Podcast for December 5, 2025: Albemarle Supervisors seek additional funding for Smart Scale while City Council moves a streetscape project slightly forward

B. Hello and welcome to another Sonic edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement. If you are a close reader, you will note that the words I am saying here do not match what's in the print edition. That's because you're getting something value added, me improvising, whatever it is that you're hearing as you hear it. The newsletter began in July of 2020 as a script for a podcast. I don't have a script in front of me right now. All I know is that you're listening and... It's snowing as I say this, which means it must be December 5th, 2025, and there's enough information to get out to you before the WTJU radio version. So here is what is in this particular edition. Virginia's elections are certified and locally Steve Catalano holds on to the Stanardsville seat in Green County. Sharwitzville's Planning Commission takes the first look at a draft capital improvement program in anticipation of a public hearing next week. Abamar supervisors ask local legislators for help on transportation funding. Charlottesville moves a step closer to construction of the Barracks Emmett Streetscape and Sharwitzville City Council fixes an underpayment to the area's tourism agency.

In today's first shout out, well, this podcast, the newsletter, and Information Charlottesville are the three main platforms for town crier productions. That's the name for the business entity that I created in 2020 when I decided to launch a new chapter in journalism. I've been able to sustain this work and cover many stories over the past several years because of the many ways people can support the business. One way is to go for a paid subscription here on Substack, which goes a long way to support all of the research and reporting. There are other ways to do that, of course. You can also take out of sponsorship and advertisement. There are ways to do that. I'm not ready to publish the media kit yet, but I'll send it to anybody who asks. But most importantly, thank you for listening. You are, after all, people who are the audience for a town crier. So the real shout-out goes out to you. After all, isn't that what a town crier's for?

The Charlottesville Planning Commission has taken a first look at a proposed $201.5 million capital improvement program for a five-year period that begins on July 1st, 2026. That includes $48.5 million worth of spending in fiscal year 2027. The five-year plan anticipates spending $61 and a quarter million on education spending, including $36 million for a pre-K center that would be either at the Walker Upper Elementary site or the Oakland site that is intended to be conveyed to the city of Charlottesville from the University of Virginia. Here is city manager Sam Bernie Sanders. The only reason that Oakland is a part of the consideration is it just landed in our lap the way that it did this fall. Otherwise, it would be full steam ahead at the Walker side. The idea to build one pre-K center is part of Charlottesville City Schools decision to proceed with a renovation and expansion of the city's middle school to add sixth grade. Walker Upper Elementary School will cease to serve that purpose after fifth grade moves back to the elementary schools at the next academic year. The University of Virginia offered Oakland to the city after their bid to inherit the now-closed Federal Executive Institute was accepted by the federal government. There's an additional $26.1 million in the draft CIP for capital projects for city-owned buildings. That includes the McGuffie Arts Center, which is slated for a roof replacement in fiscal year 2030 at a cost of $1.2 million. Commissioner Lyle Soli Yates flagged this expense. At the risk of angering the artists who I love, I don't see a connection to comprehensive plan on this item. The McGuffey Arts Association has rented the former elementary school since 1975. As I reported in January of 2023, Council agreed to a new lease at $2,593 a month with an automatic annual increase of no more than 3%. Deputy City Manager James Fries said the lease requires the city to provide maintenance no matter the tenant. Broadly, it's a city facility, right? So it lives in the world of maintaining city facilities. The route needs to be replaced one way or the other. Whatever we put within the building, it's our building to maintain. Planning Commissioner Rory Stolzenberg said he understood Sola Yates Point and said ongoing rent under this lease would barely put a dent in the cost to install the new roof. We have a five-year lease that was signed 2023. Can we maybe expect revenue coming into the CIP from our tenants there to defray this cost?

or even are possible for us to get done, that we would have an inability to spend that money that particular year because we need to take that line in proximity to everything else that we're trying to get done as well. For affordable housing, the draft CIP anticipates $40.9 million over four years, with nothing anticipated at this time for the fifth year in 2013. All four years continue to show a quarter million dollar payment for a low barrier shelter on Cherry Avenue, a project that may be repurposed now that the city owns an office building on holiday drive for the same purpose. So far, that project is not in the capital improvement program as the $6.3 million purchase price came out of city surplus funds. We're not sure that we're going to need to do it out of CIP because the intention was that we would not pay into the improvements of the building because our philanthropic friends in the community had offered to step in that we were going to spend that much to acquire some. So that's being negotiated. A partial recording of this meeting is available on the city's website. You can click to observe that. There are some pretty detailed conversations, and I hope I captured at least some of this discussion. The City Council will have a joint public hearing with the Planning Commission on December 9th. The actual budget will be introduced to Council in early March of 26.

In just a few short minutes on the afternoon of December 1st, 2025, the body that oversees elections in Virginia took an action to officially accept the results of three statewide races as well as all hundred seats in the House of Delegates. Here's John Cronin, Elections and Registration Services Supervisor for the Virginia Department of Elections. Per Virginia Code, the results for these contests must be endorsed and subscribed. on a certified statement from the State Board of Elections. After the elections, registrars across Virginia entered data into the official reporting software and the Virginia election and registration system. In accordance with Virginia Code, within 10 days after the election, local electoral boards conducted provisional ballot meetings and canvases to ascertain and certify election results for their localities. Upon completion of Canvas, the registrars forwarded their locality certified abstracts of votes, and when applicable, write-in certifications to the Department of Elections. The upshot of all of this is that if you go to the Virginia Department of Elections Results page now, you will see the official results. For instance, when you look at Green County, you now see that incumbent Stephen Catalano won re-election to the Standardsville seat on the Board of Supervisors with a nine-vote margin over Challenger Jason Snow. The two races for Green County School Board were both unchallenged and were won by write-in candidates. In the Standardsville District, Rebecca Roach won election with 226 votes or 44.4% of the total right-in ballot. In the Midway District, David J. Mastervic won with 269 votes or nearly 54% of the total right-in ballot. Susan Beals, the Commissioner of Elections, took the time to thank registrars across the state, as well as Department of Election staff for their work checking and rechecking the results. At the last board meeting in November, the 92nd House of Delegates District had been selected at random for a process known as risk-limiting audit. The RLA was held on Thursday, November 20th at 10 a.m. and included the cities of Norfolk and Chesapeake. The risk limit was successfully met in the first round, confirming that the voting machines accurately reported the outcome of the race. If you're one of those people who would like elections all year round, there are two upcoming special elections in Virginia, according to the Department of Elections website. On December 9th, there will be a vote in Fairfax County to replace the Braddock District seat on the board of supervisors. This is to fill the seat vacated when James Walkenshaw won a special election to replace the late Gerald Connolly in Virginia's 11th Congressional District. On February 3rd, there will be a special election to replace the treasurer of Caroline County. The previous occupant resigned on October 5th.

This week, another special election has been scheduled. The 40 seats in the Virginia Senate are up every four years with the next election scheduled for November 2nd. But voters in portions of Chesterfield County and parts of the city of Richmond will go to the polls on January 6th to select a successor to Gazala Hashmi, who won election to November to be the next lieutenant governor. The last day for candidates to file is December 7th at 5 p.m. The Democrats currently hold a 21 to 19 advantage in the Senate, and there are two candidates in the race. So far, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, both Democrats, the seat is likely safe. That's coming up on January 6th, that special election. You're listening to Charlottesville Community Engagement here on the podcast. There is, of course, a radio version that goes out at 6 o'clock AM on WTJU. The idea of all of this is to bring you information about the things that you're hearing. I record all of the audio and then I put it into my brain and chop it up into stories about buildings and food and transportation. Things that, you know, are befitting who I am in the career I've had. If you're interested in doing this kind of work or if you know anybody who's interested in learning how to be a journalist, let me know. I don't necessarily have a program in place, but I definitely know I have a need for people who are interested in doing what I do, basically communicating information about what's out there and hopefully connecting all of us together, different ideas, different platforms. I believe in that sort of thing. That's why I do this. That's why you listen, hopefully. Do visit InfoCbill.com and poke around there. Maybe you'll see ways that you can communicate with me. And if not, that's okay. You're welcome to just keep listening, but do tell other people about it. Now, more programming.

The next session of the Virginia General Assembly begins in six weeks, leaving plenty of time for legislators to craft new bills suggested by their constituents. That includes officials elected at the local level, and on December 1st, Abamar County had the chance to discuss priorities with Delegate Amy Loffer, Delegate Katrina Calson, and a representative from the Office of Senator Cree Deeds. Abamar supervisors want assistance in securing more funding for transportation projects. through the smart scale process. Kevin McDermott is the county's deputy planning director. That's where we get the significant amount of funding that we rely on for our transportation projects. All the major projects will come from that program. So far, there have been six rounds where qualified applications are scored on how they would meet certain criteria with funding recommendations based on the ranking. In the first round in fiscal year 2017, there were 321 applications statewide and 163 were funded. In the sixth round, there were 277 applications and only 53 were funded. And one of the reasons we've seen these numbers go down is because maintenance costs have gone up. And so that maintenance comes out first, and then they divide all the other money up among all the different construction programs they have. McDermott said cost estimates for projects continue to escalate. For instance, when the county submitted a project in 2022 to build a roundabout at the intersection of Old Trail Drive in U.S. 250 West, the cost was nearly $12 million. The application was not successful. When the county tried again two years later, the cost estimate had increased to $16.7 million. This application was also not successful. The other major funding source is the Virginia Department of Transportation's revenue sharing program, where localities can ask for up to $10 million for a project, provided they make an equivalent match. McDermott said the budget cap of $200 million statewide every two years is not enough and has not kept up with inflation. Supervisor Ned Galloway of the Ryo District is on the Charlottesville-Albamaro Metropolitan Planning Organization, a body mandated by the federal government to make decisions on transportation projects and policy. He said Virginia needs to spend more on infrastructure, regardless of what party is in power. This is an issue where these projects aren't going to get less. Maintenance isn't going to go down. Costs aren't going to go down. It's my opinion that we have to find a way to increase the portions and figure out what we're going to do about transportation funding or else the state's really going to languish with unmaintained roads. poorly operating roads and no way to improve situations that are now critically a problem. Delegate Amy Laffer said there are lots of conversations happening about how to increase funds and become more efficient in spending them. She said part of the issue is structural as more consumers choose vehicles with alternative fuel sources. The way we fund transportation is through fuel tax, but most of the cars are way more fuel efficient than they were when we started this.

and then compound that to the electric vehicles, which is part of why there is an electric vehicle tax because we're trying to get money for the transportation. Lawfer said she would like VDOT to consider recycling asphalt, which she said could save millions of dollars. Delegate Katrina Tucker Carlson said she appreciated the legislative forum because she had never heard these concerns directly before. Tucker Carlson said there might be opportunity with a new administration about to begin. It's new to me. I hope conversations like this will make their way to Governor Abigail Spanberger and her team. Tucker Carlson said both she and Laffer serve on the House Finance Committee and may be able to have a perspective to share with colleagues in the future. There's things that can be done to kind of right-size the taxation in Virginia that could make it to that. People, regular people are not necessarily being taxed more, but we are having more revenue generated. Also at this meeting, Economic Development Director Emily Kilroy took the opportunity to thank legislators for their support of Abamar's efforts to raise the profile of county-owned land around the Rivana Station. The local government has taken the lead on developing a business park known as Rivana Futures that has so far landed one big tenant. We have been successful in getting $11 million. in site writing as funding from the state, which have really enabled us to advance the work for property development that, again, has positioned us really well for the Astrosanica opportunity. Astrosenica has announced a $4.5 billion investment in Albemarle. We'll be hearing a lot about that in the future, and that's something that InfoCVille.com and Charlottesville Community Engagement will continue to pay attention to.

Charlottesville City Council voted on September 6, 2016, to authorize city staff to apply for funding for a project to improve the intersection of Barracks Road and Emmett Street that would include a 10-foot-wide shared use path up Barracks Road to Rugby Road. In June of 2017, the Commonwealth Transportation Board awarded $8.6 million in funding to the project through the Smart Scale program. This was the fourth award the city would receive through the program in which localities in planning districts compete for funding through a process in which candidate projects are scored against a series of criteria. The original idea behind Smart Scale was that projects had to be completed within six years. According to an image on the city's website, the city's work on the Barracks Emmett project didn't begin until the fall of 2021. The city of Charlottesville has so far not broken ground on any of their projects and have returned funding for several of them in an attempt to get back in the good graces of the Virginia Department of Transportation. In 2024, the agency found Charlottesville deficient due to an inability to complete projects. Since then, Sharwitzville has made changes to the way transportation projects are administered and reduced the scope of several projects, including Barracks Road. For instance, the shared use path is now only six foot wide and only goes up to hilltop road. This reduces the budget for a project that will still exceed the original allocation of funding. In May of this... year, Council authorized the general use of eminent domain to acquire right-of-way for the Barracks Road project, as well as another project on East High Street. On December 1st, Council was asked to authorize specific use of eminent domain for the Barracks-emitt project, for 2030 Barracks Road, and the Meadow Brook Shopping Center. Lee Cooper is with the City's Capital Development Division. We, to date, have acquired nine of the 11 needed. easement properties, if you will, right away in easements. These two last remaining parcels will clear that project for the process of getting to construction. The land is needed for both permanent easements that will become part of the public realm, as well as temporary easements for construction. Neither of the landlords appeared at the public hearing. Council voted five to zero to move forward with the taking. Cooper said that negotiations will continue with the holdouts, but the work can move forward. According to the city's website, the project will go to construction in the fall of 26 and be completed in the fall of 27.

The consent agenda for a government body is one filled with resolutions and actions that clerks and presiding officers believe will not be opposed by any of its members. But meeting rules allow for an item to be removed should someone decide to bring it up for a discussion. That was the case on December 1st, as Charlottesville City Councilor Michael Payne asked for a separate vote on an amendment on the city's contribution to the Sharwitzville-Albamaro Convention and Visitors Bureau. That agency is charged with promoting tourism and attracting visitors to the community. Both Albemar County and Charlottesville contribute funding to the CACVB using a portion of their transient lodging taxes. According to the agreement between the city and CACVB, the tourism agency is entitled to a certain portion of what the city collects per a formula that depends on the right variables being entered. The budget adopted by City Council in April anticipated that Charlottesville would transfer about $1.34 million in fiscal year 2026, an 11.78% decrease from fiscal year 2025. However, the wrong numbers were used in that calculation because the wrong tax rate was used. A section from the staff report reads, Revising the formula to use the correct tax of 8% indicates the city's contribution amount for fiscal year 26 should be 1.5 million and change. That meant an additional payment of $167,967 was due to the CACVB. Payne said that that amount was higher than the city spends on climate action initiatives, with $1 million a year in the city's capital improvement program. That amount of money would almost double our vibrant community nonprofit funding. The Vibrant Community Fund is a system where the city pays money to nonprofits based on a competitive process. Page 66 of the adopted city budget for fiscal year 26 notes that $2.3 million went to a competitive process known as the Vibrant Community Fund. This amount does not include payments to agencies considered to be essential and known as fundamental agencies. Non-profit groups apply for funding, and their applications are scored by a panel. Their recommendations for fiscal year 2026 are listed in a report, but the adopted budget does not indicate what line items come from the VCFs, beginning on page 176. In response to a question, budget director Chrissy Hemmel supplied a list of the recipients of VCF funding for this year. In all 55 organizations were awarded funding, ranging from empowered players at $1,400 to $176,000 for the New Hill Development Corporation. The total amount of funding is $2,341,885, higher than the amount that will be distributed to CACVB.

Council increased the lodging tax from 8% to 9% effective fiscal year 25, which began on July 1st, 2024. CACVB is only entitled to 30% to 5% of the city's collection. The city anticipates $9.1 million from the lodging tax in fiscal year 2026, with most of that revenue going into the general fund except for what goes to the CACVB. Payne questioned whether the agency was accomplishing its goals and if they were able to demonstrate how. There's no metrics about is the CACVB actually increasing tourism or actually increasing tax revenue? We just give it money. Mayor Juan Diego Wade serves on the CACVB board and voted with three of his colleagues to approve the additional funding to comply with the formula. It does bring revenue to the city. You know, when I'm giving welcomes and things, I tell, you know, the money we get from people to stay in hotels and have dinners. It does make a difference. City Council has had two regular briefings from CACVB in the last two years. There are links to those stories in the newsletter at InfoCVille.com. The CACVB's Board of Directors next meets on December 15th. And of course, we are in budget season. We're always in budget season. We always will be in budget season.

And that's the end of Charlottesville Community Engagement for December 5th, 2020. Thank you very much for listening. This, of course, is a version where all of the interstitial bits, the continuity, you're hearing that because it was improvised. Because it was improvised. I might have taken a couple. Well, no, hold on. Well, that's the thing I'm not doing it this time. This particular version is raw. And because I want to get out there, it is snowing outside right now. I really want that hour and a half at 5.30 in the morning before anybody's out. So I can just imagine that you've all been killed by zombies and it's just me. Except what would I do without other people to report on? What am I going to do? That is not actually accurate, but that's the kind of off-the-cuff thing you get when you improv. Now it's time to finish up by saying the time, honored tradition of saying, thank you for listening, and goodbye.