Monthly Archive for February, 2008

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Legislator Proposes Eliminating Proffers

Published by Waldo Jaquith on February 12, 2008 in Development and Law and Justice. 5 Comments

Legislation before the General Assembly would force us taxpayers to pay for new developments, Scott Weaver explains in C-Ville Weekly. SB768, proposed by Sen. John Watkins (R-Midlothian), would eliminate proffers entirely, replacing them with straight-up impact fees. Under this system, the $41M in proffers for Biscuit Run would have been just $25M, leaving Albemarle citizens holding even more of the bag than we are now. (If I may mangle a metaphor.) Incidentally, Sen. Watkins has received more contributions from developers than any other business sector, $155k and counting. The bill has passed committee, and is likely to pass the Senate shortly, from which it will pass over to the House for approval.

Incidentally, a pair of those links are to Richmond Sunlight, a site that I run about the General Assembly. Since the legislature is in session right now, as they will be for the next month, every bit of my spare time is spent on Richmond Sunlight. If y’all are feeling ignored here lately, that’s why.

Noisy Restaurants Prompt Noise Ordinance Proposal

Published by Waldo Jaquith on February 12, 2008 in Law and Justice and Music. 7 Comments

Every few years, some downtown restaurant or bar plays music way too loudly way too late at night. Citizens get angry, a result of the ineffective noise ordinance, and City Council finally agrees to do something about it. The restaurant gets upset and says it’s not fair that they’re being targeted. Then the restaurant capitulates — or goes out of business — and the ordinance never passes. Repeat.

The cycle has begun anew. This time, as Dave McNair writes for The Hook, four businesses’ noisy nights have led the city to consider tightening up its noise ordinance. The Buddhist Biker Bar, Outback Lodge, LaTaza and Saxx have all annoyed enough of their neighbors with late-night music that the city figures they should just enact a blanket nighttime decibel restriction on restaurants and bars. The plan is to stick with the existing 75db limit, but make it run from 10pm-6m, seven days a week, rather than the narrower window that varies by day of week that’s the existing standard.

Mitch Van Yahres Dies

Published by Waldo Jaquith on February 8, 2008 in Politics. 13 Comments

Lloyd Snook writes:

Former Delegate Mitchell Van Yahres of Charlottesville died tonight. He was 81. Mitch served in the House of Delegates from 1981 to 2005.
Mitch had been diagnosed with lung cancer about three months ago. He had undergone surgery on Tuesday, February 5, and had come through the surgery without incident. However, this evening at about 6 PM, he developed a blood clot and died rather suddenly.

This is going to be the biggest funeral that the town has seen since Emily Couric’s death in 2001. I’m sorry I don’t have anything more useful to write at the moment. I’m a bit stunned. Hopefully some folks will provide some remembrances of Mitch here.

02/11 Update: The funeral will be held at 2pm on Friday the 15th at the Church of the Incarnation. Friends are asked “to make a healthy and significant contribution to the presidential campaign of Barack Obama.”

Liquor Manufacturer Opening in Nelson

Published by Waldo Jaquith on February 8, 2008 in Business. 1 Comment

It’s been a long time since we’ve heard about a manufacturer opening in the area, but today it happened. The Virginia Distillery Company intends to start their business with a plant in Lovingston, Erin McGrath and Aaron Lee write in the Nelson County Times. The company is already in business as an importer, but is raising the $5M necessary to start manufacturing. They’ll employ nineteen people. The CEO, in explaining why they chose Nelson, says that “it looks like a piece of the Scottish Highlands has been lifted up and gently dropped down into Virginia.” (Close: try Germany and West Virginia.)

There are ten distilleries, 157 wineries and 37 breweries in the state, with Starr Hill rapidly becoming the area’s 800lb gorilla. Incidentally, they run tours of their Crozet plant (the old ConAgra facility) every Saturday, which I mention only because I’ve been planning to visit tomorrow.

Bridges Need Fixing

Published by Waldo Jaquith on February 7, 2008 in Transportation. 5 Comments

There’s been a lot of attention on bridge safety since the bridge collapse in Minnesota last year, and two of our bridges find ourselves in the news for safety reasons today. Belmont Bridge will be replaced soon, Seth Rosen writes in the Progress. Chunks keep falling off of the bridge, which dates from the early 60s, leading to the structure being rated at 49 out of 100, which is a pretty lousy sufficiency rating. The city’s looking for bids, and figure it’ll cost them around $9.2M, with the work starting late this year. Nearly all of that money will come from state and federal funding. Some folks weren’t happy that it was installed in the first place — it’s a pretty significant barrier between Belmont and downtown — so here’s hoping that some pedestrian improvements are made with Belmont Bridge 2.0.

The other bridge news is that delays will continue in replacing the Advance Mills bridge, which was shut down last year because it’s just not safe. Locals have been stuck taking a pretty goofy detour down a dirt road to get across the river. The BoS planned on installing a temporary bridge, which VDOT supports, but the Federal Highway Administration says that’s a waste, and that the next step is a new permanent bridge. And that leaves Advance Mills residents without a bridge until 2010 or 2011.

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