an audit even if you think you know what you need to do.”

Prices for a home energy audit are running anywhere from $300 to $600 depending on size of home and number of gas fired appliances located in the home according to Adams.

“The end result of this should be a twenty percent or better efficiency gain for your home and …Energy Star certification,” said Adams.

In coming months, LEAP will launch its Home Performance with Energy Star program. Homeowners will get professional guidance on their energy retrofits and certification that the home has implemented energy conservation measures projected to increase its efficiency by 20 percent or more.

“We prequalify contractors to participate…and we also go behind them on a percentage of their jobs [to] test out [and] check the work [to] make sure that it was done correctly and that all of the diagnostic readings are being reported as they should be,” said Adams.

“By going through a prescribed process to identify energy efficiency issues and remedy them using a whole house approach, owners of existing homes can benefit from the latest in building science too,” said Laura Fiori, president of Key Green Energy Solutions, a LEAP partner.

“Our primary hope in participating in a LEAP program is to create job growth,” said James Sullenberger of Weather Seal Insulation. “Like many local companies, we have been forced to make major changes in an effort to survive and remain competitive in this ever changing market.”

The University of Virginia Credit Union is also partnering with LEAP to provide low-interest financing for energy efficiency improvements.

“They put together an energy sense lending program [called Green $ense Lending] that is available exclusively through LEAP that has better rates and longer terms than one can get on a personal loan,” said Adams.

Green $ense Lending products can be paired with LEAP cash incentives, federal energy tax credits and the Commonwealth of Virginia energy rebates to make home energy improvements more economical for area residents.

Winners of the contest are selected through an application review process based on homes that use the most electricity and natural gas, which translates to homes that have the potential to save the most energy.

The contest will be open from July 1 to August 20, and the winners will be announced by September 12. Applications can be found at the website www.cvillesaves.org.

This story also appeared in the Daily Progress.

Albemarle’s program to acquire conservation easements celebrated in the face of major budget cuts

By Bridgett Lynn
Charlottesville Tomorrow
Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Albemarle County spent $1 million or more per year between 2000 and 2008 on a program designed to permanently protect rural land from development through conservation easements.

“After 10 years running the [Acquisition of Conservation Easements] program, we’ve protected 37 properties and 7,200 acres from future development,” program coordinator Ches Goodall told county supervisors at a recent meeting. “Seventy percent have been working family farms. For many of these landowners, I feel like ACE has been a real godsend for these people.”

The economic downturn, however, has reduced the overall level of funding for ACE.

According to county officials, the budget for next fiscal year only includes $366,000 for ACE, which is coming from the county’s capital improvements funds.

The easements are voluntary agreements that allow landowners to permanently limit the type and amount of development on their property while retaining private ownership and gaining access to state tax credits.

“At the state level, the General Assembly made this Virginia land preservation tax credit program, a program that was explicitly designed to be able to benefit landowners across the economic spectrum by making these tax credits transferable,” said Rex Linville of the Piedmont Environmental Council.

“If you don’t have a high income, you are actually able to sell your tax credits to somebody else who might have a high income and might be able to use them,” added Linville. “So even landowners of lower income levels are able to get a lot of benefit out of putting a conservation easement on their properties and selling those tax credits to other landowners.”

In the year 2000, there were only 17,000 acres of permanently protected private land in the county. Ten years later there are more than 81,000 acres of protected land.

“That’s largely as a result of great financial incentives either through sale of easement, through the ACE program, or for donated easements,” said Linville.

“We can’t use that success to think that we can now sit back … and say we’ve done a great thing,” said Linville. “Virginia is losing farm and forestland at the rate of 50,000 acres per year… . Permanent conservation easements are one of the few tools that we have available to preserve those resources.”

At last week’s board meeting, Goodall said the county had received an additional grant of $61,000 from Farmland Preservation to supplement efforts to obtain easements.

Properties that qualify for easements are chosen by a ranking evaluation system created to award points for a number of different values such as open space resources and threat of conversion to development. There are a number of options available for a person to do a conservation easement.

“The ACE program is a means-tested program. You get more money if you’re in a lower income bracket than if you’re in a higher income bracket,” said Supervisor Dennis S. Rooker.

However, there are generally more applicants for the ACE program than money. County staff recently wrote in a report that the program will suffer if additional funds cannot be found to accommodate demand.

The county’s goal is to qualify 90,000 acres of public parkland and conservation easements by June 30, 2010. There are currently 81,000 acres in conservation easements alone.

“I think we feel confident that we will be very close to the goal when we take everything into account,” said county spokeswoman Lee Catlin.

This story also appeared in the Daily Progress.