Mayor Dave Norris is running for reelection to City Council, he announced in an e-mail this evening. His first term expires at the end of this year. He’s seeking renomination as a Democrat, and then the general election will be held in November. Vice Mayor Julian Taliaferro has not yet said whether he intends to seek a second term. His e-mail announcement follows.
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
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The parent company of The Colonnades is facing bankruptcy, Reuters reports. Sunrise Senior Living is looking to reorganize, not go out of business, though they’re going to need some real accommodation from their creditors, since they’ve only got enough money to make it through the end of the month. They’ve got something like half a billion dollars in debt coming due in the next couple of years. The Colonnades is on Barracks Road, on the northern edge of town. I was visiting somebody there a few weeks ago, and it certainly seemed like one of the nicer senior living facilities in the area. Though it’s not clear how they’ll be affected at this point, this isn’t likely to be good for the place. Thanks to FM for the tip.
Halsey Minor has filed a lawsuit against Lee Danielson over the Landmark Hotel project, Will Goldsmith writes for C-Ville Weekly. Danielson was running the project for Minor, and now Minor alleges that Danielson has committed fraud and breach of contract, apparently blaming the faltering project on his former business associate. Danielson says that he’ll be suing Minor, too. Given that each guy has a history of business deals going sour, it may well take a court to figure this out. The squabble between the two has gone on for months, so this isn’t a particularly surprising outcome.
The bigger question is what’s to become of the enormous building shell, since construction stopped weeks ago, with no sign that it’ll be continuing. It has the potential to be downtown eyesore for years to come. In the meantime, though, maybe that barricade could be moved off of Water Street, opening it up to three lanes again, and that man-made pothole could be filled in with an asphalt patch?
A citizen group has filed a lawsuit against the city and requested an injunction to prevent construction of the Meadowcreek Parkway, Henry Graff reports for NBC-29. They contend that Council’s 3-2 vote to give the land for the road to VDOT fell short of the Virginia Constitution’s 75% bar. (Article VII, Section 9 states: “No rights of a city or town in and to its…parks…shall be sold except by an ordinance or resolution passed by a recorded affirmative vote of three-fourths of all members elected to the governing body.”) Will Goldsmith wrote about the Coalition to Preserve McIntire Park’s plans to halt the construction via legal means in C-Ville Weekly last month. Group members include Rich Collins, Dan Bluestone, Peter Kleeman and Colette Hall. Kleeman has been writing about the matter on his own blog, which provides a sense of the basis for the group’s opposition. Those more legally-inclined can see the text of the lawsuit and the request for an injunction courtesy of Hawes Spencer at The Hook.
The General Assembly has authorized a Charlottesville/Albemarle transit authority, the Progress reports, and there’s no reason to think that the governor won’t sign that bill into law. Del. David Toscano’s HB2159 cleared both chambers with near-unanimous votes. But it’s not clear that it’ll do any good, what with the failure of HB2161—Del. Toscano’s bill to permit the city and the county to hold a referendum on creating a special tax to fund the authority. The bill was killed in a subcommittee on an unrecorded vote. With no funding, there’s really no purpose in establishing such an authority.
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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