Author Archive for Waldo Jaquith

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Whole Foods Announces Store Plans

Published by Waldo Jaquith on June 12, 2008 in Development and Transportation. 56 Comments

Whole Foods is providing specifics on their planned move to Hydraulic Road, Seth Rosen writes for the Daily Progress, and it sounds like it’ll really shake up that corridor. Their new location, next to Kmart, is slated to include a three story parking garage, and will necessitate moving the traffic light on Hydraulic back from 29, closer to the bypass. Whole Foods says that the 66,000 square foot building “could be the chain’s most environmentally friendly grocery on the Eastern Seaboard and would feature a large community space for meetings and farmers markets.” Whole Foods has historically been terrible about selling local produce, and they may be taking this opportunity to improve their image.

Anybody who has cause to drive on Hydraulic during rush hour knows what a mess that spot can be — along with Emmett south of Barracks, it’s one of the most backed-up spots in town every day. So while change to that area sounds good, it sure would be unpleasant if it made things worse. The Hillsdale Connector is planned to run along the edge of Whole Foods’ property, which could make things better, but there’s no reason to expect that to exist for a decade.

BoS Approves Dog-Barking Ordinance

Published by Waldo Jaquith on June 12, 2008 in Law and Justice and Politics. 9 Comments

The Albemarle Board of Supervisors has OKd a $500 fine for excessive dog barkage, Brian McNeill writes in today’s Progress. The process is pretty laborious — a neighbor has to swear out a warrant, a court date is set, and the neighbor has to prove that the dog barked for more than a half an hour. If there are three violations in a year, the dog can be taken away. The concept behind this appear to be for the benefit of both the neighbors (anybody who has tried to sleep with a dog barking all night can relate) and also for the dogs (a dog that’s barking all the time is not a happy dog). There’s an exception for dog owners in the rural area with more than five acres. The city’s had a similar regulation since 1951.

Council Requests Dredging Study

Published by Waldo Jaquith on June 3, 2008 in Development and Politics. 18 Comments

City Council endorsed the local water supply plan last night, Seth Rosen writes in today’s Daily Progress, but they want more studying of the dredging option. They’re proceeding as planned, but apparently open to doing otherwise. And that means months (years?) of further uncertainty.

11-Year Old Killed in Fifeville

Published by Waldo Jaquith on June 3, 2008 in Crime. 2 Comments

Details are still emerging, but an eleven year old boy was shot and killed in a home near Tonsler Park last night. A man in the home was wounded, too. The number of murders in Charlottesville is in the low single digits each year — we’ve even had zero — and when there are murders, it’s almost always drug or gang related. An eleven year old boy being (apparently) murdered is extraordinary.

3:30pm Update: 27-year-old Waverly “Eddie” Whitlock has turned himself into police in the murder of Walker Upper Elementary student Aziz Damar Booth. Police Chief Timothy Longo describes it as “a very complex crime scene investigation,” implying that this was not merely a robbery gone wrong, as it appears.

Water, Sewer Fees Skyrocket

Published by Waldo Jaquith on May 31, 2008 in Development and Taxes. 25 Comments

The Albemarle County Service Authority is jacking up rates for sewer and water connections, Jeremy Borden wrote in yesterday’s Daily Progress, in an effort to pay for the enormous costs associated with upgrading the system to deal with growth. The Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority has taken the price of connecting to the water network up 62%, to $2,095, and the price of connecting to the sewer network up 82%, to $2,425. The total cost in Albemarle was $11,790 to hook a house up to the network, and now that’s $14,079. Homeowners’ alternative, installing a septic tank and drilling a well, isn’t a whole lot cheaper, and may well be substantially more expensive. And, of course, the alternative to the rate increase is to simply raise everybody’s property taxes, but that would hardly be fair.

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