The whole of Council wants to create a park-and-ride for downtown, Rachana Dixit writes in today’s Daily Progress. The great majority of downtown time-limited parking is in use by commuters, who shuffle their cars around every couple of hours, now that all-day free parking has been largely eliminated from downtown. Council wants to experiment with a commuter-timed bus line that runs from a spacious, free parking lot on the edge of town to downtown, and see if folks prefer that to dealing with the two-hour shuffle.
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
Author Archive for Waldo Jaquith
Page 127 of 549
Albemarle County has gotten permission to enforce the state ban on those horrible signs by the side of the road advertising quasi-scams and fly-by-night operations, Jenn McDaniel reports for NBC 29. County inspectors—who would normally be inspecting buildings, but there’s not much of that going on right now—will be pulling the signs up and fining the advertisers $100/apiece. The new practice goes into effect on February 17, and sign spammers who don’t pull their signs up by then will be fined. It was a mild problem a few years ago, but it’s getting worse every month. Those wretched “Homes from the 300s” signs that litter northern Virginia are starting to appear along 29N, since developers are desperate to sell off their overbuilt subdivisions.
McDaniel called some of the illegal advertisers, who had the balls to gripe about having to find a legal method of advertising. I should spray paint “cvillenews.com” on their front door and then express surprise when they complain. Somebody remind me—on February 17, I need encourage folks to submit photos of signs still illegally posted in the right-of-way. We can save the county a little work and help fill the county’s coffers.
UVa bought the Econo Lodge on Emmett St. using a pseudonym, Will Goldsmith reports for C-Ville Weekly. They paid $6M back in May under the name “Meadow Creek II Corporation,” rather than as the UVa Foundation, which is the name of the corporation that holds the university’s property. They’ve never made their acquisition public—it’s Goldsmith who discovered it.
This is interesting because of the university’s relationship with adjacent landowners and the city itself. When UVa acquires land, it’s taken out of the tax base of the municipality, so their physical expansion is not particularly welcomed by the city or the county. (Hence the interest in UVa’s recent announcement that they’re looking to grow up, not out.) Some of the folks who own property adjacent to the university see themselves as holding the line against the school’s sprawl, so it’s reasonable to speculate that UVa used an alternate name to circumvent the prior owner’s reluctance to sell, and presumably to bargain for a lower price than might otherwise be exacted from the university. I can’t see that there’s anything illegal about that—there’s even an argument to be made that it’s a smart use of public funds—but if that is what’s going on, this does mark a new tack for the growing university.
Note, too, that the Daily Progress records a building permit to Meadow Creek II for 1600 Gordon Avenue, indicating at least one other property on the fringes of the university is owned by the corporation.
Charlottesville’s assessors have found that the value of property has increased in town, Henry Graff reports for NBC 29, and that will be reflected in real estate tax bills. On average, the increase is 2-3%, but some folks will see much higher jumps. Some Fifeville homes are up 18%, the gentrified 10th and Page is up 9%, and Belmont is up 8%. If you’re in Greenbrier, you’re in luck, tax-wise—that’s dropping 10%, on average.
Remember that assessments are based on the actual sale property of houses in a given neighborhood, with houses that haven’t sold recently being estimated based on comparable homes in the area. If you think your assessment is wrong, remember that you can appeal it. (But be honest with yourself. How much would you want for your house to sell it right now?) Next up: the debate over where to set the tax rate.
Chicken farmer and faux celebrity Tommy Garrett has subpoenaed me for evidence in his lawsuit against The Hook. In the incredibly overbroad subpoena, his attorney asks for full documentation about any time I have ever communicated with anybody, ever, about Garrett or the lawsuit, along with everything I know about everybody who posted a comment to my blog entry about the case: names, e-mail address, IP addresses, etc. The idea that I could have any information relevant to this case is absurd, since I hadn’t written a word about the matter (or even heard of Garrett) until after his lawsuit had been filed.
What Garrett and his attorney may not know is that I’ve got a bit of a history of not taking any guff on the legal front—I was among the plaintiffs who took the youth curfew case up to the Supreme Court in the mid-90s, and I prevailed when Mattel came after me in federal court in 2000. So rest assured that I don’t intend to give up a thing unless compelled to do so by a court. Unfortunately, “hiring a lawyer to quash a subpoena” doesn’t appear in our household budget, so I’m acting as my own attorney here. But, hey, I’ve been exploring getting a law degree, so here’s a chance for a crash course. The requested information appears to be variously irrelevant, unnecessary to the case, confidential, and privileged.
I’d chalked up Garrett as a harmless kook, and pitied the guy enough that I’d resolved to basically ignore this matter save to cover the aspect of a local media outlet being sued. But my perspective is now considerably less charitable.
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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