Podcast for August 1, 2026: Charlottesville City Council briefed on transportation projects and four other recent stories

For some reason, there has only been one other August 1st edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement, and that was back in 2024. This is a podcast edition that provides audio versions of stories and does not count toward a total number of produced newsletters. That number is 1,374, which comes from 375 week ahead versions and 1,09 general ones. There have been 2,210 days since the first one. Somewhere in here is a relevant statistic, but we have to get on with the show. And in this first day of the month edition, Charlottesville City Council votes to move forward with a sales tax referendum this November. Charlottesville City Council allocates funding from speed cameras to cover the cost of providing the service. Albemar supervisors approve a policy to streamline installation of solar roofs and entrance corridors. They also seek tighter regulation of concentrated agricultural feed operations. And Charlottesville City Council is briefed on efforts to lower speed limits, prepare a new mobility plan, and many more transportation issues.

In today's first sponsored message, Panorama Natural Burial believes that caring for the deceased can be simple, meaningful, and deeply connected to the natural world. As a natural burial ground just outside of Charlottesville, they offer families an alternative to traditional burial that honors both the people we love and the land that carries them forward. Whether you are planning ahead, navigating a recent loss, or are just curious about natural burial, they will welcome a conversation with you. You can find out more information at panorama burial.com. You'll find that they host regular tours and community events throughout the year, building new ways of understanding death, land, ecology, ritual, memory, and community. Panorama burial.com. The elected body that makes decisions in Charlottesville did not meet this past week, but there's plenty to still report from their meeting on July 20th. For instance, Charlottesville became the fourth jurisdiction in the Thomas Jefferson Planning District to vote to petition the circuit court to hold a referendum on a sales tax increase of 1%. Here's city attorney John Maddox. The revenue from that 1% sales tax may be used only for new school construction. or major school renovations, including the related bond and financing costs that would be attended those. It can't be used for school operating expenses just for construction capital projects. Groceries and personal hygiene projects would not be subject to the additional tax, a tax that will expire on June 30, 2046. If a majority of voters say yes to the increase, the tax cannot be collected until four months after council passes an additional resolution to proceed. That's looking somewhere in the March, April, possibly early May time frame for this to go into effect. City Council discussed how the additional revenue might be used at a July 8th work session, at which they learned staff is recommending using the funds to leverage about $35 million in debt capacity. City manager Sam Bernie Sanders said there will be another work session on August 12th to further discuss how to present information to the public on how the proceeds might be used. We have been in regular conversation with representatives of the school system who are here tonight as well. There is a scope that needs to be determined based on what we think the proceeds of this tax to be over the 20-year period. Council voted 5 to 0 to proceed. The Green County Board of Supervisors took up a resolution on Tuesday night after discussing the matter on July 14th. The elected bodies in Fluvanna, Nelson County, and Albemar County have all moved ahead with a referendum, while the Louisa Board of Supervisors declined to discuss the idea for 2026.

Charlottesville City Council adopted an ordinance in February of 2023 to authorize speed cameras to be installed in school zones to deter people from driving above the limit. A year and a half later, the city entered into a contract with Vera Mobility to operate six cameras in three locations. According to assistant city manager Sam Roman, Vera Mobility reviews alleged violations and then forwards on evidence to the The city pays $25,000 a month for the service. We are enrolled in what is called, according to the contract, a flexible spending plan, which by the contract allows monies collected as fines to then be used as monthly payments for the cost of the system. According to the contract, CPD cannot reject more than 10% of the alleged violations while the city remains within the flexible spending plan. The rejection rate has been about 2% so far. The city has been exploring different payment plans, but first have to work through the financial details of the first year. In November of 2025, we received the first invoice in the amount of 25,000. $504. As noted, the original agreement provided multiple payment options but was silent as to which one was chosen. Two of the cameras are on Monticello Road on the approach to Summit Elementary School, while four are on Cherry Avenue for both Tall Oaks Elementary School and Charlottesville Middle School. After a testing period, the cameras went live in October of 2025, and billing began soon afterward, according to budget director Chrissy Hamill. Cameras only function when school is in session. From October 2025 to April of 26, we had collected just a little over $177,000 and those were remitted to the vendor to pay for the cameras. The fiscal year 2026 budget did not include any funds for this purpose, and the city has been paying the invoices from the reserve fund. From October 2025 to April of 26, we had collected just a little over $177,000, and those were remitted to the vendor to pay for the cameras. To get ahead of the issue before the cameras began to go live again in August, Council was asked on July 20th to officially appropriate $320,000 in anticipated revenues in fiscal year 2027 to cover the costs. The contract runs for five years. School begins on August 12th. In 1990, the Albemara Board of Supervisors adopted an ordinance that gave the county the power to review building designs along major highways leading into Charlottesville. Since then, the Architectural Review Board must grant a certificate of appropriateness for projects within designated entrance corridors. Margaret Malashefsky is a planning manager in Albemar County. They were established as overlay zoning districts to help ensure that the character of new development in the corridors is consistent with the historic character of the county.

For about 20 years, the ARB had to review every item, which added time to the approval process. In 2010, supervisors approved a change that allowed some items to be reviewed by staff. And that was done establishing a new category of Airbnb application called a countywide certificate of appropriateness. At that time, countywide certificates were made available for 11 types of development. They are types of development that are relatively small in scope and that are expected to have less visual impact. In 2021, a 12th category was created for projects in the Rio Road 29 form-based code area. And in 2023, a 13th category was added for public-private partnerships. A 14th went before the Board of Supervisors on July 15th. This new category would be for rooftop solar installations. Adoption of this amendment would allow the streamlined review for rooftop solar installations in the entrance quarters. Last year, the ARB approved solar installations on top of High School Center 2 near Albemar High School, as well as a business off of Avon Street extended. The ARB is currently reviewing what the criteria would be for staff approval. The Planning Commission endorsed the idea on May 26th. Two people spoke at the public hearing, both representing advocacy groups. Saive O'Flynn is Climate Justice Policy Manager with the Community Climate Collaborative. Documents in the agenda note that this ordinance is aligned with the county's climate goals. I think it's important to note we won't know how the addition of a rooftop solar category will align with the climate goals until we see the design requirements from the ARB, but the discussions that have been held so far signal calls for optimism. Neil Williamson is president of the Free Enterprise Forum, an organization that has called for the elimination of entrance corridors and elimination of the architectural review board. Nonetheless, Williamson supported the new countywide COA. I am hopeful that the ARB in crafting their regulations will consult with the local solar community and with SIVA, who just spoke, because I think there's a lot to be gained by understanding the technology behind it. and the impacts to the entrance corridor. Supervisor Ned Galloway of the Ryo District said he hopes the spirit of the climate action plan will outweigh the intent of the entrance corridor. He said the criteria cannot be too restrictive. If a business, especially in the development area, wants to put rooftop solar up there, limiting a certain amount of square footage could make it not viable for them. And that would go against the climate action plan. So I'm going on the record of saying that I would want the climate action plan to be the higher concern and priority, not the aesthetics. The motion passed 5 to 0. Jack Jewett district supervisor, Sally Duncan, was not present.

Anyone who wants to set up a large-scale poultry operation in Virginia has to get a permit from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to demonstrate how heavy amounts of waste will be prevented from getting into the watershed. A growing number of voices in Albemarro are calling on county officials to adopt a higher standard of regulation for any future applications that may be filed. Several appeared before the Albemara Board of Supervisors on July 15th. Deirdre Casey Kerrigan is a position and vice chair of the Scottsville Planning Commission. Large volumes of animal waste contaminate groundwater with nitrates and antibiotic resistant bacteria such as MRSA. Nitrate contaminated drinking water has been associated with an increased risk of colorectal and gastric cancers. Kerrigan and others urged Albemarro to follow dozens of other Virginia localities that have rules above and beyond the DEQs. That would include larger buffer zones and setbacks to protect groundwater, given that most of the county relies on wells. Scottsville District Supervisor Mike Pruitt said he felt Albemorrow might be vulnerable to such operations, and the county should listen to concerns and direct staff to study an ordinance. I don't think it's an inherently evil use, but I do worry that we are not providing the level of oversight that comparable agricultural communities are. Pruitt suggested the work could be done as part of the ongoing modernization of the zoning code. Samuel Miller District Supervisor Fred Missel said he wanted to expedite review. Rivana District Supervisor B. Lipisto-Curtley said she supported the study of an ordinance, but said she was concerned that over-regulation might hurt small-scale farmers. There's miscommunication, frankly. I don't know who's right or who's wrong, but I do know that a lot of people are following the DEQ requirements, state requirements. Supervisor Anne Malik of the Samuel Miller District also sought quick preparation of an ordinance. She said Alamaro is becoming attractive to large-scale poultry farms because of the lack of tighter regulations. We also need to not be the place with the fewest requirements for business here. Supervisor Ned Galloway said he would not vote on a motion that was not on the agenda because it would delay staff working on some other issue. I don't want to be making the decision without understanding what it does. Because it's not like it doesn't have an impact on other things that are in motion already. Right. And want to understand that. County Executive Jeffrey Richardson said staff would have to tailor the ordinance for Albamorrow and could not just copy those from other areas. There has to be other things shifted. There really does because our community development department.

is, is, is, it is task with a lot of work. Deputy County Executive Ann Wall said there are currently 12 other resolutions of intent to direct staff to update county code with many of those caused by order of the General Assembly. There is a possibility of hiring a consultant to do work on the topic of confined animal feeding operations. Pruitt said there's a sense of urgency. There is a sense of fear and anxiety that is quite intense in parts of the Southern District that I know Fred has also been hearing about. A resolution of intent will be on the agenda of the supervisor's next meeting on August 5th, as well as a discussion of how studying animal feed operations might affect other aspects of the planning department's work plan. Hello, again, it is the middle of the show. This is usually where some sort of a shoutout would go. I don't have any this week, but I did have that last one. Let's talk a little bit about that. You too can purchase ads and shoutouts across all of the Town Crier Productions platforms. That includes brief shoutouts in this newsletter. That includes... display ads on information Charlottesville. That's infoceville.com. It also might include other things in the future. Who knows? My hope is that I can get an August 1st, 2027 edition, although that would come out on a Sunday. I guess I didn't really factor the week ahead. Okay, anyway, that doesn't matter right now. What matters is I am really happy to bring you this. If you listen to the podcast, I need to hear that people listen to the podcast because the numbers. are not fantastic. But the work is great, except for I am going to admit this next version is way too long, doesn't have enough voices, and probably could have been reduced. But I'm not going to do the work to make that happen now. So here it is, as is. And then that's the end of the fresh bits. Everything from here on out is now cut and paste from the radio show.

A major goal of town crier productions is to help people better understand how the infrastructure around them came to be, a task much more difficult in an era where there are very few ways to learn how the overall system works. For instance, Charlottesville's government took over responsibility for planning and procurement of road projects within city limits from the Virginia Department of Transportation back in 2005. While that has included completion of the John Warner Parkway, the Belmont Bridge, and several other projects, the city has recently struggled to deliver projects on time and has been working with VDOT to move out of deficient status. Charlottesville's current planning documents all point the way toward a more dense city, while also removing space available for vehicles. Goal two of the transportation chapter of the comprehensive plan is to improve quality of life and promote active living by reducing automobile use and congestion and supporting multimodal options for safe and convenient travel. How well is Sharwitzville meeting those various planning goals? And how well does the city communicate what it plans to do with the people who live here and the people who commute here? For instance, the city's website listing transportation and mobility projects has not been updated since November of 2025. One way to get information is to check in directly with the people charged with doing the work, preferably when they're in a position where elected officials can ask questions and communicate their priorities. One's such check-in took place on July 15, 2026, when Charlottesville's Transportation Planning Manager briefed counsel in a work session that lasted an hour and a half. Ben Chambers began with highlights from the past fiscal year, including a submission of a project through VDOT's Smart Scale project. Charlottesville had been asked to stop making applications due to a backlog of uncompleted projects. This will be Westman and Ridge that was brought to you for your endorsement a few weeks back. We've got all of our application materials in at this point, and it's just a matter of hitting the go button. The project, which is not listed on the city's transportation immobility website, would restrict eastbound traffic from West Main Street onto Water Street in favor of additional space for cyclists and pedestrians. Motorized vehicles would instead travel onto South Street and have to make a left turn to get to downtown. Chambers also had an update on a plan to put the four-lane stretch of Fifth Street on a road diet by converting one lane for bicycles and pedestrians. There will be a test next year. This is a project that Public Works will be doing some testing of the traffic modeling next year. Our traffic modeling didn't take into account that we have a lot of construction projects that are going to affect this corridor. So we want to make sure before we put down anything permanent that we understand the traffic implications that are happening there. The city does have a website for the Fifth Street Road Diet and Bikeway project, but it does not appear to be up to date.

Chambers is also part of an effort to use the Sharwitzville-Alabamaro Regional Transit Authority to increase funds to facilitate frequency and route expansion. Council will get a longer briefing in September. Hopefully, you'll get a story next week. Chambers did have another transit update. We have audited every bus stop in the cat system in the past year. This is a huge accomplishment. We for a long time didn't know where all of our bus stops were. And the ones that we did know, we didn't know what was actually at them beyond, you know, just a typical cat sign. The city also hands out vouchers for people to buy e-bikes. Chambers said some of that funding comes from penalties paid to the city through the dockless mobility permit program. We have moved beyond the initial program, which was $1,000 vouchers for every winter. Now we have a peer program that has higher vouchers for folks who have low-income needs and may need an assistance to pay for a whole bike. Chambers' presentation also hinted at regional cooperation with Albemar County to make alterations to roadways in and around where Emmett Street makes a major highway and then becomes one itself. We have identified a few alternative roads around the hydraulic 250 and... 29 250 interchanges to remove some of the unnecessary movements there are there, improve some safety, and make some connections through that area that aren't there today, including an extension of Hillsdale drive south to the bypass that would sort of provide a connection to the new holiday drive site for transit pedestrians and bicycles as well. The city of Charlottesville purchased the 2000 Holiday Drive site for $6.2 million for a future low barrier shelter. The slide deck for the presentation offered no further details or context for how those changes would be made. Have decisions already been made before the public knows there's even a decision point? Chambers said the public can expect to be engaged soon. The comprehensive plan had several references to lowering speed limits across the city, and that has been an item on Chambers' to-do list. Last year, City Council agreed to spend a half million dollars on a series of low-cost, quick-build solutions to try to encourage people to slow down. Chambers said a study of City roads found that most of them have posted speed limits that are higher than the speed they are designed for. That means all of our local streets. We said they should be... 20 miles per hour, they're all 25 today. So they're showing up as orange on here. A lot of that has been baked into our city code. Chambers said he is working with a city attorney's office on language that will allow the city engineer to determine the speed limit based on a series of factors. But in some cases, that will mean adding additional infrastructure.

It will also mean communicating to outsiders that they must follow Sharwitzville's rules. If we are going to be a town that has a lot of streets that are 20 miles per hour, that makes us pretty unique. And we need to make sure that people understand when they're coming into the city. We're going to be driving a little bit slower here. One of the first places this will take place is Rose Hill Drive, which will see a design speed reduced to 25 miles per hour to improve safety for bikes and pedestrians. A plan is underway for implementation next summer when the road is expected to be repaved. Zoe McComber is a senior transportation planner in Charlottesville. We were also trying to generally work with low-cost quick-bill materials. Preserving the number of vehicle travel lanes and on-street parking, we didn't want to mess with that too much. In some areas, the lane widths will be reduced from 17 feet to 11 feet, and in others, center turn lanes will be removed. There will also be a new four-way stop at Henry Avenue and Rose Hill in order to calm traffic down. This project has been developed with feedback from the Rose Hill Neighborhood Association and the Charlottesville Bike and Pedestrian Advisory Committee. City Council got a first look at the design, but we're not told a price tag. Now, it's not often I become a character in stories, but my appearance here is quite brief. In January 2024, a group of Charlottesville property owners filed suit against the city of Charlottesville, claiming the city did not follow state law when it adopted the development code a month before. Here's a section from the original complaint in what would become known as White v. Charlottesville. Despite advocating for an enormous increase in density, City Council failed to conduct any studies about the impact of the new zoning ordinance on the city's transportation, schools, water, sewer, public services, or infrastructure. Last summer, the zoning code was briefly in limbo because an outside council working for the city had failed to file a response on time. Charlottesville Circuit Court Judge Claude Warrell later reconsidered his motion of default judgment. Two months later, the plaintiffs agreed to settle the case if the city produced a traffic impact statement that followed state regulations and submit the new zoning ordinance to VDOT. Details are in the draft settlement agreement provided as part of the October 20, 2025 City Council meeting. The staff report for that meeting said it would cost money to complete the traffic impact statement. Funds will be required to complete the necessary traffic studies for submission to be done, and those costs are expected to be meaningful. However, they are anticipated to be substantially lower than the costs the city would incur if the case proceeded through discovery, trial, and potential appeals, which would likely require extensive expert involvement. On the same night, City Council agreed to spend $6.2 million for 2000 Holiday Drive. They also agreed to set aside $1.5 million for city environmental and mobility plans.

This staff report does not specifically tie the mobility plan to the traffic information statement. It's unclear if that work has been conducted, but a non-suit has been filed to end the existing legal case. On July 15th, Chambers mentioned my name when introducing a discussion of the mobility study, which he described as making sure selected projects conform to city values. And we also want to make sure that there is a longer-term vision and strategy around implementing these projects, making sure that the implementation is connected to the vision that we have. I do want to note for anybody who is reading Sean Tubbs, the purpose of the city mobility plan is not responding to the infrastructure study requirement from our lawsuit. That is something we've already taken care of. What my previous reporting might have failed to note is that on October 20th, 2025, City Council agreed to direct $650,000 from the surplus fund to hire 3TP ventures to specifically work on the traffic impact statement, though that phrase was not used in the staff report. Here's what it says in that staff report. This project will consider and assess both the impacts of Charlottesville Development Code, together with projected population growth. And this project is inclusive of the transportation study necessary to meet the terms of the settlement agreement relative to the White v. Sharwitzville case. If this work has been conducted, it's not been done in public and city council was not given a status update at the July 15, 2026 work session. In an email this week, Chambers said any follow-up on the traffic impact statement will need to be directed to the city manager's office. A Freedom of Information Act request will be submitted by Monday morning. Chambers said the mobility study will take a look at all of the transportation strategies in the comprehensive plan, and the first product will be in existing conditions in plans assessment memorandum. That really lays out. These are the things that we need out of a mobility plan and why. Chambers said the development code has a lot of policy changes, such as no longer requiring off-street parking and requiring more spaces for bikes to be parked. That means a lot of room for future study, especially on parking. We really don't have very robust plans for parking. We did have a plan back in 2016 that laid out parking needs around downtown.

Since then, not a whole lot has been moved forward with that. So we need to sort of understand the supply and the demand of parking in the city. Chambers said a component of the mobility plan will also include trying to encourage commuters to take other modes of transportation because the city cannot solve traffic congestion by building more capacity. A lot of the issues that we're facing around congestion are not something that we can build our way out of. And it's not something that we can really affect all that much because it's because of regional growth. It's because of people coming in and needing to use our facilities. Albemar County is also producing a mobility study, and Chambers said the city is working to help ensure language is consistent across both efforts. A new advisory committee will oversee the city's work. Counselors did have questions, but it was a long discussion with a lot of information. I'll have more stories about transportation as they go forward. There was a lot that was not addressed during this presentation, such as the status of multiple projects, including the status of two smart scale funded projects that went to bid earlier this year, but a contract was not signed. What questions do you have about transportation? Drop me a line. I will try to answer. Leave a comment and do pay attention. We are very close to the end of the program today, but we've got an extra minute or so left, so let's look ahead at what could be a full week. Let's start with Monday when Charlottesville City Council will meet. They'll get an update on the anchor team, which is designed to help in mental health crises. They'll also learn about the latest in efforts to address finding places for the unhoused to live in advance of a September 1st deadline to have people removed from the Rivana River and Free Bridge encampments. Council will also hold the first of two readings on an additional $204,117 in funds to the Albemar, Charlottesville Regional Jail. Also on Monday, the Louisa County Board of Supervisors will meet. They'll have a discussion on economic opportunity zones. Moving to Wednesday, the Fluvana County Board of Supervisors meets in a special closed session at 4 p.m. before a regular meeting begins at 5 p.m.

The main event on Wednesday is the Albemar Board of Supervisors. They're going to get an update on Shenandoah National Park. They're going to learn about the status of the county's housing Albemar policy and review the work plan for the Department of Community Development. That will likely include whether there's room for county staff to work on that CAFO ordinance. They'll also take a look at the potential for three activity center plans in the urban area, and they'll begin the process of coming up with legislative ideas for the 2027 General Assembly. That is the end of the program. Now there will be other things that are likely going to happen next week. I'm going to do my best to cover as much as I can. Please check out infocebill.com. You can drop me a line there if you'd like to try to send me a message. I will try to receive it. There is a lot of information in this particular community. I try to do my best to process it. I really do appreciate you listening to this program, and I will be back next week with another edition. In the meantime, have a safe time out there, and enjoy. Hey, happy August.