Charlottesville Tomorrow News Center

Judge Moon rules against Coalition to Preserve McIntire Park; Parkway Interchange to proceed

news@cvilletomorrow.org (news@cvilletomorrow.org) — Tue, 29 May 2012 21:10:52 -0400

By Sean Tubbs
Charlottesville Tomorrow
Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Another legal hurdle blocking completion of the Meadow Creek Parkway appears to have been cleared.

Judge Norman K. Moon of the U.S. Western District Court has dismissed a lawsuit from the Coalition to Preserve McIntire Park that claimed the Federal Highway Administration unlawfully split three components of the roadway in order to evade environmental scrutiny.

“The FHWA properly followed the required procedures,” Moon wrote in a 53-page ruling that was filed Tuesday. “I find that the requisite consideration of the Interchange Project’s cumulative impacts on the environment was adequately undertaken.”

Download Judge Norman K. Moon's 53-page ruling

A rendering of a design shown to Council in late 2009 depicting how the interchange would look heading south towards downtown Charlottesville.(Source: RK&K)

Under the Virginia Department of Transportation’s Six-Year Improvement Program, the parkway is considered three projects with separate funding sources.

The grade-separated interchange with the U.S. 250 Bypass is the only one of the three projects scheduled to receive funding from the federal government.

The FHWA issued a “finding of no significant impact” allowing the interchange to proceed in September 2010.

The Coalition filed suit against the FHWA in February 2011. One of their claims was that the agency should have reviewed the entire parkway and not just its interchange. They also argued that an environmental impact statement was required and not a less rigorous environmental assessment.

During an April 25 hearing in the U.S. Western District Court, Coalition attorney James B. Dougherty argued that the FHWA should have not dismissed interchange options that would have entirely avoided McIntire Park.

The Coalition had claimed that “avoidance alternative 2” would have addressed the same purpose and need for the roadway.

The FHWA argued that alternative was not “prudent” because it would have resulted in an eventual 29-lane intersection as traffic conditions increased. They also argued pedestrians and cyclists would have been put in danger if one of the purposes of the interchange was to connect the city to McIntire Park.

Related stories by Charlottesville Tomorrow

Second meeting of interchange steering committee, January 11, 2006, by Brian Wheeler

Meadowcreek-250 interchange alternatives to go before Charlottesville planners, June 6, 2007, by Sean Tubbs

Divided Planning Commission approves Meadowcreek Parkway interchange, June 13, 2007, by Sean Tubbs

Council acts on Meadowcreek Parkway Interchange, July 3, 2007, by Sean Tubbs

Meadowcreek Parkway Interchange panel hears cost estimates for bridge, August 20, 2007, by Sean Tubbs

Meadowcreek Parkway interchange project ready for public hearing, October 9, 2007, by Sean Tubbs

Oval roundabout preferred by 250 Interchange Steering Committee, March 20, 2008, by Sean Tubbs

Council defers decision on Meadowcreek Parkway Interchange, April 22, 2008, by Sean Tubbs

City Council selects signalized intersection for Meadowcreek Parkway interchange, June 5, 2008, by Sean Tubbs

Meadowcreek Parkway opponents file first in a potential series of lawsuits, February 26, 2009, by Daniel Nairn & Sean Tubbs

City’s Hillcrest Road residents updated on Meadowcreek Parkway Interchange impact , August 12, 2009, by Julia Glendening

Council wants more pedestrian and bike access at Meadowcreek Parkway interchange, November 18, 2009, by Sean Tubbs

Council approves Meadowcreek Parkway interchange; mitigation letters awaiting signatures, December 11, 2009, by Sean Tubbs

Council to VDOT: No parkway without grade-separated interchange , January 5, 2010, by Sean Tubbs

VDOT and City Council at odds over Meadowcreek Parkway interchange , March 16, 2010, by Sean Tubbs

Meadowcreek opponents file federal suit, February 24, 2011, by Sean Tubbs

Parkway interchange awaits result of federal lawsuit, February 26, 2012, by Sean Tubbs

Judge Moon hears testimony in Meadowcreek interchange case, April 25, 2012, by Sean Tubbs

“Alternative G1 ameliorates these risks, for those pedestrians and bicyclists would be able to pass underneath the bypass,” Moon wrote.

Dougherty had rebutted that a well-timed traffic signal could have achieved the same purpose, but that argument was not successful.

“The Court’s role in this case is not to serve as an arbitrator, deciding whose reasonable argument is superior,” Moon wrote.

The Coalition had also argued that there was no guarantee that the city’s portion of the road –known as McIntire Road Extended — would ever be fully built. Moon disagreed.

“Not only does the Interchange Project assume the construction of the MRE… but it also proposes the construction of bike lanes and shared-use trails that extend into the Park, regardless of whether or not the MRE is built,” Moon wrote.

The Coalition had argued that the impact of the interchange would greatly damage the “unique characteristics” of surrounding historic properties such as the Rock Hill Academy property, the McIntire Covenant School and the Charlottesville and Albemarle County Courthouse Historic District.

“Plaintiffs do not, however, explain what the unique aspects of those properties are, nor do they suggest that the impacts of the Interchange Project on these five areas would be severe,” Moon wrote.

Moon also said the McIntire Skate Park may be unique, but it is being relocated elsewhere after it is displaced.

The Coalition had also argued that the project was controversial, and thus required an environmental impact statement.

“Were controversy in the context of [the National Environmental Policy Act] to be equated with opposition in the community, the outcome of an agency’s environmental analysis could routinely be held hostage by any ‘heckler’s veto,’” Moon wrote.

The Coalition had argued that the northern terminus for the interchange was illogical because it extended 775 feet into McIntire Park.

Moon ruled that the interchange would have independent utility if McIntire Road Extended were never constructed, agreeing with the FHWA claim that the northern stub could not be built for vehicles if the project were readjusted.

“For example, under [the interchange], access to Birdwood Road and Hillcrest Road and the residences located there would be enhanced, thus improving vehicular traffic safety,” Moon wrote.

Coalition members Bob Fenwick and Peter Kleeman both said Tuesday they were unable to provide comment until they had read the ruling.

“The ruling is somewhat lengthy and will require analysis prior to determining if any further action by the Coalition to Preserve McIntire Park is forthcoming,” Kleeman said in a statement to the press.

City officials could not be reached for comment by press time.

Placemaking: Ann Marie Hohenberger

news@cvilletomorrow.org (news@cvilletomorrow.org) — Tue, 29 May 2012 08:38:40 -0400

Our 2012 annual community conversation took a look at the concept of placemaking and the findings from the Knight Foundation's Soul of the Community project which reveal how attachment to place drives economic vitality – and how understanding those attachments can direct the ways in which a place chooses to change and grow.

This series features reflections from community members who attended the event. We hope their stories will inspire you to define your version of this community’s narrative and use it as a lens through which to view decisions that will impact the character of this community.

Name: Ann Marie Hohenberger
Age: 34
City/County resident? City
Occupation: Freelance business writer; server at Hamiltons’ downtown
How long have you lived in Charlottesville? 17 years

Why did you come here?
I went to UVA as an undergrad. I visited on a spring day and immediately fell in love with the natural beauty here.

What do you love most about where you live?
I love “small city” life. I can bike almost anywhere I need to go, but I can still live on a tiny, quiet street with a view of Carter’s Mountain. Every day there’s an incredible variety of events - music, theater, community meetings, clubs & activities - and no matter what I choose, I’ll probably run into someone I know.

My favorite thing about this area is the enthusiasm for local food. As an aspiring urban homesteader, I’m so grateful to talk with farmers at the market and start learning all the things I missed growing up in the suburbs. Then I can go to a restaurant and glean ideas for cooking with pastured meats and seasonal produce.

Any takeaways from the Placemaking event?
One statistic that particularly stood out from the Soul of the Community studies was that, on average, 40% of people felt no attachment to their community. That sounds like a massive, widespread failure to serve everyone’s needs, rather than just the needs of certain segments. What a loss for the community to have so many people uninvested in the well-being of their neighbors and neighborhoods.

Bringing that home to Charlottesville, our efforts at placemaking can’t focus only on the aspirational narrative - qualities like sustainability, or support for music, art & innovation. If we want to foster more overall attachment in the community, we need to ask ourselves why the City’s poverty rate is nearly twice the state average. What can we do to bring disconnected and disadvantaged folks into a richer connection with their community?

The Soul of the Community research says there are four top attachment drivers which connect a person to their place: aesthetics, openness, social offerings, and education. Of those four things, where are we most successful and where do we need more work?
Aesthetically, this area has a lot of natural advantages in the landscape and our historic architecture. We have a great array of education resources, from the University to smaller groups like Community Bikes and the Charlottesville Trade School. Whether those opportunities are distributed well among our residents, I’m not sure.

Similarly, we’re blessed with plenty of energetic folks putting together social offerings - arts organizations, activity clubs, music venues, festivals. But going out to events can be a big investment of time and money - whether it’s the ticket price or just getting the night off from work, eating out, or paying a babysitter. As an alternative, I’d like to see more spaces that foster unplanned, neighborhood-based socializing.

The idea of socializing naturally with neighbors also connects to the openness factor. I’ve met a lot of people over the years who say they’ve never had trouble meeting new friends until they came to Charlottesville. There are strong social networks here, lots of wonderful friendships, but those networks often seem closed to outsiders - whether the “outsider” is someone who just moved here or someone in a different walk of life.

If placemaking was central to our decision-making, what might this community do differently?
Forming a community narrative is one of the fundamental steps in placemaking, so knowing what people in the community really want is paramount. The City has certainly made efforts to listen, through neighborhood meetings as well as surveys. But again, going out to an event can be a luxury, only available to those who have the free time. Even staying informed about local issues isn’t always an option. I ran a small local business for several years, and even though I love this community and wanted to be more involved, I just didn’t have the time or energy left over.

So meeting people where they are, in order to have the conversations that inform our community narrative, is a challenge. But I think we could do more to listen through the existing institutions where people already congregate - like clubs & associations, churches, local shops & restaurants, and social communities online.

As to what we might do differently in light of those conversations, I’d love to find out! I’m part of a local grassroots group, Transition Charlottesville Albemarle, that meets regularly for placemaking conversations and initiatives. We focus on building community resilience in areas like food, transportation, water, and renewable energy. So personally, I hope to see those ideas echoing throughout the community.

News n' Brews: Imagining Futurist Charlottesville

news@cvilletomorrow.org (news@cvilletomorrow.org) — Tue, 29 May 2012 08:04:48 -0400

On Thursday night, local officials and community members joined us at Chroma Gallery on the downtown mall to consider the question: What could Charlottesville look like if there were no rules?

Here's how we captured the conversation...

Soundboard 5-25-2012 - Charlottesville's news straight from the source

news@cvilletomorrow.org (news@cvilletomorrow.org) — Tue, 29 May 2012 08:00:15 -0400

Soundboard: Charlottesville's news straight from the source.

A collaborative local news radio program by WTJU 91.1 FM, Charlottesville Tomorrow, and C-Ville Weekly.

Each Friday from 4-5 PM, tune in to hear area journalists and guests discuss local news, culture, and community issues in the Charlottesville area. Whether we're talking about city politics, scientific innovations, or the local music scene, you'll get to hear in-depth discussion about stories that matter.

Soundboard is co-hosted by WTJU's Lewis Reining and Charlottesville Tomorrow's Jennifer Marley.

Podcasts may be downloaded from this website, via RSS, and via Charlottesville Tomorrow on iTunes.

Listen using player above or download the podcast: Download 20120525-Soundboard

The May 25 show features contributors Graelyn Brashear & Laura Ingles (from C-Ville Weekly) and Sean Tubbs (Charlottesville Tomorrow) discussing:

update on the sale of Media General’s newspapers, which includes The Daily Progress
a free natural history museum opens in Nelson County
a new study will look at ways to change the Charlottesville transit service
the owner of ACAC is suing over a planned YMCA facility in McIntire Park
local web-based company Silverchair Holdings sells off one of their subsidaries
guest Erica Lloyd, the coordinator for I Have a Dream Charlottesville
guest Brevy Cannon from the Market District Alliance to talk about the City Market’s search for a permanent home
guest UVA music professor Judith Shatin drops by to discuss her film, “Rotunda, A Living Portrait”

Soundboard is produced by Robert Packard and Nathan Moore. We hope you enjoy it, and we look forward to your feedback!

Success, challenges of neighborhood model debated

news@cvilletomorrow.org (news@cvilletomorrow.org) — Tue, 29 May 2012 00:01:00 -0400

By Sean Tubbs
Charlottesville Tomorrow
Tuesday, May 29, 2012

The ongoing update of Albemarle’s Comprehensive Plan is giving county officials an opportunity to review a key planning strategy meant to encourage density within the designated growth areas.

“The Comprehensive Plan talks about the neighborhood model as being the preferred model of development,” said Elaine Echols, principal planner for the county.

An abbreviated list of the 12 principles in Albemarle County's Neighborhood Model

The neighborhood model, which was adopted in 2001, has 12 principles ranging from orienting buildings to be more pedestrian friendly to providing clear boundaries between urban and rural areas.

“Since that time we’ve had many developments which are achieving the [goal] of the neighborhood model,” Echols said at a recent county Planning Commission work session.

Other principles include encouraging a mixture of commercial and residential uses, and relegated parking.

Each new neighborhood that makes its way through the community development department is measured against these principles.

“It puts [applicants’] eyes on the individual aspects that they need to address, or if they can’t address them it becomes clear why they can’t,” Echols said.

Another principle is for new developments to have transportation links to adjoining areas “so that pedestrians can walk easily to many destinations, traffic has alternative routes, and car trips are reduced in number and length.”

Listen using player above or download the podcast: Download 20120522-APC-Comp-Plan

“It’s important that we have the connections between both existing and new developments and … within the different blocks and parts of a neighborhood,” Echols said.

However, achieving the goal of interconnectivity has not always been easy. Residents of the Woodbrook neighborhood fiercely resisted a walking trail proposed as part of the adjacent Arden Place apartment complex.

“In my time here there has been a real resistance around connectivity between neighborhoods,” said Julia Monteith, the senior land use officer for the University of Virginia. “While we can show pictures of some success stories, I think we have to be careful about assuming they’re all success stories.”

Calvin Morris, chairman of the Planning Commission, said it is one thing to have a principle calling for pedestrian-friendly developments, but the county’s own infrastructure presents a challenge.

“In Places29, you have U.S. 29 itself cutting off right straight down the center,” Morris said. “We can walk around a neighborhood, get in a car and then drive across the road to get to the shopping centers. The same thing applies in Pantops.”

Echols said that the Western Bypass may give the county an opportunity to redevelop U.S. 29 in order to make it more pedestrian friendly.

Commissioner Tom Loach said he wants the Comprehensive Plan update to reflect the need to have infrastructure built before development occurs.

“We knew [the neighborhood model] was going to require additional infrastructure to accommodate the higher density,” Loach said. “Within the growth area, we should expect at least a level of service equal to the level of development that’s occurred.”

As part of the plan update, staff recommended condensing the 12 principles into eight, though Echols said this is a move to simplify them and not to remove any of them.

The commission was mixed on this idea.

“Years of time went into developing the 12 and I wouldn’t want years of time to go into developing the eight,” said Commissioner A. Bruce Dotson. “Unless there’s a compelling reason to change it I would favor not changing it.”

However, Commissioner Don Franco could see the point of doing so.

“What I see the eight doing is consolidating some of those bullets together. It’s not really watering anything down. I think it’s just sort of grouping things to better understand how things can trade off better,” Franco said.

Echols said staff may end up keeping all 12 principles.

“If you like the 12 principles better and feel like those better reflect the way the neighborhood model should be articulated, we certainly could continue those,” Echols said.

County planning staff are now writing up the text of the new Comprehensive Plan. A public hearing on the updated plan will be held later this year.

Virginia’s top court to hear YMCA case

news@cvilletomorrow.org (news@cvilletomorrow.org) — Mon, 28 May 2012 00:01:00 -0400

By Sean Tubbs
Charlottesville Tomorrow
Monday, May 28, 2012

The Virginia Supreme Court has scheduled a June 7 hearing date for a pair of lawsuits seeking to block the Piedmont Family YMCA’s aquatics center from being built on the west side of Charlottesville’s McIntire Park.

Artist's rendering of the planned YMCA (Source: VMDO Architects/Piedmont Family YMCA)

The Charlottesville Area Fitness Club Operators Association filed separate suits against Albemarle County and the city of Charlottesville in 2010, claiming that each had violated Virginia’s procurement rules.

Related stories by Charlottesville Tomorrow

City to advertise lease agreement for McIntire Park YMCA, September 18, 2007, by Sean Tubbs

Council approves McIntire Park lease for YMCA, December 18, 2007, by Sean Tubbs

County approves use agreement for McIntire YMCA; pool details to be ironed out, January 10, 2008, by Sean Tubbs

Fitness group sues Albemarle and Charlottesville over YMCA, May 13, 2010, by Sean Tubbs

YMCA officials hopeful for summer construction, pending lawsuit, February 19, 2011, by Sean Tubbs

Testimony heard in case against lease for YMCA fitness center, April 2, 2011, by Sean Tubbs

Judge dismisses second YMCA lawsuit; Fitness clubs considering appeal, April 21, 2011, by Sean Tubbs

VA Supreme Court to hear YMCA case of fitness clubs vs. Albemarle, August 22, 2011, by Brian Wheeler

The City Council awarded a $1-a-year ground lease to the YMCA in December 2007. The organization developed plans to build a 70,000-square-foot facility and received approval from the city Planning Commission.

However, the lawsuit against the city alleges that the request for proposals unlawfully excluded for-profit companies from submitting bids.

Judge Cheryl Higgins dismissed the city case in April 2011. In her ruling, she said the city was within its rights to limit who could bid on the project.

The city has budgeted $1.25 million toward construction of the aquatics facility. Albemarle will contribute $2.03 million.

The suit against Albemarle alleges that the county does not have the legal authority under state law to accept a donation for a specific purpose. The case against Albemarle was dismissed in November 2010.

Both cases were appealed to the Virginia Supreme Court.

The Charlottesville Area Fitness Club Operators Association is made up of ACAC Fitness & Wellness Center and Gold’s Gym. A third club, Total Performance Sports and Fitness, dropped out of the lawsuit after the initial rulings at the local level.

The YMCA had hoped to break ground on the project last fall and was close to awarding a $14 million construction contract. However, banks would not allow financing on the project until the legal uncertainty is resolved.

YMCA officials are planning what to do in case the court rules in their favor, even though the organization is not directly a party to either lawsuit.

“We will be doing the preliminary gearing up before the ruling rather than waiting and doing nothing until the ruling,” said Kurt Krueger, chairman of the Piedmont Family YMCA.

Krueger said he is hopeful the successful bidder will keep his price, but construction prices are always in flux.

Source: VMDO Architects/Piedmont Family YMCA

“It would not appear, based on the markets, that construction costs have gotten significantly lower (especially with fuel prices going up), so if he would hold the price, we would probably go forward with him rather than rebid,” Krueger said.

If the bidder does not agree to keep the original price, Krueger said the YMCA may choose to start the bidding process all over again.

Rulings in both cases are expected to be issued before the start of the court’s September session.