jamesw writes: “In a posting on Hooville.net, “ariccabona” points to a marketing site for the new Hollymead Town Center. The Complete Demographics (PDF) has some interesting data. For example, within a 5 mile radius of the center, 22% of the population has a graduate degree. Within the same area there are 1,442 businesses!”
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
Monthly Archive for July, 2005
Page 2 of 5
If there’s one thing that every candidate for the Greene County Board of Supervisors can agree on, it’s the need to end growth. So reports Kate Andrews in today’s Progress:
“Let’s take our county back,” said Patsy Morris, who is running in a special election for the at-large seat left open by Kenneth Lawson, who resigned earlier this year.
[…]
She criticized “big contractors” for buying up county land and said they are forcing out low-income residents.
“I’m not the chairman of anything,” she added. “I’m just a poor kid trying to cut my taxes.”
Supervisor Jeri Allen, running to keep her Ruckersville seat, said big companies are “absolutely” buying a great deal of land in Greene.
“But people are selling it to them,” she added. “We can all rail and scream and cry about it, but as long as people can come in and wave money, there’s nothing we as a board can do about it.”
Her board colleague and Stanardsville candidate, Kevin Welch, added that he and other supervisors have voted to place limits but are hamstrung by past inattention to growth.
“Most property in Greene has been subdivided,” Welch said.
Morris’ opponent, Gary Lowe, said supervisors haven’t done enough to curtail residential growth.
If elected, he’d push for ordinances to require developers to pay the county proffers if they wish, for instance, to switch agricultural zones to residential.
Lowe, as Planning Commission chairman, said he’s tired of having to “rubber-stamp subdivisions. I want us to be in control of our destiny.”
Six candidates, every one of them wants to control growth. Development in Greene County has exploded in recent years, particularly as the cost of real estate in Charlottesville and Albemarle has skyrocketed, pushing less-affluent people into the outlying counties. Greene’s population increased 48% between 1990 and 2000 (compare to 14.4% statewide), and another 10.1% from 2000 to 2003 (compare to 4.3% statewide). Morris hits closest to the mark with her comment about just trying to cut taxes — since new residents, on the whole, require more in services than they pay in taxes, growth is a money-losing proposition in our area.
With the Albemarle County BOS elections just getting underway, it’s not yet clear what the major issue will be. But with growth as the topic in Greene and in Charlottesville’s recent House of Delegates race, candidates may be race to see who can oppose growth soonest and the most strongly.
A projection by the State Council of Higher Education (SCHEV) shows that 40,000 students more than the current number will expect to receive an education from the Virginia college system come 2012, but there’s just not the capacity to handle them. One thousand of those will expect to go to PVCC. Melanie Mayhew wrote in yesterday’s Daily Progress:
Demand projections indicate that nearly 1,000 additional students will want to enroll by 2012 at Piedmont Virginia Community College, which President Frank Friedman believes the college cannot accommodate without additional state funding.
“We would love to educate all of those students, but the state must fund our capacity so we can accept all of those students,” he said. “The handwriting is on the wall. In 2012, we’re going to have thousands of students turned away unless the state takes action now. More and more Virginians will be squeezed out of higher education.”
[…]
Although PVCC will be able to accommodate all of its 4,300 students this fall, steadily climbing enrollment figures will limit students’ choice of classes and class times, Friedman said.
I can say, having just graduated from Virginia Tech in May, that overcrowding is currently a tremendous problem. Our class sizes were limited not by the number of seats, but by the fire marshall, who began to audit classrooms to determine how many students could safely sit on the steps, stand in the aisles, and peek through the doorway. Freshmen are told at orientation that it will take five years to graduate, because there’s not enough room in the classes that they need.
I figure that we need to either increase funding or limit growth. If there’s another solution, I don’t see it.
The economics department has concluded their investigation into a possible large-scale cheating incident, Leah Nylen reports in today’s Cavalier Daily. But they’re not saying what came of it. Citing the small size of the economics department, the honor chair said that public information regarding any cases would not be made available.
It certainly looks like the economics department and the honor committee decided to keep this one quiet, to avoid a repeat of the major UVa cheating scandal a few years ago, but I’m certainly no expert on UVa’s honor code.
Sideblog
Police announced this afternoon that their investigation into what was initially believed to be a fatal fire on Rugby Avenue is now a homicide investigation. #
The Virginia Supreme Court has denied George Huguely’s appeal. His second-degree murder conviction will stand, WRIC reports. #
In a carefully worded story, and not citing specific sources, WTVR reports that forensic evidence belonging to Jesse Matthew Jr., the main suspect in the disappearance of Hannah Graham, matches forensic evidence collected during the investigation of Morgan Harrington’s 2009 murder. #
In the wake of Hannah Graham’s disappearance, and the evidence that came from private security footage, city officials are revisiting the question of installing security cameras on the downtown mall. #
Both Charlottesville Registrar Sheri Iachetta and former Electoral Board member Stephanie Commander have turned themselves in to the police on
foursix and four felony counts of embezzlement, respectively. #Ten years ago, the National Institutes of Health budget doubled and schools like the University of Virginia built massive new research facilities. A decade later, those buildings remain largely underutilized. NPR visits UVA in this story on the effect of federal binge and spurge spending in the sciences. #
In 2012, Council approved a new student housing complex on West Main—now some council members are questioning whether what they were shown matches what was built. #
The Architectural Review Board has approved a bike-themed mural on West Market, below the McGuffey Art Center, although at least one member expressed concerns that it might look like the bicyclists were riding away from Charlottesville’s downtown. #
City Police Chief Tim Longo is meeting with city leaders to work on protocols regarding the use of military surplus police weapons in Charlottesville. #
A 100-year-old Colonnades resident received military honors for her service in the WWII Women’s Army Corps #
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